[An Nahar] The first reinforcements to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan are expected to arrive within two days, the world body's special envoy to the violence-wracked country, Hilde Johnson, said Thursday.
The U.N. Security Council agreed to nearly double the size of the mission known as UNMISS, allowing for up to 12,500 soldiers and 1,300 police.
"We are working around the clock to get assets," which will come from other U.N. peacekeeping missions in Africa, notably in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , Sudan's Darfur region and Liberia, Johnson said.
"We are working on 48 hours delivery of several of the critical assets that we need," she told a presser.
Both manpower and equipment would be sent, Johnson said, without offering further details. Helicopters and a military transport plane are eventually expected to be deployed to South Sudan.
Johnson spoke of an urgent need to get the additional support as soon as possible to the U.N.'s overtaxed mission in the country, which has been roiled by days of deadly ethnic violence.
Tens of thousands of civilians have sought protection at U.N. bases amid a wave of ethnic violence pitting members of President Salva Kiir's Dinka tribe against rival Riek Machar's Nuer clansmen.
"At this point in time, the military is overstretched with the current protection... of civilians in our camps," she said.
"All peacekeepers are under instruction to use force when civilians are under imminent threat."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Somali Government has banned celebration of Christian festivities in the country.
They've not banned gunsex. Some activities are important...
A directive released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Justice and Religious Affairs stated that no Christian festivities could be held in Somalia. The Director General of the ministry, Sheikh Mohamed Khayrow Aden, and the Director of the Religious Matters, Sheikh Ali Sheikh Mohamud alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, held a press conference in the capital Mogadishu, to make the announcement.
The ban came just hours before Christmas Day, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, their spiritual saviour.
"We alert fellow Muslims in Somalia that some festivities to mark Christian Days will take place around the world in this week," said Sheikh Ali Dhere during the press conference, adding: "It is prohibited to celebrate those days in this country."
Mr Aden, on his part, stated that all security and law enforcement agencies had been instructed to counter any such celebrations. He added that copies of the directive were delivered to hotels and other meeting places in Mogadishu.
The officials did not say anything on whether non-Muslim foreign workers or residents could celebrate or not.
It is the first time that a Somali government bans the celebrations since the last central government collapsed in 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Possibly related: Down at Fort Benning all day yesterday. Drove by the jump towers on my way home. Appears there were no Christmas lights on the towers this year. None there last night anyway. Think of the money saved.
[Egypt Independent] The Moslem Brüderbund claimed in a statement on Thursday that freezing the funds of 1,055 Islamic NGOs would help Christian missionaries convert poor Mohammedans.
The statement quoted Bishop Paul of the Coptic Orthodox Church as saying that the church began to provide aid to poor Mohammedan families "affected by the decision to confiscate funds of terrorist groups because the love of the Lord Jesus reaches everyone."
The statement considered the decision an attempt to reduce the popularity of the Brotherhood and a violation of the Islamic religion. which mandates help for the poor and needy.
The Brotherhood argued the move would cause the Egyptian population to fall further into desolation. "They fight the poor who cling to legitimacy, freedom and democracy and pull them down into greater poverty and destitution," the statement said. "They fight the liberals from the other classes through other means."
The group also argued that the court ruling was not final and could still be appealed.
One of the Brotherhood NGOs, the statement said, takes care of 500 thousand orphans, while others provide medical treatment at reduced costs for millions of poor people.
"Could political disagreement be so evil?" the statement added. "If this is the compassion and love they said they extend to Egyptians, what would cruelty be like?"
The statement warned that this would only make Mohammedans cling more to the "legitimacy" of the Brotherhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Egypt Independent] A number of former jihadists have formed the Islamic Alliance to Support Stability which aims to renounce violence, support the draft constitution and nominate Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for president.
The group's statements came at a conference on Thursday that featured a large banner with Sisi's picture next to Sadat's.
The conference began with a moment of silence for the dead in the Mansoura and Nasr City terror attacks. Participants called on Moslem Brüderbund youths to join the alliance after their group was classified as a terrorist organization.
"Sisi responded to the will of the people after a traitor became president," said Sabra al-Qasimi, the alliance's coordinator said. "He has the qualities of the prudent imam who can lead the nation."
Qasimi urged the Egyptian people to choose Sisi as president. "We have launched a campaign to collect signatures in support of the constitution, similar to the Tamarod campaign," he added.
Alliance member Hassan Abdel Basir said that there are some who hate Egypt, serve the West and the United States and do not want Egypt's best interests.
"They are trying to bring down the Egyptian army, which is the only obstacle for the American and Israeli project in the region," he added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... Sheikh Khamis al-Agramy, Secretary General of the Egyptian Tribal Council, said the draft constitution is agreed upon more than ever before.
"We will continue to protect it and the borders of Egypt," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , vowed Thursday to fight terrorism and stabilize the deeply polarized country.
"Do not worry or fear, the army will sacrifice for Egypt. We will eliminate" terrorism, Sisi said at a military ceremony, in his first comments after Egypt was rocked by two kabooms this week.
"Do not allow these terrorist actions to affect you. If you want freedom and stability, which is not achieved easily, then you have to trust God and your army and your police," said Sisi, who is also defense minister, in a statement released by the army.
Sisi, whose popularity has soared since he ousted Morsi, said the defense forces had the capability to make Egypt "stable, secure and progressive."
On Tuesday, a massive suicide boom-mobileing in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura killed 15 people and maimed scores, and a bomb went kaboom! near a bus in Cairo on Thursday, wounding five.
Sisi's remarks came a day after the military-installed authorities labelled Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist group.
The bombing in Mansoura was claimed by an al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist group and was condemned by the Brotherhood, but the authorities have blamed the Islamist movement for carrying it out.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] The military-installed government's listing of Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist group signals determination to uproot its vast grass-roots network, possibly radicalizing the Islamists as they go underground, analysts said.
Security forces had already decimated the group following Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... 's overthrow in July, with more than 1,000 people killed and thousands more imprisoned, including the Brotherhood's top leadership.
The last major crackdown on the Brotherhood, by president Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s, led several members to break off and form more radical groups that are now seen as precursors to al-Qaeda.
Now analysts fear a similar process could unfold, with a new generation of activists breaking from the Brotherhood's more cautious leadership, most of whom are imprisoned with little communication to the outside world.
"It is impossible to dismiss the idea that at least a fringe group of the repression's victims will choose counter-violence and join the jihadists," said Francois Burgat, a Beirut-based expert on Islamist movements.
The decision to list the Brotherhood as a terrorist group came after the deadly bombing of a cop shoppe on Tuesday that killed 15 people and was claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda inspired group spearheading attacks in the Sinai peninsula that have killed scores of police and soldiers since Morsi's overthrow.
The group has no known link to the Brotherhood, and jihadist groups have long criticized the Brotherhood's refusal to take up arms and its embrace of elections, seen by Death Eaters as un-Islamic.
But the government blamed the Brotherhood for the bombing, and Morsi along with other top Islamists already face trial for allegedly colluding with gunnies to carry out attacks.
Following the terrorist designation, anyone taking part in the protests the Brotherhood has held on a near-daily basis demanding Morsi's reinstatement could be sentenced to five years in prison, according to the interior ministry.
Possessing Brotherhood literature, or supporting them "verbally or in writing" is also punishable by up to five years in prison, it said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] A Moroccan rights group warned the government Thursday of a possible "humanitarian catastrophe" over the health of some 30 Islamist prisoners on hunger strike.
The Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights expressed its concern in a letter to Islamist Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane about the prisoners, held at seven prisons and on hunger strike since the beginning of October.
It said they were demanding better prison conditions.
On Wednesday, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the state of the detainees.
Thousands of Islamists were locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for alleged links to terrorism after a series of suicide kabooms in Casablanca killed 33 people in May 2003.
In the wake of the Arab Spring of 2011, dozens were freed, including four radical Salafist leaders, but many more remain in jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
it's a "humanitarian catastrophe" if the Islamists don't die. They're hunger-striking for Allah. Who are we to stop them? Allan Snackbar!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2013 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
We CAN stop them, hang them, problem solved, and damn few repeaters once this gets around.
They want to die, don't stand in their way.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/27/2013 14:38 Comments ||
Top||
Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining at least 38 of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organisation the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said.
General Abdel Fattah Al Sissi said the country would be steadfast in the face of terrorism, after a small bomb went off in Cairo, wounding five people.
Sixteen of the arrests were in the Nile Delta province of Sharkiya. The state news agency said those held were accused of promoting the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood group, distributing its leaflets, and inciting violence against the army and police. Security sources gave a country-wide total of 38 arrests on terrorism charges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] The top Catholic and Moslemholy mans of the Central African Republic Thursday asked the U.N. to immediately deploy peacekeepers to halt a spiral of violence that has pitted Moslems against Christians.
In an opinion column in La Belle France's Le Monde newspaper, the Archbishop of Bangui, Dieudonne Nzapalainga, and Imam Omar Kobine Layama, said French and African peacekeepers needed help to contain the violence.
"The U.N. must immediately dispatch such a force on the ground," they said.
La Belle France has sent 1,600 soldiers to its former colony to back an African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peacekeeping force of about 4,000 troops. But they have been struggling to restore order in a country wracked by decades of misrule, coups and dictatorships.
To complicate matters, the large Chadian contingent of the AU force has been accused of siding with a mostly Moslem former rebel group in the strife-torn Christian majority country.
"Although the French and African forces have provided our country the opportunity to make a fresh start, the progress has been fragile and the troops cannot bear the burden themselves," they said.
They said the arrival of U.N. blue helmets "will eliminate the sentiment of fear and replace it with hope."
The resource-rich but impoverished country has been wracked by ever-escalating violence since a March coup by the mostly Moslem Seleka rebels installed Michel Djotodia as the country's first Moslem president.
Although Djotodia disbanded the rebels, some of them went rogue, leading to months of killing, rape and pillaging and prompting Christians to form vigilante groups in response.
Nzapalainga and Layama said there was a real "threat that Moslems will face dreadful reprisals" following widespread rapes, looting and executions by the former rebels.
"We fear that if the international community does not respond more actively, our country will be condemned to darkness," they said, adding that two million people -- or about half the country's population -- were in desperate need of aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] U.N. human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... experts on Thursday expressed "serious concern" about lethal drone attacks allegedly conducted by U.S. forces in Yemen, that resulted in civilian casualties this month.
The U.N. said in a statement that 16 non-combatants were killed and at least 10 injured when two separate wedding processions were targeted by drones in the country on 12 December.
The victims had been mistakenly identified as members of al-Qaeda, the U.N. quoted local security officials as saying.
"If armed drones are to be used, States must adhere to international humanitarian law, and should disclose the legal basis for their operational responsibility and criteria for targeting," said Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
"Yemen cannot consent to violations of the right to life of people in its territory," he added.
The U.S. military operates all unmanned aircraft flying over Yemen in support of Sanaa's campaign against al-Qaeda and has killed dozens of Death Eaters in a sharply intensified campaign this year.
But Washington faces mounting criticism over the use of drones in its "war on terror".
Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... about the legitimacy of the December 12 Arclight airstrikes, highlighting that the states involved had a duty to investigate the reported incidents and their effect on civilians.
"A deadly attack on illegitimate targets amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment if, as in this case, it results in serious physical or mental pain and suffering for the innocent victims," Mendez said.
Heyns stressed the need for accountability when drones were used.
He called on the United States and Yemen to disclose whether they were responsible, and if so, what targeting standards were used, how many non-combatants were killed, and whether they plan to provide compensation for the victims' families.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Pak Daily Times] Bangladesh's opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest Thursday, as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of general elections next month.
As two more people were killed in the build-up to the January 5 poll, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said police were barring anyone from visiting their leader Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... at her home in Dhaka.
The move comes after Zia, a two-time former premier and arch rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. , called for supporters to stage a mass march on the capital this Sunday aimed at scuppering the polls. The BNP is one of 21 opposition parties which are boycotting the elections over Hasina's refusal to stand aside and allow a neutral caretaker government to organise the contest.
The country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , has also been banned from taking part.
"Since yesterday she has been under virtual house arrest," BNP vice-president Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told AFP.
"Police are not allowing anyone, including party leaders and activists, to meet her. It is part of a government move to foil the December 29 march for democracy."
Deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Lutful Kabir confirmed that extra officers had been deployed outside Zia's home in the upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood but said the move was designed to "enhance her security".
Police confirmed two senior BNP members, including a current politician, were tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... outside Zia's home on Wednesday night but denied the arrests were made because they wanted to meet her. Another BNP politician was jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! separately in the capital on Thursday, police front man Masudur Rahman told AFP.
With Hasina and her Awami League party determined the election goes ahead, troops are being sent to nearly every corner of the country at the end of what has been an unprecedented year for political violence.
A total of 271 people have been killed since January, either in protests at the elections or by Islamists who have seen several of their leaders sentenced to death from crimes dating back to the 1971 independence war.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily on Tuesday hailed the hereditary transfer of power to current leader Kim Jong-un as former leader Kim Jong-il's greatest achievement.
Apparently the KCNA guy survived the purge...
The article is part of propaganda efforts to build up the personality cult surrounding Kim junior since the execution of former eminence grise Jang Song-taek, who is believed to have usurped some of the leader's powers.
Kim Jong-il "brilliantly consolidated the leadership succession to accomplish the revolutionary cause of juche [self-reliance] to the end," the daily said. The paper called this his "most precious achievement for the fatherland and the people."
The succession laid the "firm foundation for the defense of the fatherland," it added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well, they have lasted longer than most despotic regimes.
The old guard in the North Korean military appears to have been replaced by a younger generation of officers loyal to leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un since the execution of former eminence grise Jang Song-taek.
Several elderly hardliners from the days of former leader Kim Jong-il were conspicuously absent from a ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang on Tuesday to mark the 22nd anniversary of Kim senior's appointment as supreme commander.
A photo of the event published by the official KCNA news agency shows a new troika of powerful officers -- military politburo chief Choe Ryong-hae, army chief Ri Yong-gil, and armed forces minister Jang Jong-nam. But conspicuous by their absence were veterans of the "military-first" like era National Defense Commission members Kim Yong-chun, Ri Yong-mu, O Kuk-ryol and Hyon Chol-hae, as well as key members of the old guard who were close to Jang, including Minister of People's Security Choe Bu-il.
The photo has raised speculation that the National Defense Commission, which was the most powerful decision-making body during the Kim Jong-il regime, has now grown weaker.
Although Kim Jong-un is the chairman of the National Defense Commission, the execution of Jang, its vice chairman, has apparently forced other vice chairmen -- Kim Yong-chun, Ri Yong-mu and O Kuk-ryol -- into virtual retirement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...meet the new boss - same as the old boss...regrettably, we will get fooled again...
#2
Its to be expected - Late Big Daddy Jong-Il had his Boyz, now also does Pudgy.
KJU is repor tightening Regime control over NOKOR's economy, which I suspect is more due to China's increasing predominance than starvation or hunger amongst the NOKOR mainstream.
Iff my beliefs prove correct, + FYI I see nothing to indicate otherwise, TIME MAY BE RUNNING OUT FOR THE US + ROK, ETAL. TO AVOID MAJOR CONFLICT AGZ CHINA ON KOREAN PENINSULA, + EXCLUSIVE OR SEPARATE FROM ANYTHING VEE CHINA-VS-JAPAN IN THE EAST CHINA SEA.
The underlying base has always been iff NOKOR = KJU/Pudgy can hold out ALAP AMAP vee the Nukes + Reunification issues - THE CLOCK IS RUNNING OUT FOR THE US + ROK, ETAL BECAUSE THE CLOCK IS RUNNING OUT FOR KJU + KIM FAMILY's, REGIME'S ABILITY TO PREVENT OR FORESTALL DOMESTIC/NATIONAL COLLAPSE + CONSEQUENT CHINA-N-ONLY-CHINA TAKEOVER OF NORTH KOREA.
We may be seeing the end of "NORTH-KOREA-FOR-NORTH-KOREANS/KOREANS" in favor of "NORTH-KOREA-FOR-CHINA/CHINESE", + by extension the end of NOKOR-brand Communism-socialism in favor of Chinese brand of Communism-Socialism - iff KJU can't hold out, the only way to stop China's takeover of the North is via military conflict = "KOREAN WAR II"???
Iff KJU + Regime = North Korea gets truly desperate, he may not be willing to wait for de facto China-Japan war to occur on its own - KJU MAY FIND A WAY TO START ANTI-CHINA WAR BY HIMSELF.
OR BY PCORRECT THIRD-PARTY PROXY - IMO READ, WE'RE-SUPPOSED-TO-BE-THE-WORLD'S-FIRST ISLAMIC/MUSLIM-SUPERPOWER-NOT-IRAN, NUKE-ARMED PAKISTAN, likely as per diversionary China-vs-India war.
Iff KJU can't hold on, the solution for the US-Allies would be MORE NOKOR AID + SUPPORT FOR FASTER INDIGENOUS DEV OF NOKOR NUKES, TO INCLUD OPTION FOR THIRD-PARTY = FOREIGN DELIVERY OF NUKES TO KJU + REGIME.
Yes, the above is most certainly crazy or dangerous, but the alternative is that SOKOR, etal. see China formally annex the North.
JUST ANOTHER NE ASIA CRISIS FOR CAROLINE KENNEDY.
[WILSON PHILIPS "HOLD ON" MTV Video, "CATCH 22" MOVIE here].
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has been seen weeping and showing other signs of psychological turmoil since the execution of his uncle Jang Song-taek, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun claimed Wednesday.
Then he downed a couple snifters of cognac and got over it...
The daily, whose reports on North Korea are not always reliable, quoted a source in Guangzhou, China as saying that the execution came at the urging of military Politburo chief Choe Ryong-hae and Minister for State Security Kim Won-hong, whose influence and power have been growing rapidly, and that Kim merely signed the order.
The source said it looks like Pudgy Kim Jong-un had no idea the execution would proceed so quickly, and there is talk that he was "upset" about having been responsible for killing his own uncle. The source claimed Kim Jong-un was "weeping" until celebrations of the second anniversary of Kim Jong-il's death on Dec. 17, five days after the execution.
Sure, Pudgy had no idea of what an execution order looked like. Never had seen one before, in fact...
The paper quoted accounts that Kim was drunk when he ordered the executions of two of Jang's confidants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
IIRC uncle was favored by the Chinese. Capping their man in Pyongyang may have created some attention twitch in Beijing. Best to get this story out before someone there decides they have no alternative but to reassert hegemony directly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/27/2013 9:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
This is where Pugsly figures out that he really isn't a god who can bring people back from the dead in spite of what his MSM has been telling everyone.
[The Blaze] In a blistering takedown of the U.S. Transportation Security Administrations approach to airport security, the former chief of security for Israeli airports described an agency riddled with incompetence and wastefulness and that, despite large infusions of government money, may never have actually stopped a single terror attack. The TSA may even be inviting a deadly attack on airline passengers due to poor planning, he charged. Incompetence and wastefulness.....TSA, and the IRS, FBI, INS, DEA, ATF, HUD, DOJ, DoD, USPS, SSI, Departments of Education and Agriculture, the list is endless.
#1
It's not fair to include DOA on that list, they've kept peanuts insanely profitable plentiful and inexpensive for many years and will continue to do so, provided the alotment system is maintained as is written in the Constitution somewhere.
#3
Gov't milk price subsidies are an early example of political vote buying interference in private sector supply and demand. Of course if reducing or eliminating the number of milk drinking children is the desired end-state.
Better to import your own foreign voting base. Illiteracy is key to 'low information' voting. Also much easier to train and transition into entitlement farming than those reared from traditional western family units.
Family, who needs it. Birth control, the downside.
[DAWN] The Indian Army on Wednesday decided to indict six army personnel including two officers for killing three labourers in a 'fake encounter with bully boys' three years ago in Indian-administered Kashmire.
According to Indian media reports, the decision of launching the case in a military court against six Indian officials, including a colonel, has been taken upon completion of a military-level probe of the fake clash in Kashmire.
Three labourers were killed in Machil Village of northern Kashmire's Kapwara district in April, 2010. Paperwork was started but nothing else was done by the local police against nine Indian army personnel and two local residents, who claimed that three 'Pak terrorists' were killed in the encounter.
Colonel DK Pathania, Major Upinder and four other personnel would face court martial for the encounter that took place along the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistain, reports quoting Indian army front man said.
The incident at the time triggered riots across the Indian-administered-Kashmire leading to the deaths of 123 people. Hundreds were reportedly maimed in the riots while thousands of Kashmiri youth were nabbed Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
[DAWN] Without specifically naming the United States, the Foreign Office on Thursday said that the issue of drones would not overshadow the country's foreign relations despite a United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... General Assembly (UNGA) resolution which last week called for making drone attacks compliant with the international law.
Cooperation with the United States on Afghanistan, the FO said, would, however, depend on the future American presence in the neighbouring country.
"We are very clear on that. Our foreign policy is not just on drones or our relations with one country. It is a wide spectrum. We have our national interests and we are working on many tracks with the international community to expand our relations and to promote economic development in Pakistain. We do not see the foreign policy or what we seek to achieve from it through the narrow prism of any single issue," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at the weekly media briefing.
Her comments apparently contrasted the previous FO position that "drone strikes have a negative impact on the mutual desire of both countries (US and Pakistain) to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship".
This position was last stated on Nov 1 and wasn't reflected in subsequent statements on drones though there has been a ritual condemnation of the attacks.
The spokesperson's remarks, which followed the latest drone attack in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... and the first since the UNGA passed a resolution on drones, represented a possible softening of the government's position on drone strikes.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... while reiterating the policy position on the attacks, Ms Aslam said the government condemned the Thursday night's attack in North Wazoo for being "a violation of Pakistain's illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity".
"It has been consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and humanitarian implications. Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in inter-state relations," she added.
She also noted that an international consensus against drone attacks existed now and was growing.
Regarding cooperation with the US on Afghanistan, she said, there was still lack of clarity about the future US presence in Afghanistan.
"It depends upon the events in Afghanistan and what kind of presence the US will have after 2014," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Regarding cooperation with the US on Afghanistan, she said, there was still lack of clarity about the future US presence in Afghanistan.
"It depends upon the events in Afghanistan and what kind of presence the US will have after 2014," she said.
The number of countries with extreme risk of human rights violations has soared.
"And the winners are..."
The seventh annual report, which ranked 197 countries based on 31 different types of human rights violations, found that 34 nations pose an extreme risk of human rights violations to their populations a 70 percent increase over the past six years.
In 2008, Maplecroft said that 20 countries posed an extreme risk.
Which countries are the worst? Syria, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Somalia were named the worst countries for human rights violations, according to the seventh annual Human Rights Risk Atlas produced by global analytics company, Maplecroft.
Boy howdy, I'm so surprised at that list...
Following these countries were Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Yemen and Nigeria.
If only Miss Afghanistan hadn't worn that burqa in the swimsuit competition...
Interestingly, Uganda and Russia were not named on the list, even though these countries have recently grabbed headlines in mainstream newspapers.
Putin clearly is more sophisticated than Somalia's leaders...
Maplecroft attributes the substantial increase of human rights violations to a rise in socio-economic protests, including a continued crackdown on political dissent by security forces. Technological communication has also contributed to the increase in the number of countries with an extreme risk since digital inclusion has helped stimulate and accelerate protest movements.
Countries that are considered key growth markets have also shown increases in human security risks and labor violations.
According to the report, businesses, investors and international organizations that operate across multiple borders should be concerned with the findings.
Syria (ranked 1st globally in 2014), Egypt (16th), Libya (19th), Mali (22nd) and Guinea-Bissau (74th) show the worst deterioration in human rights. Regionally, the majority of the 70 percent increase in human rights violations took place in the Middle East, North Africa (MENA) and in Africa.
Coincidentally that's Rantburg's main beat...
In the Middle East and North African regions, state repression of societal protests, particularly youth protests, reveals an increase in the number of extreme risk countries from two to seven. State repression of these protests also reveal an overall change in the regional average from 4.29/10 in 2008 to 2.75/10 in 2014 (where 0 represents the worst score). In addition to Syria (1st), Egypt (16th) and Libya (19th), other extreme risk countries in the MENA region include Iraq (7th), Yemen (9th), Iran (11th) and Saudi Arabia (31st).
In sub-Saharan Africa, ongoing ethnic and sectarian conflict has resulted in a worsening risk score. Sudan (2nd), DR Congo (3rd) and Somalia (5th) remain among the five most extreme risk countries in the world, with DR Congo still having among the worst records of all countries for violations of womens and girls rights, particularly sexual violence.
In Asia, the highest risk countries include Pakistan (4th), Afghanistan (6th) and Myanmar (8th). In Bangladesh (17th) and India (18th). Poor legal and regulatory frameworks contribute to a lack of access to remedy and pervasive labor rights violations, which account in turn for their poor risk rating.
Increases in human security risks and labor violations have been especially prevalent in key growth markets. Maplecroft singles out Iraq (7th). Nigeria (10th), China (15th), Bangladesh (17th), India (18th), Colombia (26th), Philippines (27th), Ethiopia (28th), Indonesia (30th) and Saudi Arabia (31st) as key growth markets that have experienced increased human rights risks since 2008.
Since 2008, global economic growth and investment has shifted to new markets prompting a demand for low-cost workers, water and land as well as other natural resources, stated Lizabeth Campbell, Maplecrofts Head of Societal Risk and Human Rights. In many of these markets, human rights violations continue to get worse. Workers rights are seriously compromised, rural and indigenous communities face grave violations related to land grabs and forced displacement, particularly where their land ownership is not formally documented.
Increasingly, Campbell added, repressive or corrupt governments clamp down on human rights, particularly freedom of expression, to maintain their grip on power and economic control. Companies cannot rely on robust governance and remedy structures in these markets which means the onus is on them directly to implement appropriate levels of due diligence and mitigating action.
The role of security forces in violent crackdowns within growth economies has also been a key driver in the rise of human security risks. This trend is particularly evident in growth economies, such as Colombia (26th),Peru (59th), Brazil (70th) and Turkey (78th), where violent repression is characterized by the suppression of protests, which include arbitrary arrest, detentions and extrajudicial killings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
...and as an American too. Guess with the flat economies, the funding stream is getting thinner, so hitting the usual suspects isn't producing the usual amount of money. Can't get a free ride with the MSM videos nightlies of the evil war, now that it has disappeared since the one is prez. They have to expand their 'customer' base which means refocusing on endemic behaviors across the globe. Making up with volume what they used to get from a couple of biggies a few years ago.
[REUTERS] The United States has delivered dozens of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Iraq in recent weeks and plans shipments of Scan Eagle drones next year amid a surge in violence, U.S. officials said on Thursday, a day after at least 34 people died in Christmas day kabooms in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... .
Al Qaeda-linked gunnies have stepped up attacks on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government and anyone seen to be supporting it. The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq this year.
A U.S. official said that about 75 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Iraq last week, earlier than originally envisioned, and a shipment of 10 unmanned Scan Eagles surveillance drones is due next year.
The U.S. has already said the first of 18 F-16 fighter jets promised to Iraq will be delivered in the fall of 2014, with the entire order to be shipped over the course of two years.
"The recent delivery of Hellfire missiles and an upcoming delivery of Scan Eagles are standard (foreign military sales) cases that we have with Iraq to strengthen their capabilities to combat this threat," a State Department official said.
"We remain committed to supporting the government of Iraq in meeting its defense needs in the face of these challenges," the official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bad, bad move. Unless of course, if your goal is to provide US defense technology to the Iranian, Chinese, North Koreans, etc.
#5
Another example of how we continue to have to fight WW I and the horrible effects of the Treaty of Versailles. Geez, if I had know the thing was this bad, I would have burned my world history book...Mrs. Ratliff wouldn't have liked that though...First we fight WWII to solve the German problem. The Germans created the Cold War when they let Lenin off his leash in 1917, and we've fought THAT off and on ever since. Not to mention that fucking Balfour agreement that sold the ME down the river breaking every promise they made to the Arabs to get them to fight the Turks. So its no wonder the ME is a mess. Will we have to fight another world war to fix the problems we created in 1919 in the ME?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/27/2013 22:31 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Gazoo rulers Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, were responsible for any attacks from the Paleostinian enclave, after deaths on both sides.
"We have recently been subject to attacks against us," he said at a pilots' graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim air force base in southern Israel.
"Israel holds Hamas responsible for all the attacks launched on us. We will strike at those who attack us, and at those who support them," he said in remarks that were also broadcast on radio.
Confrontations between the sides peaked on Tuesday, when a sniper inside the Gazoo Strip killed an Israeli fixing the border fence.
Israel retaliated against "terror sites" in Gazoo using warplanes and tanks, killing a toddler and wounding at least six people.
The sniper attack has been attributed to a small Paleostinian faction unrelated to the Islamist Hamas.
An ensuing tense quiet has held, despite Paleostinians in Gazoo firing a projectile that hit an uninhabited area in southern Israel early on Thursday.
A military spokeswoman told Agence La Belle France Presse it caused no damage or injuries.
On Thursday night a second projectile fired from Gazoo "landed in open ground causing no damage", according to a military front man.
Speaking at the same air force ceremony, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Israel would not accept the "trickle of terror from the Gazoo Strip, where Hamas is sovereign".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[ISRAELNATIONALNEWS] Among the roughly 300 killed during intense fighting in Aleppo was Molhem Barakat, a Rooters photographer. Barakat's death last Friday, in the indiscriminate barrage on Aleppo that the White House criticized Monday, has raised serious questions about Rooters' hiring practice.
Hannah Lucinda Smith, a British freelance photojournalist and acquaintance of Barakat, writes that Barakat tried to join Al Qaeda.
According to Smith, Barakat wanted to join the terrorist organization for the 11,000 Syrian lira monthly salary. "It is a pitiful wage for a potential jacket wallah, but enough to tempt an eighteen-year-old stuck in a war zone with no job."
Barakat reportedly told Smith the terrorist group probably wouldn't accept him, saying "I'm too liberal. But maybe they'll think I'll be useful to them, because I can still go into regime areas so I could transport weapons there for them."
Barakat was roughly 17 when he started working for Rooters in battle zones, according to an Honest Reporting article on Monday. His age was not included in the Rooters report of his death.
Smith wrote that she had refused Barakat's requests to work with her, because she "didn't want the responsibility of an eager seventeen year old with no war zone training and little experience on my shoulders."
After being hired by Rooters, Barakat was apparently not given any safety gear or training. He was also reportedly paid $100 a day for entering war zones to document for the London-based news agency, which has yet to respond to the revelations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
#1
A freelance foto journalist, gunrunner? A real pity. Could have been a White House opening for such a fellow.
[An Nahar] The head of Russia's national security council on Thursday cast doubt on the scheduled date for the start of Syria peace talks next month because of slow progress in the run-up to the parley.
"We will not be able to hold the conference within the initially given time frame," Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"Progress is slow," he added.
"A lot depends on the will and ability of the United States and a series of other countries to consolidate the (Syrian) opposition and to convince them to take part in this international forum."
Russia, one of the Syrian regime's staunchest allies, insists that "all actors" in the nearly three-year civil war must join the talks, dubbed "Geneva 2", which are to open on January 22.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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 Somali Government has banned celebration of Christian festivities in the country.
Khaleda Zia
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
North Korean leader 
Wazoo
