Egypt's public prosecutor has frozen the assets of 14 Islamist leaders, according to judicial sources.
The Muslim Brotherhood head Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater are reported to be among them.
Mr Badie and other Brotherhood figures are already the subject of arrest warrants, while the ousted President Mohammed Morsi remains in custody.
On Sunday, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi defended the decision to remove him from power.
In a speech, he said he had urged the Islamist president to hold a referendum on his rule days before he was overthrown. "The response was total rejection," he added.
Gen al-Sisi said no group would be barred from politics: "Every political force... must realise that an opportunity is available for everyone in political life and no ideological movement is prevented from participating."
The Syrian army has discovered a storehouse belonging to rebels in the Damascus area of Jobar, where toxic chemical substances - including chlorine - have been produced and kept, State TV reported.
Military sources reported that the militants "were preparing to fire mortars in the suburbs of the capital and were going to pack missiles with chemical warheads."
A video shot by RTs sister channel Russia Al Youm shows an old, partly ruined building which was set up as a laboratory. After entering the building, Syrian Army officers found scores of canisters and bags laid on the floor and tables. According to a warning sign on the bags, the corrosive substance was made in Saudi Arabia.
On July 7, the Syrian army confiscated 281 barrels filled with dangerous, hazardous chemical materials that they found at a cache belonging to rebels in the city of Banias. The chemicals included monoethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol.
Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said that the chemicals were capable of destroying a whole city, if not the whole country."
Chief UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane are expected in Damascus for talks on Monday, following an invitation from the Syrian government.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 16:07
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It's one thing to make the stuff. But, difficult as that is, imagine "packing" mortar shells with it.
Either you get a ton of special-built mortar shells empty for filling--those should be around someplace--or you empty the HE rounds--luck with that--and replace with the chemicals.
I'm busy this week, guys, so carry on without me.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/14/2013 17:45
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Corey is corrupt. And there may be sanctions coming over information that she attempted to withhold, and which the IT guy exposed. That's why she fired him: vengance. This is a woman that brags about trying 13 year olds as adults and trying for life sentences for them, then turns around and tries to call 6'3 17 year old MTrayvon martin "just a child". FL Gove or AG should fire her for incompetence.
[WEEKLYSTANDARD] Senate majority leader Harry Reid ... the charismatic senator-for-life from Nevada, currently majority leader ... said the George Zimmerman trial "isn't over" and said he thinks "the Justice Department is going to take a look at this."
The NBC host asked, "And the president, does he have a role in speaking about it as he did after the shooting?"
"Yeah, of course," said Reid. "And I think the Justice Department's going to take a look at this. You know, this isn't over with, and I think that's good, that's our system. It's gotten better, not worse."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
11:23 ||
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"Senator Reid says Zimmerman acquittal makes things better."
Posted by: Matt ||
07/14/2013 12:50
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O should have a beer with Zimm then kiss and make up.
#8
One wonders how to Obama presidency may have differed without the execrable Reid and vile Pelosi. All Champ's crimes have been wet-nursed by one or both of these [insert worst epithet ever times 10].
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/14/2013 15:50
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Let the witch hunts begin. These folks are trying to start a states war... Now the State of Florida is incompetent in the Senator of sin city's eyes. This will not end well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/14/2013 15:52
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IIRC, and I don't have time this afternoon for research, a similar thing happened as a result of the so called Rodney King beating. The cops who detained Mr. King were acquitted of any wrong doing but then president GWB had the case re-opened and two or more of the cops ended up doing time. I thought that was pure, unadulterated chicken shit. But then we know that Reid, Obama, Holder and company are even lower than chicken shit. If I was Zimmerman I'd book a trip to Rio ASAP.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/14/2013 18:02
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Shootings left at least 8 people on the South and West sides maimed overnight, according to police.
Three of the shootings happened between 4:50 and 5:40 a.m., police said.
A 60-year-old woman was shot in the chin about 4:50 a.m. in 4500 block of South Wolcott Avenue in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. Police said she wasn't the target and are investigating whether she was stuck in crossfire between two shooters. She was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where her condition has stabilized.
About a half hour later, a 33-year-old man was shot in the left leg in the 1300 block of North Ridgeway Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side. He's at Stroger hospital, where his condition has stabilized.
A 17-year-old boy was shot about 5:35 a.m. in the 7200 block of South Halsted Street in Englewood on the South Side. Someone walked up and shot him in the upper part of his right arm, reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Police Department News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada said. He's in good condition at Saint Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center.
Someone shot a 19-year-old woman about 3 a.m. in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. She may have been maimed in an exchange of gunfire between two people in the 800 block of North Parkside Avenue, police said. She was hit in the shoulder and taken to an area hospital.
Two boys, 14 and 15, were shot about 11:55 p.m. in the 5900 block of South Laflin Avenue in Englewood and were taken to Stroger hospital. The boys were both shot in their legs and are both in good condition, News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
11:21 ||
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Three of the shootings happened between 4:50 and 5:40 a.m., police said.
Right when these people were getting up to go to work. Damn shame
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 13:58
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"Sorry I'm late, boss. Got shot on the way to work."
"You used that excuse last week."
"But boss, this is Chicago!"
"Point taken. Now get to work."
Be interesting to plot killed & wounded in Chicago vs say, Karachi over time.
[DALLASNEWS] Those who know Greg Abbott describe him as a fighter -- a happy warrior with a fierce determination, molded by fate, hardened by a crack in a windstorm.
The admired "can-do" attitude has led him to claim the early front-runner's mantle for Texas governor in a campaign he'll formally launch Sunday. But for all of the fresh smells of a new campaign, it occupies the same well-trod, political turf held so long by Rick Perry.
On issues -- fighting abortion, divisions between church and state, federal programs and gun control -- little daylight separates the two. Abbott has consistently taken conservative positions that the base of the state Republican Party favors.
For campaign contributions, they fish in the same pond. An analysis of the last reports they filed with the state showed that Perry and Abbott tapped 140 of the same donors who gave more than $200.
There are differences, mainly stylistic. Abbott lacks the Perry bravado, but those who know him say his less-assuming ways belie a quick mind and steelier resolve.
Political consultant and lobbyist Bill Miller called Abbott and Perry "two peas in a pod." But Miller, a veteran of Texas politics and a former University of Oklahoma football player, said there's something different about Abbott.
"He's tough. That's the quality I'd associate most with him. He's got a toughness. I mean he's nice, but he's real, real tough," Miller said.
Abbott, after a decade as attorney general and seven years as a Texas Supreme Court justice, will be reintroducing himself to voters starting Sunday in a five-day, 10-city tour.
Abbott is known among tea party and Republican activists as a mentor of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the co-pilot in Perry's anti-Washington crusade. He's raised more than $20 million so far for this campaign, with big chunks coming from conservative businessmen and investors who like his low-regulation mantra.
While Abbott has won statewide office five times in less than 20 years, polls show that even many Texas Republicans don't know enough about him to formulate an opinion.
He has put together a formidable campaign team, funding operation and hyper social media platform to change that. His one current rival, former GOP state chairman Tom Pauken, already has dubbed him the "anointed one."
Abbott also prompted an early assessment from the liberal Mother Jones magazine: "a replacement who may just do the impossible -- make progressives miss Rick Perry."
And yet Democrats are still scrambling to field a candidate who could counter the state's heavy Republican tilt.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
11:19 ||
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#1
Almost as big an issue is the state house: can the GOP run that d*ckhead Joe Strauss out of the speakership? Although nominally a republican, he appoints Dems to head key comittess, and has repeatedly stalled and stopped GOP bills from being scheduled, or else pushes them through multiple comittees to ensure they die without reaching the floor. Prime example: law allowing permit holders to carry on-campus at colleges. As it stands, you are forcibly disarmed by the law the moment you step out of your car, be it in a nice big-college campus as a 21 year old junior, or an adult student at a night class in a rough neighborhood community college campus. Its simply not right - yet Joe Strauss killed it. He needs to go.
#2
Greg Abbott, in the wheel chair since age 26, is a very hard working, determined man. Strong supporter of the constitution, individual right to privacy (successfully sued a Sony for installing spy ware from music cds).
In Texas he is more of a quiet conservative government lawyer than a camera hungry politico.
[POWERLINEBLOG] Democrat Brian Schweitzer, the former governor of Montana, has announced that he won't run for the Senate. The surprise announcement increases the likelihood that Republicans will pick up the Senate seat now held by Democrat Max Baucus, who is stepping down.
The Republicans are already heavily favored to pick up seats in South Dakota and West Virginia. A Montana pick-up would leave them needing to gain only three more seats, assuming they can hold the 12 seats they must defend in 2014. Republicans are currently favored in all 14 of these races.
In addition to South Dakota, West Virginia, and Montana, the Dems must defend seats in four other states that Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. 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 has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... carried. They are North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alaska. If the Republicans prevail in three of these four states, their chances of getting to 51 are good, assuming they now pick up Montana.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
11:16 ||
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h/t Instapundid
Two days ago, Daily Intelligencer reported that, on at least two occasions over the past few months, an NYPD vehicle was witnessed blasting the "Imperial March" -- also known as the theme song of Darth Vader -- in or around Prospect Park. The NYPD has taken notice, and it is not thrilled.
Both of our sources for the story, musician Tyler Sargent and TV editor Scott Rosann, were contacted by NYPD investigators yesterday. In both cases, the investigators were looking for details that might help them identify which officers were responsible for what seems like, at the least, a PR faux pas. I always had a soft spot for Darth Vader (I despise that punk Anakin).
Israeli Dolphin-class submarines are responsible for July 5 attack on Syrian barracks near port city of Latakia; attack reportedly coordinated with US, targeted Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles. Pretty much squares with the facts - no solid evidence for IAF hits. Plus those are the very thing you would not want in the hands of rebels in the area, be you Israel, or the US.
#1
P-800 Oniks (SS-N-26), modern export version. Pretty much like a Harpoon missile with more range and unlike the Harpoon or Tomahawk, its supersonic (Mach2+)
Operational range: 120 to 300 km depending on altitude of flight profile
What I cant figure out is the reasoning/timing for this target - these things were delivered back in December 2011. They've been sitting there over a year. Is there something going on that portends Syria or its allies (Iran?) needing increased SS-Naval missile warfare capability?
Or could this be disinformation designed to allow the Russians/Syrians a face-saving "cover" for the actual target: the destruction of the S-300 that may have been there too?
#3
So the Syrians had all their eggs in one basket, did they?
Interesting report. If they were delivered prior to the start of current festivities, Assad would want them (I think) to deter the Israeli Navy, specifically the gunboats and patrol vessels that otherwise could block his ports in any trouble. Also, they'd be useful to attack Israeli ships and oil rig installations in those natural gas fields in the eastern Med.
But storing them with/next to the S-300s? Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013 10:12
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When you are always given everything why be concerned. Rust away. Collect the money. The Arab way. When can I have more please newer and ... say Chinese may be interested now. They are cozy with the Russians temporarily.
#5
Old Spook is right that the timing raises questions, but there are alternative explanations besides the S-300 guess. In December 2011, there would have been a bigger world reaction to an Israeli strike and, more importantly the risk of Russian anger. As the Syrian conflict has gone on longer and increased in intensity, Israel has much more political cover. It's not that Israel is shy in protecting its interests -- it's that the risk/reward calculus has improved, changing the decision on dealing with lower level risks. Israel could also have been signaling its displeasure over something that isn't in the news and went to their handy target list of (like to strike; not need to strike) Syrian assets. For example, it could be an additional warning of what would happen if S-300 are shipped, rather than actual S-300s that arrived.
Puzzling to me is the economics of Russian-Syrian weapons transactions. Syria's reserves are plummeting. They can't really afford to buy the sort of weapons that risk being vaporized when they could instead be using that money to buy conventional arms that Israel won't strike, not to mention all the government bread and fuel outlays to keep their public from abandoning ship. If Syria is buying on credit, then Russia is taking a large credit risk that seems unwise for such a usually hard-headed bunch.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 16:00
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Hey, anyone have a clue on what ordinance the Israelis used? was it land attack Harpoons (I don't know if the US Navy has these, but it couldn't be hard to do). Was it a sea launched Delilah or maybe a surface to surface Gabriel? It's not really important, I just want to know.
#11
Puzzling to me is the economics of Russian-Syrian weapons transactions
It might help if one considers the profit from weapons transactions being one of influence, rather than money.
In the bad old days, the then-Soviet Russians used weaponry to gain favor of the 'customer' and as an extension of their foreign policy. The political-religion may have changed, but IMNSHO, the Russian mindset has not.
The Chinese are in the same game, only it's economic development as a foreign policy tool, rather than supplying weaponry.
IMO Israel real worry in Syria is the presence of Hezbollah, IRGC Quds Force + Foreign Militants, NOT Baby Assad - Israel will worry about Assad only iff he proves unable to get the former to leave SYria for back home.
[ArutzSheva] On Obama's post-election March 2013 trip to Israel, he a privately laid out his vision of the Middle East to Netanyahu's inner circle. It should send shivers up Israel and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's respective spines.
Realistic or severely overexcited? You, dear Reader, must judge for yourself.
On March 21, 2011, two full days after US President B.O. launched 112 tomahawk missiles against Libya without notification to, or approval of, the US Congress, Obama finally notified Congress in "efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution."
July 12, 2013 is a month after Obama promised heavy weapons anti-Assad rebels to check the Iranian-armed Hizbullah in Syria, no U.S. arms have remotely reached the Syrian rebels.
Iraq claims it is "unable" to stop its neighbor Iran from transferring weapons to Syria through its airspace. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in a Asharq al-Awsat interview published today July 13, 2013:
"We reject and condemn the transfer of weapons through our airspace and we will inform the Iranian side of that. But we do not have the ability to stop it," he said. "If you imagine these flights breach United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council resolutions banning weapons imports and exports from Iran, I invite you to help us."
The same Obama who bombed Libya without informing Congress is now, in the face of Iran's military re-supply of Assad, seemingly impotent to push a few 5k range anti-tank weapons through Congress to the anti-Assad rebels. Such short, but powerful weapons would surely eviscerate Assad's northward supply-line from Homs to Aleppo, without posing a danger to Israel.
Obama called King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... , and emphasized "the United States' continued commitment to provide support to the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to strengthen the opposition." Yes, yes, Obama will "continue" his policy of commitment to Syria, and continue to fail to deliver so much as a single bullet to the Syrian rebels.
The only anti-Assad action Obama actually took was to have "three unnamed U.S. officials" (not one, but three officials) specifically name Israel as the guilty party that destroyed the Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles at Latakia last Thursday.
So, not only does Obama prevaricate to the Saudis, he also exposes the possible covert Israeli anti-Assad military blows. Why is Obama dissembling to and harming America's only two remaining Middle East allies? Is Obama publicly goading Assad to launch a retaliatory strike at Israel by embarrassing him with Israel's Latakia strike?
It's simple. Obama doesn't see a Middle East with either Israel or Saudi Arabia. Is this a radical statement? In the most under-reported news story of the Middle East, on Obama's post-election March 2013 trip to Israel, Obama privately laid out his vision of a Saudi Arabia-less Middle East to Netanyahu's inner circle. It was reported in the World Tribune that:
"Diplomatic sources said President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... has proposed an alliance by [as of then Moslem Brüderbund] Egypt, Iran and Turkey."
"Obama was telling [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that these countries would stabilize the region and should be supported," a source said.
The sources, familiar with Obama's discussions during his March 20-22 visit to Israel, said Egypt, Iran and Turkey represented the new Musselmen powers that would determine the future of the Middle East. They said Iran's alliance with Sunni Egypt and Turkey would avoid a nuclear arms race despite concern over Teheran's uranium enrichment program."
Where is Saudi Arabia in Obama's "future of the Middle East"? In the dustbin of history, taken over by Iran, that's where! And now the Saudis know it. The Saudi appear to have caught on to Obama's "bait and switch" tactics and have decided to strike back by funding the toppling of the Moslem Brüderbund government of Egypt.
And where is Israel in Obama's "future of the Middle East ", with an Islamist Egypt, Islamist Turkey, and an Islamist Iran all working together? Would such an Islamist Triumvirate "stabilize the region"? Would such three-way Islamist entente "avoid a nuclear arm's race"?
How long did Poland last when Hitler and Stalin agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop/Nazi-Soviet "Non-Aggression" Pact? It was finalized on August 23, 1939, and Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. That makes 8 days. An Egypt-Iran-Turkey alliance would bring about Israel's annihilation as surely and quickly as the Germany-Soviet pact brought about Poland's occupation.
Israel has no place in Obama's "vision" of a proto-Caliphate three-way Islamist vise with Israel as its common and sole enemy. Having heard Obama personally argue for the Islamist Triple Entente on Obama's signature trip to Israel, Israeli officials would have to be certifiable to believe Obama would ever bomb Iran or defend Israel from an adjoining Paleostinian Arab State.
Obama's Islamist "Trifecta" dream of a "United States of Islam" superpower is a genocidal Anaconda nightmare to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israelis have heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Obama will, if he gets his way, wipe Saudi Arabia off the map, and squeeze Israel to death.
Obama is reversing Churchill's Middle East colonization which divided the Musselmens, and was meant to enable Great Britannia to to conquer the Musselmens. Instead, the anti-colonialist Obama wants the US to unify the Musselmens, which will cause the United States to lose to the Musselmen world. It seems as though Obama is planning to be the Che-Mao-Bolivar-Saladin of what his Middle Eastern friends intend to create: the world's soon-to-be-established Musselmen Caliphate.
#1
Not nightmares, we've lived with USA's ME fantasies since 1948. We're adapted. And we put our faith in our Lord (who put the means to deal with out enemies---any of them, into our hands).
A detailed accounting of what happened in the Somali reconciliation talks in Istanbul, in case you care about this. The issue is whether there will be a federal republic with several 'states', or a series of smaller nation states (Mogadishu, Jubaland, Puntland, and Somaliland) with no formal union.
If I was a Somali I'd go for the "no formal union" option. At least that way you've got one or two chances out of four.
I kinda have a soft spot for the Punties.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013
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For those not in the know, this is a Big Deal. The fact it got this far is a Blessing. I look forward to more "self determination" in the region. It may be their saving grace to work this out this way. And only They may determine the outcome.
[Dawn] Over 600 schools set up in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... under a presidential ordinance have been closed and services of 684 teachers terminated.
Under the ordinance, a National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) was established in 2002 which set up 615 schools and hired 684 teachers in Balochistan to educate over 4,600 students in those schools.
The NCHD extended cooperation to the provincial education department for enrolment of students and quality education and 684 feeder teachers hired under the programme were discharging their duties on a meagre salary of Rs1,500 per month.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... after the passage of the 18th Amendment, the federal government transferred the NCHD programme to provinces as part of giving autonomy to them.
Under the NCHD, teachers were posted and deployed in those government-run schools where no teacher was available or only a single teacher performed his/her job.
The NCHD scheme showed better results and brought down the dropout rate during 2003-06 and more children were enrolled in the schools.
During the PPP-led coalition government of Balochistan, a summary was sent to the chief secretary, finance secretary and education department, asking them to evolve a policy to regularise the service of the teachers hired by the NCHD. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... no action was taken on the summary and the services of these teachers were terminated.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... is expected to leave Pakistain to stay abroad for an indefinite period after his retirement on September 8.
Sources close to the president told Dawn.com that his friends advised him to stay away given serious threats to his life. President Zardari has already told his associates he will not contest the next presidential elections. "And why should he? We are not even having a candidate to run for the office of president," presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said.
The balance of power drastically shifted in favor of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) after the May 11 general elections. Under Article 41(3), the Electoral College for the president comprises the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. The PML-N enjoys an absolute majority in the electoral college.
Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Sharmila Faruqi expressed ignorance about the future plans of the president. The presidential spokesperson did not respond to queries about the speculation either.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... according to sources, the liquidation of the president's chief security officer Bilal Sheikh was a wake up call for President Zardari and his family -- once the security layers around them are not intact post-retirement, they could be in an extremely vulnerable position.
Sheikh himself is not the first high profile security officer of the Bhutto himself to be killed. Previously, Khalid Shahenshah, the Bilawal House chief security officer, was killed outside his residence in 2008. In 2011, Imran Jangi, another prominent security officer of the Bhutto family was bumped off in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
For many, it seems like a natural conclusion. "Look at the president's public appearances in the last five years. Very rare. He prefers to live in his bunker. Now after losing all presidential privileges he will not stay in Pakistain," commented a former People's Party (PPP) leader who requested not to be named.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Jpost] US intelligence agencies say Tehran is aided by North Korea, China in development of intercontinental ballistic missile.
No worries. The Smartest Man In The Room, as well as The Second and Third Smartest, will all be out of office by then. So nothing need be done. Tea?
US intelligence agencies have assessed that as early as 2015, Iran will be set to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), that has the capability to strike the United States, a released Pentagon report states.
"Iran has ambitious ballistic missile and space launch development programs and continues to attempt to increase the range, lethality, and accuracy of its ballistic missile force," the report says.
"Iran could develop and test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States by 2015."
The US Department of Defense assessment was compiled by The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, together with the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center and the Office of Naval Intelligence.
The report also stated that China and North Korea were rapidly proliferating the developments of nuclear warheads capable of hitting the United States, as well as supporting the development of advanced Iranian missile capabilities.
"Iran has an extensive missile development program, and has received support from entities in China, and North Korea," the report says.
Not only is Iran closing in on such power capabilities, but is also actively training for its use.
"Iranian ballistic missile forces continue to train extensively in highly publicized exercises," the report says, "these exercises enable Iranian ballistic missile forces to hone wartime operational skills and evolve new tactics."
This report comes following a July 5 test failure of an American missile defense system.
Four US Republican politicians on Friday urged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to conduct another test of the missile defense system this year after last week's test failure, and to make development of a next-generation interceptor a top priority.
The politicians said the cause of the failed July 5 missile defense test was not yet clear, but they argued that President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... 's cuts in spending on missile defense had reduced funding for needed tests and maintenance of the system.
#1
Would that be early in 2015 or perhaps in the November-December timeframe? Emergency supplemental funding requires a bit more fiscal-year accuracy. Lastly, please, no more cut and paste from previous years.
#3
Targeting systems are not going to be measured in meters, closer to kilometers. Nearest big targets are on the coasts which just so happen to be deep blue who kept in office probably the less qualified team to avoid all of this. Karma.
#6
IIUC, IOW Iran is crossing yet another of the Bammer's "red lines", + thus far the Bammer isn't seemingly doing anything about despite his Media, Diplomatic rhetoric to the contrary.
NOW APPLY THE BAMMER'S LACK OF RESPONSE OR LEADERSHIP ON SAME TO CHINA OVER IN EAST ASIA, VEE THE EAST CHINA SEA + SOUTH CHINA SEA, + GWADAR + CHABBAHAR + KARACHI + BANGLADESH + SRI LANKA + MALDIVES, ....@ETC? as per the Globalist agendum for OWG + a "Multipolar World" where the post-Cold War/9-11, formerly "Sole" Superpower or Hyperpower USA is now a OWG-NWO "GLOBAL CO-SUPERPOWER" AMONG MANY ALL RANKED PAR AT WORLD#1.
Iff it isn't so-called "Rising China", it will be "Rising Iran" = NUCLEAR ISLAM/ISLAMISM INCLUD REGIONAL, GLOBAL NUCLEAR MILITANCY-TERRORISM WHICH IS ALREADY NIPPING AT CHINA'S, RUSSIA'S, + INDIA'S SIX.
"Post-US" wannabe China wants the same or better level of global influence + capability as the US, AS WILL SHIA RISING IRAN = AKA OWG NUCLEAR CALIPHATE = AKA FIRST WORLD'S FIRST ISLAMIC/
ISLAMIST NUCLEAR SUPERPOWER WHICH IS THE ULTIMATE DESIRED OUTCOME OF SHIA IRAN'S RIVALRY WID SUNNI SAUDI ARABIA.
Any each + all "Brush/Jungle Wars" + "Banana Conflicts", etc. will be NUCLEAR, WMD-CAPABLE.
At least 20 students were killed in northern Nigeria last week when Islamic bully boyz razed their boarding school, prompting British authorities to label the group thought to be responsible, Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , a terrorist organization. But the B.O. regime has not done the same. While the State Department has labeled several individual Boko Haram leaders as terrorists, it is not clear why the B.O. regime has not taken the extra step to label the entire organization a terrorist organization.
When asked about the attack, a senior B.O. regime official said that the United States is "deeply concerned" about extremism in Nigeria, and pointed to the history of cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria on security issues.
Pressure to label the Nigerian group has also come from within the administration. In January of 2012, Lisa Monaco, then the assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, wrote to the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism requesting the department name Boko Haram as a FTO. Monaco currently serves as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism for the B.O. regime.
Possible explanations for reluctance to label the group can be found in a 2012 letter to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ... from Nigeria experts, including John Campbell, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria under President George Bush. The letter claims that the foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation would limit the State Department's ability to shape "long-term" strategy and encourage the Nigerian government to use military action rather than diplomacy.
Posted by: Pappy ||
07/14/2013
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#1
cuz they're Mooslims?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 11:31
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#2
Obama tries desperately not to see Muslim wrongdoigs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/14/2013 14:51
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Like entropy, the diminishing returns of technology never sleep. The hubristic techno-narcissism of the day, as seen in mankind's efforts to fake-out the universe, will eventually get our one-way ticket to Palookaville punched. Perhaps there's such a thing as being too cool after all. I don't consider being "cool" a good thing. Reptiles are cool. Tortoises and gila monsters and guys wearing shades at night are all in the same phylum or whatever. Technology's returns aren't diminishing. If you read science fiction as a kid, go back and read your favorite stories now. 2013 is so different from 1993 as to be almost a different world.
The trick so far has been to create massive inflation, export the effects of it to other trading partners, and end up with a lot more money here in the USA, or the illusion of more money. Well, loans, for houses, cars, and college tuitions. In a word: debt. Let's call it "Rainman Economics," because it begins to resemble the behavior of a severely autistic human being who performs a small range of obsessive actions over and over and over, often centered on numbers. Rainman Economics is the policy of the Federal Reserve and, indirectly, the government under Mr. Obama. They're very Keynesian. You don't have to refer to a minor movie hit that most people have forgotten or are trying to forget.
The suave and genial Champ just doesn't know what's going on -- despite being surrounded by minions with briefing folders, sages and vizeers, Viziers. Get the spelling right.
quantitative augurers neck-deep in mathematical goat entrails, and (always) the lone, silent soldier toting the dire nuclear "football." Champ doesn't know that the universe has launched us on a journey to a place beyond techno-industrialism -- and it's not Ray Kurzweil's infinity of orgasms. I'm not too sure what orgasm have to do with the world. I think we're entirely too fixated on them. Why spend 23 hours and 40 minutes a day every day thinking about an activity that takes, when you take your time, twenty minutes? Yeah, yeah. It's important. If it was all that important trilobites would still be ruling the world, because they could do it, too.
It's a place where no ring-tones are heard and not so much as a stretch-mark of the Kardashians remains to be found. Far more viziers than sages but I digress. Read on please.
This train crash has been extensively reported by the mainstream media. Less widely reported is the fact that "jeunes", French journalist code for Muslims, attacked the rescue workers and looted the corpses of the victims.
It's an incredible scene that met police officers when they arrived in Brétigny-sur-Orge. While they were trying to bring help to the victims of the derailment of the Paris-Limoges train, in which at least six people died, they had to deal with stones being thrown at them by a small group of 'jeunes'. At the origin of the attack: looters who had come to steal from the bodies of the dead and wounded whatever they could carry away.
"They seemed to be helping the victims". Nathalie Michel, from the Alliance police trade union, describes the scene on air on Europe 1: "At 5.30 pm, while our colleagues were deploying, they see a group of 'jeunes' who approach and seem to be helping the victims. Very quickly, they realise that these individuals are there to rob the victims and especially the first corpses," says the trade union member indignantly.
#1
It is not just the dead at Brétigny-sur-Orge, it is civilization which they loot. Did they cause the wreck, as one commentator suggested? Was there looting at Lac-Magantic, Quebec ?
Bhutans opposition Peoples Democratic Party stormed to an upset victory on Saturday in elections as voters gave their verdict on five years of democracy, a local news website reported.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had won 30 seats in the vote for parliament while the incumbent Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) party had snared just 12 seats according to the website of Bhutans national newspaper Kuensel, as of 8pm. The winning party needed 24 out of 47 seats to form the next government in the land of the thunder dragon, according to the Kuensel website, after two other groups were knocked out in a primary voting round in May.
The polling marked only the second time in history that voters in the isolated kingdom have elected a government. It was not immediately possible the Election Commission of Bhutan to confirm the results.
Remote Bhutans line of dragon kings ceded absolute power five years ago, introducing democracy to an electorate of fewer than 400,000 people.
The royalist DPT won the first election by a landslide in 2008 and bagged this years primary round with 45 per cent of votes. But recent gains by the PDP shook up the contest with one local editorial calling it a neck-and-neck race. The DPT had sought to win favour with rural communities about 70 per cent of the population by improving their access to roads, mobile phone networks and electricity in the past five years.
But the election process was stirred up by a recent straining of ties with Bhutans giant neighbour and longtime ally India, which suddenly cut subsidies earlier this month on cooking gas and kerosene to the kingdom.
People blame the incumbent government for not addressing the economy which is in a very bad shape, and the subsidy cut all this seems to be adding to their woes, said political analyst Kencho Wangdi ahead of the results.
The rising fuel prices come as Bhutan has been struggling under a credit crunch and import restrictions, after running out of Indian rupee supplies last year on soaring demand.
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[TOLONEWS] According to General Zahir Zahir, the head of Kabul Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the incident occurred around 10:00am in Mir Bacha Kot district of Kabul when a jacket wallah driving a vehicle was identified by security forces and consequently detonated his explosives before he reached his target destination, which remains unknown.
One civilian was killed and three other injured who were in the area of the blast. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital to receive emergency care.
"A suicide bomber driving a car from north Afghanistan was trying to enter the capital and lunch a suicide kaboom, but before he reached to his target, security forces identified him and the man detonated his explosives. Two civilians in the area were maimed," Gen. Zahir told TOLOnews.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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#1
MURDER, not suicide bomber.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/14/2013 20:40
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[Al Ahram] Turkish riot police on Saturday fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to enter an Istanbul square that was the cradle of deadly unrest that engulfed the country in June.
The police moved in when demonstrators protesting in the city's Beyoglu neighbourhood against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved toward nearby Taksim Square.
The square was the birthplace of weeks of unrest that erupted throughout Turkey after police on May 31 brutally broke up a peaceful sit-in there against a government redevelopment plan for adjacent Gezi Park.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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#1
rubber bullets
When IDF uses them, they are "rubber coated steel bullets".
[An Nahar] An air raid on Syria's famed Krak des Chevaliers castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has damaged one of the fortress's towers, footage shot by activists showed Saturday.
Several videos posted online showed at least one air strike on Friday against the castle in central Homs province, where fighting is raging between government troops and rebel forces.
The footage shows a huge blast as a tower of the Crusader castle, which is built on a hill, appears to take a direct hit, throwing up large clouds of smoke and scattering debris in the air.
A separate video filmed inside the fortress purports to show some of the damage caused by the air strike, including a gaping hole in the ceiling and a pile of rubble below.
"God is great. This is the destruction caused by MiG air strike on the Krak des Chevaliers," says the activist filming the damage.
"Look at the this, oh world. This is Bashir al-Assad bombing the Krak des Chevaliers," he adds of Syria's embattled president whom rebel forces are trying to topple.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, could not confirm direct hits on the castle, but said there were reports of three air strikes in the area on Friday.
The raids came after rebels apparently using the Krak des Chevaliers as a base attacked an Alawite village called Qumayri, killing several people, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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#1
It's OK---it isn't like it was something important (like a mosque).
#2
The raids came after rebels apparently using the Krak des Chevaliers as a base attacked an Alawite village called Qumayri, killing several people, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
These Sunni rebels are real pieces of work. Assad really needs to get going with the task of convincing Sunnis to relocate to neighboring states, or Syria will run out of antiquities for these people to destroy.
#5
Wonderful, did you have to do EXACTLY what they wanted Assad?
We have state of the art gear, and we still flattened any Iraqi antiquities used as firing points by Iraqi insurgents. Relatively-speaking, Assad's using Flintstone-era equipment against the insurgents. He can't let them operate from the fortress with impunity. He doesn't have the technical ability to do surgical strikes.
[REUTERS] Two kabooms near Sunni mosques in the Iraqi capital killed at least 23 people who had gathered to pray after breaking their daily fast for the Moslem holy month of Ramadan on Saturday, police and medics said.
A car packed with explosives went off near the Mulla Hwesh mosque in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... 's western district of Jamia, killing at least seven people, and a jacket wallahwent kaboom! in the southern Doura neighborhood, leaving 16 dead.
"A bomb went kaboom! while worshippers were leaving the mosque of Khalid Bin al-Waleed. Bodies were thrown back by the power of the kaboom," said a policeman at the scene of the blast in Doura.
The violence is part of a sustained campaign of Death Eater attacks since the start of the year that has prompted fears of wider conflict in a country where ethnic Kurds and Shi'ite and Sunni Moslems have yet to find a stable power-sharing compromise.
It was not clear who was behind Saturday's kabooms.
Sunni Death Eaters, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, have been recruiting from Iraq's Sunni minority, which resents Shi'ite domination since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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MUGADISHU -- A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into an African peacekeeping convoy in the Somali capital on Friday, killing two civilians in the latest attack to expose the fragility of recent security gains.
The blast was claimed by Islamist al Shabaab rebels who carried out a deadly assault on a nearby United Nations base last month and another bombing in a Mogadishu market this week. Shaboob Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters the convoy was carrying a number of American officials - a report that could not be confirmed independently.
"We are behind the martyrdom explosion ... The Americans were our main target," he added.
The blast flattened makeshift shops on Maka Al Mukarama road in central Mogadishu and ripped the wheels off one vehicle belonging to the country's African Union peacekeeping force. The bodies of two civilians were pulled out of the wreckage, a Reuters witness said.
No peacekeepers died but a number of people were wounded, said an official from the Mogadishu mayor's office.
"We shall not bury the remains of the bomber. We shall throw them into the rubbish pit," the mayor's secretary, Abdikafi Hilowle, told reporters at the scene. "If al Shabaab are Muslims, they would not kill Muslims during Ramadan."
No, no, certainly not!
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013
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#1
"We shall not bury the remains of the bomber. We shall throw them into the rubbish pit," the mayor's secretary, Abdikafi Hilowle, told reporters at the scene.
let the pigs feed on them
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 9:08
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#2
"We shall not bury the remains of the bomber. We shall throw them into the rubbish pit"
More, please
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/14/2013 10:05
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[Ynet] Arab media outlets have reported that Egyptian security forces incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! three Paleostinians who attempted to attack sensitive facilities in the Sinai Peninsula. They also arrested a Paleostinian youth who was involved in the attack on the Jordan bound pipeline last week.
The arrests are part of a large operation in the peninsula intended to fight terrorist currently active in Sinai, specifically focusing jihadist strongholds. Sky news has reported F-16s and helicopters are involved in the operation.
[Bangla Daily Star] Amid widespread condemnation of Hefajat-e Islam Ameer Shah Ahmed Shafi's sermon denigrating women, the Islamist organization yesterday defended its chief's remarks.
In a statement, it said that atheist bloggers and their patrons, scared of the popularity of Hefajat, were "creating confusion by launching a smear campaign" against Shafi.
Signed by Hefajat's Organising Secretary Maulana Azizul Hoque Islamabadi, the statement noted, "As part of the smear campaign, special reports and talk shows based on the video clip of the sermon have flooded the social, electronic and print media. Some newspapers have played an overenthusiastic role."
Shafi, read the statement, gives sermons in villages in local dialects, using examples easily understood by villagers, while in cities he uses dialects suitable for educated people.
The organization argued that using analogies and languages used in villages and books [in sermons] cannot be termed indecent. These words and language have long been used in books, advertisements, health-related leaflets and booklets.
"Such examples have been used for centuries in sermons delivered in villages. No one has heard of these being termed indecent," added the statement.
In his sermon, Shafi said, "If a small boy is sucking on a piece of tamarind ... when you walk beneath a tamarind tree ... when you go by a tamarind shop in the market, it makes your mouth water; women are worse than that."
He went on saying, "Sitting inside your husband's home, you should take care of your husband's furniture and raise your children, your male kids. These are your jobs. Why do you have to go outside?"
The sermon drew flak from different women rights bodies and eminent civil society members after a video clip of the speech went viral.
But yesterday's statement claimed that the Hefajat chief never asked to see women tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! at home, rather he reminded all about women's key roles at home.
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[Ynet] If Paleostinians are going to insist on preconditions, why can't Israel set some of its own?
To date the efforts of US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... have failed to produce an agreement leading to resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians. In spite of comments such as "real progress has been made," the refusal of the Paleostinians to abandon their preconditions remains the major obstacle preventing a breakthrough.
The Paleostinians demand Israel stop all home construction on land they claim as their state. Israel must also relinquish all territory under their authority since being forced to fight a defensive war in 1967. This includes eastern Jerusalem which is the holiest place on earth for the Jewish people. Plus, numerous Paleostinians must be released from prison, many of whom have blood on their hands.
For his part the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... continues to reaffirm his commitment to preconditions. In an interview published recently in Al-Hayat, referring to '67 borders, he said "we consider any settlement after 1967 illegal." Regarding Jerusalem he said "....if it is not the capital of Paleostine, there will be no solution."
If the Paleostinians are going to insist on preconditions, why can't Israel have some of its own? C'mon, what's fair is fair, right?
Thus, Mr. Abbas I submit the following preconditions which must be met before Israel is willing to sit face to face with you:
The first and most important precondition is for you to drop all your preconditions, period. Such demands are incongruous with all known acceptable protocol of good faith negotiations and promote a disingenuous agenda. Both sides should come to the table equally balanced without preconditions, prepared to negotiate all issues.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... if you insist on sticking to your preconditions, I invite you to entertain Israel's list. They are intended to render negotiations meaningless, which is precisely what your goal appears to be.
For starters you must accept Israel's right to exist as the sovereign national homeland of the Jewish people. Israeli leaders have repeatedly acknowledged their commitment to a Paleostinian state, and two states for two peoples. The least you could do is reciprocate by accepting Israel's right to exist.
Next, stop telling your Arab brethren taking Jerusalem away from Israel is an "Islamic obligation." Would you expect Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to give Mecca or Medina away? If Mohammedans are allowed to have their two holiest cities, why can't the Jews have the one city which has been the center of Jewish life for 4,000 years? In case you forgot, Jerusalem's existence as such predates Islam by 2,700 years. However you don't seem to allow facts to alter your agenda.
Additionally, please contact the various gunnies groups such as Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , PFLP, Hezbollah, PLO, plus your own group Fatah, and have all the language removed from their respective charters requiring the destruction of Israel and elimination of the Jewish people. I realize you may not be able to convince the other groups to make this potentially humiliating gesture. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... forgive me for suggesting that Israel's leaders might be just a little skeptical of your sincerity when the founding charter of the political part of which you are head, requires the destruction of the country you claim to want peace with.
Let's move to the websites of these same groups. Each of them, including your Fatah party show Paleostine covering the entire area of land Israel rests upon. How about suggesting the webmasters do a little editing to reflect Israel in fact does exist? The entire world is aware of this, so having these websites reflect reality would demonstrate a pragmatic approach to coexistence.... if this is indeed something you favor.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to stop naming parks and other public places after gunnies who murdered innocent Israeli civilians. Maybe it hasn't occurred to you that glorifying murderers by calling them "heroes" and "deaders" gives the average Israeli the impression you consider every one of them a legitimate target. That's not exactly the type of message someone claiming to want coexistence should be sending.
Once all these preconditions have been met, it will create a balanced atmosphere at the negotiating table between you and Israel. Oh, did I mention if either side agrees to the other's preconditions, there won't be much point of coming to the negotiating table? However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... since your preconditions are designed to prevent actual negotiations you seem to know this already.
A final thought: One of the reasons Israel should have its own list of preconditions is it may prove to be an effective way of demonstrating the absurdity of your preconditions. Mr. Abbas. You may get so frustrated it could cause you to drop your preconditions and meet without them. Then again I ask myself what are the odds this might happen? Is the moon made of cheese?
[Al Ahram] The Strong Egypt Party announced that founder Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh met with Al Azhar's Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayib on Friday to discuss possible national reconciliation efforts in order to end conflict following the ouster of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
According to the party's Saturday statement, the talks between former presidential candidate Abul-Fotouh and El-Tayib are part of the former's efforts to "communicate with different parties to contain the ongoing crisis the country is facing."
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The B.O. regime's supposed deliberation on withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan earlier than expected, as reported by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, has set off alarm bells for Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... . What is being described as a "zero option" may result in no forces being left in the war-torn country post-2014. The report stirred a heated debate in Afghanistan as opposition parties, the media and several analysts showed serious concerns over a move they believed could cause the country to slip into a state of civil war.
The report appeared just days after Karzai abruptly suspended talks over the possible security pact in what many believe was a response to the Taliban office opening in Qatar and the US announcing it would hold direct talks with the former. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the US dropped the idea of Taliban talks and, to pacify an angry Karzai, even agreed to what Afghan officials said about the office. Consequently, the opposition is blaming Karzai of annoying the US. The opposition also suspects Karzai is dragging his feet in signing the security pact for the post-2014 US presence in an attempt to secure personal concessions.
In order to allay public fears over the uncertainty post-2014, Karzai on several occasions publicly stated the US wanted to maintain military bases in Afghanistan in any circumstances. However, the president was unable to come up with a clear stance over the withdrawal plan. Most Afghan analysts seem to believe the country's collapse into chaos is inevitable should the US call all its troops home.
Political commentator Faizollah Jalal told Tolo TV he blamed the president for jeopardizing the country's national interests by "seeking interests and guarantees for himself and his family's assets in 2014 and beyond". Jalal said Washington should consider Afghanistan a partner instead of Karzai when making a decision on the country's future.
A month after the Obama administration pledged stepped-up support for Syria's armed opposition, the government of President Bashar Assad's position has improved, with U.S. assistance to the rebels apparently stalled and deadly rifts opening among the forces battling to topple the Assad regime. Government forces appear close to forcing rebels from the key city of Homs after a 10-day offensive, while an al Qaida-linked rebel group on Thursday assassinated a top commander from the more moderate, Western-backed Supreme Military Council, signaling what one British newspaper dubbed a "civil war within a civil war."
The biggest reversals, however, came inside Syria, where areas once solidly under rebel control have begun to slip away. That has cut into the opposition's ability to provide aid to hungry, besieged communities -- a key part of a strategy to prove it could govern Syria, should Assad fall. n the United States, political and logistical snags are preventing the distribution of promised military aid, while in Turkey, the exiled civilian Syrian Opposition Coalition remains mired in organizational turmoil.
Increased military assistance that the Obama administration promised in mid-June after it determined that the Assad government had used chemical weapons has stalled because Congress is divided over whether and how to arm the rebels. That program was to be handled by the CIA, but Congress' intelligence committees have yet to approve the program. On Friday, members' offices declined to discuss the program.
A review of recent statements by members of both the House and the Senate committees found a mix of opinions. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said last month that he would've favored sending weapons long ago to ensure that vetted, moderate rebels were "the best armed, best equipped and best trained," while the committee's chairwoman, Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., last month seemed to favor United Nations action over U.S. action, calling on the Security Council to "finally take strong and meaningful action to end this crisis in Syria." In the House of Representatives, tea party members have joined forces with some Democrats to introduce legislation that would forbid the Obama administration from sending arms to Syria without the approval of Congress. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., said sending weapons to the opposition would be tantamount to "arming and aiding extremist groups who seek to defeat us and our way of life."
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined Friday to comment on the status of the aid programs. She said only that the administration had "taken steps" on that front, and that the U.S. was concerned about the Syrian military's sieges on Homs and other areas.
Posted by: Pappy ||
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#1
The Obama dither. Dick Cheney had this boy pegged right off.
#2
See also DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > [Reuters] SYRIA REBELS SAY THEY HAVE GIVEN UP ON US WEAPONS PROMISES.
Winner/Advantage: AL-QAEDA + TALIBAN, ETC. FOREIGN MILITANT GROUPS whom many in the FSA = anti-Assad opposition will now rely + turn to for Arms, $$$ in lieu of the Bammer = USA.
Speaking of which ...
* TOPIX > ISLAMIC MILITANTS STREAM OUT OF PAKISTAN IN GROWING NUMBERS TO FIGHT IN SYRIA.
* SAME > PAKISTANI TALIBAN FIGHTERS JOIN SYRIA REBELS IN FIGHT AGZ ASSAD.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > VIDEO: SAUDI MUJAHIDIN JOIN FELLOW SUNNIS IN SYRIA FIGHT.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... may continue to hold his office till the expiry of his term on Sept 8, but his successor is likely to be elected in the first week of next month, a bigwig of the Election Commission of Pakistain told Dawn on Friday.
Retired Justice Riaz Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , an ECP member from Punjab, said it was a requirement under Article 41 (4) of the constitution to hold presidential elections by August 8.
When asked if the government had sought a schedule for the elections from the ECP, he said he was not aware of any such request having been made. But, he added, the commission was bound to follow the constitution and the schedule would be issued before July 20.
Article 41 (4) states: "Election to the office of President shall be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of the President in office." During the days the PPP was in power, the President House worked as a centre of power because President Zardari continued to hold the post of PPP co-chairman.
Before the May 11 elections there were reports that President Zardari would retain the office because his party would be able to secure enough seats in the National Assembly and become part of the ruling coalition. But the PPP suffered almost a crushing defeat in the elections. And with situation having changed Mr Zardari started saying that he would not contest the presidential election.
Informally talking to news hounds after a presser, PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the party had not decided about its candidate for the post. "We will definitely announce our candidate as soon as the schedule of the presidential election is announced."
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do... President Zardari left for Dubai on Friday on a three-week private visit. He will also go to London and is expected to return to the country towards the end of the month.
He has only eight weeks left in his five-year term (till Sept 8). According to sources, the president will prefer to stay abroad most of the time before the expiry of his term. And there are people who suggest that he may prefer not to return because he is said to have been seriously disturbed by the killing of his chief security officer Bilal Sheikh in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... this week.
President's front man Senator Farhatullah Babar said Mr Zardari had gone to Dubai to meet his children. From there he would go to London where one of his daughters is studying. Mr Babar rejected a perception that the president would not return to the country. "Why he will leave his office even one day before the expiry of his five-year term."
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[BBC.CO.UK] The police have been attacked with petrol bombs in north Belfast as trouble flared for the second consecutive night.
Stones, bottles and fireworks have also been thrown at officers in the Woodvale area. Water cannon have been deployed.
It follows serious rioting on Friday night when 32 coppers and an MP were maimed.
Another 400 coppers have been brought into Northern Ireland to assist the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
BBC Northern Ireland news hound Mark Simpson said on Saturday: "Hundreds of coppers are trying to stop the violence spreading.
"So far, they are succeeding but the trouble does not seem likely to stop any time soon."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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#1
It's July and the Irish are bored.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/14/2013 13:41
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Local troubles, or imported?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/14/2013 17:30
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I'd say it was local:
Clashes developed when police enforced a ban on an Orange Order march. The order called for widespread demonstrations after marchers were banned from a stretch of road separating loyalists and nationalists. It later said it was suspending its protest.
[Ynet] Thousands of Arab-Israelis hold protest in support of ousted Egyptian president Morsi, placing blame on army, US for orchestrating move they claim opposes will of Egyptian people
How very odd. Nonetheless, photos and video at the link.
More than 2,000 people affiliated with the Israeli branch of the Islamic Movement held a pro-Morsi demonstration in the Arab town of Kafr Kanna on Saturday.
The protesters were led by the movement's leader Raed Salah. They held pictures of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and blocked the town's main road.
"Morsi is head of state, we oppose the army, we oppose the revolution," Arab-Israelis chanted in a rare show of support for Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund. Protesters also shouted that they would be willing to give their life for Morsi.
The focus of the protest's anger was directed against Egypt's Defense Minister and Chief of Staff General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who decided to depose Morsi nine days ago in the wake of massive public protests.
"Sisi betrayed his people and America is a terrorist state," protesters yelled and claimed that "Sisi is not the head of state, the elected president is Morsi."
The protest was organized by the Islamic Movement's northern branch. The movement's leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, and his deputy Sheikh Kamal Khatib took an active role in the protest.
Khatib told Ynet: "We're here to tell the entire world and the Egyptian people that Morsi is the legally elected president and he must be reinstated so that the people's will will be respected."
According to Khatib "we're against the revolution and we'll continue to support Morsi until he returns to his position. If they want to get rid of Morsi they could vote him out in three years."
Protesters also placed the blame on the US.
Oved Hussien, who came to the protest from Nazareth, said that "every part of the 'revolution' was planned by the United States, which is truly responsible for Morsi's fall."
According to him, "It makes little to no sense to topple the government after so little time. The way it happened solves no problems. If Morsi erred then he needs to fix it, but he shouldn't be thrown out and people should not be killed."
There were also local Arab residents who were opposed to the protest. A resident Kafr Kanna said: "I have no idea what Egypt has to do with us. In my opinion this was redundant and has no place here.
"If the Arab sector (in Israel) wants to dissent it should do so against land expropriation and the destruction of houses not against Morsi's ouster. The Egyptian people and not us should pay the price of what is happening in Egypt.
Most of them, with no surprise, are in Africa. Syria ranks at #21. Pakistan is #13. Zimbabwe is tenth on the list.
Full list is here. As always, take in to account who the authors are.
It's hard to imagine anyplace much more failed than Pakistain, until you think of Somalia and Zim. I guess the running for the top fifteen or twenty or so was pretty tight.
Easy way to see if the differences in the top fifteen matter at all -- switch the names around and see if anyone notices...
[Jpost] The bodyguard of Russia's most wanted bad boy was killed by security forces on Saturday, officials said, as Moscow tries to curb militancy in its Caucasus region before it hosts the Winter Olympics near there in February.
Russian authorities said Mikhail Musikhanov, killed along with another bully boy in a shootout in Ingushetia's Sunzha region, was the personal bodyguard of rebel leader Doku Count Doku Umarov ... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia... who has vowed to use "maximum force" to prevent President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... staging the 2014 Games in Sochi.
"The criminals tried to break through the security cordon. As a result of the ensuing gunfire their resistance was crushed and the bandidos were neutralized," Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said in a statement.
Since 2011, 29-year-old Musikhanov was part of the inner circle of Umarov, leader of the outlawed Caucasus Emirate, accompanying him everywhere as his bodyguard, NAK said.
[CNN] George Zimmerman is not guilty of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida jury decided late Saturday.
The fact that Zimmerman fired the bullet that killed Martin was never in question, but the verdict means the six-person jury had reasonable doubt that the shooting amounted to a criminal act.
The jury -- made up of all women -- had three choices: to find Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder; to find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter; or to find him not guilty.
The jurors deliberated for 16½ hours total, including 13 on Saturday alone, before delivering their verdict.
Extensive details at the link.
Legal Insurrection (Andrew Branca and William Jacobson) and TalkLeft (Jeralyn Merritt) have been superb through the entire pre-trial and trial phases with excellent legal analysis. They offered information, review and critical thinking that the media certainly never provided.
With regard to Mr. Zimmerman's defense team, this is why you pay lawyers $400 an hour: they know what they're doing and have the backbone to stand up to pressure.
And with regard to the state: this never should have gone to trial, and never would have if Mr. Martin and Mr. Zimmerman had been of the same race.
#1
Meanwhile, dozens die each month in the tribal drug wars of Chicago. No one says much of anything, least of all the MSM, Jackson, or Sharpton. Like employment, promotion, speech, and college entrance, the hypocrisy and double standard of the protected classes are now accepted with little more than a shrug.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 7:50
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I fully expect the DoJ to bring "Civil Rights" charges against Zimmerman this week. Good politics on the left and a great news diversion for the regime. Of course I could be wrong. I predicted a hung jury and was wrong about that.
#8
Fox News just interviewed the City Mayor and asked him about the Chief of Police. The gutless mayor sidestepped the question saying "the Chief of Police" worked for the city manager" and that "new initiatives were now in place" ...yada, yada, yada, and we essentially just need to move along.
There is no possibility of a federal civil right charge because Zimmerman was not a govt official (i'm presuming the home owner's association is not chartered but even it is was Zimmerman wasn't on a payroll).
I'm not sure about any state civil rights charge but I'm guessing against it.
see the beginning of section 242 of USC 18
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year...
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/14/2013 9:46
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And yet we still have people insisting that Zimmerman hunted Thugvon (1) down and murdered him in cold blood because if his race.
And these people vote....
(1) His other name is trademarked by his ever-loving family. Besides this is a little more accurate.
#11
"There is no possibility of a federal civil right charge because Zimmerman was not a govt official"
Bah, LG.
That's just the law. What makes you think that will stop Holder's inJustice Dept.?
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/14/2013 10:02
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While Mr. Holder could put forward civil rights violations if he wanted, there are two problems:
1) both Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Martin are members of protected minority classes
2) the FBI previously reviewed the case and determined that there was no racial angle to it
That's going to make it hard to push a civil rights case. I would expect a defense lawyer (for Mr. Zimmerman) quoting the FBI report to a jury.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013 10:06
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Grom: it's funny but there's no rioting as of this morning. Apparently most Americans are smarter than the media and celebrities thought.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013 10:07
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#14
#10, that's why I refer to him as "Tray-Tray", like using the pics from when he was 10 yrs old. You know, before he was a thug?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 10:59
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Boy, did I call this one wrong. Verdict of not guilty, no riots except for a disturbance in Oakland (which I'm not sure is statistically distinguishable from any other Saturday night in Oakland). So much for *my* psychotic powers.
I'd still bet money on civil rights charges and some kind of civil liability since the standards are lower for that.
#18
I wouldn't bet my money on a Civil Rights suit SteveS. The standards for guilty are lower, but much more is allowed into evidence as well I believe. Like Trayvon's past history, which wasn't allowed in the Trial.
Besides, the Martins have made a "killing" on their trademark of Trayvons name I'm sure.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/14/2013 12:51
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#19
Don't expect riots except where they have police state gun laws. I think the live like a thug, die like a thug lesson has been learned. Aaron Hernandez will be the next pupil.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/14/2013 12:53
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I like that Regular Joe,
heheh... would a t-shirt with Thugvon's picture on it and the words "Live like a thug. Die like a Thug" on it be racist?
#21
I wouldn't bet my money on a Civil Rights suit
A conviction might be a stretch, but simply bringing charges gets you a noisy public trial, with the associated expense and aggravation for Zimmerman, and keeps the racial grievance pot boiling. The media opportunities alone would be worth the price of admission. Even without the chance to fire up the base for 2014.
#24
Live like a thug die like a thug is not meant to be racist... and Hernandez is one of those new fangled white Hispanics we have heard so much about during the run up to this show trial.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/14/2013 15:46
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And these people vote....
Multiple times.
In a couple years, Trayvon will, too.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/14/2013 15:55
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@#10 There is actually a reasonable basis for trademarking your child's name in cases of murder and such. It prevents others from using the child's name to make a profit.
#27
I think the NAACP said it wants prosecution under the Hate crime act (that section 249 of USC 18).
that's a problem because Holder would have to certify a reason and because if the prosecution in the MURDER 2 case is on record saying that race wasn't the issue and besides the self defense shows the killing wasn't because of race
(1) Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin. Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person
(A) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both; and
(B) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined in accordance with this title, or both, if
(i) death results from the offense; or ....
...No prosecution of any offense described in this subsection may be undertaken by the United States, except under the certification in writing of the Attorney General, or a designee, that
(A) the State does not have jurisdiction;
(B) the State has requested that the Federal Government assume jurisdiction;
(C) the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to State charges left demonstratively unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence; or
(D) a prosecution by the United States is in the public interest and necessary to secure substantial justice.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/14/2013 19:38
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SAXONBURG (KDKA) A Saxonburg man has been arrested for dousing his then-girlfriends 7-year-old son with a flammable liquid.
Then, police say the mans own 15-year-old son set the younger boys shirt on fire. What kind of a father teaches his sons to do something like this!?
Edward B. Myers, 35, allegedly used his cell phone to film the attack at his Carol Drive home as he watched the boy burn.
According to the criminal complaint, Myers, and his 15-year-old, and 11-year-old sons also repeatedly shot the victim with airsoft guns, and pellet-type guns. Words fail me.
Police say the boy was taken to the hospital for third-degree burns on his face and chest, and welts on his forehead.
Myers is in the Butler County Prison on $250,000 bail.
Saxonburg Police Chief Joe Beachem told the Butler Eagle that the 15-year-old is facing similar charges in juvenile court.
[Dawn] A kaboom occurred outside the house of a retired policeman in Dera Murad Jamali's Bohar Mahala area on Saturday.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... no loss of life was reported in the incident.
Police said unknown men planted an bomb outside the house of Kazi Khan Bugti, a retired employee of the police department that went off. However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the attack did not result in any casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Dawn] THE murder by a jihadist militia on Thursday of a powerful Free Syrian Army commander highlights the country's drift towards anarchy. Commander Kamal Hamami belonged to the FSA's supreme command and wanted to discuss military operations with rival leaders when an Al Qaeda-linked group shot him. The killers belonged to the 'Islamic State of Iraq and Levant', which later said it would kill the entire leadership of the FSA's supreme military council. Originally confined to its country, the Islamic State of Iraq merged a few months back with Death Eater Syrian groups to acquire its present nomenclature. This infighting among the rebels has helped Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , whose government has gone on the offensive and gained some important military victories, including the capture of Qusayr from the rebels. His government could now concentrate on wresting Homs from the dissidents.
Even though the Syrian civil war is more than 27 months old, its character underwent a radical change over the last year, with the spirit behind the Arab Spring giving way to a sectarian conflict. Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Qatar are lending political, financial and military support to Death Eater elements at a time when around two-thirds of Syria is not under the Assad government. This has enabled Al Qaeda to make a major effort to turn Syria into a base of operations. As a report says, even Pak Taliban have managed to find their way to the country and work in tandem with those having a larger Islamist agenda. This could destabilise the entire Middle East. While there is a split in the Western world over arming Syrian rebels, America and Russia should try to revive the Geneva peace conference move, now in limbo, to end the slaughter which has so far cost 100,000 lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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Syrian plans to run for a spot on the UN Human Rights Council met with sharp criticism from the United States and Israel on Thursday, while Tehran announced it had withdrawn its candidacy for the world body's rights watchdog. The General Assembly's annual elections for the United Nations' 47-nation, Geneva-based human rights body will be held in November in New York. There will be 14 seats available for the five UN regional groups for three-year terms beginning in January 2014.
From the so-called Asia group, which includes the Middle East and Asia, seven countries -- China, Iran, Jordan, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam -- will be vying for four seats.
Human rights winners all of them. The best might actually be Vietnam, which is sad...
A spokesman for Iran's UN mission said on Thursday that Iran had withdrawn its candidacy and did not provide an explanation. "It (withdrawing) is a normal practice within all the UN regional groups," the spokesman said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Rosemary DiCarlo said neither Syria nor Iran belonged on the UN rights council.
"Attempts by either country to join the Human Rights Council are highly inappropriate given existing Human Rights Council mandates to investigate human rights violations in these countries, their egregious records on human rights, and their on-going collaboration to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people," DiCarlo said.
Ambassador Ron Prosor of Israel echoed DiCarlo's views.
"This might be a new world record for lunacy at the United Nations," Prosor said. He said having countries like Iran and Syria on the right council would be like "putting the Godfather in charge of a witness-protection programme."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013
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Iraq lacks the means to stop Iranian arms deliveries to Syria through its airspace, if there are any, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in comments published on Saturday. Zebari said he had urged Western governments to take action themselves if they were convinced that Iran was smuggling weapons to its Syrian ally.
Zebari said Western governments were convinced such an air bridge existed and that his response was: "This does not have my consent, and I do not have the means to prevent it."
He said the Shiite-led government in Baghdad had urged Tehran "not to use relations with (Iraq) to send arms to others."
"We reject and condemn the shipping of arms through our airspace, and we will tell the Iranian side of that officially, but we cannot stop it," Zebari said. Zebari, himself a Sunni Kurd, said last month that he could not deny that Iraqi Shiites were fighting in Syria alongside the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
But he stressed that their involvement in the conflict "does not come under government policy."
Posted by: Pappy ||
07/14/2013
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[BBC.CO.UK] Egypt's public prosecutor's office says it is investigating complaints against ousted President Mohammed Morsi and members of the Moslem Brüderbund.
They include spying, inciting killing protesters, attacking military barracks and damaging the economy. It did not say who had filed the complaints.
Mr Morsi was deposed by the army on 3 July. The US has called for his release from detention at an unknown location.
Egypt's interim leader Adly Mansour has promised new elections early next year.
Dozens of people have died in festivities during major demonstrations by pro- and anti-Morsi protesters in the past few weeks.
Reconciliation blow
The prosecutor's office said it was investigating the complaints in order to prepare a file so that those accused could be questioned.
Among those named with Mr Morsi are the Brotherhood's leader, Mohamed Badie, and senior members of its political wing, the Freedom of Justice Party (FJP) including Deputy Director Essam El-Erian.
Mr Badie and other leaders are already the subject of arrest warrants, on charges of inciting violence outside a military barracks in the capital, Cairo, last Monday in which more than 50 people were killed.
The Brotherhood says its members were fired on while holding a peaceful vigil, but the army says soldiers reacted after coming under attack.
Mr Morsi's supporters, many of them members of the Islamist Moslem Brüderbund movement he comes from, have been staging mass protests in Cairo, since the army's intervention on 3 July.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[MAGHAREBIA] Residents of the blood-stained Tizi Ouzou town of Imzizou on Thursday (July 11th) demanded the expulsion of a controversial salafist imam, Tout sur l'Algerie reported.
Algerians from several surrounding villages joined in the protest at the Fréha government administration site, claiming that the imam did not abide by their traditions and was trying to impose salafist practices.
The demonstration followed the refusal of the imam to perform a traditional funeral ritual.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. yesterday blasted Hefajat-e Islam chief Shah Ahmed Shafi for his "derogatory" remarks about women.
"Recently, a religious leader has made some indecent remarks about women. I'm totally confused how a religious leader could utter such indecent words when Islam has showed highest respect for women," she told a function at Gono Bhaban.
The event was organised to inaugurate 88 air-conditioned buses bought under the $1 billion Indian line of credit.
The prime minister said such remarks from an Islamic leader were unwarranted and obviously derogatory.
Her comments came after a speech of Shafi had been widely circulated in the social media recently, where the Hefajat ameer made some indecent remarks about women and likened them with mouth-watering tamarind (tentul).
Hasina said the first person who had embraced Islam was a woman (Bibi Khadiza); Bibi Ayesha had fought in the battlefield alongside Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) and won a battle; and Bibi Sumaiya was the first martyr in the history of Islam. Besides, Bibi Khadiza had engaged herself in trade and business, she added.
"I want to ask him [Allama Shafi], didn't he come from a mother's womb? Won't he respect the mother? Doesn't he have a sister or wife? Won't he uphold their dignity?" she questioned wondering about how a person could talk such "nonsense" about women.
Referring to the "tie-up" between the Hefajat and BNP, she said the Islamist organization was now under the leadership of BNP, whose leader is a woman. "How could he [Shafi] accept her [Khaleda] as the leader?" questioned Hasina.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[FridayTimes] There are those who support the Army in Egypt and those who support the Moslem Brüderbund. But what is the reasoning of those who support neither?
CAIRO: If there's anything shared by people across the political divide in Egypt these days, it's the obsession with the news. Political developments start rolling in later in the day and go on well into the night.
Last week's protests marked the beginning of a voluntary semi-house arrest for me. I jokingly affiliated myself with "hizb al balcona", or 'the party of the balcony', a play on "hizb al kanaba", or 'the party of the couch', which is what Egyptians call those who don't take part in protests but prefer to watch them on TV. My satellite dish was acting up that day and I couldn't watch most channels, so I ended up spending a lot of time on the balcony and trying to gauge the mood in Tahrir Square, which is about a mile away from my apartment.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2013
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#1
how the Army treats the Moslem Brüderbund now, as this is how everyone with a differing opinion will be treated later
Never heard the expression "tolerance is a two way street."?
[Dawn] IF the May 2, 2011 raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... (OBL) was the lash that shredded our defence establishment's pride, then the leaked Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission report is the salt rubbed into those wounds. I'd say "when all are guilty everybody is." Perhaps Pakistain should think about paying people from Estonia or the Czech Republic or Norway to come and govern them. They're incapable of governing themselves. And definitely fire all their military and hire Fiji Islanders or Samoans or somebody like that to handle their defense.
When I thought of writing about the report, I dreaded the prospect of ploughing through 337 pages of turgid bureaucratic prose. So I was pleasantly surprised by the uncluttered, succinct style and the clarity of the approach. The Commission is to be applauded for its hard work and diligence.
Writing about the American commando raid a couple of days after the event, I wrote: "The space between an admission of gross incompetence or of complicity in a major crime is full of humiliation and pain."
How much pain and humiliation? The report is full of collective breast-beating about the comprehensive political, intelligence and military failures that surrounded that shameful episode.
Witness after witness appearing before the Commission, from the director general of the ISI to the station house officer in Abbottabad, have lamented over the breakdown in governance.
In fact, the report uses a term I was unfamiliar with: Governance Implosion Syndrome (to characterise the catalogue of mistakes that prevented any agency from first detecting the presence of OBL in Pakistain for nearly 10 years, and then intercepting the American incursion that ended his life.
Apart from this litany of complaints about the collapse of the system, two other themes run through the report. One is the complete lack of coordination between military and civil agencies and departments. This is especially true of the ISI and the police: at OBL's house, the local cops were told to stay out while the ISI conducted the investigation. Thus, no FIR for the crime was registered.
The second is the shared anguish among all the witnesses from the armed forces, including the ISI, over what was perceived as an American betrayal. 'But we were allies!' they seem to wail in unison. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... going by the edgy relationship between the two countries, this is a bit naïve.
The members of the Commission have expressed surprise over the fact that OBL's house was built in contravention of various building regulations. They have also stated that the land was illegally bought against an ID card belonging to somebody else.
Clearly, these upright people have not had to deal with the lower echelons of the bureaucracy where everything can be fixed for money. In fact, half of the houses and high-rises in Pakistain do not comply with building regulations.
As I read on, I was often struck by the wide-ranging criticism of virtually every aspect of Pak society. From the "ruling elites and the rentier classes" to military-civil relations, there is little that does not come under the Commission's cosh.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Dawn] Ongoing militancy and the resultant lack of social mobilisation campaigns continue to affect polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... eradication campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as the latest victim, a resident of Khyber Agency, has not received any dose of the oral polio vaccine (OPV).
One-year-old Ayesha Bibi, daughter of Zar Khan, a resident of Nala Khajori area of Bara tehsil, Khyber Agency, is the latest in the series of children who became crippled due to militancy that prevented access of vaccinators to children in areas where Taliban held sway.
Ayesha was tested positive at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, on Friday.
According to the child's parents, she had not received any dose of OPV because there was no vaccinator to administer the vaccine and protect her against the crippling ailment, officials told Dawn. The militancy-hit area in which the family lives is inaccessible for vaccination teams since September 2009.
This is the eighth polio case reported only from Khyber Agency this year during last six weeks, bringing the total number of polio cases in Fata to 12 now. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... has reported four, and Sindh and Punjab two cases each this year so far.
The Fata (61 per cent) and KP (23 per cent) are responsible for 84 per cent of the polio cases this year. In 2012, Khyber Agency reported a total of 11 polio cases, eight of them in Bara tehsil.
Children in all the seven agencies of Fata have been the worst affected by the ban on OPV, which the Taliban have described as a ploy by the United States to spy on the Taliban to target them through drone attacks.
Over 160,000 children in North Wazoo and 157,000 children in South Waziristan are now at risk of contracting deadly ailments. The faceless myrmidons have used violence to implement the ban -- since December 2012 at least 20 volunteer health workers and coppers have been assassinated for daring to defy the bad boys' orders by participating in immunisation drives in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.
Two years ago, polio was wiped out in all but three countries of the world, including Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistain. In Pakistain, the recent recurrence of the disease marks several steps back from successful attempts at eradication: from just 28 cases in 2005, the country saw a rapid increase of up to 117 cases in 2008, and 198 cases in 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Polio is very Islamic. Allan is pleased
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 11:10
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[Al Ahram] The way out of Egypt's highly divided political strife is to release deposed president Mohamed Morsi, says the head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP) Mohamed Abu El-Ghar in a televised interview.
Morsi should "return home, unless he is required to stand before justice," Abu El-Ghar asserted to Al-Arabiya channel late on Friday.
The former president has been held in a "safe place," to quote the interim leaders, and has not been seen in public since his ouster on 3 July. His supporters have been staging demonstrations nationwide calling for his release and reinstatement after the army removed him amid mass protests against his rule.
On Monday, 53 people were killed and over 400 injured when pro-Morsi supporters, mainly from the Moslem Brüderbund, clashed with the armed forces at the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where they believed Morsi was held.
In his interview, Abu El-Ghar said that releasing the former president should be part of a "reconciliation" deal to be reached with the Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.
He added, however, that the Brotherhood should acknowledge that those who went out on 30 June protests demanding that Morsi step down are many times the people who voted for him a year ago.
Similarly, constitutional expert and leading member of the ESDP Mohamed Nour Farahat called for a clear statement on Morsi's legal position.
If he is not accused of anything, he should be released, he said.
Farahat wrote on his official Facebook page that if Egypt is to be a state of law, it should avoid "exceptional measures... It is either [Morsi] is accused of a charge that independent judges would investigate or otherwise he should be released immediately."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Dawn] The Pak Taliban have banned tight or see-through clothing for men, threatening to impose a fine and shutter businesses selling the items, traders from the country's restive tribal belt said Saturday. Nobody's hunting the Talibs down and hanging them so I guess nobody minds.
Shopkeepers in Wana, the main town of South Wazoo tribal district along the Afghan border told AFP the written warning came ahead of the Mohammedan holy month of Ramzan which began on Thursday in Pakistain.
"All such clothes which are of a thin material and which do not properly cover men's bodies are un-Islamic and against Pashtun culture," said the pamphlet, distributed in Wana bazaar.
It warned that any shopkeeper found selling such items will be charged a fine of 5000 rupees ($50) and will also see his shop closed for at least five days.
The pamphlet also warned male residents "not to wear such clothes."
A government official in Wana confirmed the written warning and told AFP that the local Death Eater groups had previously banned the sale of tight or see-through clothes for women.
South Waziristan is one of seven districts that make up Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The semi-autonomous region of mountains, valleys and caves is one of the most deprived and ill-educated in the country.
Talibs in Pakistain have often targeted shops selling music and films that they say break Islamic moral codes.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
I thought the Pak army/Govt was in control of South Waziristan?
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/14/2013 6:02
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#2
no Abercrombie & Fitch for the Pak hipster doods
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2013 11:32
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#3
Tight pants for sheep still ok though.
Posted by: Steven ||
07/14/2013 16:52
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#4
"Tight crotchless pants for sheep still ok though."
FTFY, new(?) addition to our Army of Steves. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/14/2013 17:36
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A former agriculture minister has said Iran's water shortage is a bigger threat to the country than either Israel or the United States, Al-Monitor reported this week citing local media. According to Al-Monitor, Issa Kalantari, the minister of agricultural under president Hashemi Rafsanjani ... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012... , told Ghanoon newspaper this week that the water crisis is the "main problem that threatens" Iran, adding that it is more dangerous "than Israel, America or political fighting" among the Iranian elite.
Kalatantari is not the only Iranian official who is concerned about the water shortages in the country. Mohammad Hossein Shariatmadari, a former Iranian trade minister, said in April that he believes the water issue is reaching an alarming level. The following month a deputy energy minister similarly warned that the country would soon face a water crisis. Even the U.S. intelligence community sees water shortages as one of Iran's primary challenges in the coming decades. In its Global Trends 2030 report, the National Intelligence Council said Iran "has no notable watersheds and is therefore heavily dependent on fossil and imported water, including 'virtual water' imports-- such as agricultural goods like meat, fruit, and vegetables using high levels of water to produce."
And while the water crisis is set to worsen considerable in the coming years and decades, it has already resulted in notable unrest. After a drought earlier this year, hundreds of farmers in a town in Isfahan province clashed with police after destroying a pipeline that was carrying water from the Zayandeh Rood River in their town to the city of Yazd in a neighboring province. Agriculture in the country has already been suffering in recent years, but increased water shortages are likely to make the Islamic Theocratic Republic's goal of self-sufficiency increasingly elusive. Lack of farming opportunities will also force more people to artificially migrate to the cities, where, among other things, the government will need to supply them with water. This will inevitably force the government to divert more of the already dwindling water supplies from rural agricultural communities to the cities, provoking anger and potential unrest from the impacted farmers.
Posted by: Pappy ||
07/14/2013
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Well, one good, peaceful use of nuclear power is desalination of sea water. Of course, the reactor has to be fairly close to the sea...
On the other hand, a nuclear reactor itself requires a large amount of water for cooling. Maybe the farmers should look into where the fresh water is going.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/14/2013 0:37
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#2
Mess with Gaia will you---you cluess dead Arab worshipers?
#5
The army was drilling water wells at Al Asad air base (FOB Speicher) Iraq in 2006-2007. Only 350 feet deep. Nicest fresh water I've ever seen and plenty of volume.
[Nigerian Tribune] IN an apparent denial of a ceasefire, the bearded leader of Nigeria's bad turban Islamic sect, Abubakar Shekau, has threatened to burn down more schools and kill teachers. But he denied his fighters were killing children.
In a new video released Saturday, Shekau said he, "fully supports" attacks on several schools in northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks.
The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Children's Fund says at least 48 students and seven teachers have been killed since June, with some burned alive in a dormitory this month.
"We support the work they did at the school, at Mamudo and Damaturu, and other attacks in other schools," said Shekau, who wore military fatigues in the video. "We are going to burn down the schools, if they are not Islamic religious schools for Allah."
But Shekau insisted his fighters do not kill children.
"We don't touch small children, we only burn the schools," he says. "Our religion does not permit us to touch small children and women, we don't kill children."
He said his fighters would, however, attack teachers. "School teachers who are teaching Western education? We will kill them! We will kill them!" he warns, wagging his finger.
Shekau is a leader of the bad turban group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language.
Attacks on schools have continued although thousands of troops have deployed in northeastern Nigeria to put down the Islamic bad turbans' violent campaign which poses the greatest threat in years to the security of Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.
President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... declared a state of emergency on May 14 in the three northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[FridayTimes] Thousands of new religious schools that opened in urban Sindh after 9/11 are a cause of concern for the provincial government
In a recent survey carried out by the Sindh Home Ministry, there are 12,545 madrassas in the province, of which 2,161 are sectarian and dangerous.
About 74 percent of these religious schools are in Urban Sindh (Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Hyderabad and Sukkur). At least 8,191 out of them opened after 9/11. About 67 percent of the madrassas in the province are owned by people who do not have a Sindh domicile.
According to the survey, 6,191 of the madrassas belong to the Deobandi school of thought, 2,811 are Barevli, 412 follow the Ahle Hadith doctrine and 512 belonged to the Shia fiqh.
The most alarming aspect of the study is that the areas with the highest concentration of madrassas are the focal points of sectarianism. One example of that is Karachi's central district that has more than 813 madrassas. More than 74 percent of all sectarian motivated killings in Karachi are carried out in this district.
Mufti Taimoor Afridi owns the Jamia Islamia madrassa in North Karachi, with 381 students mostly from the tribal areas. "These children would have joined the Taliban if they weren't studying here," he said. "We are teaching and feeding them. The money comes from local donors." Mufti Taimoor Afridi recently bought a new 4x4 Vigo worth Rs 3.2 million.
Inside the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... 's headquarters in Karachi, party head Aurangzeb Farooqi says his group's madrassas do not promote sectarian rivalry. "We have hundreds of madrassas with thousands of students, and we do not teach sectarianism."
The population of madrassa students in Sindh according to the Home Ministry survey is estimated at up to 120,000 to 150,000. "We have seen cases in the past where we recovered children chained in a madrassa named Madrassa al Arabia al Uloom," said Mohammad Rameez Khan, an official of the Sindh Home Ministry. "The parents enrolled the children but the madrassa administration chained them so they wouldn't run-away."
In 2005, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad promulgated the Societies Registration (Sindh Amendment) Ordinance, under which no seminary can be set up or run in the province without being registered. A new section 21 was included in the 1860 law, with four clauses, that also made it compulsory for all seminaries to submit annual reports of their performance, their expenses and receipts, and audits of their accounts. The law also prohibited teaching or publishing "any literature which promotes militancy or spreads sectarianism or religious hatred".
But the madrassa networks remain a major cause of concern for the Sindh government. "A majority of sectarian forces of Evil use these madrassa networks not just to hide but to recruit, pick and even train," said senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam, who heads the CID.
But any reform of law enforcement moves could backfire if madrassa owners are not taken on board, analysts say. "The biggest problem is enforcement," said Sharfuddin Memon, former home minister and CPLC chief. "We should also take stern action against hate literature and enforce laws to regulate these seminaries."
"There are over 600 madrassas in Sindh which are red flagged and termed dangerous," said a source in the Sindh Home Ministry. But analysts say it is hard to prove how a specific religious curriculum promotes hatred, violence and prejudice towards various sects within Islam and non-Musselmens, especially when the entire state and private school curriculum is designed to promote, inculcate and incite the spirit of jihad and hatred among children as young as five.
There are also concerns about the future about the thousands of students who enroll in these religious schools. "What will these children do after graduation?" asks Mufti Naeem of Jamia Binoria, one of the largest seminaries in Sindh. "There has to be vocational training and some sort of accommodation to these madrassa students or there would be issues at all levels."
[EDITION.CNN] Two suspected militants were killed when missiles thought to be from a U.S. drone struck in Mir Ali Tehsil of North Waziristan Agency on Saturday, Pakistani intelligence sources said.
Two missiles were fired as the suspected militants rode a motorbike in the village of Mosaki, the sources said.
The attack damaged nearby houses, but no other casualties were immediately reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[An Nahar] A series of kabooms on July 5 near the key Syrian port city of Latakia were the result of Israeli air strikes, CNN reported, citing three U.S. officials.
Obama is Israel's very bestest friend . We know it's true because he says so -- often.
In the report late Friday, the network said the strikes were aimed at Russian-made Yakhont missiles that Israel viewed as a threat to its naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the report.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based rights group opposed to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's regime, originally reported the blasts, saying they struck ammunition depots.
The center said there were reports of deaths and injuries but could not provide further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[TOLONEWS] On Thursday, General Zahir Zahir, head of the Kabul Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said that warrants have been issued for MP Allah Gul Mujahid and his brother, Janat Gul, on charges of murder, kidnapping and land grabbing.
The announcement came after a clash occurred last month in which MP Mujahid's security personnel fought with police in the Deh Sabz district of Kabul. The confrontation between the MP's men and the police was sparked when some Japanese engineers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) went to the district to assess investment opportunities and persons in the employement of Mujahid attacked them. The clash left at least six people dead and 16 others injured.
The Nomad MP and his brother are now wanted by police for their involvement in the clash, as well as in a series of other criminal cases related to men in their employment. Gen. Zahir said that the MP is wanted on the grounds of 30 different criminal cases.
"Whenever a killing happens, the killer goes to Allah Gul Mujahid to hide and receive support. Same in cases with people involved in kidnapping and land grabbing activities. All criminals take shelter in Allah Gul Mujahid's house and he helps them," Gen. Zahir told TOLOnews.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... MP Mujahid called all the charges levied against him and his brother "baseless."
"I refute all the charges against me and my brother. If I killed someone, his family should come to me and say that you or your brother killed my family member -- at least one person should claim that," said Mujahid.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Ynet] China has cancelled plans to build a uranium processing plant in a southern Chinese city a day after hundreds of protesters erupted into the streets demanding the project be scrapped, a local government website said on Saturday.
The proposed 230-hectare complex in the heart of China's Pearl River delta industrial heartland in Guangdong province had also sparked unease in neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau. A one-line statement published on the Heshan city government's website said that "to respect people's desire, the Heshan government will not propose the China National Nuclear Corporation project".
China is in a race between building a modern military with which to supplant America as world hegemon, an aging population, and an economy precariously balanced on the cusp between boom and bust. The country desperately needs more energy for both the comfort of the population and the needs of manufacturing, but coal-fired plants both rely on foreign supplies and are such dreadful polluters that it is estimated that current levels of pollution have reduced the average lifespan by five years. And yet, for some reason the populace does not trust the government to safely provide nuclear power. Whyever could that be, dear Reader?
[Dawn] Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid on Saturday night categorically denied media reports that Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission's report had gone missing from the prime minister's office.
The original report is in safe possession of the government and no unauthorised person can have access to the document, he told APP.
"The report has neither disappeared nor got leaked from PM office," the minister clarified. He said media reports and comments are based on unauthentic, incomplete and distorted version of the report.
The leaked version of report, uploaded by the Qatar-based media organization Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... , had blamed all government and military institutions of collective failure for their inability to track down the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... while he was living in the country, and for not being able to detect or prevent the unauthorised operation against the Al Qaeda chief by the US Navy SEAL's deep inside the Pak territory.
Replying to a question on the possibility of official release of the report, the minister said former prime minister had set up a committee on Feb 1, headed by the then minister for law with foreign and defence ministers as members to decide about complete or partial release of the report.
The committee was also mandated to decide whether the report should be made public at all. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the government's tenure concluded on March 16 and the findings of the committee could not be finalised by that time.
Rashid said the present government is looking into the matter and shall make a decision about release of the report in the national interest.
He urged the media not to jump to conclusions and wait for release of the authentic version of the report to make any analysis or judgment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
One Egyptian policeman was killed and another was badly wounded on Friday by militants who fired rocket-propelled grenades at security checkpoints in the lawless Sinai peninsula, near the border with Israel, security sources said. Fridays deadly attack took place in the peninsulas northern city of Al-Arish, the sources said.
Earlier on Friday, a police station and two army checkpoints in the city also came under attack by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades, according to the security sources. No one was wounded in those attacks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013
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[An Nahar] Clashes between Iraqi border police and gunnies who crossed from Syria into western Iraq killed a policeman and maimed five on Saturday, an officer said.
The gunnies travelling in five four-wheel-drive vehicles crossed into Iraq's Anbar province about six miles (10 kilometers) from the Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria, Major Shihab Taha of the border police said.
Clashes broke out between the gunnies and the border police inside Iraq, killing one policeman and wounding five, Taha said, putting the number of gunnies killed at two.
The toll could not be confirmed, however, with the gunnies taking the bodies with them when they returned to Syria.
Iraq has sought to publicly avoid taking sides in the civil war between Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's regime and rebels seeking his ouster, but the conflict has spilled over the border on several occasions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[An Nahar] A court in Kabul ordered the early release of three people convicted over the torture of a child bride, an official confirmed Saturday, in a move denounced by activists as a blow for women's rights.
Sahar Gul, who was 15 at the time her ordeal, was burned, beaten and had her fingernails pulled out by her husband and in-laws after she refused to become a hooker in a case that shocked the world.
She was found in the basement of her husband's house in northeastern Baghlan province in late 2011, having been locked in a toilet for six months prior to her rescue by police.
Her father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law were sentenced to prison for 10 years each for torture and attempted murder, though her husband remains on the lam.
"But after the court reviewed their case, it found out that they were only involved in family violence," Supreme Court front man Abdullah Attaee told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The court did not have enough evidence against them, he said, adding a fresh prosecution would be launched .
"For now, the court has ruled that the time they have spent in jail is enough for them," he said, though he could not say when the ruling was made or whether the trio had yet been freed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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[Dawn] At least one passenger was killed and another two injured when armed bully boyz shot up a passenger bus in Kalat district of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... late on Saturday night.
Levies sources told Dawn.com four armed bully boyz on two cycle of violences shot up a passenger bus near Mangochar area of Kalat district.
They said one passenger was killed on the spot and two were critically injured as result of firing. The injured were soon rushed to Kalat for medical treatment.
Levies said the condition of injured passengers was critical.
The enraged passengers and transporters blocked national highway linking Quetta with Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... in protest over the firing incident.
Long queues of vehicles could be witnessed on both sides of the road, Levies said. The protesters chanted full-throated slogans against the assailants and administration for its failure to provide protection to people.
The attackers drove off the spot after the strike. Levies said the situation was tense as result of the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013
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From TFA:
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.
#1
Now really, what might we expect Mr. Greenwald to say; Snowden's information is now quite dated and the multi-agency damage assessments have prompted the appropriate programmatic changes and safeguards? Of course not.
#2
Theory out now is that Snowden was more a drop-box for a spy ring within the NSA or FISA court, and was tipped off, possibly by elements within the FBI.
#3
With all this talk about Snowden being a traitor, everybody seems to conveniently forget his whistleblowing information that THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS SPYING ON ALL U.S. CITIZENS, INSIDE THE UNITED STATES, in complete contravention to the Constitution.
Not that that surprises me .... >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/14/2013 10:11
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#4
Haven't forgotten that. However, the motive for releasing the information being "THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS SPYING ON ALL U.S. CITIZENS, INSIDE THE UNITED STATES" was a side effect to the primary missions of getting intel to the Chinese (and the Russians) and metaphorically blowing up the whole works.
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.
Harry Reid
Shootings left at least 8 people on the South and West sides 
Israeli Dolphin-class submarines are responsible for July 5 attack on Syrian barracks near port city of Latakia; attack reportedly coordinated with US, targeted Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles.
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
[Dawn] Over 600 schools set up in 
President Asif Ali 
North Korea
Hillary Clinton
The 
[BBC.CO.UK] The police have been attacked with petrol bombs in north Belfast as trouble flared for the second consecutive night.
Doku 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[CNN] George Zimmerman is not guilty of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida jury decided late Saturday.
SAXONBURG (KDKA) A Saxonburg man has been arrested for dousing his then-girlfriends 7-year-old son with a flammable liquid.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Syrian plans to run for a spot on the UN Human Rights Council met with sharp criticism from the United States and Israel on Thursday, while Tehran announced it had withdrawn its candidacy for the world body's rights watchdog. The General Assembly's annual elections for the United Nations' 47-nation, Geneva-based human rights body will be held in November in New York. There will be 14 seats available for the five UN regional groups for three-year terms beginning in January 2014.
Iraq lacks the means to stop Iranian arms deliveries to Syria through its airspace, if there are any, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in comments published on Saturday. Zebari said he had urged Western governments to take action themselves if they were convinced that Iran was smuggling weapons to its Syrian ally.
[BBC.CO.UK] Egypt's public prosecutor's office says it is investigating complaints against ousted President Mohammed Morsi and members of the 
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
[Dawn] IF the May 2, 2011 raid that killed 
[Dawn] Ongoing militancy and the resultant lack of social mobilisation campaigns continue to affect 
Wazoo
A former agriculture minister has said Iran's water shortage is a bigger threat to the country than either Israel or the United States, Al-Monitor reported this week citing local media. According to Al-Monitor, Issa Kalantari, the minister of agricultural under president 
Goodluck Jonathan
[FridayTimes] Thousands of new religious schools that opened in urban Sindh after 9/11 are a cause of concern for the provincial government
[EDITION.CNN] Two suspected militants were killed when missiles thought to be from a U.S. drone struck in Mir Ali Tehsil of North Waziristan Agency on Saturday, Pakistani intelligence sources said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid on Saturday night categorically denied media reports that 
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] A court in Kabul ordered the early release of three people convicted over the torture of a child bride, an official confirmed Saturday, in a move denounced by activists as a blow for women's rights.
"But after the court reviewed their case, it found out that they were only involved in family violence," Supreme Court 
