[Al Jazeera] Egypt's vice-president has said protesters calling for the departure of Hosni Mubarak, the president, are not "part of the Egyptian culture", saying "we all respect Mubarak as father and leader". "We have nursed at the bosom of Mother Mubarak! How can we discard him in his dotage?"
Omar Suleiman made the comments during an interview with state television on Thursday, in which he also said recent violence in Cairo, the capital, could have been the result of a "conspiracy" and suggested that "foreign influences" and the Mohammedan Brotherhood may have fuelled the protest movement. It's always them furriners, isn't it?
"We will look into [the violence], into the fact it was a conspiracy," he said. And it's always a conspiracy. In the Muddle East you need to get up a conspiracy if you want to do anything as simple as buying groceries. There are probably sock changing conspiracies.
Didn't you see? The man was wearing argyles. You know that that means, right?
At least 13 people have been killed in festivities in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, central Cairo, as violence continues between pro-government brute squads and pro-democracy protesters. Suleiman called on the protesters to surrender, saying the government had now met their demands for reform, adding that the call for Mubarak to step down would be a "call for chaos".
"End your sit-in. Your demands have been answered," said Omar Suleiman.
'Crime of war'
He said constitutional change would take at least 70 days, and that a parliament was needed in order to look at it.
"The January 25 movement wanted to dissolve the parliament but we can't do that if we are going to amend the constitution," he said.
"We have to look into the future of Egypt, who will run this country, who will lead Egypt in the next six years, who will represent the country?"
But a pro-democracy activist dismissed Suleiman's speech, saying it was all a "ridiculous lie".
"From the beginning we were saying we want the whole regime to be out," she said.
"There are thugs and bullies preventing us from getting medical and food supplies. It's outrageous. We are not interested in anything they say unless it is that they are leaving now. Especially after the brutality ... we cannot accept this. This is a crime of war."
Suleiman's interview comes after Ahmad Shafiq, the Egyptian prime minister, apologised for the violence in Tahrir square, saying it could not be allowed to recur.
Like Suleiman, he also said calls for Mubarak to step down were "unacceptable", but said that dialogue with all opposition groups will begin.
Asked if this includes the Mohammedan Brotherhood, banned from political activities in Egypt, Shafiq said: "No one will be excluded from the dialogue".
Egypt's cabinet meanwhile, has denied that it had a role in mobilising supporters of Mubarak against pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square.
"To accuse the government of mobilising this is a real fiction. That would defeat our object of restoring the calm," Magdy Rady, a cabinet front man told Rooters news agency.
"We were surprised with all these actions. The government will take the measures it can to identify who was behind this and try to deal with this."
Egypt has been in turmoil since last week with pro-democracy activists pressing on Mubarak to immediately step down.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 13:26 ||
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[Ma'an] Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei sought to ease Western fears Wednesday that a post-Mubarak Egypt could turn against Israel and the United States.
"The hype that once Egypt becomes a democracy, it will become hostile to the US and hostile to Israel... these are the two hypes, and are fictions," ElBaradei told CBS News.
ElBaradei, who earned a Nobel peace prize for his stewardship of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society atomic watchdog, returned to Cairo shortly after protests erupted last month against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
The veteran diplomat, who was well respected internationally but little known on the Egyptian street, has become a key opposition figure during days of brutal protests against Mubarak that have left many dead and injured.
In excerpts of his interview in Cairo with CBS anchor Katie Couric, ElBaradei again dismissed Vice President Omar Suleiman's offer for dialogue, insisting Mubarak must step down first.
"I will never get into a dialogue while Mubarak is in power. Because all you do is you give that regime a legitimacy, which in my view, they have lost," he said.
Faced with the biggest protests of his presidency, Mubarak is stubbornly holding onto power after appointing Suleiman as his first-ever vice president and announcing he will not seek re-election in September.
"I don't think he understand what democracy means. I don't think he understands that he really needs to let go," said ElBaradei.
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02/03/2011 12:41 ||
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#1
Anyone who believes this is a fool and an idiot.
[Ma'an] Egypt's widely despised former interior minister Habib al-Adly is to be probed over the absence of police on the streets during violent protests that have shaken the country, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 12:30 ||
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MSM standards are slipping badly. In the good old days we could have an intelligent newscast from say CNN based on their censorship deal with Saddam. Now all we get are hysterical news clips of Cooper getting his coiffured locks ruffled and Katie and Christiane getting hassled by the crowd. Sigh!!
We watch them every night, often reporting from exotic and far-flung lands - but rarely do we see America's newscasters in actual physical danger.
The escalating crisis in Egypt, it seems, is breaking the mould as footage of three of America's best known news broadcasters coming under attack in Cairo emerged.
First, CNN journalist Anderson Cooper was punched in the head ten times by angry pro-Hosni Mubarak supports while reporting on Egypt's domestic crisis.
Then footage of CBS news anchor Katie Couric and ABC news anchor Christiane Amanpour being roughly jostled by the crowd also emerged yesterday.
#1
Once in the Mediterranean, a Roman citizen was inviolable. Then the Fall came. How's it feeling now Katie that your 'One' has announced the 'Decline'? Still dancing like its 1999? /rhet question.
#4
I haven't heard to much American flag burning at these protests. But they punch out representative of the Make Believe Media? Maybe the protesters understand American opinion better than I think.
#5
Procopius, that inviolability was always more day-to-day and legal than practical. Caesar's youthful adventure with the pirates was an example of that inviolability in practice.
I had a Roman History professor who started off his intro course with a long geographical tour through the provinces as if the students were Roman citizens from a provincial town playing tourist (he used the bumpkin town up the valley he lived in as his fictional provincial town... which I eventually moved to myself, but anyways). This went on for an entire lecture, until he brought us to the great slave depot on Delos in the Aegean, whereupon he, having lulled us into a daze with the geography and so forth, proclaimed us all dead, butchered by the naval forces of Mithridates the Great, who sacked Delos & slaughtered tens of thousands of Roman citizens in the course of the Asiatic Vespers of 88 BC.
In other words, being specially protected above others by the law means that when the laws fail, you've a big fat target on your back.
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02/03/2011 9:37 Comments ||
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#6
I could imagine the Arab slaver equivalent of a used car salesman giving a pitch to some dubious Saudi businessman about how Couric and Amanpour would just look great in his harem, and he will go talk to his boss about giving him a super deal on them.
#7
It doesn't appear that Anderson, Amanpour, and Couric have First Amendment protection in Egypt--or it could be they tick off the Egyptians as much as they do us.
#9
Gotta love it when the pretentious progressives meet their beloved 'Religion of Peace' face-fist.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/03/2011 12:14 Comments ||
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#10
This is what happens when the bars are closed in the safety zones. Somebodies gotta go out and do some reportin' kind of stuff and such.
(No real journalists were harmed in the making of this news.)
However, it should remind everybody that Obama's suck up tour to the Moslem world (his 'summa' venue was Cairo) did essentially nothing to change Egyptian hatred of America and reduced Egytian fear of committing anti America acts. I'd like people to tell Cooper, Couric and Amanpour this to their face.
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02/03/2011 15:00 Comments ||
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These progressives being attacked reminds me of the analogy of the Vegan who cannot understand why the Bull attacks them.
#14
I'd like people to tell Cooper, Couric and Amanpour this to their face. Most unlikely to work, if you consider the intensity of their bias. They won't change their minds unless confronted with the truth 'face-fist', as was said earlier.
#15
being specially protected above others by the law means that when the laws fail, you've a big fat target on your back. And to continue with the history lession, the Asiatic Vespers was then followed by a massive Roman invasion, the abolition of whatever political entity Mithridates the Late was part of, and the death &/or slavery of far larger numbers of his admirers and hangers-on than were killed by his people in the Asiatic Vespers. 'Mess with the Imperium, Die like the Rest'
#18
they did punch Anderson Cooper in the head, which kind of seems like a pro-American act to me.
Secret Master, just as long as he can ride his bike, he should be OK.
#21
I listened to an interview with a young lady in Alexandria yesterday afternoon. She said they weren't really angry at America or Americans but were really angry with Obama. Join the Club, I say.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/03/2011 19:05 Comments ||
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#22
Having the terrorist cheerleader Amanpour roughly jostled is only barely the beginning of the Karma coming her way.
I believe the way karma works is you get reincarnated into the caste you deserve once this life is over. For instance, a serial killer might be reborn as an amoeba, whereas a great humanitarian might be reborn as a high-caste Brahmin.
#23
I listened to an interview with a young lady in Alexandria yesterday afternoon. She said they weren't really angry at America or Americans but were really angry with Obama. Join the Club, I say.
After 9/11, they were saying more or less the same thing, except they substituted Bush's name for Obama's. It is what it is. These people think we're the ultimate cause of all their problems.
The Internet is apparently available again in Egypt after the country cut access to the Web for a week amid mass unrest.
Wonder if Mubarek is doing this to draw the various dissidents out, so that he can whack them, or whether someone inside the government wants to finish the job of driving Hosni out of town.
After a long stretch of inactivity, RIPE NCC, which tracks Web traffic, recorded a sudden lurch in Egyptian Internet use starting just after 11 a.m. Thursday in Cairo. A similar tracking organization, Renesys Group, wrote in a blog post that access was restored to websites such as the Egyptian Stock Exchange, Commercial International Bank of Egypt and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
The group also said that Facebook and Twitter were back up inside the country, adding that "no traffic blocks are in place Â… no funny business. For now."
Twitter was quickly awash in messages from Egypt after it was restored. Some of the messages asked for donations and medical supplies at hospitals.
Meanwhile, the international group of activist hackers known as Anonymous spent the day trying to bring down Egyptian government websites. The group, which recently attacked the websites of companies it considered opponents of WikiLeaks, targeted the Egyptian Ministry of Information's portal as well as the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's site.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] An Egyptian news anchor has resigned from state television after 20 years for what she said was a "lack of ethical standards" in its coverage of Egypt's mass protests, news reports said.
Soha El-Nakash told Rooters she presented five programs for state news channel Nile News on Jan 26, the second day of the protests, and was dismayed the streets of Cairo were portrayed as calm when in fact thousands of people were demonstrating.
"I have decided I will not go back again," she was quoted as saying Tuesday. "I left because the state TV coverage of the protests lacked the minimum level of ethical standards.
"During my breaks, I went to join my colleagues who were gathered around TV screens watching other news channels and we all saw ongoing violent mass protests rallying across Egypt," she said.
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02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said Wednesday that his country "respects" the peoples and governments which emanate, in a first reaction to the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.
"Our position is based on respect for people, but that does not mean that we do not deal with governments. Instead, we must deal with them because they are designated by these people," he said, quoted by APS.
He was responding to news hounds who asked him about the position of Algeria after the overthrow of power in Tunisia and the anti-Mubarak in Egypt for ten days.
"Algeria has historical relations with Tunisia and Egypt" and "will always be ready to help the people of these two countries," he said on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of the autumn session of the Council of the Nation (Senate).
Tunisia has experienced in recent weeks a wave of demonstrations and popular protests that led to the departure of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in power for 24 years, and the formation of a transitional government.
In Egypt, a similar protest movement began on January 25 to demand the departure of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, in power for 29 years. The latter announced on Tuesday he would not seek re-election at the presidential of September, but failed to put an end to the anger of his opponents.
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02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Minister of Interior and Local Government, Dahou Ould Kablia said, about the march decided by several civil society organizations for current February 12, he received no formal request from these organizations.
The minister said in an interview with Ennahar, he received no official request for permission to organize the march on February 12 to demand regime change.
"I can not make decisions regarding procedures, whether to allow or to prohibit it, since I have not received any official request," he said, adding that the subject of this march "is discussed in the street, I heard about it like any citizen."
Regarding the Department's intention to ban the march, the minister indicated that he "has not received any request for official permission. Once this is done, I will take the appropriate decision."
About an appeal to citizens not to answer the call of the organizers of the march, the minister says "calling upon citizens not to participate in the walk is not my prerogative, but rather that of politician, I think they will do."
At the meeting of the Coordination for Change, held recently at the headquarters of the union, attended by 50 organizations and associations of civil society and political parties, including the movement of Arch, they were unanimous in demanding the departure of the regime and the need to extend the march to the entire country with the same slogan "Regime, go away."
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02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] US President Barack B.O. Obama challenged Egypt's embattled ruler, a staunch US ally, to immediately begin the process of transitioning the country to new leadership, a signal that there should be no drawn-out goodbye.
Earlier Tuesday, Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak had announced he would not seek another term in office but also would not yield to growing demands to step down now. After a huddle at the White House, Obama went on television to respond.
In his brief statement at the White House, Obama invoked Egypt's ancient and storied past in what appeared to be an appeal to Mubarak's desire to be remembered well in history as a powerful leader and peacemaker. He said he had spoken to Mubarak to press his case for 30 minutes shortly after Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people.
"He recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place," Obama said of Mubarak.
"Indeed, all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people." "Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation; the voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of the moments, this is one of those times," Obama said. He added that the United States heard those voices demanding change as anti-government protests filled the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities.
Mubarak delivered his speech after hearing from a special envoy, former US ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, whom Obama dispatched to Cairo on Monday. Wisner's message: The US saw his tenure at an end, didn't want him to stand for re-election in September and wanted him to prepare an orderly transition to real democracy.
"It is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now," Obama said he had told Mubarak in the phone call.
That suggested Mubarak's concession was not enough, but Obama left the point dangling. He was careful not to say that Mubarak should have left immediately, and he stressed that it was not up to the United States to pick Egypt's leaders.
"Furthermore, the process must include a broad spectrum of Egyptian voices and opposition parties," he said. "It should lead to elections that are free and fair. And, it should result in a government that is not only grounded in democratic principles but is also responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people."
An administration official said Obama delivered the same message to Mubarak in their "direct and frank" phone call. Obama "said it was clear how much he loves his country, and how difficult this is for him. President B.O. also explained to him that an orderly transition can't be prolonged -- it must begin now," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.
Obama praised the "passion and dignity" of the protesters who have rallied for Mubarak's departure as an "inspiration" to people around the world, and he hailed the Egyptian military for its poise in handling the situation.
"To the people of Egypt, particularly the young people of Egypt, I want to be clear: We hear your voices," Obama said. "I have an unyielding belief that you will determine your own destiny and seize the promise of a better future for your children and grandchildren."
In a half-way concession to hundreds of thousands of protesters, Mubarak said in Egypt that he would serve out the rest of his term working to ensure a "peaceful transfer of power" and new rules on presidential elections. His message that he would not immediately leave was rebuffed by many demonstrators in Cairo's main square.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess that USG will be terribly, terribly surprised when, a few months from now, Egypt and China announce their eternal chumship treaty.
#2
I wonder if during the next mass Tea Party demonstration the Egyptian Foreign Ministry will urge Obama to immediately begin the process of transitioning? /sarc off
#3
Why didn't 0bama call for the resignation of the ruling mullahs in Iran when the popular uprising occurred last year.
Why didn't he call for the mullahs to respect the peaceful protesters human rights as the mullahs brutally suppressed them?
* TOPIX > [STAR.Canada OpEd]WALKOM: EGYPT AND THE FALL OF EMPIRE(AGAIN).
ARTIC = The 1956 SUEZ CRISIS signaled the end of the British Empire - ditto 2011 EGYPT once again for the US??? Author also opines that, UNLIKE THE EGYPTIANS ORDINARY AMERICANS WILL NOT PROTRACTIVELY WID THE REPEATED FAILURES OF PUBLIC/NATIONAL GOVT. SUCH THAT THEIR AMER WAY-OF-LIFE = BASIC AMER NECESSITIES OF LIFE SUFFER AS IN EGYPT + OTHER ME COUNTRIES.
ARTIC also read, NOT FOR THE COMMIES OR "GLOBALISTS", ETAL. EITHER!
[Bangla Daily Star] The High Court yesterday ordered district officials in Shariatpur to explain why they failed to protect 14-year-old rape victim Hena from being whipped to death as per a fatwa on Monday.
The deputy commissioner, the superintendent of police of Shariatpur, and the thana nirbahi officer of Naria upazila -- where the incident took place--will have to report to the HC in 15 days how it happened although the court (HC) had eight months ago declared fatwa illegal and a punishable offence.
In a suo moto rule, the HC directed them also to report what steps they have taken in this regard.
An HC bench comprised of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain issued the rule following press reports on the killing of Hena.
The reports said Hena was raped by her 40-year-old relative Mahbub on Sunday. Next day, a fatwa was announced at a village arbitration that she must be given 100 lashes. She fell unconscious after nearly 80 lashes.
Fatally injured Hena was rushed to Naria health complex where she was declared dead.
Supreme Court lawyer Seema Zahur yesterday placed before the HC bench a press report on the incident on behalf of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... another HC bench yesterday directed the law enforcement agencies to submit a report to it within three weeks on what steps have been taken following this incident in the light of its judgement on extra-judicial punishment.
The bench comprised of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder also ordered the information ministry to run a media campaign to create awareness among people against extra-judicial punishment.
The bench headed by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on July 8 last year delivered the verdict declaring illegal all kinds of extra-judicial punishment including those in the name of fatwa at local arbitrations.
Following three writ petitions, the court directed the authorities concerned to take punitive action against people involved in enforcing fatwa against women.
It also observed that infliction of brutal punishment including caning, whipping and beating at local salish [arbitration] by persons devoid of judicial authority constitutes violation of the constitutional rights.
Barristers Rabia Bhuiyan, Sara Hossain and Mahbub Shafique, and advocate KM Hafizul Alam, lawyers for the writ petitioners, yesterday placed the judgement to the bench following the incident involving Hena.
Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... watchdog, expressed deep concern and shock yesterday at the killing of teenage rape victim Hena.
It demanded punitive action against those who enforced fatwa concerning her.
The ASK called upon the government to take effective steps to stop recurrence of such incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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Britain has become a “safe haven” for foreign terrorists following court rulings that they cannot be deported, the government terrorism watchdog has said
Shariah in the UK
Ben Donnelly was dismissed from his volunteer post as a phone bank manager for the Yes To Fairer Votes campaign after his comments provoked a political storm.
The part-time music teacher could yet face disciplinary action from his employers at Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, who are looking into the matter.
The Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, which wants a switch from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote (AV), moved quickly to axe Mr Donnelly after details of his tweet were leaked to the Standard.
Posted yesterday afternoon, it read: "Says in the Holy Qu'ran Mohammad used to get his neighbours to vote by AV which of his 4 wives he'd shag each night." The thing about a joke is that you have to have some of it right. Mohammed had eleven wives.
Muslim groups were outraged, with Labour MP Khalid Mahmood calling for Mr Donnelly to be referred to the police. "This is outrageous and totally Islamophobic," Mr Mahmood said. "What has Islam got to do with AV?"
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, described the joke as "disgusting".
A Yes campaign spokesman said: "These comments were utterly disgraceful. Conduct like this will not be accepted by the campaign. We apologise for any offence taken and are as offended by these appalling comments as any other right-thinking person."
Mr Donnelly issued a statement through the Yes campaign saying sorry for the tweet, which has been deleted from his account.
"I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused," it read. "My comments were thoughtless and I bitterly regret them."
[Dawn] The ringleader of the July 7, 2005 suicide kabooms on London's transport system received advice from a mystery figure in Pakistain just days before the attacks, an inquest heard Wednesday. I repeat myself: Pakistain currently holds the same position as al-Qaeda HQ that Afghanistan held in 2001.
Mobile phone records showed a series of calls made from phone boxes of Rawalpindi to bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, a police officer told hearings in London into the deaths of 52 people.
Metropolitan Police detective Mark Stuart said many of the calls were made through different Pak phone boxes within minutes of each other, suggesting that the caller there wanted to conceal their identity.
Hugo Keith, counsel to the inquests, asked Stuart: "Did you assess that those calls therefore were probably connected to some guidance or some means of communicating information concerned with the manufacture of the bombs and then ultimately their detonation?" "Yes, I think they had to be," replied Stuart.
The inquest heard that Khan never made any calls to Pakistain himself, but that he had instead given contacts in that country the numbers of four phones used purely for the purpose of the attacks.
Most of Khan's conversations with the unknown person in Pakistain took place between May and June 2005 but one lasting six minutes happened five days before the bombings, the inquest heard.
The final, unanswered call to the phone was made on the afternoon of July 7 after Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19, had blown themselves up on three subway trains and a bus.
Khan and Tanweer are both known to have travelled to Pakistain in the months before the attack where they are believed to have had contact with members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
A video statement by Khan is believed to have been filmed there.
Britain's domestic security service MI5 has admitted it monitored Khan on several occasions before the attacks, including meeting members of a separate bomb plot, but that it failed to follow up the lead.
Britain opened the long-awaited inquests into the deaths of the victims in October and the hearings are expected to last until March. They will examine whether the intelligence services could have prevented the attacks.
This article starring:
Hasib Hussain
al-Qaeda
Jermaine Lindsay
al-Qaeda
Mohammad Sidique Khan
al-Qaeda
Shehzad Tanweer
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] North Korea was the supplier of a cache of defective weapons sold to Burundi's army by a Ukrainian firm, said Western diplomats familiar with the case that has riled Burundi's anti-corruption body.
The weapons deal with Burundi appeared to be a violation of the international ban on North Korean weapons exports which the UN Security Council imposed on Pyongyang in June 2009 after its second nuclear test, the diplomats told Rooters on condition of anonymity.
The case involved the supply of some 60 Chinese-made .50-caliber machine guns to Burundi by a Ukrainian firm called Cranford Trading, the diplomats said. The weapons, which were defective, were sold to the firm by North Korea, they added.
Diplomats say Pyongyang continues to try to skirt the arms embargo. Last year South Africa informed the Security Council's sanctions committee about a seizure of North Korean arms bound for Central Africa.
The expanded sanctions were aimed at cutting off North Korea's arms sales, a vital export that was estimated to earn the destitute state more than $1 billion a year.
Some facts about the Burundi weapons deal became known late last year when the country's anti-corruption watchdog went public about irregularities it found. It said that the arms had been defective and that Burundi had been overcharged.
A report on a state audit of the deal, seen by Rooters, concluded that Cranford Trading provided Burundi's army defective military material with the complicity of former Defense Minister Germain Niyoyanka, current army chief Godefroid Niyombare and his deputy Diomede Ndegeya.
The auditors' report said that the bidding offer was $3.075 million, while the amount in the contract was for $3.388 million. A further $1.186 million was paid in transport fees, even though such fees were not agreed in the contract.
The auditors concluded that the defense ministry had spent a great deal of money on defective material and recommended the prosecution of all people involved on suspicion of graft.
North Korea was not mentioned in the auditors' report.
Several officials at Burundi's UN mission in New York declined to comment when contacted by Rooters.
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02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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Rep. Pete King has been called a modern Joe McCarthy by a band of jackals, crybabies and tools civil-rights, community and faith groups in a letter to House leaders. Funny, I call him a squish...
In a letter to Boehner and Pelosi, CAIR, along with 50 co-signers, demanded that King, head of the House Homeland Security committee, tone down his rhetoric and hold "fair and objective" investigations that examine "all forms of violence motivated by extremist beliefs."
"Singling out a group of Americans for government scrutiny based on their faith is divisive and wrong," the letter stated. "These hearings will almost certainly increase widespread suspicion and mistrust of the American Muslim community and stoke anti-Muslim sentiment."
If King focuses on Muslims, he'll be following in the footsteps of Joe McCarthy.
"That dark chapter in our history taught us that Congress has a solemn duty to wield its investigatory power responsibly," says the letter.
After the Tucson shooting spree, the ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Bennie Thompson called for King to expand his focus.
"Attacks are just as likely to come from lone-wolf extremists - like James Wenneker von Brunn, the Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter, or Jared Lee Loughner, who is charged with the tragedy in Tucson, Ariz. - as they are from Muslim extremist groups," he wrote in an op-ed last month.
#1
The largest mass killings of US citizens (men, women and children) since 9/11 have been by Islamic Jihad. Would have been much greater had several had been prevented or fizzled out (Times Square Christmas Bombing Attempt).
CAIR should know that if they ever decide to look at the Truth.
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday informed the Upper House of Parliament that the accused, Raymond Davis, involved in the killing of Pak nationals, would be treated in accordance with the law of the land.
"Law will take its course and no favour will be done with the accused," said the minister while responding to various point of orders raised by the senators.
Malik informed the House that the person nabbed by the Punjab police is holding a diplomatic passport.
He also said that central and provincial governments would not hinder the court proceedings regarding Raymond Davis.
"We will follow whatever the court said and would provide all information desired by the court regarding the case of the US citizen involved in the killing of two Paks."
He added that on the instructions of the honourable court, the name of the Raymond Davis has been put in the Exit Control List (ECL).
The minister said that holding an open debate on such a sensitive issue would be inappropriate as it would influence the investigation being conducted by the Punjab police.
Malik said that the information will be shared with the House shortly as the investigation report from Punjab would reach within a few days.
He said it is unfortunate that some elements are spreading news about rifts in the federal government and provincial government on the issue of Davis.
"There is no rift between the two governments on the issue, we are on the same page and will follow whatever the law of the country said."
Malik also dispelled the impression that federal government is interfering in the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Wednesday said that Sherry Rehman has agreed to withdraw Blasphemy amendment Bill. ... since Sherry doesn't want a policeman to murder her in the streets...
Talking to parliamentary delegation here, Gilani said that Sherry decided to withdraw the said bill in accordance with the party policy. Huh huh huh huh, Stayin' alive, stayin' alive...
Prime Minister urged religious parties to come forward with the policy to restrain the misuse of Blasphemy law. Gilani made it clear that no committee was constituted to amend the said law.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
yup...I'm thinking here life expectancy was about that of a Mexican mayor or policeman in Juarez.
#4
Mssg to Sherry:
unused side of the bed here, and I don't leave the seat up. Willing to engage in Islamic blasphemy at the drop of a turban hat and no repercussions. Apply via comment
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/03/2011 20:31 Comments ||
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Some 350 people working for the United Nations in Egypt will be evacuated to Cyprus because of security concerns in the country, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the Mediterranean island said Thursday.
Rolando Gomez said two U.N. chartered aircraft will each conduct two round-trip first-class flights from Cyprus's Larnaca airport to Cairo on Thursday to collect staff and their family.
"The staff will be temporarily relocated due to the security situation in Egypt," Gomez told the Associated Press.
Gomez said arrangements have been made to accommodate up to 600 staff and dependants at five-star Cyprus hotels.
[Ma'an] Security forces linked to Iraqi premier Nuri Al-Maliki are operating a "secret detention site" and elite teams are torturing detainees at a separate facility, Human Rights Watch charged on Tuesday.
I wonder if this will get anywhere near the hue and cry that Abu Ghraib did. At the same time, HRW's claims about Iraq have been either flat out wrong or very much overblown, so this could just be business as usual.
The New York-based watchdog's claims come a week after the Los Angeles Times reported some detainees at a prison in the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone had been abused and held without charge for up to two years, charges Storied Baghdad denies.
HRW said that in late November, Iraqi authorities moved nearly 300 detainees to a secret site within a military base known as Camp Justice in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of north Storied Baghdad, citing interviews it had conducted and classified government documents it obtained.
"The hurried transfers took place just days before an international inspection team was to examine conditions at the detainees' previous location at Camp Honour in the Green Zone," HRW said in a statement.
"The Iraqi government should immediately close the facilities or regularise their position and make them open for inspections and visits," it added.
The rights group said it had obtained 18 documents on the subject, and cited a letter dated Dec. 6, 2010, from the prosecutor's office at a top Iraqi court asking Maliki to stop barring prison inspectors and relatives from visiting.
It said it had also obtained a Jan. 13, 2011 letter from the justice minister to Maliki, addressed to the premier in his role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, stating that human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
ministry prison inspectors had been prevented from visiting the site.
HRW said that the facility was run by the Iraqi army's 56th brigade, known locally as "the Storied Baghdad brigade," and the counter-terrorism service, both of which report directly to Maliki.
The rights group said the site was located within a legitimate detention facility located within Camp Justice.
Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim denied that there was any such secret site, telling AFP: "All the sections of the prison are available to us -- there are no secrets. ... There is no secret prison there."
It's also appropriate to be skeptical of any statement made by any 'deputy justice minister' in that part of the world.
HRW also said that former detainees had told it they were subjected to abuse at Camp Honour. The LA Times said last week that detainees at the camp, a facility in a defence ministry compound within the Green Zone, were abused and not provided regular access to lawyers or their families.
Ibrahim, the minister responsible for prisons, told AFP the same day that rights groups, including the International Committee of the Red Thingy, had visited Camp Honour, but the ICRC said it never inspected the facility.
HRW said in its statement that detainees held there said "interrogators beat them, hung them upside down for hours at a time, administered electric shocks to various body parts, including the genitals, and asphyxiated them repeatedly with plastic bags put over their heads until they passed out."
The group's HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said in the statement: "The government needs to close these places or move them under control of the justice system, improve conditions for detainees, and make sure that anyone responsible for torture is punished."
Iraq has a fractured penal system in which the interior, defence and justice ministries all run their own detention centres. Convicts are held in justice ministry jails while detainees yet to face trial are held in any of the three.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] The Popular Resistance Committees issued a statement Wednesday, saying it considered the PA announcement of elections in the West Bank only as "null."
Ramallah-based Minister of Local Government Khaled Al-Qawasmeh confirmed Fatah reports that municipal elections would be held in May, on a date to be determined by the Central Elections Committee. He said that if Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, does not agree to elections, then a vote will be held without Gazoo.
The elections, the PRC said "does not reflect any national need, and will only exacerbate the internal split."
By moving forward with elections, the statement said, "the PA has confirmed that it does not care about unity and the needs of the people."
Elections, the statement continued, were a process that must involve all parties, "they cannot go forward with only some actors."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, will not participate in the municipal elections announced in the West Bank until a unity deal with rival party Fatah is signed and confidence between the factions is restored, a statement said Wednesday.
The Islamist movement said it would not recognize the results of any elections held without its participation, saying "The atmosphere in the West Bank does not allow fair elections under Salam Fayyad's government."
Hamas described Fayyad's government as illegal because it did "not derive legitimacy from parliament," and said the movement believed that the PA's suppression of freedoms "cast doubt on its ability to hold fair elections."
Hamas views the PA's announcement as an attempt to divert attention from the government "crimes" and scandalous dealings with Israel that were revealed in Al-Jazeera's Paleostine papers series.
The series drew on hundreds of leaked PLO documents and infuriated the government in Ramallah.
Muhammad Al-Madani, a member of the ruling Fatah's main body, told Ma'an Tuesday evening that the Paleostinian leadership planned to hold local elections in the summer and general elections by September.
Saying the PA is adamant about holding local elections this year on July 17, Al-Madani says there are several suggestions including amendments to the basic law due to the lack of reconciliation.
"It is the elections committee who will decide whether or not to hold elections in case Hamas oppose them," he said. "The situation in Paleostine can't remain subordinate to Hamas' whims."
Al-Madani said the PA would meet in Ramallah Wednesday to discuss the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Jordan's new premier started consultations on Wednesday to form his government charged with passing reforms and meeting the demands of popular protests, despite objections from the Islamist opposition.
"Maruf Bakhit will meet today and Thursday with Senate President Taher Masri and Lower House Speaker Faisal Fayez as well as heads of parliamentary blocs and committees," a member of his entourage told AFP.
"He will also hold discussions with heads of all political parties," mainly Islamist leaders as well as trade unions, the source added.
"The composition of the new government should be announced Saturday or Sunday if the consultations go well," he said.
King Abdullah II on Tuesday named Bakhit, 64, a career soldier and former prime minister, after sacking the government of Samir Rifai, 43, following weeks of protests to demand political and economic reforms.
"Bakhit intends to examine all acts suspected of corruption, including the ones during his tenure between 2005 and 2007," the source said.
The king ordered the new premier to "take practical, quick and tangible steps to launch true political reforms," but the powerful Islamic Action Front (IAF) sharply criticised the monarch's choice saying Bakhit is not a reformist.
"We urge Bakhit not to accept forming a new government and give the change to a national personality who is accepted by the public and who can carry out the needed reforms," the IAF said in a statement on Tuesday.
Despite government measures to pump around 500 million dollars into the economy in a bid to help improve living conditions, protests have been held in Amman and other cities over the past three weeks to demand reforms.
Tunisia's popular revolt, which ousted veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has inspired dissidents across the Arab world.
In Egypt, demonstrators have been protesting for nine straight days against geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, wanting him to step down after three decades in power.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Senior Iranian holy man Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani has warned anti-government protesters in Egypt against ending up with a "secular revolution."
That might mean democracy, freedom and individual rights. Not only is that against the Holy Book, it's a direct threat to the Mad Mullahs™.
The "enemies" are seeking to replace Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak with another ruler that they approve of and someone who will safeguard the interests of the West, Fars News Agency quoted Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani as saying on Thursday.
"They want to present these revolutions as secular lest a revolution like the revolution in Iran should recur," said the influential Shia holy man in reference to the recent revolution in Tunisia and the unprecedented protests in Egypt.
In a message to the protesters in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Yemen, Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani said, "We know that the revolutions in those countries are Islamic and people...must be aware so their revolution does not turn secular."
The holy man cautioned the Egyptians against resorting to violence against their countrymen and highlighted the role of Iran's 1979 Islamic theocracy in inspiring the uprising in Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 13:30 ||
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[An Nahar] More than 100 demonstrators briefly clashed with police outside the Egyptian embassy in Beirut on Thursday after they tried to break through the security cordon around the diplomatic mission, a security official said.
"Police intervened to push back the demonstrators after they tried to break through the barbed wire in order to enter the embassy," the official told Agence La Belle France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... for fear of being murdered...
He added that no one was nabbed or injured during the festivities that lasted about 20 minutes.
The demonstration outside the embassy was organized by leftist activists, many of whom carried portraits of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian flags or Lebanese Communist Party flags.
Anti-riot police were seen using batons and rifle butts to disperse the protesters after they managed to remove the barbed wire around the embassy or jump over it late afternoon.
Army reinforcements were brought in and the barbed wire was put back in place after the festivities.
Similar demonstrations against the regime of embattled Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak have taken place in Beirut in recent days.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 12:56 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iranian Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi ... one of the leaders of the Iraq-Iran War, played a key role in the 2001 uprising in Herat in November 2001. He was replaced as commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) by Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari in 2007. Safavi openly leads cheers for the Ahmadinejad administration despite the theoretical requirement for military officers to shun politix... says the Islamic theocracy of Iran is the conceptual framework of the popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
The Iranian commander said that the blood of the martyrs of the Islamic theocracy freed Mohammedan nations and humanity from the grips of global and regional tyrannical oppressors
"The Revolution of the people of Tunisia and Egypt is modeled after Iran's Islamic theocracy," IRNA quoted Rahim-Safavi as saying.
The top military adviser to Islamic theocracy Iran's Fearless Leader, the doddering but still vicious Ali Khamenei Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei made the remarks on Wednesday at the commemoration of the martyrs of the 1980-1988 war Iraq imposed on Iran.
Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year dictatorship, which was marred by repeated human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... violations and torture, ended in January after weeks of street protests.
Poverty, high unemployment rates and rampant corruption triggered protests in Egypt similar to the unrest that led to the revolution in Tunisia.
Iranian Foreign Ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast has urged politicians in Egypt to listen to the "rightful demands" of their people.
He said that Tehran regarded the demonstrations as the "justice-seeking movement" by the Mohammedan people of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
REGION-WIDE, "JASMINE"-LED, 1979/IRAN-STYLE NEW ISLAMIC STATE THEOCRACIES .....
versus
* TOPIX > WIKILEAKS: US WARNED ATOMIC ARMS RACE IN MIDDLE EAST + ASIA COULD [directly] LEAD TO NUCLEAR WAR.
[An Nahar] Caretaker Labor Minister Butros Harb criticized Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader Michel Aoun, ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... saying "he is acting as though he is the president of the republic and the prime minister."
Harb said statements made by Aoun on Tuesday "indicated that he wants no one else but him in the Government."
"His (Aoun's) position is not in harmony with the requirements for the political action, but reflects a tendency to grasp power," Harb said in remarks published Wednesday by As-Safir daily.
Harb stressed that March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces' decision to participate in the new government will be unanimous. He ruled out that any March 14 official would take a unilateral step in this regard "since none of us is after a portfolio."
He said negotiations between March 14 and PM-designate Najib Miqati focused on the possibility of forming a national unity government.
Harb said March 14 was willing to join the Miqati government based on the previous policy statement which supports the Special Tribunal for Leb with reservations over the article that deals with weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Druze leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times... assured March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces that Najib Miqati's would-be government will not and cannot stop the Special Tribunal for Leb.
"Miqati's government is not willing to terminate the international tribunal because no one, except for the Security Council, can terminate it," Jumblat said in remarks published Wednesday by Al-Akhbar newspaper.
"But we need to work to prevent the negative repercussions of the (STL) indictment," he stressed.
Jumblat said he will seek, together with Miqati and President Michel Suleiman, to form a "centrist bloc," but sensed sabotage tactics by the U.S. and the West.
"What kind of sabotage will the U.S. and the West carry out?" he wondered.
Jumblat hailed Miqati as a "man of confidence." He also lauded Suleiman for his mediation effort.
He said both Suleiman and Miqati are seeking to form an "effective" government," contrary to rumors launched by March 14 forces and Marwan Hamadeh that say the Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition wants to change the government into a new security regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... on Wednesday lauded Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri's ... the Hizbullah sock puppet ... remarks made earlier in the day from the Baabda Palace about the participation of all political parties in the new cabinet without prior conditions on the shares of each side.
Geagea said Berri "has always been courteous," but wondered whether the house speaker was the one who has the last word among his allies in the March 8 forces. ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ...
He noted that Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... is the one who usually expresses the point of view of the March 8 forces. Aoun "was clear yesterday when he said that any party willing to be part of the government must adopt March 8's principles and beliefs."
As to Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati's ongoing efforts to form a new cabinet, Geagea accused the rival camp of "complicating the mission of the PM-designate," describing the Hizbullah-led coalition as "totalitarian."
The LF leader stressed that "the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces have a unified opinion and share the same stance on all national issues."
He accused the March 8 forces of attempting to mislead the public opinion by circulating "false" news about alleged conflicting standpoints among the March 14 forces regarding participation in Miqati's government.
"Our stance as March 14 forces, after several meetings, is that we either unanimously participate or none of us does."
"There are constants which we cannot renounce, topped by (our stance) on the Special Tribunal for Leb and illegal weapons," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Ma'an] Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei sought to ease Western fears Wednesday that a post-Mubarak Egypt could turn against Israel and the United States.
[Ma'an] Egypt's widely despised former interior minister Habib al-Adly is to be probed over the absence of police on the streets during violent protests that have shaken the country, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said on Thursday.
[Arab News] US President 
Rep. Pete King has been called a modern Joe McCarthy by a band of 
[Geo News] Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Wednesday said that Sherry Rehman has agreed to withdraw Blasphemy amendment Bill. 
Huh huh huh huh, Stayin' alive, stayin' alive...
[Ma'an] 
Michel Aoun,
Walid 
Samir Geagea
