Hi there, !
Today Fri 03/01/2013 Thu 02/28/2013 Wed 02/27/2013 Tue 02/26/2013 Mon 02/25/2013 Sun 02/24/2013 Sat 02/23/2013 Archives
Rantburg
531213 articles and 1854439 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 58 articles and 192 comments as of 6:46.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix    Main Page
Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
18:24 2 20:24 Frank G [336105]
13:26 4 18:00 JohnQC [336090]
12:37 11 20:19 watermodem [336108] 
11:40 0 [336080] 
11:21 6 19:09 Barbara [336091] 
03:30 17 21:12 KBK [336124]
03:29 9 23:03 trailing wife [336129] 
03:24 6 21:12 Alaska Paul [336113]
03:23 3 21:55 JosephMendiola [336099] 
03:07 1 20:21 watermodem [336114] 
02:33 1 08:09 Glenmore [336080]
00:00 12 23:49 DarthVader [336095]
00:00 15 22:21 JosephMendiola [336105] 
00:00 5 20:02 ed in texas [336112]
00:00 15 20:31 watermodem [336092]
00:00 9 12:18 Bobby "Keep It In Your Pants" Menendez [336071]
00:00 6 19:30 lord garth [336095]
00:00 7 21:40 trailing wife [336111]
00:00 1 10:24 Besoeker [336091] 
00:00 5 16:20 g(r)omgoru [336079]
00:00 3 14:34 Barbara [336079]
00:00 0 [336081]
00:00 0 [336081]
00:00 0 [336076]
00:00 0 [336074]
00:00 6 21:02 American Delight [336091]
00:00 0 [336084] 
00:00 0 [336077]
00:00 1 13:30 Procopius2k [336086] 
00:00 1 11:28 Besoeker [336085] 
00:00 1 16:28 Zhang Fei [336092] 
00:00 8 17:41 Angie Schultz [336070]
00:00 0 [336075]
00:00 6 21:24 tu3031 [336108] 
00:00 0 [336082]
00:00 1 16:05 Zhang Fei [336115]
00:00 0 [336077]
00:00 0 [336079] 
00:00 0 [336077] 
00:00 0 [336080]
00:00 0 [336079] 
00:00 0 [336095]
00:00 0 [336076] 
00:00 3 08:22 g(r)omgoru [336076] 
00:00 1 14:12 Redneck Jim [336091]
00:00 0 [336084]
00:00 0 [336082]
00:00 0 [336082] 
00:00 0 [336074]
00:00 0 [336078] 
00:00 0 [336079]
00:00 0 [336088]
00:00 0 [336087]
00:00 0 [336079] 
00:00 6 17:30 Ebbang Uluque6305 [336079]
00:00 1 01:51 GolfBravoUSMC [336093]
00:00 2 21:45 badanov [336134]
00:00 1 14:11 Alanc [336078] 
-Short Attention Span Theater-
BREAKING: Hagel Confirmed as Secretary of Defence in 57-41 vote
He and Jawn-boy make a matched set of idiots who will properly, if doubtless ineffectually, represent their employer's views.
The one consolation is that neither is smart enough to do anything other than that Champ tells them to do. So whatever it is they do, you know it's Champ's policy.
Posted by: || 02/26/2013 18:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We can pray that they'll be ineffectual. And hope.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/26/2013 18:59 Comments || Top||

#2  he didn't deserve an up-or-down ote. At least he's Obama's houseboy not the "GOP Senator that cut defense"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/26/2013 20:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
LAPD Officers Sold Guns to Civilians and Gun Dealers, Threatened Whistleblower Who Exposed them
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 13:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because only cops can be trusted with guns....
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Additional

From the comments:

I’m sure the LAPD will investigate this as thoroughly as the did their cop they just extinguished. Kinda like the DOJ got to the bottom of fast and furious.

Interesting collection of tactical weapons and sound suppressors he had. Not heard anything more about them however.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Would it not be better if the police were not armed (by the state) and had to request the aid of fellow civilians in order to get their job done?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||

#4  DOJ will get on this right away as soon as they bury Fast and Furious and Benghazi.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:00 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
'Obama to tell Netanyahu US gearing up for Iran strike'
Probably wishful thinking.
When he visits Israel next month, US President Barack Obama will tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a "window of opportunity" for a military strike on Iran will open in June, according to an Israeli TV report Monday evening.
That's when we'll finally have a carrier ready to send over there?
Obama will come bearing the message that if diplomatic efforts and sanctions don't bear fruit, Israel should "sit tight" and let Washington take the stage, even if that means remaining on the sidelines during a US military operation, Channel 10 reported. Netanyahu will be asked to refrain from any military action and keep a low profile, avoiding even the mention of a strike, the report said, citing unnamed officials.
Champ didn't say June of what year, did he...
In London Monday, Secretary of State Jahwn John Kerry said an Iran with nuclear weapons was "simply unacceptable" and warned the time limit for a diplomatic solution was running out.
For something that is unacceptable, we've been tolerating it remarkably well...
"As we have repeatedly made clear, the window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot remain open forever," said Kerry, on his first international tour as America's top diplomat. "But it is open today. It is open now and there is still time, but there is only time if Iran makes the decision to come to the table and to negotiate in good faith.

"We are prepared to negotiate in good faith, in mutual respect, in an effort to avoid whatever terrible consequences could follow failure, and so the choice really is in the hands of the Iranians. And we hope they will make the right choice," Kerry added.

A fresh round of high-level diplomatic talks were set to begin Tuesday in Kyrzakhstan Kazakhstan -- the first since last June's meeting in Moscow failed to convince Iran to stop enriching uranium to a level close to that used for nuclear warheads.
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 12:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "No, really! We're like sooooo gonna do this. Yeah, real soon now. Srsly."
Posted by: SteveS || 02/26/2013 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  That's why the carriers have been brought home to be mothballed parked
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/26/2013 13:13 Comments || Top||

#3  And Bibi will believe him.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#4  You know him better than I do, grom, but somehow I doubt that.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 14:54 Comments || Top||

#5  And Unicorns will deposit gold coins in the streets of Detroit and Atlanta, oh and we all get a pony.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/26/2013 15:40 Comments || Top||

#6  I believe Obama will say it. He'll say something like, "Hey, hold off. We're lining things up, and almost ready to go."

He'll say anything to keep his friends in Iran on-track for nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/26/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#7  And what exactly is a raid supposed to accomplish? At most it will simply delay things but it might not even do that. Iran is a country about the size of Alaska and as rugged as Wyoming. The only strike that could be effective would be one aimed at regime change. This would mean not just taking out the current Supreme Leader but removing that entire "Islamic Republic" form of government from Iran. Tall order.
Posted by: Cholet Angereting3428 || 02/26/2013 16:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Water Modem: I don't think the carriers in the Gulf are _doing_ anything really super productive at the moment. I think Steve's pointed this out too.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/26/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||

#9  And what exactly is a raid supposed to accomplish? At most it will simply delay things

Delay works fine for Israel's purposes, Cholet Angereting3428. Things move fast in the Middle East, and attention perforce follows events. For some reason Saddam Hussein never did get Iraq's nuclear program back on track after Osirak was destroyed, nor did Bashar al Assad after after Syria's North Korea-built facility was destroyed in 2007. If Iran's facilities are damaged, and Syria falls, Iran is going to have serious concerns about dealing with Hizb'allah, and Gulf Arab money is going to flow toward Iran's unhappy Sunni subjects.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#10  #7 is dead-on - any air strike agz Iran's NucProgs is moot unless backed up by ground campaign, i.e. de facto invasion + occupation, + in any case will result in Iran ordering retaliatory military andor terror strikes agz US-Allied international targets, potens even widin CONUS.

The only rationale the USA = POTUS Bammer has is fear of SHIA = Iran-led Nuctech proliferation into the hands of predomin SUNNI Radical Islamist MilTerr Groups + aligned. THE BAMMER HAS TO PROVE THAT SHIA IRAN IS ARMING SUNNI MILTERR GROUPS WID NUKE-WMD TECHS, DEVICES?DESPITE THEIR WELL-KNOWN, HISTORICAL + COMTEMPORARY INTER-MUSLIM RIVALRY.

Nuke-, Caliphate-wannabe Iran is making D **** SURE THE US HAS NOTHING SAVE HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE OR DUBIOUS = SUPERFICIAL REASONS TO MAKE WAR AGZ IT. In a worst-case scenario invol the US, Shia Iran wants make sure its Sunni rivals are on its side ASAP AMAP ALAP, not on the side of the US-Allied.

The Chinese are back at Gwadar - all Iran needs is a potent Russian naval squadron or task force
on one or more of its Gulf seaports, e.g. Chandahar.

LASTLY, IFF THE US IS ATTACKING IRAN, IT S NOT GOING TO BE FIGHTING CHINA OVER IN NE ASIA + SCS DUE TO "SEQUESTRATION"-LED US-SPECIFIC CUTBACKS + OTHER.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 18:29 Comments || Top||

#11  If intentionally done wrong - hitting their bio-warfare ICBMs could make life interesting for Iran.
Posted by: watermodem || 02/26/2013 20:19 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Over 50 Militants Killed in N.Caucasus in 2013 - FSB Chief
Russia’s top domestic security official said on Tuesday more than 50 militants, including 14 group leaders, had been killed in Russia’s North Caucasus since the start of the year.

“So far, more than 50 militants have been killed, including 14 militant group leaders,” FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee in the southern Russian resort city of Pyatigorsk.

“More than 60 [armed] group members and their associates who committed no grave crimes, turned themselves in to the authorities,” he added.

A total of 66 suspected militants were also detained in that period.

Radical Islamist ideology is becoming increasingly popular in the North Caucasus against the background of the region’s social and economic problems, Bortnikov said.

“Such a trend persists not only in the North Caucasus, but also in a number of regions in the Volga, Urals and Siberian federal districts,” he said, without naming the regions.

“Based on a thorough study of the situation in Russian regions, we need to update regional anti-terrorism programs, anti-extremism measures and crime prevention,” Bortnikov said.

He also called on regional anti-terrorism commissions, law-enforcers and the local authorities to improve their propaganda and information work, especially in regions where extremist ideas enjoy widespread support.

The North Caucasus region is home to a predominantly Islamic population. It has been the scene of over two decades of separatist insurgency, with Islamist fighters involved in frequent attacks on the federal authorities.
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 11:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Officials: Sequester could compromise U.S. intelligence gathering
A trial in the United Kingdom last week exposed al-Qaida's new strategy for attacking the U.S.

Three men convicted of terrorism charges in Birmingham, England, had all received training in bomb-making and other terrorist acts in Pakistan, and had been instructed by their leaders to go west and lay low.

They were not instructed to launch attacks, but to teach others how to launch them. Essentially, they were told to fan out into various western countries including the U.S. and disappear into the fabric of their communities and look for apprentices and opportunities.

With the threat of sequestration only three days away, intelligence officials see a potential opportunity for the likes of al-Qaida and others.

"Allowing sequestration to be imposed at this late point in the fiscal year will dramatically reduce the funding available for the intelligence community to conduct its intelligence mission," says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

The mission of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is to integrate intelligence analysis and collection to inform the decisions that are made from the White House to the foxholes. As al-Qaida operatives try to slip in and burrow deep in the U.S., the intelligence community may be without some of its key players at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 11:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Allowing sequestration to be imposed at this late point in the fiscal year will dramatically reduce the funding available for the intelligence community to conduct its intelligence mission," says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

(1/2)*0=>0
Posted by: Unasing Schwarzeneggar4897 || 02/26/2013 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  General, may I suggest pulling funds from other areas, such as those for 'Green initiatives'? Surely there are intelligent, innovative people working for you that can find ways to deal with it.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/26/2013 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  How about just kicking all the Paks out of the country?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/26/2013 13:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Or, we could just charge the ChiComs sales tax for the intellectual property we are allowing them to pilfer, cross charge it agains the debt held and call it a wah. Poof, a significant portion of the debt crisis goes away and we could then use the savings to support the intelligence of actually admitting that the "main enemy" is under cyber-attack by the Chinese, and we are getting out asses handed to us. The generational technology leaps their military has made using stolen military secrets and defense industry secrets has closed the parity gap to perilous levels.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/26/2013 15:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Sequestration? Are there not TARP funds that have not been spent that could cover the $85 million to be sequestered? I get tired of this endless black money hole in Washington!
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, it's gonna be a freakin' disaster (NOT)
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 19:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Title IX for our boys
In The K-12 Implosion, an Encounter books "broadside", I suggest that public education may be in trouble. The problem is not so much that public schools are getting worse -- overall, they're more or less stagnant. We've been putting more money in and not getting better results out.

The problem for public schools, instead, is that the alternatives are getting better. Not long ago, there weren't many other choices: You could send your kids to a traditional private school (either religious, or socially upscale, usually) but that was about it.

Now there are other choices. Large urban school districts are losing students at an alarming pace. They're going to charter schools, to online schools and to home-schooling. But now there's another reason for parents to think about moving their children out of public schools -- the boys. It seems that teachers -- overwhelmingly female -- just might be prejudiced against boys and it's hurting their grades.

Stereotyped as "naughty," boys quickly learn that they are thought of as dumber and more trouble than girls. And that has consequences. "When boys aged seven to eight were told that they tend to do worse at school than girls, they scored more poorly in reading, writing and mathematics tests than those who were not primed for failure. And telling children aged six to nine before a test that both sexes were expected to do equally well improved the boys' performance." But the message that boys get is that they're not as smart.
And not just in USA
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 03:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336124 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No, It's the UK too.

The system was changed to favour girls.

Feminism means one thing, sexism against men, and they are vile enough to discriminate against male kids too.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 6:03 Comments || Top||

#2  What do you expect from a system set up to indoctrinate kids for a life as factory workers? Get the state out of the business altogether except for distributing vouchers.
Posted by: Spot || 02/26/2013 8:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I meant Israel, BP (I didn't really know the meaning of the term "Feminazi bitch" until I met my son's principal).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 8:15 Comments || Top||

#4  She's simply doing her job and the vision of the left g(r)om. The indoctrination of the youth and acceptance of feminized workforce supervisors and leaders must begin as early as possible. Old white men are so 60's.

Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 8:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Given the vast disparity of female to male ratio of elementary school teachers, doesn't the situation just scream for governmental intervention in the name of 'equality'? /rhet question

It was never about 'fairness' or 'equality', it was about power, privilege, and prerogative.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2013 8:38 Comments || Top||

#6  An interesting, and humorous dynamic that I have observed for decades in fly-over country dealt with female PE teachers, and their lack of ability to become tenured. They would simply quit and disappear, or not be extended for a second year. No discussion or comment from the school board, no cards and letters, very hush, hush.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 8:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Based on the female PE teachers I remember from HS, they probably got married.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/26/2013 10:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Or now Besoeker. She and I had a long conversation and reached an understanding.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#9  "now" ---> "no"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Homeschooling is creating a generation who are well educated and poorly indoctrinated. I pin most of my hope for the future on these kids.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/26/2013 11:20 Comments || Top||

#11  A young talk radio host in a major metro area who was home schooled by his parents is a big conservative hit in the region.

When a liberal calls in to make a comment the young host takes the liberal apart with ease. The liberal ends up sounding totally stupid. An indictment of the pubic education system.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/26/2013 11:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Spot,
I wouldn't even go as far as vouchers. Loans to parents would be a far better model.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 12:00 Comments || Top||

#13  P2k has the truth of it. Outside of a very few women the "movement" was never about fairness or equality or equal work for equal pay. it was about intergenerational grudges and vengeance and establishing superiority for economic advantage. Ditto for other movements like blacks etc.

White men didn't have to, but they ended up, voting to end a society which abridged the rights of women and minorities. It is safe to say at this point that had the situation been reversed, and men/whites were the oppressed class, that women/minorities would never have voted the same way to free whites/men. The data on the ground permit no other logical conclusion. Their behavior in the now is object proof of this.

Posted by: no mo uro || 02/26/2013 13:49 Comments || Top||

#14  My thought on vouchers is simple: it works for college education, why shouldn't it work for primary education?

I had the equivalent of federal and state vouchers when I went to college: the NSDL, Pell, and State of Ohio grants. Wasn't ashamed to claim them, either, as they got me to where I am today. I could go to practically any college without a problem (the Ohio grant I did have to spend in Ohio, of course).

Do the same for primary education: here you go Mr. and Mrs. Jones, here's a voucher for your kid. Pick a school and off you go, public, private, secular, religious, whatever. Schools are licensed and meet the minimum state board standards. Teachers teach.

I'd make one more reform: an end to truancy. Hate to say it but if a kid doesn't want to be in school then I wouldn't force it. Kid isn't going to learn anything anyways in that situation. Find something for the kid to do other than deal dope on the streets and live with it.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/26/2013 14:48 Comments || Top||

#15  I believe the problem with vouchers is much like food stamps/EBT cards. There's no accounting when its spent not on vitals but on non-essentials. When I was in Korea, the local elementary school kids came home about one in the afternoon, had a lunch and then, by families pooling their own resources, spent the rest of the afternoon with a tutor. The families were spending their own money and damn well expected the kid to make an effort for that consumption of personal income.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2013 16:50 Comments || Top||

#16  Procopius2k:

Doesn't matter to me how the vouchers are spent. The whole idea is a refund of money you were taxed for public education and didn't use. It's a tax refund, which is always good. Comparisons to food stamps and the like make no sense. Those are transfer payments. Tax cut vs transfer payment is a no-brainer.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/26/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||

#17  Steve, it's called vo-tech. Go to high school or learn a skill in a structured environment.

That doesn't mean a free pass to the streets to deal.
Posted by: KBK || 02/26/2013 21:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Virginia’s Dar al-Hijrah Imam Calls for Armed Jihad
Sheik Shaker Elsayed, the imam of the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Va., advocated armed jihad before an Ethiopian Muslim group gathered at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. last week.

"Muslim men when it is a price to pay, they are first in line," Elsayed said in comments seen on a YouTube video found by the Creeping Sharia blog. "They are the first in the prayer line. They are the first in the zakat (charity) line. They are the first in the hajj line. They are the first in the clean-up line. They are the first in the community-service line. They are the first in jihad line. They are the first in the da'wa line."

"But they are last if anything is being distributed, unless it is arms for jihad," Elsayed said. "We are the first to rush and run to defend our community and defend ourselves. The enemies of Allah are lining up; the question for us is, 'Are we lining, or are we afraid because, because they may call us terrorists.'"

Being called "terrorists" should not matter to Muslims because Muslims are being called terrorists anyway, Elsayed said.

"You are a terrorist because you are a Muslim," Elsayed said. "Well give them a run for their money. Make it worth it. Make this title worth it, and be good a Muslim."

Elsayed then told Muslims to accept peace when they receive peace, but to fight back when their families, communities, nations and dignity come under attack.

He has been Dar al-Hijrah's imam since 2005. Law enforcement officials have described the mosque as being "associated with Islamic extremists" and "operating as a front for Hamas operatives in U.S.

Elsayed's comments contradict statements he made in a 2005 interview on National Public Radio.

"I believe there is no apology for terrorism. We condemned it; we condemned it on 9/11, I personally signed a paper on behalf of the organization I worked for at that time and sent it everywhere to the press. I spoke with the press," Elsayed said.

This isn't the first time Elsayed has endorsed terrorism. He denounced calling terrorists "suicide bombers, homicide bombers, or murderers, or killers" in a December 2002 speech.

"To decide that this man is a martyr or not a martyr, it is a pure religious matter," Elsayed said. "Nobody who is not Muslim has any right to decide for us, we the Muslims, whose is a martyr or another. We as Muslims will decide that. It is in-house business."

His name also appears in a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document detailing the group's plan to wage a non-violent civilization jihad to destroy "Western civilization from within."
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 03:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336129 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I feel better since he signed a letter on 9/11. Send him back and throw humour the plane somewhere during flight.
Posted by: chris || 02/26/2013 4:27 Comments || Top||

#2  This cesspit in Falls Church needs to be bulldozed and used for something useful.
Posted by: Clusong Gromort6441 || 02/26/2013 4:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Isn't there something about "inciting to riot" that could be brought against this scum?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  alanc

The criteria for 'incitement' is pretty high because the courts take a pretty literalist view of the 1st amendment
Posted by: lord garth || 02/26/2013 10:01 Comments || Top||

#5  lg, I understand what you're saying and I have little time for courts on this sort of issue eventhough I'm a libertarian at heart.

But when he says "Make this title worth it, and be good a Muslim." and the title in question is terrorist and the intent is to kill unbelievers that needs to be brought out.

Take him to court and get these sentiments on the record and out in public, it doesn't matter if he gets off the charge.

If some white militia leader comes out and says all whites should kill blacks how long do you think he'd be on the loose?

Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 12:28 Comments || Top||

#6  I believe the threat of violence has to be imminent to be a crime. So his "be a terrorist" speech is legal, because jihadis take time to have their work accidents, but responding to him with "lynch the bastard" would be criminal if it were said in front of an angry crowd with him present.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/26/2013 16:46 Comments || Top||

#7  For information, and because I looked it up, the definition of Dar al Hijrah, as seen in a Wikipedia about something else:

dar al-hijra (Arabic: مركز دار الهجرة الاسلامي‎; land of migration, place of refuge).
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 18:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Just to be clear - is El Sheikey calling for pan-Islamic "armed jihad" in Ethiopia = Africa, or for for international/global "armed jihad" including but not limited to CONUS-NORAM???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 18:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Just to be clear - is El Sheikey calling for pan-Islamic "armed jihad" in Ethiopia = Africa, or for for international/global "armed jihad" including but not limited to CONUS-NORAM???
Just to be clear, JosephM, he's calling for jihad at home in the U.S. and abroad.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 23:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza rocket slams into South for first time since truce
Police say Grad rocket explodes in Ashkelon, causing damage in first such attack by terrorists in Gaza Strip since the ceasefire following Operation Pillar of Defense; no injuries reported, rocket caused damage to road.
And so it restarts
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 03:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336113 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think I've seen this movie. Sucked the first time, hope the Israelis change the ending this time.

Let's bring back the idea of hostages for good behavior. Announce that one of three leaders of Hamas will be "droned" everytime this happens.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah, just destroy Gaza, and be done with it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/26/2013 14:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm with RJ.

Enticing some human shields idiots to go there first to "protect" the Gazooks would be icing in the cake. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 15:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, Barbara & RJ if you're gonna be that way about it.........I always thought Israel should have just annexed the place and kicked all the Gazooks back to 'gypt where they belong.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 17:03 Comments || Top||

#5  That works too, Alan. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Shut down power and make a plan to start a steady gradual decreasing of water supply. Israel needs to be done with these clowns.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/26/2013 21:12 Comments || Top||


Africa North
U.S. National Intelligence Office sued for Benghazi documents
The Obama White House has decided to turnover documents related to the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to news reports on Friday evening. But a non-government organization is continuing its lawsuit against Obama's Office of National Intelligence to access the documents for itself.

Despite continuous cover-up allegations, misstatements, verbal gymnastics and other evasions, a top public-interest, watchdog group on Thursday announced that its officials had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against President Barack Obama's Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The FOIA lawsuit seeks access to records regarding the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamists on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

During the violent terrorist attack, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were brutalized and murdered by radical Muslims associated with al-Qaeda. The documents requested from the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and as well as other documents.

The non-profit, non-partisan Judicial Watch is seeking a questionable “talking points” memo indicating that intelligence officials believed from the outset that Islamic terrorists perpetrated the vicious attack despite public statements issued by Obama administration officials, including UN Ambassador Susan Rice and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that attributed the attack to a response to a YouTube anti-Mohammad video.

Judicial Watch seeks the following records in its FOIA request:

Any and all memoranda, assessments, analyses, and/or talking points regarding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya and/or the killing of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence between Sept. 11, 2012 and Sept. 20, 2012. This request includes, but is not limited to, the “speaking points” memorandum referred to by Senator Dianne Feinstein during a televised interview on Oct. 17, 2012.

According to Judicial Watch, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged receiving the group's FOIA request on Oct. 19, 2012, and was required by law to respond by Nov. 26, 2012. But the DNI so far has neglected its duty to produce any records responsive to the request.

Regarding the “speaking points” memorandum requested by Judicial Watch, according to the CBS Affiliate in San Francisco: “When asked by CBS 5 if there was an intelligence flaw, the senior California senator [Feinstein] who hails from San Francisco replied: ‘I think what happened was the director of intelligence…put out some speaking points on the initial intelligence assessment. I think that was possibly a mistake.’”
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 03:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Best of luck with that.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 5:48 Comments || Top||

#2  "Today the White House sought an increase in budget for 'Redacting Sharpies™'"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/26/2013 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Shouldn't that be the US "Global Intelligence Office/Agency"???

IIRC DOONESBURY = D *** NG IT - "COMTEMPORIZE, MAN, CONTEMPORIZE"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 21:55 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Informant Warns Blind Sheik Still a Threat
An FBI informant who has helped catch some of the world's most dangerous terrorists is coming out of witness protection to warn that a terrorist sheik in prison remains a significant threat to the U.S.

Emad Salem is urging the U.S. to keep the ailing 74-year-old sheik Omar Abdel Rahman behind bars and to not transfer him, even as governments overseas continue to press for his release.

"He will kill Americans," said Salem. "He will kill anyone who disputes what he says with a fatwa."

Salem, a one-time Egyptian military officer, had warned officials about the looming 1993 World Trade Center bombing but his warnings were ignored after a lie detector test was inconclusive and he said he would never testify at any trial.

After the bombing, Salem agreed to become an FBI informant and managed to become the sheik’s personal assistant and bodyguard. Salem was able to record the sheik ordering the killing of Americans during his time in Jersey City and Brooklyn.

Salem was also able to link the sheik to the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in that first attack.

Now Salem is concerned about the mounting pressure on the U.S. from Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and other Mideastern government leaders to get Rahman out of American custody.

In one letter dated Feb. 26, 2008, the justice minister of Qatar relayed a request from Rahman's family asking U.S. officials to have him transferred back to the nation to serve the rest of his sentence. They said they wanted to be able to visit him more easily, according to the letter by Qatar Attorney General Dr. Ali Bin Fetais Al Marri.

More recently, on this 20th anniversary week of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Rahman's sons wrote on their family website that "America will pay a terrible price" if he is not released soon.

"The rain begins with one drop. America should expect more violent reactions if it does not release the sheik," the sons wrote on the website.

The sons pointed to the killing of the U.S. Ambassador as an example of terrorists acting on behalf of the sheik. The terrorists in that attack are believed to have called themselves the “Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman Brigade” in honor of the blind sheik.

The family also pointed to the recent attack on a gas plant in Algeria where hostage takers demanded the sheik be set free or American hostages would be killed.

The sons said they are hopeful Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will make progress in working to free the sheik next month or it will "review their options."

Experts said the sheik’s family is intensifying an already active campaign to both seek the sheik’s release and inflame passions among the sheik’s extremist followers.

The sheik has also been able to call his relatives twice a month from his prison, NBC 4 New York has learned. Officials said the calls are monitored, and his relatives tell NBC News' Ayman Moyheldin that the calls are personal in nature and do not include calls for a violent jihad.

But in one posting on their website, Rahman's sons posted a political message they said was from the sheik. In that message, Rahman urged Egyptians to vote for Dr. Mohammed Morsi in the recent presidential election "because he is the candidate who represents Islam and represents the revolution."
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 03:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336114 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some spoiled prison food could remove the sheik from being in the gene pool....
Posted by: watermodem || 02/26/2013 20:21 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Furthermore
Word from Tehran is that there’s some unhappiness in Iran over the Academy Award-winning movie “Argo.” It’s the story of six American diplomats who escaped after Iranian revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in 1979. A self-described specialist in “anti-Iranian films” recently told the New York Times that “we need an answer to this and other films” that depict Iran in a less than flattering light. Maybe they could start by not seizing embassies, not celebrating the anniversary of the kidnappings, abandoning their nuclear ambitions, ending support of terrorist groups and respecting the human rights of their own citizens.
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 02:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Had not considered bothering with this movie, and the Oscar win made me even less likely to, but THIS 'endorsement' may change my mind.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/26/2013 8:09 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Found: Prehistoric Indian Ocean Mini-Continent
[An Nahar] Scientists said Sunday they had found traces of a micro-continent hidden underneath the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
Ahah! It's Fabled Mu. Madame Blavatsky will be pleased. Someone give her a call on her higher plane of existence.
The slab, dubbed Mauritia, was probably formed around 61-83 million years ago after Madagascar split from India, but eventually broke up and became smothered by thick lava deposits, they said.

In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists analysed beach sand on Mauritius that contained ancient cubic zirconiums zircons between 660 million and about two billion years old. The minute chips of mineral were a remarkable find, as they were buried in sand formed only recently in geological terms -- from nine-million-year-old volcanic rock.

"The zircon points to the existence of fragments of an ancient micro-continent beneath the island (Mauritius), pieces of which were brought to the surface by recent volcanic activity," said a Nature statement.

The Indian Ocean floor may be littered with hidden land fragments that broke off as the once super-continent Pangea split up and formed the continents we know today, the paper suggests.

Pangea began to rift about 200 million years ago, yielding Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the north. Gondwana in turn split into Madagascar, Australia, Antarctica and India between 80 and 130 million years ago.

The new study suggests that Mauritia became detached when Madagascar and India split up.

The Seychelles, it adds, could be like Mauritia -- another continental fragment that, however, is visible.
Geologists in scuba gear -- what could be more fun?
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, yeah? Well there's a chunk of Arkansas that floated up from south of the equator someplace and got sandwiched into the rest of the North American Plate. That's why Arkansas is the only place within a thousand miles with diamond mines.

No, I can't find the link - it was in an old Scientific American article, before it went communist.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/26/2013 6:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, yeah? Well there's a chunk of Arkansas that floated up from south of the equator

But Arkansas /= scuba gear, Bobby.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 7:25 Comments || Top||

#3  The new study suggests that Mauritia became detached when Madagascar and India split up

I see a whole new field of social work: geologic-family counseling.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/26/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  As opposed to the historic one, presumably.

Grammar, people. It's not just a good idea.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 14:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Family counseling for islands and continents.

Happy now?

pedantic ass
Posted by: Pappy || 02/26/2013 15:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Pappy is trying to bring back Pangaea Muggsy. I for one say they separated for a good reason, there were serious rifts among them. Working with them has a hole would be like jumping thru a Ring of Fire.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 16:04 Comments || Top||

#7  I had a Madagascar once....

6 miles per gallon in the city and 12 mpg on the highway and it burned three quarts of oil a week.

I gave Madame Blavatsky a call on her higher plane of existence, but I could only reach Willim Q. Judge and he said and I quote here "Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child."
Posted by: Thiter Dribble8541 || 02/26/2013 16:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Ahah! It's Fabled Mu.

No, it's the fabled Lemuria. This is exactly where Lemuria was supposed to be. (And it was Lemuria, not Mu, which so fascinated Madame Blavatsky.)

Unfortunately, this continent is apparently too old to be Lemuria, since it predates the appearance of mammals. I am disappoint.

Posted by: Angie Schultz || 02/26/2013 17:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Seminary student among six shot dead in city
[Dawn] Six people, including a seminary student and a factory owner who fell prey to sectarian killings, were bumped off in the city on Monday, police said.

They said that a student of the Jamia Binoria was bumped off and another maimed in an attack apparently on sectarian grounds on Shahrah-e-Quaideen on Monday.

They said that gunnies riding a cycle of violence sprayed a car (ABG-834) with bullets near the Noorani Kabab House within the remit of the Ferozabad cop shoppe and rode away.

They said that the bullets hit Qari Obaidul Haq, 28, and Nazar Bakht, 30, and they were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
Qari Obaid died during treatment.

The police said that both men were students of Jamia Binoria in New Town.

A senior police officer of the area suspected that the incident was related to the ongoing sectarian strife in the city.

Factory owner killed in Manghopir

The owner of a marble factory was rubbed out in the Manghopir area on Monday, police said.

They said that armed motorcyclists targeted Akhlaq Hussain, 40, the owner of Ghazi marble factory, in Kunwari Colony within the jurisdiction of the Pirabad cop shoppe.

The victim died before he could be taken to hospital, the police said, adding that he was a resident of Awan Colony in Pirabad and originally hailed from Chakwal.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Later, the body was taken to the Incholi Imambargah from where it was supposed to be taken to his hometown for burial.

SSP-West Asif Ajaz Sheikh said the killing appeared to have a sectarian motive.

The victim had been shot a single bullet in the head, the SSP said.

Teenager rubbed out

A teenager was rubbed out near the PIDC area on Monday evening, police said.

They said that gunnies riding a motorbike targeted Asad Anwar, 18, who was also on a bike, within the remit of the Civil Lines cop shoppe and fled.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination. A pistol was also recovered from his possession. He was a resident of Sultanabad, the police said.

The killing took place a few yards from the Chief Minister's House located in the high-security zone.

The police were not sure about the motive for the killing.

'Police informer' killed in Orangi

A middle-aged man, said to be a police informer, was killed in Orangi Town on Monday evening.

Police said that gunnies riding a cycle of violence targeted Nazim Mursaleen, 55, outside his house in Orangi Town's Sector 11 ½ and rode away. The victim was struck down in his prime after suffering a fatal gunshot wound.

A senior police officer said that the victim had remained associated with many political and religious parties, including the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts...
, in the past, but more recently he had become a police informer.

He said that one of the brothers of the victim had also been bumped off in a similar style.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hopsital for medico-legal formalities.

Man found rubbed out

The trussed-up body of a young man was found in Orangi Town on Monday.

Police said that the body was found in the Mohammedan Nagar area in Orangi Town's Sector 11 ½. The victim had been shot in the head.

They said that the victim was identified as Sarfraz, a resident of Gulshan-e-Ghazi, and he was a garments factory worker. He had gone out for work on Sunday but did not return. It appeared that he had been kidnapped and later killed by unknown persons, the police added.

Bullet-riddled body found

The body of an unidentified young man was found in the old city area on Monday morning.

Police said that the blood-soaked body was found in the Paper Market within the remit of the Kharadar cop shoppe. The victim was wearing trousers and a shirt and appeared to be in his mid-20s.

He sustained 12 bullet wounds, the police said, adding that he was killed somewhere else and the killers dumped the body near the Paper Market.

The body was taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
for medico-legal formalities. Later, it was taken to the Edhi morgue for identification.

'Bandit' killed in Landhi

An alleged bandit was killed by area people in Landhi on Monday.

Police said that a lone bandit entered a shop in Landhi No 6 and held the staff at gunpoint. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
area people gathered outside the shop and sensing danger the bandit opened fire.

The area people also returned fire and during the cross firing a rickshaw driver, later identified as Shakeel Ahmed, suffered a bullet wound. The police said that the suspected bandit was also maimed and was struck down in his prime.

The police claimed to have recovered a TT pistol from the possession of the alleged bandit.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities. Later, the body was taken to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.

Suspect killed in 'encounter'

Another alleged bandit was killed and his accomplice was maimed in a police encounter in the Grumandir area within the remit of the Jamshed Quarters cop shoppe on Monday.

Police said that gunnies were busy robbing a store when a police patrol arrived at the scene. The suspects opened fire on the police, who also returned fire.

They said that one suspect was struck down in his prime while the second suspect, identified as Shaharyar, was tossed in the slammer
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
in maimed condition. He was taken to the Civil Hospital for treatment. The dear departed could not be identified till late in the night.

The police claimed to have recovered pistols from their possession.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Talks with the enemy
[Dawn] A MULTI-PARTY conference called by the Awami National Party recently endorsed talks with "law-abiding" Pak Taliban. The topic was picked up by the media. From what I could tell, the mood seemed to be amenable to giving the idea a shot.

Then came the Quetta tragedy. The media's tone changed completely. The conference's wisdom is now being questioned and parties like the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
who have called for talks with the Pak Taliban for long are being put on the mat. The question is an emotive variant of: 'how can we talk with those who carry out such heinous acts?'

Let us first be clear on what we are talking about.

The issue of talks has come up in the context of the insurgency in the northwest where the Pak Taliban have fought for control of territory against the Pak state with some success. This implies that we are approaching the Pak Taliban as an bad boy force (even though they use terrorism as a tool as well), distinct from the many other purely terrorist outfits. Otherwise, our purview for talks would have been much broader to include the likes of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
(LJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba, Sipah-e-Muhammad, etc.

The LJ-perpetrated incident in Quetta then has little to do with the idea of talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain.

Second, an objection to talks on the basis of the bad boys' past violent actions is comical. By definition, when states talk to bad boys, they are talking to people who have committed heinous crimes against it. That is the whole point: to talk them out of violence. So the common objections to talking with the Taliban are off the mark.

In deciding whether to approach the Taliban is a good idea, the calculus has to revolve around: (i) who are we talking to; (ii) what are they likely to ask for; and (iii) what is the most we can offer them? Talks will potentially be worthwhile if we can answer the first question clearly and find at least some overlap between the second and third.
Otherwise not.

So who do we wish to talk to?

The multi-party conference's endorsement of talks with the Taliban who respect the law of the land is an oxymoron. You can't possibility respect the Pak constitution if you are part of a proscribed organization and have been fighting the state.

But let us be a bit more liberal in interpreting this: parties like the PTI correctly point out that the Pak Taliban conglomerate is not a monolith. They say we should talk to the amenable ones -- read, the less violent or least recalcitrant actors. If so, then this is about talking to the periphery.

Fair enough. We can talk to the periphery and see if they are willing to rejoin the mainstream. But this is neither here nor there for two reasons.

One, the periphery won't be able to dent the overall momentum of the conglomerate's activities. Two, no one is stopping the periphery from joining the mainstream even now. There are many who have broken off from the Taliban ranks and have been allowed to live within the framework of Pak laws (as long as they were not part of the core of the movement and were not involved in major attacks).

To be of any consequence then, the initiative has to be about pacifying the core of the Pak Taliban. A formal politically backed process makes little sense otherwise.
Can we pull this off?

The answer depends on what we are willing to put on offer for the Taliban. If it is a demand for them to give up violence, lay down arms, and ask for forgiveness, it's a non-starter. It will defy all benchmarks for successful talks between states and bad boys.

Insurgents will accept your demands when they are the defeated party and face obliteration if they resist any longer. The states will cede territory or allow power to faceless myrmidons if the result on the ground is the opposite. In stalemate situations, successful talks will necessarily entail give and take.

Our situation can most accurately be defined as a stalemate. The Pak Taliban have fought the state for almost a decade. They have failed to defeat it even in their strongholds but more importantly, they have not lost either. They have maintained their clout in Fata and seem to be raising their head again after facing major setbacks since 2009-10. The Pak state has fought them courageously but is visibly bruised and battered. Incidentally, this is why we are even thinking of talking to them in the first place.

Before broaching formal talks then, the state needs to be absolutely clear on what the Taliban's demands are and whether it is willing to concede on any of them.

We don't have any clear indication from the TTP except that their demeanour is not that of a defeated party. They are thus most likely to put forth maximalist demands: allow them to rule the roost in their strongholds; impose Sharia in and beyond their strongholds; remove military presence from much of Fata and the adjacent territories; and force the US to end drone strikes or break ties with Washington.

The state should negotiate seriously if it is willing to concede on some of these demands. But if we want to stay away from providing them a legitimised "Wild West" where the Pak state will lose all control and if we want to avoid remaining a persistent worry for the world, this is a bad idea.

Giving in to these demands will only strengthen the Taliban further. In all likelihood, the state will have to show up again with its military might a few weeks, months, or years later to confront a much more defiant Pak Taliban.

Let us talk about talks with the Taliban only after the military has packed the punch successfully enough to leave no doubt as to who the winner is. Short of that, the TTP's demands are likely to be unacceptable for any Pak who wants to be part of a moderate, progressive polity.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "Far as I'm concerned," Sam said, "if they give us any more grief, we should just nuke 'em and be done with it." "Nuke 'em," Ben agreed. "Back to the Stone Age. Shadowfire - page 244
Posted by: Whaise de Medici9987 || 02/26/2013 10:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Target lock. Ready to fire.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 14:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "Nuke 'em," Ben agreed. "Back to the Stone Age."

But whattaya do when they're already in the Stone Age? :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 15:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Give them one way tickets to the Grub Age.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 16:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Neolithic or paleolithic?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 16:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
20 years ago today
First WTC attack to be remembered on 20th anniversary

Before it was destroyed with so much else on 9/11, a granite fountain honored the victims of the first World Trade Center attack when a truck bomb exploded in an underground garage in 1993, kiilling six people and injured more than 1,000 others.

On Tuesday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will mark the 20th anniversary of the first attack by presenting a plaque to family members of those killed. The plaque will eventually will be placed at the bi-state agency's new headquarters, to be located in Tower 4 of the rebuilt World Trade Center site.

The names of those killed in the Feb. 26, 1993, bombing are cut into the bronze parapets of the National Sept. 11 Memorial, along with nearly 3,000 victims of the 2001 attack that destroyed the Twin Towers.

The six people killed included four Port Authority employees: Robert Kirkpatrick, 61, Stephen Knapp, 48, Bill Macko, 57, and Monica Smith, 35, who was pregnant and scheduled to start maternity leave the next day. The two others were John DiGiovanni, 45, a dental products salesman; and Wilfredo Mercado, 37, who worked at Windows on the World.

"It is fitting that, as time goes on, we continue to stop and reflect on this terrible tragedy and the lives that were needlessly lost," Port Authority Chairman David Samson said in a statement.

Tuesday's ceremonies will include a 10:30 a.m. mass at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Lower Manhattan, where the plaque will be presented, and a moment of silence at 12:18 p.m., near the North Pool on the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, followed by a reading of the victims' names.

Six Islamic fundamentalists were convicted in the attack in federal court, including mastermind Ramzi Yousef, who was sentenced to life in prison.

The truck explosion blew a hole in the garage several levels deep, sent thick smoke rising through the Twin Towers, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The repaired and polished towers reopened after several weeks, and remained standing for another eight and a half years.
Posted by: Beavis || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the Clintons, Al Gore and the rest of the Democrats had their chance to make history.

They failed...............badly.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 14:11 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan police accused of corruption and child abuse
[BBC.CO.UK] BBC Panorama reporter Ben Anderson spent five weeks with US Marines working to advise Afghan security forces in Helmand province. While he was there, he witnessed corruption and criminality among the Afghan police force.

Most police forces investigate crimes like corruption, kidnapping, drug use, murder and child abuse. But in Sangin - the most violent district in Afghanistan - these are crimes that some of the police commit.

Politicians insist the handover to the Afghan security forces is going smoothly and that they will be able to maintain security as the allied forces withdraw.
It's their culture, you bigot -- stop judging! Besides, isn't Helmand Pashtun territory? Those Pashtuns have an extra special culture. There are songs about them.


Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The corruption is not limited to the Police. The Afghan Border Patrol (ABP) get first dibs in the cross-border smuggling rackets.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 10:24 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Car Blast Wounds Pro-Hizbullah Yaroun Municipal Chief in Tyre
[An Nahar] Hasan Awada, the municipal chief of the southern town of Yaroun, was maimed on Monday when a blast destroyed his car as he was driving it in the Tyre area of al-Housh, state-run National News Agency reported.

Security forces immediately cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the incident, NNA said.

The agency added that Awada was rushed to Lebanese-Italian Hopsital for treatment. But Voice of Leb radio (93.3) later reported that the municipal chief's wounds required his transfer to the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut.

Citing reports, the radio station said the kaboom was caused by a bomb.

A security source later told Agence La Belle France Presse that the car was booby-trapped, noting that Awada is close to Hizbullah.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Arabia
Violence grips southern provinces - point of no return say separatists
[Yemen Post] For the fifth consecutive days, Yemen southern provinces are gripped by an escalation in violence, with reports of armed festivities in Aden - southern seaport city - Seyoun and Mukallah - eastern province of Hadhramawt - between separatists and the Central Security Forces.

On Monday afternoon in Crater, residents reported seeing from the Security Forces chasing down unarmed Haraki forces of Evil - Southern Secessionist Movement - down alleyways and streets, weapons at the ready.

Just after Asr, a Doctor in al-Haddadin Street - Crater - witnessed an armored vehicle pursuing two civilians on foot, while two snipers were shooting live ammunitions. "I heard shooting and screaming .. .a few seconds later I saw two young men running while being chased by an armored vehicle. A sniper started immediately shooting at them. I could see the bullet hitting the balconies right above them. Those two men were unarmed and could not have been much over twenty years old."

Lina a housewife in Sheikh Othman also said violent shoot outs took place in her neighborhood, forcing her and her family to stay indoors. I didn't dare go out but I could hear the shooting ... We spent the night listening to the sounds of bullets...sometimes near, sometimes far away.

Relatives in Crater told me the fighting had spread throughout Aden with separatists barricading entire neighborhoods to prevent the Security Forces from raiding beturbanned goons' houses.

Hassan, an Egyptian seaport worker said he was assaulted on Monday as forces of Evil confused him for northerner. "A group of men cornered me asking to see my papers, calling me a filthy northerner ... If it wasn't for my Egyptian accent and the intervention of one of my neighbor who vouched for me I'm not sure what would have happened ... I heard news of people getting attacked and their properties torched."

A man from Taiz - Ahmed Mahmoud - and his family were attacked on Monday by a southern radical. His wife immediately perished under the assault - the attacker came armed with an axe - Both father and sons - 2 - are now at death's doors at the hospital. Having committed no crime Ahmed was attacked because he was a northerner.

Hatred against North Yemen is running at an all time high in the southern provinces as separatists and civilians are understanding Thursday's targeting of their demonstration as a declaration of war.

In Seyoun and Mukallah, forces of Evil are calling for an armed struggle, vowing to Dire Revenge™ their fallen brothers and South Yemen's honor.

Residents in both cities told the Yemen Post armored vehicles and soldiers were already heavily patrolling their streets, all in combat gear, fingers on the trigger.

While the Harak officially declared their struggle for secession open, they refrained so far from calling their supporters to take up arms.

A local Haraki officials noted that while there was still a chance things could get back to normal, he feared North and South Yemen had reached a point of no return.

"The Southern Movement does not want to draw first blood at this point. That being said, many feel Thursday attack was the last straw. I don't see how we can walk from this. As many people pointed out last Thursday, South Yemen revolution already started."
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  More on the Southern movement:

South Yemen Movement, also referred to as the Peaceful Southern Movement (Arabic:الحراك السلمي الجنوبي ), Southern Separatist Movement or Hirak,[3] is a term given to a popular movement active in the former South Yemen since 2007, which demands secession from the Republic of Yemen through peaceful means. As of 2010, it was shown to have the support of 85% of the southern population.[citation needed]
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/26/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Islamists attempt to halt construction on Shubra al-Kheima church
[Egypt Independent] A group of Islamists surround the Abu Maqar Church in Shubra al-Kheima on Monday in an attempt to stop construction on the church's annex, claiming that the building is not licensed, said sources from the Qalyubiya security department.

Security forces were deployed to the area to convince the group to step down and allow work to resume, the sources claimed.

Ramsis al-Deiry, a member of the Shubra al-Kheima archbishopric's Millet Council, said group of Salafis and members affiliated with the Moslem Brüderbund surrounded the building and prevented workers from resuming construction.

The church has all the required license from the municipality for the construction, which had been postponed due to a lack of security and ongoing political instability, Deiry said.

"When the engineer started constructing the building, we found several complaints. Consequently, West Shubra District engineers urged approval on the renewal of the work, according to license issued by the municipalities. A decision was then issued for 15 days to correct the construction. When the engineers, contractor and workers started on the correction on Monday, everyone was surprised by the group of Salafis and Brotherhood [members] who surrounded the building and prevented workers from working," he stated.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


-Lurid Crime Tales-
The case of the phantom ballots: an electoral whodunit
[MIAMIHERALD] Somebody rigged a computer program to fraudulently obtain more than 2,000 absentee ballots in three races. The plot didn't work. But it could have.

About 2,000 rejected absentee ballots at Miami-Dade Elections Department, mostly for lack of signatures or review of signatures from the last election.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336111 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Voter fraud of any kind should be punishable by death. It is basically treason and should be treated as such. Any non-citizen caught voting should go in the organ banks.

No mercy for traitors.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 02/26/2013 9:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Some admitted to voting 6 times.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Charge the winner $1.000.00 per fake vote. for every vote.

That's you Obama.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/26/2013 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Peanuts. Vote fraud is practiced at the wholesale level these days--enough to swing any but the most lopsided elections.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/26/2013 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Generally, voter fraud is punished by a felony conviction which in theory prohibits someone from ever voting again. However, as Minnesota (ie Al Franken election) has demonstrated such 'tags' have little meaning when it comes to voting. Convictions are set aside or abrogated by completing service or keeping a clean record for a probationary period of time, thus not a real punishment for the crime committed.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  No mercy for traitors.

I like your style! Off with their heads. Slowly.
Posted by: SAM at work || 02/26/2013 13:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Besoeker, the local Fox News station reports the case went up before the county Board of Elections last week, which is taking it seriously.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 21:40 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Suspected Killer of Tunisia Opponent Arrested
[An Nahar] The suspected killer of leftist opposition figure Chokri Belaid, a leading critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists whose murder sparked a political crisis, was jugged
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
on Monday, police sources said.

They said the suspect was arrested along with an alleged accomplice, both members of the radical Mohammedan Salafist movement. The main suspect, a 31-year-old furniture maker, was arrested in the Carthage suburb of Tunis.

The second man was allegedly the getaway cycle of violence rider for the lone, hooded gunman who rubbed out Belaid, 48, at close range in front of his Tunis home on February 6, two coppers told Agence La Belle France Presse.

They said the arrests were carried out on the strength of the testimony of a woman who had witnessed the killing and has since been placed under police protection.

Several online media also reported the two arrests, but the interior ministry front man was unreachable for comment.

Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, who has been tapped to form a new government in the face of the deepening crisis sparked by Belaid's killing, said last week that arrests had been made.

"The investigation has not led yet to identify the killer, those behind the murder and its motives," said Larayedh, refusing to elaborate or disclose the number of arrests.

Belaid's family has blamed the ruling Ennahda party for being behind the killing, an accusation the Islamists have vehemently denied.

The liquidation triggered days of unrest as people took to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, epicenter of the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, exacerbating a long-running political crisis in Tunisia.

On the day of the murder, prime minister Hamadi Jebali proposed the formation of a government of technocrats as a way out of the crisis. But the initiative was rejected by his own Ennahda party, leading to his resignation.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Protesters in Nasr City call for military rule
Bring out the Mamluks!
[Egypt Independent] Hundreds demonstrated in front of the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Nasr City in support of the Armed Forces on Monday, rejecting what they called attempts to "Brotherhoodize" the army.

They rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the Moslem Brüderbund and Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, blocking all traffic on Nasr Road.

Al Jizz Mubasher Misr reported that the protesters were calling for the army to take over power again, frustrated with what they view as President Mohamed Morsy's poor performance over the past seven months.

The military has been a central force in politics since army officers staged an overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.

In an interview with state TV on Sunday, Morsy sought to dispel speculation that there were growing tensions between the army and his administration.

"There could never be disagreement between the Armed Forces and the presidency, because the president and the Armed Forces are not two factions, they are one, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is extremely professional," Morsy said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Left begins justifying tyranny "it's for your own good": A positive review from the elite press
Long, long. The short version is that the author dances around tyranny, carefully justifying it, and taking the mildest view of everything. They're putting John Stuart Mill on the chopping block. Of course, leftists' own liberty must be unrestrained as they will be the ones making choices for the rest of us.

The author is Cass Sunstein.
Posted by: gromky || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Begins? When did they stop?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 3:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Make the state sole rationer of treatment opens up avenues to monitor and coerce everyone in the country!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting. Cass Sunstein is married to Samantha Power. I didn't know that.
Posted by: Unese Gleck9477 || 02/26/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  It's good to see the Borg getting involved in politics. Cass Sunstein makes a fine Locutus!
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/26/2013 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  They have always loved telling others what to do.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 13:28 Comments || Top||

#6  FOAD, Cass. And take wifeie and your minions (and all the rest of you grabby bastards) with you.


(QUESTION: If minions are your cronies below you, what are your cronies above you?)
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 14:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Left begins justifying tyranny "it's for your own good"

Same rationale of the plantation owners, who happen to have a strong corollary with a particular political party.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Cass R. Sunstein is the author. That says enough. Tyranny is never justified; it is the absence of freedom.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:17 Comments || Top||

#9  The problem is that the left believes their own B.S.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:18 Comments || Top||

#10  The problem is that the left believes their own B.S. for everybody else, but not themselves.

FTFY, John.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 18:44 Comments || Top||

#11  The Liberal Christian slant on this has always been "its for the good of others!" Sorry, but we are at a point now when the adults MUST put the mask on first before they help others. The life guard MUST punch the lights out of the drowning man in order to save him.

Posted by: Ptah || 02/26/2013 21:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Someone tries to take away everything I have worked and fought for, and tells me it is for my own good will get a .45 through the head. It is for their own good you know.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 23:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistani transgender candidate to run for office
[Dawn] A member of Pakistain's transgender community is to contest upcoming general elections on a ticket of equal rights, saying the community has more to offer than begging or dancing at weddings.

The elections, due by mid-May, will mark the first democratic transition of power after an elected government's full term in Pakistain's 65-year history.

It will also be the first time Pakistain's estimated 500,000 "eunuchs" are eligible to seek office, after the Supreme Court in 2011 ordered the government to issue them with identity cards and to register them as voters.

In Pakistain, the word "eunuch" is also used to refer to hermaphrodites, transsexuals, transvestites and homosexuals in addition to castrated men.

Those classified as eunuchs are traditionally paid to help celebrate the birth of a son, or to dance at weddings.

"It is not our destiny to merely dance for others and hold begging bowls. We have a life to live," Sanam Fakir, 32, told AFP by telephone from the town of Sukkur in Sindh.

The elections will be for the national parliament and provincial assemblies.

Seats in Pakistain are often won on a patronage basis, giving wealthy landlords and entrenched political parties a huge advantage.

Running as an independent in Sukkur, which is traditionally dominated by the main ruling Pakistain People's Party and which has a tiny transgender community, Fakir's chances are slim of winning a seat in the Sindh provincial assembly.

"We are not corrupt. We have no need to be corrupt. We have no families and our own needs are limited. We are contented people," Fakir told AFP.

"I know it is very difficult to defeat them, but everyone should contribute for the betterment of society," she added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  That takes balls - or does it?
Posted by: Raj || 02/26/2013 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Deathwish 6 ?
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/26/2013 13:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Better make out your will, Fakin. Just sayin'....
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 14:34 Comments || Top||


India arrests man for 'spying for Pakistan'
[Dawn] An Indian man has been jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
on charges of spying for Islamabad on military war-games staged on India's border with Pakistain, Indian police said on Monday.

The 35-year-old man is accused of passing on details of the exercises held by the Indian Air Force on Friday in the western desert state of Rajasthan, senior state police officer DS Dinkar told AFP.

Dinkar identified the man as an Indian national called Sumaar Khan and said he was allegedly spying for Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "passing information related to Indian defence installations and military activities".

Police alleged the man used mobile phones and Internet to transmit information but did not say when he was arrested.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Blast at shrine in Shikarpur leaves three dead
[Dawn] A blast at a shrine in interior Sindh has left three people dead and several others injured, DawnNews reported.

The kaboom took place at the Dargah Hajan Shah Mauri shrine in Shikarpur when a large number of devotees were present.

Reports suggest that a man riding a cycle of violence threw a grenade and fled from the scene, while eyewitnesses said that an unknown individual left a bag at the site, after which there was an kaboom.

The dead and injured have been shifted to a local hospital. Many of the injuries are reported to be serious.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Chase Masterson[Filmography](age 50)



At Sunset, Sound Retreat and lower the Flag slowly


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/26/2013 1:51 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Family of 5 shot to death in La Laguna

For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Five individuals were found shot to death at a residence in Ciudad Lerdo in Durango Sunday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, the incident took place at a residence in Laureles colony Sunday morning, where the family, two adult males, a minor girl and their mother, were found by local police shot to death.

The dead were identified as Ana Patricia Gonzalez Gonzalez, 44, Jesus Antonio Olguin Gonzalez, 21, Octavio Olguin Gonzalez, 23 and Iliana Eunice Olguin Gonzalez, 9. Also found dead inside the residence was Hugo Cesar Castro Vazquez, 43.

Mexican press accounts say the shooting was unrelated to gang or drug crime.

Ciudad Lerdo is one of the main Durango municipalities in La Laguna region and has dodged much of the drug and gang related violence, unlike Gomez Palacio or Torreon in Coahuila state, just across the state border.

Meanwhile in Gomez Palacio, four suspects were detained by a Policia Federal road patrol Monday. According to a news report posted on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, the patrol had observed the four suspects travelling aboard a vehicle at an excessive rate of speed. Briefly the driver of the vehicle attempted to flee, but quickly stopped.

Police found two handguns, three weapons magazines, 14 rounds of ammunition, a fragmentation grenade, 400 packages of marijuana and 200 packages of powder cocaine.

The detainees were identified as Victor Ernesto Orta Perez, 20, Felipe de Jesus Garcia Galaviz, 31, Juan Antonio Vazquez Navarro, 22 and Alejandro Ivan Rivas Fuentes, 28.

The news account hinted that the four could possibly be linked to the murder of the five traffic police agents last Thursday in La Laguna including four in Gomez Palacio, as well as the four arson fires set in businesses owned by the former major of Gomez Palacio, Rocio Rebollo.

About the resignation last week of Rocio Rebollo, Durango radio journalist Ruben Cardenas said on Twitter: "Gomez Palacio has no police, and now no mayor."

Drug and gang crime in Gomez Palacio has been so bad that parents are removing children from school based on rumors that local schools could be attacked using small arms or arson fires.

According to a separate news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango, the Primaria José Rebollo Acosta primary school in Felipe Angeles colony was emptied of students at around 1100 hrs when rumors came to light of narcopintas, or messages left by local drug gangs, threatening attacks on local schools.

The report also hinted other schools in Gomez Palacio had reported absentees, even though teachers remained at the schools.

A late report posted Monday evening on El Siglo de Durango reported that a man was found shot to death in a gated community in Gomez Palacio. Jose Alfredo Carrillo, 44 was found shot once in the temple in his residence in Las Noas colony.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336134 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just as an aside, at dinner at the Indian restaurant tonight, the Mexican server (I know, but he was) was very excited to read the article and tell me all about goings on in Michoacan, where his parents still live. The cut off heads with machetes, donchaknow (and of course I did -- thanks, badanov!). He thinks President Pena Nieto is a crook, unlike Calderon, who actually fought the drug gangs. All in all an interesting evening.

You may garner a new audience from it, if his son can show him how to find the site again. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 21:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks, TW.
Posted by: badanov || 02/26/2013 21:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
4 Civilians Killed in Helmand IED Blast
[TOLONEWS] At least four non-combatants were killed and two others were maimed in a kaboom in the southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province Monday morning, locals officials said.

The incident happened at about 09:00 am local time in Marja district when the vehicle they were traveling in hit a roadside kaboom, provincial police chief Abdul Nabi Elham said.

The injured were taken to a nearby hospital; all the victims are civilians, he said.

No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the blast. Insurgents use improvised bombs to target Afghan and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
troops, but most of the victims are civilians who are unwittingly caught in the blast.

The UN recently released a report stating that the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan has dropped for the first time in six years, but the number of injured has increased.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Louis Farrakhan: Gang Members Can Serve As Protectors
UNIVERSITY VILLAGE -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told thousands of followers Sunday he was planning to reach out to gang leaders to help "protect" the Nation of Islam.

That came at the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours' Day convention. Farrakhan, 79, renewed the call for African Americans to pool money and buy as much land as possible, in order to "control means of production" and produce food and other goods, such as clothing.

Farrakhan told a crowd of more than 7,000 people at the UIC Pavilion that national politicians are using reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
's violence epidemic to push for stronger gun control laws but said the Second Amendment has nothing to do with the spate of shootings in Chicago.

"The guns that every one of our young people have, are they legal? No!" Farrakhan said.

Instead, Farrakhan had a different idea for how to address gun violence. In addition to sending letters to black military leaders, Farrakhan said he planned to contact the city's gang leaders to recruit gang members to "protect" any land the Nation of Islam might buy in the future.

"All you gangbangers, we know you love to shoot, but you're killing yourselves," Farrakhan said. "All your weapons are illegal and you're using them like savages."

But Farrakhan said gangbangers are "natural soldiers" and could be taught "the science of war" to become protectors of the Nation of Islam's assets in the future.
They're absolutely not "natural soldiers." He's confusing guys waving guns with real soldiers, who're trained and disciplined.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Farrakhan, 79, renewed the call for African Americans to pool money and buy as much land as possible, in order to "control means of production" and produce food and other goods, such as clothing.

Spoken like a true communist!
Posted by: Raj || 02/26/2013 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Or as streetlight ornaments?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 3:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Note the [keywords] calls for "protection", the "pooling" of money and for "control".

Louis is a classic, tribal separatist. Neither he nor the Champ truly believe in an integrated United States. Louis has always yearned for his own Swart Vrystat '[black free state] where he would become the anointed king. Like fear and hate, Islam is simply one of his tools. The exploitation of existing criminal elements and the infiltration of political structures, prisons, and the military to achieve these goals are classic techniques.

All very interesting, but should come as no surprise.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 5:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Why, yes, he is clinically insane. Why do you ask?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 11:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Buy what you want, you forgot about land taxes, you don't pay, you lose it. EVERY YEAR.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/26/2013 14:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Besoeker, I'm not saying you are wrong, but why wouldn't he then move to either a small state that he and his followers could take over (and cause white flight) or move to the state that had the highest black population to start from?

It's like he's a lazy racist.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/26/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#7  He doubt he's want to leave his Chicago base.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#8  He doubt he's want to leave his Chicago base.

Like Moses, stopping at the heights of Mt. Nebo overlooking the land without ever entering into it...

Only, y'know, not being one of the damned-to-hell juices that he and the future Secretary of State celebrate a shared dislike of.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/26/2013 15:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Like Moses, stopping at the heights of Mt. Nebo overlooking the land without ever entering into it...


Served him right for leaving without a decent map and not stopping and asking for directions. No wait.... it was something else wasn't it.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 15:59 Comments || Top||

#10  It's like he's a lazy racist.

These days, calling a black person lazy is said to be like calling him a racial epithet. In future, before using any adjective to describe a black person, just think of all the good things that come to mind when you think about the black community. Musical, talented and muscular are some of the words you can use without appearing prejudiced. For instance,

It's like he's a musical, talented and muscular racist.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/26/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Why, yes, he is clinically insane. Why do you ask?

Farrakhan is L Ron Hubbard in Islamic clothing. His whole shtick is to get rich off his congregants. He's not nuts - he's crazy like a fox.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/26/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#12  As "protectors" Farrakhan will likely hire people with the IED Disorder.

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a behavioral disorder characterized by extreme expressions of anger, often to the point of uncontrollable rage, that are disproportionate to the situation at hand. It is currently categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as an impulse control disorder. IED belongs to the larger family of Axis I impulse control disorders listed in the DSM-IV-TR, along with kleptomania, pyromania, pathological gambling, and others.
Posted by: Thiter Dribble8541 || 02/26/2013 16:38 Comments || Top||

#13  He wants gang members to protect his gang members.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/26/2013 18:36 Comments || Top||

#14  Reminds me of my old paperback novel "SIEGE", abou a black revolt in the US includ attempt to set up a African-American sovereign republic inside America, save only to change cities to CHICAGO.

DETROIT???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 22:01 Comments || Top||

#15  As per the so-called "CANTONIZATION/ENCLAVIZATION
" OF AMERICA, + now OWG + NAU 2015 [+ Trans/Interim, etc.],"borders" are just a "quaint" or archaic lines on a Kiddie book or some dusty, pre-NWO "Old Order" University textbook - the OWG + NAU WILL HAVE THE POWER, NOT WASHINGTON DC ALBEIT THE LATTER WILL LIKELY STILL BE THE CAPITAL OF THE US PER SE.

Foreign worker or domestic Minority-American, AFTER 2015 WASHINGTON CAN NO LONGER BE COUNTED ON TO SERVE-N-PROTECT ANYONE'S INTERESTS OR AGENDA ON ITS OWN.

Pragmatically, FARRAKHAN + US Muslims will need all the help they can get once Jihad + Islamist insurgency begins to routinely occur in the US. FARRAKHAN'S + US AFRICAN-MUSLIMS' WAY OF LIFE AS THEY HAVE KNOWN IT IN AMERICA = AMERIKA MAY BE CHANGED FOREVER ONCE SECULAR AMERIKA DEVOLS INTO HARDLINE ISLAMIST ISLAMERIKA???

The Demoleft + aligned in Amerika have another thing coming iff they think Radical Islam's Hard Boyz will readily accept their political dominance + surrender like France to Secular Leftism/Marxism-Socialism.

DEM OR GOP OR INDEPENDENT, ETC. THE HARD BOYZ WILL PREFER FIRST TO BEHEAD 'EM ALL.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 22:21 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Nigerian Scammer On FBI Most Wanted List Captured
[LEADERSHIP.NG] A notorious US born Nigerian fraudster who was placed on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 'Most Wanted list' has been captured after eluding authorities for over four years.

Mr. Tobechukwu Enyinna Onwuhara, 33, described as 'a criminal mind' by the FBI for stealing $44 million dollars from US banks using sophisticated methods, including stealing bank customers' personal information, Home Equity Lines of Credit details and account numbers, was nabbed in far away Australia.

FBI had previously explained how the conman escaped arrest in the state of Florida and went underground afterwards.

Although, FBI did not say how and when Onwuhara was captured, a mug shot of the scammer on its website listed him as 'captured.'

FBI agents say Onwuhara was born in Houston and sent to live with his wealthy Nigerian father, Prince Doris Onwuhara who the Bureau say is a 'well-known con man who made a fortune from the notorious Nigerian 419 scheme' before returning to the United States when he reached his teenage years in 1999.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336112 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Captured, and sent to work as a trustee for Harry Reid?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/26/2013 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Prince Doris Onwuhara
Hello and my name is Sue, how do you do?
Posted by: tipper || 02/26/2013 10:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey!!

where's my $20 Million?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/26/2013 17:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Can I have him for awhile? Castration with rusty scissors would be appropriate for these scammers.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:15 Comments || Top||

#5  He was arrested in Australia and charged with being in on the Lehman bros collapse and the facebook IPO. Oh not really.
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/26/2013 20:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Over 400 activists arrested, claims ASWJ
[Dawn] Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat
...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
(ASWJ) central Information secretary Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqui, who had survived a life attempt in December in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, and Bahawalpur chapter chief Rao Javed Iqbal have alleged that more than 400 activists of defunct Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
were locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in police crackdown on Saturday night throughout Punjab.

Addressing a presser here on Sunday, Aurangzeb Farooqui criticised the statement of Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
about involvement of LJ men in terrorist activities. He rejected Malik's claim that LJ had two groups being led by Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi and Malik Muhammad Ishaq. He said ASWJ was not involved in Quetta carnages. He said by courting arrest, Malik Ishaq had proved his innocence. He said sectarian incidents did not take place 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...
. "In fact attacks in Quetta are the result of feuds."

He alleged that some of the foreign powers were involved in the firing incidents in Balochistan.

He said a crackdown on ASWJ workers had been carried out following sit-ins by families in Quetta and all over the country.

Farooqui protested against the killing of his men in Karachi and appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistain Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take its notice. He denied any contact or alliance with the Punjab government.

He dispelled allegations of acquiring funds and arms from foreign countries and said his party was not an agent of any foreign power and was loyal to Pakistain.

Rao Javed Iqbal said police tossed in the slammer
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
five to eight workers from each district of Punjab during the crackdown while six activists were nabbed in Bahawalpur district.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


Arabia
UN Team Starts Investigation into Iranian Weapons Seized in Yemen
[Yemen Post] A UN team started on Sunday an investigation into the Iranian arms cargo which was seized by the Yemeni authorities last month.

The team arrived in Aden early today and has so far inspected the Iranian weapons that included anti-aircraft missiles, very dangerous explosives and other equipment, which the authorities have recently said had been sent to the Shiite Houthi Group, the state Saba agency reported.

"We came here to help the Yemeni authorities to investigate the weapons sent by Iran in an effort to collect information about the cargo and report that to the Security Council which should decide on measures then," the agency quoted chief of the team as saying. "We will also investigate the crew of the ship onboard which the weapons were seized," the chief expert added according to the agency.

The cargo was seized on the ship Jihan 1 on January 23rd as part of several arms seizures in Yemen in recent months including thousands of Turkish-made pistols and equipment.

The visit of the team came after the Yemeni government officially asked the Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee to help investigate the arms cargo at a time when Yemeni is accusing Iran of meddling in its own affairs through providing weapons and financial support to the Shiite Houthi Groups and some secessionist factions in the south.

Iran has denied the accusations and lately senior Yemeni officials said their country has rejected an Iranian request to help on the investigation.

Observers said Yemen has been a transit hub for smuggling weapons into many conflict areas in the world and that such arms cargoes are threatening the West-backed power-transfer deal and the country's stability.

Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Africa Horn
Darfur Tribal Fighting 'Killed 510' in Seven Weeks
[An Nahar] More than 500 members of an Arab tribe in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region have been killed and almost 900 maimed in seven weeks of festivities, an MP representing the district said on Monday.

The toll is far higher than figures previously given for the fighting between the Rezeigat tribe and rival Arabs from the Beni Hussein group in the Jebel Amir gold mining area of North Darfur.

Aid workers say the fighting has caused the region's largest uprooting of the population in years.

"The number of deaders from January 6 until February 23 is 510, including women and kiddies. Another 865 were maimed," Adam Sheikha told news hounds. He said all the casualties belonged to his Beni Hussein tribe.

MP Sheikha represents El Sireaf district where the violence has been concentrated.

It is unclear how many Rezeigat were killed.

Sheikha said that 68 villages had been burned to the ground, with 120 partly burned, and that 15 women were raped.

In the latest attack, on Saturday, residents in El Sireaf town said a Rezeigat militia fired heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, burned houses and killed more than 50 people.

Peacekeepers on Sunday airlifted 37 maimed civilians, including a woman and two children, for treatment in the state capital El Fasher, the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
-U.N. Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said in a statement late Monday.

Up to 200 died during festivities in January, Amnesia Amnesty International said earlier, adding that Sudanese security officers were reportedly involved.

Sheikha, of the ruling National Congress Party, said the militia who carried out the weekend assault "came on government vehicles carrying state-issued weapons and they got their salaries from the state."

Attempts to reach a Rezeigat source were unsuccessful.

North Darfur governor Osman Kbir said on Monday that officials were "containing the situation and normalizing life at El Sireaf locality after intervention of the armed forces," the official SUNA news agency reported.

But Sheikha said militia are surrounding the displaced who are confined within an area of seven square kilometers (2.7 square miles).

On Tuesday Darfur marks 10 years since rebels from non-Arab tribes began an uprising against the Arab-dominated government.

However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
"the major issue" in the region now is not rebel attacks but "ethnic violence" such as that in Jebel Amir, Darfur's top official Eltigani Seisi has told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He admitted that government-linked militia in North Darfur have "committed atrocities against innocent civilians" but he said the gangs are to be disbanded.

The U.N. said 1.4 million people were already living in camps for Darfur's displaced before the Jebel Amir violence.

It cited figures from the government's Humanitarian Aid Commission which said about 100,000 people had been displaced or severely affected by the inter-Arab fighting since January.

Sheikha gave a higher number, saying 20,000 families had been uprooted, which would mean around 200,000 individuals.

"Most of them are living under trees, taking residence in schools and government offices. They are in a bad humanitarian situation, bad health situation. The students cannot go to school," he said.

Ali al-Za'tari, the U.N.'s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, expressed "profound concern about the safety and well-being of civilians in El Sireaf town", where most of the displaced sought shelter since January.

"Humanitarian organizations have been coordinating closely with local government authorities and with the UNAMID peacekeeping mission in Darfur to deliver urgently needed surgical supplies and to evacuate seriously maimed people," Za'tari said Monday.

Mohamed Yonis, UNAMID's officer in charge, said that he hoped "tensions in the area will ease and the reconciliation process will resume" in coming weeks.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Rebel Chief Says Fall of Assad Prerequisite to Talks
[An Nahar] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
must fall, "all the killing" must end and the Syrian army must withdraw from all cities before any dialogue can begin with the regime, rebel chief Selim Idriss said on Monday.

The Free Syrian Army's chief of staff Idriss spoke to pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya after a groundbreaking statement in Moscow by Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem that Assad's regime is "ready for dialogue with all who want dialogue, including those who are carrying arms".

"Muallem wants us to sit with him at the negotiating table... I am not going to sit with him or with any other member of his clique before all the killing stops, or before the army withdraws from the cities," said Idriss.

The rebel chief also called for "the departure from power of the head of this criminal gang (Assad)".

"Security and army heads who gave orders to kill must be tried," he added.

"We, the rebel fighters, will not go (to the negotiating table) until these demands are respected... We insist on these conditions," said the general.

"We have not received an official proposal for talks with guarantees. We do not trust the regime.

"But we are willing to meet and discuss if there are clear foundations" for such talks, Idriss told the Saudi-owned channel.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  They must be taking negotiating lessons from The One.

Or the Rooskis - what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/26/2013 6:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, they certainly use the same techniques as the Paleos.

"Give us everything we want and then will negotiate the rest."
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, they certainly use the same techniques as the Paleos.

Look up the origins of "Palestinian nation"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UAE Court Upholds Life Terms for 10 Pirates
[An Nahar] A UAE appeals court on Monday upheld life imprisonments handed in May last year to 10 pirates convicted of hijacking a ship east of Oman in the Arabian Sea in 2011, state news agency WAM reported.

The sentences, which equates to 25 years in jail, will be followed by deportation, WAM said.

The report did not give the nationalities of the 10 men, but local media had reported that they were Somalis.

MV Arrilah-I was hijacked in April 2011 while on way from Australia to Dubai.

United Arab Emirates special forces, backed by air force units and in coordination with the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet, freed the Abu Dhabi-owned ship a day after it was seized.

The bulk carrier is owned by Abu Dhabi National Tanker Co and National Gas Shipping Co, both subsidiaries of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under: Pirates

#1  Should be Death, there's no further violence that way.

And it's very hard to escape.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/26/2013 14:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Local Elections in Syria's Rebel-Held Deir Ezzor despite Bombardment
[An Nahar] In rebel-held Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, opponents of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's regime hold local elections despite daily bombardment, putting into practice the democracy they have been deprived of for decades.

"For the first time in 40 years, we are voting freely," said Khodr Orfali, a former lawyer who became politically active during Syria's 23-month revolt against President Bashir al-Assad.

On Sunday, Orfali became one of five local council chiefs elected in Deir Ezzor by residents of rebel-held areas, following a model of local leadership set up in several towns and city districts across the country in past months.

"It's a historic day for all residents of Deir Ezzor. People feel free to choose the person they see most fit to help them," the council member-elect told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The councils' role is to help run the daily life of residents in areas where the regime's authority has collapsed, freedom fighters say.

Pasted on the walls of a handful of Death Eater-controlled areas of the city of Deir Ezzor are posters and pamphlets calling on residents to vote.

But the festive atmosphere among voters is marred by heavy rain and incessant bombardment by regime forces, leading election organizers in the Death Eater-held district of Sheikh Yassin to set up a polling station in the basement of a souk.

Dozens of voters gathered, leafing through lists of candidates' names.

"I want to take part in this election to tell Bashar (Assad) that all we wanted was the freedom to vote, and participate in decisions about our country," said Umm Shadi, 56, voting for the first time in her life.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Libya smashes drug smuggling ring
[MAGHAREBIA] The Libyan Coast Guard seized more than 30,500 kilos of drugs
...not what the Mexican reporters refer to as "personal amounts"...
from a boat near Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, navy front man Colonel Ayoub Gacem said on Saturday (February 23rd).

Officers enjugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
two Moroccans, a Libyan, an Egyptian and a Tunisian on Friday after uncovering the drug haul aboard Libya-flagged vessel "Bab al-Bahr".

The boat was stopped in Libyan territorial waters, some 40 kilometres northeast of the al-Bouri oilfield. It was later moved to the Tripoli naval base.

"The anti-narcotics department recorded the shipment, its contents and weight," Colonel Gacem said. He did not specify the type of drugs seized from the boat.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  Hash will be very expensive in Europe in the coming days
Posted by: chris || 02/26/2013 4:18 Comments || Top||

#2  No telling what it was in that part of the world. Heroin, Khat, Hash, you pick 'em...
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Effects range from
less hash used.
substitution to harder drugs.
substitution from other leisure costs.
increased crime.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 12:12 Comments || Top||

#4  You forgot Emergency Airlift BP.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 15:55 Comments || Top||

#5  You like ummm..... Operation Nickel Grass.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

#6  The stoners will never know the difference. We get reports of busts like this between Mexico and the US all the time. It never puts a dent in the supply on the street. They have to make token busts every now and then to make it look like they're doing their jobs, you know. But they aren't.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/26/2013 17:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Rehman asks Punjab to arrest all sectarian militants
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
said on Sunday in Vehari that Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, Quetta and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
were being targeted by beturbanned goons to destabilise Pakistain consequently to hit the economy.

He said this at the opening ceremonies of passport offices in Jehanian and Vehari.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) would launch a crackdown on Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ) and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) if the Punjab government did not take action against them.

He said murders in Quetta and Karachi would not happen if the Punjab government had taken action against the proscribed outfits.

"The nation must know who withdrew cases against (LeJ leader) Malik Ishaq and provided him security," he said.

He said that maintaining of law and order situation was the responsibility of the provinces after the passing of the 18th Amendment and the federal government just shares information with provincial governments.

He said that the Punjab government should take action against 734 activists and leaders of the LeJ and Taliban as the FIA had provided information regarding them to the Punjab government.

"Punjab government should arrest all those people whose names on the list," he said.

In Vehari, he told news hounds that the spate of terrorism was linked with foreign hands because of Pakistain's strategic location and nuclear assets.Mr Malik told news hounds though the government was trying to eliminate terrorism, joint efforts were needed to address terrorism and extremism.

He said he hoped that the nation would overcome the terrorism with the help of law enforcing agencies. He praised the Punjab government for arresting bad turban Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
's activists.

He cited government's Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-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...
initiative by the government to address the Balochistan issue. He said the government had given representation to the Baloch people in departments, especially in Islamabad police. He urged the Baloch youth fighting law-enforcement agencies to become the part of mainstream Pakistain.

He said that government's priority was to hold impartial, fair and peaceful elections in the country.

He advised politicians, particularly to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to be decent while talking of PPP Co-Chairman President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
. He said Mr Zardari had braved 11 years in jail for the cause of democracy.

He said the provision of basic facilities to the people of far-flung areas was the priority of the government.

He said the PPP believed in the politics of reconciliation and mutual co-existence and was ready to work with the PML-N government in Punjab. PPP MNA Natasha Daultana thanked the interior minister for establishing the passport office in Vehari.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Africa North
Egypt Islamist Held for Insulting Christianity Freed on Bail
Of course. There are many different forms of jihad.
[An Nahar] controversial Egyptian Islamist was freed on bail on Monday after he was held in jug for four days on charges of insulting Christianity, a judicial official said.

Ahmed Abdullah, an beturbanned goon preacher also known as Abu Islam, was tossed in the calaboose
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
after Coptic Christian activist Nagib Gibrail accused him of insulting Christianity on a television show.

He was held for four days on orders of the state prosecutor and released on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (around $3,000), the judicial official said.

The grey-bearded preacher has gained a reputation for beturbanned goon and outlandish statements against Christians and liberal opponents.

Abdullah is already on trial on separate charges of tearing apart a bible during protests outside the U.S. embassy in September 2012 when several Mohammedan countries were rocked by often violent demonstrations against an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

One of the bail conditions imposed on Monday was that Abdullah attends hearings of that trial.

A court last month upheld death sentences for seven Egyptian Coptic Christians who live in the United States and were accused of producing "Innocence of Mohammedans," the anti-Islam movie that insulted the Prophet Mohammed.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Government
Kerry Heads to Berlin on Next Leg of Foreign Tour
[VOA News] With the crisis in Syria topping his agenda, U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
is in London on the first leg of an 11-day visit that includes Turkey and the Middle East.

Kerry's next stop in Berlin will be brief, but significant. He is to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
after she returns from a day trip to Turkey. Kerry also is to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Analyst Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations says the ongoing Syria conflict will not be high on Lavrov's list of things to discuss with Kerry.

"These deaths of Russian children in the United States will be the key issue in these meetings. It is very emotional right now in Russia," Meister says.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what today's gaffe's gonna be? 'Ich bin ein Gigolo!'?
Posted by: Raj || 02/26/2013 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  He's got a Kenndyesce speech prepared titled 'Ich bin win Schiesskopf.'
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/26/2013 5:06 Comments || Top||

#3  win = ein
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/26/2013 5:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I am one shithead?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/26/2013 18:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't be so hard on yourself.....
Posted by: Jotch Clogum5083 || 02/26/2013 18:12 Comments || Top||

#6  one of JFKerry's issues was that he opposed most of the US policies that preceded the fall of the Berlin wall; perhaps Merkel will explain things to him
Posted by: lord garth || 02/26/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Opposition Pledges to Attend Rome Summit
[VOA News] Syrian opposition leaders say they will now attend an international conference in Rome this week, after they had considered a boycott over what they deemed inaction by other nations to end the violence in their country.

In a statement on his Facebook page late Monday, Syrian National Coalition head Ahmed al-Khatib said his fellow opposition leaders had decided after consultations together to stop their suspension of any visit to the Friends of Syria conference set for Thursday.

The announcement follows U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
's call earlier in the day for the opposition to attend the talks.

Speaking in London following a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
and Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry said the continued violence plaguing Syria is further evidence that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
needs to leave office. He also condemned what he called the "indiscriminate killing" in "the strongest terms."
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
2 Policemen Killed in Uruzgan Roadside Bomb
[TOLONEWS] Two coppers were killed and one was injured in a roadside kaboom blast in the southern Uruzgan province Monday morning, local officials said.

The blast took place at about 10:00 am local time in the bustling provincial capital Tarinkot when a police vehicle was struck by a roadside kaboom, provincial police chief front man Farid Ayel told TOLOnews.

The victims were taken to a nearby hospital in the city.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Menendez, at Trenton church, says he has shared 'sting of discrimination'
[NORTHJERSEY] In an appearance late Sunday afternoon at a predominantly black church in Trenton, embattled U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez drew broad parallels between himself and other minority leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Democrat from Hudson County blamed his current troubles, which include questions about his relationship with a contributor and the possibility of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, on right-wing bloggers.

Speaking to a crowd of roughly 300 people who gathered at The Shiloh Baptist Church for a Black History Month celebration, Menendez appeared to surprise his own staff by using the venue to offer a spirited defense to questions that have dogged him for weeks. Before the speech, aides suggested that any questions about the issues would be cut off.

"I have felt the sting of discrimination," he said, to cheers from the crowd, which included many members of the state Legislature and U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., D-Essex. "It has never been easy."

"Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals ... seeking to destroy a lifetime of work," he said. "In the end, I believe that justice will overcome the forces of darkness."
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "In the end, I believe that justice will overcome the forces of darkness."

Darth Vader blogs?
Posted by: Raj || 02/26/2013 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I do believe the forces of darkness have overcome the U.S. Congress.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/26/2013 0:45 Comments || Top||

#3  The poor boy from the barrio.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 3:43 Comments || Top||

#4  The Sting of Discrimination.... that's another $250 amirite?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/26/2013 4:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Pimps usually keep their...private reserve for emergencies and special occasions. It will be interesting to see how the Menendez scandal [if it still is a scandal] plays out, no not.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 5:37 Comments || Top||

#6  sting of discrimination...

In bob's case, it might be an STD. He better get it checked out...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/26/2013 8:40 Comments || Top||

#7  the sting

Is Bob tall enough to grip the plumbing while facing the porcelain? Helps, always looking for those little helps.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#8  "The bumps are compounded by yet another recent Menendez mini-scandal, in which an unpaid intern in his office was found to be an undocumented immigrant and registered sex offender, but wasn't arrested until after the election. (Homeland Security said it was "categorically false" that the arrest was delayed for political purposes.) Up to this point, none of it has touched Menendez, but you know what they say about keeping certain company."
Posted by: Whaise de Medici9987 || 02/26/2013 10:20 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm a victim, I tells ya! A VIIIIICCCCCCTTTTTIIIIMMMM!!
Posted by: Bobby "Keep It In Your Pants" Menendez || 02/26/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Ghulam Azam termed Razakars 'peace-loving'
[Bangla Daily Star] War crimes accused Ghulam Azam had called upon the Pak authorities to provide arms to "peace-loving" auxiliary forces to restore order by "uprooting" the freedom fighters during the Liberation War.

Prosecutor Sultan Mahmud Simon while placing closing arguments in the case against Azam before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 said the accused used to dub members of the auxiliary forces -- Peace Committee, Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-shams -- as "peace-loving" citizens.

The prosecutor said Azam was the chief of the then East Pakistain Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
. His appreciation and urge to provide arms prove his complicity in the war crimes committed during the war in 1971, Simon argued.

Azam at a meeting of Jamaat-e-Islami in Lahore on June 21, 1971 hailed the role of the Pakistain army for "destroying the separatist movement" in East Pakistain.

"There is no alternative to freeing the country from the separatists without the army," the prosecutor said quoting Azam, adding that the accused also made eulogy of intervention by Pakistain army.

The daily Sangram, mouthpiece of Jamaat, published a report on June 22, 1971. Simon presented Azam's quote from that report.

He explained that Azam had termed the freedom fighters "separatists" and used Islam as their weapon to substantiate the attack on them.

The prosecutor further said Azam was aware of the atrocities committed by the Mighty Pak Army and their auxiliary forces. "Even after that he supported them which proves his complicity with the war crimes committed by the Mighty Pak Army and auxiliary forces," Simon added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram's activities not reflective of Islamic faith, says Aregbesola
[Osun Defender] THE Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorism in northern Nigeria is casting a pessimistic outlook on the future and fate of the country, but the terror group's activities should not be perceived as a reflection of the Islamic faith, according to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State.

In fact, the governor warned that other parts of the country might soon be engulfed in similar crisis as now happening in the North because of what he described as Nigeria's "indolent elite."

Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Harvard University
...home of the Best and the Brightest, contributed $878,164 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns?
, Aregbesola noted that while the "murderous activities" of Boko Haram continues to disturb the nation and fuelling pessimism, any interpretation of the terror group as a religious expression is a mis-reading of the crisis.

According to him, "other parts of the country are embroiled in varying degrees of violence and will soon catch up with the North, except effective leadership emerges at the national and local levels. The report of the murderous activities of a religious group in the North, Boko Haram, has been disturbing, fuelling pessimism on the fate of the country."

Aregbesola addressed scholars, students, diplomats, policy- makers and Nigerians in the Diaspora while presenting a paper at the university during the Nigeria in the World Seminar Series hosted by Nigeria-born Harvard professor of Religion, Jacob Olupona.

In a paper titled, Nigeria: The Challenge of Development, Aregbesola observed that projecting religious face of Boko Haram ignores a political manipulation by a political elite. To him, the sect "is essentially the manipulation of religion to achieve certain political ends. Unfortunately, the politicisation of religion has been a persistent characteristic of our national existence, with its attendant challenge to our development effort."

He lambasted the politicianship, hanging the major blame for Nigeria's lack of development on its set of leaders, stating: "Years of misrule have made religion a handy tool for the manipulation of the people by the ruling elite."
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Well, if money to them is traced/flowing from Saudi or the Gulf States, it is.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/26/2013 13:30 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Islamist parties blame 'outsiders' for violence
[Bangla Daily Star] Eight Islamist parties now blame it on "intruders".

They claim those who tore and burned the national flag and vandalised Shaheed Minars during the protest against the "atheist" Shahbagh bloggers on Friday do not belong to their organizations.

Shah Ahmadullah Ashraf, ameer of Khelafat Andolon, yesterday told The Daily Star that Jamaat activists or personnel from government agencies might have intruded into the protest and unleashed a wave of terror across the country to "blame each other".

He, however, declined to elaborate.

Khelafat Majlish, another major component of the eight-party combine, at a press briefing yesterday claimed conspirators in disguise attacked journalists and desecrated the national flag on Friday and put the blame on Ulema (Islamic scholars).

Leaders of both Khelafat Andolon and Khelafat Majlish claimed the eight Islamist parties have no links with Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
in their movement against "anti-Islamic bloggers ".

Earlier, leaders of an Islami Oikya Jote
... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support...
faction, Nejami Islam Bangladesh and Khelafat-e-Islami -- components of the eight-party -- told The Daily Star that their activists were not involved in violence during Friday's protest against the Shahbagh movement.

The mass demonstration at Shahbagh has been calling for capital punishment to 1971 war criminals and a ban on Jamaat and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
Jamaat and like-minded parties dismiss the demand by labelling the movement as one "run by atheists".

However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the Shahbagh protesters have all along maintained respect for all religions and made no comments that might hurt people's religious sentiment.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
[Dawn] At least 30 Syrian troops and 23 rebels were killed over the past 24 hours in fierce festivities for control of a police academy in the northern Aleppo province, a watchdog said on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that rebels shot down a regime helicopter near a military base elsewhere in the north of the province as snuffies pressed on with attacks on the police academy in the west.

At least 53 combatants, 23 rebels including a battalion commander and 30 Syrian troops, were killed over the past 24 hours in the fighting outside the town of Khan Assal, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

It said rebels took control of a building where troops were entrenched as warplanes tried to repel them and "took hostage dozens of pro-regime orcs."

But the pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper said Monday that "members of the police academy rebuffed the intensive attacks of gunnies for the second consecutive day, inflicting heavy losses on them with artillery."

The police academy is one of the last regime bastions in the west of Aleppo province.

The chopper was shot down near Minnigh military airport, which rebels have been trying to stop for months, "and burst into flames after it was hit," the Observatory said.

A local resident confirmed to AFP that "the helicopter was shot down while trying to land" at the strategic airbase, located in the north of the province.

Also on Monday regime warplanes bombarded the southwestern and eastern outskirts of Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
in a protracted bid to dislodge rebels from their rear bases, killing 10 civilians including two children, the Observatory said.

Inside the capital, troops shelled rebel strongholds in the east and south, killing two civilians including a young girl, and another girl was killed in mortar fire in festivities that broke out near the Yarmuk Paleostinian refugee camp.

In the northwestern province of Idlib at least eight non-combatants were killed in air raids on villages in Jabal Zawiya and shelling on the rebel-held village of Khirbet al-Joz on the Turkish border.

Fighter jets also raided towns in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
that broke out in March 2011 and has left 70,000 dead, according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
In the mainly Kurdish province of Hasake, the Al-Nusra Front and other rebels seized Tal Hamis after several days of heavy fighting and regime shelling that forced most of the town's residents to flee, the Observatory said.

The watchdog, which relies on a vast network of activists on the ground and medics, said at least 92 people were killed in violence across Syria on Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336115 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  At least 53 combatants, 23 rebels including a battalion commander and 30 Syrian troops, were killed over the past 24 hours in the fighting outside the town of Khan Assal, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

It said rebels took control of a building where troops were entrenched as warplanes tried to repel them and "took hostage dozens of pro-regime orcs."


These numbers don't make a lot of sense. Attacking forces going up against entrenched opposition will usually take serious casualties unless they have air or artillery support, and the defenders don't.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/26/2013 16:05 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Castro Picks 'Young' New Heir to Take Regime Into Future
[TOLONEWS] President Compañero Raul Castro
...Fidel's little brother...
has been re-elected to what he vowed would be his last term in office, and unveiled a 52-year-old political heir tasked with securing the future of the communism in Cuba after 2018.

"This will be my last term," Castro, 81, told politicians after the National Assembly re-elected him Sunday and named a new regime number two, Council of State Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Castro said he was "elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism -- not to destroy it," adding that his economic reforms will create "a less egalitarian society, but a fairer one."

Choosing Diaz-Canel, a former military man and professor from Villa Clara who has represented the president on foreign trips in recent months, "marks a final step in configuring the country's future leadership, through the slow and orderly transfer of the main leadership positions to new generations," Castro said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  So IIUC, Uncle Raul has admitted that Communism, or at least the Cuba brand, doth N-O-T an egalitarian society maketh despite the promises???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/26/2013 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Castro said he was "elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism

So how's that working out for ya?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/26/2013 1:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Meddling with prices only makes one thing, a shortage.

Socialism is a synonym for shortage.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 6:05 Comments || Top||

#4  said he was "elected

named a new regime number two

Elected, You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means
Posted by: Alanc || 02/26/2013 7:43 Comments || Top||

#5  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h57UR-oIE_g
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 14:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Is Castro stepping down to become the next Pope?
Posted by: American Delight || 02/26/2013 21:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Southern Movement declares armed struggle
[Yemen Post] In a statement published in Aden Post - local news outlets - the Harak - Southern Secessionist Movement - officially announced its armed struggle against Sana'a central government had begun, calling on its supporters to stand united in their efforts to liberate their lands.

Only hours after President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi landed in Aden - southern seaport and former capital of South Yemen - to address mounting tensions and violence in the city and across the southern provinces, the Harak decided to cut all bridges and declare open its secession movement.

Southern leaders, such as former President Ali Salem al-Baidh called from Beirut - Leb - for the armed struggle to begin stressing Sana'a was never serious in its efforts to address southerners' grievances -- stolen lands, discrimination, stolen benefits and unfair repartition of resources --

While southerners stood united with revolutionaries in 2011 in a popular struggle to depose then-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...
, old recriminations and unresolved issues soon resurfaced as Yemen state officials and the international community scrambled to save Yemen republican institutions through a power transfer agreement.

Strong of millions of bully boyz the Southern Movement, except for a few radical in-groups, so far advocated for a peaceful resolution, having agreed to participate to Yemen National Dialogue Conference on March 18th.

Thursday events and the killing of four bully boyz seem to have been a game changer of all Harak leaders, with both moderate and beturbanned goons bent on riding themselves from Sana'a overbearing shadow.

The Harak said it will now set up a revolutionary committee which will be charged with overseeing the popular liberation movement.

Residents in Aden told the Yemen Post on Sunday that festivities in between bully boyz and the authorities were still on-going with sporadic gunshots heard in Crater and Mansoura all through the day.

Eye witnesses commented northerners were being assaulting in the streets and their properties vandalizing.

Ali a Haraki thug warned things will get worse in the next coming days as the movement will organize a systematic targeting of northerners' interests in the South.

"If people feel they can target us [southerners] in Taiz by attacking our shops and businesses then we can do the same right here at home."

While no Haraki leaders confirmed the veracity of Ali' statement, several residents concurred they had heard similar rumors.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  I thought this might be about Texas. Another one of Fred's bait and switch titles. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 11:28 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Clashes among DR Congo Rebels Leave 10 Dead
[An Nahar] Fighting between rival factions of the M23 rebel movement in the northeastern Rutshuru region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
has left 10 dead, a hospital source in Rutshuru said Monday.
Practice round. Next time they'll do it seriously.
The provincial hospital said that 10 bodies were counted after the festivities on Sunday night, while two injured men were taken in for medical treatment.

The fighting broke out because of differences within the ranks of the March 23 Movement (M23) over the stance the rebels should take regarding a peace deal that was signed Sunday by regional leaders in Addis Ababa, according to a Western military source. The goal of the accord was to bring peace to war-torn eastern DR Congo.

Supporters of General Sultani Makenga, the military chief of M23, reportedly battled those of Jean-Marie Runiga, the movement's political leader. Runiga had earlier announced plans to resume fighting against the DR Congo's army because peace talks in the Ugandan capital Kampala between the rebels and the Kinshasa government were getting nowhere.

Makenga was believed to oppose a resumption of conflict. Both men went to the Rwandan capital Kinshasa last week to hold talks, according to a Western source in Goma, the chief town in troubled North Kivu province. When they returned, Runiga was sent to his room in Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda, the source added.

On Sunday, while 11 heads of state, including presidents Joseph Kabila of DR Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, were in the Æthiopian capital to sign the framework agreement in the presence of U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, Runiga decided that he would return to Rutshuru.

When he arrived in the town, situated in the south of the zone controlled by M23, Runiga's soldiers started fighting those backing Makenga. Major population movements were reported as civilians fled, heading for Bunagana, or pouring in their hundreds into Uganda.

The Addis Ababa accord aims to encourage the reform of weak institutions in the vast DR Congo and calls for countries in the region to stop interfering in each other's affairs. The United Nations
...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery...
has accused Rwanda and Uganda of backing M23, which both nations strongly deny.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Over 4,000 sued for violence
[Bangla Daily Star] Over 4,000 activists of eight Islamist parties were sued in connection with Sunday's violence that killed four people and injured 50 in Manikganj.

The violence erupted when police, having been attacked by pickets, opened fire in Singair upazila of the district during countrywide hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
called by the Islamist parties.

A total of six cases were filed with Singair Police Station on Sunday night on charges of killing, arson, vandalism and attacking police, police sources said.

Raiding different parts of the district on that night, police incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
13 people for their alleged involvement in the violence, said Md Mizanur Rahman, additional superintendent of police of Manikganj.

Police sued 4,553 supporters, mentioning names of 20, of Khelafat Majlish and seven other Islamist parties, he said.

A one-member probe body, headed by the additional SP, has been formed to investigate two of the six cases.

Foyjur Rahman, son of Abdul Majed Khan, filed a case against 20 named and 100 unnamed people on charge of attacking his father during the clash, the additional SP said.

Majed is the general secretary of Singair upazila unit Awami League.

Businessmen Azhar and Abdul Quader filed two separate cases against 355 people in connection with vandalising their business establishments at Kashimpur Bazar.

Reajul Islam, of Joymantap village in the upazila, filed a case against 33 named and 25 unnamed persons, the additional SP said.

Reajul was injured during a clash between supporters of Islamist parties and police on Sunday, he added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
eight Islamist parties observed a daylong hartal in the district yesterday, protesting the killing of their "activists" during Sunday's violence.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Africa North
Salafi Jihad movement allies with hardline Ismalist parties for elections
[Egypt Independent] The Salafi Jihad Movement announced that it's political arm, the Islamic Party, would run in the upcoming House of Representatives elections in alliance with Jama'a al-Islamiya, the Nation Party, Hazemon and the Salafi Front.

The alliance plans to meet on Tuesday to determine which candidates each movement would field for the joint electoral list.

Mohamed Abou Samra, the Islamic Party's secretary general, said the party would field 2 percent of the candidates on the alliance's list, or 29 candidates total. They would run for election in 10 governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, Sharqiya, Minya, Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, North Sinai and South Sinai.

The percentage is so low because most members of the movement are ineligible to run for election due to court rulings issued against them, Abou Samra told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

He stressed that the party is running on a platform of a strict enforcement of Sharia and the establishment of the "Islamic Caliphate."

Abou Samra rejected the opposition's call to boycott the elections, claiming that those who refuse to participate are writing their political death certificates.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Bangladesh
Criminals kill police source
[Bangla Daily Star] A group of myrmidons hacked to death a police source at East Shewrapara in the capital yesterday.
"Are youse Mahmoud the Weasel?"
"No, I'm-- aaaiiieee!"
[CHOP! CHOP! SPLATTER!]

The myrmidons thought his tip-offs to the police had led to the arrests of some of them. Jamaluddin, 32, also worked as a private car driver.
"Y'mean dat wudn't Mahmoud da Weasel?"
"No! Dat wuz Jamaluddin da Weevil!"

A gang of four to five unidentified criminals snatched him from in front of his house around 7:30am, witnesses said.

Kafrul police recovered his body from a nearby lane and sent it to Dhaka Medical College morgue for his appointment with Doctor Quincy.
"He's dead, Jim."
"But you're drunk, your eyes are closed, and you're in the other room, Dr. Quincy. However do you do it?!"
Morgue sources said the body had nine stab wounds.
Big stab wounds, but only nine of them.
Officer-in-Charge Kazi Wazed Ali of Kafrul Police Station told The Daily Star that the victim was an informer for his cop shoppe.

A group of small-time Mister Bigs had been threatening Jamaluddin for the last two months but he never informed the police about it, said the second of his two wives.
"We ain't got a phone," said Honeybunch.
He has one name, but two wives? A self-made man, indeed.
The leader of the criminals is known as Bachchu, said police.
"Dat's Bachchu the Knife."
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Health Dept.: Homeless Can't Eat Deer Meat
[RADIO.FOXNEWS] The controversy started when someone being fed at the rescue mission complained about being fed deer meat.

Henry Martin, executive director of the mission, told Fox News they've been serving deer meat for years -- from deer chili to deer spaghetti...

Martin said he was extremely bothered by the way state health inspectors handled the situation.

"You would think we would have due process," he said. "But they meant to destroy the meat -- that's for sure."

The mission's chef asked if they could at least return the meat to the processing plant -- but the state officials said no.

"They actually took it out to the dumpsters, split the packages open and poured Clorox on it," Martin told Fox News.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Confiscation without due process - that's what this is. Isn't there a constitutional amendment about this?

BTW - was there nothing wrong with the meat.

Campbell said the venison comes from deer management programs – where hunters have to kill a lot of deer.

“We ask our hunters once they fill up their own freezers to give the extra to the needy,” he said.

Once the deer is donated, a local processing plant prepares the meat for the shelters.

And hunters in the Sportsman’s Paradise have always responded to the call – including State Rep. Jeff Thompson.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/26/2013 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  The scandal now has its own name: Venison-gate
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/26/2013 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if this was the same state agency that thought it was just fine for the now permanently closed New Orleans Charity Hospital to keep its emergency generators below sea level, to have no helicopter pad, and to have no plan for emergency evacuation of patients and staff in case of local flooding.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/26/2013 0:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Several years ago, the leading lights of Seattle paid to have professionals shoot a bunch of geese that were pooping all over Green lake, but the Health Dept would not let them give the meat to the various shelters; instead the carcasses had to be taken to the dreaded'undisclosed locations' for burial......
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/26/2013 1:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Yay for the over-reaching nanny state!
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 4:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Venison cannot be purchased at supermarkets with EBT cards. Deer are non-domesticated and are harvested with firearms. Firearms are evil, which makes venison, through extension evil as well.

Use only your EBT card and 'free stuff' from the government.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 5:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Think it's more likely that using deer meet isn't a subsidy to producers which seems to be to major role of the modern state, namely to protect rent-seeking.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 8:19 Comments || Top||

#8  You view these people as if they were rational (instead of fanatics without religion) BP.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 8:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Farm subsidies, as BP suggested are certainly an element. Type in your zipp code in the search box and see who makes money in your area by.... NOT growing crops.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 8:43 Comments || Top||

#10  You view these people as if they were rational (instead of fanatics without religion) BP.

Actually, they're religious fanatics without a god. The State is their religion and their god. And they will have to be crushed or they will win.

Their encirclement is nearly complete, I just pray they have made enough mistakes that we can defeat them. But I have no doubts that things are headed for a fight.
Posted by: SAM at work || 02/26/2013 9:03 Comments || Top||

#11  >Actually, they're religious fanatics without a god.

I think they're religious fanatics with themselves as God.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/26/2013 10:11 Comments || Top||

#12 
You would think we would have due process


What country does ht think he's in?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/26/2013 10:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Bastards. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/26/2013 13:28 Comments || Top||

#14  How about long pig?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/26/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

#15  deer jerky - mmmm..mm..
Posted by: watermodem || 02/26/2013 20:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Video Appears to Show French Hostages Abducted in Cameroon
[VOA News] A video that appears to show seven Frenchies kidnapped in Cameroon last week has appeared online.

The video, posted to YouTube on Monday, shows two men, a woman and four children sitting in a small tent. They are surrounded by three masked men, two of whom are holding rifles.

One of the French men says the group was kidnapped by Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad -- the Arabic name for the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
A gunman, speaking in Arabic, warns the hostages will be killed unless Islamist faceless myrmidons are released in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Africa North
French Bomb Islamists in Mali, Four Wounded
[An Nahar] French warplanes attacked an Islamist base in north Mali at the weekend, wounding four members of the Arab Movement of the Azawad (MAA), after the forces of Evil clashed with Tuareg rebels, MAA and security sources said Monday.

"Four fighters of the MAA were maimed during bombing by the French air force (on Sunday) against our base at Infara," 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Algeria, Boubacar Ould Taleb, a leader of the MAA, told Agence La Belle France Presse in the capital Bamako by telephone.

"They were French planes (...) that bombed our base. Five vehicles belonging to our movement were also destroyed," Ould Taleb added, denouncing the "open support" La Belle France was giving to the Tuareg rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

Ould Taleb accused MNLA fighters of "looting the goods of our relatives" and "raping our daughters and our wives."

A regional security source confirmed the attack. "French military planes on Sunday bombed MAA positions hard up against the Algerian border," he said.

Infara lies 30 kilometers from In-Khalil, another Malian village where the MAA clashed on Saturday with the MNLA, a veteran separatist movement that has aligned itself with Mali's army and the French in their bid to rid northern Mali of armed Islamic fundamentalists. Azawad is the name Tuaregs give to their would-be state in the north.

Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, an MNLA official based in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
's capital Ouagadougou, on Saturday said that Tuareg forces were attacked by "terrorists" led by Omar Ould Hamaha of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). The MUJAO was one of the Islamist movements that occupied northern Mali after a March 2012 coup in Bamako led to military chaos.

Ag Asseleh also accused "the MAA and Ansar Al-Sharia", a splinter "dissident group from the MUJAO", of attacking MNLA forces.

He said the MNLA had taken "nine prisoners: six who claim to belong to the MUJAO and three from Ansar Al-Charia".

The MAA, a separatist movement formed in March 2012, confirmed that its forces launched an attack at 4:00 am (04:00 GMT) on Saturday in what it said were reprisals for violence committed by Arab forces in the region.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Afghanistan
Karzai's Demand Takes U.S. Military by Surprise
[An Nahar] Afghanistan's Caped 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...
's demand for U.S. special forces to leave a key province came as a surprise to American commanders, who had no advance warning of the order, officials said Monday.

It remained unclear what led Karzai to issue a blunt announcement that U.S. special operations force would have two weeks to withdraw from the strategic Wardak province, southwest of the capital Kabul, two U.S. officials said.
I vote for the drugs. Does he stand by the demand today? For that matter, does he remember the demand today?
"We're not aware of any incident that would have generated this kind of response," one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence La Belle France Presse.

In his statement Sunday, Karzai charged that Afghans working with U.S. forces had carried out torture and murder that has triggered local outrage.

The Pentagon confirmed that a special panel of Afghan officials and officers from the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
-led International Security Assistance Fore (ISAF) were looking into Karzai's allegations.

"There has been a joint commission established by ISAF and the government of Afghanistan to look into the issues that surfaced over the weekend," front man George Little told news hounds.

"We're trying to see clarity from the government of Afghanistan," he added.

Asked if the United States would pull out its elite special operations units from the province, Little said: "It's premature to speculate on what the outcome of what our discussions would be."

Wardak is a deeply troubled flashpoint where a Chinook helicopter was shot down by the Taliban in August 2011, killing eight Afghans and 30 Americans. It was the deadliest single incident for American troops in the entire war.
Posted by: Fred || 02/26/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We should be equally blunt and pull all our troops from Afghanistan, leaving this turd to fend for himself.

If we aren't allowed to win, we need to get the f@ck out.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 02/26/2013 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Can't wait until we are all home. I know Karzai is scheming but I have no idea about what. I hope we bust him one day.
Posted by: Clusong Gromort6441 || 02/26/2013 4:33 Comments || Top||

#3  I know Karzai is scheming but I have no idea about what. I hope we bust him one day.
Posted by Clusong Gromort6441


He's simply siding with the winners vs losers in the hopes of surviving the transition, and forthcoming civil war and purge.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/26/2013 5:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Tell that 7-11 manager that his escape route just closed down.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 11:08 Comments || Top||

#5  It'd be funny if his jet didn't start at the critical moment.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/26/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  It'd be funny if his jet blew up at the critical moment.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/26/2013 21:24 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
4Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
3Salafists
3Arab Spring
2Taliban
2Boko Haram
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Sudan
1Commies
1Hezbollah
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Narcos
1Pirates
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
1Govt of Iran

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
Comments Spam
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
RSS Links
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio
Sink Trap

Alzheimer's Association
Day by Day
Counterterrorism
Hair Through the Ages







On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-02-26
  Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
Mon 2013-02-25
  Taliban suicide bombers hit Afghan cities, Kabul attack foiled
Sun 2013-02-24
  Karzai orders US special forces out of Afghan province
Sat 2013-02-23
  Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
Fri 2013-02-22
  Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire, Pastes Threat Posters In Borno
Thu 2013-02-21
  Bombing in Indian Hyderabad, at least 11 killed
Wed 2013-02-20
  French nationals kidnapped in northern Cameroon
Tue 2013-02-19
  Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Mon 2013-02-18
  Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
Sun 2013-02-17
  Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
Thu 2013-02-14
  Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks
Wed 2013-02-13
  Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
Tue 2013-02-12
  KCNA confirms: Pudgy sets off a nuke

Better than the average link...



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.
54.85.255.74
Paypal:
WoT Operations (20)    Non-WoT (9)    Opinion (3)    (0)    Politix (4)