Eighty Royal Marines are on standby off the coast of Yemen to assist with the possible evacuation of British civilians, the BBC has learned. The marines are thought to be aboard a naval support ship, RFA Argus, near Yemen, according to naval sources.
The Ministry of Defence said British military assets were in the region but would not comment on their exact task.
Several hundred Britons are thought to be in Yemen, affected by violence and political instability for weeks.
According to naval sources, marines are in the area carrying out training exercises and can be deployed to Yemen within 48 hours. The Ministry of Defence has said only that, as part of routine deployment, British military assets are in the region.
Downing Street has declined to say if the Marines were preparing for an evacuation. Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said: "That is a routine military deployment to the region. I don't think we would want to comment further on their operations.
"Since March this year we have been advising British nationals who remain in Yemen to leave without delay. It will not come as a surprise that there are risks to remaining in that country."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Eleven men will stand trial Saturday in a Riyadh court accused of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks in Yanbu that killed six people and injured 25 others in 2004.
Five Western expatriates and a Saudi National Guard sergeant died in the atrocity. The defendants were believed to be working for Al-Qaeda.
The first summary court held its first session about a month ago to hear the list of charges against the defendants presented by the Prosecution and Investigations Commission. The charges included conspiring with perpetrators of the attacks and formation of a terrorist cell to plan future attacks on behalf of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom.
The men admitted to the charges and said they carried out their terrorist operations to avenge people in the Iraqi town of Fallujah killed by Americans. "We dun it and we're glad we dun it!"
The court heard at the time how the defendants allegedly participated in planning, preparing and supporting the assault against innocent people working for a company in Yanbu. They are also accused of terrorizing citizens and expatriates in the city and using machine guns to fire on security guards and pedestrians.
They confiscated cars at gunpoint and used the vehicles to target locations where their victims had gathered, the court heard.
The men are also accused of providing the cell with money to buy arms and explosives, stealing chemical materials from a school which they used to make hand grenades and collecting arms and funds to support the cell. They were also alleged to have distributed CDs containing their wills and concealed the whereabouts of the wife of the criminal mastermindMustapha Al-Ansari, as well as hiding other attackers involved and making bombs used in the attack.
The attorney general said the prosecutors possessed evidence including arms, ammunition, documents, handmade grenades and legally documented confessions. He called for the death penalty against them.
In the session last month, 10 of the defendants asked for lawyers to defend them and to reply in writing to the charges against them. One of them, Sultan. G, asked to be given the opportunity to defend himself. He said he had been the imam of a mosque in Al-Bawadi district in Jeddah for three years and that he had advised thousands of people who prayed with him against sedition.
He initially denied knowing Al-Ansari, who was killed by the security forces, but later said he was his colleague at a school. "But I still prayed with him against sedition!"
"How about the rest of the charges?"
"We never prayed about those."
He said Al-Ansari asked him to go and preach in Iraq because people there were ignorant about Islam. He said his only crime was to go to Iraq without official permission. He also claimed CDs in his possession when he was caught only contained recordings that he used in his Friday sermons.
All the defendants are Saudis. Five of them hold university degrees, five have secondary school certificates and one is a graduate of a technical training institute. And you thought poverty and ignorance were the leading causes of terrorism...
Al-Ansari went out to fight in Afghanistan in 1993. He stayed for a year before coming back to the Kingdom. He then went to Britannia and afterward Somalia where he stayed for six months and got married.
He came back to the Kingdom in 1998 with a forged Somali passport. He stayed in the Kingdom for one month then went to Yemen where he stayed for four years and got married again. He returned to the Kingdom in 2002, crossing the border by foot.
He was known for his connections with Saad Al-Fakeeh and Muhammad Al-Masaari, two Saudi opponents who were living abroad, but there was no proof he was a member of Al-Qaeda or had any connections with its leaders even though he believed in its ideology.
This article starring:
Mustapha Al-Ansari
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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Venezuelan Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez has undergone emergency surgery in Cuba, according to Spanish and English language news sources.
Chavez has been in Cuba for a week.
Friday morning a pelvic abscess developed that required emergency surgery.
A knee surgery Chavez had only 30 days before is suggested to be a factor in the appearance of the abscess. The knee surgery delayed his trip to Cuba until last week.
The announcement was made in Cuba by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and broadcast on Venezuelan television. Maduro did not say when Chavez would return to Venezuela.
#5
Friday morning a pelvic abscess developed that required emergency surgery.
I suspect colossal assholes are susceptible to that?
Dr. Steve, your informed view?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 15:54 Comments ||
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#6
What, he doesn't have confidence in Venezuelan doctors? Afraid to go under anesthesia and worried that some doctor might not be too happy with the status quo?
#8
Knee surgery, even a total knee replacement, is usual enough that surgeons understand the procedure and what could go wrong. I'll assume Hugo has the best available everything since he's the chief thug. If the surgery itself goes well then the issues are 1) prevent a DVT 2) prevent infection and 3) rehab.
Pelvic abscess? Sounds like infection control broke down. You'd think he would have local infection (around the knee) first. That would be bad enough because if antibiotics fail to control it then the new joint has to come out. Bummer dude. But a pelvic infection suggests that the infection has spread and that's worse.
I'm just speculating without information. If our Spanish-speaking Burg regulars would check out the Latin American press tonight we might find more.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2011 18:40 Comments ||
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#9
A rectal fistula? The ultimate pain in the ass.
$1,000,000 lawsuit claims two Canadian organizations raising money for flotilla are aiding and abetting Hamas terrorists.
Sderot resident and Canadian citizen Cherna Rosenberg has filed a million dollar law suit against two Canadian organizations raising money to sponsor a ship The Canadian Boat to Gaza to join the international flotilla to Gaza.
The suit, presented by Toronto barrister and law professor Ed Morgan and New York attorney and former AIPAC executive director Neal Sher to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Monday, argues that the groups, Turtle Island Humanitarian Aid and Alternatives International, both based in Montreal, are part of a chain of conduct that ultimately leads to the rocket attacks that have traumatized the plaintiff and caused her much suffering and loss.
According to the statement of claim issued by Rosenbergs lawyers, The Canadian Boats raison dêtre is to aid and abet the terrorist organization that rules Gaza.
As such, according to the lawsuit, their actions are in violation of Canadian laws forbidding assistance to terror groups.
Rosenbergs lawyers are asking the court to order the groups to pay damages in the amount of $1,000,000 for trauma and injury, $20,000 in renovation and relocation costs, as well as an injunction prohibiting the groups to raise money for the flotilla and to send goods to Gaza.
Ms. Rosenberg has lived in Sderot, Israel and endured the constant and relentless mortar attacks emanating from Gaza. The Hamas terror group brazenly has taken responsibility for these shellings. During these terrifying attacks, Ms. Rosenberg was forced to seek shelter, along with members of her family and, like other victims of these wanton attacks, has been traumatized and shocked, suffering from the serious symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, read the statement of claims.
The complaint goes on to explains how Sderot has been the target of Kassam rocket attacks from Hamas terrorists inside Gaza since 2001, resulting in the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians and causing enormous trauma and property damage in Sderot and the surrounding region.
The complaint argues that since supplies that are delivered to Gaza run the risk of being seized by the Hamas government for use by its military wing, the defendants acts amount to both a conspiracy to injure and a conspiracy to use unlawful means, and that the defendants are acting in concert with Hamas to achieve harm on the plaintiff.
If the lawsuit proves successful, it will provide a further setback to the Free Gaza Flotilla project, which is already suffering from financial and logistic difficulties. Success will also set a precedent for a wave of similar claims by other dual citizens.
Representatives of the Canadian Boat to Gaza could not be reached for comment.
Jewish Federations are the first faith-based group to partner with the security agency in its campaign urging Americans to keep a watchful eye on others for potential involvement in terror crimes.
#1
Uh, Okay. Meanwhile the backstory continues of BO being less than supportive of the Jewish community here and in Israel. Oh, I forgot election time is nearing.
Pakistan has been accused of tipping off al-Qaeda linked fighters before raids on their hide-outs as Leon Panetta, the head of CIA, warned that American boots would be stationed there as long as the country could not be trusted.
Mr Panetta visited Islamabad during the weekend to deliver damning evidence that Pakistan -- or at least some elements within its security services -- was continuing to protect extremists in its tribal belt.
In a meeting with Pakistani military chiefs, he handed over satellite imagery showing insurgents evacuating two bomb factories in Waziristan, days after the US had passed on surveillance video of the sites, according to a security source in Islamabad.
It is understood that Marc Grossman, US envoy to the region, delivered a video of the two installations in meetings last month with General Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistan military, and Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency One was in a girls' school in the city of Miramshah, where the Haqqani network is headquarted. The second, in South Waziristan, was believed to be operated by al-Qaeda.
But the militants had fled by the time Pakistani forces moved in, raising suspicion that that the intelligence had been leaked. Relations between the two countries have hit rock bottom since Osama bin Laden was shot dead by a team of US Navy Seals in his hideaway only 30 miles from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
#1
let me guess - we have cell-phone intercepts of Kayani telling them to scram about 5 minutes after his meeting with Grossman ended?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 16:58 Comments ||
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#2
SEIKO = ACME WATCHES
versus
* NEWS KERALA > [JUI Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman] PAKISTAN ARMY WILL FACE [routine] SUICIDE ATTACKS IN NORTH WAZIRISTAN, iff Pak Govt-Army gives in + carries out US-desired NZ planned Offensive.
Zahida Parveen has been desperately searching for her only son for the last 32 months after she allegedly lost him to a group of women recruiting teenagers in the capital for the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Determined to bring the culprits to justice, she said that the group operating in sector I-10 under the umbrella of Tehrik-i-Islami (TP) is affiliated with the TTP. She added that the sons of "TI women" held senior positions in the outlawed terrorist militant group. She said, "These women brainwash teenagers and urge them to become part of jihad. If this not does work, they kidnap them."
Parveen claims that she had left her I-10/2 residence after receiving threats from TI and TTP for going to the authorities to trace her missing son Adnan. Though she was told that her son had "embraced martyrdom", she has not given up the search.
Adnan left Taxila University on October 19, 2008. The next day, Parveen received a call from his cellphone. "Adnan was weeping, saying he was very worried but also asked me not to discuss his disappearance with anyone." Afterwards, she found that Adnan's cellphone had been switched off.
[Dawn] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... called on Pakistain to eradicate Death Eater sanctuaries at "detailed" talks Saturday about a grinding of the peace processor with the Taliban that inaugurated a joint peace commission.
Karzai and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... led the first meeting of a joint commission for reconciliation and peace, pledging that the body would meet again in October and a sub-committee in 20 days to a month.
In another effort to improve ties, a much delayed transit trade agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistain, which was signed last year, is due to come into effect on Sunday, Islamabad said.
The Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan is now into a 10th year with violence at record levels. Pakistain is also fighting a home-grown Taliban insurgency in its northwest and there are near daily Death Eaterkabooms.
"The facts are so bare and the wound is so clear and hurting that it requires both of us to work diligently and extremely aggressively and effectively to curb terrorism and radicalism in the region," Karzai said.
Asked about swarms of Islamic fascistiattacking Pak troops close to the Afghan border, Karzai said the attacks were "all the more reason for us to work harder to remove Orcs and similar vermin from both countries and to remove sanctuaries".
Gilani insisted that Pakistain wanted a stable, peaceful, prosperous, independent and sovereign Afghanistan, saying that Islamabad was ready to provide "whatever support they want" in the Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor.
"We have discussed in detail the grinding of the peace processor, with all stakeholders and certainly what happened in our capacity is a readiness," said Gilani.
But when asked if the Haqqanis or Pakistain's arrest last year of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said to be the Taliban second-in-command, could be part of the reconciliation process neither leader went into detail.
The Taliban have rejected peace overtures in public, although some experts believe the death of bin Laden, whom Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar refused to surrender after the September 11, 2001 attacks, could be a spur.
Pakistain was a main ally of the Taliban until it joined the US-led "war on terror" following the attacks on New York and Washington and subsequently started fighting a home-grown Taliban insurgency along the Afghan border.
But its intelligence services are thought to maintain links to Afghan hard boyz with strongholds on its territory, namely the Haqqani network, one of the staunchest US enemies in Afghanistan, and Afghan Taliban leaders.
Fighting between the Taliban and US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... troops in Afghanistan has become deadlier each year since the 2001 invasion.
The 130,000 international troops today in the country are due to start limited withdrawals from July with the Afghan police and army scheduled to take control of security gradually before the end of 2014.
In Pakistain, more than 4,400 people have been killed in attacks blamed on Taliban and other orc networks based in the tribal belt since 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Pakistan's been trying to eliminate its militants for years - by exporting them to Afghanistan.
[Dawn] The Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) on Saturday reissued the arrest warrant against former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, DawnNews reported.
The court also asked for all details of the former president's property.
The case was being heard in the Adiyala Jail by ATC special Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had requested the court to issue a permanent warrant for Pervez Musharraf.
The FIA request also entailed the confiscation of Musharraf's property.
During the hearing, DG FIA Malik Iqbal apologised for attempting to change the investigation officer in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. He moreover told the court that Khalid Rasool was still heading the investigation in the case.
Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing to June 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] After two years, smuggling of foreign goods from Afghanistan to Pakistain by carriers has resumed via Bazaar-Zakhakhel route.
Many locals believe that the authorities turned a blind eye to the reopening of the route on Thursday so that the Zakhakhel tribe could generate funds for the lashkar it raised in April to counter the anti-state Lashkar-i-Islam of Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... .
They recalled that security forces, in collaboration with the Khyber Agency's political administration, had plugged all the smuggling routes from Bazaar-Zakhakhel to Bara and Jamrud in September 2009 to conduct a military operation on intelligence reports that the illegal trade was financing the outlawed bad boy groups in Bara.
They said that bad boy groups had not only established a number of illegal checkposts en-route from Bazaar-Zakhakhel to Bara, but had also been forcing the carriers to use their vehicles for transportation of smuggled goods coming from Afghanistan.
"The monthly income from this illegal trade is in millions of rupees," said a carrier requesting anonymity for his personal security.
A bigwig of the political administration told Dawn that income from illegal octroi imposed on smuggled goods was the second major source of income for the banned organisation after poppy trade.
Soon after the Bazaar-Zakhakhel route was closed, the smugglers discovered a new, and cheaper, Shalman Khula-Enzari Kandao-Landi Kotal route.
"The cost of transportation fell almost half as most of the route was useable for all types of vehicles and there was no fear of confiscation by outlawed groups," confided another carrier, who also opted not to be named.
"We had good working relationship with the FC personnel posted at various checkpoints from Torkhum border to Karkhano market in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar," he said.
A temporary suspension of the illegal trade at Enzari Kandao compelled the smugglers to use the Kabul River for their illegal trade, thus bringing the smuggled goods in small boats from Shalman Khula up to Malagori.
But all of a sudden, smuggling via the Tabai-Bazaar Zakhakhel-Bara/Ali Masjid route resumed on Thursday, with the authorities' ignoring the illegal business.
The security forces have only recently re-established checkpoints at Tabai, which is the receipt point for carriers after smuggled goods are brought from Gurhuku village in Nangarhar ...on the main road from Lovely Peshawar. The capital is Jalalabad. The population of 1,334,000 consists mostly of Pashtuns with a few Arabs and Pashais... province of Afghanistan.
Electronics dealer Hussain Ali told this correspondent that over a dozen trucks loaded with electric appliances were now stranded across the Torkhum border as the reopened Tabai route was not fit for transporting such fragile items.
Other dealers said that while electronics goods were stuck across the border, hundreds of mules loaded with fabric rolls, tyres, auto parts, tea, Indian medicines reached the warehouses in Jamrud and Bara.
In the meantime, the Khyber Rifles and Khasadars have intensified joint checking at the main Torkhum entry point.
"They even confiscate personal electronic gadgets like laptops, digital cameras, mobile phones etc," said an employee of a customs clearing office.
He alleged that the security personnel were involved in minting money by using illegal means.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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The ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has booted a once-powerful official from his Fatah movement. "About that Gaza thang..."
Abbas announced Sunday that Fatah's central committee has dismissed Mohammed Dahlan. The statement referred to "criminal, financial and other charges" made against Dahlan by an investigative committee. If you're too criminal and corrupt for the Paleos...
The move marks another stage in the fall of Dahlan, once the powerful security chief in Gaza, a Western darling and a potential successor to Abbas. back to selling ad time in Cincinnatti, Herb, Mo
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 18:48 ||
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The United States gave Netanyahu an ultimatum on renewing negotiations with the Palestinians, according to reports cited by Israel Radio Sunday morning.
According to the ultimatum, Netanyahu has to decide within a month whether he agrees to accept US President Barack Obama's platform and resume talks based on 1967 lines. Or what?
sounds like Barry O doesn't like having his Muslim friends disappointed?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 18:14 Comments ||
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#2
the appropriate response is: "this is our lives we're dealing with. You can fuck off"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 18:15 Comments ||
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#3
That'll go over like a fart in an aroma therapy clinic.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/12/2011 18:16 Comments ||
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#4
Obama plays the Paleo game - telling one thing to domestic audiences and another to negotiating partners
Since the presidents Arab Spring speech, friends of Israel have been nervous about at least two issues: the promise Israel would not have to sit down with those who seek its destruction and the negotiations based on the 1967 borders with land swaps. This weekend it became apparent that there is much to worry about and that the Obama administration has been playing a game usually practiced by the Palestinians, namely telling its domestic audience one thing and the negotiating parties something different...
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 18:27 Comments ||
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#5
Rubin also spoke with Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), "who plainly was angry over the continued effort to bully Israel ... 'President Obama never learns. His real instinct is to weaken Israel. You dont treat an ally this way.' He said he has never seen this sort of behavior from any U.S. president [and] the current posture is 'shameful.'"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2011 18:29 Comments ||
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#6
Benji just has to hang on until the primaries begin. Obama is going to be completely distracted at that point. Axelrod and Jarrett will be conditioning him for the campaign and he won't pay attention to what Israel is doing.
Nine months, Benji, maybe a year. Just hang in there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/12/2011 18:32 Comments ||
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#7
Lots of damage can be done in a year, maybe irreparable damage.
[Ma'an] Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated on Friday in the capital Amman and other cities to condemn corruption and demand reforms, as well as an elected government.
"The people want to fight corruption. The people want an elected government," around 400 demonstrators, including youths, Islamists and leftists, chanted in central Amman after midday prayers as they marched from Al-Hussein mosque to the nearby city hall.
"What happened to reform? We want to rest!" read one banner.
In east Amman, more than 350 Islamists demonstrated outside the military state security tribunal, demanding its dissolution.
"Down with the state security court that protects the corrupt. We want our freedom," they chanted.
In other parts of Jordan, about 3,000 people demonstrated in the southern cities of Tafileh, Karak and Diban, according to organizers.
"We do not want committees. We want our money and our land," the protesters chanted in Tafileh, referring to two current commissions charged with enhancing national dialogue and looking into constitutional amendments.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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Hamas is reporting record turnouts for its summer camps for children in 2011.
The 'summer camps,' combining Islamic indoctrination, paramilitary training, and social activities are set to begin again this year as United Nations summer camps, considered competition by Hamas, are being openly denigrated by jihadists.
Children and adolescents are an important target demographic for Hamas, from which its future army of terrorists will be recruited. Summer camps are an important means for indoctrinating Gaza's youth with Hamas' jihadist ideology.
In 2010 Hamas ran camps for an estimated 100,000 campers, a number similar to 2009. The Islamic Jihad terror group ran 51 camps with 10,000 participating boys and girls.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan reported the objectives of the camps were to raise a generation of children with 'genuine Islamic values.'
"Children working for the interests of their homeland and to educate them to the culture of the Islamic faith so they will remember their goals, including Jerusalem and the prisoners," Radwan said
In addition to indoctrination, Hamas terrorists give children paramilitary training. Banners are hung on the walls with slogans extolling jihad and 'death for the sake of Allah.'
Other prominent motifs for this year are solidarity with Turkey in connection with the Mavi Marmara flotilla, a call for the release of Hamas prisoners (campers carried posters with their pictures) and organized expressions of hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.
UNRWA Programs Attacked
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency summer camp system hosted 250,000 children and adolescents in 2010. This year, as with previous years, the UN camps were harassed by jihadist terrorists.
On May 23, 2010 a group of 30 armed, masked men broke into an UNRWA summer camp site and burned it to the ground. On the night of June 28, 2010 armed, masked men broke into another UNRWA camp site in the Al-Zuweida region in central Gaza and set it on fire. In both incidents the arsonists were not identified.
A UNRWA spokesman called on the security services of the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip to investigate and determine who was behind the attacks.
But the groups of armed men who attack the UNRWA summer camps every year receive are inspired by, and probably supported by, Hamas and other terror networks networks operating in Gaza who say the UNRWA camps are 'undermining Palestinian values.'
[Beirut Daily Star] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... warned the U.S. Saturday not to interfere in Leb's affairs, adding that the country is strong enough to prevent the outbreak of a sectarian civil war.
"We will strain America's arm, which returned to [Leb but] in different forms, just like we strained Israel's arm," Aoun said during his visit to south Leb accompanied by Hezbullies MP Mohammad Raad and other officials.
Aoun also said that Leb had resisted attempts to incite a sectarian war in the country, and expressed hope that Syria can overcome similar attempts.
"What is happening in Syria indicates intentions to transform the Israeli-Arab conflict to an intra-Arab conflict ... We have resisted and won, and we wish that for our friends," Aoun said during his second visit to the south in three years.
He also noted that a sectarian war in Leb would not occur due to the country's strength.
"We are today very strong and there won't be a civil or a sectarian war in Leb [since] we can overcome our political rivalry. There won't be a Sunni-Shiite war in Leb even if [others] want to see this happening so that they can gain power," Aoun said, adding that those that sought civil strife were in a minority.
Aoun also toured the Hezbullies museum in Mlita, which showcases weaponry and equipment belonging to Hezbullies and used during the resistance's fight against Israel. Aoun also toured displays of Israeli tanks obtained by Hezbullies.
Despite appearing fatigued toward the end of his trip, Aoun insisted on entering the 200 meter underground tunnel designed by Hezbullies members, and was shown Hezbullies maps revealing Israeli sites.
Aoun refused to answer questions regarding the formation of the new Cabinet, saying: "We are here to remember the resistance; we do not want to spoil this idea by talking about the Cabinet."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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Pro-Israel feelings up since 2009, according to telephone survey of adult Americans; 82% say Israel is a friend or ally of the United States.
One wonders what the percentages would have been had the survey been done for an organization less anti-Israel than CNN...
A new poll conducted by American news network CNN has reported that 67 percent of the American public feel sympathy for Israelis and not Paleostinians, compared with 16% who claim to side with the Paleostinians rather than Israel.
The poll was conducted by telephone from May 24-26. 1,007 adult Americans were asked their opinions on several different countries, including Israel.
The results show that pro-Israel feelings are on the rise in the United States. In a similar survey conducted in 2009, only 60 percent of the population sample expressed pro-Israel feelings, while 17%, one percentage point higher than 2011's poll, claimed to sympathize with the Paleostinians.
In addition to the high numbers expressing sympathy with Israeli, 82% of the audience said they felt Israel was either a friend or ally of the United States. Twelve percent said they did not regard Israel as a friend, and 5% classified the country as an US enemy. Only Great Britannia received higher marks of friendship, with 98% of the polling audience calling that nation either a friend or ally. Conversely, 62% called China either a friend or ally, and only 26% expressed the same sentiment about Syria. 49% of those polled said they felt that North Korea was an enemy of the United States, the same "enemy" rating received by Iran, compared with 24% who said the same about Pakistain.
It sounds like Americans have a better awareness of the world situation, though they may not be able to find the countries on a map, than they are given credit for.
The survey participants were also quizzed as to their opinions on current events. 54% reported supporting the joint US/NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... mission in Libya, compared with 43% who opposed and 3% who had no opinion. 31% said that the removal of Muammar Qadaffy from power should be a "very important foreign policy goal" of the United States.
The poll, conducted for CNN by the Opinion Research Corporation, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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.
Pakistan has been accused of tipping off al-Qaeda linked fighters before raids on their hide-outs as Leon Panetta, the head of CIA, warned that American boots would be stationed there as long as the country could not be trusted. 
Pervez 
Michel Aoun
Pro-Israel feelings up since 2009, according to telephone survey of adult Americans; 82% say Israel is a friend or ally of the United States.
