north africa/middle east turmoil

here are a few sites that provide background and updates on uprisings that are occurring in the middle east and north africa.

al-jazeera:

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain: A roundup of the popular protests that have swept the region over the last two months.

this includes reports from 13 countries in the region, including iran and iraq. al-jazeera has the most in-depth coverage of the people’s uprisings, especially in the background to the revolts.

cnn:

Unrest in the Middle East and Africa — country by country

Demonstrations have spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Here is the latest from each country and the roots of the unrest.

A Guide To Protests In Middle East, North Africa

(npr) Unrest has swept across the Middle East and North Africa, sparked by an uprising in Tunisia that led to the ouster of the country’s ruler. Here’s a look at the countries where protests have sprung up.

nice inter-active map on their site.

Hosni Mubarak resigns as president

Egyptian president stands down and hands over power to the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces.

Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that the president was “waiving” his office, and had handed over authority to the Supreme Council of the armed forces.

Suleiman’s short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.

The crowd in Tahrir chanted “We have brought down the regime”, while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another.

Brief profiles of country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as Hosni Mubarak hands over power to the body.

Hosni Mubarak has resigned as Egypt’s president and transferred his powers to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

General Omar Suleiman, vice president and former intelligence chief, is among the key retired or serving military officers on the council.

Others include Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, defence minister; Lt Gen Sami Anan, chief of staff of the Egyptian army; Air Marshal Ahmed Shafiq, minister for civil aviation.

Here are brief profiles of some of the men that make up the council:
Field Marshal Tantawi became minister of defense and commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces in 1991. In so doing, he became the first Egyptian with the rank of Field Marshal after 1989.

Some reports suggest that Tantawi has been seen as a possible contender for the Egyptian presidency.

During the 2011 Egyptian protests, Tantawi was promoted to the ministerial rank of Deputy Prime Minister, while retaining the defense portfolio.

Tantawi famously became the first member of governent to visit Tahrir Square on February 4. He is said to have engaged military officers as well as protesters during his brief visit.

Air Marshal Reda Mahmoud Hafez Mohamed, the air force chief, became commander of the Eastern Air Zone and then the Southern Air Zone in 2005.

On 1 July 2007 he became Chief of the Operations Department and towards the end of the year he was appointed Air Force Chief of Staff.

Within three months he replaced Magdy Galal Sharawi as air force chief, taking up his post on 20 March 2008.

Lieutenant General Sami Anan is the commander of 468,000 troops, and is seen as having a crucial role in co-ordinating interim arrangements for the government in Egypt.

Anan was in Washington when the uprising began. He had to cut his visit and return. It was reported that the United States was pushing Anan for a key mediating role, though it was speculated that he was far too close to Mubarak to retain any role in a new government.

Some of the other members in attendance at Friday’s supreme council meeting were:

Lieutenant General Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen, commander of air defence and Vice Admiral Mohab Mamish, chief of navy.

Military says emergency law, in place for decades, will be lifted “as soon as current circumstances end”.

Egyptian military leaders have pledged that the country’s emergency law will be lifted, but only “as soon as current circumstances end”.

The promise was made as part of the Armed Forces Supreme Council’s response to the mass protests which are intensifying after President Hosni Mubarak’s latest refusal to step down.

In a statement read out on national television, the army leaders also pledged to support work towards peaceful transition of power, in the light of Mubarak handing over some powers to Omar Suleiman, the vice-president.

The third point made was that “the honest men who called for an end to corruption and for reform” will not be prosecuted.

The army generals also called for a return to normal life in the country, as thousands of protesters streamed into Cairo’s central Tahrir Square.

Hosni Mubarak Refuses to Resign, Transfers Power to CIA agent

BY: S.K. Neff

SAN FRANCISCO (Politically Illustrated) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the Egyptian people on Thursday he will not resign, but he would transform some powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman, saying, “I have faced death threats… I did not submit, nor yield to foreign dictations.”
“We have started a national dialogue, a constructive one,” said Mr. Mubarak. “This will put the country on the right track to get out of the crisis.”

Mr. Mubarak vowed to remain in office so he and his kid “could be buried in Egypt,” but offered to transfer some powers to Mr. Suleiman.

“Transition of power from today until September begins now,” said Mr. Mubarak, giving some power to Mr. Suleiman.

Omar Suleiman tells protesters to go home

CAIRO: Egypt’s Vice President Omar Suleiman on Thursday told protesters and strikers to head home or back to work, in his first speech after President Hosni Mubarak delegated him presidential powers.

Suleiman told “the youth of Egypt, its heroes, go home and go back to your jobs” in a televised statement shortly after Mubarak made an address formally putting his deputy in charge of government business.

CIA: ‘Strong Likelihood’ Hosni Mubarak Will Resign Tonight

SAN FRANCISCO (Politically Illustrated) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will address the nation late Thursday from his palace in Cairo, Egypt after the military took steps to safeguard the country from further unrest, saying, “I can say this is over.”

In Washington, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said there is a “strong likelihood” Mr. Mubarak will resign, but cautioned he had no “specific word.”

The announcement by Mr. Mubarak to address the nation comes after weeks of protests by individuals who ignored a ban on public gathering to take the streets against the 30-year rule of Mr. Mubarak.

At least several hundred have died from the clashes with policemen. The protesters, inspired by a successful revolution in neighboring Tunisia, battled tear gas and rubber bullets as they chased off police.

“I don’t know what the outcome of what is happening will be,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, sounding left in the dark. “Protesters in Egypt want to see irreversible change.”

Hosni Mubarak Doesn’t Resign, Cairo’s Tahrir Square Erupts with Anger

By TERRY MORAN, NASSER ATTA, JIM SCUITTO, BRIAN HARTMAN and HUMA KHAN

Egypt’s Embattled President Announces Reforms but Won’t Step Down Despite Protesters’ Demands

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he has transferred many powers to his newly minted vice president Omar Suleiman, but he enraged crowds gathered in Tahrir Square hoping to hear the embattled president say he was stepping down.

The crowd of hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tahrir Square hoping to hear Mubarak say he was stepping down went silent as Mubarak took to the camera. But towards the end of the speech, when it became evident that the president wasn’t resigning, the crowd erupted into a roar and began angrily chanting, “Leave now, leave now, leave now.”

Thousands of protesters are planning to take to the streets once again on Friday to continue calling for Mubarak’s ouster.

Shortly after Mubarak spoke, the supreme commander of the army sent a text message that went to nearly every cell phone in Egypt saying the military would have an important statement later tonight.

Suleiman, also speaking to the nation, told the country’s youth to go home and to not listen to satellite television. But the mood among protesters was hardly that of retreat. Instead, angry crowds marched towards the Egyptian state TV building in downtown Cairo.

Pakistan Refuses to Release U.S. Contractor Accused in Shooting

this is a bizarre story, and hints that a private contractor in pakistan had been meeting with terrorists prior to his killing of two pakistani men. as for the u.s., embassy officials have been demanding the contractor’s release, citing “diplomatic immunity,” although he did not work as a diplomat. many news reports refer to the accused, “Raymond Davis” as a u.s. diplomat, despite the fact that he was an employee of hyperion corporation.

from zee news…

Lahore: The US Consular employee facing double murder charges in Pakistan reportedly had frequent contacts with a faction of a banned militant outfit, possibly to get confidential information while working as an undercover spy, according to a newspaper report.

Credible sources close to the investigators said the undercover US national, codenamed Raymond Davis, and three other US officials had left a cafeteria after holding a ‘crucial’ meeting with the members of a terrorist outfit when the shooting incident took place near Mozang Crossing on last Thursday, The Nation reported.

“It was unclear why they (US officials) met the members of a terror outfit at a restaurant located in the Walled City, where a suicide bomber killed over a dozen people and injured many others few days before their visit,” a source was quoted, as saying.

According to initial investigations, the US nationals left the restaurant and were on their way to hold another confidential meeting at an undisclosed location, while the motorcyclists were chasing them, the report said.

Pakistan Refuses to Release U.S. Official Accused in Shooting

Pakistani officials said today they are refusing to release the American official, identified by the U.S. only as “a diplomat,” involved in a deadly shooting in Lahore, Pakistan, despite U.S. demands.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik echoed the position of several high level Pakistani officials when he told reporters Tuesday that the case against the American — identified by Pakistani officials, court documents and a source close to the man in custody as Raymond Davis — would go before a Pakistani court.

Lahore’s High Court asked the Pakistani government today to place Davis on the “exit control list,” which would bar him from leaving the country, an official told ABC News.

Without identifying Davis, the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, issued a call for the release of “a U.S. diplomat unlawfully detained” over the weekend, stating he was working for the U.S. government in Islamabad in a diplomatic capacity and was carrying a diplomatic passport when he fought off two would-be robbers last week.

A source close to Davis said he works as a “technical adviser.” His military record shows experience in the U.S. Special Forces and, according to public documents, he currently owns Hyperion Protective Consultants, LLC, which provides clients with “loss and risk management professionals.”

The two men were killed in the shooting as well as another man who was reportedly struck by a vehicle that was racing to Davis’ aid. In addition to not identifying the American official, the State Department has declined to say precisely in what capacity he was working for the government — beyond as a diplomat — or why he was apparently armed at the time of the incident.

see the full article, from abc news…

Raymond Davis incident: What sort of diplomat carries a loaded gun?

As usual in Pakistan, much of the detail is murky, shrouded in layers of intrigue and conspiracy theory. But here’s what we know…

Davis was arrested last Thursday. He was driving a Honda Civic alone through Lahore when two men pulled alongside him on a motorbike at traffic lights. According to the US embassy in Islamabad, he saw that one of them had a gun. Apparently fearing that he was about to be robbed, he opened fire, killing both. When US officials arrived to rescue him from a growing mob, they ran over a bystander, resulting in a third death. (I think we can assume that the driver of the second vehicle is no longer in Pakistan.)

Davis remains in custody, while Pakistan is refusing requests to release him on the ground of diplomatic immunity.

see the rest of the article, from the telegraph…

US still hides identity of accused official, admits non-diplomatic status

From Sandra Johnson

WASHINGTON–The United States has once refused to give the real identity of Raymond Davis, the man who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore and says Washington is discussing with Islamabad about official visa on his passport rather than diplomatic visa.

“I’m not at liberty to talk about his identity yet” state department spokesman P J Crowley said when asked at a briefing on Monday if he can confirm his name as there was confusion over that.

rowley said Raymond cannot be arrested or detained in accordance with the Vienna Convention and the US has called for his immediate release. He insisted that the man is a member of the Embassy’s technical administrative staff and therefore entitled to full criminal immunity.

To a question, the state department spokesman said in US view, he acted in self defense when confronted by two armed men on motorcycles. He had every reason to believe that the armed men meant him bodily harm. And minutes earlier, the two men, who had criminal backgrounds, had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area, Crowley remarked.

To a question if embassy staff can carry weapons, the spokesman avoided a direct answer and said when Raymond wasdetained, he identified himself to police as a diplomat and repeatedly requested immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

When his attention was drawn that the picture of his visa shows that he has an official visa and not a diplomatic visa and that could be a reason for him not to receive diplomatic immunity, Crowley said this matter is still being discussed with Government of Pakistan. He confirmed that the person is in custody in Pakistan.

this article is from the daily mail…

Egyptian Military Embraces Protesters

Al-Jazeera shut down in Egypt

Protesters flooded into public squares in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities, all but forcing the country’s police off the streets and demanding the end of president Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade reign.

Addressing crowds in Tahrir Square, Mr ElBaradei said change was coming and the president must go.

The Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, apparently mandated by Egyptian opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate with Mr Mubarak’s regime, hailed “a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity”.

“We are on the right path, our strength is in our numbers. I ask you to be patient, change is coming,” he said.

Later, on American network CBS, Mr ElBaradei said: “This first thing which will calm the situation is for Mubarak to leave, and leave with some dignity. Otherwise I fear that things will get bloody. And you (the United States) have to stop the life support to the dictator and root for the people.”

Brotherhood leaders Essam el-Erian and Saad el-Katatni, who walked out of prison earlier on Sunday after their guards fled, also addressed the crowd.

“They tried every way to stop the revolution of the people but we will be steadfast, regardless of how many martyrs fall,” Mr Erian said.

“We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for the nation,” the angry crowd shouted. “The people want to topple the president.”

Show of force

This morning Mr Mubarak ordered the police back onto the streets and said the widely-ignored curfew was being extended for another night.

Air force jets flew over Tahrir Square in an apparent show of force and protesters blocked a column of tanks which had been sent in to disperse them.

The government has also shut down Arabic cable news agency Al Jazeera, which has been broadcasting blanket coverage of the events.

Al Jazeera denounced the closure of its Cairo bureau as “an act designed to stifle and repress the freedom of reporting by the network and its journalists”.

This morning, the US upped the pressure on one of its key Middle East allies, with president Barack Obama voiced support for an “orderly transition” to democracy.

The White House said Mr Obama made the comments during talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and British prime minister David Cameron.

“During his calls, the president reiterated his focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint, supporting universal rights – including the right to peaceful assembly, association, and speech – and supporting an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” the White House said.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton reinforced the message, saying “long-term stability rests on responding to the legitimate needs of the Egyptian people and that is what we want to see happen.”

At least 125 dead

Six days of nationwide protests against Mr Mubarak’s three-decade rule have shaken Egypt and left at least 125 people dead as the veteran leader clings to power.

The president has struggled to placate a nation angry at his three decades of autocratic rule with token gestures such as sacking the government.

see an in-depth report, from abc news…

links included on the abc story include:

Video: Egyptians refuse to be ‘muzzled by fear’ (ABC News)
Video: Protesters demand end to Mubarak’s rule (ABC News)
Video: Egypt in crisis as unrest continues (ABC News)
Audio: Protests continue on Egypt’s streets (am)
Audio: Egypt unrest puts US in delicate position (am)
Audio: Middle East watches, waits (am)
Audio: Egypt’s Christians worried about the influence of Islamic radicals. (am)
Related Story: Cairo airport chaos as tourists, locals try to flee
Related Story: Egypt army cracks down after mass jailbreaks
Related Story: Vigilantes guard homes and property in Egypt
Related Story: US presses Egypt for sweeping reforms
Related Story: Chaos spreads in Egypt’s revolt
Related Story: Australia ramps up Egypt travel warning
Related Story: Egypt’s Mubarak names first VP in 30 years
Related Story: Mubarak’s grip seen as faltering

Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak has named intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his first ever vice-president as he struggles to regain control of the country.

Mr Suleiman has been labelled the most powerful spy chief in the Middle East and the sharply dressed and well-groomed general was for years a highly enigmatic figure for the world at large.

Mr Mubarak had promised an overhaul of his administration and has given the task of forming a new government to former aviation minister Ahmed Shafiq, who is now prime minister.

reported on abc news - australia…

from al-jazeera…

‘No to Suleiman, no to Shafik’

Mubarak yesterday installed Omar Suleiman, his longtime intelligence chief, as vice president; and former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as prime minister.

But the move has won him little popular support, as evidenced by the signs at tonight’s rally, or the group of about 25 demonstrators who surrounded a tank outside the Egyptian museum and chanted slogans about the Egyptian intelligence chief. “Suleiman, Suleiman, get on a plane tonight,” was one refrain.

Suleiman’s appointment as vice president has been described by some as a major step; Egypt hasn’t had a vice president since Mubarak took office, after all.

But most Egyptians at Sunday’s protest dismissed the appointment as a stunt: Ahmed, a taxi driver from the Medinat Nasr neighbourhood, called him “Mubarak’s right hand”; Osama, a businessman who walked across the bridge from Cairo’s upscale Zamalek district, called him “the big man” behind the regime’s “dirty policies.”

Khalid, a 35-year-old shoe salesman from downtown Cairo, turned the tables a bit, asking me who the American government would prefer as Egypt’s president. Omar Suleiman, I answered.

“That’s why he was appointed,” Khalid said.

Broken ‘fear barrier’

As the protests continue, security is said to be deteriorating and reports have emerged of several prisons across the country being attacked and of fresh protests being staged in cities like Alexandria and Suez.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from Alexandria, said that as of Sunday night, people were moving around the barricades that were meant to keep the streets clear.

“This protest, this march, has been going on for seven hours now. Clearly, no sign that it’s going to abate any time soon,” said our reporter.

“We have to remember that Egyptians broke a massive fear barrier on January 25 when they took to the streets … there’s probably not a single main street in Alexandria – no exaggeration – that this march has not passed through.”

Thirty-four leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from the Wadi Natroun jail after guards abandoned their posts.

The protesters in Cairo, joined by hundreds of judges, had collected again in Tahrir Square afternoon to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from the scene, said that demonstrators confronted a fire truck, at which point army troops fired into the air in a bid to disperse them.

He said the protesters did not move back, and a tank commander then ordered the fire truck to leave. When the truck moved away from the square, the thousands of protesters erupted into applause and climbed onto the tank in celebration, hugging soldiers.

see the rest of the above article, plus live streaming video, from al-jazeera…

murdering bastard cops better watch their backs

A spate of shooting attacks on law enforcement officers has authorities concerned about a war on cops.

In just 24 hours, at least 11 officers were shot. The shootings included Sunday attacks at traffic stops in Indiana and Oregon, a Detroit police station shooting that wounded four officers, and a shootout at a Port Orchard, Wash., Wal-Mart that injured two deputies. On Monday morning, two officers were shot dead and a U.S. Marshal was wounded by a gunman in St. Petersburg, Fla.

On Thursday, two Miami-Dade, Fla., detectives were killed by a murder suspect they were trying to arrest.

“It’s not a fluke,” said Richard Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations. “There’s a perception among officers in the field that there’s a war on cops going on.”

see the whiny-ass article from msnbc…

Here is the status of the police shooting investigations on Monday:

Indianapolis police say they arrested Thomas Hardy in the shooting of Officer David Moore, who was shot in the face and body and remained in a coma.
A manhunt continued in the Oregon beach town of Waldport for a gunman who shot officer Steven Dodds, 45, a six-year veteran of the Lincoln City Police Department. Police were looking for the owner of a 1984 Dodge truck that fled the shooting scene.
In Detroit, four officers shot inside their precinct were recovering, police said. Investigators said Lamar Moore, 38, of Detroit entered the 6th Precinct on the city’s northwest side about 4:30 p.m. Sunday and shot Cmdr. Brian Davis, Officer David Anderson; Sgt. Ray Saati; and Sgt. Carrie Schulz. Officers returned fire and killed Moore, who was scheduled to be sentenced Monday for his role in a double homicide, they said.
One of two deputies wounded in Port Orchard, Wash., was released from the hospital while another remained in satisfactory condition after being wounded Sunday in a gunfight. A suspect and a female victim who came running to his aid were killed. Police were investigating how the female victim was shot. The gunman was identified as Anthony A. Martinez, 31, of Salt Lake City. The Deseret News said police had issued an endangered persons advisory for a 13-year-old runaway believed to be traveling with Martinez.
In St. Petersburg, Fla., a suspected gunman was found dead after two police officers were shot to death and a U.S. marshal was injured as they tried to make an arrest. Suncoast Benevolent Association President Mark Marland identified the fallen officers as Tom Baitinger and Jeffrey Yaslowitz.
In Miami, thousands of law enforcement officers gathered at a funeral service in American Airlines Arena to honor Roger Castillo, 41, Amanda Haworth, 44, who were killed on Thursday while serving a warrant on a suspected killer. The suspect, 22-year-old Johnny Simms, was killed by another officer.

Quick Facts

On average…
• Police chases for non-violent crimes kill at least 3 innocent bystanders every week in the United States.
• This number increases to at least 5 innocent bystanders killed every week when added with fatalities due to police response calls.
• These crashes kill 1 officer about every six weeks.

The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin…

“Police pursuit records provide some frightening statistics.

• First, the majority of police pursuits involve a stop for a traffic violation.

• Second, one person dies everyday as a result of a police pursuit.

• On average, from 1994 through 1998, one law enforcement officer was killed every 11 weeks in a pursuit. [By 2010, that number increased to one officer killed every six weeks in a pursuit.]

• Innocent third parties who just happened to be in the way constitute 42 percent of persons killed or injured in police pursuits.

• Further, 1 out of every 100 pursuits results in a fatality.” —The FBI Report

Tarpon Springs (Fl) Police arrest college student for CopWatching

Tarpon Springs, Florida — It’s called “Cop Watching,” where people tape police officers as they make stops and arrests. Tommy Frane says it’s not that people who do the taping are against police officers, but they want to hold them accountable, like they do all public officials.
But when Frane and his friend, William Kilgore, did it Saturday night, Kilgore landed in jail. Frane says it is something you hear about in fascist countries and China, where people can’t look at their public servants or hold them accountable.

The trouble began when Kilgore taped Tarpon Springs police officers arresting someone who had a controlled substance in his car. The two say an officer walked up and said the tape was evidence. Kilgore says he was told he two options: either surrender the tape or go to jail.

When Kilgore, who has taped officers making drug busts in Tampa, said he wasn’t comfortable turning the tape over without a warrant, he says the officer got agitated.

Kilgore says the officer kept saying turn it over and he kept saying he wasn’t going to and the officer then put on the cuffs.

Not only did the Tarpon Springs Police Department take the camera without a warrant and arrest Kilgore, but also when his friend, Tommy Frane, started taping the arrest with his cell phone, they confiscated that as well.

Gregg Thomas, who is one of the foremost First Amendment attorneys in the country, says it seems like a clear violation of civil rights.

Thomas, who has won a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, says there is no real lawful reason for the officer to seize someone’s camera or even threaten them with arrest.

Meanwhile, Kilgore wants to know why the Tarpon Springs police are so scared of his filming. He says it raises a lot of other questions.

Among those questions is whether or not taxpayers will have to pay for any penalty if a civil rights suit is filed against the department and city.

there is a video for this story, from wtsp tv…

 

U.S. funds insurgents in afghanistan, and provides helicopters

from project censored…

US security contractors as well as countless other private American corporations cannot provide the safety that they are paid to offer. So US military contractors in Afghanistan pay suspected insurgents to protect the US supply routes they were contracted to protect. A war-torn country such as Afghanistan has plenty of impoverished citizens, and, as a result, it is not hard for private contractors to find individuals willing to take money to protect supply routes.

Thus, an estimated 10 percent of the Pentagon’s logistics contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars are paid to insurgents as the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting.

It is persistently rumored in Afghanistan that US forces are using their helicopters to ferry Taliban fighters. The rumor is strongly denied by the military. However, the helicopter rumors heard in many areas are feeding mistrust of the forces that are supposed to be bringing order to the country. The international troops deny that they are supporting the insurgents. “This entire business with the helicopters is just a rumor,” said Brigadier General Jüergen Setzer, recently appointed commander for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in northern Afghanistan. “It has no basis in reality, according to our investigations.” But the persistent rumors that foreign helicopters have been sighted assisting the Taliban in northern Afghanistan were given an unexpected boost in mid-October 2009 by President Karzai, who told the media that his administration was investigating similar reports that “unknown” helicopters were ferrying the insurgents from the Helmand province in the south to the Baghlan, Kunduz, and Samangan provinces in the north.

Aram Roston, “How the US Funds the Taliban,” Nation, November 20, 2009, .

Ahmad Kawoosh, “Is the US Aiding the Taliban?” Taiwan News, October 31, 2009, opinion sec.

Ahmad Kawoosh, “Helicopter Rumor Refuses to Die,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, November 2, 2009.

Andrew Rice, “Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?” New York Times, November 16, 2009.

racism blinds media and researchers to truth about crazed gunmen

this country is so racist, it can’t admit the truth about random, crazed killers. media pundits spreading hatred of illegal immigrants, gays and “liberals” are quick to denounce lone gunmen, and insist that fiery rhetoric is in no way responsible for inciting the many, many instances of mass shootings, and targeted assassinations in the U.S.

however, there are certain facts that are undeniable…these (usually) young men are white heterosexuals who are poorly socialized and frustrated. how would the media react if ALL of these acts of violence had been perpetrated by blacks, asians, homosexuals?

as this article shows, when it comes to blaming white people, science gives whitey a pass…

Scientists: You Can’t Profile School Shooters

…trying to come up with a profile of a “typical school shooter,” is not only unproductive but invalid, one scientist says. “I get a little nervous when people are trying to come up with simple answers, like he was a loner,” said Robert Geffner, a neuro-psychologist and president of the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma at Alliant International University. “I think every report I’ve seen is focusing on ‘He’s a loner.’ It would be nice if somebody said, ‘Yes he is a loner, but most loners don’t kill people.’”

A slew of factors determine our behavior, social scientists say, including external factors, our mental states and the state of our brain. There are, however, a few things that keep resurfacing when scientists review violent and aggressive actions by youth, including depression, anger and resentment, low self-esteem, feelings of victimization and sometimes serious psychiatric disorders. “These are people who often suffer from mental illness, in this case there was evidence this guy was pretty depressed; they sometimes have difficulty telling what’s real and not real,” said Daniel Nelson, a psychiatrist who counsels children affected by trauma at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. But again, most mentally-disturbed individuals don’t pick up a gun and use it.

“You can’t say they have isolated themselves and they are depressed, so they are going to turn into a mass murderer,” Nelson told LiveScience. “The problem is now you’ve labeled literally tens of thousands of people incorrectly, because most people who are depressed, isolated and can’t talk, don’t become mass murderers.”

see the rest of the article, from live science…

how true…other than the fact that these are white, heterosexual young males, there is no way to absolutely determine which ones are prone to violent outbursts…as this listing shows…

– July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how “liberals” are “destroying America,” walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.– October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

– December 2008: A pair of “Patriot” movement radicals — the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted “to attack the political infrastructure” — threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

– December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear “dirty bomb” in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

– January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

– February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

– April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

– April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama’s purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

– May 2009: A “sovereign citizen” named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

– June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

– February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one “domestic terrorism” too.)

– March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

– March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

– May 2010: A “sovereign citizen” from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

– May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

– May 2010: Two “sovereign citizens” named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

– July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

– September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year–old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the “Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.

see the entire article, from alternet…

at least the liberal media hints at the problem…the problem being that in this country, white males are terrified of losing their positions of privilege and will kill to preserve it. after all, that’s how they won it in the first place.

Extremist Wreckage Pockmarks the American Landscape

Beyond the shootings—and those enumerated above are only a sample of such incidents since 2008—there is a landscape of rubble and carnage. In February 2010, Joseph Stack, infuriated by the IRS and US tax policy, crashed his small plane into an Austin office building housing 200 IRS workers, killing himself and two others and injuring 13. Violence, he wrote in a “manifesto,” is “the only answer” to oppressive government policies.

Sometimes the wreckage left behind from such incidents is easily overlooked, a roadside crash on a springtime day. In Nashville last March, a motorist was so enraged by an Obama bumper sticker that he rammed his SUV into the offending car, pushing it off the road and onto the sidewalk, leaving a man and his 10-year-old daughter terrified inside.

Sometimes the incidents reveal deep emotional wounds. Just before Christmas in 2008, in Belfast, Maine, an abused wife shot and killed her husband, James Cummings, a wealthy California native and Nazi devotee. Loathing Barack Obama, he was planning to join the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement at the time he was shot. Police and federal agents subsequently found radioactive materials and instructions for the making of a “dirty bomb” in his house, according to an FBI document released by WikiLeaks.

see the rest of this article, from mother jones…

More rain on the way as Australian flood crisis continues…

More rain is falling on flooded areas of central and southern Queensland this morning, sparking fears that the flood crisis will be prolonged and adding to the worries of locals whose homes and businesses are already under water.

The rains could put pressure on the Fitzroy River in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, where 500 homes have been evacuated and the Fitzroy has peaked at 9.2 metres.

The bureau says an upper level low could dump as much as 50 millimetres of rain a day, producing totals of around 200mm in some regions by the end of the weekend.

The weather bureau’s senior forecaster Bryan Rolstone says the rain is forecast to fall in the Wide Bay-Burnett region, including Bundaberg and Rockhampton.

Mr Rolstone says the extra rain could push up floodwaters in Rockhampton.

“I can’t see it getting too much worse for that area over the next few days but we’ll just have to see, because river heights always lag behind the rainfall. So the peak can still go on days afterwards. We’ll just have to wait to see what happens,” he said.

Mr Rolstone says the rainfall could be a problem for Bundaberg where the Burnett River is still high and residents are trying recover from the worst flood in 70 years.

“There still might be some heavy falls persisting towards Bundaberg into Friday, maybe into Saturday, so the threat is still current,” he said.

read more at abc australia