Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Vanessa Marcil aka Brenda Barrett in "General Hospital (TV series)" aka Sam Marquez in "Las Vegas (TV series)" aka Carla Pestalozzi in "The Rock" aka Gina Kincaid in "Beverly Hills, 90210 (TV series)" aka Erin in "Nice Guys Sleep Alone" aka Tess Woodward in "Storm Watch" aka Maggie Harty in "This Space Between Us" (age 43)
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
The Egyptian Islamic Group announced on its website that the son of its spiritual leader, the 'Blind Sheikh,' who is in a U.S. jail for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan.
The group said that Ahmed Omar Abdul Rahman, who is also known as Saif, “was killed in an American air bombing from an unmanned plane on the frontlines in Afghanistan,” according to the translation by the SITE Intelligence Group for the brief statement that was released on the group’s website.
Two of the jailed sheikhÂ’s sons are known to have developed close ties to al-Qaeda.
One son, Asim Abdul Rahman, who is also known as Abu Asim, is reported to have signed onto al Qaeda's International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders back in 1998. He is also rumored to have been granted citizenship by the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Four suicide attackers targeted a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Saturday morning, killing two civilians and leaving three people injured, a provincial police chief said.
A U.S. soldier and two local guards were injured, said Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, police chief of Panjshir province.
"Attackers were prepared with suicide vests, light and heavy weapons," said Ata Mohammad Amiri, head of the provincial council.
When the attackers got close to the gate, he said, three fired weapons and rocket-propelled grenades to the tower of the base where guards were watching.
The fourth attacker, who was driving a Toyota, detonated his explosive device near the gate, allowing the others to get in, according to the official.
Two suicide attackers detonated their vests and two were fatally shot by police before their devices went off, he said.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is the first major attack by the Taliban in the province since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.
#1
What did Besoeker say wrong yesterday? When it comes to this sh!t, expel them all, so they have nothing left to come back to, no family, no friends, nothing.
I have personally been in the position to shoot grand-mothers in the bush, and my conscience is my own, not some officer with stripes that weren't earned. As it happens, I didn't pull the trigger that day, so my morals are ok?
#8
All the same, it id an opinion, just as calling for Arclights over whatever areas and killing hijabed mommas is, no outcry over that was there, can' t help my feeling, yes, I am sensitive! that Besoeker is some kind of target for you all. He is, actually the most interesting chap here, IMNSHO.
#9
Friday Besoeker wanted to discuss himself instead of the subject at hand.
That personal enough for you?
And before we even get into it, and to be completely pedantic about what I wrote it, I said he acted like a whiney bitch, not that he was one.
As such Besoeker could have been sinktrapped himself Friday, but instead a mod agreed and sinktrapped the comment of the party who hurt his feelings.
So, I have a really good suggestion concerning your own stay in this thread for ever how long or short it will be. Be prepared to defend what you say not matter how stupid it is.
If you or your friend acts like a junkyard dog in this forum be prepared to hear about his being jerked back like a junkyard dog on a choke chain.
What I won't countenance is his returning to the forum and acting like some great ill was done him.
The Pentagon says Marines in Afghanistan and the crew controlling the drone in Nevada were unaware analysts watching the firefight via live video in Indiana had doubts about the targets' identity.
Long piece in the LA Times about a tragedy. Very much worth the read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/15/2011 12:30 ||
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[Dawn] A suicide kaboomer blew up an explosives-packed car Friday while it was being inspected at a border police checkpoint that had been set up in southern Afghanistan because of a warning of an imminent attack. Three officers were killed.
The kaboom happened in Spin Boldak, near the Pak border, in the early evening, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the head of the border police in the south. Three officers and a civilian were maimed, he said.
The checkpoint had been set up because of an intelligence warning that an attack was imminent, provincial government front man Zalmai Ayubi said.
In the increasingly violent north, meanwhile, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... and Afghan forces killed 13 faceless myrmidons in an overnight operation targeting local Taliban leaders.
Northern Afghanistan has become more insecure over the past year as faceless myrmidons facing pressure from NATO troops in their southern strongholds have pushed into pockets in the north.
The joint raid in Faryab province began late Thursday, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a front man for Afghan police in the north. One police officer was killed in the operation, he said.
NATO said in a statement that the forces were searching for Taliban leaders in Ghormach and Qaisar districts. The coalition did not say whether any of the faceless myrmidons targeted in the raid were captured or killed.
In the east, about 45 artillery shells fired from the Pak side of the border landed in Dangam district over the course of the day Friday, said provincial police Chief Ewaz Naziri. One child was maimed in the firing, he said, without giving more details.
Tensions have been rising along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistain in recent weeks.
Afghan officials have decried shelling from Pak territory that has killed an unknown number of civilians, displaced hundreds of people and destroyed several homes and mosques.
Pak officials have said previously that the artillery fire was not intentional and said they regretted the killings and damage.
NATO also reported the death of two international service members, one in an Death Eater attack in the south and another in an operation in the east. NATO did not provide details. The alliance typically waits for national authorities to release specifics about their casualties.
With the latest deaths, 10 international military personnel have been killed since the beginning of October. So far this year, at least 463 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
In nation building, just like in any other sort of building, one has to have a through understanding of the available materials.
[Tripoli Post] As the fighting goes on in the former Libyan leader's hometown of Sirte, Al Qadaffy ...Megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... remains in hiding, but although his whereabouts are still unknown, it has now been learned that satellites are tracking him in the desert south of Sabha. So they don't know where he is but they're tracking him? Okay... That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. Of a sort.
Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the National Transitional Council, told Al Jizz
that it is only a matter of time before Al Qadaffy, wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for crimes against humanity, is captured to face justice.
"We have confirmed reports thatAl Qadaffy is in the southern Libyan desert. He's not staying in one place. He is moving around with a small convoy which consist of his closest aids and bodyguards," Ghoga said.
The NTC official went on to say that the fighters' priority now is to take full control of Sirte. "Once the liberation of Sirte has been achieved - our fighters will track down Al Qadaffy himself."
In the coastal city itself, the Al Qadaffy loyalists are reportedly confinced to an area, known as No. 2, less than a kilometre square. The few remaining pockets of stiff resistance, came under heavy fire Friday. The NTC fighters launched their attack with artillery, mortars and rockets, shooting randomly in order to scare off the snipers still on some of the buildings.
The siege of Sirte began on September 15 before the NTC forces launched what it termed a "final assault" a week ago that according to medics has seen at least 95 of its fighters killed and hundreds maimed,.
An AFP journalist on the frontline reported at least two NTC fighters killed in Friday's fighting and around 15 maimed, some gravely and several by shrapnel. They follow on Thursday's casualties when four were killed, including two by friendly fire, and another 40 were maimed, mostly the result of snipers.
Sirte is a key goal for the NTC that has said it will not proclaim Libya's liberation and begin preparing for the transition to an elected government until the city has fallen. In the early days of this week NTC chief Mustafa Abdul-Jalil has said that the within days Sirte, now his target is, that by the early days of next week it will be in the hands of the interim government forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tripoli Post] The Libyan capital Friday has witnessed a shootout between 30-50 armed fighters supporters to the former Libyan dictator Muammar Al Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... who witnesses say appeared in the Abu Salim neighbourhood - an area known for its support for the former regime - and National Transitional Council fighters.
Witnesses on the scene told Rooters that NTC fighters mounted on pick-up trucks raced towards the scene of fighting in the Hay Nasr district of the Abu Salim area and exchanged automatic and heavy machine-gun fire with the loyalists who were chanting pro-Al Qadaffy slogans. On arrival they shot up the buildings, fearing snipers were inside, and also began to set up checkpoints.
According to one of the NTC fighters, there Al Qadaffy supporters were invited to fight by a message delivered by the runaway leader in which he told them to to rise up after Friday prayers. "That is why these people came out of their homes to and cause this problem," he said.
Assem al-Bashir, a fighter with Tripoli's Eagle Brigade, was reported telling Al Jizz that the shooting began after a man was spotted raising the green flag that symbolised the regime of the deposed leader. ousted regime.
After that gunfire was heard across the city in the first serious burst of violence in the capital since the NTC forces seized control of Tripoli in late August and forced Al Qadaffy into hiding.
NTC fighters said fighting had also broken out in the nearby Hadhba neighbourhood.
Al Qadaffy has released a number of audio recordings calling on loyalists to fight the interim government that ousted him from power after 42 years of rule. In his latest message a few days ago he urged "all Libyan people to go out and march in their millions in all the squares, in all the cities and villages and oases."
He had added in his message: "Go peacefully ... be courageous, rise up, go to the streets, raise our green flags to the skies."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
And here we thought it was just a (small) part of Sirte.
[Tripoli Post] Abdul Jalil has announced that the former prime minister in the Al Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... regime, now being held in Tunisia, al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, will be extradited to Libya.
Speaking at a joint presser with Tunisian prime minister al-Baji Caid Essebsi in Benghazi, he cited an agreement signed by the two countries authorising the extradition of runaways and criminals, which therefore applies to al-Mahmoudi's case.
Abdul Jalil expressed his gratitude to Tunisia's stance in supporting the Libyan revolution, saying the Tunisian revolution was a source of inspiration to the Arab people in their uprising against dictators.
For his part, during his short visit to Libya, Essebsi reaffirmed that the two countries were linked by historical connections. He said the two countries would be working to maintain bilateral relations in line with the Tunisian people's support to the just cause of the Libyan people.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tripoli Post] In a sign of progress in rebuilding the new Libyan after 42 years of Muammar Al Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... regime, Thursday the Skies over the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi that has been controlled by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... for months, reverted to Libyan authority.
In a statement, the National Transitional Council of Libya said: "Parts of the Libyan airspace are now open to commercial flights.
The agreement becomes effective despite the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... ' no-fly zone over Libya, which was passed in March and cleared the way for NATO air strikes on the forces of former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qadaffy.
While the newly formed Civil Aviation Authority announced that it will take responsibility for controlling aircraft in the airspace above Benina International Airport in Benghazi, NATO's no-fly zone continues to be enforced, the alliance said, but Libyan air traffic controllers will direct humanitarian flights in and out of a 80-kilometre radius.
Lt. General Ralph J Jodice said that the agreement would help to guarantee the provision of humanitarian aid to Libya. He said he was proud that the international community had come together and acted to improve the situation of suppression and killings committed by the former Libyan regime.
"This is a positive milestone since we are returning partial airspace to its rightful owners," Jodice said. On 23 March 2011, UN Security Council resolution 1973 was adopted and enforced which resulted in "a stand-up in government structure".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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A SON of the US-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki was among seven suspected jihadist militants killed in a trio of apparent US air strikes in Yemen, a member of his tribe said Saturday.
The heart (urp) bleeds...
"Abderrahman Anwar al Awlaki was killed in the raid," the tribal source said, adding that he received confirmation from the militant-controlled Yemeni hospital where the dead and wounded from Friday evening's strikes were taken.
Like father, like son...
Awlaki himself was killed in a US drone strike on Sept. 30, which US President Barack Obama hailed as a "major blow" to al Qaeda worldwide.
US intelligence officials believe Awlaki was linked to a US army major charged with shooting dead 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, and to a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a US airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.
[Yemen Post] Military sources in the southern Yemeni province of Lahj announced today that military officers had been killed today in 2 separate incidents.
Colonel Ameen al-Shami, a pilot instructor in the Air Force was killed in an kaboom today. According to local officials his car was booby trapped, leading for the vehicle to explode as the Colonel was leaving the military base. Although the Colonel was killed instantly, his passengers, both air technicians, were lucky enough to escape with their lives, badly injured and burned but alive. The 2 men are now being treated at a nearby hospital.
Back in Aden, a jacket wallah claimed the life of an officer as it detonated its boom belt, injuring 2 others.
"A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives near a parked police vehicle outside the local office of the tourism ministry, killing one officer and wounding two others," the source said on condition of anonymity.
A resident who witnessed the attack told the press that a fierce shootout followed the kaboom, as coppers thought they were being attacked.
Security analysts in Yemen are warning that a dangerous trend is being established as military and coppers have become the preferred targets of alleged al-Qaeda snuffies in recent weeks.
As president Saleh continues to fight for his political survival, "Ansar al Sharia" a group claiming to want to revert to a Koran-based ruling system, is gaining ground against the government forces, weakening their ranks through guerilla tactics.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] After an exceptional session meeting, the Shura Council members elected its new president, Abdul Rahman Ali Othman.
Since the death of its former president, former Yemen prime minister, Abdul Ghani who passed away on August 22sd as he was unable to recover from the injuries he sustained in the presidential mosque's attack in early June, the Council was left headless.
President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... urged the Council last week to convene and elect a new leader as for the body to resume its proper functions.
Several political opponents of president Saleh are now accusing the latter of trying to bring back a sense of normality to the country by hitting the reset button on the crumbling state institutions.
"Saleh wants to show the international community he is back in the commending seat and that under his command, things are running smoothly," said Said al-Khadi an aspiring politician.
In any case, this new appointment is unlikely to cause much stir since the Opposition cares very little about the Shura Council, considered only an extension of the president's will.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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A court in Tajikistan has convicted a local BBC reporter of spreading banned Islamic propaganda despite international pressure to acquit him.
Does international pressure ever work in a Central Asian country?
Urunboy Usmonov, 60, received a three-year sentence at the trial in Khujand, northern Tajikistan, although the judge immediately granted him an amnesty and allowed him to walk free.
Why bother, then?
Peter Horrocks, Director BBC Global News, condemned the verdict and said that Usmonov was innocent of all charges.
We know, 'cause, um, 'cause ... he is!
Usmonov complained that he had been forced to sign a confession and that guards had beaten him and stubbed cigarettes out on his arms.
International pressure has been growing on the Tajik authorities since they arrested Usmonov in June on suspicion of being a member of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Tajikistan has been clamping down on the press this year as it tries to defeat a growing Islamic insurgency which has threatened to destabilise the former Soviet state.
Nato uses Tajikistan as part of its resupply route to its forces in neighbouring Afghanistan and stability in the country, one of the poorest in Central Asia, is considered essential for stopping the spread of militant Islam
#2
Of course he was doing exactly what they said, as the BBC and other "news" services loves to hire "reporters" who work for the bad guyz, as they did in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. They even rationalize it with the catch-all excuse of wanting to "present both sides."
The equivalent during WWII would be having a Nazi sympathetic BBC "reporter" in Goebbels press office, to show the British public the German perspective.
[Dawn] More then 2,000 mourners including gunnies have allegedly buried two cut-throats killed alongside a top commander of the cut-thoat Haqqani network in an American missile strike.
They were buried Friday in Lakki Marwat, a town just outside the tribal region of North Wazoo, where mourners say they were killed Thursday by the US missile.
Locals identified the two as Maulana Iftikhar and Noor Ali Shah and said both were involved in "jihad".
One of the funerals was attended by gunnies who were speaking Arabic.
US officials say the strike also killed Janbaz Zadran, a top commander in the cut-thoat Haqqani network blamed for attacks inside Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
The Muslim tyrants realize that such funerals are target rich environments for their enemies, so take the opportunity to open fire on them.
Were we to do something similar, it would probably be payback with something like a truck bomb, wiping out hundreds and wounding hundreds more, with no claim of responsibility.
[Dawn] A US drone strike killed four Islamic fascistiin northwestern Pakistain on Friday, the third such attack in 48 hours against Taliban hotbeds in Wazoo near the Afghan border, officials said.
The drone fired two missiles into a vehicle as it drove through Darpa Khel village about four kilometres (two miles) west of Miramshah, the main town in the district of North Waziristan, the Pak security officials told AFP.
"The US drone fired two missiles," one of the officials told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
"Four Islamic fascistiwere killed in the attack, they were all in the vehicle," he added.
The identities of the dead were not clear, but the village is a stronghold for Islamic fascistifighting against US troops in Afghanistan.
Covert CIA drones are the chief US weapon against Taliban and al Qaeda Islamic fascistiwho use Pakistain's lawless tribal areas as launchpads for attacking US troops in Afghanistan and plotting attacks on the West.
A US official in Washington described a commander in the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network who was killed on Thursday as "the most senior Haqqani leader in Pakistain to be taken off the battlefield".
Pak officials reported 10 Islamic fascistikilled in two US drone strikes on Thursday and named the Haqqani commander as Jamil Haqqani, a coordinator for the Afghan Taliban faction in North Waziristan.
The US official said he was known as Jamil and as Janbaz Zadran, accusing him of having "played a central role in helping the Haqqani network attack US and coalition targets in Kabul and southeastern Afghanistan".
Pak officials said the slain commander was not a relative of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Afghan warlord who founded the Taliban faction, but had been close to his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, who now runs the network.
The United States blames the Haqqanis for fuelling the 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, attacking US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... troops and working to destabilize the Western-backed government of Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
The US military has accused Pakistain's premier intelligence outfit, the ISI, of having close ties to the network and of being involved in a 19-hour siege of the American embassy in Kabul on September 13.
After that attack, which killed 14 Afghans, Washington significantly stepped up demands on Pakistain to take action against the Haqqani network.
But Pakistain has refused to launch a sweeping ground offensive in North Waziristan, the Haqqanis' leadership base, leaving American response largely limited to US drone strikes.
More than 50 have been reported in Pakistain so far this year including dozens since Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no longer with us, and won't be again... in the garrison city of Abbottabad, close to the capital Islamabad, on May 2.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... has said for the first time that the United States was waging "war" in Pakistain against Death Eaters, referring to the covert CIA drone campaign that Washington refuses to discuss publicly.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Bombs in Storied Baghdad's ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... mostly Shia district of Sadr City killed 18 people, marking a second consecutive day where major attacks struck the Iraqi capital, security officials said on Friday.
At least two roadside kabooms detonated at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Thursday in the north Storied Baghdad district's Al-Hay market, interior and defence ministry officials said.
The two officials, who both spoke on condition of anonymity, said 18 people, were killed in the kabooms, and at least 43 maimed. Late Thursday, the officials said at least 12 people had died.
Two security force members were also killed in separate incidents on Thursday.
Thursday's violence came a day after a spate of attacks in the capital mainly targeting security forces, including two suicide car booms minutes apart against cop shoppes, killed 23 people and maimed more than 70.
Those apparently coordinated attacks were the deadliest to hit the capital since August 28, when a suicide kaboom blamed on al Qaeda at Storied Baghdad's biggest Sunni mosque killed 28 people, including an MP.
The attacks come with less than three months to go before a year-end withdrawal deadline for the roughly 41,000 US soldiers currently in Iraq, with Storied Baghdad and Washington yet to reach an accord on a post-2011 training mission.
Despite a decline in violence nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common.
A total of 185 Iraqis were killed in violence in September, according to official figures.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Media reports from Syria say gangs have killed 10 government forces and injured scores of others in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Police and army soldiers were killed in an ambush in the town of Binnish on Thursday, SANA reported on Friday. The attack also left 19 others maimed.
Government forces also seized large quantities of weapons, ammunition and communications equipment in Idlib.
This is while activists accuse Syrian forces of killing 10 protesters on the outskirts of Dara'a, Saqba, Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... and in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
Syria has been the scene of unrest over the past months and activists say the unrest has claimed the lives of thousands of people.
The country's opposition holds President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Latakia... 's government responsible for the deaths that have occurred since the outbreak of street protests in the country in mid-March.
But Damascus says that the unrest is being orchestrated from outside the country and that security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Twenty-five soldiers were among 36 people killed in festivities in Syria, a rights group said on Friday, as the army meets mounting armed resistance to a crackdown the UN said has killed more than 3,000 people.
At least 187 children were among the civilians killed in the security forces' relentless clampdown on the unprecedented protests against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Owner of Expensive Suits... regime that erupted in mid-March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.
"More than 100 people have been reported killed in the last 10 days alone," she said.
Reporting Thursday's troop losses at the hands of armed opponents of Assad's regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights expressed "surprise at the silence of the Syrian authorities on the killings of dozens of regular army soldiers in the past few days."
The Britannia-based watchdog said that 10 non-combatants were killed in the northwestern town of Banash near the Turkish border, one of them a child.
But it said that 15 soldiers, some of them officers, were also killed in the Idlib province town.
A civilian was killed in the flashpoint central city of Homs, but a security service agent was killed in the nearby town of Quseir and nine troops were killed in Daraa, another flashpoint city south of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , it added.
The Observatory said the deadly festivities in both Banash and Daraa appeared to have pitted regular army troops against deserters who had mutinied rather than obey orders to shoot at civilian protesters.
Pro-democracy activists in Syria called for nationwide demonstrations on Friday in support of the "free soldiers."
Western governments have issued increasingly shrill warnings that unless the Assad regime heeds popular demands for reform, the so far peaceful protest movement risks feeling it has little alternative but to turn to violence.
The UN human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... chief called on the international community to do more to protect Syrian civilians.
The heavy corpse count arose from the "sniping from rooftops and indiscriminate use of force against peaceful protesters," noted Pillay.
"The government of Syria has manifestly failed to protect its population," Pillay said.
"The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective and decisive manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war," she added.
"The international community must speak with one voice and act to protect the Syrian people," she said.
A draft resolution put to a vote by European governments at the UN Security Council earlier this month that warned of "targeted measures," although not sanctions, against the Syrian regime if it continued its crackdown was vetoed by China and Russia.
On Thursday, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... broadened its own sanctions against Damascus.
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said the decision was a "direct consequence of the appalling and brutal campaign the Syrian regime is waging against its own people."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
I suspect that the revolutionaries are starting to get a lot of flow through arms from a lot of directions. Assad doesn't have a whole lot of friends outside Syria.
#3
I've been reading up on this, and #big intake of air# here's the hard, cold reality: Assad is what's standing between Syria's minorities and genocide. He's a bad, bad guy, but he isn't the worst guy, if you know what I mean.
Here's a (very rough) ethnic breakdown of Syria:
Sunni Muslim - 60%
Shia (Twelver) Muslim - 10%
Christian - 10%
Alawite - 10%
Druze - 5%
Ismaili, etc etc - 5%
Guess who the "pro-democracy" activists are? They're almost all Sunni. Guess what they're already doing? That's right: killing members of the other ethnic groups. Practically every village in the country has turned into an armed compound at this point. I let you guess what this version of the "Arab Spring" is going to look like if they win.
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.
[Dawn] A 
International Criminal Court
[Dawn] More then 2,000 mourners including 
President-for-Life Bashir 
Twenty-five soldiers were among 36 people killed in 
