Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/09/2013 16:21
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#3
One study showed that California governments are over $1 trillion in debt. Most of that is in the form of unfunded pension and medical liabilities owed to state employees
To be a bit more accurate, it's monies owed to state-level pension funds for county, district, and local employees. One of the 'benefits' of having powerful unions like the CSEA and centralization.
#4
Fear notteth, Linda Ronstadt, all the US has to do is transfer the US Fed-State-Local Debt from the "National/State Debt", etc. Ledger to the OWG "Global/World Debt" Ledger ...
WHERE THE USoAMERIKA IS NO LONGER OFFICIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS PER SE NATIONAL DEBT UNDER POST-2015 OWG-NWO + GFU [but SSSSSHHH ... CCCCC weirdly-n-mysteriously, but only PCoincidentally, is irregardless].
Accounting tricks for that kinder, gentler, Fascists-for-Communism Globalist shennanigans.
Former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was able to hide in Pakistan for nine years due to the "collective failure" of state military and intelligence authorities, a leaked Pakistani government report has revealed.
The report, obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit,
...and available at the link, in English no less...
also outlines how "routine" incompetence at every level of civil governance structure allowed the once world's most wanted man to move to six different locations within the country.
The report of the Abbottabad Commission, formed in June 2011 to probe the circumstances around the killing of Bin Laden by US forces in a unilateral raid on the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, draws on testimony from more than 200 witnesses, including members of Bin Laden's family, Pakistan's then spy chief, senior ministers in the government and officials at every level of the military, bureaucracy and security services.
It was released by the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit on Monday, after being suppressed by the Pakistani government.
The Abbottabad Commission was charged with establishing if the failures of the Pakistani government and military were due to incompetence or complicity, and was given overarching investigative powers.
The Commission's 336-page report is scathing, holding both the government and the military responsible for "gross incompetence" leading to "collective failures" that allowed both Bin Laden to escape detection, and the United States to perpetrate "an act of war".
Of course they have to blame us infidels, but they're pretty harsh on the Pak government. Given that Nawaz is now in charge he could use this to beat on the army and intel if he wanted.
Moreover, through the testimony of Bin Laden's family members, intelligence officials and the wife of one of his couriers, the Commission was able to piece together a richly detailed image of Bin Laden's life on the run from authorities, including details on the secluded life that he and his family led in Abbottabad and elsewhere.
It found that Bin Laden entered Pakistan in mid-2002, after narrowly escaping capture in the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001. Intelligence officials say he stayed briefly in the South Waziristan and Bajaur tribal areas of Pakistan, before moving to the northern Swat Valley to stay with his guards, Ibrahim and Abrar al-Kuwaiti, for several months.
While in Swat, Bin Laden reportedly met with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks against the United States, in early 2003. A month later, Mohammad was captured in Rawalpindi in a joint US-Pakistani operation, and Bin Laden fled Swat.
Bin Laden turned up next in the town of Haripur, in northern Pakistan, where he stayed for two years in a rented house with two of his wives and several of his children and grandchildren.
In August 2005, they all moved to a custom-built compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison town located about 85km away from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. He stayed there for six years, until he was killed in the US operation in May 2011.
'Culpable negligence'
According to the Commission's investigations, Pakistan's intelligence establishment had "closed the book" on Bin Laden by 2005, and was no longer actively pursuing intelligence that could lead to his capture.
Moreover, it found that there had been a complete collapse of governance and law enforcement - a situation it termed "Government Implosion Syndrome", both in the lack of intelligence on Bin Laden's nine-year residence in Pakistan, and in the response to the US raid that killed him. It finds that "culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established".
On the presence of a CIA support network to help track down Bin Laden in Pakistan without the Pakistani establishments knowledge, the Commission determined that "this [was] a case of nothing less than a collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military and intelligence leadership of the country".
It also found that the US violation of Pakistani sovereignty, in carrying out the raid unilaterally, had been allowed to happen due to inaccurate and outdated threat assessment within the countrys defence and strategic policy establishments.
"It is official or unofficial defence policy not to attempt to defend the country if threatened or even attacked by a military superpower like the US?" the Commission asked of several top military officers.
Military officers, including the chief of the country's air force, testified that Pakistan's low-level radar was on "peacetime deployment", and hence not active on the border with Afghanistan, when the raid occurred.
The report concludes that unless there are major changes to Pakistan's defence strategy, it remains vulnerable to a repeat of such an airborne raid.
The Commission found that the country's "political, military intelligence and bureaucratic leadership cannot be absolved of their responsibility for the state of governance, policy planning and policy implementation that eventually rendered this national failure almost inevitable", and calls on key national leaders to formally apologise to the country for "their dereliction of duty".
Perhaps aware of the implications of its findings, the Commission noted that it had "apprehensions that the Commission's report would be ignored, or even suppressed", and urged the government to release it to the public.
It did not do so. The report was buried by the government and never released.
Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit obtained a copy of the Commission's report, and has now released it, in full, along with accompanying coverage to help unpick the details, and implications of its findings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013
13:08 ||
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#1
He was looked after by the ISI just like Mullah Omar, Haqquani senior and Zawahiri. Ask India how many wanted terrorists are in Pakistan. They are all income earners to blackmail the rest of the world.
It was not a coincidence that most high profile AlQ were caught in Pakistan.
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/09/2013 14:06
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#2
Military officers, including the chief of the country's air force, testified that Pakistan's low-level radar was on "peacetime deployment", and hence not active on the border with Afghanistan, when the raid occurred.
#3
> OBL had known KSM for many years prior to 2003. Anyone that says other is either mistaken or else intentionally giving out hype = false propanganda.
> I concur that he personally liked to wear Cowboy hats, + N-O-T just to avoid detection by US Drones, + that he also liked Chocolate.
#3
Can't turn a septic tank into a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Should have gone the glass parking lot route in 2001. Might still have the paks' attention if we'd done that...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/09/2013 11:58
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#4
If Obama thinks it is a good idea then it is probably a very bad one for the Free World.
#5
When we pull out I still think we have not dealt with the source of political islam ie Saudi, Pakistan and Iran.
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/09/2013 12:33
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#6
I second TFSM's sentiments. Afghanistan on a good day is in the condition that you threaten to beat your worst opponent into, as a forceful threat.
If Obumble pulls everyone out quickly, it will be the only thing he's ever done as President with which I agree enthusiastically. I have to assume that he and his cronies will think up some way to screw up even that good thing - but I will hope for the best.
#7
C'mon, he pulls out in 2013 and it'll be forgotten by the time the 2014 Congressional elections come around.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/09/2013 12:39
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#8
Lone Ranger has it right. We are never going to transform Afghanistan into anything positive. Get our men and women outta there ASAP. Every dollar spent and every life lost is a waste.
#10
It was a good idea as originally conceived in 2001: gob-smack the Taliban, support the Northern Alliance, and destroy al-Qaeda. We got about 95% of that mission done in less than a year.
Then GWB made a big mistake: he listened to Democrats, Europeans, and academia. He bought the "Pottery Barn" idea and thought that we had broken Afghanistan, so we had to fix it and "support democracy". Thus we embarked on "nation building", conveniently ignoring that in Afghanistan there is no nation to build.
If we no longer buy into this then a return to the 2001 plan is a good one: let the crazy Pashtuns and Paks have their playground in the south, and support the Northern Alliance.
But that won't win votes either.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013 13:06
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#11
Dr. Steve is correct. GWB blew the mission by believing his own "compassionate conservatism" malarky.
If you're going to nation build you have to take over lock, stock and barrel as we did in Japan post WWII. We can't/won't do that anymore so the shampoo approach is the correct one.
Re: 2014 vs. 2013 it is all about the election. If done in 2013 there's a whole year for the situation to go to hell, which it will no matter when we pull out. This way the Demoslobs can say "We pulled out the troops, hooray." while if they pull out in 2013 the 'pubs can run on the smoking ruins that will be there at that time.
#12
Dr. White is spot on. If there is anything to be saved [and that can be debated at great length], it is in the North. A counterinsurgency with a lengthy border sanctuary and safe haven, is a disaster waiting to happen. At this point the entire fok'n place isn't worth a single American or Allied life. Not one !
#16
E.G. STARS-N-STRIPES > AFGHANISTAN:[Post-2014] CIVILIAN LAYOFFS RAISES FEAR OF STRONGER INSURGENCY, i.e. that soon-to-be-layed-off former Us-NATO Aghan civilian workers will end up joining the Hard Boyz due to post-2014 national economic turmoil or chaos.
The above, + any + all prior MSM-Net Artics + Pert Analyses anticipating such is why mainstream Amers should never listen to the DemoLeft + aligned on why the US-Allies should NOT engage in "nation-building", "national rconstruction, or even "imperialism" when it comes to winning or engaging in overseas military conflicts ala "winning hearts-n-minds".
* MEMRI.ORG > AL-QAEDA TOP PAKISTANI OFFICER USTAD AHMED FAROOQ: WAR UNDERWAY IN [Pakistani] TRIBAL AREA IS THE BATTLE FOR THE WHOLE OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT.
D *** NG IT, DOES INDONESIA + ASEAN + WESTPAC KNOW???
[Lest we fergit, "RED STAR" TURBAN here].
versus
* SAME > [AL-HAYAT = 06/15/13] SENIOR SAUDI JOURNALIST: UNLESS SSAUDI ARABIA CAN ACT IMMEDIATELY TO REMOVE [Syria's] ASSAD FROM POWER, "NIGHTMARE " OF [Regional? TranS-Regional?]"SHIITE CRESCENT" MAY MATERIALIZE.
From Iran to the Mediterranean = now including EGYPT?
#1
Executive Order 13587=window dressing and impossible to enforce with the current manpower. Sort of like the so called border efforts associated w/ Reagan's illegal alien amnesty bill.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
07/09/2013 11:24
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At least 18 people were injured by a car bomb explosion in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, security sources said. The sources were unable to confirm initial reports from medics at the scene that an unspecified number were killed in the massive blast.
"This is the work of agents trying to create strife in Lebanon," said Hezbollah parliamentary Deputy Ali Meqdad at the site of the explosion.
And boy howdy do you have to work hard to create strife in Lebanon!
A reporter on the scene saw a large fire raging at the site of the explosion, which apparently targeted a shopping mall in the Bir al-Abed area. The area is also home to many Hezbollah political offices.
You mean they didn't have their offices in a hospital or baby milk factory?
Hezbollah gunmen cordoned off the area near the explosion, which damaged cars and buildings. Fires were raging in dozens of cars which were set ablaze in the parking lot where the car rigged with explosives was left.
A woman in southern Beirut said, "I haven't heard an explosion like this one since the 1980s (when a car bomb targeted Hezbollah's late spiritual leader Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah."
#7
The problem with cheering red-on-red terrorism: it's *hard* to bomb the other faction's hard boyz with any accuracy. Far easier to bomb someplace soft where maybe the hard boyz' cousins, nieces and nephews might be doing civilian crap.
We went over this in my freshman anthro course some twenty years ago. Studying primitive tribal cultures, yeah, the ritualized open-field daily "wars" make for spectacular documentary footage, with bare-assed strutting young SOBs running back and forth chucking spears and rocks and such at each other - but the body count in those displays is fairly low. All the fatalities in those cultures - and lord, there's a hell of a lot of deaths from violence in those cultures - was from the nighttime raids when the SOBs snuck into each other's hamlets and cut throats and smashed babies heads and all that.
So much easier, making war on those who can't defend themselves!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/09/2013 13:02
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#8
Far easier to bomb someplace soft where maybe the hard boyz' cousins, nieces and nephews might be doing civilian crap.
[Ynet] The Paleostinian news agency Maan reported that Egyptian army forces incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on Sunday 14 members of jihad groups in Sinai during an operation in the city of el-Arish.
According to Egyptian army sources, among those arrested there is one Paleostinian, who allegedly confessed that he intended to cooperate with other jihadist Death Eaters in Sinai in order to assassinate Egyptian army soldiers.
[Ynet] Dozens of members of Death Eater groups affiliated with the Moslem Brüderbund have left the Gazoo Strip headed to the Sinai Peninsula to fight the Egyptian army, Ynet has learned.
The bully boyz are taking part in the Moslem Brüderbund's struggle against the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. They had been taken part in battles in El-Arish over the weekend and attacked several Egyptian army posts.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/09/2013
00:18 ||
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#1
$20 bucks says they all get dead and buried in the desert.
A series of attacks killed at least 15 people in Iraq, officials said Monday, as insurgents aim to destabilize the country and undermine the government.
The deadliest strike was in the town of Madain, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Baghdad, when a bomb exploded near a youth centre killing six civilians and wounding three, police said.
In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded in a commercial area, killing one civilian and wounding 5 others, a police officer said. Also in Mosul, two militant groups shot and killed a police officer and a civilian in two separate attacks. Mosul, some 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, has been the scene of some of the deadliest unrest outside the capital in recent weeks.
Late Sunday, gunmen stopped a family of a policeman while they were driving home from a wedding party in a remote area near the town of Musayyib, killing the policeman, his parents, wife and two young children, mayor Abdul-Karim Abdul-Jabar said Monday. A police officer confirmed the attack.
Abdul-Jabar added that another 8-year child was wounded. Members of security forces and government officials and their families are the main targets for insurgent groups seeking to undermine government efforts to maintain security. Musayyib is located about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013
00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Afghanistan's intelligence agency is holding an Afghan-American translator on suspicion of torturing and killing civilians while working for US special forces, officials said Monday.
Zakrya Kandahari, who worked with the elite US troops in Wardak province bordering Kabul, was enjugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in May by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) following an order from 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... "Zakrya Kandahari... a translator for American special forces in Nerkh district of Wardak, accused of multiple felonies, was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! in a special operation," the spy agency said in its first report on the case.
Three guns, a laptop and several fake documents were found in his possession during the raid in the southern city of Kandahar, the NDS added in a statement.
Jawid Faisal, a front man for the governor of Kandahar, told AFP that Kandahari was arrested 45 days ago while hiding in a friend's house in the city and had been sent to Kabul.
Karzai in February ordered US special forces to leave Wardak, a hotbed of Taliban bad boy activity.
The Afghan government had accused Afghans working with US troops of torture and murder, and said it would tackle the alleged abuse which had triggered widespread outrage.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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[Dawn] At least fourteen people, including a police officer, were killed in different incidents of violence across Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Monday, DawnNews reported.
Two persons were killed in a gunfiring incident in Rafa-e-Aam society of Malir in Karachi.
Another two persons were killed in separate incidents of violence in Surjani town and Balida town's Raees Goth areas.
Another persons died of gunshot wounds in Lyari's Agra Taj area.
Earlier during the day two persons, including a police sub-inspector, were killed and another maimed in a gun-firing incident in Bilal colony in Karachi's Korangi area.
Two more persons were shot to death in Monday Bazaar (Pir Bazar) area in Orangi town locality of the city.
Another person was killed in New Karachi's Yousuf Goth area whereras another person was shot to death near Mewa Shah graveyard in Pak colony area.
Moreover three bodies were found in Karachi's Sea View, Old Sabzi Mandi (vegetable market), and Lea Market areas of the city.
In another incident two children were maimed when a tennis-ball like cracker device went kaboom! in Garden's Shoe market area in Karachi.
Police sources said that the two children brought a tennis-ball like cracker device inside their house in the evening during game-play which later went kaboom! injuring the children.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
00:00 ||
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#1
tennis-ball like cracker device
Home-made grenade or stray sub-munition?
[USATODAY] The White House is reviewing whether last week's removal of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi constituted "a coup" -- a decision that will affect billions in U.S. aid to the embattled nation.
"This is a complex and difficult issue, with significant consequences," said White House front man Jay Carney on Monday.
Sen. John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... , R-Ariz., and other politicians said what happened in Egypt last week was clearly a coup, as the military removed and placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! a democratically elected Morsi, established an interim government and called for new elections.
They have called for suspension of aid, if only to pressure the Egyptian military to follow through on its promise to hold new elections as quickly as possible. "If millions of Egyptians come to believe that democracy offers them no opportunity to advance their goals peacefully, it will only fuel violence and extremism," McCain said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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#1
It was the will of the people. Morsi wasn't following the rules.
I can't imagine a better way that this could have been practically accomplished.
#2
It was indeed a "military coup". Morsi had used executive fiats to sidestep the parliament which made the parliament essentially ineffective. Tourism had dwindled to virtually nothing and unemployment had skyrocketed. A number of high ranking members of the military had been purged. The will of the people was generally being ignored and a radical Islamic sharia government was being constructed through personal, non-elected appointment. All of these actions had created a politically divisive schism throughout the land.
Any similarities to our current political situation here in the States is of course, purely coincidental.
#3
Or as Charles the Hammer says in a posted article on Page 4 --
Nothing of the future of this revolution is going to depend on what happens in Washington. And I think [in] this argument, the word coup is an example of how we are infected by legalism. The policy of the United States ought to be set by our national interests and not lawyers in the State Department.
Infected by legalism. Most of DC is run by lawyers, yes?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/09/2013 6:35
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#4
Remember State was the one who called the act in Central America a 'coup' ignoring that the Constitution of that country called for the military to act when the politicians violated the Constitution.
#10
Morsi had used executive fiats to sidestep the parliament which made the parliament essentially ineffective.
Sounds suspiciously Obama's style.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/09/2013 16:51
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#11
The Bammer Admin has put up self-imposed "red lines" which have been crossed, + has repeatedly failed to act upon or enforce.
WINNER, OR SOON-ENUFF-WILL-BE = CHINA IN EAST ASIA, NUCLEAR IRAN, NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA, RADICAL ISLAM + NUCLEAR GLOBAL JIHAD = OWG/GLOBAL NUCLEAR CALIPHATE.
GAROWE, Somalia -- A dialogue process between Somalia's Federal Government (SFG) and the country's separatist region of Somaliland entered a third round of discussions hosted by the Turkish government in Istanbul, Garowe Online reports.
Parliamentary delegations representing the SFG and Somaliland are currently in Istanbul, led by Federal MP Khalid Omar Ali and MP Baashe Mohamed Farah, Deputy Speaker of Somaliland Parliament, respectively. Speaking on VOA Somali Service on Sunday, the two MPs said the talks commence on Monday and that the agenda is "continuation" of the agenda of talks in June 2012 in Dubai, and April 13, 2013, in Istanbul.
Head of Somaliland's delegation, Deputy Speaker Baashe Mohamed Farah, said the Somaliland delegation's agenda is clear in demanding full independence from the rest of Somalia.
In previous two rounds of talks, hosted by UAE and Turkish governments respectively, the dialogue process commenced and the key agreements included continuation of dialogue and prevention of divisive comments via the media.
That's, um, quite an accomplishment for two rounds of talks. Did you also determine the shape of the table and the color of the tablecloth?
Puntland region borders Somaliland's separatist region in northern Somalia and has fought sporadic territorial conflict with Somaliland over Sool and Sanaag regions for over a decade.
However, Puntland is not represented in the talks and Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole had previously declared that any talks between the federal government and Somaliland that excludes Puntland will not be recognized by the Puntland authorities.
Splitter! Though you'd think there is an obvious solution here, depending on the shape of the table...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013
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Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison rules during those five years -- and there are perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews.
From 1997 to 2010, the state paid doctors $147,460 to perform the procedure, according to a database of contracted medical services for state prisoners.
The women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant and housed at either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, which is now a men's prison.
Former inmates and prisoner advocates maintain that prison medical staff coerced the women, targeting those deemed likely to return to prison in the future.
Those involved should be hanged with extreme prejudice.
#2
Oceania is already overpopulated. A successfully green planet requires a degree of population control. The procedure comes at no cost to the resident. Funding and permits are available for tubal ligation reversals. Same-sex couples are free to opt out and accept cash settlements.
#3
Sounds like an example of ObamaCare. Doing things for the convenience of staff, not the needs of patients is what you'll get when you remove customer choice.
#4
The states (all 50 of them) have a century-old tradition of sterilizing people considered by the states to be inferior or defective. This is nothing new.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013 7:23
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#5
Excuse-me but isn't California a liberal state?
Ah, the confusion of classical liberalism with modern neo-socialism. The policies of Margaret Sanger are alive and being implemented. Her concepts were a big hit with other socialists. While American acts of use were somewhat selective and limited, the European implementation was run with full scale enthusiasm. The bureaucrats goals though were basically the same.
#6
Eugenics is very popular with the Lefty set. After all, lesser peoples shouldn't be allowed to breed. Only their finest slaves will be allowed to have more slaves for their utopia.
No, it's a "progressive" state. The most famous "progressive" was a guy named Hilter or something.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/09/2013 9:19
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#8
Notice that the major problem seems to be that the sterilizations were done without state approvals. In other words, if the state had approved, it would have been ok.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/09/2013 9:58
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#9
Remember it's the right wing bible thumpers who want to control a woman's body. /sarc off
Rethuglican governor during this time period, Rob.
Overruled -- member (by marriage, but still) of the Kennedy family.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/09/2013 12:40
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#14
More than a RINO Schwarzy is a democrat running fir the Republicans. Actually it was the only kind of "Republican" electable in California; Also I doubt Schwarzy had a free hand with the megislature or that he could nominate whoever he wanted to head the Department of Corrections.
#15
Since this was done without state approval I don't think who was governor matters, unless that is why they did it secretly.
It is scary to think there is even government approval/disapproval of this sort of thing or that doctors would knowingly go along with it. The world is darker than I had hoped.
#17
I know that the governator probably didn't' have much to do with it, and is a sorry excuse for a republican, but I also suspect that isn't how things are going to be reported.
Maybe this will spare us further bloviating from the global-warming alarmist driving around in his hummv.
#2
If only we could exploit a vast pool of former missionaries and near-native linguists who have served in stakes throughout the globe, along with a massive, world-wide genealogic data base. Rico, bring the car around. We need to go downtown.
Officials from North and South Korea in marathon talks from Saturday morning to the early hours of Sunday agreed in principle to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The officials met at the border truce village of Panmujom. They said both sides wish to "normalize operations" at the industrial park and "resolve difficulties" faced by the manufacturers that had to close their facilities.
The agreement comes 96 days after North Korea on April 3 closed the border to traffic going into the industrial park, apparently aggrieved by South Korean media reports that it would not be able to close the complex as it needs the money too badly.
The two sides agreed to let the South Korean manufacturers check and repair machinery in their factories and collect finished goods and raw materials. The North promised South Korean personnel safe passage.
Follow-up talks are scheduled for Wednesday in Kaesong, which is when the manufacturers will also visit.
But the two sides failed to agree on specific terms necessary for operations to resume. The South called on North Korea to admit responsibility for the shutdown of the industrial complex and provide solid guarantees for the safety of South Korean personnel. But North Korea apparently did not respond.
A government official here said the latest agreement was only "in principle" and added it does not signify a return to the former state of affairs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013
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[Al Ahram] Russia said on Monday that remarks by the new leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition have raised questions about his dedication to a political solution of the conflict, and urged the group to commit to attending a peace conference.
Ahmad Jarba, elected president of the coalition on Saturday, told Rooters the opposition would not go to the conference that Russia and the United States are trying to convene in Geneva unless its military fortunes improve.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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[Al Ahram] Turkish riot police on Monday fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to block demonstrators from entering a small Istanbul park, the birthplace of deadly unrest that engulfed the country last month.
The police move comes after Turkish authorities reopened Gezi Park to public use earlier in the day.
"Four people died for this park. This park will reopen!" a young demonstrator shouted, while others were trying to convince the police that their action was unfair and they should stop emptying the park.
But later in the day after police sealed off access to the central Taksim square and the adjacent park, a the cat-and-mouse game with protesters ensued in the nearby thoroughfares.
Earlier Monday when Turkish authorities reopened the park they warned that no further protests would be tolerated.
"Gezi Park has been reopened to public but there are many calls for unauthorised protests aimed at turning the park into an occupation zone," Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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GALKAYO, Somalia -- A Somali journalist was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, the fifth media worker to be killed in the conflict-ridden country this year, a colleague and witnesses said. Liban Abdulahi Farah, also known as Liban Qaran, worked for the newly launched Kalsan satellite television station.
He was attacked on his way home in the central town of Galkayo, on the border between the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the region of Galmudug.
"We are really devastated with the information about the death of Liban Qaran," said his colleague Abdukadir Ahmed. "Four armed men opened fire and killed him."
Mohamed Gelle, a witness, said the victim died instantly.
"They shot him several times in the upper part of his body," he said. "The killers escaped the scene."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Eight soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb explosion while providing security for teachers in Pattani province Monday morning. Soldiers from an infantry company were traveling in an army truck when the bomb was detonated remotely. The bomb weighed an estimated 30 kilograms and was inside a gas cylinder buried in the road.
LONDON -- Britain's government is banning Nigerian terrorist insurgent group Boko Haram, a move that makes membership of or support for the terrorist organization a criminal offense.
Britain's Home Office said in a statement Monday that Boko Haram would be added to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations, a roster of foreign and domestic terror groups that includes al-Qaida and the Irish Republican Army. The move is subject to parliamentary approval.
Boko Haram, a terrorist radical Muslim group whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," has been blamed for a spate of brutal terrorist attacks across Nigeria, including one on Saturday which left at least 30 people dead when a dormitory was set ablaze while the students slept.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2013
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#3
There's enough of these stories to rate a special pic, but I lack the Photoshop skills. How about something like this, but with the Nazi cross replaced with a Darwin fish?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/09/2013 2:41
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#11
So "too stupid to live" really is a valid diagnosis.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/09/2013 13:24
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#12
Does anyone else have a problem with Fox News freezing up one's pooter? It's constant and the only site that does it to moi. Ima gonna avoid it like the plague now. It even changed my nym here at the Burg and memory holed Dopey Sinatra this time.
[Al Ahram] The United States on Monday called on Egypt's military to exercise "maximum restraint" after dozens of people were killed while demonstrating against last week's ouster of president Mohamed Morsi. "Egypt's stability and democratic political order are at stake," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters during a briefing in which she said Washington "strongly" condemns violence on all sides.
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[Al Ahram] Syria's rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto announced his resignation on Monday, nearly four months after his appointment and having failed to form a government. "I announce I will not continue in my capacity as prime minister tasked with leading the interim government, though I emphasise I will continue working for the interests of the revolution and towards achieving its objectives," Hitto said in an online statement.
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Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Monday that the Iranian forces are to test fire new generation of missiles and unmanned planes in the near future, IRNA reported.
Iran has attained significant success in other defense sectors which will be made known to public in due time, Vahidi said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
See also TOPIX > [AEI] IRAN CAN "CRUSH US WARSHIPS LIKE CANS".
* Also from TOPIX > US CONGRESS DELAYS AID TO SYRIAN REBELS - SOURCES.
Pray tell, what "aid" what that???
* SAME > [CNN.com] SYRIA A "TEN-YEAR ISSUE", TOP US GENERAL SAYS. USA Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
* SAME > JIHADISTS SEE EGYPT TURN [Morsi coup] AS PROOF [US-Western style Liberal Secular]DEMOCRACY IS INEFFECTIVE.
Moreso iff the USA = POTUS Bammer isn't going to do anything other than give PCorrect = PDeniable, Wafflely lip service to support of same, includ his own "red lines".
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG = TAKE PLACE, in saidsame 10 years???
> Loss of 1/2 of the Pacific to China + PLA.
> Loss of Middle East + Other to Radical Islam + Global Jihad + OWG/Global Nuclear Caliphate.
LOSSES TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT THE US CAN NEITHER HOPE TO STOP OR REVERSE IT, NOR ESCAPE ANY LOSS OF ITS OWN POWER-N-INFLUENCE ACROSS THE WORLD.
Iran = China = best anti-US weapon is alleged Marxist-Anarchist-Globalist POTUS Obama himself, + the Sequester + US Govtcritters love for expanding the US Debt, Welfare-Nanny State to new heights.
Again, "GLOBALISM" + OWG-NWO + "MULTI-POLAR WORLD" = THE WORLD HAS SEVERAL "SOLE" NUCLEAR SUPERPOWERS ON PAR AT #1, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE US OF AMERIKA.
* 1990's CLINTONISM = "The US [ + O-N-L-Y the US] has to be Restrained/Controlled".
As per the repor growth of Bestiality + S-&-M Clubs in Germany - D *** NG IT, YOU'RE NOT WHIPPING ME OR HANDCUFFING ME HARD ENOUGH!
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Rebel campaign has called for an independent investigation into what it described as the "lamentable" violence outside a Cairo military barracks early Monday in which dozens of protesters were killed in festivities with security personnel.
At least 51 were killed and 435 injured in violence between Egypt's army and supporters of toppled president Mohamed Morsi outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo's Nasr City district.
The Rebel campaign, which was the driving force behind the 30 June protests culminating in Morsi's ouster, urged the president's supporters, namely the Moslem Brüderbund, "not to drag the country into a violent conflict."
In a Monday statement, the group claimed that it had adhered to peaceful protest on 30 June. It went on to blame outbreaks of violence since Morsi's ouster on the Moslem Brüderbund, the group which propelled Morsi to the presidency last year.
Running street battles between supporters and opponents of the toppled president in Cairo and other Egyptian governorates have led to dozens of deaths and injured hundreds of injuries, raising the spectre of further violence and polarisation.
Rebel also called on the pro-Morsi camp to distance itself from calls for escalation or international intervention.
The Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party has called for international mediation in the aftermath of recent violence, so as to "prevent more massacres" and stop Egypt from following the same route as strife-torn Syria.
Some politicians condemned the Brotherhood's call, urging leaders of the Islamist party to engage in talks with Egypt's interim administration -- installed by the military following Morsi's ouster -- and the armed forces to resolve the current political standoff.
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[Dawn] At least nine people, including two bomb disposal officers, were killed Monday in two separate kabooms in restive northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
Station House Officer (SHO) Doaba cop shoppe Rahim Khan said a jacket wallah rammed his cycle of violence into the vehicle of a tribal elder in KP's Hangu district ... Hangu is famous for its greenery, hills, beauty and water. Most of the people of this area are Bangash & Orakzai Pashtuns. Part of the Bangash are Shia. The Orakzai and the Sunni Bangash are determined to kill them... , killing seven people.
Ten other people were also maimed in the blast near a bus stand in Hangu's Doaba tehsil.
The kaboom also destroyed seven other vehicles.
The injured and the dead were shifted to a local hospital as law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and launched their investigation.
Sources said local tribal elder Malik Habibullah Khan was the intended target of the blast.
News agency AFP quoted local police chief Sajjad Khan as saying that Malik Habibullah was not in the car when the bomb went kaboom!.
No myrmidon group has yet grabbed credit for the attack.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the congregants were being herded into the paddy wagon... at least two bomb disposal officers were killed while attempting to defuse a bomb in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Swabi district.
District Police Officer Dr Mian Muhammad Saeed said that six bombs were planted to target a government school in Jamalabad area of Swabi.
The bomb disposal unit officials were defusing the road-side bombs when one of the devices went kaboom!, killing both officers on the spot.
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] The Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production organised a policy seminar on "Defending Pakistain Through Cyber Security Strategy" in coordination with Pakistain Information Security Association (PISA) in order to address security issues related to the internet.
The event was held at the Pakistain Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) in the federal capital city of Islamabad in wake of startling revelations made by Edward Snowden who claimed that the American National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on Pakistain through internet and online communication systems with 13.5 billion pieces of email, phone and fax communications intercepted.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, Chairman of Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production, in his welcoming address, highlighted the cyber security threat and how it can affect Pakistain's national defence, security, intelligence, diplomacy, nuclear and missile programme, economy, energy, education, civil aviation as well as industrial and manufacturing units both in the private and public sector.
"Cyber security is an issue of paramount importance for Pakistain's stability and progress," the Senator added.
"Our cyber security must have three fundamental elements. Pakistain's digital infrastructure must have the ability to resist attacks, cyber penetration and disruption; Defend against emerging cyber threats, whether state sponsored or otherwise, and ability to retaliate regionally, at least; Ability to recover quickly from cyber incidents, whether caused by cyber aggression, accident or natural disaster," said Mushahid Hussain while addressing the participants of the moot.
Since last year, the Senate Committee on Defence & Defence Production had identified cyber warfare as a new, non-military security threat to the country given its location and strategic role.
During the Q&A Session, Senator Farhatullah Babar suggested the formation of a focal ministry or division exclusively to handle cyber security issues.
He said laws for data protection should be introduced and in this regard, industry experts have to join hands with Parliamentarians.
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[USATODAY] According to Al Jazeera, the report finds the government's intention in conducting the inquiry was likely aimed at "regime continuance, when the regime is desperate to distance itself from any responsibility for the national disaster that occurred on its watch." It says that the inquiry was likely "a reluctant response to an overwhelming public and parliamentary demand."
The report blames "Government Implosion Syndrome" for lack of intelligence on bin Laden's nine-year residence in Pakistan and its response to the U.S. raid.
The commission says Bin Laden and his family were apparently able to stay and travel in Pakistan without detection because he had a small, but dedicated, network "that met their every need."
"They kept a very low profile and lived extremely frugally," the report says. "They never exposed themselves to public view. They had the cover of the two Pakistani Pashtun couriers cum security guards. They had minimum security. OBL successfully minimized any 'signature' of his presence. His minimal support blended easily with the surrounding community."
Al Jazeera quotes the report as saying the commission finds that "culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established."
The report focuses intently on the night of the raid, interviewing bin Laden's family and members of the household extensively.
In summing up its assessment of the killing of bin Laden, the commission spares few words:
The whole episode of the U.S. assassination mission of May 2, 2011 and the Pakistan government's response before, during and after appears in large part to be a story of complacency, ignorance, negligence, incompetence, irresponsibility and possibly worse at various levels inside and outside the government.
Among other findings:
Bin Laden entered Pakistan in mid-2002 after narrowly escaping capture in the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. Over nine years, he moved to various places inside the country, including South Waziristan and northern Swat Valley.
In Swat, the al-Qaeda leader reportedly met with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in early 2003. About a month later, KSM was captured in Rawalpindi in a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation, and bin Laden fled the area.
Bin Laden, along with two of his wives and several children and grandchildren, moved into the custom-built compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison town, in 2005 and lived there until the U.S. raid.
Bin Laden was very concerned about surveillance. The report says bin Laden wore a cowboy hat outside to avoid detection from above and considered buying and cutting down a row of poplar trees on the perimeter of the Abbottabad compound because he thought it might provide cover for observers.
The presence of a CIA support network to help track down bin Laden without the Pakistani establishment's knowledge was "a case of nothing less than a collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military and intelligence leadership of the country."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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#1
Bin Laden was having an affair too? That Jill Kelley sure gets around.
#2
The presence of a CIA support network to help track down bin Laden without the Pakistani establishment's knowledge was "a case of nothing less than a collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military and intelligence leadership of the country."
[BBC.CO.UK] Egypt's interim leader has outlined his timetable for new elections, amid continuing unrest in the country.
Adly Mansour's decree envisages changes to the Islamist-drafted constitution and a referendum, which would pave way the way for elections early next year.
This comes as at least 51 people were killed in the capital Cairo.
The Moslem Brüderbund says its members were fired on at a sit-in for ousted President Mohammad Morsi. The army says it responded to an armed provocation.
Mr Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt's first freely elected leader, was removed from office by the army last week after mass protests.
His supporters accuse the military of staging a coup, but his opponents say the move is the continuation of the revolution that deposed President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in 2011.
Protests
Mr Mansour issued the decree late on Monday.
It says that a panel to amend the constitution - which was suspended last week - would be formed within 15 days.
The changes would then be put to a referendum - to be organised within four months.
This would lead to parliamentary elections - which could be held early in 2014.
Finally, presidential elections would be called once the new parliament convenes.
The Moslem Brüderbund has so far made no public comment on the proposed timetable.
Mr Mansour's move comes amid continuing mass protests by both supporters and opponents of Mohammad Morsi.
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[Al Ahram] The White House on Monday condemned "explicit" calls to violence by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and said it would take its time to determine whether the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi was a military coup. When asked how long it would take to determine whether Egypt's military had carried out a coup by forcing Morsi from power, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was wary of moving "unnecessarily quickly."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was wary of moving "unnecessarily quickly."
That's been the administration's modus operandi since 2008.
[Al Ahram] Attacks around Iraq have killed at least 21 people, the latest in a spike of Death Eater violence aimed at destabilizing the country and undermining the government, officials said Monday.
The deadliest strike hit the town of Madain, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , where a bomb went kaboom! near a youth center, killing six civilians and wounding three, police said.
In the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, a boom-mobilewent kaboom! in a commercial area, killing one civilian and wounding five others, a police officer said. Another parked boom-mobilekaboom killed five civilians and maimed seven.
Also in djinn-infested Mosul, three bully boy groups shot and killed a police officer, a provincial front man and a civilian in separate attacks.
djinn-infested Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Storied Baghdad, has been the scene of some of the deadliest unrest outside the capital in recent weeks.
The attacks are part of a spike in violence in recent months that is raising worries Iraq is heading back toward widespread sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
Late Sunday, gunnies stopped a family of a policeman while they were driving home from a wedding party in a remote area near the town of Musayyib, killing the policeman, his parents, wife and two young children, mayor Abdul-Karim Abdul-Jabar said. A police officer confirmed that the attack took place.
Abdul-Jabar said an 8-year child was maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
the religion of peace wishes you a happy Ramadan
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/09/2013 14:38
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Saddam Hussein's half brother and former director of his feared general security services died of cancer on Monday in a Baghdad hospital, a senior official said. Sabawi Ibrahim Al Hassan, who had received several death sentences, was transferred to the hospital from prison as his health deteriorated at dawn. His body will be handed over to his family.
Al-Hassan had lived in exile for a period after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but was deported to Iraq by the Syrian government in 2005. He was suspected of directing and financing insurgency operations by Saddam loyalists in Iraq from Syria.
His photo appeared as the Six of Diamonds in decks of playing cards distributed by the US military featuring members of Saddam's deposed regime. Al Hassan was No. 36 on the US list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis at the time.
Under Saddam, Al Hassan served as head of intelligence and security during the 1991 Gulf War. He then ran the general security services until 1996, when he took up his final post of presidential adviser to Saddam.
His son, Ayman Sabawi Ibrahim, was arrested in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped in northern Iraq in late 2006.
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#1
Sabawi Ibrahim Al Hassan, who had received several death sentences
[Al Ahram] Moderate-Islamist Wasat Party says military's departure from domestic politics is 'only solution' to Egypt's current precarious state of affairs
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Teresa Heinz Kerry's condition has been upgraded from critical to "fair," according to a front man, after the wife of Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... was rushed to a Massachusetts hospital over the holiday weekend.
Kerry front man Glen Johnson said Monday that Heinz Kerry continues to undergo further evaluation. He said the secretary of State and other members of the family are with her at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Doctors upgraded her condition after conducting a series of tests.
"The family is touched by the outpouring of well-wishes," he said.
Heinz Kerry was first taken by ambulance to a Nantucket hospital on Sunday. The family has not offered additional details on her condition, though speculation has focused on symptoms potentially connected with those of a seizure.
Nantucket Police Lt. Jerry Adams said a call requesting medical aid was received just after 3:30 p.m. for a home on Hulbert Avenue, and an ambulance was dispatched. Online records show the property is connected to Heinz Kerry's family.
#2
* PACIFICNEWSCENTER > FURLOUGHS BEGIN FOR 50,000 FULL-TIME NATIONAL GUARDSMEN, INCLUDING GUAM.
RELATED GLOBAL TIMES.CN > US PENTAGON STARTS FURLOUGHS OF CIVILIAN WORKERS.
* MARIANAS VARIETY GUAM > IMF'S LAGARDE: US BUDGET CUTS [Sequestration] ARE INAPPROPRIATE, i.e. more likely to hinder or stifle growth.
* NEW YORK TIMES > US CONSIDERS FASTER PULLOUT FRON AFGHANISTAN WID NO TROOPS LEFT BEHIND, i.e. "Zero" US Troops Option.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > IN OKINAWA, TALK OF BREAK WID JAPAN TURNS SERIOUS.
RELATED WORLD MILITARY FORUM > JAPAN'S COMMUNISTS, OKINAWA-BASED CHINESE, INDIGENOUS SOCIETIES CALL FOR END OF CHINA-JAPAN SENKKAUS/DIAOYUS DISPUTE, AUTONOMY + WITHDRAWAL OF US MILITARY FORCES FROM OKINAWA.
* Also from WORLD MILITARY FORUM > NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: US PACIFIC "PIVOT" USELESS IFF PHILIPPINES + JAPAN [First Island Chain] "LOST" TO US.
* SAME > PLA MGEN. LUO YUAN:RISK OF US-CHINA OR EAST ASIA WAR INCREASED DUE TO RETURN OF US + JAPAN, ETC. [Australia? ASEAN?] TO SUBIC BAY + CLARK USAF BASES IN PHILIPPINES. COMPLETION OF HOSTILE US-LED CONTAINMENT OR ISOLATION OF MAINLAND CHINA. CONTROL OF SENKAKUS, OKINAWA, + TAIWAN MORE IMPERATIVE OR URGENT FOR CHINA THAN EVER BEFORE. PLA LR ATTACKS TO CAPTURE OR NEUTRALIZE US BASES IN GUAM, MARIANAS.PLAAF AIRPOWER, SUBMARINES IN SUPPORT OF AIRBORNE FORCES.
* WORLD NEWS > CCP: US MILITARY PRESENCE IN PHILIPPINES HINDERS PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF TERRITORIAL ROW.
* GLOBAL TIMES.CN > WHITE HOUSE SEES BUDGET DEFICIT SHRINKING TO US$759.0BILYUHN IN FY2013.
As per MURPHY'S LAWS, iff the Bammer = USoAmerika can give up Guam-WESTPAC widout firing a shot due to excessive National Debt burdens, why fire a shot also to save China-desired HAWAII + 1/2 of CONUS-NORAM???
#3
If he resigns, would there be any noticeable difference in the State Dept? The career weasel-wordsmiths at Foggy Bottom are already running the place with little attention paid to the otiose popinjay SecState.
#5
Unless THK's condition is much more serious than disclosed, I don't see it happening. This guy is in doing the job he feels he was destined to do. His rolodex is HUGE and he revels in being in the thick of big foreign policy issues. He is tireless and runs his staff ragged - though they all say he's a nice guy. The WH may try to rein him in but he's livin' the dream.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
07/09/2013 6:22
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#9
That it is even a question further erodes whatever authority is left after being caught playing on his dingy then covered for. Seems like he is batting below the Mendoza line, but he is a superstar - so who would replace him.
[Al Ahram] Jordan's Moslem Brüderbund on Monday condemned the "massacre" of 51 loyalists of Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and urged more demonstrations to restore him.
"We strongly condemn the massacre committed by the neo coupists that has clearly showed the truth about the bloody military coup," the Islamic Action Front ...Jordan's branch of the Moslem Brüderbund... (IAF), the political arm of the Moslem Brüderbund, said on its website.
"We hail the millions of people demonstrating to defend the legitimacy and urge the great Egyptian people to continue their protests to foil the military coup and restore the elected president."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] An Arab Israeli was sent to jail on Monday for more than two years for going to Syria where he joined rebels battling against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath...
Hikmat Massarwa, from Taibe village in Galilee, was given 30 months in prison by Lod District Court as part of a plea bargain in which he admitted contacts with an enemy agent, illegally leaving the country and infiltration.
Israel is technically at war with Syria and it is illegal for its citizens to travel there.
Massarwa, born in 1984, was jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! on March 19 after returning from Syria, where he underwent military training with the rebels, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said in April.
A Shin Bet statement said: "Massarwa went to Syria with the aim of joining world jihad elements who are working against the Syrian army" and had military training at a rebel camp he helped set up.
The original indictment included the charge of undergoing military training, which was removed in the plea bargain.
Massarwa told Sherlocks that he went to Syria to look for his brother, who was fighting there, Monday's ruling read.
The Shin Bet noted that Massarwa was approached by rebel forces to "carry out a suicide kaboom against the forces of the Assad regime, but he says he refused to do it".
"The General Security Services (Shin Bet) sees Arab Israelis going to Syria as a very dangerous phenomenon," the agency said.
A Shin Bet spokeswoman said at the time that there had been only isolated incidents of Arab Israelis going to Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
He needs to lose his citizenship and be booted out of the country. If he comes back, he is an enemy and dealt with as such.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2013 0:57
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The Islamist group Boko Haram has been officially banned by the Nigerian government and declared a terrorist network.
The move follows an announcement by the United States that it will pay an unprecedented bounty for the capture of key leaders of terror networks in West and North Africa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#2
Marie Prevost (November 8, 1898 January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born film actress. During her twenty-year career, she made 121 silent and talking pictures.
After being let go by Warner Bros. in early 1926, Prevost's career began to decline and she was relegated to secondary roles. She was also beset with personal problems, including the death of her mother in 1926 and the breakdown of her marriage to actor Kenneth Harlan in 1927, which fueled her depression. She began to abuse alcohol and binge eat causing her to gain weight thus making it difficult for her to secure acting jobs.
After years of drinking, Prevost died of acute alcoholism at the age of 38 in January 1937. Prevost's estate was valued at $300 since she had squandered most of her earnings. Her death prompted the Hollywood community to create the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
07/09/2013 11:07
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[Al Ahram] Unknown assailants have attacked the traffic police directorate in Egypt's Port Said, reported Ahram's Arabic website.
The website quoted Port Said's security chief as saying that "Islamists" used cars and cycle of violences to attack the government building in a drive-by shooting.
The shooting was met with police fire and the perpetrators, who fled, are being tracked down by security, Ahram reported.
Another shooting took place at the city's port, targeting trucks. The shooters also expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.
The attacks follow recent unrest after the Egyptian military intervened last week to depose president Mohamed Morsi, fulfilling the demands of millions of Egyptians who erupted into the streets on 30 June.
Violence surged Monday morning as 51 pro-Morsi protesters and an army officer died in festivities between the supporters of the deposed president and the Republican Guard in Cairo.
The Egyptian army blamed gangs of Morsi supporters for initiating the violence, while the president's supporters claimed that peaceful protesters were attacked by the army during dawn prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2013
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WASHINGTON -- The nation's top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public. SOCOM now in charge of file storage at CIA ?
The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act. Alarm bells only are only for surprises.
An acknowledgement by Adm. William McRaven of his actions was quietly removed from the final version of an inspector general's report published weeks ago. Long, long ago. You'd hardly remember. In fact, I can now hardly remember Dr. Shakil Afridi
#1
The existing federal rules on transfer or destruction of materials were ignored to execute this attempt to bury information. Anyone who has had to do the annual retirement or transfer of records understands what was pulled here.
[Dawn] EVERYTHING is rotten about the state of policing in Pakistain: politicised, incompetent, corrupt, insensitive, ill-disciplined, collusion with crime mafias, etc. So, who will police the police?
The origins of abusive police behaviour are rooted in our colonial past. The police in half the country's provinces, even in Islamabad, still operate under the 1861 law enacted after the 1857 insurrection against British rule.
The law provides for a police force that relies on fear, intimidation and officially sanctioned violence to protect the state. Missing from the act is language promoting the idea of the police protecting the people or having good relations with the community.
Beyond the archaic legal framework, police services suffer from several contemporary problems. The rank and file of the 625,000-member police departments is not recruited on merit; the coppers are poorly educated, ill-trained, badly equipped and underpaid.
Most of the nation's cop shoppes are in dilapidated buildings. Some posts and substations are in makeshift structures. Police are expected to work long hours seven days a week and often go months without time off.
Not surprisingly, junior police officials who are abused by the system and their supervisors treat the public in kind. With low self-esteem no one can serve the community with commitment. So, are the police villains or victims of neglect?
Past efforts to reform the police system, and which sought to change the fundamental conditions and legal framework of policing, have never gained real traction.
An attempt at comprehensive reform was made through the introduction of the 2002 Police Order. While it has remained controversial in part because it was introduced by a military government, this legislation was centred on the principles of fully devolving responsibility for policing to the provinces and strengthening the operational independence of the police.
The 2002 order sought to transform the police from an Irish Constabulary military force model to a modern, service-oriented, non-political, accountable and professional 21st-century institution.
While the order was broadly considered a sound piece of legislation, it was distorted by a number of amendments in 2004. It ultimately failed to take hold and was never properly implemented.
This has been largely attributed to the fact that it was imposed without sufficient stakeholder buy-in at the provincial and district levels. The civil services and vested political interests had strongly opposed the move, as it entailed the loss of direct management authority over the police at the local level.
The picture is now more complex. With the passing of the 18th Amendment, there is now added impetus at the provincial level to bring changes in police laws. This devolution of power has set the provincial governments to restructure relations between politicians, public and the police.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... there is now a danger of replicating old models already proven to be ineffective in light of the limited central capacity to provide standardised approaches.
There is now an urgent requirement to engage with policymakers at all levels, including the legislature and the executive to reach agreement on the current and future priorities of police reform. Unless the difficult issues of oversight, neutrality and accountability are addressed, the experience of policing for ordinary citizens will not improve.
While Sindh, Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , Islamabad, Azad Kashmire and Gilgit-Baltistan are still in 19th-century governance mode, Punjab and KP are in the middle of nowhere, suspended in a truncated 2002 Police Order in theory and following the 1861 Act in practice.
The new federal and provincial governments face this dilemma and need to show political will to move ahead in unison to fulfil the public expectations of politically neutral, highly accountable and professionally competent police services that uphold the rule of law.
It is reported that Punjab is set to promulgate a new police law. Both the federal government in Islamabad and the provincial government in Punjab, led by the same political party, need to exercise caution and follow a well-considered national approach.
It all starts from superintendence, direction and control of the police in the legal framework. While superintendence vests in the government i.e. the chief executive and the cabinet, it amounts to keeping the police within constitutional and legal confines and does not mean using the police as an instrument of state oppression or to settle political scores.
The domain of direction relates to policies and does not imply picking and choosing coppers at whim and interfering in the administrative and operational matters of policing.
Unfortunately, everyone wielding influence in this country wants to 'control' the police. The resultant fractured command has a debilitating effect on police discipline and morale, with the inspector general of police trying to juggle a plethora of formal and informal control mechanisms.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This question has been asked since the days of the Romans (the poet Juvenal) Welcome to the 1st century AD, Pakistain.
#3
Oh wow, and here I thought the article was about the United States...
I think Peel's 7th Principle of policing applies: "Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence."
#7
It helps aligning yourself with a winner as they did in the First Gulf War, deploying around 35,000 that included two armored divisions and 5,000 paratroopers.
Joint Forces Command - North
At 1600 hours 24 February, the 3rd Egyptian Mechanized Division, TF Khalid and TF Muthannah began to attack Iraqi positions in Kuwait. They encountered Iraqi fire trenches, minefields, barriers, and harassing fires as they crossed the border in their zone. Saudi and Kuwaiti forces began the offensive shortly after the Egyptians. The Egyptians, concerned about an Iraqi armored counterattack, halted their advance short of their initial objectives and established blocking positions in sector for the night. They resumed offensive operations at daybreak the following day. Meanwhile, the 4th Egyptian Armored Division prepared to follow the 3rd Egyptian Mechanized Division. The 9th Syrian Armored Division followed the Egyptian Divisions as the JFC-N reserve and conducted screening operations with one reconnaissance battalion on the right flank to tie in with MARCENT. - cit
[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... would not reject any mercy petitions of criminals facing the death penalty as long as he is in office, a close presidential aide said Monday.
Presidential front man Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar confirmed that President Zardari would prolong the matter until he retires on September 8, 2013.
In Pakistain, all executions must be approved by the president.
A presidential order issued in 2008 had imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. The Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) government decided to end the moratorium after the presidential order expired on 30 June.
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There were 67 people shot and 11 killed over the long Independence Day weekend in Chicago. Of the 67, eight were shot, with one killed, in a single Saturday evening attack in the West Side neighborhood of Lawndale.
The Chicago Tribune lists the details of the some of the gruesome shootings:
At Stroger [Cook County Hospital] were: a woman, 72, with a wound to an ankle; a woman, 41, with a wound to her right thigh; a man, 43, with gunshot wounds to the leg and back; a man, 45, shot in the penis and right thigh; and a man, 48, shot in the leg and buttocks. At Mount Sinai were: a man, 31, shot in the wrist, and a woman, 20, shot in the right leg. Police described all the victims as having had their conditions stabilized. Man shot in penis? And we know the victim was a man how?
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy issued a press release in June boasting of the more than 2900 firearm seizures the department had made in 2013: Boasting was he?
"We continue to achieve significant decreases in murders, shootings, and overall crime this year, yet there are too many illegal guns on our streets," said Superintendent McCarthy. "The passage of significant legislation in Springfield last week requiring reporting the loss and theft of guns is an important step forward and there's more work to be done to keep illegal weapons off our streets."
Despite the seizures, and technically lower overall crime statistics for the year, of which Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy consistently remind Chicagoans, the murder rate since early May is rivaling the same period for 2012's year-long bloodbath in the city of Chicago. Chicagoans, like the rest of America, must constantly be reminded..... bad news is actually good news.
For the 28 days leading up to this past Father's Day weekend--another bloodbath itself, in which 46 were shot and 8 were killed, including one shot by a police officer--murder numbers matched 2012 exactly with 41. Chicago Police data show that in the two weeks following, another 27 were gunned down and killed. Look for the 'silver lining'. Funeral business is BOOMING !
#2
I wonder if the recent WIA/KIA spike is the criminal element taking care of business, before it will be legal for anyone to carry concealed in IL, starting tomorrow. Y'know, like stocking up on smokes before a tax hike.
[Al Ahram] Tunisia's public prosecutor Monday ordered police to investigate an attack on 19 actors by Salafist Mohammedans, while they decided whether to charge the artists with alleged "indecency", a lawyer for the drama group said.
"The public prosecutor decided ...to allow the investigation to progress so that coppers could hear the artists' statements as victims," their lawyer Ghazi Mrabet said.
The actors had been due to appear before the public prosecutor on Monday, and were expected to be charged with indecency.
Mrabet added that the prosecutor had not yet decided whether or not to press charges against the members of the theatre troupe.
"The artists should receive a summons from the police now," he said.
The group was putting on a performance in the western town of Kef in a small theatre and in the street when ultra-conservative Salafist Mohammedans attacked them.
Supporters of the actors said that police had not bothered the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , while they placed in durance vile Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! the artists and asked for them to be prosecuted for indecent behaviour, a charge that carries a sentence of up to six months in prison.
Police have not made their statements available to the actors' defence lawyers, so the exact nature of what they are accused of remains unclear.
The performance in question was organised to raise funds for a local theatre in Kef damaged in an arson attack.
Police said the performance was also a tribute to anti-Islamist MP Chokri Belaid, who was assassinated in February by suspected Salafists. Entertainers are frequent targets of Salafists.
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[Al Ahram] Syria's ruling Baath party, headed by the country's embattled Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , announced on Monday that its top leadership would be replaced, including Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa.
The party's central committee "held a lengthy meeting... on Monday morning," at which "a new national leadership was chosen," the Baath party website said.
It published the names of the new leadership, which included none of the party's old chiefs with the exception of Assad.
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[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party proposed an initiative on Monday as an alternative to the army-imposed "roadmap" for Egypt's political transition, which was unveiled last week by Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
The initiative, the party said, should involve all political currents, along with the armed forces. It should also include the formation of a committee tasked with fostering "national reconciliation."
The committee, the party added, should "tackle the problem from the very beginning, when Mohamed Morsi came in conflict with opposition forces, and should include credible figures under Al-Azhar's supervision."
Wonder what kind of solution a committee sponsored and supervised by Islamic holy men would devise?
The initiative came in response to statements made by Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, who had initially endorsed the military-imposed roadmap, in which El-Tayeb called for alternative proposals for the country's post-Morsi transitional phase.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
At least 18 people were injured by a car bomb explosion in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, security sources said. The sources were unable to confirm initial reports from medics at the scene that an unspecified number were killed in the massive blast.
[Ynet] The Paleostinian news agency Maan reported that Egyptian army forces 
[Dawn] Afghanistan's intelligence agency is holding an Afghan-American translator on suspicion of torturing and killing civilians while working for US special forces, officials said Monday.
[Dawn] At least fourteen people, including a police officer, were killed in different incidents of violence across 
[USATODAY] The White House is reviewing whether last week's removal of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi constituted "a coup" -- a decision that will affect billions in U.S. aid to the embattled nation.
Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
Officials from North and South Korea in marathon talks from Saturday morning to the early hours of Sunday agreed in principle to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The officials met at the border truce village of Panmujom. They said both sides wish to "normalize operations" at the industrial park and "resolve difficulties" faced by the manufacturers that had to close their facilities. 
[Al Ahram] Turkish riot police on Monday fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to block demonstrators from entering a small Istanbul park, the birthplace of deadly unrest that engulfed the country last month.
[Al Ahram] Syria's rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto announced his resignation on Monday, nearly four months after his appointment and having failed to form a government. "I announce I will not continue in my capacity as prime minister tasked with leading the interim government, though I emphasise I will continue working for the interests of the revolution and towards achieving its objectives," Hitto said in an online statement.
Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Monday that the Iranian forces are to test fire new generation of missiles and unmanned planes in the near future, IRNA reported.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Rebel campaign has called for an independent investigation into what it described as the "lamentable" violence outside a Cairo military barracks early Monday in which dozens of protesters were killed in 
[Dawn] At least nine people, including two bomb disposal officers, were killed Monday in two separate 
[Dawn] The Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production organised a policy seminar on "Defending Pakistain Through Cyber Security Strategy" in coordination with Pakistain Information Security Association (PISA) in order to address security issues related to the internet.
[USATODAY] According to Al Jazeera, the report finds the government's intention in conducting the inquiry was likely aimed at "regime continuance, when the regime is desperate to distance itself from any responsibility for the national disaster that occurred on its watch." It says that the inquiry was likely "a reluctant response to an overwhelming public and parliamentary demand."
Saddam Hussein's half brother and former director of his feared general security services died of cancer on Monday in a Baghdad hospital, a senior official said. Sabawi Ibrahim Al Hassan, who had received several death sentences, was transferred to the hospital from prison as his health deteriorated at dawn. His body will be handed over to his family.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The Islamist group Boko Haram has been officially banned by the Nigerian government and declared a terrorist network.
[Dawn] EVERYTHING is rotten about the state of policing in Pakistain: politicised, incompetent, corrupt, insensitive, ill-disciplined, collusion with crime mafias, etc. So, who will police the police?
President Asif Ali 
There were 67 people shot and 11 killed over the long Independence Day weekend in Chicago. Of the 67, eight were shot, with one killed, in a single Saturday evening attack in the West Side neighborhood of Lawndale. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party proposed an initiative on Monday as an alternative to the army-imposed "roadmap" for Egypt's political transition, which was unveiled last week by Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
