[DAWN] AS the latest developments indicate, it seems there has been some forward movement at last in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case. On Thursday, two men wanted in the senior MQM leader's 2010 murder in London, were picked up from Chaman, the border town on the Afghan frontier, by security forces. The two suspects were reportedly incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by the Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and anti-smuggling operations.... when they tried to enter the country from Afghanistan while an FC official said they had been in that country for some time. This development adds a strange twist to the case, as it had earlier been suspected that two individuals involved in the murder were in the custody of Pak intelligence. Are the two suspects -- Mohsin Ali and Khalid Shamim -- arrested at the Afghan border the same men? Earlier this year, another suspect, Moazzam Ali, had been arrested from Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . He was said to have provided logistical support to Dr Farooq's killers. The whereabouts of yet another key suspect, Kashif Khan Kamran, is still not known.
If the men arrested at Chaman are indeed the ones involved in the murder of Dr Farooq, then their capture would be a major breakthrough. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... several questions remain. An important one is, how did the suspects end up in Afghanistan, when it was being speculated earlier that they were in the custody of Pak intelligence, apparently whisked away from Karachi airport when one of the suspects arrived at the facility to pick up the two other suspects after Dr Farooq's murder. These missing links need to be explained by the state. Overall, we hope that the capture of the men does indeed lead to the case being resolved and to punishment for those directly involved in the killing, as well as for those aiding and abetting them. The MQM -- which has denied any links to the arrested men -- should not have any qualms about pushing for the trial of the suspects so that the killers of the senior Muttahida leader are unmasked and punished.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] IF media reports are to be believed -- though few things are certain when it comes to this particular subject -- Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari ...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandson 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... is on the verge of beginning his parliamentary career by contesting a by-election in one of the PPP's constituencies in rural Sindh. To the extent that Mr Bhutto Zardari's entry into politics will re-energise a party that has suffered several massive electoral defeats outside Sindh, the move will add to the vibrancy and diversity of national politics. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... entering politics is one thing, nominating the young PPP scion as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly may be a step too far. While the peculiarities of political legitimacy and heritage will surely ensure that one day Mr Bhutto Zardari will be the leader of the PPP, he has neither the experience nor, apparently, the temperament yet to handle the job of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. Leader of the opposition is not just a ceremonial title -- there are constitutionally mandated consultations that the holder of that office must hold with the prime minister when making certain appointments and selecting a caretaker administration. Moreover, leader of the opposition must also consult with and provide space to other political parties in opposition when it comes to debates inside the house and management of various National Assembly committees.
Surely, whatever his talents and whatever his parentage, Mr Bhutto Zardari should consider a slower, more modest rise to the top of the parliamentary hierarchy, learning from more experienced hands in the PPP such as Khursheed Shah, who has a wealth of experience in parliamentary procedure and customs. There is another reason why the PPP should rethink handing its parliamentary crown to Mr Bhutto Zardari at this time. Presumably, the PPP leadership is hoping that the young leader's presence in the National Assembly will give the party more favourable coverage and send a public signal that the PPP of the last two parliaments, dogged as it has been by allegations of corruption and incompetence, is transitioning towards a younger, more capable leadership. But Mr Bhutto Zardari would also be a lightning rod -- the subject of mockery and withering criticism by other parties keen to demonstrate that the PPP is really a party of entitlement and rooted in the past. So, not only would the immediate ascension of the young Bhutto Zardari be unwise from a parliamentary point of view, it would possibly end up harming the PPP's image outside its base in rural Sindh instead of rehabilitating it.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2015 00:00 ||
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[BLOGS.TIMESOFISRAEL] That's one of those nagging questions that I've always wanted to set aside two or three years just to think about: Jews control powerful governments by pulling the strings that make the politician-marionettes dance. They control all the big money in the world. They control Hollywood. They control the press. Is there anything they don't control?
Not to hear your run-of-the-mill anti-Semite tell it.
The preferred solution is to kill all the Jews.
But there's another available solution: You lose a bit of foreskin (most American males would require only the symbolic snip), learn a bit of Hebrew and/or Yiddish, and give up pork chops. Then you're in The Club. You, too, can conspire against all those faceless gentiles while controlling undreamed-of amounts of money, power, and opinion. At a relatively decent price you, too, can be expelled from Spain every five hundred years and then be invited back along with your millions, billions, maybe even trillions if you've been living in Zim-Bob-we. At the very least you could expect a Buick dealership!
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06/20/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
If he Jews were in control of the world, the holocaust would not have happened.
#3
"With Europe well-nigh overridden
With cousins who coudn't be bidden,
Who fired up the Nazis
To act as our patsies?
We Elders, now once again hidden!"
[Jpost] ...Twice in the past 90 years, the Syrian Druse had the potential for independent action. In 1921, when the French established their mandatory rule in present-day Syria and Lebanon, they divided the territory into six "independent," or autonomously ruled, "states."
The Druse received a state of their own centered in Jebl Druse -- the Druse Mountain. The area under their control stretched across the Syrian side of the tri-border area with Israel and Jordan. The Druse state existed until 1936, when the French reorganized the mandate and set up a central government in Damascus.
The possibility of establishing a Druse state arose again, fleetingly, in 1967. During the Six Day War, then-labor minister Yigal Allon put together a plan to establish a Druse state, again centered on Druse Mountain. He tried but failed to convince then-defense minister Moshe Dayan to send the IDF units that had just taken over the Golan Heights south to Druse Mountain rather than eastward toward Damascus.
In 2007 the transcripts of a series of taped memoirs Allon recorded a year before his death in 1980 were made public. Of his plans regarding the Druse, Allon explained, "I had visited Sweida [the capital of Druse Mountain] several times and I dreamed a dream of a Druse Republic that would stretch across southern Syria...that would be in military alliance with Israel. I had great expectations from the Druse in Israel, that were already serving in the IDF. I believed they could serve as a bridge between us and the other Druse."
Today Allon has a strategic heir in the government of Israel -- and he is a Druse.
Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara is probably the most powerful Druse in the world today. The Druse of Syria and Lebanon take him seriously. We should too.
Like Allon before him, Kara views the Druse of Israel as a bridge between Israel and the Druse of Syria. Like Allon, he views his brethren across the border as potential allies for Israel.
Over the decades, the Druse of Syria were just as loyal to the Assad regime as the Druse of Israel have been loyal to the Jewish state. Their loyalty to Bashar Assad has continued apace during the civil war. As a result, now that the regime is on the verge of military collapse, all the forces that have been fighting the regime -- from Islamic State and the Nusra Front to the Free Syrian Army -- view the Druse as their enemies.
Yet while they have maintained their ties to the regime, the Syrian Druse have also been quietly reconsidering their views of Israel. This revised attitude has reverberated among their brethren in the Druse villages of the Golan Heights.
Like their Syrian kin, the Druse of the Golan Heights have publicly rejected Israel and upheld their Syrian ties. Despite the fact that they have had the right to Israeli citizenship since 1981, until the Syrian civil war began, few applied for it.
As the political situation in Syria unraveled, and as the Syrian Druse began taking a second look at Israel, a significant number of Druse from the Golan have applied for citizenship.
Today, the plight of the Druse grows more dire from day to day. With the regime on the verge of collapse, the government ordered the units that had been securing the Druse villages along the border with Israel on the northern Golan to return to Damascus. Some 30,000 Druse centered around the village of Hader are surrounded by rebel forces.
In a conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday evening Kara promised in the name of the Israeli Druse, "We will not allow them to die. We will take care of them.
"Over the past few weeks," he added, "the Druse of Israel have raised and transferred $3 million to supply humanitarian assistance to our brethren in Syria."
While Kara refuses to discuss the types of assistance he is asking the government to provide them, Israel's options are fairly obvious.
First, in the humanitarian realm, Israel can set up refugee camps on the Syrian side of the border. We can arm the Druse villagers. We can protect them from the air.
As for the nearly three-quarters of a million Druse at Druse Mountain, according to Kara, they wish to defend and govern themselves in an autonomous region for the foreseeable future.
But to fend for themselves, they need weapons.
Without arms, with the regime's collapse seemingly imminent, it is possible that the Druse will be unable to survive. It is also possible that if Israel doesn't provide them with weapons, someone else -- perhaps Hezbollah -- will arm them and so buy their loyalty.
As Kara sees it, if the Druse are able to secure autonomy, their area would stretch along 150 kilometers of Israel's border with Syria, from the tri-border area with Jordan in the south to the northern Golan Heights.
"Israel and Jordan have an interest in a strong Druse presence," he argues.
If the government decides to act along these lines, it doesn't mean that we'll be in a position to start making long-term strategic plans that rely on Druse support. Ariel Sharon's greatest mistake during the First Lebanon War in 1982 was that he overestimated the capabilities of Israel's Lebanese Christian allies. The Druse of Syria today are extremely week. It is unimaginable that they will be able to accomplish anything other than survive -- with outside assistance -- for the foreseeable future.
On the other hand, even in their weakness the Druse present Israel with a great opportunity.
By helping them we can signal to others -- for instance the Kurds -- that we can be trusted.
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.
[DAWN] IF media reports are to be believed -- though few things are certain when it comes to this particular subject -- 
