The impending release of a highly critical report by the State Department's Inspector General's office prompted the sudden resignation Friday of U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, according to administration and congressional sources. The report was described to The Cable by multiple people briefed on its contents as one of the worst reviews of an ambassador's performance written by the IG's staff in several years. The bulk of the criticisms focused on Gration's terrible relationship with embassy staff since he took over as ambassador in February 2011 following a controversial two-year stint as President Barack Obama's special envoy for Sudan. The report is complete, but Gration still has the opportunity to write a formal response before the report is publicly released.
Gration, a retired Air Force general, was always a contentious figure inside the Obama administration. After becoming one of the first senior military figures to openly support and actively campaign for Obama in 2007, he was embraced by the team that would eventually form the president's closest national security inner circle. As Sudan envoy, he took a stance widely seen among activists as too solicitous to the Khartoum regime, focusing more on incentives than pressures -- or, as he infelicitously once described them, "cookies" and "gold stars." By mid-2010, Gration's relationships with various groups working on Sudan had also deteriorated, and by late in the year, Gration was lobbying internally to be appointed to the Kenya post, arguing that his years of ties to that country would serve him well. Following the reasonably successful January 2011 referendum that ratified Sudan's split into two countries, Gration got his wish.
But Gration's independent streak and insistence on doing things his own way, outside of the interagency policy process, ran afoul of the embassy staff in Nairobi almost immediately. Multiple sources familiar with the disputes confirmed reports Friday that Gration preferred to use his Gmail account for official business and set up private offices in his residence -- and an embassy bathroom -- to conduct business outside the purview of the embassy staff. Gration often bragged about his close ties to the White House and to the president himself, although the White House stopped returning his phone calls after the IG's investigation results became known inside the administration. Gration was twice disciplined by the State Department for making public statements that did not comport with administration policy, although the exact details of those statements is unclear.
For the community in Washington that follows U.S.-Kenya relations, the focus going forward should be on finding a new envoy who can hit the ground running, as Kenya's political system faces severe risks in the wake of an explosion of ethnic and tribal violence following the December 2007 election. Kenya is also in the front lines of the battle to stabilize Somalia, as the Kenyan military's campaign to oust that country's al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants from their southern stronghold has been met with fierce resistance and threats of terrorist retaliation.
"In light of the potential for violence in Kenya during the run-up to the 2013 national elections, and the challenges of sustaining full implementation of constitutional reform, we urge President Obama to immediately nominate a senior individual with deep conflict prevention expertise to replace Ambassador Scott Gration," read a statement Friday by the Kenya Working Group, a team of experts organized by the Center for Strategic Studies and the Center for American Progress. "The President's nominee should understand Kenya's complex history and the current political landscape - as well as that of the surrounding region. Given the crucial but delicate transition underway in Kenya, the nominee must also understand the critical role the U.S. government can play supporting Kenyan efforts to realize a successful democratic transition, and have the ability to work productively with all U.S. agencies and key international partners present in Kenya."
What is being dubbed as Egypt's "first sex-slave marriage" took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Morsi was made president.
Last Monday, on the Egyptian TV show Al Haqiqa ("the Truth"), journalist Wael al-Ibrashi began the program by airing a video-clip of a man, Abd al-Rauf Awn, "marrying" his "slave." Before making the woman, who had a non-Egyptian accent, repeat the Koran's Surat al-Ikhlas after him, instead of saying the customary "I marry myself to you," the woman said "I enslave myself to you," and kissed him in front of an applauding audience.
Then, even though she was wearing a hijab, her owner-husband declared her forbidden from such trappings, commanding her to be stripped of them, so as "not to break Allah's laws." She took her veil and abaya off, revealing, certainly by Muslim standards, a promiscuous red dress (all the other women present were veiled). The man claps for her as the video-clip (which can be viewed here) ends.
The owner-husband, Abd al-Rauf Awn, then appeared on the show, identifying himself as an Islamic scholar and expert at Islamic jurisprudence who studied at Al Azhar. He gave several Islamic explanations to justify his "marriage," from Islamic prophet Muhammad's "sunna" or practice of "marrying" enslaved captive women, to Koran 4:3, which commands Muslim men to "Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four... or what your right hands possess."
For all practical purposes, and to avoid euphemisms, "what your right hands possess"--also known in Arabic as a melk al-yamin--is, according to Islamic doctrine and history, simply a sex-slave. Linguistic evidence further suggests that she is seen more as a possession than a human.
Even stripping the sex-slave of her hijab, the way Awn commanded his concubine-wife, has precedent. According to Islamic jurisprudence, whereas the free (Muslim) woman is mandated to be veiled behind a hijab, sex-slaves are mandated only to be covered from the navel to the knees--with everything else exposed. During the program Awn even explained how Caliph Omar, one of the first "righteous caliphs," used to strip sex-slaves of their garments, whenever he saw them overly dressed in the marketplace.
Awn further explained that sex-slave marriage is ideal for today's Egyptian society. He based his position on ijtihad, a recognized form of jurisprudence, whereby a Muslim scholar comes up with a new idea--one that is still rooted in the Koran and example of Muhammad--yet one that better fits the circumstances of contemporary society.
He argued that, when it comes to marriage, "we Muslims have overly complicated things," so that men are often forced to be single throughout their prime, finally getting married between the ages of 30-40 (when they might be expected to have a sufficient income to open a household). Similarly, many Egyptian women do not want to wear the hijab in public.
The solution, according to Awn, is to reinstitute sex-slavery--allowing men to marry and copulate much earlier in life, and women who want to dress freely to do so, as technically they are sex-slaves and mandated to go about loosely attired, anyway.
The other guest on the show, Dr. Abdullah al-Naggar, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al Azhar, fiercely attacked Awn for reviving this practice, calling on him and his slave-wife to "repent" and stop dishonoring Islam, arguing that "there is no longer sex-slavery"--to which Awn responded by sarcastically asking, "Who said sex-slavery is over? What--because the UN said so?"
In many ways, this exchange between Awn, who advocates sex-slave marriage, and the Al Azhar professor symbolizes the clash between today's "Islamists" and "moderate Muslims." For long, Al Azhar has been primarily engaged in the delicate balancing act of affirming Islam while still advocating modernity according to Western standards, whereas the Islamists--from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Salafis--bred with contempt and disrespect for the West, are only too eager to revive distinctly Islamic practices that defy Western sensibilities.
While this may be the first sex-slave marriage to take place in Egypt's recent history, it is certainly not the first call to revive the practice. Earlier, Egyptian Sheikh Huwaini, lamenting that the "good old days" of Islam are over, declared that, in an ideal Muslim society, "when I want a sex-slave [I should be able to go] to the market and pick whichever female I desire and buy her." Likewise, a Kuwaiti female politician advocated for reviving the institute of sex-slavery, suggesting that Muslims should bring female captives of war--specifically Russian women from the Chechnya war--and sell them to Muslim men in the markets of Kuwait.
And so the "Arab Spring" continues to blossom. Enjoy your arab spring gents. Cut off all funding, support and aid NOW. Let them enjoy their 7th century lifestyle.
TRIPOLI: Fresh faces on thousands of campaign posters have flooded the streets of the Libyan capital where the portrait of slain dictator Muammar Qaddafi once reigned supreme.
Campaigning to elect a national assembly opened on June 18 with a modest trickle of posters slapped on walls and pamphlets distributed in coffee-houses. Now massive bill boards dominate the main arteries of the capital.
A tsunami of advertising has washed over Tripoli and other cities, leaving its mark on schools, supermarkets, bridges and highways in a bid to seduce voters ahead of Saturdays election.
The 200-member assembly will lead the the oil-rich nation over a short transition period roughly 12 months if all milestones are met with the main goal of delivering a constitution to govern future elections. The legislative body replaces the ruling National Transitional Council, which took power after a popular uprising toppled Qaddafi last year, and will appoint a new interim government as well as a constituent authority.
Libyans have had only a brief opportunity 18 days to familiarise themselves with party candidates and independents who are vying for 80 and 120 seats, respectively, in the General National Congress.
Posters of party and individual candidates the majority of them newcomers in a budding political scene compete for space and attention on busy street corners. The rich palette of colors that replaced the old regimes uniform green on the streets has infused the Mediterranean capital with all the magic of a summer carnival.
Campaigning closes on Thursday.
The electoral commission deemed 2,501 independents and 1,206 political association candidates eligible to run after vetting. A total of 142 political entities are fielding candidates.
The push to become a household name has seen increasingly larger ads take over public spaces, including residential fronts and phone lines, once the exclusive prerogative of the only master on board, Qaddafi. Reflecting high hopes, more than 2.7 million Libyans, or around 80 percent of the eligible electorate, have registered for the election. But many are still fuzzy on the details of how to vote and havent decided whom to support.
Campaigning and advertising in the run-up to elections have partly helped to close [the] knowledge gap, and the electoral commission has admonished media on several occasions for not playing a larger role in voter education. One channel, Libya Elects, presents candidates and their curriculums in monotonous slide show fashion, in an apparent bid to respect guidelines allocating candidates equal air time.
The electoral commission capped campaign spending at 70,000 Libyan dinars ($55,188/44,000 euros) for independent and 150,000 dinars for party candidates but there are no verification mechanisms in place. Foreign funding is prohibited.
Libyans and their international partners are keen to hold the historic vote, the first national poll after four decades of iron-fisted rule under Qaddafi, who dismissed political parties and elections as a construct of the West.
Despite fierce clashes in the nearby Nafusa mountains and further afield in the desert city of Kufra in the east, the interim authorities have reiterated their commitment to hold the vote on Saturday as promised.
The United Nations Support Mission to Libya has been assisting the electoral commission and the interim authorities to that end. The EU, meanwhile, has already dispatched a team of 21 observers across the country.
Libyans and international observers seem to agree that the first-time vote doesnt have to be perfect and hope that it will unfold peacefully despite threats of boycott and sabotage by some parties in the east.
This vote in many ways is a rehearsal, said one Western diplomat.
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SEOUL, July 4 -- North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un is unlikely to face any challenges to his power as there is no alternative to him in a country that has built a personality cult around his family, a presidential advisory body on unification said Wednesday.
Hosni thought the same thing...
"In a short-term perspective, it is believed that there will be no factor that could challenge for Kim Jong-un's succession to power," the National Unification Advisory Council said in a recent report to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
The advisory body made the assessment on grounds that North Korea has been ruled by Kim's family since its foundation in 1948 and that China supports the new leader, believed to be in his late 20s.
Qadaffi thought he was starting a dynasty too...
China's endorsement is widely seen crucial in keeping the Kim family dynasty as the impoverished North has long relied on diplomatic support and economic aid from its key ally.
Still, the advisory body cautioned that there could be friction among officials over a power reshuffle and distribution of resources in the future. It also said there could be a policy dispute over whether to keep the country's military-first, or "songun," policy.
Generals always want the military put first. Look how well that turned out for the Argentine generals...
Kim's late father championed the songun policy and channeled the country's scarce resources to the military, which had served as a key backbone of his totalitarian rule.
Suet Face Kim Jong-un has also made a series of inspection trips to military units in an apparent move to bolster his support from the military. Top North Korean military officials have repeatedly pledged loyalty to their new supreme commander.
Just like the Turkish generals did. See where it got them...
The council said Kim Jong-un appears likely to maintain the status quo in the country's domestic and foreign policy as he has vowed to uphold his father's dying wish.
Of course Kimmie's dead now so Pudgy can do as he likes...
It also said it is difficult to expect any change in the North's economic policy in a short period of time, despite Kim's reported comment on capitalistic economic reform.
Since the people are happy...
In December, North Korea said that "the South Korean puppets and foolish politicians around the world should not expect any change" from North Korea.
Separately, the council said that the North may fire a missile or conduct a third nuclear test to try to boost its bargaining leverage in preparations for possible talks with the United States after the U.S. presidential election in November. Many analysts had speculated that the North, which carried out two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, may conduct a third nuclear test to compensate for its botched rocket launch.
So that they can have a botched nuke test to go along with it...
Last month, North Korea said it has no immediate plan to conduct a nuclear test.
Listening to their Chinese masters, are they...
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A military intelligence-sharing pact being pursued by Korea and Japan is a threat to China and must be stopped, an editorial in China's official Global Times said Tuesday. Which makes the pact an even better idea...
Headlined "South Korea Must Stick to Role of Balancer," the editorial said, "The military deal, if signed, could turn the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea alliances into a triangular one." It warned, "Signing the pact would hurt South Korea's relations with China, and this is a geopolitical role South Korea may not be willing to play."
The Global Times said strengthened military ties between Seoul and Tokyo would pose a potential threat to China and urged Beijing to take steps to pressure Korea to scrap the agreement.
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President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday warned North Korea on Tuesday against further provocations, saying that China is under increasing pressure from the international community to stop supporting Pyongyang's bellicose behavior.
China "is taking steps to promote stability and balance in Northeast Asia," Lee told an advisory group of prominent figures, according to presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha. "We are making it clear that we will respond to whatever provocations North Korea makes several times over," Lee said. "We also asked China to relay this position to North Korea."
The comments came a week after the 10th anniversary of a naval skirmish with North Korea that left six South Korean sailors dead.
China has often effectively sided with North Korea after provocations like the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, urging dialogue rather than implementing sanctions against Pyongyang. But senior Chinese figures have recently indicated that Beijing's patience with the North is running out.
A high-ranking government source speculated that Lee has confirmed this change in China's position in talks with top leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao.
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Believe it when the Chinese start massing troops on the border. Otherwise, just an attempt to claim plausible deniability.
[Dawn] Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Wednesday that reopening of supply route to the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan was not a question of victory or defeat but the issue of our principled stance on Salala attack which has been accepted by the United States.
Replying to questions of media representatives during a briefing after the cabinet meeting here, the minister said that our stance was that Pakistain being a frontline state had suffered the most and thousands of its soldiers and citizens bit the dust in this war.
"Our demand was that NATO should accept their mistake and should tender apology which has been accepted", he said.
Kaira said that the United States has also changed its stated position and tendered apology over Salala incident and the unfortunate situation has been rectified now, which is in the interest of Pakistain, Afghanistan, NATO and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF).
He said that Pakistain has reiterated it stance on drone attacks and has been assured that in future Pakistain's illusory sovereignty will be respected.
To a question he said that the government took guidelines from the Parliament on its foreign policy and time of six to eight months on restoration of supply to NATO was logical.
Replying to a question, Kaira said that the government was taking decisions in larger national interests and it was aware that elections will be due soon and some people will try to get advantage of the opening of NATO supplies to Afghanistan.
"But we believe that the people of Pakistain are mature and no one can instigate them. Pakistain has to play its role in withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, and it will be in the interest of both Pakistain and Afghanistan," he added.
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07/05/2012 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI: Top Indian and Pakistani foreign ministry officials met Wednesday to bolster a fragile peace dialogue undermined by fresh tensions over the 2008 Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan.
New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process with Islamabad after the attacks on India's financial capital by 10 Islamist gunmen that left 166 people dead. The full peace dialogue only resumed in February last year.
A senior Indian government official said Wednesday's meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani had the sole aim of keeping the "dialogue process on track."
Both men are the top civil servants in their respective ministries.
The talks' atmosphere has been soured by India's recent arrest of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of being a key handler for the Mumbai attackers who were members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
Why would that sour things? The Paks claim they're against terrorist attacks too. Just ask them...
Returning Tuesday from a visit to Tajikistan, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said the information extracted from Ansari would have to be corroborated with other sources.
"That is when we will have to make a value judgment whether Pakistan can be trusted or not," Krishna told reporters.
Some of us can answer that one today...
He also said it was a "matter of great regret" that Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed -- accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks -- was still "moving freely in Pakistan."
Pakistan has indicted seven people for their alleged role in the Mumbai attacks but their trial, which began in 2009, has been beset by delays.
The kind of delays that would make Carla del Ponte proud...
Since resuming their dialogue, they have sought to make progress on less contentious issues like bilateral trade, and have agreed to enhance cooperation on terrorism, human trafficking, narcotics and cyber crime. But analysts say the recent political upheaval in Pakistan has drained some of the momentum from the process.
The foreign secretaries' meeting was to have taken place at the end of last month, but was postponed in the uncertainty that followed the Pakistani Supreme Court's dismissal of Yousuf Raza Gilani as prime minister.
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They just got their way with the USA why not India..
Should have terminated the whole place after 911.
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A video uploaded to YouTube this week purports to show captured members of Syrian President Bashar Assads shabiha militia, with their mustaches half-shaven off, chanting Allah bless the Free [Syrian] Army.
The enforced shaving of the ostensible Assad loyalists, a mark of disgrace and humiliation in Arab culture, presumably took place after they were captured by Free Syrian Army forces. Yikes. They won't be able to show their faces in public for a couple of months at least.
It was not clear under what circumstances the pro-regime men were captured, nor could the authenticity of the videos contents be confirmed.
The incident would hardly be the first case of retaliatory humiliation by either side in the Syrian conflict. Numerous videos uploaded to YouTube over the 16-month uprising against Assad have purported to show one side or the other mutilating or defiling the bodies of their opponents. The next shot in this episode will be of three guys with half their pubic hair shaven off running around saying three women from the Syrian Army are running around with the other half of their pubic hair stuck to their face. That should cause aneurisms.
[Al Ahram] British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday that there could be no political transition in Syria with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... and urged Russia to stop backing its traditional ally.
His comments came after world powers agreed in Geneva on Saturday on a plan for transition in Syria, which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit but which the West said made clear there was no role for him in a unity government.
"Russia must understand that the situation in Syria is heading towards collapse," Hague said at a joint news conference in Gay Paree with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.
"Even if President Assad had a free hand in committing as many crimes, he will not be ble to control the situation in Syria," Hague said.
"There is no point in anyone standing by the Assad regime, this is a failed and doomed regime."
Hague's comments came ahead of a third "Friends of Syria" meeting to be held in Gay Paree on Friday that aims to coordinate Western and Arab efforts to stop 16 months of deadly violence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday accused some in the West of starting "to distort the agreements that were reached" in Geneva by saying that it left no future role for Assad.
But Hague insisted there was no place for the embattled leader in a transition and that the Geneva accord made that clear to all.
"I think we achieved a step forward... worth having which was the joint statement with Russia and China about the need for a transitional government in Syria which will include members of the opposition and other groups and crucially a government will be formed by mutual consent.
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[An Nahar] Britannia and La Belle France Wednesday said there could be no political transition in Syria with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... and urged Russia to stop backing its traditional ally.
The comments by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius came after world powers agreed in Geneva on Saturday on a plan for transition in Syria.
Although it did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit, the West said the plan made clear there was no role for him in a unity government.
"Russia must understand that the situation in Syria is heading towards collapse," Hague said at a joint news conference in Gay Paree with Fabius.
"Even if President Assad had a free hand in committing as many crimes, he will not be able to control the situation in Syria," Hague said.
"There is no point in anyone standing by the Assad regime, this is a failed and doomed regime."
Fabius underscored that "our Russian colleagues must understand that by backing a condemned regime... they risk losing the influence they have in this part of the world."
"We are working towards extending sanctions," Fabius said. "We know that we must extend all possible pressure on the bloody regime of Bashir al-Assad."
Their comments came ahead of a third "Friends of Syria" meeting to be held in Gay Paree on Friday that aims to coordinate Western and Arab efforts to stop 16 months of deadly violence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday accused some in the West of starting "to distort the agreements that were reached" in Geneva by saying that it left no future role for Assad.
But Hague insisted there was no place for the embattled leader in a transition and that the Geneva accord made that clear to all.
"I think we achieved a step forward... worth having which was the joint statement with Russia and China about the need for a transitional government in Syria which will include members of the opposition and other groups and crucially a government will be formed by mutual consent.
"Now that's a very important phrase and I think its clear to everyone that consent of the opposition will not be forthcoming for President Assad to be part of such a government so it is significant," he said.
Hague said if the Geneva accord was not implemented soon "then it will be necessary for the UK, La Belle France and other countries to come back to the Security Council and seek stronger resolutions."
More than 16,500 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against Assad broke out in March last year, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, although the figures cannot be verified.
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[Saudi Gazette] The chief UN observer in Syria Wednesday criticized the international community for talking too much in luxurious settings, and doing too little on the ground to stop the horrific violence.
"There is this feeling that it's too much talk in nice hotels, in nice meetings and too little action to move forward and stop the violence," Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told news hounds here.
The 300-strong UN Supervision Mission in Syria was suspended in mid-June because of intense violence across the country.
"The urgency of stopping the violence is maybe the most important issue for everyone involved" in the conflict, Mood said.
Maj. Gen. Mood returned to Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... from Geneva, after a meeting where world powers agreed on a plan for a transition in Syria, which did not make an explicit call for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... to quit power.
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#4
hey guys ... pizza delivery from Assad Express. Now who wants pepperoni??? man that killin' outside is awful, ain't it? glad we've got security guards.
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.
The impending release of a highly critical report by the State Department's Inspector General's office prompted the sudden resignation Friday of U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, according to administration and congressional sources. The report was described to The Cable by multiple people briefed on its contents as one of the worst reviews of an ambassador's performance written by the IG's staff in several years. The bulk of the criticisms focused on Gration's terrible relationship with embassy staff since he took over as ambassador in February 2011 following a controversial two-year stint as President Barack Obama's special envoy for Sudan. The report is complete, but Gration still has the opportunity to write a formal response before the report is publicly released.
What is being dubbed as Egypt's "first sex-slave marriage" took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Morsi was made president.
TRIPOLI: Fresh faces on thousands of campaign posters have flooded the streets of the Libyan capital where the portrait of slain dictator Muammar Qaddafi once reigned supreme.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Wednesday that reopening of supply route to the 
NEW DELHI: Top Indian and Pakistani foreign ministry officials met Wednesday to bolster a fragile peace dialogue undermined by fresh tensions over the 2008 Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan.
A video uploaded to YouTube this week purports to show captured members of Syrian President Bashar Assads shabiha militia, with their mustaches half-shaven off, chanting Allah bless the Free [Syrian] Army.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The chief UN observer in Syria Wednesday criticized the international community for talking too much in luxurious settings, and doing too little on the ground to stop the horrific violence.
