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Yemen president says ready to quit within days
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Kabul demands more US pressure on Pakistan
[Dawn] The Kabul government on Saturday demanded that Washington increase pressure on Pakistain to act against forces of Evil using its soil to attack Afghanistan, saying Afghans were running out of patience.

Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
held talks with US regional envoy, Marc Grossman, in Kabul just days after President Barack B.O. Obama warned Pakistain there were "some connections" between its intelligence services and thugs.

"The Afghan president asked Grossman to put more pressure on Pakistain so that future meetings with them should bring a positive result," one official at the presidential palace told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistain, long mired in distrust, have recently deteriorated with Kabul alleging that the murder of its peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani
... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan...
was hatched in Pakistain and carried out by a Pak.

Kabul accused Islamabad of hindering the investigation and also claimed to have foiled an alleged plot in Pakistain to assassinate Karzai.

The palace quoted Grossman as promising that the United States will "continue putting pressure on Pakistain to take practical steps forward".

Karzai said further meetings with Pakistain "should bring positive results, because after all these suicide kabooms and terrorism the people of Afghanistan are losing thier patience," added the statement.
Pakistan is the Land of the Pure because the land was repeatedly conquered by invaders from Afghanistan, not the other way round. It is Pakistan that is Afghanistan's hinterland, historically speaking, but the ruling class of Pakistan prefers to keep the truth in purdah.
US embassy front man Gavin Sundwall told AFP that Grossman was on a tour of the region to discuss preparations for international conferences on Afghanistan's future in Istanbul and Bonn later this year.

"That's what he met President Karzai about this morning," Sundwall said.

Washington has stepped up calls on Islamabad in recent weeks to break ties with the al Qaeda linked Haqqani network, blamed for last month's 19-hour siege on the US embassy in Kabul.

On Thursday, Obama accused Pakistain of "hedging its bets" in "having interactions with some of the unsavory characters who they think might end up regaining power in Afghanistan" after US-led foreign troops leave.

"And there is no doubt that there's some connections the Pak military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling," he added.

Islamabad denies links between the Haqqanis and its intelligence services.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  When will the Afghanis learn how to do external ops and hot pursuit? I thought they'd had a shed load of training at the expense of you'n'me as tax-payers, let's get some value for money. Oops, let's just forget politics, drugs and money, we need the Pakistani service industry skills or civilisation WILL collapse.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 10/09/2011 20:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Rhodesiafever, the training the regular army troops are getting involves things like loading and aiming before shooting, and hopefully being able to read and do arithmetic at the second grade level by the end of the year. Apparently there are special forces units as well (many Hazaris therein, according to a thread in the last few days, but that's not important), but I suspect their resources are finite while the number of possible targets has been expanding quickly...
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/09/2011 23:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan downplays Karzai threat
[Dawn] Afghanistan on Saturday downplayed the risk to 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...
after officials foiled an alleged liquidation plot, denying that a bodyguard under arrest ever had free access to the palace.

The intelligence service announced this week that one of Karzai's personal bodyguards and two university lectures were among six people under arrest over an alleged al Qaeda plot to kill Karzai hatched in Pakistain.

The reports appeared to underline the president's vulnerability after losing a series of key allies, including peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani
... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan...
-- assassinated last month -- and his younger brother who was murdered in July.

But the presidency said the guard, Muhibullah Ahmadi, was assigned only to the "outside gates of the presidential palace" where he was not authorised to act independently and was not allowed to enter the presidential compound.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the six were recruited to al Qaeda by a religious teacher at Kabul Medical University.

It claimed they were "very close" to launching their attack, having found a way inside the palace and recruiting one of president's bodyguards.

The NDS said the bodyguard, Ahmadi, came from Karzai's village -- Karz in the southern province of Kandahar.

The president survived an liquidation attempt in 2008 at a military parade and now rarely leaves the heavily fortified presidential palace.

Karzai was in India when the alleged plot was revealed, where he signed a new strategic partnership deal that raised concerns within Pakistain about being increasingly isolated in Afghanistan.

The NDS says Rabbani was killed by a Pak and that his murder was also planned in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
South Sudan's Kiir makes first visit to Khartoum for key talks
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudanese President Salva Kiir arrived in Khartoum today for his first visit since southern secession to discuss key unresolved issues, including Abyei and oil, that have undermined north-south relations.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
received his counterpart at the airport, alongside senior members of his cabinet, according to an AFP correspondent.

Kiir is accompanied by South Sudan's minister of cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, as well as the oil, finance and foreign ministers.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Arabia
Yemenis shrug off Saleh's talk of stepping down
(Rooters) - Yemeni protesters camped out in Sanaa's central square said on Sunday that President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
's suggestion that he would step down in the coming days was another promise that they were sure would be broken.

Analysts mostly agree that the vow, made three times already this year by Yemen's long-time ruler, was a stalling tactic in a succession crisis that has spread turmoil through the country.

A government official said Saleh was merely indicating readiness in a speech on Saturday night to reach a deal to end months of popular unrest.

"Saleh is a liar, nothing has changed since his speech," said Mohammed al-Asl, a protest organizer. "We're used to this type of thing now. He just says anything to fool his own people, the world, and everyone. We're not paying any attention to this."

Protesters, camped out in tents in the area in Sanna now dubbed as "Change Square" were going about their usual business of buying food, cooking and chewing wads of qat, a popular mild leaf stimulant common in Yemen.

Saleh's foreign minister met the U.S. ambassador for talks on Sunday, part of what many expect to be a diplomatic push to deflect any action by the U.N. Security Council when it is briefed on the Yemen situation in the coming days.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 11:08 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Top Jamaat, IOJ leaders may skip road march
[Bangla Daily Star] The top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikkya Jote are unlikely to take part in tomorrow's road march to Sylhet to avoid "government harassment", sources in the parties said.

Instead, the two components of BNP-led four-party alliance have directed their mid-level and grassroots leaders to join the programme.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart...
the main opposition BNP is getting ready to ensure the maximum presence of its leaders, activists and supporters in the road march to be led by its chief Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...

The leader of the opposition in the House, Khaleda will address six street rallies on her way to Sylhet, BNP's Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told journalists at the party's Naya Paltan office yesterday.

At the September 27 rally of the alliance, the BNP chairperson announced a set of agitation programmes, including road marches towards Sylhet, Rajshahi and Chittagong, to drum up support for its movement for reinstatement of the caretaker government system.

BNP Standing Committee Member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, coordinator of the Dhaka-Sylhet road march committee, earlier told The Daily Star steps have been taken to make the programme a success. He hoped it will intensify their ongoing anti-government movement.

BNP has discussed the event with some like-minded smaller parties apart from its allies -- Jamaat, IOJ and Bangladesh Jatiya Party.

Asked about participation of top leaders, Motiur Rahman Akand, assistant publicity secretary of Jamaat, said they were yet to decide which of their upper-tier leaders will join the march. "We will decide on the matter later."

Admitting that the party is in trouble now, the Jamaat leader said "We have however directed our leaders in Sylhet and other areas connecting the route of the march to participate in the programme."

IOJ spokesperson Abdullah Wasel claimed its chief Fazlul Haq Amini will not be able to join the road march as the government has "confined" Amini to his Lalbagh residence. "But we hope that rest of our top-level leaders, including the secretary general, will participate," he said.

Asked whether he himself will attend it, Wasel replied in the negative. "But we have asked our local units to ensure huge turnouts in the rallies."

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
insiders of the parties say fear of police action and arrest is keeping their leaders off the march.

Under pressure from law enforcement agencies, IOJ has apparently stopped its political activities after its activists went on the rampage in the capital and elsewhere during its April 4 hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
demanding cancellation of national women policy.

The party, however, on September 28 announced fresh three-month agitations demanding cancellation of women and education policies.

Jamaat is passing through a tough time after arrest of its top five leaders, who are now behind bars on war crimes charges.

Police locked away several top leaders of Jamaat after its activists torched a number of vehicles, including a prison van and a police jeep, during a clash with law enforcers at the city's Kakrail on September 18.

The party's agitation on streets apparently came to a halt after police crackdown.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Britain
200 suicide bombers 'planning attacks in UK'
At least 200 potential terrorists are actively planning suicide attacks while living freely in Britain, intelligence chiefs have warned ministers.
Just the kind of news that will persuade just everyone to vote Labour in the next election, because they're the ones keenest on introducing more multiculturalists.
A senior intelligence source has revealed that the figure is a "conservative" estimate of the threat facing the country from UK-based Islamist suicide bombers.

The would-be killers are among 2,000 extremists who the security services have said are based in Britain and actively planning terrorist activity of some kind.

The figures are contained within a secret government report on the "enduring terrorist threat" facing the UK from al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

While the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki may have left al-Qaeda without a charismatic leader, both the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and the Security Service, MI5, believe the organisation remains as dangerous as ever.

The warning comes as Britain begins preparations for next year's 2012 Olympic Games, which has been described by MI5 as the biggest security operation in the country's history.
Posted by: tipper || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does that mean more joggers w/ weight vests will be detained?
OR perhaps said joggers will flood the street to numb the coppers to their presence when the splodydopes show up
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/09/2011 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Not least because Stratford, where the main games are located, and the surrounding towns, are immigrant neighborhoods, featuring a Muslim population as a majority. Taking a drive around there is shocking; not really England.
Posted by: Thrert Elmoluse8003 || 10/09/2011 3:02 Comments || Top||

#3  That wouldn't be happening if Palestinian Rights weren't trampled by Zionist and their American puppets.
Posted by: gr(o)mgoru || 10/09/2011 4:52 Comments || Top||

#4  GOOD TIME AND TELL SUPPORT PALESTINE STATEHOOD AND NTC : LIBYA : ARABIYA !
Posted by: Ooglastan Muhpherd || 10/09/2011 6:02 Comments || Top||

#5  British born Pakis are the main culprits.Why are we allowing preachers from Pakistan/Saudi into our country?Pakistan,Saudi and Iran are fully fledged enemies of the West!
Posted by: Paul D || 10/09/2011 6:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Only 200 really bad turbans in the UK? REALLY???Does that include family, moderate Moslamofascists, etc, with time and free money/housing too? I have looked for this on the MSM broadcasting channels today and there is nothing at all mentioned.

OK, let´s make this clear: if me and mine are targets, so are them and theirs.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 10/09/2011 19:16 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Badanov's Buzzkill Bulletin
For a map, click here
Mexican Army units seized between September 29th and September 30th 11,359.72 kilograms of marijuana, 313.055 kilograms of methamphetamine and 170 liters of liquid methamphetamine in counternarcotics operations throughout Mexico
  • An army unit with the Mexican 6th Military Zone came under small arms fire while on patrol in the eastern part of Saltillo, Coahuila September 29th. Soldier returned fire, but apparently their attackers escaped. One individual who had been held for ransom was released from captivity. The unit also secured five rifles, two handguns, 405 weapons magazines, 8,438 rounds of ammunition and 11 vehicles.

  • A unit with the Mexican 9th Military while ion patrol in the village of Los Mayos in the Culiacan municipality discovered a synthetic drug laboratory. Seized contraband included 311 kilograms of methamphetamine, 170 liters of liquid methamphetamine, 180 kilograms of sodium acetate, 169 kilograms of caustic soda, 110 kilograms of tartaric acid, 150 liters of toluene, 250 liters of acetic anhydride, 300 liters of hydrochloric acid, 40 liters of an unknown substance, three reactors for organic synthesis up to 400 liters each, and other materials.

  • A Mexican Army unit in Tamaulipas seized a large amount of marijuana September 27th. The unit was on patrol near the village of Rancherias in the Miguel Aleman municipality when soldiers came upon a cave with packages of marijuana hidden inside. Soldiers counted 163 packages with 1,163.4 kilograms of marijuana. Soldiers also found a rifle and a weapons magazine.

  • A Mexican Army unit in Santiago, Nuevo Leon seized a number of weapons and detained 13 unidentified individuals. The unit had responded to a citizen's complaint of armed suspects on Avendia Benito Juarez in Rodriguez municipality. Seized weapons and contraband include four rifles, two handguns, 51 weapons magazines, 1,111 rounds of ammunition, 10 cells phones, two radios, six vehicles and one ATV.

  • An army unit with the Mexican 45th Military Zone seized more than five metric tons of marijuana September 29th in Carborca, Sonora. The unit was on patrol in Carborca when they discovered a vehicle with 527 packages of marijuana. The total seized was 5,100 kilograms.

  • An army unit with the Mexican 9th Military Zone seized a large amount of marijuana in Sinaloa state September 29th. The unit was on patrol in the village of San Javier in Sinaloa de Leyva municipality when it found 99 packages of marijuana totalling 1,125.5 kilograms of marijuana. A stolen vehicle was also recovered at the scene.

  • An army unit with the 6th Military Zone seized one metric ton of marijuana in two locations in Coahuila state September 29th. The unit was dispatched to two locations in Piedra Negras from a citizen's complaint about the presence of armed suspects where they found 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and 5.9 kilograms of marijuana seeds.

  • An army unit with the Mexican 8th Military Zone seized almost three metric tons of marijuana September 29th in Tamaulipas state. The unit was on patrol near the village of Rancherias in the Miguel Aleman municipality when a commander detected the odor of marijuana emanating from an abandoned house. Beneath the building soldiers searching found 560 packages of marijuana weighing a total of 2,967 kilograms.

  • Army units with the Mexican 15th Military Zone seized a number of weapons and rugs in operations in three separate locations in Jalisco state September 30th.
    • In San Julian municipality along the San Julian-San Diego de Alexandria highway an army unit stopped a vehicle and detainee three unidentified armed suspects. Soldiers also found 2.055 kilograms of crystal methamphetimine, 3.32 kilograms of marijuana, small quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine, three rifles, three handguns, four weapons magazines, 39 rounds of ammunition and a vehicle.

    • In Jamay municipality an army unit dispatched on the basis of a citizen's complains concerning armed men in the area located one rifle, 50 rounds of ammunition, one weapons magazine, 1.4 kilograms of marijuana, small quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine, and glass methamphetimine, and a vehicle.

    • In the village of El Aguacate in Chimaltitan municipality, an army unit found three rifles, one weapons magazine and 50 rounds of ammunition.

Badanov's Burnt Blunt Special

An army unit with the Mexican 15 Military Zone incinerated several types of drugs and drug related mateials in El Sauz Sinaloa September 29th. Drugs destroyed by fire include 3,586.47 kilograms of marijuana, 263.389 kilograms of marijuana seeds, 12.75 kilograms of opium gum, 51.568 kilograms of poppy seed, 1.121 kilograms of cocaine, 274.19 kilograms of solid methamphetamine, 348.92 liters of liquid methamphetamine and 221 marijuana plants.
Posted by: badanov || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now it turns out that one of Sinaloa's hit men had a house with a bunch of F&F weapons in it, along with an anti-aircraft machine gun and a rocket launcher.

They got his house, but didn't get him.

And one of the US side F&F gun smugglers got a 6-1/2 year federal sentence, then one month later escaped from a minimum security prison in Tucson, and is believed to have gone back to Mexico.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/09/2011 12:35 Comments || Top||

#2  More like a stand alone grenade launcher, not an under the barrel job (HK-79). (You can see it on the top shelf to the right, similar to an HK-69) Neither can be bought retail; they had to have come from a larger entity's arsenal, like stolen from a government.

Maybe some of the assault rifles were semi-automatic weapons sold retail in Arizona, but they all weren't.

As an aside, reading the numerous reports of killings and violence since April, 2010, when we first started covering the Mexican drug war, I have not, but for the July 16, 2010 Juarez car bomb, read of any attack which used explosives of any kind.
Posted by: badanov || 10/09/2011 13:03 Comments || Top||


Europe
Protesters storm into Syrian embassy in Berlin
A group of about 30 stormed the Syrian embassy in Berlin early on Sunday and confronted the ambassador, police said. The break-in followed earlier demonstrations outside the embassy on Saturday. No one was arrested or injured.

The protesters broke through a fence and rushed inside to confront the ambassador, who also resides at the embassy. Police said the embassy staff reacted calmly, and the protestors were merely taken from the scene.

The incident followed a day of brutality in Syria, after security forces opened fire on a funeral for Kurdish opposition leader Mashaal Tammo, killed on Friday by masked gunmen in his home in north-eastern Syria.

Protesters also picketed the Syrian embassies in London and Vienna on Saturday night. Five Syrian Kurds were also arrested in Geneva on Saturday night when they tried to enter the Syrian permanent mission to the UN.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/09/2011 08:21 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep. I have the same complaint but no embassy to storm. Sell you down the river, hokay, hope you can swim. Laters.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 10/09/2011 19:59 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Iran tells Turkey: Change tack or face trouble
TEHRAN  -- Turkey must radically rethink its policies on Syria, the 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...
missile shield, and promoting Mohammedan secularism in the Arab world -- or face trouble from its own people and neighbors, a key aide to Iran's supreme leader said on Saturday.
So much for the reproachment...
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's military adviser described Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's invitation to Arab countries to adopt Turkish-style democracy as "unexpected and unimaginable," speaking in an interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/09/2011 13:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's the over/under on a large war in the Mideast?

I'm figuring it's gotta kick off before the Obamanation is voted out. So, over/under 11/1/12?
Posted by: AlanC || 10/09/2011 14:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Six days this time, or less, Alan?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/09/2011 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  With all of the produce going to ethanol production, there just won't be enough popcorn for this baby!
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/09/2011 18:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Im a thinking we should arm both sides! Post the sats so we can watch red on red action!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/09/2011 19:26 Comments || Top||

#5  IIRC HISTOIRE' > Ancient Persia = post-Shah Revolutionary Iran prefer fighting their wars in the Summer NLT early Fall.

It will invol mass units or formations, includ Elite MILSPECWAR + "People's Resistance" organz networks [Basij], + strategic campaigns dedicated to the capture = recovery of large swathes of territory, sovereign To Iran or other.

IT WILL NOT BE JUST POST-911 AFGHANISTAN OR LEBANON 2006, AS ANY US MIL FORCE WILL FACE + FIGHT ARMED PROFESSIONAL IRANIAN MIL UNITS.

And again, IRAN will most likely stay on the Diplomatic, Military defensive, at least initially, + wait for the US or US-led Coalition's ground = conventional forces to mil attack, invade and attempt to occupy its soil, hence "justifying" proxy terror attack(s) agz CONUS + the US Govt.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/09/2011 21:33 Comments || Top||

#6  the NATO missile shield

Which assuredly is the primary source of irritation for the mullahs.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/09/2011 22:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Arrest warrant issued for former minister in Bugti murder case
[Dawn] The judicial magistrate Quetta on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for former provincial home minister Shoaib Nowsherwani in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case, DawnNews reported.

Akbar Bugti's son and petitioner Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti had accused former president Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, former governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and former provincial home minister Shoaib Nowsherwani in the case.

The arrest warrant against Mr Nowsherwani had been received by the Crime Branch.

Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed during a military operation in Kohlu.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Musharraf hires US lobbyist for $25,000 a month
[Dawn] Former chief of the army staff Gen (retd) Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
, currently visiting North America, has hired a firm for $25,000 a month to lobby for him in the US capital.

A copy of the contract obtained by Dawn shows that a formal agreement between Mr Musharraf and the Advantage Associates International Ltd. was signed on Sept 1.

The contract letter identifies the firm as a specialist in "helping clients with governmental, political and international matters." Raza Bokhari, a prominent member of Mr Musharraf's party in the US, will work as "point of contact".

"For purposes of this agreement, Mr Bokhari and the office of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf shall retain joint rights," the letter says.

The Advantage Ltd will work with Mr Bokhari to "develop a strategy to represent the interest of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the US" and the firm will assist Mr Bokhari "in any other area that would be of benefit to Gen (retd) Musharraf".

The agreement, which began on Sept 1, 2011, ends on March 30, 2012.

The parties "acknowledge awareness and stated preference that this is an agreement for services as an independent contractor. The parties will exert all manner of good faith and take all reasonable efforts to ensure performance and prevent repudiation by other parties connected with its activities which could affect its performance under this agreement".

The total fee for the services to be provided to by Advantage is $175,000.00. A monthly payment in the amount of $25,000.00 will be made to Advantage for a period of seven months beginning on Sept 1, 2011. All monthly payments must be made on the first of each month. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
for the last two months and the first month, $75,000.00 was paid upon the signing of this agreement.

Mr Bokhari also agreed to reimburse Advantage for all reasonable expenses arising out of this agreement, with any expenses over $250.00 approved in advance.

Meanwhile,
...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end...
Mr Musharraf's office in the US issued a statement on Friday, noting that the relationship between Pakistain and the US was on a declining trend due to many reasons.

To explain Pakistain's position, Mr Musharraf met a number of senior US politicians in Washington, the statement said.

"As a member of diaspora community, we all feel compelled to play our roles in improving the bilateral relationship between
the two countries," the statement said.

He was scheduled to meet the former speaker, and a senior member of the US Congress, Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace...
, on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  building a new public image for Perv. I hear he's on next season's "Dancing With The Stars"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/09/2011 13:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Advantage Associates, hmmm, looks like a good small firm to invest in.... Oh wait!!!


Advantage Associates International
601 Pennsylvania Avenue Nw
Washington, DC 20004-2601 map
Ads by Google

HR Solutions for Business Outsource Human Resource Companies for HR, Training and Recruiting
www.achillesgroup.com/The ads are not affiliated with Advantage Associates International
Website: Information not found Phone:(202) 438-1900 About Advantage Associates International
Is this your company? Advantage Associates International in Washington, DC is a private company categorized under Business Management Consultants. Our records show it was established in 2008 and incorporated in District of Columbia. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $73,000 and employs a staff of approximately 1.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2011 17:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe this is just money laundering.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/09/2011 18:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Website here

"Team members" here.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/09/2011 22:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq, siding with Iran, sends essential aid to Syria’s Assad
Posted by: Spaving Glereger6701 || 10/09/2011 13:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ROTFL
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/09/2011 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Iraq’s stance has dealt an embarrassing setback to the Obama administration, which has sought to enlist Muslim allies in its campaign to isolate Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad.

This is the WaPo. Seems to be slipping a bit, in their support of The One. You can also get past the ads by going to the print version, I think.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/09/2011 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Behold a shining example of Islamic gratitude. We remove their evil, murdering despot, they quickly rush to support someone else's. It can for a time, then it reverts. Evil simply cannot relate to non-evil.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2011 17:26 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd say Shiite-majority Iraq is simply siding with the non-Sunni Alawite regime in Syria. Not exactly a surprise.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 10/09/2011 17:32 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Russia to Thwart U.N. Sanctions on Lebanon Should it Fail to Fund STL
[An Nahar] Russia will likely veto any United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
Security Council action against Leb should it fail to fund the Special Tribunal for Leb, reported the daily al-Liwaa on Saturday.

An informed source told the daily that Syrian and Iranian circles view Russia and China's veto of a U.N. resolution against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests earlier this week as a turning point in relations between them.

It explained: "Hizbullah and its allies have acquired information about the nature of the Russia-Iranian understanding, which is linked to a Russian rockets deal, as well as financial and oil agreements, given the western sanctions against the Syrian regime."

"The situation in Leb has become, now more than ever, more linked to the situation in Syria, and therefore Hizbullah is seeking to demonstrate that failure to fund the STL will not lead to U.N. sanctions under chapter seven of its charter," it added.

"Russia has repeatedly declared that it supports the tribunal, but it will thwart any Security Council action over Leb's failure to fund it," it continued.

Sides that support the funding have however voiced their disagreement over the party's view of the matter, asserting that Prime Minister Najib Miqati was clear in committing to the funding in order to avoid sanctions and having Leb being labeled as a failed state.

Al-Liwaa reported that efforts are underway to withdraw this issue from media speculation in order to reach middle ground between Leb's commitments over the STL and Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
's refusal to fund it.

Sources monitoring the situation ruled out the possibility that the government would be toppled in order for Hizbullah and the FPM to reach their goals, because its overthrow would allow their March 14
Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys...
rivals to regain the governmental majority.

Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
'Syrian Kurds declare 'intifada' after assassination'
50,000 turn out to bury Assad critic Meshaal al-Tammo; government forces fire on funeral, killing at least four, 'Asharq Al-Awsat' reports.

Kurdish activists declared an "intifada," or armed resistance, after the liquidation of a charismatic opposition figure in Qamishli in northeastern Syria, London-based Asharq Al Awsat reported on Sunday.

Security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds at Meshaal al-Tammo's funeral on Saturday, killing at least 4 people, according to the report. British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that 50,000 people had turned out for the funeral.

"The gates of hell have been opened on these gangs," Kurdish activists said according to Asharq Al-Awsat. "The last nails will be quickly hammered in their coffin."

Security forces also opened fire on a funeral procession for three people who were killed on Friday in the 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...
suburb of Douma, killing one mourner and wounding 10, the group said.

At least eight people were killed in anti-Assad protests after Friday prayers.

Tammo, a charismatic figure who was released from prison earlier this year, was a critic of Assad who had also angered powerful Kurdish parties because of his criticism of Kurdish rivals. Activists said on Friday that four gunnies burst into a house in the city of Qamishli, rubbed out Tammo and maimed his son. It was not clear who was behind the attack. The United States has condemned his killing.

One activist said he feared the killing might encourage Kurds to take up arms against Assad forces, pushing the country closer to civil war. "This is a terrorist attack, a terrorist liquidation. The Kurds might feel they want to avenge. We are very angry," said a Kurdish activist who declined to be named.

Video footage broadcast by Al Jizz television showed Tammo's coffin being carried on people's shoulders wrapped in a Kurdish flag and covered with flowers. "Leave, Leave," the mourners chanted.

Fares al-Tammo, Meshaal's son, told Al Jizz from Erbil in northern Iraq that the Kurds were angry and blamed the Syrian authorities for his father's death. "This blood is precious to them [Kurds], they will not give up until the regime is tossed and the execution of Bashir al-Assad," he said.

Activists in Damascus said Syrian authorities stepped up security in Kurdish areas in the capital.

Kurds make up about 10 percent of Syria's 20 million population, and largely support the uprising against Assad. Ethnic Kurds have long complained of discrimination and staged violent protests against Assad in 2004. They are not allowed to teach Kurdish in schools or to set up Kurdish radio stations.

While Assad has sent troops and tanks to crush protests against him which erupted in March, he also promised reforms. He has ended a state of emergency and promised parliamentary elections in February. He tried to pacify the Kurds by giving citizenship to tens of thousands of them, and casualties in the Kurdish areas remained the lowest.

Many of Assad's opponents say his reform promises are hollow and that his government has forfeited all legitimacy after killing at least 2,900 civilians, by a UN count.
Posted by: || 10/09/2011 12:48 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile, New Wonder Woman fans, ....

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SYRIA WARNS AGZ INTERNATINAL RECOGNITION OF OPPOSITION COUNCIL. The rebel National Council.

* SAME > [Syrian Free Army = SFA] SYRIAN OPPOSITION CALLS FOR NO FLY ZONE, oer whole of Syria + set up of buffer area near Turkish border.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/09/2011 21:38 Comments || Top||


Gemayel Says Syrian Infiltration into Border Towns Unacceptable
[An Nahar] Phalange Party
The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology.
leader Amin Gemayel stressed on Saturday that his party's position on the Syrian infiltration into the Lebanese territories in the eastern Bekaa valley is a matter of principle.

"Sovereignty can't be divided, it's either complete or doesn't exist, especially if a non-Lebanese army enters the Lebanese border and assault peoples' privacy," Gemayel said.

In a second incident this week, Syrian troops entered the outskirts of Arsal village on Thursday and rubbed out a Syrian national living there.

Earlier this week, Syrian tanks entered the same region in a brief incursion that raised fears of the revolt against the regime in 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...
spilling over into Leb.

Gemayel added: "this is not acceptable, under any circumstances."

He noted that the position of the party "comes from its historical constants and convictions."

Concerning the fear over Christians' existence in the East, Gemayel said "no doubt there are some concerns on them, but the question remains how to deal these fears."

He wondered what other alternative is there for the Special Tribunal for Leb probing the liquidation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri "We have no other choice since they don't trust the Lebanese judiciary, how will the families of the deaders know who killed their sons or relatives?"

Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Venezuela, Cuba FMs Lead Support Mission to Syria
[An Nahar] The foreign ministers of Venezuela and Cuba are leading a delegation of leftist Latin American countries to Syria to meet Sunday with Syria's President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
in a show of support.

The eight-member ALBA bloc's talks aim to "reject invasion and political destabilization attempts of the country by the United States and its allies," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in state news agency AVN.

"We reject all forms of interventionism that the empire is trying to apply as it did in Libya for a violent process of regime change," he added from Geneva.

Representatives of Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia led by Maduro and Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez are traveling to 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...
to "support the Syrian people in their search for stability."

ALBA is sending the diplomatic mission amid fears of a repeat of the same conflict that saw Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffy
...a proud Arab institution for 42 years...
removed from power.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are also members of the alliance of leftist Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Washington has renewed its calls for Assad to step down immediately amid escalating violence against anti-regime protesters that has left nearly 3,000 people dead.

Posted by: Fred || 10/09/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2011-10-09
  Yemen president says ready to quit within days
Sat 2011-10-08
  Mexican security forces find 46 dead in Veracruz
Fri 2011-10-07
  Doctor Who Helped U.S. Find Osama Bin Laden May Hang
Thu 2011-10-06
  Shelling Resumes in Sana'a
Wed 2011-10-05
  Afghanistan foils plot to kill Karzai
Tue 2011-10-04
  Bomb kills at least 65 in Mogadishu
Mon 2011-10-03
  Syrian Opposition Forms United Common Front
Sun 2011-10-02
  Syrian troops battle hundreds of renegade soldiers
Sat 2011-10-01
  Underwear-bomb maker also believed dead in Yemen strike
Fri 2011-09-30
  Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen
Thu 2011-09-29
  US ambassador Robert Ford pelted with tomatoes by Syrian brownshirts
Wed 2011-09-28
  NTC Fighters Capture Sirte's Port
Tue 2011-09-27
  1 injured, 2 missing as Egypt pumps sewage into Gaza tunnel
Mon 2011-09-26
  Missile targets Afghan president palace
Sun 2011-09-25
  French Envoy Targeted with Eggs, Stones in Damascus


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