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Sherpao escapes suicide attack in Charsadda
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
14:38 8 00:04 Thosh Omugum4787 []
14:28 6 22:21 charger [1]
14:18 2 22:01 texhooey []
13:12 2 13:32 Bright Pebbles []
12:46 2 18:40 JosephMendiola [1]
08:26 6 22:13 JosephMendiola [1]
02:59 18 21:54 JosephMendiola [1]
02:28 5 23:48 Thosh Omugum4787 []
02:19 22 23:21 RandomJD []
02:14 5 21:25 Rambler in Virginia []
00:00 1 00:14 Zhang Fei [] 
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00:00 4 22:33 Lord Garth [] 
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Tearful Vladimir Putin wins presidency
A tearful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won a six-year term as Russia's president in what he described as an "open and honest" election on Sunday. Tears rolled down the former KGB agent's cheeks as he claimed victory at a rally attended by thousands in Moscow.

"I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia," Mr Putin told the rally just metres from the Kremlin in the centre of Moscow.

Mr Putin won 58.3 per cent of the vote, enough to avoid a second-round runoff, an exit poll from the state controlled All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) showed. An different exit poll, from the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), showed Mr Putin won 59.3 per cent of the vote. Official results from most polling stations will be published on Monday.

Election observers and opposition politicians reported widespread legal violations at polling stations across the country as Russians cast their ballots.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 14:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Moscow doesn't believe in tears.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/04/2012 15:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Putin wins thanks to "carousel voting." Carousel voting is similar to ACORN voting.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/04/2012 16:13 Comments || Top||


#4  How touching.
Posted by: Fat Bob Unotch3711 || 03/04/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Vlad came to power on resentment of NATO encroachment on lands the Ruskies dropped from their empire. What issue does he have now? I believe his own party will dump him after a decent interval. He is yesterday's man.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Angosh2139 || 03/04/2012 18:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Shade of TOSHIRO MIFUNE as "LORD TORANAGA" [Tokugawa Ieyasu]IN "SHOGUN" whom, reluctantly, accepted the Emperor's offer to be Shogun of all Japan.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 18:44 Comments || Top||

#7  "You like me! (or else) You really like me! (or else)"
Posted by: charger || 03/04/2012 22:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Molten little lead (Pb) tear-drops...
Awww, Just how precious is our Vladie-Lad! X-KBG, Gnu Wurld Odor studmuff!! Vlad-B-Badd!!
Can I get an AMEN? (...crickets...)
Posted by: Thosh Omugum4787 || 03/05/2012 0:04 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Obama: "too much loose talk of war"
President Barack Obama says the United States will not hesitate to attack Iran with military force to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he cautioned that "too much loose talk of war" recently has only helped Tehran and driven up the price of oil.

Speaking to a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, Obama appealed to Israel for more time to let sanctions further isolate Iran. He sought to halt a drumbeat to war with Iran and hold off a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

"For the sake of Israel's security, America's security and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster," Obama told thousands at the annual American-Israel Public Affairs Committee's policy conference on Sunday. "Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built."
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 14:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Don't give it away, it's my October surprise, and I need it to get reelected!"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 17:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, with this man anything is possible. Postpone elections even.
Posted by: Dale || 03/04/2012 17:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes to communicate with someone, you need to use the same language they use so that there is no misunderstanding.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/04/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||

#4  ain't happening. Would be the death of the Donk part for generations
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2012 20:02 Comments || Top||

#5  TOPIX > OBAMA: NO HESITATION TO ATTACK IRAN TO KEEP FROM GETTING NUCLEAR WEAPON.

versus

* FREEREPUBLIC, WAFF > BREAKING: ISRAEL SHELVES IRAN MILITARY OPTION, in deference to Diplomacy.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosur.

FYI WAFF POSTER = asks "so how long before Obama is assassinated"?

* ISRAELI EXPERT: IRAN UNLIKELY TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPON UNLESS IT IS ATTACKED. "Iran issue" greater than just the ME.

versus

* TOPIX > [VF Interview wid former US SecState Colin Powell's CoS Lawrence Wilerson] VANITY FAIR: ISRAEL COULDN'T TAKE OUT IRAN'S NUCPROG EVEN IFF IT WANTED TO.

ARTIC > WILKERSON = ...
> Mission = Strike, Mil Asset requirements too great or prohibitive for IDAF/ISAF. Israel more likely to fail than succeed even iff key Iran NucFacs are destroyed.
> IRAN LOOKING FOR "JAPAN-STYLE/TYPE",
"LATENT" CAPABILITY, i.e. possessing the SKILLS + NUCTECHS, ETC. TO QUICKLY PRODUCE NUCWEAPS IN TIMES OF CRISIS OR CONTINGENCY WIDOUT ACTUALLY DOING SO IN THE PRESENT.
> MAY TAKE THE US UP TO 50 YEARS OR SO TO RECOVER FROM A [Vietnam-, SuperVietnam-style]PROTRACTIVE/INTERMINABLE US-IRAN WAR.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > TURKEY UNEASY OVER [domestic = Turkey-based] IRANIAN FIRMS, FEARS [Sanctions] CLASH WID ALLIES [US-NATO/EU], ACTIVISTS SAY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 21:26 Comments || Top||

#6  "Don't give it away, it's my October surprise, and I need it to get reelected!"

Beat me to it.
Posted by: charger || 03/04/2012 22:21 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Trojan ox leaves more than 40 dead
At least 30 army soldiers and 14 militants were killed today in Yemen's Abyan province, according to government officials.

The military said that fighters of the Ansar al-Sharia group, which is linked to al-Qaida, had launched a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks on army outposts in the area before attacking in force. Equipment had been seized and "dozens" of soldiers kidnapped, local officers reported.

The attack came a day after suicide bombers hit a Republican Guard camp in Bayda, 75 miles south of the capital Sanaa.

Militants gained entry to the camp by bringing an ox they said was a gift for the camp's commander and then detonated their explosives once inside.
Next time it will be a large, wooden badger...
A government spokesman said the attack was designed to "create confusion for the new president."
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 14:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Trojan Ox" - LMAO, good one, I gotta remember it.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 21:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Not a badger, a wooden rabbit.
Posted by: texhooey || 03/04/2012 22:01 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Vigilantism In Detroit. As Expected, Government And Media Oppose
It was serious and dangerous business.

Detroit Police at a home on Evergreen with a search warrant.

Officers say they are working hard on tips, while neighbors watched and vented.

"I understand what Detroit 300 is doing, but they are not the police" says a resident of the west side neighborhood where the group, about 80 to 90 people strong, walked the streets, knocked on doors and passed out fliers.

Dawan Thurmond says the group scared a 68-year-old family member when they came knocking, looking to flush out the gang members that may be tied to the drive-by shooting that killed 9-month-old Delrick Miller while he slept on the couch.

Police say almost 40 bullets from a AK-47 were pumped into the home.

"It scared me when they were banging on my door" says 68-year old Zella Caradine who lives on Clayburn Street.

Detroit 300 Co-founder Angelo Henderson tells 7 Action News it is the gang members keeping the community scared, not the effort of the group to help bring justice.

"You would think the community wants us to do this, this is our community too and more people want change and that change is coming" says Henderson.
Vigilantism arises when the government does not protect the public from crime, or worse, is in cahoots with the criminals. Throughout most of its growth cycle, vigilantism strives to be non-violent. Only when they are terribly repressed to they lose patience and resort to violence.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 13:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Photobucket
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 13:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Peelian Principles

Most important rule "The police are the public and the public are the police."

Basically the state entity that calls itself the police is not.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Pepper Spray At 150 Feet
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 12:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There were stories about one of the USSR's tank batt. in Afghanistan be asphyxiated in a long tunnel with a natural gas driven variant of a smoke ring generator... Just saying..
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/04/2012 14:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Uh, uh, "TAKING AN EYE OUT", BUT WID JALAPENOS???

gut nuthin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 18:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
North Korea Has Allegedly Tested Nuclear Warheads For Iran
That's certainly old news.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 08:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't doubt that one bit and I speculated as much at the time. There were also open source reports of Iranians present at the tests at the time.

Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 11:13 Comments || Top||

#2  It's like Iran, Syria, and North Korea are the moles in a mole basher game. All we need to solve this is three hammers.
Posted by: gorb || 03/04/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Allegedly? NKs will do anything for money.

What happend to "pre-emption" as US defense policy? With BHO, the policy is open accession.
Posted by: Hupenter Jaing6773 || 03/04/2012 15:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually with Bumbles its more like pre-emptive surrender.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/04/2012 15:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Not unlike GWCC/MMAGW, ourpost-Cold War, pre future OWG-NWO has no reliable consensus on how many Nukes Iran + other State sponsors, NGOS bought on the black market.

Nominally speaking, Iran already alternate source(s) for NucBombs + Nuctechs - ITS CALLED NUKE-ARMED PAKISTAN, CENTRAL ASIAN "STANS", + whatever Nuke Arsenals the POST-ARAB SPRING NEW ISLAMIST GOVTS-REGIMES can quickly develop on their own; + EVE-OF-WAR, ANTI-US-NATO/WEST COVERT TRANSFERS FROM BFFS RUSSIA + CHINA.

Its been mentioned or inferred already on the MSM-Net - IRAN PER SE MAY HAVE FEW OR NO NUKES RIGHT NOW, BUT ITS LIKELY NUCLEAR ALLIES OR ANTI-US "NEUTRALS" HAVE MANY.

"NUCLEAR VIETNAM"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 18:39 Comments || Top||

#6  ION NOT-IRAN, TOPIX > ANYONE CAUGHT DEFECTING FROM NORTH KOREA WILL SEE THREE GENERATIONS OF THEIR FAMILY EXECUTED.

Jeebus.

versus

* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Chin Daoyus = Nippon Senkakus] CHINA, JAPAN ISLAND ROW ESCALATES.

* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA RELEASES OFFICIAL NAMES FOR DISPUTED ISLANDS.

E.g. China vs. PHIL, VIETNAM in SCS, looks like SINA = CATHAY is becom increasingly more hardline now wid Japan, espec as the reunification timelime wid TAIWAN also grows increasingly problematic.

As said or inferred times before, RISING CHINA WANTS "SOLE" OVERSEAS WARM-WATER = AIR, SEA PORTS FOR THE PLA, + IT TAINT GETTIN' IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 22:13 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Sheriff Joe investigates that which shall not be discussed.
Successful combat tracking assumes that the enemy is fully capable of tracking you as well. Selecting proper rest or laager sites which permit overwatch is essential. Go for it Joe!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2012 02:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If he keeps digging, something's liable to turn up. His past seems to be too conveniently void of ... well ... anything. No ex girlfriends, no school chums, no school grades, no thesis, nothing, zip, nada, zilch.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 3:18 Comments || Top||

#2  That "birth cert" was such a bad fake it's odd.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 9:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, it's a pointless distraction though. It seems pretty clear that he WAS born in the US (the dual newspaper announcements that day in Hawaii and all) just as it's clear that this is a forgery. Some interesting points I heard - Kenya didn't exist in 1961 - it was still the British East Africa Protectorate, and the name of the hospital was different in 1961 as well. *DOH*

It also seems clear that he doesn't qualify as a natural-born citizen for several reasons.

However, it's just as clear that no one will ever investigate, nor prosecute anyone involved in this obvious crime. So leave the dead horse be. He was President. He's going to be re-installed after another fraudulent election, and that's that. Deal with it.

Orion

Orion
Posted by: Orion || 03/04/2012 10:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Watch for mysterious heart attacks.
Posted by: Iblis || 03/04/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, I believe he was probably born in the US. What I want to know about is that missing life history between the time he started college and when he suddenly shows up as Acorn's lawyer.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 12:01 Comments || Top||

#6  His Columbia Transcripts
Posted by: Beavis || 03/04/2012 12:18 Comments || Top||

#7  :)
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 14:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Supposedly he attended Columbia at a very discounted rate as a foreign-born minority....a couple of Pearson employees (SAT scoring) tried to find out but we will never know as they were fined and threatened with prison for revealing it...someone is lying and spending $$$$$ to squelch it
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 || 03/04/2012 14:42 Comments || Top||

#9  Beavis send it to Dan Rather!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Very good Beavis (even if not true). Someone is sure trying very hard to keep it buried.

Just think what the media would have done if Palin's (or just about any conservative) transcripts and records were locked up. We'd probably still be hearing stories about it on a daily basis 3 years later.

I suspect that our Affirmative Action President was also an Affirmative Action student - much like his wife was. And that is why his records are sealed.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/04/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Mama-obama spent a few months in radical polluted, Seattle during that city's 1962 Worlds Fair. Nobody has explored a possible Canadian birth, even though US mixed race couples were birthing children in the Great White North at that time. Singer Dan Hill ("Sometimes When We Tough" yech!) is an exemplary. Seattle is only a short drive to Canada.

As for BHO's sharia status. He was sired by a male slave-of-allah, albeit a spouse and child abandoning swine. All for legal schools (madhabs) force muslim recognition.

Did BHO really attend a "Christian" church? Not really. That Chicago entity was pan-religious. Lewis Farrakhan attended events there with "nation of islam" pork-heads.
Posted by: Hupenter Jaing6773 || 03/04/2012 15:38 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm waiting to see the Breitbart video released on Hannity in the next week or so. Supposedly, it shows Obama with Bill Ayers when BO was at Harvard. Ayers was not just a guy in the neighborhood?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/04/2012 16:29 Comments || Top||

#13 
It's a fake!
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili || 03/04/2012 16:52 Comments || Top||

#14  That Dan Hill reference should be "Sometimes When We Touch", not "Tough" . . . . . . although "Sometimes When We Tough" could be made into an interesting song . . . . if one had that kind of a mind.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/04/2012 17:30 Comments || Top||

#15  LOL CS
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2012 18:00 Comments || Top||

#16  Its possible he was born on a ship or plane as his mother travelled to the US mainland.

from wikipedia,

Despite a common misconception to the contrary, birth on board a U.S.-flagged ship, airliner, or military vessel outside of the 12-nautical mile (22.2 km) limit is not considered to be a birth on U.S. territory, and the principle of jus soli thus does not apply.
Posted by: Phil_B || 03/04/2012 18:19 Comments || Top||

#17  CF: I think that phony, funny transcript is more correct than we know.

Remember why John Kerry refused to release his transcripts? Because as it turned out, he had a lower Yale GPA than that dummy George Bush.

Perhaps Champ also wasn't a great student at Occidental and Columbia. But I'm betting that on those transcripts we'd see all sorts of coursework that a good marxist would take.

And Mr. Axelrod knew in 2008, and knows today, that that is the kiss of death.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 18:27 Comments || Top||

#18  My Post on the Bammer's Mom + Mystery of Osama's Body appears to have suddenly disappeared while I was still writing it ...

D *** NG IT, CLEARLY SOMEONE AT OWG SKYNET-MATRIX = INTEL-PYWAR DOESN'T LIKE AM FRITTERS!?

-----------

FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > USA: PROTESTING TO BE MADE ILLEGAL | GOODBYE, FIRST AMENDMENT:
"TRESPASS BILL" [H.R. 347] WILL MAKE PROTEST ILLEGAL, iff takes place on or near [restricted]Fed-Govt Buildings even you didn't know it was.

As HR 347 is complemented by the NDAA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||


Good Morning
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/04/2012 02:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting picture, but I question the accuracy of the artist's depiction of skiing as a recreational past time. They didn't have ski bindings back in the day ? Must have nailed the boots to the skis. And what about the woefully inadequate outerwear ? This is WINTER, lady, dress appropriately, frost-bite is a real concern !
Posted by: Carl in NH || 03/04/2012 7:19 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe I get the ...drift. It helps to put the work of Enoch Bolles in the proper context. Hopefully the following link will help:

Link
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/04/2012 8:13 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 11:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Uh, uh, PERENNIAL SKIRT = CAT-CHASER "PEPE LE PEU" = "MADAME', CONTROL YOURSELF ... ... YOU KNOW, IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE TOO ATTRACTIVE"???

Well alrighty then.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 22:00 Comments || Top||

#5  What a great collection of "comix" artwork! Thx for providing such a wonderful array of comic book cover art, all in one spot. Amazing. Fun.

Posted by: Thosh Omugum4787 || 03/04/2012 23:48 Comments || Top||


Europe
Greek default looms as voluntary debt deal looks set to fail
European leaders are braced for the eurozone's first ever sovereign default this week as Greece's efforts to secure a €206bn (£172bn) "voluntary" bond swap looks increasingly unlikely.

Authorities in Athens are ready to enforce the controversial collective action clauses, or CACs, to impose the restructuring deal on all bondholders as the number of voluntary agreements look set to fall short of the required amount.

Credit rating agencies have warned they will declare Athens to be in default if the CACs are triggered which would be a dramatic culmination to a three-year rollercoaster ride for Athens, the eurozone and global markets.

While the markets have been ready for a Greek default for months, the move could leave Greece and its banks barred from funding from the European Central Bank (ECB). On Monday, Standard & Poor's declared Greece to be in a state of "selective default" which led to the ECB announcing it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as security for new loans.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 02:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I believe Greece has been defaulting for several months now. Or has it been years?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/04/2012 6:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Why do I get this feeling that its all playing out like those bizarre news stories where grandma died years ago with her remains mummified in the back bedroom while the family doesn't say anything so that the government check keeps showing up every month?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/04/2012 8:58 Comments || Top||

#3  This whole farce needs to be done with.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/04/2012 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The Greek government is unwilling to take the political heat of doing what is needed so they need to force the external action so they can point the finger at someone external and say "it isn't our fault, they did this".

Ultimately, though, it is the Greek people who refuse to make the required changes. They demand they keep all their freebies even though the country is out of money. This could be settled in a day if the people came to their senses but they are faced with the notion that their social democratic experiment has failed and many simply can not face that fact.

Socialism doesn't work. At least not when there is someplace else to which economic activity can flee.

Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  The Greek people failed to take responsibility for their financial actions.

the EU allowed the Greeks to pile on unsustainable debt. The EU ignored the debt to GDP rules and let this situation fester.

I say culpability is 50-50. Nobody, whether the EU or the Greeks are working to solve the problem.

Come to think about it, neither are we in our own financial mess.........
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/04/2012 12:10 Comments || Top||

#6  This is a result of the loonacy of the EU. You can't have a government responsible for it's budget and borrowing but have no authority or responbsibility for its money supply. If the Drachma was still around it would have been devalued/inflated to fix the problems (if you notice that's what's happening in the US). Certainly not fun for the populace but at least under their control.

The EU, however, controls the money supply and demands that the Greek politicians toe the line. Guess what the Greek people think? Oh that's right they don't matter any more since the EU is not a democracy.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/04/2012 15:26 Comments || Top||

#7  The Greek people claim to be the cradle of democracy but we all know better. Yes, there was a time when the polis was 'free' -- if you weren't a slave or servant, but even back then most Greek cities had a royalty.

Then came a lot of wars. A number of Greek states, particularly in Asia Minor, sold out to the Persians. Then came the Macedonians. Poof independence. Then more wars. Then the Romans. They morphed to become the Byzantine Empire. Real democracy there, huh?

Then the Turks for 400 more years. Then 'independence', thank you Lord Byron, as a non-democratic state. Then a quasi-fascist state. Then the Nazis. Then the Communists. Then more generals. Now the Socialists.

So if you were a Greek schmoe trying to get ahead, would YOU trust the state? Pay your taxes? Declare your income?

Like hell.

The country has two thousand years experience in tax avoidance. You want to really piss off a Greek shop-keeper? Buy something in his store and ask for a receipt.

Greece is boned because in the end the citizens aren't willing to pay the taxes to support a Greek nation. They want la dolci vita on the cheap and they don't trust the whole idea of 'nation' and 'government' with their bread. They don't see the citizenry as a nation; they see the government as rulers, not administrators.

Greece is boned. Cut them loose from the EU and let them go their own way.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Well said, Dr. Steve!
Posted by: Barbara || 03/04/2012 15:49 Comments || Top||

#9  I suspect if all Greek businesses paid their taxes the economy there would contract greatly; I think they're so far past the laffer optimum point that cheating is the only thing keeping it afloat.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/04/2012 15:49 Comments || Top||

#10  I suspect if all Greek businesses paid their taxes the economy there would contract greatly

The Greek economy already has contracted greatly. According to the Wall Street Journal, the economy has fallen 16% from a 2007 baseline as of mid-February of this year. The real numbers are likely considerably larger, but s nobody keeps records, there's no real way of knowing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 16:23 Comments || Top||

#11  The real numbers are likely considerably larger, but s nobody keeps records, there's no real way of knowing.

Sorta like here with our state apparatchiks putting out numbers like inflation and unemployment. While the pols play games with this, they fail to grasp how destructive the very act is with any integrity to the system they insist they operate. Too late in the process they discover the numbers, which they themselves begin to believe, result in an utterly surprising collapse (see the fall of the Soviets).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/04/2012 16:49 Comments || Top||

#12  Credit rating agencies have warned they will declare Athens to be in default if the CACs are triggered

Perhaps so, but not nearly as important as the International Swaps and Derivative Association declaring that the 70% haircut is NOT a credit event. All those CDS's sitting there and not coming into account!

Hang on, people. We're going to be flying through some rough air.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/04/2012 17:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Cut them loose from the EU and let them go their own way.

The European Union (27 members) is not coextensive with the eurozone (17 members). Yet, Chancellor Merkel has confounded the two also. Apparently she thinks cutting Greece loose would destroy "the idea of Europe" (the EU). But they are governed by different agreements (Maastricht/Lisbon vs. EMU).

So I don't quite understand why she's so adamant about keeping Greece tied down to the euro, since merely cutting Greece loose from EMU would hardly be the end of "Europe." But it tells me she is an incurable, dyed-in-the-wool Eurocrat - which, considering she was a conservative physicist from the DDR and knows all too well the yoke of foreign empire - comes as a disappointing surprise.
Posted by: RandomJD || 03/04/2012 17:56 Comments || Top||

#14  I suspect that the greek economy is a lot better than its state stats seem (as it goes further into the black economy), and it's economy was, in reality, a lot worse in the past when it relied on pretend economic activity via increased debt.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 17:57 Comments || Top||

#15  At the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, the underground economy was contributing 50% of the GDP.

With Greece, their underground economy will keep them alive, but government infrastructure will suffer, but hey, let them figure it out.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/04/2012 18:09 Comments || Top||

#16  For those interested in the Gold standard for money, Greece is essentially on one. The Euro is a monetary item whose supply is outside the control of the Greek government. Further, they have no capital controls to prevent the money from walking out of the country.

The only way they can plan for the future under this system is to balance their government budget. That means firing people and cutting programs, just like we see in the U.S. when the States balance their budgets.

There is a question of whether to pay the principle or interest on their existing debts today, tomorrow or never, but that could all be finessed if they had a balanced budget.

What the taxes are and stuff isn't really important. We know how much money the tax man stumped up last year (35% of GDP) and we can be sure that he will stump up at least most of that this year. So, balancing the budget in the euro system is just a matter of cutting public expenses from about 45% of GDP to about 30% of GDP. That is a one third cut.

So, every third government employee needs to go, every third building needs to be decommissioned, and every third program needs to be eliminated. And yes there will be some second order effects that will shrink the economy, but they are second order effects that will abate once the crisis is averted.

Until they do something like this, they will continue to try to borrow more euros to patch hole in their government budget, and as soon as they cannot come up with the cash, things will be much worse than they otherwise would have been.


Posted by: rammer || 03/04/2012 19:02 Comments || Top||

#17  "things will be much worse than they otherwise would have been"

And they'll STILL blame the U.S. and the Jooooz somebody else, rammer. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 03/04/2012 19:17 Comments || Top||

#18  > What the taxes are and stuff isn't really important.

Oh I disagree. Taxes on work will harm the economy regardless of their level. Low taxes on government created monopolies will allow privately collected taxation to harm the economy.

There's only one way to get the lowest real taxation level on the economy LVT.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 19:24 Comments || Top||

#19  Bright, yes, there are second order effects to having inefficient taxation schemes. But I argue that arguing about efficiency of the boiler is not important when the ship is going fast enough towards the iceberg. The argument needs to be about the course the ship is on.
Posted by: rammer || 03/04/2012 19:36 Comments || Top||

#20  Rammer, Propicious, excellent comments! Thank you for your insight.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/04/2012 20:50 Comments || Top||

#21  I'm still waiting to see if US citizens are willing to pay the taxes necessary to support the USA (and forgo gov't expenditures/bennies they aren't willing to be taxed for). For many years now the USA and many of its citizens have been living 'la dolce vita' on money borrowed from somebody else.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/04/2012 23:02 Comments || Top||

#22  AH9418: Taxes? Pish posh. QE3! The US will live la dolce vita so long as the rest of the world thinks all those legally-counterfeited dollars are still worth something.
Posted by: RandomJD || 03/04/2012 23:21 Comments || Top||


Britain
Catholic leader Cardinal Keith O'Brien clashes with David Cameron on same-sex marriage plans
The Catholic Church is on a collision course with David Cameron as one of its most senior figures issues an outspoken attack on the Government over its plans to legalise gay marriage.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are "madness" and a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right".

The cardinal's intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister. He accuses ministers of trying to "redefine reality" and change long-standing laws and traditions "at the behest of a small minority of activists".

The cardinal has added his voice to those of leading figures in the Coalition for Marriage, a group of bishops, politicians and lawyers opposed to the changes. The group's supporters include Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. The group is in outright opposition to Mr Cameron, who hopes to make legislation changing the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, expected by 2015, one of the central achievements of his time in office.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 02:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I honestly believed we had them already. Anyway didn't we kick Catholics out 400 years ago, some problems with divorce I believe! :P screw it, we'll make our own religion with gay marriages and strippers and divorce and free loving and call it the Christian brainchild of England!
Posted by: Devilstoenail || 03/04/2012 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Get Government out of marriage (and religion).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Religions have been missing a bet, here.

The recognition of civil marriage *had* the purpose of bestowing public support to couples who intended to reproduce and raise children. However, like anything else it touches, government is now trying to subvert marriage to perverse ends.

So the way religions can get around this is to recreate marriage as a wholly religious thing, as well as to persuade their congregants to shun government marriage. Since governments already expanded privileges of marriage to couples living together, this should be possible.

The next step is made possible by modern technology. It is to make a "Catholic registry of marriage", in which all Catholic marriages are recorded. And since Catholicism does not recognize divorce, only annulment, this acts to enforce Catholic marriage. Eventually while the church has "grandfathered" existing marriages, when they die out, it will not recognize civil marriage among Catholics, only church marriage.

Civil marriage will be the same as living in sin. Acceptable only among non-Catholics.

Doing this will terribly frustrate government efforts to subvert Catholicism, and they will likely eventually refuse to recognize church marriage. And while it will be somewhat oppressive, it will hurt government worse by denying them control of the process.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  'Moose, IIRC there are some European countries where you have to have to have both a civil and religious marriage, if you want a religious marriage.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/04/2012 21:25 Comments || Top||

#5  'Moose, IIRC there are some European countries where you have to have to have both a civil and religious marriage, if you want a religious marriage.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/04/2012 21:25 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A different view on Iran
“Let’s assume we bomb in Iran,” the senior source told me. “What do you think will happen the next day?
 
I repeated what everyone else has been saying: We can expect blood, fire and smoke; hundreds of missiles will be fired at Israel.
 
“That’s not the real scenario,” he said. “The problem is not that they would fire 300 missiles at us in two days, but rather, that they would do the opposite – fire only five or six missiles each month, but keep doing it for two years.”
 
And what would happen then? I asked.
 
“Israel’s airspace would be closed down,” the senior source said. “Airplanes will not be taking off, ships carrying goods will not be arriving at Israel’s ports, life here would grind to a halt, and our economy would be paralyzed.”
 
So we shouldn’t bomb Iran? I asked.
 
“That’s an operational question,” he said. “But Israel’s citizens should at least know what they are facing.”
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is a pretty nutty article. Israel dealt with dozens of missiles a month for years, from Hamas and Hezbollah. Note that Israel has the ability to seriously damage Iran's oil production facilities, which would rock the foundation of the theocracy's power.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/04/2012 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Note that during WW2, Germany's economy kept going through Allied air raids, during which hundreds of thousands of bombs were dropped monthly at random industrial and urban targets throughout Germany.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/04/2012 0:34 Comments || Top||

#3  they would do the opposite -- fire only five or six missiles each month, but keep doing it for two years Perhaps Iran would do that, and unleash worldwide terror attacks besides. Other parts of the world would have their own responses. How long could the Medes and Persions endure whatever would be meted out to them by everyone else?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/04/2012 1:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Israel isn't the Persians no 1 enemy. That honor belongs to the Soddies. The Soddies would love the Persians and Israel to be tied down fighting each other, that would leave them free to take over the rest of the Arab world, via Salafism.
I don't think Israel wants to oblige them.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 2:05 Comments || Top||

#5  This is a unidimentional monosynaptic (AKA "Stupid") analysis of the situation.
Lapid must be much more stupid and impotent than I thought before.
He is not only unfit for politics but IMHO is incompetent at simple kindergarden journalism.


Posted by: Elder of Zion || 03/04/2012 5:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Agree with Tipper.

Saudi and its ideology is more of a threat to the world than the minority shias.Look how Libya,Eygpt and Syria will turn out!
Posted by: Gruth McGurque5303 || 03/04/2012 9:39 Comments || Top||

#7  You can clip the claws of a crab, but they will just grow back. You can remove the teeth from a shark and new ones will simply appear.

There is only one way to remove this threat and that is to remove that regime.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Agree Crosspatch but Saudis and their salafi ideology is a MAJOR problem-see what they done to WW2 graves in libya=disgrace!
Posted by: Gruth McGurque5303 || 03/04/2012 12:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Both Qom and Riyadh represent distinct problems. They need dealt with in similar but distinct ways.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 16:39 Comments || Top||

#10  When all you have is a mindset, then everything looks like the same problem.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/04/2012 16:43 Comments || Top||

#11  If Israel wanted to, it could use a "52-card pick up" solution.

Get some old rust bucket ship flagged in Liberia, and rebuild it in a neutral port to launch a single, enormous and dirty nuclear weapon right at Mecca from the Indian Ocean off Somalia. Then scuttle the ship, leaving behind trace evidence that implicates China.

There are international military ships all over that area, on pirate patrol, so it would be seen by all sorts of radar that would track it all the way home.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 18:14 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Interior Ministry expels armed men surrounding state newspaper
[Yemen Post] Forces of the Interior Ministry expelled on Saturday gunnies surrounding the major state newspaper, Al-Thawra, for more than a month.

The gunnies who are loyal to the ousted President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
had banned some journalists from entering the newspaper after an image of Saleh was removed from the newspaper's front page.

The Yemeni Journalist Syndicate called on Saturday all journalists to return to their newspaper after the expelling of the gunnies.

Media sources said that new President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi ordered the Interior Ministry to force out the thugs, pointing out that they tried to resist the soldiers, but they were forced to depart.

The Information Ministry had accused political and security authorities of standing behind those thugs, affirming that they misused the newspaper and published articles that contradicted the government's policies.

Journalists and employees of Al-Thawra had appealed to Hadi and Interior Minister to drive back the thugs, citing that they prevented some pro-revolution journalists from entering to the newspaper.

The Federation of Arab Journalist had condemned the "brutal attack" against the state-run Al-Thawra and its staff, considered this event as serious. It asked the Yemeni concerned authorities to immediately end the siege and arrest the gangs.

For its part, the International Federation of Journalists called the Yemeni government to act decisively to stop the diehard supporters of Saleh from perpetuating control over public media.

"This is a serious incident which also represents a test of the interim leadership's commitment to genuine change, including respect for press freedom," said IFJ President, Jim Boumelha.

Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Election 2012
Romney wins Washington caucuses
[Iran Press TV] Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field...

...those are all his good points, of course, which is why the country is better off with him than with Champ Obama...
has won Washington state's presidential caucuses with 37 percent of the vote.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are some complaints of pretty blatant caucus stuffing, in which not only were just some of the Republicans told to bring their "required" registration cards; but hundreds were turned away from caucus sites, as many or more locked out than were allowed in.

Importantly, if they were dirty tricks, they are allowed in caucuses, because all a caucus can do is give "momentum" to a candidate. The actual vote for delegates is later.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Axelrod demonstrated, much to Hillary's regret, just how far you could go in 2008 to manipulate a caucus.

I say do away with them. Either hold a proper primary or hold a state party convention.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 11:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Twenty-three Hindus kidnapped from Balochistan: official
[Dawn] The incidents of kidnapping for ransom and other heinous crimes 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...
have been increased as the government official revealed that 23 members of the Hindu community were kidnapped from the province over a period of several months.

The rise in kidnapping had forced the Hindu community to migrate from Balochistan to other parts of the country.

Talking to DawnNews here on Saturday, Provincial Home Secretary Naseebullah Bazai said that 70 people were kidnapped from the Quetta Division alone during the last three months.

According to Bazai, 53 of the kidnapped had been recovered so far, while the others were yet to be traced.

He said an anti-kidnapping force had been formed to curb the incidents in the province.

On the political front, the Home Secretary revealed that cases against 83 politicians had been taken back after the introduction of the Balochistan package

"We are taking back these cases on the direction of the federal government," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Kidnap for ransom is permitted under the Koran.

Knowing that and seeing the number of non-Muslims being kidnapped each month, you'd have to have a strong appetite for risk or death to travel to the Islamic world today.
Posted by: American Delight || 03/04/2012 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Hindus in Balochistan? You would think that by now they would have figured out that Pakistan is not the nicest place to live.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 17:30 Comments || Top||


Sherpao escapes suicide attack in Charsadda
[Dawn] A copper was killed and a local politician was among eight maimed on Saturday in a suicide kaboom in Charsadda, officials said.

The jacket wallah struck as the former chief minister of the province, Aftab Khan Sherpao
...Pak dynastic politician, head of his own branch of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Sharpao began the usual military career, rising to the rank of major, but when his elder brother was bumped off in 1975 he took up the political mantle. Aftab's family (known as the Khans of Sherpao) is a prominent and influential family in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The family belongs to the Mohammadzai tribe which has for long been a dominant tribe amongst the Pukhtuns...
, returned with his son and another politician from a rally on the outskirts of Shabqadar town 35 kilometres northeast of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.

"A policeman was killed and eight others were maimed including the provincial assembly member Muhammad Ali Khan in the suicide attack," Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

"The politician is out of danger and being shifted to the provincial headquarters in Peshawar," Hussain said.

Police said the bomber struck when the security convoy escorting the politicians left the rally venue.

"The suicide bomber walked in the security convoy and hit the vehicles,"local police chief Nisar Khan Marwat said.

A local leader of the Pak Taliban militia, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), grabbed credit for the attack.

"We made this attack because Aftab Sherpao has cooperated with the government for an operation against us in the tribal areas," Omer Khalid, a local Taliban leader, told AFP by telephone from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location..

Sherpao heads his own faction of a small political party.

The Taliban has carried out a number of attacks against him over the years.

In April 2007, a suicide bomber attacked a rally of Sherpao's political party, killing 28 people.

In December 2007, a suicide bomber again targeted Sherpao amid hundreds of worshippers at a mosque inside his home in the same region, killing at least 50 people.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
China urges Syria government, rebels to start dialogue
[Dawn] China urged the Syrian government and rebels trying to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
to end all acts of violence, especially against civilians.

It also urged the government and rebels to "launch an inclusive political dialogue with no preconditions" under the mediation of the newly appointed UN-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy on the Syria crisis, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"The Syrian government and all parties concerned should immediately, fully and unconditionally cease all acts of violence, particularly violence against innocent civilians," said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by Xinhua news agency early on Sunday Beijing time and monitored in London.

"It is deeply worrying that the situation in Syria remains grave," a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said.

But since violent festivities were continuing, political dialogue could not yet start and prospects for a peaceful settlement to the crisis were still dim, the official said.

The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
says security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians during an 11-month government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

The statement said China supported the United Nations' leading role in coordinating humanitarian relief efforts and was ready to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people.

But it added: "We oppose anyone interfering in Syria's internal affairs under the pretext of 'humanitarian' issues."

The international community should respect the independence, illusory sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and the right of the Syrian people to independently choose their political system, the statement said.

It said China did not approve of armed interference or pushing for "regime change" in Syria, and the use or threat of sanctions did not help resolve the issue.

China and Russia joined other UN Security Council members on Thursday in expressing "deep disappointment" at Syria's failure to allow the UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos to visit the country and urged that she be allowed in immediately.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa Horn
9 killed in battle between Puntland forces and al-Shabab militants
[Iran Press TV] Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
between local government troops and gunnies has left at least nine people dead in the autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia.

Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
gunnies attacked a checkpoint manned by soldiers of Puntland's government on Friday night, and fighting continued until the crack of dawn on Saturday.

"We first attacked their checkpoint near Bosasso
...Puntland's major (maybe only) port, population about 250,000, most of them shady characters who hang around waterfront dives and carry knives and brass knuckles...
last night. Then this morning they attacked us at Baliqadar, 40 kilometers (24 miles) to the east of Bosasso. We also burnt three of their armed vehicles using landmines," al-Shabaab military front man Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said.

He also claimed that al-Shabaab gunnies had killed 32 Puntland soldiers, and three of their own fighters had bit the dust in the battle.

However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
local officials reported a lower corpse count.

"We received nine dead people and six others were maimed. These include five dead bodies of al-Shabaab and three other injured ones, who are being kept in the hospital by police," Abdiqadir Mohamud, a doctor at Bosasso Hospital, said.

In January 2011, Puntland's authorities issued a statement announcing that they had broken with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) based in Mogadishu.

In the statement, the Puntland government said that the TFG "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and that the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Political Office for Somalia should "reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders."
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran dismisses British foreign secretary's remarks on election
[Iran Press TV] Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has dismissed British Foreign Secretary William Hague's claim that Iran's parliamentary election was not "free and fair."

Hague's comments are baseless and reflect Britannia's policy of meddling in Iran's internal affairs, Mehmanparast said on Saturday.

He accused Hague of trying to downplay the widespread participation of Iranians in the free and fair parliamentary election held on March 2.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry front man also advised the British authorities to respect the choice made by the Medes and the Persians and to make efforts to avoid repeating their previous mistakes.

On Friday, the British foreign secretary condemned the way the election was held in Iran and claimed that it was undemocratic and the vote was not free and fair.

More than 64 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in Iran's parliamentary election, with 75 percent of the candidates from the principlist camp winning seats in the legislature, according to unconfirmed results.

Over 48 million Iranian citizens were eligible to vote in the election, 3.9 million of them for the first time.

Voter turnout in Tehran was 48 percent.

Shortly after the polls closed on Friday evening, Election Headquarters Director Seyyed Sowlat Mortazavi said final results would be announced in 48 to 72 hours.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Who gives a crap?!
Posted by: Devilstoenail || 03/04/2012 7:36 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
ISPR, Presidency rebuff Ijaz's allegations
[Dawn] Referring to the statement of Mansoor Ijaz, ISPR and the Presidency on Saturday said that there was no telephone conversation between President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
and the COAS Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
on the night between 1 and 2 May 2011.

The ISPR front man further said that the Military leadership has briefed the Joint session of the Parliament as well as the 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 on the subject matter and there is nothing more to add to it.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact...
spokesperson to the president Farhatullah Babar has also dismissed as "absolutely untrue and unfounded" some media reports about the president's phone call to army chief at the night of May-2 raid on the late Osama bin Laden.
... who abandoned all hope when he entered there...
Ijaz during his testimony on Friday, when asked to name the individuals, referred to as two senior officers, who allegedly spoke on the night of the May 2 raid, while the operation in Abbottabad was in progress, replied "As far as I know it was Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari."
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...

Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Standing down PKAF F-16's rather than oppose the incoming SEALS raid agz Osama at Abbottabad.

Meanwhile ....

* DEFENCE/PK/FORUMS > BRIG. GENERAL ALI KHAN CHARGED WID PLANNING TO ATTACK [Pak] GHQ WID F-16., in joint conspiracy wid Pilot + HuT Group.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 23:02 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Muslim Brother picked to lead new Libya party
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Libyan Islamists and independents have formed a new political party and elected a representative of the Moslem Brüderbund on Saturday as its leader after a three-day conference, an AFP news hound said.

Mohammed Sawan, an ex-political prisoner under the regime of dead dictator Muammar Ghaddafi who outlawed the formation of political parties as an act of treason, was elected leader of the Justice and Construction party by 51 per cent of those present.

"I have real mixed feelings because I was imprisoned under Muammar Ghaddafi for my attempts to create a political party and I am grateful to the people here who have placed their trust in me," Sawan told AFP.

The meeting in the capital brought together hundreds of people keen to take part in the launch of the new party. Votes were taken on a wide range of issues, including the party's name, by a show of hands.

The party's programme is still under discussion, but Moslem Brothers, Islamists and independents came together for the conference with the shared aim of forming a "national party with an Islamic frame of reference."

"We aim for diversity and a state of law where differences in opinion are respected," Sawan said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
A brief history of Hazara persecution
In Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistain, Hazara people continue to face discrimination and violence

A bill in the US Congress that backs the Baloch "right of self-determination" days after a congressional hearing on Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, and the emotionally charged reactions to these developments in Pakistain, both ignore the persecution of the Hazara community in the violence-hit province.

Analysts say the community is of no strategic or electoral importance to Pak leaders, and might be seen in the US as pro-Iran because it is Shia.

The Dari-speaking Hazara people live in Afghanistan, Pakistain and Iran, and are believed to be of Turk-Mongol descent. They are mostly Shia, with small Sunni and Ismaili minorities.

Hazaras in Afghanistan:

In a single incident in 1998, Iranian forces killed more than 630 refugees, mostly Hazaras, in the Safed Sang Camp detention center
According to Qaseem Akhgar, a prominent Afghan historian and political analyst, Hazara people have been living in Afghanistan for more than 2,000 years. Their persecution began after their land, the Hazarajat, was taken over by Amir Abdul Rehman Khan in the late 19th century. Hundreds of thousands of Hazara were killed, enslaved or forced to flee their homeland. Those who survived were persecuted by successive Afghan regimes. In 1933, a young Hazara highschool student Abdul Khaliq assassinated Nadir Shah, the king of Afghanistan, to avenge discrimination against his people.

The most recent spate of violence against the Hazara people began with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. They killed thousands of Hazaras in Bamiyan, Yakaolang and Mazar-e-Sharif with impunity from 1998 to 2001.

Hazaras in Iran:

The persecution of Hazaras began after their land was taken over by Amir Abdul Rehman Khan in the late 19th century
In Iran, the Hazaras are known as Khawaris, or Barbaris (barbarians), because of their phenotypic similarities with the Mongols. Most of them live in Mashhad, Turbat-e-Jam, Darrah Gaz and Nishaboor. Although a majority of Iranian population is Shia, the Khawaris are a marginalized community that has sought to protect their ethnic and cultural identity from state oppression. Iran also hosts a significant population of Hazara refugees from Afghanistan.

In a single incident in 1998, Iranian forces killed more than 630 refugees, mostly Hazaras, in the Safed Sang Camp detention center. A film about the incident was not shown in Afghanistan after what insiders call the Iranian president's "personal request" to his Afghan counterpart.

Hazaras in Pakistain:

Banned bad turban outfits have threatened to make Pakistain "a graveyard for the Shia Hazaras" and have asked them to leave the country by 2012
The Hazaras in British India were less marginalized and even joined the British army. In 1904, Major CW Jacob of the 126th Balochistan Infantry, who later became Field-Marshal Sir Claude Jacob, raised the 106th Hazara Pioneers with drafts from the 124th Duchess of Connaught's Own Balochistan Infantry and from his own regiment. They were a class regiment comprising eight companies of Hazaras. According to Hazara community leader Sardar Sa'adat Ali Hazara, "Among those who were recruited in various arms of the Indian Defence Services during World War II in 1939 was Gen Musa Khan. He later became the commander-in-chief of Pakistain Army, and was honoured for his services in the 1965 war against India."

Unfortunately, the persecution of Hazaras began in Pakistain in 1998 with the liquidation of Gen Musa Khan's son Hassan Musa in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. On July 4, 2003, 53 people died and 150 were hurt in a suicide kaboom on a Hazara mosque in Quetta. It was the first attack of its kind. Since then, more than 700 Shias, most of them Hazaras, have been killed in gun attacks, rocket attacks, mass killings and suicide kabooms in Balochistan.

Banned bad turban outfits have threatened to make Pakistain "a graveyard for the Shia Hazaras" and have asked them to leave the country by 2012.

"The locations of the hideouts and training camps of the groups involved in attacks on Hazaras are not secret," Sardar Sa'adat said. "The government and the law-enforcement agencies seem to have no interest in protecting us."

The Hazara people are not allowed in certain parts of Quetta, including the Sariyab Road where Balochistan University is situated.

According to Asmat Yari, the president of Hazara Students Federation (HSF), "Almost 75% of Hazara students have quit the university and those who remain cannot attend classes because of fear." School attendance has also decreased by 10 percent this year, and college attendance by 25 percent. Parents do not let their children take exams in centers outside of the areas deemed safe for the Hazaras.

Thousands of young Hazaras have decamped to Europe and Australia, often illegally, to escape the oppression. On December 20, 54 Hazara boys drowned when their boat sank near Java, Indonesia. Only seven bodies have been received so far. Another 23 Hazaras drowned near Malaysia on February 1.

"That the Hazara young men chose to leave Pakistain by taking such grave risks," the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain sad in a statement, "is a measure of the persecution the Hazara community has long faced in Balochistan."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So the solution to central-south Asia is to carve out an independent Hazaristan?

Think harder, CFR...
Posted by: American Delight || 03/04/2012 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "According to Qaseem Akhgar, a prominent Afghan historian and political analyst, Hazara people have been living in Afghanistan for more than 2,000 years."

Probably not true. Hazara ethnicity can only be traced back about 500 years.

In Afghanistan, the fact that they speak a dialect with a lot of Persian loan words made them easily identifiable when the Taliban were looking for Shia to murder back in the late 1990s.

Posted by: Lord Garth || 03/04/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||

#3  In Afghanistan, the fact that they speak a dialect with a lot of Persian loan words made them easily identifiable when the Taliban were looking for Shia to murder back in the late 1990s.

One assumes the Afghan Hazaris share the strongly oriental appearance of the Pakistani Hazaris, as well.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 20:28 Comments || Top||

#4  TW

yes

a lot of genetic material from the army of Genghis Khan is in the Harara
Posted by: Lord Garth || 03/04/2012 22:33 Comments || Top||


Grenade blasts injure four in Karachi's Lyari
[Dawn] Two separate hand grenade attacks on Saturday injured four including two suspected attackers in Bloody Karachi's
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
neighbourhood, DawnNews reported.

Grenade blasts spread chaos in the troubled neighbourhood of Lyari.

Two suspected attackers got injured in the first blast when the cracker went kaboom! in their hands near Kamila Stop. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
both the injured attackers successfully decamped away from the scene.

The second grenade was went kaboom! near Lee Market in which two people got minute injuries who were taken to the Civil Hospital immediately after the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Al Qaeda connection
Having joined hands with Al Qaeda, sectarian outfits continue to threaten urban Pakistain

"My teacher had told me if I kill Shias I will go to heaven," says Mohammad Azam. "Barelvis and Shias are the same. They both need to be killed," adds Jalandar Khan. The two men were jugged before they could launch suicide kabooms.

Sectarian differences in Pakistain took a violent turn after the Soviet fall, when men who had been fighting in Afghanistan used their resources and training to carry out attacks on Shias and other minorities in Pakistain.

Riaz Basra and his accomplices were accused of targeting key Shia state officials and professionals until 1996. In 1997, the killings became indiscriminate and all Shias became targets.

After the strict Salafist Taliban government took over in Afghanistan, violence against Shias and minorities increased significantly. At least 193 people were killed in sectarian violence in Pakistain in 1997, 157 in 1998, and more than 261 in 2001. This happened while many in Pakistain had been praising the Taliban for the peace they had brought in Afghanistan.
 
The first suicide attack of sectarian nature was carried out in 2003, on a Shia mosque on Pakistain-Afghanistan border. At least 55 people were killed.

In mid-2002, Al Qaeda began to cooperate with local sectarian organizations in Bloody Karachi, strengthening their networks and capacity. Among the first attacks carried out by this alliance was an ambush on Bloody Karachi corps commander Gen Ahsan Hayat.

Since then, attacks have been carried out on almost all major Sufi shrines, and Barelvi and Shia people have been under constant attack. In 2006, a large number of Barelvi Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
leaders were killed in a suicide kaboom at a religious gathering in Nishtar Park.

Sectarian violence in Bloody Karachi:


In mid-2002, Al Qaeda began to cooperate with local sectarian organizations in Bloody Karachi, strengthening their networks and capacity
A large number of Shia professionals were shot and killed in Bloody Karachi in the 1990s before attacks became more brutal. The city is one of the most polarized regions in Pakistain.

"More than 200 of our workers have been killed in recent attacks," says Sarwat Ejaz Qadri, the chief of Sunni Tehrik.

Sunni Tehrik was formed in 1992 to safeguard the interests of Barelvi Mohammedans. It opposed the appointment of rival Deobandis on key state posts. Important Deobandi ideologues it had opposed were from the Binori Town mosque in Bloody Karachi. The founder of the mosque was killed in May 2004 and his son, nephew and driver were maimed, when his car was ambushed by gunnies.

The liquidation occurred three weeks after a powerful bomb killed 15 Shia worshippers in Hyderi Mosque.

A day after the liquidation, at least 24 worshippers were killed and 34 others injured when a high-intensity bomb went kaboom! during the evening prayers at a Shia mosque on MA Jinnah Road in Bloody Karachi.

A top intelligence official said they were seen by security agencies as tit-for-tat attacks.

When Intelligence Bureau and CID conducted a raid to arrest a suspect believed to be involved in the Nishtar Park bombing on a house in Baldia locality in Bloody Karachi, the inmates retaliated. The three people eventually locked away - Sultan Omer, Siddique Mehsud and Zubair Bengali - admitted to have been involved in suicide attacks at Nishtar Park and on Allama Hassan Turabi. One of them was a relative of Baitullah Mehsud.

The Al Qaeda link:

In March 1995, two American consulate officials - Garry C Durrell (CIA) and Jackie Van Landingham (a consulate secretary) were targeted by a local group in an attack sanctioned by Al Qaeda in response to the extradition of Ramzi Yousaf.

According to an intelligence source who has been following sectarian outfits for over two decades, it was among the first verifiable indications of sectarian bully boyz tagging with Al Qaeda.

"It was Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, the Al Qaeda number three and an anti-Shia Baloch of Iranian origin who supervised the attack."

In 2002 when Khaled Sheikh Muhammad came to Bloody Karachi, he was housed by local sectarian groups, says a former intelligence chief who asked not to be named. Some of these groups became the operational arms for Al Qaeda in Pakistain's urban areas.

Suspects locked away by security agencies and intelligence reports also show these groups have connections with Al Qaeda.

Sectarian faultlines:

In South Punjab, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Leiah, Shujabad, and DG Khan have recently become major centers of sectarian outfits. According to a survey, there are more than 798 madarssas in DG Khan and more than 1000 in Bahawalpur. A large number of them are fuelling sectarian discords.

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...
, scores of Hazara people have been killed for their Shia beliefs. The government has failed to respond to the threat so far and key holy mans have not condemned the brutal acts.

In Bloody Karachi and Punjab, banned sectarian groups are now operating under new names and leaders once seen as involved in sectarian violence are addressing political gatherings.

These developments indicate the sectarian fault lines emerging in urban Pakistain.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My teacher had told me if I kill Shias I will go to heaven
Saudi funded/inspired?
Posted by: Gruth McGurque5303 || 03/04/2012 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Saudi funded, perhaps, Lord Obvious.

Inspired? There's been sectarian... issues.. before Pakistan was around.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/04/2012 16:41 Comments || Top||

#3  "Under new Names + Leaders" > Uh, uh, D *** NG IT, SHIA-ISM IS THE NEW SUNNI-ISM = "DOING A HAMAS"???

Well there ya go.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 23:22 Comments || Top||


Slapping victim pardons Waheeda Shah
[Dawn] Habiba Memon, an assistant presiding officer, who was slapped by Pakistain People's Party candidate Waheeda Shah Bukhari during recently held by-polls announced to pardon her aggressor, during the recent by-election in Tando Mohammad Khan.

The incident took place last week during by-election at Polling Station No 16, Tando Mohammad Khan.

The Supreme Court on Friday had refused to accept an unconditional apology from Ms Shah while hearing a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
notice of the incident.

The court had also criticised the Election Commission and Sindh police for their failure to act promptly against the PPP candidate.

Memon submitted her written statement before the Election Commission here on Saturday, saying she has decided to pardon Ms Shah.

Talking to the media, Memon said the PPP candidate had visited her house to offer an apology, upon which she decided to forgive her.

Memon also said that she was under no pressure to accept the apology and neither was she offered anything in return.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran war will bring US to its end: Turkish politician
[Iran Press TV] A senior Turkish politician has warned that any US war against Iran will bring an end to the United States, Press TV reports.

The leader of Turkey's Democrat Party, Namik Kemal Zeybek, told Press TV in an interview on Saturday that those who threaten to launch a war against Iran should remember Islamic Theocratic Republic's eight-year defense against Iraq from 1980 to 1988.

"The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran, even at its earliest days after the Islamic Revolution, when it did not have an organized military, managed to defend its territory against a fully equipped and well-trained army of Iraq that was supported by the US and the West," Zeybek stated.

"Any attack on Iran will bring an end to the United States. It will lead to the disintegration of the US because its states are not that much united as it may seem. Some of its southern states are annoyed by such [warmongering] policies and want to get separated from the US, and one day this will happen," he concluded.

On Friday, March 2, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said Ankara is opposed to any form of military intervention aimed at putting an end to Iran's nuclear energy program.

"The problem over Iran's nuclear [energy] program has to be resolved through diplomacy.... Any method other than diplomacy would have grave consequences for the region and even for the world," he said during the Aspen Bosporus Dialogue Conference in Istanbul.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The Revolution will bring US to its End... no
The Tripoli pirates war... no
The impressment spat with the French .. no
The war of 1812 ... no
The early Indian wars ... no
The Mexican war .. no
The Civil war ...no
The Indian Wars ... no
The possible wars with colonial powers over annexing Hawaii... no
The Spanish Am War ... no
The Boxer and various ones... no
THe Huk rebellions .. no
The central Am incursions... no
WW-1 .. no
more incursions... no.
WW-II ... no
various incursions .. no
Korean War no
various incursions and bay of pigs ... no
Vietnam War ... no
various incursions ... no
Shah falling .. no
various incursions... no
Sinking the USSR in Afghanistan .. no
Tanker war ... no
Gulf War I ... no
Afghanistan .. no
Gulf War II - (IRAQ) .. no
Pirate War .. no
Libya ... no
no non no no non...
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/04/2012 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The american government and the people who elect it are doing a great job of ending the US without any warfare needed.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  This nation should never be allowed to join the EU especially with their Islamist leadership.
Posted by: Gruth McGurque5303 || 03/04/2012 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  The Turks are trying very hard to become the new Nazies.
Shows you that a Turk remains a Turk, irrespective of language and modern cloths.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 03/04/2012 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  "Iran war will bring US to its end: Turkish politician"

You wish....
Posted by: Barbara || 03/04/2012 11:10 Comments || Top||

#6  First of all, nothing will happen until BHO is gonzo. Second, the ayatoilet's dirty-bomb capacity alone would automatically escalate any conflict. Third, Americans are sick to death of taking financial hits for the subsidy of third world pig pens. Fourth, even if some White House clown chose the conventional war route, Iran would be left without a gasoline supply after a mere 3 days of war. Fifth, at least a third of Iran's brainwashed people resent both the enormous wealth confiscated by the ayatoilets, and the strike=breaking activities of the Basij. Sixth, opposition is so great that US Intelligence has too numerous to count walk-ins who openly work against the arab wannabe tyrants. Seventh, there are professionals within the military, who have no use for reckless and suicidal jihadism. Eighth, the nuke genii has remained on the shelf too long; this generation needs to learn just how cost effective those devices are. Ninth, legalized male pedophilia has more than doubled the terrorist enity's population since they went arab, and a cull is in order.

We need to treat enemy life with the same value as do we treat mosquitos and cockroaches. And F___ Johnny Turk. A tenth of that entity is formed by Occupied Europe; a further third is Occupied-Armenia.



Posted by: Hupenter Jaing6773 || 03/04/2012 15:20 Comments || Top||

#7  "Some of its southern states are annoyed by such [warmongering] policies and want to get separated from the US, and one day this will happen."

Been there, done that. 1861–1865. Now the southern US, including the southwest, are all in favor of warmongering. It's them damn Yankees that have a problem with it.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 17:40 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Jets kill 17 militants in Orakzai
[Dawn] Seventeen hard boyz were killed and 13 injured on Friday after jetfighters pounded their hideouts in several parts of Upper Orakzai tehsil.

According to local political administration and security forces, jetfighters targeted turban positions in Akhun Kot, Bilrass and Chappar areas of Manozai at around 12:00 noon.

They claimed that 17 turbans, including two key commanders, were killed and 13 maimed, while five of their hideouts were destroyed in the bombings.

However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
local front man for Tehrik-e-Taliban Hafeez Saeed denied killings and said not a single fighter of his group was killed in the attacks. He told news hounds from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location on telephone that jetfighters bombed houses already vacated by Taliban.

Also in the day, local political administration incarcerated four elders of Bulandkhel tribe in Ismailzai and sent them to jail under the Collective Territorial Responsibility Act.

Ali Annan Qamar, an official of the administration, said the incarcerated men were Malak Rafiullah, Malak Muhabat Ali Khan, Malka Inayatullah Jan and Malak Roshan Khan. --
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Arabia
Rights groups: Underground jails run by military, security forces
[Yemen Post] A Yemeni human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
organization, HOOD, revealed on Saturday that hundreds of Yemenis are held in underground jails, demanded the new president Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi to swiftly release them.

HOOD called Hadi to form a commission of judges, the Interior Ministry, the Human Rights Ministry and civil society organizations to release the prisoners, shut down the jails and bring those officials responsible for such violations to justice.

It further said that hundreds of protesters who took to streets against the ousted president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
are languishing in prisons run by the Republican Guard, the Central Security and the intelligence services.

It pointed out that it sent Hadi a letter including a list of 190 names of prisoners who their fate are still uncertain.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves...
the Sana'a-based Himaia Organization for Human Rights disclosed that 192 soldiers are held inside the main camp of the Central Security in Sana'a.

The group said that a specialized court documented their cases as it visited the military last week after it was ordered by the Attorney-General.

Himaia had presented a notification to the Attorney-General about the seizure of 22 soldiers inside the camp due to their support to the anti-Saleh revolution.

"When the court visited the camp on last Tuesday, it found out 192 soldiers who were illegally held inside the camp" the group made reference.

It expressed its deep concerns at the violations committed against soldiers and officers, pointing out that the command of the camp maneuvers to n ot respond to the directions of the Attorney General who ordered them.

Yemen's Human Rights Minister Horia Mashhoor had said that an independent commission will be formed with the aim of investigating violations committed against human rights since the outbreak of the anti-regime protests.

Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Free Pastor Youcef or else says Dr. Terry Jones
Posted by: Chuckles Barnsmell5410 || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's got my tick of approval. I was wondering if he would do this.
Posted by: tipper || 03/04/2012 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Fist, this is why Obama's apology to Karzai (and Bush's 2008 apology to Maliki) was objectively stupid.

The US as a pluralistic society neither 'respects' or 'disrespects' Islam or any other religion.

Members of the armed forces were under orders to refrain from certain kinds of expression under very special circumstances. They MIGHT have violated these orders. That's all.

At the same time these kinds of political expression are perfectly legal protected speech.

All US officials who condemned the desecration of the 'Holy Koran' have sworn an oath to protect a constitution that in turn protects desecration of the 'Holy Koran.'

The Afghans will see them as weak, childishly stupid liars as their lies are exposed by something as trivial as a click on youtube.

Second, now every politician who condemns Terry Jones will have to address Pastor Youcef's plight, and Islam's brutal intolerance in general.

After all Pastor Youcef would be on death row even in liberated Afghanistan.
Posted by: Chuckles Barnsmell5410 || 03/04/2012 5:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Any relation to John Jones, Of murderer/suicide fame.
He was "Religious" too.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/04/2012 11:14 Comments || Top||

#4  yer thinking of Jim Jones there...
Posted by: abu do you love || 03/04/2012 13:08 Comments || Top||

#5  This guy is just saying what many of us were thinking.
Screw those barbarians.
Posted by: Thumper Snolung4702 || 03/04/2012 15:23 Comments || Top||

#6  He was "Religious" too.

Jim Jones was a marxist using religion as a veneer.

Something that is quite easily researched.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/04/2012 16:48 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egyptian parliament starts debating new constitution
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian lawmakers held a heated debate on Saturday as they began selecting 100 people tasked with writing a new constitution. The document will define the balance of power between the army-backed executive and parliament, which wants to curb broad presidential powers and may become the focus of confrontations over the role of Islam in Egyptian laws and society.
Oh, there won't be any confrontation over the 'role of Islam'. That one has been settled, you watch and see...
Under an interim constitution, parliament is responsible for picking the 100-strong assembly that will write the new constitution.

"The most important step to building democratic institutions is what we are about to do here today," Saad al-Katatni, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said at the start of a joint session between the two houses.

"The path of our revolution was not paved with flowers but with sacrifices," he said after asking lawmakers to read a verse of the Quran in honor of the victims of the uprising.

As members of parliament in the Arab world's most populous state and long-time U.S. ally outlined their visions for the make-up of the body, early signs of disagreement were evident.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which controls most seats in both houses of parliament combined, wants 40 members of the constituent assembly to be from parliament and the remaining 60 to include legal and constitutional experts and members of unions.
Almost all of whom will be compliant to the wishes of the FJP...
That vision is at odds with that of liberal groups in parliament, who stress that women, youth and Christians get a fair share of the positions in the assembly.

Both the liberals and the Brotherhood's Salafi rivals, which calls for a strict application of Islamic law, worry the FJP will have more say in the drafting of the new constitution.

To counter that risk, the Salafi al-Nour Party wants more lawmakers in the assembly than advocated by the FJP.

"We see that those in a better position to be in the assembly should be the elected members of parliament. They should have a priority over others," said Nour's Moustafa Khalifa.

The FJP insists it wants an assembly that can represent all parties, and a constitution that can safeguard Egypt's freedoms.

"We want an assembly that represents all of Egypt's people and we will cooperate with everyone from inside parliament and outside to do so," said Hussein Ibrahim, an FJP lawmaker.

Some lawmakers kicking off the process on Saturday stressed that expertise, rather than party affiliation, should be the crucial factor when selecting members of the assembly.

"Picking the constituent assembly should be governed by expertise and not numbers, it should be about caring for substance and not appearances," Essam Sultan, a lawmaker with the moderate Islamist Wasat party, told parliament.
After all, what could go wrong in a country run by experts?
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I can start them off

ARTICLE 1

Islam is the official religion in Egypt.

The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
Posted by: BernardZ || 03/04/2012 7:30 Comments || Top||

#2  You've done this before, haven't you...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  BernardZ,

I think you just wrote their whole constitution.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/04/2012 16:18 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
The Afghan Response to the 2012 Koran Burning Incident
From The Institute for the Study of War, a taste of a different take on events over there.
Protests emerged in stages across small regions of Afghanistan following the accidental burning of Islamic religious texts at Bagram Airfield on February 20, 2012. Most of the protests are not spontaneous or self-organizing outbursts of anti-Americanism, but rather organized violence orchestrated by insurgent groups, Iran, and Afghan political factions aiming to harm their local rivals.
Depending once again on the predictable gullibility of the locals, and (in the most recent case) the gullibility of the western media and leaders. Lots of gullible people out there, and lots of people afraid of being beheaded...
Neighboring Iran has utilized its media outlets, especially radio, to influence Afghan demonstrators to be destructive during their protests.
Since Iran has been at war with us since 1979...
The Taliban have issued multiple statements encouraging violent actions. President Karzai and his administration, in contrast, have actively tried to quell violence.

Despite numerous Taliban statements attempting to incite the population, the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign has diminished the Taliban's ability to mobilize the population. If the current protests were a burst of anti-Americanism, we would expect them to be occurring in areas where the Taliban has traditionally been strong and American forces are numerous. But this is not the case. There have been few demonstrations in Helmand and Kandahar between 21-29 February, and none of them has turned violent. The presence of significant forces, partnered with local Afghan government and religious figures, likely discouraged small protests from growing and becoming destructive -- as well as providing much more regular contact with American troops. This stands in contrast to the destructive protests that emerged in Kandahar in the days after an American group led by Florida pastor Terry Jones burned copies of the Koran on 31 March 2011.

The protests are, rather, concentrated in the East and North, where U.S. forces are sparser, the Haqqani Network is most active, and where local factional politics have provoked violence and organized demonstrations for many years. The hand of the Haqqani Network is visible.
So it needs to be cut off...
Most demonstrations have focused on ISAF or Afghan government installations, but many protests in eastern Afghanistan specifically destroyed police checkpoints and government vehicles. Most such instances occurred in Khost province and the Chamkani and Zadran districts of Paktia province, where the Haqqani network operates and runs a madrassa system. The Haqqani family is originally from Zadran district while Chamkani sits on a key cross-border route from Kurram Agency. The Haqqani network has been trying to reassert control in Chamkani after being partially disrupted by a strong Afghan Local Police unit operating there.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US deaths for Feb 2012 were down 1/3 compared to Feb 2011. Bottom line is that the Koranic Tet has been a fizzle during which the Taliban used up valuable moles in the Afghan government - moles that could have been put to more constructive use funneling operational information to the Taliban.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/04/2012 0:14 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Obama to warn Netanyahu against strikes on Iran
President Obama plans to caution Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week against attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, urging patience while international economic sanctions take full effect.
Yeah Benji, just wait until January 2013 and we're all good...
Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu on Monday begins a critical week in his effort to crush Israel contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and preserve the trust of the United States’ closest Middle East ally. Israeli leaders have made clear they think time is running out to stop Iran from achieving the ability to build a nuclear weapon.

But U.S. officials are not convinced,
Because they don't want to be...
and many within the administration fear that a pre­emptive Israeli attack could set off a regional war. This disagreement between the United States and Israel will color the meeting between two leaders often at odds over how best to navigate the changing Middle East.

The White House talks are likely to focus on the effectiveness of sanctions and the dangers of an Israeli attack, administration officials say. Obama will seek to avoid discussing the details of how one might unfold out of concern that Israel might interpret such planning as a veiled endorsement of military action.

“We’re trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel,” said an administration official.
Pretty much says it all, doesn't it.
Administration officials say Obama will attempt to reassure Israel of U.S. resolve while also urging patience and signaling to Iran that the two allies agree on the importance of stopping it from getting a nuclear weapon.

In an interview published Friday in the Atlantic magazine, Obama said that “the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff.”
Dubya and Reagan never had to say that. Both men were strong and did exactly what they said they would do, and everyone knew it. Champ on the other hand is weak and is in over his head, so he has to babble about how he 'doesn't bluff'.
But he suggested that any Israeli strike on Iran before international oil and gas sanctions take effect this summer would undermine the tenuous unity the United States and its allies have built to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Privately, White House officials say the coalition would explode with the first Israeli airstrike.

“At a time when there is not a lot of sympathy for Iran and its only real ally [Syria] is on the ropes, do we want a distraction in which suddenly Iran can portray itself as the victim?” Obama said in the interview.
They do that already, Champ.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Netanyahu to tell Obama to FOAD. Hey, that's what the magic 8 ball says.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/04/2012 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "so he has to babble about how he 'doesn't bluff'."

Exactly. If you have to say "I don't bluff" then it either means A: you're bluffing or B: it's obvious your adversary isn't taking you seriously.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/04/2012 1:30 Comments || Top||

#3  "don't call my bluff, Eric"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2012 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Apologise to enemies, threaten allies

Hope you get change soon!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/04/2012 12:14 Comments || Top||

#5  We hope so too, BP.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/04/2012 15:50 Comments || Top||

#6  I watched Obama's AIPAC speech today. It doesn't square with his past behavior, speeches, or rhetoric. He has to be the most deceitful president in our history.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/04/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#7  With Iranians in open revolt in 2009, BHO would do nothing but point to resentment, viz the events of 1953.

Quick: name a single thing that the enlightened one has done in defense of non-muslim minorities, in the islamic tyrannies.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Angosh2139 || 03/04/2012 18:04 Comments || Top||

#8  One good thing I can say about Obama--he has united just about all of us AGAINST HIM!
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/04/2012 21:59 Comments || Top||

#9  DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US GENERAL [Gen. William Fraser = Top US Transport head] SAYS CLOSURE OF PAKISTAN SUPPLY ROUTES COMPLICATING AFGHAN PULLOUT | ITS PAKISTAN'S FAULT US CAN'T LEAVE AFGHANISTAN.

NDN-specific restrictions + laborous Diplomatic Negotiations, Renegotiations on Terms, etc. makes reopening of Pak land routes more expeditious = favored as per momentum toward 2014 US Pullout date.

ARTIC GOES TO ECON-TROUBLED US VS. SANCTIONS-AFFECTED IRAN IN THEIR GAME OF "NUCLEAR CHICKEN" IN THE GULF + ME.

Iran gets its Nukes, or else Iran gets invaded.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/04/2012 23:16 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican food crisis enters critical stage
For a map, click here For a map of Chihuahua state, click here

By Chris Covert

More than 30 centimeters of snow fell on the Sierra Tarahumara region of western Chihuahua state last week, seemingly to temper somewhat the drought and food crisis that has been termed a structural famine.

The snowfall commenced at 0400 hrs last February 25th and lasted until 2230 hrs that night. Snow began in the Chihuahua municipalities of Guerrero and Bocoyna, and 30 minutes later in Urique, specifically in the communities of San Juanito, Creel and the Areponapuchi Divisadero of Urique. Temperatures plunged to -11C in the village of El Vergel in Ballez municipality.

Despite the needed snowfall, the expected runoff is expected not to impact agriculture in the region, nor in regions in the lower elevations. As bad as the news has been for Mexican farmers and rancher since the drought began 20 months, conditions are expected to intensify the problems in the next six months, the driest in the Mexican growing season cycle.

And aid for the Tarahumara Indians in western Chihuahua continues to pour in from both private and public drives. One example from Sonora state was where an aid drive on the Hermosillo Camara de la Industria de la Radio y la Televisión (CIRT) a television and radio trade group raised MP $44,000 (USD $3,457.92) in cash as well as stores of staples expected to be of use in western Chihuahua such as corn, beans, rice, butter, milk powder and water. The drive lasted two days, February 23rd and 24th, and totalled more than six metric tons of aid.

Production of two main staples in Mexico, beans and corn have fallen dramatically,forcing the federal government to import food stock to at least partially make up the difference. According to a post at AnimalPolitico.com last month, losses in corn amount to about MP $9 billion (USD $705,754,800.00) and beans at MP $6 billion (USD $470,503,200.00).

A total of 100 metric million tons of white corn and another 200,000 tons of beans are due to be imported to be used for food.

To partially compensate for the loss the Mexican federal government has earmarked MP $33.8 billion (USD $2,649,920,000.00) nationwide to address the affects of the drought, which amounts to 45 percent of the projected losses so far. A small part of that budget is expected to be allocated for further developing water resources, the rest for direct aid.

The drought has affected state budgets as well, which rely on agriculture for part of their revenues.

In Tamaulipas state the Secretaria de Desarrollo Rural or Department for Rural Development, Jorge Reyes said this past week that the state had slashed its budget by 60 percent cancelling several infrastructure projects for agriculture, fisheries and cattle. In 2011, the budget was MP $400 million (USD $31,360,000), while this year the budget is MP $220 million (USD $17,248,000). Some support programs shared by both the state and federal governments have been cancelled altogether.

Additionally, three federal programs that divert resources to Tamaulipas for agricultural support have been cancelled as well, totalling MP $472 million (USD $37,004,800). The supports are part of the Mexican federal system in which revenues and costs are shared both ways and in considerable amounts relative to state budgets. The Mexican federal system is much more top-down by comparison to the American federal system.

Because of the drought and the water shortage, as well as grain shortage for cattle feed an additional 250,000 head of cattle nationwide are expected to be slaughtered in 2012. Last year a total of 200,000 head of cattle died from the drought, and this year ranchers are expected to get ahead of the problem with the new program, States most affected by the new policy are Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi. among the poorest in Mexico.

The drought has brought a new problem for the upper elevations, especially in the sierras: forest fire. According to the Chihuahua state Secretaria de Desarrollo Rural, Octavio Legarreta, a total of 495 hectares, about 2,500 acres have burned since the start of the year. Officials with the federal Comision Nacional Forestal or National Forestry Commission and Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Obras Publica or Department of Communications and Public Works have worked to build 200 kilometers of firebreaks nationwide. Since March and April are expected to be without rain the danger of fire will be especially acute.

Of the MP $33,8 billion expected from the federal government, about MP $900 million (USD $70,560,000) is allocated for developing water wells. That program apparently has problems, though, according to a Milenio news daily column last week by Ismael Aguilar Benitez, a teahcer at Colegio Frontera Norte in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

Aguilar Benitez's complaint that current relief efforts at drilling new wells may "overexploit" the aquifer, and could affect future water availability.

For his main concern was left for the specter of corruption as moneys filter down from the federal government to the states.

"It is clear that the problems of water management will not be solved by allocating more money to politicians handle it," writes Aguilar Benitez.

The concern with corruption has been echoed last month by Catholic church leaders in the Sirerra Tarahumara as well as Non Government Organizations in the area. Stories have been retailed about officials withholding aid in exchnage for promises to vote in the upcoming elections, as well as stories about aid workers selling food packages for cash.

That last spells out just how desperate things will get over the next six months.

A story published in El Sol de Mexico news daily Saturday said that because of the lack of food and water, subsistence farmers with health problems in Nayarit are beginning to appear at rural medical clinics. To add to the problem, some clinic in the state suffer from shortages of medicines and from staff shortages.

According to the article, the mayor of El Nayar, Pedro de la Cruz Flores said about 7,000 food packages were allocated recently to about 72 locations so far.
Posted by: badanov || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mexico has built several desalinization plants to export water to the US. They should do so for themselves as well. With an abundance of natural gas both to power the plants and to pump the water.

They have plenty of pipeline experience with PEMEX as well.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/04/2012 17:57 Comments || Top||

#2  PEMEX is one of the most poorly run institutions in Mexico. If you have "apparently unlimited" resources, who cares?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/04/2012 20:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
President, PM condemn attack on Sherpao
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
on Saturday strongly condemned the suicide kaboom near the vehicle of PPP-S leader Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao after a public meeting in Charsadda.

Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and his son Sikandar Sherpao escaped the attack, in which a policeman was killed and eight people sustained injuries.

The President termed the incident a cowardly act of terrorism and said the government and people of Pakistain were committed to rid the country and society from this menace.
But not by changing anything they're doing now...
He prayed for the departed soul of the policeman killed in the attack and also directed the concerned authorities to ensure the provision of best medical treatment to the injured.

The prime minister has directed the Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
to immediately submit a report regarding this abhorrent act of terrorism.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Afghanistan
Roadside bomb kills four civilians in eastern Afghanistan
[Iran Press TV] Four civilian motorists have been killed by a roadside kaboom in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
, Press TV reports.

The civilians' car ran over a buried bomb at around 7:30 a.m. local time (0330 GMT) on Saturday in the Khogyani district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital Kabul.

The four victims, including a teenager, were all part of the same family.

No group has yet grabbed credit for placing the bomb.

Roadside bombs and improvised bombs (IEDs) are by far the most lethal weapon Talibs use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.

Homemade explosives accounted for half of the roughly 1,500 civilian deaths in the first six months of 2011, according to the United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence of 130,000 US-led forces in the war-torn country.

The United Nations announced on February 4 that 2011 was the deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians. The corpse count rose eight percent compared to the year before and was roughly double the figure for 2007.

Overall, 3,021 civilians died in violence related to the war and 4,507 were maimed in 2011. Of the deaths, the UN attributed 77 percent to bully boy attacks and 14 percent to US-led foreign troops and Afghan forces. Nine percent of the cases were classified as unknown.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


India-Pakistan
Nuggets from the Urdu press
Held Kashmire versus Christians
Reported in Mashriq in Indian-held Kashmire the Moslems were becoming angry at the Christian missionaries who they thought were converting Moslems to the Christian faith. The mufti of the Shariat Court in Srinagar actually asked four missionaries to quit Kashmire because they were converting people against the law.
It is often said by Muslims that they lose six million a year in conversion to Christianity, although the number may actually be quite a bit higher.
Aid agencies hampered by kidnappings
Daily Pakistain reported that foreign aid agencies doing charity work in Pakistain had complained that their work was at a standstill because their workers were being kidnapped for ransom. Health and welfare workers were being targeted and four of them had been picked up for ransom during the year 2011. International Red Thingy had suspended work after the kidnapping of their British official. Workers had to move with great care and had to inform local authorities before moving.
 
Another blasphemer sentenced to death
Naturally.
Reported in Jang a sessions judge in Jhelum handed down a death sentence to a British-born Pak Muhammad Ishaq from Talagang in Punjab because he was pretending to be a prophet and asking people to prostrate themselves before him. The offence is non-bailable.
 
Two Moslems unfairly punished in Norway
According to Jang two brave Moslems were incarcerated in Oslo for ten years by a court hearing a case of planning to attack the offices of a publication that printed blaspheming cartoons. The court had for the first time punished the two for planning terrorism.
For a definition of unfairly that means very fairly indeed. 
Sinning at the back of Data Darbar
Reported in Jinnah Lahore famous sufi shrine Data Darbar was the site of unnatural acts (bad-fayli) practised in small flop houses around the shrine. At the back of the shrine, three kinds of people got together: criminals, runaway children because of poverty and voyeurs. There was rampant paedophilia (child sex) in the area.
 
University professor against hijab
Daily Jinnah reported that Lahore's King Edward Medical University was scandalised when one professor Dr Shehryar of cancer department started reciting verses of the Holy Koran to girl students before snatching the hijab from their faces. He removed the veil of one girl student by force. He was reported to the vice chancellor after which the Young Doctors Association went on protest and wanted the doctor removed from his job for using Islam to unveil girl students. They also demanded his forced retirement.
 
Raja Riaz is 'lafanga'
Famous law minister of Punjab Rana Sanaullah was quoted by Jinnah as saying that the PPP opposition leader in Lahore was a 'lafanga leader' - a bad word meaning vagrant - who unfairly wanted an apology from him. He said if Musharraf - who had had Sanaullah tortured - could not get him to apologise how could 'lafanga' Raja Riaz extract it?
 
'Trees will vote for Shah Mehmood!'
Daily Express reported that people in the constituencies of Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi and Yousaf Raza Gilani had the following kinds of opinion: Qureshi supporters said that Qureshi was so great that, if he wanted, the trees of Multan would come and vote for him. The supporters of Gilani said that the PM did not come to meet them but they would still vote for him. A third group said that both were quite useless.
 
'Imran supported by foreign agencies!'
Daily Express quoted Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
of JUIF as saying that Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
may not be able to win his seat in parliament once again in the coming elections. He said Imran Khan was being supported by foreign agencies. He said Imran Khan did not want to bring any changes but it was because of foreign hand that political orphans were running around wanting to join him. He said his party will make governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and 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...
.
 
When Satan protested
Famous law minister of Punjab Rana Sanaullah was quoted by daily Pakistain as saying that the event of PPP lawyer Babar Awan going for 'umra' (small hajj) had caused the Satan to protest to God. Satan was supposed - according to him - to be greatly worried that if as a result of begging for mercy at Makka, Babar Awan was forgiven by Allah, then Satan would be left without a companion on Earth.
Surely somewhere in Pakistan a companion for Satan can be found...
A scandal in history
Column-writer Hamid Mir stated in Jang that in 1990 Army Chief Aslam Beg got together with the ISI to illegally distribute Rs 14 crore among those opposing the PPP in elections. This was revealed by PPP interior minister Major General (Retd) Naseerullah Babar in April 1994. Later he got an affidavit signed by the ISI chief General Asad Durrani that he had, on the orders of Aslam Beg and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, distributed the said money among politicians opposed to PPP. Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan took the case of illegal distribution of funds to the Supreme Court in 1996 after which Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah began investigating the affairs of Mehran Bank as the source of the money. But Justice Shah fell foul of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
and judges on the Supreme Court. Justices Rafiq Tarar and Saeeduzzaman Siddiqi revolted against Shah and ousted him. Later the Court buried the Asghar Khan case because the prime minister, the ISI and the Army were in favour of burying it.
 
Astrologer Pameela Khan predicts
Quoted in Jinnah famous astrologer Pameela Khan stated that the year 2012 was the year of elections but there will be danger to Pakistain's security and the reigning government. She said to save the country the system of governance will have to be changed and if Nawaz Sharif did not bring to the front honest leaders from his party he might lose the elections coming early in 2012.
 
Changing the clock in Court
An interesting dialogue in the Supreme Court was reported by daily Pakistain PM Yousaf Raza Gilani's defence lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan prayed to the Court that the clock that was on the wall behind be brought to the right side of him so that he could see it. On this one judge said that the clock could be moved if he also moved from his position about PM writing the letter to the Swiss Court. Another judge said that if the clock was allowed to move then it would be like Aitzaz shifting his positions while arguing the contempt case.
 
Sipah Sahaba joins BLA
Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
was quoted by Mashriq as saying that Sipah Sahaba that was notorious for killing Shias and opposing Iran had joined up with BLA the Baloch liberation army to push forward their programme of terrorism. This cooperation between the two was being managed by hostile forces and that Pakistain would fight the terrorism spread by them.
 
Eunuchs and their parenthood
Daily Mashriq reported that khwajasara persons or eunuchs had quarrelled among themselves at the Supreme Court while sorting out the dispute arising out of their right to possess an ID card. So far the card was not issued because there was no category for the third sex in it. The new dispute was if the parents should be mentioned who gave them rights or their gurus from whom they inherited property.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile, the enemy peddles quran poison in every Western city.
Posted by: Hupenter Jaing6773 || 03/04/2012 15:24 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Explosions at security headquarters in southeast Yemen, soldier killed
[Yemen Post] Two kabooms rocked on Saturday morning the Central Security Forces Headquarters in the southeastern Yemeni province of Hadramout, where at least 26 elite republican guards personnel were killed in al-Qaeda-claimed attack less than two weeks ago.

Two grenades were hurled by unidentified attackers to the Central Security Headquarters in Al-Mukala, the placid provincial capital of Hadramout, according to security sources.

The first grenade was thrown into the front gate, leaving one guard killed and two others injured. But the second grenade has only destroyed the fence without any life's losses, security source told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The kabooms has triggered a wave of arrests by security apparatus and a heavy security presence across Yemen.

The attack coincided with two booby-trapped vehicles targeting elite republican guards barracks southeastern province of al-Baytha, some 170km southeastern the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, leaving a soldier as well as two suicidal bombers killed.

The attack in al-Baytha was claimed by al-Qaeda, according to Rooters, which cited a text message sent to it by an allegedly al-Qaeda source.

Such attacks came only a few days after Yemen revealed intelligence reports that al-Qaeda plot to use 8 booby-trapped cars to target security and army brigades in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, and the southern port city of Aden.

Al-Qaeda has took a great advantage of the political vacuum in Yemen as it has stepped up its attacks on military personnel and strengthened its foothold in the southern provinces of the country.

Worried about the expansion of al-Qaeda, USA and Soddy Arabia have pressed the former Yemeni President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
into signing a deal that saw him transfer power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa North
24 injured in suicide car bomb attack in Algeria
[Dawn] A suicide car boomer drove into a gendarme headquarters Saturday in southern Algeria, injuring 24 people and killing himself, the Internet site of the Arab-language daily En Nahar said.

Ten gendarmes (armed para-military soldiers) and 14 civilians were taken to hospital after the attack in Tamanrasset, 1,970 kilometres (1,220 miles) south of Algiers, the first of its kind in that part of the country.

Some of the injured were said to be at death's door, while the jacket wallah was blown apart in the blast, which also caused major damage to the building.

The APS news agency confirmed the attack without giving the number of casualties and said a major security presence was now being deployed in the zone.

In recent months the regions of eastern Algeria have been most affected by attacks generally carried out by Islamists targeting the security forces.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
Gilani says he is going nowhere
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
said he had fulfilled a promise of holding the Senate elections on time.

While addressing a ceremony after inauguration of a new Air University campus here on Saturday, Gilani said he was going no where and the government would now present its fifth budget in May.

Answering a question on the Pakistain US relations, he said the bi-lateral ties have seen many ups and downs.
This one's a down...
He said the government wanted to provide facilities to people according to the available resources.

Gilani stressed the need for all institutions of the state to work within the ambit of the constitution.

"We are passing through a period of evolution and we want to strengthen our state institutions."

The premier said there were no political prisoners in the country and he believes in the policy of reconciliation.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Gilani says "he is going nowhere Disney World!"
Posted by: Uleatch Dribble8106 || 03/04/2012 18:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Correct, but maybe not in the way he means.
Posted by: charger || 03/04/2012 22:18 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Sudan's Bashir, minister dance after ICC warrant
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
danced on Saturday with his defence minister at a rally for paramilitary troops two days after the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
issued a warrant for the latter's arrest.

"We will start a major campaign to face the enemies of God and the state," Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein told more than 1,000 members of the People's Defence Force (PDF), formed during the country's 22-year civil war.

The rally, designed to showcase the PDF's fighting readiness, was the first of its kind since the 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war and led to South Sudan's independence last July after an overwhelming vote to separate.

It came as analysts and diplomats warn that escalating tensions between the two countries threaten to erupt into direct conflict.

Bashir and Hussein, both in military uniform, danced together to a PDF rallying song after the president announced an expansion of the PDF forces.

"We will call these troops a 'deterrence force'," Bashir said at a Khartoum football stadium.

He said he was ordering all state governors to open training camps for fresh PDF recruits.

Each state is to form one brigade, with an additional seven coming from the capital Khartoum, the president said after rifle-toting male and female members of the militia staged a march-past.

The new recruits will "beat anyone who tries to disturb the security of Sudan," Bashir vowed.

On Thursday The Hague-based International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Hussein, covering crimes against the civilian population in Darfur, in Sudan's western region.

"We want to say to them: we will defend the dignity of Sudan" and its Islamist regime, Bashir responded.

Hussein, 60, is the sixth person sought by the ICC or before the court for crimes committed in Darfur, where rebel groups drawn from the region's non-Arab tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Arabia
Soldier killed as new suicide bombing hits Yemen
[Dawn] Two jacket wallahs killed a Yemeni soldier as they blew up a vehicle at an elite Republican Guard camp on Saturday, a week after a similar attack claimed by Al Qaeda that left 26 dead, military sources said.

"The two suicide bombers who carried out the attack were killed as well as a Republican Guard," a military official told AFP.

"Five other soldiers were also maimed" in the blast at the base in Bayda, 170 kilometres southwest of Sanaa and bordering Abyan province, an Al Qaeda stronghold, the source added.

Witnesses said that the kaboom devastated the three-storey building.

The blast was followed by a shootout between gunnies and troops, military officials said.

The targeted Republican Guard troops are led by Ahmed Saleh, son of veteran strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
, who formally stepped down as president on Monday.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom on a presidential palace in Hadramawt province of southeast Yemen that killed 26 Elite Republican Guards on February 25.

That attack came as President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi took the oath of office as Saleh's successor.

AQAP said the bombing of the palace in the Hadramawt bustling provincial capital of Mukala was "a clear message to the US ambassador," Gerald M. Feierstein, after alleged remarks he made "about restructuring the Yemeni army."

This is a message to say that the US project in Yemen will not succeed and that our operations will target this project and its tools wherever they may be," AQAP said.

In an address to the nation straight after being sworn in, Hadi vowed to press the fight against Al Qaeda and to restore security across his impoverished nation.

The Islamists took advantage of a decline in government control during 10 months of deadly anti-Saleh protests that led to his signing of a power transfer deal in November to seize large swathes of Yemen's south and east.

"It is a patriotic and religious duty to continue the battle against Al Qaeda," the new president said. "If we don't restore security, the only outcome will be chaos."

Saleh had declared himself a US ally in its "war on terror" but some of his opponents accused him of exaggerating the Al Qaeda threat in a bid to win Western support to cling on to power.

Critics charge he may even have deliberately surrendered cities such as the Abyan bustling provincial capital Zinjibar, which has been under the control of Al Qaeda linked forces of Evil since last May.
Posted by: Fred || 03/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia



Who's in the News
21[untagged]
5Govt of Pakistan
3Arab Spring
2Govt of Iran
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Shabaab
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Syria
1Taliban
1TTP

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2012-03-04
  Sherpao escapes suicide attack in Charsadda
Sat 2012-03-03
  African Union troops say seize major al Shabaab base
Fri 2012-03-02
  39 Dead as Syrian Army Seizes Baba Amr and Rebels Withdraw 'Tactically'
Thu 2012-03-01
  Syrian rebels pull out of Homs after siege
Wed 2012-02-29
  Singapore: Iran assassination plot against Israeli Defence Minister Barak foiled
Tue 2012-02-28
  Yemen's Saleh formally steps down after 33 years
Mon 2012-02-27
  Congressmen Attacked on Mount of Olives
Sun 2012-02-26
  Afghan interior ministry employee sought in NATO killings
Sat 2012-02-25
  Yemen gets new president after 33 years
Fri 2012-02-24
  Air strke kills al-Shaboobs
Thu 2012-02-23
  Ansar as-Sunna Chief Arrested on Syria-Iraq Border
Wed 2012-02-22
  Hugo has new tumor
Tue 2012-02-21
  Afghans rescue 41 child suicide bombers
Mon 2012-02-20
  Syrian army reinforcements head to Homs
Sun 2012-02-19
  Iran stops oil sales to British, French

Better than the average link...



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