[Pak Daily Times] British spies promoted an impostor whom they believed was a top Taliban capo key to the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, paying him several hundred thousand dollars, reports said on Friday.
Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 believed the man to be bully boy leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, a figure capable of negotiating with US and Afghan officials, The Times and The Washington Post reported. Agents even flew the man on Royal Air Force transport planes from Pakistain to Kabul on several occasions, but it now appears he was either a minor rebel, a shopkeeper or even just a conman, the reports said.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai's chief of staff Muhammad Umer Daudzai said the British brought the man purporting to be Mullah Mansour to meet Karzai in July or August. But an Afghan at the meeting knew "this is not the man," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "This shows that this process should be Afghan-led and fully Afghanised," Daudzai said.
Britain's Foreign Office refused to confirm or deny the reports about the fake Taliban leader but admitted that it provides "practical help for Afghan reconciliation initiatives". The Times said MI6 initially believed it had made a "historic breakthrough" in promoting talks between the Afghan government and Mansour, an ex-Taliban government minister and currently second to Mullah Omar in its leadership.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah yes, negotiating with the Taliban is the sophistcates' way of solving the problem...
#3
I don't believe this for a minute. MI6 doesn't pay foreigners, it just promises to pay them. Even during WWII, when some foreign agent had built up enough credit to want to cash in, they would offer him a boat ride to England for his pay.
There would be an accident en route, in which he would accidentally fall overboard.
[Al Jazeera] Afghan authorities have jugged at least four people as part of an investigation into fraud in the country's September parliamentary vote.
The Afghan attorney-general's office announced the arrests on Thursday, saying that two of those nabbed were employees of the Independent Election Commission. The other two were working in the money transfer business, the office said.
Rahmatullah Nazari, the deputy attorney-general, said prosecutors were investigating at least five cases of election bribery involving sums ranging from $80,000 to $220,000.
Candidates claiming they were victims of phony vote tallies have taken to the streets across the country to protest after final vote results for 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces were announced on Wednesday.
Urging calm
While not yet publicly endorsing the results, Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai, the president, has urged protesters to refrain from violence.
"The president... calls on unhappy candidates and their supporters to avoid violence and disorder and take their complaints to the legal authorities to be addressed in the light of the law," a statement from his office said.
Final results have not yet been released for Ghazni province in the east where a myriad of problems clouded the ballot.
Abdullah Ahmadzai, a member of the election commission, says the panel had to decide between certifying and announcing the current results in Ghazni or ordering a revote for the province, where many polling stations were closed, others were excluded because of fraud and turnout was almost nonexistent in some districts.
As a result, no candidates from the majority Pashtun ethnic group won seats - a potentially inflammatory result in an already volatile province.
Instead, preliminary results showed that all 11 winning candidates are Hazaras, members of an ethnic minority group.
Election authorities have invalidated about 1.3 million of the 5.6 million votes cast after receiving more than 5,000 complaints of fraud in the wake of the poll. Of those, 2,500 complaints were classed as "serious".
Pashtun leaders have said the Taliban, centred largely in the Pashtun-dominated south and east, prevented them from voting.
Karzai, himself a Pashtun, has said he would be in favour of a re-run in Ghazni "for the sake of our national unity".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Two members of the Somali pirate gang that held Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage for 388 days are believed to have family in the UK.
One of the pirate leaders says he plans to travel to the UK to join his wife and two children, who have claimed political asylum and live in London.
The extraordinary revelations come as intelligence and security officials in the UK and Kenya investigate links between Britain and Somali pirates after the couple were freed from the 13-month ordeal in return for a ransom.
#2
No, deport them Instanly, with only the clothes on their backs,and make them change clothes before debarking to eliminate any valuables sewn into the linings, Computer passwords, or bank account numbers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/27/2010 2:34 Comments ||
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#3
And the UK justice system will do f.all about it, mark my words.
#1
I disagree. This 'crisis' was an act of explorative aggression. Libya tested if it could get away with brandishing nuclear weapons (post 9/11!) and Libya did get away with it.
Libya now knows that nuclear blackmail works and won't backfire. Libya is free of sanctions and thus has enough money to buy nuclear weapons material and delivery systems that it doesn't have (from North Korea and others.)
Nothing was defused. The stage was set for a nightmarish standoff a couple of years in the future, involving real nuclear weapons not material.
This is another reason for Europe to withdraw from Afghanistan immediately. Existential threats are forming in our immediate neighborhood, thanks to the provocative weakness of Western political elites (very much including the Bush administration, at least after 2003.)
LONDON - The British government says it has been briefed by the United States about an expected release of American diplomatic files by the WikiLeaks website.
Prime Minister David Camerons spokesman, Steve Field, says the government has been told of the likely content of these leaks by U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman. Field declined to say Friday what Britain had been warned to expect.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman assured British officials that leaked State Dept documents that repeatedly refer to them as "poseur poofts" were intended to reflect the U.S.'s high regard for UK's soft diplomacy.
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/27/2010 8:23 Comments ||
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North Korea warned on Friday that US-South Korean plans for military manoeuvres put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills within sight of an island it showered with a deadly barrage this week.
The fresh artillery blasts were especially defiant because they came as the US commander in South Korea, Gen Walter Sharp, toured the South Korean island to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people.
None of the latest rounds hit the South's territory, and US military officials said Sharp did not even hear the concussions, though residents on other parts of the island panicked and ran back to the air raid shelters where they huddled earlier in the week as white smoke rose from North Korean territory.
Tensions have soared between the Koreas since the North's strike Tuesday destroyed large parts of this island, killing two civilians as well as two marines in a major escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the sea border.
The attack - eight months after a torpedo sank a South Korean warship further west, killing 46 sailors - has also laid bare weaknesses in South Korea's defence 60 years after the Korean War. The skirmish forced South Korea's beleaguered defence minister to resign Thursday, and President Lee Myung-bak on Friday named a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the post.
The heightened animosity between the Koreas is taking place as the North undergoes a delicate transition of power from leader Kim Jong Il to his young, inexperienced son Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and is expected to eventually succeed his ailing father. The North, which sees the drills as a major military provocation, unleashed its anger over the planned exercises in a dispatch earlier Friday.
'The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war,' the report in the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. A North Korean official boasted that Pyongyang's military 'precisely aimed and hit the enemy artillery base' as punishment for South Korean military drills - a reference to Tuesday's attack - and warned of another 'shower of dreadful fire,' KCNA reported in a separate dispatch.
On Thursday, the South's president ordered reinforcements for the 4,000 troops on Yeonpyeong and four other Yellow Sea islands, as well as top-level weaponry and upgraded rules of engagement.
He also sacked Defence Minister Kim Tae-young amid intense criticism that Yeonpyeong was unprepared for the attack and that the return fire came too slowly. Lee named former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Kim Kwan-jin to the post, the president's office announced Friday. Lee, dressed in a black suit, visited a military hospital in Seongnam near Seoul Friday to pay his respects to the two marines killed in the North Korean attack. Lee laid a white chrysanthemum, a traditional symbol of grief, on an altar, burned incense and bowed before framed photos of the two young men. Consoling sobbing family members, he vowed to build a stronger defence.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
North Korea warns region is on brink of war
I would consider that statement act of WAR.
Past time those snakes met their Mongoose.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/27/2010 2:38 Comments ||
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#2
bah! no "sea of fire"? No "army first" and "songun policy"? Where's the juicy stuff?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2010 9:35 Comments ||
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Beijing has held talks with Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang on the tense situation following North Korea's deadly bombardment of a South Korean island, the Chinese foreign ministry has said.
China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi held phone talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... on Friday. He also spoke to his South Korean counterpart and met Pyongyang's ambassador to Beijing to discuss the situation.
Precise details of what was discussed were not given, but the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said North and South Korea and the United States elaborated their positions on the situation.
Washington and Seoul have both appealed to Beijing to use its influence to rein in its wayward ally, but Beijing has so far refused to take sides, merely calling for "restraint" from all parties.
Yang urged Seoul and Pyongyang to exercise calm and restraint and solve problems through dialogue, a ministry statement said, according to Xinhua.
"The pressing task now is to put the situation under control and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents," he said.
The United States and South Korea are planning joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea on Sunday as a show of force against Beijing's ally North Korea, prompting criticism from China.
Earlier on Friday, Beijing warned against military activity in its exclusive economic zone, echoing remarks it made a day earlier opposing the US-South Korean war games.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, in the first highest-level Chinese response to North Korea's attack, said that China opposes military provocations in any form.
"China has all along devoted itself to maintaining the peninsula's peace and stability, and opposed military provocations in any forms," he said during a visit to Russia on Wednesday.
The US later on Friday sought to reassure China, insisting that the war games were "not directed at Beijing".
"The Chinese government was informed of our intent to conduct this naval exercise in the areas west of the Korean Peninsula," said Pentagon front man Darryn James.
"It is important to point out that this exercise is not directed at China. As with previous exercises in this series, these operations are defensive in nature and designed to strengthen deterrence against North Korea," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
HMMMMM, HMMMM, wehell, we'll see, espec as 2011-2020/2025 > IMO BOTH THE US-CHINA SHOULD EXPECT TO SEE MORE + WORSE MIL INCIDENTS.
Besides everything else, NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION = MORE + MORE AGGRESSIVE, BELLIGERENT "YOUNG TURK" GOVT-STATES [Nuclearized?]ARE OUT TO ASSERT + PROVE THEMSELVES AGZ THE OLD GUARD.
Again, "GLOBALISM" + "OWG=NWO", ETC. DOTH NOT AN END TO THE "GREAT GAME" MAKETH.
* ION PHILIPPINES DEFENCE FORUM > [Armed Forces of the Philippines] AFP SAYS ITS READY TO HELP SOUTH KOREA CONFRONT NORTH KOREA, wid Mil Forces iff it need be.
* SAME > EXPERTS: NORTH KOREA NEEDS 30 YEARS TO CTACH UP WID SOUTH. Seoul should expect costs of reunification to cost W$3.5-7.0TRILYUHN [W=Won],
more than cost post-Cold War/Berln Wall Germany on its West-East reunification oer 20 years.
* TOPIX > [Manila]GOVT TO ORDER/REMOVE FILIPINOS TO JAPAN, iff Tensions worsen between two Korea or War breaks out.
Also in the PHILIPPINES> MUSLIMS AT MARAWI RALLY DEMAND SHIFT TO [full] MORO INDEPENDENCE, Its NOT mere "Local Autonomy" anymore.
------------
* WMF > VARIOUS REGIONAL, INTERNATIONAL MEDIAS: CHINA FACES "FORK IN THE ROAD" ON DPRK RELATIONS.
* WMF > US TO CONVERT GUAM ISLAND INTO REGIONAL MILITARY SUPERBASE FOR ASIA-PACIFIC PROJECTION + CONTROL: BESIDES US MARINES FROM OKINAWA, THE US INTENDS TO DEPLOY A HEAVY NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER + CARRIER BATTLE GROUP, US MARINE AMPHIBIOUS STRIKE SHIPS, NUCLEAR SUBMARINES + "GLOBAL STRIKE" UAV DRONES. GUAM-BASED BALLISTIC MISSLE DEFENSE.
* TOPIX > US AIR FORCE "READY TO STRIKE" IFF KOREA TENSIONS ESCLATE.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA TO TEST MEDIUM-RANGE BALLISTIC MISSLE? MRBMS.
--------------
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM THREADS > ARTILLERY EXCHANGES BETWEEN TWO KOREAS A PIVOTAL TEST FOR CHINA?
* SAME > JAPAN TO CHOOSE NEW SUB BASE TO COUNTER CHINA.
ARTIC = At SASEBO, to complement already pre-existing JMSDF Sub Bases at KURE + YOKUSUKA; Japan to also increase number of JASDF Fighter planes on OKI from curr 20 to 30 by 2020
* SAME > US SETTING UP "ROW OF BOULDERS" COUNTERSTRATEGY AGZ CHINA'S "STRING OF PEARLS"?
ARTIC = Since CHINA is TOO ECON IMPORTANT to the US, the latter prefers to set up various, seemingly disparate REGIONAL, GEOPOL OBSTACLES TO DELAY CHINA OR CAUSE IT TO STUMBLE = "TRIP ON ITSELF" HAPHAZARDLY???
* SAME > AN ASSERTIVE CHINA THE "NEW NORMAL"?
ARTIC = US-WEST/WORLD is entering vee CHINA a newfound, PROLONGED PERIOD OF GEOPOL TENSIONS + INCREASING FREQUENCY OF CHINA-VS-US-WEST DISPUTES.
* SAME > IS PYONGYANG TESTING CHINA'S PATIENCE? BEIJING MUST WORK TO BALANCE ITS CLOSE TIES WITH NORTH KOREA WITH DESIRES TO BE SEEN AS A RESPONSIBLE MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY.
ARTIC > XPERT = believes that DPRK LEADER KIM JONG-IL "IS NOT SIGNIFICANT/IMPOR TO CHINA, BUT CHINA STILL PROTECTS HIM".
POSTER = believes NORTH KOREA is trying to see iff CHINA is its Friend or not???
This is all just talk. There's no need to announce a change in the rules of engagements. There is a need to announce the presence of a spine and a willingness to defend the country from attack.
The government on Thursday announced a first set of responses to Tuesday's North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.
The main focus is the five islands in the West Sea close to the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border. "This type of provocation [by North Korea] can happen again at any time. We must strengthen our alert, especially in the West Sea area," President Lee Myung-bak said in an emergency meeting with top security and economic officials. "Vulnerable areas like the five West Sea islands must be thoroughly prepared with the latest equipment to counter localized provocations and asymmetric warfare threats."
The government decided to overhaul its military rules of engagement, which had been designed to prevent an escalation in fighting, to focus on repulsing attacks. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Hong Sang-pyo told reporters, "We will amend the rules of engagement to shift the parameters in dealing with North Korea's provocations."
South Korea will also drastically bolster ground forces and will put the priority on reflecting these steps in next year's budget. A plan by the previous administration to cut the number of marines on the five islands has been scrapped and troops and equipment will be increased.
Lee and his ministers stressed the need to avoid further civilian casualties like those in Tuesday's attack. Seoul cannot expect North Korea to abide by international rules that make it imperative to avoid civilian casualties, so the rules of engagement will be changed to differentiate between responses to attacks on military and civilian targets. The existing rules of engagement deal only with combat between troops.
One set of measures will aim to guarantee the safety of residents on the five West Sea islands. Seoul will also reconsider humaritarian aid to North Korea. A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "There is now considerable skepticism about the need for humanitarian assistance for a country that attacked our civilians."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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North Korea is accusing the United States and South Korea of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of war if the two countries go ahead with planned military exercises this week.
Tensions in the region remain high on Friday as sounds of artillery fire were heard in the North near the South Korean island that came under a deadly artillery attack from North Korea on Tuesday. A spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said no projectiles landed on South Korean territory. Tensions remain high as the top U.S. commander in South, Korea General Walter Sharp, visited the island to survey the damage.
"What I've seen here physically North Korea attacked this island, which is a clear violation of the armistice agreement," said General Sharp.
Meanwhile, North Korea warned that a planned U.S.-South Korean naval exercises this week would push the Korean peninsula to the brink of war. In Seoul, Marzuki Darusman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, called for dialogue, not an escalation in military tensions.
"This underscores the importance and need for resumption of multilateral meetings involving [North Korea]," said Darusman. "The [North Korea] should not find itself in isolation at a juncture when it needs the support and cooperation of the international community the most."
The Norks seem to be doing whatever they want just fine without the 'support and cooperation of the international community". I honestly can't figure the logic of the UN rapporteur: it's like he's a North Korean who's been trained by Joe Mendiola ...
The U.S. and South Korea are set to begin joint naval exercises on Sunday. A U.S. aircraft carrier group will join the South Korean fleet in the military exercise in the West Sea. Pyongyang has threatened additional attacks if there are further provocations.
North Korea's closest ally, China, has called for both sides to exercise restraint. Brian Myers is a professor of international politics in South Korea. "North Korea is going to keep escalating," said Myers. "They are going to cross a point sooner or later where the United States in South Korea have to respond. And, and it seems to me that China needs to be made aware of that fact, that if it wants... It can not prop-up this country indefinitely because this country is going to bring down ruin upon itself sooner or later."
China's Foreign Ministry said Friday Beijing opposes any "unilateral military act" in the area without its permission. Meantime, South Korean military officials have said they will revise rules of military engagement to permit a more aggressive reply to any future attacks by North Korea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
With almost 70 networked American warplanes available to work together to bomb the crap out of Pyongyang or their precious artillery positions within an hour, I don't think we'll be seeing anything past that brink, though. Wouldn't be good for the succession by any means.
#2
i would love to see a lightning 24-hour war of decapitation removing Kimmie and the generals, and installing the South Korean government over unified korea
While the world awaits the big document dump from Wikileaks, some of those leaks have already been pre-leaking. One of the most explosive of those has been that the U.S. secretly aided Turkey's longtime foe the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and conversely, that Turkey had aided al Qaeda in Iraq. If true, this would obviously put some serious strain on an already strained relationship.
Hurriyet has been doing some good reporting from the Turkish side of this story and finds that, of course, all parties involved are denying that report:
Turkey has never given support to any terrorist organization. Fighting against terror is our priority and we dont make differentiations between terrorist organizations. Turkey has launched many operations against al-Qaeda, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the Daily News.
Asked about the allegations that the U.S. helped the outlawed PKK, the same official said, Turkey and the U.S. are carrying out an efficient cooperation in the fight against the PKK.
And from the U.S. side:
Deborah Guido, spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Ankara, told the Daily News that the U.S. governments policy has never been nor will ever be in support of the PKK. Anything that implies otherwise is nonsense.
Recalling that the United States considers the PKK a terrorist organization, Guido said: Since 2007, our military cooperation with the Turkish government in fighting the PKK has shown results. The U.S. Treasury Department has also named top PKK figures as drug kingpins in issuing further sanctions against the PKK.
The story goes on to quote several analysts about what the revelation could mean. Most don't believe that the news is true, and point out that there could be other explanations. For example, the U.S. has worked closely with Iraqi Kurds, who have a difficult relationship, but a relationship nonetheless, with the PKK. And surely some U.S. intelligence agencies have some contact with the PKK, but that is not the same as support.
But until the documents themselves leak -- this weekend? -- for everyone to peruse, there's nothing to do but speculate.
#1
Turkey's interests in Iraq are complicated. First of all, they want to protect the Turkoman who are just south of Iraqi Kurdistan. They also have a vested interest in the Turkoman claims to some of the oil around Kirkuk.
However, no doubt there are some Turkish radicals who would render support to al-Qaeda. They have also been hobnobbing with Iran for longer than they let on.
For its part, the US has probably engaged the PKK with the idea of destabilizing northwestern Iran, even going so far as to providing them a little intelligence as to where and who they could hit to do the most good.
Looks like the first test failed because of an age-old problem called "inertial coupling" where yaw induces roll, and the roll got out of hand so the autopilot splashed the test aircraft in the ocean.
The whole thing kinda reminds me of the WW II era German "Antipodal Bomber" in that it is designed to skip along the upper atmosphere until it gets near its target, except this one dives in for the kill. At these speeds, it seems that including allowing time for launch, we should be able to easily hit anywhere on the planet within about an hour.
The title of the project has the word "conventional" in it for some reason.
#1
this is b'cause the powers that be want desperately to keep the anti nuke squirrels off their backs.
Which misses the whole point of the anti-nuke exercise render the U.S. incapable of seriously threatening the existance of other world leaders.
Conventional strike has ppl like Tov. Putin and the Peking gang scared silly-- we can decapitate, punch out silos, etc, in an hour or less w/o crossing the nuclear threshold. Nobody else has anything close to that capability. Even terrorists/spies/freedumb fighters/etc. have long lead times, and are a one-shot with lower reliability.
These guys have the mental image of a JDAM on top of an icbm or slbm. Pinpoint accuracy plus less than 30 mins warning time. Add in the mental image of Saddam hanging 10, and it is flop sweat tiem!!
This is the same reason they were scared silly of the Pershing II-- the leadership had 18 mins from launch to get out of the kill zone, and they knew they couldn't react that quickly.
#2
Well that's all nice, but why don't we build some secret 16/70 MK11Teen guns to back this up? Throw some steath shit on 'em, mount 'em high speed electrified railsroads, hell yeah! 2 thousands lbs. of armour piecer Wily Pete could solve all kinda problems. I guess we might need assault railroads tho... this is where we must be Frank and start building the bridges now.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
11/27/2010 13:59 Comments ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] When the girl now identified as Jane Doe 2 came under their control in 2006, at age 12, the Somali Outlaws and the Somali Mafia gangs set a firm rule: Their members could have sex with her for nothing; others had to pay with money or drugs.
Repeatedly over the next three years, in apartments, motel rooms and shopping centre bathrooms in Minnesota and Tennessee, the girl performed sexual acts for gang members and paying customers in succession, according to a federal indictment that charged 29 Somalis and Somali-Americans with drawing maidens of tender years into prostitution over the last decade, using abuse and threats to keep them in line, and other crimes.
The suspects, now aged 19 to 38, sported nicknames like Hollywood, Cash Money and Forehead, prosecutors said. The allegations of organised trafficking, unsealed this month, were a deep shock for the tens of thousands of Somalis in the Minneapolis area, who decamped civil war and famine to build new lives in the United States and now wonder how some of their youths could have strayed so far.
Last week, in quiet murmurings over tea and in an emergency public meeting, parents and elders expressed bewilderment and sometimes outrage -- anger with the authorities for not acting sooner to stop the criminals, and with themselves for not saving their young.
The indictment was the latest in a series of jolting revelations starting around 2007, when a spate of deadly shootings in the Twin Cities made it impossible to ignore the emergence of Somali gangs.
Then came the discovery that more than 20 men had returned to Somalia to fight for Islamic bully boys, bringing what many Somalis feel has been harsh and unfair scrutiny from law enforcement and the news media.
"And now it's this sex ring," said Zuhur Ahmed, 25, who discusses Somali issues on her weekly programme on KFAI community radio in Minneapolis.
"Everybody is wondering what's going to be the next thing."
Cawo Abdi, a Somali sociologist at the University of Minnesota, said that past surges in concern about troubled youths had not been followed up with money and programmes to help them.
"This is viewed as such a huge scandal and outrage," she said of the new charges, "that it has to lead to some kind of action."
Many Somali immigrants are adapting well to the US, as demonstrated on a major Islamic holiday last week when, in what has become an annual ritual, thousands streamed from morning prayers to enjoy the giant indoor amusement park at the Mall of America.
Girls in traditional head scarves and boys in their best white shirts lined up for wild rides like the Splat-O-Sphere and the Log Chute. Yet poverty remains common, and their wrenching history creates some special obstacles for Somali families.
"The migrant youth are more at risk than other kids," said Dahir Jibreel, a former teacher who is the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, a small non-profit group that hopes to develop community programmes.
Typically, the parents grew up in Somalia while their children have grown up in America, and they inhabit different cultural worlds. The parents, some of whom have not mastered English, expect obedience and modesty and closely follow politics back in East Africa; the children are focused not on the homeland but on the money, clothes and excitement dangled by American culture.
Compounding the challenges, some young Somalis arrived in the United States after traumatic years in refugee camps, and without their parents. A significant minority have dropped out of school, only to spend time lurking in the streets around Riverside Plaza, a low-income, high-rise complex in the neighbourhood some call Little Mogadishu, or around one of the city's Somali shopping centres.
The indictment that set off the current soul-searching accuses members of three interlinked gangs -- the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws -- of involvement with the sex trafficking as well as thefts and large-scale credit card fraud.
One girl, identified as Jane Doe 1, was not yet 14 in 2005 when gang members first drove her to Tennessee and Ohio to trade sex for money and drugs, according to the indictment.
Another girl, Jane Doe 3, was 15 in 2008 when she argued with her mother and decamped to a gang member known as Boss Lady, only 18 herself, who put her up while managing her prostitution.
Some Somali leaders, including relatives of some of those charged, insisted that federal agencies were exaggerating both the crimes and the reach of the gangs.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
again the sex gangs of muslims targetting children (girls)
somalis in minnesota
pakistanis in the UK
lebanese in Australia
[Pak Daily Times] Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi on Friday said that Pakistain strongly condemns the Mumbai attacks and wishes to see the culprits involved in the incident punished.
He said Pakistain wants friendly relations with India and to resolve all outstanding issues including Kashmire, Siachin, Sir Creek and river water share through dialogue.
Qureshi was talking to newsmen after laying the foundation of a water supply scheme at UC-80, Makhdoom Rasheed, in the rural suburbs of Multan.
He said that Pakistain had exchanged information with India and also given some suggestions in this connection. He termed the news regarding permission for drone strikes in Balochistan as baseless. The Foreign Office has already rejected the news, he said.
To a question about USAID complaint to NAB regarding corruption by NGOs in funds meant for flood-hit people, Qureshi said that the issue was not related to the government. It was government's thinking that funds should be spent through the government to help the flood-hit people, he added.
He said that government would have taken the responsibility and opted for the audit if the funds been spent through it. But funds were spent by NGOs, he added.
Qureshi condemned the attack on Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and said that action should be taken against those involved in it. He said that Kashmireis' struggle was peaceful and termed the attack as an attempt to harm this peaceful struggle.
To a question, he said that matter of reduction in UK visas for Paks was not related to Aasia Bibi's case. Our point of view is clear that no one should be punished without justice.
He said that people who believe in the holy books fully respect last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PTUI!). He urged the people not to try to settle their personal scores by taking undue advantage of the blasphemy law.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] American President Barrack Obama cannot award permanent membership of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Security Council to India, Pakistain Ambassador to the UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon said on Friday.
He said voting is necessary for this purpose, and India cannot become a member until all the permanent members of the council approve it.
Haroon was addressing a seminar on the current dynamics and the emerging views about the Indian occupation of Kashmire among the civil society of India, which was organised by The Civil Society of Pakistain at the PALPA Auditorium. He said Kashmire had never been a part of India, nor it would be in the future; India had illegally occupied Kashmire, Ladakh and other areas.
He also said Pakistain had presented more than 100 resolutions in the UN for voting in occupied Kashmire, but the issue is still on the UN's agenda. He added that failure to resolve the Kashmire issue could not be termed as a failure of Pakistain's foreign policy. "We have no formula to force India for obeying the UN's resolutions. We should look forward and take new lines to resolve the burning issue of Kashmire," he said.
Mutual understanding and presence of political will between Pakistain and India is essential in resolving the Kashmire dispute; Pak, Indian and Kashmirei representatives should initiate dialogue to resolve the problem, he added. He said membership of the council should rotate among all countries; Pakistain and many other countries have submitted proposals that the membership should be awarded on regional basis.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
PEPLES DAILY FORUM > [Maulana Rehman] PAK MININSTER: TALIBAN [+ Ulema]ARE THE TRUE FOLLOWERS OF ISLAMIC IDEOLOGY, + AMERICA IS THE BIGGEST TERRORIST OF THE WORLD.
ARTIC = THERE WILL NO END TO JIHAD + TERRORISM UNTIL THE US-WORLD GIVE EQUAL RIGHTS + RESPECT TO MUSLIMS.
#2
Pity we never get to see classified documents or diplomatic cables from countries like the fUSSR, China, Cuba, Iran, Burma, etc. Wouldn't *that* be entertaining!
This is interesting, to say the least. Whistle-blowing organization Wikileaks is urging the public to download their ever-so-famous insurance file from The Pirate Bay, according to a recently transmitted tweet. This file, nearly 2GB in size, is said to contain thousands of secret U.S. documents aimed at embarrassing the nations government, and potentially causing harm to the United States relations with allies.
The file has been around since this Summer and is heavily encrypted [AES-256]. In the event of Wikileaks founders [Julian Assange] death (or some other unspecified reason), the secret key would be released exposing the documents to all who have downloaded and obtained the key.
Were not sure as to why Wikileaks is now urging users to download the file, but it just may be that theyre soon planning to release the key.
#2
i don't think anybody with any sense at all really believes Julian Assange is a rapist. It is pretty obvious he has been set up. This is how silencing enemies happens in the West. We don't shoot journalists like the Russians. We leave their hearts beating so that we can pretend we are better than a dictatorship.
Everything else they find ways to take: sue them in the courts for all their money, make up false allegations they spend their lives fighting etc...
#4
Assange is under investigation, but you, of course, know better.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2010 10:13 Comments ||
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#5
Assange is under investigation by the Swedes, who are not exactly known as tools of western powers. I say its credible that he did sexually assault the female in question. Assange is an egotistical anti-western tool. You might try taking you liberal blinders off and see that he is destroying wikileaks for his own ego.
#6
Oddly enuf, I find myself in agreement with Anon<1>... one look at Julie's pic ought to convince you a) he ain't into females and b) even if he were, he's too much of a wimp to carry off a rape.
#7
I agree with Old Spook-- the charges are credible and speculation of his tendencies made in haste in pointless. Rape produces bruising, DNA and other evidentiary trails. Assange will be more than likely exonerated if he is not guilty. --but if he is guilty let's just say little weasels of his type could try to go on a tear. Have you honestly ever even looked at some of the little scum on many pron sights? They don't have to be bruisers to be bruisers.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 14:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Assange's son made a comment in the Australian press that, knowing his father's history with women, these rape charges came as no surprise.
if you don't like someone's politics, or what they do, then people's first instinct is to rubbish their reputation
people naturally like ad-hominem attacks because they are effective.
Far more exciting to call Julian Assange a rapist than it is to argue the boring old facts of whether wikileaks is a good thing or not.
And after all, it is such a hard allegation to defend against.
and so easy an allegation to make.
all you need is two plants - one woman to spend at least an hour alone with Julian Assange so there are no witnesses and claim he sexually assaulted her.
a second woman to do the same and claim he raped her.
then he has form for 2 complaints against him and must spend eternity defending himself.
anyone that doesn't like wikipedia will call him a rapist
and it will created doubt in the non-aligned or in his supporters that don't know him.
but i think it *highly* unlikely that somebody who essentially is on the run from the secret police of western countries including the CIA, and who is hated internationally for his work would give such an easy open door to his attackers
it seems to me more likely that it is one of the dirty tricks
i've seen this kind of thing all the time to a lesser degree in the media world
PR Flunkeys who don't like the stories coming out in the newspaper will ring the boss and complain with made-up stories to trash the reputation of thorough journos. Then feed stories to compliant journalists with the goal of destroying the first and improving the career standing of the second. End result; no more bad stories for their organisation be it federal, state or local government, government department or large corporation. It's the 2-tiered approach to journalists - encourage the compliant, destroy the independent threat.
Well whatever you think about Wikileaks I would think this would be quite obvious really
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2010 17:43 Comments ||
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#11
"it seems far more likely that it is one of the dirty tricks"
Rape allegations is not the same as calling someone, anyone a rapist. I can call you are rapist, but it's not the same as pressing charges. A simple sex asault kit will conclude all this speculation, as well as testimony. It seems like overidentification with one outcome or the other until it goes further is fruitless, lacking in sense, shows little compassion for the alleged victims of a heinous crime. Ofcourse, unless you're rooting for Assange against impartiality.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 17:57 Comments ||
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#12
fire and ice: would that it were so simple
but a woman who claims she has been raped may do so some time after the event as I believe happened in the assange case - in which case no DNA evidence
it's just her word against his. he said she said
so that is why it is so easy sometimes - no witnesses means one person's word against another.
but get two women independently to claim the same thing, no witnesses, no evidence then there is big trouble for Assange
it's so easy to do.
even if he eventually gets found not guilty, the damage is already done - so it's heads we win, tails you lose.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2010 19:13 Comments ||
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#14
Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. And where there is sex withinn the sanctity of marriage, there is less of a chance of being falsely accused of rape, whether it is true or false, whether it happened last night of last month. Wonder outside the boundaries of matrimony and it is a gamble. Assange had no sympathy due him, with his established record of upping a potentially deadly ante. As his accusers have shown, he is not the only to be able to play hardball.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 19:28 Comments ||
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#15
for me i think it is wrong to play "hardball" by attacking a person rather than the idea or the subject at hand.
i prefer people to argue the points and convince me either way, but silencing the man i think is not the right way.
#16
Per Grunter's earlier post, his own son said it would not surprise him if his father was guilty-- so gay theory pretty much out the window. And silencing Assange's accusers is wrong too. Alleged rape victims usually don't take putting their lives and reputation on the line lightly.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 19:43 Comments ||
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#17
Matter of fact wasn't there noble in Old King Henry the eigth's court who was gay but still sodomized his wife the nights he couldn't get to his male lover?
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 19:45 Comments ||
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#18
anon1 - you have absolutely no evidence other than your overly verbose opinion. I'm convinced. Let it go
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/27/2010 19:53 Comments ||
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#19
i don't think anybody with any sense at all really believes Julian Assange is a rapist.
Why? He's clearly the type to get off on the power trip; it's the same game he's playing with his little treason website.
Maybe we'll get lucky and the little MF'er will be shanked by one of his beloved Muslim barbarians.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/27/2010 22:59 Comments ||
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#20
you are right, Frank G - i have no evidence at all nor do i know the inner workings of the rape case against Julian Assange
but I know how media works and how whistleblowers are silenced, and I recognise some tactics when I see them elsewhere
so call it an educated guess
that's all we are able to do: make educated guesses from our experience and the news stories we read. I think it unlikely for the reasons I have stated.
I respect those who argue the facts of why they think Wikileaks is treasonous/ dangerous to national security etc.... logic and reason is the way to better governance always
but think what you like about julian assange, I will say I think on balance wikileaks has been more a force for good than ill in our world.
they have revealed information on other topics not just the Iraq war. They did a lot of good work exposing corruption in Kenya that made a big difference in that country.
They have just voted in a new constitution largely as a response to their disgust at the entrenched corruption exposed in their polity and police force.
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: Current bilateral relations between Iraq and Kuwait have never been better, according to Kuwaiti ambassador to Iraq Ali al-Momin on Friday, wishing stronger ties between the two neighbors.
Nice to hear but he's paid to say stuff like this ...
The relations are distinguished that we do not have to wait for the future to improve them but we look forward to the better at all levels, Momin said in an interview to Aswat al-Iraq news agency in Basra, where he attended a conference on oil and gas, inaugurated on Thursday (Nov. 25).
He said at the economic level, a Kuwaiti company managed to obtain a natural gas license, adding this is the first company to have a quota contract in Iraq. This is a good sign that would lure other companies to have presence in Iraq, he said.
Momin expected that more Kuwaiti companies would enter the Iraqi market thanks to a good new law on investment, which he termed as one of the best investment laws in the region.
Asked whether the security situation would cause late access by Kuwaiti companies to the Iraqi market, the Kuwaiti diplomat replied that these security obsessions should not pose an obstacle although it must be taken into consideration.
On problems between the two countries regarding joint oilfields, Momin said that there are no real problems.
There are only some issues that require discussions and decisions, he elaborated. He said that the meetings he had with Iraqi oil ministry officials asserted there is a positive atmosphere.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.
The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.
The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield, says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first weaponized computer virus.
Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Irans nuclear enrichment program.
Posted by: Bond - James Bond ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
STUXNET reportedly is affecting not only Iran's NUCPROGS but its Air Forces + C4IM in general???
brilliant because it's crippling a dangerous enemy
but scary because cyberwar is going to affect us all... our whole lives are on computer, our banking, etc etc
we are so vulnerable. what if it's turned on us? one day it is inevitable as the cyber arms race is not one-sided and we might not always win
plus it might get turned against individuals, our own governments will keep tabs on us and might use it on troublemakers.... like journalists they dont like, political opposition etc
#4
The best thing would be is if the disagreement and uncertainty as to the origins of stuxnet continue. Ofcourse, it would be essential for wikileaks to put out the fine print info On stuxnet (if it could )even if it meant certain doom for the entire worldwide grid,
keeping any secrets is not okay /s
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 12:23 Comments ||
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#5
I sure hope that some competent and reliable authority is verifying that Iran is really having these problems and not just putting us off our guard. It may also be possible that this brilliant, all-powerful, super genius virus that can do anything, and then hide all traces, is really the result of Iranian induced software bugs and/or faulty hardware, testing, and quality control. It's nice to have a VIRUS to blame it all on. The danger is that if it's not a virus, then tomorrow they could find the real bugs and fix them and be back on their way with us none the wiser.
#8
Symantec reported in their excellent brieifing that Stuxnet is the first computer worm that actually caused a loss of life. The 10 Iranian operators that were working were shot. One of them supposedly introduced the worm into the closed SCADA (plant control) system by using a USB drive. Among other things this worm is very nasty and next to impossible to remdiate.
#9
#7. "hey anon1, what will you say when Julian Assange publishes the Stuxnet code"
ooh I told you (Internet connection times out)
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
11/27/2010 18:15 Comments ||
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#10
greetings grunter and fire and ice
i don't think wikileaks would publish the stuxnet code.
i have been to the wikileaks website and had a look, and it seems they DO redact identifying details.
but what will you two say when your own government trolls YOUR computer for your secrets and you don't even know they passed regulations making it legal - because they have shut down every avenue of whistleblowing and independent inquiry
or haul your neighbour off in the dead of night and you never hear anything about it... because nobody knows
wikileaks isn't perfect but on balance i think it has done more good in the world than harm, like exposing Daniel Arap Moi's theft of $3 billion in Kenya. Yes, even exposing that there have been more killings than reported, or the bad conditions in Iraqi jails can help.
It keeps us on our toes, and ensures we keep our standards high in foreign engagements because we know if we don't it will become public.
in fact i have observed it is the threat of publicity that keeps standards high more than anything else. take that threat away and standards fall.
it's why the NSW police force needs a royal commission every decade.
[An Nahar] Israel has reportedly penetrated Hizbullah cell phones, using Austrian numbers.
As-Safir newspaper on Friday uncovered what it dubbed "serious chapters" on Israel's ability to control Leb's telecoms sector by creating phone numbers that coincide with each other on a single phone line without the knowledge of its owner, "thus fabricating fake calls at different locations at different times."
It said that the Lebanese army intelligence bureau along with a number of employees at the telecoms ministry as well as members of the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... 's security service have formed a teamwork that was able to cope with Israel's techniques and advanced software through several tests and tryouts.
These tryouts have shown Israel's penetration to telephone lines belonging to cadres of the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... , the report said.
It said the discovery came in April 2009, when police intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hasan presented the case file of "Israel spy" Adib al-Alam to head of Hizbullah's coordination and liaison committee Wafiq Safa.
Hasan, at the time, pointed out that a Hizbullah member was involved in spying for Israel.
After examining the data submitted to Hizbullah by the army's intelligence bureau, the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... with the help of technical experts, concluded that Israel has programmed "alternate phone lines" to Resistance members via SMSes using Austrian numbers, As-Safir reported.
It said using this process, Israel was able to eavesdrop on Hizbullah phone activity "via silent SMSes under the number 03-764 313."
The report said an investigation conducted by Hizbullah, in cooperation with the Lebanese army intelligence bureau and the telecoms ministry, showed that the suspicious phone numbers existed during long periods of time and that they coincided with the presence of intensive SMS activity between the targeted numbers and foreign numbers located inside the border with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Austrian phone numbers were also used in the Dubai assassination.
[An Nahar] The National Liberal Party noted on Friday that those obstructing the Special Tribunal for Leb are taking part or are accomplices in the crime, stressing the need to uncover the terrorist network behind all the liquidations.
It said in a statement: "Justice is a cornerstone for not only stability, but rectifying the affairs of the state."
It condemned attempts to paralyze Cabinet through obstructing the national dialogue and efforts to "influence the public through pressers and statements that tackle complex technical matters, which are aimed at implicating Israel in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."
The statement said that such attempts will fail and praised Arab and international interest in Leb and their agreement to maintain support for the Lebanese state and the country's stability and security.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The 2005 liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was a "joint venture between Syria and Hizbullah," the Israeli daily Haaretz said Friday, citing Western intelligence sources.
They said Syria played a major role in Hariri's murder and believed that the U.N. probe into the killing is "wrongly absolving it of guilt."
The Special Tribunal for Leb is reportedly set to implicate Hizbullah members in the liquidation. But the Western sources said the murder "had in fact been a joint venture between Syria and Hizbullah that served both their interests."
"There's no doubt Syria's hereditary President Bashar Pencilneck Assad ... who used to be referred to in the Egyptian press as the boy president ... was involved in the liquidation," Haaretz quoted one source as saying.
"Hariri had launched a process aimed at kicking the Syrians out of Leb, he was running for reelection as prime minister and was thought to have a good chance of winning. Above all, he recruited American, French and Saudi support for the moderate axis in Leb. Assad had every reason to get rid of him," the source explained.
Haaretz went on to say that Abdel Halim Khaddam, who had served as Assad's deputy, related that Assad had openly made a threat against Hariri during their last meeting before the murder, saying, "If anyone tries to throw us out of Leb, we'll smash Leb over his head."
It said that in October 2005, Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan was found dead in his office. Kanaan had presided over Syrian intelligence in Leb for two decades and was considered Syria's strong man in Beirut, Haaretz went on to say.
It said Damascus claimed he had did away with himself, but Western intelligence agencies believe he was killed by the Syrian regime because he knew too much about Hariri's murder. It is hard to believe, Western sources said, that anyone could have did away with himself by shooting himself three times in the back.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Friday warned from Iran's alleged meddling in the internal affairs of Gulf countries, Iraq and Leb.
"Iranian meddling in the internal affairs of Gulf countries should not be allowed," the minister told the Qatari al-Sharq newspaper.
"The security of Gulf countries is a priority for Egypt," he said, adding "Iraq and Leb should be left alone."
"Arab societies should grow and develop away from any attempt to use these states and Arab countries as competition cards between Iran and Western powers," Abul Gheit said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
North Korea warned on Friday that US-South Korean plans for military manoeuvres put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills within sight of an island it showered with a deadly barrage this week.
North Korea is accusing the United States and South Korea of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of war if the two countries go ahead with planned military exercises this week. 
Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah 
The National Liberal Party noted on Friday that those obstructing the Special Tribunal for 
