[Al Ahram] A north Cairo court on Thursday ordered the release of seven people who had been locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! for suspected involvement in April festivities outside St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.
What's the ratio of Book People to Master Religionists among the released?
The suspects have been released from police custody with bail set at LE2000 each.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have appealed the release order.
On 7 April, two people were killed and at least 90 injured when unknown assailants attacked mourners outside the cathedral, where a funeral service was being held for four Coptic Christians killed one day earlier in the north Cairo village of Al-Khosous.
Dozens were maimed during ensuing festivities between local residents and mourners. Police fired teargas over the walls of the cathedral in an effort to disperse the crowds. Dozens were arrested in connection with the disturbances.
Violence had broken out in Al-Khosous after a group of Christian youngsters reportedly painted offensive drawings on the walls of a local religious institution.
In the subsequent violence, which raged for hours afterward, guns were fired and shops and building set alight by angry mobs, leading to the death of six people including four Christians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Six Islamist-leaning political parties on Thursday condemned recent calls by Egypt's High Constitutional Court (HCC) to grant military and police personnel the right to vote in national elections.
The six parties included the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, the Building and Reconstruction Party, the Tahrir Revolutionaries Party, the Socialist Work Party, the New Labour Party and the Wasat Party.
In a Thursday joint statement, the six parties called for holding a national referendum on whether or not the HCC should be dissolved.
The constitutional court, the parties declared, "has had a black record since Egypt's 25 January [2011] Revolution." They went on to accuse the HCC of "attempting to bring down state institutions for the sake of personal interests."
In the summer of last year, Egypt's then-ruling Supreme Military Council ordered the dissolution of Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliament -- some three quarters of which had been held by Islamist parties -- based on a recommendation by the HCC.
In their joint statement, the six Islamist-leaning parties expressed their support for the Egyptian military's desire to stay out of domestic politics.
The parties went on to condemn perceived attempts by some quarters to push Egypt's military establishment and police apparatus into partisan conflicts.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Shura Council member and leader of the Salafist Asala Party Adel Afifi on Thursday called for the dissolution of Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW), Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported on Thursday.
Afifi also called for dividing the dissolved NCW's budget between Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM).
"Before the revolution, these councils didn't play real roles; they were little more than window dressing," said Ashraf Daadaa, head of the Cairo-based Citizenship Human Rights Organisation. "Most of the funds that came from abroad to serve women and kiddies were not spent for this purpose."
He added: "But this doesn't mean the NCW should be dissolved; it can be restructured and developed so as to play a positive role. And the council's restructuring should have nothing to do with political orientations or the political situation."
Daadaa went on to stress the need to revamp the NCW.
"Development [of the NCW] is a must," he said. "The NCHR was politicised when the Moslem Brüderbund took power, which was the only development that took place. In if remains so, it's better to simply dissolve it."
On 16 April, the NCW sent a letter to Shura Council speaker Ahmed Fahmy denouncing fierce criticisms of the council that had been voiced at an earlier meeting of the Shura Council's human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... committee.
The committee had been discussing women's rights in Egypt at the request of Shura member Nadia Henry. The session included discussion of a recent UN declaration, ostensibly aimed at ending violence against women.
The NCW has said that it sent a draft law aimed at ending violence against women to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil on 15 April. The draft law reportedly includes five sections dealing with physical violence, rape, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and the exclusion of women from inheritance.
Qandil had commissioned the council to draft the proposed law earlier in the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Æthiopia's Renaissance Dam and the diversion of the Blue Nile is a declaration of war on Egypt, Sheikh Abdel-Akher Hammad of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Æthiopia began diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River's two major tributaries, as part of its project to build a dam for electricity production.
Speaking on Al-Arabiya satellite channel, Hammad claimed the move would reduce Egypt's water supply and damage national security.
"If such a war is forged against us, we are ready to fight and we will embark on it with all our strength to defend our honour," asserted Hammad.
Diplomatic negotiations should be the first step, he added.
Hammad went on to say the crisis should have been dealt with by the Mubarak regime.
The Blue Nile provides Egypt with the lion's share of its annual 55 billion cubic metres of river water.
According to the state-run National Planning Institute, Egypt will need an additional 21 billion cubic metres of water per year by 2050 -- on top of its current quota of 55 billion metres -- to meet the needs of a projected population of 150 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
See also TOPIX > [Tigrai Online] RETIRED COMMANDER OF EGYPTIAN FORCES GENERAL ALI BILAL SAID IT IS IMPOSSIBLE [for Egypt] TO STRIKE [seriously] THE ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM, as due to the myriad multi-state interests involved in its origional planning + contruction, includ both the US + China, etal.
* Also from SAME > ETHIOPIA DIVERTS BLUE NILE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM.
At least multimateral Diplomacy is still in effect as per China's Three Gorges + Mekong Region, + China-vs-India-vs-Pakistan, etc. in West-South Asia.
#2
Question; say a dam gets built. Water is gathered/held up temporarily to create some force to drive turbines (water rises in a holding reservoir). When then water has passed the turbines, where does it go? I doesn't disappear. Gravity will pull it along, probably into its old channels. I can't see them creating new river channels to preclude the water from reaching Egypt. So, how does it reduce Egypt's water supply? The water isn't consumed, and its potential energy is the same at that point in the river as it was before the dam.
Plus this; if Egypt needs 21B mm more water in the future than the Blue Nile can supply, where do they plan to get it?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/31/2013 6:56 Comments ||
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#3
Obvious solution to Egypt's water shortages is to collect output from pissed egyptians.
#6
Rammer, dunno about that. Evaporation is proportionate to surface area exposed to the air, and there's less water exposed in a lake versus the same volume of water flowing through a river.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/31/2013 11:01 Comments ||
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#7
So, how does it reduce Egypt's water supply?
There is a lot less water flowing downstream (see: Colorado River)
#10
Obvious solution to Egypt's water shortages is to collect output from pissed egyptians.
Heheh. Combine that with energy collected from all the seething and Egypt is on it's way to being a modern, prosperous country. Except for all the bad government, I mean.
U.S. officials gave instructions for Benghazi Medical Center to use a "John Doe" pseudonym on the death certificate of Ambassador Christopher Stevens after he died of asphyxiation in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. That's according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official isn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The reason for the pseudonym, says the official, was to avoid drawing undue attention to the importance of the victim as Americans rushed to figure out how to recover Stevens' body and return it to the U.S.
According to the official, U.S. officials aren't certain to this day whether Stevens was still alive when local Libyans made cell phone video recordings of his body being carried or dragged from the U.S. mission, possibly by looters. And they still don't know exactly who transported him to the Benghazi Medical Center where they say medical personnel attempted resuscitation, unsuccessfully, for about 40 minutes (90 minutes, according to published accounts from a Libyan doctor).
A familiar local to whom Americans refer as "Babakar" sent word to the U.S. embassy that Stevens had, indeed, passed away. Babakar sent some of his associates to recover Stevens' body at the hospital. When hospital officials asked what name should be entered on the death certificate, U.S. officials relayed the message to use "John Doe." Babakar's associates eventually transported Stevens' body to the airport where it was turned over to Americans.
Stevens' body was flown from Benghazi to Tripoli, Libya's capital the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 12 and President Obama was informed of the Ambassador's death.
#2
The admins actions and lies are starting to smell so much that even their lapdogs in the press are starting to pick up the scent. Or I hope they are (if not then the Republic is well and truly f'd)
#6
I doubt the unsubstantiated illusion of charity.
The lost hour and a half may have been used for interrogation, ala waterboarding, ergo a wet shirt.
#7
The reason for the pseudonym, says the official, was to avoid drawing undue attention to the importance of the victim as Americans rushed to figure out how to recover Stevens' body and return it to the U.S
Pseudonyms appear to be working well for the [yet unnamed] survivors. Not so much for Ambassador Stevens however. No viewings, quick burials, no autopsies..... so Fort Marcy Park. No more questions, writing or thinking about this please, it's a party matter.
#9
Not important enough for a rescue attempt, unlike the Captain of the Mirsk Alabama which had an immediate deployment of the FBI with no guarantee of the good Captain still being alive when they got there.
#11
Sounds like Stevens was figured bigger than the liquor store clerk who never cards, and that was back when mobile phones were 10 pounds and had to be plugged in. I can almost hear the phone call:
"Hello, America calling. Yes, we have some trouble.."
"You mean the fighting at the CIA house?"
"Yaah..someone important may have been in there.."
"You mean Ambassador Stevens? He's here, well his body is anyways."
"Yaah, he's dead then. About that, could you just call him John Doe for now, we don't want to scare the family or anything; understand?"
He was out of the wire on the 9/11 celebration doing buy/sell/trade. Don't need leaky CIA for that. Had an instant action plan for the next pirate hostage situation involving a US citizen, but this was a total surprise and such a good neighborhood for a lemonade stand; a holiday to boot. Glad they got the morgue on board, that's some foreward thinking right there.
#12
And the video had already been filmed, uploaded, downloaded, high-fived, critiqued, matinee'd, and passed along before this phone call even took place. Everyone who wants a know knew, so the question is who was this order for and for what effect?
Could it be that Joe "You're son had some balls" Biden tipped that the impressiveness of the last stand may not have destroyed all their enemy but did destroy any chance of a cover up?
#13
The whole is a phucking joke at phucking best! Dig if they went in they would have had to mow down-KILL- A LOT of people they are DIG CEE SEE and how would that look the blue jean CNN CIA freedom fighters press uhh zombie mout piece of the Ghoul Lords?!? The 3 or 4 fired mil upper crust know this to be true it would not have allowed Syria to get to this point it's all crap! Phucking live with it! Mil response dead rebels no FSA etc etc!
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] One of the suspects in the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby is believed to have had contact with a "terrorist instructor" now in prison for running military-style training camps which were used by Islamist bully boyz including the 21/7 London bombers, The Independent has learnt.
Michael Adebolajo is understood to have attended talks given by preacher Mohammed Hamid, who called himself Osama bin London, and a bookstall run by Hamid in Marble Arch, central London.
There is nothing to suggest that Adebolajo was engaged in activities at the time which warranted deploying resources to track him during a period of intense Death EaterMohammedan activity.
Hamid, a 55-year-old former crack addict, was convicted of "grooming" young Mohammedan men for jihad. At his trial in Woolwich Crown court in 2008, the jury was played secretly taped recordings of him talking about the victims of the 7/7 bombings, saying: "Fifty-two? That's not even a breakfast for me," and telling a comrade to be like "Jack the Ripper" and not get caught. Video footage was shown of a water melon being sliced in half amid cheering, in what was supposedly a demonstration of "beheading".
Hamid, whose family came to Britannia from Tanzania, was found guilty at the trial of three counts of soliciting murder and three counts of providing terrorism training, and tossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! indefinitely, for a minimum of seven-and-a-half years. One of his followers, Atilla Ahmet, of Turkish Cypriot extraction, who had at one stage been a bodyguard for the radical holy man Abu Hamza, pleaded guilty to three counts of soliciting murder.
Among those who passed through the camps he organised, in Cumbria and the New Forest, were five men who were later convicted of the 21/7 bomb plot. Hamid was accused of acting as the mentor of the would-be jacket wallahs who wanted to emulate the devastation caused by the 7/7 attacks.
Hamid and 14 others were tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... and convicted in an operation, Overamp, in which crucial evidence was gained by an undercover police officer who had infiltrated the group, known only by his codename "Dawood", as well as by bugs placed by MI5 in the homes of the suspects.
The journalists are doing a wonderful job of quickly pulling together all the links that seem to have escaped MI5 and the police with regard to Mr. Adebolajo.
This article starring:
Atilla Ahmet
Mohammed Hamid
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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The North Korean Army is reduced to pilfering leftover textiles from factories in the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex and selling them to China, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday. The industrial park was shut down last month after North Korea closed the border amid rising tensions.
RFA quoted a North Korean source in the Chinese border city of Dandong as saying the North Korean Army is clandestinely exporting tons of leftover textiles from garment factories in the industrial park.
The underfed, underpaid North Korean Army is desperate for valuta due to tightened international sanctions in the wake of the Norths latest nuclear test. Soldiers have also reportedly started abducting Chinese fishing boats for ransom.
A trading company run by the Army is reportedly in charge of smuggling textile off-cuts out of the industrial park and selling them to Chinese rag business that recycle them into padding for sofa cushions and mattresses or oilcloth for car repair shops.
Of the 123 South Korean firms in the industrial park, 72 are textile and leather companies. They produced tons of off-cuts per day when they were operating.
A South Korean government official said, "North Korean soldiers and traders under the aegis of the military have always made money by collecting leftover pieces of fabric and faulty products from the industrial park."
A North Korean soldier at a guard post near the industrial park, who defected to South Korea on Oct. 6 last year after killing two of his superiors, was also reportedly involved in smuggling off-cuts.
The clandestine trade has raised fears that the North will soon move on to pilfering raw materials, finished products and production machinery if the industrial park lies fallow for much longer.
"We don't much care if they sell the leftovers," a South Korean government official said, "but it's a different story if they try to break the seals on factory doors and take the raw materials and finished products of South Korean manufacturers."
And what would you do about it?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Write Kaesong off to good intentions and bad results. Walk away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/31/2013 0:13 Comments ||
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[Ynet] The remaining suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has recovered enough to walk and assured his parents in a phone conversation that he and his slain brother were innocent, their mother told the press Thursday.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, walked without a wheelchair to speak to his mother last week for the first and only phone conversation they have had since he has been in jug. In a rare glimpse at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's state of mind, he told her he was getting better and that he had a very good doctor, but was struggling to understand what happened.
#4
g(rom), even if he wasn't Mirandized, it doesn't mean the whole case is thrown out. At worst, it means that the prosecutor can't use anything he said. before somebody read him his rights.
I am not a lawyer, but I do read a bunch of legal blogs.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/31/2013 10:05 Comments ||
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Law enforcement can't get its story straight in the worrisome case of Ibragim Todashev.
by Conor Friedersdorf
Timeline and commentary on the Todashev shooting and its aftermath. This is the fellow who was an associate of the Tsarnaev boys; while I won't grieve too much on his passing, it's important that the FBI tell the truth.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
FTA: this case illustrates why the FBI ought to be required to record all of its interrogations, using video when possible and at least audio in all circumstances.
I wouldn't be surprised that the Todashev incident had actually been fully recorded. Nor would I be surprised that the recordings go missing.
#4
Nobody briefed Ibby that the interrogation lunge is a poorly conceived move. That's a shame.
Posted by: regular joe ||
05/31/2013 7:03 Comments ||
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#5
The Unforgettable Year 1919 2013
Bullets fly and deadly force used as FBI agent(s) along with State Police officers fail to subdue suspect unarmed suspect. All of this happening under an administration comprised of Chicago democratic party machine black elite, labor unions, and Jewish socialists.... we've simply never seen anything like this happen before.
FORT WORTH A 72-year-old Woodhaven resident fatally shot by police officers investigating a burglary alarm from across the street was pronounced dead inside his garage, the Tarrant County medical examiner said Wednesday.
Police have said that two patrol officers encountered an armed Jerry Waller at the back of his house near the garage- driveway area. They have not specifically said where Waller was when he was shot.
But Wallers son, Chris Waller, said in an email to the Star-Telegram that the police account of the shooting is inaccurate. My father never stepped outside of his garage. He was shot multiple times in the chest only a few steps away from the doorway to his kitchen, Chris Waller said.
The confusion stems from the fact that law enforcement officers can do no wrong.
#9
On the other hand, using information that is easily discoverable about Todashev, if he threw anything at me, whether or not he was armed, and if I were armed, I'd shoot him rather than wrestle with him.
"An agent shot and killed Todashev inside his apartment after what the FBI called a "violent confrontation." The FBI has not been clear about what sparked that shooting, or if he had a weapon, but neighbors were surprised by what they found on his front door -- a stenciled picture of what appears to be an AK-47."
See: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/fbi-clears-scene-of-deadly-shooting-linked-to-boston-bomber/-/1637132/20300086/-/wiil1fz/-/index.html For the photo.
Posted by: George Glaigum7976 ||
05/31/2013 18:33 Comments ||
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[Washington Post] Pakistain's Taliban said Thursday that it will not participate in peace talks with the country's new government and will extract "Dire Revenge™ in the strongest way" after one of its top leaders was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike.
Confirming the death of Wali ur-Rehman, the second-ranking leader of the myrmidon group, the Taliban's chief front man blamed Pakistain's government for not doing more to prevent CIA-launched drone strikes on Pak soil.
"The government has failed to stop drone strikes, so we decided to end any talks with the government," Ehsanullah Ehsan, the front man, said in a phone interview. "Our attacks in Pakistain will continue."
U.S. officials had blamed Rehman, who was the chief deputy to Pak Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, for a series of bloody cross-border attacks against U.S. and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... personnel in Afghanistan, including a 2009 assault that killed seven Americans at a CIA facility.
In a move that appeared to test President B.O.'s revised policy for the use of unmanned drones, two missiles were fired into a house Wednesday in Pakistain's North Wazoo tribal region. Rehman was killed along with at least three other myrmidons.
Pakistain's national government condemned the strike, but it comes less than a week before the swearing-in of a new national assembly that is expected to install 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... as prime minister. Sharif, who twice held the post in the 1990s, campaigned against continued U.S. drone strikes in the May 11 national elections, as did numerous Pak politicians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Sorry, but I still wanna see some kind of formal confirmation from Ayman andor Mullah Omar.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/31/2013 9:56 Comments ||
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#3
Fer crissake, if we want to strike at the leadership of the terrorists in the Indo-Pak area, we should take out the officers of the Pakistani "intelligence" bureau.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/31/2013 10:59 Comments ||
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[BETA.DAWN] His back leant on a cushion against the wall, eyes half-closed, he gave some quick lesson to one of the disciples in waiting while another massaged his leg and in-between managed incessant phone calls for him.
A religious scholar who heads the sprawling Darul Uloom Haqqania, on the Grand Trunk Road in Akora Khattak, Maulana 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... 's political stock has suddenly gone up, his eldest son's defeat on a National Assembly seat notwithstanding.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Authorities in Pakistain-administered Kashmire on Thursday cleared a Chinese man accused of committing blasphemy by desecrating a Koran, officials said.
Lee Ping, the administration manager of a Chinese consortium building a major hydropower project, was accused on May 17 of throwing the Islamic holy book on the ground, prompting hundreds of workers to attack his company offices.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistain, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Musselmens. Even unproven allegations can spark a violent and sometimes deadly public response.
Police took Lee into protective custody at a secret location after protests erupted at the company offices near Muzaffarabad, the main town of the disputed Himalayan region, but on Thursday he was cleared.
"Police investigation has cleared the Chinese worker of desecration of Koran charges," cabinet minister Matloob Inqalabi told news hounds.
"No such incident of desecration of Koran happened there," he said, adding that action would be taken against the people involved in the violence.
"Police has identified 35 people who were involved in violence at the project on that day. Legal action will be taken against them," said Inqalabi.
But he refused to reveal the whereabouts of the Chinese worker or what would happen to him.
Lee was accused of throwing a copy of the Koran on the ground while moving the belongings of a Pak doctor after he had refused to vacate his room for relocation.
Pakistain and China have close relations and Chinese firms and engineers are working in development and energy projects across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM Israel is preparing to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem as the United States strives to revive dormant Palestinian-Israel peace talks, an NGO said late Wednesday.
Danny Seidemann, director of Jerusalem settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem, said that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Both are in mainly-Arab areas of the city which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day war. The move is still unrecognised by the international community.
Seidemann said that the plans were approved last year, before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly ordered a settlement freeze, but the latest steps in their implementation were leaked to media by the office of hardline Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel.
This does not mean that the freeze is over, it does mean that Netanyahus minister of construction is trying to achieve that, Seidemann said. Ariel is himself a settler and number two in the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, which joined Netanyahus coalition government.
Although the freeze was never officially confirmed, NGOs said that Netanyahu did not want to be seen as hampering US Secretary of State John Kerrys initiative to breathe fresh life into moribund peace efforts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[BBC.CO.UK] The Syrian army has scored "major victories" against rebels and now holds "the balance of power" in the conflict, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... has told a Lebanese TV station.
He also suggested Syria had received the first shipment of an advanced Russian air defence system.
Russia vowed earlier this week to go ahead with sending S-300 missiles.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene... the main opposition outside Syria said it would not take part in peace talks while massacres continued.
Speaking in Istanbul where the Syrian National Coalition is meeting, its interim head, George Sabra, said that talk of diplomatic conferences was farcical while Syrian government forces backed by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah were carrying out heinous crimes.
President Assad's interview with Hezbollah-linked al-Manar TV was broadcast on Thursday.
He said he was "very confident" about the victory of his forces, and said Russia had fulfilled some of its weapons contracts.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... he did not specify whether this included the S-300 missiles.
In excerpts published before the broadcast, Mr Assad also admits that Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement are co-operating, or "on the same axis".
"Hezbollah fighters are deployed along the Lebanese-Syrian borders but the operations are conducted by the Syrian army until the terrorist groups are crushed", he is quoted as saying.
Mr Assad condemns backing for the rebels from Turkey, Qatar and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , claiming there are now 100,000 imported muscle on Syrian soil.
'Invading'
Earlier, a rebel leader accused Hezbollah of "invading" Syria.
Gen Selim Idriss, the military chief of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels, the Free Syrian Army, claimed that more than 7,000 fighters of the Lebanese Shia movement were taking part in attacks on the rebel-held town of Qusair.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Unofficial reports have the Syrian government controlling 75-80 percent of the country. A few months ago, it was "around half".
[BLOOMBERG] Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili said his nation must defend the rights of women as mothers and resist the approach of Western nations where they are counted as an "economic tool." "Keep them as breeding stock. Men shouldn't have to compete against them. It's undignified."
"Women's core identity lies in motherhood and her role should be defined within that framework, not in an economic context," Jalili, who's also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, told a female audience at a political rally late yesterday. "Truly valuable wimmin bear nothing but sons, and lots of them."
Jalili, one of eight candidates cleared by Iran's brass hats for the June 14 presidential election, is considered a possible front-runner. President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, who's completing his second four-year term, isn't eligible to run. Which is just as well, since even Fearless Leader is tired of Short Round.
Western nations are proponents of individuality while in Islam the focus is on the family, Jalili said, according to the state-run Fars news agency. That's the difference between a primitive society and a modern society, isn't it? The West looks at the mind (occasionally finding none) while primitives look at the pee-pee.
"The West says society should work to its full potential, and since women constitute half of the population, their work power cannot be ignored and should be included in the economic cycle," Jalili said. Seems to make sense to me, but I'm not a primitive. Keeping them as breeding stock seems kind of limiting.
"Making use of women as an object and lowering her greatness to the level of a workforce and economic tool is very different from how they are viewed in Islam," Jalili said. "We are backers of women's rights, especially in comparison to the West." With that sort of logic, I'm surprised more Mohammedans don't blow themselves up.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[BETA.DAWN] The B.O. regime is accusing Iran of increasing support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades.
The administration also says core elements of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistain are headed for defeat, as their leaders increasingly fight for survival.
The State Department released Country Reports on Terrorism for 2012 on Thursday.
The reports say Iran's sponsorship of terror has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s, with attacks plotted in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Those include an attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed six, as well as thwarted strikes in India, Thailand, Georgia and Kenya.
The reports say core al Qaeda continues to weaken. But they also note the US must defend itself from a "more decentralized and geographically dispersed terrorist threat."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Israel could overcome advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles if they were deployed in Syria but any strikes on the system would be difficult and risk alienating its supplier, Russia.
Because Russia isn't 'alienated' from Israel now, they're just selling weapons to Israel's chief enemy...
Israel has pledged to take preventive action, seeing a future Syrian S-300 as a "game-changing" threat to its own airspace as well as to the relative free rein with which it now overflies its northern foe and neighbouring Leb.
Experts agree that Israeli sabotage or open force to disrupt delivery by Russia is extremely unlikely -
...the experts are wrong, of course...
a view seemingly shored up by Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's announcement on Thursday that the first missiles had arrived.
That leaves Israel lobbying Moscow to slow down the shipment in hopes it would be overtaken and scrapped if Assad fell to a more than two-year-old rebellion, and in parallel preparing counter-measures to neutralise the S-300 on the ground in Syria.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror as warning European diplomats that Israel would "prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational". That may be achieved by ensuring Assad does not get the full system, experts say, or by disabling it militarily if he does.
That doesn't sound as if the Israelis are all that worried about being alienated from the Russians...
"The S-300 would be the pinnacle of Russian-supplied arms for Syria," Colonel Zvika Haimovich, a senior Israeli air force officer, told Rooters in an interview. "Though it would impinge on our operations, we are capable of overcoming it."
He said Israel's "red line" on the S-300 was "between Syria and others". This was a hint Israel might hold off on bombing the batteries as long they did not appear set on shooting down planes within Israeli airspace, of being transferred to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas or to Iran both staunch allies of Assad and enemies of Israel, or of being looted by Salafist tough guys.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Just a guess - they'll explode anyways, because of a 'coolant leak' or something...
[Al Ahram] Syria's rebels demanded on Thursday they be granted half the seats in the opposition Syrian National Coalition, warning that without strong representation of fighters on the ground the group would have no legitimacy.
"We have learned that there have been compromises to expand the coalition which include bringing in a number of politicians, and a similar number from the rebel forces operating on the ground," a statement issued in the name of the Western-backed rebel military council said.
Rebel forces had "requested 50 percent rebel and military representation," it said. "The legitimacy of the coalition will only be granted from inside (Syria), and circumventing this rebel representation will mean legitimacy is withdrawn."
The statement follows a deal struck in Istanbul to admit a liberal bloc of opposition activists into the coalition to dilute the dominance of Islamists in the organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
In the midnight hour, she cried more, more, more...
With a Rebel yell, she cried more, more, more...
The case study presented below outlines one possible scenario for future U.S.-Israeli decisionmaking on Iran's nuclear program. Given the spectrum of other available options, military force should only be employed against the program as a last resort. Yet the military option must still be credible, and ready to use if necessary. This case study is intended solely to stimulate and inform further discussion on the potential repercussions of different strike options.
It is late 2013 and the prime minister of Israel has just received a phone call from the White House relaying the findings of a recent U.S. intelligence assessment: international sanctions and negotiations with Iran have yet to persuade the regime to halt its nuclear drive. Tehran previously rejected a generous U.S. offer that would have allowed it to enrich uranium in exchange for strong nuclear safeguards, and the program continues to advance unabated. After agreeing to convene in Washington in one week to discuss strategy going forward, the prime minister and president each call a meeting with their national security advisors.
The president's team acknowledges that the United States is war weary, debt laden, and politically gridlocked. With U.S. forces having just withdrawn from Iraq and on a path to end combat operations in Afghanistan by late 2014, many hope that the attendant diversion of resources will spring the country from its financial woes and accelerate its economic recovery.
Continued on Page 49
#1
IMO in both Israel's + Iran's mind any so-called "US/US-led Airstrike(s)" is synonymous wid GROUND INVASION + OCCUPATION by same.
Widout it one is just delaying Iran from dev Nukes, NOT stopping it.
In paraph, MSM-Net Artic about the tensions between China + Japan, ASEAN over in East Asia makes it clear that DIPLOMACY ONLY HAS "LEVERAGE(S)" WHEN BACKED UP BY MILITARY FORCE/POWER.
IT HAS ALSO BEEN PREVIOUSLY DESCRIBED ANDOR INFERRED IN MSM-NET ARTICS THAT THE ONLY REAL THING IRAN + OTHER MUSLIM COUNTRIES WILL RESPECT IS "FORCE" - IOW, however successful or not Diploamcy won't mean anything to these Nations iff they preceive the US-Allies are bluffing, insincere, or weak, + NOT GOING TO RESORT TO MAJOR OR DECISIVE MILITARY FORCE.
#2
IMO, as far Israel's decision makers are concerned, the study is based on two outdated premises.
(i) Surgical strikes.
Iranians are not children from whom you take a dangerous toy while trying not to hurt them. Iran's ability to wage war should be destroyed by removing its economic/technological infrastructure---at least it's ability to get hard cash.
(ii) Israel should rely/coordinate its action with USA.
Even under friendly administrations, USA interference in ME was not an unmixed blessing.
For examples: Reagan in Lebanon, Bush turning Iran's only natural enemy into Iranian satellite, etc... . For a current administration of baby Bolsheviks, Israel's main concern is whether USA forces stationed in the Gulf will be ordered to attack Israeli forces dealing with Iran.
#3
Lets all sit down and blather like bureacrats and TALK about action. The UNITED STATES will sit there and do NOTHING. Obama NEVER will fight. Ever. For anything.
As long as Obama is President, the US will do absolutely zip.
The men in the Pentagon all wear suits and like to steer their desks. They will do nothing.
Iran will get the Atomic and get the means to deliver it too. Israel can't do it alone no matter how determined they are.
And the US lacks the Will to do anything but scratch itself and grow hair.
Iran LAUGHS at and does as it pleases. Sanctions won't stop them and Chamberlain is alive and well at the State Dept. The monkeys killed an American ambassador and we bent over.
get real...the US won't fight and the American people won't either. There just IS no Leadership. And the Pentagon has a little buttefly tattooed under its shorts.
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.
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] One of the suspects in the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby is believed to have had contact with a "terrorist instructor" now in prison for running military-style training camps which were used by Islamist 
[Washington Post] Pakistain's Taliban said Thursday that it will not participate in peace talks with the country's new government and will extract "
personnel in Afghanistan, including a 2009 assault that killed seven Americans at a CIA facility.
[BETA.DAWN] His back leant on a cushion against the wall, eyes half-closed, he gave some quick lesson to one of the disciples in waiting while another massaged his leg and in-between managed incessant phone calls for him.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[BLOOMBERG] Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili said his nation must defend the rights of women as mothers and resist the approach of Western nations where they are counted as an "economic tool."
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The case study presented below outlines one possible scenario for future U.S.-Israeli decisionmaking on Iran's nuclear program. Given the spectrum of other available options, military force should only be employed against the program as a last resort. Yet the military option must still be credible, and ready to use if necessary. This case study is intended solely to stimulate and inform further discussion on the potential repercussions of different strike options.
