[Libya Herald] In a twist that throws further confusion on what really happened yesterday in Misrata, Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia has flatly denied that its leader, Saifallah Benhassine, also known as Abu Iyad, has been incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
The story began late yesterday morning with a report of Benhassine's capture carried by Tunisia's state news agency TAP, which quoted Tunisian security sources. Benhassine has been accused on complicity in the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Tunis as well as involvement in the smuggling of weapons from Libya into Tunisia.
The TAP report said that US special forces working with Libya units had tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! the Ansar Al-Sharia leader along with a number of colleagues in Misrata. Initially, the US embassies in 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... and Tunis both declined to comment. However a later statement from the Defense Department in Washington flatly denied that there had been any US involvement in the Misrata operation. There was however no rebuttal of the fact that Benhassine had indeed been seized.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia
[Al Ahram] The Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim said on Tuesday that "90 percent" of those responsible for the bomb attack in the city of Mansoura last week have been arrested. The minister said at a press conference that the details will be announced once all the perpetrators have been arrested. No further details on the arrests were given.
A bomb exploded last week in Mansoura, a city north of Cairo, leaving 16 people dead and more than 135 injured. The blast caused substantial damage to the regional Security Directorate and other nearby buildings.
Sinai's Ansar Bayt Al-Maqadis, an Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Egypt's interim government has blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, although the Brotherhood has plausibly denied all links.
On Wednesday, the government declared the Brotherhood a "terrorist" organisation, detailing prison sentences for those who associate with the group.
The Brotherhood issued a statement on Monday slamming the Egyptian government.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is innocent of this crime and the coup's cabinet is made up of a group of lying conspirators," read the statement, published on its official Facebook page.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Justice Ministry sent a request to Qatari authorities to arrest Egyptian Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya leader Assem Abdel-Maged, who fled the country following the ouster of former Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
A Justice Ministry source told Ahram Online that the request included references to an extradition treaty signed by Egypt and Qatar requiring the Gulf state to apprehend Abdel-Maged, as he stands charged by Egyptian authorities -- along with dozens of top Moslem Brüderbund leaders -- with inciting violence following the forced police dispersal of two large pro-Morsi protest camps.
Notorious for regularly delivering heated speeches at the protest camps, during which he overtly threatened the masses of anti-Morsi protesters who'd taken to the streets, Abdel-Maged was a popular and inspirational figure among supporters of the Islamist president.
Making an appearance in Qatar, Abdel-Maged warned in December that the "coup" ruling Egypt will fail.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Gemaa Al-Islamiya
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Building and Development Party -- the political wing of the ultra-conservative Islamist group Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya -- warned in a statement on Tuesday against "planned and staged" violence during upcoming Christian holidays.
The majority strand of Coptic Christianity is a variety of Eastern Orthodox, so they never made the changeover to the modern calendar. They're due for Christmas shortly.
One of the staunchest allies of the Moslem Brüderbund, Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya -- which itself formerly adopted violence until renouncing it in the 1990s -- is opposed to the current transitional government ruling Egypt.
The party said such "sinful and criminal" violence may harm innocent Egyptians and ruin Christian festivities. The statement also suggested the current government may be implicated in the violence.
Referring to Brotherhood supporters, the party urged "revolutionaries" to stay away from churches and parks during Christian holidays -- held on 7 January for Coptic Christians -- so as not to bother them.
The dread of potential blasts has risen as a result of the Death Eater attacks which spiked after the July ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... . Initially centred in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula, the attacks have recently extended to additional governorates.
Egypt witnessed three kabooms over the past week. A bomb rocked the Security Directorate building in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura on last Tuesday, killing 16 people and injuring more than 135.
On Sunday, four soldiers were maimed in an kaboom near the Sharqiya Governorate's Military Intelligence Headquarters, while on Thursday a smaller kaboom near a public bus in eastern Cairo's Nasr City injured five people.
Also, numerous attacks against churches were reported following the forced dispersal of the two main pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo and Giza on 14 August, which left hundreds dead and thousands injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Gemaa Al-Islamiya
[Al Ahram] The US expressed alarm on Monday over Egypt's recent declaration of the Moslem Brüderbund a terrorist group as well as the ongoing detentions of peaceful protesters and activists, moves it says will hinder Egypt's transition to democracy. Every time I wonder how abysmally stoopid the B.O. regime can get they answer the question.
A State Department official said Washington was "concerned" that the movement -- which propelled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... to power last year, but has been battered by a sustained crackdown since he was deposed in July -- was last week designated as terrorist.
Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf also voiced anxiety about the ongoing detentions by authorities, which encompass "peaceful demonstrators, civil society, and political activists."
Hundreds of the Brotherhood's loyalists have been killed by security forces in recent months and thousands others, including the group's upper echelons, have been nabbed You have the right to remain silent...
A protest law passed in November, which rights groups criticised as "repressive," has also allowed authorities to detain several non-Islamist activists.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Egypts interim government has ordered the assets of more than 500 Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist leaders seized including those of the countrys ousted president as part of an ever-tightening crackdown on the group, senior judicial and security officials said Tuesday.
Abdel-Azzem El Ashri, a Justice Ministry spokesman, said that a ministerial inventory committee ordered the movable and immovable properties of 572 Muslim Brotherhood leaders seized. Another Justice Ministry official said leaders on the list included toppled President Mohammed Mursi and his family, as well as provincial Brotherhood leaders and members of its General Guidance Bureau, which is the groups executive body.
A security official said the list also included female Muslim Brotherhood members like Azza El Garf and wife of leader Khairat El Shater and his daughter. He said other Islamist leaders include Assem Abdel-Maged, the leader of Gamaa Islamiyah, which waged an anti-government insurgency in 1990s against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The two officials said that the list includes those indicted in cases of inciting violence and those are under investigation or could be investigated.
The order is part of a wider state crackdown on the Brotherhood, first banned by a court order in September and declared a terrorist organisation by the military-backed interim government last week. The court order allowed the government to form the committee that inventoried of the groups finances and ordered its confiscation.
The government made the terrorist designation by linking it to a wave of recent militant attacks targeting security forces without publicly presenting any evidence backing its claim. The move signaled a new era of zero tolerance of the group and ended any reconciliation efforts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[PRIMENEWS.BD] BNP Chairperson Begum the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... has urged the countrymen to observe the countrywide rail-road-waterway blockade programme from Wednesday morning.
BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with a statement on behalf of the chairperson on Tuesday evening, hours before the nonstop agitation begins.
Khaleda said the country was facing an utter crisis.
Of her making...
The BNP chairperson has urged the countrymen to save the country, democracy and basic right of people through national unity. She urged the people irrespective of party affiliation to come to the streets.
So that she can come back into power...
Earlier the 18-party alliance called indefinite blockade from January 1 across the country to meet their demand in regard to the upcoming polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Ahram] President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... on Tuesday vowed to annihilate "terrorists" following two deadly kabooms in less than 24 hours in the southern Russian city of Volgograd that raised security fears ahead of the Winter Olympics.
The uncompromising remarks in a New Year's Eve address were Putin's first public comments since jacket wallahs killed at least 34 people in attacks on a railway station and a trolleybus on Sunday and Monday.
The bombings raised fears of further attacks before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in less than six weeks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, a major prestige project for Putin.
"I am certain that we will fiercely and consistently continue the fight against gunnies until their complete annihilation", Putin said, according to Russian news agencies.
"Dear friends, we bow our heads before the victims of cruel terrorist acts," the Russian leader said on a visit to the east coast city of Khabarovsk.
Putin, who first became president when his predecessor Boris Yeltsin stepped down and named him to the post exactly 14 years ago on Tuesday, has been unable to crush Islamist turbans in the Moslem provinces of the North Caucasus.
Police on Tuesday incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... dozens of people in sweeps through Volgograd, although there was no indication that any of them was connected to the attacks, for which nobody has grabbed credit.
Mourners laid flowers at the site of the bombing that tore the bus apart and left residents fearing further violence.
Videos at this Telegraph link show rather graphic violence and damage, as well as a few scattered details not mentioned above.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Emirate of Caucasus
#3
Russia WILL do it, personal freedom is a joke there.
Goodbye Terrorists, you won't be missed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/01/2014 10:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Don't get your hopes up. They said the same thing after Nord-Ost and Beslan. They wiped out a lot of bad guyz but they haven't made them afraid to be Salafists.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 10:24 Comments ||
Top||
#5
some deader Saudi financial backers would be a good start
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2014 11:55 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Frank and the mosque mullahs who preach the shit to the finance guys.
Two North Korean dissidents fled to China in November, an activist broadcaster here claimed Sunday. Kim Seung-chul of North Korea Reform Radio told the Chosun Ilbo the two made a telephone call to his station from China asking for help. They are from Jagang Province and had been listening to the radio station for five years with a home-made receiver and launched a pro-democracy group there, Kim said.
He quoted one of the men as saying the broadcasts inspired him to think about how to improve North Korea. He said they printed anti-regime leaflets based on the broadcasts and scattered them in markets and streets.
But they decided to flee because one of their members was arrested in early November and state security dragnet was closing in.
They brought their radio with them. "We brought it with us as an evidence that there are young North Koreans who are fighting for freedom and reunification," Kim quoted them as saying.
Kim said he helped them escape through China and they are currently in Thailand and expected to arrive in South Korea next month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Hong Yong, North Korea's deputy chief of mission to UNESCO, returned to Pyongyang on Monday as part of a wider recall of diplomats who had been close to executed eminence grise Jang Song-taek. Hong follows Pak Kwang-chol, the ambassador to Sweden who returned to North Korea last Friday.
If we had a CIA worth anything we would have offered Hong sanctuary, a clean passport and a suitcase full of unmarked hundreds in return for what was in his head...
Before Jang was executed, the regime recalled Jon Yong-jin, Jang's brother-in-law and ambassador to Cuba, and Jang Yong-chol, his nephew and ambassador to Malaysia.
"The ongoing purge of Jang's associates is an ominous sign," a source said. "It seems the regime is recalling any diplomats who are branded as Jang's associates to Pyongyang."
North Korean trade officials based in Beijing and Dandong are also reportedly being recalled.
But Ambassador to Beijing Ji Jae-ryong and Ambassador to Moscow Kim Yong-jae, who were also close to Jang, are still in their posts. The source speculated that Ji has so far been spared in order to preserve relations with China but will get the chop sooner or later.
China's own ambassador to Pyongyang comes to the end of his tour early next year, which could furnish an opportunity to replace Ji.
A diplomatic source in Beijing said, "Since Jang's execution, embassy staffers in Beijing have been acting very cautiously, only going out in groups and buying food in bulk."
Ji is also reportedly keeping a low profile.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Ynet] French interior minister says Dieudonne's shows have repeatedly insulted memory of Holocaust victims, could threaten public order
He said his ministry is studying legal ways to ban shows by Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a comedian repeatedly fined for hate speech who ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections at the head of an "Anti-Zionist List" including far-right activists.
Valls announced the move after Jewish groups complained to President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... about Dieudonne's trademark straight-arm gesture, which they call a "Nazi salute in reverse" and link to a growing frequency of anti-Semitic remarks and acts in La Belle France.
Dieudonne, 46, Gay Paree-born son of a Cameroonian father and French mother, began his comedy career with a Jewish sidekick in the early 1990s and appeared in several films.
Originally active with anti-racist left-wing groups, he began openly criticizing Jews and Israel in 2002 and ran in the European elections two years later with a pro-Paleostinian party.
(CNN) -- A federal judge ordered the "compassionate release" Tuesday of a former defense lawyer imprisoned for aiding a convicted terrorist's communication from prison to his terrorist group.
U.S. District Judge John Koeltl granted a motion filed by federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reduce the sentence of outspoken lawyer Lynne Stewart, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010.
Stewart's "terminal medical condition and very limited life expectancy constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons that warrant the requested reduction," Koeltl wrote in his order.
"...It is further ordered that the defendant shall be released from the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons as soon as her medical condition permits, the release plan is implemented and travel arrangements can be made."
Stewart, who is 74 years old and has breast cancer, was known for representing poor and sometimes unpopular clients as a defense attorney. In 1995, she represented the blind cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of a long list of terrorist activities, including his part in a plot to blow up American military installations.
#9
He's the same guy that got his ass reamed by a judicial review for giving her 28 months the first time around and got forced to increase it to 10 years. I remember her bragging she could do the 28 months "standing on her head". So 18 should be even easier...
Shipping giants FedEx and UPS haven't said much since it was revealed Sunday that the National Security Agency intercepts electronics packages to install spyware, but what they have said implies they knew what the agency was up to.
Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum co-wrote a Der Spiegel article published Sunday detailing how the NSA intercepts newly purchased computer products mid-shipment to install surveillance malware before reaching the buyer without their knowledge.
"If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO [Office of Tailored Access Operations] can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops," Appelbaum wrote. "The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called "load stations," agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer."
In response to Daily Caller inquiries to shipping companies UPS and FedEx asking whether they had knowledge of such a program and if they cooperated with the NSA, FedEx media relations' Scott Fiedler responded with the following:
"The answer to your questions about 'permission/cooperation, etc...' is -- 'No.'"
Fiedler decline to comment on whether FedEx was aware of the program, or give a statement describing FedEx's official stance on the matter.
UPS declined to comment on repeated requests from TheDC.
I'm sure the NSA is good at this, if they're doing it; it can't be but so hard to open a package, modify the hardware, and re-do the packaging. How's the target going to know? The package might not even be delayed in transit.
Ace at Ace of Spades thinks that NSA behavior like this is mostly a non-issue: of course the NSA is supposed to be spying on 'targets': terrorist targets, targets who threaten us, nation-state targets that oppose us, and so on. My only response is this: what if the targets are us?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tax free, or free shipping on-line purchases.... the downside.
[ForeignPolicy] When U.S. officials warn about "attacks" on electric power facilities these days, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a computer hacker trying to shut the lights off in a city with malware. But a more traditional attack on a power station in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, has U.S. officials puzzled and worried about the physical security of the the electrical grid--from attackers who come in with guns blazing.
Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the area around the substation. That knocked out some local 911 services, landline service to the substation, and cell phone service in the area, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Foreign Policy. The intruder(s) then fired more than 100 rounds from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle at several transformers in the facility. Ten transformers were damaged in one area of the facility, and three transformer banks -- or groups of transformers -- were hit in another, according to a PG&E front man.
Cooling oil then leaked from a transformer bank, causing the transformers to overheat and shut down. State regulators urged customers in the area to conserve energy over the following days, but there was no long-term damage reported at the facility and there were no major power outages. There were no injuries reported. That was the good news. The bad news is that officials don't know who the shooter(s) were, and most importantly, whether further attacks are planned.
Local Sherlocks seemed to hit a dead end in June, so they released surveillance footage of the shooting. But that apparently produced no new information. The FBI says there have been no tips from the public about who the shooter might be and what he was doing there.
A pretty little problem with serious repercussions, assuming it was indeed not a couple of clever kids playing commando.
#1
Other readings I've done show the worst vulnerability are the high voltage high capacity transformers, which are custom made & have to be imported from abroad. Knocking out one of those would cause electric disruption immediately & restrict the grid until the items were replaced. Knocking out several at the same time would cause major problems. Methods to quickly replace damaged units are still being researched. A simple way to interfere with gunshot sabotage is to erect shields to interfere with a sniper's targeting.
#2
Disgruntled current or former employees (or April 15th tax payers) might be places to look. I'd recommend CCTV be augmented by discreetly placed ground sensor alarms.
#3
As I read this the question that I came up with was "Where is the MSM on this?"
I virtually never watch or listen to the MSM other than ESPN and saw nothing about this until recently on line (thanks 'burg). So for me a serious question is:
Would it be better to publicize this so people can be alert, or is it better to keep it low so people don't panic?
#4
"There are ways that a very few number of actors with very rudimentary equipment could take down large portions of our grid,
Not Mine, no transformers, a waste of time for terrorists, they'd only shut down my house, and that's a fools errand.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/01/2014 10:25 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Redneck Jim, you are a master mechanic. How long would it take you and a team to cobble together a replacement transformer that would do until a properly manufactured one could be shipped from wherever abroad such things are made?
#7
So many years ago I read that California is rather vulnerable due to the few transmission lines coming into the state. This was back 10 yrs or so when the news was all about brownouts in the state. They have such strict rules on pollution most of the new power plants were built in the bordering states.
#8
TW, you make a compelling argument, I suspect it would take about 1 week, but the transformer wouldn't need replacement, It'd be permanent.(And bulletproof, that's not done for economical reasons, not that it can't)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/01/2014 18:47 Comments ||
Top||
[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Tuesday gave the green signal to Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... to initiate talks with the Taliban.
The chief of his own faction of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI-S), Maulana Samiul Haq assured the prime minister that he would apprise him of the situation after his meeting with the Taliban. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a one-on-one meeting with the maulana for about one and a half hour. The JUI-S chief, who had called on the premier, discussed threadbare matters relating to the talks with Taliban and the future strategy in this regard.
Sources said that the prime minister assigned the task of paving way for talks with the Taliban to Maulana Samiul Haq, who claims to have close relations with the Taliban. Prime Minister Nawaz told the maulana that the government sincerely desires talks with the Taliban and asked him to initiate the talks. Later, while talking to a TV channel, Maulana Samiul Haq said that he met the prime minister on his request. He said he would try his best to help resolve this issue and added that the core issue was to stop the drone attacks.
Maulana Samiul Haq said the US should understand that talks with the Taliban were in the interest of Pakistain as well as regional peace. He said when we get ready, foreign pressures do not allow us to proceed. "Thousands of Paks have been martyred in a war which is not ours," he said. He demanded that the losses incurred in North Wazoo be compensated, and advised the prime minister to revisit the foreign policy.
Maulana Samiul Haq said that the Rawalpindi tragedy and matters relating to sectarianism were also discussed in the meeting. On the occasion, the JUI-S chief demanded that the operation in North Waziristan should be stopped. He remarked that the Taliban are waiting for the government to act first. Hoping for a good beginning to the New Year, Maulana Samiul Haq said change in government policies can bring the Taliban to negotiation table.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan rejected the impression that an operation was underway in North Waziristan. "No operation is underway in North Waziristan. The government's first priority is to engage Taliban with dialogue process and significant developments would soon be visible in next few weeks," he told news hounds. The minister also dispelled the impression that the task to hold dialogue was assigned to any individual, saying the government had not given authority to any individual for negotiations with Taliban.
The entire dialogue process would be carried out in light of the decisions taken at the all-parties conference (APC), he added. Answering a question, Chaudhry Nisar said the first draft of the anti-terrorism law had been formulated and would be presented soon to the federal cabinet for its onward submission to parliament. "We are burning midnight oil to devise comprehensive strategy to counter the curse of terrorism." Nisar said the new policy would be made so comprehensive that it could counter the internal as well external threats of terrorism.
The interior minister agreed with a questioner that the journalist community had been performing in an adverse environment. Chaudhry Nisar said the government was making all-out efforts to protect working journalists facing threats in different parts of the country. He pointed out that the Interior Ministry, in consultation with the Ministry of Information, would soon frame laws to protect the working journalists.
When his attention was drawn towards a recent statement of erstwhile military dictator Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , Nisar said that while in office Musharraf had maligned the fame and authority of the prime national institution and is now again using the same tactics to save his skin. He said that the government would soon enact a comprehensive plan to deal with the challenges like price hike of daily-use items, load-shedding in power and gas sector, in consultation with the stakeholders.
He said that the PML-N firmly believes in a system of good governance that ensures a corruption-free society. He said major national entities like Pakistain Railways, PIA and others have started showing progress instead of being declared bankrupt.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[Ynet] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... threatened diplomatic and legal action against the "cancer" of Israeli settlement building, a day ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State....
"We will not remain patient as the settlement cancer spreads, especially in (east) Jerusalem, and we will use our right as a UN observer state by taking political, diplomatic and legal action to stop it," he said during a speech in Ramallah to mark the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah party.
As an "observer state" do they have any rights? De facto, of course the world will let them do as they please, using it as an excuse to browbeat Israel, but that's a different question.
Insanity, in accordance with the popular definition.
[Ynet] A representative of the Paleostinian Authority in Washington, Maan Erekat, told Paleostinian news agency Ma'an that the US will give $440 million to the Paleostinians in 2014.
Erekat said the funds will be provided in accordance with the negotiations with Israel. This is a $14 million increase from 2013.
More money for certain Swiss bank accounts, a possible pittance for the people of the West Bank.
#2
So we can set the Paleo budget but not our own; though we are completely overblown we can't keep our own obligations to our troops but fund the widow's ammunition fund. Nice.
[Al Ahram] The Palestinian group Hamas condemned on Tuesday Egypt's designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group last week, reaffirming its solidarity with the ousted movement despite a crippling blockade imposed by Cairo. Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas Gaza government, also snubbed calls by some rival Palestinian factions to sever its connections with the Brotherhood.
"We reject such a classification for the Muslim Brotherhood group. No one, regardless of its influence, can push Hamas or any of the Palestinian resistance factions to abandon their ideology, abandon their history," Haniyeh told reporters.
Egyptian prosecutors and officials say the Muslim Brotherhood has links with domestic Islamist militants who have stepped up attacks on security forces across the country.
They also accuse the group of plotting violence along with Islamist groups from neighbouring countries, Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.
Hamas, founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been seen as a major loser from the July 3rd ouster and arrest of elected Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, who belonged to the Brotherhood.
Since then, tension has grown between Hamas and the army-backed Cairo government, and curbs on trade to Gaza mounted.
"We seek to reaffirm that we do not intervene in Egyptian internal affairs. Egypt cannot do without us and we cannot do with Egypt. These historical, geographic and security links can never be severed," Haniyeh added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Hamass and the Obean regime have something more to commiserate about now.
[Ynet] The chief Lebanese prosecutor, Samir Hamud, said an FBI team was in Beirut to help investigate former finance minister Mohamad Chatah's liquidation last week.
Hamud told the Daily Star that the American task force collected evidence and submitted a report before leaving Tuesday night,
Collecting more phone numbers and email addresses for the NSA to track...
[Ynet] Hezbollah involvement in Syria war results in death of 300 of organization's operatives, conflict's corpse count continues to rise as more than 500 Syrians killed in Arclight airstrike
As the war in Syria presses on, Hezbollah 's involvement continues to claim lives, so far reaching a corpse count of some 300 operatives, according to estimates of Israeli intelligence sources.
An official with the IDF 's Intelligence Directorate noted that Iran was still supplying ammunition to the Shiite group, stressing that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is expected to continue to support Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Continued on Page 49
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.
[Al Ahram] The Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim said on Tuesday that "90 percent" of those responsible for the bomb attack in the city of Mansoura last week have been arrested. The minister said at a press conference that the details will be announced once all the perpetrators have been arrested. No further details on the arrests were given.
[Al Ahram] The US expressed alarm on Monday over Egypt's recent declaration of the 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Two North Korean dissidents fled to China in November, an activist broadcaster here claimed Sunday. Kim Seung-chul of North Korea Reform Radio told the Chosun Ilbo the two made a telephone call to his station from China asking for help. They are from Jagang Province and had been listening to the radio station for five years with a home-made receiver and launched a pro-democracy group there, Kim said.
Shipping giants FedEx and UPS haven't said much since it was revealed Sunday that the National Security Agency intercepts electronics packages to install spyware, but what they have said implies they knew what the agency was up to.
Nawaz Sharif
Wazoo
Pervez 
[Al Ahram] The Palestinian group Hamas condemned on Tuesday Egypt's designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group last week, reaffirming its solidarity with the ousted movement despite a crippling blockade imposed by Cairo. Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas Gaza government, also snubbed calls by some rival Palestinian factions to sever its connections with the Brotherhood.
[Ynet] The chief Lebanese prosecutor, Samir Hamud, said an FBI team was in Beirut to help investigate former finance minister Mohamad Chatah's 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
