Sub Sea Research LLC, a Portland Maine based company located the worlds richest shipwreck, a WWII British Freighter carrying a secret cargo of 71 tons of Platinum sunk by a German U-Boat in June, 1942.
SSR first discovered the Port Nicholson in 600-800 feet of water off Cape Cod in 2008. In 2009 SSR obtained legal recognition from the US Courts as the legal owner and salvager of the ship.
The Port Nicholson and four other ships were being escorted by six military ships in a convoy from Halifax to New York. She is documented to be carrying ~1,707,000 troy ounces of platinum. It may also contain $165M of copper, zinc and war stores. Greg Brooks, one of two SSR founders, said his team has already recovered several identifying and critical artifacts. He has verified that it is without a doubt the Port Nicholson. Lend Lease payment from the Soviets. Interesting article.
#3
If you go to the Delaware beaches you can still see the concentric concrete towers that we used to watch for German U-boats. That is within 11 miles of shore.
#5
At the initiation of open hostilities the Navy didn't have any real plans to protect shipping on the East Coast. The U-Boats had a 'holiday' sinking ships all along the coast. The preferred method was to surface and use a deck gun to preserve the number of torpedoes.
#7
At the initiation of open hostilities the Navy didn't have any real plans to protect shipping on the East Coast. Apparently US admirals of that time were asleep at the wheel. I read that, in addition, blackouts of coastal cities were delayed for a while. U-boats would surface at night & easily spot merchant ships silhouetted against the artificial lighting.
For a time, it was possible to read newspapers at night along East Coast beaches by the light of burning oil tankers. The US built oil pipelines as an emergency measure to bring Texas oil to the northeast, out of reach of the U-boats. Those pipelines are still in use.
#9
Apparently US admirals of that time were asleep at the wheel.
The Port Nicholson was under escort; a U-boat sunk it anyway.
As to the lack of plans at the start of hostilities: Keep in mind the political and military situation at the start of the war.
The USN was a tad short of ships and personnel at the time. What assets there were, were being used in the North Atlantic. It took a while to press auxiliary ships into coastal and ASW patrolling and to train crews for the mission.
Due to the Depression, the railroads were stretched to their limits. There was no additional capacity to ship oil or cargo.
It also took a while to convince coastal merchant marine captains to agree to run in convoys along the coast.
#11
Those pipelines are still in use.
Anguper, not only are they still in use, but they were built, with government permission and encouragement, without going through all the legal hoops to get eminent domain clearance etc. of essential land tracts with owners who were 'less patriotic' than the pipeline companies' budgets could work with. Lawsuits after the war made for some very wealthy former landowners.
#13
Found a hint about the damage the Kriegsmarine did along the East Coast up to June 1942: It was not until May, 1942, that the convoys departing from the US East Coast were in convoys escorted by US Destroyers. For some reason, the American authorities remained a very stubborn attitude about not mandating that ships travel in convoys as the British transports had done.
In all, around 40 U-boats participated in [the Kriegsmarine's Operation] Drumbeat. The pickings were good and by June [1942], over 400 ships had been sunk and 2,000,000 tons of war material went to the bottom of the ocean along with 5000 men. [Operation]Drumbeat was very cost effective, only seven U-boats were lost. Had the Germans focused on the refineries at Aruba, which provide 75% of the aviation fuel Canada and the US used, by destroying it, the ramifications would have been detrimental. However, only two subs arrived there and shelled it causing fire but that was about it.
#15
My granddad was some kind of civil guard - charged with enforcing local blackout. I used his old blackout drapes for years - fantastic insulation of big glass sliding doors during '70's energy crunch.
#16
My late friend was a crewman on an asphalt tanker. The Germans regularly sunk ships in the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2012 21:11
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#17
There were many, many German U-boats off of the East Coast in WWII. Wilmington became the primary building port. It is a tactical area to say the least.
#18
By Moose's figure the total is...$3,323,687,537. Add the copper, zinc and "war stores", about 3.5 billion.
Be interesting to see how much the lawyers will make off of this one.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012
15:02 ||
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#1
It is reasonable to assume that December 16 or 17, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed by his deputy chief of staff that Terry was killed with a walked gun from Operation Fast and Furious. Considering the potential damage the brewing scandal could cause, Wilkinson would have been grossly negligent if he did not make informing the attorney general a priority.
Nixon proved that the coverup is by far the worst crime. Idiots.
There are three rules when you make a mistake.
Admit it
Fix it
Don't repeat it
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 16:31
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#2
When I read about F & F and the cover-up to it, I have to remind myself that Washington and the government is not our country. The country and its people are basically good despite being lied to by Washington and being hosed left and right--mostly by the left.
#5
..or, he could say, "I was so upset I don't remember."
Cause impeccable recall is the standard established by the Scooter Libby prosecution. Anyone take bets on - One set of rules for me, another set of rules for thee.
American officials are acknowledging a terror plot in Algeria that aimed to attack US or European ships in the Mediterranean. The plot, which was similar to that of the bombings in Yemen of the USS Cole in 2000 and the Limburg oil tanker in 2002, included ramming explosives-filled boats into Western-flagged ships, but was interrupted by Algerian authorities in the early planning stages.
ABC reported that US officials had been aware of the plot before the Algerian daily newspaper, Echorouk, broke the story, but hinted that Algerian authorities had foiled the plot without the help of the US government.
Three terror cell members were arrested after arousing suspicions among Algerian authorities when they visited jihadist websites at a local Internet cafe. Although no specific US ship was identified as a target, according to US authorities, Echorouk reported that the plotters had already purchased a boat to carry out the attack.
When asked if the US had played any role in uncovering the plot, a US counterterrorism official gave ABC a vague response, saying, "We know that al Qaeda and their sympathizers continue to plot against the US and our allies [and] as such, we are in touch with a number of foreign governments on issues pertaining to counterterrorism."
Authorities believe the plot was directed by the Algerian-based terror franchise known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group, which had earlier called itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was officially welcomed into the al Qaeda fold by then second-in-command Ayman al Zawahiri in a Sept. 11, 2006 video.
...the prospects are quite likely that Assad will be in power when the year ends. If the deadlock goes on without apparent end, the revolution might die down as it did in Iran. Syria will then be another case to show that revolutions usually succeed only when the elite is divided and loses its nerve, rather than being an inevitably victorious response to oppression.
A talk on sharia and human rights by NSS Council Member Anne Marie Waters' at Queen Mary University of London was cancelled at the last moment because of an Islamist who made serious threats against everyone there.
Ms Waters was due to give a talk on behalf of the One Law for All campaign on 16 January but before it started, a man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front with a camera and filmed the audience. He then said that he knew who everyone was, where they lived and if he heard anything negative about the Prophet, he would track them down.
The man also filmed students in the foyer and threatened to murder them and their families. On leaving the building, he joined a large group of men, apparently there to support him. Students were told by security to stay in the lecture theatre for their own safety.
The President of Queen Mary's Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society, who organised the event said: "This event was supposed to be an opportunity for people of different religions and perspectives to debate, at a university that is supposed to be a beacon of free speech and debate.
"Only two complaints had been made to the Union prior to the event, and the majority of the Muslim students at the event were incredibly supportive of it going ahead. These threats were an aggressive assault on freedom of speech and the fact that they led to the cancellation of our talk was severely disappointing for all of the religious and non-religious students in the room who wanted to engage in debate."
The police were contacted about the incident.
You can read Anne Marie Waters' account of the event here.
Also see Maryam Namazie's account here.
In yet another instance of Islamic bullying and threats, skeptical blogger Rhys Morgan decided to show solidarity with the University College London Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society after the controversy it endured after posting a Jesus and Mo cartoon on its Facebook page.
Rhys posted the image on his own blog and was immediately bombarded with threats, menaces and abuse from Islamists who aimed the usual accusations of racism and Islamophobia at him.
Rhys has remained defiant and reasoned in the face of this avalanche of bile and ignorance and the NSS offers its full support to him.
#1
Marie Waters' account is even more depressing than the event itself. It essentially boils down to "how can we stand up for free speech if the government doesn't help us?".
fwiw, they both are, I think, leftists and someone clueless ones at that. ms Waters says, for example, "...The message is very clear don't insult religion.." when its obvious, that only one religion threatens people with death as the penalty for honest discussion.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/30/2012 14:19
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#9
The man committed assault [threat] but did not consummate it with battery. Anyone who'd smacked him one might be charged with simple battery acting out of a perceived self defense, but would certainly get the identification and address from the arrest record of the miscreant.
Foreign Policy magazine cites CIA memos from 2007-2008 that the Mossad recruited members of Jundallah terror group to fight against Tehran; U.S. was reportedly furious with Israel and moved to limit joint intelligence programs.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 14:59
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#3
This makes a lot of sense. In Iran, there is a popular revulsion of Israel, all created by propaganda and zero exposure. But a lot of Iranians have experience with both Americans and real CIA and military personnel who were once assigned there.
That credibility, plus old Soviet propaganda that the CIA were everywhere and tremendously powerful, gives the CIA a lot of credibility.
Bottom line, it would be a heck of a lot easier to recruit as CIA instead of MOSSAD.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012
11:26 ||
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#1
BMD Dirigibles? Cold War ASAT = AAMD/ASMD???
AEGIS, PATRIOT, ARROW Series, SURFACE SHIP = FIRE/ARSENAL SHIP, etc. its all Ground-to-Air - YAHZ NEED AIR/MID-FLIGHT-TO-GROUND [end = enemy launch pad].
Just sayin.
* ION INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > DCNS SMX-25 [stealth fast ...] SUBMARINE/SUBMERGED FRIGATE CONCEPT.
The USN's VIRGINA-class SSN [or better] had sex wid the LCS and became a Big Daddy to the SMX-25.
IOW, Speedy LCS that can surface andor submerge + fire LR thingys that go all Mushroomey = Speedy UW Stealth Subs that can surface + bombard beach landing zones in support of Marines, etal. as pertinent???
versus
* SAME > RUSSIA REVIEWS [mulls] PRODUCTION OF FLARECRAFT [aka Fast Ekranoplans], for now as per its Coast Guard since the Russian Armed Forces have not confirmed or denied interest in the capability.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/30/2012 11:38
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#2
In a time of economic strain and austerity in millions of American households, the First Lady shuts down Madison Avenue to go on a $50,000 shopping spree in a lingerie store.
#9
BO has TOTUS and is kept scripted most of the time. When he's not scripted he doesn't do so well. Most of the Donks are still with him. I don't know about the following groups: Jewish, student, independents. Some have strayed away: I just don't know how many. When one looks at the electoral vote, the election is out there to be won. There is a good chance the Pubs will keep the House and win the Senate contrary to what the pundits and polls are saying. So far the pundits have gotten things wrong much of the time. IMO that many are saying anyone but BO.
#10
Not sure, he has something up there to remember names, pick the right friends, and learn foux accents. I would say clumsy for sure.
I do not think he so much won as Hillary! lost. She forgot in the liberal hierarchy that race trumps gender, and that her experience does not trump race, so she could not recover from some of her statement being counter-narratived, as well as some other stuff. IIRC even poor ol McCain was making strides until the finance collapse, vote on the Bush stimulus fiasco, and full power of the media.
He gets into office, Dem Congress has items lined up right and left, polls start coming in and they realized that it needs to be sold, good thing they just elected the best salesman evah, right? Wrong. Congress needed a sell, President was off doddling in Beerfest, Peace Prize, Olympics, so forth. Such a poor job, even with the media, that not only did the Dems get trounced in '10, they didn't get nearly everything done and done right for their agenda, loose ends, and created an entire political opposition movement which catalized with his dismissals and repugnancy.
The Unions have had to pour a ton of money into putting out his fires. Hillary! has been on a plane nearly non-stop putting out fires caused by the dragging chain of limp diplomacy.
And if I were a collectivist, I'd be pissed too. All he had to do was show up to work, and it was done, and he blew it off for his own image and will quite honestly become such a parody of what the great leaders of collectivism do that they may never recover. If they had any guts they would run Hillary! but after 3 years of being drug about behind Obama's chariot can't blame her for being tired.
Its the half hypocrasy and half incompetence of a person who is simply waiting for the next promotion. And collectivists, you think the last two years has been a headbanger, if he does win you will see a lame duck go through at least the next two years as the last two years, likely without as much Dem in the Senate. So go vote for the machine, they don't care about you, in fact you OWS et all will be so shitcanned over the next 6 months you will actually have a real reason to be pissed.
#12
Every new generation has to learn, unfortunately the hard way, through experiencing poor decisions, even at the voting booth. Problem is, old dinosaurs like Pelosi and Reid and Soros lept at this golden opportunity to push through socialism. Future generations will pay dearly for it.
#13
He's not stupid at all, he just thinks we are.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
01/30/2012 16:29
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#14
The dark complected people I know will not vote Republican. Why, because "I don't see anything the Republicans have to offer". That's what the young adults have told me. Smart? doesn't matter.
Didn't something like that happen to the French royal family at about the same stage of the proceedings?
Sources tell Egyptian daily that Syrian security forces tried to help smuggle Syrian president's family out of country.
Syrian security forces attempted to smuggle Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's family out of the country, sources from the Syrian opposition told Al-Masry-Al-Youm Sunday evening, according to a report published by the Egyptian daily.
According to the report, security forces tried to aid the president's wife Asma Assad, to escape via Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , along with his children, mother and cousin.
The sources told Al-Masry-Al-Youm that "a convoy of official vehicles was seen heading to the airport in Damascus," before they were intercepted by brigades of army defectors.
According to the source, there was a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the Free Syrian Army forces; the family were prevented from escaping and returned to the presidential palace.
#12
Baby Assad needed to R-U-N-N-O-F-T quite a while ago, so now he and his entourage could get this:
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
A dull, dark dock, a life-long lock,
A short, sharp shock, a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison,
And awaiting the sensation
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2012 21:06
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AN Oslo court found two men guilty today of plotting a terrorist act for a planned attack on the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
Norwegian national Mikael Davud, a Norwegian of Chinese Uighur origin considered to be the mastermind behind the plot, was sentenced to seven years behind bars, while Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd residing in Norway, received a three-and-a-half-year prison term.
The two men, who were arrested in July 2010, had connections with al Qaeda and planned to use explosives at the Jyllands-Posten daily's Copenhagen offices and murder Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the most controversial of the 12 drawings published in September 2005, according to the prosecution.
Westergaard's drawing, which has earned him numerous death threats and an assassination attempt, showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
The prosecution had demanded prison sentences of 11 and five years respectively.
A third man arrested at the same time as Davud and Bujak, David Jakobsen - an Uzbek living in Norway - was acquitted of the most serious charges, but sentenced to four months in prison for helping the others to procure the materials needed to create the explosives.
British lingerie label Agent Provocateur has seen annual sales jump by more than 12 per cent in a year which also saw First Lady Michelle Obama joining their list of elite customers.
Mrs Obama, is said to have spent $50,000 (£31,794) in the one shopping trip to the boutique which closed down part of Madison Avenue when she visited with the Queen of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah.
Ya know, if this was a Republican the news medias would be trumpeting it from the heights and show it as a rich elite that is out of touch with the common man who is hurting.
#7
With all the parties and spending they are loved with the Washington incrowd types. This is big business. The last thing Washington wants are people of faith or peanut farmers.
A month after the last American troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy and consulates, as well as American personnel. Some senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.
The program was described by the departments diplomatic security branch in a little-noticed section of its most recent annual report and outlined in broad terms in a two-page online prospectus for companies that might bid on a contract to manage the program. It foreshadows a possible expansion of unmanned drone operations into the diplomatic arm of the American government; until now they have been mainly the province of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency.
[TOLOnews] - An Al-Qaeda controller was captured in joint Afghan and coalition force operation in Gardez, the capital of Paktiya province, on Monday, Isaf said.
The controller co-ordinated bad boy activities throughout the area and provided reports to senior al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistain, Isaf said in a statement.
Oooooh -- cell phones? Laptop? Little black book?!?
Reports? Position papers? Inter-office memos? Expense accounts? Fit-reps?
Remember back in the day, when it was said admiringly that Al Qaeda was organized like a successful multinational corporation?
No civilians were harmed during the operation, it said.
The statement said separately that an Afghan-led, coalition-supported security force discovered a weapons cache during an operation in northern Kunduz province today.
The weapons cache consisted of several mortar rounds and a quantity of small arms ammunition. Two suspected snuffies were jugged by Afghan cops for further questioning, Isaf said.
The security force destroyed the cache without incident.
[TOLOnews] - The Afghan Ministry of Interior said on Monday that four cut-throats died and 24 others were captured in joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... operations in the previous 24 hours.
In a statement, the Ministry said: "During a series of operations across the country, the national police in co-ordination with the army and international forces have killed four cut-throats and captured 24 others."
Forces also seized a number of arms and ammunition.
On Sunday, 15 cut-throats were killed and six others were captured in a joint operation in western Badghis province, local officials said.
Dozens of cut-throats have recently been killed or capture in Afghan and NATO operations around in the country.
#4
Ah, the usual militia or tribal model that comes when a country has failed such as Libya or Somalia. I can recall a time when most of the places that are in constant turmoil were not.
Two civilians have died in an attack on a police station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Gunmen stormed the station, throwing explosives and an hour-long gun battle ensued. The gunmen are believed to be from Boko Haram. Police say they shot at a bus near another police post on Monday as well.
The Sunday evening attack occured just before the start of the dusk-to-dawn curfew. Local resident Usman Ibrahim Bello said, "We are scared. The police and Boko Haram members are battling each other and there is gunfire everywhere."
A couple weeks old but worth noting. If the elites in the luxury apartments of Pyongyang -- and the elite party cadres are the only ones who can live in that housing in the capital -- are shivering, imagine what's happening out in the rural areas. Pudgy has even bigger problems than keeping the military happy.
Many of the residents of luxury apartments in Pyongyang are leaving their homes for the heated homes of relatives or other warmer locations.
An inside source who visited Pyongyang at the end of last month said in a phone interview with the Daily NK today, People previously had no supplies of water so didn't have drinking water and could not go to the bathroom without difficulty, but now that there are heating problems too the people are inevitably leaving their homes. This year, many people are locking their homes and leaving for warmer places.
The source said, When I went to Pyongyang just three years ago, the people still stayed in their apartments even without heat, but now half of them are gone, they went to East Pyongyang where the pre-1980s homes are heated with charcoal briquettes.
The source added, Even until last year, the residents in these apartments spent the whole winter season there with cotton blankets on the floor all day long, filling pint bottles with hot water to warm their blankets when they slept; however, as the situation has gotten worse this year whole families cannot take any more and have chosen to leave their homes behind.
The 20-40 storey apartments on Gwangbok and Tongil Streets, which are boasted of by the North Korean authorities for their modernity, are among those falling into dilapidation.
The source explained, If the rooms had just enough lukewarm water that they wouldn't freeze we could live, but now they are not even able to do that. Nobody knows when heat will come.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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#1
The newest "Peak ---" Crisis is "Peak Trees/Wood/Forests" ...
DPRK prematurely hit, albeit it doesn't seem to show on the Net maps - "Peak Grass" to follow???
For a map, click here
How's that improved security working out for ya edition
12 die in northern Mexico
A total of 12 individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related incidents in northern Mexico including four inmates at the Achilles Serdan, Chihuahua CERESO.
Four inmates were killed and another seven were wounded in a prison riot Sunday morning in Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
The riot took place at the Achilles Serdan Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) prison. The prison is only five kilometers due east of the capital. Reports are that inmates attacked guards with firearms and other weapons.
The Achilles Serdan prison is one of the most violent prisons in Mexico, the location of many riots in the past.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Juarez Sunday afternoon. The victim was found near the intersection of calles Cerro Grande and 38th in UP colony. Although the report doesn't specifically state it, the victim was apparently attacked by more than one armed suspect.
A youth was shot to death in Juarez early Sunday morning. José Ruben Ayala Bautista, 17, died as he was taken to receive medical attention by his family. The shooting took place when the victim and his friends decided to build a bonfire. An armed suspect came up to the youth and shot him repeatedly in the head.
An unidentified woman was found shot to death near Chihuahua, Chihuahua Sunday. The victim was found on kilometer 23 of the Chihuahua city to Juarez highway.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Juarez Sunday. The victim was found near the intersection of calles José Maria Pereyra and Libertad in Barrio La Chavena.
A man was found shot to death in Carborca, Sonora Sunday. Leopoldo de la Cruz Felix was found shot twice in the head aboard his wife's Chevrolet Avalanche near the intersection of avenida C and calle 19th in Lazaro Cardenas colony. Two .380 caliber spent shell casings were found in the truck. Cruz Felix was reportedly a local drug dealer.
A man was found shot to death in Obregon, Sonora Friday night. Hernan Hernandez Navidad, 28, was found aboard a Toyota vehicle near the intersection of calles Chihuahua and Hidalgo in Centro colony. Several .40 caliber spent shell casings were found at the scene.
Two men were found shot to death in Yecora, Sonora last Tuesday night. Benjamín Flores Mungarro, 26, and Claudio Anibal Buelna Encinas, 22 were found on a road leading to El Palmarito. Both men were shot several times with AK-47 and AR-15 rifles.
#1
I read some remarks elsewhere that they have heard a speech elsewhere that reminded them of Rep. West's speech. It was an effective podium pounder and the crowd loved it.
#2
He should call it "equality by handicapping". Make sure people understand it's by holding back those who can to sate the feelings of those who won't.
Allen West...One helluva American! The thought of Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Goat woman huddled at the North Pole huddled around their statue of Marx, warms my heart.
CAIRO: Polls opened on Sunday in an election for Egypts upper house of parliament, with Islamists seeking to repeat the success they enjoyed in elections for the lower house.
The parliamentary votes, which began in late November, are the first since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak last February.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned during his rule, won 47 percent of lower house seats, far more than any other party, and a low turnout on Sunday was blamed by some voters on the feeling that the upper house vote now mattered little. After the lower house election that saw an unprecedented turnout and was hailed as Egypts most democratic since military officers overthrew the king in 1952, some Egyptians knew nothing of the upper house vote.
The powers of the upper house are limited and it cannot block legislation in the lower house. However, its members must be consulted before lower house MPs pass any bill.
Under an interim constitution, both houses are responsible for picking a 100-strong assembly that will write a new constitution to replace the one that helped keep Mubarak in power for three decades.
The Shoura council (upper house) elections are as important as the Peoples Assembly (lower house) elections, said Hussein Ibrahim, a member of the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party and head of its parliamentary bloc.
Certainly the upper house provides salaries and protection for various canoodlers, thugs, bullies and thieves of the Egyptian political class who see which way things are going right now...
Voting for the upper house will be held over two stages ending in the middle of February. Ninety of the 270 seats will be decided in the first round of voting on Sunday and Monday, with run-offs on Feb. 7. Another 90 will be determined by voting on Feb. 14 and 15, with run-offs on Feb. 22.
The remaining 90 will be appointed by Egypts next president, expected to be elected in June according a transition timetable drawn up by the military council to whom Mubarak handed power nearly a year ago.
The elected part of the Shoura council will convene without the appointed seats until presidential elections are held and the new president appoints the other 90 members, an official from the body overseeing the election told Reuters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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This is an English language version of this story posted in Friday's Rantburg.
A German Muslim has created a new website to arrange shared car trips targeted toward Muslims, where drivers can only offer transport to members of the same sex. Called Muslimtaxi.de, the site is based on the same principle as other popular websites which let cost-conscious Germans arrange shared car rides.
Those interested in offering rides specify their gender, asking price and the number of passengers they can carry. Potential passengers contact the driver directly.
Selim Reid, a 24-year-old from Norderstedt told the Hamburger Abendblatt that Muslims' bad ride-sharing experiences inspired him to create the site. For example, his parents, originally from Iraq, caught a ride with a Muslim-hating driver who criticized them. Reid told the newspaper, "The driver and the people with him swore the whole way about foreigners in general and in particular about my mother's head scarf."
You don't need to be a Muslim to use Reid's service, of course. He told the Abendblatt, that's one of the main points of the service. He said, "Those really looking for dialogue will find it by using Muslim Taxi."
The website has attracted criticism. People have accused Reid of wanting a parallel society and supporting immigrants who don't want to integrate. But Reid says the positive response shows that he's filling a niche. He said, "Many Muslim brothers and sisters complained that they can't use conventional offers because the gender segregation stipulated by Islam is not implemented."
[Yemen Post] About 16,000 displaced persons of Radda town, about 150 kilometers southeast Sana'a, have returned their homes after the exit of Al-Qaeda Death Eaters.
Deputy governor of Baidha governorate, Ali Almansori, launched school semester examinations after they were postponed due to turbulence caused Al-Qaeda existence.
Tribal leaders and dignitaries of Radda highly appreciated the mediation commission that could persuade Al-Qaeda to leave Radda.
In a statement, they hold Al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys responsible for the crimes committed inside the town, urging the security services to shoulder their responsibility in protecting the town.
Local sources said residents of Radda erupted into the streets in celebration and fired shots in the air after the withdrawal of Al-Qaeda Death Eaters, pointing out that life returned to its nature, and markets, institutions and services centers were reopened.
Militants led by Tariq Al-Dhahab, a relative of Anwar Al-Walaki, a Yemeni-American holy man who was killed in a American drone strike last fall, had took over the town and positioned inside the archeological castle of Alamiria and its mosque.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... the fighters left the town in exchange for the release of their fellow relatives, after forming a committee of 35 dignitaries from seven different Yemeni cities.
"Radaa was stabilized and secured as a result of efforts exerted by tribal leaders and dignitaries" said Mohammad Saad, a resident of Rada'a.
After their control on Radda, Al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys released all the inmates of the central jail of Rada'a and engaged fighting with rustics in which several persons were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
AQ withdrawals after family is kidnapped... Hmmm....excellent.
For a map, click here
A total of 20 unidentified individuals,including three municipal police agents, were killed Saturday in Jalisco state, according to Mexican news accounts. Every individual killed or found dead was at the apparent hands of organized crime.
At El Rancho La Estancia in Ejutla municipality, seven unidentified corpses were found in two graves. Four of the victims had been immolated, although reports do not say how any of the victims were killed. Ejutla municipality is south of the resort city of Guadalajara.
In Lagos de Moreno municipality, three municipal police agents were shot to death. The police were on a road patrol aboard an official vehicle between the villages of Ixtle and La Mesa when they were killed. The officers had been bound by handcuff, beaten, then shot by armed suspects. Two of the trio died on the spot,
El Diario de Coahuila reported that the third officer managed to escape his attackers and was the target of foot pursuit which ended at a medical clinic. The armed suspects entered the clinic and killed the third officer.
Lagos de Moreno municipality is in the extreme northeastern part of Jalisco state which borders Zacatecas state to the northwest and San Luis Potosi state to the northeast.
In Guadalajara, a total of seven individuals were found murdered Friday and Saturday, including two in the Colinas de San Javier colony.
In Ameca municipality, an unidentified man was shot to death at the bus station. Ameca is on Jalisco's western border with Michoacan state.
Between San Miguel de Alto and San Julien municipalities two unidentified men were found dead on a road. San Miguel de Alto and San Julien municipalities are 20 kilometers southwest of Lago de Moreno, Jalisco.
Criminal groups appear to be shifting their turf fights from the northern border states to escape the reinforced Mexican military presence there to north central states such as Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi and central states such as Jalisco and Veracruz.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned private banks on Sunday that he will consider nationalizing any that refuse to finance agricultural projects promoted by his government.
Translation: despite all the oil, he's running out of money.
To be fair, it appears he's running out of oil, too.
Banks are required by law in Venezuela to provide at least 10 percent of their lending to finance government development projects.
"The private banks that do not comply with the constitution and their duty, well, I do not have any problem nationalizing them," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program. "We must ensure the constitution and laws are complied with!"
Chavez charged that the rules aren't being followed by some of Venezuela's biggest private banks -- Banesco, Banco Mercantil and Banco Provincial, which is controlled by Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. Chavez singled out the president of Banesco, Juan Carlos Escotet, ordering him to lend more to Venezuela's cash-strapped farmers.
"If you cannot do it, give me your bank," Chavez said, prompting applause from a crowd of government officials and supporters.
A bill approved last year by Chavez's allies in the National Assembly describes banking as a "public service" and gives the government the authority to declare banks to be of "public utility," which paves the way for state nationalizations.
The government already seized control of about a dozen banks in recent years, accusing them of causing financial problems and violating banking rules. Chavez's government controls about 28 percent of Venezuela's banking sector.
And yet there's no money. Wonder why?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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Barney Frank just found himself a new job
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2012 18:35
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#2
"To be fair, it appears he's running out of oil, too."
Heart. Warm. Cockles. :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/30/2012 19:13
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#3
I am getting tired of short round and pudgy shooting off their mouths. I think they have a game to see who came be the most obnoxious. I heard enough of Castro and Nikita. Kimmie is unusually quite. I guess that happens when your a dirt eater.
I hope they don't send him back.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Anti-terrorism operations in Kenya suffered a setback last week after a British woman suspected to be an Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... financier eluded a police raid in Mombasa and sneaked out of the country.
The escape of the suspect, identified as Ms Natalie Webb, has raised deep concern within the security organs as the circumstances point to possible complicity.
The Nation has reliably learnt that a senior officer with the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit involved in last Tuesday's botched operation has been summoned to Nairobi and an investigation ordered into how the suspect beat feet.
Top coppers in the region declined to comment on the issue, terming it "sensitive".
Police front man Eric Kiraithe confirmed that they had raided an Al-Shabaab safe-house and recovered 60 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, but no arrests were made.
He added that it was unfortunate that the occupants managed to escape. "We knew the general location, but got the exact place just after the suspects had beat feet," said Mr Kiraithe.
He said the suspects were on the run but police had a lot of details about them, including DNA. Coast police boss Aggrey Adoli confirmed that a joint force raided a house in Mombasa.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... according to impeccable sources within the terror fighting unit, the woman was actually found in the house, but was allowed to escape under mysterious circumstances.
Providing information
The raid at the Shanzu area was carried out by officers drawn from the Flying Squad, the General Service Unit and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.
The National Security Intelligence Service was also involved in the operation and provided information on her whereabouts.
Nation journalists who have been on the trail of the Sherlocks for the last one week, confirmed from police that the house where the suspect was living in belongs to a wife of former terror criminal mastermind Musa Hussein Abdi.
Abdi, a Kenyan known by colleagues in the terror networks as Dheere, was killed alongside another terror criminal mastermind, Fazul Abdullah, in Somalia last year. (READ: Fazul man was freed by Kenyan court)
A team of officers had managed to track down the suspect and kept the house under surveillance for a number of days.
More information indicated that several bags from a local bank, that are usually used to ferry money, were found at the suspect's house.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
check to see which copper just got wealthy
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2012 7:54
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KINGSTON, Ont. After Canadas first mass-honour-killings trial, three members of a Montreal family have all been found guilty of first-degree murder in the drowning deaths of four other family members including three teenage sisters.
A jury on Sunday handed down its guilty verdicts for Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yahya, as well as their 21-year-old son, Hamed.
They had been charged with murder after the bodies of three Shafia sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and 13-year-old Geeti were discovered in a submerged vehicle in a canal near Kingston, in June 2009.
Also in the vehicle was Rona Amir Mohammad, the 52-year-old first wife of Shafia, whom he married in his native Afghanistan before the polygamous family moved to Canada in 2007 and settled in Montreal.
#1
"you wouldn't understand - it's a cultural thing"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2012 8:00
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#2
YESSSSSSSSS!!!!! The jury didn't take very long to hit this one out of the snowdrift.
Just wait until they get settled into the Federal Prison system with its 24 hour-a-day country music and its wonderful native gang population. Somedays it IS worth chewing through the leather straps.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Amnesty International has expressed anxiety for the fate of 2 female employees, working in Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi's office in Baghdad who have been detained by Iraqi security forces and were torturee, a BBC report noted on Sunday.
"One of the 2 employees is called Rasha Namir Jaafa al-Hussein, who was arrested from her parent's house in Baghdad's Zayouna district on January 2, without an arrest warrant; the second is called Bassima Salim Qiryaqos, who was detained the same day by a 15-man force, dressed in military uniform, believed to be related to Hashimi's case," the BBC added.
"Amnesty International expresses fear that both arrested employees would face torture and maltreatment, because their arrest charges are related to the arrest warrant against Hashimi," the report pointed out.
Remind me, did AI ever get this worked up when Saddam was in charge there?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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[Magharebia] Interim Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki earlier this week condemned verbal and physical attacks against journalists and members of the judiciary by religious cut-thoats.
In a statement issued Monday (January 23rd), the president said the use of violence was "contrary to the values of the revolution", adding that the only venue for disagreement was free expression.
"We express our full solidarity with the media and judicial community," Marzouki said. The president also called on Tunisians to uphold moderation and tolerance while avoiding extremism and violence in order to preserve the unity of the country.
The strong remarks came following an incident outside the Court of First Instance in Tunis, where representatives of Nessma TV were on trial for airing a controversial film that depicted God. Journalist Zied Krichen, professor Hamadi Dimassi and lawyer Sa'ida Garrache were among those targeted by Salafists ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... outside the Persepolis trial.
Journalist Salma Jlassi, a member of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) executive office, said that the "voices of freedom will not be silenced, and that journalists will line up to defend freedom and the sanctity of their mission in enlightening the public opinion on the domestic situation, in a responsible and professional manner".
"The extensive use of violence as an approach in dealing with intellects will only serve to highlight the importance of pursuing the path of freedom," she added.
Journalist Karim Latifi told Magharebia that "the violence wave levelled against journalists is without a doubt an attempt to bounce back on the gains of the revolution, as well as an endeavour to steer the media toward a marginal cause, that is originally taken for granted, legally and constitutionally".
"I think the wave of bashing journalists is an alarming sign, especially in the absence of a force that can protect journalists from such threats," commented journalist Asma Elbaccouche. "We all watched the video of abuse and saw there was no sign of security forces. Those who perpetrated the crime were not placed in long-term storage or held accountable."
She added that the incident "only opens the door before Salafists as well as other trends to undertake similar acts, after they dared to use force, whether physical or verbal. The next thing we know, a Salafist will be seen assaulting a girl, by beating or insulting her, for not wearing the Islamic dress, as they put it."
"The revolution took place to institute the law, not to live by the law of the jungle," Elbaccouche said, adding that the attacks should be dealt with by rule of law.
For her part, BBC TV anchor Makki Helel described the Salafist attacks as "immoral and fearful".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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[An Nahar] Several families in the northern Lebanese border towns of Mashta Hassan and Mashta Hammoud have received information that two Lebanese citizens and a Syrian man were killed and two Syrians maimed when they came under gunfire on the al-Jaafariyat bridge in the Syrian town of Tal Kalakh, Leb's state-run National News Agency reported Sunday, as another report spoke of a 9-strong Lebanese gang led by an Iraqi man.
NNA said the "unconfirmed reports have sparked a major tumult in both border towns, to which local and foreign media outlets have flocked in a bid to scrutinize the authenticity of these reports."
According to the Lebanese news agency, the rapidly spreading reports have claimed that among those killed were "Syrian citizen M. A. D., who owns a pastry shop in the Lebanese town of Mashta Hassan, Lebanese citizen Kh. N. S. from the town of Mashta Hammoud and Lebanese citizen M. D. from the town of Mashta Hassan."
The two maimed Syrians, who were jugged by the Syrian authorities, have not been identified yet according to the reports.
The residents of the two Lebanese towns "are still trying to confirm the reports, although the aforementioned individuals have recently vanished without making any contact with their families," NNA said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38... OTV reported that "an gang led by an Iraqi man and comprising nine Lebanese members had infiltrated Syria through the Lebanese-Syrian border."
"The Syrian army ambushed the group on the Tal Kalakh-Safita intersection (in Homs province), killing at least 4 members of the group and wounding several others," OTV said.
For his part, head of Mashta Hammoud Municipality Naji Ramadan told LBC television that "it is normal that Lebanese individuals be killed in Syria given the non-demarcated border areas and the spike in violence" in revolt-hit Syria.
Ramadan confirmed the death of "a Lebanese and a Syrian," declining to give further information.
On January 19, Syria's official news agency SANA said Syrian security forces killed three members of a "terrorist group" as they tried to enter the country from neighboring Leb.
"The security forces of Syria clashed ... with a terrorist group trying to infiltrate the country across the border with Leb in the Tal Kalakh area and killed three of them," the agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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[An Nahar] Fierce festivities approached the Syrian capital on Sunday as fresh violence across the country killed at least 59 civilians, 31 regime troops and nine army deserters, according to activists.
Regime forces fired heavy artillery and mortar rounds against the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... suburbs of Douma, Saqba, Irbin and Hamouriyeh and were locked in close battle with rebel fighters emboldened by a fresh wave of desertions, activists said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 17 people in Damascus and its suburbs Kfarbatna, Saqba, Hamouriyeh, Rankous, Zabadani and Harasta.
Regime troops also rubbed out 19 people in the central opposition bastion Homs, four people in the flashpoint central province of Hama, six in the restive northwestern province of Idlib, four in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the revolt, and one in the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zour, the LCC said.
For its part, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 regime soldiers, five other members of the security forces and nine army deserters were also among those killed as the regime cracked down on protesters and rebels.
The watchdog said the regime soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in the Idlib and Damascus regions.
The Observatory said earlier that 10 members of the military were killed when their convoy was attacked in Jebel al-Zuwiya in the northwest, and the official SANA news agency said "an armed terrorist group" killed six others near Damascus.
"The more the regime uses the army, the more soldiers defect," Ahmed al-Khatib, a local rebel council member on the Damascus outskirts, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A front man for the rebel Free Syrian Army, which boasts 40,000 men and whose leadership is in Turkey, said that the fighting came a day after "a large wave of defections," with 50 officers and soldiers turning their back on Assad.
In a "steady progression of fighting towards the capital," front man Maher Nueimi said deserters were clashing with army regulars only eight kilometers from Damascus.
The regime, in turn, has launched "an unprecedented offensive in the past 24 hours, using heavy artillery" against villages in Damascus and Hama province of central Syria, Nueimi said.
Other rebel spokesmen reported heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... in Rankous, 45 kilometers from Damascus, and of heightened tension in Hama, further to the north.
Rankous was "besieged for the past five days and is being randomly shelled since dawn by tanks and artillery rounds," rebel Abu Ali al-Rankousi told AFP by telephone.
In Hama, pro-regime snipers were deployed on the rooftops, according to activists, with security forces leaving "bodies of dead people with their hands tied behind their backs" on the streets across several neighborhoods.
It was this latest surge in violence that pushed the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... to suspend its mission to Syria in a surprise move on Saturday.
U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Sunday that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... must end the killings.
"First and foremost, he must stop immediately the bloodshed," Ban told news hounds. "The Syrian leadership should take a decisive action at this time to stop this violence. All the violence must stop."
But Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar said the authorities were determined to "cleanse" the country and restore order.
"The security forces are determined to carry on the struggle to cleanse Syria of renegades and outlaws ... to restore safety and security," SANA quoted Shaar as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
That's the trouble with the internationalist approach. They are so terrified of violence, anywhere, for any reason, that they can imagine no instance when it is justified.
"Wife being raped and strangled by armed intruders? It's vital that you not try to stop them, but hold a committee meeting to determine what your non-violent agenda should be!"
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here
Five unidentified individuals were shot to death and another seven were wounded in an attack in Torreon, Coahuila Saturday night, according to Mexican Spanish language reports.
The attack began at around 2215 hrs when armed suspects travelling aboard a sedan shot into a group of people near the intersection of Avenida Eva Samano and Calle Septima in Nueva Rosita colony.
Local police patrols and a Mexican Army detachment first to arrive on the scene found an unidentified woman and a child dead. Three other victims died while receiving medical treatment.
AMMAN: Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Sunday made his first official visit to Jordan since the kingdom expelled him more than a decade ago and held talks with King Abdullah. Meshaal was accompanied by Qatars Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The visit was planned before an uprising erupted in Syria, where Hamas has had its main headquarters outside the Gaza Strip.
Both Hamas and Jordan have denied that the Islamist movement may move its headquarters from Damascus, where many of its Jordanian leadership relocated after being expelled from the kingdom in 1999. The Syrian conflict has forced Hamas to move some of its activists and families out of the country.
The talk about the visit preceded the events in Syria and is not linked, Izzat Risheq, a senior Hamas official, said.
Hamas and Jordanian officials said neither side discussed reopening the Hamas office in Jordan.
Diplomatic and intelligence sources say Meshaal, 55, who has been based in Damascus since 2001, has effectively abandoned those headquarters, where he had seen relative safety following a botched Israeli attempt on his life in the 1990s.
Jordan has indicated it will accommodate families of the Syrian based leadership, many of whom are Jordanian citizens, but would not tolerate political activities on its soil.
Analysts and Islamists say the visit has been given impetus by regional turmoil in which Islamists have made major political gains across the region following the Arab Spring uprisings, notably in Tunisia and Egypt.
Then again, the King understands far better than Andy McCarthy what Islam is. He's also a survivor, and deep down his vision of Islam and his country isn't that much different than Meshaal's. He just wants to be the guy wearing the curly-toed slippers, and he wants most of all to live. The King could be persuaded to be 'moderate', but that's not the way the wind is blowing right now, is it...
Meshaal said he hoped his meeting with the king would be followed by other chapters in a strong relationship.
Hamas is concerned about the security of Jordan and its stability and we respect this, he said.
Abdalla, a US ally whose country was the second Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1994, is central to moribund Middle East peace efforts and seeks to appear as an honest broker with Palestinian factions, although the monarch strongly backs President Mahmoud Abbas.
Meshaal, a Jordanian citizen, was deported to Qatar after a crackdown by security forces on the movement in 1999 amid charges it harmed Jordanian national interests. The crackdown embittered many Jordanians of Palestinian origin, a majority of the population, who saw it as a dangerous precedent in a country where many native Jordanians oppose a larger political role for Palestinians.
Jordanian Prime Minister Awn Khasawnehs steps to co-opt Islamists to the cabinet have drawn the ire of the powerful security and native Jordanian political establishment that regards any comeback by Hamas as a boost to Islamists. Jordanian Islamists, who make up the main political opposition, have been in the forefront of street protests demanding sweeping political reforms.
There are forces that are not pleased with this visit and see themselves losing as a result, said Zaki Bani Irsheid, a leader of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordans Muslim Brotherhood.
So the King continues to ride the tiger...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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A piece over at the American Thinker pointed out that the head of Hamas spoke out "against the rising movement to allow the Palestinian majority to replace the Hashemite monarchy with a democratic regime that would become the Palestinian homeland".
King Abdullah strongly, "supports the Palestinian Authority as well as Palestinian reconciliation".
Seems like they have found some common ground.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 14:51
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Greece has reacted furiously to a German proposal that an EU budget commissioner with oversight of its economy be installed in Athens after mounting speculation that international lenders will have to stump up yet more money for the country.
Deadbeats usually do react strongly when it's pointed out openly that they are deadbeats...
Addicts don't take kindly to suggestions they have a problem, either.
The escalating row threatened to eclipse Monday's summit after Greece's finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, issued a tart response to the suggestion, saying his compatriots were themselves capable of fulfilling the "historical obligation" to take the country out of crisis.
The proposal, in a leaked document, argued for the creation of a commissioner with veto powers over the Greek budget, saying Athens' inability to meet fiscal targets had made the post a precondition of further rescue funds from its "troika" of creditors: the EU, IMF and ECB.
"Budget consolidation has to be put under a strict steering and control system," noted the document. "Given the disappointing compliance so far, Greece has to accept shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time."
Under the plan, European institutions would have direct control over Greece's budget decisions in what would amount to an extraordinary depletion of a member state's independence in conducting its own affairs.
With the atmosphere among recession-hit Greeks becoming increasingly explosive three years into the crisis, the proposal was angrily denounced with one politician slamming it as the "product of a sick imagination".
"It's absolutely laughable," said a senior government source. "It's a draft paper that appears to have been deliberately leaked but we have no idea who the author is or where it's come from in the German government."
The spat erupted amid reports that the 130bn (£108bn) aid package, agreed as part of a second bailout for the country last October, would now not be enough.
Of course it isn't. The German and French banks are way over-exposed in southern Europe. The Greek citizens don't want to pay for their mistakes, don't see themselves as responsible for what their past governments have done, and don't want to be impoverished for the rest of their lives -- or their retirements at age 50, whichever comes first. And they're certainly not willing to pay back loans made by German bankers who were stupid enough to loan to the Greeks in the first place.
Citing Athens' worsening economic performance and prospects, the German news magazine Der Spiegel quoted a troika official as saying that Greece could need 145bn to be saved once and for all.
'Once and for all' means "about a month" in EU-speak...
Last week, the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said a revised analysis had shown that more rescue loans would be needed to make up for a shortfall in the second aid package. The extra money, he said, was required to ensure that Greece's 350bn debt burden was reduced to 120% of GDP by 2020 -- a figure that is seen as manageable.
It used to be thought that a country's debt burden had to be less than 80% of GDP; above that default was inevitable. Then the barrier was said to be 100%. Now it's 120%.
To keep bankruptcy at bay Athens received 110bn from the EU and IMF in May 2010, the biggest bailout in western history. With European taxpayers already irate that Greece will need yet more funds to keep afloat, the 130bn financial support load had previously been seen as a red line across which no EU government was willing to step.
The spectre of the rescue programme being expanded appeared to be the biggest obstacle to a debt deal between Greece and its private sector creditors finally being concluded over the weekend.
Greek officials said while the contentious issue of interest rates on new bonds had been settled -- with one source describing the coupon as "a figure that has pleased everyone" -- the agreement would not be announced until there was consensus over the second bailout.
The same bankers who made the stupid loans in the first place get a cut of each restructuring. The new bonds have to be handled and marketed, after all, and someone has to be paid for that. There are all sorts of fees quietly tacked onto each new bailout. That's one way debtor nations get even more into debt.
The eurozone's first ever debt restructuring, the bond swap foresees banks and other private investors voluntarily accepting a 50% loss in the value of their holdings, a writedown that will slice about 100bn from the nation's debt pile.
I'll believe it when I see it. Did the 'private sector creditors' agree to so much as a single Euro's amount of a haircut in the past? But if they really do turn over 50% of the notes, it will just delay them from having to turn over the other 50% of the notes, which will come next year.
Private sector participation had been set as a prerequisite of further aid being given to Greece. "We are one step before [agreement] being reached," said Venizelos.
With Athens facing repayment of 14.5bn of debt on March 20 -- money it does not have -- time is of the essence in securing a deal.
But negotiations with international debt inspectors that have been conducted in tandem with talks between the government and private creditors have been vastly different in nature.
In what officials have described as "tense discussions", Greek government ministers have argued fiercely with auditors over the need for further belt-tightening measures to plug a burgeoning budget black hole.
And over the desirability for an audit in the first place...
The atmosphere deteriorated last week after the troika urged the interim coalition government to make further savage spending cuts. The demands come amid growing criticism over the performance of Lucas Papademos, the technocrat economist placed at the helm of Athens's transitional government last November.
Highlighting the mounting frustration over Greece's failure to enact economic and structural reforms, the IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said over the weekend: "We're not terribly positive about what has been done, but we want to put together a programme for the country. The country itself has to provide adjustment."
In a bid to rally support for the austerity Athens will inevitably have to impose, Papademos held urgent talks with the leaders of the three parties backing his coalition telling them that without further belt-tightening Greece will not be given the funds it needs to survive. He emerged saying there had been "a convergence of views".
But with general elections scheduled in the spring and no politician willing to be associated with policies that have brought Greeks to their knees it remains to be seen whether the country's political class will put national interests before party politics.
The Greeks aren't serious. They won't admit that their economy is ill. They won't take the medicine. Far better to boot them from the Euro-zone, let them devalue the new drachma, and find a way to fix the German and French banks that are exposed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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See also WAFF > IMF, EU, + ECB [aka the "Troika] ASK GREECE TO DISBAND MILITARY + LAYOFF 150,000 JOBS | GREECE SHOULD STOP SPENDING ON DEFENSE, HEALTH: TROIKA DRAFT SAYS, in order to meet the anti-Deficit conditions of proposed 2012 Bailout Package.
Greece, etal. = at least 10 US States = USA vee Rising China???
Boy o boy, HUGO "THE US HAS [Land/Islands-destroying, sinking] EARTHQUAKE BOMBS" CHAVEZ is on a roll today.
#4
"The Greeks aren't serious. They won't admit that their economy is ill. They won't take the medicine. Far better to boot them from the Euro-zone, let them devalue the new drachma, and find a way to fix the German and French banks that are exposed."
Steve, many of them do know. It's not an issue of ignorance, it's a matter of not caring. It's a matter of them being the end product of the Gramscian termite, of believing that it is the responsibility of a force (in this case government) outside themselves having the responsibility to take wealth from neighbors and strangers - by force - to make sure that there is no interruption in their own income stream. It's a matter of believing that if there is someone, somewhere, who has two cents more than you do, that cosmically speaking the right thing to do is take one of those cents from that person and give it to you so that everyone ends up the same at the end of the day.
Without shame, or guilt, or loss of autonomy.
In this regard, they aren't a lot different from huge swaths of the rest of Euroland, or the U.S., either.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/30/2012 5:57
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#5
no mo uro,
Default, followed by bankruptcy, followed by pain, followed by restructuring, followed by healthier practices by all concerned.
Capitalism is a bit*h, but it works.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 8:23
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#6
Computers have served to hide the true conditions. Cause no one actually sees the money anymore.
What are needed are pictures of people with wheelbarrows full of bank notes going to buy a loaf of bread or some other vivid picture of the problem.
This is, currently, just spin and smoke and mirrors to the plebs.
#8
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > THE NEXT GREECE: PORTUGAL BORROWING [public debt] COSTS HIT NEW RECORD [20.27%] | {REUTERS] INVESTORS CUE PORTUGAL AS THE NEXT GREECE.
and
* SAME > [WSJ.com] JAPAN'S DEBT PILE STARTS TO GRAB INVESTORS' ATTENTION.
Nippon may only have a couple of years grace, instead of several, until the country's prohibitive debt burden begins to affect its Govt. + quality-of-life, etc.
[Dawn] The US Embassy in Islamabad has issued a clarification regarding US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... 's interview where he stated that someone in the Pak government knew where the late Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden is dead.
He took two shots to the head.
That made him frown
and he had to lie down.
Osama bin Laden is dead. was hiding, DawnNews reported on Sunday.
The US embassy stated that the US still believes that Pak officials were unaware about the presence of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abottabad.
Spokesman for the US Defense Department, George Little said that Panetta's interview was old and the US was uncertain about the presence of Osama in Pakistain at the time of the interview.
The statement by the US embassy further said that Panetta and other US officials are trying sincerely to improve US-Pakistain relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
Ah, the niceties of diplomacy are so hard to explain to one's children.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 7:47
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Bright Pebbles,
It's possible (speculation) that we knew too. All the easier to track the visiting ants back to their home countries. Intelligence gathering trumps justice almost every time. Now whether the Paks knew that we knew is a further speculation, once removed.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 16:24
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Bright Pebbles
I am sure the Pak army knew.Not sure re the Civil Govt did.Both dont seem to get on.See memogate.One wants democracy the other Zia Islamism.
Posted by: Paul D ||
01/30/2012 17:06
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#6
I don't think democracy is a desire of either side of Pak gov't. It's just a necessary evil for gaining access to graft & corruption. Just like in the US.
[Dawn] TWO notices coming in rapid succession appear to be the first serious attempt to put an end to the extra-judicial prerogatives Pakistain's secret agencies have enjoyed for decades to run a clandestine empire the prime minister called "a state within a state". The judiciary's jurisdiction has now rightfully expanded to include institutions and elements till now considered beyond the reach of law. This message comes loud and clear from the Supreme Court's decision to issue notices to the ISI and the Military Intelligence in this regard. On Friday, the apex court directed the ISI and the Military Intelligence to submit reports to the SC on a petition that sought action on the law and order situation in the country's largest province. The petitioner, a former president of the 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... High Court Bar Association, had sought the court's help because, he said, the federal and provincial governments had failed to protect life and liberty in Balochistan. He referred especially to the widespread disappearances and mysterious killings. Taking note of the gravity of the situation, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said it was not the time to sit idle "with our fingers crossed", and asked the ISI and MI to give their view on the petition.
Two days earlier, the SC had summoned ISI chief Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the MI director general, the judge advocate general and the army commanding officer concerned to respond to the petition of a woman who said that one of her sons, a suspect in the October 2009 attack on GHQ, had died in mysterious circumstances, and his body thrown on the road near a Beautiful Downtown Peshawar hospital. Petitioner Ruhaifa said three of her sons were among the eight taken in jug by the intelligence agencies, that there was no due process, and her son, Abdul Saboor, was among the four who were found murdered.
Since the days of Ziaul Haq, the intelligence agencies, especially the ISI, have arrogated to themselves political and 'legal' privileges which are in violation of the constitution and the penal code. They were emboldened in their brazenness because the compliant among the judges failed to uphold the law. Among the many examples of this encouragement by default of the invisible empire is Mehrangate, which involves the unauthorised disbursement of money by the ISI to its favourites to subvert the 1990 election. The judiciary must continue its pursuit of justice for all to prove to the people of Pakistain that 'accountability' is not a shibboleth used to persecute political dissent and that the guilty cannot escape justice because they are in uniform.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I like the "ISI Stories" image. :-)
The ISI is a "state within a state". The Tribal areas (i.e. the seven "agencies") are states outside the control of the state.
What a mess.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 8:02
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#2
"Paki Supremes Feeling Their Oats, scheduled to Tour Glue Factory"
#3
mojo,
Good point. Given that the courts have some leverage regarding that decade-old Swiss corruption case involving President Asif Ali Zardari, it makes some sense to keep both sides guessing.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 15:30
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Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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[7 views]
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Dorothy Malone aka Marylee Hadley in "Written on the Wind (1956)" aka Marianne in "Beach Party (1963)" aka Constance Mackenzie Carson in "Peyton Place (TV Series 19641969)" aka Hazel Dobkins in "Basic Instinct (1992)" aka Acme Book Shop Proprietress in "The Big Sleep (1946)" aka Lt. Susan Peabody in "Torpedo Alley (1952)" aka Mrs. Elaine Yarborough (USO manager in San Diego) in "Battle Cry (1955)" aka Cleva Creighton Chaney in "Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)" aka LaVerne Shumann in "The Tarnished Angels (1957)" aka Lily Dollar in "Warlock (1959)" (age 87)
Yael Bar Zohar (Israeli) aka Sharon Linovich in "Ramat Aviv Gimmel (TV Series 19951999)" aka Ramat Aviv Gimmel (TV Series 19951999) in "Telenovela Ba'am (TV Series 2005)" aka Ariel in "Shachar (TV Series 20012002)" (age 32)
[Dawn] A policeman and an attacker were killed in exchange of fire in Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... city here on Saturday, sources said.
They said that two other accomplices of the assailants managed to escape. Eyewitnesses said that three attackers riding a cycle of violence opened firing on a police constable, Jehangir, on Grid Station Road when he was going home.
He was killed on the spot, they said, adding the constable was wearing plainclothes when he was attacked. The attackers, armed with hand grenades, were challenged by two personnel of the rider squad of police. The law enforcers exchanged fire with the attackers.
The attackers entered a private university building when they were trying to escape from the area. An attacker was killed at the gate of the university while his two others accomplices disappeared in the building.
Police and army contingents encircled the building and started a search operation. Security forces also recovered three hand grenades and one Kalashnikov from the dead attacker.
According to eyewitnesses, the attackers also hurled three hand grenades at the rider squad officials, however, no one was hurt.
The exchange of fire between the attackers and police continued for almost two hours. The search operation was in progress till filing of this report.
In Kohat, a security man was injured in an encounter during a search operation in Jawaki area of the frontier region on Saturday.
Security forces claimed that several snuffies were killed in the encounter. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... independent sources didn't confirm the claim of security forces.
Sources said that security forces came face to face with snuffies during a search operation in the area that led to a shootout between them.
A security man was injured in the encounter and he was admitted to Combined Military Hospital in Kohat for treatment.
FR Kohat, which also includes Darra Adamkhel, has been in the control of security forces for the last five years. Taliban had enforced their own style Sharia before in the area before military operation against them.
In another incident, the house of an army officer was damaged when a remote controlled bomb went off in Mir Qadeem Colony on Bannu Road in Kohat on Saturday.
The boundary wall, a car, a rickshaw and the main gate of the house were partially damaged in the blast, sources said. The inmates remained unhurt in the incident.
The bomb disposal squad reached the scene soon after the morning prayers and cordoned off the whole area. The team said that five kilograms of highly kaboom had been used in the blast.
The explosives and the time device had been packed in a ghee canister, which was placed at the main gate of the house.
Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else on the complaint of the brother of the retired army officer, Brig (retired) Asad Gul and launched investigation.
In Khyber Agency, a security man was injured when unidentified snuffies attacked a checkpost in Bara on Saturday.
Officials said that scores of armed snuffies attacked a checkpost in Nala-Malikdinkhel area late in the evening that resulted in injuries to an FC man Sajid Khan and partial damage to the post.
Forces in retaliation fired at the myrmidons, who made good their escape in the darkness.
In Qanbarkhel locality of Bara, snuffies demolished the house of a tribal elder Mian Khan.
Local sources said that snuffies took along the door, windows and other belongings before dynamiting the empty house.
Family of Mian Khan had vacated the house some time ago after receiving threats from myrmidons.
in Landi Kotal, security forces defused two bombs planted by unidentified snuffies near a populated locality.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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I guess that all we can do is thank Reuters for being so transparent.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 9:41
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#6
Many of the main stream urinalists should be sued both for masquerading as journalists and malpractice. Unless of course their practice is propaganda, in which case, they do it fairly well except when the lies become too obvious.
#7
It's one thing to mistake a guy being in the life insurance business when he was in the property and casualty business.
But if you report he was in the construction business all his life...you have nothing to which you can report as having misinterpreted. Either you made it up or somebody gave you really, really wrong information.
And--analogy alert--if you report with outrage that the guy was in the construction business for forty years without qualifying for even one license (which, of course, he would not, being in the insurance business), you really ought to check it out.
IMO, this is a faked-up, made-up hit piece with the presumption that either they won't get busted, or if they do, much of the target market will not find out.
You can't say a guy has trouble with his student loan if there is no, none, nadd, nothing, information to that end. It has to be made up.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/30/2012 18:19
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqiya MP Khalid al-Alwani announced today that his bloc stopped boycotting the parliamentary session that lasted 43 days. The return to the cabinet meetings was not resolved yet, as he continued.
Iraq is living in real political crisis following the accusations uttered against vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi and the differences between Maliki and his deputy Saleh al-Mutlaq, both leading members of Iraqiyah bloc.
In an attempt to solve pending questions among all parties, President Jalal Talabani proposed making a general national conference, due at the beginning of the next month, to solve these questions, including those between Arbil and Baghdad on oil and gas law and the implementation of Article 140 of the constitution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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[Dawn] KARACHI: A doctor and trustee of an Imambargah was rubbed out in front of his house in Federal B Area on Saturday morning.
Profitable things, imambargahs, or so I've heard.
Investigators said that the murder could be part of ongoing sectarian killings.
Dr Syed Jafar Mohsin Rizvi was targeted when he was reading a newspaper before his residence in F. B Area's block 12. One of the two riders, the area police said, got off the two-wheeler and fired multiple shots at the 60-year-old general physician before riding away with his aide.
"He was hit by bullets in the head and was struck down in his prime," said Inspector Raja Tariq, the SHO of the Gulberg cop shoppe.
"According to the victim's family, he read the newspaper almost daily on the bench fixed in front of his house. The family rushed out on hearing gunshots and found him lying in a pool of blood."
The police found four casings of spent bullets fired from a TT pistol, he said, adding that Sherlocks had come into contact with a few persons who witnessed the incident though from a distance.
"The block where the victim lived has big houses, and the wide lanes remain deserted around 12noon with scarce movement of pedestrians or vehicles," said the SHO, adding that the Sherlocks would first determine the route taken by the armed riders to connect the dots.
A trustee of Imambargah Aal-i-Aba in F. B Area block 13, Dr Rizvi also owned a tour operating company that arranges visits to holy places in Arab countries.
The police said the victim's son was in Karbala accompanying a group of Pak pilgrims and would return home on Sunday to attend the funeral prayers in Zohrain.
The body was taken to Rizvia Imambargah after medico-legal formalities were carried out at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
The killing drew serious criticism from the Jafria Alliance Pakistain (JAP) and leaders of other organizations, who called the killing 'failure' of the government and law-enforcement agencies.
"The government has failed to end violence and no credible action is seen against banned outfits which are involved in these killings and bent on destroying religious harmony and peace in the city," said Abbas Kumaili of JAP.
He advised the government to become serious about ending sectarian killings, adding that they were fast spreading the sense of insecurity among the people of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... .The police authorities see the recent spate of assassinations on sectarian grounds as 'unfortunate' and find it hard to persuade rival sides to maintain harmony.
"Apart from our efforts to convince the two sides, we have geared up our activities on operational side," said Additional IG of Bloody Karachi Akhtar Hussain Gorchani. "An exercise to spot members of banned outfits has already been initiated that includes scanning of their criminal record maintained by the police and their identities for a decisive action."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
"The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December."
Isn't this a great country?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 11:45
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#2
I was even on the news in D.C. Saturday evening; a nice piece.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/30/2012 15:19
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I'm sorry, but this article does not offer a fair view of the situation. We may very well argue about official and non-official contacts the German government maintains with Iran, but Iran's Holocaust denial has always been strongly rejected by Germany.
Marcel Reich Ranicki's tale about his experience in the Warsaw ghetto was a very moving one and has left a deep impression.
Unfortunately the speech seems to be only available in German. (report in English)
MRR recalled how the Nazis in July 1942 informed members of the ghetto's Jewish Council (Judenrat) of plans for the inhabitants' "resettlement to the east".
He told lawmakers that those present "seemed to sense what had happened: that the sentence had been pronounced for the biggest Jewish city in Europe - the death sentence."
IThis was his last sentence and the Bundestag was quiet for half a minute before applause set in.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/30/2012 3:33
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The participants of Pakistain Defense Conference held a rally on Sunday in Multan in which they criticised the government and vowed that they were ready to defend the country. Different parties also said that the masses will protest by surrounding the parliament in case of resumption of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supplies.
Various political and religious parties stress upon the need not to accept the dictation from other nations with aims to do decisions by ourselves.
The Chief of 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 close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. 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... , Munawwar Hassan said that international agencies are involved in terrorism in Pakistain.
"Now, it is time to change the foreign policy and to detach ourselves away from the US," said Hassan.
Former chief of ISI, Hameed Gul said that Pakistain's existence will be in danger if NATO supplies are resume. He said that if India is the most favored nation, then who is poking a dagger in the back of Pakistain via 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... and Afghanistan.
The leader of Awami Moslem League, Sheikh Rasheed said that the genie of corruption in out of control, all the important institutions in the country have been infected by it.
Maulana Samiul Haq also took oath from the participants to lead their lives for the defense of the country if needed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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#1
Please note Obama these are SAME people we are fighting in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Paul D ||
01/30/2012 18:19
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The Iranian MOIS holds a parallel view no doubt.
JERUSALEM - Israel's government on Sunday began examining a plan for a rail link between its Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, offering a new route for Europe-Asia trade that could compete with the Suez Canal.
Since, after all, the Suez Canal might not be open much longer...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a passenger line through the desert would for the first time put Israel's southern Red Sea resort of Eilat a two-hour rain ride from Tel Aviv, 350 kilometres (220 miles) away.
"In addition there will be a line for carrying goods from Asia to Europe," Netanyahu told a meeting of his cabinet. "It has created very great interest in among the emerging powers, China and India, and others."
He said that new rail and road networks would join the Eilat line to northern Israel and also become "a junction between continents."
"It is therefore of strategic importance, both nationally and internationally," he said, adding Sunday's discussion would be the first of at least two on the subject.
Of the proposals prepared by the transport ministry, the preferred option was for the work to be done by Chinese state-owned contractors, the ministry's website says.
Which would save lots of money through the use of Chinese convict slave labor.
You don't expect Palestinians to do the work, do you?
"The professional capability of the Chinese companies in the construction of railway systems and transport networks is among the best in the world," the site quoted transport minister Yisrael Katz as saying.
It said Katz met China's transport minister in Beijing in September and the two agreed to prepare a joint proposal for the Eilat link.
Israeli officials say a so-called "Med-Red" railway could also be used for future exports of gas to India, and possibly China, from Mediterranean fields currently under development.
The two biggest Israeli finds, Tamar and Leviathan, lie respectively about 80 and 130 kilometres (50 and 80 miles) off the northern port city of Haifa. Tamar is believed to hold at least 8.4 trillion cubic feet of gas (238 billion cubic metres), while Leviathan is believed to have reserves of 16 trillion cubic feet (450 billion cubic metres).
In June, an Israeli company announced the discovery of two new natural gas fields, Sarah and Mira, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) off the city of Hadera further south along the Mediterranean coast.
Have to get the gas to customers somehow. Run a pipeline in the same right of way as the rail, put a LNG generating facility in Eilat, and just see if the Indians and Chinese become Israel's new best friends.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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#1
I could see an intermodal rail link to move ocean containers from the Med to the Red if ops on the Suez canal gets flakey.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2012 3:28
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Too bad the French and the Brits aren't up to a repeat of Operation Musketeer.
#3
Baby steps. This is very doable, particularly with the westbound export markets. What could be very interesting is if the Arabs, especially Iraq, ever agree to the eastbound pipelines at am Israeli Med terminal. The deal is there for the Paleos and Jordanians to accept, but it would transfer wealth to the shippers from the pumpers. Also makes Hormuz irrelevant. I'm surprised Ron Paul hasn't suggested this. It would alter the appearance of his policy positions.
[Bangla Daily Star] Four persons died in Laxmipur and Chandpur towns yesterday when police fired on demonstrating BNP activists and supporters.
To protest the killings, local BNP units called for half-day hartals ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in Chandpur and Laxmipur towns for today.
More than 450 people, including 100 police, were maimed yesterday when the law enforcers attempted to foil prescheduled marches of opposition activists in different districts.
Condemning the police atrocities, BNP held the government responsible for the killings.
Addressing a media briefing at BNP central office in Naya Paltan of the capital in the afternoon, the party's acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir demanded exemplary punishment for the persons responsible for the killings.
Meantime, police formed two separate committees to investigate the Chandpur and Laxmipur incidents, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker told news hounds at the Police Headquarters in the capital in the afternoon.
The committees, to be headed by Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police Biswas Afzal Hossain, were asked to submit reports in seven days.
"The committees will also probe whether the coppers were at fault," the IGP said, claiming that police showed tolerance although resorted to firing.
CHANDPUR
Violence in Chandpur erupted around 11:00am when police asked opposition activists, gathering at Hasan Ali Govt High School ground, to disperse. The crowd was preparing to bring out a march.
"Without listening to us, they started hurling brickbats," Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chandpur Model Police Station, told The Daily Star, estimating that there were at least 1,000 people.
Cordoning off the law enforcers, the opposition activists later vandalised a police van.
"The magistrate ordered us to open fire to bring the situation under control," the OC said.
Our Chandpur correspondent, who was caught inside the cordon, reported that police first fired live bullets and then switched to rubber bullets and shotgun pellets.
The opposition activists continued their attacks on police, though the latter stopped firing at noon.
Around 12:45pm, activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... (BCL), ruling Awami League backed student organization, joined police and dispersed the demonstrators in 15 minutes.
Bullet-hit, Abul Mreedha, a rickshawpuller aged about 50 years, was struck down in his prime. Limon Soiyal, another rickshawpuller aged about 25, and Mahfuzur Rahman, a 22-year-old activist of BNP backed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal ...student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)... , sustained bullet injuries.
Rushed to Chandpur Sadar Hospital, Soiyal died at 12:15pm, hospital sources said.
Mreedha used to live in Baburhat while Soiyal in Goakhola areas of Chandpur town.
Amir Zafar, Chandpur assistant superintendent of police (ASP), said over 100 people, including 30 police, were maimed during the clash.
Police said they opened fire in self defence after being ordered by Magistrate Shamimul Haq Pavel.
The opposition activists vandalised 15-20 vehicles as the clash spread to other parts of the town.
BCL activists later vandalised the BNP office and the house of BNP district unit General Secretary Sheikh Farid Ahmed Manik.
Addressing a presser at his house at 4:30pm, Sheikh Farid announced a half-day hartal in the town from 6:00am today to protest the police atrocities.
LAXMIPUR
As activists of BNP-led four-party alliance brought out a march from South Trimohoni area around 11:00am, police tried to stop them. When the demonstrators tried to march forward, police charged batons on them, reported our Noakhali correspondent.
The demonstrators retaliated by throwing brick bats at the law enforcers. Chases and counter-chases took place for some time before police fired 68 rounds from shotguns and 20 tear gas canisters to successfully disperse the crowd.
Police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock five demonstrators from the spot.
During the clash, more than 100 people including BNP's youth wing Jubo Dal's activist Rubel Hossain, 25; and BNP supporter Abul Kashem, 50 were maimed. Ten sustained shotgun pellet wounds.
Rubel, among the injured, died while undergoing treatment in Laxmipur Sadar Hospital while Abul Kashem died later in Comilla while being transported to Dhaka for treatment.
Twenty six police including Golam Sarwar, OC of Laxmipur Sadar Police Station, and three sub-inspectors were maimed. Of them, 24 were admitted to Laxmipur Sadar Hospital while two others to Noakhali Medical College Hospital.
Claiming that some people from the BNP march first opened fire on police, Laxmipur Superintendent of Police (SP) Zamsher Ali told The Daily Star that police opened fire in self-defence.
A three-member committee headed by additional SP of Laxmipur was formed to investigate the incident, the SP said adding that the committee will submit a report in three days.
Later in the evening BNP activists and supporters brought out another protest march that went through the town led by the party's local unit's General Secretary Shahabuddin Shabu, who announced from the march a half-day hartal from 6:00am in the town for today.
DINAJPUR
Obstructed from bringing out a march from local BNP office, party activists pelted police with brickbats, prompting the latter to charge batons.
Police also fired 10 tear gas shells and rubber bullets. They picked up five persons during the clash which left 25 injured.
KISHOREGANJ
Fifty including 11 police and 4 journalists were maimed and a police vehicle was damaged during festivities between opposition activists and police at Ishaka Road and Gaital Firm intersection in the town.
Police picked up around 12 BNP and Jamaat activists, including district BNP Vice-chairman Amiruzzaman.
The injured police were admitted to Kishoreganj Adhunik Sadar Hospital.
KURIGRAM
Twenty including the OC of Kurigram Sadar Police Station were maimed and a police vehicle was damaged during festivities between police and four-party opposition alliance activists in Kurigram town.
As a march of opposition activists reached Kurigram Central Mosque area, police tried to stop it, prompting the marchers to attack them with sticks and brickbats. The demonstrators also vandalised a police vehicle.
RANGAMATI
Three BNP activists were maimed when police charged batons on their march near Rangamati municipality office.
NILPHAMARI
Police fired 12 rounds of rubber bullets and 3 rounds of tear gas shells to disperse opposition activists as they tried to defy police obstruction to their march in the town.
Thirty including 10 police and two journalists were maimed, and police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 5 demonstrators.
NATORE
Fifty people including a journalist were maimed in NATOre when alleged activists of ruling party backed BCL and Jubo League ... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League... hurled brick bats at a BNP-Jamaat march in NATOre town. Police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock four Jamaat activists from the procession.
BARGUNA
Barred by police from going to their party office or gathering in the town, BNP activists hurled brick bats at the law enforcers. In reply, police shot rubber bullets at them. The clash left 50 including 15 police injured.
Later the protesters set 2 police cycle of violences on fire, while police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 20 BNP activists from the scene.
SUNAMGANJ
Five BNP activists sustained injuries as police charged batons on their procession in the town.
BRAHMANBARIA
Four Jamaat activists were maimed when police lobbed teargas shells on their procession at Kalibari point in the town.
BANDARBAN
Twenty BNP activists and 10 police were maimed during a clash in front of BNP office in Bandarban town. Police later set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 30 BNP activists, reported UNB.
TEHRAN: Oil prices could rise as high as $150 a barrel because of the European Union ban on imports of Iranian crude, the countrys deputy oil minister said on Sunday.
Almost reads like a threat, doesn't it...
Although a precise prediction cannot be made on oil prices, it seems we will witness a $120 to $150 oil price per barrel in future, Deputy Oil Ministry Ahmad Qalebani was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Irans Parliament, meanwhile, postponed a vote on a bill requiring the government to immediately halt crude oil sales to Europe. A senior lawmaker said Iran is considering banning all oil exports to the EU for five to 15 years. Emad Hosseini said no draft bill had been drawn up but lawmakers were considering a preemptive ban on oil exports to the EU.
A member of Irans National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said any ban would last at least five years. We will change the threat into an opportunity for Iran and cut Irans oil supplies to the Europeans for five to 15 years, Mohammad Karim Abedi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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Oil is fungible and the market will shift around. Besides Iranian MMs need cash flow for their projects for the 12th Imam.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2012 3:22
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There is no upper limit to oil prices, Mullahs or no Mullahs.
KABUL - Afghanistan and Pakistan plan to open a second front in negotiations with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia as US-brokered talks get under way in Qatar, officials said Sunday.
The Taliban announced earlier this month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar ahead of talks with Washington. And Taliban negotiators have begun holding preliminary talks with US officials in the Gulf state on plans for negotiations aimed at ending the decade-long Afghan war, a former Taliban official said Sunday.
But Afghan and Taliban officials indicated in response to a BBC report about plans for talks in Saudi Arabia that both Kabul and Islamabad usually at loggerheads on the issue were looking for their own talks with the Taliban.
Asked for his response to the BBC report, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said: Of course we support any steps towards the Afghan peace process. He refused to comment further.
But a senior Afghan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the BBC report was accurate, saying: We will always pursue all roads towards peace in Afghanistan, including contacts with the Taliban that are not limited to the Qatar office.
A member of the Talibans leadership council, the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura, also backed the report of talks in Saudi Arabia.
The idea that the Taliban should have a point of contact in Saudi is pushed by the Pakistan and Afghan governments, he said on condition of anonymity. This is because they think they have been sidelined. They want some control over peace talks.
Supporting this theory, Kabul announced Sunday that Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar would visit Kabul on Wednesday, marking what Mosazai called a new phase in cooperation between the two countries. Khar would meet President Hamid Karzai to discuss the fight against terrorism and Pakistans essential support to the peace process in Afghanistan, he said.
Khars visit comes after the always touchy relations between the two countries broke down following the assassination of Kabuls chief peace envoy, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in September. Karzai accused Pakistan of responsibility for the murder and said Islamabad was sabotaging all attempts at negotiations with the Taliban.
The president was wary over being sidelined in the Qatar talks, leading Washington to dispatch special envoy Marc Grossman to Kabul last week to assure him of a central role for his government in any major negotiations. And in another effort to soothe Karzais doubts, a delegation from the Qatar government is expected to visit Kabul to explain its role in the talks, High Peace Council secretary Aminundin Muzaffari told AFP.
Preliminary negotiations between the US and the Taliban are already under way in the Gulf state, a former Taliban official who is now a member of the Afghan government appointed High Peace Council said Sunday.
The actual peace talks have not yet begun they are in the process of trust-building and obviously this will take some time, Mawlavi Qalamuddin, who once led the Talibans feared religious police when the hardline Islamists were in power, told AFP.
One of the trust-building measures demanded by the Taliban is the release of five of its members from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, while Washington wants the insurgents to renounce violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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See also CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > THE COMING HOLY CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ - HOW THE FIRING SHOT OF THE SHITTE-SUNNI CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ PRESAGES A MUCH GREATER + BLOODIER REGIONAL SHIITE-SUNNI + ARAB-PERSIAN WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
ARTIC = Among other, the 1980's Iran-Iraq War + now post-911 Pak-Taliban-vs-Islamabad conflict in Pakistan is a part of the above.
CMF BLOGGER/POSTER = opined that the Shiite-Sunni competition + violence is also occurring in INDIA + INDONESIA + SOMALIA + SUDAN + even EUROPE???
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here.
Four armed suspects and one Mexican soldier were killed in an armed confrontation in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas Saturday, according to a Mexican Army press release.
An army road patrol detachment was fired on on Bulevar Venustiano Carranza by armed suspects aboard a convoy of six vehicles. In the ensuing firefight, four suspects were killed by army return gunfire. It is likely an unknown number of armed suspects managed aboard the remaining five vehicles to escape the encounter, although the press report doesn't so state. Almost reads like the RAB...
One unidentified Mexican rifleman was killed in the encounter, while five other soldiers were wounded.
In the aftermath, soldiers seized five rifles, 50 weapons magazines, 525 rounds of ammunition and one vehicle.
[Dawn] In a rare victory for Pak liberals, a private TV station decided to fire a popular morning show host after she sparked outrage by running around a public park trying to expose young, unmarried couples hanging out, a taboo in this conservative Moslem country.
Pak liberals derided host Maya Khan's behavior on Twitter and Facebook, comparing it to the kind of moral policing practiced by the Taliban, and started an online petition asking Samaa TV to end this "irresponsible programming" and apologize.
The company responded Saturday in a letter sent to news hounds saying it had decided to fire Khan and her team and cancel her show because she refused to issue an unconditional apology for the Jan. 17 program.
Samaa TV's decision marked an unusual victory for Pakistain's beleaguered liberal minority, which has become more marginalized as the country has shifted to the right and whose members have been killed by faceless myrmidons for standing up for what they believe.
Critics of the program also praised the company's decision as a positive example of self-regulation by Pakistain's freewheeling TV industry, which was liberalized in 2000 and has mushroomed from one state-run channel to more than 80 independent ones.
Some shows have been praised for serving the public good by holding powerful officials to account, but many others have been criticized for doing anything that will get ratings, including pandering to populist sentiments at the expense of privacy and sometimes truth.
"Samaa management has set a good example that some others need to follow," said prominent human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activist and journalist Hussain Naqi.
During the program in question, Khan and around a dozen other men and women chased down young couples in a seaside park in the southern city of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . Several couples raced away from the group. One young man put on a cycle of violence helmet to hide his identity, while his female friend covered her face with a veil.
Khan finally accosted one couple sitting on a bench and pestered them with questions about whether they were married and whether their parents knew they were there. The man said the couple was engaged and asked Khan to shut off her cameras and microphone. She lied and said they were off.
"What is the difference between this kind of media vigilantism and that demonstrated by the Taliban?" said Mahnaz Rahman, a director at the Aurat Foundation, an organization that fights for women's rights in Pakistain.
Following Khan's program, one headline in a local paper called the host and the other women who appeared on the show "Vigil-aunties," referring to the South Asian term "aunty" for a bossy older woman.
A petition posted online that criticized Khan's behavior as "highly intrusive, invasive and potentially irresponsible" and demanded an official apology attracted more than 5,000 signatures.
Khan reportedly rejected the criticism at first but eventually issued on apology on TV to anyone she may have offended, saying "it was not my objective to make you cry or hurt you."
This fell short of the apology that Khan's bosses demanded, according to a letter written by the chairman of Samaa TV, Zafar Siddiqi. It said Khan and her team would receive termination notices on Jan. 30 and her show would be canceled.
Siddiqi said the company did not "absolve such behavior irrespective of ratings the show was getting."
Scores of Paks on Twitter praised Samaa TV's decision.
"Journalists must never forget the dividing line between public interest & private freedom," tweeted Najam Sethi, a prominent Pak journalist.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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What was this woman doing running around in public without a male family member? She should be stoned, not fired!
[Yemen Post] The army announced that 4 al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin had been killed in the southern trouble-torn Yemeni province of Abyan, according to local military source.
The army has repelled an offensive carried out by islamists on the outskirts of Abyan's bustling provincial capital, Zinjibar, leaving 4 Orcs and similar vermin killed and destroying a military tank, the local source said, request anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, has denied that 4 of its men were killed in festivities with security forces.
Anasr al-Sharia, a terrorist group believed to be affiliated to Yemen-based al-Qaeda, took control of Zinjubar and declared it an Islamic emirate in May, but the army assisted by local tribes men managed to force them out 5 months later.
Elsewhere, al-Qaeda has targeted a high-profile intelligence officer in the southern province of Hadramout, killing the officer , one of his guards, and 4 Orcs and similar vermin in ensued clash.
Al-Qaeda has stepped up its offensives on the government and the army lately especially in the southern provinces of the country, apparently taking advantage of a distracted and undermined government.
Yemen is a vital ally of US in its war against terrorism, however, cooperation in military training has been disrupted due to the unrest storming the country, leading US to step up its drone attacks on the terrorist network's hideouts.
Like many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Yemen has witnessed massive popular protests calling for putting an end to the long and autocratic rule of Yemeni 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... , leaving hundreds killed, pushing the economy to the brink of collapse and triggering a humanitarian disaster.
Saleh has signed a deal in the Saudi capital of Riyadh which saw him relinquish power to Vice President, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections due to be held on February 21.
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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle... won the endorsement of Herman Cain ...the personable but seemingly horny former Godfather's Pizza CEO who coulda been a contenda... on Saturday, the only black candidate who took part in the Republican race.
"It is time for conservatives and Republicans to refocus their attention on the ultimate mission of defeating President B.O.," Mr Cain said, introducing Gingrich at a Republican dinner in West Palm Beach, Florida. "I believe Speaker Gingrich is the bold leader we need to accomplish this mission."
Both Mr Gingrich and Mr Cain, a former pizza magnate, hail from the southern state of Georgia and they have known each other for years.
Mr Cain dropped out of the race in December, after several women accused him of improper sexual advances.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... with only two days left before a crucial Florida primary, US Republican presidential candidates square off on television talk shows Sunday, trying to secure support from key constituencies and filling the airwaves with hard-hitting campaign ads.
Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul scheduled TV appearances today while frontrunner Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... tried to kill off top rival Gingrich's campaign by unleashing a campaign ad state-wide. Mr Romney -- leading handily in the polls -- sought to sweep away the largest obstacle to him winning the party nomination, hitting Gingrich over past ethics violations and dramatically calling into question his integrity.
After a feisty debate performance on Thursday, Mr Romney is in the ascendancy in Florida with just three days to go before Tuesday's primary. According to poll averages, the former governor of Massachusetts and multimillionaire venture capitalist leads in the sprawling Sunshine state with 39 per cent against 31 per cent for Mr Gingrich, the former House of Representatives speaker.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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They have a lot in common in the philandering department. Billy Jeff Clinton ought to endorse him too.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Eight Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast in southern Baghdad's Zaafaraniya district on Sunday, a security source reported.
"An explosive charge, planted close to a petrol filling station in southern Baghdad's Zaafaraniya district, blew up wounding 8 civilian, who were driven to a nearby hospital," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Sunday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Dawn] The Afghan and Pak governments are seeking peace talks with the Taliban in Soddy Arabia separate from US-brokered talks with the bully boyz in Qatar, officials said Sunday.
The Taliban, ousted from power by a US-led invasion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, announced earlier this month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar ahead of talks with Washington.
Taliban negotiators have begun holding preliminary talks with US officials in the Gulf state on plans for peace talks aimed at ending the decade-long war in Afghanistan, a former Taliban official said Sunday.
But Afghan and Taliban officials indicated in response to a BBC report about plans for talks in Soddy Arabia that both Kabul and Islamabad were looking for their own talks with the Death Eaters.
Asked for his response to the BBC report, Afghan foreign ministry front man Janan Mosazai said: "Of course we support any steps towards the Afghan grinding of the peace processor." He refused to comment further.
But a senior Afghan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , told AFP: "We will always pursue all roads towards peace in Afghanistan, including contacts with the Taliban that are not limited to the Qatar office."He acknowledged the accuracy of the BBC report but said he did not know of any timetable for the talks in Soddy Arabia to begin.
A member of the Taliban's leadership council, the Pakistain-based Quetta Shura, also backed the report of talks in Soddy Arabia.
"The idea that the Taliban should have a point of contact in Saudi is pushed by the Pakistain and Afghan governments," he said on condition of anonymity.
"This is because they think they have been sidelined. They want some control over peace talks."Supporting this theory, Kabul announced Sunday that Pak Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar would visit Kabul on Wednesday.
Mosazai told a news conference the visit would mark a "new phase" in cooperation between the two countries, adding that Khar would hold talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Zulmai Rasoul and 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... .
"Both sides will discuss the fight against terrorism and Pakistain's essential support to the grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan.
"Pakistain plays a key role in the Afghan grinding of the peace processor and Afghanistan need a sincere effort of our neighbouring country toward peace negotiations,"Mosazai said.
Khar's visit comes after Pakistain made overtures to Afghanistan to resume talks about the Taliban which broke down following the liquidation of Kabul's chief peace envoy, Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... , in September, officials said.
Karzai accused Pakistain of responsibility for the murder and last month said Islamabad was sabotaging all attempts at negotiations with the Taliban.
The president's initial wariness over being sidelined in the Qatar talks led Washington to dispatch special envoy Marc Grossman to Kabul last week to assure him of a central role for his government in any major negotiations.
And in another effort to soothe Karzai's doubts, a delegation from the Qatar government is expected to visit Kabul to explain its role in the talks, High Peace Council secretary Aminundin Muzaffari told AFP.
"We are expecting a delegation from Qatar to come to Kabul to discuss with us the role of Afghans in peace talks and when and how peace talks in Qatar should happen and proceed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] The members of Bangladesh Border guard (BGB) raided different places here and recovered hand grenades and other materials from a place under Naikhyangchhari upazila of the district yesterday.
Naikhyangchhari BGB sources said Captain Kamrul Hassan, leading a 20-member team, raided a terror den under Dishari union of Naikhangchhari in the morning.
They recovered 11 hand grenades, 27 bullets, 50 sharp weapons, over hundred blankets, huge medicines, one television set and huge amount of Zihadi books from the spot.
The BGB members damaged the den, which was allegedly used by Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Organization (ARSO) members.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Mr Hassan Osman Abdi alias Fantastic, 30, the Chief Editor of Shabelle Radio, a popular independent broadcaster in Mogadishu, was killed Sunday evening in the Somali capital.
Two terrorists men armed with pistols attacked the journalist in front of his residence in South Mogadishu. The editor was rushed to Radio Shabelle Headquarters where he died afterwards.
How about taking him to a hospital?
Hassan was stopped by two terrorists men as he was entering his gate who then shot him several times, said Mohamed Moalim, a relative who stayed in the area.
"We don't know who they are but the shot him mercilessly in the head and shoulders", he said.
The dear departed leaves behind a widow and three children.
Hassan is the third Shabelle editor to be assassinated in Mogadishu since 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2012
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[An Nahar] Troops at the headquarters of Yemen's elite Republican Guard opened fire on Sunday at a protest by soldiers demanding the ouster of their brigade chief over corruption charges, a military source said.
Soldiers from the fourth brigade of the Republican Guard were demanding the removal of Abdul Malek al-Arar and another top officer named Abdullah al-Hamiya, the source said, adding that no casualties were reported in the shooting.
The protest follows similar moves by soldiers and police in other areas of the military demanding change since embattled 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... quit the country last week after handing power to his deputy.
The Republican Guard is led by Saleh's son, Ahmed, one of several relatives who control Yemen's main security and military bodies.
On Saturday, hundreds of air force personnel in Sanaa and Taez demanded the ouster of air force commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, a half-brother of Saleh.
After months of protests, the veteran Saleh finally signed in November a deal under which he agreed to transfer his powers to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi.
He also received blanket immunity against prosecution from parliament, as protesters on the streets insisted that he face trial.
Anti-corruption strikes have spread across several military and government departments in the impoverished country where the economy is on the brink of collapse after a year of protests.
Since Saleh took office in 1978, he has carefully chosen members of his regime, appointing relatives to head the military and security apparatus.
In addition to his son and half-brother, Saleh's nephew Yehya commands the central security services and Tareq, another nephew, controls the presidential guard.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Hearing 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... liquidation case took an uncanny twist on Saturday when the defence counsel pointed out that the call data of the Zong cellular company provided by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was not admissible as evidence because the firm launched its business in Pakistain in 2008, whereas the tragedy occurred in 2007.
Naseer Tanoli, counsel for accused Rafaqat Hussain and Husnain Gul, during a cross-examination of prosecution witness Ahmed Faisal, a manager at Zong, told anti-terrorism court judge Shahid Rafique in Adiala jail that the call data of his clients and Nasrullah, an aide to the late Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain leader Baitullah Mehsud, could not be linked with the liquidation because the cellular company did not exist in the country when the incident occurred on Dec 27, 2007.
The FIA produced three more witnesses for cross-examination. Chaudhry Mohmmad Taufique, a judicial magistrate, who recorded confessional statements of the accused, told the court that Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul and Aitzaz Shah had confessed to their crime and signed their statements with their thumb impressions.
The defence counsel did not cross-examine magistrate Taufique and the court, while giving them final opportunity for cross-examining, adjourned the hearing to Feb 4.
Posted by: Fred ||
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AMMAN - Jordanian police in the southern city of Tafileh fired tear gas on Sunday to disperse angry stone-throwing demonstrators who called on authorities to make good on their promise of jobs, the governor said.
"Scores of unemployed men blocked the main road in the city, throwing stones at government buildings as well as police," Hashem Sehiem told the state-run Petra news agency. "They broke the windows of the municipality building and burned tyres. This promoted police to fire tear gas to break up the protest."
Petra reported "traffic in Tafileh came to a standstill, preventing many people from reaching government buildings, shops and petrol stations."
"The protesters say they met earlier this month with Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh, who promised to create 120 jobs by January 20, but nothing happened," Petra said.
Sehiem said finding the jobs "takes time."
The news agency said the protesters "have been looking for jobs for years, and now they can no longer provide themselves with basic commodities."
While Jordan's official unemployment rate stands at 13 percent, unofficially the rate is closer to 30 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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SEOUL, Jan. 30 -- North Korea has been preparing for a large military parade for this spring since before the death of its former leader Kim Jong-il, a government official here said Monday.
"North Korea has been practicing a military parade, with troops and equipment on hand, at the Mirim Airbase near Pyongyang," the official said. "This began before the death of Kim Jong-il last year (in December)."
The official added the North's military may be targeting the 100th birthday of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, on April 15, or the 80th founding anniversary of the military on April 25.
Sources said the rehearsals have mobilized active and reserve troops, and also new armored vehicles and short- and mid-range missiles.
All the usual stuff you see at a commie parade. No word however on whether they'll serve refreshments...
"North Korea stages a parade on national holidays such as the founding anniversary of the military," the official added. "Considering the pace and the size of the rehearsals, the parade will likely be held in April rather than Feb. 16, Kim Jong-il's birthday."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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Strangely enough, I was in the woods this morning, where I chanced upon a bear. He was sitting on a toilet, wearing a mitre and reading L'Observatore Romano...
This is a week old but could be very important in the history of the very unhappy North Korea. Hat tip to Josh Stanton. And like Mr. Stanton, I agree with this act. If I were there and facing starvation I'd do this myself if I possibly could. No one is sticking up for the North Korean people. Not the South, not the U.S., certainly not the U.N., and certainly not the Chinese. If the North Koreans are going to live, they're going to have to fight. The sooner they figure out that they have to string up Pudgy and all his generals, the sooner they'll save their families.
Several days ago it was revealed that during the mourning period for Kim Jong Il, four public officials from North Hamgyung Province were murdered in what is an unprecedented crime for North Korea.
A source in North Hamgyung Province told Daily NK on January 19, During the mourning period, one official from the provincial NSA, one from the prosecutors office and two from the Peoples Safety Agency were murdered in Cheongjin. The source added, There was a note found lying next to the body of the executed NSA official which said Punished in the name of the people.
Oh, excellent! That's just the message to deliver! Next time sign it with the name of an ancient Korean hero.
North Korean authorities have not released the identities of the victims or any information about the case fearing public disturbances, but authorities are said to be using all resources at their disposal to find the people responsible. The Defense Security Command is helping the other three agencies with the investigation, while a report on the murders has been elevated to the Central Party in Pyongyang.
In December 2010, also in Cheongjin, the retired head of the PSA office in the Sunam district died after being attacked on the street by an unknown assailant. This however is the first time that active serving officers have been slain. The likelihood seems to be that the murders were planned by somebody with a political motive rather than a personal grudge.
Although getting revenge for seeing one's family starved to death could be both political and personal...
The source revealed that bureaucrats in North Hamgyung Province are shocked by the incident. On the outside theyre furious, saying theyre going to track down the person responsible and torture them, but at the same time they dont seem to know what to do.
And on the inside they're afraid...
The fact that privileged officials were killed right under the governments noses, and while there were special patrols in place for the mourning period, means that the lower down the hierarchy you look bureaucrats are more anxious, the source said.
The reaction from citizens who are aware of the incident is mostly positive, with some saying they deserved it, although such encouragement is tempered by concerns that this case will lead to even more stringent controls on the public. There are even rumors spreading that it may have been perpetrated by members of the military, given the bold nature of the crime and the skills required to carry it out.
Could be. Disaffected, hungry members of the military, perhaps watching their officers score more food or privileges, could do this. If we had a CIA worth anything at all we'd be pointing this out over and over.
The range of potential perpetrators is extraordinarily large, with the NSA, the PSA and the prosecutors office all having created their fair share of grudges over the last decade. These agencies have been responsible for carrying out some of the governments policies of public oppression, using violence to confiscate property while also engaging in corruption, such as accepting bribes.
For the time being North Korean authorities are proceeding under the assumption that it was an act of rebellion against the system instigated with outside help, and are concentrating efforts to find the people responsible. Some harbor suspicions that the murders may be related to continuing border controls and mobile phone signal jamming.
The investigation looks set to be a long-term one though, with the agencies conducting the investigation understood to have no solid leads. Cheongjin is currently cut off from all interaction with the outside world, with nobody able to get in or out of the city.
Meanwhile, the source confirmed a claim made by kidnapping, defector and human rights group CHNK21 president Do Hee Yoon on Radio Free Asia last Thursday that leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Eun were recently scattered in downtown Cheongjin.
People were surprised to see the leaflets scattered all at once in Sunam, Sujeongcheon and around train lines where a lot of people come and go. There was a similar event in February last year were leaflets were scattered at the front of Cheongjin Medical University, but this is the first time such an event has occurred in multiple places at once.
However, the source added Nobody knows yet whether or not the leaflets have any connection to the murders.
They don't have to. It's better if they don't; that means that more people are becoming both more angry and less afraid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2012
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The most important part is if this is a sustained effort, or one-offs. Nork is a brittle state, and one whose technique of vicious brutality is unable to quell well-prepared attacks that make the government look weak.
#3
Looks like the Nork people are reaching their f-it point. Everyone has a threshold of pain. Change happens when that threshold is exceeded.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 9:39
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Having nothing to lose and being desparate are a dangerous combination.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/30/2012 10:40
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too bad they will probably kill 1000's for the assasinations
Posted by: chris ||
01/30/2012 11:56
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I'm going with a political hit. Or more exact - they were made an example of. North Hamgyong Province has borders with China and Russia. Figure it from there.
I almost put this in WoT Operations All #Occupy stories go into Fifth Column. Whether they're WoT related or not is up to you...
OAKLAND -- Occupy Oakland protesters broke into City Hall, stole an American flag from the City Council chamber and set it on fire Saturday night... Demonstrators spent the previous day trying to break into a convention center and temporarily occupying City Hall and a YMCA.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan who two months ago essentially took the Occupy side against her own police force
spoke moments after the City Hall invasion, saying the city would ask for "stay away" orders against many of the protesters who have repeatedly been arrested in Oakland.
"This particular faction of Occupy ... they're very violent and I'm going to be asking for a lot more mutual aid," Quan said. that means having the police in other municipalities help Oakland police
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
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Some Perts, Bloggers are arguing that, vee the "Occupy" MOvements, the US is roughly in the 1850's = pre-CIVIL WAR PERIOD???
[GRANNY CLAMPETT IS ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CATEGORICALLY UNDENIABLY, ....@ETC. FOR THE USA = "UNDEFEATED SOUTHERNERS OF AMERICA" here].
[Magharebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) designated Algerian terrorist Nabil Makhloufi, alias Nabil Abu Alqama, as the new head of the Sahara emirate.
The "appointment" of Abu Alqama, who replaced Yahia Djouadi, "took place during the latter half of November 2011", ANI reported last month.
"He was also assigned the task of leading all the organization's battalions and brigades in the Sahara, or what is known as the ninth region of the organization, along with keeping the leaders of those battalions and brigades in their posts," the Mauritanian newspaper added.
The move came on the heels of a fierce rivalry and internecine disputes within the terrorist group.
Mohamed Ghadir (aka Abdelhamid Abou Zeid), the "Tariq ibn Ziyad" katibat boss, and Khaled Abou El Abass (aka Mokhtar Belmokhtar, or "Laaouar"), who runs the El Moulethemine battalion, also vied for control of AQIM's Sahara emirate.
The leadership change has far-reaching implications for countries in the region. Those who craft security policies must take it into consideration, according to analyst Bashir Ould Babaneh.
The move "is related to trying to overcome the conflicts of Sahara emirs and the leaders of their battalions and brigades, as well as being an attempt to inject new blood into the emirate, which has become the most important emirate of the organization and the most vital and active", commented Mohamed Mahmoud Aboulmaaly, who specialises in terrorist groups in the Sahel.
The change came in response to "increasing differences between former emir Yahia Djouadi and some emirs of the other brigades and battalions", he added.
"Yahia Djouadi did not succeed, according to the organization, in activating and developing Sahara Emirate strategies," Aboulmaaly said, "resulting in a slowdown in the latter's activity in 2007, 2008 and 2009."
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01/30/2012
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(KUNA) -- At least three Egyptians were maimed Sunday in fresh festivities near the official Radio and Television Union headquarters, known as Maspero, in downtown Cairo, the Ministry of Health announced.
"The injured have been rushed to two nearby hospitals where they received necessary treatment," Head of the Central Department for Intensive Care and Emergency at the Ministry of Health Khaled Al-Khateeb told news hounds.
"They had some cuts and bruises and their condition is stable now," he said.
Clashes erupted Sunday afternoon between some protestors and alleged residents Maspero area where protesters started a sit-in since Wednesday to demand military rulers to step down.
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(KUNA) -- Algeria has voiced reservation reserved on article seven of the recent Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... Council's resolution on Syrian crisis which paves the way for taking the Syrian file to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Amar Blani said Sunday.
"Since the start of the crisis, Algeria made it clear that it have to be tackled within the vaporous Arab League and Arab intiative," Blani told KUNA in an exclusive statement.
The Algerian official reiterated his country's rejection to any attempt to internationalize the crisis or call for non-Arab intervention in Syria.
"For months, Algeria has clearly expressed its stance considering foreign intervention as a redline that should not be breached," he said.
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#1
There but for the grace of God go thee.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/30/2012 11:06
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[Yemen Post] The newly formed military commission met Sunday the ambassadors of the five permanent UN Security Council members and directed to free all political prisoners jugged by security services during the anti-regime protests.
During t he meeting, the commission headed by Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi vowed to follow up the implementation of its directions.
It further affirmed its determination to remove all armed manifestations and take tight actions against any insecurity, banditry or terrorist acts across the state.
The Emirati newspaper, Alkhaleej, quoted a military commission sources as saying that the commission still faces challenges and difficulties in Sana'a and Taiz.
It said all members of the commission agreed to delay the reconstruction of the Yemeni military to post-polls.
Separately, Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindiwa has urged to rally support for the early presidential elections to be held on February, 2011.
In a meeting with ambassadors of those countries concerned on following up the implementation of the GCC power transfer deal, Basindiwa discussed preparations carried out by the government to successfully hold the elections.
For its part, the alliance of the Yemeni opposition parties (JMP) called its supporters and followers to vote for Hadi, appreciating, in the meantime, efforts exerted by Hadi to implement the GCC-brokered deal.
Yemen Interior Minister Abdul-Kaher Qahtan has affirmed that the Interior ministry has special plans to protect and secure the presidential elections.
"We are preparing procedures and will do best to successfully hold the early presidential elections due to be held on February 21" he added.
Qahtan further said the ministry would provide a safe environment to hold fair and free elections, pointing out that it would responsibly encounter any attempts to disturb the elections.
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KINGSTON, Ont. The Afghan parents and brother of three teenage girls and the woman they loved like a mother have been convicted of first-degree murder.
It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable and more honourless crime, Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said Sunday after the jury foreman had read aloud the verdicts.
Looking directly at Mohammad Shafia, 58, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42 and their oldest son Hamed as they stood before him in the prisoners box for the last time, the judge concluded with a stinging denunciation.
The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameless murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your twisted notion of honour, a notion of honour that is founded upon the domination and control of women, a sick notion of honour that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.
NEW YORK: The embattled president of Yemen arrived Saturday in the United States for medical treatment for burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June.
Those were the 'minor injuries', recall...
President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at an unspecified location in the United States, according to the countrys foreign press office. His journey had taken him from Oman, through London.
The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the US for a short-term private medical visit. His staff has said he is in the United States to be treated for injuries suffered during the assassination attempt. He was burned over much of his body and had shards of wood embedded into his chest by the explosion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed.
After months of unrest, Saleh agreed in November to end his 33-year-rule of the Arabian state. His trip to the US comes as Yemen, a key counterterrorism partner, prepares for an election on Feb. 21 to select his successor.
Human Rights Watch, which says it has documented the deaths of hundreds of anti-government protesters in confrontations with Salehs security forces, was outraged by the Yemeni presidents travel to the US for medical treatment.
Its appalling that President Saleh arrives here for first-rate medical treatment while hundreds of Yemeni victims, assaulted by his security forces have neither proper medical care nor justice for the crimes theyve suffered, Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed statement. The Obama administration should insist those responsible for atrocities in Yemen be brought to the dock.
Bitch, bitch, bitch. We got him out of Yemen, didn't we? How successful were you guys at that one? The Saoodis couldn't do it. The rebels couldn't do it. We did it.
The HRW people would complain if they were hanged with a new rope...
It is unclear how long Saleh intends to remain in the US In a speech before he left Yemen for Oman a week ago, he promised to return home before the election, but the US and its allies have pressured Saleh to leave Yemen for good.
American officials dont wish him to settle in the US, however, over concerns that it would be seen as harboring an autocratic leader accused by many of his countrymen of using violence to remain in power. Opponents have accused him of trying to interfere in Yemens new unity government, even after he supposedly relinquished authority two months ago. He spent three months previously in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, only to return to Yemen, prompting more protests.
See? Saoodis couldn't rein him in. Yet now he's in New York, and the odds are really, really good he won't go back to Yemen.
Salehs travel plans in the United States have not been disclosed for security reasons. It wasnt clear where he intended to stay while in the country, or where he would be receiving medical care.
He had been traveling on a chartered Emirates plane with a private doctor, several armed guards and relatives, according to an official in the Yemeni presidents office.
The Obama administration agreed last week to allow Saleh to come to the US temporarily for the medical treatment, a move aimed at easing the political transition in Yemen. Saleh initially requested a US visa in December, putting the Obama administration in the awkward position of either having to bar a friendly president from US soil or risking appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands.
Then again, if we had a president, a secretary of state, and a CIA who were all smart and coordinated, you could say we were just laying the groundwork...
The Yemeni embassy in Washington has said Saleh planned to return home in February to attend a swearing-in ceremony for the countrys newly elected president.
Don't count it. He's gonna have 'complications', I fear...
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The HRW people would complain if they were hanged with a new rope
DAMASCUS - Fierce clashes approached the capital on Sunday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assads opponents sought to crank up the pressure for UN action after the Arab League withdrew its observers.
Regime forces fired heavy artillery and mortar rounds against the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Saaba, Irbin and Hamuriyeh and were locked in close battle with rebel fighters emboldened by a fresh wave of desertions, activists said.
The more the regime uses the army, the more soldiers defect, Ahmed al-Khatib, a local rebel council member on the Damascus outskirts, told AFP.
A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, which boasts 40,000 men and whose leadership is in Turkey, said that the fighting came a day after a large wave of defections, with 50 officers and soldiers turning their back on Assad.
In a steady progression of fighting towards the capital, spokesman Maher Nueimi said deserters were clashing with army regulars only eight kilometres (five miles) from Damascus. The regime, in turn, has launched an unprecedented offensive in the past 24 hours, using heavy artillery against villages in Damascus and Hama province of central Syria, Nueimi said.
Other rebel spokesmen reported heavy fighting in Rankus, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Damascus, and of heightened tension in Hama, further to the north. Rankus was besieged for the past five days and is being randomly shelled since dawn by tanks and artillery rounds, rebel Abu Ali al-Rankusi told AFP by telephone.
In Hama, pro-regime snipers were deployed on the rooftops, according to activists, with security forces leaving bodies of dead people with their hands tied behind their backs on the streets across several neighbourhoods.
Earlier on Sunday activists and state media reported the deaths of 16 soldiers in two separate attacks as well as of five civilians and a deserter.
The latest toll adds to an AFP tally of at least 232 people among them 147 civilians killed since Tuesday, compiled from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state media.
The Observatory reported 10 members of the military killed when their convoy was attacked in Jebel al-Zuwiya in the northwest, and the official SANA news agency said an armed terrorist group killed six others near Damascus.
The watchdog also reported four civilians and a deserter killed as soldiers and mutineers clashed in the Ghuta area near the capital. It said another civilian was killed in Homs, central Syria.
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[Yemen Post] Three kabooms rocked on Saturday night the headquarters of the defected First Armored Davison in Sana'a commanded by Ali Mohsin Saleh, military sources affirmed.
While some sources said that three bombs went kaboom! inside the camp, others said that mortars were shot from another military positions. "No casualties were fallen" the sources said.
They affirmed that the mortars were shelled from the southwestern mountains of Sana'a in which several brigades of the Republican Guard commanded by the elderly son 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... position.
These events came at the same time that thousands of Yemeni Air Force personnel rally in the capital to demand the removal of the commander of Air Forces and the half-Brother of Saleh.
Moreover, demonstrations erupted on Saturday inside a camp of the Republican Guard located in south Sana'a.
Yemeni analysts said that the bombardments of the First Armored Division was as a response of Saleh's son, Ahmed, and his half-brother, Mohammad, to those protests rocking their camps.
They affirmed that these are attempts to raise military tensions with the aim of containing these massive protests.
Eyewitnesses said that they heard shootings inside the camp belonging to the Republican Guard south Sana'a, indicating that soldiers of the Fourth Brigade staged a sit-in demanding to have their salaries and sack the commander of the brigade.
They made reference that the soldiers blocked a main street linking between Sana'a and Aden, demanding to dismiss the commander of their brigade.
Military sources had revealed the commander of the Republic Guard Ahmed Ali Saleh had cautioned officers and soldiers against arranging any demonstrations, threatening to purge anyone trying to protest.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Not WoT related, but I am looking into for my kids and thought that others might be interested.
British lingerie label Agent Provocateur has seen annual sales jump by more than 12 per cent in a year which also saw First Lady Michelle Obama joining their list of elite customers.
[TOLOnews] - An Al-Qaeda 
[TOLOnews] - The Afghan Ministry of Interior said on Monday that four 
[An Nahar] Fierce 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
The US Embassy in Islamabad has issued a clarification regarding US Defense Secretary 
TWO notices coming in rapid succession appear to be the first serious attempt to put an end to the extra-judicial prerogatives Pakistain's secret agencies have enjoyed for decades to run a clandestine empire the prime minister called "a state within a state". The judiciary's jurisdiction has now rightfully expanded to include institutions and elements till now considered beyond the reach of law. This message comes loud and clear from the Supreme Court's decision to issue notices to the ISI and the Military Intelligence in this regard. On Friday, the apex court directed the ISI and the Military Intelligence to submit reports to the SC on a petition that sought action on the law and order situation in the country's largest province. The petitioner, a former president of the 
[Dawn] A policeman and an attacker were killed in exchange of fire in 
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqiya MP Khalid al-Alwani announced today that his bloc stopped boycotting the parliamentary session that lasted 43 days. The return to the cabinet meetings was not resolved yet, as he continued.
KARACHI: A doctor and trustee of an Imambargah was 
Four persons died in Laxmipur and Chandpur towns yesterday when police fired on demonstrating BNP activists and supporters.
cycle of violence
TEHRAN: Oil prices could rise as high as $150 a barrel because of the European Union ban on imports of Iranian crude, the countrys deputy oil minister said on Sunday.
KABUL - Afghanistan and Pakistan plan to open a second front in negotiations with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia as US-brokered talks get under way in Qatar, officials said Sunday.
In a rare victory for Pak liberals, a private TV station decided to fire a popular morning show host after she sparked outrage by running around a public park trying to expose young, unmarried couples hanging out, a taboo in this conservative 
[Yemen Post] The army announced that 4 al-Qaeda 
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Eight Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast in southern Baghdad's Zaafaraniya district on Sunday, a security source reported.
[Dawn] Hearing in the 
AMMAN - Jordanian police in the southern city of Tafileh fired tear gas on Sunday to disperse angry stone-throwing demonstrators who called on authorities to make good on their promise of jobs, the governor said.
[Magharebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) designated Algerian terrorist Nabil Makhloufi, alias Nabil Abu Alqama, as the new head of the Sahara emirate.
DAMASCUS - Fierce clashes approached the capital on Sunday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assads opponents sought to crank up the pressure for UN action after the Arab League withdrew its observers.
[Yemen Post] Three 
