[ENGLISH.FARSNEWS] Radical Salafist and Wahhabist groups with names like 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... , Seleka, and Uamsho, unheard of a decade ago, are massacring Christians during church assemblies, razing Christian villages, and assassinating moderate Islamic holy mans. Of course, this Saudi-made mayhem is a godsend for the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), which can point to the spread of «Al-Qaeda"-linked terrorism to Africa as a reason to increase America's military presence on the continent and add armed muscle behind Uncle Sam's quest for Africa's oil, natural gas, and mineral resources...
#2
So do the US use Saudi Arabia/radical Islam for foreign policy purposes?
If so innocent christians are usually the victims!
Posted by: Paul D ||
12/30/2013 9:15 Comments ||
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#3
First, this is an Iranian news site,
Second, I notice FARSNEWS doesn't mention illicit Iranian arms shipments to West African countries like Nigeria and Gambia for ultimate transport to Hesb'allah and other Islamist groups. Must be one of those journalistic oversights, like the NYT often has.
His mocking criticism of the noble Mr Rohullah Qarizada and the noble efforts to correctly implement noble Sharia might offend the noble people of Afghanistan.
And then the Western military forces in Afghanistan who are deployed to serve the noble people of Afghanistan and the Western political class might be forced to 'immediately take corrective action.'
[DAWN] ON Friday, Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet... provided the much required note of dissent in Pak politics. Speaking at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh, he spoke in definite terms against militancy, as a large crowd marked the sixth death anniversary of a popular leader who had bravely stood up to the snuffies even when she was fully aware of the consequences. At the gateway of his political career, Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... 's son not only declared his determination to fight against militancy, he was also able to show that he was more adept now in the use of words than he had been some time ago. Quite clearly, the Bilawal-Asif Ali Zardari duo has chosen to follow the formula where the father is to display caution while the young man is given a free licence to target opponents. That may be a good strategy but it has to be accompanied by some action and for this action to take place, Mr Bhutto Zardari, as chairman of the PPP, must get the nuances right.
Future action cannot be restricted to flaunting one's bravado. It has to be about coming up with alternative schemes to improve the lot of the people, economically and socially. The remarks about 'cowardly' opponents and the droll allusions to a tsunami as he took pot shots at rivals are not going to do the trick. For the PPP to stay relevant in the country's politics, the young leader will have to understand what kind of party worker, or 'jiyala', the situation demands. And he would have to go one step further to accept that the anger of the jiyalas against the party is symptomatic of the reservations that the people on the lam have vis-à-vis the PPP. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's thunder will signify little unless he takes a look at how some other young scions of known political families are going about consolidating their family and party legacy which the PPP chief too is so eager to strengthen. Flashy slogans have a short lifespan in these times of increased public awareness and informed public demands -- shorter than in the past anyway. Longevity requires maturity. The young politician has shown energy. He must now come up with policies to reconnect with the people and their aspirations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] DRONES are a problem, but so is Pakistain's drift towards international isolationism -- that is the essence of what Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... warned on Saturday, echoing the words a day earlier of the Foreign Office spokesperson, who rightly asserted that there was more to foreign relations than just one issue. The problem though is twofold: when the government speaks sensibly, it speaks too timidly; and there is little apparent effort to find a sustainable solution to the drone conundrum beyond accepting both drones and the political heat they bring as faits accompli. Mr Sharif in particular seems to be perfecting the art of saying the right thing, but then doing little or nothing to back it up. And while words matter, so does the venue. A few words about Pakistain's drift into isolationism at the inauguration of a new Foreign Office building is neither enough nor the right venue.
The problem with drones is that all sides involved are showing little understanding of or consideration for the complex big picture. The CIA, obsessed as it is with retribution or just preventing another 9/11 after missing the first one, has taken killing from the sky to extremes without caring much about the political and diplomatic ramifications on the ground. The White House has backed the CIA in a myopic and misguided continuation of Bush-era policies, perhaps also because no US president wants to be the leader who let the next 9/11 occur, and the other options in Fata are much less palatable. The security establishment here was, and perhaps still is, content to play yet another variation of a double game -- this one of private support and public criticism. The civilian governments at the centre have been unable to offer a policy on drones that bridges the gap between US demands and domestic opposition. And then, perhaps looming larger than anyone else on this issue in recent times, there is the PTI and sundry right-wing parties who seem to believe that everything other than militancy itself is the problem in Pakistain.
Troubling as the misdeeds and inaction of the other sides are, what is particularly disturbing about the PTI approach is that it has mistakenly conflated US drones in Fata with the international coalition of troops in Afghanistan. They are not US supply routes that the PTI is bent on disrupting through Pakistain, they are supply routes that many other countries use and will want to rely on as they pull their troops out of Afghanistan. In fact, had it chosen a more patient and mature approach, the PTI may have found that many other countries are also uneasy about drones and want new rules of the game drawn up.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] THE grand mufti of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh, recently termed jacket wallahs as "criminals" who will go to "hell".
In the 1980s, suicide kabooms were restricted to Sri Lanka, Leb and Kuwait. According to security expert Robert Pape, from 1980 to 2001 the world witnessed 188 attacks. But in the 1990s, bombers hit many places.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Why don't the governments just ban explosives, well... except for small amounts used for tree stumps?
No government? No laws? No enforcement?
Oh....
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/30/2013 15:02 Comments ||
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[DAWN] IN reaction to Malala Yousafzai's speech to the Youth Assembly at the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... in July this year, the Pak Taliban advised her to return home and to join any madressah for girls. In return, they offered her 'amnesty'.
Interestingly, Taliban capo Adnan Rashid, who made the offer in a letter to Malala, did not have any objection to her right to education but to the medium of education. Not just the Taliban, a segment of the madressah establishment, too, opposes formal education provided by the public sector, looking on formal education as un-Islamic and believing this system spawns 'secular' generations.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2013 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] The rocket fire from Leb was likely the work of some small group aiming to divert Hezbollah forces to southern Leb, but Israel will not tolerate ongoing rocket fire on its civilian population
The rocket fire from Leb on northern Israel on Sunday morning likely has more to do with the civil war being waged in its neighbor and erstwhile patron Syria, than any great battle with the Zionist enemy.
Those launching the rockets were apparently aiming to crank up the already high tensions in Leb, forcing Hezbollah and the Lebanese army to bolster their forces in the south of the country, instead of sending them to help the Assad regime in Syria, the festivities in northern Leb or the tumultuous Paleostinian refugee camps in the Sidon area.
It's fairly clear from the rocket launch site that this was not the work of professionals, established groups or state actors.
Just one of the five rockets fired from the area of the village of Al-Khiam in southeast Leb landed in Israeli territory, a fair distance from Kiryat Shmona. It seems that the trajectory was faulty; these rockets were Grads, capable of striking multiple areas in Israel, yet four of them missed their target and fell inside Leb. (The weather also did not work in their favor -- the low clouds over Leb were not conducive to firing projectiles without the help of computer technology.) Furthermore, no great planning or consideration had gone into the selection of the launch site; this was a random location without a good escape route for the protagonists.
This was clearly not the work of Hezbollah. Rather, it was an gang who wanted to force Hezbollah and the Lebanese army to focus their forces in southern Leb, thereby easing the pressure on the Sunni rebels battling Assad in Syria and the Sunnis fighting the army and the Shiite Hezbollah in northern Leb.
This is not the first attempt to exacerbate tensions in southern Leb in order to aid the Sunnis fighting Assad's regime in Syria. Hezbollah is a well-known Assad ally, and tensions with Israel in southern Leb would compel it to deploy forces to that area rather than dispatch them to fight in Syria.
There are also Paleostinians in play in that area, who support the rebels in Syria, some of whom are also allied to Jihadist organizations in Leb. These Jihadist groups include the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which took responsibility for previous rocket fire in the Nahariya area, and for the liquidation of senior Hezbollah member Hassan al-Laqqis earlier this month (Hezbollah even so blamed Israel for the death of al-Laqqis, the group's head of technology).
Israel's response to Monday's rocket fire -- launching dozens of mortars at Leb -- was essentially an automatic reaction intending to make it clear to the Lebanese government and UNIFIL that Israel will not tolerate any violations of United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... resolution 1701, implemented in the wake of the 2006 Leb-Israel war.
It was also more severe than after the previous rocket attack to remind them that they are responsible for preventing such incidents, and that if there are more efforts to drag Israel into the Syria conflict, which has now spilled over in Leb, then Israel will carry out a more extensive, less pinpoint response than in the past.
The dozens of mortars fired by the IDF on Monday morning were to reinforce the notion that Israel will not become an ongoing factor in the Syrian and Lebanese conflicts, nor for a drip-drip series of attacks that claim Israeli victims.
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[DAWN] ON Friday, 
Nawaz Sharif
[DAWN] IN reaction to Malala Yousafzai's speech to the Youth Assembly at the 
