JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered a national fundraising campaign to alleviate the suffering of Somalis who have been hit by drought and famine. The campaign will be launched Monday.
"Your Enormity! The Turks are giving money away in Somalia!"
"What's that?"
"It's a useless piece of land in Africa but that's not the point. The Turks are meddling in our sphere of influence!"
"Well then, there's not a moment to lose. Write a check and sign it in my name!"
In a statement issued Saturday, King Abdullah urged Saudis to donate generously for the benefit of their Somali brethren. He quoted a number of Qur'anic verses that encourage Muslims to spend their money in the way of God.
"Inspired by these Qur'anic verses and moved by the sense of responsibility toward our brethren in Somalia ... King Abdullah has instructed that Monday, Aug. 22, will be the beginning of the fundraiser," a Royal Court announcement said.
King Abdullah reminded his people of a Qur'anic verse that says: "Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it." Another Qur'anic verse said those who do a good work will receive a better reward.
King Abdullah also said the land of the two holy mosques is the best place to start this charitable campaign.
A number of Saudi-based organizations including the Islamic Development Bank, the International Islamic Relief Organization of Saudi Arabia and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth have already sent relief supplies to Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
EDINBURGH, Scotland: Scottish officials said Saturday they were right to release a Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he was dying of cancer, even though he is still alive two years later.
Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of murdering 270 people, most of them American, by blowing up a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988.
He was freed on Aug. 20, 2009, after prison doctors said he had prostate cancer and estimated he had only three months to live. He is still alive, and last month he appeared at a televised rally in Tripoli alongside Muammar Qaddafi.
Looked healthier than Daffy did, in fact, though he has to be wondering just how lucky he is to be out of a British prison and in the middle of a civil war -- and on the losing side...
In a statement, a spokesman for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the decision to release Al-Megrahi was made "on compassionate grounds and compassionate grounds alone" and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors.
"Whether people support or oppose the decision, it was made following the due pro-cess of Scots law, we stand by it, and Al-Megrahi is dying of terminal prostate cancer," he said.
Thus doubling-down on stupid...
A leading cancer specialist, however, said 59-year-old Al-Megrahi appeared to be receiving a cutting-edge hormone treatment and could live for several more years.
Prof. Roger Kirby, a consultant urologist at the Prostate Cancer Center in London, said, "He has long outlived the speculative three-month prognosis, and it appears he may continue to do so for a while yet."
Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is the only person convicted over the Lockerbie bombing, Britain's worst terrorist attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think it would be hilarious if he was caught by another European nation, who then offered him back to Scotland, assuming Qaddafi was no longer in power. Or it would be especially funny if they offered him to he US instead.
#4
Scotland? Adam Smith. David Hume. Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir. Jphn Paul Jones. James Clerk Maxwell. More at http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/greatscots.html.
#7
In a statement, a spokesman for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the decision to release Al-Megrahi was made "on compassionate grounds and compassionate grounds alone" and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors.
You have more "compassion" for a convicted mass murderer than for the hundreds of surviving family members of Pam Am 103 victims, or your own citizens slain in the village of Lockerbie?
Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory,
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,
Sae fam'd in martial story.
Now Sark rins o'er the Solway sands,
And Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where Eurabia's province stands -
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.
What force or guile could not subdue,
Thro' many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor's wages.
The foes steel we could disdain;
Secure in valour's station;
But Libyan gold has been our bane -
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.
O would, or I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us,
My auld gray head had lien in clay,
Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I'll mak' this declaration;
We're bought and sold for Arabs' gold -
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.
Much of the information for this article comes from from the National Security Archvies, Wikipedia, and other online published Mexican news sources.
By Chris Covert
Blame for the Acteal, Chiapas Massacre of December 22nd, 1997 is still very much in the air and depends on which side of the Mexican political spectrum you read.
There's the official government version which states that ongoing conflict between Ejercito Zapatista de Revolucion Nacional (EZLN) supporters and government supporters eventually led to the slaughter. Ultimately, blame for the slaughter rests in the existence of EZLN guerillas in the area. This even though southern Mexican politicians had been literally begging the government to do something about Guatemalan communist guerrillas taking sanctuary in southern Mexico beginning in 1992.
It is not like the EZLN sprung out of nowhere.
The less than official version, supported by leftists and human rights groups supporters states it was a direct attack by individuals armed by the government.
The Mexican government disclaims any responsibility for the attack or for arming the individuals who committed the murder even though the Mexican government had been at least two years into arming its supporters against EZLN supporters when the killings took place.
If the Mexican government's opus magnus on the matter, Libro Blanca Sobre Acteal, or White Paper About Acteal is to be believed, both sides pressed against each other with increasingly hostile acts. Leftists ridicule the government's claim even though the White paper does recount several instances of armed attacks in the area the year prior to the Acteal massacre against both sides.
But the left should talk. One of the reasons the white paper said the shootings at Acteal took place was a "surprising absence" of human rights groups in the area just prior to the massacre. In the white paper, it is well known that human rights and international NGOs were supporters of the EZLN, the implication being they were all too willing to look the other way when EZLN supporters armed and otherwise took matters into their own hands.
Whomever gets the ultimate blame, it seems clear that local government supporters armed by the Mexican Army starting in 1995 went out of government control very quickly. And standing atop the organizational structure with his hallmark of excellence of command, but less than stellar control is then Colonel Leopoldo Diaz Perez.
General Diaz Perez is not mentioned in any of the documents released so far into the National Security Archives. One of the reason why is that the Mexican Army refuses to allow release of that information for national security purposes. And much of the information publicly available on the internet speaks of events starting in 1994, when the Chiapas Conflict went hot to 1995, at about the time Mexican General Mario Renan Castillo Fernandez began implement Mexico's counterinsurgency strategy in Chiapas.
In a May, 1999 memorandum to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a US defense attache in Mexico City stated that the actual arming of groups in Chiapas friendly to the government and to the army were in fact Mexican Army officers and NCOs with experience in the local Indian dialects. The purpose of the teams were primarily to gather intelligence on EZLN activities and to provide protection of friendly elements in the respective areas of the teams. The teams were initially deployed in areas around Los Altos, which is ten kilometers southwest of San Cristobal de Casas, and near Los Canadas. The teams were frequently rotated to different areas for their own protection.
The memorandum's reference to sympathetic groups also indicate those groups were armed. In Mexico it is illegal to posses a weapon larger than .22 caliber outside your abode, so it seems clear that not only were the teams meeting on a regular basis with sympathetic groups, they may well have been arming them.
The DIA report doesn't say so in so many words, but the attache admits in the wake of the Acteal massacre, direct support of the groups may have been reduced, implying the groups were in fact supported by SEDENA's counterinsurgency strategy with firearms. It has already been shown that the EZLN groups were already armed, a fact that is often lost in describing the events that led up to the massacre.
If General Castillo Fernandez's plan was to provide local independent levies to monitor and if necessary engage EZLN guerrillas and supporters, then his strategy paid off. In that context, the massacre at Acteal makes some sense in that it was a means of deliberately destroying peaceful supporters of the EZLN, serving as a warning to remaining communities that did support the EZLN. It was an easy and high profile target
The church that was attacked at Acteal was occupied by a group of passive Catholics who called themselves Los Abesas or the Bees. The group comprised pacifist Christians who supported the goals of the EZLN and who rejected violence as a means of achieving goals. They were leftist oriented in their politics and likely supported the EZLN materially, which is a serious crime in Mexico.
The indiscriminate killing of individuals at Acteal ageing from a few months to 67 years old is what made the attack so heinous, other than the fact the people were unarmed. In many other contexts, such an attack would prove disastrous for the attacking group, but not so in Mexico, and not so for many of the actors in the Chiapas conflict.
Group Chiapas
General Diaz Perez's role in the Acteal massacre was probably a direct result of his command methods. According to Vangardia.mx article he became known as a commander who allowed his staff and subordinates considerable leeway to execute their orders. In this context Diaz Perez took the meaning of Procedimiento Sistematico de Operar (PSO) or Standard Operating Procedure, and subverted it to apply to his commands. Another glaring criticism of Diaz Perez in the article was his "remarkable inability to understand origin of social problems that prompted the emergence of EZLN guerrillas".
One of General Diaz Perez's tasks as head of Group Chiapas was establshing and operating Bases de Operaciones Mixtas (BOM) or mixed operating bases which was interspersed throughout the area as a means of control of his teams. These BOMs served as military police outposts for the region as well. His methods were heavily influenced by General Hector Sanchez Gutierrez, who had counterinsurgency training in the US and has boss General Castillo Fernandez, who also received training in the US in counterinsurgency doctrine.
Diaz Perez's subordinate as commander of the Mexican 24th Military Zone, Colonel Jos� Guadalupe Arias Agredano, also received counterinsurgency training in the US.
According to a 2007 report in Proceso Diaz Perez's most high profile role in the Acteal massacre was a subsequent operation undertaken at the orders of Chiapas governor Roberto Albores Guillen to dismantle the autonomous municipalities taken over by EZLN groups. The left to thus day complains that the dismantling of the autonomous municipalities was in violation of the San Andres Accords signed in 1996, which was supposed to end the Chiaspas conflict when in fact it was the EZLN that violated the accords by moving to establish autonomy without the Chiapas state legislature endorsement, which was a prime requirement of the Accords.
Group Chiapas was disbanded on January 15, 2001. Following his posting in Chiapas he served as chief of staff of various Military Zones until he ascended to command of the 24th Military Zone in 2009.
BRASILIA — The Libyan embassy in Brazil’s capital witnessed clashes with echoes from the civil war back home late Friday as supporters of anti-Gaddafi rebels fought it out with those backing the longtime leader.
Witnesses said about 20 people of Libyan descent and Libyan officials were meeting for a gathering celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when some activists raised the rebelsÂ’ flag, triggering a clash between those for and against the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi from Libya.
‘We raised the flag of independence, and we left,’ said Abdala Al Hamadi, who participated in the incident.
A spokesman for the military police standing guard in front of the embassy said an ‘incident with people from the opposition’ had forced Ambassador Salem Ezubedi and his family to leave. According to police, the embassy’s occupants agreed to leave the building peacefully. A foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the ambassador was well and the embassy had been secured.
The embassy, under Ezubedi, has remained loyal to the Gaddafi regime.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
"The jihad is bearing fruit in Kashmir and soon India will reach its logical end," he claimed.
Explaining the "wonders" of jihad, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks said: "The US has had to give in in Afghanistan because of the power of jihad and now India will also surrender for the same reason."
Perhaps. Perhaps not. This is why we are advised not to count our chickens before they hatch and other wise things.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2011 12:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
See also WAFF > PAKI TERROR LEADER [Founder] SAYS JIHAD [J&K] WILL DESTROY INDIA LIKE IT DID USA IN AFGHANISTAN.
* ION NEWS KERALA > PAKISTAN MULLS CROSS-BORDER ECONOMIC ZONE [EEZ-SEZ] WID CHINA, in Xinjiang despite its recent controversy wid "Big Brother" + BFF China on Uighur Muslims allegedly receiving terror training in Pak-based camps.
* WAFF > [Kavkaz Center = 2010 US Report on World Terror] JIHAD IN RUSSIA THREATENS THE EXISTENCE OF RUSSIA, CONFIRMS OBAMA'S STATE DEPARTMENT.
* SAME > DEATH OF RUSSIA: STATE DUMA DEPUTY [Sergei Petronov] WARNS RUSSIA UNLIKELY TO LAST UNTIL 2020, as due to various serious factors affecting or degarding national integrity + security.
Taken collectively, I'm interepreting the above to mean that POTUS BAMMER = USA may wanna rethink or review its 2014 Afghan withdrawal + regional strategery.
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government wants to end killing, terrorism and militancy in the country through bringing the criminal masterminds and killers of grenade attacks of August 21 under trial.
The premier also said the August 21 grenade attack was aimed at halting the trend of independence, democracy, peace and development as well as making the country leaderless and to give the killing, conspiracy, terrorism, militancy and corruption a permanent stay.
Terming the attack a 'stigmatised day' in the political history of the country, Sheikh Hasina said, "The killers carried out the barbaric attack in broad day light on a peaceful rally of Awami League to kill me".
"Our party leaders and workers by forming a human-shield saved me from the series of grenade attacks," she recalled.
"I survived the attack due to immense blessings of the Almighty, but some 24 leaders and workers including president of Mohila Awami League Ivy Rahman embraced martyrdom. Many of the injured in the attack are now leading painful lives," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said it was the moral obligation of a government to arrest and to try the culprits involved with any such heinous attack. But, the then government of BNP protected the killers and helped a number of attackers to leave the country.
They destroyed the evidences of the incidence and in the name of investigation, diverted the heinous incident to other direction, she said.
She paid her deep homage to the deaders of August 21 and urged all to create such a democratic political atmosphere where peace and safety of all people will be ensured.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: HUJI
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. has said that the government and law enforcement agencies were taking serious measures to control criminal activities in Bloody Karachi.
He said efforts are being made to restore peace in Bloody Karachi, a business hub of the country.
He said that several meetings had been held with law enforcing agencies and stakeholders to improve law and order situation in the mega city.
"We are deeply concerned about the law and order situation in Bloody Karachi city and the government is taking stringent measures against the myrmidons without any discrimination," he said.
Replying to a question, he said that there were a number of issues which need to be tackled with collective efforts.
He said that Bloody Karachi was facing issues of ethnic and sectarian tensions, extremism and extortion of money.
He said that a task force had been established to deal with extortion mafia which was targeting innocent people and traders of Bloody Karachi.
The Minister said certain elements wanted to derail peace in Bloody Karachi and destabilise the country but they would not achieve success in their nefarious designs.
"We are collecting information against the elements involved in sabotaging peace of Bloody Karachi and action will be taken without any discrimination," he added.
Rehman Malik said after coming into power, Pakistain Peoples Party government had to face a number of problems.
He said the President and Prime Minister were very serious to bring normality to Bloody Karachi and several meetings were held to improve situation without any further delay.
He said it was responsibility of all political parties including Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) and citizens of Pakistain to come forward to work for welfare and progress of the country.
Rehman Malik urged media to play effective role in campaign against extortion mafia to save people from their criminal activities.
The Minister asked people to provide information against the myrmidons and anti-social elements so that quick action could be taken against them.
He said the PPP government introduced reforms in FATA to improve socio-economic conditions in the tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Pakistain's government is facing increased pressure from business groups to deploy the army in the commercial hub of Bloody Karachi after at least 65 people were killed in a surge of gang and political violence over the past three days.
"There is law in Bloody Karachi but there is no order," said Khalid Tawab, vice president of the Federation of Pakistain Chambers of Commerce and Industry. "Everything is going from bad to worse."
"The police has failed to restore peace, and now we need the army to come in and do that, and bring to an end the sufferings of the people of Bloody Karachi."
Leaders of the Bloody Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as almost all the main business and trade associations, have made similar demands, but it is unlikely that the army will heed their call because of its reluctance to get involved in political disputes.
Asked about the military's plans for Bloody Karachi, army front manMajor General Athar Abbas ... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General... declined to comment, but said the military would carry out the orders of the civilian government.
Fighting erupted on Wednesday in the city's old district of Lyari, long a focus of battles between rival gangs and a stronghold of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari's ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... Pakistain People's Party (PPP), before spreading to other parts of the city.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM), which dominates Bloody Karachi, and its rival ethnic-Pashtun Awami National Party have also recently called for army intervention.
But both parties, along with the PPP, are blamed by some officials and observers for links to the criminal gangs as well as engaging in pie fights to gain political space.
All the parties deny these charges.
"The army will not work on a political agenda," said Mutahir Ahmed, professor of international relations at the University of Bloody Karachi.
"In addition to the army itself, the government will also not want to involve the military in Bloody Karachi, as it will be a serious blow to its credibility. Politically, the PPP will suffer the biggest damage from such a move."
Bloody Karachi has a long history of violence, and ethnic, religious and sectarian disputes and political rows can often explode into battles engulfing entire neighbourhoods.
Street thugs and ethnic gangs have been used by political parties as foot soldiers in a pie fight in a city which contributes about two-third of Pakistain's tax revenue and is home to ports, the stock exchange and central bank.
In an unusual move, the army earlier this month voiced concern for the first time over the ethnic and political violence in Bloody Karachi after 300 people were killed in July.
However, Denver is the capital of Colorado... analysts said that the military will go no further, at least for now.
"In addition to being hard-stretched, this idea is a non-starter," said defence analyst Ikram Sehgal. The army is fighting a bloody insurgency by the Taliban and other Islamist hard boys.
"If the army comes in, there would be collateral damage...And that would be highly detrimental to their image," he said.
In the 1990s, the army carried out an operation in Bloody Karachi, primarily against the MQM, which was blamed for instigating violence at that time.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The American raid that killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May has left a "very deep imprint" on Pakistan and its armed forces, which had never considered the United States as a "direct threat", Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali said on Saturday.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I like them thinking of us as a Direct Threat - even better would be an Imminent Danger.
#3
Sorry, flag down. Examine the risk factors involved. For instance, had a couple of patrolling Pakistani Air Force Jets picked up flight of UH-60's on their radar, or had a report of unidentified helo's in a specific sensitive area. Worst case, US snatch team splashed, dozens of casualities, mission failure. Does anyone actually believe the President of the United States on the recommendation of the Joint Staff would approve such a mission without assurances and a Restricted Operations Zone from the Pak's. The Paks were suffereing from bin Laden donor fatigue and I suspect the checks from Saudi Arabia had stopped long ago. They threw us a bone.
With the exception of the Baloch region, I don't think the Pakistanis are as concerned with their western borders as much as they are with their eastern one.
Second, you need only buy, provide 'incentive', or convince a handful (perhaps a score at most) to pull it off. That's likely where the consternation comes from.
ARBIL / Aswat al-Iraq: Kurdish military border command source expected today that the Iranian and Turkish forces will initiate land attacks on the border areas of the region to avenge the losses incurred to their forces during the last few days.
The source told Aswat al-Iraq that " the atmosphere in the borders is unstable added to Turkish and Iranian military movements", expecting that they will unilaterally attack the border areas in the region.
He expected that Iran will attack the plains of Qandeel Mountain, while the Turkish forces will attack in the north.
"We, as an Iraqi force, are unable to intervene, but if we were attacked then we have to wait for our orders", the source added.
Turkish Chief of Staff statement said before yesterday that the Turkish fighters bombed 20 PJAK sites in the north of Iraq, in addition to shelling 85 sites for military members.
Kurdistan border areas are witnessing Turkish and Iranian bombardments under the pretext of chasing anti-governmental militias, which led to the immigration of tens of families and material losses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Iraqi Kurds won't like this news then ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > TURKEY TO BOOST ITS TROOP PRESENCE [anti-PKK Mil Capabilities, SIGINT] IN NORTHERN IRAQ.
Thats INSIDE IRAQ, not on Turkish areas near the Turkey-Iraq = KAR border - perhaps more importantly, ARTIC = TURKEY APPEARS TO BE DOING SO UNILATERALLY WIDOUT ANY HINT OF CONSENT OR JOINT COOPERAT WID THE IGA OR US-NATO.
versus
* WAFF > TURKEY HUMILIATED ONCE AGAIN WID RUSSIAN STATEMENT ON CYPRUS DRILLING.
FIrst Israel, Euros, + then US thisd past weekend, now comes RUSSIA on Cyprus.
[Emirates 24/7] Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of five coppers killed on the border during retaliatory attacks on Paleostinian thugs, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said Saturday.
"Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador to Israel until there is an official apology," it said.
The Egyptian government had asked "for an official apology from Israel" at the end of a crisis meeting overnight, the state-run MENA news agency reported in a statement.
Information Minister Osama Heykal was quoted as saying by MENA that five coppers were killed "inside Egyptian territory as a result of an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and armed elements inside Israeli territory."
Security forces told AFP that five coppers, including an officer, were killed at the border on Thursday, hours after gunnies believed to have crossed into Israel from Egypt opened fire on buses and cars, killing eight.
It is the second time that Egypt, the first Arab country to have signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, recalls its ambassador from the Jewish state.
In November 2000 Egypt recalled its envoy from Israel to protest over what it said was "the excessive use of force by Israel against the Paleostinians after the second intifada," or Paleostinian uprising.
The government also instructed the foreign minister "to summon the Israeli ambassador in Cairo to protest against the shooting from Israel that caused deaths inside Egypt," the statement said.
The Israeli ambassador will also be told that Egypt demands a "joint official probe" to determine how the coppers were killed and who is responsible for their deaths "in order to take legal steps to preserve the rights of the victims and the maimed Egyptians."
"Security at the Egyptian-Israeli border is the common responsibility of both parties, not only Egypt's responsibility," the government's statement said.
In Israel meanwhile diplomatic officials were holding "consultations" over Egypt's decision to recall its envoy, foreign ministry front man Yigal Palmor told AFP. He did not elaborate.
Egypt filed an official complaint with Israel on Friday and demanded an "urgent probe" into the deaths of its coppers, MENA had said quoting a military official.
The official said Egypt was conducting a "comprehensive assessment on its side of the border to determine the reasons for the deaths and injuries of Egyptian forces" and the military would take measure to ensure it does not happen again
On Friday the Israeli military also pledged to probe the incident.
"The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will investigate the matter thoroughly and update the Egyptians," a front man told AFP on Friday.
The Egyptian military has been conducting a week-long operation in the peninsula to uproot Islamist bully boyz behind attacks on police and a gas pipeline to Israel.
Egypt's military chief of staff, Sami Enan, headed to the Sinai on Friday to probe the deaths of the coppers.
His visit was announced shortly after another policeman was declared dead following a border shootout on Friday, which left one of his comrades gravely maimed with a bullet in the head.
Friday night hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and denouncing the Jewish state for the attacks.
"Sinai, Sinai," the crowds shouted in reference to the Sinai peninsula where the Egyptian coppers were killed and, "Down with Israel. The people want the ambassador out and the Israeli flag down."
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has said in a message published on his Facebook page: "Egyptian blood is too precious to be spilled for no reason."
"Our glorious revolution took place so that Egyptians could regain their dignity at home and abroad. What was tolerated in pre-revolution Egypt will not be in post-revolution Egypt," he said, referring to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's regime in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Naturally. If Turkey can play Muslims and Infidels then surely Egypt, one of the most ancient and cultured civilizations in the world, cannot fall behind.
A radical guerrilla commander said he had split from the largest Muslim militant group and formed his own with hundreds of fighters to wage a war for a separate homeland.
In a cellphone interview from his jungle hide-out in Maguindanao, Ameril Umbra Kato said that he would not return to the mainstream Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has opened negotiations with the government and threatened to expel him after he led a mutiny in December. Kato also denied accusations that he has links with al-Qaida.
He said his new group would be called the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Front. Its guerrilla wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, was organized in January, a month after he broke off from the MILF.
Kato, estimated to have 200 to 300 fighters by his former comrades, did not give many details about his combat force or say what he would do next. Kato, who is in his late 60s, said he left because his former group chose to "waste time" negotiating with the government instead of waging a battle for an independent Muslim homeland.
"We've been going around and around wasting money and look where the peace talks have brought us. The roots of the conflict have not been solved," Kato said.
MILF spokesman Von Al Haq expressed relief that Kato finally had declared he wanted to lead his own organization but warned "he will be accountable for his actions, which will no longer have any bearing on the MILF."
Al Haq said, "It's a process of elimination. At the end of the day, all those who couldn't hold firm on our basic principles fall on the wayside."
The main guerrilla force now led by Murad Ebrahim split in 1978 from the Moro National Liberation Front, which dropped its bid for secession and signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996. Murad's group dropped its bid for independence last year but demanded a more powerful type of autonomy with greater control over more territory.
Murad's group said Kato resigned in December, citing his age and poor health. But Kato then formed a breakaway group and accused Murad's group of betraying the Muslim cause by seeking autonomy instead of independence.
Kato said, "They did that without consulting the Muslims. They cheated."
#1
Don't think so - IMO, given on-going MSM-Net Repors of Indonesian + other regional [South, SE Asian] Islamist Groups funneling $$$, Arms + Fighters to the SOuthern Philippines, this is just the preliminary to a COMING "ARAB/MINDANAO/
MABUHAY SPRING" IN THE PHILIPPINES.
Radical Islam's strategic focii in the present as per the various "Arab Springs" [Jasmine = Color Revolutions] is the destabilization of pro-US, Western ME + North African Muslim States wid PRE-EXISTING NUCPROGS THAT CAN BE CONVERTED UNTO NUCLEAR WEAPONS, or in the alternate GOOD POTENTIAL = NATIONAL ECON CAPACITY FOR SAME.
IMO the Philippines at this time would be SECOND-TIER, albeit this is not to argue that Radical Islam will ignore the Philippines.
JIHAD WILL COME TO THE PHIL [WESTPAC-Oceania]> prolly after the US = US-NATO begin any intensive mil effort to fight + defeat the coming AFRICAN JIHAD.
Lest we fergit, 1990's NET + Pre, Post 9-11 > THE NATURE OF THE ISLAMIST, ETC. TERROR, NUCLEAR THREAT IS SUCH THAT THE US MAY HAVE TO CONQUER THE WORLD IN THE NAME OF ITS NATIONAL + GEOPOL SECURITY WHETHER AMERICANS LIKE IT OR NOT, WANT OR NOT, CAN AFFORD IT OR NOT!
* 9-11 + GWOT > WAR TO THE DEATH.
* "INDIANA JONES + LAST CRUSADE" MOVIE > DAD SEAN CONNERY to SON HARRISON FORD = [paraph]
" .... AND IN THIS KIND OF RACE, THERE'S NO SILVER PRIZE OR CUP [or Other] FOR COMING IN SECOND"!
[An Nahar] Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... on Saturday called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to "immediately" intervene to stop Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The New York-based rights group wrote a letter to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu asking the 57-nation body to protest Syria's actions and send a delegation there to probe possible human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violations.
"The OIC should issue a clear statement that security forces conducting policing may use lethal force only when strictly necessary to protect life, and that killing peaceful protesters is a serious violation of the OIC charter," HRW said.
"Syria, a member of the OIC since 1970, has for four months now made a mockery of its international obligations with unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, and sieges on whole cities, towns, and villages," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"The OIC should immediately take action against this member state," she added, calling its inaction "both abhorrent and inexcusable."
The Soddy Arabia-based OIC represents 1.5 billion Mohammedans and is the world's second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad....
According to the group's charter, "member states shall uphold and promote, at the national and international levels, good governance, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law."
Activists said 34 protestors were killed on Friday in Syria, where U.N. officials say more than 2,000 people have been killed since the eruption of protests in mid-March inspired by the Arab Spring.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
"HRW Calls on Muslim States to Act on Syria"
What makes you idiots think the "Muslim States" care?
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/21/2011 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What makes you idiots think the "Muslim States" care?
[An Nahar] One of the four Hizbullah members accused of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's liquidation has said that the Lebanese authorities would have placed in durance vile him if they wanted to.
"I don't care about the indictments. Let them come to arrest me," the man told TIME in an exclusive interview, which he gave on condition of anonymity despite having been publicly named by the Special Tribunal for Leb among the four suspects.
The STL indictment alleges the plot's criminal mastermind is Mustafa Badreddine, a Hizbullah commander and the suspected bomb maker who blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 Americans.
The other suspects are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra; and Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa.
"The Lebanese authorities know where I live, and if they wanted to arrest me they would have done it a long time ago. Simply, they cannot," he said.
During a recent conversation with a Hizbullah source, the TIME news hound found himself introduced to the suspect who arrived alone aboard a scooter at the home of his Hizbullah comrade. While discussing the indictments, he revealed his true identity and confirmed it by showing an old ID card, but agreed to be interviewed only on condition that neither his nor the location be revealed.
The suspect said Hizbullah would have turned him over from the first day to the so-called international justice if he was involved in Hariri's Feb. 14, 2005 liquidation in a suicide truck bombing at the Beirut seafront.
Time said that the four accused Hizbullah men are rumored to be living openly and without fear of arrest in areas under Hizbullah's control.
When the suspect was asked why he agreed to the interview, he said: "I want to send a message to the world that I wasn't involved in the liquidation of Rafik Hariri and that all the charges attributed to me are empty."
The suspect played down the circumstantial evidence in the indictment such as mobile phone records.
"Everyone knows that the Mossad can manipulate the cellphone data with the help of spies, and some of the spies were placed in durance vile which gives clear evidence that Israel can manipulate the telecommunications data," he said.
When asked where he was on the day Hariri was assassinated, the suspect said: "I was carrying out my (military) work and I cannot reveal where, but I can prove that I wasn't in the area of (the) Saint George (Hotel), the place of the liquidation, and I was at least an hour-and-a-half away from that area."
The suspect accused Israel of assassinating Hariri, saying the STL should "go to Israel which has the first and only interest in the killing of Hariri."
"Can't you see that the only beneficiary from this liquidation is Israel and its allies?" he asked his interviewer.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
(KUNA) -- A UN team arrives in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... Saturday to assess humanitarian situations in a number of riot-hit Syrian cities. "We're from the UN. We're here to help."
The team, headed by the director of the UN humanitarian affairs office in Geneva, will be visiting the cities of Al-Zabadani and Doma outside Damascus, a western diplomat said in a press statement.
He said the UN team would also visit cities of Homs, Tal Kalkh in central Syria, as well as Latakia and Idleb, and Hama, Rasten and Talbisa.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is set to appear on state-run TV tomorrow about the developments in the country, and will speak about pressure being exerted on Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Forced to subsist on take out, the Assessment didn't take long.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah has tasked a technical team with drafting a report that challenges the international tribunal's indictment and the circumstantial evidence of telecommunications data that implicated four of the party's members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's murder, a Loyalty to the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... bloc MP said.
The politician told As Safir daily published Saturday that Hizbullah would hold a presser after drafting the report to present its findings to the public opinion and unveil new facts about Israeli manipulation of telecom data.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that Hizbullah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... will unveil new documents allegedly linking foreign intelligence agencies to several liquidation attacks in Leb.
Hizbullah sources told the newspaper that the party has recordings and copies of correspondence between the Central Intelligence Agency and several other spy agencies of moderate countries.
The data implicates the involvement of one of the agencies in several liquidations carried out in Leb in the past few years, the sources said.
They told al-Joumhouria that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev handed over the documents to his Syrian counterpart Bashir al-Assad after the Russian army found them during a raid on an apartment in Georgia used as a base by the CIA in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Yet the one thing still missing when they blame Israel and the CIA is MOTIVE.
Israel wouldn't want Hariri dead and certainly wouldn't bump him off the way it was done.
Everyone knows Hezbollah & Syria did it.
#2
What you say is likely true Mikey, but it's obvious to the locals that the CIA and MOSSAD made Hezbollah and Syria do it. Maybe it was a graduation problem of some sort, who knows.
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.
Interior Minister 
Pakistain's government is facing increased pressure from business groups to deploy the army in the commercial hub of 
Asif Ali 
A radical guerrilla commander said he had split from the largest Muslim militant group and formed his own with hundreds of fighters to wage a war for a separate homeland.
[An Nahar] One of the four Hizbullah members accused of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's 
