[Fox News] "I did it for my country and I'm proud of it," said Milchan, who ran a successful fertilizer company in Israel before making it big in Hollywood. Obviously, no career transition period or additional training was needed.
[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... met U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice Monday evening and refused to back down on his decision not to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by the end of the year.
The pact was voted in favor of by the Loya Jirga in Kabul last week, and would allow thousands of U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... combat mission ends in 2014.
Ambassador Rice told President Karzai his proposal to delay the signing until after next year's elections was "not viable."
Her meeting with Karzai comes a day after the four-day Loya Jirga concluded on Sunday. A majority of the 2,500-member Jirga called on President Karzai to sign the document by the end of this year.
But the Afghan president has said he will not sign the pact until after the April elections and laid out three preconditions to the U.S. for signing: transparent elections in April, no raids on Afghan homes and a breakthrough in talks with the Taliban.
He said now that the Jirga has endorsed the document, he will continue bargaining with officials in Washington over his three pre-conditions.
"President Karzai outlined new conditions for signing the agreement and indicated he is not prepared to sign the bilateral security agreement (BSA) promptly," the White House statement said.
Washington insists the deal, which has taken over a year to negotiate, must be signed before the end of this year in order to secure plans for how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Rice said in Monday's meeting that waiting to sign the deal "would not provide the United States and NATO allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence."
The U.S. troops who stay beyond 2014, when most foreign combat forces leave, would primarily train and mentor Afghan forces. Some special forces would stay to conduct "counter-terror operations."
U.S. officials, including 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... and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said the deal must be signed by year-end to begin preparations for a post-2014 presence.
There are currently 47,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have indicated they would keep anywhere from 10-15,000 troops in Afghanistan post-2014.
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11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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on his decision not to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by the end of the year.
"I'm waiting... What's the matter, you guys lost my wire transfer information? Call Hans at First Swiss."
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Prince of the Pixies9883 ||
11/27/2013 18:16 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] US national security advisor Susan Rice told Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... Monday that a delay in signing a troubled security deal risked the US pulling troops out of the country completely next year.
The US said that Karzai had called for "new conditions" for signing the bilateral security agreement (BSA) to allow US forces to remain in the country after 2014.
The president held talks with Rice in Kabul after he hedged on when he would accept the deal despite a "loya jirga" assembly of Afghan tribal elders and politicians on Sunday urging him to sign it promptly.
"Without a prompt signature, the US would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US or NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... troop presence in Afghanistan," Rice told Karzai, according to a White House statement Monday.
"Ambassador Rice stressed... that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year's elections is not viable" when she met with Karzai at the end of a three-day trip to Kabul, it added.
Washington was ready to sign the deal in the coming days following the loya jirga's decision, the statement said.
But "in response, President Karzai outlined new conditions for signing the agreement and indicated he is not prepared to sign the BSA promptly".
Karzai stressed his demands for "no operations by foreign forces in residential areas, a sincere start of a grinding of the peace processor (with Taliban krazed killers), and the holding of transparent elections," his office said after Monday's late-night meeting.
At the tribal assembly last week in Kabul, Karzai exasperated Washington by saying he wanted to delay signing the deal until after April's presidential election, when he is due to step down.
The BSA will permit some US soldiers to remain after the end of 2014 when most of NATO's 75,000 US-led troops pull out.
"We believe it's untenable and impractical to wait until January to have this thing concluded," Pentagon front man Colonel Steve Warren told news hounds Monday.
"We want it closed. The American government wants it. The Afghan people want it, so Karzai needs to sign."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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Uh, I would make a comment about what happened to Najibullah when the Russians pulled out and left their puppet behind. But the last time I did that I was edited off and sent packing with my pathetic two cents worth.
Needless, nojob..uh Nutjobullah was found covered with cigarette burns ( we won't say where ) hanging by a telephone cable ( with a rather long tongue ) in the Lobby of the Defense Ministry, naked as a jaybird with about a thousand in Afghan singles placed decoratively in his butt crack.
Don't hit me. Don"t hit me. I am just telling you the truth.
I recommended that OUR puppet had better sign. He's NOT our puppet ? We didn't plug him in like an appliance from some restaurant in Baltimore ? Well, some puppets are better than others. Tell him to sign anyway.
#3
Don't sign, Hamid. See if I care. Just make damn sure your jet is all warmed up and ready to go on the runway before the last American leaves because I have a feeling your Taliban buddies might not be such great friends of yours after all. No, I don't believe that Mullah Omar will share the presidential palace with you. Or, you can go ahead and leave your jet in the hangar. Either way, see if I care.
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11/27/2013 13:44 Comments ||
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Spereting -
Najibullah and his brother were both hanged in public. Najibullah, if I remember correctly, was castrated first. We occasionally use his picture as a graphic when Hamid does something stoopid.
Hamid doesn't expect to be the one left holding the watermelon. He's going to depart immediately after the next Afghan election, probably with the national treasury in his luggage. Somebody else will get to dangle.
Personally, I hope it's Gul Agha Sherzai, but the Afghans haven't asked my opinion.
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11/27/2013 16:27 Comments ||
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You claim to know more than Spereting? I laff. BTW, can you speak Latin? I need to update a list.
[Shabelle] Figures from IMB said that there were 237 piracy related incidents in 2011, when the phenomenon reached its height. In 2012, the figure dropped to 75 and as of 14th October of this year, there have only been 10 incidents in 2013, only two of which were hijackings.
Downward pattern
Looking at the IMB figures more closely, it appears that the downward pattern in terms of frequency and capability began in mid 2012. In May last year, Smyrni was hijacked in the Indian Ocean and was finally released after a ransom was paid in March this year. This was the last ship of commercial size and value to be hijacked by the infamous Somali pirates. More vessels have been hijacked since then, however they were small fishing boats and the last incident occurred in June of this year. There have of course been other attacks on boats in the Somali basin and Indian ocean, however it has not been made clear it these were isolated incidents or a renewed rise in piracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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What might explain such a pronounced decline in piracy? A re-reading of the Koran found it un-Islamic?
#2
A likely cause, Glenmore. Either that or the fact that shipping companies started posting armed details on their ships. Funny how men with guns can bring peace. Perhaps the barrels are made from irony.
[Shabelle] The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... says it will not close Somali refugee camps in Kenya, despite an order from a government minister for the camps to shut down.
Kenya hosts nearly 500,000 Somalis who have fled their country over the past 20 years, most of whom live in the sprawling Dadaab camps near the border.
On Sunday, Kenyan Internal Security Minister Joseph Lenku said the camps must close and refugees must prepare to return to Somalia.
Kitty McKinsey, a front man for the U.N. refugee agency, said in an interview with VOA the agency is not taking Lenku's words as a command.
"We do not believe that there is any order for the refugee camps in Kenya to be closed," she said. "The Kenyan government and the Kenyan people have been very generous to the refugees over the years, and we certainly have every reason to expect that will continue to be the case."
Earlier this month, the agency and the governments of Kenya and Somalia signed an agreement to support Somali refugees who return home voluntarily.
McKinsey emphasized that the agreement did not call for the refugee camps to be shut down.
"There are no plans to close the refugee camp," she said. "Certainly the agreement that was signed among UNHCR, the govts of Kenya and Somalia does not call for the closing of the camps. There's not going to be a closure any time soon, nobody is talking about closing the camps any time soon."
A number of Somali refugees have returned home in recent months as fighting has eased in Somalia and the economy improves.
But many refugees remain in Kenya, where some have lived since the outbreak of Somalia's civil war in the early 1990s.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Renewed war is increasingly likely in Eastern Sudan, seven years after a peace agreement promised to address complaints of economic and political neglect, a report warned on Tuesday.
"Unless the East's marginalization is adequately addressed, renewed war is a growing possibility," said the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
The 2006 Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement ended years of low-level insurgency in Sudan's East, which borders Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... and includes Red Sea, Kassala and Gedaref states.
Members of the Mohammedan-non-Arab Beja people, camel herders by tradition, fought alongside Free Lions rebels of the Rashaida tribe against what they said was marginalization by the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime.
The peace deal is one of several agreements Khartoum has signed during the past eight years in an attempt to solve rebellions and conflicts across the country.
It promised power-sharing, funds for development, and rebel reintegration into Sudan's security forces or civilian life.
But many of the deal's core provisions have not been implemented and there has been no substantive "peace dividend" to most people in the East, ICG said.
It added that "social and economic conditions are gradually deteriorating, communal relations are fraying, and the prospects of preserving the fragile peace are fading fast."
Calls for resumption of armed opposition have been growing, ICG said, calling for a "comprehensive national mechanism" to address the root causes of Sudan's conflicts between the center and outlying regions.
A decade-long rebellion continues in western Darfur, while insurgencies began two years ago in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
The unrest is fueled by complaints of economic and political neglect that similarly drove the East Sudan fighters.
Leaders in the Eastern region say the 2006 peace agreement has brought benefits.
Government figures show Red Sea's poverty rate is 75 percent, but officials say that is an improvement from 90 percent poverty two years ago, thanks to increased development spending.
Malnutrition rates in Red Sea are the highest in Sudan, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... .
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11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has identified three priority areas to which it will help Somali refugees return home from Kenya, a senior official said on Tuesday.
And it's all "voluntary" doncha know...
The UNHCR signed an agreement with the governments of both countries on Nov. 10, and half a million Somali refugees living in Kenya are expected to return home voluntarily over the next three years. The number of refugees from Somalia - 1.1 million is the third highest in the world after Afghanistan and Syria.
We are trying to work with UNHCR Somalia to identify, together with the federal government of the republic of Somalia, the areas which I can call relatively safe for return, Abel Mbilinyi, UNHCR deputy representative for Kenya, told a news conference.
Currently we are looking at three areas, which are Luuq, Baidoa and a part of Kismayo where we want to start for people who want to go there.
The three areas were formerly controlled by the Islamic militant group al Shabaab but are now are under the control of the Somali National Army and African Union troops, known as Amisom.
So it's safer than certain neighborhoods in Chicago...
Amisom troops moved into Baidoa, the third largest city in south-central Somalia, 250 km (155 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, in May. Ethiopian troops ousted al Shabaab from the city in 2012. Luuq, in southwestern Gedo region, and the eastern port city of Kismayo, Somalias second biggest city, are both part of the semi-autonomous Jubaland administration.
Mbilinyi said the UNHCR can monitor the safety of returnees in these areas through partner non-governmental organisations working on the ground. Reception centres will be set up in the three cities, where returnees will receive food, household basics and other materials to help them rebuild their lives.
Stability is coming back to Somalia. Most of the country is safe even though of course Shabaab are controlling some cities throughout Somalia, Somalias ambassador to Kenya, Mohammed Ali Nur, told a news conference. We believe that soon we will liberate the whole country.
Dadaab, near the Somali border, is the worlds largest refugee camp and home to 388,000 Somali refugees, the UNHCR says. Kakuma camp holds 54,000 Somali refugees and 32,500 live in the capital, Nairobi. A help desk has been set up in Dadaab, and others are planned for Nairobi and Kakuma. The UNHCR plans to ask all Somali refugees whether they wish to return to Somalia, and if so, where.
Tens of thousands of Somalis have spontaneously returned home as stability has improved.
This year alone our office in Somalia has met close to 35,000 people who returned from Dadaab, said Mbilinyi, adding that Somali refugees from Kenya are also moving to Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa.
Push factors are undoubtedly also at play. Food rations have been cut in Dadaab, an inhospitable, overcrowded camp set in remote, arid northeast Kenya.
Kenyan politicians have called for Somali refugees to be repatriated following Septembers attack on the Westgate shopping mall by al Shabaab. One parliamentarian is reported to have called Dadaab a nursery for terrorists and demanded its closure, although no refugees have been linked to any of the attacks on Kenya.
On the other hand, several refugees have said they do not wish to return to Somalia because of the lack of schools and health facilities.
A commission of representatives from the two governments plus the UNHCR will meet in Mogadishu in the next few weeks and set up technical working groups to plan the logistics of the repatriation exercise, Mbilinyi said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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Geneva -- Following the signing on 10 November of a Tripartite Agreement between UNHCR, the Government of Kenya, and the Somali Government, UNHCR and the Kenyan Government have reiterated that all returns of Somalis refugees from Kenya to Somalia should be strictly voluntary. UNHCR does not support forced returns.
This understanding was reaffirmed last Friday (22 November) when the Kenyan and Somali refugee commissioners Badu Katelo and Ahmed Nur, visited Dadaab refugee camp-complex in north-eastern Kenya to discuss the repatriation process now starting. UNHCR works and speaks with the refugees daily, but this visit provided the refugees with the opportunity to ask high-level Somali officials about the areas to which they are considering returning - with some lively informal discussions in addition to town-hall meetings.
The Tripartite Agreement sets out the legal framework for returns to Somalia. It specifies that all returns should be voluntary and take place in safety and dignity. There is no deadline in the agreement for the returns.
Implementation of voluntary repatriation will initially concentrate on supporting on a pilot-project basis refugees who are themselves spontaneously returning to Somalia. Three areas in Somalia will be targeted for this purpose. So far, Luuq, Baidoa and Kismayo are under discussion with the refugees.
Preparations are under way in both Kenya and Somalia to implement the pilot project. In Dadaab, return help-desks have been established to provide refugees with information and assistance on repatriation to Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Media reports that a Tebu militia is the latest to hand over its base by vacating the massive Wegh airbase in southwest Libya are untrue, a senior Tebu military figure has told the Libya Herald.
"We would be willing to hand over the massive, strategic airbase to the army but only if the government is willing to pay genuine attention to our terms and conditions," said Barka Wardoku, the head of the Murzuk Military Council and a member of the Committee Monitoring the Southern Frontier.
"We seriously want to integrate into the army but the government had not yet offered up a realistic plan," he said, adding: "We've already pulled back from Murzuk towards the frontiers -- to Wegh, Wawannus and Al-Tum."
Wardoku also claimed that none of his forces had ever been paid or given clear-cut instructions for them to give up their role and their weapons.
He accused the government of ignoring Tebus who had played a major part in the revolution.
"We've been excluded from rebuilding the country," he said. "Worst of all, we've been portrayed as wild, unwanted, vicious and ungrateful militiamen. But it is the government that is reluctant to integrate us. Instead, it is strengthening regionally and ideologically based militias."
Wardoku insisted that there were only two brigades in the region that could be considered legitimate revolutionaries: the Desert Shield, which he founded, and the Oum Al-Aranib, founded by Sharfadeen Barka. The latter was the first revolutionary brigade in the whole south, founded in August 2011, he said.
True revolutionaries all over the country were being largely forgotten by the authorities, he complained. Instead, new militias, "with a variety of unpatriotic agendas" were taking over the political scene in Libya.
He said that he and Barka had sent "a thousand letters, if not more" to the previous and the present governments detailing the difficulties they had to face -- illegal immigration and drugs mafias who were now widely active on the Libyan-Algerian and Libyan-Nigerean borders.
For his part, Sharfadeen Barka said that he would not be giving up the Al-Tum military compound close to the Nigerean border because the country was in a state of absolute chaos.
"We, as true revolutionaries, want to preserve the whole frontier intact and confront any outside threat," he said. "Besides, we haven't seen any genuine intention on the part of the government to integrate us into the national army."
Members of the army who were in the base, he added, were also fed up with the government's neglect of the region which, he claimed, was deliberate.
He too spoke of being left to deal with the problems of illegal immigration. "We've caught more that 23,000 people from all over Africa," he recounted. Keeping them alive, housed and fed was a massive challenge.
He added that his forces had captured large quantities of smuggled alcohol and drugs. He said he wanted the Libyan and international press to come and see it being destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Female activists who were arrested while protesting in Cairo's downtown Tuesday were released several hours after clashes with security forces, only to find themselves in the desert, according to activist Salma Said. Said, one of the prominent activists who were arrested while protesting against a constitutional article that allows military courts to try civilians, was one of tens who were captured by police forces in front of the Shura Council's headquarters in downtown Cairo.
"We were thrown in the desert, our friends found us and we are all ok," she tweeted, adding that their friends came to pick them up.
Police forces dispersed the protest 30 minutes after it commenced, using of water cannons and teargas two days after a new controversial protest law was issued. Videos showed the police physically assaulting protesters.
The interior ministry justified the dispersal, saying the gathering broke a newly enforced protest law as the organisers did not notify authorities of their actions as the new legislation stipulates.
An earlier protest against the new anti-protest law was similarly dispersed on Tuesday. The demonstration was led by the Martyr Gaber Salah Movement, a group named after 16-year old activist Gaber Salah ("Jika"), who was killed in clashes with security forces in November 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Nice touch. I wonder if it gets further out in sand with each protest?
[Al Ahram] US Ambassador to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Samantha Power has said that Egypt's newly enacted protest law restricts freedoms.
"New law regulating peaceful protests in #Egypt simply doesn't meet intl standards," she tweeted on Tuesday.
"Gov't must protect freedoms, and this law restricts them."
Power's comments come in the wake of the dispersal of two protests in downtown Cairo on Tuesday. One of the dispersed protests was against the new protest law and the other was against the legalization of military trials for civilians.
Earlier in the day, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticised the newly approved Egyptian protest law as "seriously flawed," urging the government to amend it.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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Samantha Power has said that Egypt's newly enacted protest law restricts freedoms.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Interior Ministry justified Tuesday evening the dispersal by security forces of a protest organised outside the Shura Council in downtown Cairo against a constitutional article allowing military courts to try civilians.
The ministry said in a statement published on its Facebook page that around 200 protesters gathered in front of the Parliament's Upper house, breaking a protest law enforced Sunday, as the protest's organisers did not notify authorities about the gathering.
The ministry added that protesters blocked the main road in front of the Shura council. It said security forces warned protesters and called on them to disperse, but that the demonstrators did not comply.
The ministry accused protesters of hurling stones at security forces, a move that prompted them to use water cannons to disperse demonstrators.
According to Ahram Online's news hound present at the scene, police forces used water cannons and then teargas to disperse the rally within a few minutes.
The ministry said it had tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! 28 "rioters" and filed a complaint that still needs to be investigated by the general prosecution.
Security forces also arrested several human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activists, including Mona Seif and Salma Saed.
Protesters gathered to denounce a constitutional article that allows the trial of civilians in military courts.
Thirty members of Egypt's 50-member constitutional committee voted in favour of the article, seven against, with two abstentions. The remaining 11 were absent. Another vote is set to take place in the coming days for the article to be adopted in the final draft of the new constitution.
The text of the article mandating military trials in certain cases refers to direct attacks on military premises, camps, properties and factories; attacks on military zones and border areas, and attacks on military vehicles or personnel while they are carrying out their duties. Crimes related to military documents, secrets or funds are also included in the article.
Protesters also denounced a controversial protest law enforced Sunday, which allows security forces to disperse protests if they are not authorised by the Interior Ministry.
Particularly controversial articles include requiring protest organisers to notify authorities three days in advance of a protest's demands and imposing heavy jail terms and fines on individuals who break the law.
In its Tuesday statement, the Interior Ministry also said it warned 6-April founding member Ahmed Maher, claiming he had called for the protest. It added it has advised Maher to refer to the local cop shoppe to obtain authorisation for the protest, but that he had refused to comply.
Maher told Ahram Online he had received a call from an Interior Ministry official and that he had told him he could not ask for an authorisation stipulated by a law he did not recognise as legitimate.
Maher added that his youth group took part in the protest but he was not organising it, therefore he wasn't the one who needed to ask for authorisation.
"The police intervention was not justified. Protesters were peaceful. This morning we were also protesting on the marches of the Journalist union, and they dispersed us. Even Mubarak would let us do that," he added, referring to an earlier protest against the new anti-protest law.
The demonstration was led by the Martyr Gaber Salah Movement, a group named after 16-year old activist Gaber Salah ("Jika"), who was killed in festivities with security forces in November 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's Tamarod campaign disavowed several of its leading members on Tuesday, including two representatives of the group in the country's constituent assembly, Al-Ahram's Arabic news website reported.
The youth group is famous for spearheading the 30 June mass protests that led to the 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... on 3 July.
A member of Tamarod's central Bureau, Islam Hamam, read the statement during a presser held by several members of the campaign's central bureau and provinces' coordinators.
Tamarod said Mahmoud Badr and Mohammed Abdel Aziz, the campaign's two representatives in the 50-member constituent assembly, as well as Hassan Shahine and May Wahba, two of its spokespersons, no longer represented the organization.
It added that, along with three other leaders, they will face an internal investigation for making decisions and adopting political positions in the name of the group without consulting its members.
The organization also called for fresh protests to denounce the country's latest political developments.
Tamarod's young activists have become players in their own right on the political scene. Some of the group's leaders recently announced Tamarod would run in the upcoming parliamentary elections and repeatedly spoke in favour of the presidential candidacy of Military Chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
Some political currents have criticised Tamarod for tolerating the military's return to politics and breaches to human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... in the name of security.
Critics refer to Tamarod's approval of the forceful dispersal of two main pro-Morsi sit-ins by security forces in mid-August, which left hundreds dead.
In the last two months, collective resignations were submitted by leaders and members of the group in the southern provinces of Sohag and Beni-Suef, for the marginalising of offices outside Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Locked in a crackdown on the Moslem Brüderbund since 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... 's ouster, Egypt has launched a diplomatic offensive against the movement's foreign backers armed with funds from its old foes.
In their first salvo soon after Morsi was toppled, the military-installed rulers took aim at Qatar -- the only Gulf monarchy that openly supported the Brotherhood -- by closing the Egyptian channel of Al-Jazeera
Continued on Page 49
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11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Egyptian prosecutors questioned a former politician close to the Moslem Brüderbund Tuesday over claims he incited protesters to torture an alleged government agent during the 2011 uprising, judicial sources said.
Mahmoud El-Khodeiry, who is also a former appeals court judge, was tossed in the clink Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! during the night in Egypt's second city of Alexandria.
He was questioned over allegations he "incited protesters to torture a lawyer in (Cairo's) Tahrir Square whom he accused of being a state security officer," during the mass protests that led to the overthrow of veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , judicial sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Angola's government on Tuesday denied it had banned Islam and closed mosques in the country, after speculation that sparked outrage among Mohammedans worldwide.
"There is no war in Angola against Islam or any other religion," said Manuel Fernando, director of the National Institute for Religious Affairs, part of the ministry of culture.
"There is no official position that targets the destruction or closure of places of worship, whichever they are," Fernando told AFP.
Reports that Angola, a traditionally devout Catholic nation, would crack down on Mohammedans had drawn condemnation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and others.
In Egypt, mufti Shawqi Allam said such a move would be "a provocation not only to Angolan Mohammedans but to more than 1.5 billion Mohammedans all over the world".
The oil-rich southern African nation has a population of about 18 million people, several hundred thousand of whom are Mohammedan.
Religious organizations are required to apply for accreditation in Angola, which currently recognises 83, all of them Christian.
In October the justice ministry rejected the applications of 194 organizations, including one from the Islamic community.
David Ja, a front man for local Mohammedans, challenged the government's account and said that a number of mosques had already been closed.
Ja condemned what he described as "political persecution" and "religious intolerance."
"A mosque was closed last week in Huambo (in the south) and we have been subjected to pressure this week regarding a mosque in Luanda," he said.
According to the ministry of culture these closures were related to a lack of necessary land titles, building licenses or other official documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[WORLD.TIME] As Middle Eastern nations attempted to elbow each other aside in their efforts to offer encouraging statements about the recently-concluded nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers on Sunday, 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... took its time. More than a day later the cabinet offered its own pallid take: "If there is good will, then this agreement could represent a preliminary step toward a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear program." Behind the gritted-teeth delivery there lurked an almost palpable sense of frustration, betrayal and impotence as Saudi Arabia watched its foremost foe gain ground in a 34-year competition for influence in the region.
As discussions leading up to the historic agreement in Geneva unfurled over the past several months, Saudi did its utmost to express its discontent, lobbying behind closed doors for greater restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and rejecting at the last minute a long-sought seat on the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Security Council. Saudi officials even threatened to get their own nuclear weapons; just before the talks concluded the Saudi Ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, told The Times of London: "We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region."
"It's as if Saudi Arabia and Iran suddenly traded places," marvels Riyadh and Istanbul-based Saudi foreign affairs commentator Abdullah Al Shamri. "Now [U.S. President] Obama and [Iran's diminutive President] Rouhani are talking on the phone while their foreign ministers shake hands, and it's Saudi Arabia that is throwing the temper tantrums at the U.N., shouting about nuclear weapons and trying to show the world that they are angry."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Since they obviously believe they cannot expect any help from champ if something happens in the Arabian/Persian Gulf, the Saudis are planning to go it alone with the Mullahs.
Another terribly disturbing development from our "foreign policy" (what foreign policy?).
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/27/2013 10:47 Comments ||
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#2
Now we'll see why SA invested so much in Pakistan.
Part of the U.S. Forces Korea needs to remain north of Seoul near the frontline after headquarters relocates south of the capital, USFK commander Curtis Scaparrotti said Monday.
"In terms of the residual in what we call Area I, there may be a need operationally to leave some residual in those areas just for proper defense and response," Scaparrotti told the Defense Ministry press corps. It was his first meeting with the reporters after he was inaugurated as the new USFK commander last month.
The plan so far has been for the entire USFK to retreat to a new base in Pyeongtaek in southwestern Gyeonggi Province by 2016. But since last year, the USFK has been talking with the South Korean military about leaving the 210th Fires Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division in Dongducheon to promptly respond to threats from North Korean long-range artillery.
This suggests the U.S troops would continue to play a "tripwire" role, a term used to mean that the U.S. will automatically intervene in a war here if American soldiers in the frontline area are attacked by North Korean troops. There has been concern that if all U.S. forces retreat south, there would be no tripwire and therefore a greater threat of provocations from the North.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Why are we even there? A MAG group maybe for sales, tech support, and may equipment standardization.
#2
These are simply bodies to ensure that US casualties push us fully into any war the North starts. Their job is to die and have their corpses displayed by TV. Sad but true.
[An Nahar] A Spanish court on Tuesday freed a further 14 nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! members of Basque armed separatist group ETA, a court source said, under a rights ruling that has outraged victims' families.
Spanish media said those freed included Javier Martinez Izaguirre, who was convicted of an attack that killed a toddler in 1991.
Many Spaniards are outraged by the release of ETA prisoners convicted of deadly shootings and bombings in a violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern La Belle France.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled last month that Spain had acted illegally by retroactively cutting short the years of remission that an ETA prisoner had earned from good behavior.
Dozens of other ETA members who had their remissions cut short under the same policy have since been released under the European court ruling.
"Today 14 imprisoned ETA members have been freed on the order of the National Court, under the Strasbourg ruling," and the prisons had been ordered to free them immediately, said a court source who asked not to be named on Tuesday.
In October 2011, ETA declared a "definitive end to armed activity" but it has not formally disarmed nor disbanded as the Spanish and French governments demand.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
It is not about rights it is about retroactivity.
Summary: Somewhat in the 70s Franco's regime in, order to try to congratiate with European countries introduced a new Criminal Code who was a liberal's dream. One of its tenets was that even if you were sentenced to a million years in jail you would only serve thirty years. Add to it you could redeem serving time by the most egregious ways: washing floors, taking classes and even by playing soccer and this was calculated basing on ypur million yeas sentence but on the 30 years cap. But Franco died and terrorism (virtually unxistant during the dictaorship) thrived along with crime. After more than fifteen years resisting changing the law the socialist party ended changing it to "pain reductions are calculated on the sum of the years you have been sentenced to". Ie if you play soccer you will redeem 3 of your 4952 year sentence. Then Spanish government tried to apply the new law to people who had already been sentenced. Since laws, and specially crimal laws are, not supposed to be retroactive a female terrorist ppealed to the Human Rights Court and this ordered her to be released. Like very sentence it aonly applied to that particular case ie she was the only one to be released. But the Spanishg Governement has been releasing them by the dozzens along with serial kilelrs and rapers.
Turkey's gold exports to Iran may hike dramatically if western sanctions against Iran are eased, said Ayhan Güner, head of Turkey's Jewelry Exporters Association, via a written statement on Nov. 25, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
They have to pay for the oil somehow...
"We can increase our gold exports to Iran dramatically if the sanctions against Iran are eased," he noted.
More importantly, Turkey may export jewelry to Iran, which has been banned by Iran, he said.
"It will be very positive for our sector if we can sell jewelry, other than gold, to Iran," he added.
Turkey exported around $6.4 billion worth of gold to Iran in the first nine months of last year, but it closed the year at around $6.5 billion worth of gold exports to the country due to the latest sanctions, according to data from the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK). Turkey exported approximately $1.6 billion worth of gold to Iran in the first nine months of this year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Militants released on Tuesday 11 teachers who had been kidnapped during a 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... vaccination campaign last week, local officials said. The teachers were seized by bully boyz on November 21 from a school in the Khyber Agency. They were kidnapped just after a team giving polio vaccinations had left the school and the bully boyz may have mistaken them for the polio team, Khyber official Niaz Ahmad Khan said. They were moved to an area controlled by Death Eater leader Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... and his Taliban-affiliated group, Lashkar-e-Islam.
Khan said a group of tribal elders, known as a jirga, was sent to secure the teachers' release. "The bully boyz cooperated with the jirga members and freed all the kidnapped...teachers," said Khan. A tribal elder, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said the bully boyz freed the teachers on condition the government stop sending polio teams to the area. Gunmen frequently attack polio vaccination workers, accusing them of being Western spies and part of a plot to sterilise Musselmens.
"The polio workers have been released in Tirah valley and they will reach Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. by tomorrow (Wednesday)," Nasir Khan, a senior Khyber administration official, told AFP. Their release was secured with the help of tribal elders, he added. A local intelligence official confirmed the release. Officials in Khyber said the group was made up of four teachers at a private school, a male nurse and two volunteers. A global eradication campaign has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent in the last three decades, but it remains endemic in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistain. The disease is highly infectious and can cause irreversible paralysis.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] An anti-terrorism court has declared former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former 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... governor Owais Ghani and Dera Bugti's ex-DCO as absconders in the Akbar Bugti murder case.
The Anti-Terrorism Court Quetta made the designations while hearing the case on Tuesday. Former interior minister Aftab Sherpao also showed up on court orders. The court rejected former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... 's plea for exemption, and ordered that he be produced in the court on the next hearing. Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former Balochistan governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, former district coordination officer (DCO) Abdul Samad Lasi were declared runaways and the court ordered the authorities to seize their properties.
The hearing was adjourned to December 24. Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in a cave on August 26, 2006 during a military crackdown ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. Bugti had led an armed campaign to press for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan's natural resources. The death of the Baloch chieftain sparked angry protests in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] The Aurat Foundation Lahore organised a candlelight vigil in connection with the 23rd annual 16 Days of activism against gender-based violence campaign at chairing cross on Tuesday.
The campaign theme entitled "From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let's Challenge militarism and End Violence against Women!" highlighted the intersections of gender-based violence and militarism. On this occasion, activists of civil society and dozens of people from different walks of life participated and expressed solidarity with women for their rights.
They also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud while carrying placards and banners inscribed with different slogans in the favour of women. Participants also demanded of the government to implement legislation on related issues like economic and social rights experienced by women and their communities.
According to Aurat Foundation report, total 4818 cases of gender-based violence in Punjab were registered from January to October 2013 in which total 5151 women were victims including abduction, murder and gang rape cases on top figure in the report.
Aurat Foundation Resident Director, Nasreen Zehra said gender-based violence and militarism deeply interconnected with economic and social rights. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the impact of militarism can be seen in the way military budgets and war are denied social, political, economic rights and attacked or killed for advocating for these rights, she added. She further said, "We must end gender-based and domestic violence, economic assesses and social equality is structurally part of the full realisation of the human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... of all individuals. Aurat Foundation Provincial Manager, Mumtaz Mughal said 16 days campaign was a powerful platform to raise the call for an end to gender-based violence and advocate for the full realisation of human rights and achievement of gender equality.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
My sister Ann once hit me with a Baton in my ribs, I think it was intentional. The crime is a few years old, but hate-crimes don't got no term limits? amirite?
She used it like trained Ninja, so, um... nevermind let it go, I don't need the trouble.
[An Nahar] A U.N. rights committee on Tuesday passed a "right to privacy" resolution pressed by Germany and Brazil which have led international outrage over reports of U.S. spying on their leaders.
The resolution, without naming any countries, says that surveillance and data interception by governments and companies "may violate or abuse human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... ."
The United States and key allies Britannia, Australia, Canada and New Zealand joined a consensus vote passing the resolution after language which suggested that foreign spying would be a rights violation was weakened.
The resolution said the U.N. General Assembly's rights committee is "deeply concerned at the negative impact" that surveillance and interception of communications "including extraterritorial surveillance" can have on human rights.
Germany and Brazil had wanted the resolution to say the assembly was "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications."
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff have reacted with fury to reports that the U.S. National Security Agency has spied on their phone calls and office communications.
Germany's U.N. ambassador Peter Wittig said that while the resolution is non-binding it was an important "political message".
Wittig stressed that it was the first time that the U.N. has said that "unlawful and arbitrary surveillance domestically and extra territorially might violate human rights."
The resolution will now go to the full 193-member U.N. General Assembly for a vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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Lousy deal made in the middle of the night to get the ObumbleCare train wreck off the front page.
Wag the dog, anything to try to get people to forget ObumbleCare...they forget it doesn't have to be in the media, the havoc of ObumbleCare arrives in the mail in cancellation notices, rate increases, and denials of coverage.
The media does have a low opinion of the average citizen.
As for this agreement, I told you the Iranians wouldn't honor it. The ink isn't dry and they are already quibbling about the fine print...next they will tear it up and say it doesn't mean anything. And away they go.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/27/2013 10:24 Comments ||
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#2
They don't care, they already got their eight billion dollars or so.
[FREEBEACON] Iranian officials say that the White House is misleading the public about the details of an interim nuclear agreement reached over the weekend in Geneva.
Iran and Western nations including the United States came to an agreement on the framework for an interim deal late Saturday night in Geneva. The deal has yet to be implemented
The White House released a multi-page fact sheet containing details of the draft agreement shortly after the deal was announced.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Iranian foreign ministry official on Tuesday rejected the White House's version of the deal as "invalid" and accused Washington of releasing a factually inaccurate primer that misleads the American public.
"What has been released by the website of the White House as a fact sheet is a one-sided interpretation of the agreed text in Geneva and some of the explanations and words in the sheet contradict the text of the Joint Plan of Action, and this fact sheet has unfortunately been translated and released in the name of the Geneva agreement by certain media, which is not true," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told the Iranian press on Tuesday.
Afkham and officials said that the White House has "modified" key details of the deal and released their own version of the agreement.
Iran's right to enrich uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, is fully recognized under the draft released by Tehran.
"This comprehensive solution would enable Iran to fully enjoy its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the relevant articles of the NPT in conformity with its obligations therein," the agreement reads, according to a copy released to Iranian state-run media.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#3
Raj, Iran has been more truthful over time. The West (and Obama) ignore their words and actions just as they do w/r the Palestinians. You can save wear and tear on your pocket digging for a coin.
#7
I think it's a case of The Chicago Way being overpowered by the Mad Mullahs overwhelming urge to rub the nose of The Great Satan in the stinky doggy doo.
Champ tried to stretch the truth to make himself look better, hoping the Mullahs wouldn't notice. Or maybe they told Lurch, "Don't worry about it (wink, wink)".
Either way, the inexperienced clods in D.C. have been outclassed by the expert Persian back-stabbers. Unexpectedly!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/27/2013 7:45 Comments ||
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#8
Every day the regime rejects the advice and guidance of John Bolton and Netanyahu is another day of foreign affairs failure.
#15
Zero has never been anything better than a junior Senator from Illinois. And a flop at community organizing in general. Look at what the rebels he organized did to our diplomats in Benghazi, Libya.
Heard his golf scores aren't that impressive either, and those he probably lies about, too.
#18
Alternatively, the Iranians just decided to renegotiate the deal, and the administration is stuck with deciding whether they still have a deal or not, after losing the X billion dollars.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah criticized on Tuesday the politicization of the incident at Universite Saint Joseph at the Huvelin neighborhood in Beirut on Monday.
He said during a presser: "Those who have been defeated on the political scene are taking out their frustrations and creating incitement through the USJ incident."
"They will continue to take out their frustrations against Hizbullah and create incitement whenever they suffer regional setbacks," he said.
"Illusory problems were created at USJ on Monday," he remarked.
The MP explained that the tensions arose when students where being harassed and prevented from expressing themselves, so they were forced to leave the campus and stage a sit-in outside its doors.
Media reports had said that Hizbullah supporters had surrounded the campus in protest against last week's student elections results.
Phalange MP Sami Gemayel on Monday said that the tensions were sparked after Hizbullah supporters wrote graffiti on the campus praising Habib al-Shartouni, who assassinated former President Bashir Gemayel in 1982.
"The USJ administration denied claims that the university campus was surrounded," continued Fadlallah.
"Tensions are normal between students and we didn't see the need for political intervention," he noted
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] One of the jacket wallahs behind the attack against the Iranian embassy in Beirut last week had arrived in Leb from Kuwait two months ago, reported An Nahar daily on Tuesday.
It said that Moein Abu Dahr spent the two months residing in Leb and Syria and that he entered the countries using his identification card.
Investigations also revealed that he had held a telephone conversation with an inmate at Roumieh prison, who was nabbed You have the right to remain silent... over his links to unrest in the Abra neighborhood in the southern city of Sidon in June.
The other suicide bomber, Adnan al-Mohammed, was a Paleostinian resident of Ein el-Hellhole.
Investigations also revealed that the Abu Dahr and Mohammed had been indicted by the military judiciary for their links to the Abra festivities.
They were supporters of Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir ...Leb Salafist holy man with the usual grouch against Shiites. Currently on the run, he seems intent on reigniting the Leb civil war... , but not prominent members of his following, it explained.
Supporters of the holy man were involved in festivities with the army in Abra in June.
Eighteen soldiers were martyred and 20 others were maimed in the attack and in the fierce festivities that ensued. Twenty of Asir's gunnies were also killed in the fighting.
The fighting in Abra was among the worst in Leb since the outbreak of conflict in neighboring Syria 27 months ago deepened sectarian tensions.
Asir, a 45-year-old holy man who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , is wanted by the Lebanese authorities and has been missing ever since the army defeated his supporters in Abra.
Twenty-five people were killed and over 140 maimed in twin suicide kaboom near the Iranian embassy in the Bir Hassan neighborhood of Beirut on November 19.
An al-Qaeda-affiliated group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, grabbed credit for the attack, saying that it was aimed at pressuring Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Lebanese army had monitored the movement of the black Buick rigged with around 350 kilograms of explosives and seized it without any help offered by any side, media reports said on Tuesday.
According to As Safir newspaper, a security source denied reports saying that a specific party helped the army in seizing the car bomb.
On Friday, the army defused the Buick vehicle, which was located between the towns of Maqne and Younine in eastern Bekaa, and rigged with a large quantity of explosives.
The source told As Safir that investigations are ongoing, pointing out that key details were uncovered.
An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday that the assailants of the explosive-rigged vehicle have been locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by Hizbullah.
The army command has said in a terse communique that the car was seized by soldiers, without giving further details although media reports said the car was also carrying mortar rounds and a high-tech remote control that triggers the explosives through a phone or a jacket wallah.
Despite the conflicting reports, An Nahar confirmed that the Buick was heading to Beirut through the international Baalbek-Homs highway.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Coalition will take full possession of the country's seat on the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... now that it has formed a provisional government, its chief said Tuesday in Cairo.
Ahmad Jarba, speaking at a news conference with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, also said the Coalition would hold a meeting sometime next month to discuss strategy ahead of a peace conference scheduled for January 22 in Geneva.
The 22-member League suspended the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... in 2011 after it unleashed a bloody crackdown on a pro-democracy movement that sparked a violent uprising.
The League subsequently granted the seat to the Coalition, which assumed it at a ceremony in March, but postponed full participation in the body's activities until a provisional government was formed.
That has now been accomplished, and Jarba said he would be making a formal speech in the coming days to coincide with the Coalition becoming fully active in the body.
Turning to plans for a meeting ahead of the so-called Geneva II peace conference, Jarba did not say when or where this would be or what would be on the agenda.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... he reiterated the Coalition's conditions that it will attend only if Assad has no role in any political transition, that those people who have been tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... for their part in the uprising be freed and that humanitarian corridors be opened to areas under government siege.
During the news conference, Jarba was asked about whether Iran, a close ally of the Assad regime, should be allowed to sit at the table in Geneva.
He accused the Islamic republic of "occupying Syria," and also called for Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hizbullah to withdraw their fighters from Syria. He accused them of "impairing opportunities for reform and political advances."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Huffpoo] WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the early years after 9/11, the CIA turned some Guantanamo Bay prisoners into double agents then sent them home to help the U.S. kill terrorists, current and former U.S. officials said.
The CIA promised the prisoners freedom, safety for their families and millions of dollars from the agency's secret accounts.
It was a risky gamble. Officials knew there was a chance that some prisoners might quickly spurn their deal and kill Americans.
For the CIA, that was an acceptable risk in a dangerous business. For the American public, which was never told, the program was one of the many secret trade-offs the government made on its behalf. At the same time the government used the risk of terrorism to justify imprisoning people indefinitely, it was releasing dangerous people from prison to work for the CIA.
The program was carried out in a secret facility built a few hundred yards from the administrative offices of the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The eight small cottages were hidden behind a ridge covered in thick scrub and cactus.
The program and the handful of men who passed through these cottages had various official CIA code names.
But those who were aware of the cluster of cottages knew it best by its sobriquet: Penny Lane. Obviously the acceptance of extremely high recidivism rates had a purpose. Those in the field and most readers here, knew exactly what was going on. Acceptable losses among the troops, no problem. A bit different however, when our own begin to die, then suddenly, it's time to re-examine the program. Yes indeed, FOB Chapman proved 'agent recruitment be hard'.
#4
Not at all difficult to sort out. When the troops detained a known terr [known because he was identified through usually reliable sources and follow-up biometrics], but are ordered to release him.....everyone shares quizzical shrugs around the table at the Command and Staff meeting. Having seen the movie previously, old farts in the peanut gallery simply stare at the floor.
#5
Of course this is one way to plant doubt in the minds of the boys back home who seem not to have a sense of humor (see-killing pigeons thought to be Israeli agents). With a drone enhanced paranoia, I suspect the old age pension plan back home for returnees is something not to be counted on.
"Justified primarily on the grounds of enhanced security..."
...guess Cmdr. Zero learned something about Benghazi...those Cardinals and Bishops with those funny-looking hats have just GOT to be terrorists, right..?/sarc
The Obama administration, in whats been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See a free-standing facility and relocate offices onto the grounds of the larger American Embassy in Italy.
The new offices will be in a separate building on the property, Breitbart reported.
And while U.S. officials are touting the relocation as a security measure thats a cautionary reaction to last years attacks on America's facility in Benghazi, several former American envoys are raising the red flag.
Its a massive downgrade of U.S.-Vatican ties, said former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson in the National Catholic Reporter. Its turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy. The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and [its] an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
11/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama doesn't like Catholics....ask the Nuns in the Convent with the high Insurance premiums ( if you like your plan you can keep it. Period !) to pay for their Obamacare Maternity leave, Gyno exams and free Condoms. Pay up, Mackeral Snappers.
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.
[Tolo News] 
Somali pirates
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Tamarod campaign disavowed several of its leading members on Tuesday, including two representatives of the group in the country's constituent assembly, Al-Ahram's Arabic news website reported.
Turkey's gold exports to Iran may hike dramatically if western sanctions against Iran are eased, said Ayhan Güner, head of Turkey's Jewelry Exporters Association, via a written statement on Nov. 25, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Pervez 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
