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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Syrian Dissidents Declare Creation of 'National Alliance'
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Miranda Otto (Australian) aka Eowyn in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers & The Return of the King (2002 & 2003)" aka Mary Ann in "War of the Worlds (2005)" aka Mary Feur in "What Lies Beneath (2000)" aka Kelly Johnson in "Flight of the Phoenix (2004)" aka Marty Bell in "The Thin Red Line (1998)" aka Patsy in "Doing Time for Patsy Cline (1997)" (age 44)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/16/2011 4:14 Comments || Top||


--Tech & Moderator Notes
China raises tariffs for American cars-GOOD
Posted by: Snolusing Whans7587 || 12/16/2011 12:48 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:


REMFs on the Iraq Army draw-down
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
District Governor Killed in Helmand Blast
[Tolo News] The district governor of Khan Shin, Massoud Balouch, was killed in a blast in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province on Wednesday, a local official said.

The incident took place in Khan Shin district in the early afternoon when the truck Mr Balouch was travelling in struck a roadside kaboom, provincial front man Dawood Ahmadi said.

Two others, including an Afghan policeman, also died. Three others, including another policeman, were maimed.

Mr Balouch was killed while campaigning against drugs in Khan Shin, Mr Ahmadi said.

No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Subsaharan
Italian Hostage Kidnapped in Nigeria Freed
[An Nahar] An Italian construction worker kidnapped in Nigeria's main oil region has been sprung after being held for a day and following a ransom demand of more than $700,000, officials said Thursday.

"He was released on the 10th of December," said police front man Eguavoen Emokpae, adding he had been kidnapped a day earlier. He identified the victim as Carmelo Stella of a company called Moreno.

The secret police chief in the state, Andrew Iorkyar, said a more than $700,000 ransom had been demanded for the Italian who was project director for road construction work, adding four people had been placed in long-term storage.

It was not clear whether any ransom had been paid following the kidnapping in the Ogbia area of Bayelsa state, part of the oil-producing Niger Delta region in Africa's largest crude producer.

Iorkyar told news hounds he was rescued from Ogbia waterways after his kidnappers had demanded the ransom.

Scores of kidnappings for ransom of foreign workers have been carried out in the Niger Delta, though a 2009 amnesty deal led to a sharp decline in unrest there. Sporadic incidents continue to occur despite the amnesty.

Bayelsa state is in the run up to a controversial governorship election.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Bad guys hit cop shop in Zacatecas with grenades -- UPDATED

For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state click here New information from Proceso about the victims and a string of abductions

By Chris Covert

Eight unidentified individuals were wounded in two separate attacks involving hand grenades in the cities of Fresnillo and Zacatecas, the capital of Zacatecas state Thursday, according to Mexican news accounts.

Several other attacks have taken place in various municipalities of Zacatecas state all pointing to the possibility the attacks were a response to Los Zetas multiple murders in Guadalajara late last month.
To read the Rantburg report on the Guadalajara, Jalisco attacks by Los Zetas criminal gang members late last November, click here
The first attack took place in Fresnillo where armed suspects drove up to the municipal police headquarters and threw a grenade. Two police agents were wounded in the attack.

A few minutes later in Zacatecas city, armed suspects threw a grenade near a grocery store in La Rosita colony on the west side of Zacatecas. Six civilians were wounded in that attack. Damage was also inflicted on buildings and nearby vehicles.

The Mexican leftist weekly Proceso reported on a post on its website Thursday night that two of the targets were apparent members of Los Zetas criminal gang. Also, three of the four wounded who were hospitalized were later taken from the facility at gunpoint. The attack was initiated allegedly by Sinaloa cartel gunmen.

In Jerez, about 50 armed suspects aboard 20 vehicles entered the town, where they kidnapped an unknown number of local police agents. The officers were reportedly returned beaten, but alive.

Later on Calle Torrecillas in Jerez a residence was attacked, presumably because it was a Los Zetas safe house.

Additionally, other armed attacks were made in the municipalities of Rio Grande and Sombrerete.

All those attacks were on residences said to be Los Zetas safe houses, and some of the attacks involved hand grenades.

Reports are Policia Federal (PF) patrol helicopters were observed on patrol shortly after the attack, attempting to track suspects involved in the attack.

Last Sunday evening a PF road patrol was ambushed by armed suspects in Panuco municipality north of Zacatecas city. PF return fire killed three suspects. Three PF agents were also wounded in the attack.

Until last summer, Zacatecas was considered Los Zetas territory as it is astride a network of roads leading into Durango state to the northwest and Coahuila state and the La Laguna metropolitan area to the north. Those roads have also in the past been areas where highway robbers operate. Some of their victims have included members of the Mexican Catholic clergy.

Southern parts of the border with Jalisco have been flash points of violence between Los Zetas and criminal groups associated with the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.
Posted by: badanov || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if PAN, the "Christian Democrat" party of Mexico, would send out some pollsters to find out if the typical Mexican would like a return of the death penalty, for particularly heinous crimes. As part of a big law & order push.

While the typical Mexican on the street doesn't care much for capital punishment, most of their objections were because it was used for political purposes, not against really nasty criminals, that Mexico has treated with kid gloves for a long time.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/16/2011 10:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Why give them trials and formal sentences. If they are attacking police headquarters with grenades it is more like an act of war than a crime. This goes way beyond ordinary criminal behavior. Just shoot them and put their heads on pikes outside the town.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/16/2011 11:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Clash kills six militants, wounds three security men in Turbat
[Dawn] Six gunnies were killed and three security personnel were maimed in an exchange of fire in Turbat's Balgatar area on Thursday, DawnNews reported.

An FC vehicle was on a routine patrol in the area when unknown gunnies opened fire on it.

FC personnel retaliated and the exchange of fire resulted in the killing of six thugs. The remaining gunnies beat feet the scene of the attack.

Three FC personnel were also maimed, two of them severely, sources said.

Security forces confiscated a large cache of weapons and ammunition from the possession of attackers that were killed.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336099 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Two volunteers killed in Khyber
[Dawn] Two volunteers of a recently formed peace committee were killed and three others received injuries when hard boyz attacked a checkpost in Shalobar area of Khyber Agency on Tuesday night.

Officials said that members of banned bad turban organization Lashkar-i-Islam also kidnapped a khasadar
...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India...
after killing and injuring the tribal volunteers. Shalobar rustics had formed on Tuesday a peace committee comprising local volunteers, who established security checkposts in the area and also started joint patrolling with security forces. Farooq Khan, an administrative official, said that they were conducting raids and had plugged all the entry and exit points to locate the missing khasadar.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
was entering a new and more dangerous phase...
two kukikhel rustics were critically injured when a time device went kaboom! at a market in Tirah valley of the tribal region.

The kukikhel elders blamed the Taliban of Tariq Afridi group for the blast. Kukikhel volunteers recently flushed out Taliban and destroyed one of their important bases in Maylo area.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase...
police have confirmed killing of a commander of Lashkar-i-Islam and injuries to three other bad turbans, who had clashed with law enforcers on the outskirt of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar on Tuesday.

Peshawar SSP Tahir Ayub Khan told Dawn that Shahbaz, a commander of a splinter group of Lashkar-i-Islam, had sustained injuries in the encounter at Frontier Road and he succumbed to his wounds.

"His death was confirmed on Wednesday," the SSP said and added that the hard boyz had taken their injured colleagues with them while fleeing to the tribal region. He said that there was information about injuries to the hard boyz but it was confirmed later.

He said that Frontier Road was located between settled and the tribal areas and hard boyz had attacked police from the tribal side where law enforcers were not allowed to enter. They had to seek cooperation of Frontier Corps and political administration for any action against hard boyz in tribal areas, he added.

"We have provided heavy weapons to police in the rural areas to counter the terrorist attacks and that is why movement of the anti-state elements has been restricted," he claimed.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


International-UN-NGOs
ICC says Muammar Gaddafi killing may be war crime
Posted by: imoyaro || 12/16/2011 01:57 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My God...these people really do not have a single clue, do they?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/16/2011 5:44 Comments || Top||

#2  The entire Libyan "kinetic action" is a crime. NFZ mandate doesn't let you bomb ground targets.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2011 5:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Libya is not a member of the ICC, and their new government will quickly realize that despite all its efforts to horn in to Libyan affairs, non-membership has its privileges.

Plus, NATO was able to intervene quickly precisely because it was not under ICC jurisdiction. Importantly, Syria does not belong to the ICC, either.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/16/2011 8:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Moose, exactly. I'm still waiting for the new 'government' to tell the ICC to buzz off.

Nasty things happen in a civil war. Happened in ours, happened in the English ones, in all the African ones, etc, etc. It may not be right and it may not be civilized, but you turn brother against brother and this is what happens. No ICC in the world will ever stop it.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2011 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  "If you do a good thing for a bad reason..." and smoke comes out of the shame culture adherent's ears.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/16/2011 14:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Resolution 1973 'authorises all necessary means to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas, except for a "foreign occupation force"'

The UN mandate did go beyond the imposition of a no lfy zone.
Posted by: Croluns Sluse4249 || 12/16/2011 17:38 Comments || Top||

#7  There is video of one anti-gadafi fighter stabbing the captured former leader in the behind. And a colleague admitted shooting him in the head with his own gun after a passive capture. It was a war crime, but shariah jurisdiction applies, and shariah enforcement includes every depravity known to man.

Muz don't recognize the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because it offends their cult. They have their own perverse "islamic declaration," The very purpose of being a muz is to fight disbeliever (kafir) governance. Why don't people get that? Don't you ask why muz make extreme accomodation demands in the West, while they are members of groups that oppress religious minorities back in their own rat-holes? If stupidity was a crime...
Posted by: Chesney Gluter6645 || 12/16/2011 18:49 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Political party leader gunned down in southern Thailand
The leader of the Prachatham Party and a candidate in the general election was killed by gunmen in Narathiwat province on Thursday night, but two of his attackers were killed by village volunteers.

The slain assailants included a man wanted for the high-publicity abduction and fatal bashing of female teacher in May 2006.

Muktar Keela, leader of the Prachatham Party and former candidate, was returning to his home after having tea with friends. Four men rode up on two motorcycles and the two pillion riders opened fire at Muktar, killing him on spot. As his attackers were fleeing past a village security checkpoint, they were fired at by defense volunteers. The two pillion riders were hit and fell dead from the motorcycles.

The two dead assailants were identified as Doro-o Piyo, 28, and Sahirun Wada, 24. An M16 and an AK47 rifle were found with their bodies.

Doro-o was wanted under arrest warrants in four cases. They included the death of teacher Juling Pongkammoon who was held captive and fatally beaten, and the murder of four railway police in June 2008. The other attacker, Sahirun, was wanted for the murder of the assistant chief of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives of Ruso district branch in 2007.

Juling was one of two teachers taken hostage in May 2006 at the Ban Kujing Leupa School. Her abductors offered to free the teachers in return for the release of two terrorists suspects held for the murder of two marines in 2005. Juling was beaten up while held hostage. She went into a coma and died eight months later.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/16/2011 05:52 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Bomb Blast Kills 2 in Philippines
[An Nahar] A homemade bomb killed two men when it went kaboom! Thursday on the cycle of violence they were riding in a southern town, police said. A bystander was maimed.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the men were innocent victims or were carrying the bomb that went off accidentally in Maguindanao province's Datu Odin Sinsuat township, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac said.

An earlier report said the bomb was fashioned from a mortar round, but Pintac said a bomb squadwas still trying to reconstruct the device from debris recovered at the scene.

Pintac said the bomb went kaboom! as the men were passing the home of a provincial official who was killed in a car booming several months ago.

Authorities have blamed previous bombings in the region on Mohammedan rebels, thugs, rival politicians and extortion gangs.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336068 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al-Lino Points Finger at Jund al-Sham in Murder of his Bodyguard
[An Nahar] Paleostinian Armed Struggle chief Mahmoud Issa, who goes by the nom de guerre of al-Lino, accused members of the myrmidon group Jund al-Sham on Thursday of assassinating his bodyguard the day before.

"Maybe there are instructions to continually target the PAS and national security and shove us in internal struggles," al-Lino told al-Jadid TV.

Another Fatah official, who refused to be identified, told al-Liwaa daily published Thursday that a Jund al-Sham myrmidon opened fire on 28-year-old Ashraf al-Qaderi at the Paleostinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hellhole on Wednesday, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool.

Cautious calm prevailed on Thursday in the camp that lies near the southern port city of Sidon.

But the official said that the remaining members of Jund al-Sham are seeking to create tension after several security incidents, bombings and shootings at the camp.

He added that several members of the myrmidon group had been tossed in the clink by the Paleostinian Armed Struggle and handed over to Lebanese authorities.

The official hinted that al-Qaderi's killing was aimed at taking vengeance at the arrests.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under: Jund al-Shams


U.S. Puts Saudi Leader of Abdullah Azzam Brigades on Terror List
[An Nahar] The U.S. administration on Thursday placed Saleh al-Qarawi, a senior Saudi member of the Leb-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades, on its blacklist of global terrorists.

The move freezes any assets held by Qarawi in the United States and bans Americans from doing business with him.

The U.S. Department of State said it labeled Qarawi as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist," describing him as "a big shot and operative for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades."

"According to media reports, AAB grabbed credit for the July 28, 2010 maritime bombing of a Japanese oil tanker, the M. Star. AAB has also grabbed credit for firing several rockets into Israel from Leb since 2009," the State Department added.

"Prior to his activity with AAB, al-Qarawi fought against U.S. forces in 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...
Iraq. While there, he worked with now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former head of al-Qaeda in Iraq," it noted.

Qarawi is wanted for extradition by the Saudi government "for participating in turban activities abroad. He is also the subject of an Interpol Orange Notice issued on March 25, 2009, for activities related to terrorism," said the State Department.

"The action taken against this individual demonstrates the United States' resolve in eliminating AAB's ability to execute violent attacks."

The group has denied claiming responsibility for a recent rocket attack from southern Leb against Israel, instead blaming a group linked to Hizbullah, a U.S. monitoring group said.

In a statement issued on jihadist forums, the Brigades said the November 29 attack should be seen as a warning to the West and Israel from embattled Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

"The Brigades declared that the attack ... is to be construed as a message from Assad to Israel and the West, that if his regime is made to fall, then the field will open to the youth of the Sunni people to attack the Jewish state," SITE said.

The group gave examples of what it said was Syria's and Hizbullah's "cunning," claiming, for example, that Syrian intelligence was behind the March kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Leb's Bekaa region.

The seven were freed unharmed in July.

The Brigades in their statement said it was clear that Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah were keen for political reasons to blame the group for any security incidents in Leb, including a July attack on U.N. troops.

Abdullah Azzam, the late al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden
... who went shovel-ready...
's mentor, was killed in a 1989 kaboom.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:


Man Hurt as Syrian 'Gunmen' Fire on Turkish Travelers
[An Nahar] Armed men fired on the cars of two Turks near the Syrian city of Idlib, slightly injuring one of them, Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

Mehmet Akinay and Nesim Zeytinci were driving to Soddy Arabia through Syria in cars with non-Turkish license plates when they came under fire from gunnies in civilian clothes 15 kilometers from Idlib, Anatolia said.

One of the cars was hit by 17 bullets, and the other three, according to Turkish police.

The pair decamped back to the Turkish border at Cilvegozu, where they spoke to news hounds.

Akinay had a leg injury but Zeytinci was unharmed, Anatolia said.

"We were filled with fear on our way back to Turkey," Zeytinci said, adding that they had taken shelter in a Syrian village at first.

Syrian security forces killed a Saudi-Turkish citizen during a crackdown on an anti-regime protest in northwest Syria Tuesday, opposition sources said.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Driving to Saudi Arabia from Turkey???!!!!
How many war zones is that?

Turkey-Syria border
Syria-Lebanon border
Syria-Israel border
Israel-gaza border
Israel-Iraq border
Israel-Jordan border
Syria-Iraq border

That's just nuts.
Wonder what they were smuggling.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2011 14:32 Comments || Top||


Syrian troops storm Hama to break anti-Assad strike
[Emirates 24/7] Syrian troops swept into the city of Hama to break a three-day strike by opponents of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad,
Trampler of Homs...
killing at least 10 people but running into resistance from armed faceless myrmidons who destroyed two armoured vehicles, activists said.

Outside Hama, army deserters attacked a convoy of military jeeps, killing eight soldiers, they said, adding to a corpse count of at least 30 people across the country on Wednesday.

The assault in Hama was the first armoured incursion there since a tank offensive in August crushed huge protests in the city. Activists said troops fired machineguns and ransacked and burnt shops which had closed to observe a mass, open-ended "Strike for Dignity" called by the opposition.

The United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
says more than 5,000 people have died in Assad's crackdown on protests that erupted in the southern city of Deraa in March, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere.

"This cannot go on," United Nations Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
told news hounds in New York. "In the name of humanity, it is time for the international community to act."

Assad, 46, whose family from the minority Alawite sect has held power in majority Sunni Moslem Syria for four decades, is facing the most serious challenge to his 11-year rule.

The demonstrations started with peaceful calls for reform but burgeoned into demands for Assad's overthrow. A growing armed insurgency has since raised the spectre of civil war.

The Syrian government says more than 1,100 members of the army, police and security services have been killed. State media reported military funerals on Wednesday for seven soldiers and police potted by "armed terrorist groups".
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Russia Surprises West by Proposing U.N. Resolution on Syria
[An Nahar] Russia on Thursday surprised the Western powers by proposing a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syrian crisis, as La Belle France hailed the move as "an extraordinary event."

As a key ally of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
, Russia has tried to head off Security Council intervention in the Syria crisis. With China, it vetoed a council resolution proposed by European nations in October condemning Assad's crackdown on protests which the U.N. says has left 5,000 dead.

Russia called emergency talks of the 15 nation body on Syria however to propose the new resolution which western diplomats said they did not find acceptable but could be negotiated on.

The Russian resolution strongly condemns the violence by "all parties, including disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities," according to a copy obtained by Agence La Belle France Presse.

The draft also raises concern over "the illegal supply of weapons to the gangs in Syria."

The French envoy to the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
welcomed Moscow's move, saying it was "an extraordinary event."

"Russia has decided to move on the resolution project ... We think that it is because Russia has felt the pressure of the international community," La Belle France's envoy to the U.N., Gerard Araud, told journalists.

Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
a Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that the draft resolution was "unbalanced."

"At the moment, from our point of view, it is unbalanced. We have no firm evidence of any arms trafficking," the diplomat said.

"We would be opposed to anything which puts the opposition violence on the same level as that of the government," another council diplomat said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because talks on the resolution are confidential.

Russian diplomats did not immediately comment on the resolution or its contents.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336099 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Chess players against a golfer---hardly seems fair.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2011 4:07 Comments || Top||

#2  And like all chess players, they labor under the delusion that any given game has only two players. I now understand much about you which previously was obscured, grom.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/16/2011 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Chess players against a golfer---hardly seems fair.

Indeed. Although, to give credit where credit is due, our Community Organizer-in-Chief is skilled in extorting money and divvying up the boodle.

One thing that has always intrigued me about Putin is that, in a nation of chess players, here you have a man that studied Judo - a game that is in many ways the antithesis of chess.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2011 20:57 Comments || Top||

#4  NOT-ANNA-LONGINOVA = NOT-PENN-STATE'S-LE-FEMME-NIKITA [Elton John] ...

versus

* TOPIX > RUSSIA LOSES MILITARY POST IN ARMENIA, RUSSIA PREPPING TO INVADE IRAN: ANALYSIS, to counter any US = US-NATO Milfors attacking Syria + Iran from TURKEY.

* SAME > RUSSIA TO LOSE GYUMRI MILITARY BASE [Armenia] IN CASE OF WAR AGZ IRAN.

Lest we fergit, + pro-Armenia RUSSIA notwithstanding, Orthodox Christian sovereign Armenia is an regional ally + partner of Shia Muslim IRAN, as Iran argues wid fellow Muslim State AZERBAIJAN, Armenia's rival.

* SAME > EXPERT: RUSSIA PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE [two-front]WAR IN SYRIA AND IRAN, agz the US-NATO/Allied.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2011 23:26 Comments || Top||


U.S. Willing to Work with Russia on U.N. Draft on Syria
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Philander C. Knox ...
said Thursday the United States hopes it can work with Russia on the draft resolution it proposed to the U.N. Security Council on the Syria crisis.

Though Clinton said Washington had differences with Moscow on the draft, Clinton said it was the "first time" that Russia has recognized the violence in Syria needs to be taken up by the Security Council.

"There are some issues in it that we would not be able to support. There's unfortunately a seeming parity between the government and peaceful protesters," said Clinton, who blames the Syrian regime alone for the violence.

"But we are going to study the draft carefully. It will have to be shared with the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, which has taken the lead on the response to what's going on in Syria," Clinton said.

"And hopefully we can work with the Russians, who for the first time at least are recognizing that this is a matter that needs to go to the Security Council," she said.

"It's just that we have differences in how they are approaching it," Clinton said. "We hope to be able to work with them."

Clinton said she had not seen the draft, though it had been briefly described to her.

The Russian resolution strongly condemns the violence by "all parties, including disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities," according to a copy obtained by Agence La Belle France Presse.

The draft also raises concern over "the illegal supply of weapons to the gangs in Syria."

As a key ally of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
, Russia has tried to head off Security Council intervention in the Syria crisis. With China, it vetoed a council resolution proposed by European nations in October condemning Assad's crackdown on protests which the U.N. says has left 5,000 dead.

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336074 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I can see the headline now:

"Everybody Happy ..."
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2011 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  So how much of this is the current Russian regime's attempt to buy off noninterference in their own current domestic disorders? It seems too early for this sort of occulted bargaining tactic, but then, I haven't been paying close attention to the post-election protests, or Russian internal "politics" in general.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/16/2011 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Like, for instance?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2011 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Wrong article
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2011 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Nice offer.
Bet they didn't ask for help.
Bet we couldn't give them any.
Wonder why we still think Imperialism works.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2011 14:22 Comments || Top||

#6  In the "You hold him, I'll hit him" sense?
Posted by: mojo || 12/16/2011 15:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Anyone would be brain-dead to support a type of Sunni-US/Shia-Russian re-alignment. Vlad will be tossed; further integration with Teheran will be hard to pull apart. BHO has created the worst of possible messes. Again, if stupidity was a crime...
Posted by: Chesney Gluter6645 || 12/16/2011 19:01 Comments || Top||


Syrian Dissidents Declare Creation of 'National Alliance'
[An Nahar] A group claiming to represent the majority of the opposition movements inside Syria declared Thursday the foundation of a "National Alliance" of revolutionary forces aiming to topple the regime.

"The regime has killed, maimed, placed in durance vile, tortured and displaced tens of thousands of people," Mohammed Bessam Imadi, a former Syrian ambassador to Sweden, told a presser in Istanbul.

"Therefore different revolutionary groups sought to unify their operational and politicianship to join forces and overthrow the regime," Imadi, who described himself as head of the alliance, added.

"Now that the time is ripe, it has become necessary to declare our existence publicly. Therefore, we announce the National Alliance of Forces, Coordinators and Councils of the Syrian Revolution, al-Leeqa," he said, reading a statement.

The former diplomat said al-Leeqa includes "the majority of revolutionary groups conducting the revolution in Syria."

"We have managed to gather all these groups under the same umbrella," he said.

The Syrian National Council, which has brought together dissidents from inside and outside Syria, had recognized al-Leeqa as one of its components.

Imadi told news hounds that al-Leeqa supported the Free Syrian Army, a grouping of army deserters that has taken up arms against the forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, "as long as it protects civilians and the peaceful revolution in Syria."

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336095 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


27 more Syrian troops killed
BEIRUT: Syrian army defectors killed at least 27 government forces in clashes in the southern province of Daraa on Thursday, activists said. It was one of the deadliest spates of attacks by rebel troops since the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime began nine months ago.
You guys are on the wrong side...
Citing witnesses on the ground, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three separate clashes erupted at dawn in Daraa, where the uprising began in March.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attacks. But the Free Syrian Army, a Turkish-based defector group, has in the past claimed similar attacks.

Also Thursday, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that dozens of Syrian military commanders and officials authorized or gave direct orders for widespread killings, torture, and illegal arrests during the wave of anti-government protests.

The 88-page report by the New York-based group is based on more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. It identifies 74 commanders and officials behind the alleged abuse.

“Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people,” said Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch.

All of the defectors interviewed said their commanders gave standing orders to stop the overwhelmingly peaceful protests throughout the country “by all means necessary.” They understood the phrase as an authorization to use lethal force, especially because they had been given live ammunition instead of other means of crowd control.

About half the defectors interviewed by HRW said the commanders of their units or other officers also gave them direct orders to fire at protesters or bystanders and reassured them that they would not be held accountable.

The report quotes defectors as saying that in some cases, officers themselves participated in killings. It said the abuses constitute crimes against humanity and that the UN Security Council should refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336071 views] Top|| File under:


US drone may have come down in Afghanistan, not Iran
The CIA's RQ-170 "Sentinel" drone captured by the Iranians last week may have gone down in Afghanistan and then transported to Iran by friendly forces on the ground, a former officer in the elite Quds Force branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards told The Daily Caller.

The United States has never acknowledged that the drone was flying over Iranian airspace -- only that ground controllers "lost contact" with the drone and that it probably crashed. However, photographs and video footage released by the Iranians on Dec. 8, several days after they announced the drone's capture, clearly show that both wings had been neatly severed and then reattached.
The yellow bird doesn't look like a Sentinel, but go on with your story...
"This suggests that the drone landed safely and that its wings were cut off so it could be transported by truck," the former Quds Force officer said. "I believe it was captured by the Taliban inside Afghanistan and transferred to the Iranians, who then reattached the wings," he added.

The United States military has long complained that Iran supplies weapons, explosives, and money to the Taliban. The U.S. has identified camps inside Iran where Taliban fighters are trained.

Former U.S. Army intelligence officer Lt. Col Tony Schaeffer told FoxNews on Monday that he believed Iran's claims that it had interfered with the drone's command signal and forced it to land inside Iran. "If it had gone down inside Afghanistan, we should have blasted whoever had taken it before they could have moved it to Iran," he told TheDC on Tuesday.

The United States lost a drone to insurgents in Iraq in 2007 who managed to overwhelm its digital signal, which was unencrypted. The RQ-170 drone is also believed to have used an unencrypted data link, making Iran's claims to have brought it down through some form of cyber attack more credible.
So between 2007 and 2011 we didn't start encrypting these signals...because?
A three-way relationship connecting Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida was in place long before the 9/11 terror attacks, and those connections have become increasingly close in recent years.

In July, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed that Iran has been sheltering al-Qaida's top operations planner, the man who ultimately took over from 9/11-planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. In a press release that highlighted Iran's support for al-Qaida, Treasury said that Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, the terror group's operations commander, had been its "emissary in Iran, a position which allowed him to travel in and out of Iran with the permission of Iranian officials."

A former senior CIA operations officer told TheDC that most CIA drones are programmed to "return to base" if they lose contact with their controllers, using on-board GPS transponders to guide them. The fact that the drone crashed -- or was guided down by a hostile cyber-attack, as Iran has claimed -- proves a malfunction occurred, but not one serious enough to cause major damage during a crash landing.

"It's unconscionable there wasn't a self-destruct mechanism on board," the former CIA operations officer said. "Someone is going to have to be accountable for that. It was a clear oversight."
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmm. Maybe it thought it was safe because it landed in Afghanistan, then stopped paying attention. Clumsy.
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2011 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Used a captured command link jammer on it?
Is it flown, or does it fly a preprogrammed track? What if it's GPS updates were bogus?
No beacons in the event these things go down hard so they can be recovered?
So many of them flying that there is no OVERLOOK?

I'm thinking a 'GunRunner honeypot'.
Watching C&C light up.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2011 7:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Iranians are the consummate liars. They make the old Soviet propagandists blush.
Posted by: Ulose Munster2089 || 12/16/2011 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  The Big Lie Prospers
Posted by: Ulose Munster2089 || 12/16/2011 8:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Reverse engineering is extremely easy. And Iran has up to date automatic metal lathe devices. Further, there are numerous applications for the type of nano-technology that was captured.

However, in the midst of the 2009 protest in Teheran, BHO pointed to the "events of 1953" as a legitimate grievance of iran's terrorist government. BHO would be more likely to sell drones to those animals than to reverse the catastrophic damage caused.

People are prohibited remote controlled toy-planes near the White House. A country that supplies terrorists with weapons could target the white House, using drone technology. The Post-American president would blame 'fifties US policies, in that event.
Posted by: Chesney Gluter6645 || 12/16/2011 18:58 Comments || Top||

#6  "Captured by the Taliban ..." > or by the QUDS forces of Iran that cannot be confirmed or denied as being in the Afghanistan by the US, Afghan, + Pak Govts except vee the Locals = Tribals.

* ION NOT-AFGHANISTAN AKA NOT-IRAN, TOPIX > IRAN WARNS IT WILL SHOOT DOWN US DRONES [next time].

Iran doing a Pakistan.

* SAME > IRAN DEMANDS AFGHANISTAN STOP US DRONE FLIGHTS.

* SAME > IRAN ESCALATES DRONE SPAT:US DRONE FLIGHTS [in future] FROM AFGHANISTAN TO BE TREATED AS "HOSTILE ACTS" [acts of war], by Afghanistan agz Iran.

Yoohoo, Afghan ally + BFF INDIA, you're up at bat!?

* SAME > WHY THE COMING WAR WID IRAN IS THE BIGGEST STORY IN THE WORLD.

Besides God = Bible, Nostradamus, 1960's = 1980's Guam Taotamonas + MTV, Texas-sized asteroids, Osama loves Whitney, .....@ etc., etc., etc., etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2011 23:50 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2011-12-16
  Syrian Dissidents Declare Creation of 'National Alliance'
Thu 2011-12-15
  U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over
Wed 2011-12-14
  33 Civilians, 7 Regime Troops Killed
Tue 2011-12-13
  Mexican Army bags 11 bad guys in Tamaulipas state
Mon 2011-12-12
  Mysterious explosion kills 7, injures 16 in Iran
Sun 2011-12-11
  Syrian Opposition Reports Deputy Defense Minister Killed
Sat 2011-12-10
  Rival Yemeni forces said to quit streets of Taiz city
Fri 2011-12-09
  Twenty trucks torched in attack at Nato terminal in Quetta
Thu 2011-12-08
  Yemen's unity government announced
Wed 2011-12-07
  New coalition government formed in Yemen
Tue 2011-12-06
  Afghanistan: Kabul shrine attacks 'kills 34'
Mon 2011-12-05
  France Reduces Tehran Embassy Staff after Attack on British Mission
Sun 2011-12-04
  Iran police arrest 12 over embassy rally
Sat 2011-12-03
  US Hands Over Camp Victory to Iraq
Fri 2011-12-02
  Syria Sanctions Target Assad Brother, 16 Other Senior Figures

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