| THE HANDSTAND | 2ndWINTER2011 November-December |
stop press
sorry, I missed
this but what a relief: 27th Nov.2011,
UN kills US cluster bombs proposal Sun Nov 27, 2011 A US led push at the UN to regulate rather than ban, cluster munitions has failed following objection from 50 countries. The defeat comes as Washington faces tough questions over its failure to meet its international obligation to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons.
a very interesting
comment on the usa attack on pakistan army posts:
Ref.November 26, 2011 "Associated Press"
-- ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government has demanded
the U.S. vacate an air base within 15 days that the CIA
is suspected of using for unmanned drones.The government
issued the demand Saturday after NATO helicopters and jet
fighters allegedly attacked two Pakistan army posts along
the Afghan border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.Islamabad
outlined the demand in a statement it sent to reporters
following an emergency defense committee meeting chaired
by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.Shamsi Air
Base is located in southwestern Baluchistan province. The
U.S. is suspected of using the facility in the past to
launch armed drones and observation aircraft to keep
pressure on Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan's
tribal region.
THE LETTER:We see many people making naive and harsh
comments against Pakistan army and its leadership and
exploiting the NATO attack to demand that army leadership
be removed or they are traitors. Let us show you the
bigger picture. CIA, India and US govt wanted to remove
General Kayani and General Pasha. That is why the whole
Memo scandal came to light. US even had plans to
assassinate both these officers and for that a list was
also prepared. Now when the entire treason of Haqqani
network and CIA was exposed and the army leadership was
taking actions against him and government, CIA came to
the rescue of this government and attacked the post
killing our officers and men. Now the entire media has
forgotten the memo and treason of Hussain Haqqani and the
pressure from the govt is released. Now the media and the
nation is after the army leadership calling them
incompetent, traitors and demanding that they should be
removed! Now do you see the game? The US wanted to remove
General Kayani and General Pasha -- either through
resignation or assassination and now the naive and stupid
in the nation are also demanding the same in their anger
and rage!!
For the Pak army, this is a very difficult situation.
Indians want Pakistan to go to war with US and NATO. Army
cannot go to war on western front while there is a
treacherous government in Islamabad and a hostile media
attacking the army. The army is already in a state of war
in the country against Tahreek Taliban Pakistan,
Baluchistan Liberation Army and terrorists MQM in Karachi.
Now in Sindh also another army Sindh liberation army has
emerged blowing up rail lines. Economy is already crashed
due to this regime. To go to war means full resources of
the state and media to be deployed in support of the army.
Army leadership is cutting off assistance to US and NATO
and is trying to take help from Supreme Court to remove
the govt but Supreme Court is also not cooperating. Now
what? That is why we say to all who think Pakistan army
is traitor, They are only being patient and doing their
Job exposing the enemy game plan and God willing we have
buried soviet forces in Afghanistan and have a full
capacity to do the same for Americans, Indian and
NATO forces.
EGYPTTuesday, November 22, 2011
Tahrir Square today. Hundreds of thousands have
demonstrated today, including about 100,000 in Tahrir
Square (remarkable given the scale of army repression
designed to keep people away), a further 100,000 in
Alexandria. Despite the enormous amount of powerful and toxic tear gas being used, and the dozens killed and
thousands wounded, "huge crowds" are reportedly still making their way into
Tahrir.
The army is starting to hesitate. Field
Marshal Tantawi has accepted the resignation of the cabinet and offered to speed up the transition to
civilian rule - though without naming a date and without addressing the substance of popular
grievances, it was similar to many of the speeches
Mubarak made before his overthrow. The protesters aren't
buying it. It's an
open question whether others, who are not at the centre
of the revolutionary movement, will. And some
notable defections have occured. Here an army
officer splits from the military leadership and joins the
protesters
It is not helpful to overstate the significance of such
defections. But recall that an important condition
for the overthrow of Mubarak was the disintegration of
his police force and the refusal of the army leadership
to support him. At the time, the army accumulated
moral capital for not supporting the main attacks on
protesters. Since then, their conduct - worse than
Mubarak, says Amnesty - has turned that black into red.
The military itself is now the clear problem; and
presumably what is needed is a breakdown in military
command.
Last thing, the US has made it clear that it is backing the military to the finish. It has to.
Because if the military regime collapses in Egypt, then
the US-led attempts to take control of the situation in
the Middle East will be in tatters. The initiative
would be in the hands of the revolutionary masses, not
just in Egypt - the centre of gravity - but also in Syria
and Yemen. Israel's regional power would be further
weakened. Even the straightforward, low cost
victory in Libya - whose new regime excludes both the
Islamists and the Berbers - could begin to unravel.
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usa:Real ID Act blocks some Americans from
driver's licenses: Strict federal rules
aimed at keeping terrorists off planes are blocking some
Americans from renewing their driver's licenses or
getting other state-issued IDs. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-11-21/real-id-act/51338806/1?csp=hf
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ITALY
Incoming Italian Prime
Minister Mario Monti has named a government entirely
composed of unelected figures. All ministerial posts will
be held by technocrats, soldiers and diplomats.
NIGERIA Nov.11.2011
The Pentagon’s shadow war in Africa could have a new front, if reports coming out of Nigeria are accurate. U.S. troops are headed to Nigeria to help local forces do battle with Boko Haram, an Islamic terror group that has killed up to 400 people this year in an escalating campaign of bombings and shootings. At least that’s what Nigerian military sources tell Scott Morgan, a journalist based in Washington, D.C. who writes under the pseudonym “Confused Eagle.” The Guardian also has the story.
U.S. officials have refused to confirm the deployment.
However, a new U.S. assistance mission would be consistent with steadily increasing Pentagon involvement in a wide range of African conflicts. American forces have been active in and around Somalia for the better part of a decade, targeting pirates and the terror group al-Shabab. Last month, President Barack Obama announced he was sending 100 U.S. advisers to help the Ugandan army track the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group in Congo. And this year the Pentagon has quietly set up a number of new bases in Ethiopia and the Seychelles to provide air support to all these operations.
Italy's largest bank, Unicredit,
reports massive losses of 10.64 billion euros for the
third quarter, as it moves to raise new capital and slash
thousands of jobs.
UniCredit blamed the losses on 10.17 billion euros in
write-downs “due to the negative impact of the new
macroeconomic and regulatory scenario,” AFP quoted
the lender as saying in a written statement.
The statement said that Unicredit had been negatively
affected by the "effects of the overall slowdown in
the global economic environment coupled with the European
sovereign debt crisis and continued significant market
volatility."
The international lender plans to cut some 5,200 jobs in
its home base, Italy, while another 2,000 might be lost
in Western Europe by 2015. The bank has also asked for a
7.5-billion-euro capital increase.
UniCredit, which employs 160,000 worldwide and is a key
player in Eastern Europe, has also scrapped its dividend
payment for this year. More recently the bank came under
pressure to increase its capital ratios to become more
resilient against possible fallout from Europe's
sovereign debt crisis. Italian banks are exposed to high
levels of the country's sovereign debt.
Italy's debt is 120 percent of its gross domestic product.
In August the country passed a 60-billion-euro austerity
package to balance the budget by 2013.
There is growing fear among EU leaders that Italy might
be drawn into the crisis that has already claimed Greece,
Ireland and Portugal.
PG/HGH PressTV.com
Dear friends,
I just emailed Congress to urge them to oppose the
Internet Blacklist Legislation, known as the PROTECT-IP
Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
in the House. This legislation seeks to give the
executive branch power to conduct slash-and-burn
campaigns against websites that allegedly host – or
even link to – content that infringes on
intellectual property rights. That would
“disappear” whole domain names, fundamentally
undermining Internet security, and/or choke off their
financial support. The Internet Blacklist Legislation
puts more sites than ever at risk, effectively upending
the DMCA safe harbors that have been crucial to the
growth of Internet innovation and creativity.
Sadly, these short-sighted and dangerous bills won’t
do much to stop online infringement – but they will
jeopardize our ability to speak and read online with the
kind of freedom we cherish in the offline world. Deep-pocketed
Hollywood lobbyists are aggressively pushing to control
and censor the open Internet, willing to sacrifice free
speech and our Internet culture in hopes of controlling
how people view their movies and products.
We need to stop this bill before it goes any further.
Will you contact your representatives in Congress and
urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation?
Visit: https://eff.org/r.C8A
Thanks for your support.
Kwasi Akyeampong
Editor/Moderator
TheBlackList.net
Mustafa Abdul-NATO, the executioner of Qadhdhafi
Algerian newspaper, Ash-Shuruq, unearths a document in which Mustafa Abdul-NATO had signed an order for the execution of 32 Libyans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
U.N. torture investigator says access to Manning denied, condemns solitary confinement:
Juan
Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture,
confirmed yesterday that the Department of Defense has
blocked his requests for an unmonitored meeting with PFC
Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower.