In the past two hours, Twitter has exploded with unsubstantiated rumors that the new North Korean dictator died in Beijing today and that a coup is underway in North Korea. All rumor of course, and one that appears to have been started on China's twitter-like platform Weibo. As the story goes, a couple assassins barged into Kim's room in Beijing and shot him, before being shot and killed themselves by bodyguards.
Twitter user ChristianJMay says the rumor is "based on news that a host of blacked out cars have descended upon embassy in Beijing, where he was visiting."
User Rocco_Castoro has a different source of information, tweeting "This just in: Kim Jong-un's cause of death was being force-fed hotdogs and having a basketball bounced off his head repeatedly for 20 hours."
Lots of news about Project Gunwalker today. First deadline, today, is here
"During your testimony before the Committee last week, you pledged to work with Congress to find a way to make the wiretap applications from the Fast and Furious investigation available for congressional review," Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Patrick Meehan, and Ranking Member Charles Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday.
"The contents of the wiretap applications are central in determining the level of involvement of senior Department officials during the pendency of Operation Fast and Furious," their letter continues.
Citing requirements to determine "legal sufficiency to make an application," they advise Holder "The federal wiretap statute describes what this legal sufficiency entails, requiring that the application include "a full and complete statement of facts and circumstances justifying the application."
They also remind Holder his testimony "that wiretap applications 'don't always go into all of the techniques that are used in a particular investigation'" falls far short of that standard.
"[A] wiretap application must include precisely this type of information in order to meet the legal sufficiency standard required by the Criminal Division in its review," they maintain. "Therefore, law enforcement officials would have to include these procedures, and possibly others, in the wiretap applications to meet the statutory requirement and obtain the Criminal Division's approval."
#1
In other news, Chinese social media was seen dragging the screaming forty-eight hour rule into a back alley with a long-ass knife and blood in his eyes.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/10/2012 14:54
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The Fat Lady is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
#8
China silent over the ninjas in Beijing????? Love this one, too: BREAKING: Kim Jong-Un death confirmed, now registered to vote in Chicago, wrote a Washington Times correspondent. It is a campaign year and nothing surprises me anymore.
#9
Might Our Ninja Pharaoh have "shape-shifted" and "time-traveled" to "get the Un-job done"? Prolly so, if past-performance is any bench-mark. He be one stealthy AF-1 "airstairs" prancer...Anything possible with Him. Un, dead? Odds be wif Pharaoh.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The push by Afghanistan's president to nationalize legions of private security Taliban
guards before the end of March is encouraging corruption and jeopardizing multibillion-dollar aid projects but not really,
according to companies trying to make the switch.
President Hamid Karzai has railed for years against the lost revenue
of the large number of guns-for-hire in Afghanistan, saying private security companies skirt the law law? What law?
and risk becoming militias. He ordered them abolished in 2009 and eventually set March 20 of this year as the deadline for everyone except..... NATO and diplomatic missions to switch to government-provided security Tundra Taliban Guard Co. on the FOB's is still A-OK for US soldiers and Marines
On January 31, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee requested that the Department contact the House Judiciary Committee by February 10 to arrange for the interviews of Mr. Wilkinson and Assistant Attorney General Breuer. (Key figures in Fast and Furious)
Full letter at link -- meet Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Breuer, if you haven't already. PDF file
Good summation of memo released from Issa and Grassley
Mexican cartel suspects targeted in the troubled gun-trafficking probe known as Operation Fast and Furious were actually working as FBI informants at the time, according to a congressional memo that describes the case's mission as a "failure."
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged that guns were allowed into the hands of Mexican criminals for more than a year in the hope of catching "big fish."
The memorandum from staffers with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating a drug-trafficking organization and had identified cartel associates a year before the ATF even learned who they were. At some point before the ATF's Fast and Furious investigation progressed -- congressional investigators don't know when -- the cartel members became FBI informants.
"These were the 'big fish,' " says the memo, written on behalf of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "DEA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had jointly opened a separate investigation targeting these two cartel associates. ... Yet, ATF spent the next year engaging in the reckless tactics of Fast and Furious in attempting to identify them."
According to Issa and Grassley, the cartel suspects, whose names were not released, were regarded by FBI as "national-security assets." One pleaded guilty to a minor offense. The other was not charged. "Both became FBI informants and are now considered unindictable," the memo says. "This means that the entire goal of Fast and Furious -- to target these two individuals and bring them to justice -- was a failure."
#1
Sounds like Issa found (and is applying) the whitewash that saves holder and Obama and allows them to mask the real purpose - to implement more gun control in the US based on illegal sales into Mexico.
U.S. Africa Command has been quietly battling terrorism on the African continent, relying heavily on special forces.
But amid a shrinking Pentagon budget and increased use of special forces in Afghanistan under a new military strategy, Africom may have fewer resources to counter a growing terrorism threat.
Africom's mission is to bolster the capability of host African governments and militaries to fight domestic threats, including terrorism, without the large costs of with waging war in a foreign territory.
The elite military forces under Special Operations Command-Africa, based in Stuttgart, Germany, achieve that cost-effectiveness.
The exact number of special forces in the region is classified. But this week, Navy Adm. William McRaven, commander of Special Operations Command, said there are about 3,000 folks deployed outside of Afghanistan, including the African continent and Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula.
#1
This includes a lot of stuff that doesn't need to involve special forces. One example: the Navy has been working for a long time with cooperative African governments on maritime / riverine issues with a focus on anti-terrorism. It's been a quiet and (from what I read) successful mission. Plus it's comparatively cheap.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012 19:05
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A long-range Israeli drone capable of surveillance and bombing missions over Iran crashed Sunday near an Israeli air base during a test flight.
The Heron TP unmanned aircraft can stay aloft for 40 hours and has a range of 4,600 miles, the Israeli air force said. The distance between Iran and Israel is about 1,000 miles.
Gen. Ido Nehushtan, commander of the Israeli air force, said new technology on the drone was being tested when the aircraft crashed into an orchard near the Tel Nof air base outside Rehovot.
A preliminary investigation indicated that human error and a technical malfunction contributed to the accident, the air force said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
According to military sources, a wing that fell off the drone had been fitted with a highly advanced navigational device that might have interfered with the aircrafts other flight systems.
The Israeli militarys most advanced drone has a wingspan of 85 feet, nearly that of a Boeing 737, and a payload capacity of 2,200 pounds. It was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.
Known as the Eitan in Israel, the drone has platforms for surveillance equipment and for firing rockets, and can be used in a variety of mission such as aerial refueling, jamming communications and relaying ground control in Israel to manned aircraft over a distant target.
Israeli officials reportedly have been considering a military strike on Iran to prevent the Islamic republic from making an atomic weapon, and the Eitan, which soars as high as 40,000 feet, would likely play a key role in an attack.
According to press accounts, the drone was used in a 2009 airstrike in Sudan against a Gaza-bound convoy carrying Iranian arms destined for the Hamas militant group.
The drone also is used reconnaissance missions over Lebanon and along the Egyptian border and to protect against sabotage of Israels offshore natural gas installations.
Gen. Nehushtan said 25 percent of the air forces mission are carried out by drones.
A squadron of Eitans was inaugurated in December 2010 and is scheduled to become operational in coming weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Keeley Hawes (English) aka Tamara in "The Avengers (1998)" aka Samantha Taggert in "Chaos and Cadavers (2003)" aka Elizabeth in "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)" aka Jane in "Death at a Funeral (2007)" aka Lois Farquar in "The Last September (1999)" (age 36)
NASA's budget for the next fiscal year is likely to include deep cuts to planetary science programs, forcing the space agency to withdraw altogether from an international effort to send two new missions to Mars, experts say.
President Barack Obama is slated to submit his administration's federal budget request for fiscal year 2013 on Monday (Feb. 13), and NASA will hold a series of briefings to discuss its share on the same day. While exactly how much money is allocated to NASA is unknown, insiders expect a significant reduction in the portion slotted for robotic exploration of Mars and other solar system bodies.
The cuts probably will compel NASA to bow out of the European Space Agency-led ExoMars missions, which aim to launch an orbiter and a drill-toting rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively, says one space policy expert.
"NASA has, I think, already told ESA it's not going to be able to provide a launch vehicle in 2016," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University. "So that is going to cause a big international uproar on one dimension. And the planetary community in the U.S. is going to be very unhappy about the fact that there's no money for major new planetary missions." Question....with the loss of the Space shuttle, what does NASA do? I mean seriously. If they aren't exploring planets, where is the money going? Besides muslim outreach programs. If NASA isn't leading the charge to the great unknown, then why the fuck are we spending billions on it?
#1
Excuse me but wouldn't it be better to fund NASA than squander the money on subsidizing, bailing out and stimulating a bunch of fat cats? I mean, this way you encourage bright young people to go into engineering and various scientific fields. You never know what benefits we might reap from it but isn't it better to create employment opportunities for people who can actually get some work done instead of encourage welfare moms to sit on their butts?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2012 10:42
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#2
Question....with the loss of the Space shuttle, what does NASA do?
Without Buck Rogers, no bucks?
Stay local. Weather satellites and GPS systems were fundamentally government programs, but communication satellites while initially also part of that plan have been largely overtaken by commercial utilization. Imagery, also once the initial purview of government, has also gone private. It's functional.
Exploration for exploration sake is not sustainable. There has to be a purpose and one that is not simply thought up for justify its own existence. That's why we haven't been back even to the moon. No compelling reason. The species has too short a memory and attention span to be motivated to get off the rock. Even commercial efforts at space flight is being largely sold on the 'thrill' and 'unique' aspect rather than some tangible end.
#4
I would love to see us land on Mars before I die but the best way to do that is a series of X-prizes, not some giant NASA mission plan that would take over a decade and cost money we are unwilling to spend at this point.
#6
For me, and what a lot of people in space feel about NASA is that it should be the bleeding edge in exploration. It takes the first step since that is usually the most dangerous and expensive. After NASA had charted a path, i.e. low earth orbit, satellites, remote droids, etc., the commercial companies would take full advantage of the inventions and knowledge gained and follow with the commercial aspect.
With NASA not leading the charge anymore, what really is its point? For me, it seems the US has lost interest in the high ground (space) and is in full retreat from the universe.
#10
Maybe people thought Queen Isabella was nuts when she funded Christopher Columbus. A shorter route to China? That never happened, did it? But look what did happen. When you head on out there you just never know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2012 18:47
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#11
Maybe we could take one of those "lead from behind" roles. Will NASA have enough to be able to buy some used Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfits?
The man who opened fire on U.S. airmen at Frankfurt Airport last March in what prosecutors called a "personal jihad," was convicted of murder and was handed a life sentence. Arid Uka was found guilty on two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. He briefly smiled when the sentence was given.
Judges deciding the case found he bore "severe guilt" and should not be eligible for parole for more than 15 years. That's the harshest sentence allowed in Germany. How long Uka must serve before he is eligibility will be determined by a separate court after Uka has served about 14 years. He would likely serve 18-20 years.
Formerly an airport postal worker, the Kosovo Albanian reared in Frankfurt confessed during his initial court appearance in late August. He said he'd opened fire because he'd been misled by Islamist propaganda on the Internet. He said he was trying to stop American troops from raping Afghan girls after seeing a clip of the movie, "Redacted." That movie depicts the rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her and her family by U.S. troops.
Uka shot Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, in the head as he stood outside a bus bound for Ramstein Air Base. Alden was a member of a unit of military police en route to a deployment in Afghanistan.
Uka then boarded the bus and shot the driver, Airman 1st Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21, in the temple. Both Alden and Cuddeback died instantly. Once aboard, Uka continued to fire.
Staff Sgt. Kristoffer Schneider, 25, was severely injured, with a bullet to the head that blinded him in one eye and has left him with numerous neurological problems. Senior Airman Edgar Veguilla also was injured, but told the court he'd made a complete recovery.
Staff Sgt. Trevor Brewer, 23, testified that Uka had shot twice point-blank at him, with "hate" in his eyes. The gun jammed, and Uka fled into the airport, with Brewer in pursuit. Uka was arrested by airport police.
h/t IMAO
The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.
The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families."
#2
when they can vote themselves money from somebody else's pocket, it's no longer a Representative Democracy - it's parasitical socialism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2012 10:24
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#3
Do not believe everything you read. These numbers are deceiving and obviously politically biased. As used here, the word "dependency" is racially charged and could contribute to potential hate speech.
As additional FEMA Region food bank volunteers step forward, the stigma of food stamps will become history. Sugar cured hams and potato chips are still very popular by the way. In order to avoid long queues and inclement weather, a new scheme utilizing the USPS, goat carts, and reusable TV trays (no tray left behind) is currently in beta testing.
h/t Instapundit
Just as he promised he would do if the United States rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, Prime Minister Stephen Harper headed to Beijing earlier this week on a four-day trade mission in which he is expected to seek a deal to sell millions of barrels of Canadian oil to China. Since China is aggressively pursuing energy deals around the world to support its economic expansion, expect Harper to come home with an official signature on the dotted line.
#1
The Donks are exhibiting political stupidity or suicidal tendencies. First, trying to shove birth control/sterilization/abortion on the Catholics. Obama said he would not force this issue on Catholics and issued an Executive Order stating such. He did this to get enough donk votes to pass Obamacare. Now he reverses himself. That sounds a lot like is a lie in just about anyone's book. Second, shutting down the pipeline and preventing oil independence.
The real impact would seem to be the jobs, the increased risk to the environment over such a long haul and Chinese environmental standards as well as the conyism involved in the decision.
#5
Its not only the oil. Signatures were inked on a plephora of economic matters ---all designed to increase trade. Some granted are agreements to agree" such as a Canada- China free trade agreement. But that is big! Perhaps the Chinese will actually honor such an agreement unlike the US position of NAFTA -- meaning the US will follow it unless there is any reason to go protectionist, like say a self created "derivitive" ponzie scheme that puts the world economy on its head.
Canada is the USA's largest trade parter in the world, including the largest importer of USA goods and services. That said, no respect ever seems to be given -including the Neysay on the the pipeline deal that would have created far more jobs in the USA than in Canada. So the fungible product will be sold to consumers willing to buy it. - The perfect free market answer.
One of the most crucial problems facing the United States is whether it will be able to maintain its strategic interests in the Middle East. It is expected that US defense expenditures will drastically decrease in the coming six years official estimates are as high as eight percent, roughly $477 billion, a significant sum when it comes to defense. It is also projected that the US will not have the financial means at its disposal to bolster its allies, marginalizing the potential for Marshall-Plan type subsidies (which totaled $13 billion at the time).
...At the recent Herzliya Conference former CIA director James Woolsey advocated decreased dependency on oil. That can be achieved by the use of alternative fuels, including natural gas. For example, today in Brazil, cars are fueled by ethanol fuel produced from sugarcane. The view that the US should decrease its reliance on foreign oil is not a new one but given the economic downturn it is of even more importance.
Americas policies in the Middle East in the last half century have often been skewed by the fact that it is beholden to the oil producing regimes. Through incremental decreases in foreign aid and defense spending, coupled with investment in alternative energy technology the US can reach a point where it need no longer rely on some of these local regimes and where it can pursue its true self interest and policies.
The money saved on US defense expenditures in the region could be put toward placing its military in other regions. For instances, the US plans to expand its operations in Asia. This will be very difficult to achieve given the defense cuts and its many commitments around the world.
It would also deliver a blow to the oil producing regimes that supply the US, and which are also among the greatest violators of human rights and sponsors of terrorism. Without money coming from oil producing countries, Islamist terrorists will suffer a major setback.
#1
I suspect if America really does get off of our oil dependence we'll develop a pseudo-isolationist drive-by foreign policy. That is lots of talk but generally leaving the world to rot and kill itself. Yeah we'll probably keep the sea lanes open and send carriers to help after natural disasters, but otherwise you are on your own.
#4
I suspect if America really does get off of our oil dependence we'll develop a pseudo-isolationist drive-by foreign policy.
The problem prior to WWII wasn't that we seldom got involved in other people's wars - it was that we had the weakest military of the major Western powers - the result of decades of 1% of GDP military spending even as our future adversaries bulked up beyond anything required for territorial defense. That weakness proved to be an irresistible temptation to Imperial Japan. As long as we match or come close to matching the expenditures of our peer competitors, we'll make out OK.
#5
In this day and time in which the village idiot terrorist and his minions do not stay in their own village, an isolationist foreign policy would probably drive an INCREASE in defense spending to keep the wolves off the door step.
To pursue isolationism now, makes a lot of sense except our money grubbers have outsourced all of our jobs to Botswana and Viet Nam. An isolationist policy means those jobs have to come home....hey that's a good thing.
Anyway, to be truly isolationist and telling the rest of the world to pound sand means having a military that scares the pant wetting wits out of even most illogical and crazed nut with a stick of C-4.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/10/2012 9:44
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#6
Oh and I forgot to say, that our response to any threat would have to be Soviet era, Vlad Putin ruthless. Fear not respect is the greatest deterent and we need to instill FEAR in the hearts of those that hate or oppose us.
%$#!!! em. Let's drill for oil and boil oil shale here and build our industrial base. Once we quit buying their freaking oil, the price will drop and those terrorist funding perverts in KSA will not have the spare change to fund their crazy crap Wahabism brand of Moslem extremism.
IF anything, I would fund every anti Saudi group out there and give them a taste of their own meds.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/10/2012 9:49
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#7
Our international strategies are not limited to the World's Policeman and Isolationism. There are positions between them that would be far more cost effective.
And we don't buy a lot of oil from the ME. The Euros and Japan do. And India and China are starting to crowd them. We simply act as hegemon keeping the sea lanes open with oil priced in dollars. We aren't making a profit on the deal on a fully costed basis. And we sure aren't expanding democracy or inherent stability.
#10
They always mention Brazil's sugarcane ethanol but always fail to mention that Brazil has been very zealous in increasing oil and natural gas drilling both offshore and onshore.
Hell, the editorialists are always very zealous about ignoring the fact that natural gas is drilled for.
#11
And we don't buy a lot of oil from the ME. The Euros and Japan do. That doesn't matter one bit. The US does not have a foreign source of oil imports locked in. The US, the Euros and Japan buy their oil imports from the world market.
Go nukes!
#12
It would be cheaper to overthrow Al Saud with someone more moderate!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/10/2012 13:30
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#12 - Are you kidding? The Saudis are probably the most moderate choice possible. Other choices are someone like Saddam Hussein, or perhaps like Khomeini. Regrettably, a Thomas Jefferson is not one of the available choices.
#14
Regardless of the history and wisdom of an engaged foreign policy I'm seeing a lot of Americans worn and weary and tired of being the worlds policemen. Some so weary and tired they'd consider voting crazy Ron Paul
King of Jordan family(Hashemites) seem moderate in comparison.
How many terrorist are wahabbi?
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/10/2012 18:06
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#17
Paul, the King of Jordan won't be around much longer. Jordan is about to have a revolutionrebellionoverthrowIslamist nightmare 'Arab Spring'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012 19:10
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#18
If I were the President, here is my energy policy:
1) drill baby drill. The Gulf and both coasts are open for business. Ditto Alaska and the Beaufort Sea.
2) exploit shale NG and oil. Drill everywhere it's safe to drill.
3) you spill, you pay and pay big. Your political connections don't save you. Oil companies put up bonds to cover the costs. The Coast Guard runs all ocean cleanups (the CG has an Admiral that I as President can order about).
4) new, safe nuclear technology, including passive-fail plants and small, contained 'nuclear batteries'. Get moving.
5) cancel all government subsidies for all fuels. That includes the various gimmies to Big Oil. If you can't sell an energy source without a federal subsidy, then the energy source isn't worth having.
6) cancel all subsidies for electric cars. Ditto.
7) make deals with Canada and Mexico. They're our neighbors and friends.
8) harden the electrical grid, the pipelines, etc.
9) put in electrical-usage meters for homes, businesses, malls, etc that measure time of day of usage, and charge accordingly.
10) X-prizes for a) space elevator b) microwave transmission of solar energy to receiving stations in the US
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012 19:26
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#19
Why, Dr. White, that sounds like as President you'd want America to succeed.
Silly you.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/10/2012 19:37
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#20
AH,
King of Jordan family(Hashemites) seem moderate in comparison.
How many terrorist are wahabbi?
The neocon delusion is that the populace in dictatorships are automatons whose world views and foundational beliefs are controlled by the whims of whatever dictatorship is in power. Maybe that's true in North Korea, but it's definitely not true in Islamic societies. Anyone non-Islamic who's ever conquered an Islamic majority society has had to convert to Islam (the Mongols) or evict the Islamic inhabitants (the Spanish during the Reconquista). The problem in Muslim societies is that the populace are by and large bloodthirsty troglodytes who are hemmed in only by the desire of their rulers to lead quiet lives that don't involve constant warfare with rival Islamic rulers and infidels. The Jordanian monarchy has been the target of repeated coup attempts precisely because of its moderation, which is not shared by the people it rules. In Iran, the Shah's excessive moderation - seen domestically as toadying up to the West, not to mention blasphemous and hypocritical in the Muslim sense - led to his removal from power.
Seventeen people were killed in explosions which targeted Syrian military and security buildings in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, Syria's Addounia Television channel reported.
It said the death toll, which included civilians and members of the security forces, was based on preliminary information. It gave no further details.
#1
This looks like a rerun of the Ikhwan's campaign of bombings and assassinations in the late '70's and early '80's that culminated in Assad pere's usage of tank and artillery units to flatten the Ikhwan's home base in Hama. The Gulf Arabs are making a lot of noise about Sunnis being killed, but I doubt they really want the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Syria, because the Ikhwan's goal is to abolish the Gulf monarchies, making them mere provinces in an ummah-wide caliphate, and using their oil revenues to make war on the infidel instead of buying luxe properties in London and hanging out with pricey European call girls.
Note that the Muslim Brotherhood gave birth to al Qaeda - Zawahiri was part of the Ikhwan before he migrated over to al Qaeda. Around the turn of the 20th century, the Saud family had to crush the Ikhwan before the dynasty was able to acquire a firm hold on power, because Brotherhood wanted to go to war with the entire world, whereas the Sauds were happy with owning a chunk of the Arabian peninsula. Now that the Brotherhood is about to acquire Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, history (i.e. big - and potentially catastrophic - events that nobody expected) is about to return to the region in a big way.
#2
the wikipedia website on the 2011-2012 syrian uprising has a total fatal causualty estimate from anti Assad sources. As of yesterday, the count was above 8000, not including Assad's military
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/10/2012 9:44
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A GERMAN couple and their child drowned in a tourist submarine accident overnight off Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, security officials told AFP.
The victims were a German man, his wife and child, they said. Thirteen other tourists of different nationalities were rescued.
Egyptian state television said a preliminary tourism police investigation found that the submarine had collided with a coral reef, shattering a glass partition and filling the vessel with water. "I told you not to open the window!"
You, fish farmer in hut, come out-hands up! You know emirate domain, all land belong central government. You no likee, take smelly business elsewhere. Bang! bang! Kawooosh! Rata-tat-tat, bang!
#5
Lets see - wasteless swamp land turned profitable, and then the gov sents in a 100 cops to evict the guy. I smell something worse than fish here. Take a look at where Vietnam stands on the World Corruption index - I expect the answer is there. I was just in Vietnam for a month. Never saw a policeman - certainly none monitering the millions of moterbikes anywhere. Yet a SWAT team of a 100 to do an eviction off a farm. Naaaaa - sumpin's going on.
A woman whom Turkish police suspect of having been a suicide bomber died in Istanbul late on Thursday after explosives that she was carrying were set off, according to media reports on Friday. The woman was ripped to shreds by the explosion that occurred in the Sancaktepe neighborhood of the city, said NTV television. There were no immediate reports of others being hurt in the explosion.
The police suspect that the woman was acting on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Judge Baltasar Garzon, renowned for indicting late Chilean dictator Pinochet, may be facing the end of his career on the bench after Thursdays ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court barring him from the judiciary for 11 years.
Garzon violated the constitutional rights of defendants in a corruption case when he ordered their communications monitored during pre-trial detention, the Spanish Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling. By recording the jailed defendants telephone calls, Garzon hampered their right to a defense "without any reason that could be minimally acceptable," concluded the high court.
Garzon argued during the trial that it was necessary to monitor the defendants communication to ensure they did not continue to operate their purported criminal enterprise while imprisoned.
Suspended in 2010, Garzon will now be stripped of his judgeship on Spains National Court, established to deal with terrorism as well as major drug and corruption cases.
The magistrate who indicted Pinochet and successfully prosecuted Al Qaeda and ETA terrorists still awaits a verdict in a case brought against him for allegedly violating a 1977 amnesty law by initiating investigations of the crimes of the Franco regime. Another trial, in which Garzon is charged with accepting improper payments for speeches, is ongoing.
#1
Like foreseen the MSM tells nothing even close to the truth.
Let's see what happened about that investigation over franquist crimes.
Thre was a demand of an investigation for "abductions" for republicans who had disappeared in the naionalist zone during the Civil War. Garzon just sat on the case for eighteen months. After that Garzon begins requiring information about other disappearings. Just a problem Garzon was not competent for it: he was an instruction, judge for terrorist acts and plots for overthrowing the government. After several months of doing nothing he seized the case alleging that the 1936 uprisng was plot against the government so he was competent for instructing a case against its authors. (note that this has nothing to do with finding the whereabouts of the corpses I mentionned) By the way there had been an amnesty covering the crimes of both sides and that several years earlier tha same Garzon had invoked that amnesty for refusing to prosecute Santiago Carrillo, head of the Spanish Communist Party and alleged author of the massacres of Paracuellos aka the Spanish Katyn. In the act whre he declared himself competent Garzon naed over thirty people but menionning iot was notorious they were dead. He
then required the certificate of death fo Franco. Never mind that in addition to his death being quite notorious Franco would have been 110 years old. A month later after having done zero, zilch, nada except fotr asking Franco's certificate he alleged that given that everyone in his list of people was dead the case was extinguished and he was closed it. Just publicity at tax payer's expense and against the law.
Garzon is a preening fame seeking dolt who would kill his own family for just one minute in front of a TV camera.
To compare him with a member of Russian nobility who had a bloody streak about his person, is to give Garzon a mantle of competence he simply doesn't have.
#5
You miss the point entirely, badanov.
Imprimus: Iron Felix did not enjoy that he did---he just saw it as his revolutionary duty.
The point is that both used their position to promote ideological agenda to the exclusion of everything else. And, I have to say, given the respective constraints under which the two operated---Garzon achieved a hell of a lot more than Dzerzhinsky would've managed in his position.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wasted no time in blocking Republicans' first attempt at offering legislation in the Senate to repeal the HHS requirement that would force employers to provide health insurance that includes contraceptives even if they are morally opposed to it.
Sen. Roy Blunt tried to offer a bipartisan amendment to the now-pending highway bill that would reverse the rule, but Reid objected, calling it a distraction from the proposed legislation, and that the rule had not yet been finalized in the Obama White House.
Reid said, "I appreciate that the Republicans take every opportunity to never miss an opportunity to mess up a good piece of legislation. The rule hasn't even been finalized yet. There is no final rule. Let's at least wait until there is a final rule. Everybody should calm down. Let's see what transpires."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accompanied the amendment to the floor and blasted the "odious" outcome of the president's decision. McConnell said, "Republicans are trying to reaffirm that basic right [of freedom of religion]. The Democrats won't allow those of us who are sworn to uphold the Constitution to even offer an amendment that says we believe in our First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
"Frankly, I never thought I'd see the day. [I] never thought I'd see the day when the elected representatives of the people of this country would be blocked by a majority party in Congress to even express their support for it," McConnell added.
Reid hit back immediately, saying he also had never seen anything like the way Republicans were trying to bog down a good bill. Reid said, "I've never seen anything like this before either. Why don't we just calm down and see what the final rule is?"
Why is the rule being determined in the White House, eh? Thought Congress made the rules and Executive enforces them...oh yeah, waivers, the quite descriminate enforcement, or lack of enforcement, exemption, of the law.
But hey, like Paloski said, gotta pass it to find out all the neat-o stuff in it.
#8
Read the compromise, not much of one if I'm reading it right:
Groups do not by the contriceptions, the insurance companies actually purchase them, but they must still be distributed by the groups, right? Let me distill this if I'm getting it right:
Vegan restaurant, PETA posters on the wall, Whale Wars on repeat, the whole nine yards and the two point conversion, dig? Does that mean that I can go into that restaurant and by law use their kitchen at my convienance to make whale steak with dog skewer niblets and they by law must not only let me in, but let me eat there, cannot say anything bad about my food or me no matter how much I yumm and lick chops, then they must do my dishes. I mean they didn't have to pay for it or even transport it there just let me use the facilities..Is that right?
#11
fwiw, whether this administrative rule passes muster with the 1st amendment is dicey but possible.
however, there is also the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which provides stronger protection against administrative actions like the one that HHS promulgated. This is because the RFRA requires strict scrutiny so HHS would have had to determine that the administration was narrowly tailored and the regulation is the least restrictive means possible to achieve a compelling govt purpose.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/10/2012 15:09
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#12
Contraception and Abortion is *NOT* a compelling federal government purpose IMHO.
What I was getting at was that it should not be done at the Federal level. The problem I have is that at the federal level it's too far removed from the people it effects. Influences like Planned genocide Parenthood, Unions, and others have far more influence (and can focus their influence better) at the federal congressional level than in 50 different states. Same with Education, Labor, etc...
A car bomb killed one and wounded 13 people in downtown Pattani province yesterday morning. Local officials said an explosion was heard at around 8 a.m. It was a bomb believed to weigh about 30 kg planted in a stolen pickup truck that had been parked in front of the provincial health office.
Shrapnel severely injured a retired government official identified as Manit Uma. He lost his right arm and sustained serious head wounds. He died at the hospital later. Two men aged 18 and 37 were seriously injured by shrapnel and severe burns. Eleven others were slightly wounded, including two girls aged two and five.
The pickup truck that carried the bomb had phony license plates. Investigators checked its engine number and found it belonged to a Pattani woman identified as Wachiraporn Maneechote. She had been attacked by gunmen on Nov 27 last year and they had stolen her vehicle.
The explosion set fire to vehicles and passers-by. The blast tore the truck in half leaving the two sections 15 meters apart. It also damaged the provincial health office, a local educational office, residences of an assistant provincial governor and judicial authorities, and people's houses in a radius of 300 meters.
The location is full of government offices and residences of high-ranking officials and the road is a frequent route for pupils and government officials. However, the blast happened after children had reached school and before government officials left their homes.
Authorities thought the bomb was meant to target defense volunteers who would have used the road to gather at the Pattani provincial hall at 9 a.m. for an event marking the anniversary of the Territorial Defense Volunteers Administration. However, the nearly 1,000 defence volunteers took a detour.
Another bomb exploded on a local road in Narathiwat province at 7:50 a.m. yesterday. It is believed the bomb was intended to attack a group of six soldiers returning from escorting local teachers to school. The blast injured a sergeant major and a private.
In Bangkok, the National Security Council (NSC) approved a policy to be implemented in the next three years for peace-keeping operations in the South. The NSC secretary-general said the policy focused on peaceful solutions to violence in southern border provinces.
[An Nahar] A cold weather spell has killed at least 44 people in Algeria over the past week, sparking strong press criticism of what it sees as the government's poor response to the emergency situation.
Channel Three radio, quoting official sources, Thursday said 30 died in road accidents caused by the weather, and 14 of asphyxia because of poor heating devices.
"Where are you mister ministers?" the popular Ecchourouk newspaper asked Thursday, accusing them of spending more time on the upcoming May general elections than dealing with relief for those caught out by the bitter weather.
"A catastrophe and no emergency relief to deal with it," wrote Al-Khabar newspaper.
"What is the government waiting for to proclaim a state of emergency a week after the start of the cold spell" that affects 20 of the country's 48 regions, it asked.
Newspapers also criticized a sudden increase in food prices, along with that of gas bottles, used for heating, whose price has been multiplied five- or six-fold.
A number of bakers have closed because of lack of flour, Channel Three radio said, while fuel and medicine were short in several parts of the northeast of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
I suggest the next AGW summit to be held in Algeria.
#2
typical high in Algiers about now would be 64F with a low about 44F. The past 10 days have averaged about 10-15F colder than normal. However, Sunday and Monday next week are forecast to be even colder (max about 45F, min about 30F).
Per wunderground
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/10/2012 8:31
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[An Nahar] The major powers gave a cautious welcome on Thursday to proposals to send a joint 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... -United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... mission to monitor Syria's deadly crackdown on protests.
La Belle France said there had to be "guarantees" for the mission. The U.S. and German ambassadors to the United Nations said their countries were studying the idea raised by U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Wednesday.
Ban said the head of the vaporous Arab League had told him that he would be sending observers back to Syria, where Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... crackdown has cost thousands of lives, and wanted it to be a joint UN-Arab League operation.
The UN leader said consultations would be held with the Arab League and U.N. Security Council members in coming days "before fleshing out the details." Arab League foreign ministers are to meet in Cairo on Sunday and could follow up the proposal.
Ban said international action had to be taken as he fears the violence will worsen after the Security Council failed to agree to a resolution condemning the Syria violence.
It was not immediately clear whether the new proposal would need formal Security Council approval but diplomats said it could not work without the backing of the major powers.
"We are going to study it," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said of the proposal without adding any further comment.
La Belle France called the return of observers to Syria "a step in the right direction if they can freely and completely carry out their mandate."
The observers must be able to travel freely and meet anyone they wish, said La Belle France's foreign ministry front man Bernard Valero in Gay Paree.
"Cooperation between the United Nations and the Arab League on this return must allow it (the mission) to work credibly and efficiently," Valero said.
Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig said his government had spoken to Arab League head Nabil ElAraby on Thursday to discuss the proposal.
"We will take a close look at it," Wittig told news hounds, calling it a "very serious" idea. "There are of course conditions that have to be fulfilled before such a joint mission can take place."
Morocco's UN envoy, Mohamed Loulichki, the Arab representative on the 15-nation council gave implicit backing to the scheme.
"As far as Morocco is concerned any initiative that could help to implement the Arab initiative, which is very comprehensive, is most welcome."
Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a Security Council resolution -- proposed by Arab and European nations -- which aimed to back an Arab League plan for Syria.
The League plan calls for the Syrian president to hand over powers to a deputy so new elections can be held.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
Fred,
Help me here with the diplomatic parlance, what does "cautious" mean in diplomatic circles?
Assad hid under his desk during the meeting?
The UN mission was chased out of the office by dogs?
Assad's bodyguards had their weapons drawn during the entire meeting?
What was it?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/10/2012 13:10
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[An Nahar] The Syrian city of Homs, dubbed "the capital of the revolution," has been under siege by regime forces and suffered the heaviest losses in the country's 11-month uprising.
With 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... the political capital and the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... the main commercial hub, Homs with its 1.6 million residents in central Syria represents the country's industrial lifeline.
Activists say the relentless onslaught on the city by government troops that began early on Saturday has left at least 400 people dead despite widespread international condemnation.
The regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , which has repeatedly accused armed "terrorist" groups of fomenting the unrest, has sharply increased its use of tanks, helicopters, mortars, rockets and gunfire to attack civilians in Homs, according to U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay, citing local sources.
Entire areas of the Baba Amr neighborhood have been destroyed in the blitz, in what opposition activists say is a bid by the regime to pave the way for a tank-backed ground assault.
To the east and west of Homs are oil refineries and gas fields, a car assembly line for Iran's Khodro Company (IKPO) as well as a raft of other private industries.
Moreover, Homs is an important road junction, which sees transit goods arriving from the Mediterranean on their way through to Iraq.
But it also sits on a fault-line of sectarian tensions within Syria and is awash with weapons, making the anti-regime protests in Homs particularly significant.
Paradoxically, Homs is home to Syria's first military academy, established by the French in 1932, which trained officers at the forefront of the coup that brought the Baath party to power in 1963, including Assad's late father, Hafez.
Activists have accused the authorities of seeking to aggravate sectarian strife almost since the start of the uprising, pointing to a day in July when some 30 people from different confessional groups were reportedly killed.
The death in jug last April of a Mohammedanholy man, Sheikh Faraj Abu Mussa, was blamed by the opposition on pro-regime militias, and a spree of sectarian and reprisal killings were also recorded in Homs in late September.
Sunnis consider themselves the true natives of the city and never took kindly to the mass influx of Alawites -- members of a Shiite sect to which Assad also belongs -- to Homs and its surrounding districts since the late 1960s.
Alawites were received with a mixture of contempt and jealousy, because they received far more government and public positions than Sunnis.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#4
In the article it says they use donations of $200 or more as a proxy for general military giving.
This skews the sample towards higher ranks (generals and colonels that want to make general) who depend on the President's and Senate's favor to hold office.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/10/2012 10:28
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[An Nahar] Libya has ordered Syrian diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours, just days after the main Syrian opposition group took over Damascus's ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... mission in Tripoli, the official news agency reported Thursday.
The Libyan foreign ministry has given "72 hours for the Syrian diplomats to leave the country," the official LANA news agency reported, quoting a ministry statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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GENEVA -- A cousin of Syrias President Bashar Assad has won a legal bid to unfreeze (euro) 3 million ($4 million) held in bank accounts in Switzerland after convincing a Swiss court that the money had already been promised as part of a property deal before it was blocked.
They found all the cash in a lockbox. By sheer coincidence it was right next to the lockbox rented out to Saif al-Islam...
The decision last month by Switzerlands top criminal court is a victory for Hafez Makhlouf, who was added to a Swiss government sanctions list in September in response to Syrias brutal crackdown on opposition protesters.
In a just world Makhlouf would have a driving accident in the desert...
The verdict was first reported Thursday by Swiss news website 20min.ch and is available online.
Switzerland has blocked some 50 million Swiss francs ($55 million) linked to senior regime officials, including Assad.
The sanctions notice on Makhlouf says he is involved in violence against demonstrators and close to Assads younger brother Maher, believed to be leading the crackdown against the opposition. The U.N. estimates more than 5,400 people have died in the crackdown over the past year.
Makhlouf lost a legal bid to gain entry to Switzerland last year to meet with his lawyer over the sanctions case. But in the latest verdict, the Federal Criminal Court agreed with Makhloufs argument that the money he held in four Geneva bank accounts was designated for a property purchase in Syria made in April 2011, five months before the funds were frozen.
The Swiss Federal Prosecutors Office said in an email Thursday that it would not appeal the decision to Switzerlands supreme court.
Makhloufs Swiss lawyer, Eric Hess, declined to comment.
"Go away."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012
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#1
I guess the Swiss beginning to think that, maybe, Assad family is not going away.
[An Nahar] Russian strongman Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... may join a mass campaign rally that plans to draw 200,000 people on to the streets of Moscow 10 days before next month's presidential polls, his front man said Thursday.
Putin's campaign deputy chief Alexei Anisimov said authorities will bus up to 200,000 Putin supporters from the provinces to Moscow.
From there, they will march through the city center and rally near the Kremlin walls on February 23, when Russia marks Defender of the Fatherland Day.
"We've received this request from the regions," Anisimov told AFP. "The main slogan of the rally will be 'We'll Defend our Fatherland'".
Putin's chief front man said the Russian premier may himself attend the event, although no firm plans had yet been set.
"It cannot be ruled out that he will take part," front man Dmitry Peskov told AFP by telephone.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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[Dawn] United States Ambassador to Pakistain Cameron Munter on Thursday revealed that supplies for the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces active in neighbouring Afghanistan were still continuing through Pakistain's air space, DawnNews reported.
The relations between Washington and Islamabad had plunged to its lowest ebb after Pakistain stopped all NATO supplies to Afghanistan through its borders in backdrop of a NATO attack on a check post in Salala which claimed the lives of 24 soldiers.
Speaking to journalists here after attending a ceremony, Munter stressed the need for continuing talks between the US and Pakistain and said dialogue is necessary to resolve issues.
He expressed the hope that the ties between the two allies, which got strained after the NATO attack, would normalise soon.
Munter said that the US needs its allies' help for sustainable peace in Afghanistan. Peace would return to Afghanistan with the help of Pakistain and the US, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
US INTERVENTION + INVASION OF IRAN????
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS [recent but still worth it] > [Iran Farsi "Alef"] WEBSITE: IRAN MUST ATTACK ISRAEL BY 2014.
Any US andor Israeli attack on Iran is likely to induce RUSSIA to stop NATO supplies via alternate CENTASIA route into Afghanistan, + what will the US-NATO do iff Pakland keeps its domestic land routes closed but now halts use of its Airspace for US-NATO supply flights???
State of Shia andor Radical Islamist led Jihad = Insurgency as per OMAN + UAE, aka Strait of Hormuz + Gulf/Sea of Oman???
STILL VERY MUCH COMES DOWN TO IRAN GETS ITS NUKES, OR ELSE IRAN GETS INVADED.
#3
Flights of military materials and land movements thru Pak have gone on for years - along with considerable bilffering and "payments" to Paks for the land routes. BUT one does need consent of the land one flies over with military aircraft - without it -its an "act of aggression" by International Law. Usually triggering warnings, but can result in shootdowns as we all know.
But if anyone thinks the govt really controls the north part of PAK they had better read history, starting say in 1880 or so.
This posturing by PAK is something they had to do, but its that only. Nothing new here at all.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A rebel ambush near the southern Syrian town of Daraa killed at least seven security forces and maimed dozens on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The security forces were travelling on board two buses when they were ambushed on a bridge by dissident soldiers," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britannia-based group, told AFP.
Abdel Rahman said the ambush took place some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike... . The army encircled the region following the ambush.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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[An Nahar] Somalia's Death Eater Shebab fighters have joined ranks with al-Qaeda, the terror network's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... announced in a video message posted on jihadist forums on Thursday.
"I will break the good news to our Islamic nation, which will... annoy the crusaders, and it is that the Shebab movement in Somalia has joined al-Qaeda," Zawahiri said.
In the first part of the video, Shebab's leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, addressed Zawahiri, saying: "We will move along with you as faithful soldiers."
"In the name of my mujahideen brothers, leaders and soldiers... I pledge obedience," Zubair said.
"Lead us on the road of jihad and martyrdom, in the footsteps that our martyr the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... had drawn for us," he added, referring to al-Qaeda's former leader who was killed last year in a covert U.S. raid on his hide-out in Pakistain.
The Shebab group proclaimed its allegiance to bin Laden in a video documentary distributed in 2009.
The hardline Somali Islamists are fighting to overthrow a fragile western-backed transitional government in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
They were already connected. But I wonder what Zawahiri had to give up to get a loyalty oath from Zubair...
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/10/2012 12:23
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#2
Probably not much. Likely it's meant to encourage contributors.
[Bangla Daily Star] Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... activists vandalised at least 10 vehicles during its half-day hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in Chittagong yesterday.
Shibir, a pro-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... student body, enforced the shut down protesting the deaths of two of its members in festivities with pro-Awami League student body Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... on Chittagong University campus on Wednesday.
Police picked up at least eight pickets from different parts of the port city during the 6:00am to 12:00noon hartal.
Pro-hartal activists burnt tyres at several points and smashed vehicles at Bahaddarhat intersection, Andarkilla, Chandanpur and Chwak Bazar. The hartal was otherwise peaceful and traffic movement was normal except for a few points.
On Wednesday, Masud bin Habib of English department and Mujahidul Islam of Zoology department at CU were killed in a bloody violence between BCL and Shibir men.
While Shibir said both the victims were its members, BCL claimed one of them to be its activist. Campus sources said Masud was the general secretary of Shibir's Suhrawardy Hall unit while Mujahidul an activist.
At least 40 others, including CU Proctor Nasim Hasan, were maimed during the festivities.
Fearing further tension on the campus, the CU authorities shut the university till February 16 and ordered all resident students to vacate the halls by 11:00am yesterday. The halls were duly vacated, reports our CU correspondent.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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For a map, click here For a map of Chihuahua state, click here
By Chris Covert
A Mexican Army lieutenant colonel held for murder since 2010 is going to trial for the 2009 execution of civilians during a security operation in Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news accounts.
Lt. Colonel of Infantry Alfredo Bravo Alcaraz has been in detention in a penal barracks near Mexico City since March of 2010, by order of a military judge.
A second officer, Second Captain Alberto Miguel Gutierrez has also been charged in the incident for failing to notify his superiors about the incident. The Second Captain was detail commander for the Immediate Reaction Force involved in the incident.
The incident took place near Nuevas Casas Grandes, Chihuahua on March 19th, 2009 where the Immediate Reaction Force detachment commanded by Second Captain Miguel Gutierrez had been dispatched to Pena Blanca with orders to arrest an unidentified member of La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez Cartel. Along with the detachment came Lt Colonel Bravo Alcaraz, then deputy commander of the Mexican 35th Infantry Battalion, 5th Military Zone.
On the way to Pena Blanca soldiers in the detail observed a GMC Sierra pickup truck with two passengers, which began to maneuver off the road to flee the army convoy.
Lt. Colonel Bravo Alcaraz opened fire on the vehicle with an MP-5 submachine gun. Several other riflemen in the detail opened fire on the vehicle along with the colonel.
The driver was killed in the shooting. The passenger dismounted the vehicle and attempted to flee the scene but was caught by several soldiers.
The Lt.Colonel asked another officer, Lieutenant Cruz Violante why the captive civilian had been brought to him.
"Why do the motherf*ckers live? Take him and kill him here," said the Lt. Colonel Bravo Alcaraz.
Corporal Vincent Ramirez Marquez was then ordered by the Lt. Colonel to execute the civilian by shooting him in the forehead with his G3 rifle.
The pickup truck was set afire and then rolled into a ravine to make it appear the victims were killers who had run from the military.
Later, the detail arrived in Pena Blanca, but only managed to secure an AK-47 rifle and two vehicles.
The two vehicles, a Hummer SUV and and Mercedes Benz sedan were apparently requisitioned by Lt. Colonel Bravo Alcaraz and concealed from authorities. It is customary for Mexican military units in the field following an incident, whether it is an arrest or a shooting, to turn over all seized property to local prosecutors. The taking of prizes or booty by the Mexican military is forbidden.
Currently, civilian federal legal authorities are attempting to determine whether Lt. Colonel Bravo Acaraz will be tried in a civilian or a military court.
The military investigating incidents involving civilians is a source of protest for human rights groups in Mexico, which claim -- albeit without much evidence -- the military is less likely to prosecute soldiers for serious crimes in the conduct of their duties in the field.
A July, 2011 Supreme Court decision mandated that all incidents involving the military and civilians must be investigated and tried in civilian courts. A later unofficial public reinterpretation of the court decree left the disposition of cases that make it to federal court a judge's sole discretion. The presumption is that Mexican federal judges can determine whether the investigation and prosecutions were within federal law. To read the original Rantburg.com report on the Mexican Supreme Court decision, click here and here.
Since that decision, three high profile cases involving civilians and allegedly involving military personnel have been sent to the Mexican federal courts system, but two of those cases may never be properly adjudicated due to the incompetence of the civilian judicial authorities and victims' refusal to accept military jurisdiction.
It seems clear by the announcement today that the case involving the 2009 Pena Blanca incident is already resolved, only the final disposition has yet to be determined.
#2
I think the incident shows just how little regard a Mexican Army field officer has for a detail commander.
Lt.Colonel Alcarz should never have been permitted in the convoy with a loaded MP-5 submachine gun. He was not expected to be a shooter.
Either Second Captain Miguel Gutieterrz was too cowed by the presence of the deputy commander, or he is not allowed to countermand an officer who is with his detail.
[Dawn] A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.
Police front man Abdul Mannan Yusuf refused to disclose the grounds for the criminal court's warrant, or say when Nasheed _ who is living at his Male home, surrounded by supporters _ would be placed in durance vile. Later, Police Commissioner Abdullah Riaz said it was not clear if the warrant was constitutional. He declined to provide details, but said the warrant's legality was still being examined.
Rioters had rampaged through the streets of the Maldives capital Wednesday to demand Nasheed's return, and more had attacked cop shoppes in remote parts of this 1,200-island archipelago nation off the southern coast of India.
Nasheed says he was forced to resign Tuesday while his successor's government maintains he left voluntarily.
The dispute has plunged the mostly Moslem nation of 300,000 people into political turmoil that could threaten its crucial tourism industry, which relies on dozens of high-end resorts that cater to the rich and famous. The developments also raise questions about the future of a decampedging democracy that only recently shed a 30-year, one-man rule with multiparty 2008 elections that brought Nasheed to power.
The city was calm but tense Thursday, with the streets of Male crowded with commuters. Police said the violence in outlying islands had stopped.
But the new defense minister vowed to punish those responsible for Wednesday's violence, calling the destruction "acts of terrorism."
"The Maldives national defense force remains vigilant in enforcing the law and order and upholding the constitution of the Maldives," Mohammed Nazin told news hounds Thursday, barely 12 hours into his new job.
What really happened to Nasheed, a onetime human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... campaigner, remained unclear. He resigned Tuesday, after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected, but insisted he had not been forced from power. He was replaced by his vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
On Wednesday, though, Nasheed said he had been ousted in a coup, and his supporters swept into the streets of Male and rampaged through a series of small, remote islands.
The new government insists there was no coup.
Maldives police commissioner Abdullah Riyaz said 18 cop shoppes on several islands, along with an undetermined number of court houses and police vehicles, were destroyed in the violence. Police said they jugged 49 people after the Male rioting.
The rights group Amnesia Amnesty International put some blame on the new government, saying Maldivian security forces attacked Nasheed's supporters Wednesday, failed to protect them from counter-demonstrators and jugged five members of parliament.
The rights group called on the new government to investigate the attack and ensure freedom of expression.
"The ballot should decide, not battles," Nasheed told news hounds Thursday. He said he would fight in 2013 elections, and was confident he would win.
Nasheed's party insisted his ouster was engineered by rogue elements of the police and supporters of the country's former autocratic leader, whom Nasheed defeated in the Maldives' first multiparty elections in 2008. Others blamed Islamic hard boyz in the Moslem country where some have demanded more conservative government policies.
Hassan, who was Nasheed's vice president, denied claims there was a coup or a plot to oust Nasheed. He said he had not prepared to take over the country and called for a unity coalition to be formed to help it recover.
"Together, I am confident, we'll be able to build a stable and democratic country," Hassan said, adding that his government intended to respect the rule of law.
The military denied that it forced Nasheed to resign at gunpoint. "There is no officer in the military that would point a gun toward the president," said Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Didi.
"The military did not call for his resignation, he resigned voluntarily."
Police official Abdul Mannan Yousuf promised investigations into complaints of excessive use of force.
Before Wednesday's festivities, Nasheed had demanded Hassan's immediate resignation as he spoke to about 2,000 wildly cheering members of his Maldivian Democratic Party in Male. Police later fired tear gas at the demonstrators.
"If the police are going to confront us we are going to face them," Nasheed told the rally.
Nasheed's supporters began rioting, throwing fire bombs and vandalizing a private TV station that had been critical of Nasheed's government.
Reeko Moosa Manik, a politician and chairman of the party, was beaten unconscious by police and hospitalized, said his son Mudrikath Moosa. Nasheed and other politicians were beaten as well, he said.
Hassan, who had promised to protect Nasheed from retribution, said his predecessor was not under any restriction and was free to leave
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02/10/2012
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[An Nahar] Thirteen Kurdish rebels and one Turkish soldiers were killed Thursday in festivities in southeastern Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported, quoting local officials.
One soldier was killed and six maimed overnight when rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opened fire on an army unit near Cukurca, close to the Iraqi border, Hakkari provincial governor Muammar Turker told Anatolia.
"Our forces fired back and fighting went on for about an hour and a half. The faceless myrmidons then beat feet under cover of darkness, while we recovered the bodies of four of them," he added.
A second clash, also overnight, occurred in Ilica, Bingol province, where security forces stormed a house occupied by rebels, local authorities told Anatolia.
"Three members of the organization were captured and the bodies of nine others found," local authorities said, adding that assault rifles, grenades and explosives were recovered from the house.
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[Dawn] The Afghan-Pakistain jihad is attracting fewer imported muscle following the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... , the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.
While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... more Paks are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.
"Over the past six months, young Frenchies there have nearly all left Pakistain. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left," he said.
"Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistain to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion -- a drastic reduction over recent months," he added.
The "Arab Spring" revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Moamer Qadaffy from power, he said.
"Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan Taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea," he added.
For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored "Foreign Fighters" for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, "first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to imported muscle travelling to the region, by disrupting al-Qaeda's (and associated entities') training camps and pipelines."
Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within al-Qaeda in north-western Pakistain where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.
In a report, entitled "Militant Pipeline" describing the links between the north-western Pak frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistain-based al-Qaeda front man who recently acknowledged his network's difficulties.
"The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us," he reportedly said in an audio cassette.
"It's difficult to have reliable figures," on the number of imported muscle, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University's Centre on Law and Security.
"I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the bad boys, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these gunnies -- he was the al-Qaeda brand.
"By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for al-Qaeda," he said.
"But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it's likely that the number of volunteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don't think it's going to dry up entirely," he added.
Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest Pakistain, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of imported muscle there was dwindling.
"When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety," he said.
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02/10/2012
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#1
Yemen and Somalia are nice this time of year!
How many are heading to Syria?
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/10/2012 6:46
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[An Nahar] Yemeni security forces rubbed out two southern Yemeni activists during a demonstration Thursday in Daleh against presidential elections to be held later this month, witnesses and activists said.
"Southerner wake up, no more elections," chanted the protesters referring to a referendum-like election in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi stands as a sole candidate based on a Gulf brokered deal signed by departing 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... in November.
"Clashes erupted and security forces opened fire killing two activists," said one of the witnesses.
The protesters marched towards the headquarters of the electoral committee in the city of Daleh in an attempt to drive its members out of the city of Daleh when security forces opened fire, witnesses said.
Activists from the separatist Southern Movement, who say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, confirmed the deaths.
Some factions of the movement have been campaigning for a boycott of the election, while others openly call for preventing the election from taking place at all.
Nationwide protests erupted against Saleh's regime in January 2011, triggering months of bloodshed.
Residents in the formerly independent southern region complain of discrimination by the Sanaa regime in the distribution of resources since the union between north and south in 1990.
The south broke away again in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with the region overrun by northern troops.
Hadi, himself a southerner, is the sole candidate in the election to succeed the veteran strongman who is standing down after more than three decades in power.
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02/10/2012
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[Dawn] The army claimed on Wednesday to have made major progress in an operation in Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... after clearing the snow-covered Jogi mountains and severing a vital supply route to forces of Evil in North Wazoo.
"Jogi mountains, which were being used by forces of Evil as their hideout, have been captured and the area is well defended," an army officer said after COAS Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... visited troops in Kurram Agency.
Gen Kayani was updated about Operation Azmari Ghero launched last November for flushing out beturbanned goons.
This was one of the most intensely carried out recent operations in which 69 troops, including five officers, and about 160 beturbanned goons, including foreigners, were killed.
"The cut-throats fought pitched battles because it was one of their important lairs and served as an important link between Tirah valley and North Waziristan," the officer said. He said North Waziristan had now been cut off from three sides.
The officer stayed short of claiming a victory against forces of Evil in the area and said they were still holding some area towards Tirah valley, which is their stronghold.
"Success of the operation will not only secure Kurram but will also sever linkage of terrorist groups in North Waziristan and Fata.
"Due to this significant effect, the operation is characterised by tough resistance from desperate cut-throats against the resolve and determination of the forces," the ISPR said in a statement.
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02/10/2012
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#1
*except the supplies the ISI sends
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2012 12:39
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[An Nahar] The Paleostinian leadership on Thursday endorsed the latest agreement between the heads of Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and called for preparations for elections to be speeded up.
Paleostinian President and Fatah head the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal inked an accord in Doha on Monday placing Abbas at the head of an interim government to supervise the run-up to elections later this year.
On Thursday, members of Fatah's Central Committee, the PLO Executive Committee and leaders of PLO-affiliated groups, gave "full support for the results of the Doha agreement," according to a statement read by the executive committee's secretary general, Yasser Abed Rabbo. ... Paleostinian politician and a member of the Paleostine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee. He holds an M.A. in economics and political science from the American University in Cairo..... The leadership also urged Paleostinian electoral officials to push ahead with the registration of eligible voters in the West Bank, Gazoo and east Jerusalem and set a firm date for elections.
Under the terms of a reconciliation deal signed by Hamas and Fatah last April, presidential and legislative elections are due to be held by May of this year.
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02/10/2012
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Long, pretty detailed backgrounder on Boko Haram, which will make you want to take a shower.
IN SUMMARY
Figure out this one: Kabir Sokoto, the criminal mastermind of Nigeria's Christmas day bombing in which 200 people died, was placed in long-term storage while taking refuge in an Abuja luxury lodge owned by the Borno State governor to where he had been chaperoned by a top Moslem military officer.
About 24 hours later, Sokoto beat feet from police custody. The intrigue became too much for grieving citizens to bear when it was revealed that Sokoto had beat feet while in the care of Zakari Biu, a notorious figure from the dark days of the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha
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#1
The link's dead.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/10/2012 7:19
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The link's dead.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a bit of bad programming by the newspaper website, Eric. Google the title "Boko Haram: Nigeria's Nightmare". The link Google provides will work.
[Yemen Post] At least 8 prisoners have been killed in festivities between inmates and prison guards on Wednesday in the central province of Dhamar, some 100km south the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, leaving at least 8 prisoners killed.
"A group in Dhamar Central prison inmates attacked the prison guards as they attempted to break out in Wednesday afternoon," local security officer told Yemen Post, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
"Apparently, the inmates' relatives managed to sneak in some weapons, which the prisoners used in the festivities with the security,"
The guards were compelled to use force and fire on them to prevent their collective escape attempt, leaving at least 8 killed and scores others injured, the security sourced added.
Some of the maimed are in a very critical condition, according to local sources and medics.
"The guards fired on us without any reason at all; we just tried to form a committee to negotiate with them on some issues," Local media quoted a prisoner in Dhamar Central Jail as saying.
Yemeni Hud Organization for Human Rights has called on the general attorney and prosecution to probe into the incident, holding them responsible for any potential repression against the prisoners.
It's noteworthy that prison breakouts have increased as of last year, apparently due to the current unrest the country is experiencing.
Like many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Yemen has witnessed massive popular protests demanding the ouster of 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... , pushing the economy to the brink of collapse, bringing the state to its knees and triggering many festivities at various fronts in the fragmented-country.
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02/10/2012
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[An Nahar] Chinese-made bullets and aircraft bought from Russia are used to commit rights violations in Sudan's Darfur under an ineffective U.N. arms embargo, Amnesia Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The London-based rights watchdog aired similar concerns five years ago but its latest report comes after "a new wave of fighting" between opposition groups and government forces over the past year.
"This has included targeted and ethnically motivated attacks on civilian settlements, and indiscriminate and disproportionate aerial bombings that have contributed to the displacement of an estimated 70,000 people from their homes and villages," Amnesty said.
It said China and Russia continue to supply weapons and munitions to Sudan despite "compelling evidence" they will be used against civilians in Darfur, the western region where rebel groups rose up against Khartoum's Arab-dominated government in 2003.
The exports also include attack jets, air-to-ground rockets and armored vehicles, Amnesty said.
"China and Russia are selling arms to the government of Sudan in the full knowledge that many of them are likely to end up being used to commit human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violations in Darfur," said Brian Wood, an expert on military and policing for Amnesty.
As an example, the group cited a December 1 incident in which the paramilitary Central Reserve Police carried out a "looting raid" in which one man was rubbed out and six people were maimed in the Zam Zam camp for people displaced by the Darfur conflict.
Witnesses told Amnesty they found bullet cartridges marked with Chinese codes indicating their transfer to Darfur after the arms embargo began in 2004.
Amnesty said fighting in Darfur has been accompanied by a repeated pattern of airborne attacks on civilian and military targets using Sukhoi-25 jets, Mi-24 gunships and Antonov transport planes used as "rudimentary but effective bombers."
Sudan received 36 new Mi-24 helicopters from Russia between 2007 and 2009, a number which "undoubtedly" compensates for those lost during Darfur operations last year, Amnesty said.
"Their continual replacement by the Russian Federation makes it possible for such attacks to continue," despite a U.N. prohibition on Arclight airstrikes, it said.
Attacks on civilian settlements and property by armed opposition groups in Darfur have also persisted, in violation of international law, the group added. But it could not verify the origin of the rebels' military equipment -- much of which the rebels claimed to have captured from government forces.
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02/10/2012
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CAIRO -- A spokesman for Egypts Muslim Brotherhood which now dominates parliament called on Thursday for the caretaker cabinet to be sacked and replaced with a Brotherhood one after deadly football riots.
The Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party, which won almost half of parliaments seats in elections over November and December, had said it would work with the military-appointed cabinet for a transitional period.
But the Brotherhoods spokesman Mahmud Ghozlan said the February 1 riot at a football stadium in the Mediterranean town of Port Said, which left more than 70 dead, showed that the government had failed to manage the country.
The incident proved that the cabinet has failed in administering the country, he told AFP.
If this happens, the party that won the most votes is best suited to form a government, he said in response to a question on whether the Brotherhoods party should form the cabinet.
The Brotherhood was the most organised opposition movement during president Hosni Mubaraks rule, which ended with a popular uprising that toppled him a year ago and ushered in military rule. Since then, the Islamist movement has in turn cooperated with the ruling generals and opposed them over such matters as a military role in drafting a new constitution.
I'm guessing the Brotherhood and the generals real soon now will have a meeting of common interests and work out how to fleece run the country. As an Islamic state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012
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#1
Egyptians should publish an ad "Dictator wanted. Previous experience a plus."
#3
And let them take credit for the coming famine, too.
I really did think the Ikhwan would be clever and patient enough to let the generals and the secularists take the blame for the economic collapse. I was wrong.
#4
I really did think the Ikhwan would be clever and patient enough
No, they're not. However, I think the generals are taking note of who is sticking their head up the highest and will eventually follow the old Chinese proverb.
[An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Council gathered in Qatar on Thursday to prepare for meetings with regional blocs on their government's lethal crackdown on protests, an SNC front man told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The SNC executive committee talks come "before two important meetings, one for the Gulf Cooperation Council and another for 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... ," both of which are to take place on Sunday in Cairo, Mohammed Sarmini said.
The talks, which officially start on Friday, are to focus on "the situation on the ground in Syria" and ways to help rebel fighters, he told AFP.
Ahmed Ramdan, another SNC member, said the council will discuss means to increase support for "the defense capabilities of the youths in revolt and the Free Syrian Army," made up of army deserters.
The 22-member League suspended a month-old monitoring mission to Syria on January 28 because of the escalating violence.
The six Gulf Cooperation Council nations have decided to recall their envoys from Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and expel Syrian ambassadors from their countries.
On Wednesday, U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... launched the idea of sending to Syria a joint observer mission with the vaporous Arab League.
The pan-Arab bloc's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, said he had spoken to Ban about the proposed mission, which would include a U.N. envoy.
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02/10/2012
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[Dawn] Unidentified gunnies on Thursday looted around Rs 60 million from a Qatari minister in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, DawnNews reported.
According to levies sources, Qatar's petroleum minister Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Thani Al-Thani was on a hunting trip in Turbat when the armed myrmidons stopped his car and got away with the loot.
Sheikh Ali is a member of the supreme council of the royal family of Qatar.
The assistant commissioner of Turbat had initiated an investigating into the incident and no arrests had been reported yet.
According to an earlier Dawn report from last year, at least 25 special permits had been issued to dignitaries belonging to the Arabian peninsula allowing them to hunt the internationally protected houbara bustard.
The dignitaries were allotted several different locations in Pakistain. Sheikh Ali was allotted the Turbat district in Balochistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
1 Pakistani rupee = 0.0110 US dollars
So Rs 60,000,000 x 0.0110 $/Rs = $660,000
This seems a large sum for walking-around money, but I'm not an oil country government minister
...over the space of 33 years, so it wasn't real obvious... [An Nahar] Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that became widely prescribed in France as a slimming aid, "probably" caused at least 1,300 deaths before it was withdrawn, a study published on Thursday said.
Mahmoud Zureik of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), who co-led the probe, told Agence France Presse that around 3,100 people had required hospitalization during the 33 years during which the drug was sold.
However, these figures could well be an "underestimate," he said.
The study, appearing in the specialized journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety, fine tunes an estimate by Zureik in 2010 that the death toll from the scandal was between 1,000 and 2,000.
Mediator, known by its lab name as benfluorex, was initially licensed to reduce levels of fatty proteins called lipids, with the claim that it helped diabetics control their level of blood sugar.
But it also suppressed appetite, which meant it gained a secondary official use to help obese diabetics lose weight.
In fact, it was widely sold on prescription for non-diabetics wanting to slim.
In 2009, Mediator was pulled from the European market amid evidence that it damaged heart valves and caused pulmonary hypertension.
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02/10/2012
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#1
Chemically related to fenfluramine, which was used similarly, caused similar problems, & was withdrawn from the market by the USA in 1997.
[An Nahar] A NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... Arclight airstrike killed eight children in Afghanistan's Kapisa province northeast of the capital Kabul, 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... said Thursday.
The president "strongly condemned the aerial bombing by foreign troops that killed a number of children in Nejrab district" on Wednesday, said a statement from his office.
"Based on information by (the) provincial governor, as a result of an air strike conducted on February 8... eight children were killed," the statement said.
Karzai had assigned a delegation "to launch an all-out probe into the NATO bombing in the province of Kapisa", it added.
A NATO front man said he could "confirm there has been a situation. A joint assessment team went there to identify the situation".
The Afghan president, who has a strained relationship with his Western allies, has regularly condemned NATO for civilian deaths in the decade-long war against Taliban bully boyz fighting to overthrow him.
Kapisa district police chief Abdul Hamid Erkin told Agence La Belle France Presse: "Two nights ago foreign special forces carried out a raid on a house in Geyawa village in Nejrab district.
"The next morning their plane carried out an Arclight airstrike on a house in the village as a result of which seven children and one adult were martyred."
He said commanders of French troops who operate in the area "claimed that the target was a group of Taliban controllers, but we checked the area and there were no Taliban.
"In fact the people in the area have very strong anti-Taliban feelings. We filmed the victims, who were children, and showed it to the French commanders," Erkin said.
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02/10/2012
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#4
All I can say is that Bush was a lousy judge of character. Everyone he picked in Iraq was defective in some way, with Maliki being outright anti-American and some kind of dictator-wannabe, and Karzai appears to be a high-functioning drug addict of some kind. We should have guessed as much, given the gushy things he said about Putin.
Assumes there were some with character Bush could have picked but overlooked. The whole problem with this cesspool that is south west Asia is that assumption is incorrect. That is why we should get out and buy oil from whatever potentate wants to sell and ignore everything else until they change.
#8
Karzai has conveniently forgotten the 4 French soldiers that were shot and killed by his ANA soldier within the last 2 weeks. Not that that excuses any deaths of noncombatants that cannot be supported by Additional Protocol 1 sections 52 to 58. In short one NEVER targets children, unless they are doing something that makes them a military target, or they are too close to a mil target - where discrimination and proportionality come into play. Human error is, however, always a factor ---and well we are dealing with the French here - not that any other coaltion country can claim a perfect record. It only takes some misunderstanding as to the coordinate numbers to dial in the wrong place. Oh - so that might mean a language issue between French and English over the secure net?? Oh. Like thats not a possibility.
No matter -these things do get investigated to the teeth each and every time. And now with Afghan investigators too.
Karzai is on thin ice there. He knows the above. He just has to say it for the masses, or so he thinks. It would be better if he fully explained the process to his people. They might even start to believe him.
#11
Watching BBC news re Syria tonight.Guy in Homs says we call on the Arab League to help us.We call on muslims to help us.Still no help.We now call on Obama to help us.ie Last resort to ask non muslims!.The Sunnis have spent the rest of the year slagging us off/fighting us in Afghan/Iraq etc.Horrible hypocrites th lot of them!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/10/2012 16:00
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#12
What was the baby duck and baby bunny count, Hamid?
#13
Watching BBC news re Syria tonight.Guy in Homs says we call on the Arab League to help us.We call on muslims to help us.Still no help.We now call on Obama to help us.ie Last resort to ask non muslims!.The Sunnis have spent the rest of the year slagging us off/fighting us in Afghan/Iraq etc.Horrible hypocrites th lot of them!
As I've said before, the Gulf kingdoms aren't about to help the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Syria, given that its long-term goal is to create a caliphate via military conquest that incorporates their kingdoms under its rule, before turning its attention to the infidel.
[An Nahar] German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Thursday Germany was expelling four diplomats from the Syrian embassy in Berlin after the arrest of two men suspected of spying on regime opponents.
"After the arrest of two people suspected of spying for Syria, I have decided to expel four members of the Syrian embassy in Berlin," Westerwelle said in a statement.
"The Syrian ambassador has been informed of this decision," added the minister.
According to diplomatic sources, there were "clear indications" that the four had carried out "acts not in accordance with diplomatic law."
The diplomats and their families now have three days to leave the country, the sources added.
Further steps against Syrian embassy staff could not be ruled out if it emerged that the 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... regime was continuing to interfere with opposition figures and Syrian people in Germany, added the sources.
Two men, identified only as 47-year-old German-Lebanese citizen Mahmoud El A. and 34-year-old Syrian national Akram O., were tossed in the slammer in Berlin on Tuesday.
Westerwelle summoned Syria's ambassador following the arrests.
"The position of the federal government was made unmistakably clear at this meeting that the possible action against the Syrian opposition in Germany will not be tolerated," the ministry said.
In late December, a Berlin local politician active in the Syrian opposition was attacked by two men in his home in a case the German foreign ministry said it was following closely.
The man's party, the Greens, said it suspected the Syrian secret services were behind the assault.
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02/10/2012
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[Dawn] Police have been denied access to evidence to investigate arrival of a packet containing anthrax at Prime Minister Secretariat and directed to keep away from the case, Dawn has learnt.
But after handing over the evidence, including the powder, to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Prime Minister Secretariat directed the agency to hush up the case, sources said.
They said the sender of the powder was identified as an associate professor of Sindh University, Jamshoro, who was also the sister of a serving senior police officer of Sindh.
She allegedly sent anthrax to Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
on October 18 from the colony of the university. The registered (No 209) parcel also carried stamp of the associate professor. Well, she certainly sounds brilliant...
The secretariat has already conducted an investigation into the issue during which it was revealed that the teacher had got the anthrax from a laboratory of the university and sent it to the prime minister without any lethal motive. She's doing a study on anthropozoonosis and wants to see what happens when a prime minister ingests a toxin that's common in cows.
"The associate professor has some psychological problems," the sources added. "Yer honor, my client's a lunatic!"
Though the PM Secretariat had approached the police and investigation agencies but now efforts are in progress to hush up the matter, the sources said.
They said the senior police officer was close to some leaders of the ruling political party, who convinced the secretariat not to take any legal action against the sender. "Let's just keep this quiet, okay? She's loopier than a macrame overcoat!"
"So you're gonna send her to the nut house?"
"Well, no. She has a job and we need the money."
A senior FIA officer, when contacted, categorically denied that the agency was investigating the matter or had got the evidence. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he added, the agency's Sindh office might be working on it. "I dunno. I ain't seen the memo."
A senior officer of the capital police said they had been asked to keep away from the investigation. The police registered the case on the complaint of the PM Secretariat but it has been kept away from the legal process necessary to investigate the case, he added.
The secretariat had also sent the sample of the powder to the Pakistain Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Lahore, which confirmed the powder as anthrax.
The prime minister's front man Akram Shaheedi could not be contacted for comments as his cellphone was switched off.
The modern version of "not at home to callers", and it doesn't even require a butler.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudan has signed an agreement to build an oil pipeline to the port of Djibouti via neighbouring Ethiopia, officials said Thursday, after Juba shut down its only export route via former foe Sudan.
"We signed an agreement for another pipeline to go through Ethiopia and on to Djibouti," South Sudan's Minister for Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin told AFP.
Officials signed a memorandum of understanding during talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa earlier this month, and Chinese, American and European companies had shown interest in carrying out feasibility studies for building it, he said.
"The pipeline will be owned by the government of South Sudan," Benjamin added.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... industry experts have said that building a pipeline could take three years or more and be extremely costly.
They have already criticised a separate deal last month to build a pipeline to the Kenyan coast.
Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden at entrance to the Red Sea, lies at least a thousand kilometres from South Sudan's oil fields, and crosses remote areas rife with rebel forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
building a pipeline could take three years or more and be extremely costly
Costly compared to what? Doing nothing?
[Dawn] The army deployed to the Maldives' second-largest city Addu on Thursday as officials struggled to contain outbreaks of violence across the holiday paradise archipelago.
After what Addu City Mayor Abdulla Sodig described as a "complete breakdown" of law and order, around 300 troops and armed police arrived on a coastguard vessel from the capital Male.
"They are on the streets now making arrests," Sodig, who said his wrist was fractured when he was beaten up by a group of people who attacked him in his office, told AFP by phone.
The deployment followed a night of violence which saw two cop shoppes, a courthouse and a private residence in Addu attacked and burned by groups of protesters.
The unrest had spread from Male, where police clashed Wednesday with supporters of Mohamed Nasheed, the former president who said he was ousted in a coup the day before.
Prior to the troop deployment in Addu, the mayor said security forces had been absent from the city streets, with soldiers from a nearby military base focused on protecting Gan Airport.
The airport is a major conduit for foreign tourists travelling from the capital to luxury resort islands.
With 32,000 residents, Addu is the second-largest city in the Maldives.
Sodig, a member of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), said the initial protests in Addu had been peaceful by MDP supporters against the new administration installed in Male.
"But then other groups became involved and it all turned violent," he said.
"Tourists flying directly off to the resorts would be safe, but nobody should come into the city proper," he added.
In Male, military front man Abdul Raheem Abdul Latheef confirmed troops had moved in.
"The military has not taken over Addu but yes, our men are on the ground,"he said.
"We are guarding the airport and in Addu troops are trying to maintain law and order with the police."Addu City comprises three small islands linked by causeways.
The tourist resorts are located on small coral islets a short plane flight away.
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Officials with the Mexican Procuradoria General Republica (PGR) or attorney general's office have jailed two officials allegedly involved in a scheme to acquire loans from private banks for the Coahuila state government using fraudulent means, according to Mexican news accounts.
Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores and Jorge Lopez Alarcon were imprisoned at the Distrito Federal (DF) prison, Reclusorio Norte del Distrito Federal, where the two will be held as a federal district judge proceeds with the case.
The two men were among the 12 former and current public officials officials that the PGR said were involved in a program of document forgery to secure loans from local Mexican banks. In late December, 2011, the 12 had been summoned to Mexico City to explain their involvement in obtaining loans through false pretences.
The amounts of the fraudulently obtained loans vary according to news reports, but the latest report said the amount involving the two arrestees is more than MP $1 billion (USD $77 million). That money was secured in 2011, at about the time Humberto Moreira Valdes resigned his governor's post to become Partido Revolucionario Institucional president. Moreira was forced to relinquish that job after suffering weeks of attacks from politicians, from within his own party as well as PRI's rivals, for his role in the run up of debt in Coahuila, much of which was apparently fraudulently obtained..
Two of that group, Javier Villareal Hernandez and Sergio Flores Ricardo Fuentes had their bail revoked by a Coahuila state judge Wednesday, both men said to have fled the jurisdiction.
El Diario de Coahuila reported late Thursday that Villareal was arrested along with his wife, Maria Botello in Smith County, Texas following a traffic stop for improper display of vehicle license tags. A vehicle search turned up USD $67,000 in cash.
Reports say two children were in the car with Villareal and his wife, along with a third unidentified adult. It is unknown if the children were Villareal's, or of their legal disposition.
Villareal was held for six days until bond was posted of USD $20,000 for the charge of money laundering He was released February 6th. Wednesday's news reports placed Villareal in Cuba. Villareal's booking photo is here. Maria Botello's booking photo is here. An image of the arrest record from Smith County is here.
According to news reports and official announcements made Thursday, five other officials with newly issued PGR arrest warrants were named, but cannot be served because they have probably fled Mexico.
The officials include:
Miguel Ramon Rodriguez Flores formerly Tesoreria General del Estado de Coahuila, or Coahuila state treasurer.
Sergio Ricardo Fuentes Flores, formerly Administrador General de Políticas Públicas del SATEC or Director of Public Policy under the Tax Administration Service.
Juan Manuel Froto Garcia, formerly General del Fondo de Garantías para el Impulso de la Micro Empresa del Estado de Coahuila, or Director General of the Guarantee Fund for the Promotion of Micro Enterprises of the State of Coahuila.
Enrique Ledezma Sanchez, formerly Subadministrador de Políticas Públicas del SATEC, under Undersecretary for Public Policy of the Tax Administration Service.
Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores formerly Director de Deuda Pública de Entidades y Municipios de la Unidad de Coordinación con Entidades Federativas de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público or Director of Public Debt and Municipal Entities Unit Coordination with Federal Entities of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
To read the Rantburg report about the investigation by the PGR in December 2011, click here.
All seven individuals under investigation have been charged with felonies under the Ley de Instituciones de Crédito or Credit Institutions Act. That law permits prosecutors to charge suspects with felonies if loans are obtained through false pretenses, or cause material loss to the credit institution, according to reports on the PRG announcement.
Some of the fraud was uncovered in May, 2011 when Coahuila banks attempted to collect on loans and were told the loans were fraudulently made.
While on the surface it may appear bank officials were fooled into believing the loans they made were good, their lack of diligence regarding loan documents could be characterized as nothing short of willfull blindness.
In at least one instance, Coahuila bankers had been flown to Mexico City aboard official aircraft to accompany public officials as those loans were registered with the Mexican secretary of the treasury.
To date no official of any Mexican bank involved in loaning money to Coahuila has been publicly questioned about their role in the loans.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Britannia's Prince Harry could return to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Thursday, after he qualified as an Apache attack helicopter pilot with a special award for his gunnery skills.
The 27-year-old -- the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and third in line to the throne -- has completed 18 months of "intensive" training including a stint in the United States.
Harry received a prize for being the best co-pilot gunner at a dinner on Wednesday to celebrate the completion of training by around 20 pilots, St James's Palace said in a statement.
He was given a polished 30-millimetre round from an Apache cannon, mounted on a stand, at the dinner at Wattisham Air Station in Suffolk, eastern England, where he has been training.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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Hat tip to Prince Harry! No draft deferments or field mission work to France for him.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] La Belle France's ambassador to Liberia is struggling to clear his name in a sex scandal involving street girls.
The diplomat has, through Press statement, asked the Liberian Foreign ministry to take "necessary actions" against journalists he accused of publishing "false and misleading information" about him, regarding his alleged involvement in a sex scandal that could cause a rift between Monrovia and Gay Paree.
The ambassador is accused of sexually enslaving two Liberian girls whom he met at a popular local entertainment centre called 'Red Lion' in Monrovia.
A few of Monrovia's dailies on Monday and Tuesday reported that the two Liberian girls had alleged that the ambassador had hired them for $400 but failed to pay the full amount after an advance of $100.
"As a diplomat representing another country, this is damaging to my private life and my work as ambassador," the ambassador said at a presser in Monrovia on Wednesday. Prostitution is illegal in the West African country.
The French Embassy in Monrovia, following repeated calls for clarification, said in an official reaction to the alleged sex scam that the ambassador had reported the matter to the ministries of Justice, Information and Foreign Affairs and was expecting the authorities to quickly institute an investigation into the matter.
"This is grave and it affects the dignity of a human being, the private life of the ambassador, but also the image of the Republic of La Belle France, an image voluntarily being damaged by some journalists for reasons best known to themselves," the embassy statement released on Tuesday said.
"First of all, the name of the ambassador of La Belle France is not Jacques Gerard as claimed by the papers, as Jacques Gerard was my predecessor and he left in August 2009," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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JERUSALEM -- In a high-stakes gamble, an imprisoned member of a Palestinian militant group has waged a hunger strike for almost two months, trying to draw attention to Israel's military justice system and its treatment of detainees who can be held without charge for lengthy periods.
Khader Adnan, 33, has refused food for 55 days, making his hunger strike the longest ever waged by a Palestinian detainee. With his condition rapidly deteriorating, Israeli authorities, who consider him a terrorist, are nonetheless scrambling to keep him alive. His death could turn the previously obscure Adnan into a Palestinian hero and set off new violence.
That, unfortunately, is the only reason to spare Khader...
Adnan, a member of the armed group Islamic Jihad, has lost 60 pounds (27 kilograms) and now weighs about 140 pounds (63 kilograms). His skin is discolored, his hair has fallen out, he cannot walk, and he has been shackled to his bed, said lawyers and his wife Randa, who have seen him in a series of Israeli hospitals.
He is drinking water that is occasionally enhanced with electrolytes and vitamins he needs to keep him alive. His condition is considered severe.
The whole point of a hunger strike is to shock your enemy into changing his behavior. Stalin understood that; that's why he always let hunger strikers starve to death. After a short while no one did hunger strikes in the Soviet Union anymore.
It's callous of me to say that Khader should be granted his wish. I know. But Khader can end this and find a less stressful way of protesting. The Israelis can't yield or they'll have a hundred Paleos starving on the Cindy Sheehan smoothie hunger strike diet, and HRW and AI all over them as usual.
Or they could do what (I believe) they do in USA prisons when prisoners try this: Tie him down then stick a tube down his nose, into his throat, and pump pureed food into his stomach. Not fun for the prisoner, but it keeps him fed whether he wants to be or not.
The protest could not only cost Adnan his life but could also have political implications.
Islamic Jihad, a violent Iranian-backed militant group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, has vowed to punish Israel if Adnan dies.
But they're vowing Dire Revenge regardless...
The group could fire rockets into Israel from its stronghold in the Gaza Strip, where it has recently built up a powerful arsenal of new weapons.
Adnan was a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. It isn't known if he directly participated in attacks on Israelis.
But it's a good guess...
Adnan is being held under a policy known as "administrative detention," said his lawyer, Tamar Peleg-Sryck. The system allows Israel to hold suspected militants without charge based on secret information that is not shared with lawyers. It is generally used in cases deemed high-risk.
"Adnan was arrested with an administrative arrest warrant for activities that threatened regional security," an Israeli military spokesman said without elaborating. "An appeal was filed by the defendant and it is under review."
Adnan is being held under guard at an Israeli hospital, and prison officials say they are watching his condition closely. The prison service declined comment Thursday, but officials have said in the past that they have permission to force feed Adnan if necessary.
Adnan's lawyers appealed the detention order Thursday at a special hearing in the hospital, said Mahmoud Hassan, one of his lawyers. There was no ruling and the judge could take a week to give his decision.
Hassan, who works for the prisoners' advocacy group Addameer, said he was barred from discussing specifics of the hearing. But he said Adnan attended the hearing in a wheelchair, his hands and feet in shackles. He spoke with difficulty and vowed to continue his hunger strike.
Adnan is only allowing doctors from the Israel branch of Physicians for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross to check on his condition. Neither group would comment.
The second longest hunger strike in Palestinian history was by a woman who refused food for 43 days before she was released in 1997.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/10/2012
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to be successful as a hunger striker - someone has to care. I don't. Starve, you paleo scum. No virgins for you!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2012 8:09
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#2
I guess that paleo diet really does make you lose weight.
#5
He is drinking water that is occasionally enhanced with electrolytes and vitamins he needs to keep him alive. His condition is considered severe.
I recommend taking him off the lytes and vitamins. A teaspoon of salt dissolved in a cup of apple cider vineger (hot, hot as he can stand it) twice a day might help the hair loss. Same for the lawyers.
[Dawn] Forty one Paks disappeared under mysterious circumstances have been traced out while eight of them have died, the government said in a report.
The government told the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, headed by retired judge Javed Iqbal, that many of the disappeared people were still in the custody of country's law enforcement agencies.
Though authorities mentioned names of the dead but they did not say causes and circumstances of their death.
A copy of the report available to the Dawn.com disclosed that six were from northwestern Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley where Pakistain army launched an operation against Islamic fascistiin 2007. They included Abdul Laiq, his brother Mohammad Laiq, Moazmeen Khan, Pervaiz Khan, Zor Talab Khan, Lahore Khan.
Whereas, Shahid Mehmood and Wadera Jalab were from Attock-Punjab and district Kohlu of 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... respectively.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has recently opened a case of another eleven out of them four men had died in the custody of intelligence agencies.
The relatives of the dear departed filed a petition in the court after they found their bodies in a hospital in northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar. The remaining seven are still with the agencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
I think if you find the corpse, they're no longer "missing"...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Nigerians have decamped in droves to neighbouring Cameroon to escape violence claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... group and Dire Revenge™ attacks by Christians.
"Everybody is insecure in Nigeria. The fear is all-pervading," said a Nigerian Christian priest, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , in Fotokol, a Cameroonian border town where dozens have taken shelter in the last few weeks.
It is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the bastion of the shadowy Boko Haram sect which has been blamed for a slew of terror attacks that have sowed panic in Africa's most populous nation.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Moslem north and predominantly Christian south.
Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria's north, but its demands have varied.
"Many Nigerians like myself have decamped their villages in the south. We feel secure in Cameroon," the priest said in Fotokol.
"That is why I am sheltered here," he added. He has rented a house which is about 10 minutes by cycle of violence to the nearest town in Nigeria, Gamboru Ngala, where he heads the local Catholic church.
It is difficult to gauge the exact number of Nigerians who have decamped to Cameroon as they cross the border illegally, but there are easily dozens sheltered here since the attacks and tit-for-tat ripostes by Christians.
Mahamat Tujani, a Moslem trader from Maiduguri, decamped to Kousseri near Fotokol. "I abandoned my business and my family to seek refuge at the home of my cousin," a Cameroonian, he said. "I beat feet out of fear."
He hoped to return home soon, he said, "but if the killings continue, I will bring over my family members here."
Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of kabooms in Nigeria's Moslem-dominated north. It grabbed credit for January 20 coordinated bombings and shootings in Nigeria's second-largest city of Kano that left at least 185 people dead -- Boko Haram's deadliest attack yet.
The August suicide kaboom of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed at least 25 people was also attributed to the group. "When you scent danger, you must escape," the priest said.
"Even in the Gospel, the Lord says the moment you sense danger, you must escape. If you don't it's suicide," he said.
The priest said two Christians from the mainly Christian Igbo ethnic group were killed in Mobi in Adamawa state about three weeks ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2012
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#1
File under How the Death Cult Spreads.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2012 10:31
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[An Nahar] Egyptian Bedouin kidnapped two coppers and 17 conscripts in Sinai on Thursday after a primitive was killed in a shoot-out with police, security officials said.
The officials said the Bedouin took the coppers at gunpoint after attacking their station near the border with Israel in the increasingly restive peninsula.
They said the kidnappers, who took their captives to a desert location not far from the station, had reached an agreement to release the coppers but have not yet freed them.
The official MENA news agency reported that the gunnies had only besieged the coppers in their station, without abducting them, and later withdrew after negotiations with tribal leaders.
Militants belonging to Bedouin tribes, which complain of discrimination by the central government in Cairo, stepped up attacks on police and a pipeline exporting gas to Israel after president Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... overthrow last year.
Earlier this month, armed Bedouin briefly kidnapped two American women and their Egyptian tour guide in southern Sinai, demanding the release of a relative. The tourists were released unharmed.
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[Dawn] Senators from both sides of the divide on Thursday condemned the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for discussing 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... issue, and termed it as a direct interference in Pakistain's affairs.
No, my dears. When the US Senate moves from talk to ordering the president to act, then you will experience interference.
Raising the issue on a point of order Senator Raza Rabbani said that the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has no jurisdiction to call a hearing on any issue happening in Pakistain.
Rabbani said that there should be a clear message to the US from Pakistain Senate and the Government that such interference was intolerable.
He said that some foreign elements have joined hands to exploit the situation in Balochistan which is against the soverignity of an independent country.
"We cannot surrender our illusory sovereignty in the name of globalisation," he added. Senator Kalsoom Parveen was on the same page.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Security forces killed 126 people in Syria on Thursday, 107 of them in Homs in the latest government blitz on the besieged city, said Local Coordination Committees.
Six people were killed in Maarat al-Naaman in Idlib, ten others in Reef Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , two in Ain al-Arab Koubani in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , and one in Latakia.
Activists said that some of the Homs victims were burned beyond recognition.
"Twenty three people have died in the shelling that began at dawn on the Baba Amr neighborhood and one died in Khaldiyeh," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The bodies of several of the victims in Baba Amr were completely charred," said the head of the Britannia-based group.
Abdel Rahman said the government assault on the central city, which began on Saturday, has left more than 400 people dead.
Ali Hazuri, a doctor in Baba Amr reached by telephone from Beirut, said the shelling had eased overnight but resumed at daybreak on Thursday.
"The shells are raining down on us and regime forces are using heavy artillery," he said.
Omar Shaker, an activist in Baba Amr also reached by phone, added that residents of the neighborhood were hiding on the ground floor of buildings as there were no underground shelters.
"When you venture outside, you can see craters every 10 meters (yards)," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
This kind of heavy handed killing may well be the result of Hezbollah reinforcing the Assad forces.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/10/2012 8:34
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#2
The photos I've seen involve mostly men of military age lying wounded and burka-clad women standing around. It's possible that the Alawite infantry are advancing into the city and calling for artillery strikes or tank fire against any significant resistance.
#3
The destruction in the photos generally tends to be composed of tight shots of a single building rather than wide angle shots of city blocks of collapsed buildings.
[An Nahar] A British court on Thursday tossed in the clink nine Islamists inspired by slain Al-Qaeda lynchpin Anwar al-Awlaqi for planning terror attacks on targets including the London Stock Exchange.
The nine men, who are all British nationals of Bangladeshi and Pak origin, had pleaded guilty to a variety of terror-related offences at a hearing a week ago at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London.
Judge Alan Wilkie sentenced three of the men to "imprisonment for public protection" -- an indeterminate jail term for suspects regarded as dangerous -- while the other sentences ranged from 16 years to five years.
Wilkie said they were "fundamentalist Islamists who have turned to violent terrorism in direct response to material, both propagandist and instructive, issued on the Internet by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula."
Awlaqi, the U.S.-born leader of AQAP, was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen.
Wilkie added that it was a "difficult and complex sentencing" that "gives rise to a number of issues of principle and has a high profile".
Prosecutors said the men belonged to a group of fundamentalists who planned a spate of mail kabooms during the run-up to Christmas 2010 and discussed launching a "Mumbai-style" atrocity.
Four of the men -- Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, from London and brothers Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah 25, from Cardiff -- admitted preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised bomb (IED) in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.
Miah was tossed in the clink for 16 years and 10 months, Chowdhury for 13 years eight months, Rahman and Desai for 12 years each.
Three others, Mohammed Shahjahan, 27, Usman Khan, 20, and Nazam Hussain, 26, all from Stoke in central England, received indeterminate sentences with a minimum of eight years for making longer-term plans which included taking part in "terrorist training" in Pakistain.
Another man, Omar Latif, 28, from Cardiff, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism but was not involved in the specific plots and was tossed in the clink for 10 years four months.
Mohibur Rahman, 27, from Stoke, admitted possessing a copy of Inspire, an Internet magazine produced by AQAP, and was tossed in the clink for five years.
The Crown Prosecution Service said after the hearing that the men were "not members of al-Qaeda but they were clearly influenced" by Awlaqi.
"What they had in common was that they all held extreme fundamentalist religious beliefs and were committed to converting those beliefs into terrorist action," CPS counter-terrorism lawyer Piers Arnold said.
During the case, prosecutors said police found a handwritten target list at the home of one of the men that included the Stock Exchange, the U.S. embassy in London, Mayor of London Boris Johnson and two rabbis.
They also talked about travelling to a orc training camp in Pak Kashmire.
The group, who met due to their membership of various Death Eater Islamic groups, had originally challenged the charges against them and were due to stand trial, but at the 11th hour they changed their pleas to guilty.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
one way of reducing unemployment figures-send all islamist to prison.
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/10/2012 6:42
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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.
NASA's budget for the next fiscal year is likely to include deep cuts to planetary science programs, forcing the space agency to withdraw altogether from an international effort to send two new missions to Mars, experts say.
A cold weather spell has killed at least 44 people in Algeria over the past week, sparking strong press criticism of what it sees as the government's poor response to the emergency situation.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Libya has ordered Syrian diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours, just days after the main Syrian opposition group took over 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
[Dawn] United States Ambassador to Pakistain Cameron Munter on Thursday revealed that supplies for the 
Syrian town of Daraa killed at least seven security forces and 
Zawahiri
[Dawn] A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.
[Dawn] The Afghan-Pakistain jihad is attracting fewer 
Yemeni security forces 
Kurram Agency
Wazoo
Yasser Abed Rabbo.
IN SUMMARY
At least 8 prisoners have been killed in 
[An Nahar] Chinese-made bullets and aircraft bought from Russia are used to commit rights violations in Sudan's Darfur under an ineffective U.N. arms embargo, 
[An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Council gathered in Qatar on Thursday to prepare for meetings with regional blocs on their government's lethal crackdown on protests, an SNC 
[An Nahar] Mediator, a drug licensed for use by diabetics that became widely prescribed in France as a slimming aid, "probably" caused at least 1,300 deaths before it was withdrawn, a study published on Thursday said.
[An Nahar] A 
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Thursday Germany was expelling four diplomats from the Syrian embassy in Berlin after the arrest of two men suspected of spying on regime opponents.
[Dawn] Police have been denied access to evidence to investigate arrival of a packet containing anthrax at Prime Minister Secretariat and directed to keep away from the case, Dawn has learnt.
The army deployed to the Maldives' second-largest city Addu on Thursday as officials struggled to contain outbreaks of violence across the holiday paradise archipelago.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] 
JERUSALEM -- In a high-stakes gamble, an imprisoned member of a Palestinian militant group has waged a hunger strike for almost two months, trying to draw attention to Israel's military justice system and its treatment of detainees who can be held without charge for lengthy periods.
Forty one Paks disappeared under mysterious circumstances have been traced out while eight of them have died, the government said in a report.
Nigerians have
[An Nahar] Egyptian Bedouin kidnapped two 
Security forces killed 126 people in Syria on Thursday, 107 of them in Homs in the latest government blitz on the besieged city, said Local Coordination Committees.
A British court on Thursday 
