[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Eritrea has denied the alleged supply of arms to the beturbanned fascisti Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader... in Somalia.
On Tuesday, top Kenyan officials and other sources told news hounds two airplanes flew to Baidoa to deliver arms to Al-Shabaab.
Eritrea's Foreign Affairs Ministry Wednesday said the allegation was a fabrication and was a clear campaign against Eritrea by its arch-foe Ethiopia.
Eritrea sole interest in Somalia is to see peace and stability return to this important Horn of Africa and the end of the suffering of Somalia people, the statement said.
"There can be no military solution to the problem of Somalia," read the ministry statement.
Eritrea also called for all-inclusive, Somali-owned political process, inclusive of Somaliland, Puntland and all other stakeholders.
The recent allegation against Eritrea is a bitter diplomatic slap amid a proposal for a fresh round of sanctions against Asmara having already been tabled before the UN Security Council.
Eritrea has been under UN sanctions since 2009 for its alleged involvement in Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court's chief prosecutor, told the United Nations yesterday that Nato troops would be investigated alongside rebel soldiers and regime forces for alleged breaches of the laws of war during the battle to overthrow Col Muammar Gaddafi.
As well as the original charges that Gaddafi and his close family perpetrated attacks on Libyan civilians, there are a series of complaints about the Western alliance and its allies in the National Transitional Council (NTC) under consideration. "There are allegations of crimes committed by Nato forces, allegations of crimes committed by NTC-related forces ... as well as allegations of additional crimes committed by pro-Gaddafi forces," said Mr Moreno-Ocampo. "`These allegations will be examined impartially and independently by the prosecution." Golem raising against its creators, or whitewash? Go with the Golem. Any good idea can be made bad. Because it can be, it must be.
#1
Just for grits and shins,does anybody want to speculate which NATO members' guys are going to be indicted?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/03/2011 17:45 Comments ||
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#2
So Saif is trying to escape with the help of mercs.
And there are supposedly contractors in the Horn, doing one thing or another, and a Brit specops team went ashore in a uncontrolled part of Somalia and kidnapped a local big.
Looks like the world is progressing, or regressing, to the sort of place in which the Thirties pulps were written. Nothing is so odd that it can't happen and that the reader would say, "Pshaw. Not likely."
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/03/2011 17:49 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Egypt's powerful Moslem Brüderbund threatened on Wednesday to bring its supporters out onto the streets over the military government's plans to set out the basics of a new constitution ahead of an elected People's Assembly.
The Brotherhood and other smaller parties, most of them also Islamist, said that one million people would protest nationwide on November 18 if the plans to pre-empt the promised People's Assembly to be elected early next year were not abandoned.
The Islamists were reacting to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Salmi in Wednesday's edition of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram in which he said the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was "carefully considering"a plan for a "declaration of basic principles." The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, called for Salmi's resignation.
"We call on Ali al-Salmi to step down and, if the government presses ahead with its plan, for all of its members to quit, because (this proposal) is a threat to Egypt's security," the party's vice chairman Saad al-Ketatni said.
"The national forces will not allow a small minority to impose its will on everyone," he said, reading a statement in the name of the party and its electoral allies.
He said that the government should "remember what happened to the system of the corrupt, all-powerful tyrant," a reference to the mass revolt which overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... regime in February.
According to Al-Ahram, the declaration of principles being considered by the military government would state that "Egypt is a civil, democratic state which unites all of its citizens without distinction under the rule of law."The clause is intended as a safeguard for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority which makes up between six and eight percent of the 80 million population.
The basic principles would also state that "sharia (Islamic law) is the main source of legislation," but not the sole one.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said on Wednesday 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... would stand by Libya's side on its path to democracy, on his first visit to Tripoli since the conflict which ousted Moamer Qadaffy ... who is now napping peacefully in the dirt...
"The new Libya aspires to be a nation free from fear, free from injustice and free from the oppression of the past," he said after meeting National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil and other new regime members.
"The United Nations will be your partner in turning those hopes to reality," Ban said during a previously unannounced visit.
He said his talks with Libyan officials covered "public security and the need to secure the arsenals of the previous regime, particularly stocks of shoulder-fired missiles and chemical and biological weapons.""And we recognised the centrality of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and the rule of law," the secretary general said.
"The United Nations stands ready to support the Libyan people in all the areas we discussed -- elections, a new constitution, human rights, public security and the control of weapons," he said.
At a news conference, Ban demanded an immediate end to the Syrian government's crackdown on civilian protesters that has killed more than 3,000 people since mid-March, according to UN figures.
"Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria," Ban said, calling on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... to implement an Arab peace plan "as soon as possible as agreed.""People have suffered to much for too long and it's an unacceptable situation," he said.
Ban during his visit went to a mass grave and met the families of people killed by Qadaffy's forces, UN deputy front man Eduardo del Buey said.
"Libyans have paid a heavy price for freedom" and had "inspired the world by throwing off tyranny," he said, while calling for Libya's disparate groups to compromise and stand united.
"As Libya moves forward it will be critical that the people find consensus on major issues and remain united. That in turn will require a great deal of pragmatism, compromise, especially during this very important phase," he said.
The visit had not been previously announced for security reasons. Ban was on his way to the Group of 20 economic powers summit in Cannes, La Belle France, where Libya was on the agenda. He was expected in Cannes late on Wednesday.
Ban did not visit Libya during the eight months of the armed uprising which led to the fall of the Libyan regime and the death of Qadaffy on October 20.
His visit comes days after the UN Security Council on Monday called on Libya's interim authorities and neighbouring countries to stamp out the spread of weapons from Qadaffy's huge stockpile.
And NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ended its UN-mandated mission in the North African nation on October 31.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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MALAYSIA has banned an "Islamic sex guide" by a controversial group that reportedly urges Muslim men in polygamous marriages to have group sex with their wives, a report said today. The book was published by the Muslim "Obedient Wife Club", which was formed earlier this year and has sparked controversy with its radical suggestions on sex and marriage in conservative, Muslim-majority Malaysia.
The Home Ministry has banned the book, titled "Islamic Sex, Fighting Jews to Return Islamic Sex to the World" with immediate effect, The Star daily reported. It cited Abdul Aziz Mohamad Nor, a top official in the ministry's publications division. Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying the book, the existence of which was first reported last month, was banned because of the wife club's links to the outlawed group Al-Arqam. Some people from the Obedient Wife Club and related organisations are former members of Al-Arqam, a Malaysian-based Islamic sect that was banned in the country in the 1990s as a deviationist cult.
Those found in possession of the book face fines of 50,000 ringgit ($15,800) while anyone caught reproducing it can be jailed up to three years, The Star reported. Abdul Aziz could not immediately be reached for comment.
The wives' club caused a stir earlier this year by calling on women to be "whores in bed" to prevent their men from straying and pursuing divorce. Malaysian media reports have said the book suggests Muslim husbands have sex with all their wives simultaneously.
One chapter, "How Sex Becomes Worship," reportedly contains unusually explicit sexual descriptions for a Malaysian publication, such as a tutorial on breast-fondling.
AFP has not seen a copy of the book. But they are trying to get their hands on one.
Open discussion of sex is frowned upon in Malaysia, which regularly bans books deemed to be obscene or offensive to Islam.
Club organisers have previously said the book was exclusively for its members and was not intended for general distribution and thus should not be banned.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > NEW LIBYAN LEADER MAY END BAN ON POLYGAMY | HINTING AT END TO CURB ON POLYGAMY, NEW INTERIM LIBYAN LEADER STIRS ANGER.
Seems a number of Libyuhn Male Muslims are demanding an end to Uncle Muammar's law circumventing the edges of Sharia whereupon a Male Muslim's first/original wife had to give her consent for him to take on another wife, or three.
[POST-GADDAFI, TOTALLY UNHAPPY LIBYAN MUSLIM BABES + GIRLS here].
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The alleged criminal mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people gave gun training to Death Eaters at a camp in Aceh on Sumatra island, police said Wednesday.
Police made a connection between Umar Patek and the camp, which was discovered last year, when the suspect on Wednesday retraced his steps in plotting terrorist acts in several locations in Jakarta.
"After the Bali bombings, Umar Patek travelled to many places. He returned to Indonesia and participated in krazed killer training in Aceh," National Police front man Saud Usman Nasution said.
Police believe Death Eaters at the Aceh camp were planning Mumbai-style attacks on Westerners, and plotting the liquidation of Indonesian politicians.
Police said Patek trained Death Eaters alongside Dulmatin, once Indonesia's most-wanted cut-throats who was killed last year in a police raid, and he conducted the training in Aceh and Banten province on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Patek was extradited from Pakistain in August. He was incarcerated in January in Abbottabad, the city where US SEALS killed Al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who has won the race to that place where we all eventually end up... in a raid in May.
The re-enactments of planned attacks are part of the country's criminal investigations.
Police said they had also questioned several witnesses involved in Patek's plotting, but did not explain how they made the connection between Patek and the camp in Aceh.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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The selling off of the property suggests see next paragraph
the Assads are liquidating their assets in the chance the regime is forced from power in Syria.
London property belonging to toppled dictators Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, was seized soon after they fell.
According to the French satirical and current affairs magazine Charlie Hebdo who offices were recently firebombed
Rifaat, Bashar al-Assad's uncle, "has sold off his huge property portfolio in the United States, London, Spain and France", with the clan wanting to "liquidate their overseas homes as quickly as possible". The liquidation of the properties was reportedly being carried out by two of Rifaat's four wives, as well as his children.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/03/2011 10:04 ||
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#1
I suspect that's the wrong explanation. They're probably selling because they're preempting the freezing of these assets in the event that Western governments begin to go after him for cracking down on Syrian dissidents. As Gaddafi discovered, when NATO comes calling, what he really needs are liquid assets close to home, so he can pay for food, weaponry and other things necessary to make war. If he really wants to stay in power, now is the time to make sure his air force and anti-aircraft batteries are in functioning order. If the guy isn't frantically buying all the anti-ship cruise missiles the Chinese and the Russians will sell him, he's not the brightest bulb in the Christmas tree.
[Dawn] The United States declined Wednesday to respond to "buzz" or "rumors" in Israel about reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking cabinet support for a strike on Iran.
The White House said it was focused squarely on a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear drive, and said that Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad had recently expressed discomfort about the impact of Iranian sanctions.
White House front man Jay Carney said that he would not comment on "buzz, rumors, decisions that may or may not have been made, debates that may or may not have been had.""I'm not going to respond to that kind of speculation."Carney was asked to comment after a report in Haaretz newspaper on Wednesday cited a senior Israeli official as saying Netanyahu was working with Defense Minister Ehud Barak to win support from skeptical members of the cabinet who oppose attacking Iranian nuclear facilities.
The report followed days of renewed public discussion among Israeli commentators about the possibility that the Jewish state would take unilateral military action against Iran.
Carney said that the Obama White House was "very focused" on the threat from Iran and the need for Tehran to uphold its international obligations on its nuclear program.
"I believe the president of Iran himself recently conceded that ... sanctions are having dramatic negative impact on their economy." "We remain focused on a diplomatic channel here, a diplomatic course in terms of dealing with Iran."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Many Analysts are conceding the point that, short of Major War or de facto revolutionary "Regime Change", Iran will likely succeed in going Nuclear 2012 NLT 2015, to include dev of NucWeaps.
As Iran is repor relocating many of its key NucProg activities underground = hardened facilities, IDAF air strike(s) alone may not be enough even under US-style? sustained bombing campaign.
* WORLD, MIL HISTORY = TO DEFEAT THE PERSIANS [Iranians], ONE HAS TO INVADE + CONQUER PERSIA [Iran] PROPER.
ALL EYES ON POTUS BAMMER GOING INTO THE 2012 RE-ELECTION SEASON.
#3
ALL EYES ON POTUS BAMMER GOING INTO THE 2012 RE-ELECTION SEASON.
Hope he's not doing this just to boost his chances of getting re-elected. Not sure I trust Obummer with this type of action even though I do believe it's long overdue. I would have felt better if Bush had done it a long, long time ago.
#4
One of these articles said nothing would happen until after the 2012 election. However, BO might consider supporting such a strike if he thought it would give him a bounce about election time.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah has congratulated the Paleostinians on winning UNESCO membership, slamming the United States as "racist" over its decision to vote against the move.
"Hizbullah congratulates the Paleostinian people on gaining full UNESCO membership, which is their natural right," the Shiite group said.
"The United States' decision to vote against this natural right... reflects its historic policy of racism... as well as its support for and identification with the Israeli enemy."
Paleostinian membership in the U.N.'s cultural arm, which comes as they seek to become a full United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... member state, was approved Monday in Gay Paree despite strong opposition from the United States and Israel.
Angry U.S. officials said Washington was withdrawing its share of UNESCO funding, which amounts to almost a quarter of the cultural body's overall budget, and warned of a "cascade" effect should other U.N. bodies follow suit.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. has also hailed Paleostine's entry as a full member of UNESCO.
He said the diplomatic victory "constitutes the first result of the long and painful struggle of the Paleostinian people, and the first step of the brave initiative last month to obtain full recognition" at the U.N.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
PLEASE! Who says we have to like Palestinians, especially those that danced on 9/11.
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.