[Washington Post] Afghan military and police commanders are accusing the U.S.-led coalition of withholding fuel and other support in an attempt to pressure President Hamid 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... into signing a security agreement with the United States. We poison wells, too.
Coalition officials strongly deny the allegation, the latest disagreement between the Karzai government and U.S. military leaders. We kidnap Afghan children and use them to make stew.
According to a statement from Karzai, the issue arose during a meeting of his national security council on Sunday. Afghan military and police commanders complained that their forces are struggling with a fuel shortage and said they suspect the United States is using the resource as leverage over Karzai. Actually, we just kidnap Pashtun children. Tadjik kiddies aren't nearly as tasty. And Uzbek kids will make you fat.
"This deed is contrary to the prior commitment of America," Karzai's statement said. "Afghan forces are facing interruption in conducting of their activities as a result of the cessation of fuel and supportive services." We have a machine that emits invisible rays that make Pashtuns stupid.
But coalition officials say they are baffled by the claim, which was made by Afghan defense and interior ministers. And every one of our units in Afghanistan has a shaman.
"There has been no stoppage in the delivery of requested fuel, and we continue to process all orders as soon as they are received from the ANSF," the coalition said in a statement. "We remain committed to supporting our ANSF partners and will continue to do so." I mean a real shaman, not just a guy that dances around wearing a funny hat with paint on his face.
From 2007 through 2012, the U.S. government has spent about $500 million on fuel for the Afghan military, with another $135 million budgeted for this year, according to an October report by the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction. The one we had in Kandahar used to set people on fire, just by rattling his gourd full of human finger bones.
The conflicting statements are another sign of the rising tension between Karzai's government and the B.O. regime over future plans to keep up to 15,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan after 2014. And the guy working out of the embassy in Kabul keeps turning people into hamsters.
Though a tentative agreement to allow for an extended U.S. presence was reached 10 days ago, Karzai has so far refused to sign it. He is insisting on additional concessions from the United States, including an end to military raids on Afghan homes, a reduction in drone strikes and help in launching peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban bully boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Karzai government accuses U.S of withholding fuel from Afghan troops
Translation: ISAF no longer looking the other way regarding theft of fuel.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2013 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'd rather see they guy as a non-descript restaurant owner in Baltimore, but I wonder, now, if the MSM is merely doing the Champ's bidding, making the Afghan thingy look hopeless. And pointless, so when we do bail, Champ can be viewed as the Savior of Bush's Not-So-Bad-But-Really-Poorly-Chosen War.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/02/2013 13:23 Comments ||
Top||
[VOA News] A 50-member panel has approved a new draft constitution for Egypt and will put it before voters by next month.
The draft is the first step towards bringing democratic rule back to Egypt after the July ouster of 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...
It would also replace the Morsi pro-Islamic constitution.
The new constitution calls for presidential and parliamentary elections within six months after voters ratify it. But it would be up to interim President Adly Mansour to decide which election would be held first.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... authorities used tear gas Sunday to break up a protest in Cairo's Tahir Square against Mr. Morsi's ouster. No injuries were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Al Ahram] The 50 member committee has unanimously voted for an article in the draft constitution eliminating the parliament Upper House (Shura Council). Employees of the Shura Council will be transfered to work in the parliament Lower House (House of Representatives) according to the article.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Al Ahram] The Egyptian Social Democratic Party, which had called for protests on Sunday at Cairo University to denounce the death of a student in festivities a day earlier, stated that it had asked members of the Moslem Brüderbund not to join the demonstrations.
The party had called for a protest at the university where festivities between pro-Brotherhood students and security forces had led to the death of student Mohammed Reda the day before.
After a protest at the campus, groups of demonstrators marched from the campus across the Nile river into central Cairo and into Tahrir Square on Sunday afternoon.
Once in the square, demonstrators denounced what they described as a coup against former 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... , who hails from the Brotherhood, and demanded the removal of both the interior minister and the minister of higher education. Police dispersed the gathered protesters with teargas.
In a statement released on Sunday evening, a front man for the party said the Brotherhood have "a habit of lying, empty promises, and solely pursing their own benefits."
According to the statement, the party asked all participants in the marches not to deploy any political slogans, but said that the Moslem Brüderbund had failed to follow instructions.
The statement also accused the Brotherhood of causing divisions between the students.
Hazem Tareq, a front man for the pro-Morsi Students Movement Against the Coup, stated on Sunday that Egyptian youth would "take to the squares and streets" to denounce the "coup" instead of remaining on university campuses.
"From today onwards, no voice will rise above the students' voices," he said.
Student protesters later re-grouped after being dispersed by security forces from Tahrir. Police prevented them from marching between two nearby squares, Abdel-Moneim Riyad and Ramsis, firing more teargas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Al Ahram] Egypt's prosecution has called for Interpol's assistance in the arrest of hardline Islamist Assem Abdel-Maged, following his appearance on Qatari Al-Jazeera channel
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Gemaa Al-Islamiya
[Al Ahram] A leader of a hardline Egyptian Islamist group that fought the state in the 1990s warned that the army had driven the nation to the "edge of a precipice" since he fled the country after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July.
Egypt has been torn by the worst internal strife in its modern history since the army deposed the Islamist Morsi amid mass protests against his rule.
Assem Abdel-Maged of the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network he expected the situation in Egypt to deteriorate, saying protests "will be what breaks this coup."
He said the military made a "major mistake" by siding with "religious, political, and social minorities," an allusion to Christians and secular-minded Egyptians.
"Everything that happens in Egypt now is in the interests of the minorities. Therefore the situation cannot continue this way, and the army must review its position quickly because the country is on the edge of a precipice," Abdel-Maged said.
Abdel-Maged, who once shared a prison cell with Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri, was jailed for 25 years until 2006 for a role in the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat. He now faces charges of inciting the killing of protesters.
Egyptian security officials said Abdel-Maged fled to Qatar via the sea or the border with Libya. Qatar is one of the few Arab states that were sympathetic to Islamists during Morsi's year in power, supplying Egypt with billions of dollars in aid.
Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya renounced violence more than a decade ago and entered mainstream politics after president Hosni Mubarak's downfall in 2011. It became a close ally of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood during his one year in office.
"If the army leadership do not wake up and realise what is happening, then, unfortunately, matters will become worse in Egypt," Abdel-Maged said in the interview with Al Jazeera late on Saturday. "They will find that in the end they'll have only the tanks and soldiers on their side in a confrontation with the entire Umma (Islamic nation)."
The army deposed Morsi after mass protests against his rule. Since then hundreds of his supporters have been killed in a security crackdown while bomb attacks and shootings targeting the security forces have become commonplace, killing around 200 soldiers and policemen, most of them in the Sinai Peninsula.
The state has declared a war on Islamist militants.
In his last weeks in office, Morsi appointed a Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya member as governor of Luxor, a city on the Nile south of Cairo where members of the group killed 58 tourists in 1997.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Gemaa Al-Islamiya
[Bangla Daily Star] Deeply worried by the escalation of political violence in Bangladesh, a senior UN official yesterday cautioned the country's leaders, reminding them that the perpetrators of political or election related violence had faced prosecution in other situations.
Noting that Bangladesh is a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, "In other situations, we have seen cases of political or election related violence where the perpetrators of such acts -- including politicianship -- have faced prosecution."
"Whatever their differences, politicians on both sides must halt their destructive brinkmanship, which is pushing Bangladesh dangerously close to a major crisis," she said in a statement issued from Geneva yesterday.
On a similar note, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... has urged politicians of the two rival camps to refrain from any actions that could spark further violence.
"The EU calls on the leaders of all political parties to agree on a mutually acceptable formula so as to facilitate the holding of elections which fully reflect the wishes of the people," Catherine Ashton, high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, said in a statement.
The strongly-worded statements came in the wake of an apparent failure of a series of diplomatic efforts by the international community that has long been trying to persuade the ruling Awami League and the main opposition BNP to reach an agreement over the next parliamentary polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP is in a leadership crisis as many of its big shots are behind bars, while those out are either on the run to avoid arrests or too old for active politics.
In addition, party sources say, the top brass of its Dhaka city unit remains inactive fearing police action.
All these have left BNP chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... struggling to pick a leader to guide the party through, particularly after acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has gone into hiding to escape arrest, the sources add.
Party's Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed had been acting as the party spokesperson since Fakhrul went into hiding following the arrest of three standing committee members -- Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia -- on November 8.
Khaleda's adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo and her special assistant Shimul Biswas were also jugged Please don't kill me! on the same day. Last week, another standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah was picked up. They all face charges of instigating recent hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... violence.
Things took a turn for the worse for the party after police arrested Rizvi from its Nayapaltan office early on Friday on similar charges.
To carry out the party's official activities and handle the press in Fakhrul's absence, Rizvi had been staying at the party office round the clock. To evade arrest, he never came out of the office since November 8.
Following Rizvi's arrest, the party asked Salahuddin Ahmed, another joint secretary general, to serve as acting spokesperson. But instead of appearing in public, he is making video speeches from an unknown location and sending those to various television channels. He has been doing this to avoid arrest, according to the sources.
Salahuddin is also keeping contacts with a section of media through his mobile phone, but he keeps his phone switched off most of the time so that police cannot track him, they added.
From their hideouts, Fakhrul and Salahuddin are issuing press statements and sending it to the media via email.
At the moment, five of the 18 BNP standing committee members are in jail. Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... , who is senior vice-chairman of the party, is also a standing committee member as ex officio. He went to London for treatment in 2008, and is living there since.
RA Ghani, 82, and ailing M Shamsul Islam, 81, cannot even take part in the standing committee meetings because of their advanced age.
Most of the other standing committee members that are out are accused in various cases filed over recent violence during opposition hartal and blockade. Of them, Mirza Abbas and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy face charges of instigating arson and vandalism.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The Al Qaeda-associated "Da'ash" organization has released a video in which a young German who converted to Islam four years ago calls on German Muslims to join the jihad in Syria and establish an Islamic Caliphate to rule the world.
In the video German convert "Abu Osama," a name he chose because he "loves Osama bin Laden," speaks in German. He begins saying contemplation about the goal of life and the purpose of Creation led him to Islam, adding "I am a German Muslim, and you too can consider the goal of life and submit to Allah like I did."
Abu Osama then attacks secular politicians for making human laws rather than following religious law, saying "we kill the heads of the heretics and their followers to spread world justice and to implement the law of Allah."
His message gets more personal as he says, "I am not speaking to the infidels, my words are directed at the Muslims. Are you happy with your life in Germany? Do you go to night clubs and have girlfriends? Get married...and you won't need prostitution. Get married, Allah allowed marrying 4 wives."
Abu Osama then calls for global jihad, saying "my brothers and sisters, come to...fight in jihad, since jihad is an active commandment on every Muslim. ...Donate money (to jihad)."
He closes by stating "we love death and we will win here."
Abu Osama is one of thousands of foreign jihadists coming to Syria to join the rebels. Only recently a German convert to Islam and former player on the German national soccer team was killed after he joined the fight in Syria.
[Pak Daily Times] Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid said on Sunday there should be no politicking on foreign policy and the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) should rise above its party politics.
Speaking in Islamabad, he said the PTI was pursuing a dual policy regarding the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
The stance taken by PTI leaders while being abroad was different from one they adopted here in public, he said and added that such hypocrisy was not in the national interest as it gave the world a message that Paks were a confused nation. He advised PTI leaders to avoid "hypocrisy" in the larger national interest.
He said halting and searching NATO trucks by PTI workers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... could not be termed a correct action. The PTI leadership had failed to guide and rein in its workers, he said and added non-state actors could not be allowed to run the state affairs.
He said the main leadership of PTI, including its chairman, was absent in the sit-ins against drone strikes. Even in the FIR against drone attacks, the PTI has not nominated any particular person as accused, the minister said.
He said that the government was serious in resolving the drone issue, adding that it had highlighted the issue at the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... and also taken up it with the United States.
He said urban planning projects were ongoing in KP with the help of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and dollars were flowing in the province.
According to Pervaiz Rashid, there should be no muscle flexing on national issues and instead negotiations should be preferred for their resolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Thousands of people rallied in Lahore on Sunday in protest at continued US drone strikes in the country's troubled northwest.
Around 5,000 protesters raised anti-US slogans and called for an immediate end to the drone strikes at the rally organised by the Defence of Pakistain Council (DPC), a coalition of around 40 religious and political parties.
The demonstrators rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud calling for the blocking of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies for Afghanistan which are transported through Pakistain.
DPC chief 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... , in a televised address to the rally, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had come under US pressure and was not expected to play a positive role in getting the drone strikes stopped.
He appealed to all political parties, religious scholars and members of civil society to unite against the attacks.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... , leader of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... , also called for unity.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
[Pak Daily Times] The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden has spoken out to demand better conditions in prison and complain of being falsely implicated in a treason case, his lawyer said on Sunday. Shakeel Afridi also called for access to his lawyer in a letter that his attorney, Samiullah Afridi, who shares his client's tribal name, said was genuine.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has urged the government to initiate dialogue process with the Taliban to establish peace in the country.
Talking to news hounds at Sukkur airport on Sunday, he said all political parties have already given a mandate to the government in this regard.
He called for forging unity against drone strikes. "The nation should get united to stop these attacks which violate Pakistain's illusory sovereignty."
He added the US presence in Afghanistan is not in the interest of the region.
To a question, he said Pakistain wants cordial relations with all of its neighbours. He stressed the need for developing national consensus over issues confronting the illusory sovereignty and stability of country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
[Pak Daily Times] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai said Sunday the anti-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... campaign would continue despite attacks on coppers guarding the vaccinators. The announcement came after a report that the government cancelled the campaign in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas following the attack on a polio team in the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Muslim groups in Mindanao have called on two Moro forces to unify their efforts. Ali T. Yacub, president of a Muslim group called Golden Crescent, said, "[The unity between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)] is very important. This is to facilitate discussions in the peace process."
Both forces have been at odds for years due to ideological differences and the issue of Moro ethnolinguistic divisions. The MNLF has a big following in Western Mindanao, while the MILF controls the mainland of the island.
The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) earlier created a Bangsamoro Coordination Forum as a solution to unite the two Moro forces in Mindanao and resolve the difference in their ideologies. Prof. Ekemelddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the 57-nation OIC, has said the two Moro forces should unite since the peace process revolves "around the same problem and the same territory. The process of coordination between the two forces has become of utmost necessity."
Other Muslim groups here have also noted that before any efforts to unify the two Moro forces, the MNLF itself should be unified.The MNLF is now broken into several factions due to leadership conflicts.
Datu Randy Karon, an MNLF leader based in central Mindanao, said there are efforts to resolve the internal conflicts within the MNLF. He said dialogues have been started among key senior leaders of the MNLF.
[Al Ahram] No solution proposed at Syria peace talks next month will be implemented without Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... 's approval, the deputy foreign minister said in remarks published Sunday.
"The Syrian (government) delegation at Geneva will be working under Assad's directives, and any solutions proposed will have no impact unless Assad approves of them," Faisal Muqdad said in remarks in the Syrian press.
He lashed out at Western calls for Assad to step down, saying the president "represents Syria's illusory sovereignty and unity".
The US-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2, which should bring government and rebel representatives to the negotiating table in a bid to end the bloody 32-month war, is being planned for January 22.
The opposition has agreed to attend the talks on condition that they lead to a transitional phase that excludes Assad and his regime.
But government officials and their backers in Iran and Russia insist there should be no preconditions, and Assad has also said he would be willing to stand for re-election in 2014.
The proposed talks come amid rising international fears of an Islamist takeover in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
[Washington Post] Afghan military and police commanders are accusing the U.S.-led coalition of withholding fuel and other support in an attempt to pressure President 
International Criminal Court
Khaleda Zia
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[Pak Daily Times] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
