Hi there, !
Today Tue 10/16/2012 Mon 10/15/2012 Sun 10/14/2012 Sat 10/13/2012 Fri 10/12/2012 Thu 10/11/2012 Wed 10/10/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531689 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 58 articles and 186 comments as of 11:16.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
96 Dead, Including 41 Troops
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
4 18:32 Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 [] 
1 15:28 Alaska Paul [] 
3 14:49 Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 [] 
11 21:08 Jan [] 
6 15:05 Pappy [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 05:52 Shipman [] 
0 [] 
1 14:54 Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:26 newc [] 
1 09:43 Fester Clunter7205 [] 
0 [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 []
6 20:00 Raider []
4 22:46 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
4 21:59 JosephMendiola []
1 08:53 tipper []
1 01:06 g(r)omgoru []
0 []
4 22:50 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
1 09:13 Frank G [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 16:34 Raider []
0 []
0 []
1 05:48 Shipman [1]
3 10:41 USN, Ret. []
1 09:55 Fester Clunter7205 []
3 22:58 Spanky Bourbon9445 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 16:25 Shipman []
10 22:52 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
2 12:44 Zhang Fei []
4 13:44 trailing wife []
0 []
0 []
0 []
9 22:50 Raider [1]
0 []
12 22:03 JosephMendiola []
Page 4: Opinion
3 17:59 SteveS []
1 11:12 Frank G []
12 23:42 Spanky Bourbon9445 [1]
12 22:12 JosephMendiola [1]
4 13:16 AlanC []
Page 6: Politix
3 14:15 DarthVader []
5 18:38 JohnQC []
9 19:49 lord garth [2]
13 19:09 Water Modem []
13 13:46 regular joe []
3 13:21 Ulaiger the Great4845 []
10 23:54 Barbara [1]
Africa North
UN adopts resolution on northern Mali
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution paving the way for military intervention in Mali to retake the north from Islamist extremists.
"The mighty Uruguayans to the white courtesy phone. Uruguay to the white courtesy phone, please."
The resolution requests a detailed plan for such an operation from African organisations within 45 days.

The UN has so far refused to endorse requests for military intervention without details of a plan.

Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels took control of the north after Mali's president was overthrown in March.

Both Mali's government and the West African regional body Ecowas have made requests for authorisation for an international force to intervene, with Ecowas proposing a force of 3,000.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in New York says that the resolution is an attempt to re-energise the West African regional body Ecowas' effort, expressing readiness to respond positively to a plan.
Posted by: tipper || 10/13/2012 04:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, this will go well.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/13/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Just don't call Uncle Sugar...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/13/2012 12:30 Comments || Top||

#3  A few more guns in the wrong hands would sort this one out. TIA.
Posted by: Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 || 10/13/2012 14:49 Comments || Top||


Egypt's Brotherhood head urges jihad for Jerusalem
CAIRO — The supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi emanated, called on Thursday for a jihad (holy war) to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli rule.

"Jerusalem is Islamic ... and nobody is entitled to make concessions" on the Holy City, said Sheikh Mohammed Badie in his weekly message to supporters.
He was saying this in Arabic, so you know he means it...
"The jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem is a duty for all Muslims," he said, stressing that the liberation of the Holy City "will not be done through negotiations or at the United Nations."

Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, has watched with concern as Islamists were catapulted to the forefront of politics following a popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year. Morsi has repeatedly said he would respect international treaties signed by Cairo. But his former movement has also said there is room to revise the accords, without objecting to them in principle.
We all know how the Islamists 'revise' things...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


U.N. Security Council asks Mali to draw up plans to retake north
The U.N. Security Council took a key step Friday toward approving military action by an African force in Mali, where religious gunnies have capitalized on a rebellion by ethnic Tuaregs and political turmoil to seize much of the north.

The resolution does not give the green light for troops to enter the north. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
it gives Mali and its partners 45 days to come up with a detailed plan for the Security Council to approve. The resolution also demands a halt to human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
abuses and warns the Mali military not to meddle in the affairs of its interim government.

Mali and a coalition of West African countries are seeking to send troops into northern Mali to oust armed Islamists who have imposed a severe interpretation of religious law, stoning alleged adulterers to death and banning music and mingling. The gunnies piggybacked on the earlier gains of Tuareg separatists who gained ground in the chaotic aftermath of a coup in the south.

La Belle France has championed the calls for regional action, drafting the Security Council resolution that passed Friday. While on his first official trip to Africa this week, French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
argued that the situation posed a threat stretching beyond Mali to the rest of Africa and all the way to Europe.

West African countries have pledged to provide forces, but want the blessing of the powerful Security Council, which has pushed for more details about their plans before giving its approval.

The crucial step comes as reports pile up of human rights abuses in the country, the latest from a U.N. human rights official who returned from Mali this week with grim accounts of radicals, flush with kickbacks from narcos, buying women and kiddies. The price for a child soldier: $600 upfront, plus $400 a month for their families. The price for a wife: less than $1,000.

Schools have been shuttered after teachers fled. Islamists are now reportedly drawing up lists of women who are pregnant or had children out of wedlock, said Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic, an ominous sign that they could be targeted in a new round of brutal punishments.

Thousands of people reportedly marched Thursday in the capital, Bamako, urging the military to retake the north. But confusion has muddled efforts in Mali to put a stop to the northern unrest.

Mali itself has waffled on the idea of bringing in troops, eager to stop gunnies but uneasy about the idea of forces entering the divided south.

It ultimately sought outside troops, but many experts fear that simply cracking down on the Islamists without tackling government instability and shoring up democracy will fail to solve its problems.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  Whatever happened to all those mercenary armies they used to have in Africa, rhet/sarc off.
Posted by: Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 || 10/13/2012 14:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
Sweden's Very Own Gov't-Funded 'Protocols' Published
Swedish government body funds book on Israeli 'apartheid'. Member of country's Art Council praises 'high quality' of work that claims Herzl sought to increase Jewish suffering

The Swedish Arts Council is sponsoring and distributing a new book which presents Israel as a racist entity comparable to apartheid South Africa.

The council, a government body, has allocated $8,985 toward publishing and distributing "The Bride Is Beautiful But She Is Married to Another Man: Zionism -- An Ideology at the End of the Road?," the council said this week. The decision was made last month.

The book, by Ingmar Karlsson, a retired senior Swedish diplomat, states: "The fundamental difference between South African and Zionist colonialism is the former wanted land and people while the latter only wanted land."

Published earlier this year, the book also states that in Israel -- where Arabic is an official state language -- "Hebrew has a special status, with no consideration" for Arabic as "the area's original language."

A committee of the council selected the book out of 1,600 applications for its "high quality in terms of content, from both a technical and editorial viewpoint" and "the reliability of the facts," among other considerations, Maria Agren of the council wrote in an email.

The book contains a quote attributed to Theodor Herzl which the Stockholm-based Swedish Israel Information Center claims is a forgery: "It is essential that the sufferings of Jews become worse. This will assist in the realization of our plans. I have an excellent idea. I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth."

Lisa Abramowicz, the center's secretary general, has said the book reminded her of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Contacted by phone, Karlsson declined to respond to these claims. Last month, in a letter to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, he said the quote appeared on True Torah Jews -- an anti-Semitic website which describes actions by Adolf Hitler as a "direct response to the declaration of war on Germany by the worldwide Jewish leadership."
On the other hand, the Jews and their sympathizers are no longer taking it lying down:
Unnerved by attacks, Swedish Jews refuse to lower their profile. Most community members in Malmo believe silence will only embolden their antagonists.

A smashed bulletproof glass window and two police officers standing watch were the only evidence of a Sept. 28 attack in which assailants set off an explosive device and threw bricks at the Jewish Community Center's door, according to Rabbi Rebecca Lillian, who lives in the building.

Swedish police arrested and then released two 18-year-old male suspects whom witnesses had placed at the scene; the city's prosecutor is considering whether to indict them.

Some Swedish Jews said the attack was yet another unwelcome reminder that they must bolster their public campaign against anti-Semitism, which only recently began to gain steam in the Scandinavian country after years of attacks and intimidation against Jews, often by local Muslims.

"The attack on the synagogue may have been an attempt to intimidate us back into submission," said Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, a 31-year-old Jewish woman from a city near Stockholm who has helped organize some of the recent Jewish solidarity rallies in Sweden.

"The decision by Swedish Jews to rally against anti-Semitism is perceived by perpetrators as provocation," she said. "We must go on: It may need to get worse before it gets better."

Fred Kahn, board chairman of Malmo's Jewish community of approximately 1,000, said he insisted on a business-as-usual approach after the attack "to show our enemies they have no chance of intimidating us."

The rallies against anti-Semitism in Sweden -- at least 10 so far -- began last December, when a few Malmo synagogue-goers decided to keep wearing their kippas after services and, in violation of security protocol, marched with them through town. Several more "kippa walks" followed, all organized by members of the community through Facebook.

One gathering in August in Stockholm drew about 400 Jews and non-Jews, including government ministers. A similar number showed up for a rally in Stockholm on Sunday, including some leading politicians.

Another solidarity march is planned for Oct. 20 in Malmo.

"The community here used to keep a low profile, but there's a feeling that we are lost if we do nothing now," Frederik Sieradski, a spokesman for the Malmo Jewish community, said during a recent solidarity trip that Jews from Copenhagen, Denmark, made to his city of 300,000 -- the third largest in Sweden.

The newly assertive public actions by Jews against anti-Semitism mark a significant shift for Swedish Jews, according to Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher of anti-Semitism in Scandinavia at Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary Jewry.

Tossavainen noted that a "very similar attack" against Malmo's only Orthodox synagogue in 2010 "attracted far less international attention and response" than the Sept. 28 attack.

The emergence of the kippa walks was a major factor in attracting attention to the problem in Malmo, he said. Another factor, Tossavainen said, was the city's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, who made international headlines when he advised Jews who want to be safe in Malmo to reject Zionism.

During her visit to the country in June, Hannah Rosenthal, the Obama administration's special envoy for combating anti-Semitism, said Malmo under Reepalu is a prime example of "new anti-Semitism," where anti-Israel sentiment serves as a thin guise for Jew-hatred.

Since her visit, Malmo police have been more willing to follow up on complaints about anti-Semitism, according to Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, an envoy of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to Malmo.

Data by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention show that in the years 2009 to 2011, Malmo saw an average of 70 anti-Semitic incidents a year.

Daisy Balkin Rung, a Jewish woman who grew up in Malmo but left years ago, came to a different conclusion after the attack. In a controversial op-ed on the website of Sweden's TV4 that generated chatter on media outlets throughout the country, Rung called on Jews to leave Malmo.

"It's sad to admit: The kippa walks are a good thing, but they are not changing the situation in Malmo," Rung later said. "I'm afraid Malmo is one battle which the other side has won."
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/13/2012 06:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/13/2012 13:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Steady here, folks, this is Malmo, the place where the Swedish cops fear to tread on account of the imported yoof gangs. They have mainly been shooting each other up until now, and I guess the police are very happy that they keep it to themselves.
But, ask your more than average Swede what he/she thinks about the above article and you would probably get a shrug of the shoulders; ask about the Muslim influx into Sweden and you will most likely get an opinion.
The above is the remnant of their attitude to wasting good money, their socialism on its' last legs.
Posted by: Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 || 10/13/2012 15:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course they have.

The moslem violence and rapes (specifically of Swedish women) are so unimportant. The "Arts" Council needs to address what's really important to the Swedish people. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 10/13/2012 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Let 'em reap what they have sown, Barbara. With successive Nazi Governments voted in, who are the Nazis?
Posted by: Varmint Spawn of the Hemps6607 || 10/13/2012 18:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Clinton says U.S. must embrace Arab Spring despite dangers
The United States must look past the violence and extremism that has erupted after the "Arab Spring" revolutions and boost support for the region's young democracies to forge long-term security, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

Clinton, seeking to reinforce the Obama administration's Middle East policy following a wave of anti-American violence and last month's deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, said Washington cannot be deterred by "the violent acts of a small number of extremists."

"We recognize that these transitions are not America's to manage, and certainly not ours to win or lose," Clinton said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

"But we have to stand with those who are working every day to strengthen democratic institutions, defend universal rights, and drive inclusive economic growth. That will produce more capable partners and more durable security over the long term."

Middle East unrest has become fodder for the U.S. presidential campaign, where Republican candidate Mitt Romney has sought to portray President Barack Obama as an ineffectual leader who has left the United States vulnerable at a time of international crisis.

Romney and other Republicans have focused on the September 11 Benghazi attack, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, accusing the Obama administration of security and intelligence lapses in what officials now describe as a terrorist attack.

Clinton noted that the Benghazi incident was the subject of an official probe and vowed the United States would track down those responsible for the attack.

But she stressed that U.S. diplomats must engage with an uncertain and dangerous world if they are to promote and protect U.S. interests. "We will never prevent every act of violence or terrorism, or achieve perfect security. Our people cannot live in bunkers and do their jobs," she said.
Posted by: tipper || 10/13/2012 01:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deflection, damage control, and denial.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/13/2012 3:41 Comments || Top||

#2  You forgot defeat.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/13/2012 5:17 Comments || Top||

#3  boost support for the region's young democracies

In other words pay the Danegeld, more money for the Muzzies.

Oh, where the he11 does she see democracy involved in this?
Posted by: AlanC || 10/13/2012 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Did we get involved in the Revolutions of 1848? No. Then again, no one really understands history anymore. It's all just a lot of propaganda and indoctrination 'studies'. How do you know where you are going, if you don't know where you've been? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/13/2012 9:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Did we get involved in the Revolutions of 1848?

No, but we got a lot of really talented German immigrants.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/13/2012 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Deflection, damage control, and denial

Also - doubling down.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/13/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#7  SoS Clinton is so versed in history, cultures, and sensitivity. Just like in her viewing of the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, March 27, 2009.

Delta Bravo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/13/2012 13:25 Comments || Top||

#8  there seems to be no grasp within the State Dept of what government by Sharia law really means. "democracy" is meaningless if clerics are running the country. that's pretty much where these Arab Spring countries are headed. there is no "middle ground" .... this is not like winning the vote in Iowa. :-)
Posted by: Raider || 10/13/2012 16:37 Comments || Top||

#9  So what if we choose not to embrace the Arab Spring?
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/13/2012 19:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Personally, I prefer plan B:

Step 1: Rubble the places of Muslim infestation.

Step 2: Make the rubble bounce.

Rinse, repeat.


Yeah, sure, there are a lot of Mussies to vaporize - but to those who say "The population is too large to eradicate" I can only say: "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step".

Time is going to pass anyway - we might as well move through time with an ever-diminishing population of Muslin barbarians. Promote LTC Dooley, give him a Theater Battle Group, and tell him to get to work.

Otherwise, a hundred years down the road, a handful of wretched survivors, trying to avoid annihilation by the Caliphate, will be muttering into their gruel "What in the f#$k were those idiots back at the turn of the last century THINKING when they allowed this pestilence to grow, unchecked, from scattered regional infestations, into the dominant global menace of menace of 2100.

Hint for the "liberals" of 2011: Your priorities will no longer be "global warming, tree hugging, LGBT equality, ADA violation enforcement, and free contraceptives".

They don't call this RANTburg for nothing.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 10/13/2012 20:44 Comments || Top||

#11  we don't have to "must" anything.
Clinton forgets that she works for us, it's not the other way around. Time for her to go
Posted by: Jan || 10/13/2012 21:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. intel set back when Libya base was abandoned
Look what comes out on a Friday night...
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence efforts in Libya have suffered a significant setback due to the abandonment and exposure of a facility in Benghazi, Libya identified by a newspaper as a "CIA base" following a congressional hearing this week, according to U.S. government sources.

The intelligence post, located 1.2 miles from the U.S. mission that was targeted by militants in a September 11 attack, was evacuated of Americans after the assault that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The publication of satellite photos showing the site's location and layout have made it difficult, if not impossible, for intelligence agencies to reoccupy the site, according to government sources.
That al-Qaeda knew of the 'annex' doesn't mean that we should be confirming it in public.
The post had been a base for, among other things, collecting information on the proliferation of weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, including surface-to-air missiles, the sources said. Its security features, including some fortifications, sensors and cameras, were more advanced than those at the rented villa where Stevens died, they said.

The sources said intelligence agencies will find other ways to collect information in Libya in the aftermath of last year's toppling of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.
We don't need to say in public exactly how...
"Benghazi played a critical role in the emergence of the new Libya and will continue to do so. It makes sense that we would return there to continue to build relationships," one U.S. official said.

Public discussion of the top-secret location began with a contentious Wednesday hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which was investigating whether security lapses put Americans at risk.

The State Department displayed a satellite photograph showing two locations - the rented villa that served as a special diplomatic mission and the compound that officials had cryptically described as an "annex" or "safe house" for diplomatic personnel. Both compounds were attacked by militants believed to be tied to al Qaeda. After the diplomatic complex was overrun,
So al-Qaeda knew of the safe house, even if they didn't know exactly what was being done there...
U.S. and Libyan personnel rushed by car to the second site, where they fought off two more waves of assaults, officials said. Charlene Lamb, a top official in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, told lawmakers that the secret compound took "as many as three direct hits."

Two U.S. security officials, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed there in what U.S. officials described as an unlucky mortar strike. As many as 37 people eventually escaped to Benghazi's airport.
Makes you wonder why they didn't go directly to the airport...
When the satellite photo was displayed, a senior committee Republican, Representative Jason Chaffetz, complained that the discussion was drifting into "classified issues that deal with sources and methods," and the photo was removed from public display. No one at the hearing used the term "CIA base" to describe the facility.

The next morning, Dana Milbank, a Washington Post columnist, wrote that the committee's "boneheaded questioning" of State Department witnesses left little doubt that the compound in the pictures was a "CIA base."

The Center for American Progress, a progressive, liberal, nasty Washington think tank with deep, incestuous ties to the Obama White House, followed up with a blog post accusing Republicans of revealing the "Location Of Secret CIA Base."

On Friday, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, accused Republicans of mishandling secret information.
Dutch does other tricks too besides speaking when commanded...
Spokespeople for the State Department and White House had no comment. The CIA also had no comment.

Oversight committee spokesman Frederick Hill said committee Democrats made matters worse by asking questions about the satellite photos. "Even after Republicans objected, Democrats continued to ask questions that led State officials to put even more sensitive information about who worked there into the public realm," Hill said.

The dispute over who was responsible for identifying the base is the latest case in which intelligence agencies - particularly the CIA - have been dragged into a political fray over the Benghazi attack. Intelligence officials are not happy at being drawn into the political battle. Paul Pillar, one of the CIA's former most senior analysts, said the agency is sure to be dismayed at how its sensitive work has been dragged into the debate.

"They're trying to do the best they can with fragmentary and incomplete information. No doubt they are very unhappy that this issue is now being exploited for political purposes," Pillar said.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, they're all washed up in Benghazi. No sense looking for representatives of the Great Satin there now, they're kaputt!
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/13/2012 4:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The correct description for this is "disastrous clusterfark".
Posted by: lotp || 10/13/2012 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Political prattle. Anyone with a smidge of experience takes as a matter of course that any diplomatic facility will be an intelligence-gatherer.

It was surmised by the media that Benghazi was an intel facility weeks ago; one does not mention "lists of cooperative Libyans" casually, especially given the media's coziness with this administration.

It was also theorized that a 'capable' foreign intelligence agency coordinated the assault. Given the attacks, that still seems likely.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/13/2012 10:59 Comments || Top||

#4  It was also theorized that a 'capable' foreign intelligence agency coordinated the assault

Any theorizing about a particular 'capable' foreign agency, Pappy?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/13/2012 13:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Gee, Iran? Not Jordan, or Syria, or Egypt (yet), or The Kingdom, so maybe it was the Somali's or the Emirates, yeah, it must have been them. No one else has been at war with us since the mi 80's have they?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 10/13/2012 14:55 Comments || Top||

#6  My list, in general order of probability:

Iran (either Al Quds Force, or with Hesb'allah)

Egypt

Pakistan

One of the Gulf nations

Russia

A criminal enterprise (similar to, or the same one that runs Somalia's piracy industry.)

In all but the last of the above, it portends political complications for the current administration and likely the next one as well.

It's also possible that the attackers may have been remnants of Qafaffi's supporters rather than post-rebel militia elements. That opens up a whole new can of worms, such as the possibility of attempting to topple the interim Libyan government.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/13/2012 15:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Outrage in Pakistan over girl, but change unlikely
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Pakistain has united in revulsion over a Taliban attack on a schoolgirl, but few analysts believe anything will change in a country that has exploited Islamist extremism as an instrument of state policy.

Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai remains in a critical condition in the country's top military hospital three days after she was shot, as politicians, school children, Mohammedans and Christians pray for her recovery.

Pakistain is largely inured to horrific acts of violence. Mosques have been attacked. Ordinary people are slaughtered by jacket wallahs. There are sectarian murders and political killings, and thousands of soldiers have died.

But the plight of an exceptional young girl who won international recognition for campaigning for the right to an education has sickened millions.

Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to whose who advocate appeasement or peace with the Taliban, but analysts say that would require a seismic shift in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades.

Columnist Ayaz Amir called it the "culmination of years of playing with fire and manufacturing demons and Frankensteins (that) we should have had sense enough to understand would come to haunt us and become our worst nightmares".

Some compare the shooting to a video of a 17-year-old girl being flogged, which contributed to unprecedented public support for the military operation that crushed a two-year Taliban insurgency in the Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
valley in 2009.

But few expect a comprehensive operation in North Wazoo, the entrenched bastion of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, which some in Pak officialdom consider an asset for future influence in Afghanistan.

After a commanders' meeting on Thursday, the army said it was ready to render "any sacrifice" in the fight against terrorism and that "operational preparedness" was being evaluated to "take stock of upcoming challenges".

But Saifullah Khan Mehsud, executive director of the FATA Research Center, a think tank focused on the tribal belt, said at most there would be a "token strike" on the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), Pakistain's umbrella bad boy group.

"We don't mind taking a leader or two out of the game," said Mehsud, but he doubted that the army would be willing to take on the TTP in its strongholds in North Waziristan.

Another potential watershed might have been the US killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now beyond all cares and woe...
on the doorstep of the country's military academy in May 2011, yet there has been scant debate on how and why he managed to live in Pakistain for years.

The only person punished in connection with bin Laden was the doctor who helped the CIA track down the Al-Qaeda terror leader, cooled for a few years
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
for 33 years for treason.

The man accused in India of criminal masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
, who has a US bounty of $25,000 on his head, is a free citizen.

Members of banned terror organizations such as sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahabah openly attend public demonstrations, even in the capital.

The English-language newspaper Dawn called on the military to analyse why its efforts against the Taliban had failed and what was needed, and on politicians to not waste the rare national consensus.

But political analyst Hasan Askari noted that the country was polarised.

For all the condemnation of the shooting from holy mans and right-wing groups, they do not denounce the Taliban. Instead, they reserve vitriol for US drone strikes on Pak soil and ask why the government did not protect her.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


KP is for NWA offensive, now
[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government on Thursday called for action against Death Eaters in North Wazoo, saying all other options for eliminating militancy from the tribal agency had failed.

"The time has come that the federal government and security forces should launch a full-scale offensive against warmongers in North Waziristan and other restive parts of Fata to establish lasting peace in the region," provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told a news conference at Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
Press Club here.

Mr Hussain asked how long the people of the province would be rendering sacrifices, receiving 'bodies of sons and daughters' and crying over them.

He cautioned that terrorist groups might be reorganising themselves in the region.

The minister said Death Eaters had carried out attacks in Waziristan and Mohmand agencies and also launched attacks from across the border.

He said his government was ready for talks with turban groups but that should be meaningful.

Mr Hussain said the government had declared Friday as 'Yum-e-Dua' (prayer day) appealing to the people to offer special prayers for the early recovery of Malala Yousafzai, Shazia and another girl, who received injuries in the Tuesday attack on a school van in Mingora.

He said prayers would be offered for the early recovery of Malala and two other schoolgirls in the morning assembly of schools across the province, while one-minute silence would be observed in all government and semi-government offices at 12pm in the day.

He said the auqaf department had been directed to ask khateebs to offer prayers for Malala.

"Malala is our national hero and symbol of peace. We should convert her sprit and blood into a movement to get rid of these barbaric people," he said.

The minister said banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain had grabbed credit for the Malala attack but even then, some politicians and religious leaders didn't condemn their (Taliban) action.

He said these leaders should give up hypocrisy and come forward against those attacking an innocent girl and killing thousands of civilians, soldiers and officers.

"Let us abandon hypocrisy and double standard. The entire nation should openly condemn the TTP act," he said, adding that the people, who claimed that Malala had been used, deserved condemnation.

About the health of Malala, who was shifted to Rawalpindi earlier in the day, the information minister said she was critical and the nation should pray for her early recovery.

When asked why she was shifted to Rawalpindi, he said doctors had advised to do so. He added that security was one of the factors for the girl's shifting to Rawalpindi from Peshawar and the provincial government was taken into confidence.

Mr Hussain expressed gratitude on behalf of the provincial government to all those heads of states and governments, human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
organizations and the civil society across the world for showing solidarity with Malala and her family.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Taliban's Fazlullah threatens to kill Malala's father
[Dawn] A front man for the Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Taliban has threatened to kill 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai's father after a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to assassinate his daughter, said a report by Rooters.

Sirajuddin Ahmad, a front man for "Radio Mullah" Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullahs Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
's Swat Taliban which previously had control over the Swat region, told Rooters that two killers from Fazlullah's special hit squad had been sent to target the young schoolgirl.

The Swat Taliban militia, known to work under the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) umbrella, has a force of around 100 men specialised in assassination, fighters said. They chose two men, aged between 20 to 30, who were locals from Swat Valley, Rooters quoted the fighters as saying.

"We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us)," said front man Sirajuddin Ahmad, now based in Afghanistan's Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
Ahmed said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out.

In another report, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named quoted the front man as saying that the meeting of the Taliban leadership was held two months ago.

AP further quotes Sirajuddin Ahmed as saying that Malala Yousufzai was warned three times to stop her activities promoting "Western thinking," but she did not. The last warning was conveyed a week ago, Ahmed told an AP news hound.

A military offensive had pushed Fazlullah out of Swat in 2009, but his men had melted away across the border to Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, Fazlullah's men kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pak soldiers in one of several cross border raids.

"Before the attack, the two fighters personally collected information about Malala's route to school, timing, the vehicle she used and her security," Rooters quoted Ahmed as saying.

They decided to shoot her near a military checkpoint to make the point they could strike anywhere, he said.

On Tuesday, the two men stopped the bus she was riding home in. They asked for Yousufzai by name. Although the frightened girls said she wasn't there, the men fired at her and also hit two other girls in the van. One of them remains at death's door.

Now that they had failed to kill Yousufzai, they would target her father, Ahmad told Rooters.

Ziauddin Yousufzai, the headmaster of a girls' school, is on their hit list for speaking against them, his activities to promote peace in the region and for encouraging his daughter.

"We have a clear-cut stance. Anyone who takes side with the government against us will have to die at our hands," Ahmad warned. "You will see. Other important people will soon become victims."

Earlier, TTP central front man Ehsanullah Ehsan had already grabbed credit for the liquidation attempt on the young schoolgirl. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
it is unclear why the Swat Taliban front man Sirajuddin Ahmad has come out with this statement after an earlier statement by the TTP central front man.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


"Don't pray behind clerics who do not condemn 'Malala attack'," says Altaf
[Dawn] Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
(MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain appealed to the people of Pakistain belonging to different schools of thoughts to refrain from offering prayers behind the Learned Elders of Islam who do not condemn the attack upon daughter of the nation Malala Yousufzai by the Taliban terrorists.

He advised them to offer prayers in the mosques where the Learned Elders of Islam were condemning the brutal attack, said a statement issued by the MQM here on Friday.

Altaf Hussain also appealed to the Learned Elders of Islam belonging to different schools of thought to denounce the attack on Malala Yousufzai and other girls students in their prayers.

He asked them to offer special prayers for the well-being and health of Malala and other students who were maimed in the attack.

Altaf Hussain praised the Learned Elders of Islam belonging to Muttahida Bainul Mohammedaneen Forum and other Learned Elders of Islam for showing courage in condemning the incident.

He asked them to get united for saving the country.

Earlier today, the MQM chief urged all office bearers, party workers and peace loving citizens of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and the country to submit within a week the details of all muftis and Learned Elders of Islams (holy mans) in their localities, regardless of their sectarian affiliations, with the party's unit and sector offices situated in their respective areas.

Earlier on Thursday, Hussain gave 24 hours ultimatum to all top muftis and Learned Elders of Islam (holy mans) of the country to openly denounce the cowardly attack on young Pak children's rights activist Malala Yousafzai or else he will 'expose' them.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  They learn in the short term, but then in two years, they slink back into psychopathic behavior.
Posted by: newc || 10/13/2012 0:26 Comments || Top||


People are condemning 'Malala attack' because it is pro-US stance, says Fazl
[Dawn] Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
said on Friday that attack on Malala Yousufzai was the result of wrong policies of the government, DawnNews reported.

He said that people were protesting against the attack on Malala just because it was a pro-American stance.

Fazl said that politicians who were urging the condemnation on the attack on a 14-year old girl have disturbed the peace of Bloody Karachi.
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
He repeated the popular slogan "How long will people be slave of the United States?"

Fazlur Rehman said that Ulemas have condemned the attack on Malala but who will condemn the attack on the mosques. He said that the attack was a brutal act but not everyone is condemning it out of sympathy with the girl.

He urged the government to correct its policies and stop suporting the' US stance'.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami

#1  How is an attack on a young girl the United States fault?
Posted by: Fester Clunter7205 || 10/13/2012 9:43 Comments || Top||


Taliban's 'Radio Mullah' sent hit squad after Pakistani schoolgirl
[Times of India] One of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullahs Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, carefully briefed two killers from his special hit squad on their next target.

The gunnies weren't going after any army officer, politician or western diplomat. Their target was a 14-year-old Pak schoolgirl who had angered the Taliban by speaking out for "western-style" girls' education.

Tuesday's shooting of Malala Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the fearless, smiling young girl against one of Pakistain's most ruthless Taliban capos.

Their story began in 2009, when Fazlullah, known as Radio Mullah for his fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
radio broadcasts, took over Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Valley, and ordered the closure of girls' schools, including Yousufzai's.

Outraged, the then-11-year-old kept a blog for the BBC under a pen name and later launched a campaign for girls' education. It won her Pakistain's highest civilian honour and death threats from the Taliban.

Yousufzai was not blind to the dangers. In her hometown of Mingora, Fazlullah's Taliban fighters dumped bodies near where her family lived.

"I heard my father talking about another three bodies lying at Green Chowk," she wrote in her diary, referring to a nearby roundabout.

A military offensive pushed Fazlullah out of Swat in 2009, but his men simply melted away across the border to Afghanistan. Earlier this year, they kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pak soldiers in one of several cross border raids.

Yousufzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her. The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them.

The Taliban say that's why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women.
Which is thus demonstrated to be worth less than the paper it isn't printed on.
"We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us)," said Sirajuddin Ahmad, a front man of Swat Taliban now based in Afghanistan's Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
He said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out.

The militia has a force of around 100 men specialized in assassination, fighters said. They chose two men, aged between 20-30, who were locals from Swat Valley.
Pretty sad, actually, that their very best specialists couldn't manage to kill a -- literally -- sitting target.
The gunnies had proved their worth in previous liquidations, killing an opposition politician and attacking a leading hotelier for "obscenity" in promoting tourism.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
One Year After Shalit Freed, Hamas Minister Urges Palestinians To Kidnap More IDF Soldiers
Attala Abu al-Sabah, himself freed in Shalit deal, calls on West Bank groups to step up abductions
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/13/2012 00:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think that Attala Abu al-Sabah is an IDF target in waiting.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/13/2012 15:28 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Myanmar Buddhist Monks Rally against Global Islamic Body
[An Nahar] Several thousand monks erupted into the streets of Myanmar's second-largest city Friday to protest against a world Islamic body's efforts to help Moslem Rohingya in strife-hit Rakhine state, organizers said.

Holding banners reading "No OIC in Myanmar", the monks gathered in Mandalay to urge the government to block a plan by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference
OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain...
to open an office in the country.

"We cannot accept the OIC here. We will continue our protest until they give up," one of the demo leaders, Thaw Bi Ta, told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.

"The OIC is not working for human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
but for Moslem rights. We have our suspicions about them. They never reject Moslem Death Eaters," he said.

"We want peace between all ethnicities and religions. We have no problem with Moslems in the country."

Sectarian tensions are running high following Buddhist-Rohingya festivities in June in western Rakhine which left dozens of people dead and forced tens of thousands more to seek refuge in temporary shelters.
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lavrov Says Syria Plane Carried Legal Radar Equipment
[An Nahar] The Syrian plane intercepted by Turkey this week on a flight from Moscow was carrying a legal cargo of radar equipment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

"This cargo is electrical technical equipment for radar stations, this is dual-purpose equipment but is not forbidden by any international conventions," Lavrov said in the Russian government's first public remarks about the nature of the cargo.

"The plane contained cargo that a legal Russian supplier delivered legally to a legal client," Lavrov said in televised remarks, speaking after a meeting of the Russian security council chaired by President Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
.

"There were no weapons on board of this plane, nor could there have been."
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  this is dual-purpose equipment but is not forbidden by any international conventions

Yeah, it's not just for mil use. A lot of you probably have a Bose Air Search Radar in your home.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/13/2012 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't, but my neighbor does, I fight back with my Amana SkyJam.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/13/2012 5:52 Comments || Top||


Suleiman Calls on Syrian Army to Stop Shelling Lebanon
[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
stressed on Friday the need for devising a defense strategy that meets the demands of the army and its duties to defend the country and national interests, reported the National News Agency.

He said: "Sending a drone over enemy territories demonstrates the need for a defense strategy that can organize the capabilities of the resistance in defending Leb."

He made his remarks in light of Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
's acknowledgment on Thursday that his party sent a sophisticated unmanned drone over Israel last week, saying the device was built by the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran.

His acknowledgment came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed at Hizbullah and vowed to defend his country against further "threats."
Posted by: Fred || 10/13/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
4Arab Spring
4Govt of Pakistan
4Govt of Syria
3TTP
1al-Qaeda
1Fatah al-Islam
1Ansar Dine
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-10-13
  96 Dead, Including 41 Troops
Fri 2012-10-12
  US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Thu 2012-10-11
  US embassy security chief gunned down in Yemen
Wed 2012-10-10
  Turkey Intercepts Syrian Civilian Plane
Tue 2012-10-09
  Taliban bravely shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace
Mon 2012-10-08
  Syria Rebels Advance in North, Pushed Back in South
Sun 2012-10-07
  1 dead, 10 arrested in anti-terror sweep in France
Sat 2012-10-06
  US suspected drone kills five persons in Shabwa
Fri 2012-10-05
  18 Republican Guards killed in Damascus province
Thu 2012-10-04
  Violence and Protest in Iran as Currency Drops in Value
Wed 2012-10-03
  Syria shells kill five inside Turkey
Tue 2012-10-02
  More Than 130 Dead in Syria amid Clashes in Aleppo Souk
Mon 2012-10-01
  Children killed in Kenya church attack
Sun 2012-09-30
  Thousands rally in Karachi against anti-Islam film
Sat 2012-09-29
  Kenyan Army Claims Fall of Kismayo

Better than the average link...



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.
3.235.120.24
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (20)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (5)    (0)    Politix (7)