[Dawn] More than 2,000 Afghans are rallying on the last day of a Shia Mohammedan holiday to mourn and denounce Pakistain for the deadly bombing at a shrine in Kabul that killed 56 and maimed more than 160 people.
The crowd gathered Friday on the west side of Kabul on the last day of Ashoura.
The holiday commemorates the death in the seventh century of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson. His death in a battle outside Karbala in Iraq sealed Islam's historical Sunni-Shiite split.
The protesters are denouncing Tuesday's suicide kaboom in Kabul. It was the first major sectarian attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime a decade ago.
Some of the speakers at the rally blamed neighboring Pakistain for the bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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MOGADISHU: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Somalia's seaside capital Friday, the first trip in nearly two decades by the UN's top leader to a city known for a seemingly perpetual state of war. Ban announced that the UN would move its Somalia political office from Kenya to Mogadishu next year. Gonna need a lot of white Toyota Land Cruisers...
Ban's arrival in the war-torn capital city was made possible because of the military gains that African Union forces have made this year against Al-Shabab militants, who last year at this time controlled most of Mogadishu. Still, the militants have been waging a campaign of roadside and suicide bomb attacks, injecting some risk into the UN chief's visit.
Ban, who was wearing a dark blue bulletproof vest when he landed, met with the leaders of Somalia's weak, UN-backed government and officials from the African Union military force. Ban said that the UN's Political Office for Somalia will relocate to Mogadishu in January. He also welcomed the decision by Kenya's Parliament this week to contribute troops to the African Union force, which is now composed mostly of Ugandan and Burundian troops.
Kenya's military spokesman said Friday that the country's deployment to the African Union force, which was approved by Kenya's Parliament on Wednesday, would take overall troop numbers above the 12,000 allowed by its UN Security Council mandate. Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said the merging of Kenyan troops into the AU force currently 9,000 strong still requires Security Council approval and that he expects the process to take several months.
Though the improved security allowed for Ban's trip, the UN chief also delivered a warning to Somalia's political leaders that they must make faster progress on a four-point plan to improve security, governance, reconciliation and create a constitution. The plan, known as the road map, is to be implemented by next August or the government risks losing international funding.
One reason the UN political office is opening in Mogadishu is so that the UN can keep closer tabs on Somalia's leaders and ensure they are making more progress toward the four goals, a UN official said on condition he wasn't identified because of the sensitive nature of the comments.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I say we move the U.N. Headquarters there as well and out of NYC.
But then there probably isn't any 5 star hotels with 24hour catering for the Vampire Vulture Elite.
The recent air operations over Libya included a Swedish contingent of eight Gripen fighters. This was the first combat for the Swedish Air Force in over fifty years. The last one was also a peacekeeping mission, over the Congo, using Tunnan jet fighters. Over Libya, the Swedish Gripens carried out 650 reconnaissance and air defense missions (in other words, they did not shoot at anyone). The Swedes carried out about 2.4 percent of the sorties flown over Libya.
This operation was not without some problems. Since the Swedes do not belong to any international military organization, they do not regularly train with forces from other countries. So when they arrived at the Italian base they were to operate from they found that NATO used a different type of aviation fuel, and that Sweden had misunderstood how their aircraft were to operate using NATO codes (for communications). Both these problems were quickly sorted out.
Sweden's smaller neighbor, Denmark, is a member of NATO and sent six F-16 fighters. The Danes flew 600 sorties, and dropped 17 percent of all bombs used in Libya. The Danes flew the last attack mission over Libya. Denmark was also the only contingent that had laser guided bunker buster bombs. The 909 kg (2,000 pound) BLU-109 can penetrate five meters (16 feet) of concrete. These were used to destroy some underground Libyan command bunkers.
#1
Danes and Dutch and Norwegian armed forces have been consistently punching well above their weight in Afghanistan (once their politicians leave them alone for long enough to "slip the leash" for a while).
[Tripoli Post] Libya has given British police the go-ahead to visit the country to conduct investigations into the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher.
The British foreign minister Alistair Burt announced the breakthrough after talks during a two-day visit to Libya with the country's interim interior minister Fawzy Abdela'ali.
Mr Burt said he expected British coppers to carry out the investigation, and that the libyan government is aware of how important such investigation is.
Libya's National Transitional Council, NTC, had refused earlier requests for the officers to travel to Libya. Now Mr Abdela'ali has been reported by Mr Burt as having agreed to the early return of the Dumfries and Galloway police in relation to the Lockerbie tragedy that killed 270 people.
Mr Burt also confirmed that the Libyan minister had also made a similar promised for the British to investigate the killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher who was bumped off outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. "We are very keen that the Metropolitan police should return to continue their investigation," Burt said.
When it comes to the shooting of WPC Fletcher, detectives in London are keen to interview former Libyan diplomats who were stationed in the embassy at the time of the shooting, even though chief suspect Abdulqadir al-Baghdadi who is alleged to have fired the shots, is now dead. He died in August. Another suspect, Abdulmagid Salah Ameri is also said to have died.
Mr Burt said no dates have as yet been set for the visit of the British Sherlocks to Libya re the two cases, but he had no doubt that they would be allowed to go to Libya.
He expects this to be soon however, although he thought that the new Libyan government right now must be very busy and "has a lot on their plate."
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... Scottish Sherlocks again want to interview Abdelbaset aal-Megrahi, tossed in the slammer for the Lockerbie bombing in 2001 but released over two years ago by the Scottish government in August 2009 on compassionate grounds when doctors said he had terminal prostate cancer. He currently lives in Tripoli, and is reportedly close to death.
In the meantime, Mr Burt has said that Libya has being offered the chance for security training from the Metropolitan police and the army, and that British security and education consultants were being encouraged to bid for work in Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Old regimes inner circles are heading to Hadi to save their interests and keep the country in the backward steps it has been taking for three decades.
Sources within the office of Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi informed Yemen Post that tens of inner circle officials for President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... and insisting that they join the circle of Hadi, raising worries that the VP will not succeed in fighting corruption and having his own agenda.
The source said that the ruling family wants to ensure that they are in control, even if it means being so indirectly.
More than 140 Saleh inner circle officials are trying to sideline those close to Hadi and replacing themselves instead.
"They just don't give up. The Vice President will be forced to give in to the demands of the ruling family. The pressure is mounting while he is not even president yet," the official told Yemen Post.
President Saleh signed the GCC power transfer proposal last month agreeing to transfer all his powers to Hadi for the next 90 days, where he will remain as the honorary president with no authorities.
On February 21, 2012, Hadi will take lead of Yemen and be elected the next president of Yemen for a two-year term.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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I suppose these people need to learn "historical truths" as well.
Palestinian officials have reacted with dismay after the Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Palestinians were an "invented" people.
The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said Gingrich was denying "historical truths".
Gingrich said in an interview with The Jewish Channel that Palestinians were not a race of people because they had never had a state and because they were part of the Ottoman empire before the British mandate and Israel's creation.
"Remember, there was no Palestine as a state, [it was] part of the Ottoman empire," he said in a video excerpt posted online. "I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part of the Arab community and they had the chance to go many places." That left a mark...
Fayyad demanded Gingrich "review history". He said: "From the beginning, our people have been determined to stay on their land."
Fayyad's comments were carried by the Palestinian news agency Wafa. "This, certainly, is denying historical truths," he said.
#1
The whole area was called the 'Levant' after the Ottomans relinquished the area to Britain and France. The British called their southern portion of this area 'Palestine'. Everyone living in the area was called a 'Palestinian', be they Arabian, Canaanite, Persian, or Hebrew.
The ancient Egyptians called this southern Levant area 'Peleset' and the Greeks called it 'Philistia'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/10/2011 14:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Thanks, Mullah Richard! Very interesting link. One point jumped out at me:
1200 BC The Danya, or Danites, are either the dispossessed previous owners of the territory now occupied by the Philistines, or fellow Sea Peoples. The Philistines seem to bear them a particular grudge and they are forced to move inland where they apparently join the Israelite confederation of tribes.
From previous reading on another subject I was researching, the Sea Peoples and the Israelite tribe of Dan intermingled, with ancient traditions and legends saying Dan "departed with ships" and sailed with a pharoah's daughter to the coastlands of Eire and 'Danmark', possibly locating one of the Lost Tribes in modern Ireland and Denmark. Hiram King of Tyre, one of the Phoenician Sea Peoples sailed ships for Solomon, bringing back babboons and other exotic goods, with some archaeological accounts placing them as far away as South America off the coast of Brazil/Guyana, as there is apparently an inscription near Paraibo in Phoenician claiming to have been blown off-course when in Africa! Palestinians have been holding that grudge for a very long time, with an equally long history of marauding. Gingrich is right, they can always choose to live in Lebanon or Gaza, their historical roots, or live peacefully among the Israelis or go most anyplace they want to. Newt also said he would choose John Bolton as his Sec. of State....
#3
Gingrich should pursue this further, and actually light a fire under the Paleos, by suggesting that for all intents and purposes, those living in Israel have made themselves a "stateless people", but those living in Egypt and Jordan are effectively "de facto" citizens of those countries.
Thus, if Israel decides to expel the Paleos into Egypt or Jordan, the problem would be solved, in that the Paleos would be returned to their former nations and thereafter be called Egyptians and Jordanians.
(Imagine the utter dog-stroke that would happen in some quarters were Gingrich to do this.)
#7
". . . and they had the chance to go many places."
Not really. The "Palestinians" were/are such a pain in the a$$ that nobody would have them. The only reason they're Arab "brethren" will have anyting to do with them is to encourage them to be a thorn in Israel's side so they can keep The Distraction alive.
The Pakistan Taliban is in peace talks with the country's government, the group's deputy commander has said.
Talking to themselves again? I do that frequently in the shower...
Maulvi Faqir Mohammad said the focus was on the Bajaur tribal area bordering Afghanistan, and that if successful, talks could be extended to other areas.
He said 145 Taliban prisoners had been freed as a goodwill gesture and the authorities wanted a ceasefire. It is the first time a top Taliban commander has confirmed negotiations. There has been no government comment.
"Our talks are going in the right direction," Reuters news agency quotes Mr Mohammad as saying.
The BBC's Orla Guerin in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, says that in the past such negotiations have backfired allowing the militants time to re-group. There are also doubts about whether or not any possible peace treaty would be observed by all of the factions in the Pakistan Taliban, which is an increasingly fractured alliance, she says.
Most of them will do whatever the ISI tells them to do. The rest will be betrayed by the ISI to the Americans and end up drone-zapped...
In October, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said talks would only be held if the group disarmed.
The mighty Pakistani army has conducted a series of ineffective offensives against strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban, along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Friday warned the US and its 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... allies that any future cross-border attack would meet with a "detrimental response."
US-Pak relations plunged to a new low last month after a cross-border NATO air strike which killed 24 Pak soldiers.
Gilani made the comments while meeting army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... , the prime minister's secretariat said in a statement.
"The democratic government would not allow similar attack on the country's illusory sovereignty and any attempt in future will definitely meet the detrimental response," the statement quoted Gilani as saying.
Pak security officials earlier said they had upgraded the air defence system on the Afghan border to make it capable of shooting down aircraft.
Kayani informed the prime minister of the steps taken on the western boarders to revamp defence capabilities aimed at effectively countering any future incursion into Pak territory.
"The government and the people of Pakistain were ready to provide the armed forces all the necessary resources to bolster its defence and professional capabilities," Gilani said.
Pakistain shut its border to NATO supply convoys on November 26, hours after the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
The government also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base in the southwest, widely reported to be a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistain's border area with Afghanistan.
According to sources the Shamsi base has been vacated completely by the US forces on Friday. UAE officials were expected to take charge of the base from Saturday.
The November 26 attack brought the fragile Pak-US alliance to a fresh low, already reeling from a covert American raid that killed al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who had a brief but splitting headache... near the Pak capital on May 2.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Instead of AA, how about some artillery and some crack troops to keep the militants out? Oh, I forgot...nm.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... is "fine" and will return home soon, a news anchor quoted him as saying on Friday, nearly a week after his rush to a Dubai hospital led to speculation the unpopular leader might resign and even of a possible coup.
"I'm fine and will return soon," Zardari reportedly told Hamid Mir, a popular news anchor, who repeated the comments on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"I did not want to leave. My children and friends and the prime minister insisted that I go for a checkup," President Zardari said.
The issue of the president's health has gripped Islamabad, exacerbating a series of cascading crises.
News media, bloggers and analysts have openly speculated that Zardari would resign or that a coup was afoot.
Zardari seemed to acknowledge the speculation.
"Those that run from the country run with their kids," Mir quoted the president as saying.
"My son is in Pakistain. I left him there."
"My enemies will be disappointed."
Zardari likely suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sources said on Friday, which can produce stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage to the brain.
According to the US National Institute of Health web site, a TIA occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain stops for a short period of time.
It can produce "stroke-like" symptoms for up to two hours.
"The MRI is clear, but we suspect it may have been that (a TIA)", said one party official who requested anonymity.
TIAs can be precursors to actual strokes if not quickly treated, which usually include blood thinners to reduce clotting.
Zardari suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes and has been under heavy pressure in recent weeks following the resignation of the ambassador to Washington over an alleged memo to the Pentagon asking for help in forestalling a feared coup attempt in May.
That political saga immediately preceded a low-point in relations with the United States after a November 26 cross-border NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air attack killed 24 Pak soldiers.
The extent of Zardari's possible involvement in the memo case is a burning question in Pakistain, where the military dominates, setting security and foreign policy.
Zardari had been due to address parliament this week after the Supreme Court admitted an opposition leader's petition demanding a judicial inquiry into the memo issue, including any role played by Zardari.
That address has now been postponed.
The government ended up fuelling the rumour-mill by offering different explanations for Zardari's trip to Dubai, initially saying it was previously scheduled routine medical tests.
Then the prime minister's media office said he went to get treatment for a "pre-existing heart condition."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"My son is in Pakistain. I left him there."
What? You got something against him?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/10/2011 6:36 Comments ||
Top||
U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.
As I note in the other post, the yellow bird doesn't look like an RQ-170.
With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.
Goodness knows we wouldn't want to be seen to be at war with a country that hates our guts and wants us all dead, dead, dead...
And China, Russia want to inspect downed U.S. drone
An informed source in the Iranian military has said that Russian and Chinese officials have asked for permission to inspect the U.S. spy drone that was recently downed by the Iranian Armed Forces, Nasimonline.ir reported on Wednesday.
#1
Three possibilities. One is extreme cowardice, out of fear that it will be used as an act of war; but this is unlikely, as even leftist fools know that any excuse, or no excuse, will do to start a war.
The other is that this is a thinly disguised effort to pass bad technology to the enemy. But this is also unlikely, as both Russia and China are technically competent enough to reverse engineer, looking for such flaws.
The third, and most likely scenario, is that Obama has become so demoralized and inert that he is running on autopilot. He probably spends most of his time either playing Angry Birds on the Oval Office computer, golfing, haphazardly campaigning, or planning his next vacation. His subordinates are also free to do whatever they want, so are.
I have seen, and even screamed at, command level burn-outs before, and they just look at you with glassy eyes, a neutral expression, and you can tell they are on nervous breakdown lane.
Respectfully, I think that A) is the most likely, especially as the drone being over Iranian territory in the first place is technically an act of war, and the President of the United States (and his advisors) don't seem to have been aware of that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/10/2011 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#3
...is technically an act of war
Really? What's the altitude limit since satellites also traverse others national boundaries. Someone should alert Eisenhower and Kennedy to the point.
#4
It's probably payback for the 300m in campaign contributions he received 3.5 weeks before the last election. Either that or he wanted Iran to have a stealth method of delivering a warhead.
#5
What's the altitude limit since satellites also traverse others national boundaries.
There is no defined legal altitude limit. There is a convention that places it in the same legal realm as territorial limits of the sea. There is the Kármán line, as set by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, that is set at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles); beyond that is 'space'. The US has a stipulation that anyone who flies above 50 miles is classed as an 'astronaut'.
But in any case common sense would say that satellites do not cross 'airspace'.
#7
Moose: I also wonder about option C. I don't think Bambi spends his days hunkered down in a bunker with smokes and ESPN, but I do wonder if he finds the President part of being President really disagreeable and has decided not to do that part of the job.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2011 13:55 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I've always thought Bambi was not really engaged in functioning as the President--just kind of play acting his way through--enamored with the title and trappings. Ant then there is the unending campaigning he has engaged in since he was elected in 2008. Most of the rest of his stint he has mucked up. The drone program and getting Binny may be his only successes.
#9
I guarantee if we took away the inherent golf tee time privileges, he wouldn't run again
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2011 17:00 Comments ||
Top||
#10
The other option is that his minions arranged to give the drone to the Iranians. Just like Clinton gave the Chinese the Missile technology and the milling technology for quiet sub propellers.
Obumbler is a treasonous POS.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
12/10/2011 18:26 Comments ||
Top||
#11
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > IRAN ABLE TO DECODE [decrypt]DOWNED AMERICAN SPY PLANE, SELL THIS TEHCNOLOGY TO CHINA.
Iran says they own ultra-advanced decryption technology that can recover the data from the RQ-170 + by Allan they're going to use it, + also will "reverse engineer" the Drone.
Hence ...???
* IIRC WAFF > VIDEO:IRAN IRA170 DRONE.
That was fast - "shootdown" to indigenous production/mfg in roughly one week???
[Dawn] The US drone which Iran said it shot down penetrated 250 kilometres inside the Islamic republic's airspace, state television's ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
website reported on Friday.
In a letter of protest to the United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... , the government said "the American RQ-170 spy plane violated 250 kilometres inside Iranian airspace before confronting the reaction of Iran's armed forces," the website reported.
"Provocative and secret actions by the American government against the Islamic republic in recent months" have been on the increase, it charged.
It said Tehran had lodged "a strong protest against this violation of international rules by the US government" and warned against any "repetition of such actions."
Iran called for the United Nations to condemn "this violation," in the letter addressed to the UN secretary general as well as the presidents of the Security Council and General Assembly.
State television on Thursday aired footage of what it said was the captured drone, showing what appeared to be an RQ-170 Sentinel aircraft with little visible damage.
The Pentagon said American experts were analysing the footage.
The footage showed a cream-colored aircraft being examined by two commanders of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are in charge of the country's air defences.
Aerospace unit Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said the drone had been captured through a cyber attack.
The RQ-170 Sentinel is a high-altitude stealth reconnaissance drone made by Lockheed Martin whose existence was exposed in 2009 by specialised reviews and later confirmed by the US Air Force in 2010.
Iranian media said on December 4 that the unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down after making an incursion into the airspace of eastern Iran, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistain.
The crash came at a time of heightened political tension over Iran's nuclear programme, with speculation rife that Israel is mulling air strikes against Iranian atomic facilities, with or without US backing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#4
Not hacked. Malfunction, went into safe mode and then ran out of fuel. If the link was jammed but the drone was still functional, I'm positive the drone would have headed back to base.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah on Friday condemned the kaboom earlier in the day on a French UNIFIL patrol in southern Leb, as the opposition March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... camp claimed the incident was a message from Syria and that Hizbullah was "the messenger."
Opposition MP Marwan Hamadeh immediately blamed Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... for the attack, saying it was orchestrated with the help of its Lebanese ally Hizbullah.
"It is clear that Syria was behind what happened today and the messenger was Hizbullah," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Nothing happens in that region without Hizbullah's approval," he said.
"The Syrians have accused La Belle France of being at the forefront of what they believe is a foreign plot to destabilize their country and everyone felt that something was bound to happen," Hamadeh added.
Hizbullah in a statement denounced the attack saying it targeted Leb's security and sought to destabilize the southern part of the country.
"We urge the Lebanese security agencies to exert utmost efforts to put an end to such attacks," the party said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... the opposition Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... warned against the presence of "armed organizations which the state has allowed to operate outside its authority under the slogan 'the army, the people and the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch...
"The presence of these illegitimate armed forces outside state control is what provides the necessary elements for such security incidents -- from the security cover, weapons and explosives to the trained members and their freedom of movement and financing, " the LF said.
The Democratic Renewal Movement noted that "amid these circumstances," the attack "can only be interpreted as an attempt to influence the French stance on the current events in Syria."
A bomb struck a French U.N. peacekeeping patrol near the coastal city of Tyre on Friday, wounding five soldiers in an attack President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... said was aimed at driving French troops out the country.
The incident marks the third such attack this year against the U.N. Interim Force in Leb (UNIFIL) and comes at a sensitive time when Leb is bracing for a possible fallout from the nine-month uprising in neighboring Syria.
A security official told Agence La Belle France Presse that the 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) blast was caused by a roadside kaboom that targeted a French UNIFIL patrol as it drove on the southern outskirts of the coastal city of Tyre.
Officials said five peacekeepers as well as two civilian passersby were hurt. The Lebanese army said in a statement that one of the peacekeepers was severely maimed in the face.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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With Al-Qaeda's core command weakened and vulnerable, US experts say it's time to ask how and when to declare victory over the group founded by the late Osama bin Laden ... who walked in the Valley of the Shadow of Death and didn't make it out... in 1988.
His killing in a raid by US special forces in Pakistain in May, followed by the August death of number two Atiyah abd al-Rahman in a US drone strike, has whittled down the network's leadership ranks.
Just two men are left to be eliminated from Al-Qaeda's central command, the experts say -- current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Second in command of al-Qaeda, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... and senior thug Abu Yahya al-Libi.
Disappear completely
"That's basically it. If they are killed, it's as close to over as it can ever be," said Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation and the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
"Al-Qaeda will never completely disappear," Fishman pointed out.
"There is always going to be somebody who is going to pick up a gun or try to build an IED in the name of Al-Qaeda," he told AFP.
"We'll have to learn to live with it, just like in the US we live with the fact that every once and a while a guy kills a police officer or a black and call himself a neo-Nazi."
Fishman predicted the group feared the world over in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on US soil will become a network of "lone wolves" -- meaning the wider group has failed.
Andrew Exum, who led a platoon of Army Rangers in Iraq and Afghanistan, predicted Al-Qaeda could disappear within the next year or 18 months.
Mortally maimed
"They already are mortally maimed -- the death of Al-Zawahiri would have a devastating effect," added Exum, of the Center for a New American Security.
The stakes are high for Washington, which has created a massive -- and costly -- anti-terrorism and national security apparatus since 9/11 that employs thousands of civilians and military officers.
While the decline of the threat posed by Al-Qaeda could lead to some budget reductions, no US official is likely to risk officially declaring victory over the much reviled group.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Unfortunately, thats not how Muslims wage war - its NOT over until Islam wins or Islam is destroyed, the Infidel/Unbeliever is destroyed or Islam is destroyed.
ISLAM = FAITH, WORD OF ALLAH = CANNOT, MUST NOT, WILL NOT BE DEFEATED ... EVAR!
WE ARE FORGETTING MEMBERS OF OSAMA'S CIRCLE WHOM ARE N-O-T MEMBERS OF AL-QAEDA OR "CORE" AL-QAEDA PER SE, AREN'T WE?
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.
[Dawn] More than 2,000 Afghans are rallying on the last day of a Shia 
Libya has given British police the go-ahead to visit the country to conduct investigations into the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher.
[Yemen Post] Old regimes inner circles are heading to Hadi to save their interests and keep the country in the backward steps it has been taking for three decades.
[Dawn] Prime Minister 
[Dawn] President 
Zawahiri
