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Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
Today's Headlines
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Africa North
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood claims constitution passes
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood claimed Sunday that the Islamist-backed constitution has passed with a 64 percent "yes" vote, the day after the final voting in a two-round referendum that deeply divided the country.

The constitution's critics however may contest the outcome. A spokesman for the main opposition group which has been campaigning for a "no" vote said there were "a lot" of irregularities in the voting.
One can imagine that Cairo and Chicago have certain similarities...
The Brotherhood's unofficial results come a day before the election commission is expected to announce the final official tally for voting organized over two weeks. The group has accurately tallied the outcome of past elections.
Did they have a scimitar gun to their heads in past elections?
The passage of the constitution would be a victory for Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, said in a statement that it hoped the passage is a "historic opportunity" to heal Egypt's divisions and launch a dialogue to restore stability and build state institutions.

But the comparatively low turnout of 32 percent of eligible voters, as well as allegations by the opposition of voting violations, threatened to undermine the constitution's legitimacy and keep Egypt polarized.
If the final is 1 to 0, the Muslim Brotherhood can claim it was passed with "100% of the vote"...
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 13:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also TOPIX > [Newsbusters.org] US PRESS WON'T REPORT THAT EGYPT'S [proposed] CONSTITUTION IS SHARIA-BASED ... AND SOCIALIST.

Its so "Socialist" as to be almost Communist iff we were still back in the Cold War???

Lest we fergit, ISLAM = GOD/FAITH-BASED SOCIALISM = THEO-SOCIALISM.

Everyone likes to talk or discuss or rage about Fascism or Communism or Globalism - Nationalism-vs. Anti-Nationalism - BUT NO ONE WANTS TO TALK OR DISCUSS, ETC. THE MORE IMPORTANT TERM OR LABEL "SOCIALISM". Still no National Vote of Same just as no cure for Cancer or many others.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 21:39 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican 11th Military Zone gets a new commander

For a map, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The Mexican 11th Military Zone received its new commander, General Antelmo Rojas Yañez, last week, the zone's 49th commander since 1936, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news item posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, General Antelmo Rojas Yañez recently moved from chief of staff of the Mexican 41st Military Zone in Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco state last week. He gained his second star last November, as General de Brigada de Estado Major.

General Rojas Yañez first appeared in the Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) website in 2007 when he was promoted to colonel. He was serving under the Mexican 29th Military Zone. Some time around then he had taken command of the 39th Infantry Battalion, a command he held between 2007 and 2010, when he was promoted to General Brigada de Arma, his first star.

In fact between 2007 and 2010 he spent in Tuxpan in Veracruz state under the Mexican 29th Military Zone, mostly in command of the 39th Infantry Battalion.

Little press exists about General Rojas Yañez, except it was noted in one publication, vaxtuxpan.blogspot.com blog, that he was not very open to the press. General Rojas Yañez did attend public functions as a representative of his military unit and gave speeches with the subject matter being national duty.

General Rojas Yañez is an infantry officer and is staff trained. He was recently authorized by the Mexican national Chamber of Deputies to wear the Honduran medal, the Cruz de las Fuerzas Armadas. In none of the references for the medal in Mexican press were the actions described which led to the award.

The preceding commander of the 11th Military Zone, General Brigada de Estado Major Bernardo Pineda Solis heads to Guanajuato to take command of the 16th Military Zone. General Pineda Solis was appointed command of the 11th Military Zone last February. He received his promotion to General de Brigada de Estado Major in 2010.

General Pineda Solis is an artillery commander.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com.
Posted by: badanov || 12/23/2012 11:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Swedes charged with terrorism in US court
Two Swedish citizens appeared in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York on Friday on charges that they had trained and fought with al-Shabaab, a Somali group designated as terrorists by the United States.

"The defendants are not aspiring terrorists, they are terrorists. They did more than receive terrorist training: they used it in terrorist operations with al-Shabaab," said George Venizelos of the FBI in New York.

The two Swedes, aged 27 and 29, along with a 23-year-old defendant, are accused of participating in weapons and explosives training with al-Shabaab, a United States-designated terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, during a four-year period beginning in 2008. If found guilty they could face lifetime in prison.

The men were arrested in August by authorities in Africa while going to Yemen. They appeared in the Brooklyn court with the aid of a Swedish interpreter.

Much of the case is shrouded in mystery, reports the New York Times. It remained under seal for four months and the court documents unsealed on Friday contained little elaboration on the crimes or any indication of why the case was brought in New York.

According to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, staff from the Swedish consulate visited the two Swedes and reported that they are well "considering the circumstances".

Sweden has not objected to the men's extradition to the United States.

"This is a legal issue between Djibouti and the USA," Sara Brandt-Hansen, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told the TT news agency.
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 08:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I knew before reading past the headline that they weren't named Sven and Olav.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  The trouble I have with this is that this encourages more cross-border "international law" reach.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/23/2012 18:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Chicago grapples with gun violence; death toll soars
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 00:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All of this In a State where there is no concealed carry, and in a city where handguns are outlawed. All firearms owners however, must possess a State issued 'Firearms Owner's ID' with photograph in order to buy weapons, ammo, or become legal owners. The transport of firearms must be done with the weapon unloaded, and in a case.

So much for gun laws taking care of gun crime. As always, the law abiding citizen complies with the law whilst the criminal ignores it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2012 5:35 Comments || Top||

#2  If it wasn't for that evil Supreme Court McDonald verdict everything would be hunky-dory. Right?
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Over 480 DOA so far, and the odds of 500 dead are better than the Bears making the playoffs. but you other 49 states have no idea what you are doing!
Posted by: Griter Crart8496 || 12/23/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Should we take another look at gun-walking programs in the U.S. to understand gang violence in Chicago and other cities?

PJ Media and Univision pointed out: The Department of Justice has denied the existence of such programs, despite the physical evidence of guns recovered suggesting otherwise. While the Univision report focused on guns the DOJ ran to Mexican cartels, there is enough evidence to suggest other Obama administration-sanctioned gun-walking plots arming domestic criminal gangs, such as the so-called Gangwalker plot in Indiana, which supplied Chicago street gangs, and similar rumored operations in California, North Carolina, northern Florida, and elsewhere, which provided weapons to gangs in U.S. cities. Nor has the Univision report focused on weapons that have found their way to cartels via the State Department or the Department of Defense.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#5  So are the Mexican cartels 'walking' some of the guns back to Chicago?
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 11:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Not necessarily. The primary charge here is that the DoJ walked weapons to gangs.

It's highly possible that weapons were 'walked' back to US gangs. More likely, they've been walked back to the US for use by cartel operatives (such as kidnapping gangs in the Phoenix area.)

The last line (which really isn't germane in this case) is related to charges that State and the DoD walked weapons to the cartels.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Murders: Rifles vs. Knives (2010)

Murders: Rifles vs. Knives (By Year)



Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Interesting table, GBUSMC. While knives are overwhelmingly more used than long guns of all types combined, blunt instruments, and fists and feet are each more used than rifles, assault-style or otherwise.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 16:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Its how a Gun looks, NOT how it shoots, + in any case only Politicos + Rosie O'Donnell can have Guns, NOT the little people.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 19:25 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Sydney: Christmas fatwa 'taken out of context'
Australia's biggest mosque has removed a controversial post from its Facebook page that called for a fatwa against Christmas.
This is olde time religion stuff. Usually they are smart enough to keep it among themselves when in Dar al Harb. Still, who would expect mere infidels to check out the mosque's Facebook page?
Sydney's Lakemba mosque published the message after a similar speech at Friday prayers, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Sheik Yahya Safi is said to have told his followers to avoid participating in anything to do with Christmas.

The Facebook message posted on Saturday said Christmas Day was one of the "falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid ... and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them".

The fatwa quotes Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim who said that congratulating infidels for their beliefs was forbidden.

"Muslim who says this does not become a disbeliever himself, he at least commits a sin as this is the same as congratulating him for his belief in the trinity, which is a greater sin and much more disliked by Almighty Allaah than congratulating him for drinking alcohol or killing a soul or committing fornication or adultery".

The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which manages the mosque said the comments had been taken out of context.

The LMA said a junior staff member copied and pasted the text from the internet without seeking approval.

To show the LMA was not anti-Christian the group arranged for the words 'Merry Xmas' to be written in the sky above the mosque this afternoon.
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 00:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  take the Imam "out of context". Airdrop him back in Leb from 25,000 feet
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  No parachute "Allah will save him"(If he's worthy).
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Sheik Yahya looks rather stunning in his Santa hat.
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 13:09 Comments || Top||


Africa North
UN approves intervention in Mali to oust Islamist militants
The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a French-backed resolution to send an African-led military force to help take back northern Mali from Islamist militants.

The council unanimously voted to give the force an initial one-year mandate.

The resolution also sets "benchmarks" for Mali, including political reconciliation and improved training for the military.

Armed groups, some linked to Al-Qaeda, took control of northern Mali after a military coup in March and established a harsh form of Islamic law.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said recently he does not expect a military operation to begin until September or October of next year.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) says it has 3,300 troops ready to go to Mali - although an operation is not expected to begin before September 2013.

The resolution, drafted by France, sets out a multi-stage process for reunifying Mali.

The UN also wants political progress to be made before the military operation, including holding elections by April "or as soon as technically possible."
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 00:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Inhofe: Benghazi cover-up bigger than Watergate, Iran-Contra
One day after Senate Republicans held a press conference to question this week’s State Department’s report on the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya that left four Americans dead, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe said the scandal is bigger than Watergate and Iran-Contra.

“I have made a study of different cover-ups – the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and Iran-Contra. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think this is probably the greatest cover-up, in my memory anyway,” the Oklahoma Republican said in an interview Saturday night on Fox News.

Republican senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said Friday that the State Department report does not address questions about the role of Cabinet officials in responding to the assault that night.

Mr. Inhofe said that, despite the report and testimony before Congress this week, the Obama administration still has not explained adequately why the mention of al Queda was deleted from the “talking points” given to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.

“They don’t talk about this, they don’t talk about who changed this, who was the boss of the cover-up and what was the motive,” Mr. Inhofe said. “We know what the motive was, this was before the election. And Obama had been saying he had done away with al Qaeda. Well, positively this was al Qaeda.”

In testimony before House lawmakers Thursday, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said that, while Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton and other senior officials had been briefed about the security situation in Libya, decisions about security were made at the assistant secretary level.

Four State Department officials were relieved of their duties this week over the report, and the three who were identified held posts at the assistant secretary or deputy assistant secretary level.


Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Liberal media will continue to carry water for the Obama agenda, and try to bury stories like this one.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/23/2012 3:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm obviously not privy to the sordid details or truth, but I know a thing or two about the identification of obfuscation and denial and one thing for dead certain. This talk about there not being enough time to conduct some sort of military operation is total rubbish. Something was going on in Benghazi that no one wishes to talk about and four Americans got terrible dead over it. The families of the dead deserve an answer. The American people deserve an answer. Unfortunately we are being lied to and told to fok off. Something much larger was in play here. I hope my days are lengthy enough to at some point discover what it was.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2012 5:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Ditto that Mr.B. well said. This administration is no longer the right stuff. We can no longer expect this country to do the right thing. The world leadership compass is broken.
Posted by: Dale || 12/23/2012 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  I just hope it's large enough to thoroughly screw Obama, the dead can't be helped now.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  What B and RJ said.

Dale, "no longer"? When were these clowns ever the right stuff?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  The more things are hidden and not discussed the more suspicious I get that something was going on seriously FUBAR.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 11:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Agree, JohnQC. We have seen enough to know Fast & Furious was much more than incompetence, and we have seen the amount of effort invested in covering that up; with comparable cover-up going on over Benghazi we must conclude it too is not a case of simple incompetence, but involves something seriously illegal and probably evil.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 11:13 Comments || Top||

#8  There are the stories and rumors that we were working with certain people to deliver old Libyan arms to the Syrian rebels, and that Benghazi was a key trans-shipment point for that. I've seen that mentioned in a few places but nowhere authoritative.

Makes me wonder if al-Qaeda was trying to grab guns, or whether they were in the operation a lot deeper than that. For example, we know now that a number of the Syrian rebel groups are very Islamicist -- they might have had groups in Libya that were tied to them, and al Qaeda may in turn have been nestled inside those groups.

So Amb. Stevens may actually have been working with al-Q -- would he have known that? Or was he trying to keep al-Q out of the arms transfers?

Just this one angle alone would take considerable resources to figure out. And as a good progressive would say, I'm just asking a question.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 11:41 Comments || Top||

#9  I have fired a few infantry mortars. It takes a tremendous amount of luck.... or a considerable amount of expertise to land a mortar round directly atop a building and take out a sniper. When the assault began to drag on and on, could someone have been observing and coaching at a distance, then entering the fray directly to 'kicked it up a notch'? No one talks about voice intercepts. How terribly convenient.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2012 13:08 Comments || Top||

#10  could someone have been observing and coaching at a distance, then entering the fray directly to 'kicked it up a notch'?

The idea has been broached here at the Burg before of an intelligence agency being behind the incident.

I still have my list of 'favorite countries'. Nobody's been dropped from it yet.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 20:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel fears Hamas making move for control of West Bank
Senior officials in Jerusalem reportedly believe a Gaza-style takeover of the West Bank by Hamas may be in the offing, citing intelligence estimates that show the Iran-backed terror group making a move for control of the Palestinian territory.

Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security service both have information that Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has ordered his supporters to prepare for a battle for control of the West Bank, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

The move is feared by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah party, which has seen its popularity on the Arab street wane in the face of the more hard-line Hamas movement.

"We're on the verge of catastrophe," Tawfik Tirawi, a senior Fatah member, told the paper. "Hamas wants intifada and now only a spark is needed to light the inferno. Hamas will take over the West Bank."

Jerusalem reportedly fears that a Hamas takeover of the West Bank would give Iran, which is allied with the group, a foothold on the border of Israel's heartland. According to the report, Iran is the driving force behind Hamas's push to control the West Bank.

A source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the paper that the prime minister is maneuvering to halt Iran and Hamas from gaining dominion of the territory.

"[Netanyahu] understands the geopolitical changes in the Middle East. No way would [he] give up an inch of the West Bank -- he is convinced that the intelligence assessment about a [Hamas] takeover is solid," the source told the Sunday Times.
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I fear Mutual of Gaza has insufficient reserves for this eventuality. Thus, I will be shorting deh piss outta that one and looking into paleo small caps specializing in prosthetic feets.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 13:53 Comments || Top||

#2  New Balance Paleo Shoes™ - they're Allahrific!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#3  You're on a roll today, Frank. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 16:52 Comments || Top||

#4  See also RENSE > [Roitov.com] JORDAN: ARAB SPRING KEY [decisive = strategic] BATTLE, espec for Israel.

Besides the GCC States in the Persian Gulf, methinks Jordan would be a battleground for major Saudi ground intervention???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 19:17 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran sidesteps sanctions to export its fuel oil
Iran is becoming increasingly creative in dodging Western sanctions, managing to sell a rising volume of fuel oil to generate revenue equal to up to a third of its crude exports, which have been badly hit by restrictions, Reuters reported.
The Iran sanctions looks to be about as effective in stopping Iranian oil exports as the TSA is in stopping shoe bombers...
Compared with the first half of the year, Iran has on average exported more fuel oil per month since July, when European Union oil and shipping insurance sanctions came into effect and more than halved its crude exports.

EU sanctions prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian petroleum products in an attempt to curb revenues that might be channelled into a nuclear programme that Iran says is for peaceful purposes but the West fears is to enable it to make weapons.

Even for companies with no link to the EU, sanctions on financing and shipping insurance discourage would-be customers.

Iran uses fuel oil for electricity generation and to power ships, but unlike other more valuable refined products such as diesel or gasoline, it has a surplus to export from the 70,000 tonnes a day it produces.

The July sanctions slashed the OPEC member's fuel oil sales initially, traders and analysts say, as term customers cancelled contracts, but sales have since rebounded thanks to the innovative methods of Gulf-based middlemen and Iran's market-savvy oil officials.

The Islamic Republic sold an average 648,000 tonnes of fuel oil monthly from July to October, up from 636,000 tonnes for January to June, according to data from a company that tracks Iran's oil shipments.

That brought in an average of $410 million per month. August income was more than double that figure, helping Iran to recoup a portion of the $3.8 billion it has lost in monthly crude export revenues since July.

Using ship-to-ship transfers, discharging and loading at remote ports and blending the Iranian fuel oil with other fuels to disguise the origin have become popular tactics for the Gulf-based middlemen and helped keep sales steady, several trading and industry sources familiar with the region said.

Data from the firm tracking Iran shipments showed sharp fluctuations in fuel oil flows, which sources said could be attributed to shipping delays and tanker availability.

Exports dived to zero in July and then jumped to 1.389 million tonnes in August, with a third of the sales going to the Middle East. Iran's fuel oil exports stayed above 1.1 million tonnes in September, and the Middle East received nearly 900,000 tonnes of this. In October, exports plunged to about 35,000 tonnes.

Reuters data for Iranian fuel oil flows to East Asia showed a new record of around 1.4 million tonnes in September and 1.1 million tonnes in October.

CREATIVE WAYS

Iran is no stranger to international sanctions, and one common tactic to skirt them has been to cooperate with small Gulf-based oil traders who act as middlemen for buyers who might be unaware that the cargo is of Iranian origin.
We have a few years experience enforcing sanctions. The middle east has 5,000 years experience smuggling. It's simply no contest...
Several Middle Eastern traders said they had been approached by small UAE-based companies offering a type of fuel oil dubbed in the market as "Iraqi special blend" that included a combination of different fuel oil blends from the Middle East, or with an origin described as Iraqi.

The specification indicates this is a cocktail of products blended in storage tanks and usually offered from the quiet Gulf port of Hamriyah and bunkering hub Fujairah mostly via ship-to-ship transfers (STS), trading sources said.

"This Iranian fuel oil, disguised as Iraqi origin, has been flooding the market in Fujairah and depressing both cargo and bunker premiums in September," said a Middle East-based trader.

Some oil traders afraid of falling foul of western sanctions said a close examination of the so-called "Iraqi special blend" gives them reason to be suspicious. A certificate of quality for one such cargo showed the density of the product to be around 0.9655 kilogram's a litre - a level suggesting it was probably Iranian, the traders said.

The Islamic Republic usually exports 280 cst viscosity straight-run fuel oil from its Bandar Mahshahr port, with a density of around 0.965.

AIS Live ship tracking data on Reuters showed that tankers were regularly shuttling towards Iran's main fuel oil export terminals of Bandar Abbas and Bandar Imam Khomeini, then turning off their satellite signals before reappearing soon afterwards next to the UAE storage hub Fujairah.
You know the UAE, they claim to be our friends...
In another tactic, small barges have left the port of Bandar Imam Khomeini, near Iran's largest refinery Abadan, and then transferred their cargo onto bigger tankers destined for Fujairah, two industry sources said.

Reuters previously reported that Iran had exported its own fuel oil to Malaysia on a National Iranian Tanker Company vessel, before transferring it at sea to a Vitol-chartered tanker.

Refinery upgrades planned for late 2012 or early 2013 at the Arak and Bandar Abbas plants should curb the amount of fuel oil Iran has for export, but refinery runs have been on the rise this year. Reducing them is seen as an unattractive option, since this would also cap production of gasoline badly needed for domestic use, shortages of which can stir up social unrest.

Oil traders say disguising Iranian exports as Iraqi is the perfect cover story, since in reality a small volume of Iraqi fuel oil is smuggled over the border and out of Iranian ports.

"Some fuel oil does come out of Iraq overland smuggled in trucks. I imagine that some of the Iranian volumes may be piggy-backing on this trend," said a senior source at a Swiss-based trading house familiar with the region.

Another sign that the special blend cargoes are likely to be Iranian is the suspiciously cheap price.

"They're being offered at ridiculously low prices, with a huge discount to the market. Like $10-15 discounts," said the Middle East-based trader.

Traders said that from Fujairah, the "Iraqi special blend" cargoes are then transferred onto larger vessels such as Suez Max tankers and VLCCs and then sent to Asia.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Before Persian or Arab, Sunni or Shia there was the Souk. The Souk always wins.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 5:58 Comments || Top||

#2  It would cost Iran greatly as they are discounting and these middlemen would be charging much for their services.

Posted by: BernardZ || 12/23/2012 6:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Won't stop the flow of oil. Will make it more costly and cut into profits. Which may make them export more volume. Which could decrease price until a less desperate seller cuts back production. Which cuts profits more...
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Do we (America) buy any, no? screw them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  I understand Iran is due to run out of oil soon in the current wells, and because of the boycott they can neither do a proper geological survey nor acquire the equipment to drill. Plus that whole beow-replacement demographic thingy...

The intersection between present and future is not a pleasant place for the intelligent among Iran's rulers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 10:32 Comments || Top||

#6  I take mild issue with the use of "Intelligent" in this case.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I take mild issue with the use of "Intelligent" in this case.

Statistically speaking, at least of few of them ought to be naturally intelligent, Redneck Jim.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 15:11 Comments || Top||

#8  One, If he's intelligent Will leave, and never go back.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 21:40 Comments || Top||


Syria rebels warn of attack against Hama Christians
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels have warned two Christian towns in the central region of Hama they will be attacked if they do not evict pro-regime fighters, according to a video distributed by a watchdog on Saturday.

The footage released by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and entitled "Warning mainly to Christian cities in the province of Hama", shows seven Islamist fighters armed with Kalashnikovs.

"We issue this warning so that you expel gangs of (President Bashar al-) Assad and shabiha (pro-regime militia) from your towns and convince them not to bomb our villages and families," said a fighter who identified himself as Rashid Abul Fida, head of the Al-Ansar Brigade in Hama.

"If not, we will immediately attack the hideouts of Assad's gangs and shabiha."

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the towns of Mharda and Al-Sqilbiya to which the rebel video was addressed both had pre-war populations in the tens of thousands but most of their residents had already fled, taking refuge in the coastal province of Tartus.

Rebels on Monday launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, according to the Observatory.

"Since the start of operations to liberate Hama province, the (rebel) Free Syrian Army has attacked the tyrant's soldiers and shabiha in the majority of towns and villages," said Abul Fida.

There are some 1.8 million Christians in Syria, many of whom have remained neutral in the country's conflict. Others have taken Assad's side, for fear of the rise of Islamism.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  We support the sunnis but they are less tolerant than the Shias.Why?
Posted by: Hupert Omuque5563 || 12/23/2012 5:40 Comments || Top||

#2  We support the sunnis but they are less tolerant than the Shias.Why?

Because the Sunnis were always a physical majority as well as the ruling sect in most of the Moslem world, and so they never learnt to submit, Hupert Omuque5563, or so it seems to me. Even today, as I recall, Sunnis are 90% of the total Muslim population, while Shiites are 10%. Except for Iran and Bahrain, they are a small minority...and they only actually rule in Iran, if I understand correctly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 7:07 Comments || Top||

#3  We support the sunnis but they are less tolerant than the Shias.Why?

Brushing aside the obvious rhetorical aspect, and following tw's comment, one doesn't have to be 'tolerant' when one is solidly in the driver's seat.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Thank you, Pappy. You are so much better at that brevity thingy than I.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 15:13 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt: 'Things are definitely worse than under the old regime'
It's like the Mainstream Media is finally figuring out that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are up to no good.
When Alber Saber's mother called police to protect him from a mob baying for his blood, something odd happened: they arrested him. They then threw him in prison, encouraged his cellmates to attack him, and finally took him to court where he was jailed for three months.

Mr Saber's alleged offence was all the more significant in light of the new constitution -- being voted on by millions of Egyptians on Saturday -- that is at the heart of Egypt's political crisis. The mob in his Cairo suburb accused him of atheism and disrespect of the Prophet Mohammed, and demanded he be killed; a neighbour had alleged he had posted to his Facebook page the now notorious Islam-mocking video that triggered protests across the world in September.

His mother, Kariman Ghali, cries frequently as she describes visiting him in prison the day after the mob surrounded their apartment block.

"He had blood all over his T-shirt," said Mrs Ghali, who claims her son was put in a wing reserved for dangerous inmates. "The policeman told the prisoners, 'This guy insulted the Prophet, I want to see what you can do with him.' Someone stabbed him with a razor."

He was then taken to another cell where the inmates were urged to see if they could outdo the first set.

Some 250,000 police and soldiers were deployed across Egypt on Saturday to protect voting in the second half of the referendum on the draft constitution, which was drawn up by an Islamist-dominated panel from which Christians and liberals had withdrawn in protest.

Among the many charges levelled against the constitution by both human rights groups, secular and liberal activists, and the Coptic Christian minority, is that its defence of basic freedoms is heavily curtailed when it comes to religion and politics. Specifically, it will forbid any law that would permit anything deemed insulting either of people or of religion, the Prophet Mohammed or the other figures considered by Islam to be God's messengers. Such a clause could clearly have a chilling effect on free thinking and speech.

Demonstrations continued right to the eve of Saturday's vote, which was expected to lead to a clear but not convincing victory both for the constitution -- drafted by an overwhelmingly Islamist assembly -- and for President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers, who have pushed it through.

In the first phase of voting in the split referendum last weekend, 57 per cent backed the document, albeit with a low turnout, and a similar result was expected on Saturday. Yet many are alarmed that it will further enshrine an intolerance that is already on the rise.

"Things are definitely worse than under the old regime," said Gamal Eid, of the Arabic Human Rights Initiative. "It is because of the Islamists having power -- their sense that they have won."

That is only part of the story. Despite regular descriptions of ex-President Hosni Mubarak's old dictatorship as "secular", it too made Egypt a country constitutionally obliged to follow the "principles of Sharia". The laws it promulgated were wide enough and flexible enough to turn the Islamist tap on and off at will, according to the Mubarak's regime's short-term interests.

Blasphemy laws have been in place since 1937, and can be used to defend Christianity as well as Islam. But in practice the law was deployed regularly, both as a sop to the Muslim Brotherhood and also simply as a means of state repression.

Nevertheless, Mr Eid says there is a sense that religion can now be invoked to pursue any manner of grievances, in a way designed to emphasise a conservative vision of society.

In one case he has taken up, an 18-year-old girl from a provincial village was arrested for blasphemy after a row with her mother and brother, who had discovered she had met a boyfriend after going away to university. It was the girl who had complained to the police first, alleging that her mother and brother had beaten her, but when questioned, the mother claimed the girl had cursed her and cursed her religion. That was enough for the police to switch the focus of their attention.

Until the start of the referendum campaign, it appeared that this tightening of personal freedoms was at least going to be kept within a legal framework. Events since have brought this into question.

A lot changed on the night of December 5. During the afternoon, a group of Muslim Brotherhood supporters swept down on a tent encampment outside the presidential palace, occupied by anti-Morsi protesters, and tore them down.

The counter-demonstration that evening was violent and bloody, with both sides hurling stones at each other, and the Muslim Brotherhood claiming that several of its members were shot dead. But also disturbing was the role earlier of what appeared to be a Muslim Brotherhood militia who seized protesters off the streets and took them for their own "interrogation" before handing them over to police.

"After they caught me they dragged me away and started threatening me," said Walid al-Ganzouri, no youthful stone-thrower but a 35-year-old, British educated engineer. "They said they were going to kill me, and started beating me up."

Along with scores of others, he was eventually handed over, bruised and with cuts to his head, to the prosecution service, which released them for lack of evidence. This did not stop Mr Morsi, during a late-night address, saying that "evidence from confessions" obtained from some of those seized showed they were plotting against the government.

This talk of a coup has been used to heighten the atmosphere in ways that stretch beyond the politics of the constitution itself. A preacher linked to the Brotherhood, Safwat Hegazi, for example, was not disavowed by the movement after he threatened in a speech to "splash Christians with blood" if they tried to join in attempts to bring Mr Morsi down.

Gehad el-Haddad, a senior Brotherhood adviser, told The Sunday Telegraph that he accepted that there had been "inflammatory language" on all sides. But he said the Brotherhood's supporters had been forced to act against the protesters because the police had refused to do so.

It is true that the loyalty of the police has been in doubt since their leaders were arrested after last year's overthrow of Mr Mubarak.

Some of those opposed to Mr Morsi, and the constitution, are undoubtedly prominent Christians. But a "no" vote of at least 43 per cent in last week's part of the referendum vote suggests that opposition also runs deep among many Muslims.

Mr Saber is of Christian origin too, something that lends extra concern to his case. But his mother claimed that was less relevant than the active positions he took. She says he was really seized because he had posted a photo on his Facebook page of a banner in Tahrir Square accusing the Brotherhood of having hijacked last year's revolution. His jail sentence was imposed for atheism despite no evidence being found of his ever having posted the video. Last weekend, he was released on bail pending an appeal.

"The verdict was an absolute inquisition," Mrs Ghali said. "They didn't listen to the lawyers' defence."

She is now joining the protests outside the palace. "This is not only for my son's case -- but also for all our sons' futures."
Egypt imports half the calories needed by its people. Its foreign reserves are falling. The ‘elites’ are exporting their own cash and movable assets overseas. Tourism is grinding to a halt as even the most gullible Westerners realize that the country just isn’t safe. Egypt has nothing to export to generate earnings so as to import the food required for its people. It has been kept afloat the last couple of years by cash, some as grants and some as ‘loans’, given to it by the U.S., Europe, Saudi-controlled Arabia, and various Gulf emirates.

Egypt is going to fall apart. It will run out of cash. It will not be able to feed its people. Regardless of whatever ‘constitution’ the people ratify and whoever they install in the presidential palace, Egypt is going to fail.

Now, as a mere American tied to what I’m spoon-fed by the DMM, various blogs and a few foreign sources, I can see this coming.

If I can see it, I would have to assume that somewhere at the Egypt desk at Foggy Bottom, the non-political career types also see this coming. I would assume that they’re dutifully filing their reports upward, and at some point Hillary, Susan and Champ all get the message that Egypt isn’t doing so well. I would assume that the various intel chiefs, the various oversight committees in Congress, and even a few perceptive journalists in the DMM have figured this out. If I can see it, they must be able to see it.

All this causes me to ask a simple question: what are we, the U.S., doing to prepare for the day Egypt fails? Because for the life of me, I don’t see anyone, anyone in our government preparing for that day.

Egypt is going to fail. Then it will explode. When it does it will take the Middle East with it in a way that Libya, Mali or Syria could never do. There will be war and there may be genocide.

What will we do about it?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What will we do about it?
Let's run it by a focus group and try out a few answers with the right people. If all is well, perhaps a series of polls, then a strategic leak or two.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 5:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Some will bang their heads and pray five times a day.

The problem is that failure is rarely a point event. Egypt will, with the help of useful idiots, maintain the form of a nation while it rots from the inside. Even at the end there will be a fossilized skeleton for the elites of the west to genuflect to.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/23/2012 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  'What will we do about it?'
Sorry, Dr. Steve, but most Americans are more concerend about their own country and trying to keep IT together; and while the Egyptian end-game doesn't look particularly bright, I don't see a lot of Giveadamn Meters twitching.
Loss of all the various treasures from ancient days is about the only tangible thing that give me pause.
Like us, the Egyptians deserve the government they get.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/23/2012 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Even at the end there will be a fossilized skeleton
You mean the Pyramids?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:12 Comments || Top||

#5  The only thing we can (or should) "do about it" is to bribe arrange to have as many of their museum treasures as possible conveniently placed in storage in a safe country far from Africa; too bad about the Pyramids.

And - if any of our country's ships are still using the Suez Canal - start planning for protection when they have to go the long way.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 10:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Egypt - you wanted Islam, you'll get it good and hard. Starve piously
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Do? Why, ship them more jet fighters and tanks, of course.
Posted by: KBK || 12/23/2012 11:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Don't forget the wheat KBK, and a little walking around money of course.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 17:58 Comments || Top||

#9  Seven fat cows versus seven lean or thin cows, + no Joseph to save the land or Pharoah or the People.

Why, because the Revolution = "Arab/Muslim/
Islamic Egyptian Spring" decided they didn't need such - CONGRATULATIONS, DA PLAN WORKED, THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED OR SCHEMED, SO WHATS THE PROBLEM!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 19:33 Comments || Top||


Injuries from Alexandria clashes rise to 77
[Al Ahram] The total number of injuries resulting from festivities that broke out between President Mohamed Morsi's Islamist supporters and secular opponents in Egypt's second-largest city, Alexandria, on Friday rose to 77, stated Egypt's health ministry front man Ahmed Omar late on Friday.

"Twenty six of those injured have been released from the hospital while 51 are still being treated in four different hospitals in Alexandria," Omar detailed.

Clashes erupted shortly after masses of Salafist Islamists gathered at Alexandria's Qaed Ibrahim Mosque Friday for what they dubbed "the million-man rally to defend [Islamist] holy mans and mosques."

The rally, which was initially peaceful after Friday noon prayers in the Mediterranean city, broke out into festivities between Islamist demonstrators and opposition.

Rounds of teargas were fired into the crowds, forcing people to escape onto the Corniche (major seaside boulevard) near the mosque.

The Islamist rally was called for after a well-known Alexandrian Salafist holy man, Sheikh Ahmed El-Mahalawi, was held captive inside a mosque for 14 hours by worshippers angered by overtly Islamist rhetoric ahead of a constitutional referendum.

El-Mahalawy demanded in his sermon that worshippers seek the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law). The sermon was regarded as a not very discreet call to vote 'Yes' for the constitution that was drafted by a heavily Islamist constituent assembly.

Over 20 people were maimed Friday in the ensuing confrontations in Alexandria and a few vehicles were set ablaze.

Fifty one were incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
on Saturday during the riots; 18 of whom are supporters of the Salafist holy man and 33 are from opponents, an Alexandria security official told Al-Ahram Arabic-language news website.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Farming the Sahara and the End of Malthusianism
Russell Mead.
Malthusianism is a psychological disposition more than an intellectual conclusion...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deep beneath Africa, under some of the hottest and driest places on earth, lie vast reservoirs of fresh water. 100 times the freshwater that exists on the continent’s surface.” Tapping that water could transform dry and barren land into wet and fertile oases.

Question is, how can you convince the Fremen without Muad'Dib to lead them?
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/23/2012 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  And will he launch a planetary-wide jihad, just to mix up the gene pool, if he does emerge?
Posted by: lotp || 12/23/2012 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd favor NOTHING until Islam is eliminated, not that Islam itself is bad, but the Murderouus wackos are dead and gone(And no oil) then let them rot in peace WITH their Allah.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 21:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Kerry nomination attracts no outcry, but his liberal record likely to draw scrutiny
[Fox News] Sen. John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden...
appears to have bipartisan support for becoming the next secretary of state -- with a long history of public service that makes him one of Washington's most seasoned foreign policy experts and most liberal Democrats.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, started garnering Republican support practically from the time U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice's potential nomination began unraveling last month and he emerged as President B.O.'s next likely pick.

Sens. John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
, Ariz., and Lindsey Graham
... the endangered South Carolina RINO...
, S.C., Rice's harshest critics, both praised Kerry from the onset and continued this weekend to show support for his nomination.

Though Kerry is expected to sail through the Senate confirmation hearing, Graham and McCain have hinted the decorated Vietnam veteran will not get a free pass.

Graham called the 69-year-old Kerry a "solid choice."

McCain, also a Vietnam veteran, praise Kerry for serving the country with honor and distinction but said only that he looks forward to "considering" the nomination.

McCain also told Fox News that his decision will be based on whether he thinks Kerry has the ability to "carry out his responsibilities," not on their conflicting views, including Kerry saying in the early 1990s that President George H.W. Bush's Operation Desert Storm would fail.

Kerry, the son of a diplomat, is perhaps one of the most liberal voices in the Senate.

During his 27 years in the chamber, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee has characterized climate change as a national security threat and has pushed for the reduction the nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send him to "Talk" with the Taliban ,unarmed, get rid of him, (Permanently).
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Good idea.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 11:19 Comments || Top||

#3  A slap in the face to every self respecting Vietnam Vet.
Posted by: bman || 12/23/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I still say 99-0...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/23/2012 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  And the slap is intended.
Posted by: Hellfish || 12/23/2012 12:53 Comments || Top||

#6  If you could vote to kick Kerry out of your day-to-day "club", wouldn't you?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 13:18 Comments || Top||

#7  They voted not so much for Kerry as to get TerRayzor out of the Gym.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 14:01 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Pope pardons Vatican butler
[CS Monitor] Paolo Gabriele, the pope's former major-domo, was convicted of leaking confidential documents. The Pope pardoned him after a meeting at the Vatican jail.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But he's still in jail.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 21:22 Comments || Top||

#2  but he's pardoned in the afterlife
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 21:45 Comments || Top||

#3  "After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said he couldn't continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere soon."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/23/2012 23:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Jew Without a Gun
I am republishing my three-part series about the LA Riots of 1992 in which Karen and I and the children were trapped for several frightening hours. We were unarmed, helpless save for our wits. The police were conspicuously absent and the bad guys, frequently armed with heavy weapons, owned the streets. It was a defining moment in my life. I'm reposting this series as a cautionary tale...
Seriously intense -- and written by a professional scriptwriter. I remember watching the stories from Germany, but clearly never understood what it was like from the inside.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I recall the North Hollywood shoot out. The police were seriously under-gunned. They had to obtain sufficient firepower from local gun stores to cope with a couple of bank robbers who had full auto AK-47s, body armour and armour-penetrating rounds. Police departments learned a lot of lessons after this shoot out. Same lessons applies to civilians for self-defence. You just never know when things are going to go to hell completely in a riot, a home invasion, a disaster, or a car-jacking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Gunmen kill Syria state TV cameraman
[Al Ahram] A cameraman for Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
has been bumped off outside his home in Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
, the broadcaster reported on Saturday, blaming the attack on "terrorists".

"Our colleague Haidar al-Sumudi, cameraman for Syrian Arab Television, was rubbed out by an armed terrorist group outside his home in Kfar Sousa in Damascus," the television said, without specifying when the attack took place.

Even before his death, at least 17 paid journalists and 44 citizen journalists had been killed in violence in Syria since the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
's rule erupted in March last year, according to mid-December figures from media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Home Front: Politix
Audit Fort Knox - WhiteHouse.gov Petition
by bigjim-CA

I started a petition on WhiteHouse.gov for something that has been bothering me for some time. A full and open audit of the gold reserves at Ft. Knox. I believe there is a lot of secrecy surrounding what is actually in there and probably for good reason. I don't expect this admin to do a damn thing about it, regardless of how many signatures it gets, but it should be fun to see them dodge.

Lets give it a whirl and see.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm in favor, but NOT getting my name on the Governments computers as a subversive, so not signing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 21:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says seizes explosives on Pakistan border
[Al Ahram] Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Pakistain, faces serious security problems including bombings and frequent festivities between police and drug pushers and bandidos.
"Border agents learned that subversive groups wished to enter our territory," said Ahmad Reza-Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, according to the Mehr news agency.

"The agents were successful in identifying and seizing a large shipment of explosives which had entered our country."

The haul included 20 bombs, Radan said. He did not say when exactly the explosives were found. One person had been jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
in connection but others had escaped to Pakistain.

"We request that the Pak government act on its obligations in controlling border regions, because its border has become a way for bandit traffic," he was quoted as saying.

Radan did not identify the arrested person or the suspected groups involved.

In the last major attack in Zahedan, the scenic provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, a jacket wallah killed dozens at a Shiite Mohammedan mosque in 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The ideal war for the West is Iran V Pakistan.

Where is the popcorn?
Posted by: Hupert Omuque5563 || 12/23/2012 5:36 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bara not yet 'secure' for general elections
[Dawn] The political administration of Khyber Agency has sought suggestions from political parties and potential candidates to devise a viable plan for holding forthcoming general election in Bara tehsil, as the administration is in a state of confusion over the matter owing to prevailing law and order situation in the region.

In this connection, leaders of various political parties held a meeting with Mohammad Nasir, assistant political agent of Bara at Khyber House on Friday.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn that the APA made it clear that the administration was not in a position to give them a firm assurance about holding of 'safe' elections in Bara due to the ongoing military operation and relentless Death Eater activities.

The sources said that though they were provided with a list of polling stations to be established in different parts of Bara, the administration was not fully sure whether these polling stations could be made operational due to fear of Death Eater attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


11-kilo IED defused in Lyari
[Dawn] Police defused an improvised bomb weighing around 11 kilos in 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....
on Friday.

Concealed in a cement block, the IED had been placed near Cheel Chowk in the Kalakot area, police said.

They added that it was spotted by Rangers personnel who noticed a few wires connected with the cement block at around 8:15am. Subsequently, the bomb disposal unit (BDU) of police was called and the area was cordoned off.

An official of the BDU said that the total weight of the IED was around 11 kg.

"The explosive was laced with ball bearings, nuts, blots and pieces of shaving blades," he said. The ball bearings were arranged in away that they would have gone in one direction in case of kaboom, the official said.

The IED was attached to a detonator, seven batteries and with a remote-controlled device.

The bomb disposal unit official explained that multiple batteries were meant to keep the IED active for a long period of time.A similar IED attached to nine batteries was found a few months back in North Nazimabad, he added.

Commenting on a possible target of the IED, Lyari SP Sarfraz Nawaz said: "While a Rangers van is often parked near the place where the IED was planted, nothing can be said for sure. The motive could also be causing fear and chaos in the area," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Sri Lanka
Car bomb kills 5 in Damascus
[Al Ahram] A boom-mobile killed five people and maimed dozens in the eastern Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
district of Qaboun on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another activist group in Damascus gave no figures for the number of people killed in the blast but said bodies were still being recovered from wreckage caused by the kaboom.

The British-based Observatory, which monitors violence across Syria through a network of sources on the ground, also reported festivities between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
on the edge of the southern Damascus neighbourhood of Hajar al-Aswad.

The district is next to the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, which was taken over by rebels this week.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


India-Pakistan
Kashmiri woman charged with attempted murder over stone throwing
[Dawn] Police in Indian-administered Kashmire jugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
a young woman accused of throwing stones at government forces during anti-India protests two years ago. She has been charged with attempted murder, a police officer said Saturday.

Zahida Akhtar was arrested on Friday in southern town of Anantnag and also is charged with instigating protests, said police officer Ramesh Jalla.

In 2010, Kashmire witnessed some of the largest protests against Indian rule that left at least 112 people dead in firing by government forces.

Police have arrested over 5,000 people since then, but freed most of them.

Adil Ahmed Dar, Akhtar's brother, denied the police claim and said his sister was hit by a police bullet and had to drop out of school. "I took her to the cop shoppe after police came to my shop and said she was wanted for an inquiry. When we reached there, they simply arrested her," Dar said.

"This is even worse than jungle rule. First they (government forces) almost made her an invalid. Now, after two years they've arrested her," he said.

Kashmire is divided between India and Pakistain, and it is claimed by both countries.

According to some estimates, an armed uprising and ensuing crackdown by Indian forces have left an estimated 68,000 people dead in the region since 1989. In recent years, the armed conflict has largely subsided, with public opposition to Indian rule now seen mostly in street protests, where government forces and rock-throwing youths regularly face off.

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Slats went for his rosco...
a top separatist leader in the disputed region Saturday condemned the woman's arrest and said India has converted Kashmire into a "police state."

"On the other hand, they've not brought to book any police or soldier involved in 2010 killings," said Syed Ali Shah Geelani in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Good, stone "Throwing" is actually a sling, and deadly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:58 Comments || Top||

#2  stone "Throwing" is actually a sling, and deadly.
Goliath found out about that, the hard way.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Time they had a "national conversation" on stone ownership...

Nobody needs to own a stone big enough to cause a skull fracture...

Nobody needs an "assault stone" to go deer hunting...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/23/2012 12:20 Comments || Top||

#4  This thread is over. MM has covered the situation.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 12:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Many women actually attend training camps where they are taught to kill soldiers. One of their favorite weapons is a folding wrist rocket type slingshot which they can easily hide beneath their clothing. A group of women will approach their intended victom. When close enough the woman with the slingshot will fire a sharp pointed projectile laced with home-made poison. The women then scatter and hide. One of the women will drop the slingshot in a pre-arranged spot where it will be picked up by a group of children who also scatter and are too fast for the soldiers to catch.
Since the poison is home-made, it is impossible for the soldiers or police to carry an antidote. One of the more common poisons is some concoction of animal urin and snake venom. Most victoms survive but many spend months in the hospital. More recently soldiers have been claiming that they have contracted HIV and other terminal illnesses as a result of being struck by one of these projectiles.
It is not just young people, but even grandmothers have been arrested for engaging in this type of attack, in both Kashmire and the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: junkiron || 12/23/2012 14:31 Comments || Top||

#6  oops! Wrong button.

Please excuse spelling errors
Posted by: junkiron || 12/23/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: junkiron || 12/23/2012 21:16 Comments || Top||

#8  I didn't know about the slingshots, junkiron. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 23:24 Comments || Top||


'Attacker' shot dead in JPMC: Violence erupts after ANP man's killing
[Dawn] Violence erupted following the killing of a local leader of the Awami National Party in the Saddar area in which a passer-by was killed and a suspected attacker was also rubbed out inside the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Friday, police said.

They said that during the evening rush hour, assailants riding a cycle of violence emerged at a teashop near Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
i Ice Cream in Bohri Bazaar where ANP leader Ramzan Kakar was sitting with his associates. The assailants fired shots at Mr Kakar and tried to escape.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the ANP leader's associates returned fire and bullets hit one of the assailants who fell down from the bike, they added.

Two passers-by were also maimed in the firing and taken to the Civil Hospital 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...
for treatment. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
Mr Kakar died before he could be taken to hospital, the police said, adding that the body and the maimed suspect were shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities and treatment.

The victim was a brother of Abdul Bari Kakar who is a senior member of the ANP and also chairman of the All Empress Market Association.

As the news of the ANP leader's killing spread, the entire Saddar area reverberated with heavy gunfire and commercial and business concerns shut down within minutes. The firing was so intense that people ran for cover.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Mohammad Qasim and Police Constable Tariq Shafiq suffered gunshot wounds near the Empress Market when a police contingent reached the area to control the situation. The maimed coppers were taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi for treatment.

A passer-by was also maimed in the firing and was rushed to the Civil Hospital. He died during treatment late in the night. He was identified as Imdad, 30, said a front man for the Sindh Police.

Fear and panic gripped the JPMC when a large number of ANP workers reached there and had gun sex. People present at the hospital ran for cover amid firing. A man present in the hospital suffered a gunshot wound.

Abdul Rehman, had been brought to the JPMC's emergency and accident department with a relatively minor gunshot wound. However, some suspects entered the emergency ward and shot him dead on the hospital bed
Police and hospital sources said that the suspected attacker, identified as Abdul Rehman, had been brought to the JPMC's emergency and accident department with a relatively minor gunshot wound. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
some suspects entered the emergency ward and shot him dead on the hospital bed, said the sources.

Paramedic staff and doctors at the JPMC were also forced to take cover in the firing and, according to Dr Simeen Jamali, the official in charge of the emergency and accident department, they had abandoned the hospital.

She said that a man, identified as Habib, was said to be in a critical condition and admitted in the neurological ward of the JPMC.

"He suffered a gunshot wound in the head during firing in the hospital and is critical."

A heavy contingent of police and Rangers reached the hospital and it was after their arrival that peace was restored and doctors and paramedical staff resumed their duties.

"We have tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
a man who had carried out firing in the hospital and killed the reported attacker," DIG-South Asif Ajaz Sheikh said, adding that the police recovered two AK-47 assault rifles from his possession.

The police collected 17 spent bullet casings of an AK-47 rifle from the emergency ward of the JPMC.
The police collected 17 spent bullet casings of an AK-47 rifle from the emergency ward of the JPMC.

Man rubbed out in Baldia Town

A man was rubbed out in Baldia Town on Friday evening, police said. They said that Muhammad Hanif, 22, was waiting for a bus at a bus stop in Baldia Town No 7 near the route G-3 bus terminus when he was targeted by two gunnies riding a cycle of violence.

The assailants fled following the shooting.

The victim died on his way to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi.

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

Trader killed in Orangi

An office-bearer of a local market association in Orangi Town was rubbed out on Friday, police said.

Tension gripped the locality following the shooting within the remit of the Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe.

The police said that Abdul Razzaq, 55, was returning home after Friday prayers when gunnies riding a motorbike shot at him in Gulshan-e-Bihar, Orangi Town, Sector 16.

The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival. Following the medico-legal formalities, the police handed over the body to the victim's family.

The victim was father of three and a Gulshan-e-Bihar resident, the police said, adding that he had a gift shop in the local market and was general secretary of the area market association.

However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
the police said, the motive for the killing had not been ascertained.

Missing teenager
found rubbed out


A resident of Martin Quarters, who had gone missing on Dec 9, was found rubbed out near the Aga Khan Jamaat Khana in Garden area on Friday, police said.

The shifted the body to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi where the victim was identified as Nabeel Rehman, 18.

The police said that the victim's family had lodged a report about his disappearance with the Jamshed Quarters cop shoppe.

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
a few days later, he told the family over phone that he was in Multan, the police said. They quoted the family as saying that they had no further contact with him afterwards.

It seemed that the victim was kidnapped and later rubbed out, said a police investigator. However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
he added, the motive for the killing was yet to be ascertained.

Policeman dies

A police constable, who had been shot at and maimed by bandidos near the Frere police lines, died on Friday at a hospital during treatment.

Constable Noorul Amin, 30, had sustained gunshot wounds while trying to overpower one of the three bandidos who had been depriving women of their cash and valuables.

Posted in the CID Civil Lines, the victim was a resident of Frere police lines.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Spanish Satellite Operator Drops Iran State TV
[An Nahar] Spanish satellite operator Hispasat has dropped broadcasts by two of Iranian state broadcaster IRIB's channels because of EU sanctions against its chief, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.

The English- and Spanish-language channels Press TV and Hispan TV were no longer available via Hispasat from Friday because of the sanctions against IRIB head Ezzatollah Zarghami, Mehr said.

No immediate comment was available from Hispasat.

"Iran will take the necessary legal measures to confront this new wave of attacks by the Americans and Europeans targeting its media," IRIB's official responsible for international affairs, Mohammed Sarafraz, said on its website.

Press TV and Hispan TV issued a joint news release denouncing what they called a "flagrant violation of freedom of speech" and "attempt to silence the truth-telling media."
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Africa Subsaharan
Anatomy of Boko Harum
Nice graphic at World Policy Journal along with a brief description of who they are, in case you're new to Nigerian and African terrorism.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  from the article, "For Boko Haram is not the Nigerian Taliban, as another early media nickname deemed it..."

Actually it is. Both are Islam with the western gloss removed.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/23/2012 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Western governments could be instrumental in pressuring on the Nigerian government to stop extrajudicial killings and bar corrupt officials within its ranks, but the lack of a political will makes serious efforts unlikely.

Given the attitudes towards the West, it is not likely such efforts would make much difference.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Prefer to see the autopsy.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/23/2012 17:13 Comments || Top||

#4  That's gross.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 17:54 Comments || Top||

#5  But preferable.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 20:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
"My heart is not in the coffin with Inouye/And I must not pause in my telling of me."
Posted by: Korora || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hide myself inside the shadows of shame
The silent symphonies were playing their game
My body echoed to the dreams of my soul
This god is something that I could not control
Where can I run to now?

Black Sabbath's Megalomania
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2012 6:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The interesting thing here is not that our current POTUS is overly full of himself, but that the article is in Slate, not exactly your typical conservative news mag. Are we finally seeing the start of a preference cascade?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/23/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#3  "Senator Inouye was a hero. If he were alive today, like me, I know he would be enthralled by my speech. He was lucky to have lived long enough to see my re-election, probably the proudest moment of his life"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Are we finally seeing the start of a preference cascade?

No. It's a peep of discontent; a minor quibble. No doubt the White House has taken note of Ms. Yotte's scribbling and will, at some date in the future, prepare a suitably disproportionate display of disapproval for her.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 12:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Damn Frank, that's was just mean. Accurate as hell, but mean. Also stealing it with no attribution, will just change for the next Corps.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 12:54 Comments || Top||

#6  The only quibble I have with Frank's paraphrase is that all Obama-related personal pronouns need to be capitalized (as in Me, My, His, Him) in order to display both Obama's stunning level of narcissism and his...sorry, His...followers' unthinking, slobbery worship.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 12/23/2012 13:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank went to a State College and missed the finer points of Autocracy and when to salute yur betturs.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 13:58 Comments || Top||

#8  I stand corrected and on bended knee.



Wait...F&CK THAT BENDED KNEE SH&T. Corrected, OK
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 14:00 Comments || Top||

#9  I luvs ya', #8 Frank. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 16:50 Comments || Top||

#10  The decorum on this site at weekends goes down faster than Barnie Frank in a sauna.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/23/2012 17:19 Comments || Top||

#11  BP - Facebook *like* if I could
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 18:08 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Opposition Contradicts U.N., Says Conflict not Sectarian
[An Nahar] A key opposition group said on Saturday that Syria's conflict is not sectarian, contradicting warnings earlier this week by a U.N. team that increasing sectarianism is threatening whole communities.

"The Syrian revolution is neither sectarian nor bloody," the Syrian National Council said, two days after U.N. Sherlocks described the 21-month conflict as "overtly sectarian in nature."

The SNC said the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
"will not divide Syrian society according to religious or ethnic lines.

"The only division that Syrian society is witnessing is between a bloodthirsty, oppressive regime... and people calling for freedom and equality," the statement said.

On Thursday, U.N. Sherlocks said the conflict has become openly sectarian, threatening whole communities, and warned that newly formed armed Islamist groups were increasingly operating independently of the main rebel force, the Free Syrian Army.

"As battles between government forces and anti-government gangs approach the end of their second year, the conflict has become overtly sectarian in nature," the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said.

"As the conflict drags on, the parties have become ever more violent and unpredictable, which has led to their conduct increasingly being in breach of international law," it said.

"The dangers are evident," it continued, citing particular tensions between Sunni and Shiite Moslems.

"Entire communities are at risk of being forced out of the country or of being killed inside the country," it said, stressing that "with communities believing -- not without cause -- that they face an existential threat, the need for a negotiated settlement is more urgent than ever."

The SNC, whose leadership is based abroad but has members who operate secretly inside the country, criticized the U.N. for conducting its investigation exclusively from outside Syria, and for failing to act against Assad.

"As such, the report was exaggerated and full of generalization."

"It is very sad that the U.N. has been reduced to a mere political analyst, while it should be bearing full responsibility and mobilizing urgent, decisive action," said the SNC.

Fabrice Balanche, director of the French research center Gremmo, says 80 percent of Syrians are Sunnis, around 10 percent belong to Assad's Alawite community, five percent are Christian, three percent Druze and one percent Ismaili.

The SNC statement came as beturbanned fascisti warned two Christian towns they will be attacked if they do not evict regime forces, and as the new Greek Orthodox patriarch said Syria's often-fearful Christians will stay put.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu justifies construction in Jerusalem settlements
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in remarks broadcast Saturday justified the planned construction of thousands of apartments in settlements in and near Jerusalem, DPA reported.

"What future awaits Israel if we cannot build in Gilo and Ramat Shlomo?" he asked in the interview with Channel 2 television.

Gilo and Ramat Shlomo - located within the Israeli-drawn municipal boundaries of Jerusalem but beyond the "green line" that separates Israel from the occupied West Bank - are two of the areas where the Netanyahu government plans to build. The plans to build there, as well as in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, and Givat Hamatos, to the south, have sparked a storm of international criticism.

"So we, the state of the Jews, cannot build in our capital? I don't accept that," said Netanyahu.

The international community has not recognized Israel's claim that Jerusalem is its capital. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and complain that the Israeli construction is encroaching on the city's Arab neighbourhoods.
Yep. Sure does. You guys were offered deals a while back that would have settled the issue but you refused, since you want all of the land from the river to the sea. So instead Israel is going to take care of business without you. Just another example of how you guys never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Netanyahu blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the absence of peace talks during the Israeli premier's past four years in office, because the Palestinian leader refused to negotiate unless Israel met certain preconditions, including a settlement freeze.

Israel's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, by contrast, was not a precondition for the start of negotiations, but "a condition for the end of negotiations."

Netanyahyu did not deny that the expedited construction in and around Jerusalem was retaliation for the Palestinians' "unilateral" push to upgrade their status at the United Nations. The General Assembly late last month voted overwhelmingly to accept Palestine as a non-member observer state. By doing so and avoiding negotiations with Israel, the Palestinians "simply tore to pieces all the agreements with us," charged Netanyahu, adding he had warned beforehand that Israel would not react by "sitting with its arms folded."

Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party has a strong lead in opinion polls ahead of January 22 parliamentary elections, urged strong voter support, both for his party and for his hoped-for coalition, saying he needed a strong government to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat and other challenges next year.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In a war somebody wins and somebody loses. The Palestinians are gonna lose.
In another fifty years they will be just another footnote. And In a hundred years they won't even be that. Take it all, give nothing back.

Settlements work. That is why the Palestinians hate and fear them. They work. And if the Palestinians fight we simply break their fingers and take it anyway.

If Hamas wants to hang in there, we have an excuse to do whatever it takes to castrate and smother them. There is no question about who is going to win. The Palestinians are gonna lose. Two and two is four and the sky is blue.

You don't like that? Tell it to the capitals of North and South Dakota. Tell it to the Osage and the Ponca and the Yankton Sioux Hell, tell it to the Arikara and the Comanche, and the Cheyenne. And tell the Palestinians to go stand in that line and bend over. There IS no nice way.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/23/2012 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  The equivalent of the settlements worked in the US. First the Jamestown Settlement, and on and on. Worked out ok for many who could adapt and merge with the settlers, to the point where it is now beneficial to fake native roots, like Sen. Warren (didn't work at all for the many who couldn't or wouldn't adapt.) And our settlers were FAR less civilized than today's Israelis.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Israel - from the sea to the river.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/23/2012 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Torah! Torah! Torah!
Climb Mount Sinai!


Me Damnit, Moshe I said promised land, not promised continent.
National Lampoon Victory Edition
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Can we put Shipman up for Snark o' the year?
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 15:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Please don't encourage him...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/23/2012 18:30 Comments || Top||

#7  PM Benji may have reasons ...

* MEMRI > [Al-Sharq = Ibrahim Aal Majari] SAUDI COLUMNIST: TIME TO ANNEX GAZA TO EGYPT.

and

* WAFF > THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF EGYPT.

As per MEMRI TV, senior Egyptian Judge calls for implementation of Sharia law in Egypt includ as per strictly defined, strictly enforced Islamic punishments, claims US-WEST, ETC. GOVTS + MEDIAS DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE BENEVOLENCE BEHIND ISLMAIC LAW.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 20:11 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Hamid Karzai blames foreign govts for corruption
[Dawn] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
charged the countries that fund his government and military with enabling the widespread corruption that undermines his efforts to establish rule of law in the war-wracked country.

Karzai said in a nationally televised speech Saturday that the Afghan government had been making strides in cleaning up corruption within its own ranks.

He said there was still plenty of work to be done, but argued that internal graft was negligible compared with hundreds of millions of dollars spent by foreign governments in shady dealings.

International donors have long argued that they have been trying to help Karzai's administration clean up the endemic corruption but have been stymied by his unwillingness to prosecute political allies.

Karzai frequently levels attacks on his foreign allies, blaming them for Afghanistan's ills.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take away foreign government money and most corruption will go away too. Along with most of everything else.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  "What is Projection?"

/Jeopardy
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Karzai said in a nationally televised speech Saturday that the Afghan government had been making strides in cleaning up corruption within its own ranks.

After all they've been through, the people of Afghanistan needed a good laugh,
Posted by: Matt || 12/23/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Final phase of Egypt's constitution vote ends
[Al Ahram] On a relatively uneventful day, Egyptians in seventeen governorates voted in the second phase of the referendum on the new constitution.

In a throwback to the first phase in the poll last Saturday the opposition has complained of violations that threaten the legitimacy of the whole process while the Islamist parties, especially the Moslem Brüderbund, rejected the opposition's allegations.

In the governorate of Ismailia on the Suez Canal members of the leading opposition's National Salvation Front announced the withdrawal of their delegates from monitoring the referendum in the afternoon to object to "massive violations."

On the other hand, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Board member Mohamed Gamal Heshmat accused rights groups and monitors of "falsely" creating problems in an attempt to taint the image of the referendum.

Accusations of voting improprieties throughout the day included rigging votes, banning rival voters from entering polling stations, and attempts by partisans to influence voters as they cast ballots.

Observers say that the turnout in this phase will not be higher than the first phase that saw about 32 per cent participation.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Electoral Commission had extended the voting hours from 7pm to 11pm due to "high voter turnout."
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Final phase of Egypt's constitution vote ends

...and the final phase of Egypt begins.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/23/2012 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  note that the Moslem Brotherhood used some of the same tactics that the Donks use to run up the numbers in favorable districts-

- grab your 'likely supporters' and drag them to the polls
- coach them on the way on how to vote
- put intimidating posters and maybe some intimidating people near or in the polling places
Posted by: lord garth || 12/23/2012 17:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia Says It Won't Play Role in Ousting Syria's Leader
[NY Times] The foreign minister of Russia, which is among Syria's most reliable allies, said Saturday that several countries were offering asylum to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
to get him to leave Syria, but that Moscow would not mediate on their behalf, according to Russian news services.

"Several countries in the region have turned to us and suggested 'Tell Assad we are ready to fix him up,' " the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told news hounds who accompanied him on a flight home from the Russia-European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
summit meeting in Brussels, in comments carried by the Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies. "And we answered 'What do we have to do with it? If you have such plans, approach him directly.' "

"If there are people wishing to give him some kind of guarantees, be our guest," he said. "We will be the first to cross ourselves and say 'Thank God, the carnage is over.' But whether this will end the carnage -- that is far from obvious. It is not obvious at all."

He went on to cite "very serious and well-founded predictions from Western intelligence services suggesting that the fall of the regime will hardly bring an end to this drama and tragedy, that instead the battle will continue with new force."

Mr. Lavrov's comments follow recent signals from Russia that it sees the military balance shifting, but has not changed its strong opposition to international intervention in Syria.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Says.
They'll be there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:37 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll be there to sell weaponry to whomever's in charge.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 18:03 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Fire in Yemeni Prison Kills 8
[An Nahar] A fire in a Yemeni prison known for its overcrowding killed eight inmates on Saturday, a security official said.

The blaze was reported in several rooms of the central prison in the city of Ibb, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Sanaa, the official added, without saying whether it was thought to have been started deliberately.

Local officials said fire crews were slow in responding, and that several prisoners also suffered from smoke inhalation.

Ibb prison has been the scene of recent protests by prisoners against poor conditions and overcrowding, the local officials said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  That's one way to escape, I guess.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Bad Bad way to go , trapped and roastied alive.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Pena's Security Plan starts to take form

For a map, click here.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Barely in its fourth week, the security strategy of newly inaugurated Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto is slowly becoming apparent.

Going by Mexican press accounts now and in the past it is possible to detail at least some elements of Pena's new security strategy in dealing with organized crime.

One of the first acts of the incoming president Pena was to make a proposal which would disband and fold the federal cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) into the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry. Originally that proposal was met with a great deal of resistance, especially by the Mexican left including the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD), with many top leaders calling the move a throwback to the old days when Mexico's SEGOB was one of the most powerful security agencies in Mexico, especially during the Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s.

As that change moved through the legislature, the new SEGOB, Miguel Osorio Chong, met with several governors, the latest of which included Coahuila governor Ruben Moreira Valdes, as well as the governors of Durango, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

In a news story posted Saturday on the website of El Diario de Coahuila, Governor Moreira told reporters that a new federal security strategy was about to be implemented, including the "cleaning" of police and help with the proposed Gendarmeria Nacional, which is a campaign promise President Pena made throughout the campaign season last spring and summer. Then as now, how this new police force would be used is shrouded in mystery. Little indication exists that the current national police, the Policia Federal (PF), has had their mission diminished so far. PF units still patrol many of Mexico crime trouble spots in the north including in Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

But there is little mistake that the violence level already has been reduced since December 1st, by virtue of the sheer drop in reported incidents. Such a drop may not mean anything, however. Confrontations between Mexico's military units and organized crime, at least in the last three years, have historically had their ups and downs. The Mexican Army changes zone and regional commands in June, and promotions for colonels and higher ranks, a precursor to command shuffling, usually takes place in November. Commanders in both instances need some time to get up to speed. The new Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), both the controlling agency for the Mexican Army and the cabinet level job now held by General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, will also likely need some time to get up to speed as well.

However, some regional commanders have already attended regional security conferences since November, in Mexico state where governors and representative from regional gather to discuss their plans for new security arrangements.

One example was a regional conference, the second of its kind, which took place two weeks ago including commander of the Mexican V Military Region, General de Division Genaro Fausto Lozano Espinoza, and the governors of Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Colima, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, according to a news item posted on the website of EL Sol de Centro news daily.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss implementing the Mando Unico Policial or Single Police Command, a federal security scheme which has been partially implemented since 2010. The idea behind the Mando Unico Policial is for the states to use individuals who have been trained and are usually better paid than municipal or even state police commands to deal more effectively with organized crime.

The news article reported that agreements between the federal government and Aguascalientes and Mexico state have already been signed, indicating that changes will place which will likely shift resources from supporting the current police agencies to support of a more federal response to organized crime.

The end game for the new security arrangement has been revealed by Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes, who said the main objective was to return Mexico's military "to the barracks" and allow police forces to take over security work against organized crime.

But as Coahuila governor Moreira has indicated, that is a tall order. In the El Diario de Coahuila article Moreira was quoted as saying that only one on 20 applicants passes the confidence tests. Moreira also revealed that federal forces, including Polica Federal, Mexican Army and Naval Infantry will continue to support security operations in regions such as La Laguna and Saltillo, both in Coahuila state.

This is significant because Laguna Seguro, the security operation in La Laguna area was implemented just a little over a year ago. Between the time the cessation of the operation was announced in October and December, both La Laguna and Saltillo have experienced a large spike in shootings and organized crime violence in the area, prompting Durango state to continue reinforced patrols in its half of La Laguna.

Although it has not been formally announced except in Governor Moreira pronouncements to the press, Laguna Seguro as a separate, federally supported security operation has been resurrected, at least for the time being.

How the new Gendarmeria Nacional agency will figure in President Pena's new strategy is explained in Pena's official website. The Gendarmeria Nacional will be expected to be deployed in troubled regions such as La Laguna, Saltillo and Piedras Negras, as well as the border areas such as between Jalisco and Zacatecas states, and on national borders including seaports and airports.

As matters now stand, airport and seaport security areas are already handled by the Mexican Army and Navy respectively, so it can be presumed that the intention of Pena Nieto is to completely supplant Mexico's military with civilian police better trained and paid than state and municipal police.

The plan to reduce if not totally eliminate Mexico's military in dealing with organized crime has long been an agenda item for Mexico's left. Indeed, the leader of Mexico's left, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has long advocated returning Mexico's military to the barracks, while shifting those resources as savings to Mexico's poor.

President Pena's plan has so far been well received among politicians of the left, and while such concordance may seem rare, much of Mexico's left were formerly disaffected members of President Pena's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).

PRI's and PRD's arch political rivals, however, see the new security strategy as a repackaged version of Calderon's security strategy.

Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) politician Guillermo Anaya, chair of the Chamber of Deputy's public safety commission has dismissed President Pena's plan as as one that resembles former PAN president Felipe Calderon's security plan.

According to a separate news item posted Saturday on the website of El Diario de Coahuila, Anaya is quoted as saying "This announcement is equal to what was served up for the past six years: pure media effect and good intentions."

Anaya's remarks are a 180 degree change from the goodwill PAN politicians had for the plan to fold SSP into SEGOB. How the Policia Federal will figure into Pena's new security strategy was revealed a week ago, when a PF unit toured the Gomez Palacio, Durango Centro Readaptacion Social (CERESO) at the request of the Comite Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH), or human right commission.

Tour may be too mild a word: Policia Federal elements searched the prison, uncovering contraband such as cell phones, but failing to find weapons, which were later used by prisoners to attempt an escape.

The operation, the first since Policia Federal was folded into SEGOB, could be seen as an abject failure in its new role in President Pena's security plan.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stay out of Messico, hurt them by NOT spending your dollars there.
The redneck Riviera's the place to go.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:18 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
[BBC.CO.UK] Egypt's vice-president has announced his resignation, on the day the country completed its voting in a controversial referendum on a draft constitution.

Mahmoud Mekki, a former judge who was appointed vice-president in August, said the "nature of politics" did not suit his professional background.

Polls have now closed in the second leg of the referendum, which is widely expected to approve the draft.

However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
opponents say this will not end the country's unrest.

They say the constitution favours Islamists and betrays the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
last year.

President Mohammed Morsi and his supporters say the document will secure democracy.

Late on Saturday, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
announced that the central bank governor, Farouq al-Uqdah, had also resigned from his post. However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
a cabinet official later denied the report.

November decree
Mr Mekki announced his resignation just hours before the end of voting in the second round of the referendum.

He said, in a statement read on television: "I realised a while ago that the nature of politics does not suit my professional background as a judge."
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Inapropiate picture, should be a curved dagger, Muslims don't drink.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  At key moments of a Moslems life both whiskey and pistols are halal.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 12:32 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Bomber blows himself up in attack on Nigeria telecom firm
[Al Ahram] A suspected jacket wallah went kaboom! Saturday when he rammed his car into the office gate of a major mobile phone company in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, police said. "There has been a kaboom at Airtel office. From what we hear, it was a suicide kaboom. The bomber rammed his car into the gate and went kaboom!. The building is on fire," said a policeman who requested anonymity.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  I'm sure everyone has felt that way about their cell phone company at times...
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Airtel sucks!
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 12/23/2012 13:01 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Judge: Louisiana Woman Can Flip Finger In Holiday Lights
[Houston.CBSLocal] A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger.
Assuming this to be a free country -- debatable in the past few years -- the woman has every right to be an anus. Her neighbors have every right (and in my opinion an obligation) to treat her like what she is.
Sarah Childs was in a dispute with some of her neighbors in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, so she decided to send a message with her decorations. Neighbors complained and police threatened to arrest her, so she and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city.

A judge ruled in her favor Thursday.

"I imagine it will be back up before too long," ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman said of the display.

Childs erected the lights on her roof last month. She has removed them twice -- once after a police officer told her she could be fined and again after another officer threatened to arrest her, her lawsuit said.

U.S. District Judge James Brady issued an order temporarily barring city officials from interfering with the display. The two-page order said the city's "continued efforts" to prevent Childs from displaying her holiday lights will violate her rights to free speech and due process. He scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing in Baton Rouge.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like she wants some eggs, toilet paper and flaming bags of dog poo delivered to her.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/23/2012 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I saw a paper job just a few weeks back, but it's been ages since I saw a major egging.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 6:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Price of eggs is up quite a lot lately, Ship.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  That must be it. I was afraid the yoots knew not of eggs, only of egg-like-food. Throwing a Happy Breakfast is expensive and not full-filling for a serious egg-artist.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 13:56 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
PPP, PML-N work together, do no want change: Imran
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) chief Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
on Saturday said the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistain Moslem League -- Nawaz (PML-N) did not want to see "any change" to come in the country, adding that, both parties were colluding with one another, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives upon arriving 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...
, Khan said the people had chosen to bowl the PPP and the PML-N out simultaneously.

The PTI chief said he would be visiting all through the province of Sindh, adding that, the country's issues could be resolved once the bane of corruption was tackled.

He said other parties were involved in acting against PTI leaders, adding that, his party would get back at those behind these acts.

Khan was referring to the PPP's offer to Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood as Punjab's next governor in the context of his political rivalry with the PTI's Jahangir Tareen.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "this is OUR shithole and we got it decorated just the way we want"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2012 11:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia Islamists stone hotel hosting opposition meeting
[Al Ahram] Partisans of Tunisia's Islamist ruling party attacked a hotel on Saturday where members of a secular opposition party met to commemorate the alleged murder of one of their officials, an AFP correspondent said.
Hundreds of demonstrators brandishing banners hostile to the opposition party Nidaa Tounes gathered outside Hotel Midoune, on Djerba island, where the meeting was being held, the correspondent said.

The meeting marked the end of 40 days of mourning for the death of Lotfi Naguedh, who the party claim was beaten to death in October during a demonstration in the southern city of Tataouine.

Some demonstrators threw rocks at officials of the opposition party and later broke through a police and military cordon, besieging the entrance to the hotel and threatening to attack if the opposition officials were not expelled.

Nidaa Tounes (Call of Tunisia), founded in July and led by former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, is accused by Tunisia's ruling coalition of regrouping former regime officials and seeking to undermine the government.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Indian protesters clash with police over rape case
[LA Times] Thousands of people demonstrated outside the Indian president's residence in New Delhi on Saturday, breaching barricades and clashing with police over the brutal rape of a 23-year-old girl before authorities drove them back with sticks, tear gas and water cannons.

Public anger has been building all week since the attack last Sunday in which six men in a private bus allegedly picked up the victim, a medical student, and her 28-year-old male friend as they headed home about 9 p.m. after watching "Life of Pi" at a multiplex theater.

The pair thought they were boarding a normal commuter bus when the men, who were on a joy ride, allegedly beat them with metal rods and raped her for 30 minutes as the vehicle drove around the city and passed several police posts before dumping the pair by the side of the road. The bus had curtains and tinted windows, which are illegal but not uncommon in New Delhi.

Six men have been arrested in the case, including the bus driver, his brother, a gym instructor and a fruit seller, and face charges of kidnapping, gang rape, unnatural offenses and robbery. Three of the six have reportedly confessed.

Indian media reported that one of those held, the brother of the driver, was assaulted by other inmates at Tihar Jail before officials separated him from others at the facility.

Protesters on Saturday, the sixth and most violent day of demonstrations, chanted "We want justice" and carried signs reading "Kill the rapists!" "Hang them now" and "Stop the shame." More than 30 demonstrators and 35 police officials were injured, according to media reports, as protesters threw stones and broke the windows of a public bus.

Police said four subway stations near the government district would be closed Sunday in a bid to control crowds and keep people from the area.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Three of the six have reportedly confessed.
bet that was fun.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like large or massive street protests are breaking out all over India.

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > INDIA'S "HINDU SPRING" IS NEXT? | INDIA RAPE PROTESTS:
"REPORTER SHOT DEAD". POLICE SAY A TV REPORTER HAS BEEN KILLED DURING PROTESTS OVER SEXUAL ATTACKS IN INDIA AS PUBLIC OUTCRY CONTINUES.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [CNN.com] NEW DELHI POLICE FIRE WATER CANNON AT INDIA RAPE PROTEST.

* SAME > [Video]ANTI-RAPE PROTESTS SPREAD OVER INDIA.

versus

* SAME > POLICE STATE INDIA.

IIUC, ONE CAN BE ARRESTED FOR FILMING OR REPORTING THE "GOOD" IN INDIA, BUT NOT FOR THE "BAD", + INDIA LIKES IT THAT WAY???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 20:42 Comments || Top||


Africa North
FBI question Benghazi consulate attack suspect
[Al Ahram] After months of asking, agents from the FBI questioned the only known suspect in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four diplomats, the suspect's Tunisian lawyer told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named Saturday.

Ali Harzi, a Tunisian, was locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in Turkey and extradited to Tunisia in October where authorities have said he is "strongly suspected" of being involved in the attack.

His lawyer, Anwar Oued-Ali, added that Harzi was also questioned about an attack on the U.S. embassy in Tunisia, a few days later, suggesting the American authorities are looking into if there is a connection between the two attacks.

The Sept. 11 assault by gunnies in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other American diplomats. Members of an Islamist militia, Ansar al-Sharia
...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends...
are suspected in the strike, but there has been little progress in the Libya-based investigation into the attack.

A few days later, a mob attacked the U.S. embassy in Tunis, destroying property and an American school in the area, resulting in four deaths. The attack was believed to be instigated by a local group also called Ansar al-Sharia, but it is unclear if it is connected to the Libyan organization.

In early November, Republican senators Lindsey Graham
... the endangered South Carolina RINO...
and Saxby Chambliss announced that Tunisia had agreed to allow the FBI to interview Harzi, but it took another month and a half to organize the interview due to legal questions over any infringements on Tunisian illusory sovereignty.

In the end, three FBI Sherlocks using a Moroccan translator posed questions to Harzi for three hours through the Tunisian judge presiding over the case.

Harzi's defense team was not allowed to attend the questioning on the grounds that he was being interviewed as a "witness" rather than a defendant.

Harzi is being charged by the Tunisians for "membership in a terrorist organization." Harzi denies the charges.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
Vaccinator threatened
[Dawn] A 21-year-old polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
worker was threatened by an unidentified man in the Jhangi Syedan locality of Tarnol on Friday.

The police said they were considering registering an FIR against the unidentified man.

Syed Hareem Abbas Zaidi, an electrical engineering student at the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, was engaged by the CDA for the polio vaccination. Mr Zaidi informed the CDA management that he went to a house to give vaccine to children.

When he came back to the vehicle in the field, he found his files missing. In the meantime, a man, whose height was over six feet, reached there and twisted his arm. The unidentified man warned the vaccinator that like his files he would make him vanish.

The vaccinator said that on Thursday another person, who was speaking Pashto, had told him that polio vaccination was a US conspiracy against the Moslems and he should not take part in the campaign.

Dr Hassan Urooj, the CDA director health, told Dawn that after getting the information the member administration and he reached the spot and filed a complaint with the police. "The police assured us that an FIR would be lodged," he said.

He said after the incident 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...
, polio team members were reluctant to go out. "But we told them to continue the campaign in the best interest of the nation."

A member of the polio team requesting not to be identified said they got Rs250 per day and spent all the day moving from door to door. "We also prepare and submit the record to our supervisors. Our life is in danger but still we get only Rs250," he said.

It may be noted that on July 16, Mohsin Ali, a polio team member reached the house of one Nadir Khan in the Johda village of Golra police to vaccinate his children against polio. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
Khan allegedly tortured him.

The next day, the accused got bail before arrest from the court.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Vermin, the sooner they're gone, the better.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq says to withold payments for Kurdish oil
[Al Ahram] Tension between Iraq and Kurdistan raises as Baghdad said it will not pay oil companies operating in the autonomous region as its oil export were below the target
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Waiting for Malala to grow up
[Dawn] WHEN the state and the political elite of the country cannot be on the same page even on how best to deal with an existential threat to it, is there a point in debating anything else?

The Taliban and their various franchised terror groups keep attacking at will, killing innocent, ungunnies, women and kiddies. And we cannot respond because there isn't a 'consensus' on how to.

The state of Pakistain continues to resemble a crumbling edifice. Today, it is an assault on an airbase, tomorrow on school-going girls. Then, a girls' school is blown up, a bus is stopped, with Shia passengers identified, pulled off and executed.

Condemnation follows. Both from you and I. And from those whose responsibility it is to safeguard the life and limb of every citizen. But if we cast our eye over the past so many years we see very little beyond words.

When it appeared the army may have been prepared to somewhat distance itself from its obsessive belief that the jihadi ideology coupled with nuclear weapons and conventional forces offered the most robust defence of the country, the civilian political elite balked at the prospect of a clean-up.

To some action against militancy was an ideological issue so they opposed it, others let anti-Americanism dominate their response while some felt that any such an exercise would jeopardise or at least delay the next general election due in the coming months.

Swat's Malala Yousufzai was shot and maimed in October. The attempt on the life of a teenager for the crime of wanting to go to school was justified by the Taliban 'because she represented and promoted western culture/values'. The outrage was spontaneous, widespread but to no avail.

As November was drawing to a close, 12-year old Mehzar Zehra was gravely maimed in an armed attack when she was being driven to school by her father 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...
. The ostensible reason for this attack was that they were Shias.

And December saw multiple attacks on women in Bloody Karachi and Khyber Pakthunkhwa in which a number of them were killed.

What did Naseem Akhtar, Kaneez Fatima, Madeeha, Fehmida and others have in common? They were poorly paid (on a daily wage of Rs250) health workers contracted to visit dozens of homes a day to make sure children received their polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccine drops. Given the security environment generally and specific threats to polio workers their work was marked by valour.

Experts say the exercise involves in excess of 80,000 workers with some 33 million children to be vaccinated. Now the fate of the programme is in limbo. Who'd blame the health workers if not a single one ever agreed to step out of their home for the vaccination programme?

Let me declare a personal interest here. I contracted polio when I wasn't even three. I can walk on my own but have restricted mobility. In the early 1960s the knowledge of the virus and its symptoms was so sketchy that I was ill for a number of weeks before a diagnosis was made.

I was fortunate in having devoted, doting parents (and lovely siblings) who spared neither effort nor whatever little material resources they had to ensure my upbringing in an environment free of complexes, sent me to good schools and supported me hugely in early life.

The best orthosis was always fitted no matter how they had to cut corners elsewhere to be able to pay for it; the best physiotherapy was made available. The list is endless and I could go on about how blessed I was after my initial misfortune.

But that isn't the point. Even with a middle-class family, its values, resources and an indescribable amount of love behind me, life wasn't (and isn't) easy. When you are growing up and all the children around you can run while all you do is watch, imagine the frustration every day.

Although I have always believed I am more 'normal' than many able-bodied people, it is also a fact that when you go through most physical activity, and I am not talking competitive sport here, at about a sixth or a tenth of the pace of the rest of the world, you are always playing catch up.

Boy it gets exhausting. Sometimes you just want to stop. That's me. Imagine the life of a polio victim in a poverty-stricken environment. With physical disability would inevitably follow challenges in earning a livelihood through manual labour. A begging bowl and reliance on others the next step.

Today such dilemmas are easily avoidable but we have created a society where the simplest of issues become the most complicated, with the result that we don't shy away from putting even our children at risk.

The reader, one is certain, must get fed up when all columnists do is write laments, pen elegies and practically little else. I have often wondered if among the handful of readers who still read the op-ed pages of a newspaper there is growing irritation at the subject matter of columns such as these.

One so wishes to focus on the positive, but also has to reflect reality which keeps getting direr all the time. One can only ignore that at the risk of appearing delusional. Let me sound positive for a change.

A befitting response to the attackers would be for the president, the governors, the prime minister, the chief ministers along with their cabinet members, opposition politicians and the military leaders to go to each attack site and personally administer drops to the children there.

Now wouldn't that be an uplifting, positive sight? But I suspect it can only be a reality when 15-year-old Malala and others like her grow up and assume leadership roles in Pakistain for that sort of courage and conviction is nowhere in evidence right now.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  You get more of what is subsidized. Sooooo...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/23/2012 16:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aoun: al-Qaida is One Step Away
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
leader MP Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
warned on Saturday against the danger on Leb that could result from Syria's conflict, explaining that al-Qaeda's presence would soon be felt in the country.

"Al-Qaeda is one step away from being present in Leb, and once here, it will announce an (Islamic) Emirate in the north," Aoun said in front of a delegation of students who won the Antonine University elections.

The FPM leader added: "What is happening in Syria now is very dangerous and threatens our existence, especially since the revolutionaries are radicals".

Aoun called on the students to be aware of the regional changes and conflicts that could threaten Leb's stability.

"They want to make us focus our attention on the electoral law but we should not forget where the real danger is," Aoun explained.

"The number of Paleostinians in Leb is nearing 1 million," Aoun said commenting on the arrival of refugees from Syria through the border, expressing that this is a "real danger from which our attention should not be deviated".

"Nations supporting the revolutionaries in Syria with money and arms are obliging Paleostinians to flee the war-torn country," the FPM leader said, questioning why these regimes do not "take responsibility of the refugees instead of blaming us and putting the entire burden on Leb".
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  OOOOOOO, you can just hear HOMER SIMPSON going "DOH!", can't ye???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 19:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Meanwhile, not to be outdone by Al-Qaida + Lebanon, ...

* WAFF > AROUND 1000 MEMBERS OF THE PAKISTANI TALIBAN HAVE BEEN KILLED IN SYRIA | [PressTV] PAKISTANI TALIBAN MEMBERS KILLED NEAR SYRIAN CAPITAL, after being covertly funneled there allegedly by Saudi + Qatari INTEL.

IIUC, more to keep coming.

Mom-n-Dad back home in Pakland are demanding to know where + what happened to their little Jihadis.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2012 19:48 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Cabinet Denies Central Bank Chief Resigns
[An Nahar] Egypt's cabinet denied on Saturday that the country's central bank head had stepped down, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said, hours after reporting Faruq El-Okda's resignation.

There was no immediate explanation for the conflicting reports.

The press had speculated for days that El-Okda would resign for health reasons.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Afghanistan
Taliban call for new Afghanistan constitution
[Dawn] Afghanistan's Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the nation's fledgling grinding of the peace processor, according to a declaration issued by representatives at a landmark meeting in La Belle France.
Fine, then don't join. See if anyone cares.
Representatives from the country's warring factions met Thursday for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country.

It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country's future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank.

"Afghanistan's present constitution has no value for us because it was made under the shadows of B52 bombers of the invaders," said the declaration, which was handed to participants during the meeting and later released to the media.

"Islamic Emirate, for the welfare of their courageous nation, need a constitution that is based on the principles of the holy religion of Islam, national interest, historical achievements, and social justice," it read.

The meeting in La Belle France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location near Gay Paree.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Well, at least they got past the 'color of the drapes' decision...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 11:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Next comes the shape of the table.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 17:58 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Summer Altice [Valley Girl][Filmography](age 33)



It's also Carla Bruni's Birthday, she turns 45 today.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2012 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  2 more shopping days until Christmas.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2012 4:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Carla Bruni's photo, je ne sais quoi.

I think the phrase was coined for people like her. If not, then I don't know what.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/23/2012 4:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Nic left politics to spend more time with the family. In his case, who could doubt him.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/23/2012 5:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Very talented lady.

Posted by: Dale || 12/23/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#6  You can see more, all of Summer at the link I've provided.Um, definitely NSFW. You're welcome.

Summer Exposed
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 12/23/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Secret Asian Man thanks for the early Christmas present.
Posted by: Dale || 12/23/2012 9:51 Comments || Top||

#8  GB, I read that as 22 more shopping days until Christmas. What am I doing wrong?
Posted by: gorb || 12/23/2012 19:26 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq PM Warns against Return to Sectarian Strife
[An Nahar] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
called on Saturday for the people to stand together against sectarian strife, warning of a return to the days of bloody sectarian war when heads were left in the streets.

Maliki called in a speech in Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
for Iraqis to "stand together in one rank in facing this strife."

And the Shiite premier warned of a return to the worst days of the sectarian conflict that swept Iraq from 2006 to 2008.

"Have you forgotten the day we were collecting bodies from the streets? Have you forgotten the day we were collecting severed heads from the streets?" he asked.

Maliki's remarks came two days after security forces jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
at least nine of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's guards on terror charges, threatening a new crisis with the minister's secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.

After his guards were arrested, Essawi demanded Maliki's resignation, and also called for no-confidence proceedings that failed to remove the premier earlier this year to be reopened.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  He's cribbing Morsi's speech.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/23/2012 11:53 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
MMA lawmaker to table bill: Link school admission with polio vaccination
[Dawn] Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MPA Mufti Kifayatullah on Friday announced to table a bill in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Assembly to declare production of anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination certificate mandatory for admission of children to schools in the province.

Speaking on a point of order in the House, holy man-turned-politician from Mansehra
...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
Mufti Kifayatullah said he would table private member's bill in the House during the ongoing session for making polio vaccination mandatory for admission to schools.

He said the bill stated that parents should be bound to produce anti-polio vaccination certificate while seeking admission for their children to government and private schools in the province.

The politician criticised the government over the killing of vaccinators and failure to arrest the culpable people and declared it the government's inefficiency.

He urged the government to provide health workers carrying out anti-polio vaccination campaign with proper security.

Mr Kifayatullah proposed that the government stop sending vaccinators from door to door and make arrangements for vaccination of children against polio in mosques.

During the session, politicians from both the treasury and opposition benches condemned the killing of polio vaccinators in the province.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  They KNOW what polio does, yet they still are so terrified of the vaccine that they murder the health care workers who would provide it. How can we divert that insanity into something 'useful?'
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2012 8:34 Comments || Top||

#2  They're killing their own, why bother, soon they'll either be gone or insane.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:14 Comments || Top||

#3  "soon they'll either be gone or insane"

They're already half of that, RJ.

Let's hurry up the "gone" half.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  They KNOW what polio does,

I suspect not, Glenmore. Most are wholly ignorant, or have a madrassah education, which does not teach the microbial theory of disease causation. What they know is that Allah strikes some with disease, and he decides who will be lamed or worse thereafter as a punishment for someone's misdeeds. With that idea, it is understandable if they see inoculation as a) poisoning their children, or b) interfering with Allah's will.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/23/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#5  So you have to be vaccinated in order to go to school, eh? Not a problem. Education is un-Islamic, especially for girls.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/23/2012 22:22 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria still in 'control' of chemical weapons: Russia
[Al Ahram] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that the Syrian regime was still in control of chemical weapons stockpiled at several locations in the conflict-ravaged country.
"So far according to our information, which correlates with Western data, the weapons are under control," he told journalists as he flew back to Moscow from an EU-Russia summit in Brussels, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"The Syrian authorities have concentrated these stockpiles in one or two centres. Previously they were scattered around the country," he said.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
's regime is doing all it can to ensure the weapons are secure, Lavrov said.

"Our American colleagues acknowledge that the main threat is if (the chemical weapons) are seized by the orcs," he added. "For us this is very serious. We check every rumour that concerns chemical weapons."

The United States said earlier this month it had intelligence showing that the regime was considering using its chemical weapons.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  A Boogyman, "LOOK I've got Chemical weapons" "So what, you'll poison the place" "Yeah, BUT IT'S MINE".
Leave the land a century or so, it'l clean itself.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:33 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Australian Boy's Egg Collection Turns into Snakes
[An Nahar] A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes.

Reptile specialist Trish Prendergast said Friday that young wildlife enthusiast Kyle Cummings could have been killed if he had handled the eastern brown snakes -- the world's most venomous species on land after Australia's inland taipan.

Kyle found a clutch of nine eggs a few weeks ago in the grass on his family's 1.2-hectare (3-acre) property on the outskirts of the city of Townsville in Queensland state, Prendergast said. He had no idea what kind of eggs they were.

He put the eggs into a plastic takeout food container and stashed them in his bedroom closet, where his mother, Donna Sim, found them Monday. Seven had hatched, but the snakes remained trapped under the container's lid.
Pretty smart for a three-year old, actually.
The remaining two eggs were probably infertile and were rotten, Prendergast said.

"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't like snakes," Sim told the Townsville Bulletin newspaper.

Prendergast, who is the Townsville-based reptile coordinator of the volunteer group North Queensland Wildlife Care, was handed the container on Tuesday and released the snakes into the wild that night.

She was relieved that no one had handled the snakes.

"Their fangs are only a few millimeters long at that age, so they probably couldn't break the skin, but they're just as venomous as full-grown snakes," Prendergast said.

"If venom had got on Kyle's skin where there was a cut of if he put it in his mouth, it could have been fatal," she added.

Eastern brown snakes -- which can grow to more than 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) long -- usually stay with their eggs but sometimes leave for short periods to feed.

"He's very lucky he didn't encounter the mother while he was taking her eggs. That also could have been fatal," Prendergast said.

The snakes were 12 to 15 centimeters (5 to 6 inches) long and had probably hatched around five days before they were released, she said, adding that they were thirsty but otherwise healthy.

Australia averages around three fatal snake bites a year, and eastern browns are responsible for the majority of them.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yup, deadly.
Eggs collected need to be emptied,or they rot, he wouldn't know that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I had cats, (Many cats) one day i noticed Mama cat with an 18 inch snake in her mouth, quite funny she was holding her head high and both ends of the snake dragged behind(Black snake).

Then I saw other cats with snakes and wondered where they were coming from. Later I moved a 55 gallon barrel and found a dozen eggshells.

Poor things, their momma must have laid them wherever the cats wern't, but they were live bait.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2012 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Too bad, RJ. Black snakes are actually beneficial. Saw a 2-foot one slithering by my house last summer. (I live in a populated area, so it's unusual.) Grabbed the cat and stomped the ground, and he slithered away. Hope he ate lots of bugs on the way.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/23/2012 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Hope the kid doesn't also have a funnel-web spider collection!
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/23/2012 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm reasonably lucky on my small property(21 acres)
All I've ever seen are red-bellied black snakes, who are relatively safe. Although my son did say, if you get bit by one don't bother calling an ambulance, you'll be dead before they get there(about 15 minutes)
Very reassuring!
Posted by: tipper || 12/23/2012 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Big Python Hunt (lol) getting ready to start down in the Everglades. Assault rocks allowed.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/23/2012 12:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Made 3 trips down under in the 80's and loved it completely, BUT...

Between the snakes, crocs, spiders, fish, etc. I think Ozzie is home to 75% of the worlds deadliest critters. At the zoo I went to up in Townsend they had an article on the top 10 snakes and 8 of them were indigenous. They scored it on the mega-mice scale, how many mice one normal dose would kill.

But I gotta say that the views down the beaches were breathtaking (not counting the sand or water ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 12/23/2012 15:24 Comments || Top||



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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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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2012-12-23
  Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
Sat 2012-12-22
  Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
Fri 2012-12-21
  U.N. Security Council Approves Mali Intervention Force
Thu 2012-12-20
  Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo

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