[An Nahar] President Mohamed Morsi Monday warned that Egypt would not allow its share of the Nile to be diminished by "one drop" after Æthiopia began diverting the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project.
"We cannot let even one drop of Nile water be affected," Morsi said during talks with political and religious leaders broadcast live on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
The talks revolved around a report of a tripartite Egypt-Sudan-Æthiopia commission on Æthiopia's decision to divert the Blue Nile for a massive dam project, sparking fears of a major impact on downstream states Egypt and Sudan.
"It is necessary that we take steps to ensure Egyptian water security," Morsi said on his official Twitter account without elaborating. "The current situation necessitates unity among our ranks to prevent any threat against Egypt."
Egyptian officials estimate that Æthiopia's move is largely technical and will not alter the water flow that is vital for both Egypt and Sudan.
But Khaled al-Kazzaz, an adviser to Morsi, said the issue was one of "national security" for Egypt, with the cabinet last Wednesday reiterating that Cairo was opposed to all projects which could affect the flow of the Nile.
The Blue Nile joins the White Nile in Khartoum to form the Nile river which flows through Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean.
Æthiopia has begun diverting the Blue Nile 500 meters (yards) from its natural course to construct a $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euro) hydroelectric project known as Grand Renaissance Dam. The first phase of construction is expected to be complete in three years, with a capacity of 700 megawatts. Once complete the dam will have a capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
Egypt believes its "historic rights" to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile's flow and give it veto power over upstream projects. But a new deal was signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Æthiopia, allowing them to work on river projects without Cairo's prior agreement.
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] An Egyptian opposition youth activist was on Monday sentenced by a Cairo court to six months in prison for insulting President Mohamed Morsi.
Ahmed Duma, who was tried for calling Morsi "a criminal and murderer" during a television broadcast, was also ordered to pay a fine of 200 Egyptian pounds (22 euros).
The activist blogger can be released on bail of 5,000 pounds (550 euros) pending a decision by an appeals court.
Duma is the first anti-Morsi activist to be sentenced to a jail term, according to human rights groups.
Dozens of Duma supporters gathered outside the courthouse during the hearing, chanting slogans against the president and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood from which he came, an Agence France Presse journalist said.
His trial took place after a complaint by a member of the president's Freedom and Justice Party, who said that he felt personally insulted by what Duma had said about Morsi.
The official MENA news agency said Duma was accused of spreading "false information and rumors in a television program" and for describing Morsi as a "criminal and murderer who escaped justice".
Duma said his remarks were "political criticism" and were not intended to insult the president, MENA reported.
Morsi, elected in June last year, has been accused of suppressing or seeking to suppress opponents and journalists who criticize him by accusing them of defamation.
In April, Morsi ordered the withdrawal of the complaints filed in court by his office against journalists accused of publishing "rumors" about him.
Human rights lawyer Gamal Eid says there were four times more complaints about insults to the president" during the first 200 days of Morsi's presidency than under the Hosni Mubarak's entire 30-year rule.
Most such complaints do not come directly from the parties involved but from "citizens", and the presidency denies being behind any of them, citing the independence of the judiciary.
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] In an unprecedented move, the United States on Monday posted up to $23 million in rewards to help track down five leaders of bad turban groups accused of spreading terror in west Africa.
The highest reward of $7 million is offered for the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... leader Abubakar Shekau, who last week called on Islamists in Afghanistan, Pakistain and Iraq to join the bloody fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria.
The U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program also targeted al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its first ever bounties for wanted Death Eaters in west Africa.
Up to $5 million was posted for al-Qaeda veteran Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist behind the devastating attack on an Algerian gas plant in January in which 37 foreigners, including three Americans, were killed.
A further $5 million was offered for top AQIM leader Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, reportedly involved in the 2010 murder of an elderly French hostage in Niger.
Malik Abou Abdelkarim, a senior fighter with AQIM, and Oumar Ould Hamaha, the front man for Mali's Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), were also targeted by the rewards program, which will give up to $3 million each for information leading to their arrests.
"AQIM has been increasingly active in north and west Africa. They're one of the pre-eminent kidnap for ransom groups in the terrorist world right now," a senior State Department official told Agence La Belle France Presse, asking not to be named.
"They cause us a great deal of concern. Anything that we can do naturally to cut down on the capabilities of AQIM, anything that we can do to get information on these people so that we can get them in front of a court... That is our goal."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Will the [sequester free] funding include US Navy SEALS? Black helicopters? White House situation room stills? Movies and Books ?
[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami has called an eight-hour long hartal in Rajshahi division for Tuesday protesting arrest of a party leader while the party student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, decided to enforce separate shutdown in 3 districts for Tuesday protesting arrest of another leader.
Jamaat called the hartal in eight districts of Rajshahi division as police arrested Rafiqul Islam, a Majlish-e-Sura member of the party in Belepukur area of Chapainawabganj town early Monday.
On the other hand Shibir will enforce the shutdown for eight-hour in Chittagong south district, Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts protesting the arrest of Tarique Hossain, president of Chittagong south district unit of Shibir.
JAMAAT SHUTDOWN
The Jamaat decided to enforce the hartal from 6:00am Tuesday protesting the arrest, reported our correspondent quoting a press release of the party publication department of Rajshahi zone.
The press release also claimed that the arrest was made without any legal ground.
Police arrested Rafiqul at his residence in Belepukur area of Chapainawabganj town around 3:00am, said Bazlur Rashid, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sadar Model Police Station.
He was an accused in different cases filed on charges of assaulting police, obstructing their duties and carrying out subversive activities during recent hartal days, the OC said.
SHIBIR SHUTDOWN
Shibir will also begin the shutdown from 6:00am on Tuesday, reports our Chittagong correspondent quoting Nurul Amin, general secretary of Chittagong city unit of Shibir.
The hartal of Chittagong includes seven upazilas -- Patiya, Chandanaish, Anwara, Bashkhali, Boalkhali, Lohagara and Satkania.
The area under Karnaphuli Police Station of Chittagong city will also be included during the hartal
Earlier in the morning, law enforcers arrested Tarique for his alleged involvement with vandalism and arson during recent hartal days.
A team of Kotwali police arrested Tarique at a residence in the city's Chatgaon area, Shah Abdur Rouf, assistant commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (Panchlaish zone).
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... slammed on Monday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah's description of Syria's war as a "fight against Takfiris," ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... accusing the Syrian regime of hiding behind the Islamist jihadist al-Nusra Front to conduct attacks in Iraq and Leb.
"Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's regime executed terrorist attacks in many locations, in Iraq for example, by claiming it was fighting occupation and it also released many al-Nusra members from jails upon the eruption of the Syrian revolution," Jumblat stated in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website.
"This reminds us of what happened with Shaker al-Absi and Fatah al Islam."
Jumblat said that as a result of the "desperation created because of the international community's passiveness towards the crisis in Syria, many rebels might have joined the Front."
"To a part of the revolutionaries, the Front has become the main resistance against the regime," he pointed out.
"There is no doubt that the confusion created by suggesting it is either the regime or al-Nusra Front delays the consolidation between the opposition's groups and prolongs the regime's reign."
Jumblat also criticized Nasrallah's description of the war on Syria as a "fight against Takfiris."
"We ask God to forgive those that said it is a war against Takfiris knowing that he (Nasrallah) is aware of the Syrian people's righteous demands," he said.
Jumblat continued: "The international community is to blame for the current situation in Syria as it failed to have a unified view on the conflict and on how to deal with it."
During a speech he gave in May at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Leb, Nasrallah said the Takfiris are the "most prevailing group in the Syrian opposition," warning against a defeat against them in the ongoing war in Syria.
He said: "If Syria falls in the hands of the Takfiris and the United States, the resistance will become under a siege and Israel will enter Leb. If Syria falls, the Paleostinian cause will be lost."
The Druze leader reiterated his support to the "Syrian people's revolution against injustice, dictatorship and oppression," but stressed his rejection to all calls that refuse to recognize other religious sects.
"(Influential Musselmenholy man Yusuf) Qaradawi's call to expiate Allawites is completely unacceptable and contradicts with Islamic Sharia," Jumblat declared.
[An Nahar] Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc leader Fouad Saniora called on Monday for the formation of a government of "peaceful" individuals and not "fighters," and rejected the involvement of Hizbullah in the Syrian war.
"We are keen on exerting every effort to form the new cabinet of peaceful individuals and not fighters," Saniora said during a ceremony at the Municipality of Sidon.
"Neither Hizbullah nor any other party should participate in the ongoing fighting in Syria," he said.
The MP also rejected shoving Leb and the Lebanese into the region's conflicts and "fake battles."
Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war increased in mid-May when regime troops launched an assault on the rebel-held town of Qusayr that lies near Leb's northeastern border.
Hizbullah members have been fighting alongside the troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... to take over control of the town.
"We hold onto coexistence. That's why we reject attempts to turn Leb into a battleground," Saniora said.
He called for the adoption of a new modern electoral law, saying the security incidents rocking the country had compelled his bloc to approve the extension of parliament's mandate.
Lawmakers extended on Friday the legislature's term for 17 months after the rival parties failed to agree on a new law and following fears that the deteriorating security situation would prevent holding the polls based on the 1960 law.
"We hadn't planned for parliament's term extension ... which goes against democracy but we are determined to produce a new electoral law," Saniora said.
He also rejected the recent liquidation attempt against Quds Mosque Imam in Sidon Sheikh Maher Hammoud.
The security agencies should exert efforts to find the assailants who opened fire on him, he said.
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] MP Mohammed Raad, head of Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, stressed Sunday that Hizbullah is fighting in Syria's Qusayr against the same "Zionist plot" it had confronted in southern Leb.
"It is important to realize the importance of deaders during this period, so that some people don't confuse things and think that the rifle of the resistance has changed its aim ... as the deaders that are falling nowadays on the frontier of Qusayr and its countryside, and in defense of Sayyeda Zainab and its holy shrine, are defending Leb and the Arab and Islamic world against the same Zionist plot that targeted Leb through its southern frontier," Raad said.
"The current events are two faces of the same plot under the auspices of the United States, which is sponsoring terrorism whether it is Zionist terrorism or claiming to be religious," Raad added in a speech at a memorial service marking one week since the death of Hizbullah fighter Abdullah Khalil, who was killed in Syria.
The Hizbullah official accused the jihadist groups fighting in Syria of "killing and displacing people, ruining countries and state institutions and besieging the Ummah's sources of strength and dignity, as part of an agenda that reeks of oil."
The military support of Hizbullah has helped Syrian regime forces gain the upper hand in the battle for control of Qusayr, a key town for both the regime and the bad boys, where an army assault began on May 19.
Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... had previously justified the group's involvement in Syria by saying they were defending Lebanese-inhabited border villages inside Syria and Shiite holy sites.
But the offensive on the mostly-Sunni town of Qusayr forced the movement to change its argument.
"Syria is the rear guard of the resistance (Hizbullah's fight with Israel), its backbone, and the resistance cannot stay with its arms folded when its rear guard is exposed," Nasrallah said last month in a speech for the 13th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Leb.
"We are idiots if we do not act," he added.
Nasrallah stressed that Hizbullah will win the battle against the "United States, Israel and the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... s just like it emerged victorious in previous wars."
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The UN nuclear watchdog chief said yesterday talks with Iran have been "going around in circles" -- unusually blunt criticism pointing to rising tension over suspected nuclear arms research by Tehran that has increased fears of a new Middle East war. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, vented growing frustration at the lack of results in getting Iran to address suspicions of military dimensions to its atomic energy program. Tehran denies the accusations.
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[An Nahar] A key bloc within Syria's main opposition National Coalition announced its withdrawal from the body on Monday, accusing some leaders of misusing funds and being motivated by personal ambition.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission said in a statement: "We are withdrawing from the Coalition... because it is taking initiatives far removed from the true revolution and cannot represent the revolution in an authentic way."
A member of the National Coalition since its creation, the SRGC is one of the longest-established organizations on the ground backing the rebellion against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... It comprises a network of activists across Syria that is linked to armed rebels fighting Assad's forces.
"Coalition members are more interested in appearing in the media than helping the revolution," the SRGC statement read.
"A lot of money has been wasted because they used it for their own personal interests while the Syrian people inside the country lack everything."
The SRGC went on to add that during the last meeting of the Coalition, which finished late Thursday in Istanbul, "the agreement that rebels on the ground would have one third of the seats was not respected when the membership was expanded."
George Sabra, interim head of the Coalition, announced at the end of the meeting that 51 new members had been admitted to the body, bringing the number of representatives to 114, of whom 15 are from the rebel Free Syrian Army.
The SRGC accused "some countries of manipulating the revolution for their own ends and trampling the blood of our people".
"Each of these countries puts their blocs up against the others, and these blocs act in line with agendas foreign to the revolution," it said.
The Coalition's expansion came amid what opponents have described as intense regional and international pressure, led by powerhouse Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , which seeks to offset the grip over the group of Qatar and the influential Moslem Brüderbund.
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06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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On 2 Jun. 2013, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) al-Malahim released a new 6'02" video containing an audio statement from Commander Qasim al-Rimi entitled, "Message to the American Nation". Al-Rimi speaks in Arabic and the video has English subtitles. The message fits the structure of warning messages by core al-Qaeda and its affiliates and thus serves as an indicator of a possible upcoming attack against Americans with a focus on US soil. There is no ability to set a fixed time window on when such an attack could occur. While it could be in the near-term, historical patterns have shown the threat window to extend as far out as a year or longer between warning and attack. This is partly indicative of the time it takes to move from conception to execution. The production date of al-Rimi's video is May 2013 but it was not broadly released until 2 Jun.
In the message al-Rimi references the Boston Marathon bombings and ricin attacks. He said, "The Boston events, the road accidents and the poisoned letters and others, disregard of the people behind them, indicate that the control of your security has broken away and operations against you has taken a path which can be controlled not. So grasp unto yourselves if you love yourselves. Because making these bombs has become in everyone's hand [sic] reach. So those standing against your aggression and oppression on humanity need no trouble, but a bit of thinking, choosing a location which will damage your economy and terrify your hearts, thence you will pray for woes and destruction, evoking near past memories."
Traditional al-Qaeda warning messages serve to let their enemies know their current actions are wrong and it is up to them to change them. It fulfills a jihadist obligation to give their enemies a chance to correct their ways. If the enemy chooses not to correct their ways then they alone bear the responsibility for any attacks against them. The jihadist group is absolved of responsibility as it was left with no choice but to act. The victims forced them to do it.
"O American nation, indeed, your security is not achieved by despoiling other nations' security or by attacking and oppressing them. Your security is achieved by stopping the foolish, who rule you, from oppression and aggression. Know that oppression and aggression rebound on the throats of the perpetrators."
Al-Rimi's message firmly fixes responsibility for the US government's actions on the American people. This supports a justification for mass casualty attacks targeting civilians as it shifts responsibility from only residing with military and government targets. His message also maintains a consistent core targeting preference for al-Qaeda, striking at the US economy.
"Your leaders are assaultive, oppressive and tyrannical, and you stand behind them cheering, supporting and voting for them. Do you think anyone will excuse you while your leaders induce you to err, kill Musselmens and support whoever kills them just for being a suspect? Then you come about claiming you have the right to defend yourselves! How about the aggression which is clear to your fools, and is not denied by your young, will you be excused of? Is your support for the Jews in Paleostine excusable? Is the killing of our children and women in Kabul, Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , Mogadishu and Sanaa excusable? Is meddling in our affairs and installing whomever tyrant agents and lackeys you want who kill and oppress our nation forgivable. And a lot of others including plundering, looting, countless forms of oppression and aggression, do you dare think that after all this you will be salvaged and feel secure? Nay! Wallah! [I swear!] Instead, everyday you will be hit by the unexpected and your leaders can repel nothing! Do not deny when evil befalls you, when you taste a bit of destruction that you inflict on others. Hence, blame none but yourselves. Gulp the bitterness of war, death, destruction and insecurity as other oppressed humans do. The two decade war has not laid down its burden, rather it is at its peak. The war between you and us has not ceased..."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
06/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
See also IRAN DAILY > [Iran FM] SALEHI: [World] MSULIMS AWAKENED BY ENEMIES' ANTAGONISTIC MOVES.
Dey be righteously riled???
* SAME > BASIJ COMMANDER: US [Hegemony + Power] COLLAPSING AFTER EMERGENCE OF ISLAMIC AWAKENING.
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.
[An Nahar] An Egyptian opposition youth activist was on Monday sentenced by a Cairo court to six months in prison for insulting President Mohamed Morsi.
[An Nahar] In an unprecedented move, the United States on Monday posted up to $23 million in rewards to help track down five leaders of
[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami has called an eight-hour long hartal in Rajshahi division for Tuesday protesting arrest of a party leader while the party student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, decided to enforce separate shutdown in 3 districts for Tuesday protesting arrest of another leader.
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Bangla Daily Star] The UN nuclear watchdog chief said yesterday talks with Iran have been "going around in circles" -- unusually blunt criticism pointing to rising tension over suspected nuclear arms research by Tehran that has increased fears of a new Middle East war. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, vented growing frustration at the lack of results in getting Iran to address suspicions of military dimensions to its atomic energy program. Tehran denies the accusations.
