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Deputy PM Says Syria 'Ready to Discuss' Assad Departure
Today's Headlines
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Africa North
Egypt's Islamist president to visit US next month
Be prepared to give generously to the begging bowl, Obama.
Egypt's Islamist president will visit the United States next month, an aide said Wednesday. The visit could serve as a step toward cementing Egypt's longtime alliance with the U.S.

It will be Mohammed Morsi's first trip to the U.S. since taking office June 30 but not his first American experience. He received a doctorate in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1982.
Put it to good use, too...
Moving to reshape the former regime's foreign policy, which many Egyptians see as too pro-Western, Morsi chose to visit Saudi Arabia as his first trip outside the country as president, followed by a visit to Ethiopia. He is also planning a trip to China and Iran.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told reporters that Morsi's three-day visit to the U.S. will begin Sept. 23. It will include stops in Washington and New York, where he will attend the U.N. General Assembly session.

The Brotherhood has been trying to counter concerns in Washington, sending delegations to the U.S. to argue that it is a moderate Islamist group with no anti-American agenda.
They leave their lips behind when they return to Egypt...
U.S. officials recently pledged additional foreign aid to Egypt, a gesture toward maintaining close ties. The U.S. has been giving Egypt about $1 billion a year in military aid for more than three decades.
Perhaps someone can explain why we need to maintain close ties with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood...
China's Foreign Ministry said Morsi would make a state visit there Aug. 28-30. China is a key potential partner for trade and aid. From there Morsi travels to Iran.
Posted by: tipper || 08/22/2012 13:53 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Egypt: Angry Mob Locks Health Minister Inside Local Hospital
Egyptian authorities and witnesses say villagers have locked the health minister and a provincial governor inside a local hospital room after allegedly contaminated water caused more than 50 residents to become ill.
 
Health Ministry official Amr Qandil says a hospital in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia, 40 miles north of Cairo, on Tuesday received dozens of people vomiting, feverish and with severe cases of diarrhea.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, they piss in the well, so punish the doctor, makes sense.(To a backwards Paleo)

These people NEED a good plague.
(The stupid DIE)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 08/22/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  A health minister is a bureaucrat, who may or may not be a doctor. And Egyptians are not Paleos, though they seem to be rapidly de-evolving in that direction.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/22/2012 13:08 Comments || Top||

#3  dozens of people vomiting, feverish and with severe cases of diarrhea

A minor cholera outbreak?
Posted by: SteveS || 08/22/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||


Egypt Urges Tribes to Help Boost Sinai Security
[An Nahar] The authorities in Egypt are urging tribal leaders to support a security campaign in the Sinai Peninsula where an attack on August 5 killed 16 border guards, media reports said on Tuesday.

The defense minister, General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, asked tribal leaders who gathered on Monday in el-Arish in the north of the peninsula to "support the security forces and the campaign" in the area, government daily al-Ahram said.

Sissi gave them an assurance that the objective of the campaign was to "take full control of the situation in Sinai" and said that the army's role was to "support interior ministry forces."

He also said that the names of the perpetrators of the August 5 attack, attributed to Islamic bully boys, will be announced at the end of the inquiry into the incident.

Cairo has vowed to reassert its control over the Sinai, a sensitive region close to Israel and the Paleostinian Gazoo Strip where smugglers and forces of Evil thrive, after a host of security-related problems since the fall in February 2011 of President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Sources in Cairo have said that some of the gunnies involved in the August 5 attack had entered Sinai through a network of smuggling tunnels which run under the Gazoo border.

After killing the Egyptian guards the still unidentified attackers burst through a border crossing into Israel where they were killed by tank and helicopter fire.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Egypt: Conspiring Against Ruler Is Conspiring Against God - Salafi
H/T JihadWatch
Salafi (ultraconservative) leader and member of the constituent assembly, tasked with rewriting the constitution, Saeed Abdel Azeem, said that conspiring against Egypt's ruler (President Mohamed Mursi) is equal to conspiring against God.

Describing Egypt's president as the "ruling imam", Abdel Azeem argued that as Mursi may be unable to apply the law of God fully at this point, the nation must overcome political differences and rally behind him.

He added in his Eid speech on Sunday in Alexandria's Shohadaa Square that Egypt will return to being ruled by Islam and Prophet Mohamed's Sunnah and not democracy, socialism or nationalism.
"I hereby pronounce Bazargan as the Ruler, and since I have appointed him, he must be obeyed. The nation must obey him. This is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on the sharia. Opposing this government means opposing the sharia of Islam ... Revolt against God's government is a revolt against God. Revolt against God is blasphemy."
Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 link
Posted by: Unamp Clugum9254 || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meet the new boss - not the same as the old boss - kind of a shit--d to be truthful.
Posted by: Water Modem || 08/22/2012 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  How cute! They've invented the divine right of kings. Maybe in another century or two, they'll come up with the Magna Carta.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/22/2012 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  He's wearing a chronometer much like Champs and appears to be assisting a sports metaphor with his hands. Could there be other similarities ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/22/2012 6:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Describing Egypt's president as the "ruling imam",

Are you kidding me? Thanks to Hilldebeast & Barry for that smart diplomacy reset. All that was accomplished is the ME is circling the drain even quicker now.
The state department ought to be strung up.
Posted by: Dikhed Al Fuqwad || 08/22/2012 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Kinetic Military Action FTW!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/22/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Ah... how cute. They went back to a theocracy!

Good luck with that guys!
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/22/2012 11:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Gosh, the tourists are really going to want to flock to Egypt now, huh? How's that economy going Pres. Mursi? Give em 10 years of living under this crap and see how much they miss Mubarak.
Posted by: remoteman || 08/22/2012 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Exactly .. what DID happen to those thousands of protesters demanding freedom in this country???
Posted by: Raider || 08/22/2012 18:06 Comments || Top||

#9  ...I think they may be on vacation with the OWS crowd.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/22/2012 18:31 Comments || Top||

#10  ...at the Useful Idiots Resort, an all inclusive venue.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/22/2012 18:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Who wouldn't want to blow their life savings to travel into a semi-hostile theocracy to see the world's largest ball of wax?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/22/2012 21:49 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia Blames Count Doku for Suicide Strike
[An Nahar] A regional leader in Russia's restless North Caucasus on Tuesday accused a feared Islamist who has claimed some of Moscow's deadliest bombings of organizing a suicide strike that killed seven police.

"It is clear that the organizer of this terrorist attack is Doku Count Doku Umarov
... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia...
," the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as saying.

A jacket wallah, identified by the authorities by his last name Aldiyev on Sunday, killed seven coppers as they arrived at a colleague's funeral over the weekend. Fifteen people were maimed in the blast.

Umarov, reported dead by the authorities on repeated occasions and viewed as the country's enemy number one, heads a cut-thoat movement that for years has been trying to impose an Islamist state throughout the mainly Mohammedan Caucasus.

His Caucasus Emirate group has claimed atrocities including a deadly Moscow airport bombing in 2011 and a metro attack in the capital in 2010.

Yevkurov also said that besides the suicide bomber and Umarov, the authorities had also identified the immediate organizer of the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Emirate of Caucasus

#1  that graphic never gets old
Posted by: Frank G || 08/22/2012 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought this Doku was supposed to be dead too.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/22/2012 11:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Count Doku ... really?? That name sounds like something out of a C-grade horror movie.
Posted by: Raider || 08/22/2012 12:57 Comments || Top||

#4  It is - Star Wars Episode 2.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/22/2012 13:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Bingo, thank you for that :-)
I knew I heard that name somewhere.
So ... I'm guessing that THE FORCE is not with this latest Count Doku guy??
Hahahha!
Posted by: Raider || 08/22/2012 15:17 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Satellite shows NORK reactor progress
North Korea has put a dome on a light-water reactor it is building, a key step towards completing a plant that could be used to support its nuclear weapons programme, a leading defence journal said.
photos at link
Jane's Defence Weekly, examining images taken on August 6 by the GeoEye-1 satellite, said the dome, which had been lying on the ground at the Yongbyon complex, has now been put in place.

"North Korea has taken a major step in its mission to build a modern, indigenous nuclear reactor with a 21-metre diameter dome now having been emplaced over the reactor building," said image analyst Allison Puccioni.

"The emplacement of the dome is a significant development, although it may take several more years for the facility to be completed and brought into full operation."

Posted by: || 08/22/2012 07:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
German rabbi sued for performing circumcision
German authorities are looking into a lawsuit filed against Rabbi David Goldenberg of Hoff, Bavaria, for performing circumcision, the Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine reported.
 
According to the report, a doctor filed a complaint against Goldenberg following a Cologne court ruling that banned the Jewish and Moslem communities from performing the ancient religious ceremony, arguing that "non medical circumcision is a grave and irreversible intervention in the wellbeing of the human body."
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only the excuses change.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/22/2012 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Thought that's what Rabbis and/or mohels did. As Colin Powell said: "Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off [or getting sued]." The single finger salute is a useful adjunct when pissing people off--like icing on a cake. When pissing people off, the only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/22/2012 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I suspect the suing physician thought the Rabbi was cutting into his business.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/22/2012 9:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Go to your room, John.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/22/2012 9:57 Comments || Top||

#5  I suspect the suing physician thought the Rabbi was cutting into his business.

Except that German doctors and hospitals aren't doing circumcisions any more for fear of being arrested, following the court case about the Moslem circumcision-gone-wrong in Cologne a few months ago. Germans have long had a distaste for it -- when I was pregnant in Germany in 1991, the hospital obstetrician told me he would only do the procedure if I held the baby myself, as his nurses thought it barbaric and refused to be involved. Given that nurses in Germany are so old fashioned they think what the doctor tells them to...
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/22/2012 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Falls right in with the NO POLIO VACCINE sthic that the paleo's suffer, they'll have an increase in Cancer of the womb, in about 18years(Those who didn't get Polio)
DOOMED assholes.
Modern medicine is too Holy for them, reap the results, PLAGUE.
(One way to kill them all, no modern medicine, DEATH)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 08/22/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  From Wikipedia:

...the Israeli psychiatrist Zvi Rex, who once remarked: "The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 08/22/2012 10:42 Comments || Top||

#8  tw, I had no idea this was the situation in Germany. Thanks. I looked up a couple of sites and found the following: Circumcision customs in Germany during different eras and
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/22/2012 11:24 Comments || Top||

#9  2nd Link
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/22/2012 11:27 Comments || Top||

#10  2nd link fixed in original comment.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/22/2012 15:54 Comments || Top||

#11  IIRC, Muslims also practice circumcision. <sarcasm> Of course, it's all right to annoy the Juices by banning one of their sacred ancient rights. </sarcasm>But what idiot passed a law that would annoy Muslims?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/22/2012 21:28 Comments || Top||

#12  German Parliament has already announced to pass a law allowing circumcision (with certain guidelines that will be acceptable for Jews), so this should settle the legal disputes.
Posted by: European Conservative || 08/22/2012 21:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistanis know how defend every inch of their motherland: PM
[Dawn] Rejecting the talk of despondency, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf Tuesday said Paks know how to defend every inch of their country and even can sacrifice their lives for this purpose.

"There is no need of any despondency. No nation is more brave, tolerant, courageous and struggling than Paks. Each one from the brave Pak nation knows how to defend every inch of their country and sacrifice their lives for this purpose," Ashraf said while addressing a large public meeting in his hometown.

The prime minister said, "no power in the world can frighten us, as we are brave people and know how to defend our soil and its integrity. This is also evident from the past."

He referred to the recent attack at Minhas airbase in Kamra and paid rich tribute to the country's soldiers for eliminating the attacking terrorists.

Pervez Ashraf said the government, people and the armed forces of Pakistain were fully cognizant of the defence of their motherland, adding, the people of Pakistain always stood united in any difficult hour.

The prime minister said all the problems and challenges faced by the country can be resolved only through democracy and democratic system, as democracy represents the will of masses.

"Democracy, democracy and more democracy provides solution of every problem. It is the cure of all wounds and ills. Democracy represents the will of Pak people," he remarked.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  No nation is more brave, tolerant, courageous and struggling than Paks.

They seem to have the struggling part down. Especially in the Hobbesian all against all sense.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/22/2012 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Just ask Bin Laden.
Posted by: Large Darling of the Antelope3345 || 08/22/2012 19:08 Comments || Top||


Multiple efforts underway to recover Shahbaz Taseer: Rehman Malik
[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
on Tuesday said that he hoped that Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, would soon reunite with his family.

In a statement on the social networking website Twitter, the minister said that "multiple efforts" on the part of the government were underway which he said would result in a "positive" outcome.

Earlier in July, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had been negotiating with bully boyz over Shahbaz's release.

That was the first official confirmation that the government was in talks with the men holding Shahbaz.

Sanaullah had said during a Geo News TV program that Shahbaz's kidnappers were demanding a large ransom and the release of some of their colleagues.

He had moreover said that the ISI had previously secured the release of the son-in-law of a former Mighty Pak Army general through similar negotiations.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011 in the morning near his company's head office.

Shahbaz Taseer's father Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard last year for criticising Pakistain's blasphemy laws.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Iraq
Contentions U.S. Errors Boosted Iran’s Meddling in Iraq
Worth careful reading.
Posted by: || 08/22/2012 07:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This initial mistake was made much worse by Obama’s failure to negotiate an accord to allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq past 2011.

I will have to respectfully disagree with Boot's analysis. Permitting these miserable foks to determine their own fate is the solution, NOT a mistake. An 'alternative history' worth exploring might include a scenario that pits a nuclear armed Saddam against a nuclear armed Ahmadinejad.

Lastly, the endless mantra of blaming the United States for the ills of the middle east is very tiring.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/22/2012 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran will exercise substantial influence–more than it would if the U.S. were still maintaining a robust presence in Iraq that could serve as a hedge against Iranian meddling.

The leftards criticized George Bush unrelentingly for the invasion of Iraq. Strategically, it was a good decision. Obama flubbed this hard won advantage badly.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/22/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  a scenario that pits a nuclear armed Saddam against a nuclear armed Ahmadinejad

What's wrong with it, Besoeker?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/22/2012 11:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Keeping troops on the ground in Iraq may have had some effect on Iran's influence, but probably not that much. The guys were tied to their bases, so it is not as though they were out on patrol with the Iraqi army every day.

We can't babysit these countries at this point. We don't have the money for it. We need to give our military (esp the ground troops) a rest (yes, get out of Afghanistan too).
Posted by: remoteman || 08/22/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Est. Cost of Israeli Iran attack: $41.4 billion
Posted by: Water Modem || 08/22/2012 17:32 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cheap at twice the price if they put down that rabid dog Ah-ma-dinnah-jacket and his crew.
Posted by: Barbara || 08/22/2012 21:44 Comments || Top||

#2  An Iranian nuclear attack on Israel will cost Israel 100% of its GOP
Posted by: European Conservative || 08/22/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Economists, Astrologers, Witch doctors.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/22/2012 22:58 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thai army chief warns of Cambodian Muslim threat
Some Cambodian Muslims have joined violent terrorist insurgent networks in southern Thailand, said army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday. Gen Prayuth has asked authorities to closely monitor Cambodian Muslim immigrants to ensure they return home when their one-month entry permits expire.

The army chief said that not all have returned to Cambodia. The army is asking the Immigration Bureau and the Customs Department about the whereabouts of Cambodian Muslims, he said.

Gen Prayuth said most Cambodian Muslims who entered Thailand are travelling through to neighbouring countries, particularly Malaysia, to find work.

He was responding to remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa that one thousand Cambodian Muslims entered Thailand through border checkpoints in eastern provinces each month.

Gen Yutthasak is also concerned the Cambodians could be involved with the violence in the southern provinces. He said he had ordered the Immigration Bureau to check the numbers of Cambodian Muslims entering and leaving Thailand to monitor their movements.

Gen Prayuth said, "The main reason [they leave Cambodia] is poverty. They have no jobs in their homeland, so they must work elsewhere. Most of them do not aim to get involved in terrorism ... but they may give indirect financial support."
Posted by: ryuge || 08/22/2012 09:53 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency

#1  Yeeuuuppp ...

SE ASIAN JIHAD - CAMBODIAN BUGALOO???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/22/2012 19:42 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tuvalu government to deregister Iranian-linked ships
The Tuvalu government has agreed to deregister any Iranian-linked vessel following pressure from the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

The Tuvalu Ship Registry issued a statement late last week saying it has been notified by its government to deregister the National Iranian Tanker Company’s vessels that carry the South Pacific island government's flag. The work has begun and is expected “to be completed in the shortest time practicable.”

The owners of a ship are masked when that ship carries the flag of a different country.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) on Tuesday applauded Tuvalu’s actions, noting, “Iran is learning the hard way that we will not relent in applying crippling sanctions on the regime, and others are learning that evading international sanctions is a losing strategy.”

In a statement to JTA, Berman wrote, “This reversal by Tuvalu effectively stops these Iranian tankers from operating, denying the Iranian regime oil revenues it desperately is seeking to fund its nuclear weapons program and support of terrorism.”

In July, Tuvalu had issued a public statement that it would not comply with an international request to deregister these vessels, according to Berman

Tuvalu is the fourth government to cancel Iranian ship registrations. Cyprus, Malta and Tanzania no longer will register Iranian-linked vessels.
Posted by: tipper || 08/22/2012 17:30 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iran's supreme leader orders fresh terror attacks on West
According to Western intelligence officials, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to the elite Quds Force unit following a recent emergency meeting of Iran's National Security Council in Tehran held to discuss a specially-commissioned report into the implications for Iran of the Assad regime's overthrow.

Damascus is Iran's most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is regarded as vital to sustaining the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia which controls southern Lebanon.

The report, which was personally commissioned by Mr Khamenei, concluded that Iran's national interests were being threatened by a combination of the U.N. sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme and the West's continuing support for Syrian opposition groups attempting to overthrow the Syrian government.

Intelligence officials say the report concludes that Iran "cannot be passive" to the new threats posed to its national security, and warns that Western support for Syrian opposition groups was placing Iran's "resistance alliance" in jeopardy, and could seriously disrupt Iran's access to Hizbollah in Lebanon.

It advised that the Iranian regime should demonstrate to the West that there were "red lines" over what it would accept in Syria, and that a warning should be sent to "America, the Zionists, Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others that they cannot act with impunity in Syria and elsewhere in the region."

Mr Khamenei responded by issuing a directive to Qassem Suleimani, the Quds Force commander, to intensify attacks against the West and its allies around the world.

The Quds Force has recently been implicated in a series of terror attacks against Western targets. Last year U.S. officials implicated the organisation in a failed assassination attempt against the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington. It was also implicated in three bomb attacks against Israeli diplomats in February, planning to attack the Eurovision song contest in Azerbaijan while two Iranians were arrested in Kenya last month for possessing explosives.

Intelligence officials believe the recent spate of Iranian attacks has been carried out by the Quds Force's Unit 400, which runs special overseas operations.

"Unit 400 seems to have been involved in all the recent Iranian terrorist operations," said a senior Western intelligence official. "The Iranian regime now seems determined to retaliate for what they regard as the West's attempts to influence the outcome of the Syrian unrest."

Iran has been actively supporting the Assad regime's attempts to suppress the wave of anti-government protests that erupted in March last year. Iranian opposition groups claim teams of experienced Revolutionary Guard officers have been flying to Damascus on specially-chartered Iranian aircraft on a weekly basis to advise the Assad regime.

The extent of Iran's support for the Assad regime was exposed earlier this month when 48 Iranians were captured and taken hostage by Syrian opposition fighters. The Iranians, who are said to include senior Revolutionary Guard officers, claimed they were conducting "reconnaissance missions", and their capture by Syrian opposition fighters was deeply embarrassing for Tehran, which is demanding their immediate safe return to Iran. Syrian rebels have threatened to kill the hostages unless Iran ends its support for the Assad regime.
Posted by: Glinesh Craling7938 || 08/22/2012 10:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So do we go to the mattreses and put a hit out on this Capo?
Posted by: AlanC || 08/22/2012 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Mr Khamenei responded by issuing a directive to Qassem Suleimani, the Quds Force commander, to intensify attacks against the West and its allies around the world.
It strikes me that a covert response to this action may be inappropriate.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/22/2012 12:13 Comments || Top||

#3  I think this used to be a declaration of war, no?
Posted by: Raj || 08/22/2012 13:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Put UAV controls into an old Aeroflot plane with a Syrian paint job and cabin filled with fuel. Crash it into the HQ of Quds Force and have AQ lit all over the plane.
Posted by: Water Modem || 08/22/2012 14:08 Comments || Top||

#5  How about we nuke Tehran...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/22/2012 17:15 Comments || Top||

#6  IIRC the US-West/Allies are now supposed or expected to "absorb" any major terror attacks agz them, + NOT retaliate militarily.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/22/2012 19:40 Comments || Top||


SNC Seeking Transitional Govt., Paris Mulling No-Fly Zone
[An Nahar] The Syrian National Council, Syria's main opposition group is studying the formation of a transitional government, its leader Abdel Basset Sayda said Tuesday.

"We are currently studying the formation of a transitional government," Sayda said after meeting French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
in Gay Paree against a background of hints from the Syrian regime that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
could soon step down.

"It is a process that requires a lot of consultation. We mustn't go too fast but the Syrian National Council will attempt to get there as quickly as possible."

Asked about the possibility of forming a government in exile, Sayda said his priority was creating a government inside the country.

Speaking in Moscow earlier, Syria's Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Assad's resignation could not be a condition for negotiations with the opposition but added: "Any problems can be discussed during negotiations. We are even ready to discuss this issue."

Sayda also revealed that the French president was "seriously mulling" the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone in Syria with the aim of protecting civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


U.S. Skeptical of Syrian Overture on Assad Resignation
[An Nahar] The United States expressed deep skepticism Tuesday about suggestions by Syria's deputy prime minister that the regime was open to discussing Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
's resignation.

"We saw the reports of the presser that the deputy prime minister gave. Frankly, we didn't see anything terribly new there," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said after talks in Moscow Tuesday that Syria was ready to discuss anything in negotiations -- even Assad's resignation.

"As far as his resignation goes -- making the resignation itself a condition for holding dialogue means that you will never be able to reach this dialogue," he said.

But Jamil added: "Any problems can be discussed during negotiations. We are even ready to discuss this issue."

The United States has said for the past several weeks that it wants to speed Assad's departure.

"The Syrian government knows what it needs to do, and the Russian government, as you know, joined us in Geneva in setting forth a very clear transition plan," Nuland said.

She added the Russians should encourage the Assad regime "to start now to be following through on a transition plan, but, you know, there's no need to complicate it, as the deputy prime minister appeared to do there."

"Obviously, the longer this goes on, the harder it is, but we still believe that the faster Assad goes, the more chance there is to quickly move on to the day after," she said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-08-22
  Deputy PM Says Syria 'Ready to Discuss' Assad Departure
Tue 2012-08-21
  US drones kill 10 militants in Pakistan
Mon 2012-08-20
  Third Drone Strike In 24 Hours Kills Two In North Waziristan
Sun 2012-08-19
  Suicide bomber kills six policemen at funeral in Ingushetia
Sat 2012-08-18
  US drone kills 5 militants in northern Pakistan
Fri 2012-08-17
  Algeria’s Brahimi agrees to be Syria mediator
Thu 2012-08-16
  20 Shiites in Pakistan pulled from buses, gunned down
Wed 2012-08-15
  Pro-Saleh Troops Attack Yemen Defense Ministry
Tue 2012-08-14
  Al Qaeda front group claims Iraq attacks
Mon 2012-08-13
  Nigerian Troops Kill 20 Boko Haram Islamists: Military
Sun 2012-08-12
  Syrian and Jordanian forces clash in border area
Sat 2012-08-11
  More Than 100 Dead in Syria as Fierce Clashes Rage in Aleppo
Fri 2012-08-10
  Syrian rebels retreat Aleppo district amid heavy shelling
Thu 2012-08-09
  Yemen Strike Kills Key Al-Qaeda Leader, Foreign Militants
Wed 2012-08-08
  Muslim Terrorists Tell Nigeria's Christian President: 'Convert or Resign'


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