I don't why Dawn illustrated this article with a picture of a South Sudan passport and money, because it's about people leaving the failing state of Sudan.
[MAGHAREBIA] Algerian politicians on Monday (March 4th) responded to the inauguration of the headquarters of the Central Office to Combat Corruption (OCRC).
Finance Minister Karim Djoudi at Sunday's opening expressed the state's commitment to "stop at nothing to fight corruption or any other type of economic crime".
The office's headquarters came at a time where the Algerian press has exposed several financial scandals, the most significant case being state energy giant Sonatrach.
OCRC President Abdelmalik Sayeh said that his organization was there "to rectify the issue".
"Since big corruption cases are a proven nuisance to the national economy, they will be a priority for the office," Sayeh said in a blurb.
OCRC is an operational tool to combat the embezzlement of public funds. It was set up in 2011 as a central criminal investigation department responsible for searching and reporting offenses to their relevant jurisdictions.
The office "addresses cases passed down by official authorities, in addition to denunciation letters from the people", Sayeh said.
The office can refer the case to itself "when cases are exposed by the press and have become international matters", he added.
National Council President Abdelkader Bensalah emphasised the need "to get to the bottom of corruption".
"It tarnishes the image of Algeria and overlooks the country's massive accomplishments in multiple areas," he added.
Workers' Party (PT) leader Louisa Hanoune on Saturday pointed out the need to take firm and "coercive measures against the individuals implicated in corruption and the need to initiate an urgent political reform to shed the light on the handling of public funds".
"It was inconceivable to overlook information that addressed scandals and embezzlement of public funds," National Republican Alliance head Belkacem Sahli said on Saturday calling on public authorities to "be present in these matters in order to face corruption".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Al-Qaeda's latest marketing ploy targets Maghreb youth. After suffering setbacks in other countries, the terror organization is using Mali and Syria to boost its ranks.
From recruiting points in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, young people are being trained in northern Mali, armed in Libya and dispatched to Syria to join a raging war against al-Assad's regime.
But for many Syrians, these foreigners are fighting a war not to liberate them, but to impose an agenda alien to their own democratic aspirations.
The new foot soldiers from the Maghreb have gathered behind al-Qaeda propaganda campaign aimed at transforming the Republic of Syria into another Iraq and turning the Republic of Mali into a new Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda started looking at Syria as a substitute to establish an Islamic emirate in the heart of the Middle East. Through local affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra li ahl al-Sham (JAN), al-Qaeda was able to exploit international sympathy for the Syrian people to recruit new fighters.
But as former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) leader Noman Benotman, points out, the vast majority of faceless myrmidons in Syria "do not view the conflict from an ideological perspective; they are only fighting to get rid of the al-Assad regime".
"Look at what they did in Yemen: they came in under the name of Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... . Look at what happened in Mali, where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb exists but behind a different facade and through other alliances," Benotman says.
"Al-Qaeda applied the same logic in Syria with Jabhat al-Nusra. It wants to use the current conflict as an incubation stage where it can work on building an organization," Benotman adds.
According to Abdullah al-Rami, a Moroccan researcher who specialises in Islamic groups, satellite channels helped speed the mobilisation by devoting extensive airtime to the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. "In the spirit of general solidarity with the Syrian people, an appropriate environment was created to recruit fighters, whether they were civilians or jihadists," he said.
After hearing the call for foreign jihad from the mosque, TV or the internet, "young people from different Maghreb countries are fighting alongside these organised groups in Syria", confirmed Lies Boukraa, who heads the Algiers-based African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism (CAERT).
And they are dying there.
Good. Clean that strain out of the gene pool.
As many as 132 Tunisian nationals were killed around Aleppo on February 14th. According to Express FM, most of those who died in the northern Syria city were from Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution.
Even young Maghreb women are being drawn into the conflict in the wake of the recent fatwa from a Wahhabi holy man. Saudi Sheikh Mohamed al-Arifi allegedly said it was permissible for Islamist fighters marry for a few hours with girls as young as 14. While al-Arifi has denied being behind the fatwa, it has still been used to take advantage of young women.
But these young Maghreb fighters in Syria and their temporary brides, who thought they were helping liberate the Syrian people from an oppressive regime, may be in for a rude awakening. They are allying themselves with what many Syrians see as unwelcome interlopers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
After hearing the call for foreign jihad from the mosque, TV or the internet
What other religions holy men calls for war abroad?Cant see the Pope asking Catholics to fight abroad in modern times!
The main enemy in the WOT is Islam,Koran and their so called Holy leadership.
[Al Ahram] Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya on Friday announced plans to establish "security militias" to protect the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut if Egyptian police -- large numbers of whom have gone on strike -- failed to return to work.
"Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya in Assiut will take over responsibility for the security of the city after hundreds of coppers went on strike and closed the cop shoppes," the group said in a Friday statement.
The announcement was made at the group's headquarters in Assiut.
Police personnel began a strike on Friday in the city's five cop shoppes to demand the resignation of Egypt's interior minister.
Assem Abdel-Maged, a senior member of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, said the ultra-conservative Islamist group would not allow the city to remain in a security vacuum.
Abdel-Maged added that the group had begun setting up "security militias" tasked with securing public and private property in the city, especially banks.
He added that Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya would secure all areas that had been abandoned by police. He also said that the group might coordinate its movements with Egypt's interior ministry.
"Any policeman who wants to leave his position can do so. But he will not be allowed to come back," Abdel-Maged said. "We want to purge the ministry of such elements anyway."
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... a senior member of Assiut's security directorate told Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website that the government would "not allow anyone but police" to keep the peace in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] As part of its campaign to stop the war crimes trial, Jamaat-Shibir online activists continue to spread propaganda against the government and the war crimes tribunals through social media.
They are running the campaign via their Facebook pages like Basher Kella, Basher Kella Jeddah and Basher Kella Dubai, to name a few.
Most of the comments on these pages stoke religious sentiments of the people.
The Islamist party activists had long been running such a campaign through Basher Kella. The authorities had blocked the page on Wednesday afternoon, but the Jamaat-Shibir activists immediately opened another page in the same name.
On the page, they are running a signature campaign for two petitions they filed on the White House website, seeking "urgent support" of the US president against the two war crimes tribunals.
Of the two petitions, one says: "Express concern against the International War Crime Tribunal and Mob Justice in Bangladesh." As of 10:00pm yesterday, it had 58,000 signatures on it.
If the petition can collect 100,000 signatures by March 18, US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... is likely to deliver a speech on the issue as per the norms, according to the Facebook post.
The petition describes the International War Crimes Tribunal as "biased" and says the tribunal is being used to "silence the opposition parties".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
In Allah Barry they trust?
How pathetic.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/09/2013 9:35 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Some of the world's most notorious strongmen wept openly Friday at the lavish state funeral of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leftist whose revolution won him friends and foes at home and abroad.
Venezuelan conductor and Los Angeles Philharmonic maestro Gustavo Dudamel led an orchestra's rendition of the national anthem to open the ceremony as Chavez lay in state in a flag-covered coffin after a 14-year reign.
Chavez's political heir, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, placed a replica of the golden sword of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar on his mentor's wooden casket as more than 30 heads of state applauded.
Presidents Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad of Iran and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus sat next to each other, wiping away tears as a band played one of Chavez's favorite sentimental songs, typical from his native land.
Several Latin American leaders, including Cuban President Compañero Raul Castro ...Fidel's little brother... , were invited to stand around the coffin, which was closed and covered in the yellow, blue and red colors of Venezuela, in an honor guard.
As well as alliances with a motley crew of anti-Western autocrats, Chavez had also built friendships with some Hollywood stars, including Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, who attended the funeral.
Chavez's body will lie in state for seven more days and officials said his body will be embalmed and preserved "like Lenin" to rest in a glass casket in the military barracks where he plotted a failed coup in 1992.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Hope they remembered to take tissue samples. Gotta have the good DNA for when the future arrives. It'll be grand, little Hugo's everywhere.
North Korea on Wednesday planted a bomb among some defense pundits by threatening to use "precision nuclear strikes" that can turn Seoul and Washington into a "sea of fire."
I think the main writer is back on the job...
While most experts dismissed the threat as the usual North Korean grandstanding, a handful are taking it more seriously, speculating that perhaps North Koreas weapons technology is vastly more advanced than the evidence suggests.
One member of a state-run research institute pointed out that North Korea in principle has the technology to hit the U.S. mainland with an intercontinental ballistic missile. "Through the successful rocket launch in December, North Korea is believed to have developed an ICBM with a maximum range of more than 10,000 km," he said.
The expert, who asked to remain anonymous, speculated this could be used to deliver a so-called electromagnetic pulse bomb.
One way of delivering a destructive electromagnetic pulse could be to detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude in an effort to incapacitate all electric systems and electronic devices.
An official with the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses here told a National Assembly hearing in 2009, "North Korea is capable of using a small nuclear warhead in the form of an EMP bomb." The official added, "If a 20 kt nuclear weapon explodes 40 to 60 km above the East Sea, all weapons equipped with electronic equipment on the Korean Peninsula could become incapacitated."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Anybody here read 'One Second After'?
I doubt they'd bother with a missile from North Korea. Either deliver it via a container ship or a fishing vessel, or launch the missile from a freighter in the Gulf and pop it over the central US.
By the time our Nobel Peace Prize winner figured out who did what, he'd probably ask for more sanctions...
#2
Easy enough to barge the launch platform through Panama as drilling equipment and deliver the detectable warhead via submarine for assembly. No reason for a ICBM-type launch other than use the buildup as a diversion.
#7
Well, at least in Western legal precedent, the owner of the pitbull can be held liable for the actions of its pet. That's one way to nullify any Treasury holdings, but I suspect they've been offload the paper for a couple years now.
#8
If such were to happen, Holder and the Nobel winner would conclude that no military response is necessary since it was a property crime.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
03/09/2013 9:42 Comments ||
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#9
Administration blames fracking and escaping natural gas for huge blast and flaming sinkhole that swallowed Potomac Mills Mall and surrounding communities.
#10
I agree with Orion on this. I've always wondered how realistic the chances are to clandestinely load it on an airliner from the Mid-East or S. America and detonate it at altitude over CONUS. EMP is a helluva drug.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/09/2013 10:40 Comments ||
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#11
Orion: interesting book, poorly written.
But yes, you don't need an ICBM if you want to do an EMP, a DC9 will do nicely. Won't get as much coverage, etc., but you'd get enough to cause serious problems.
And our attention.
Though maybe not Champ's.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2013 11:14 Comments ||
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#12
And they DO have orbit capability.
Who's last heard of their tumbler?
#13
Now why would he target Washington, when perfectly good targets are all along the West-Coast? I'd think Los Angeles getting nuked would have more of a effect than Washington.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/09/2013 17:04 Comments ||
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#14
An official with the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses here told a National Assembly hearing in 2009, "North Korea is capable of using a small nuclear warhead in the form of an EMP bomb." The official added, "If a 20 kt nuclear weapon explodes 40 to 60 km above the East Sea, all weapons equipped with electronic equipment on the Korean Peninsula could become incapacitated."
No. Next question.
All kidding aside - EMP is a very real threat, but the Norks popping one off a few miles up and sending us all back to the 19th century is not going to happen. They would need - at the very least - several MUCH larger bombs, big USSR scale ICBMs, and an accuracy and C3 capability they simply have not shown.
And using 'precision nuclear strikes'? Please. It's literally a case of someone parroting something they've heard. Right now, 'precision' for the Norks means hitting the Korean Peninsula and maybe Japan.
Mike
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/09/2013 17:22 Comments ||
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[FRANCE24] A French mother on Wednesday defended herself for dressing her three-year-old son in a T-shirt reading "I am a bomb" and "Born on September 11."
Bouchra Bagour, 35, is on trial in Avignon in southern La Belle France on charges of "glorifying crime" after sending her boy, called Jihad, to school wearing the top.
A ruling in the case is expected on April 10.
On Wednesday, Bagour told the court she admitted the move was "tactless" but insisted it was not meant as a provocation.
She said she simply wanted to highlight her son's September 11 birthday and did not intend to refer to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Her brother Zeyad Bagour, who gave the T-shirt to the boy, is a co-defendant in the case.
"We were never trying to claim responsibility for [the 9/11 attacks] or defend a cause," he told the court on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said there was no doubt about the meaning of the T-shirt.
"Who can claim that this is not a direct and scandalous reference to terrorism?" prosecutor Olivier Couvignon told the court.
Now stop, sir, you're making sense...
The two face up to five years in prison and fines of up to 45,000 euros each.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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When Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper warned in September 2011 that "Islamist terrorism" is the greatest threat facing Canada, it made headlines across the country.
Apparently Canadians weren't the only ones who took notice - newly released documents show the comments also sparked international anger. In fact, the reaction was so strong Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird had to back-pedal during a meeting with one of the Muslim world's most important leaders last year.
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said the incident should be a warning to the Conservatives to be more careful with their words in the future. He said, "It's about responsible diplomacy. Particularly when we're trying to work with moderates in North Africa and the Middle East. When you're making these comments, you're speaking to the whole world, including people you're trying to work with."
Harper's comments were made on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in which he said the "major threat" to Canada is "Islamicism." He said, "When people think of Islamic terrorism, they think of Afghanistan and maybe of some place in the Middle East. But the truth is, that threat exists all over the world."
The remarks prompted immediate condemnation from analysts and Muslim groups in Canada, who accused Harper's Conservatives of bigotry and vilifying Islam and all those who practice the religion. These sentiments were apparently shared by Muslim countries as well.
In February 2012, Baird visited Tunisia to attend an international conference on Syria. One of his meetings on the sidelines of that summit was with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Co-operation.
Notes prepared for the meeting warned Baird that Ihsanoglu would likely bring up the prime minister's remarks, which "were misconstrued in the region (the Middle East and North Africa)."
If the remarks did come up, Baird was advised to say, "By Islamist extremists, we mean those who distort the name of a religion to advance their political objectives through violence."
#3
No worries. PM Harper is carrying the ball very well. Usually it's Baird who's the bad cop and PMSH who is the good cop but in this case the roles were reversed..
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/09/2013 16:04 Comments ||
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#5
Harper is the ONLY responsible and honorable leader in the so-called westeern world for the last few years. No doubt he will be punished for his candor.
Posted by: Jonathan R. ||
03/09/2013 19:33 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Expressing extreme displeasure on the role coppers have so far played in maintaining law and order in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... Friday ordered immediate action against snuffies in the aftermath of devastating Abbas Town blasts, DawnNews reported.
Chairing a high level security meeting at the Chief Minister House, the president expressed outrage to top level police officials and asked them to resign and go "home" if they were unable to maintain peace in the metropolis.
More than 50 people, many women and kiddies among them, had been killed and over 200 injured in a massive bombing in the city's Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Abbas Town on Sunday evening.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
This report is pretty well put together. But - it operates from the assumption that civil wars are always bad, and should be avoided at all costs. It seems to me that civil wars are sometimes necessary, when one political or sectarian group seeks to establish permanent hegemony over all others. In such cases, it is up to outsiders - such as the USA - to decide with which side of the dispute our best interests lie, and then help that side to prevail. This documentary outlines how we did that - and it appears that we picked the less evil of the two sides, and our side won. Fait accompli.
The choice is between perpetual bloody insurgency, or short and brutal civil war.
The entire report brings to mind this excerpt from Quoteinestigator.com:
In 1981 Richard Grenier published a review of the film Breaker Morant titled The Uniforms That Guard Us in Commentary magazine. The article discussed Orwell and Kipling, and it included two of the quotations listed above. Grenier also used the phrase rough men when describing an attitude advanced by the movie [RGBM]:
It burns with a white rage against societies as a whole, from military leaders and chiefs of state to (more common in our time) comfortable civilians in easy chairs, who send rough men out to serve their interests brutally, murderously (what is war?), and thenwhen circumstances change and in the exquisite safety and fastidiousness of their living rooms they suddenly find these rough mens actions repugnantdisown them.
Finally, the makers of this little film didn't bother to mention that US Army COL James Coffman was awarded the United States Distinguished Service Cross for displaying exceptional valor while fighting in open combat alongside the Police Commandos: http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Defensewatch_082905_DSC,00.html
Iraqi Agriculture Minister Ezzedine al-Dawleh resigned on Friday after a protester was killed in the north, the second minister from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc to quit this month. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is at loggerheads with Iraqiya, which is a part of his national unity government, over its accusations against him of authoritarianism and sectarianism.
I stand in front of my people... in Nineveh and I announce that I resign from this government, because there is no way I can continue in a government that does not respond to the demands of the people, Dawleh told a televised news conference alongside parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi.
Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak told AFP that Dawleh, who was born in Nineveh province, had been considering the move for some time, but that a deadly shooting by security forces at a protest in northern Iraq brought the issue to head.
A high-ranking official in the Nineveh governors office said one protester was killed and five wounded on Friday, and that an investigation was underway.
Meanwhile, activists said at least one demonstrator was killed when security forces fired on an anti-government protest in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh. A police officer said protesters began throwing stones at security forces after Sheikh Hussein al-Obaid al-Juburi, a supporter of the demonstrations, was arrested at the square on terrorism charges.
A policeman fired in the air in an effort to disperse them, and when they continued throwing stones, other police opened fire, the officer said.
Weapons should not be used against the protesters, and this is a clear crime, Nujaifi, also from Iraqiya, told the news conference.
Stones should not be used against police officers, and that is a clear crime -- as well as incredibly stoopid...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone stoning police should be aware that they shoot to kill stoning people, and I say "Good for them, shoot accurately, don't miss".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/09/2013 17:57 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON US President Barack Obama is playing down expectations for a Mideast peace breakthrough during his upcoming trip to Israel, telling American Jewish leaders that he wont be carrying a grand peace plan when he arrives in the region later this month.
Obama, in an hour-long private meeting at the White House on Thursday, acknowledged that near-term prospects for peace are bleak, according to a person who attended the discussion. But the president said a deal with the Palestinians remains the only way for Israel to achieve long-term security.
Israels political climate makes the prospects for jump-starting peace talks all the more unlikely during Obamas trip. Elections in January weakened Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who since then has struggled to form a coalition government.
In addition to his meetings with Netanyahu, Obama will hold talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He told the Jewish leaders on Thursday that he would emphasize to Abbas that peace remains possible, though very difficult given the current climate in the region.
In his meeting on Thursday, Obama said pursuing sweeping peace talks now would be premature, given that Israel is still working to form a new government. But he added that doesnt preclude him from launching a peace effort in six months or a year, according to the person in attendance, who was not authorised to discuss the gathering publicly and requested anonymity.
The White House has not announced the dates for the presidents trip, although Israeli news media have reported he will arrive on March 20. Obama will also make stops in the West Bank town of Ramallah, and Jordan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Thank G*d for small favors.
p.s. Of course, Obama is not exactly known for truthfulness.
#7
No grand plan doesn't mean he won't try bullying the head of the juices to give up land to show good faith and get negotiations going again.
And for goodness sake, Bibi, make sure your people don't announce approving any building permits within a week of either side of the man's visit, or we'll never here the end of it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/09/2013 15:58 Comments ||
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#10
Have a dinner in Sedrot in his honor.
When he starts speaking stage one of those 'color red'alerts (where people have to seek bomb shelters due to incoming rockets). Might not even have to stage it with the Palieo's being what they are. Televise the whole thing.
Better bring an extra change of clothers for Bumbles - he'll probably soil the ones he's wearing.
[An Nahar] The judicial council interrogated on Friday a third batch of Islamists over their links to the 2007 Nahr al-Bared festivities.
It interrogated 21 detainees ahead of their trial.
The last round of interrogations took place on Tuesday, bringing the total of Islamists who have been questioned to 84.
The festivities at the Paleostinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Leb erupted in May 2007 and ended in September of that year with the army defeating Fatah al-Islam A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Lebanon pot stirred. faceless myrmidons who had taken up base at the camp.
Over 400 people, including 168 soldiers, were killed in the battles.
The tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! Islamists have been incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! at Roumieh prison, Leb's largest jail.
The prison has witnessed riots and failed and successful jail breaks over the years, with inmates protesting the poor conditions and the delay in their trials.
In June 2012, nine Islamists, linked to the 2007 festivities, were released from Roumieh prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Salafist holy man Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal denied on Friday that he threatened to issue a fatwa that calls for Jihad, stressing that the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... are not a source of concern.
"I didn't use the expression, I only said (I will issue) a fatwa, in my attempt to criticize those who are targeting us and the Sunni sect. I didn't specify the nature of the fatwa," al-Shahhal said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.
The holy man refused to reveal the nature of the fatwa, saying "if I had to I will issue the fatwa later on in a statement... But it will be more dangerous than the call for jihad."
Al-Shahhal slammed the factions targeting the Salafists in the country.
"We never harmed anyone, they have sieged us and shut down our institutions to prevent us from working... Those who are responsible for the damage done must be held accountable and not us," he pointed out.
He told the newspaper that the Lebanese have no reason to fear the Salafists, saying: "Those claims are baseless... We are confronting a dangerous plot run by Iran."
Al-Shahhal called on the army on Saturday to "correct its performance" a day after the closure of several roads in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... to protest a dispute that erupted between army troops and his bodyguards in the eastern Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar.
Asked about the endeavors of the controversial Salafist Imam of Bilal bin Rabah mosque in the southern city of Sidon, Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, al-Shahhal noted that they have the same demands.
"Although we don't agree on the details of his actions... He is allowed to use his constitutional rights," al-Shahhal said.
Al-Asir and his supporters held several sit-ins over the weekend to protest claims that Hizbullah rented apartments in the vicinity of his mosque in the town of Abra near the southern city of Sidon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON Increased use of English in videos by extremists and a rising flow of recruits from Europe to fight in Syria and on other battlegrounds is disturbing US officials who fear some could return to Europe or come to the United States to plot attacks.
Only last week, a man who spoke English and Arabic and called himself Abu Ahmed Al Amriki (Arabic for the American) starred in a new video message posted on websites and produced by Al Shabaab, the militant group based in Somalia. Abu Ahmed, whose face was blurred and whose real identity is not known, called on Muslims to give up their comfortable lives in the West and head for the front lines, in places like Somalia, Mali and Afghanistan, to wage holy war, according to an account by the Long War Journal, a counterterrorism blog published by the conservative Foundation for the Defence of Democracies.
Although the fears of the West have sometimes proven overblown, this video and others highlight what senior US and European security officials say is a fresh increase in English-speaking recruits, including dozens of British citizens, travelling abroad to fight most notably to Syria.
The United States and Europe want to see Assad defeated themselves. The concern, officials said, is that many English-speaking recruits are joining the most militant, anti-Western Syrian rebel factions.
Earlier in February, a person describing himself as an American mujahid, posted the second of two video messages touting his involvement with rebels fighting the government of Syria, according to Flashpoint Global Partners, a New York-based consulting group which monitors militant websites.
Bashar Assad, your days are numbered, the fighter, who spoke in English with an American accent, declared, referring to Syrias beleaguered president. You should just quit now, while you can, and leave. You are going to die, no matter what. Where you go we will find you and kill you.
Simultaneously, US officials said, English-language literature has blossomed online exhorting aspiring militants to violence wherever they are and providing them step-by-step instructions on how to use household materials to cause death and destruction.
Weve been monitoring (these developments) and yes, its concerning, said Paul Browne, Deputy Commissioner and spokesman of the New York Police Department, which since the September 11, 2001, attacks has built aggressive counterterrorism operations.
The two videos authenticity could not be independently confirmed. While some deadly attacks including the July 2005 London bombings have been executed by European citizens trained overseas, other feared threats have often failed to materialise.
In recent days, Al Qaedas Yemen-based affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has issued two slick English-language magazines for the would-be weekend holy warrior.
The tenth issue of Inspire, AQAPs irregular but well-produced Internet magazine, contains what amounts to a list of westerners the group has targeted for death. They include novelist Salman Rushdie, anti-Islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders, and Terry Jones, the Quran-burning Florida preacher.
The second new publication, published by Inspire with equally slick production values, calls itself the Lone Mujahid Pocketbook. The guidebook, originally spotted by the Flashpoint monitoring group, asks readers: Have u been lookin 4 a way to join the mujahideen in frontlines? Well, theres no need to travel abroad, coz the frontline has come to you... Just read n apply the contents of this guide.
It goes on to offer how-to guides, complete with pictures and maps, for causing traffic accidents, staging lethal ambushes, destroying buildings by creating gas leaks and igniting them, and even starting forest fires.
Browne said the NYPD is also tracking the actual and threatened violence accompanying demands by militants for the release from a US prison of Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted for his role in New York-related plots in the early 1990s.
The latest Inspire issue contains a purported message from Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, complaining about insulting and isolating prison treatment.
The Internet messages targeted at potential English-speaking militants surfaced as European intelligence sources say they are monitoring steady traffic of young British citizens and residents to Syria to fight Assads government.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said dozens of fighters and possibly as many as 60 or 70 from Britain are believed to be in Syria.
It is unclear whether all are extremists. But many, the intelligence sources said, have joined up with Al Nusra, a militant anti-Assad faction that the US government declared a terrorist organisation linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2013 00:00 ||
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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.
[MAGHAREBIA] Algerian politicians on Monday (March 4th) responded to the inauguration of the headquarters of the Central Office to Combat Corruption (OCRC).
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[Al Ahram] Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya on Friday announced plans to establish "security militias" to protect the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut if Egyptian police -- large numbers of whom have gone on strike -- failed to return to work.
[An Nahar] Some of the world's most notorious strongmen wept openly Friday at the lavish state funeral of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leftist whose revolution won him friends and foes at home and abroad.
Mahmoud 
[FRANCE24] A French mother on Wednesday defended herself for dressing her three-year-old son in a T-shirt reading "I am a bomb" and "Born on September 11."
When Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper warned in September 2011 that "Islamist terrorism" is the greatest threat facing Canada, it made headlines across the country.
President Asif Ali 
[An Nahar] The judicial council interrogated on Friday a third batch of Islamists over their links to the 2007 Nahr al-Bared 
