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Pakistan detains top al-Qaida suspect
Today's Headlines
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Rose McGowan aka Paige Matthews in "Charmed (TV Series 1998–2006)" aka Cherry Darling in "Planet Terror" aka Cherry Darling in "Grindhouse" aka Pam in "Death Proof" aka Marique in "Conan the Barbarian (2011)" aka Charlie in "Fifty Dead Men Walking" (age 38)



People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/05/2011 1:49 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll bet that purple thing gets hot purty quick.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2011 1:53 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Sudan Bans Main Opposition Party amid Sweeping Arrests
[An Nahar] Sudan has banned the main opposition party, closed its offices and made sweeping arrests across the country, its secretary general said on Sunday, as fighting continued in a key SPLM stronghold.
Always need an target to keep the lads busy. Having lost South Sudan, and attacking their black Muslims being in bad odor, the party of the ruling part has turned its sights closer to home.
"The (ruling) National Congress Party has banned the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in all states and placed in durance vile a large number of its members and seized property and documents belonging to it in different states and localities," Yasser Arman said in a statement.

Arman gave a detailed list of more than 10 party members and local leaders who have allegedly been placed in durance vile since Tuesday in various different states, including West Darfur, Gezira, North Kordofan and Sennar.

"What is happening now, in different towns and villages in Sudan against members and leaders of the SPLM, is something that was organized and planned over a long period, with the aim of ... eliminating the SPLM as a major national and democratic force in north Sudan," Arman said.

Other party members said the government had shut down all the offices of the party's northern branch, the SPLM-North, on Saturday.

The ex-rebel movement is the ruling party of South Sudan, which formally split when the south gained independence from the north on July 9, after decades of devastating conflict.
Oh wait. That actually makes sense. Why would the liberated south need a political party in the country it is no longer part of?
Sudan's deputy information minister, Sanaa Hamad, confirmed that Khartoum had declared the SPLM illegal in the north, saying it was not a legally registered political party following southern secession.

"But this situation will not have an impact on the members of the party as individuals ... The only people who have been placed in durance vile were involved in illegal activities," she told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The move against the SPLM-North comes shortly after deadly fighting erupted in Blue Nile state between the Sudanese army and ex-rebel troops loyal to the elected governor, Malik Agar, the party's chairman.

President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
sacked Agar from his job on Friday and appointed a caretaker military leader, General Yahia Mohammed Kheir, after declaring a state of emergency.

SPLM sources said the fighting continued in Blue Nile on Sunday, while the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
said 16,000 people -- the entire estimated population -- were reported to have decamped from the flashpoint border town of Kurmuk across the border into Ethiopia.

The Khartoum government has shown itself increasingly determined to assert its authority within its new borders following southern secession, moving to disarm troops outside its control.

It has accused Juba of interfering in Blue Nile, and in nearby South Kordofan, where a similar conflict has raged for three months, between the army and the SPLM's Nuba militiamen.

Both states are located north of Sudan's new international border, but were key battlegrounds during the north-south civil war and have large numbers of SPLM-North supporters and troops who fought alongside the ex-southern rebels.
So do they want to join the south, or be independent, or what? I'm confused.
Arman on Saturday called the army's aggression in Blue Nile a "coup" against Agar, the state's elected leader, which, he said, demonstrated that constitutional change in Sudan was impossible under the present regime.

He vowed to fight for regime change through mass protest and armed struggle, in cooperation with the three main Darfuri rebel groups, with which the SPLM-North signed an agreement last month.

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa North
Dupe URL: US: Libyan Jihadists plan Islamist state
A U.S. government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed “strategizing” on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated. Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans. The report said the jihadists’ strength and influence on the ground “are uncertain at this time.”

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.

According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country. Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/05/2011 11:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Dupe URL: US: Libyan Jihadists plan Islamist state
A U.S. government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed “strategizing” on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated. Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans. The report said the jihadists’ strength and influence on the ground “are uncertain at this time.”

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.

According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country. Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/05/2011 11:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US: Libyan Jihadists planning moves toward Islamist state
A U.S. government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed "strategizing" on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated. Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans. The report said the jihadists' strength and influence on the ground "are uncertain at this time."

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.

According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country. Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/05/2011 11:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Talks Fail for Gadhafi Bastion Surrender, Rebels Poised to Attack
[An Nahar] Negotiations for the surrender of Moammar Qadaffy's
...a proud Arab institution for 42 years...
forces in the Libyan town of Bani Walid have failed and will not resume, the chief negotiator for the National Transitional Council said Sunday.

"I am leaving the military commander to resolve the problem," Abdullah Kenshil said when asked if an attack would now be launched on the town southeast of Tripoli where at least one of Qadaffy's sons is reputed to be hiding.

Kenshil said the pro-Qadaffy fighters wanted to come out with their weapons but were refused.

"They demanded that the revolutionaries enter Bani Walid without their weapons," he added, charging that it was a pretext for an ambush.

Kenshil also said Qadaffy himself, his sons and many of his family had been in Bani Walid, without specifying when.

Two of Qadaffy's sons, Al-Saadi and Mutassim, are suspected of being still in Bani Walid.

Negotiations through the intermediary of tribal leaders began several days ago with the hope of taking Bani Walid without bloodshed.

Kenshil said earlier that the pro-Qadaffy forces numbered between 30 and 50 men, "very well-armed, with machine-guns, rocket-launchers and snipers."

Anti-Qadaffy fighters have moved to within 15 to 20 kilometers of the town with a view to launching an assault if the talks broke down.

Earlier on Sunday, a commander of the fighters said talks aimed at securing the peaceful surrender of Qadaffy's forces in Bani Walid had been abandoned and an assault on the oasis town was imminent.

"We are getting ready," said Mohammed al-Fassi, checkpoint commander in the village of Shishan, 70 kilometers north of Bani Walid.

"Negotiations between Qadaffy's men and our forces have ended. These people aren't serious. Twice they promised to surrender only to go back on their word," he said.

A local front man for the National Transitional Council (NTC) now governing Libya said the frontline stood 15 to 20 kilometers north of Bani Walid and that troops were poised for an advance.

"We are waiting for orders to go into the city," Mahmoud Abdul Aziz said.

"Last night the Qadaffy forces tried to move out. Our fighters responded and there were some festivities lasting a few minutes."

The new government's interim interior minister Ahmed Darrat told Agence La Belle France Presse he was confident the town's capture was imminent. "We expect Bani Walid to be freed today or tomorrow," he said.

On Saturday, the deputy chief of the military council in the town of Tarhuna, north of Bani Walid, said Qadaffy's son Al-Saadi was still in Bani Walid, along with other senior figures of the fallen regime, while prominent son Seif al-Islam had decamped the town.

Preparations for the offensive appeared to be well underway even though NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said in Benghazi on Saturday that a truce declared until September 10 remained in force.

"We are in a position of strength to enter any city but we want to avoid any bloodshed, especially in sensitive areas such as tribal areas," he said, adding military deployments would continue during the ceasefire.

Civilians who managed to flee Bani Walid said that most of Qadaffy's forces had now decamped taking their heavy weaponry with them into the surrounding mountains.

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 cut of the American pants...
said its warplanes had hit an ammunition storage facility near Bani Walid on Saturday.

Alliance aircraft also hit a barracks, a military police camp and 11 other targets in Qadaffy's hometown Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and carried out bombing raids on two other towns that remain in the hands of Qadaffy forces -- Buwayrat west of Sirte and Hun in the al-Jufra oasis.

NTC forces east of Sirte on Sunday moved to disarm members of the Hussnia tribe suspected of loyalty to the ousted strongman, an AFP correspondent reported.

The NTC front man in London Guma al-Gamaty said that when captured, Qadaffy should stand trial in Libya not before the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC) in The Hague that has issued an arrest warrant for suspected crimes against humanity committed during the Libyan uprising.

"The ICC will only put Qadaffy on trial for crimes committed over the last six months," Gamaty told BBC television.

"Qadaffy is responsible for a horrific catalogue of crimes committed over the last 42 years, which he should stand trial for and answer for and he can only answer for those in a proper trial in Libya itself."

Gamaty said it would be up to the court to determine whether a death sentence was appropriate for Qadaffy, but added: "The court will be fair and just and will meet all international standards.

"It will be a fair trial -- something that Qadaffy has never offered any Libyans who criticized him over the last 42 years."

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned against too thorough a purge of Qadaffy appointees in the Libyan apparatus, pointing to the chaos that had ensued in Iraq when even low-ranking officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath party were stripped of their jobs after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"If somebody used to work for the regime but has no blood on his hands, why destroy all the structure, all the apparatus of Libya like we've done in Iraq, making a big mistake?" he said.

In Iraq, U.S. administrator Paul Bremer's policy of sidelining all Baath party members and dismantling the army put hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on the streets, swelling the ranks of the insurgency.

In fresh revelations from documents obtained by media and rights groups in Tripoli, Britannia's Sunday Times said London invited two of Qadaffy's sons to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit in 2006 as former premier Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime.


Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just do it or don't! Coin Flip?
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/05/2011 13:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Surely, with the recogition of the TNC as being in charge, the Duck's forces are now rhe rebels? pedant/off.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 09/05/2011 19:08 Comments || Top||

#3  *NTC, oops.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 09/05/2011 19:10 Comments || Top||


Qadhafi stronghold fate hinges on talks
[Dawn] The fate of one of Muammar Qadaffy's
...a proud Arab institution for 42 years...
last bastions hung on negotiations Sunday, as Libya's new leaders called for the ousted strongman to stand trial in his homeland when captured.

"We are negotiating through the intermediary of tribal leaders who hope to convince the gangs (loyal to Qadaffy) to surrender," Abdullah Kenshil, the chief of the National Transitional Council's negotiating team, said.

"We will protect them, we won't do anything to them, we only want to try them, and they will have a fair trial." A military commander had earlier said talks aimed at securing the peaceful surrender of Qadaffy's forces in Bani Walid had been abandoned and an assault on the oasis town southeast of Tripoli was imminent.

But Kenshil said he was awaiting a response from the pro-Qadaffy forces, who he said numbered between 30 and 50 men, "very well-armed, with machine-guns, rocket-launchers and snipers."

He said the talks had been going on for several days. "At the beginning they said no, but now we are assuring them that we will protect them against any act of reprisal."

A local front man for the NTC now holding most of Libya said the front line was 15 to 20 kilometres (10 to 12 miles) north of Bani Walid and that troops were just awaiting orders to advance.

"Last night the Qadaffy forces tried to move out. Our fighters responded and there were some festivities lasting a few minutes," Mahmud Abdelaziz said.

The new government's interim interior minister Ahmed Darrat told AFP he was confident the town's capture was imminent. "We expect Bani Walid to be freed today or tomorrow," he said.

The deputy chief of the military council in Tarhuna, north of Bani Walid, Abdulrazzak Naduri, said, "Everything depends on the negotiations.

"If they refuse (to surrender), we will advance, if the negotiations go well, we will enter and hoist the flag without a fight. It's the last chance, we can't extend our ultimatum again."

On Saturday, Naduri said Qadaffy's son Saadi was still in Bani Walid, along with other senior figures of the fallen regime, while prominent son Seif al-Islam had decamped the town.

Civilians coming from Bani Walid said that most of Qadaffy's forces had now decamped, taking their heavy weaponry with them into the surrounding mountains.

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 cut of the American pants...
said its warplanes had hit an ammunition store near Bani Walid on Saturday, as well as military targets in Qadaffy's coastal hometown of Sirte, Buwayrat west of Sirte and Hun in the Al-Jufra oasis.

NTC forces east of Sirte meanwhile moved to disarm members of the Hussnia tribe suspected of loyalty to the ousted strongman on Sunday.

The NTC front man in London, Guma al-Gamaty, said that when captured Qadaffy should stand trial in Libya and not at the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC) in The Hague that has issued an arrest warrant for suspected crimes against humanity committed during the Libyan uprising.

"The ICC will only put Qadaffy on trial for crimes committed over the last six months," Gamaty told BBC television.

"Qadaffy is responsible for a horrific catalogue of crimes committed over the last 42 years, which he should stand trial for and answer for and he can only answer for those in a proper trial in Libya itself."

Gamaty said it would be up to the court to determine whether a death sentence was appropriate for Qadaffy, but added: "The court will be fair and just and will meet all international standards.

"It will be a fair trial -- something that Qadaffy has never offered any Libyans who criticised him over the last 42 years."

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned against too thorough a purge of Qadaffy appointees in the Libyan apparatus, pointing to the chaos that had ensued in Iraq when even low-ranking officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath party were stripped of their jobs after the 2003 US-led invasion.

In fresh revelations from documents obtained by media and rights groups in Tripoli, Britannia's Sunday Times said London invited two of Qadaffy's sons to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit in 2006 as then premier Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime.

The Mail on Sunday said Qadaffy's regime warned of "dire consequences" for relations between Libya and Britannia if the cancer-stricken convicted Lockerbie bomber died in a Scottish jail.

Senior British officials feared Qadaffy "might seek to extract vengeance" if he was not released, it said.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi is the only man convicted of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people when it went kaboom! over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

He was said to be only three months from death when he was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government on August 20, 2009, but he was found to be still alive, though very feeble in Tripoli, last week.

Interim defence minister Jallal Dghaili arrived in Tripoli from Benghazi on Sunday with a large following as the NTC gradually transfers from its eastern base to the capital.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Protesters Injured, Kidnapped as Yemenis Escalate Revolution 
[Yemen Post] At least four antigovernment protesters were maimed and four others kidnapped when regime forces and snipers attacked a demonstration in Yemen's capital Sana'a on Sunday.

Armed pro-regime forces and thugs fired live bullets and teargas at tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Street 60th preventing them from continuing their march.

Many forces have been deployed to the main streets in Sana'a after the revolution's organizational committee and the opposition called for escalating the seven-month antigovernment protests to accelerate the ouster of the regime.

After the incident, forces of the first armored division, whose commander announced peaceful support to the popular revolution months ago, deployed to the incident site forcing the pro-regime thugs to run away.

No festivities between the pro and antigovernment forces took place.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Troops, Gunmen Deploy in Sanaa to Prevent Anti-Saleh Protests
[An Nahar] Troops loyal to Yemeni President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
deployed in force in Sanaa on Sunday after opposition groups called new mass demonstrations demanding his ouster, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.

The security forces closed off all access to the capital from Saturday afternoon while armed civilians loyal to the president also erupted into the streets, the correspondent said.

Sanaa has been without electricity since Saturday afternoon, while most fuel stations in the capital shut their taps suddenly, causing chaos at the few outlets which were still serving motorists.

The massive deployment by Saleh loyalists came in response to an opposition call for an intensification of protests against his rule amid a deadlock in the political process in the face of the president's long absence abroad.

Saleh has been receiving medical treatment in neighboring Soddy Arabia for wounds sustained in a June 3 bombing in his palace.

"We have called for intensifying the challenge in order to move towards a peaceful solution," said Huria Machhour, spokeswoman of the opposition National Council, an umbrella group of anti-Saleh forces.

"The political process has reached an impasse because of Saleh's refusal to sign the Gulf plan," she said, adding that popular protests which began in January should continue "until the fall of the regime."

The Gulf plan proposes that Saleh transfer power to the vice president within 30 days in exchange for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

Saleh vowed last month to return "soon" to his impoverished country.

"We hope that forces loyal to Saleh do not use weapons to disperse the peaceful marches of young people," Machhour said, warning that army units which defected to the protest movement "are on alert to defend the protesters if they face acts of violence."

"We hope that there is no challenge ... to avoid an armed confrontation with dangerous consequences," she said, urging the Gulf countries, the United States and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
"to increase pressure on the regime" to avoid a civil war.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase...
armed rustics clashed with Saleh loyalists in the elite Elite Republican Guards at dawn on Sunday both in the south and in Taiz, Yemen's second-largest city, residents said.

Yemen's ruling party, the General People's Congress, accused the Common Forum parliamentary opposition bloc -- the main component of the National Council -- of a "plot" to "take power by force" by mobilizing young protesters.

In a statement, it said it holds the opposition "responsible for the consequences" of an escalation of violence and called for the crisis to be resolved through a "serious and responsible dialogue."

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Sydney man with bomb takes 11 year old girl hostage


* Man in possession of suspicious device
* Buildings evacuated, negotiators at scene
* Comes after attack on Madeleine Pulver

A FATHER has reportedly strapped a collar bomb to himself and is holding an 11-year-old girl in a building opposite a family court in Sydney.

Police have evacuated the CBD in Paramatta and negotiators are at the scene. Police have told The Daily Telegraph that the man did not have a collar bomb, but was in possession of a "suspicious device".

ABC Radio reports that the incident is unfolding in a barrister's office across the road from the court and that it involves a man and child. It is believed to relate to a custody issue, the ABC says.

Macquarie Radio reports the man was seen shirtless and wearing what looked like a barrister’s wig at window of a second-floor office.

Fairfax reports that hostage isn't a girl but a boy. Police have not confirmed the child's sex.

NSW Ambulance Service and Fire and Rescue NSW said they were assisting police, but would not elaborate further. Raio reports said the man was naked

Workers in a building close to the court have been ordered from their offices into the street. Those in the building include members of the Australian Defence Force,

A police spokesman said it was a "police operation" but gave no further details of the incident.

The latest incident follows the bizarre attack on teenager Madeleine Pulver last month in her home.

An ambulance spokeswoman said four crews had been sent to the courthouse. "We are attending an incident at Parramatta," she told AAP.

ABC Radio reports that a courts spokesperson confirmed a "hostage situation" in Parramatta.

"At this stage it is not known what caused the man to attend the building or what he is in possession of," the statement said.
Posted by: Oztralian || 09/05/2011 20:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistan detains top al-Qaida suspect
Ay-Pee. Quick and dirty synopsis: Paks and the CIA "partnered" to take down Younis al-Mauritani and two others. Al-Mauritani was supposedly directly tasked by Bin-Laden (Fish pee upon him) to target American economic interests worldwide
This article starring:
Younis al-Mauritani
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2011 11:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When do they detain the Mad Egyptian Doctor?
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/05/2011 13:02 Comments || Top||


Pakistani tribal elders in talks with Taliban to free abductees
[Dawn] Pak tribal elders are holding talks with Talibs in Afghanistan for the release of scores of young rustics kidnapped during an outing along the border, officials said on Sunday.

The teenage rustics from Pakistain's northwestern Bajaur tribal region were kidnapped by the beturbanned goons on Thursday while they were on an outing in Afghanistan's border province of Kunar on the Mohammedan festival of Eid.
They were on an outing when a stranger said, "Come bathe in the river with me," so they did? Did their mothers never tell them about stranger danger? Did they never hear the popular Pashtun song about the beautiful boy with a bottom a like peach, but alas he is on the other side of the river and I can't swim? There has to be more to this than is being told.
"A tribal jirga (council) from Bajaur is currently holding talks with the terrorists," Pakistain military front man Major-General Athar Abbas said.

"The future course of action will be decided by tribal elders from both sides of the border."

Pak government officials had initially said around 60 boys from the ethnic Pashtun Mamoun tribe took part in the outing. But about 20 below ten years were allowed to return to Pakistain, while up to 40 others between 12 to 14 years old were held.

Abbas said in total 40 young rustics were kidnapped. He said 10 of the boys were released while 30 were still in jug.

Under centuries-old tribal customs, rustics living along the frontier can freely move across the border.

A front man for Pak Taliban, many of whom have decamped into Afghanistan in the face of Pakistain military offensives in Bajaur, on Saturday grabbed credit for the kidnappings as punishment against the tribe for supporting the military.

The Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan said they had a plan of mass-scale kidnappings and expected people in large number to visit the border region on Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramazan.

Sultan Zeb, a tribal elder in Bajaur, said beturbanned goons loyal to Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the top Taliban capo in Bajaur who Pak authorities say has also decamped to Afghanistan, were involved in the kidnapping.

"We have established contact with the Taliban through their relatives and friends and we hope they will release the kidnapped people very soon. The kidnappers have not made demand for ransom or any other demand for the release," he told Rooters by telephone from Bajaur.

The Mamoun tribe is opposed to al Qaeda and Taliban and has raised militias to fight them, angering beturbanned goons who often hit back with bombings and shooting attacks.

Pakistain late last month lodged a protest with the Afghan government after officials said hundreds of beturbanned goons from Afghanistan launched a raid on Pak border posts in northwestern Chitral district, killing up to 36 people, most of them soldiers.

Twenty-seven Pak servicemen and 45 beturbanned goons died in festivities in July when some 600 beturbanned goons from Afghanistan attacked Pak border villages.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Afghan army men among six suspects held in Dir
[Dawn] The law enforcement agencies set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock six suspects, including officials of Afghanistan National Army, during a raid on a camp of Afghan refugees in Chakdara, sources said here on Saturday.

They said that law enforces raided the camp on a tip-off on Thursday, the second day of Eidul Fitr, and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock six Afghans. The set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock men included Abdul Ghaffar and Khan Mohammad, who are said to be officials of Afghanistan National Army. The set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock persons were taken to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for interrogation.

Sources said that security agencies had been alerted to keep a vigilant eye on Afghan refugees` camps at Chakdara, Timer, Toor Qilla Munda and Mayar Jandol after getting information that about 270 officials of Afghanistan National Army and some NGOs working in Afghanistan had been staying in those camps.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea...
heads of Afghan families residing at Chakdara camp have been directed to keep informed security forces in the area of their departure from and entry into the camp.

Sources said that Afghan Commissionerate had also been directed to provide data of all Afghan families and their members. The Afghan refugees had been asked to register their names with the Afghan Commissionerate if they wanted to leave the camp for more than three days, they added.

They said that Afghan Commissionerate had also received information that some of the Afghan nationals residing in the camps were serving at Afghan security agencies and NGOs working in Afghanistan.

Several suspects were taken into custody in Ramazan but they were released after initial interrogation, sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


22 detained in Kurram for attacks on vans
[Dawn] The political administration of Kurram Agency
...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
on Saturday jugged 22 residents of Alizai and Chekki villages in connection with attacks on passenger vans, officials said.

They said that the action had been taken under the territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation and the detainees would remain in jug till the real culprits were handed over to the administration.

Under the law, it is the rustics`s responsibility to maintain peace in their respective territories.

The placed in long-term storage persons belonged to both the Shia and Sunni sects. Unidentified persons had ambushed two vehicles in lower and central Kurram on Thursday and Friday, killing 11 passengers and wounding two others.

The attackers had also exchanged fire with local rustics, who chased them after the ambush. But no loss of life was reported in exchange of fire between the attackers and rustics.

Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control...
three students who were kidnapped after attack on passenger coaches in lower Kurram in March last are still in the turbans` custody.

According to their relatives, Qaiser Hussain, a university student, and two children named Akmal Hussain and Jalil Hussain were kidnapped along with 30 other passengers.

They said that after payment of compensation the Death Eaters had freed 27 people hailing from Turi and Bangash tribes, but the three were still in their custody.

In Kohat, the armed lashkar foiled an attempt of kidnapping of a young boy in Mandoori village on Saturday.

According to police, Omer Hayat, 17, was going home with his mother when four gunnies kidnapped him at gunpoint in Khwaja Pyala area in the jurisdiction of Gumbat cop shoppe.

The lashkar, locally known as chagha party, chased the kidnappers who released Mr Hayat due to fear of arrest.

The police have launched investigation after registering a case against the unknown kidnappers.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Four target killers arrested during raids in Karachi
[Dawn] Police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock four hit mans during raids in different areas of Bloody Karachi on Sunday, DawnNews reported.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of police raided a house in Lines Area and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a hit man named Shahroz Arif Yousuf.

According to police, the alleged criminal confessed killing five people along with his his accomplices. Through information derived from him, police also recovered a body of a victim from Sector 5-B area of North Bloody Karachi. The victim had been killed with a sharp object and kept in a television packing carton.

According to the set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock culprit, the name of the victim is Iftikhar Bhatti and he had been first kidnapped and then assassinated.

During interrogation, the culprit also named many of his accomplices, for whom the police have launched several search operations as well.

During another operation, police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock an active member of the Lyari gang war group, Arshad Baloch, from the Shahrah-e-Noor Jahan area of North Nazimabad.

According to sources, the alleged criminal is a member of the Akram Baloch group and is involved in the murders of 10 people.

A Klashinkof as well as a large cache of bullets was also recovered during this raid.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Dronezap kills 7 in NW Pakistan
[Iran Press TV] A non-UN-sanctioned US drone attack has killed at least seven people and maimed several others in Pakistain's northwestern tribal region.

The causalities come after US drones targeted suspected snuffies in an area of North Wazoo tribal region, Xinhua reported.

The US frequently carries out such attacks on Pakistain's tribal areas. Attacks by unmanned American planes have left dozens of people dead in the volatile region over the past weeks.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US president George W. Bush, have been escalated under President Barack B.O. Obama.

Washington claims the attacks target al-Qaeda-linked and pro-Talibs in Pakistain's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
locals insist that the strikes kill mostly civilians.

The issue of civilian casualties has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington.

Pakistain has repeatedly condemned the strikes as a violation of its illusory sovereignty, asserting that such attacks have proven counterproductive in the so-called war against terrorism.

The United Nations
...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
says the US-operated drone strikes in Pakistain pose a growing challenge to the international rule of law.

Philip Alston, UN special envoy on extrajudicial killings, said in a report in late October 2010 that the attacks were undermining the rules designed to protect the right of life.

Alston also said he feared that the drone killings by the US Central Intelligence Agency could develop a "playstation" mentality.
Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US WON'T SIGN NEW ROE WITH PAKISTAN.

IIUC ARTIC = the US wants evidence first that Pakistan is making a serious effort to fight the MilTerrs based on its soil.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/05/2011 2:08 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Turks Threaten War
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 09/05/2011 10:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Man gunned down in southern Thailand
A man was gunned down on a rural road in Yala province on Sunday morning. The man was identified as Dolo Kama, 59, a local villager. Eyewitnesses said that while Dolo was travelling on a motorcycle he was followed by two men on another motorcycle. One of them shot Dolo twice in the head and body with a pistol, killing him immediately.

Soldier injured in bombing while police chief visits local officials

A soldier was injured in a bombing in Narathiwat province Sunday afternoon while the national police chief was visiting local policemen.

A bomb, weighing around five kilograms was hidden in an iron box and detonated by a mobile phone when Sergeant Major 1st class Veera Siriwongkhan led a team of eight officials, on four motorcycles to provide security at a trade fair, part of a local festival. The bomb went off when the soldiers' motorcycles passed a road at the entrance to the village. Private Anirut Wongsa, 22 was injured and rushed to the Hospital.

Meanwhile, national police chief Gen Wichien Pojphosri was meeting with local officials at the Yi-Ngo police station Sunday afternoon.
Posted by: ryuge || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
At Least 24 Dead as Red Cross Chief Starts Syria Mission
[An Nahar] At least 24 people died in violence across Syria on Sunday, activists and state media said, as the visiting Red Thingy chief sought access to those jugged in five months of anti-regime protests.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said 12 people were killed in various operations by security forces across the country.

The security forces encircled hospitals "to prevent the maimed from being brought in for treatment," it charged.

The state news agency SANA also gave a toll of 12 dead -- including six troops -- when an "armed terrorist group" ambushed a bus in central Syria.

LCC front man Omar Idlibi said a woman was among the 12 people killed.

Idlibi said "four deaders fell in Karnaz near the (central) town of Maharda" while the others, including the woman, were killed in Idlib province.

"Two deaders fell in Khan Sheikhoun, three in Tahtaya, one in Jableh and a woman died from gunshots in Saraqeb as the security forces carried out security operations," Idlibi said about districts in Idlib.

"Another person was killed when security forces opened fire on a bus in the city of Idlib."

He said the operations in Idlib were aimed at tracking an attorney general who announced in a disputed video message on Wednesday that he was quitting to protest the deaths and arrests of protesters and dissidents.

On Friday, SANA said gunnies in Khan Sheikhoun had kidnapped a corporal with Syria's internal security services, Wael Ali.

The LCC added a woman was rubbed out in Maaret al-Numan in an operation to arrest her husband, who was maimed along with three other family members.

International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) chief Jakob Kellenberger flew into Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
on Saturday for talks with President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
over access to prisoners and areas of unrest.

According to activists, 27 people were killed in operations by the army and security services across Syria on Friday and Saturday.

The latest bloodshed came as European ministers warned of more sanctions in addition to an oil embargo over Syria's defiance of mounting international calls to halt a deadly crackdown on anti-Assad protests.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in Syria since almost daily protests began on March 15, according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
, while human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
groups say more than 10,000 people are behind bars.

Apart from the oil embargo which went into effect on Saturday, the EU expanded a list of around 50 people, including Assad, targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban.

The ICRC delegation chief in Damascus said Kellenberger would stay in Syria until Monday afternoon and meet with Assad, Prime Minister Adel Safar and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

His office said that during a previous visit in June "an understanding was reached" for "enhanced access to areas of unrest, and negotiations would take place concerning ICRC visits to detainees."

Asked about the possibility of visiting detainees, the ICRC delegation chief in Damascus, Marianne Gasser, said: "We are confident that we will be able to start visiting people jugged by the interior ministry."

Posted by: Fred || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2011-09-05
  Pakistan detains top al-Qaida suspect
Sun 2011-09-04
  Sudan declares emergency in Blue Nile state
Sat 2011-09-03
  European Union Lifts Sanctions on Libya
Fri 2011-09-02
  Russia recognises Libya's rebel government
Thu 2011-09-01
  Al Qathafi Reject Rebels' Ultimatum to Surrender
Wed 2011-08-31
  Saleh Authorizes his party to Conduct Negotiations with Opposition
Tue 2011-08-30
  Qadaffy's wife, daughter, 2 sons flee to Algeria
Mon 2011-08-29
  29 dead in suicide bomb attack in Iraq mosque: Officials
Sun 2011-08-28
  Rebels claim capture of last army base in Tripoli
Sat 2011-08-27
  Al Qaeda's No. 2 , Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, Killed in Pakistan
Fri 2011-08-26
  Rebel council to take Libya's seat at Arab League
Thu 2011-08-25
  Yemeni premier back home from Riyadh
Wed 2011-08-24
  Rebels offers $1.7 million bounty for Gadhafi
Tue 2011-08-23
  Rebels Capture Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya Compound, House
Mon 2011-08-22
  Libyans Celebrate Takeover of Capital

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