[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Tunisia’s president promised on Friday he would not turn into a dictator and rejected accusations he had staged a coup, as two parliament members were arrested following his decision to lift their immunity when he seized control of government this week.
Tunisia has been thrust into a political crisis by President Kais Saied’s move on Sunday to dismiss the prime minister and freeze parliament for 30 days, leading major parties to accuse him of a coup.
Saied has yet to carry out steps that critics say are needed to reassure Tunisians, including the appointment of an interim prime minister and a roadmap to end the emergency measures.
"I know the constitutional texts very well, respect them and taught them and after all this time I will not turn into a dictator as some have said," the presidency quoted the former law professor saying.
Concerns over rights and freedoms in Tunisia, a democracy since the 2011 revolution, rose on Friday after the arrest of parliamentarian and influential blogger Yassin Ayari and the announcement of investigations into alleged violence by people protesting Saied’s actions during a demonstration on Monday.
The military judiciary said Ayari had been imprisoned by a judicial ruling issued three years ago for defaming the army. Saied on Sunday removed the immunity of parliament members, leaving any with cases against them vulnerable to arrest.
Another member of parliament, Maher Zid of the conservative Moslem Karama party, was detained late on Friday, according to his lawyer, after being sentenced to two years in prison in 2018 for offending people on social media and insulting the then president.
On Monday, the biggest party in parliament, the moderate Islamist Ennahda, held a sit-in outside parliament after it was surrounded by the army. Hundreds of supporters of Ennahda and Saied confronted each other, some throwing stones or bottles.
The judiciary said it had opened investigations into four people linked to Ennahda for "attempting to commit acts of violence" during the protest, including a member of a party council and two members with connections to its leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
[LIBYAREVIEW] The National Commission for Human Rights in Libya (NCHRL) strongly condemned the armed festivities that broke out on Friday, west of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... Armed groups used heavy and medium weapons, and reportedly randomly shelled residential neighbourhoods.
The NCHRL rejected the renewed armed festivities, violence, and destabilizing security. It also expressed its "severe dissatisfaction" with the weakness of the security system in western Libya.
The NCHRL called on the Government of National Unity (GNU) to assume its "legal and ethical" responsibilities in stopping the festivities, and ensuring the safety of civilians.
It also called on the Interior Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office to open a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of these festivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
that should do it
Posted by: Chris ||
07/31/2021 0:17 Comments ||
Top||
[DW] Ghana's capital Accra is now home to West Africa's second biggest mosque. Funded by the Ottoman Turkish government, Ghana's National Mosque is said to be a replica of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The complex cost at least $10 million dollars,
...where did Turkey get an extra $10 million to spend on such a vanity project? And what benefit does Turkey expect from Ghana in exchange?
15,000 people can worship in the mosque at a time. Decorations include hand-drawn calligraphy of Koran verses, and the Carrara marble exterior fittings and the four minarets are also eye-catching.
Since its opening, the mosque has drawn thousands of Moslem and non-Moslem visitors. It complex includes a holy man's residence, a school, a clinic, a library and a morgue. Welcome to Ghana's national mosque!
[JAMnews] Azerbaijani opposition blogger Hussein Bakikhanov was found dead in Tbilisi on the evening of July 29.
The body of the young man was found in the apartment where he lived. However, according to Bakikhanov’s friends, he could have fallen down from the building.
This information was spread by the blogger’s friends in Azerbaijan, including journalist Afgan Mukhtarli. Mukhtarli posted on Facebook that "the police have confirmed that Bakikhanov fell from a height."
Khusein Bakikhanov was a political migrant from Azerbaijan who lived in Tbilisi and sought political asylum there. A few days before his death, on July 12, a suspicious incident occurred with Bakikhanov, which he described in a video that he uploaded on YouTube: More at the link
[KhaamaPress] US president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... welcomed the first flight from Afghanistan evacuating more than 200 people including interpreters, translators, and other workers along with their families on Friday.
News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported that a commercial plane of 221 Afghans-applicants of Special Immigration Visa- arrived in Dulles, Virginia just outside Washington D.C.
The people were screened for coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... and are tended to stay in Fort Lee, Virginia for seven days.
Joe Biden in a statement said that he is fulfilling his promise of bringing thousands of Afghans who have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops during the past twenty years in Afghanistan.
The batch is first of the over seven hundred families that Joe Biden had pledged to be flown out directly to the United States. As per the plan, thousands of other applicants of SIV will be taken to a third country of US military base in a third country until their paper works get completed.
The White House statement further reads that Joe Biden thanked all the Afghans who have contributed to their mission in Afghanistan and said to be proud of them all.
On Thursday, Congress overwhelmingly passed the bill based on which 8 thousand additional visas were to be granted for Afghans who have worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan.
Biden said that these first Afghans are able to come directly to the United States because they have already completed extensive background checks and security screening by the Intelligence Community and the Departments of State and Homeland Security.
They will complete the final steps of their visa applications and required medical checks at Fort Lee, in Virginia, before traveling onward to begin their new lives in the United States, the statement said.
#2
There are more than 30,000 Afghan refugees located in northern California, with most settled around Milpitas. Thus, those arriving would probably be welcome there, but who would wish the California Bay Area on anyone?
[BenarNews] The 70-year-old defense alliance between Manila and Washington is back on track after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he would fully restore a key bilateral military pact following his meeting with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin in Manila, officials announced Friday.
The U.S. defense secretary visited the Philippine capital as he wrapped up a weeklong tour of three Southeast Asian countries located in the heart of the contested South China Sea, a geopolitical issue that headlined the agenda during his stops in Singapore, Hanoi and Manila.
On Friday, Austin’s Philippine counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana, who challenged recent incursions by Chinese ships into Philippine-claimed territory in strategic waterway, announced the decision about the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.
Continued on Page 49
#6
/\ President Xi is not to be faulted. He's just being an obstinate Chinaman. I personally blame the wet markets and Fauci's total lack of credibility.
#7
4-2021: During a phone call on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin discussed concerns about the build-up of China’s maritime militia in the disputed waters, including Whitsun Reef, according to a U.S. readout. They reiterated calls for China to abide by the 2016 arbitration ruling issued pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention. The growing tension comes as Chinese vessels — initially numbering in the hundreds — were spotted at Whitsun Reef, prompting protests from Manila. The U.S. last month said it stands by the Philippines while accusing China of using a “maritime militia to intimidate, provoke and threaten other nations.” China said last month that the ships were simply “taking shelter from the wind” and the Philippines should view the situation in a “rational light.”
#9
Treat China like we did the Soviet Union and they might become a bit more reasonable. The way things are now, Xi is to be excused for not knowing how to treat us. Will we fight our number one trade partner? Will we fight the country that manufactures most of the stuff we use on a daily basis? What would happen to our economy then? Does anybody know? Anybody?
Instead we cower meekly behind our masks when China attacks us with a bio-weapon. This type of response invites further aggression. Xi is to be excused if he accepts the invitation.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/31/2021 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Ah, I see they agreed on an acceptable level of bribes, I mean foreign aid.
[AlAhram] The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, killing more than 200 people, wounding thousands, and devastating swathes of Beirut.
The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up at Beirut port last year was one fifth of the shipment unloaded there in 2013, the FBI ...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time... concluded after the blast, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.
As the first anniversary approaches on Aug. 4, major questions remain unanswered, including how a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate - which can be used to make fertiliser or bombs - was left unsafely stored in a capital city for years.
The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, killing more than 200 people, wounding thousands, and devastating swathes of Beirut.
The FBI's Oct. 7, 2020 report, which was seen by Rooters this week, estimates around 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate went kaboom! that day, much less than the 2,754 tonnes that arrived on a Russian-leased fat merchantman in 2013.
The FBI report does not give any explanation as to how the discrepancy arose, or where the rest of the shipment may have gone.
In response to a detailed request for comment, an FBI spokesperson referred Rooters to the Lebanese authorities.
FBI Sherlocks came to Beirut after the blast at Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that... 's request.
A senior Lebanese official who was aware of the FBI report and its findings said the Lebanese authorities agreed with the Bureau on the quantity that went kaboom!.
Many officials in Lebanon have previously said in private they believe a lot of the shipment was stolen.
The ammonium nitrate was going from Georgia to Mozambique on a Russian-leased fat merchantman when the captain says he was instructed to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut and take on extra cargo.
The ship arrived in Beirut in November 2013 but never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects. No one ever came forward to claim the shipment.
The senior Lebanese official said there were no firm conclusions as to why the quantity that went kaboom! was less than the original shipment. One theory was that part of it was stolen. A second theory was that only part of the shipment detonated, with the rest blown out to sea, the official said.
The FBI report said "an approximate amount reaching around 552 metric tonnes of ammonium nitrate went kaboom! in warehouse 12".
It noted the warehouse was large enough to house the 2,754 tonne shipment, which was stored in one-tonne bags, but added "it is not logical that all of them were present at the time of the earth-shattering kaboom".
Posted by: Sonny Black ||
07/31/2021 7:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Can DOJ and our premier agency track down the rest of the shipment? Or are they too pre-occupied with tax returns, lawsuits over immigration and pursuing conservatives in Washington and other places on Jan. 6th.
Fertilizer is most efficiently used to feed crops. That's probably where it went. Lebanon has been an Iranian province in all but name since the 80's, when Hezbollah took over after Israel evicted the PLO, so there's no shortage of ordnance of all kinds.
#5
There's a possibility that militias opposed to Hezbollah might have stolen some of the fertilizer since it's harder for them to get explosives. When you're building a car bomb, fertilizer, while inferior to Semtex, is better than grocery store chemicals. Given the amount of weaponry sloshing through Iraq and Syria due to decades of insurgency, I'd be surprised if better bomb materials than fertilizer weren't readily available. Lebanon has long and porous borders. It's known as the bazaar of the region for a reason.
Russian missile operators were the one who shot down the seven missiles the IAF fired at targets in Aleppo a week ago. Explains a lot. Link oneLink TwoRantburg link
[BreakingDefense] TEL AVIV: Defense sources say the Israeli military is planning to change its tactics in Syria to revolve around long-range standoff munitions as opposed to air strikes, following a new Russian policy to use its higher-end air defense systems capable of shooting down Israeli jets over Syrian airspace.
The change follows an announcement late last week by Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit, the head of the Russian military reconciliation center in Syria, who said in a TV interview that the Russian forces assisted the Syrians in intercepting four missiles launched by Israeli F-16s — the first time Russian assistance was given to counter Israeli military operations. More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
07/31/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
#1
Just testing Bennet - they knew not to pull this kind of $hit with Bibi.
[Iran Press TV] The commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces has warned Israel against any provocative moves across the country's borders, saying the forces will allow no one to take advantage of Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollah blew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate facility exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that... 's political and economic crises to foment instability there.
"We keep an eye on our border to confront the Israeli enemy's danger, which has recently stepped up its aggressiveness against Lebanon and threatened to wage a new war," Joseph Aoun said on Friday on the occasion of the Lebanese Army Day.
"The Lebanese armed forces will remain the safety valve of our homeland and the backbone of the state. We will remain faithful to our oath no matter how rough the road or heavy the challenges. Our priority has been and will remain to protect and fortify the military," Aoun said.
The Israeli military violates Lebanon's airspace from time to time and sporadically fires missiles into the the Lebanese territory against the positions of the Hezbollah resistance movement.
Lebanon and the occupying entity are technically at war since the latter has kept the Arab country's Shebaa Farms under occupation since 1967.
Lebanon fought off two Israeli wars in 2000 and 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, bit the dust during Israel's 33-day war on Lebanon back in the summer of 2006.
Since Hezbollah was established following the 1982 Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon, the movement has grown into a powerful military force, dealing repeated blows to the Israeli military.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2021 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
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#1
A little late for that.
Posted by: Maurice ||
07/31/2021 22:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Virgin again...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2021 23:13 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces has warned Israel against any provocative moves,
sexy pole dances, and IDF girls posting cute selfies with their battle rifles.
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.
...46th president of the U.S. 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollah blew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate facility exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that...
