[Bangla Daily Star] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... insisted yesterday that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is being won, despite reports by other organizations of a sharp upsurge in cut-thoat attacks this year.
US General Joseph Dunford, head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said there was "indisputable" progress towards the goal of a secure and stable nation.
A study by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office found attacks by the Taliban and other hard boyz rose 47 percent in January-March compared with the same period last year.
The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... has separately reported a rise of almost 30 percent in civilian casualties in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, with 475 civilians killed and 872 maimed.
Dunford in a statement gave no figures for attacks but said 80 percent of them were in areas where less than 20 percent of the population lives.
Equally importantly, he said, surveys showed that Afghans "will simply not tolerate the oppressive policies imposed by the former Taliban government".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Nato need to tell Pakistan this as they use the Taliban as a proxy army to control Afghanistan.
Posted by: Hupavins Scourge of the Faith8843 ||
04/26/2013 7:42 Comments ||
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#2
Will the war remain won when it's only the Afghan army and police fighting against Pakistan's proxies?
A most-wanted American jihadi in Somalia has tweeted pictures of himself after what he says was an assassination attempt. Omar Hammami posted four pictures, one of which shows his face with blood on his neck and a dark blood-stained t-shirt.
The poor darling is suffering consequences? My sympathies.
He says he was shot while sitting in a tea shop and blames the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab which he fell out with.
Hammami, one of the two most notorious Americans in overseas jihadi groups, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joined al-Shabab in about 2006. He fought alongside the al-Qaida-linked group for years while gaining fame for posting YouTube videos of jihadi rap songs.
But Hammami has engaged in a public fight with the group over the last year amid signs of increasing tension between Somalis and foreign fighters in the group.
He first expressed fear for his life in an extraordinary web video in March 2012 that publicised his rift with al-Shabab. He said he received another death threat earlier this year that was not carried out.
"Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet," Hammami tweeted. He wrote that the leader of al-Shabab was sending in forces from multiple directions. "we are few but we might get back up. abu zubayr has gone mad. he's starting a civil war," Hammami posted.
Hammami has been a thorn in the side of al-Shabab after accusing the group's leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. Another Hammami grievance is that the Somali militant leaders sideline foreign militants inside al-Shabab and are concerned only about fighting in Somalia, not globally. Hammami's comment about a civil war could refer to violence between those two groups.
Personally I more interested in knowing what POTUS Bammer + Admin's polcies will be as per STATE, INTEL, + USDOD presence in post-Uncle Muammar, post-Benghazi LIBYA???
[Libya Herald] A French judge at the head of a team of ten forensic experts flew in to Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... today to assist Libyan Sherlocks probing Tuesday's kaboom at the French embassy.
The French party, who are expected to stay three days, will be making a detailed search of the seriously-damaged embassy and surrounding streets and houses, looking for evidence that could help identify the attackers. The team includes specially trained sniffer dogs.
Diplomatic sources said today that first estimates suggested that around 100 kilos of explosives were detonated in the white Audi in front of the embassy building.
The French gendarme who was maimed in the blast, was today flown to La Belle France after emergency surgery at Tripoli Central Hospital to deal with a triple fracture of the skull. The policeman, whose first name is understood to be "Nicolas," also suffered a back wound, which resulted in a serious loss of blood. It is reported that his life is not in danger.
There has been no confirmation of the condition of the 18 year-old student living in a house opposite the embassy, who sustained a spinal injury when hit by debris. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... one report from Tunis, where she was flown on Tuesday morning, suggests that there are concerns that she may be confined permanently to a wheelchair.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Supporters of Hosni Mubarak stage rallies on Thursday in Cairo's Nasr City and Mohandeseen districts, attempt to erect statue of Egypt's ousted president Dozens? Morsi must be planning his getaway even as we speak blog.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously agreed to send a 12,600-member international force to Mali to take over from French and African troops battling Islamist guerrillas.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... is aiming for a July 1 start by the new force, but the 15-nation council will decide later whether the conflict has eased enough for the handover.
"We know its going to be a fairly volatile environment," U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told news hounds after the vote.
Mali called French troops into the country in January to halt an Islamist advance on the capital Bamako. French and African troops have since pushed the al-Qaeda-linked Death Eaters into desert and mountain hideouts, from where they are now staging guerrilla attacks.
La Belle France is winding down its force from its peak of nearly 4,500 but is to keep up to 1,000 troops in Mali and they will maintain responsibility for military strikes against the Islamists.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Ulema are in the best position to present Islam as a religion that rejects violence, calls for tolerance and uses dialogue, an international meeting of religious scholars concluded this week. Ah. A little difference between theory and empirical observation.
To discuss how Learned Elders of Islam can help spread the values of moderation in the Mohammedan world, the UK-based Global Centre for Renewal and Guidance organised a gathering of holy men, preachers and religious scholars at its Nouakchott branch on Monday (April 22nd). Let's start with just a few of the big warts on the face of "peace and tolerance." Apostates must be killed. Christians can't marry Moslems. Moslems can proselytize but Christians can't. That's just what bubbles up in my brain when first faced with the statement. Give me an hour and I'll betcha I could get the list to over a hundred.
Among the topics: how acts by myrmidon groups, said to be in the name of religion, are actually contrary to the principles of Islam. Yet they're instigated by holy men and they're financed by the devout and they're applauded by Moslems.
"Extremist groups are not permitted to demolish the graves of the righteous for this behaviour is a fraudulent act of the devil and is contrary to the teachings of Islam," said the Global Centre's vice-president, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. See what I mean? That would have been Number 29 on my list.
"The nation's Learned Elders of Islam must double their efforts at this time in order to spread the values of moderation among people and respond to the challenges posed by this age," he said. "Let's have three cheers for Hamas!"
Ulema and sheikhs agreed that the spread of myrmidon ideology among some young people today was due to a crisis of values and a failure by some families, schools and sheikhs to offer proper guidance. It's probably got something to do with Qaradawi's broadcasts, with the rise of Salafism, and with takfir wal hijra as a way of life.
It is now time, they said, for Learned Elders of Islam to return to their original roles. To whit, interpreting Allen's word to rule the Faithful...
Religious leaders must "maintain their unique status as advocates for tolerance and disseminators of values of justice and dialogue, as a way to reform the nation", the Global Centre's Faqih Abdullah Ould Aala Salem said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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Russian police and security agents have detained 140 people at a mosque in Moscow on suspicion of involvement with Islamic extremism.
A statement from the Federal Security Agency reported by Russian news agencies said among those detained in the Friday action were 30 citizens of unspecified foreign countries.
The detentions come a week after the two suspects in the fatal Boston Marathon bombing were identified as originating from the Russian region of Chechnya and sympathizing with Islamic extremists.
There were no immediate reports of charges being filed. The security agency referred The Associated Press to a district office, where the telephone was not answered.
The reports cited the agency as saying the mosque previously has been visited by people who had been involved in preparing or carrying out terrorist attacks.
A Russian military delegation has arrived in the United States to take part in a series of planning meetings with US and Canadian counterparts ahead of the joint Vigilant Eagle 2013 anti-terrorism drills to be held this summer, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The meetings will coordinate the scenario and the schedule of the drills, the composition of trilateral air force assets involved, communications and security issues, according to the ministry.
The exercises are due to be held at the end of August 2013, the ministry said.
The Vigilant Eagle is one of several exercises and exchanges agreed upon in a July 2009 agreement between the Russian and US military as an early product of the so-called reset in relations between Moscow and Washington.
The basic scenario of the previous three Vigilant Eagle drills involved a simulated hijacking of a commercial plane by terrorists that requires both the Russian Air Force and NORAD to launch fighter aircraft to intercept the seized plane and force it to land.
Russia held similar exercises, dubbed Vigilant Skies, with NATO countries in Europe in the past two years under the NATO-Russia Councils Cooperative Airspace Initiative (CAI) launched in 2002.
[An Nahar] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... expressed hope that the Boston bombing tragedy would result in closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington in the fight against terror.
"I hope this tragedy pushes us closer to one another in stopping shared threats," Putin said during his live televised call-in session in Moscow, saying Russia was also a victim of "international terrorism".
But Putin criticised excessive "speculation" about the Boston suspects' Chechen origins as a possible motivation for their embrace of terror.
"We can endlessly speculate on the tragedy of the Chechen people in the period of exiling them from Chechnya by the Stalin regime. But were Chechens the only victims of those repressions?" Putin said, adding that the Russian people suffered from Stalin repressions more than anyone else.
"It is not about nationality or belief," he said. "It is about beturbanned goon moods of those people."
The entire people of Chechnya were deported to Central Asia under Stalin over accusations of collaborating with German forces in World War II. The father of the bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was born in Kyrgyzstan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope SKor finally learned their lesson about China's little mad dog to the north of N38. Go up and invest there after Kimmie and Co go.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/26/2013 18:04 Comments ||
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#2
there's apparently a cost to belligerently banging your spoon on the highchair and threatening death, fire, and destruction to your neighbors and partners in hard-currency enterprises. Next? Demand free food
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2013 21:13 Comments ||
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Backslash on multiculturalism in Europe and easy access to global jihad info on the web prompts young Muslims from France and other EU states to join the Syrian rebels, Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist on extremism, told RT.
The EU's anti-terror chief, Gilles de Kerchove, is sounding the alarm over the number of young Europeans going off to the Syrian war.
Hundreds of volunteers are already fighting alongside rebels and could pose a serious security threat when they return home, according to the official.
Specialist in extremism at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, Jean-Yves Camus, shares those concerns, adding that the rise of radicalism in Europe can be also explained by the many conflicts in the Muslim world the West had a hand in.
RT: The French government has been one of the strongest supporters of the Syrian rebels and even wants to arm them directly. Is Paris not worried about the threat of homegrown terror?
Jean-Yves Camus: Paris is, of course, aware of the trend towards home grown terror and we had the Mohammed Merah shooting last year, which fairly proved that this wasnt something unrealistic that a young radicalized Muslim may go out onto the street and shoot youngster in a Jewish school. On the other hand, the French government is also aware that the youngsters from the Muslim community are going to Syria as they used to go to Iraq or other places of the global jihad, in order to train alongside the Al-Qaeda fighters and other militant Muslim movements. So, they are aware of that and already our security services have arrested several of them either before they travelled to Syria or even on the return.
[An Nahar] Kurdish rebels announced on Thursday they would on May 8 begin withdrawing from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq amid a peace drive between Ankara and the rebel movement.
But the gang warned Turkey's powerful military against "provocations" which would see the end of the pledged withdrawal by outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters.
"As part of ongoing preparations, the withdrawal will begin on May 8, 2013," PKK leader Murat Karayilan was quoted as saying by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.
"The withdrawal is planned in phases ... and is aimed to be finalized as soon as possible," he said without providing any exact timetable.
But the PKK leader also urged the Turkish army "to act with the same sensitivity and seriousness."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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The federal immigration minister says he's reviewing what can be done when Canada wants to deport someone who has no home country.
Jason Kenney says he'll get a briefing from his officials on the question following revelations that one of the men charged in an alleged plot to attack a Via Rail train could not be deported because he is a stateless Palestinian.
Raed Jaser came to Canada with his family as a teenager in 1993 but was unable to obtain Canadian citizenship because of criminal convictions.
Federal authorities wanted to deport Jaser in 2004 but there was nowhere to send him.
Jaser, 35, of Toronto, and Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, face terrorism-related charges in what the RCMP says was a plot guided by al-Qaida elements in Iran.
It emerged this week that Jaser was also arrested in August 2004 after authorities issued a warrant for his removal from Canada.
#4
Something sensitive may had been struck - as per LUCIANNE + DAILY MAIL.UK, "Boston Jihad" Mom Zubeidat is repor now saying that her Boys' father has fled from their house, + is no longer planning to visit the US.
EARLIER TODAY
* LUCIANNE > [Investors Business Daily] BOMBERS' MOSQUE IN BOSTON A FACTORY OF TERRORISTS.
Islamic Society of Boston described PART MOSQUE + PART PRO-RADICAL MADRASSA.
* DEMOCRATIC UNDERGORUND > [LiveWire] MOTHER OF [hospitalized] BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT [Dzhokhar]: "IFF THEY ARE GOING TO KILL HIM, I DON'T CARE"!
I may be wrong, but it appears to me that older son TAMERLAN was her favorite, + she doesn't care about younger son Dzhokhar now that Tamerlan is gone - she also fears the US Govt. will do or try to kill her like what it did to her two Sons.
* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECTS' MOTHER: "ALLAH HU AKBAR" TO CNN REPORTER. | [CNN Video] BOSTON BONBING SUSPECTS MOTHER: "THEIR PROTECTOR IS GOD", WHO IS ALLAH THE ONE AND ONLY GOD.
The U.S. government added the Boston Marathon bombing suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, to a terrorism watch list in 2011, a source confirmed Friday.
This occurred after Russian intelligence asked the Americans to investigate Tsarnaeva's son Tamerlan out of fears he may travel to Russia to join a militant group. They also had concerns about the mom, the source said.
The database in question is called TIDE -- Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment -- and both the mother and dead son are on it, the source said.
#1
she's also a common thief - stealing $1600 worth of clothes from Lord & Taylor. A COMMON THIEF
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2013 14:54 Comments ||
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#2
Ohh, see I was looking at the MMDIDE - Man Made Disaster Identity Datamart Environment - where all the women are bombs, all the men are jihadis, and the children are not above murder.
A thief eh? If she really respected islam like I'm being told to she would have taken her haj and had her hands chopped off like a good lady in a bag. She must be an apostate then, right screamin' imans?
#4
A couple of years ago, a guy at NCTC explained to me that inconsistent transliteration of Cyrillic and Arabic names commonly led to misspellings. Hence, lots of bad guys never made it into TIDE, and lots of harmless ones did, rendering it a large and fairly useless pile of data.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to a prison medical center, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.
Spokesman Drew Wade said Tsarnaev was transported from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was taken after his capture on Friday, and is now confined at Bureau of Prisons facility at Fort Devens, Mass.
The center, located on a decommissioned military base 39 miles west of Boston, specializes in handling male offenders requiring specialized or long-term medical or mental health care.
The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston bombings suffered gunshots wounds, including injuries to his throat, tongue and leg, during a shootout with police.
At a hospital court room hearing earlier this week, Tsarnaev showed little sign of fear or remorse and his heart monitor didnt register a blip when he was told he could be could be facing the death penalty, according to a source familiar with the events inside the room when he was read his rights.
A neighbor's account elsewhere mentioned that when he was living & doing business in Massachusetts, Dzokhar's father would work on cars outdoors in sub-freezing conditions. Russians are the toughest white people on earth.
Hi, I'm an apple. Howdy, I'm an orange. Love the part about how the Chinese are good to the muslims so everything is hunky dory - then beats feet at first chance. If he did anything more than step out of the car, kiss his bumper sticker, then calmly walk to the nearest phone, he needs to reconsider (or consider for the first time) just what is represented on that bumper sticker.
It was the day before the Boston Marathon, and Jim Duggan's morning was off to a slow start. He was the only cab hanging around a train station, and was about to pull away and grab a cup coffee, when he spotted two guys in his rear view mirror. One of them wore a white baseball cap, his curly hair sticking out. The other wore a black cap. ... the two men asked to be taken to Cambridge ... "They had two backpacks. I reached out to help them put them in the trunk, and they wanted to put them in themselves," said Duggan. The two men were adamant about handling those backpacks themselves.
#1
Violence doesnt necessarily belong to Muslim extremism any more than it belongs to any other form of extreme behavior."
Maybe a true statement, but when most of Islam is part of the extremist group it kinda seems that you guys want to put your head in the sand. After all, how many New Yorkers did you see dancing in the street over the fall of Baghdad? How about the bombing of Tora Bora and the killing of thousands of fighters? Now compare that to how many Islam members were dancing in the streets and celebrating 9-11.
#2
"Violence doesn't necessarily belong to Muslim extremism any more than it belongs to any other form of extreme behavior."
Except in the 'Here and Now'(tm) it constitutes immediate threat. How did those other 'extreme behaviors' become history? Maybe because people at a certain point said enough and got extreme on the extreme.
#3
Extreme pacifism might be suicidal under certain circumstances but it is, by definition, political behavior that is non-violent.
The professors are spouting nonsense.
The line of argument has changed btw:
"Islam is peace.", "Most Muslims are not extremists.", "Extremists are not real Muslims." etc seems to be out.
Now they're explicitly defending islamofascism Muslim extremism.
Terrorism is a method that some, but not all islamofascists apply and/or condone but even for the most dangerous terrorist it is only a means to establish a totalitarian islamofascistic regime.
An islamofascistic government will, of course, systematically violate its subject's human and civil rights by non-terroristic but extremely violent means.
My apologies to the Professors for any question asked without caution!
#10
Let me answer my question with a question: why should I worry about asking any questions about islam?
Hoot, professor of fine arts and member of some muslims studies and civ. Whats he do, go around and say, "This is where the buddist statues were. Here, they stored gunpowder in the ancient acropolis of Athena. Here is a fine example of a 1500 year old painting of the Nile - notice the faces scratched out and those blank spots were, what you would rightfully call 'cat food', figures.
So far as I can tell, there was only one componant of those detonated bombs which was manufactured in the land of islam.
#11
Another reason why I have serious doubts that "Boston Jihadi" Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will actually be executed - more likely he will serve life in prison, or life wid first eligibility for parole after 45 years.
THEN HE CAN FINALLY GET A PROFESSOR JOB AT COLUMBIA???
The 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur had just pulled his new Mercedes to the curb on Brighton Avenue to answer a text when an old sedan swerved behind him, slamming on the brakes. A man in dark clothes got out and approached the passenger window. It was nearly 11 p.m. last Thursday.
The man rapped on the glass, speaking quickly. Danny, unable to hear him, lowered the window -- and the man reached an arm through, unlocked the door, and climbed in, brandishing a silver handgun.
"Don't be stupid," he told Danny. He asked if he had followed the news about Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Danny had, down to the release of the grainy suspect photos less than six hours earlier.
"I did that," said the man, who would later be identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev. "And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge."
He ordered Danny to drive -- right on Fordham Road, right again on Commonwealth Avenue -- the beginning of an achingly slow odyssey last Thursday night and Friday morning in which Danny felt the possibility of death pressing on him like a vise.
In an exclusive interview with the Globe on Thursday, Danny -- the victim of the Tsarnaev brothers' much-discussed but previously little-understood carjacking -- filled in some of the last missing pieces in the timeline between the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, just before 10:30 p.m. on April 18, and the Watertown shootout that ended just before 1 a.m. Danny asked that he be identified only by his American nickname.
---
The SUV headed for the lights of Soldiers Field Road, banking across River Street to the two open gas stations. Dzhokhar went to fill up using Danny's credit card, but quickly knocked on the window. "Cash only," he said, at least at that hour. Tamerlan peeled off $50.
Danny watched Dzhokhar head to the store, struggling to decide if this was his moment -- until he stopped thinking about it, and let reflexes kick in.
"I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seatbelt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can. If I didn't make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away," Danny said. "I just did it. I did it very fast, using my left hand and right hand simultaneously to open the door, unfasten my seatbelt, jump out...and go."
The car faced west, upriver. Danny sprinted between the passenger side of the Mercedes and the pumps and darted into the street, not looking back, drawn to the lights of the Mobil.
"I didn't know if it was open or not," he said. "In that moment, I prayed."
The brothers took off. The clerk, after brief confusion, dialed 911 on a portable phone, bringing it to Danny in the storeroom. The dispatcher told him to take a deep breath. The officers, arriving in minutes, took his story -- with Danny noting that the car could be tracked by his iPhone and by a two-way Mercedes satellite system known as mbrace. The clerk gave him a bottled water.
[BOSTONHERALD] The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's government benefits, citing the dead terror criminal mastermind's right to privacy.
Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.
On EBT card status or spending, state welfare front man Alec Loftus would only say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter received benefits that ended in 2012. He declined further comment.
On unemployment compensation, labor department front man Kevin Franck refused to say whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev ever collected, saying it was "confidential and not a matter of public record."
On Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college aid, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth front man Robert Connolly said, "It is our position -- and I believe the accepted position in higher education -- that student records including academic records and financial records (including financial aid) cannot under federal law be released without a student's consent."
On cellphones, the Federal Communications Commission would not say whether either brother had a government-paid cellphone, also citing privacy laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/26/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WORLD NEWS > [Washington Times] DONALD TRUMP: IS HOSPITALIZED BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT [Dzhokhar] "ELIGIBLE" FOR OBAMACARE?
VERSUS
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > TEN DUMB THINGS BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECTS' TAMERLAN + DZHOKHAR[One or Both] TSARNAEV DID AFTER THE ATTACK |NEWS.COM.AU.
* SAME > BOSTON BOMBINGS: US FBI LOOKS INTO PAKISTANI TERROR GROUP. Tsarnaev Bros. link(s), iff any, to the Pak-based Islamic Jihad Union [IJU] FKA Islamic Jehad Group [IJG].
* WORLD NEWS > [NY Daily News] CABBIE ADMITS HE NEARLY DROBE OFF WID BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECTS' EXPLOSIVES IN HIS TRUNK ON EVE OF ATTACK, HE SAYS.
It bothers his conscience, i.e. "What iff".
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > BOSTON BOMBING: SUSPECTS' MOM SAYS YOUNGER SON WOULD HAVE OBEYED OLDER BROTHER.
#4
Boston bombs built on a shoe string:
A portrait of the brothers' shaky finances have emerged, but lack of money was little barrier to allegedly planning a large-scale terror attack, the Boston Globe reports.
US officials said the Boston Marathon explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 260 were triggered by a remote-controlled detonator. Two officials said the bombs were not very sophisticated. One of the officials described the detonator as "close-controlled" - meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.
The brothers struggled financially, but that would not necessarily have been a barrier to carrying out an attack using inexpensive, homemade bombs reports say. Older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed in a shoot-out with police, was a stay-at-home dad whose family qualified for welfare, was supported by his wife's work as a home health aide, and drove a 15-year-old Honda, the Globe reports.
He earned little as an amateur boxer, had worked as pizza delivery driver, and was assigned a public defender when he couldnt afford a lawyer in a 2009 domestic violence case against a girlfriend, the Boston Herald reports.
Younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was a scholarship student who allegedly earned extra cash selling marijuana to uni friends, the Globe reports. Their families also received public assistance while they were growing up. Dzhokhar will be assigned a public defender, after communicating to authorities that he cannot afford a lawyer.
But their threadbare finances did not stop them allegedly carrying out the Boston Marathon attack - because the bombs used would have cost less than $100 to make, experts told the Globe. The explosives were built from inexpensive pressure cookers and nails, which the brothers allegedly constructed using online instructions.
"There is no barrier here to two men doing this on their own," Rand Corp terrorism specialist Brian Michael Jenkins said of the low-cost explosives used in the Marathon attack.
"You could easily do this for under $100 per bomb. This is an investment even someone with modest means can make."
The homemade explosives are in stark contrast to the 9/11 attacks, which are estimated to have cost around $500,000 in flight lessons, living costs and airplane tickets.
Dzhokhar, who is recovering from gunshot wounds in hospital, reportedly told authorities that he and his brother acted alone, rather than being funded by a wider terrorist group.
Tamerlans young family qualified for state welfare until 2012, Massachusetts health and human services spokesman Alec Loftus said. And the brothers parents were also on public assistance when the brothers were growing up, he said.
#10
tipper:
that was totally insensitive and non-PC. I heartily endorse it
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2013 21:23 Comments ||
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#11
The key point with the "$100 bombs" is not the cost, but that they are made from easily available components. The cheapness is just a side effect. Nothing too surprising there. Clever people have been making bombs from common ingredients for a long time.
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... has said Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... is a faint-hearted person making alliances with everybody to grab power.
The PTI did not enter into alliance with any party because it has forged an alliance with the people of Pakistain, Khan told a news conference here on Wednesday. Sixty-six former town and UC nazim ...small time big shot, the chief elected official of a local government in Pakistan, such as a district, tehsil, union council, or village council... s and naib nazims announced joining the PTI.
Khan announced that the PTI would hold local elections within 90 days after coming into power.
After the 18th amendment, he said, the "Show-baz Sharif" kept Punjab's funds at his discretion instead of spending in cities and villages. He said the PML-N in Punjab and the PPP in Sindh had taken five terms each during the last 27 years and failed to put Pakistain on the road to progress.
He said the two parties abolished Musharraf's local government system instead of improving it.
During the last five years, he said, the PML-N was responsible for supporting the PPP and saving its government. He said the PML-N leadership was still having the luxury of 1,200 police guards and Asif Ali Zardari's kin also were getting undue protocol.
SHEIKHUPURA: The PTI chief, while speaking to a huge gathering at Company Bagh, once again challenged PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to hold debate with him on the issues of national importance. He hastened to add that Nawaz would never accept his challenge as he lacked the ability to solve the issues.
Continuing with his tirade against the PML-N, he blamed the Sharifs for loot and plunder of the national wealth. The PML-N, he said, was equally responsible for plunging the country into dark times.
He promised uniform education system for the children of the haves and have-nots. Loadshedding menace would be tackled on a priority, he said.
A large number of people brought to the venue by the candidates contesting national and provincial seats from far-flung areas had to wait for hours to listen to their leader who reached four hours late (around half past five). There were rumblings of discontent among the audience which braved scorching heat.
The new generation was the asset of the PTI and they would be provided employment without any discrimination, Khan told them. He also
pledged better health facilities for the masses. He made similar promises at Shahkot.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... PML-N candidate Mian Javed Latif hit back at the PTI and accused Khan of "dancing to the tunes of agencies". Deprived of ticket by the PTI, independent candidate Saeed Virk said Khan was not a man of words as he backed out of his promise of allowing him to contest.
KASUR: Pattoki Stadium was jam-packed to greet the "harbinger of change" (PTI). Khan reiterated that Nawaz and Zardari were befooling the masses. He said the two political parties had completed their turn and the politics of repression was going to end.
Khan said a "new Pakistain" would be created on May 11 as the PTI would sweep the election and rid the people of joblessness, hunger and loadshedding.
He said the Punjab government's performance was no secret and it simply destroyed various institutions. He said the green passport would be a symbol of dignity in the world.
Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, Nadeem Haroon Khan, Muhammad Hussain Dogar, Muzaffar Shah Kazmi and Sardar Fakhar were among those present.
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[BETA.DAWN] Pak holy mans, belonging to different schools of thought of Islam, Thursday declared that casting votes during general elections is not un-Islamic at all but is a 'religious obligation' for all Moslems, DawnNews reported.
Speaking at a presser in Islamabad, Pakistain Ulema Council (PUC) Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi said that feudal lords forbid women to cast their votes and not Islam. He said politics is not a 'forbidden fruit' in the religion.
"After evolving a consensus among different muftis (holy mans), we issue this fatwa (edict) that casting vote is a Shariah obligation and it is prohibited not to do so," said Ashrafi.
Ruling out the perception that Moslem women are prohibited to use their voting rights, he said the religion does not discourage females to cast votes but feudal lords do.
The decree is issued in the wake of terrorist threats of sabotaging the historic May 11 polls -- the first transition between democratically elected governments in a country that has a history of military coups.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) also has distributed pamphlets on Thursday in Buner, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. and different areas of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... warning citizens not to participate in the upcoming elections.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Pak Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan said that democracy was un-Islamic and was the agenda of secular forces in the country due to which they were opposed to it.
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[An Nahar] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned on Thursday of a return to "sectarian civil war," with 176 people killed in three days of violence and troops surrounding a town held by gunnies.
Maliki urged ordinary Iraqis "to take the initiative, and not be silent about those who want to take the country back to sectarian civil war," in remarks broadcast on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
The violence began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the Sunni Moslem town of Hawijah in northern Iraq, sparking festivities that left 53 people dead.
A wave of subsequent unrest, much but not all of it apparently Dire Revenge attacks for the Hawijah festivities, killed dozens more people, and brought the toll by Thursday to 169 dead and 280 maimed.
The protest-related violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that erupted in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago.
The protesters have called for the resignation of Maliki, a Shiite, and railed against authorities for allegedly targeting their community, including with what they say are wrongful detentions and anti-terrorism charges.
On Thursday, attacks in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , killed two Sahwa anti-Qaeda militiamen, two federal coppers, and maimed two more, a police captain and a doctor said.
And a roadside kaboom against an army patrol in Jurf al-Sakhr, south of Storied Baghdad, killed two soldiers, according to a police officer and a doctor.
The toll from heavy fighting on Wednesday in the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul also rose, with officers and a doctor saying a further 31 gunnies and four police were killed, bringing the total to 40.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales... the army deployed reinforcements around Sulaiman Bek, and was preparing to retake the Salaheddin provincial town, a day after it was seized by a group of unidentified gunnies, officials said.
The gunnies swarmed into the predominantly Turkmen Sunni town after deadly fighting with the security forces, who pulled back in the face of the offensive as residents fled.
"We withdrew tactically so we can work on clearing the area completely, after we knew that the residents had left," a high-ranking army officer told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"We will clean the region corner by corner, and we will not allow any attack against the safety of citizens," the officer said.
Local official Shalal Abdul Baban said gunnies were still in complete control of the town but that the army was deploying reinforcements on its outskirts.
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[Jpost] Disaffected former leader of terrorist group, Sobhi al-Tofaili, says Hezbollah split over involvement in Syria conflict.
Iran pressed Hezbollah fighters to join the civil war in Syria to bolster Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... 's armed struggle, according to Sobhi al-Tofaili, a disaffected former leader of the orc group.
The allegation, made on Leb's Future Television, echoes similar comments by George Sabra, interim leader of the Syrian National Coalition, at a presser in Turkey on April 22.
The former Hezbollah secretary said that at least 138 Islamic fascistihad died in Syria and scores had been maimed. The organization is split over its involvement, he said.
Lebanese Sunni Moslemholy mans called on April 23 for a holy war to defend co-religionists in Syria from Hezbollah, amid concern that Leb is being sucked into its neighbor's increasingly sectarian conflict. Leb's President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... dismissed the calls. The uprising against Assad began with peaceful protests in March 2011 that turned violent when the government forces turned their guns on demonstrators.
"Hezbollah fighters have crossed the border and started to kill our people to support the murderer Bashir al-Assad," Sabra said at a televised presser. The group is "occupying Syrian villages, murdering civilians, preventing them from peacefully expressing their views."
Hezbollah has denied it is backing Assad in the fighting, saying it's helping Lebanese Shi'ites living in Syrian border towns and villages to defend themselves against rebel assaults. It has remained largely silent amid a wave of recent accusations by Syrian opposition leaders and Lebanese groups about its involvement in Syria.
"Hezbollah has not denied the claims and does not appear very concerned about how its involvement will be interpreted," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East Center in Beirut.
After the protests evolved into armed conflict and the al- Nusra Front's involvement was highlighted, both Iran and Hezbollah had a "convenient excuse -- that they are fighting against orc jihadis and not an Arab Spring uprising," he said.
They may have concluded that "Assad is not about to fall and that they're not on the Titanic but on the side that's going to be around for a long time," he said.
Syria's conflict is rapidly deteriorating and is threatening the stability of its neighbors, particularly Leb, Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... , told the Security Council Wednesday.
"Hezbollah not only continues to undermine Leb from within by violating the government's policy of disassociation, but actively enables Assad to wage war on the Syrian people by providing money, weapons, and expertise to the regime in close coordination with Iran," she said.
In a letter to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah from Moaz al-Khatib, former SNC leader, he said: "Is it satisfying to you that the Syrian regime shells it citizens with fighter planes and Scud missiles?
''I demand that you withdraw all Hezbollah troops from Syria,'' al-Khatib said.
[An Nahar] Syria's regime has changed strategy and is battling to seize main highways rather than spread its forces thin, aiming to regain key points and freeze the flow of fighters and arms towards Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... To help achieve this goal, the army is being backed by local gunnies operating in their own towns and villages and who have been trained in street warfare for several months in Iran and Russia, according to experts and sources close to Syria's security forces.
"There is a change of strategy. The country-wide war, which exhausts the army and has no proven results, is over. Now, the main theater of war is on the highways. The goal is to allow the army to move easily between cities under its control," a security source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Taking control of Qusayr (in the central province of Homs) will link Homs city to the coast, and seizing Rastan (nearby) will secure the road linking Homs to Hama (in central Syria)," said the source.
"Taking Maaret al-Numan (in the northwest) will link Hama to Aleppo (in the north). These are our main goals, while retaking Raqa in the eastern desert is not a priority," he added.
Raqa in March became the first scenic provincial capital to fall out of army hands.
"Controlling the road linking Daraa (in southern Syria) to the north, or the highway leading from Damascus to the coast is very important for the regime," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
"It wants to link those regions where it is present, in order to show Syria's citizens they can travel there securely," he added.
Abdel Rahman warned, however, that the army "has yet to make any strategic wins" in the new battle.
In central Syria, a key battle for Qusayr pits rebels against fighters loyal to Hizbullah.
They currently have Qusayr under siege, and hope to take it over soon, says Waddah Sharara, who teaches sociology at the Lebanese University in Beirut.
And they are backed by the National Defense Force (NDF), a militia comprised mainly of Syrians from religious minorities, most of them from the ruling Alawite sect.
"The army was disoriented because of the rebels' mobility. It didn't have a strategy and relied on hitting out blindly. It was working reactively, whereas now, it acts according to a plan," said the Observatory's Abdel Rahman.
"The army is clearly having manpower problems, due both to combat losses and the failure of probably a large majority of conscripts or reservists to report for duty," said Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
"It's cheaper politically to let (fighters) serve in their home towns or villages, where they will have local social support and be more effective," he told AFP, adding that the NDF is a good example of this.
The regime meanwhile aims to put pressure on the rebels in the Eastern Ghouta area, a rebel stronghold close to the capital.
Pro-regime daily Al-Watan said on Thursday that the capture a day before of the village of Otaybeh east of Damascus comes as part of a military objective to secure the road linking the capital to the military airport at Dumair to the northeast.
Cited by Lebanese visiting politicians who met with Bashir al-Assad on Sunday, Syria's president said the regime is acting according to its own plans, "not according to the plans that the rebels want to impose".
"Now the operations are well planned and the objectives are precise. This is because Iranian officers are on the ground, leading operations, while new Iranian weapons conceived for this kind of battle are flowing in," said the Observatory's Abdel Rahman.
"The NDF is trained for urban war, while even the regular army has gained experience in guerrilla conflict," two years into Syria's conflict, he added.
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[Iran Press TV] A political analyst has slammed the Western countries for targeting the ordinary Iranian people by slapping sanctions against Iran over its nuclear energy program.
"They (Western countries) are threatening Iran and not only threatening Iran but carrying out the sanctions policy which is intended to harm the people as a whole," Richard Becker said in an interview with Press TV.
He also criticized the double standards that prevail in the international arena, under which "the rich countries are free to do whatever they want to" while the countries which refuse to obey "the dictates of Washington...are battered."
Becker noted that sanctions are intended "to deprive the people of adequate food and medicine just as it was done in Iraq."
The analyst pointed to the humanitarian ramifications of the US-engineered sanctions against Iraq under the rule of former dictator, Saddam Hussein, which adversely affected the lives of millions of Iraqis.
"Why isn't the United States and why aren't the US and the British governments, which did what they have done to Iraq, why aren't they held before international bodies and tried for their crimes against humanity?"
Iran has repeatedly announced that Western sanctions against Tehran are effectively hindering the imports of medicines to the country, thereby jeopardizing the lives of millions of patients suffering from special diseases such as thalassemia, hemophilia, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and many others.
Many analysts and experts have called for the trial of US President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... for the imposition of the illegal restrictions on Iran.
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[Al Ahram] Washington says it will consult with its allies about what steps to take in the event it confirms Syrian government used chemical weapons About what you'd expect from B.O. and Company: deny, reluctantly admit, then ask somebody else what to do.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Nawaz Sharif
[BETA.DAWN] Pak 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Iran Press TV] A political analyst has slammed the Western countries for targeting the ordinary Iranian people by slapping sanctions against Iran over its nuclear energy program.
