Ottawa - A former Canadian brigadier-general and head of Canadian forces in Afghanistan is being detained in Afghanistan for alleged gun smuggling, but his employer said Thursday he is expected to be released soon.
Daniel Menard resigned from the military after pleading guilty in 2011 to having an affair with a female corporal under his command on active duty.
He now works for security firm Garda World, whose spokesman told AFP Menard was picked up by Afghan authorities on or about January 12 after a meeting with Afghan officials.
Menard's detention, he said, relates to an "administrative misunderstanding" over the private security firm's licensing to operate in the country.
"The licensing matter has now been resolved and he's expected to be released imminently," he added.
The daily Globe and Mail earlier cited Kabul police chief General Zaher Zaher saying Menard was being held for "gun smuggling."
I get the impression bribes were not paid properly.
THE United Nation High Commission for Refugees has reiterated its earlier call for countries hosting refugees from Somalia not to repatriate them yet the country is not safe.
Come for the famine, stay for the Shaboobs...
The UN agency said Southern and Central Somalia are too dangerous. Kenya hosts the highest number of Somali refugees in the region at the Dadaab camp. "We are appealing to all states to uphold their international obligations with regard to no forced returns, or non-refoulement.
Somali nationals should not be forcibly returned to Somalia unless the returning state is convinced that the persons involved will not be at risk of persecution," UNHCR spokesman Dan MacIsaac, said in a statement from Geneva yesterday.
He said Somalis are at risk of being killed or wounded in crossfire between government forces and al Shabaab militants as well as by bombs and as bystanders in targeted attacks
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The United Nations has expressed concern about food insecurity in Somalia. It says the country is likely to suffer from below average harvest due to flooding and storm. In a report, the UN food agency also points out an alarming level of malnutrition in the African nation.
The UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, in its latest assessment, says below average harvest is expected in most parts of Somalia. It has highlighted poor rainfall, flooding and a devastating storm in the north eastern Puntland region as key reasons for the poor harvest in early 2014.
And civil war. And tribal war. But mostly civil and tribal war...
The UN agency pointed out that the number of Somalis in crisis has reduced to 870,000, but there are 2.3 million people in "stress" who mainly rely on livelihood support. "In its detailed report the United Nation's research body F-S-N-A-U says that over two hundred thousand children under five suffer from acute malnutrition. It further adds that this ratio of one in seven malnourished children is the highest in the world".
Health experts say that malnutrition remains a major challenge for many despite the end of the famine. They say that it's very hard tackling malnutrition in a country that has such a large IDP population like Somalia.
The analysis from the UN agency has pointed out a nutritional improvement among displaced people in the towns of Baidoa, Bossaso, Dhuusamarreeb, Dhobley, Hargeysa and Mogadishu. There are still many displaced who remain in chaotic condition such as Kismayo and Dhobley settlements in southern Somalia.
Other affected areas hosting displaced people mentioned include those in Qardho of Puntland and Berbera in the breakaway region of Somaliland. Earlier this year, the UN Global Humanitarian Response launched an appeal that sought an estimated $928 million for 3.2 million Somalis in need.
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[FrontPageMagazine] Officially there are no more terrorist attacks, just man-caused disasters brought about by offensive YouTube videos. Also there are no more terrorists. Just Violent Extremists. And there's no more counter-terrorism, just experts on Countering Violent Extremism.
William McCants was a U.S. State Department senior adviser for countering violent extremism and is a director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings liberal think tank.
At the CFR's Foreign Affairs, McCants joined together with two others to argue that Ahrar al-Sham is, and I quote, "an al Qaeda--Linked Group Worth Befriending."
With the collapse of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , the Islamic Front is now the only game in town for the people who insist that we should counter Al Qaeda by supporting Al Qaeda.
*spit* May God strengthen the spines -- and guard the backs -- of those trying to fight the jihadis on one side and this fifth column expressing the administration's will on the other.
#3
Next, they will want to extend unemployment benefits to these terrorists violent extremists, provide them with food stamps, public housing, amnesty and free health care.
A court trying Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for treason Friday refused to allow him to go abroad for medical treatment, saying it had no authority to lift his travel ban. The 70-year-old is facing treason charges, which can carry the death penalty, over his imposition of a state of emergency in 2007 while he was president.
Musharraf has been in a military hospital since falling ill with heart trouble while travelling to the special treason tribunal on January 2 and his lawyers had argued he needed specialist treatment abroad. The former general's name is on the official "exit control list", meaning he cannot leave Pakistan.
There had been speculation that he would be allowed to go on medical grounds as part of a deal to head off a clash between the government and the all-powerful military, which is seen as reluctant to have its former chief tried by civilians.
Not too reluctant apparently...
With all due respect, he neither commands them nor controls promotions. What meaning has he to them now, beyond sentiment?
But after hearing medical reports from the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi, neighbouring Islamabad, where Musharraf is being treated, the court said it was not in its power to let him leave.
After all, what does Cleveland Clinic have that Islamabad doesn't...
"It is not in the jurisdiction of this court to allow him to go abroad for treatment, because his name is on the exit control list," the order read by a court official said.
Musharraf was originally summoned to come before the court on December 24 but has yet to put in an appearance, due to security scares and ill health. On Friday the court issued a warrant for his arrest and ordered him to appear at the next hearing, on February 7.
Pakistan's current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was the man Musharraf ousted from power in his 1999 coup, and his lawyers have said the treason case is an attempt to settle old scores through the courts. In addition, Musharraf faces an array of other criminal charges dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, including for the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
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[Ynet] Accompanied by Israeli activists, Paleostinians occupy abandoned homes in West Bank, in protest of Israel's settlement construction and refusal to pull out from Jordan Valley
Peaceful jihad, abetted by the usual useful idiots.
Some 300 Paleostinians accompanied by Israeli activists occupied around a dozen abandoned houses Friday near Jericho in the West Bank, an AFP journalist said.
The protest was aimed at denouncing the repeated refusal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismantle Jewish settlements and agree to a pullout from the Jordan Valley.
The protesters arrived by bus and car and paraded a banner proclaiming "No peace with settlements," signed by the Youth Against Settlements group.
They brought generators with them, indicating that they plan to at least stay overnight.
Israeli police and soldiers deployed in the area, but made no immediate move to disperse the protest.
In March last year, 200 Paleostinian activists set up a protest camp on the site of a Jewish settlement that had been under construction, as US President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... visited Israel.
Israeli police drove them out after several days of protest.
The United States has led a new push for Middle East peace since July, talking with all interested parties even as Israel and the Paleostinians trade barbs, especially over Israeli plans for new settlements in the West Bank.
[Ynet] In segment not included in award winning documentary 'The Gatekeepers,' former Shin Bet chiefs Yuval Diskin, Avi Dichter discuss their experiences with terror threats
In 2012, the six surviving former heads of Israel's internal security service, known as the Shin Bet, went on camera to give an honest account of their experiences.
The film, "The Gatekeepers," directed by Dror Moreh, was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary and received wide international acclaim.
In a segment that was not included in the final film, Yuval Diskin (Shin Bet chief 2005-2011) and his immediate predecessor Avi Dichter (2000-2005) discuss what it really means to be the man in charge with forces of Evil on the loose.
This is what they said in that unseen outtake:
Diskin: I'll tell you a real story. In March 2006, a jacket wallah sets out from the Jenin area, and starts making his way to cross the West Bank. He gets to what we call the "Jerusalem envelope". He crosses the Jerusalem envelope and starts heading for the Check Post junction on the outskirts of Haifa, where he was actually supposed to commit suicide.
We are getting the information piecemeal, and begin to understand that first and foremost someone has set out from the Jenin area with very bad intentions, and he is heading southwards across the West Bank. Why south? Because there was by then a fence, a buffer that did not allow him to take a shorter route from the Jenin area to the Check Post junction, and the most permeable area was the Jerusalem envelope.
He moved towards Jerusalem, where there are all sorts of ways to bypass the checkpoints using human smugglers. We know that someone like this is moving, but since we were in a period of relative calm, we were a bit "rusty" -- leading to a gap between our intelligence and our operations.
The terrorist had already reached the Jerusalem area and started moving on Route 1. He exits towards the Sha'alvim area. A little while before this we had mobilized our operations unit with a team from the Special Police Unit (SPU). In practice we work as one unit, and together they had taken care of dozens such cases in the past.
Essentially, we're trying to locate which vehicle the suicide bomber is in. From our point of view this is a guided missile that is on the way to its destination, and we must intercept it. If you will, the "Arrow" missile that needs to be launched is this same operations unit with the SPU. Eventually we arrive at Sha'alvim, set up a roadblock, and begin searching vehicles.
Dichter: So now you have to go from car to car to get him.
You need to understand, the people doing this are the combat officers, and it doesn't matter if they are Shin Bet or SPU or police, you know that when one reaches the terrorist, the terrorist is going to blow himself up. He's on his way to a suicide kaboom, what does he care if he blows himself up at the intended destination, or right there in the traffic jam?
If you had slightly more accurate information, you could start to get a handle on him. If they say to you, "listen, he's wearing a red shirt", then suddenly you know to look for someone more specific. You're trying to look for a car that you know has Arabs in it.
And eventually you reach the car. You know that he's inside this car. So what do you do now? You can see people (the combat officers) trying to disconnect from what they know is going to happen to them, and what they know will happen if they don't get to that car.
What goes through the mind of these officers? Their realities, their jobs are "ticking time-bombs." Think about it, you're running towards a security event, knowing that it's a "ticking time-bomb" and that you may pay with your life. Sometimes it's chilling, obviously. You can't say for certain what the reasons are. Does he have an boom belt on him? Will he press the trigger?
I try to get into the head of the people in the operations unit chasing after such men, knowing that if they try to arrest them, they will blow up right next to them. How do they manage?
Diskin: Look, the guys in this unit are of the highest caliber, and I think that during an operation you don't have too much time to think, or even fear. You're feel fear in between operations, but when you're in the middle of one, in my opinion, you don't have much time to think.
We had more than one such incident. For example, the story of the terrorist from the Jenin area who had a Jewish-Russian girlfriend, who had put an bomb at a kiosk on Allenby Street. We chased after him; we understood he was returning from Tel Aviv to the Jenin area through Wadi Ara, and we're chasing after him there. Eventually we manage to isolate some vehicles, and the personnel of the operations unit chased the suspect in a way that few action movies present, in terms of the risks they took during the pursuit, until they managed to block off the terrorist, and then the guys went over and searched the vehicle.
Look, you are searching for a vehicle that has a suicide bomber, it's very possible that you'll open the door and he'll press the trigger and in that moment you and him are heading skywards.
Then one of the guys arrived, one of our commanders there, and stuck his head in the vehicle; the terrorist took the gun he had and shot the bomb in order to detonate it. Luckily, our man wasn't hurt, since he only put his head inside and not his whole body. He was hurt, but sustained a relatively light injury. It's sticking your head in the lion's mouth.
Later on we improved the tools and the methods to minimize the risks for our agents. You can write a lot of thriller stories from these things. Even stories that are much harder than this.
[Ynet] US peace mediator Indyk spill beans on US-led framework agreement, saying deal to include mutual recognition, security arraignments, Israeli illusory illusory sovereignty for roughly 75% of settlers and compensation for both Jews and Arab refuges from 1948.
Not that it matters, because in the end no agreement will be signed. But this indicates the thinking of the president and his henchpeople of all sexes.
[An Nahar] Damascus justified on Friday Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war, saying the party is "preemptively" defending Leb.
It's one of those defence in depth thingies, where depth involves going halfway across the next country over.
"Hizbullah's men are resilient fighters that are defending their country," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said at a presser in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... 's Geneva.
He continued: "We saw the terrorist bombings that targeted (Beirut's southern suburbs of) Dahieh and accusing Hizbullah of terrorism is ridiculous."
Syria's Deputy FM Faisal Muqdad had stated on Thursday that Hizbullah "is not a terrorist part."
"It is an honorable and reputable party," he told news hounds when asked about Hizbullah's involvement in the ongoing fighting in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 262 Hizbullah fighters have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011.
The party first publicly confirmed its intervention in the conflict in April.
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[An Nahar] Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... parliamentary bloc announced no Friday its insistence on a "complete and inclusive" rotation of ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet.
"Forming the new cabinet has become a must and this issue can no longer afford any delay or stalling," the bloc said in a released statement on Friday evening after the MPs' weekly meeting.
Continued on Page 49
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[An Nahar] The Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... on Friday announced that a suspicious aircraft had resumed its flights over the residence of LF leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... and the LF's headquarters in the Kesrouan town of Maarab.
The LF's media department said the "unidentified aircraft" has been hovering over the area since several days and that its most recent overflight took place "at 4:00 a.m." Friday.
In a statement, the media dept. said the aircraft "has been flying at low altitude, and in addition to its usual sound, the members of the guard platoon have seen the white aircraft with their naked eyes."
The LF noted that the white color of the alleged flying object indicates that it is "most likely an unmanned aerial vehicle."
"The Army Command was immediately informed of this issue and it promised to follow it up closely," the LF added.
In an interview with Future TV on Jan. 22, Geagea said the drone in question "could be for surveillance purposes," noting that he "cannot accuse anyone before confirming all the details."
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#1
"In an interview with Future TV on Jan. 22, Geagea said the drone in question "could be for surveillance purposes..."
...yeah, I'm betting he is hoping for this purposing instead of the more kinetic alternative...
[An Nahar] The U.N. aims to bring Syria's warring sides back to the negotiating table from February 10, mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday, despite a regime vow not to give any ground.
"I suggested we resume, on the basis of an agreed agenda, on February 10," Brahimi told reporters after a week of closed-door negotiations wrapped up. "The delegation of the opposition agreed to this date. That of the government said they needed to consult with Damascus first."
Getting the rival camps to sit down for the first time in almost three years of fighting has been seen as a triumph in itself for Brahimi, a veteran peacemakers.
"Progress is very slow indeed, but the sides have engaged in an acceptable manner," Brahimi said. "This is a very modest beginning, but it is a beginning on which we can build."
"The gaps between the sides remain wide. There is no use pretending otherwise. Nevertheless, during our discussions, I observed a little bit of common ground, perhaps more than the two sides realize or recognize."
As the foes sought to breach the gaping chasm between them, nearly 1,900 people perished since the start of the talks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday in a stark reminder of the situation on the ground.
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[Ynet] Mohammed Hussein has stacked 300 sandbags outside his coffee shop in Beirut's southern suburbs to reassure customers frightened by a wave of deadly bombings there, but business is still down by half.
The once-bustling Shiite suburb's streets are quiet and its residents on high alert after a series of six blasts, the first of which was in July, killed at least 57 people. They are blamed on Sunni radicals, retaliating against Hezbollah for sending its troops to fight in Syria's civil war by attacking the Lebanese Shiite militia's base of support.
I ought to feel sympathy, but somehow I can't find any. That whole sowing and reaping thing is tough for those who refuse to learn.
...my Great Uncle once related to me a story about his neighbor farming the government...at least back then, we kept the $ at home...
HT: Weasel Zippers
[FoxNews] The subsidies to the North American Islamic Trust are just a slice of the questionable payments that, as has been well documented, go to millionaires and non-farmers every year. But as Congress moves to rein in the program, these subsidies stand out considering the group's involvement in the Holy Land Foundation case of 2008. During the trial, the group's farm subsidies stopped, only to be reinstated after a federal judge cleared them.
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.
Ottawa - A former Canadian brigadier-general and head of Canadian forces in Afghanistan is being detained in Afghanistan for alleged gun smuggling, but his employer said Thursday he is expected to be released soon.
THE United Nation High Commission for Refugees has reiterated its earlier call for countries hosting refugees from Somalia not to repatriate them yet the country is not safe.
The United Nations has expressed concern about food insecurity in Somalia. It says the country is likely to suffer from below average harvest due to flooding and storm. In a report, the UN food agency also points out an alarming level of malnutrition in the African nation.
A court trying Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for treason Friday refused to allow him to go abroad for medical treatment, saying it had no authority to lift his travel ban. The 70-year-old is facing treason charges, which can carry the death penalty, over his imposition of a state of emergency in 2007 while he was president.
[Ynet] US peace mediator Indyk spill beans on US-led framework agreement, saying deal to include mutual recognition, security arraignments, Israeli illusory 
[An Nahar] Damascus justified on Friday Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war, saying the party is "preemptively" defending 
Samir Geagea
