[The Peninsula] President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... visited a refugee camp for victims of a deadly landslide yesterday, trying to calm villagers angered by the slow delivery of emergency aid and an initial government refusal to help retrieve bodies.
More than 4,000 villagers were displaced by Friday's disaster, which buried some 300 homes in the northern village of Aab Bareek in up to 50 metres of mud, killing hundreds, and left nearly 700 other houses uninhabitable.
Aid agencies have rushed tonnes of emergency supplies to the capital of Badakhshan province but distribution has been hindered by scuffles between the victims, the poor from nearby villages and security forces.
Karzai made his first direct comments on the disaster, and offered prayers at the site of the landslide.
"My minister of rural development will remain here and will build you new shelters, provide you with food and water and won't leave until it is all done," he told hundreds of victims sitting in a dusty open area near the camp.
Villagers have complained that the government has let them down, failing to provide shelter and food and not helping them recover the remains of their loved ones. But Karzai said the government would help dig out bodies after it had said the site would be left as a mass grave.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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Talks between U.S. President Barack Obama and Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh on Monday were dominated by the situation in Somalia and other regional security issues, a Djiboutian presidential spokesman said Tuesday.
During the Monday meeting, the two leaders acknowledged that bilateral relations had recently grown, spokesman Najib Ali Tahir told Anadolu Agency by phone Tuesday.
âParticularly, the military and security cooperation between the two countries has grown in recent years,â Tahir said. The two sides, however, both recognized the need to further strengthen strategic ties, he added.
âGuelleh and Obama discussed⌠the situation in Somalia and terrorism,â Tahir noted, adding that Obama had commended Djibouti for cooperating with the U.S. in the fight against terrorism and piracy in the Horn of Africa region.
The U.S. and Djibouti are expected to sign a deal that would allow the U.S. to open a permanentmilitary camp in Djibouti. Djibouti has long been a strategic partner to the U.S. and the country currently hosts the largest U.S. military camp in Africa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A woman has put forward a rare bid for the presidency of Mauritania, a west African nation run under strict Islamic law, the country's Constitutional Council said Wednesday.
"Lalla Mariem Mint Moulaye Idriss dropped off a file at the Constitutional Council containing her candidacy for the June 21 presidential elections," the body said in a statement.
Idriss, 57, an independent candidate, is only the second woman to ever seek election in a presidential poll in Mauritania, following the candidacy of Aicha Mint Jedeine who ran in 2003.
Women are weakly represented in the Islamic country, occupying only 20 percent of elected posts, and calls for equality in politics have grown.
Idriss, married with four children, is the head of the governing body of the Mauritanian news agency AMI.
Two other candidates had filed their intention to run as the midnight deadline loomed.
They are President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz -- who is seeking reelection -- and Boidel Ould Houmeid the head of the moderate El-Wiam party which currently counts seven politicians in the 147-seat parliament.
The radical National Forum for Democracy and Unity (FNDU) opposition coalition said on Monday it was boycotting the vote after what it said was a breakdown in dialogue with government.
The FNDU combines the Islamist movement Tewassoul and 10 parties allied in the Coordination for a Democratic Opposition, which boycotted parliamentary and municipal elections last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department repeatedly declined to fully go after the terror group responsible for kidnapping hundreds of girls.
The State Department under Hillary Clinton fought hard against placing the al Qaeda-linked militant group Boko Haram on its official list of foreign terrorist organizations for two years. And now, lawmakers and former U.S. officials are saying that the decision may have hampered the American government's ability to confront the Nigerian group that shocked the world by abducting hundreds of innocent girls.
In the past week, Clinton, who made protecting women and girls a key pillar of her tenure at the State Department, has been a vocal advocate for the 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, the loosely organized group of militants terrorizing northern Nigeria. On Wednesday, Clinton said that the abduction of the girls by Boko Haram was "abominable, it's criminal, it's an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible, first and foremost from the government of Nigeria."
Clinton said that as Secretary of State she had numerous meetings with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and had urged the Nigerian government to do more on counterterrorism.
What Clinton didn't mention was that her own State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the U.N. headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen senators and congressmen.
"The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn't use. And nobody can say she wasn't urged to do it. It's gross hypocrisy," said a former senior U.S. official who was involved in the debate. "The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials."
Wonder how fast the Clinton machine will push this down the rabbit hole, and punish any journalist who dares to bring it up?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2014 10:30 ||
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#1
Difficult to fathom today, but I can recall discussion at ISAF [at about that same time], regarding whether the Haqqani Network was actually a terrorist network. A Haqqani connection was generally dismissed as a legitimate element in personalia development.
Upon reflection, it would appear that an expansion of the terrorist network list to include the Haqqani, failed to support the regime narrative. It did however leave a number of the leadership and many analysts shaking their heads.
[An Nahar] La Belle France on Wednesday offered Nigeria a "special team" to look for more than 200 girls kidnapped by Islamist turban group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... in an incident that has triggered global shock and condemnation.
The turbans seized a first batch of schoolgirls in Nigeria's restive northeast three weeks ago, saying they were holding them as "slaves" and threatening to sell them, and have since kidnapped other girls in the area.
"A special team with all our resources in the region is at the disposal of Nigeria to help in the search and recovery of these maidens of tender years," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament.
La Belle France already has troops on the ground in Mali not far away, where they continue to engage in intelligence gathering to further weaken armed Islamists in the north after driving them out of towns they had occupied for months.
"The president gave the defense minister and myself the order... to put our (intelligence) services at the disposal of Nigeria and neighboring countries," Fabius said.
Described as "heartbreaking" and "outrageous" by U.S. President Barack Obama Because I won... on Tuesday, the kidnappings have drawn several pledges of help from the international community.
Washington has deployed military experts to Nigeria to help search for the girls and Britannia has offered unspecified practical help.
Earlier Wednesday, French government front man Stephane Le Foll denounced the kidnappings as "one of the most atrocious forms of terrorism because it involves kidnapping and trafficking children."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
The legion is going into Nigeria, woohooo, that is going to be fun.
For all of their liberal hand wringing over human rights in Iraq, the French have no qualms about the unbridled us of all means necessary to bring the enemy down.
Someone should have nipped this thing in the bud instead of tutt tutting the rustics for their behavior.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/08/2014 10:44 Comments ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] The supporters of 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... are allegedly funding import of arms and ammunition in the capital ahead of verdicts in war crimes cases against its top leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... and Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
Continued on Page 49
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05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] The BNP which had formed the Rapid Action Battalion raised the question of the necessity of the force because of its alleged involvement with different sorts of crimes in recent times.
"The force has been assigned to maintain law and order in the country and protect public life, but now they snatch people. In such a situation, time has come to think as to whether the force in the name of the elite force should continue or not," BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a press briefing yesterday at the party's central office.
Allegations of extrajudicial killings were raised against RAB soon after it was formed during the tenure of the BNP-led four-party alliance government. But the then BNP government supported the activities of the newly formed force.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] The Rapid Action Battalion headquarters yesterday said publishing news reports implicating the elite force in seven murders in Narayanganj might influence the investigation process.
A number of probe bodies have been working on the abduction and murders. About the involvement of RAB, several investigation committees including one formed by the force are analysing evidence to unearth the mystery.
"Some media have been publishing news about RAB's involvement in the incidents since April 27. As the investigation to confirm the involvement of RAB is underway, such kind of news will only influence the investigation process," RAB said in a rejoinder issued yesterday on a news item of a Bangla newspaper.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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RAB said such activities would bury the real mystery behind the incidents and the main accused would escape.
And I'll bet they said it with a straight face too.
BRAMPTON, Ont. -- A Toronto man on trial for allegedly attempting to join Al-Shabab was questioned Tuesday about his relationship with two former classmates who left for Somalia in 2009 to take up arms with the terrorist group.
Mohamed Hersi acknowledged knowing Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, alias âCanlish,â from high school and the University of Toronto, and said he had visited the family home to pay his respects after the youth was killed in Mogadishu.
He also confirmed he had known âCasanyoâ Abdurahman from Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute and his mosque, and said he accepted a Facebook friend requestfrom him despite suspecting he was at an Al-Shabab camp.
âIn Toronto, when I knew these guys they were hard-working, studious, good to their mothers,â Mr. Hersi said. But he said he had not communicated with them since they departed Toronto and he denied any intention to follow in their footsteps.
A 28-year-old former security guard, Mr. Hersi is the first person to be charged with attempting to leave Canada to join a terrorist group. A second charge alleges he counselled an undercover Toronto police officer to take part in terrorist activity â namely joining Al-Shabab.
He has denied the allegations, saying he did not support Al-Shabab and had not planned on joining. When he was arrested at Torontoâs Pearson airport in March 2011, he was on his way to Cairo to study Arabic, he testified.
As the Crown got its first chance to grill Mr. Hersi on the witness stand Tuesday, he struggled to explain why, despite being trained to respond to security threats, he had failed to report the undercover police officer sent to befriend him. Although the officer had confided that he was on his way to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, Mr. Hersi never turned him in or broke off their relationship. Instead, he gave the officer advice on how to travel to Somalia and buy guns, how much money to bring and how to avoid arousing suspicion.
He also told the officer to read an article by pro-Al-Qaeda ideologue Anwar Awlaki, and suggested he might return to Canada to âtake care ofâ those who insulted the Muslim prophet Muhammad. âDonât be scared,â Mr. Hersi told him.
Mr. Hersi said he warned the officer four or five times not to travel to Somalia or join Al-Shabab, but after realizing his âfriendâ was not going to change his mind, he instead gave him tips on avoiding getting caught.
âI probably should have called, but he wasnât saying he wanted to do anything in Canada. I was like, out of sight, out of mind. In hindsight I probably should have reported him,â Mr. Hersi said.
Crown lawyer Iona Jaffe also noted Mr. Hersi had told the undercover officer about the Saudi sheikh, Yusuf Al-Uyayri, whose writing encouraged Muslims to be able to swim and run long distances.
Ms. Jaffe said the only writing by Sheikh Al-Uyayri that related to fitness was called âA Mujahedeenâs Fitness Training.â In the tract, Mr. Al-Uyayri, a former leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, called physical fitness âan essential asset to the mujahid, especially in the case of street-fighting.â
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Terming the 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.... 's (PTI) protest call an attempt to spread anarchy, Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) has categorically said no to politics of agitation which they say may be seen as leading to destabilising the democratic structure of the country.
"The party has very serious reservations about the general elections 2013 and believes that invisible hands were at play to ensure pre-determined results, but it will not join any agitation or movement to upset the democratic structure," PPP front man Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted party's co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as saying.
He read out the written message during a public meeting in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... 's Lower Dir on Mr Zardari's behalf.
Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... 's PTI and Allama Tahirul Qadri have announced to stage protest demonstrations in the federal capital against alleged rigging in last year's national polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Violence in and around the Iraqi city of 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... held by anti-government fighters for months, has killed at least 295 people since late last year, a doctor said Wednesday.
At least 1,296 people have also been maimed in the area, a short drive west of Storied Baghdad, between December 30 and May 7, Dr Ahmed Shami, chief medic at the city's main hospital, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The actual toll may be higher, as dead and maimed may have been taken to other hospitals or not at all.
A crisis erupted in the desert province of Anbar on December 30 when security forces dismantled Iraq's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp just outside lovely provincial capital Ramadi, to the west of Fallujah.
Anti-government fighters subsequently seized all of Fallujah and shifting parts of Ramadi, and security forces have failed to wrest back control.
It is the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the peak of the deadly violence that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
Security forces have periodically clashed with bully boyz in areas around Fallujah, but the main source of casualties in the city has been persistent shellfire that has especially targeted southern neighborhoods.
Bombardment in various areas of Fallujah killed seven people and maimed 45 from Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, Shami said.
And in the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , two people were rubbed out, a police officer and a morgue employee said.
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05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Netanyahu says no deal is preferred to bad deal with Tehran, while Western diplomats say Israeli demand is unrealistic due to scale of atom program.
And who allowed it to grow so big, pray tell?
Israel insists Iran be denied uranium enrichment capabilities under a potentially imminent nuclear deal, a demand that risks opening a new Israeli-United States rift, officials said on Wednesday.
The dispute, a major topic for a visit to Jerusalem by US National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Wednesday and Thursday, appeared part of Israeli efforts to weigh in on world powers' difficult talks with Tehran before a July 20 date for a deal.
Though not at the table, Israel matters in Western capitals given its fear of a nuclear-armed Iran and threats to attack its arch-foe preemptively if it deem diplomacy a dead end.
A November interim accord easing sanctions on Iran made clear Washington and five other world powers would let it enrich uranium on a reduced scale under a final agreement distancing it from the means to make a bomb. But Israel wants the Iranians to be stripped of all disputed nuclear projects.
"Iran seeks to destroy the State of Israel and builds atomic bombs for that purpose. I want to reiterate Israel's position. We think that Iran must not have the capacity to make atomic bombs," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a meeting with a visiting Friends of the Israel Defense Forces delegation on Wednesday.
"Iran today has thousands of centrifuges, thousands of kilograms of enriched uranium to make a bomb. A bad deal would let them keep those capacities. It's better to have no deal than a bad deal," he added.
Highly enriched uranium can fuel nuclear warheads. Iran says it seeks peaceful atomic energy and medical isotopes only.
"Are we going to agree on enrichment? No," an Israeli government adviser briefed on Rice's visit told Rooters.
"We would be happy to see July 20 pass without a deal," the adviser said, adding that there was worry in Israel that Obama, facing possible gains by Republican rivals in the mid-term US elections of November, might be tempted to accommodate Iran now.
This view seems unlikely to go down well with US President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... , a second-term Democrat who has sparred in the past with Netanyahu, over strategies for Iran and peacemaking with the Paleostinians.
'Intensive consultations'
The adviser described Israel's hard line as sincere but declarative, rather than a prelude to a new Middle East war, and a signal to supporters in the US Congress to keep up pressure on Obama not to compromise with Iran.
Rice tweeted that she was "looking forward to robust and intensive consultations" in Israel and that the allies' security cooperation "has never been stronger". On Tuesday, White House front man Jay Carney said her visit to Israel would not produce any new developments regarding Iran.
Russia, which is among the six world powers negotiating with Iran, said parts of the final agreement could be agreed at a scheduled meeting in Vienna next week.
Some Western diplomats and experts privately acknowledge forcing Iran to halt all uranium enrichment activities, as stipulated in UN Security Council resolutions, is unrealistic given the scale of the program and resistance from Tehran.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said Rice came to Israel "representing the six powers", adding: "The question of enrichment, how many (uranium purification) centrifuges Iran should keep, is the big one."
The US official voiced confidence that a deal with Iran, if achieved, would prevent its heavy water facility at Arak from producing significant amounts of plutonium - another fissile material that could be used for nuclear warheads.
While that would be welcomed by the Israelis, their main focus has long been Iran's build-up of uranium stocks which might allow it to refine enough fuel for a bomb in short order.
Israel was angered last month when US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... suggested cautious openness to a nuclear deal that would keep Iran 6 to 12 months from the weapons threshold.
A former Israeli security official said Tehran would be five years away from the threshold if the demand for a full Iranian nuclear rollback were met. But the Israeli advisor said the government had not presented any such formulation.
"I've not seen or heard anything about what our 'acceptable' threshold would be," the adviser said. "But I do know that less than a year would be unacceptable."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/08/2014 00:34 ||
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[Ynet] If Paleostinians accept war crimes court's jurisdiction, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, could face investigation for rocket fire, suicide kabooms against Israeli civilians, former chief prosecutor says.
[An Nahar] Unprecedented pressure on Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, from both Israel's blockade of Gazoo and a hostile Egypt, forced the Islamist movement to accept reconciliation terms dictated by Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , analysts say.
But Hamas's subservience to the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the context of the unity deal could work to its advantage, allowing it to return to its krazed killer roots, freed from the responsibilities of governance.
Hamas and the Western-backed PLO, which is dominated by Abbas's secular Fatah party, signed a surprise reconciliation agreement on April 23 in a bid to end years of bitter and sometime bloody rivalry.
Under terms of the deal, the two sides would work together to form an "independent government" of technocrats, to be headed by Abbas, that would pave the way for long-delayed elections.
Abbas has insisted the government will follow his policy of recognizing Israel, rejecting violence and abiding by past peace agreements.
Hamas has insisted however that as a movement it remains committed to Israel's destruction, and it's unclear how it would reconcile that stance with support for such a government.
Pressure on Hamas has been growing steadily since last July, when the Egyptian army ousted 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... of the Moslem Brüderbund. Hamas is the Paleostinian offshoot of the Brotherhood and had warm relations with Morsi.
After Morsi's ouster, Egypt began destroying hundreds of tunnels along the Gazoo border used to import construction materials, fuel, arms and money, plunging the besieged Strip into its worst-ever energy crisis and exacerbating an already-dire humanitarian situation.
"The fall of the Brotherhood in Egypt and its effect on Gazoo with the closure of tunnels and the border crossing, as well as resultant financial difficulties, forced Hamas to seek a solution," said Naji Sharab, politics professor at Gazoo's Al-Azhar University.
"The movement moved towards reconciliation as the best option" to relieve that pressure, he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] After threat to freeze PA funds, Paleostinians claim Israel begins to transfer money to PA in bid to keep its large public sector functioning and maintaining stability in West Bank.
Paleostinian public sector workers received their salaries on Tuesday, Paleostinian officials said, in a sign that Israel had backed down from a threat to impose sanctions as peace talks began to collapse last month.
Israel had said on April 10 it would withhold funds after Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... signed a series of international human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. conventions he hoped would allow Paleostinians to eventually challenge Israel at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... , which recognized Paleostine as a non-member state in 2012.
US-backed Israeli-Paleostinian peace negotiations ended on April 29 with no breakthrough.
Paleostinian officials said the payment reflected Israel's decision to transfer more than $100 million in customs duties it collects on goods headed to Paleostinian-run areas through border crossings it controls.
The money accounts for about two-thirds of the Paleostinian budget and is key to keeping its large public sector functioning and maintaining stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel had said it would dock payment of over $100 million it said the Paleostinian government owed it in utility bills.
Israeli officials could not be immediately reached for comment because of Independence Day.
Speaking last week, Paleostinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told news hounds Israel would be paying the near usual monthly amount of 450 million shekels ($130.3 million) and only deducting 20 million shekels ($5.8 million) as part of a loan taken out by a previous Paleostinian government.
Paleostinians say their economy cannot reach its full potential while it remains under partial Israeli control. They seek an independent state in Gazoo, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israeli, Paleostinian and US officials say they hope to revive peace talks given the right conditions.
The United States on Monday denied dismantling its peace negotiations team following the collapse of the Israeli-Paleostinians peace talks led by Washington.
Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dismissed reports that US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... had decided to dismantle the team of American negotiators who have been based on the ground in Jerusalem for months trying to push forward the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor.
Chief negotiator Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, had returned to Washington for consultations, Harf confirmed, after last week's April 29 deadline for a deal passed in a stalemate.
[An Nahar] The leader of the Syrian opposition Ahmad Jarba on Wednesday called on the U.S. to give his forces the weapons necessary to defeat the regime's well-armed military.
Opposition forces need "efficient weapons to face these attacks including air raids, so we can change the balance of power on the ground," Jarba told a U.S. think-tank at the start of his first official visit to Washington.
"This would allow for a political solution," he insisted.
Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), is to hold high-level talks this week with Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... and national security chief Susan Rice.
He is accompanied on his eight-day trip by the new chief of staff of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA), Brigadier General Abdelilah al-Bashir.
Jarba urged the international community to unite to stop Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... as he runs for office "on the dead bodies of Syrian," condemning next month's elections as a "farce" that would give Assad "license to kill for many years to come."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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as he runs for office "on the dead bodies of Syrians"
Sounds similar to something that happened back in September 2012 - but I'll be darned if I can recall what that was.
[An Nahar] The U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees said Leb was still denying entry to Paleostinians fleeing the war in neighboring Syria Wednesday, despite its insistence there was "no decision" to keep them out.
"UNRWA has been monitoring the situation at the crossing point at Masnaa between Leb and Syria and can report that no Paleostine refugees from Syria have been allowed into Leb today and that some families trying to cross have been refused entry," said UNRWA front man Chris Gunness.
"We have been given assurances by the Lebanese authorities that these restrictions are temporary. We hope that they will be lifted within the next few days," he said.
On Tuesday, Leb's Central Security Council, comprised of the interior minister and the chiefs of security agencies, agreed "there is absolutely no decision to bar them from entry, and the border is open to them."
It asked the General Directorate of General Security to "suggest a mechanism that would regulate the entry of Syrians and Syria-based Paleostinian refugees into Leb according to clear standards."
The statement came after the U.N. and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... 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 "increased restrictions" on fleeing Paleostinians entering Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
who wants 'em?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2014 20:10 Comments ||
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#3
The Dems faulted Dubya for not having a plan in place for Iraq after Saddam, obviously our empty suit has no contingency plans for Syria, Egypt, or Libya.
Power vacuum meet anarchy
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/08/2014 10:39 Comments ||
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Posted by: Barbara ||
05/08/2014 14:58 Comments ||
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#7
The sad truth is that most, over 95% of the Libyans just want to be left alone to make a living, raise the kids, and go to the Mosque on Friday. The militias, the bickering politicians, and the looneys of the jihad persuasion are in a huge minority.
Apparently our "foreign policy experts" think that the "Arab Spring" in Syria and Egypt worked so well that they will let things run their course. Much like Iraq where most of the people were pro American, the politics got in the way of common sense and now, like Iraq, we will watch the slaughter of the innocents as the various factions wage war by killing the uninvolved and the bystanders instead of each other.
I get email and Facebook messages everyday from Libya and the news is both grim and hopeful. The normal people are brave enough to demonstrate against the militias. The militias by and large refrain from killing other Libyans but the Syrians, Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans, French, Spanish, and Swedish jihadists have no such compunction to restrain. At least the Libyan militias shoot at each other and the army and rarely on the crowds. The Libyan militias are probably further up the evolutionary chain than the jihadists.
If the jihadists get a foothold in Libya, they will kill thousands as they fight each other.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/08/2014 18:28 Comments ||
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#8
and Libya used to be "Paris on the north edge of insanity"....ahhh good times. good times
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2014 20:20 Comments ||
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#9
So... it's just like the original Woodstock, but with worse music.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/08/2014 21:06 Comments ||
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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.
[Ynet] Netanyahu says no deal is preferred to bad deal with Tehran, while Western diplomats say Israeli demand is unrealistic due to scale of atom program.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
