[Ynet] Egypt's military-backed interim president said Thursday that the country's uprisings have put an end to the police state, part of a campaign to rebrand the security forces that have a long and notorious legacy, amid a heavy-handed crackdown on Islamists and other critics of the government.
Adly Mansour's comments marking Police Day celebrations came despite continued reports of rampant abuses by security forces before and after the military's July 3 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... .
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#2
Police Day celebrations? Nothing police-statey about that!
As for 'heavy-handed crackdown', it's going to take some work to discourage the Islamists. They are not going to slink off quietly (see Third blast heard in Cairo area thread, for example)
[An Nahar] Egypt's prime minister said Thursday the spirit of the Arab Spring was still alive in his country and that the army chief likely to run for the presidency was no dictator, but more a De Gaulle figure.
"This was a great revolution," Hazem al-Beblawi said at a Davos World Economic Forum seminar.
Egypt has been caught up in a high-stakes political crisis ever since a coup last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted the Moslem Brüderbund from power, with much of their leadership now behind bars.
Beblawi strongly rejected a suggestion that Sisi was merely a new Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , the strongman who ruled Egypt for 30 years.
"The difference is great," the prime minister said. "Before Mubarak ran for the presidency, no one knew him."
"Sisi is under popular pressure to run. This is like De Gaulle, like Eisenhower," he said, referring to the French and U.S. war heroes who later took political office.
In Egypt, Sisi is viewed as a savior by the millions who erupted into the streets against the Moslem Brüderbund, but the followers of the Islamists revile him for what they say was a "coup" against Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... .
Morsi supporters have staged regular protests demanding his reinstatement despite a brutal government crackdown that has left more than 1,000 people killed since his ouster in July.
Sisi meanwhile has said he would run for the presidency if there was a popular demand.
"Those that are pushing Sisi to run are not the military camps, they are people in the streets, women in the first place," Beblawi said.
"Don't forget he is a handsome man," he added.
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#2
He must be 7 ft and 7 ft to even come close to De Gaulle.
Aside: I had a a history professor who was awarded one of the Croix de Boome things they do in France. He was astounded at the size and the absolute presence of the man. Said he would have left the Air Force for the Infantry for him. (srsly he said that). You can't beat that in a General. France has always produced their share, maybe a mite more.
#3
"Merely a new Hosni Mubarak" > *** cough *** cough *** cough ** ... I could say a few thingys but then unfortunately I'll have to kill everybody afterward.
* MEMRI.ORG > FORMER EGYPTIAN MP MUSTAFA BAKRI THREATRENS TO MASSACRE AMERICANS IN EGYPT IFF AL-SISI IS ASSASSINATED. WE HAVE 90.0MILYUHN TIKING TIME BOMBS IN EGYPT, IFF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO GENERAL AL-SISI, NO AMERICANS WILL BE LEFT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH - NOT IN EGYPT NOR ANYWHERE ELSE.
IOW, it will be a world-wide genocide of Americans = Amerikans, not just local massacre.
[An Nahar] A tug of war between Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan ... served as a diplomat for Libya during the 1970s, serving in India under Ambassador Mohammed Magariaf. Both men defected in 1980 and went on to form the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. Zeidan spent nearly three decades in exile in Geneva after the defection. During the revolution Zeidan served as the National Transitional Council's Europe envoy, and is credited as having played a key role in persuading French President Nicolas Sarkozy to support the anti-Qadaffy forces... and Islamist ministers threatens to further paralyze a government already weakened by growing unrest in the North African country.
The latest row erupted when the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), political arm of the Libyan branch of the Moslem Brüderbund, withdrew its five ministers from Zeidan's 32-member government.
Their resignation on Tuesday in protest at persistent lawlessness in Libya since its 2011 uprising came after three weeks of wrangling over an Islamist-inspired censure motion against the premier.
But Zeidan, an independent who himself was the victim of a bungled abduction last year by ex-rebels who toppled the regime of now slain dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... , vowed to stay at his post.
The Islamists effectively failed to clinch the required 120 votes in the 194-member General National Congress (GNC) -- Libya's top political authority -- to pass the motion against Zeidan.
Ninety-nine politicians signed the motion against Zeidan, an independent who still has the backing of 94 GNC members, mostly from the liberal Alliance of National Forces.
But analysts say the vote has weakened the government and will further undermine Zeidan's powers in the future.
"Ali Zeidan... will not be able to get the backing of the National Congress for his decisions because the majority of its members are against him," said political sciences professor Khulud al-Aguili.
The dispute pitting Islamists against liberals threatens "to push the country even more into a dark tunnel," added political analyst Khaled Tajuri.
Zeidan will be put to the test in coming days when he is due to present the 2014 budget to the GNC, with analysts saying politicians could throw it out.
The prime minister is also expected to face growing hostility when he tackles a government reshuffle to replace the five Islamists who quit the lineup and other ministers.
'Revenge' or 'political diversion'?
Zeidan had promised repeatedly last summer to undertake a major government reshuffle, after the resignation of his interior minister and to replace the foreign minister who has said he wants to quit.
Now he must also fill the portfolios vacated by the Islamists -- oil, electricity, housing, economy and sport.
The Islamists are waiting for their "Dire Revenge™" and to derail his efforts when he presents the GNC with a new cabinet lineup, said Aguili.
Analyst Abdelaziz al-Sukni and former government official Mahmoud Shammam dismissed the wrangling between Zeidan and the GNC as "political diversion" aimed at bolstering the GNC's grip over Libya.
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[An Nahar] Dozens rallied in the Yemeni capital on Thursday demanding the government resign after a law professor representing Shiite Houthis at reconciliation talks was rubbed out this week.
"The people want to overthrow the government," chanted the protesters, who gathered in response to calls by the Houthis, known as Ansarullah (Partisans of God). "Government of corruption, leave the country."
On Tuesday, gunnies in Sanaa rubbed out Ahmed Sharafeddin as he drove from his house in the capital Sanaa to the hotel where the final working session of the talks was being held.
He was the second Huthi representative to the talks to be killed, with MP Abdulkarim Jadban rubbed out in a similar attack in November.
Protesters took off from the Saba roundabout in central Sanaa where Sharafeddin was killed and marched towards the government headquarters carrying portraits of the slain envoy.
In a statement, they described Sharafeddin's killing as "shameful" and accused the government of "plotting, collaborating with, and protecting criminals."
"We demand the overthrow of the so-called consensus government, which has failed to provide us with security, stability, and protection," said the statement read by one of the protesters.
The killing of the Ansarullah representative came as fighting between Huthis and powerful tribes resumed in the northern Amran province after a series of ceasefires brokered by the government.
A day of festivities left 20 people dead there on Tuesday.
Analysts have said the Huthis are trying to seize more territory in the north in anticipation of the conclusion of a national dialogue that could turn Yemen into a federation of regions.
The latest round of fighting erupted on January 5 when Huthis tried to seize strongholds of the powerful Hashid tribe in the north.
The Huthis launched the attacks against Hashid rustics in retaliation for the tribe's support for hardline Sunni Islamist groups fighting the Huthis in Dammaj.
Despite the fighting, national talks aimed at drafting a new constitution are to be concluded in a ceremony on Saturday in Sanaa.
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who arrived at Tuesday's session after hearing of Sharafeddin's killing, told delegates in an impassioned speech that "the dialogue will continue, and evil forces will fail."
Some Huthi members walked out after receiving news of the killing, as the powerful Sunni Islamist Al-Islah (reform) party urged a probe.
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[Dhaka Tribune] The judicial commission formed to probe the 2001 post-poll violence on minorities and Awami League men found involvement of several leaders of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... in the incidents.
A bigwig at the home ministry said nothing had so far been done following submission of the report by the judicial commission.
If the recommendations of the report were implemented properly recurrence of such attacks on minority people just after an election might scale down, the official said.
As a result, after the election on January 5 the minority people came under attacks in various districts including Jessore, Dinajpur and Gaibandha, the official added.
Following the 2001 post-poll violence, a three-member judicial commission comprising M Shahabuddin (president), former deputy secretary of home ministry Monowar Hossain Akhand and former additional DIG Mir Shahidul Islam (now DIG police), was formed on December 27, 2009 to probe the violence.
Although three months were given to complete the investigation, the commission worked on it for one year and three months.
"We handed over the probe report to the then former home minister Sahara Khatun on April 24, 2011," Member Secretary AKM Monowar Hossain Akhand told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The complete report comprises five pieces having a total of 1100 pages. "We prepared the report visiting around 35 to 40 districts."
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...or, maybe, some American Jews are (finally) figuring out that the Socialist Dems / Progressives / Whatever really don't have their best interests in mind...
#7
Champ's latest b!tching is that Fox News is preventing him from doing his important work of state. I've never seen such a bunch of whining and sniveling. Had "O" been at the helm in 1941 I don't think we would prevailed in WWII.
#13
Of course he would perceive it that way. And let's say Israel is; its not like they would pull that idea out of a hat, it would be a response to these US policies and procedures which have failed. Other hand, these are people who are Jewish thinking Obama is making bad decisions.
(OT - would have been lucky to have stayed neutral; bet we would have blundered a way in but in a totally unprepared fashion. 1943 - three Liberty ships launched per day. 2014 - three years and could not get a web site launched. Good news - Hawaii was not yet a state so Obama could not have been President(looks around for the joke))
[DAWN] The Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... leaders on Thursday faced embarrassment when the participants of the sit-in outside the Governor's House did not allow them to join the protest for having "soft corner" for the Taliban.
A large number of people, including women and kiddies, had camped outside the Governor's House since 5pm on Wednesday under the umbrella of the Majlis Wahdatul Moslemeen (MWM) and Imamia Students Organisation to protest against the killing of Shia pilgrims in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Mastung district.
The participants were determined to continue with the protest till stern action against faceless myrmidons involved in the attacks is not initiated.
The charged participants seemed to have drawn a line between those having soft corner for the forces of Evil and the ones who are against them.
As no one from the PML-N or the Punjab government bothered to express solidarity with the participants of the sit-in, the PTI leaders -- Ejaz Chaudhry and Andleep Abbas -- visited them.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the protesters asked the PTI leaders that they should better leave as "we don't need sympathy from those who support the Taliban." A group of the participants tried to convince others to let the PTI leaders sit with them but to no avail.
The same situation did not arise when the PPP leaders -- Jehangir Badr and Manzoor Wattoo -- reached there. "Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet... had given a message for you! We will not surrender before terrorists," Wattoo told the participants.
"We demand that the PML-N government bring all assailants to justice," he said.
On the other hand, the MWM leaders said they would not end the protest in Lahore till the relatives of those killed in Quetta ended the sit-in there.
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[DAWN] The Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... 's Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... group (JUI-S) has called for a complete strike on Friday against the recent liquidation of Mufti Usman Yar Khan with his aides and 'extrajudicial killings of youngsters of a certain sect,' said a big shot on Thursday.
He claimed to have won support for the strike call from all major parties including ruling Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N), JUI-Fazal, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... , Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , traders and transport organizations.
A five-point demand has already been conveyed to the authorities for immediate action otherwise the protest will be expanded, according to him. "We want immediate arrest of Mufti Usman Yar Khan's killers," said Hafiz Ahmed Ali of the JUI-S. "There is also a demand for payment of compensation to the families of the victims who have been targeted in recent months. Besides, we have demanded comprehensive security of seminaries and judicial inquiry into recent extrajudicial murder of seminary students and youngsters belonging to the Deobandi sect.
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[DAWN] Pak officials used a secret counter-terrorism fund to buy wedding gifts, luxury carpets and gold jewellery for relatives of ministers and visiting dignitaries, according to documents seen by AFP.
The revelations cast a spotlight on high-level corruption in Pakistain as the impoverished but nuclear-armed country battles a surge in Taliban violence.
They concern the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) of Pakistain's interior ministry, formed in 2000 to coordinate between the country's intelligence agencies and federal and provincial governments on national security matters.
The US and other Western countries have poured billions of dollars into Pakistain since the 9/11 attacks of 2001 to help in its fight against Taliban and al Qaeda linked Death Eaters.
The NCMC received some 425 million rupees ($4.3 million) from Pak government coffers from 2009-2013, according to files obtained by Umar Cheema, an investigative journalist for Pak daily The News, and seen by AFP.
During that time the interior ministry was headed by Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. , a flamboyant loyalist of former president Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistain People's Party (PPP).
Watches, carpets, gold, goats
Goats? Oh dear.
Many of the documents deal with payments to intelligence sources, routine maintenance of vehicles and overtime for employees.
But the files also include receipts for gifts for US and British embassy officials, as well as flowers and sweets for journalists.
One receipt for 70,000 rupees ($700) is itemised as a "Pair of wrist watches for marriage of nephew of minister for interior".
The documents show that on a trip to Rome for an Interpol conference in November 2012, Malik took a necklace, wooden tables and a TouchMate tablet computer as gifts.
The counter-terror fund was also used to buy three rugs as wedding gifts for the son of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf early last year.
A set of 21-carat gold jewellery worth $3,000 was bought for one unnamed individual, while another was the recipient of a $1,500 set.
A handicrafts store in Islamabad was paid some $23,000 in December 2012 for carpets and crafts given to local officials and delegations from the EU, Iran and India.
Among the more bizarre items paid for from the fund was the $800 cost of four sacrificial goats, plus butchery costs, listed as "stabbing charges", for the festival of Eid-ul-Azha.
Alms to the poor and donations of sweets, flowers, and cash to a local Sufi saint were also made from the fund in 2012, the documents show.
'You know how Pakistain works'
Pakistain's present government, led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , has ordered an audit of the interior ministry accounts from 2010-2013.
Ministry front man Danyal Gilani confirmed the audit was ongoing but declined to indicate a timeframe for its completion.
The director general of the NCMC, Tariq Lodhi, did not respond to repeated attempts to seek comment. Upon coming to power in June last year, Sharif's government abolished secret funds in 16 ministries in an effort to curb corruption and rein in spending.
Malik, who as minister was famed for his expensive ties and purple hair-dye, mounted a firm defence of his conduct on Twitter, denying he had used the fund and saying it was "never under the control of the minister".
Asked why some receipts contained hand-written instructions saying they were the minister's directives, Malik told AFP: "You know how Pakistain works.
Just because it mentions me does not mean I personally authorised the payments."In a tweet, he said using funds to entertain dignitaries and offer gifts was "routine for 15 yrs".
But Moinuddin Haider, who served as interior minister from 1999 to 2002, said the NCMC fund was not set up to pay for "gifts abroad".
"The purpose of these funds was to establish offices in the provinces, primarily to be spent on communications equipment and data analysis," he told AFP.
Cheema, who won the Daniel Pearl journalism fellowship in 2008, said the affair was indicative of how officials had turned the national terror crisis, which has killed thousands of people across the country since 2007, to their own benefit.
"This abuse clearly explains how our leaders convert a tragedy into an opportunity for personal gains," he said.
"If history is any guide it's not going to be resolved nor will the abolition of secret funds lead to any corrective measures." Ayesha Siddiqa, a security analyst, termed the use of the funds "sad", but said a lack of clear counter-terrorism policy direction by successive governments was also to blame, as well as the way Pakistain's bureaucracy works.
"There is also this problem with the government where if a department gets funds you're in a hurry to spend them, because if the funds lapse they will be deducted the next year and the department will be reprimanded," she said.
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[DAWN] It is barely a month into the new year and healthcare workers and their security personnel continue to be mercilessly targeted. Pakistain has already recorded four cases of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... and the death of three healthcare workers on an anti polio drive.
In the latest incident six coppers on their way to provide security to a polio team were killed in Charsadda on Wednesday. However,
Continued on Page 49
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[DAWN] After killing thousands of members of various state organs, as well as others, the violent Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has decided to extend its war by declaring the country's media as "party" to the conflict.
For the first time since its inception in 2005, the banned bad boy outfit has not only issued a fatwa against the media but has also prepared a media hit-list -- a copy of which is available with Dawn.
The 29-page fatwa accuses the media of siding with the "disbelievers", against Moslems, in the "war on Islam" and inciting people against "the mujahideen" through propaganda as well as of propagating promiscuity and secularism.
The fatwa defines three major categories for journalists: "murjif," "muqatil" and "Sa'ee bil fasad."
"Murjif is someone who engages in propaganda against Moslems during a war between Islam and disbelief," explains Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, deputy chief of the banned TTP and one of the main authors of this fatwa. "Muqatil is someone who incites disbelievers and their allies to act against Moslems while the third category includes those who corrupt Moslem society through different means such as replacing the Islamic ideology with secular ideologies."
"The media has continuously been lying about us and about our objectives," Haqqani added. "It has attributed to us some attacks which we did not carry out and it continues to lie about our objectives."
The fatwa was issued in response to a question submitted to the TTP's religious committee by its former chief front man, Ehsanullah Ehsan.
"For a long time, we have been asking the media to be impartial. We are not forcing it to change beliefs. We are simply asking the media to be fair in coverage," claimed Ehsanullah Ehsan while talking to Dawn. "Despite the tall claims of truth and nothing but the truth, the media has been acting as propagandists."
The initial hit-list prepared by the TTP names nearly two dozen journalists and publishers. It includes the names of a number of media-group owners, the news heads of various television channels, prominent anchors, the editor of a leading English-language newspaper and even some field staff.
The TTP may have its own specific reasons for singling out these particular journalists, but has not given any details. Apart from those unexplained reasons, the campaign is meant to terrorise the country's media into submission.
"The job of a journalist is to be fair and tell all sides of a story," claimed Ehsan. "But we know of journalists who are completely one-sided propagandists. We even know of journalists who work as spies for the police and other departments."According to TTP sources, some people within the organization had initially opposed targeting the media on "strategic grounds".
"But later on it was decided that the media was basically the institution driving this war and public opinion. When it is already defaming us, we really don't have much to lose and may as well deal with the media as a party to this war," said a member of the TTP media committee.
"Even at this stage the media could mend its ways and become a neutral entity," asserted Ehsan. "Otherwise, the media should not feel secure. A few barriers and security escorts will not help. If we can get inside military installations, media offices should not be too much of a challenge," he threatened.
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[Ynet] Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... sought on Thursday to secure a billion-dollar Gazoo energy deal during talks with Russian leaders aimed at restoring warmer ties between the two Soviet-era allies.
Abbas and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were due to sign an intergovernmental agreement that reports said included a $1.0-billion (730-million-euro) natural gas project in the Gazoo section of the Mediterranean Sea.
[An Nahar] A Twitter account of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,'s armed wing has been suspended by administrators, the Paleostinian Islamist movement said Thursday, accusing the social media site of censorship.
The account of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, @AlqassamBrigade, appeared to have been suspended several times over the past week, and was still inaccessible with a "suspended" notice on Thursday.
A front man for the armed wing of Hamas, which governs the Gazoo Strip, accused Twitter of suppressing freedom of speech and of pandering to the political agenda of Hamas's sworn enemy Israel.
"This is proof of the moral bankruptcy of the (Israeli) occupation in fighting any vocal resistance to it, and is an attempt to wipe out the truth and hide the crimes of the Zionist occupation against Paleostinian civilians," front man Abu Obaida wrote to Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Twitter's administration are exercising double standards. They're giving credibility to the Zionist (Israeli) army, allowing it to practice its terrorism against the innocent and use its Twitter account to wage threats.
"But they're censoring the Qassam Brigades account, which exposes the hostilities of the terrorist Zionist army and shows the truth.
"This is a clear violation of Twitter's rules and regulations," he said.
A Twitter spokesperson refused to comment, telling AFP: "We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons."
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[Ynet] Syria's government says fighting terrorism -- not peace talks -- are its priority, dismissing the Western-backed opposition and any attempts at outside intervention.
Thursday's comments from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem cast doubt on UN efforts this week to chart a path out of Syria's civil war.
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[An Nahar] Syrian opposition chief Ahmed Jarba on Thursday announced that the regime has become a "political corpse," as U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi met Syria's warring sides behind closed doors to lay the groundwork for direct talks after the first day of a peace conference ended in bitter exchanges.
"The world is now sure that Assad cannot stay and will not stay," Jarba said after meeting Brahimi.
Brahimi met separately with delegations from Syria's opposition and then Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's regime in Geneva before full talks are due to resume on Friday.
It was unclear after the meetings whether the two sides would agree to hold face-to-face talks or if mediators would shuttle between them.
A senior U.S. State Department official said Brahimi was due to meet with both sides again on Friday morning with the goal of having them in the same room by the afternoon.
"He hopes to have them at the table tomorrow and we'll see what happens," the official said. "We knew this would not be an easy process."
The U.N.-sponsored conference -- the biggest diplomatic effort yet to resolve Syria's devastating civil war -- opened in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday with heated disagreements among the two sides and world powers.
Expectations are very low for a breakthrough at the conference, which officials have said could last up to 10 days, but diplomats believe that simply bringing the two sides together for the first time is a mark of some progress and could be an important first step.
With no one appearing ready for serious concessions, mediators will be looking for short-term deals to keep the process moving forward. They could include localized ceasefires, freer humanitarian aid access or prisoner exchanges.
Brahimi said he "had indications" from both sides that they were willing to discuss these issues.
Hadi Al-Bahra, a member of the opposition National Coalition's delegation, told Agence La Belle France Presse the opposition felt it had benefited from the regime's aggressive tone at the start of the conference Wednesday.
"We have heard very positive feedback from inside Syria and it is the first time we've felt so much support from Syrians for the Coalition," Bahra said.
In a vehement attack during his opening speech that went long beyond his allotted time, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the opposition of being "traitors" and agents of foreign governments.
The regime delegation behaved "like the mafia, with a style very far from diplomacy," Bahra said.
Syrian state media slammed the Montreux conference, with the Tishreen daily charging that most of the speeches from the more than 40 nations and international bodies present had lobbed "dishonest accusations... at the Syrian government".
"The imposters were unmasked. They spoke out in favor of terrorism while making speeches about justice and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... ," the al-Thawra daily chimed in.
The opposition arrived in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... with a sole aim -- toppling Assad -- while the regime says any talk of removing the Syrian leader is a "red line" it will not cross.
U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... urged the two sides at the conference to finally work together to save lives.
"The world wants an urgent end to the conflict," Ban said in his closing presser. "Enough is enough, the time has to come to negotiate."
Notably absent from the Montreux conference was crucial Assad backer Iran, after Ban reversed a last-minute invitation when the opposition said it would boycott if Tehran took part.
In the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said elections would be the best way to end Syria's civil war.
"The best solution is to organize free and fair elections inside Syria," Rouhani told the World Economic Forum. "No outside party or power should decide for the Syrian people and Syria as a country."
Erupting after the regime cracked down on protests inspired by the Arab Spring, Syria's civil war has claimed more than 130,000 lives and forced millions from the homes.
Pitting Assad's regime, dominated by the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, against largely Sunni Mohammedan rebels, the war has unsettled large parts of the Middle East.
Shiite Iran and its Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah have backed Assad; the mainly Sunni Arab Gulf states have supported the opposition; and the violence has often spilled over into neighboring Leb and Iraq.
Sectarian festivities linked to Syria's war have killed 10 people in Leb's 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... over the past six days alone, a security official said Thursday.
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01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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[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... said Thursday that distancing Leb from the Syrian crisis comes through the immediate end to interference in all of the neighboring country's internal affairs.
In a statement issued by Baabda Palace, Suleiman held onto the official policy of dissociation from the Syrian war.
"This is done through an immediate stop to meddling in all of Syria's internal affairs and mainly the fighting there no matter what the justification is," he said.
The president was mainly referring to Hizbullah. The party has sent members to Syria to fight alongside troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... against rebels seeking to topple him.
Sunni fighters generally from northern Leb have also went to the neighboring country to help the rebels.
Suleiman called for a political solution that would bring back stability and security to Syria and help the return of the refugees back home.
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01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Special Tribunal for Leb continued on Thursday hearing the testimonies of various witnesses linked to the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Witness Robyn Fraser, who had worked for the STL Office of Prosecution between August 2009 and August 2011, continued the testimony she had started on Wednesday.
Wednesday's proceedings tackled the cases of two witnesses who were directly affected by the February 2005 blast, while Fraser's testimony focused on the CCTV camera footage taken in the areas surrounding the blast scene.
Senior Trial Counsel Alexander Milne carried out the cross-examination on behalf of the Office of the Prosecution, while Defense co-counsel for suspect Mustafa Badreddine Iain Edwards carried out the cross-examination on behalf of the Defense team.
The Prosecution focused its questions on the CCTV footage taken by a camera at the HSBC Bank near the Hariri blast site.
Attempts were made to determine the route of the lorry, suspected of carrying the explosives used in the attack, as it made its way out of the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel, making its way in front of the Phoenicia Hotel and later HSBC Bank before the kaboom took place.
The Prosecution showed various stills taken by the camera at the bank, including some taken before and after the blast.
Fraser explained that the camera footage is not of high quality and the investigation was unable to make any clear closeups of any individuals or vehicles at the scene.
The Defense made an observation that given the proceedings of the testimonies, it has not yet been established that the white lorry seen in the footage is the white Mitsubishi that is suspected of carrying the explosives used in Hariri's liquidation.
In addition, Fraser said that the lorry preceded Hariri's convoy by about a minute and that it was moving at a pace ten times slower than other vehicles.
Following the Prosecution's cross-examination, the Defense focused its questioning of the witness on whether the lorry seen in the various CCTV footage was one and the same.
Edwards pointed out that the quality of the footage made it impossible to make out the license plate number of the truck.
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[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... called for an end to festivities between al-Qaeda-linked jihadists and Islamists fighting to oust Syria's regime, in an audio message posted on the Internet.
Zawahiri urged all jihadist groups and "every free person in Syria seeking to overthrow (President Bashar) Assad... to seek an end to fighting between brothers in jihad and Islam immediately," in the recording uploaded on YouTube late on Wednesday.
A new front in Syria's nearly three-year-old conflict opened in early January when powerful rebel groups combined to attack bases of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... , or ISIL.
The jihadists were initially welcomed by other rebels, but allegations of brutal abuses against civilians as well as rival opposition fighters sparked a backlash, and even accusations that they were serving the interests of the regime.
In some cases, Al-Nusra Front, the officially recognized al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, participated in fighting against ISIL whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called for reconciliation on Sunday.
In Wednesday's audio message, Zawahiri said that "these organizational ties can be sacrificed without second thought if they conflicted with your unity... against your enemy."
"Jihadist groups are our brothers whom we refuse to accuse of apostasy," added the al-Qaeda chief.
Most rebels in Syria are Sunni Arab, and have fought against the regime of Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
But ISIL has faced a rebel backlash in Syria and has been hit by days of fighting against a coalition of moderate and Salafist tough guys, including with Nusra.
Baghdadi had sought to merge his group with Nusra, but they rejected the alliance and pledged allegiance directly to Zawahiri.
Since then, the two groups have functioned separately, though Nusra has remained largely neutral in the latest infighting, and the group's leader has called for an end to the festivities, warning it would benefit the regime.
But ISIL front man Abu Mohammed al-Adnani sounded a defiant tone in his own audio message earlier in January, calling for ISIL forces to "crush them (the rebels) totally and kill the conspiracy at birth."
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01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Zawahiri urged all jihadist groups and "every free person in Syria seeking to overthrow (President Bashar) Assad... to seek an end to fighting between brothers in jihad and Islam immediately"
"The Joos! You're supposed to be killing the Joos!"
[An Nahar] LBCI television on Thursday broadcast a video showing the movements of the booby-trapped Kia that was blown up by a jacket wallah in Haret Hreik.
The car moved forward from Shatila towards the airport road before entering Ghobairi and Haret Hreik, LBCI said.
"The footage demonstrates how the suicide bomber crossed all these areas calmly, without drawing anyone's attention," the TV network added.
On Wednesday, LBCI said the booby-trapped car came from the Sabra area in Beirut, which lies on the outskirts of the southern suburbs and hosts a Paleostinian refugee camp.
The Kia took off from outside the al-Rabih residential complex in Sabra and headed towards the Shatila roundabout, LBCI reported on Wednesday.
It noted that the driver of the explosives-rigged car normally stopped at the army checkpoint in Ghobairi before continuing his journey.
Citing reports, the TV network said "the group of the Paleostinian Ahmed Taha has links to the suicide kaboom."
Three people were killed and around 35 others were maimed in the suicide kaboom on Tuesday morning, the second such attack to target the same street in one month.
Later on Tuesday, the Internal Security Forces announced arresting the man who stole the Kia, saying he was also behind stealing a car that went kaboom! in Bekaa's Hermel.
The robber was identified as Nabil Ahmed al-Moussawi.
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[An Nahar] The Traders Association of Northern Leb and civil society groups have called for a strike on Friday to denounce the deadly gunbattles that have rocked 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... .
The association, public and private schools and civil society groups said Friday's strike will begin in the morning and end by noon prayers.
It is aimed at denouncing the chaos in the city and attacks on all security agencies.
One soldier died and eight others were maimed on Wednesday in the latest round of fighting between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
But one of them identified as Fadi al-Jamous departed this vale of tears on Thursday morning.
The festivities also injured at least four civilians.
The two impoverished neighborhoods are the scenes of frequent sectarian festivities linked to the war in Syria.
The gunbattles erupted last Friday when a Jabal Mohsen man was rubbed out in nearby al-Qobbeh.
Political figures, including caretaker PM Najib Miqati, and clergymen held a series of meetings on Wednesday to contain the festivities.
On Thursday, army units began deploying in the two areas and mainly Syria Street which separates the districts.
It erected checkpoints on the outskirts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and carried out patrols in the city's streets.
But hundreds of families that have fled the two neighborhoods in the past six days have not returned, and schools near the restive districts remained closed.
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[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Thursday that some countries might be prepared to send peacekeeping troops to Syria, as the U.N. leads efforts to bring the warring sides together and end the war.
The top U.S. diplomat also acknowledged in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... was not ready to make peace.
Kerry was speaking a day after telling the opening of a peace conference in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... that the Syrian leader could have no role in any future transitional government after three years of war.
Expectations are low for a breakthrough at the talks, dubbed Geneva II, which bring the opposition and the regime together for the first time since an uprising began in March 2011.
But as the U.N. works on trying to get both sides around the negotiating table on Friday, the United States has called for agreement on local ceasefires and improved aid access to reach stricken communities.
"If there is a peace agreement there are many countries that have already offered to step up and be peacekeepers in the new Syria," Kerry told the television station.
"There is no question, but that we are all prepared to help provide protection to any of the minorities."
But he stressed to Al-Arabiya during the interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that there would not be any American boots on the ground.
While he did not name any countries, he said they would be countries acceptable to Syria.
Kerry also said that Assad was "not ready at this point and time" to make peace. "This is a man who has committed war crimes," he added.
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01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
lst Battalion [Suva's Own] Fijian Toyota Mounted Light Infantry "The Fire Walkers" is on alert, pending the US State Department contract signing.
#7
I will ask a man to be the last man to die in Syria.
We will fight using weapons against those people which I do not believe we would dream of using were we to fight in the European theatre.
Someone has to die so that President Obama can say, and these are his words, "Otherwise, President Assad and his regime will continue to be challenged from within and will continue to be isolated abroad."
[An Nahar] Syrian Kurds protested Thursday their exclusion from U.N.-brokered peace talks in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , and vowed to forge ahead with their own freedom drive in territories they control.
"Some forces are trying to exclude us from the solutions they are looking for, and they're not representing anybody," said Saleh Moslem, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
"We will continue our struggle until we get our democratic rights," he told news hounds in Geneva, where the Syrian government and opposition were to hold separate meetings with the U.N. mediator on Friday, two days after angry exchanges at the so-called Geneva II international peace conference in the Swiss city of Montreux.
Speaking on behalf of the Syrian Kurdish Supreme Council -- made up of a range of groups from the country's Kurdish minority -- Moslem said its efforts to join the talks had failed.
That was despite repeated requests to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , the United States and Russia, the main movers in getting the Syrian regime and opposition coalition to the table.
The opposition delegation in Geneva includes Abdel Hamid Darwish, head of the Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party, which has questioned the PYD's drive for self-rule in northeastern Syria.
But Moslem poured scorn on Darwish's clout within the delegation, and complained that rights for the Kurdish minority were not on the table.
"How can you bring democracy to Syria without solving the Kurdish issue in Syria? The Kurdish issue should be solved within Geneva II," he said.
He said Syria was home to 3.5 million Kurds, or some 15 percent of the country's population, and part of a community of around 40 million scattered across the region, notably in Iraq and Turkey.
Moslem noted that his movement rose up for Kurdish rights back in 2004, seven years before a regime crackdown on peaceful Arab Spring-inspired protests sent Syria spinning into civil war.
"We have a long history of struggle against this regime," he said.
But he also criticized the Syrian opposition coalition, saying it had failed to give Kurds a fair hearing.
"All we want is constitutional recognition of our existence," he said.
"We couldn't do it with the coalition, the people who are going to take decisions for Syria, and for the future of Syria," he lamented.
Syrian troops mostly withdrew from majority Kurdish areas in summer 2012, focusing their attention on rebel fighters and enabling the Kurds to develop semi-autonomy.
Kurdish fighters, especially those affiliated with the PYD, have since fought fierce battles against bad boy opposition groups.
Two months ago, three Kurdish-majority regions declared self-rule, and one of them named a municipal council on Tuesday.
The Syrian Kurdish Supreme Council has forged an alliance with representatives of the Syriacs, one of the oldest branches of Christianity.
Bassam Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council of Syria which is not included in the talks, complained that grassroots movements have been sidelined amid international diplomatic efforts to end the country's war.
"We are the people who are working hand in hand to build our democracy from the bottom up," Ishak told news hounds, insisting that without "authentic representatives of the Syrian people, Geneva II will not be able to come up with a sustainable solution."
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01/24/2014 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.
[An Nahar] Egypt's prime minister said Thursday the spirit of the Arab Spring was still alive in his country and that the army chief likely to run for the presidency was no dictator, but more a De Gaulle figure.
[An Nahar] A tug of war between Libyan 
Work [and funding Obamacare] Makes You Free. Stop your idle bitching and get busy ! 
[DAWN] Pak officials used a secret counter-terrorism fund to buy wedding gifts, luxury carpets and gold jewellery for relatives of ministers and visiting dignitaries, according to documents seen by AFP.
Nawaz Sharif.jpg)
[DAWN] It is barely a month into the new year and healthcare workers and their security personnel continue to be mercilessly targeted. Pakistain has already recorded four cases of 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Zawahiri
Najib Miqati
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State 
