One person died and seven others were wounded after a bomb exploded near a busy market in Tak Bai district, in Narathiwat province. The bomb tore through a roadside shelter where a 12-man patrol was resting about 10:30 a.m.
The explosion seriously injured boat driver Sanadi Doloh, who later died in the hospital. The bomb also injured four soldiers including the patrol commander and three civilians, one of whom was Malaysian.
Police investigators said the bomb, which weighed about 5 kg, was placed on the roof of the shelter and detonated by remote control.
In Pattani province, two men were gunned down in Thung Yang Daeng district. The gunmen planted fake bombs on the road leading to the crime scene to help their getaway. After giving the all clear, police found the bodies of two men, later identified as Suan Chansri and Somnuek Somdaeng, in a green pickup truck. Police suspect the incident is related to the ongoing jihad insurgency.
Maryland residents do not have to provide a "good and substantial reason" to legally own a handgun, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking down as unconstitutional the state's requirements for getting a permit.
U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote that states are allowed some leeway in deciding the way residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Maryland's objective was to limit the number of firearms that individuals could carry, effectively creating a rationing system that rewarded those who provided the right answer for wanting to own a gun.
"A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights," Legg wrote. "The right's existence is all the reason he needs."
Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home in 2002, but was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to "threats occurring beyond his residence."
Woollard appealed, but his appeal was rejected by the review board, which found he hadn't demonstrated a "good and substantial reason" to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution. The suit filed in 2010 claimed that Maryland didn't have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.
"People have the right to carry a gun for self-defense and don't have to prove that there's a special reason for them to seek the permit," said his attorney Alan Gura, who has challenged handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago as an attorney with the Second Amendment Foundation. "We're not against the idea of a permit process, but the licensing system has to acknowledge that there's a right to bear arms."
In his ruling, Legg wrote that Second Amendment protections aren't limited to the household.
"In addition to self-defense, the (Second Amendment) right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendment's protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and 'self-defense has to take place wherever (a) person happens to be,'" Legg wrote.
"Judge Legg's ruling takes a substantial step toward restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place in the Bill of Rights and provides gun owners with another significant victory," said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "The federal district court has carefully spelled out the obvious, that the Second Amendment does not stop at one's doorstep, but protects us wherever we have a right to be."
The lawsuit names the state police superintendent and members of the Handgun Permit Review Board as defendants. A spokesman from Maryland's attorney general's office was not immediately available to comment.
Many states require gun permits, but six states, including Maryland, issue permits on a discretionary basis, Gura said. In most of those states, these challenges have not succeeded in U.S. District Courts, but they are being appealed, he said.
"Most states that choose to regulate the right to bear arms have licensing systems that are objective and straightforward," Gura said. "That's all that we want for Maryland."
Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets.
Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms.
The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes. Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup she gave them all away.
"I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since."
Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.
Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million, but activists estimate 7 million. Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.
However, societal disdain still runs deep when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfill, such as reproduction.
"They must learn to accept their nature," says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed."
Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Some, like Evie, have decided it's better to hide their feelings. Others are pushing back. Last month, a 50-year-old Indonesian transvestite applied to be the next leader of the national human rights commission, showing up in a borrowed luxury vehicle with paparazzi cameras flashing as she stepped out.
"I'm too ugly to be a prostitute," Yuli Retoblaut said, chuckling. "But I can be their bodyguard."
The threat of violence is very real: Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights receives about 1,000 reports of abuses per year, ranging from murder and rape to the disruption to group activities. Worldwide, at least one person is killed every other day, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which collects homicide reports.
Evie says she chose her current name because she thought it sounded sweet. But she adds, as she pulls out her national identification card, her official name is Turdi and gender male. Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighborhood confirmed that Turdi had worked there as his nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. When asked about the nanny, the White House had no comment.
Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she's never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.
As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who couldn't stand having such a "sissy" for a son.
"He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul," she says.
Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.
As it turned out, she was pretty good at it, making her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager, she recalls with a smile and a wink. And so it was, at a cocktail party in 1969, that she met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro.
Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was 8-year-old Barry's caretaker, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.
Neighbors recalled that they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful Barry ever knew. Looks like Barry hasn't changed a bit.
"He was so young," says Evie. "And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up."
When the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. She moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.
"I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me," says Evie. "I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay."
It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and because the country was still under the dictatorship of Gen. Suharto soldiers. They often rounded up "banshees" or "warias," as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused.
The raid that changed everything came in 1985. She and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.
When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her.
"We searched all night," says Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. "Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in."
Today Evie seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She says she's just waiting to die.
"I don't have a future anymore."
She says she didn't know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," she says, breaking into a huge grin.
Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighborhood say it's true.
"Many neighbors would remember Turdi ... she was popular here at that time," says Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. "She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry."
Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.
For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason for the first time in a long time to feel proud.
"Now when people call me scum," she says, "I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'" There are some things better kept to yourself, Turdi.
ONCE, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets.
Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms.
The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes.
Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup - she gave them all away.
"I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since."
Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.
#1
An extremely important movie is coming out this summer - Obama & 2016
Dinesh D'Souza is author of many New York Times best sellers. The movie is from Gerald R. Molen, producer of Academy Award Winning Schindler's List. It explains in plain language who Barack Obama really is, what he stands for, and the dangers of him being reelected for another four years.
Please watch this 14 minute video preview of this movie and share it with others. It has already been seen by over 25,000 people. Within a very short time it will hopefully be seen by millions!
The Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder, becoming the first political movement in the eurozone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency.
"The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch people," said Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing populist party with a sixth of the seats in the Dutch parliament. "We want to be the master of our own house and our own country, so we say yes to the guilder. Bring it on."
Mr Wilders made his decision after receiving a report by London-based Lombard Street Research concluding that the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and that it could cost EMU's creditor core more than 1.8 trillion to hold monetary union together over the next four years. "If the politicians in The Hague disagree with our report, let them show the guts to hold a referendum. Let the Dutch people decide," he said.
Mr Wilders is not part of the coalition. However, the minority government of Mark Rutte relies on the Freedom Party to pass legislation. The two men were in talks on Monday on 16bn of fresh austerity cuts needed stop the budget deficit jumping to 4.5pc of GDP.
#2
Good for Geert. His policies are truly rattling the European left because they are realistic, not pie in the sky. His party is likely going to clean up in the next election.
The Dutch are notoriously slow to anger, but when they get angry, they are firm believers in doing something about it.
The Colorado Supreme Court sided Monday with opponents of a campus gun ban who claimed the prohibition is illegal because it was not approved by the Legislature.
Opponents of the gun ban said the University of Colorado rule was challenged as part of a nationwide effort to standardize rules on the issue.
"We don't feel some campuses should allow it and others ban it," said David Burnett, spokesman for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a nationwide student advocacy group that filed the lawsuit.
The ruling covers about 30 public universities, colleges and community colleges in Colorado.
Burnett said about 220 campuses in other states, including Mississippi, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, have laws that provide limited authority for students to carry guns on campuses, and Oregon is considering the issue.
The Colorado high court cited widespread inconsistencies among jurisdictions as one of the reasons for its ruling.
Kyle Hybl, chairman of the Board of Regents, said the ruling stripped the university of its right to make its own rules.
"We have constitutional and statutory authority to protect the health, welfare and safety of students," Hybl said after Monday's ruling. "This case was less about firearms than the constitutional and statutory rights of the Board of Regents."
1) The Board of Regents is subject to state law.
2) The Board of Regents also obeys the Constitution.
Comes as a surprise, huh?
Patrick O'Rourke, representing the University of Colorado, also said the policy was necessary and cited a shooting at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people and wounded 23 before killing himself in 2007. A gun ban didn't stop the gunman, did it?
Opponents said armed students might have prevented the massacre.
Likely not but that doesn't change one's constitutional rights.
Remember, when it comes to responding to a situation like a gunman bursting into a classroom, 99% of us are, to use Bill Whittle's terminology, sheep.
Colorado's Concealed Carry Act prohibits local governments from limiting concealed carry rights, with the only exceptions being K-12 schools, places where federal law bans the practice, public buildings with metal detectors, and private property where owners object to concealed weapons.
#1
Years ago at Arizona State, a lot of students carried concealed, and nobody thought much about it because they were either Criminal Justice majors, taking ROTC, prior service or LEOs taking classes. All of whom were "more or less authorized" to be armed.
Added up, several hundred armed people on campus during a typical day, which is about what you would expect if there was no rule against it.
#1
This could be to the benefit of both nations, in that Egypt would be an abundant source of cheap labor, and Saudi investment would do much to revitalize Egypt's economy.
It would also likely tone down Egypt's path to Islamicism, as the Saudis going to Egypt would want to party without being under the nagging gaze of the religious police, so they would encourage the Egyptians to "lighten up".
#1
Add to that ...
> Aging population.
> Pert-predicted possible strong to severe earthquakes to occur in or near the irradiated Fukushima/Tohoku Region, + Tokyo.
> China wants rights, iff not sovereignty or shared sovereignty, to former vassal state Okinawa.
> Russian Netters would love to see Mama Russia re-occupy Hokkaido, espec iff China regains rights or sovereignty to Okinawa.
The number two commander in Pakistan's nebulous, umbrella Taliban movement has been sacked as deputy chief but will remain within the organisation, a spokesman said on Monday.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammad is the Taliban's commander in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven districts in the tribal belt on the Afghan border and one that has seen a recent lull in fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani soldiers.
He was sacked on Sunday at a meeting presided over by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud at a secret location in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone.
"A shura (council) meeting was held on Sunday and it decided to remove Maulvi Faqir Mohammad from the position of deputy chief of TTP," he said, adding that Mohammad would continue to serve the group as an ordinary member.
Ehsan gave no reason for the removal. Neither was a successor announced.
The TTP is a loose confederation of militant commanders founded and run by Baitullah Mehsud until his death in a US drone strike in August 2009. His killing sparked a bitter succession battle won by Hakimullah Mehsud.
#1
This government is not going to be allowed to make me pay for the bottom feeding activities of its debased base.
Posted by: George Ebbeamp4828 ||
03/05/2012 13:54
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This is all a media diversion. No one really cares about some college aged girl, slut or not, and her sex life or how she wants the pill for free. Condoms are free on every campus, she is covered. Then to say anything else will save her from aids or herpes, bla bla bla. It is calculated to divert our attention from the real freight trains headed toward our country. We have some real issues to deal with here in America. BO has tossed this one out there, its a meat ball pitch at best, because Romney and Santorum are not wavering on their beliefs. Now the left has gotten every in a thither about this and within a day or two, if it has not happened already, the sky will be falling with tingles accusing the right of going after abortions, Roe V Wade, etc Not once do we talk about an honest approach to immigration, the budget, the economy, energy, etc Our political leadership have taken lessons from kids in grade school, they will not discuss the broken glass but try desperately to change the subject. Our nation is a failed nation, we have not and will not face the realities of running a nation, the only course of action we are living is failing. It will be a failure of the grandest scale.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/05/2012 14:34
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#3
By opening his big fat yap and calling the woman a slut, Limbaugh gave the left its opportunity to turn the discussion away from the facts and onto Limbaugh. He led with his chin on this one. This is not the first time he has made the discussion all about him, intentionally or not.
#4
49 Pan Ditto!. George Stephonoplis was the point man on this. The left and media can trash the conservatives at any wim they choose. This was a set up. These people have destroyed the Democratic party. I don't pay them any attention.
They have done far worse but I expect them to do more of the same.
#5
The woman is a slut. Obama is her Pimp. When Moo-chelle decides to take her 17th multi-million dollar $$$$$$$$$ tax payer funded vacation and if Pimp Daddy can take a few hours off the tax payer funded daily golfing tour, I am sure Pimp Daddy will personally invite slut in question to the Oval Office so she can leave with loads of tax payer contraception and condoms, after like 3 hours of time with Pimp Daddy.
#7
Sorry boys and girls. Slut is an adjective. It has a meaning. If it applies to you, then you need to have a talk with your mom or dad. They love you and want you to be happy. Help them help you. It is possible that you are confused.
Iran's Supreme Court has reportedly ordered a retrial in the case of a U.S. citizen who was sentenced to death in January as an alleged spy.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency on March 5 quoted a judiciary spokesman as saying the court had "nullified" the execution sentence against Amir Mirza Hekmati, a native-born American of Iranian descent, after finding flaws in the case.
Khamenei backed court pushing back against Short Round?
Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, was sentenced to death in January after Iran's Revolutionary Court ruled he was guilty of spying on behalf of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He was born in the United States and holds dual Iranian and U.S. citizenship. He was accused by Iran's Intelligence Ministry of receiving training at U.S. bases in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq.
The case will now be referred to another court.
Hekmati, who was detained last year while reportedly visiting his grandparents, is currently being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison.
#1
Here's an even less asked question. What if Israel uses a dozen neutron bombs to wipe out most of Iran's population? Just a bright light in the sky, then everyone drops dead.
Iran has hundreds of missiles, and possibly nuclear weapons. But if most of their educated people are gone, then those bombs and missiles become a moot point.
#5
I disagree with the author.. Israel will use an escalation approach. They first level what they can with conventional munitions. They the state clearly that things are "over," and that their actions are complete, unless Iran wishes (and insists that) hostilities continue. In that case, Israel delivers one small Hiroshima-style nuke onto one isolated Iranian nuclear production facility - to deliver the same message that the US sent to Japan in 1945.
Israel then again announces that their actions are now complete - so long as Iran retires from hostilities.
If Iran persists in prolonging the war, then - and only then - Israel lets rip a series campaign to nuke Iran back to the stone age.
This escalation approach is necessary to give Israel some vestige of geopolitical acceptance. They will be following the "model" used by the US to "successfully" end World War II. That is a fairly powerful precedent to emulate.
#8
Surface and air bursts do not create an EMP. It has to be exo-atmosphere in a "Goldilocks" zone. The exact numbers I've forgotten but it's in the range of minimum of 100 miles to max of 700 miles. Thereabouts, plus or minus, approximately...
BEAVERCREEK, Ohio After a military mother told him her daughter doesnt understand her mission in the Air Force, Mitt Romney questioned how President Obama can sleep at night, knowing troops overseas dont understand precisely what theyre doing there.
If your daughter is not familiar with the mission that shes on, how in the world can the commander in chief sleep at night, knowing that we have soldiers in harms way that dont know exactly, precisely, what it is that theyre doing there, Romney said.
Vicki Chura, from Fairfield, Ohio, was one of several people who stood to ask Romney a question this afternoon, explaining that her daughter, who she didnt name for privacy reasons, constantly tells her than she is desperate to come home from her deployment in Afghanistan.
This is her second deployment. Her first deployment, she never once said I want to come home, said Chura, choking up as she spoke about her daughter, who is a first lieutenant in the Air Force. This deployment has been extremely hard not only for her, but for my husband and I Every email, every time we Skype, we hear I want to come home now. There is no mission here. We have no definition of a mission.
This fits with what we've been discussing the last couple weeks about Afghanistan. We had a mission in 2001. That was to get al Qaeda. We sorta, kinda had a mission in 2003. That was to rebuild Afghanistan as a nation. The first mission was 90% successful, and that was plenty good. The second mission has failed.
In his reply, Romney lambasted Obama for not keeping Americans in the know about the mission overseas.
One of the things Ive found most disturbing and hard to explain is how we can have our sons and daughters in conflict, risking their lives, and not have the president on a regular basis addressing the American people, describing whats happening, describing what our mission is, describing what the goals will be, describing how much progress were making or whether there were setbacks and informing the people of America that there are other Americans making enormous sacrifices for our purposes and for our liberty, he said.
So far so good...
Let me tell you this, he continued. I know why were involved in Afghanistan, and I know what its going to take for us to be successful and bring our troops home. I want that to happen as soon as humanly possible. As soon as that mission is complete. And that mission is to pass along to Afghanistan a security force there that is capable of maintaining the sovereignty of that nation, such that we can get out and they can have the capacity to build their own nation.
We will not, we will not be able to hand on a silver platter their freedom, he said. They will have to fight for that, earn it, keep the Taliban from taking it away from them. But weve given them that opportunity. We need to finish the job of passing it off to them, and bring our troops home as soon as humanly possible.
Mittens has to say all that, I guess, since he thinks that most Pubs want to kick ass in Afghanistan. Truth is, I think a lot of Pubs and independents would be happy to say, 'mission accomplished', have a brew, and come home.
Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama re-election campaign said in a statement following Romneys remarks, Mitt Romney has no credibility to attack President Obama on Afghanistan.
Under the Presidents leadership, we are decimating al Qaeda and the Afghans are preparing to step up and take control of their security, said Smith. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has failed to outline any plan at all for what he would do in Afghanistan and has even made clear that he would leave our troops there indefinitely.
A lie about leadership, a non-sequitor about decimation, a lie about the Afghans and a semi-true statement about Mittens. For Champ that's not half-bad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
08:05 ||
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#1
We will make no progress in Afghanistan unless we want to sink trillions of dollars and decades of soldiers into it.
Better IMHO to declare victory and pullout with the clear warning that drones will continue to kill terrorists. Also if any attack hits home, we will be back with the rage of an old testament GOD.
#3
BO sleeps like a baby at night. His plan to care for his cronies and make them rich is moving along nicely. His plan to destabilize this country and pitch good Americans against each other over trivial issues is moving forward. The plan to demonize and demoralize the military is ahead of schedule. The socialist takeover of big business is in phase two and tracking nicely. Destroying everything Christian and the implementation of Sharia, scheduled for next term, is looking good. As far as I can tell he is either on track with his agenda or ahead of schedule in every area of the DIME. If I was in charge of destroying an enemy country economically and causing civil unrest I would call his plan brilliant. But then my country is that country he is out to destroy.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/05/2012 9:47
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#4
I suspect Mitt sleeps every bit as well as Obama.
Posted by: Abu Uluque on a Mac ||
03/05/2012 14:17
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#5
Second that, he's right on schedule.
He dos NOT think like the rest if America, and I'll be damn glad when he's gone.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/05/2012 14:20
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#6
"We had a mission in 2001. That was to get al Qaeda."
As of mid September of 2001 the mission in Afghanistan was larger than that. The objective was punishment and elimination of AQ's state sponsor, the Taliban.
"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
George W. Bush, Statement To Joint Session Of Congress September 20th 2001
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. "
George W. Bush, September 11th 2001
The Asharq alawsat newspaper reported that Turkish sources stated that Turkish radar systems spotted Israeli made drones circling over Syria.
According to the sources, it is possible that Israel is cooperating with the Syrian regime and the drones are spying on opposition activists or, the aircraft may be Russian, purchased from Israel.
#2
It's a "given" that Turkish "radar systems" rely on sandals on the ground reports of their daily diode cathode threshold voltage, for system calibration and standardization purposes.
Turkey Rocks!
Thirteen French soldiers have been captured by Syrian forces according to the Lebanon-based Daily Star newspaper, the first mainstream media outlet to report on rumours of Western troops on the ground.
The French foreign ministry dismissed the report, however, telling the Daily Telegraph that not a single French soldier is on Syrian soil.
But the defence ministry was less categorical, saying it neither confirmed nor denied the claim.
That may be just good operations policy.
A photographer who recently escaped from the besieged Syrian city of Homs also dismissed suggestions French soldiers had intervened to secure his evacuation and that of three other Western reporters.
The Daily Star cites a Damascus-based Pro-Syrian Palestinian source as alleging that the soldiers are being held in a field hospital in Homs. The source claimed officials in Paris and Damascus are brokering a deal on what to do with the French nationals.
#1
Any country, no matter how ineffectual its conventional military may be, can have a small, highly trained, well-equipped unit for unconventional missions. It's a matter of finding the right guys and providing, if only hiring, the right training.
Problem is, no matter how good they are, their use is in stealing that last horsehoe nail--literary reference--and not in stopping the cavalry charge. They can't do the latter and doing the former may, or may not, be decisive. Depending on circumstances.
The French do have a hotshot SpecOps outfit which they deploy, especially in Africa, in defense of their interests, even to the point of fomenting coups, so it is reported.
You wouldn't think thirteen of these guys would be captured. Hell, you wouldn't think they'd even be noticed until too late.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/05/2012 8:08
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#2
France is repor still denying that any of their Soldiers or SPECOPS were caught or even in Syruh.
#1
Finally, a (sort of) admission that it was oil prices that caused the recession, not blunders by America.
Oil is not supposed to ratchet defiantly upwards in a downturn, which is what we have with the Euro zone facing a year of contraction in 2012, and much of the Latin bloc sliding into full depression. Japans economy shrank in the fourth quarter.
But what if the world's reserve currency is being deliberately inflated...?
#3
Key point: We must still face the overwhelming fact that global energy supply is on a knife-edge regardless of events in the Gulf - with no relief in sight.
Oil prices may not be 'stable' but world oil production is, for the moment. I for one am not expecting it to increase. As new small discoveries are made, older reserves are shrinking --net results, zip.
#5
The oil markets don't concur with the rather gloomy analysis above. For example in the WTI segment of the market futures fall below $100/bbl in mid 2014 and back into the $80s by 2017; other oils are similar. If we were faced with diminishing supply and constant demand or flat / dminishing supply and increasing demand that backwardation would not be present.
The author's breathless assertion that the global energy supply is, "... on a knife edge," is of the dog-bites-man variety of uninteresting news. Of course that's true, it's the markets at work producing just enough of what we need just when we need it. Granted domestic political and geopolitical problems may temporarily disrupt the markets but those are, and will remain, transients.
Before succumbing to the belief that we're finally near the end of oil as a viable commodity I'd urge everyone to read this brief history of doomsaying in the oil markets. Hint: the end of oil in the US has been predicted since before the Civil War and such predictions have placed said end at times as far back as the mid 19th century. Eventually the gloom & doom crowd will be right but not any time soon.
#7
Hopefully, the Global Oil Markets can avoid "Three Gorges" Syndrome, i.e. high initial expectation/forecasts of positive value only to be met wid self or system-induced sudden loss of vital capacities.
The head of the United Nations General Assembly has called for radical reform of the international organisation, saying the stalemate over Syria shows it is 'not fit for purpose.'
It's not fit for anything other than the dining service...
Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, suggested it was unacceptable that under the current system, Russia and China were able to use their roles as permanent members of the UN Security Council to block a resolution aimed at condemning the Syrian regime.
He called for reform to allow the UN to act despite the opposition of some on the Security Council, if there was overwhelming support from the Assembly.
Describing the current system as outdated, Mr Nasser said that the ability of the five permanent members of the Security Council to block action was no longer credible, and could be dangerous when it stood in the path of peace.
There was outrage last month when Russia and China vetoed a resolution which gave support to an Arab League plan paving the way to the resignation of President Assad.
Mr Nasser claimed that failing to pass the resolution had encouraged the Assad regime in its bloody crackdown on the Syrian people which has cost more than 7,000 lives.
#1
First order of business for the general assembly is to outlaw the production and use of all pork products and the keeping of dogs as pets. Second, to outlaw Israel.
It was pointed out some time ago that the *average* education of UN delegates is fifth grade. This is worse than it sounds, as the western delegates on the low end of the curve all have advanced degrees.
Nepotism is rife, and on an average day, the security staff confiscate 70 or more deadly weapons that delegates have tried to smuggle in, including blow guns with poison darts, knives, explosives and guns.
Delegates who ignore the prohibition against campfires in offices object bitterly to being prohibited from bringing in dried animal dung they use for fuel.
A gang of gunmen wearing military-style uniforms killed 21 policemen in an early morning shooting rampage in western Iraq.
Security officials said the killings began before dawn when the gunmen kidnapped two police commanders from their homes in Haditha, 140 miles north west of Baghdad.
The gang then drove to the city and gunned down police at two security checkpoints.
Officials said at least 21 policemen and three of the gang members were killed in the shoot-outs.
Were the police actually allowed to shoot back? If so they definitely need more time at the range and more training in situational awareness. The notion that a police officer in Iraq, manning a checkpoint, wouldn't understand that someone could suddenly come at him, guns blazing, boggles.
During a sermon last week at Bahrain's Grand Mosque, the pro-government prayer leader offered sweeping praise for one of the Arab Spring's counter-revolutions: Gulf rulers bonding together against dissent with powerful Saudi Arabia as their main guardian.
The widening Saudi security stamp on the region is already taking shape in Bahrain, where more than a year of Shiite-led unrest shows no sign of easing and the Saudi influence over the embattled Sunni monarchy is on public display.
Portraits of the Saudi King Abdullah some showing him praying dot the airport in Bahrain's capital Manama. Bahrain's red-and-white flag and the green Saudi colors are arranged with crossed staffs. State media continually lauds the Saudi-led military force that rolled into Bahrain last year as reinforcements against the uprising by the kingdom's Shiite majority.
"Gulf union is a long-awaited dream," said Sheik Fareed al-Meftah at Friday prayers in Manama's main Sunni mosque, referring to proposals to coordinate defense affairs and other policies among the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council stretching from Kuwait to Oman.
"The first step is here," al-Meftah added.
Abdullah and Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, have met to discuss "union" plans, which are expected to be outlined in May. For the moment, few details have emerged. Gulf leaders have stressed the need for greater intelligence and military cooperation. It's unclear, however, how deeply Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will attempt to merge in the first steps.
The increasingly blurred national lines in Bahrain are a possible sneak preview of the wider Arab Spring backlash in the oil-rich Gulf, where Saudi power seeks to safeguard the region's Sunni leadership and its strong opposition to possible attempts by Shiite giant Iran to expand influence. Meanwhile, Gulf rulers have selectively endorsed rebellions elsewhere, such as in Libya and Syria.
#1
The notion that a non-constitutional monarch would have his picture distributed in prayer is very different from most of these autarchs who run the middle-east, who put up their big-brother picture everywhere.
By putting up his picture of a monarch in prayer, the monarch is conveying that he is bound by the same religious laws as the subject. In fact, he is saying that he is a subject to God just as they are. This is powerful and important.
Just as we Americans demand that our officers swear an oath to the Constitution -- a higher power than themselves -- for the Saudi monarch to be portrayed abjuring himself to the Lord is to let the people know that there are rules and norms that are shared and will be respected.
This is progress in the middle-east. Thanks be to God.
Muslim women in Australia's most populous state will have to remove veils to have their signatures officially witnessed under the latest laws giving New South Wales officials authority to look under religious face coverings.
New South Wales state Attorney General Greg Smith said in a statement on Monday that beginning April 30, officials such as justices of the peace and lawyers who witness statutory declarations or affidavits without making identity checks will be fined 220 Australian dollars ($236).
"If a person is wearing a face covering, an authorized witness should politely and respectfully ask them to show their face," Smith said.
The government on Monday began an information campaign to ensure the public and officials were aware of the new penalties before they came into force.
The laws are a response to a court case last year in which a Sydney woman was convicted of falsely claiming that a traffic policeman had attempted to remove her niqab a veil that reveals only the eyes.
A judge overturned the conviction because the official who witnessed the false claim did not look under the veil of the person who made it, so the judge was not certain that the defendant was responsible.
#2
The best bet would be to set up a mercenary army under US auspices, that would provide "high end" support to the Afghan Army, but only on request.
What this means is a clear understanding that if they are called in, they will kill ALL the bad guys, and everyone near them. So they should only be called when an Afghan unit is under threat of annihilation. If the Afghan unit can just break off and leave under heavy enemy attack, it should.
In other words, this leaves it up to the Afghan army to fight its own battles, but prevents the Taliban from ever having a battlefield victory. They may capture terrain for a while, but that's it.
#2
If my memory serves me correctly, men of the United States Merchant Marine who manned deck guns against the Axis in the Atlantic finally received VA recognition in the late 1970's.
#4
men of the United States Merchant Marine finally received VA recognition in the late 1970's.
Yep, Besoeker, but a couple of years too late to matter to my father...
[Iran Press TV] The Iraqi Interior Ministry says Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi is likely to flee Iraq from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The interior ministry issued a statement on Sunday and said it had "reliable information" on the matter.
The ministry also "requested that the interior ministry of the Kurdistan regional government carry out the arrest warrant issued against him (Hashemi) and hand him over to judicial authorities," according to the Sunday statement.
Hashemi is accused of involvement in kabooms against government and security officials over the past years, including a November 2011 car booming in the capital Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... that apparently targeted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
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[Iran Press TV] Yemenis have staged massive protest rallies across the country, demanding the expulsion of the deposed dictator 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... 's loyalists from the Army, Press TV reports.
The huge demonstrations were held in the capital Sana'a and southern cities of Taizz and Ibb on Sunday.
Members of the military joined the protest rallies, calling on the new President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to purge the military of the associates of Saleh's regime.
The protesters also condemned the government's decision to cut salaries of the military personnel.
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[Dawn] The leader of PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Sunday said that PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... should first apologise and admits his mistakes and then ask others for an apology, DawnNews reported.
We never committed any sin and will never seek any apology, Shujaat stated.
Speaking to media persons, Shujaat said that a dictator brought Sharif to the Parliament and Sharif also brought a uniformed president in the Parliament.
He further said that there can be no alliance with N-league for the government. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... Shujaat added that his party is willing to have talks with anyone for the interest of the country.
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[Iran Press TV] A Yemeni military cargo aircraft has went kaboom! in an airbase near the international airport in the capital Sana'a.
A Yemeni airport technician said the aircraft blew up under "mysterious circumstances while it was on the tarmac" at the airbase on Sunday.
No casualties have been reported from the incident.
The "mysterious" kaboom in Sana'a occurred on the day that Yemeni protesters held demonstrations in the capital and the southern cities of Taizz and Ibb to demand the dismissal of military officials loyal to deposed dictator 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...
Members of the Yemeni military also joined the Sunday demonstrations.
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[Iran Press TV] Occupy AIPAC demonstrators have held a rally outside the pro-Israel lobby group's annual conference in Washington to voice their opposition to potential war on Iran.
The protesters, part of the nationwide Occupy movement, held placards reading "No War on Iran" and "They Lied about Iraq, They're Lying about Iran" as they rallied outside the Washington Convention Center on the first day of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Sunday.
"After 10 years of war, the American people need a foreign policy that focuses on diplomacy, not military intervention," said Medea Benjamin, one of the protesters.
"We are rallying to demand that our current leaders not take us down the same patch as past leaders did in Iraq," Benjamin said.
The protesters also called on US President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... to reject Israel's push for war on Iran.
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#1
right. Jimmy Carter was too right-wing for Medea Benjamin
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... stressed on Sunday that Jerusalem belongs to Paleostine, Arabs, and the Mohammedans.
He said: "The choice to hold negotiations to return Jerusalem to Paleostine are unrealistic because Israel considers the city as its permanent capital."
He made his statements during a conference on the announcement of Jerusalem as the capital of Paleostine.
"The case of Jerusalem is a unique one because it is holy site for Mohammedans and Christians around the world," he added.
"Every Paleostinian, Arab, Mohammedan, and Christian has a national, moral, and popular responsibility towards this city," Nasrallah continued.
Furthermore, he noted that the major changes in the world "lead us to believe that we are now more than even closer to liberating Jerusalem."
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[Dawn] President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... said Sunday that the United States will not hesitate to attack Iran with military force to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he cautioned that "too much loose talk of war" recently has only helped Tehran and driven up the price of oil.
Speaking to a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, Obama appealed to Israel for more time to let sanctions further isolate Iran. He sought to halt a drumbeat to war with Iran and hold off a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
"For the sake of Israel's security, America's security and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster," Obama told thousands at the annual American-Israel Public Affairs Committee's policy conference. "Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built."
Quoting President Theodore Roosevelt, Obama said he would "speak softly, but carry a big stick" and warned Iran not to test US resolve.
Obama's widely anticipated speech came one day before he meets at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who planned to address AIPAC late Monday.
Three Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... , Rick Santorum ...candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative whose primary attraction is seemingly that he is neither Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich... and Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle... , were scheduled to speak to the conference via satellite on Tuesday, a critical day in the primary campaign when 10 states vote in the race to find a challenger to Obama in the November election.
To Israel and to Jewish voters in this country, Obama promoted his administration's commitment to the Mideast ally.
"You don't have to count on my words. You can look at my deeds," Obama said. He defended his record of rallying to Israel's security and political illusory sovereignty, saying: "We have been there for Israel. Every single time."
Obama's comments were heavily laced with the politics of the campaign. He blamed distortions of his record on partisan politics.
The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, spoke before Obama and said that a nuclear Iran would be a menace to the world, not just to Israel's security.
Peres, whose country sees its existence threatened by the potential development of nuclear arms by Iran, said: "Iran is an evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime. It is based on destruction and is an affront to human dignity." He said Israel knows the horrors of war and does not seek one with Iran, "but if we are forced to fight, trust me. We shall prevail."
Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
In Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said American pressure would not affect Israeli thinking on how to cope with the threat.
"We are an independent sovereign state, and at the end of the day, the state of Israel will make the most correct decisions as we understand them."
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#1
Not hesitant on force to defend interests: Obama
And here reading the title I thought this was a post about the IRS going after political opponents of the regime the Tea Party.
[Dawn] American policymakers need to face up to three harsh realities in Afghanistan.
One, the US-NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... presence in Afghanistan is now opposed by the majority of Afghans. The circle of alienation has widened progressively. At first, the ousted Taliban were the aggrieved party; US-NATO tactical errors and expanded military presence in south and east Afghanistan extended the alienation to most Pakhtuns. The corruption of Karzai and his coterie deepened popular hostility.
Today, as evident from the series of attacks on foreign troops by Afghan army and police personnel and, even more so, from the violence that erupted due to the desecration of the Holy Koran, most Afghans, outside the ruling elite in Kabul, will be glad to see the backs of the foreign forces.
Two, for different reasons, both of Afghanistan's critical neighbours --Pakistain and Iran -- are now anxious to ensure the withdrawal of US-NATO troops and have no incentive at present to support Washington's policy objectives to transition power to a 'moderate' Afghan government.
Iran cooperated initially in ousting the Taliban and installing the Tajik-dominated regime in Kabul. But its inclusion in George W. Bush's 'axis of evil' and the subsequent escalation of US sanctions and military threats against Iran's nuclear programme have placed Tehran firmly among America's detractors in Afghanistan. In the event, Israel or the US conduct military strikes against Iran, its retaliatory targets, without doubt, will include Afghanistan.
Simultaneously, the US relationship with Pakistain has tanked to unprecedented depths. The aerial shooting spree which killed 24 Pak soldiers on the border added ultimate injury to the insult of the major strategic reversals that Pakistain's involvement in America's 'war on terror' has entailed -- a hostile Tajik-dominated regime in Kabul, a fight with Pakistain's own Pakhtuns and krazed killers, an open back door for India to do mischief in western Pakistain, the collapse of the Kashmiri freedom struggle, and the one-sided US 'strategic partnership' with India.
To top it all, the US has accepted the Karzai-Tajik narrative that it is the 'safe havens' in Pakistain, rather than internal Afghan disaffection that is driving the insurgency against the foreign forces in Afghanistan. It is a most convenient excuse for failure, for US generals and politicians.
The US demand that Pakistain neutralise, politically or violently, the Haqqani fighters flows from acceptance of this Kabul narrative. The US was naive or arrogant to believe Pakistain would comply and fight a force that is likely to be a strong friend in post-American Afghanistan.
The latest demand that Pakistain 'deliver' the Taliban in the negotiations is also premised on the Kabul thesis of Pakistain's
control over the insurgency. As events before 9/11 attest, Pakistain's relationship with the Taliban was never one-sided or simple. As often as not, the Taliban acted contrary to Pakistain's counsel.
The third reality is the growing opposition to the Afghan war in America. If the US army had been a conscript force today, as in Vietnam, and those who were fighting and dying were not only the children of the poor but also the rich, the Afghan adventure would have been long over.
In the US Congress, calls for withdrawal now emanate from both left and right. Some hard-liners say that the aim of defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan has been achieved. Most are weary of expending more money and blood for objectives whose strategic value to the US is, at best, marginal.
Thus, the billions needed to maintain any residual US military presence, and an Afghan army and government, are unlikely to be available for very long. Without money, the army and the Kabul regime and its regional satraps will quickly collapse. In fact, the process of economic contraction has already started.
In the context of these harsh realities, the issues which President B.O.'s advisers should be preoccupied with are the following: can the Taliban exploit the popular disaffection to bring about an internal collapse of the Kabul regime? Anticipating the growing compulsion for US withdrawal, and their inevitable victory, will the Taliban negotiate at all in Doha or elsewhere? How can Pakistain be brought on board to support stability in Afghanistan during and after the US withdrawal? What will happen in Afghanistan if Israel and/or the US attack Iran's nuclear facilities? Can the plan for orderly withdrawal turn into a rout? What would be the electoral consequences for Obama and the strategic implications for the US?
The writer is a former Pakistain ambassador to the UN.
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"PAKISTAN" MODEL FOR XINJIANG [Uighur autonomy widin China], versus "CHINA" MODEL FOR XINJIANG [subservience to Beijing].
ARTIC = SCO-CSTO will likely become prosperous due to Rising China's growing econ role in Central Asia, to which Pakistan can be an important conduit vee Oil, Resources-rich Xinjiang = West China. COMMON BOND PER ANTI-TERRORISM STRUGGLE BEWEEN CHINA + PAKISTAN.
[Dawn] A local anti-terrorism court on Saturday convicted a man of killing a banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization's provincial secretary and sentenced him to death with a fine of Rs one million.
Judge Asghar Ali Shah said the prosecution had proved the Aslam Farouqi killing case against Sabih Hussain.
He, however, acquitted two other accused persons identified as Fahad Ali and Syed Abid Ali Zaidi for lack of evidence.
The prime accused, Sabih Hussain, was placed in durance vile soon after the killing on August 12, 2007. He was caught red-handed by relatives of Mr Farouqi, a leader of the proscribed 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... (SSP), after he fired gunshots at him and was trying to escape from the place of occurrence at Mohallah Naqshbandi in Kohati area.
The FIR of the murder registered at Shah Qabool cop shoppe charged the accused under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 302 of Pakistain Penal Code.
Police suspected that the killing was outcome of a conflict between the two sects.
They later placed in durance vile the two other accused claiming that during interrogation, the prime accused named them as their accomplices. Both of them were later freed after the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court granted them bail.
The counsel for the complainant argued that the accused was caught on the spot, while the weapon used in the killing was also recovered from him. He said the said weapon was sent for chemical examination that showed that bullets were fired from it.
The trial was conducted inside the Peshawar Central Prison due to sensitivity of the matter.
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#1
If there was any justice in Pakistan, Farouqi would get a medal and a Rs one million reward.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] One Sunday a few weeks ago, the Kenya Defence Forces were patrolling the area around Tabda town, about 77 kilometres inside Somalia. Suddenly a young man stepped out of the bushes and stood in their way.
This encounter was far enough from the village marked as a permanent centre by the iron roofing sheets and the mosque to raise the soldiers' suspicions.
The man was stopped, asked to identify himself, frisked by the soldiers and led towards the town, where the officer in charge, a lieutenant, was talking to the Transitional Federal Government forces that police the area.
The soldiers found that the man was wearing a pair of shorts under his trousers, had three mobile phones and a kitchen knife.
Their suspicions were raised further when they discovered a mobile phone SIM card sewn into a pocket and several packets of what appeared to be tobacco wrapped in pieces of dirty newspapers.
Questioned, the man claimed to have been with a group of herders originating from the town and was headed back home for something.
But to the soldiers, he might as well have been on reconnaissance, checking out the location of their patrol base on the instructions of Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... .
Fortunately for him, one of the women in the village said she knew him, had seen him earlier in the day and could therefore offer a guarantee of sorts that he was not on a suspicious mission.
For the soldiers in the towns in the Central Sector that have been liberated from Al-Shabaab (Dhobley, Hawina, Tabda and Belesc Qoogani), anything that strays from the normal is checked thoroughly.
The population in some of the towns has increased since Operation Linda Nchi began in October 2011. Hawina was initially a ghost town but has come back to life and Hosingow's population has tripled from 150 to 450.
While some may see this as reflecting the stability brought about by the removal of Al-Shabaab, there are signs that the militia retains a presence.
Two weeks ago, a KDF convoy was ambushed just outside Hawina on its way to Tabda.
One soldier was killed, another sprained his ankle and the rest were saved by their reflexes and the quick action of the lieutenant in charge, who shot one of the attackers as he took aim at the troops from a tree.
The patrol base at Tabda was under attack the same evening, with several mortar bombs fired from a distance.
The nature and execution of the two attacks suggest some element of coordination and intelligence, with the very possible chance there were Al-Shabaab operatives among the locals.
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[Iran Press TV] Venezuelan His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez has appeared on television for the first time since undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba, saying his recovery has been 'open, progressive, and rapid.'
"We are very optimistic. There is a very favorable medical evolution, the vital signs very favorable," Chavez said in a television address recorded in the Cuban capital Havana on Saturday.
He was accompanied in the speech by government ministers and his older brother, Adan Chavez.
"Since almost the second day [as of the operation], I began to walk. For this, I say thanks to God, to everybody," the Venezuelan president added.
The 57-year-old underwent a reportedly 90-minute-long surgery at Havana's Cimeq Hospital late on February 27.
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#1
And the BBC reported yesterday that the cancer has recurred.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/05/2012 6:39
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#2
I think he is already showing signs of edema. This is the puffiness associated with liver and kidney stress, likely caused by the chemo. Once that gets too bad, they will almost have to give him diuretics, and his weight will plummet.
At that point he will look gaunt, and that's the start of the race to the finish line.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudanese police on Sunday beat university students who gathered outside the presidential palace objecting to the loss of their campuses when South Sudan separated.
About 150 students held a silent march and got within metres of the palace gates where police forcibly dispersed them, an AFP news hound witnessed.
Officers jugged some of the students, but it was unclear how many.
The students had attended universities with campuses in both northern and southern Sudan.
But all the campuses moved south, along with their southern students, when South Sudan gained independence last July following an overwhelming vote after 22 years of civil war.
The Khartoum government formed a new campus, Bahri University, for northerners who had attended the southern schools.
The students, however, have objected, particularly because those who will graduate soon say they want their diplomas under the name of the southern universities where they got most of their education.
"We don't want Bahri University," said a banner carried by the protesters.
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#1
Who needs universities when you have the Koran?
[Yemen Post] Amid increasing attacks on military and security officials and institutions, person or persons unknown in the southeastern Yemeni province of Hadramout assassinated a security chief on Saturday evening.
A local security source in Hadramout told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity that "a group of gunnies have rubbed out Maj. Shaef al-Nahmi,the acting security chief of Shibam at 9pm on Saturday".
"As he got out of his car in front of the Security headquarter in Al-Mukala, the capital city of Hadramout, the assailants, who apparently were loitering in the place expecting his arrival, have shot al-Nahmi dead, and bravely ran away on cycle of violences," said the source.
The security forces locked down the whole area in a futile bid to catch the terrorists, added the source.
As usual, the army blamed AQAP for the atrocity, saying it's the only network that target army officials in the country.
The assault comes within a string of al-Qaeda liquidations and attacks on army and security officials and institutions.
Al-Qaeda has assassinated many security, intelligence, and army officials in the past several months.
Earlier the day, two bombs were tossed at the main gates of the Central Security Forces headquarters Hadramout's capital city of in al-Mukala . And on February 25, al-Qaeda has launched an a suicidal attack at the front gate of the presidential Palace, killing at least 26 soldiers killed and injuring dozens others.
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[Dawn] PRIVATE companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country.
West Midlands, in central England, and Surrey, in south-east England, have invited bids from G4S and other major security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously carried out by the police.
The contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.
This scale dwarfs the recent £200m contract between Lincolnshire police in northeast England, and G4S, under which half the force's civilian staff is to join the private security company, which will also build and run a cop shoppe for the first time.
The interior minister, Theresa May, who has imposed a 20 per cent cut in grants on forces, has said frontline policing can be protected by using the private sector to transform services provided to the public, but this is the first clear indication of what that will mean in practice. May said on Thursday that she hoped the 'business partnership' programme would be in place next spring.
A 26-page 'commercial in confidence' contract note seen by the Guardian has been sent to potential bidders to run all services that "can be legally delegated to the private sector". They do not include those that involve the power of arrest and the other duties of a sworn constable.
Companies who have applied through the Bluelight emergency services e-tendering website have been invited to a 'bidders' conference' on March 14, with an anticipated contract start date of next February.
The timetable for the programme means it will be subject to final sign-off by the first police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands after their election in November. The existing police authority only gave the go-ahead for the tendering stage last month after a "robust and forthright discussion" which ended with a rare 11-5 split vote.
The joint West Midlands/ Surrey 'transformation' programme, which has strong backing from the Home Office, looks set to redraw the accepted boundaries between public and private and the definition of frontline and back-office policing.
The programme has the potential to become the main vehicle for outsourcing police services in England and Wales. It has been pioneered by the West Midlands chief constable, Chris Sims, and Mark Rowley, who has moved to the Metropolitan (London) police from being Surrey chief constable. The pair lead on these matters for the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The breathtaking list of policing activities up for grabs includes investigating crimes, detaining suspects, developing cases, responding to and investigating incidents, supporting victims and witnesses, managing high-risk individuals and patrolling neighbourhoods.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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#1
Here's an idea...what about privatising doctors. Just a thought.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/05/2012 1:13
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The English government seems to have a real down on police. First they figured that by putting CCTV cameras everywhere they could lay off cops, and that didn't work, so now they want to try privatization.
Perhaps it is time to reevaluate the entire purpose of having police. In the US, it is much clearer.
#3
...and in the "United States", may local communities allow not only gun ownership but the right of self defense of life and property. Although, crime seems to peak in areas where those tenets are not followed.
#4
The UK has forgotten its police founding in Peels Principles.
The police is the UK is seen as a profit center aimed at generating money from traffic fines and the like. Seconcarily it is seen as a tool to reform society as a socialist "utopia". Catching crim's?? that's waaaaaaaaaaay down the list.
The people in the UK as far as I can tell have little respect for the coppers and especially for their leaders.
Spending money to make your populace safe is one thing that doesn't seem to pertain.
#6
I have never really had a problem with are police force, and I think you guys have got it all wrong. Basically the police and other public services have overpaid everyone, now they look to cut costs rather then create a socialist utopia? So rather then lay off the officers or give them the realistic pay drop they need. Employ the private sector, sure it creates a storm, but the latter option is a bunch of striking officers. Although I'm pretty certain there not allowed to strike.
#7
Meanwhile, back in the NOT-YET-USSA-OR-USRoA ...
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US STATES MOVE TOWARDS [Socialist-style = State-owned] "PUBLIC" BANKING | SEVENTEEN US STATES INTRODUCE BILLS FOR STATE-OWNED BANKS, + OTHERS ARE IN THE WORKS.
E.g. State-controlled Credit Unions.
Lest we fergit, NET = LOCAL POLICE, PUBLIC UTILITIES [Power], + even MEDIAS WANT THEIR OWN DRONE ARMIES RECCE'ING OER US STATE-LOCAL SKIES.
#8
Christ you guys our fucked. so paraoid! Hey mate so quick to judge another country, go live their and come back and tell me the same. Mate I was in the USA and I shit you not I have never in all my time met such a nation of spastics. Your nation is so retarded with a lack of history and intelligence. I fucking mean it. also lacks a huge ammount of history, very boring.
#9
Put it this way I once got put in the sin bun for moaning about my own queen and country, but yet when I support it you will suddenly back up otherwise. CUNTS, or is that too heavy in the English language. Funny cos I hear it 24/7 in the pubs I work in. Be a fucking man. Put your fists up and fight me you twat.
#2
There is no shortage of speeches on the friendship between the United States and Israel. But I am also mindful of the proverb, A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words. So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done
[Iran Press TV] American scholar Noam Chomsky ...intellectual and political theorist of a socialist persuasion. He is noted for being so far out in left field he can't see the shortstop on every issue he pushes... says the world does not accept the US portrayal of Iran as an "imminent threat" to global peace, and that Washington and Tel Aviv are instead seen as greater evils.
"There is little credible discussion of just what constitutes the Iranian threat, though we do have an authoritative answer, provided by US military and intelligence. Their presentations to Congress make it clear that Iran doesn't pose a military threat," Chomsky wrote in his latest article titled "What Are Iran's Intensions?" published Friday.
Chomsky added that even "the majority of Americans" recognized Iran's right to its nuclear energy program before Washington officials and media launched a "massive propaganda onslaught" against the Islamic Theocratic Republic over the past two years.
He added that presently powerful countries like Russia, China, India, and 120 member nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) oppose the US policy on Iran.
"Western commentary has made much of how the Arab dictators allegedly support the US position on Iran, while ignoring the fact that the vast majority of the population opposes it-a stance too revealing to require comment," he said.
Instead, Chomsky said, "Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace," and in the Arab world he added, "Israel and the US are regarded as the pre-eminent threat."
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#2
"Western commentary has made much of how the Arab dictators allegedly support the US position on Iran, while ignoring the fact that the vast majority of the population opposes it-a stance too revealing to require comment," he said.
Chomsky is absolutely right. The media in this country has continuously gone on and on about how the Arab dictators are our enemies, when in truth, the enemy is their troglodyte populations. Unfortunately, the neocon prescription of democracy for these people simply makes it more likely that they can realize their long-held dream of warring upon us, in opposition to the policy of their dictators who are simultaneously trying to appease their blood-thirsty populations and an uncomprehending West urging them to open the Pandora's box of democracy. As the murderous hordes of Islam begin to elect dictators of blood and iron to realize their dreams of conquest and slaughter to replace the dissolute playboys who formerly led them, we can expect the spilling of rivers of blood on the part of both infidels and the faithful. When that occurs, 9/11 will in retrospect be viewed as the relative calm before the storm and a mere down payment on the horrors to come.
#4
Jimmah Carter, Chomsky, Bambi......
Is it time for the annual Eunuch convention ?
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/05/2012 7:26
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We should all give Chomsky credit for having done more to "keep the black man down" than even Jefferson Davis. By his actions, millions of black people have been denied an education and prosperity, and reduced to generational government dependency.
As long as Americans do not withdraw from Afghanistan there will be no peace in the region, Pakistani cricketing legend and leader of Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan told Arab News in an exclusive interview. He predicted America would withdraw from Afghanistan eventually, but added US forces should make a clean and orderly withdrawal with consideration for neighboring countries.
If they withdraw suddenly without making such arrangements they will then leave Afghanistan in a big mess. And there will be a civil war even worse than the one that took place after the Soviets withdrew in the 1980s, he said.
At which point we really won't care. Honest. We tried. Your turn.
Speaking to Arab News in Jeddah, Khan said Pakistan should turn a new leaf in its relationship with India.
This cold war is costing both the countries enormously. We should resolve our issues politically with dialogue. And if we decide that this is a political issue not a military one, then India, Pakistan and Kashmiris should sit together and solve the problem taking into account the wishes of Kashmiris, he said.
It should be a relationship based on trust, and both countries will benefit from peace.
He said Pakistanis have always had a close relationship with Saudis and one that will always remain strong.
On the political scene in Pakistan and possible alliances with other parties, the former cricketer-turned politician rejected the idea. We will not have an alliance with any other party because of what they have done in the past and are still doing now, and they will not change their system of governance, he said.
He said many ex-ministers and other famous politicians are joining his party and despite that fact they worked with the two main parties in Pakistan, all of them are financially clean.
In the recent Senate election the Peoples Party and Pakistani Muslim League (N) (PML) made a deal and seats were sold. This Senate has lost its credibility, Khan said.
Khan said the situation in Pakistan is similar to the Arab Spring where youths rallied for change. We have an Arab Spring with a plus point. Our youths are under one leadership. In Pakistan it started even before the Arab Spring when lawyers and civil society stood behind the chief justice during (Pervez) Musharrafs era. At that time it did not have a leadership and it was hijacked by PML. But now this movement is under Tehreek-i-Insaf, and this is reflected in the biggest gatherings and biggest rallies in Lahore and Karachi in Pakistans history, he added.
Khan laughed off allegations by his opponents that the army is backing him and said this a lame accusation, because the army can only give funds, but it cannot encourage people to attend mass rallies that attract up to a quarter of a million. They could not do it during Musharrafs time when only 35,000 attended his last rally in Islamabad in May 2007, he added.
Khan said the case moved by Air Marshal Asghar Khan against the army and ISI funding politicians has started and the country will know whom they funded.
If it is proven the ISI has given his party one Pakistani rupee, Khan said he would quit politics for good.
Speaking on his vision for the relationship with the US, he said: We want a sovereign Pakistan, not a client of America. America brokered the NRO deal with Musharraf to bring Benazir (Bhutto) back to Pakistan and I truly believe that this was the biggest crime against the people of Pakistan.
Tehreek-i-Insaf will have a sovereign government and will not take aid from America. We want friendly relationship like the one the US has with India, he added.
He said his country is facing a big problem involving tax evasion by the rich. All the big politicians have their money outside Pakistan. I am the only politician who made his money outside Pakistan and took it back to my country and declared it in my name. I have nothing outside, he said.
He added the ruling elites have not declared their assets and are not paying any taxes and that is why the country cannot fight corruption domestically. According to Transparency International this has cost Pakistan 8.5 trillion rupee in four years, while the countrys annual expenditure is 3 trillion rupees.
The two big parties that have governed the country for many years have not made any law against corruption although they passed three constitutional amendments. And as we have seen, when their interests are the same they unite, he said, adding they are afraid of any anti-corruption law.
Khan said that the war on terror is not Pakistans war, adding that it has cost Pakistan more than $50 billion in four years and left 40,000 dead. We also lost our security as suicide bombers played havoc with the lives of Pakistanis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
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Cricket matches and precision marching bands at border outposts possibly ?
[Dawn] Pakistain has become an Export Processing Zone of qualified health professionals and trained paramedical staff who are leaving the country for greener pastures and secured places in the world due to lack of security, poor remuneration, limited resources of professional development and an overall discouragement of health profession in Pakistain. When a favorite passtime is bumping off medical professionals you'll soon find yourself with a shortage one way or the other... Think about it. You can be an IMG in America, do a residency in a community hospital, perhaps work your way into a university hospital, and then get into a practice in a small American town or inner city where the people are generally really, really happy to have you. You'll make an enormous (to you) amount of money, have professional respect and admiration, and live in a fine house with a family. You'll have money for travel, conveniences, conferences, and investment. Your biggest problem will be the Americanization of your daughters. But you'll live in a first world country.
Or you can live in Pakistain, and as Fred says, take a not-too-shabby risk of getting whacked just because you were educated by infidels. Assuming the ISI and their various crazies let you live, you'll have a practice in a small town in Pakistain that may or may not have electricity and running water. The inside of your house might be nice but the outside will be mud. You'll have relatives, imans and police hitting you up for money daily. You'll live in a third world country.
Your choice, Dr. Mahmoud...
Devolution of health to the provinces was the biggest mistake by the government as it further deteriorated health facilities to common people in Pakistain while in provinces, health departments were being managed by non-professionals who were denying primary healthcare facilities to common people, which is a basic, fundamental right of every person in Pakistain.
Health has never been the priority of both autocratic and democratic governments in Pakistain while provision of health is not even on the agendas and manifestoes of political also. In this situation, Chief Justice of Pakistain should take suo moto notice for the protection of health professionals and provision of health facilities to masses.
These views were expressed by leading health professionals and experts while expressing their views on the topic of Health Politics and Doctors Issues on Saturday at the second day of 22nd Biennial International Convention being held here at Expo Center Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Pakistain Medical Association (PMA) President Prof. Tipu Sultan bitterly criticized the authorities and the devolution of the health ministry to provinces, saying this further complicated the process of healthcare provision to people.
Prof. Tipu Sultan cited corruption, lack of political will and poor state of security as biggest obstacles in provision of health services in Pakistain and added that due to fears of life and earning better remuneration, doctors are running away from the country, further aggravating the miseries of common people. He called for establishment of major, tertiary-care hospitals at town levels in Bloody Karachi comprising 500-bed each so that people could avail quality health facilities nearer to their abodes and called for enhancing the health budget of the country above 6 per cent of the GDP.
Renowned Pediatrician Prof. Ghaffar A Billo strongly criticized the present government, rulers and politicians belonging to all political parties of the country saying health was not a priority of any of the ruler or even politician in Pakistain.
Every day 1500 children die due to diseases that are preventable but neither the government nor the media give least attention to this important issue. Doctors are running away, despite being most intelligent people of the society, they get paid less than ordinary people, and the ultimate sufferer due to this situation is common man he observed.
Prof. Billo urged the associations of health professionals including PIMA and PMA to continue dialogue on these basic issues and form a task force to pursue basic issues facing doctors like protection and remuneration and common man that include provision of primary healthcare facilities without any hassle.
He also criticized the mushroom growth of medical colleges in the country and claimed that these colleges had become money making ventures for their owners and resultantly, graduates try to mint as much money as possible to cover the money they spent on their medical education.
Little spending on water, sanitation and immunization can save millions of lives in Pakistain while provision of skilled birth attendants can drastically reduce mothers mortality but unfortunately, these areas have never been given any attention by the people concerned he observed.
The known pediatrician urged the Chief Justice of Pakistain Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take suo moto notice on the issue of protection of doctors and demanded that state should be made responsible to provide security to health professionals.
Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Prof. Umer Farooq declared that entire health and education infrastructure had become rotten due to corruption, lust and greed of the officials and authorities where standard of the education has declined to miserable extent.
He said the working atmosphere for doctors in Pakistain was not conducive and due to that ultimate sufferer were the common people, who lack financial resources to buy quality health facilities at private hospitals, which are flourishing in the country.
Prof. Umer Farooq called for preparation of comprehensive health policy and its implementation in letter and spirit, provision of incentives to doctors in the country, periodic transfers of the doctors to rural areas with double incentives and an increase in health budget to meet the growing health needs of common people.
Leading Neurologist Prof. Abdur Rasheed Jumma in his address lamented that there was no health policy in place in the country at the moment as the health was devolved to provinces, which complicated the issue and created problems for both doctors and common people.
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#1
Yes, then Pakistani doctors can come to America and treat our nurses like shit.
[An Nahar] Syrian artillery gunners pounded the mainly rebel-held city of Rastan on Sunday, as 15 people were killed across the country and the Red Thingy began delivering aid to refugees from the battered Homs district of Baba Amr, monitors said.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed seven people in the central province of Homs, three in the restive countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , one in the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , one in the central province of Hama, one in the southern province of Daraa and another in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
The aid distribution came as relief agencies waited for a third straight day for the go-ahead to enter Baba Amr, where hundreds of people are reported to have been killed and even more maimed in an almost month-long shelling blitz.
The shelling of Rastan, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed at least three civilians including a woman, coincided with a call by China on all parties in Syria to "unconditionally" end the violence.
"Since dawn, the positions of deserters in the north of Rastan have been subject to intensive shelling," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britannia-based Observatory, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The rebel fighters on February 5 declared Rastan to be "liberated" from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... 's control, but since Homs was overrun by regime forces on Thursday, the deserters have been bracing for an onslaught on Rastan and on Qusayr, also near Homs.
Rastan is a strategic city as, like Homs, it falls on the main road linking Damascus with northern Syria.
The Observatory had on Friday reported 12 civilians, including five children, killed when a rocket slammed into a crowd of protesters in Rastan.
The rebels decamped the Baba Amr section of Homs on Thursday in the face of a ground assault by regime forces following a shelling blitz since early February that the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said had killed some 700 people.
HRW said shells sometimes fell in Baba Amr at a rate of 100 an hour and that satellite images showed 640 buildings visibly damaged, but stressed that the real picture could be worse.
The Syrian authorities have been condemned by the international community for barring Red Thingy convoys from entering Baba Amr to evacuate the maimed and deliver relief supplies.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) said it delivered relief supplies on Sunday to refugees from Baba Amr in a nearby village of central Syria.
"We have started to distribute humanitarian aid in Abel village, three kilometers (two miles) from Baba Amr," ICRC front man Saleh Dabbakeh told AFP.
"Many refugees from Baba Amr are in Abel," he said, adding they were being supplied with food products and blankets.
Dabbakeh said a similar operation would take place in Inshaat, another district of Homs, while the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy Society awaited the go-ahead from authorities to enter Baba Amr itself.
A seven-truck convoy organized by the aid groups has been waiting since Friday to enter Baba Amr, with the authorities saying they were being barred for their own safety because of the presence of bombs and landmines.
Amid international outrage over the delay, ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger has said: "It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help."
Opposition activists charge the regime's aim is to cover up its crimes in Baba Amr before allowing access to relief workers.
U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... has demanded unconditional humanitarian access to Syrian cities, saying there were "grisly" reports of summary executions and torture in Homs, Syria's third largest city.
British photographer Paul Conroy, maimed in a rocket attack in Baba Amr on February 22 that killed two colleagues, said the bombardment of the besieged city amounted to a "medieval siege and slaughter," and denounced the Damascus government as "murderers".
The bodies of American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, killed in the rocket attack, were flown into Gay Paree from Damascus on Sunday.
China, which twice joined Russia in blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions against Syria's lethal crackdown on dissent, urged an end to the violence.
Xinhua news agency cited a foreign ministry statement attributed to an unnamed official calling for dialogue between the Syrian regime and those expressing "political aspirations."
But the official reportedly added: "We oppose anyone interfering in Syria's internal affairs under the pretext of 'humanitarian' issues."
The Syrian Observatory reported at least 44 people killed in Syria on Saturday, including 14 members of the security forces who died in festivities with deserters near Daraa, the cradle of the anti-regime uprising.
Most of the 30 civilian deaths were the result of raids carried out by security agents in the Damascus region, it said.
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[Dawn] Four persons were killed and two others received injuries in festivities between two rival groups in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Saturday.
Sources said that armed activists of Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) attacked a bunker of Tawheedul Islam (TI), its rival group, early in the morning. The exchange of fire resulted in killing of four LI activists and injuries to two TI volunteers.
In Sipah area of Bara, unidentified persons torched the house of Haji Khiyal Akbar, a local tribal elder. The house, which had been vacated some time ago owing to the ongoing military operation, was completely gutted.In the same vicinity, gunnies took away the doors and windows of the house of Niaz Mat Shah, younger brother of Haji Khiyal Akbar.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... LI commander Said Anwar, who was critically injured in Friday's suicide kaboom in Tirah, died of his wounds in a private clinic in Mehraban Kallay.
Sources in the area said that another LI commander Meera Khan Shalobar was also among the dead.
A spokesperson for Taliban in the area told journalists by telephone that only six or seven LI activists were killed in the Friday's suicide attack. Media organizations, mostly foreign, had placed the dead figure at 22.
Officials at Torkham border said on Saturday that an American surveillance aircraft violated Pak air spare early in the morning and flew back to Afghanistan after flying over the border areas for around four minutes.
The aircraft intrusion caused fear and panic among the people residing in the area. In Dera Isamil Khan, a man was killed and three others were maimed when a hand grenade went off in a scrap shop in Kot Zafar Firdosi area of tehsil Kulachi on Saturday.
According to Kulachi cop shoppe, a hand grenade, lying in the scrap at the shop, went kaboom! with a big bang at around 6:30pm.
As a result, the shopkeeper, Sabir Zaman, was killed on the spot, while three others were maimed.
The injured were taken to district headquarters hospital where doctors said that they condition was stable.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tuareg rebels on Sunday were involved in heavy festivities with Malian soldiers in the country's northeast near the border with Algeria, locals and officials said.
"Fighting flared on Sunday morning between the Mali army and Tuareg rebels near Tessalit. Heavy weapons are involved," a local official from nearby Kidal told AFP.
Malian soldiers, to whom US forces recently dropped supplies from the air, were involved in the fighting, a military official from a neighbouring country said.
"Fighting is intense and it's quite likely one of the two sides will gain the upper hand today," the source added.
A front man for Mali's army told AFP that "in Tessalit we have been involved in fighting for several weeks against Tuareg rebels, narcos and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)".
Tuareg rebels have launched several attacks on towns in the region since mid-January, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
A nomadic community of some 1.5 million people, Tuareg of various tribes are scattered between Algeria, 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... , Libya, Mali and Niger.
Mali and Niger experienced uprisings as the Tuareg fought for recognition of their identity and an independent state in the 1960s, 1990s and early 2000 with a resurgence between 2006 and 2009.
The return of rebels from Libya, following the fall of Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him... , has added to northern Mali's woes as the region battles AQIM, which has carried out many attacks on troops, the kidnapping of several Westerners and various trafficking operations, including drugs.
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[Yemen Post] Clashes renewed on Sunday between the army troops and al-Qaeda elements in the restive southern Yemeni province of Abyan.
Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons have launched fierce attacks on military posts in Lawdar and AL-Kawd districts of Abyan, killing 41 soldiers and wounding many others, security source told Yemen Post on condition anonymity because he is not authorized to reveal information to the press.
Yemen Post could not find reliable information if there were any causality on the terrorist's side.
The islamists took control of Zinjibar, the quiet provincial capital of Abyan in May. Three months later, though, the army assisted by armed rustics managed to force them out.
Although the army regained control of most of Abyan, intermittent festivities became a daily routine in the province, according to local residents.
On Saturday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has grabbed credit for the suicide kaboom, which targeted elite republican guards brigade in the southeastern Yemeni province of AL-Baytha and left 2 soldiers killed.
Last month, hours after new Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi was sworn in, AQAP has carried out an attack targeting the gate of the Presidential Palace in Hadramout, killing at least 28 soldiers and injuring dozens others.
Worried about al-Qaeda taking advantage of the unrest in Yemen and find a free room to operate, Soddy Arabia and USA have pressed Yemen's former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... to sign the GCC-crafted power transfer deal that saw him out of power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing represents a serious test for Hadi and the caretaker government.
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KABUL: Afghans will never accept US justice for five American soldiers involved in burning copies of the Qur'an, and could rise up in a "storm of fury" if there is no public trial, a senior cleric said on Saturday.
Screw it. Bring out our people. Let Karzai have his Najibullah moment.
"The military leaders who ordered the burning and the offenders should both be tried and punished ... This evil crime has been done inside Afghanistan so the punishment must be according to the country's law," Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, head of an Afghan group comprising clerics and parliamentarians investigating the incident, said.
"Court martial or any punishment within the circle of US military law will never be accepted ... If our demands are disregarded then a storm of fury will rise and wash away the Americans." Protests and condemnation erupted last month after Afghan workers found charred copies of the Qur'an at the Bagram base near Kabul. There are three on-going inquiries into the event.
A joint investigation, conducted by US military officials and members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, has concluded that five US soldiers were involved.
Afghan parliamentarian Mullah Tarakhil, who is also part of the group investigating the incident, said that delaying the trial and sentencing could create further instability. He said 400 copies of the Qur'an were burned.
"We want an immediate punishment of the offenders so we can heal the wounds of the people hurt by the ignorant Americans," he said.
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#1
"We want an immediate punishment of the offenders so we can heal the wounds of the people hurt by the ignorant Americans," he said.
Trying to assist the Afhgan people is "punishment" enough.
#2
The Korans shouldn't have been burned. They should have been attached to drone missiles and helped Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, in the Muslim fashion, to meet his 72 year old virgin.
#3
In 2005, less than 4 years after 9/11, Afghan clerics threatened Jihad against the US over reports of Korans flushed down in Gitmo.
Nothing happened to these clerics, the occupation did not punish them.
In retrospect that decision might have been unwise. Where the Bush administration showed restraint and magnanimity the Afghans saw weakness and submission.
#4
Problem is that we never set as THE strategic objective in Afghanistan to unislamize it and have Adghans burning mosques, flusging Korans in the toilet and hanging mullahs from lampposts.
We didn't and one minute after the last Allied soldier has left Afghanistan ut will ba a again a base for Al Quaida.
For the millions of Americans who had nothing to do with burning this trash, F. YOU, enjoy your sh*tty existence. Please never visit our country or ask for aid again, you've had your chance and you choose death and superstition over life and prosperity.
The [NYT] said both U.S. and Afghan officials believe the soldiers driving the books to the incinerator could not read Arabic and did not understand the significance of the holy books.
The New York Times said an Afghan worker "began to scream" when he realized the soldiers were burning holy Muslim books, and he and other Afghan workers tried to extinguish the fire with their water bottles.
The newspaper said "the Americans immediately stopped," but not before four books had been badly burned.
Let's give 'em a link to Amazon.com and GTFO. After lacing every possible water source with estrogens, and burying those sleeper nukes, of course.
#10
Look these people need to understand that they are defeated, occupied and need to conform to American standards. Like not killin' people.
Americans would really like every Afghan to be like me, within walking distance of a 7-11 to get a Slurpee, but shooting people and stuff, no, that is right out.
Gettin' a Slurpee, high-fives. Shooting up stuff, well the sheriff is comin' to get you. Sheriff Joe, yah that's the ticket.
Look out Afghans, Sheriff Joe is comin' to get you.
[An Nahar] The Lebanese army on Sunday set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a group of Syrian gunnies who had entered Lebanese territory via the border town of al-Qaa, seizing a car and a large cache of weapons, Leb's state-run National News Agency reported.
"After the crackdown on the Syrian town of Qusayr intensified, the Lebanese army managed to arrest 33 gunnies who had entered the Lebanese area of al-Qaa Projects and were on their way to Ablah," in Leb's Bekaa Valley, Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) said.
NNA also said several Syrian families decamped to neighboring Lebanese towns.
As Syrian rebel fighters pulled out on Thursday from the battered Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr in the face of the regime's overwhelmingly superior fire power, loyalist forces pressed on with a crackdown on other Homs districts, forcing a lot of the central province's resident to flee to neighboring Leb.
On February 29, twenty-two Syrian families arrived in Leb after fleeing Baba Amr.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon, click here. For a map of Monterrey city, click here
A total of ten individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, according to Mexican news accounts.
Three unidentified men were shot to death at a residence in Monterrey Saturday afternoon. The shooting took place at 1445 hrs near the intersection of calles Luis Mora and Juan Guzman in Monterrey in the Sarabia colony. A fourth victim, an unidentified female was also found wounded by gunfire at the residence. Several 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene. Reports say the residence was used for the selling of drugs.
An unidentified man in his 20s was found shot to death in Monterrey Saturday night. The victim was found dead in the street at around 2230 hrs hear the corner of Privada Palmas and Calles Rosa in the Moderna colony.
An unidentified man in his late 30s was found shot to death in Monterrey Sunday. The victim was found in Independencia colony near the intersection of calles Oscar Guerrero and Guanajuato.
Three unidentified men in their 20s were shot to death Saturday night in San Nicolas de la Garza. The victims were in an apartment drinking near the intersection of calles Jesus Lopez Lira and Ejercito Constitucionalista in Constituyentes de Queretaro colony when two armed suspects burst into their residence and shot them. About a dozen AK-47 assault rifle spent shell casings were found at the scene.
An unidentified man in his 40s was found shot to death in Juarez Saturday night. The victim was found around 1930 hrs laying face down on the road leading to Apodaca. The victim has been tortured and shot several times. A blanket colloquially known as a narcopinta was left at the scene but its contents were not disclosed.
An unidentified man in his 50s was shot to death Saturday night in Monterrey around 2100 hrs. The victim was a client at the Centro de tratamiento contra las adicciones Adiccenter AC drug rehabilitation center near the intersection of calles Tapia and Villa Gomez, where two armed suspects removed him from the center and shot him.
WASHINGTON: A senior Republican US senator on Sunday called for arming Syrias rebels through the Arab League and suggested the imposition of no drive and no fly zones against Syrian military forces targeting the opposition.
Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican voice on international policy, also said he was joining with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal to push a Senate resolution calling on the United Nations to declare Syrian President Bashar Assad a war criminal.
And then we can do some nation-building! Right guys?
Both senators are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
We need more international pressure, Graham told the program Fox News Sunday. We need to help the rebels militarily, economically, and let Assad know that he is an international outlaw and be held accountable.
I think the Arab League would be a good vehicle to provide military assistance to the opposition forces and we should consider that. We should consider (a) no drive, no fly zone, too, pretty quickly, Graham added.
Graham suggested that the international community should use a similar approach to support Syrias opposition as was used by NATO in buttressing the rebels who eventually toppled Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi last year.
I think the Libyan model could serve us well, Graham said, although he did not lay out specifics for a US role.
Nor will he. He's rolled this verbal political grenade into Champ's tent, now he's going to watch what happens.
Blumenthal, speaking on the same program, also pointed to last years Libya intervention as how to deal with Syria.
Referring to the US Congress, Blumenthal said, There is very strong support for the kinds of initiatives that we saw in Libya. And Libya is a model for how we can aid rebels.
But let me emphasize ... no American troops none. No American troops on the ground, in direct aid, that will bolster that opposition, Blumenthal added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
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#1
How soon they have forgotten:
At the Cairo Summit of 1964, the Arab League initiated the creation of an organisation representing the Palestinian people. The first Palestinian National Council convened in East Jerusalem on 29 May 1964. The Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded during this meeting on 2 June 1964. Today, Palestine is a full member of the Arab League and is represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
#4
Nah....
You need balls for that.
Nobody will do anything. Rivers of blood will flow there and nobody will do anything.
Pencilneck is performing Genocide in there and Bambi sits on the fence and watches gleefuly.
Makes you trust every word he says when he promises that Iran will not be tolerated to posses a nuclear weapon.
Reminds me of Chamberlein grovelling to the Nazies and sacrificing Chechoslovakia to get "peace" from Hitler.
The US (and Israel, unfortunately) will have to repeat history for failing to understand it.
The Iranian monkey said very explicitely that they will destroy Israel and later strive to destroy the US and then Western Civilization.
I say, if it walks like a duck, smells like a
duck and quack like a duck... It's a Duck !
Let me say this loudly - Bambi is a lemming !
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/05/2012 7:41
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#5
Can we not rise above mischaracterizations and rodent insults?
#10
OK,
Gotcha !
It could have been funny if it wasn't such a a serious issue.
I usually try not to start calling names but these guys are so dumb they make me go berzerk.
I can only hope Chomsky realizes his utter stupidity and commits suicide as a contribution to cleansing the human genome pool.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/05/2012 12:29
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#11
I think the Libyan model could serve us well," Graham said...
[Iran Press TV] Kenyan fighter jets have bombed an area southwest of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, killing at least twenty-two people, Press TV reports.
Kenyan fighter jets struck the outskirts of the Irdia village near the town of Garbaharey, the capital of Gedo region and situated 528 kilometers (328 miles) southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Mohamed Hussein, a front man for the Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a group, confirmed the Arclight airstrikes, and claimed that they targeted and destroyed an al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... training base.
Kenya has beefed up security along its border with Somalia since it dispatched soldiers into the conflict-plagued country last October to pursue al-Shabaab Death Eaters, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners on its territory. Al-Shabaab has denied involvement.
Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has said his transitional government is opposed to Kenya's military incursion into the Somali territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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[Dawn] TERRORISM needs to be dealt with on the military, intelligence and legal fronts. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... while the government has had mixed results on the battlefield and in using intelligence to thwart potential attacks, it is on the legal front where it has been found most wanting. An example of its muddled priorities is that until recently a special prosecutor hired to pursue several high-profile cases in Rawalpindi's anti-terrorism courts had not been paid for his services. Resultantly, around 25 cases -- including those involving the attacks on the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... World Food Programme office and the Naval Complex in Islamabad -- had been lying idle for a year, with the prosecutor focusing on his private practice. Though the funds have now reportedly been cleared, it is appalling that such important cases should be held up because of bureaucratic ineptitude. With bigger obstacles standing in the way of the successful prosecution of hard boyz -- such as a paralytic law-enforcement and legal system, and the intimidation of witnesses -- the fact that cases are stalled because lawyers don't get paid shows lack of seriousness on the part of the state.
While our entire legal system suffers from malaise, there should be a sense of urgency when it comes to prosecuting suspected terrorists. Instead, suspects often walk free, not because it has been conclusively proved that they are innocent, but due to poor investigation techniques and timid prosecution efforts. Once acquitted, many resume their activities. Simply targeting hideouts in the tribal belt or elsewhere is not enough to defeat militancy. Terrorist networks must be dismantled and their criminal masterminds brought to justice. Only an effective legal system can do this. Sadly, incidents such as this are reminders that pursuing the legal battle against militancy is not among the state's priorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Israel has recently been beefing up its wartime safety measures such as building shelters and boosting emergency services amid fears of a devastating Iranian counterstrike to a potential Tel Aviv attack.
Israel has been transforming the parking lot of Tel Aviv's Habima National Theater into a sophisticated bomb shelter, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
Roi Flyshman, front man for Israeli civil defense ministry, said the make-shift shelter, four stories underground and capable of accommodating up to 1,600 people, is "very advanced" and could serve as a blueprint for others.
He added that plenty of parking lots in Israel can become shelters, adding, "We want to copy from Habima to other places."
Last week, senior Israeli politician Zeev Bielski said Tel Aviv's defense capabilities do not rise high enough to protect Israel in case of a retaliatory attack by Iran.
Almost one in four Israelis lack access to bomb shelters, whether communal or reinforced rooms in private homes, Bielski said.
The safety measures come as Israel has recently stepped up its threats of a military aggression against the Islamic Theocratic Republic over its nuclear energy program. Israeli officials say the timing is coincidental.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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#1
IMO joining NATO + EU + when-n-iff proposed Mediterranean Union is even better.
[Iran Press TV] Egypt's leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. has lashed out at the country's ruling military council for allowing Americans on trial in Cairo to leave the country, saying the military leaders have formed a "banana republic."
"Some countries are independent but some others have a banana republic, a fake and unrealistic republic," said ElBaradei, in reference to the country's military rulers.
ElBaradei, who was the head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2009, added that interference in the judicial system will ruin democracy and freedom, and highlighted the need for accountability.
A total of 43 foreign and Egyptian activists, including the son of the US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, have been accused of receiving illegal funds and running unlicensed NGOs in Egypt.
On Wednesday, the Egyptian government allowed the Americans in the case to leave the Arab country on a bail of 32 million pounds. The 16 Americans departed Cairo in a US government plane on Thursday.
The decision has outraged Egyptians across the political spectrum, who say the ruling generals put immense pressure on the judges to lift the travel ban.
The judges hearing the case resigned earlier this week.
Earlier, US authorities had threatened to cut a USD 1.5-billion annual aid to Egypt if the issue was not 'resolved.'
Many Egyptians suspect that the US is instigating the recent unrest in the country, by funding civil society groups in Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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#1
Which country was El Baradei speaking about? Egypt, or Iran?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/05/2012 6:37
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#2
El Baradei is a total tool. He needs a job as an outhouse inspector.
[An Nahar] Amid strict security measures and a heavy deployment of troops, Beirut's Martyrs Square on Sunday was once again the scene of two rival yet peaceful demos supportive and critical of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... regime.
Speaking at the anti-Assad rally, Salafist holy man Ahmed al-Asir, Imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah mosque, condemned the international community's refusal to intervene in Syria to end its crisis.
He said: "The developments in Syria have revealed the true colors of some sides that have long deceived us."
He made his statements before a demonstration in support of the Syrian revolution that was held in downtown Beirut.
He reiterated Syrian President Bashir al-Assad's remarks when he said that the world is conspiring against Syria, noting however that this conspiracy is directed against the Syrian people.
Asir noted that whenever the "murders against the Syrians increase, the world renews its refusal to intervene to end the unrest."
"They want Assad to increase his crimes against our brothers," he declared.
"The Islamic Ummah is still alive and well," he stressed.
"If the oppressors believe that they have destroyed our dignity, then they should think again," he continued.
"We are not relying on the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... to save the Syrian people, but we are relying on God and all free Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans," he stated.
He therefore called on the Arab world to act to save the Syrian people, condemning their ongoing inaction in this regard.
Furthermore, Asir said that the Aqsa mosque in the Paleostinian territories will also be liberated "once we are liberated from ourselves and oppressors."
"We not only seek to liberate the Aqsa mosque, but the Church of Nativity as well," he stated.
Addressing Christians in Leb, he remarked: "You can protect Mohammedans in the regions by remaining in the Middle East because Israel is seeking to kick you out of the area."
The anti-Assad demonstration was held simultaneously with another supportive of the Syrian regime and organized by the Baath party.
Tensions were high in downtown Beirut because of fears that the rival rallies could spiral into unrest.
The demonstrations took place however without incident.
Baath official Ibrahim Issa delivered a speech during the rally, stressing that "we, in Leb, are against the conspiracy targeting the region."
"Our relation with Syria is brotherly and special and we won't tolerate that Leb be a launching pad for aggression against Syria," Issa said.
Baath partisans waved the flags of Russia and China to extend gratitude for the two world powers' vetoing of U.N. resolutions condemning the Syrian regime over its bloody crackdown on dissent.
They also burned a portrait of Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... , who has voice support for the Syrian revolt and called on Assad to step down.
Some pro-Baath demonstrators also shouted slogans against Qatar over its anti-regime stances.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati praised in a statement the "peaceful demonstrations," saying the Lebanese people have the right to stage rallies.
He also praised the army and security forces for the measures they took to prevent any possible unrest.
The premier had held contacts with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on his efforts to keep the peace in downtown Beirut.
The minister was present at the scene to oversee the security measures in the area.
Various parties from the rival March 8 and 14 political camps had announced that they will not participate in the demonstrations.
The Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement had announced in a statement on Saturday: "The call for demonstration at this time does not serve the Syrian revolution."
"The movement has nothing to do with this activity," it added.
The daily Ad Diyar meanwhile reported on Sunday that Hizbullah and the AMAL parties had also announced that they will not take part in the demonstrations, saying that they had not even been invited to participate in them.
Al-Jamaa Islamiya had also announced that it will not participate in the downtown rallies.
Salafist movements in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich 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... however had voiced their readiness to take part in the demonstrations, saying that they would stage a rally in the city's Nour square in support of the Beirut sit-ins.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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[Dawn] Bullet-riddled bodies of three missing Frontier Corps personnel were found near Machh town, some 70km east of Quetta, on Saturday, officials said.
The personnel went missing after Death Eaters attacked four FC check-posts in Margat coalmines area of Machh last month, killing over a dozen coppers and injuring several others.
The Death Eaters also ambushed FC personnel when they were coming to Margat after receiving information about the attack on check-posts. The Death Eaters later claimed to have kidnapped three members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps. The FC officials had confirmed that three of their men were missing.
A front man for the BLA informed media personnel that an 'investigation' against the FC men had found them involved in the torture of Baloch Death Eaters and therefore "the BLA court awarded death sentence to them".
After they received information about the presence of three bodies near a hotel in Machh on Saturday evening, the Levies personnel rushed to the place and took the bodies to hospital where the FC officials recognised them.
The three were identified as Lance Naik Mohammad Yousuf, Lance Naik Tosiq and Sepoy Rashid Ali.
"Multiple bullet wounds were visible on the bodies of the FC personnel," Assistant Commissioner Machh Atiqur Rehman said, adding that the bodies were handed over to the FC officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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[Dawn] All of the five detainees including three foreigners, believed to be US nationals, were released by the Attock City police after verification of their travel documents and other particulars on Saturday.
They were released at about 2 am, and had earlier been jugged by the police on Friday evening. Police sources informed that three foreigners James Richard, Jonathan Pawl and Daniel Ryan and their two Pak women companions Saba Gul and Sumera Saher were released after the verification of their travel documents and other particulars during their over six hours interrogation.
After the report of the district police and Intelligence agencies that reportedly all foreigners were found US nationals having valid visas and no suspicious belongings, the higher authorities of the government directed the district police for their release as well as that of their impounded car (Sindh-ATG-932), sources said.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... they were reported to have with them latest cameras and others electronic gadgets. Sources further informed that investigation also revealed that foreigners along with the two Pakistain women had visited the office of Abdul Rehman, an Afghan national and caretaker of Al-Barkat NGO at People's Colony which is being funded by a US donor agency.
But they neither informed the US embassy nor sought prior permission from the concerned quarters of the Pakistain government for their visit.
Therefore, the information about secret presence created suspicion among the law enforcement agencies as many areas of Attock district had been declared restricted for the foreigners due to security reasons.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... the district administration was still to issue any statement to the local media about the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Pak interior minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. Sunday said he had formally asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... over the murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto. ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... "We have sent a request to the Interpol for the arrest of Pervez Musharraf," Malik told news hounds in the capital Islamabad.
Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, while leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistain's army.
Musharraf, who has lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since August 2008, has indefinitely delayed plans to return home to contest elections after the government warned he would be placed in long-term storage upon arrival.
Pak courts have issued warrants for his arrest over the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch rebel leader in the southwest Pakistain, and the 2007 liquidation of Bhutto, whose widower is Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari. ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... Malik, who was a close aide of Bhutto, has accused Musharraf of refusing to provide her with adequate security and of threatening her by telephone when she was in Washington before returning to Pakistain in October 2007.
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#1
Interpol recently suffered a huge hit to its cred by returning that Twitterer to Saudi. For half a century they were very clear that they were just a clearinghouse for information; but that has finally been corrupted by those who want to use them as an international police force.
Pretty disturbing when you consider how many men and women have served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, returned home, unable to find work, due to a perceived lack of education, despite training in the field.
Now to have H.S. schools not even give credit to High School students who choose to join the military. I hope that the N.Y. schools will be successful in changing this policy, and to give credit to those students choose a military career.
There used to a time, when joining the military was the Nobelist of career choices for families outside of the military. It seems that this choice doesn't seem to have the respect that it used to in certain sectors of society.
This being a N.Y. story, gives me hope that this doesn't go on in other states. Give credit where credit is due; be mindful that the freedoms we enjoy today, were accomplished on the backs of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
#2
Run a $33 Million dollar property book, advance Soldiers to a place using land, sea, or air. Use Airborne and Air-Assault as methods of moving equipment, Maintain an arms room and ammunition and secure it too, Buy enough rations to feed everyone for two weeks, make the trucks fit on the railroad, make the weight of the plane and your entire Company Manifest, Make sure there is water and sanitary service, make sure there is communications, make sure there are proper Ingress and Egress, secure a border, Field forced modular systems, manage building maintenance, making sure that 80% or more vehicles can run, breaking track, running a 9-line MEDIVAC with a VS-17 panel, Blowing up shit, digging command bunkers, placing sat dishes, maintaining inventory, maintaining the quarterly and yearly budget requests and balance sheets - and un-funded liabilities, waterborne training, survival, marksmanship, culture observation and situational awareness, learning how to fight... and how to run, to breach, to build bridges over water that tanks may use, to plot grid coordinates on the map where you want your gunner to shoot if you need it before you are there. To build a fort, to build a comples, to maintain a military courthouse or build a tax center. To buy medical supplies, to secure an airfield. ETC ETC ETC.
I did some of that but that's not an education?
But Barak Peron went to skool and was a state senator.
#3
Thank you for your service newc. Nice to know someone here can put down some panels and call in an extraction. If Obama wins in Nov, I'll be giving you a call.
#7
As somebody said, if college were for everybody, nobody would flunk out.
Dumb way to score schools.
As it happens, less than half the relevant age cohort can get into the military if they want to. Mental, moral or physical difficulties. Few of which would keep a college from sucking your tuition, board and room, and book money from you.
IMO, the scoring ought to be a fulltime job within one year of graduating, or college, or the military.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/05/2012 8:21
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#8
Truthfully, most US education is nothing but classroom. Practical application means nothing to them. However, there are some variances.
One that comes to mind is DeVry. They hire faculty from businesses in the field they will teach, not academia. Then the faculty run the school, with just a small group of administrators, also hired from similar roles in business, not academia.
A delegate from one department will take off for a few days to attend some high tech conference, then debrief his department on upcoming technologies. Then they actually teach new tech, not just textbook, to their classes.
They also hire prior service, if they know a subject they need and can prove they know it to the satisfaction of the other faculty in the department.
TRIPOLI: Libyas leadership has apologized after armed men smashed the graves of British and Italian soldiers killed during World War II, in an act of vandalism that bore the hallmarks of extremists.
Amateur video footage of the attack, posted on social networking site Facebook, showed men casually kicking over headstones in a war cemetery and using sledge hammers to smash a metal and stone cross. One man can be heard saying: This is a grave of a Christian as he uprooted a headstone from the ground. Another voice says of those buried in the cemetery: These are dogs.
The attack happened in the eastern city of Benghazi, near where British and Commonwealth troops fought heavy battles against German and Italian forces during the 1939-45 war.
The National Transitional Council (NTC), Libyas interim leadership since last years uprising forced out Muammar Qaddafi, said it would pursue those responsible.
The NTC apologizes for the incident with the foreign graves, especially the British and Italian graves, the council said in a statement. This action is not in keeping with Islam.
The NTC will confront this matter and, in line with Libyan law, will pursue those people who committed this act. This action does not reflect Libyan public opinion because Islam calls for respect for other religions.
You guys will pay for the restoration of the headstones, tidying up the cemetery, and having a standing watch out there, right?
The NTC has close ties with Western countries after a NATO bombing campaign helped it to oust Qaddafi, and most ordinary Libyans feel no animosity toward the West.
However, a minority of hard-line Islamists, who are opposed to any non-Muslim presence and in some cases have formed into heavily-armed militias, have gained ground since Qaddafis 42-year rule ended last August. The government in Tripoli has struggled to assert its authority over these groups.
Sounds like the NTC could use a little more help. Perhaps the French and Italian special forces need a little practice...
British Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said: It was an absolutely appalling story and people will be shocked by the photos.
But he told Sky News television: I wouldnt want people to think that this is somehow a demonstration of ingratitude by the government of Libya, that is not the case.
More than 200 headstones in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Benghazi were damaged as was the Cross of Remembrance, the British Foreign Office said in a statement. About a quarter of the headstones in the Benghazi Military Cemetery were also attacked on Feb. 24 and 26.
Benghazi residents who spoke to Reuters on Sunday expressed disgust at the attack.
No one can deny that Britain, France, Germany and all the world sided with us in our suffering, during last years conflict, said one man, Muftah Abu Azzah.
Another resident, Imad Mohammed, said: This World War II cemetery was attacked by extremists and this is wrong ... Those dead people do not have any guilt.
The footage posted on Facebook showed about two dozen men in a cemetery in daylight. Several carried Kalashnikov automatic rifles and were wearing the mismatched camouflage uniforms commonly seen on militia members. In an unhurried and systematic way, they kicked over neatly-arranged rows of headstones. We will start with this and then carry on, says one voice on the recording.
Another group had placed a ladder against the large stone and metal cross overlooking the cemetery and was smashing it with hammers. Several onlookers milled around the cemetery but no one was seen on the footage trying to intervene.
Where were Muftah and Imad when this happened?
At one point, a voice on the recording says: Come and see the inscription on this ... There is Hebrew writing on it.
In a statement on its website, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission said it would restore the graves to a standard befitting the sacrifice of those commemorated at Benghazi.
It said, though, that it would need to be sure it was safe to carry out the repairs, and in the meantime temporary markers would be erected over the graves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
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#1
The US has a cemetery in Tunisia....
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/05/2012 8:11
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... said on Sunday that "horse-trading" took place at the Senate elections in Punjab and investigation will be conducted against those who switched loyalties, DawnNews reported.
The president called PPP worker Aslam Gill on Sunday and expressed regret at his loss in the Senate elections.
Zardari said that the party had taken an immediate notice on Gill's loss and those responsible for this outcome will be investigated.
Gill thanked the president for his call and said that he will continue to serve as a senior worker of the party.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Top Republican Eric Cantor endorsed Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... on Sunday for president of the United States, giving the frontrunner a boost as the primary nomination contest reaches a critical stage.
Cantor's endorsement, the first from a top member of the Republican congressional leadership, was seen as the strongest sign yet that the party establishment wants the increasingly bitter primary battle wrapped up soon.
Romney is the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination to take on President Barack Obama How's it going, Sunshine?... in November but has faced stubborn challenges from two main rivals, Rick Santorum ...candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative whose primary attraction is seemingly that he is neither Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich... and Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle...
"I cast my vote already in Virginia for Mitt Romney and I'm here today to tell you that I'm endorsing Mitt Romney in his candidacy for the presidency of the United States," Cantor, the House Majority Leader, said on the NBC news program "Meet the Press."
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and millionaire businessman, is "going to best be able to lead this economy back to a growth mode, create jobs so people can feel better about the future," Cantor said.
"I just think there's one candidate in the race who can do that, and that's Mitt Romney."
His endorsement came just two days before Super Tuesday, a potentially pivotal day in the nominating battle, when 10 states vote at once.
Super Tuesday essentially ended the Republican nomination battle in 2008, when Romney capitulated and Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... went on to become the nominee.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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BIN JAWWAD, Libya: Libyan government officials said Sunday they have unearthed a mass grave with 157 bodies of rebel fighters and civilians in an eastern town that was a major battleground during the countrys 2011 civil war. It is the largest grave yet to be discovered from the conflict that began as a popular uprising and ended with the capture and killing of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi last October.
The head of the new government-run missing persons office, Omar Al-Obeidi, told The Associated Press that 80 of the bodies discovered in Bin Jawwad have been identified. He said they are all from eastern Libya. The youngest was a 17-year-old male.
This is the biggest (mass grave) so far, he said. These are civilians who were protesting in their cities and killed by Qaddafis men, he said referring to armed fighters and residents of eastern cities.
Al-Obeidi said most appear to have died from gunshot wounds and rocket strikes starting in March. Some were executed, while others were severely disfigured from rocket attacks, he said.
The excavation of the bodies began Friday and finished Sunday.
He said a Martyrs Parade has been planned for those found in the mass grave. The procession, scheduled for Monday, will start in Bin Jawwad, pass through the city of Ajdabiya and conclude in the former rebel capital of Benghazi.
The small town of Bin Jawwad, 375 miles (600 kilometers) east of the capital Tripoli, is on Libyas main coastal highway and was the scene of intense fighting throughout the civil war, trading hands several times.
Osama Swail, a spokesman at the Ministry of Martyrs, Wounded and Missing Persons, said the bodies that were identified would be returned to the families for funerals. He said two of his brothers were among the dead. A forensic team is looking at DNA samples and photos of the remaining bodies to see if they match with DNA samples the ministry has for missing persons in Libya.
The ministry said the mass grave was first discovered in December. Libya estimates that around 7,000 people remain missing as a result of the civil war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
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BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo: Blasts rocked the capital of the Republic of Congo on Sunday, after a weapons depot caught fire, officials said, killing at least 206 people and pinning countless others underneath collapsed buildings, including a church. Hmmm... First time I can remember anything ever happening in Brazzaville Congo...
A morgue in Brazzaville took in 136 bodies Sunday afternoon, as more continued to arrive. A local hospital reported at least 237 patients wounded in the blasts.
Didier Boutsindi of the presidential office said untold numbers of people were trapped in St. Louis church, which collapsed. He said others were killed in their homes.
Sunday's blasts flattened buildings and shattered windows in the northern part of Brazzaville and sent more than 2,000 fleeing their homes, a witness said.
The munitions depot is near the president's private residence, but he was at his official residence in another part of town and was not hurt. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso later visited the morgue, a hospital and the military hospital. He did not speak publicly.
France is sending a shipment of emergency aid to Brazzaville after the explosions, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement Sunday night. A ministry official had no immediate details on what kind of aid or how much was being sent.
The explosions echoed across the Congo River to Kinshasa, the capital of neighboring Congo, which is about six miles (10 kilometers) away. Residents there reported seeing plumes of smoke and feeling buildings shake.
Residents in Brazzaville described the scene as "apocalyptic." Twisted sheets of metal -- some of them formerly walls or roofs -- littered the streets. A hospital examination room lay in ruins.
Witnesses said the impact of the blasts threw open doors of houses in the city center. Phone networks were quickly overloaded by calls. Patients crowded into hospitals, some with torn clothes and shocked expressions. Some lay on the floor as medics struggled to treat the crowd.
Another explosion struck the area early in the afternoon, causing panic among those gathered there, including journalists.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Chinese embassy officials as saying three Chinese workers were killed and dozens were injured in the explosions. It said that Duan Jinzhu, political counselor at the embassy, had confirmed the deaths. It was not known if the three workers were included in the morgue and hospital's counts.
Xinhua said the dormitory building of Huawei Technologies Ltd., China's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, was badly damaged, although no casualties were reported. They also said the windows of the Xinhua bureau were shattered.
Defense minister Charles Zacharie Boawo appeared on national television Sunday to urge calm in Brazzaville and in the neighboring capital of Kinshasa.
"The explosions that you have heard don't mean there is a war or a coup d'etat," he said. "Nor does it mean there was a mutiny. It is an incident caused by a fire at the munitions depot."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2012
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[Dawn] Around 200 people were killed on Sunday when an arms dump went kaboom! in Brazzaville, capital of the Congo Republic, a bigwig in the presidency said, citing hospital sources. Hmmm... First time I can remember anything ever happening in Brazzaville Congo...
Hundreds more were maimed by the blasts which rocked the riverside capital of the oil-producing nation early in the day, flattening houses near the scene and sending a plume of smoke high above the city.
"According to sources at the central hospital we're talking of around 200 dead and many injured," Betu Bangana, head of protocol in the president's office in Brazzaville, told Rooters by telephone.
"Some people are still (trapped) in their houses... They're saying the entire neighbourhood of Mpila has been destroyed."
Defence Minister Charles Zacharie Bowao dismissed any talk of a coup attempt or mutiny, and told state radio that the kabooms had been caused by a fire in the arms depot in the Regiment Blinde base in the riverside Mpila neighbourhood.
Panic also spread to Kinshasa, across the Congo River which separates the former French colony from the larger Democratic Republic of Congo, where windows were shattered by the force of the blasts around 700 metres (770 yards) away. Both governments called for calm.
A Rooters witness in Brazzaville said residents decamped the blast area, which is near a heavily populated neighbourhood and was blocked off by the security forces as a military helicopter flew overhead. Fleeing residents said houses in the area had been flattened.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#5
Loral provided the Chinese government with technical data and support for launching satellites. Loral also was granted permission after an intense... lobbying... campaign, plus notable political contributions to the White House administration then in power.
However, it appears the increased expenditures will be used for conventional forces.
#9
well over 50% of US Defense budget is for personnel costs, anyone want to guess what it is in the PRC? This is all hardware, and at cost prices since the entire defense industry, plus most of the rest of their companies, is owned outright or cloaked by the PLA and their politbureau. It beggars the iamgination that our journalists have so little comprehension of these basic understandings that they cannot see the true significance of the things they report, always in the context they know, which is equivalent US standards, caost, motives systems.
[Yemen Post] Newly-elected Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi said on Sunday that the inclusive national dialogue is on top of his priorities in the current transitional stage, emphasizing that Yemen has turned the corner.
During an interview with Al-Sharaq Al-Awsat newspaper, Hadi has talked about the most contentious issues in the country, including Southern issue, Shiite insurgency of Houthis, al-Qaeda threat, and the economy, which is on the brink of collapse.
In the beginning of the interview which was published today, Hadi said the inclusive national dialogue is of paramount importance at the current transitional stage, assuring that no faction or party would be excluded from taking part in it, and pointing out that he along with the Interim Government would do their best to ensure that all the Yemeni society components are represented in the national dialogue.
Asked what is his priorities in this critical phase, Hadi replied:" we have a raft of priorities at present. The stalemate, which has dragged on for over a year has had catastrophic repercussions at political , security, and economic levels.
"However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the GCC-drawn executive mechanism is now of paramount importance to us. As it's well-known that the essence of the GCC-brokered deal after the presidential election is the inclusive national dialogue to take place in the upcoming months,"
"The power transfer deal signed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and the UN resolution regarding Yemen, has included all the pending issues in the country such as Southern issue, and put forward proposals aimed to resolve them."
Hadi has stressed the importance of internal genuine efforts and cooperation , and international community's support in order to improve the struggling economy, pointing out that the economy was in bad state before the stalemate broke out in February last year.
"The year-long political deadlock was combined with many crises with varying dimensions. One of the hardest hit sectors by the crisis was economy. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... Yemen's economy was at a very bad shape even before the breakout of the protests in 2011 with very limited resources. It has for long suffered major setbacks and blows due to various reasons."
Exiting the current economic hole is something that requires the cooperation of all internal forces as well as the genuine support of the Friends of Yemen, Hadi said.
Speaking about terrorism in Yemen, Hadi has underlined the importance of the international support for Yemen to fight al-Qaeda until it becomes eradicated , arguing that terrorism is closely linked with the high rate of unemployment and poverty in the country.
"Having strategic location, nearby shipping lanes through which more than 3 million barrel of oil pass daily, obliges the entire international community to cooperate with us in fighting terrorism, which has spread over and gained momentum lately due to various reasons," he said.
"Yemen is one of the most badly affected countries by AQAP in the world....I call on the international community to take al-Qaeda threat seriously."
"Furthermore, al-Qaeda takes advantage of the economical situation. The high number of unemployed youth makes it easier that a large segment of the people falls victim and be an easy prey for the terrorist network to recruit and exploit," Hadi responded a question regarding al-Qaeda threat in Yemen.
With regards to the Shiite insurgency of the Houthis in the far north of the country, the new President confirmed that Houthis said they would participate in the dialogue.
"The Houthis have sent us letters, indicating their intentions to take part in the national dialogue. For our part, we assured them that the new government will not exclude any faction and that they will be welcome," he said.
Towards the end of the interview, the President has hailed the good relationship between Yemen and its rich GCC states, particularly Soddy Arabia, describing it as exceptional, historic, and strategic.
"Soddy Arabia represented by the custodian of the two holy mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz has stood by Yemen in the hardest circumstances and has a leading role in brokering and pushing through the GCC-initiated deal that has helped to a great extent ease tensions between the conflicting parties," he concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2012
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Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
HBirthday/Daily Gam Shot
Myrna Dell aka Lou in "Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960)" aka Aggie in "The Naked Hills (1956)" aka Lulu Mae in "Here Come the Marines (1952)" aka Norah Taylor in "The Bushwhackers (1951)" aka Sandra Reed in "Joe Palooka in the Squared Circle (1950)" (Died in 2011 at age 86)
Patricia Heaton aka Debra Barone in "Everybody Loves Raymond (TV Series 19962005)" aka Frankie Heck in "The Middle. (TV Series 2009 )" aka Brie in "Beethoven (1992)" aka Anna in "The New Age (1994)" aka Ellen in "Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)" (age 55)
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
03/05/2012
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#1
"Sock puppet" Ahmadinejad discovers the reason why kings have prime ministers; they need somebody to take the blame when the king's policies fail.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
03/05/2012 2:20
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#2
I have a feeling that once the Mullah faction retakes the presidency, they will first purge all of Nutjob's cronies, and then they will utterly smite his religious cult.
[Dawn] The Punjab University (PU), Lahore, has been a stronghold of the Islami Jamaat Taleba (IJT) for over 30 years now. The IJT is the student-wing of the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami (JI). It is interesting to note that whereas (by the early 1990s) a majority of state-owned colleges and universities were able to shrug off the electoral as well as the 'extra-electoral' hegemony of the IJT, its ubiquitous domination at PU has continued unchallenged.
But why does such a scenario need to be challenged? The answer lies not only in the way IJT willfully retarded the evolution of student politics at the PU (by introducing guns and thuggery in the early 1980s), but also in the way it has been using threats, intimidation and violence to curb some entirely natural and positive cultural initiatives on campus in the name of faith, morality and patriotism. A rather long list of IJT's deeds can be drawn but space constraints allow me to present only a most recent example of IJT's continuing shenanigans at the PU.
In the wake of the bigoted ban on the products of an 'Ahmadi-owned' company by a far-right faction of the Lahore Bar Council, the IJT, quite like its mother party, after suffering from the affects of a long decaying bout of intellectual bankruptcy, decided to adopt the 'ban' for the PU. Yes, faithful IJT jocks at the PU have disallowed the sale of the company's juices and other food products at university canteens. And not surprisingly, so far it has not met with any opposition.
Interestingly, from 1974 onwards, it was the same electoral process that also turned the IJT into a force, especially in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Punjab.
Cashing in on the ideological bickering and splits witnessed within the left-wing student outfits at the time, IJT coupled this opportunity by doing some excellent administrative work associated with student governments, and consequently began to win union elections on a regular basis.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it soon lost the plot when after Ziaul Haq's military coup in 1977 it became a willing tool of the reactionary dictatorship, helping it (through violence) to wipe out anti-Zia and progressive student groups from campuses. It finally paid the price when during the last widespread student union elections in the country in 1983, IJT faced devastating defeats at the hands of progressive student alliances. Not surprisingly, the very next year, the Zia regime banned the student unions. That was also the year when IJT faced its toughest (and last) major challenge at the PU.
It had been sweeping student union elections at the PU since 1971 and ever since the Zia coup it had also become an organization to fear. The fear factor also worked in discouraging anti-IJT students to stand in an election against particular IJT heavyweights, especially Hafiz Salman Butt, who was always expected to win uncontested.
Butt who today is a prominent member of the JI, was IJT's main man at the PU and was winning student union elections without even bothering to campaign. He was also known to be a trigger-happy hothead. Encouraged by the large gains made by leftist student groups in the 1983 student union elections across Bloody Karachi, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , the progressive student alliance at the PU decided to put up candidates for all posts of the student union. The alliance was mainly made up of the radical Marxist outfit, the Black Eagles, the PPP's student-wing, the PSF, factions of the left-wing NSF and the student unit of Asghar Khan's Tehrik-e-Istaqlal, the Istaqlal Students Federation.
Iqbal Haider Butt's excellent book, Revisiting Student Politics (2007) presents a vibrant telling of what happened next. There were 27 candidates for the top post of General Secretary of the union, but the moment IJT's Hafiz Salman Butt announced his candidature for the post, all other candidates withdrew from the race.
All but one: Illyas N. Shahzad, a young man from Gujranwallah who'd come down to PU for further studies. He was an unassuming member of the PSF. Illyas was first given 'friendly advise' to leave the field, but when he refused, he was threatened by IJT goons and then even abandoned by some of his own friends!
In an amusing account of the threats he was facing, Illyas is quoted (in Haider's book) as saying that even women students belonging to IJT taunted him and showed mock sadness about what Hafiz was about to do to him. Unable to openly campaign (and in hiding), much of Illyas's campaigning was done by some women belonging to Black Eagles and a few students of the National College of Arts (NCA), who used to visit the PU during election time.
llyas who today runs a textile mill says he still gets tense and anxious about those days. He was expected to eventually back down and if not, then certainly lose heavily to the IJT heavyweight. But lo and behold, PU students might have begun to stay clear of him, they decided to vote against IJT's strong-armed tactics and handed a convincing victory to Illyas. This was also the first time ever since 1971 that an IJT member had lost an important election at the PU.
But IJT's electoral demise did not last long. It bounced back when student unions were disbanded by Zia and IJT re-established its muscular domination on campus. A domination that remains unchallenged for over 30 years now.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A suspected terrorist insurgent was arrested in Yala town early yesterday and, in a separate case, Pattani Court issued a warrant for the arrest of a suspect involved in the February 9 car bomb that killed one person and wounded 12 others outside the Pattani health office.
Following a tip-off about an terrorist insurgent suspect's hideout and that terrorists insurgents were planning to attack officials from March 6-8, about 60 police and soldiers raided a house in Ban Baluka at 5 a.m. The team arrested Ahmad Ussanibakoh, 24.
Ahmad, wanted on warrants for alleged attacks on state authorities and inciting unrest in the three southernmost provinces, was taken for interrogation.
The team also went to collect more evidence and DNA samples at another house, where another terror insurgent suspect, Hamdi Tolubo, arrested on February 22, had stayed.
The Pattani Court issued a warrant for the arrest of 34-year-old suspect Masore Deurama. He is alleged to have parked a car with a bomb in it that blew up outside the local public health office last month.
Police have indicated that the Abu Sayyaf was behind Saturdays bombing that killed two civilians and injured 14 others in downtown Jolo, Sulu.
Sulu police director Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra said police have gathered information linking the Abu Sayyaf to a bombing in front of the Cleopatra Commercial Store in Jolo. An improvised bomb concealed in a plastic bag was left near a generator set in front of the store, he added.
Freyra said based on information gathered, the attack may be in retaliation for the killing of a holdup suspect 10 days ago in Jolo during a police security operation. The suspects brother, an Abu Sayyaf member, has vowed to avenge his death.
Freyra said the Abu Sayyaf may have also targeted businessmen who have not heeded extortion demands adding, "But we are validating this information to determine the motive of the attacks."
#1
The ASG have always owned Jolo. The bombing is over non payment for protection. The store owners must decide to pay either the military or the ASG, sometimes both.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/05/2012 9:53
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Maryland residents do not have to provide a "good and substantial reason" to legally own a handgun, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking down as unconstitutional the state's requirements for getting a permit.
Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets.
The Colorado Supreme Court sided Monday with opponents of a campus gun ban who claimed the prohibition is illegal because it was not approved by the Legislature.
The number two commander in Pakistan's nebulous, umbrella Taliban movement has been sacked as deputy chief but will remain within the organisation, a spokesman said on Monday. 
The Asharq alawsat newspaper reported that Turkish sources stated that Turkish radar systems spotted Israeli made drones circling over Syria.
A gang of gunmen wearing military-style uniforms killed 21 policemen in an early morning shooting rampage in western Iraq.
[Iran Press TV] The Iraqi Interior Ministry says Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi is likely to flee Iraq from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The leader of PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Sunday said that PML-N Chief 
Nawaz Sharif
[Iran Press TV] Occupy AIPAC demonstrators have held a rally outside the pro-Israel lobby group's annual conference in Washington to voice their opposition to potential war on Iran.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah chief 
[Dawn] President 
[Dawn] American policymakers need to face up to three harsh realities in Afghanistan.
[Dawn] A local anti-terrorism court on Saturday convicted a man of killing a 
Venezuelan 
cycle of violence
[Dawn] PRIVATE companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country.
American scholar Noam 
Pakistain has become an Export Processing Zone of qualified health professionals and trained paramedical staff who are leaving the country for greener pastures and secured places in the world due to lack of security, poor remuneration, limited resources of professional development and an overall discouragement of health profession in Pakistain.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
KABUL: Afghans will never accept US justice for five American soldiers involved in burning copies of the Qur'an, and could rise up in a "storm of fury" if there is no public trial, a senior cleric said on Saturday.
[Dawn] TERRORISM needs to be dealt with on the military, intelligence and legal fronts. 
Egypt's leading opposition figure 
Walid 
Najib Miqati
[Dawn] Bullet-riddled bodies of three missing Frontier Corps personnel were found near Machh town, some 70km east of Quetta, on Saturday, officials said.
Pervez 
President 
John 
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
Interestingly, from 1974 onwards, it was the same electoral process that also turned the IJT into a force, especially in 
It had been sweeping student union elections at the PU since 1971 and ever since the Zia coup it had also become an organization to fear. The fear factor also worked in discouraging anti-IJT students to stand in an election against particular IJT heavyweights, especially Hafiz Salman Butt, who was always expected to win uncontested.
