VOCR Gazette 061813

Tuesday June 18th 2013

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Nato hands over security to Afghans

Nato has handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

At a ceremony in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai said that from Wednesday "our own security and military forces will lead all the security activities".
Observers say the best soldiers in the Afghan army are up to the task but there are lingering doubts about some.
International troops will remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2014, providing military back-up when needed.
The ceremony came shortly after a suicide bomb attack in western Kabul killed three employees of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and wounded more than 20.

Baghdad Mosque Bombing Kills At Least 26

BAGHDAD -- Two suicide bombers targeted a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, one blowing himself up at a nearby checkpoint while the other slipped inside during prayers. The blasts killed 26 people, Iraqi officials said.
The coordinated bombings were the latest in a string of attacks that has hit Iraq, reviving fears the country is headed back toward the widespread sectarian bloodshed that pushed it to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
Two police officers said the first bomber detonated his explosives at a security checkpoint near the mosque in Baghdad's northern Qahira neighborhood in an apparent attempt to distract the authorities. The district is a middle-class, Shiite-majority neighborhood.
Amid the commotion, a second bomber slipped into the mosque and blew himself up while worshippers were performing midday prayers, according to police officials.
The bombings also wounded 55 people, the officials said.
Most of the casualties were among students from a nearby Imam al-Sadiq University for Islamic Studies. Police officials said the university's Shiite students usually perform their midday prayers in the targeted mosque.
Ali Faleh, a university student, said he was inside a stationery shop nearby when he heard a thunderous explosion.
"Everybody ran to the blast site and I saw the body of a colleague who used to be in my class," he said. "The aim of today's attack was only to hurt the Shiites who were there to study or pray, not to fight or kill anybody else."

US to open direct Taliban talks New

The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced.

The first meeting is due to take place in the next few days in the Qatari capital, Doha, where the Taliban is poised to open its long-awaited office.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government is also sending a delegation to Qatar to talk to the Taliban.
The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces.
US officials said prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban, but the first weeks will mainly be used to explore each other's agendas.
However, the talks are on condition that the Taliban renounce violence, break ties with al-Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution - including the rights of women and minorities.
US officials say this is the first step on a very long road, adding that there is no guarantee of success. 

 G8 leaders 'close' to Syria deal

Leaders at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland are said to be close to signing a joint statement on Syria, despite differences on the raging conflict.

Russia and the US are backing opposite sides, but officials say the statement could be agreed later in the day.
This could include the proposed peace conference in Geneva, and more access for deliveries of humanitarian aid.
The G8 leaders also issued a declaration, committing themselves to "fight the scourge of tax evasion".
The document - adopted on the final day of the summit - urges countries to "change rules that let companies shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes, and multinationals should report to tax authorities what tax they pay where".
It also says that "governments should roll back protectionism and agree new trade deals that boost jobs and growth worldwide".
The British government has tried to make tax, trade and transparency - the so-called "Three Ts" - focal issues of the two-day gathering.

Source: Saudis Sending Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Syrian Rebels

DUBAI, June 17 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, a staunch opponent of President Bashar al-Assad since early in Syria's conflict, began supplying anti-aircraft missiles to rebels "on a small scale" about two months ago, a Gulf source said on Monday.
The shoulder-fired weapons were obtained mostly from suppliers in France and Belgium, the source told Reuters. France had paid for the transport of the weapons to the region.
The supplies were intended for General Salim Idriss, leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who was still the kingdom's main "point man" in the opposition, the source said.
The Gulf source said without elaborating that the kingdom had begun taking a more active role in the Syrian conflict in recent weeks due to the intensification of the conflict.
A foreign ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
King Abdullah returned to Saudi Arabia on Friday after cutting short a holiday in Morocco to deal with what state media described as "repercussions of the events that the region is currently witnessing".
Diplomatic sources in the kingdom say Riyadh has grown increasingly concerned after the entry of Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah into the conflict and the subsequent rebel defeat in Qusair. 

'Soldiers killed' in Mozambican raid

Several soldiers are reported to have been killed when gunmen attacked an armoury in the central Mozambican region of Dondo.

A local official told the BBC that there had been deaths but he could not confirm any details.
Local media report that five soldiers were killed.
In April, members of the of the opposition party Renamo, an former rebel movement, attacked a police post in the region.
Renamo spokesperson Fernando Mazanga told the BBC he could not confirm the Monday's incident because of communications problems with Sofala province.
However, he said he was investigating the reports.
Local TV station STV said that many people had been rushed to Beira Central Hospital for treatment.
It also said that many weapons had been stolen.
Renamo has admitted carrying out the April attack.
It has said it will boycott local elections in November, saying the process is flawed.
Renamo and the governing Frelimo party fought against each other during Mozambique's 16-year brutal civil war, which ended in 1992.
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More than 100,000 in Brazil protest against government services, corruption 

Some of the biggest demonstrations since the end of Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship have broken out across this continent-sized country, uniting tens of thousands frustrated by poor transportation, health services, education and security despite a heavy tax burden.

More than 100,000 people were in the streets Monday for largely peaceful protests in at least eight big cities. However, demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte were marred by vandalism and violent clashes with police.
About two dozen people were reported injured.
The wave of protests, which began over a hike in bus prices, was also in large part motivated by widespread images of Sao Paulo police last week beating demonstrators and firing rubber bullets during a march that drew 5,000. In Rio, the violent police crackdown on a small and peaceful crowd Sunday near the Maracana stadium incited many to come out for what local news media described as the city's largest protest in a generation.

Five slain, five kidnapped by Philippine rebels

Communist insurgents killed five civilians and kidnapped five soldiers in the southern Philippines on Tuesday in the latest of a series of violent acts following the collapse of peace talks, authorities said.

About 40 New People's Army guerrillas attacked a tree plantation on the island of Mindanao on Tuesday, killing five workers and burning equipment, said military spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagala.
Just a day earlier, NPA fighters in another part of Mindanao seized five soldiers as they were passing through on motorcycles, he added.
Zagala condemned the latest attacks, saying this showed the communists were not interested in peace efforts.
"This is clearly contrary to what they're saying, that they want to end violence... through peace talks," he told AFP.

Violence and protests could derail Bangladesh elections

Fears mount that the eighth most populous country in the world will be plunged into chaos in runup to poll later this year.

Fears are mounting in Bangladesh that violence and protests could derail elections later this year, though senior government officials are adamant that the polls will be free and fair.
Following street clashes last month and with oppositions parties planning a campaign of protests that will build in intensity through the summer, many are concerned that Bangladesh, the eighth most populous country in the world, will be plunged into chaos in the runup to the poll.
Violence and strikes six years ago led to polls being postponed and eventually the declaration of a state of emergency and a military-backed caretaker government. A controversial tribunal investigating alleged war crimes dating back 42 years has polarised an already-partisan political scene. More than 70 died after it delivered its judgments in February.
Coming after the collapse of a factory producing clothes for the west with the loss of 1,130 lives in April, any political crisis would be expected to seriously damage Bangladesh's booming garment trade, which accounts for 80% of its exports, and would complicate efforts to improve conditions for the 3.5 million employed in the sector. 

Suicide bomber strikes during funeral in Pak; 20 killed
  
PESHAWAR: At least 20 people including a provincial legislator were today killed and over 50 others injured when a suicide bomber targeted a funeral at Mardan in the troubled northwest Pakistan.

About 100 people were at the funeral of a businessman in Shergarh area of Mardan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province this afternoon when the bomber detonated his explosive vest, police officials and witnesses said.

"Legislator Imran Khan Mohmand was among 20 people killed in the attack," Shaukat Yousafzai, information minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, told reporters.

Other officials said more than 50 people were injured.

Several local dignitaries and politicians were attending the funeral of Haji Abdullah, the owner of a petrol pump who was gunned down by unidentified armed men last night.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Mardan and nearby cities.

Mohmand was elected to the provincial assembly as an independent candidate in the May 11 general election. He later joined Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, which heads the ruling coalition in the province. He was the second legislator of the Tehrik-e-Insaf to be killed this month
 

CANADA IS DOOMED: Three Signs That The Country Up North Is Screwed Beyond All Recognition

You might be under the impression that everything is going pretty well in Canada, which had no banking collapse and only a mild recession in 2008-9.
You would be wrong.
The country is beset by political corruption scandals of the sort that people focus on when the economy is good. But it also has a massive ongoing housing bubble, and its economy is being propped up by a global commodities boom that now shows signs of slowing.
Let’s break down the three ominous signs.

First, the scandals: <<CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY>>
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Montreal mayor in 'corruption' probe

Montreal's mayor has been arrested by Quebec's anti-corruption unit on fraud charges, months after his predecessor resigned amid corruption allegations.

Michael Applebaum faces 14 charges, including defrauding government.
In February, anti-corruption police raided city hall and the offices of a borough that Mr Applebaum once represented.
The arrest is the latest in a string of scandals surrounding Canadian local politics.
In the neighbouring province of Ontario, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies allegations that he appeared in a video smoking crack cocaine.
Mr Applebaum, Montreal's first Anglophone mayor in 100 years, was arrested early on Monday at his home.
"The corruption and collusion will no longer be tolerated," Robert Lafreniere, head of the anti-corruption unit, told reporters. "No-one is above the law."
Mr Applebaum entered Montreal's city hall after former Mayor Gerald Tremblay resigned amid allegations relating to illegal donations. Mr Tremblay denies all wrongdoing.
Mr Applebaum began his term as interim mayor in November, vowing to fight corruption
The charges against him stem from alleged acts before he became city mayor, during the years when he served as borough mayor, 2006-11.

Indiana Dem official sentenced to prison for '08 ballot fraud in Obama-Clinton primary

As Hillary Clinton prepares for a possible presidential run in 2016, it appears that she could have knocked then-candidate Barack Obama off the 2008 primary ballot in Indiana.
If anyone, including her campaign, had challenged the names and signatures on the presidential petitions that put Obama on the ballot, election fraud would have been detected during the race.
But at the time, no one did.
On Monday, there was some closure to the case, though, as the four defendants who were convicted or pleaded guilty in the state's presidential petition fraud scandal were sentenced. Only one received prison time for the illegal scheme that touched the race for the White House.
"If there is a victim here, it is probably the Democratic Party," said St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha. "The defendants who were saying, 'I was just following orders,' or 'I was just doing my duty,' that's no excuse. Through history a lot of evil has been done by those saying they were just following orders."   
The plot successfully faked names and signatures on both the Obama and Clinton presidential petitions that were used to place the candidates on the ballot. So many names were forged -- an estimated 200 or more -- that prosecutor Stanley Levco said that had the fraud been caught during the primary, "the worst that would have happened, is maybe Barack Obama wouldn't have been on the ballot for the primary."

ICE director John Morton stepping down

John Morton, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the past four years, on Monday announced plans to leave the agency at the end of July.

Morton, who was born in Scotland and raised in Loudon County, will take an executive-level position with Capital One bank in August. The Senate unanimously confirmed him to be ICE’s director in 2009.
John Morton, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the past four years, on Monday announced plans to leave the agency at the end of July.

“I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished together during that time and look with awe on the incredible progress ICE has made as an agency,” Morton said in a memo to ICE employees Monday. “ICE has truly come of age and become an innovative, leading force in federal law enforcement.”
Morton has drawn criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, with liberals criticizing him as too tough on immigrants who are in the country illegally and conservatives arguing that he isn’t tough enough.
During Morton’s tenure, ICE logged a record number of deportations, with the total increasing by more than 7 percent during his first three years on the job. A memo Morton issued in 2010 instructed officers to focus on felons and repeat lawbreakers instead of immigrants in the country illegally in general.

Envoy appointed to shut down prison at Guantanamo

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Monday that it had chosen a longtime Washington attorney who has worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations to find a way to close down the prison at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The action comes three days after the Republican-led House overwhelmingly passed a defense measure to keep the prison running.
The State Department made the announcement of Clifford Sloan as the new envoy charged with closing the prison that has held some of the top terrorism captives since the island fortress was built months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But how Sloan will accomplish that goal remains unclear. No movement has been made in transferring scores of Yemeni prisoners home, and countless other captives have waged a hunger strike. The case against its highest-profile prisoners, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, remains bogged down and far from reaching a U.S. military trial.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other top officials said the Guantanamo prison had long outlived its usefulness, and that its continued operation only promoted future retaliation by terrorists.
Closing Guantanamo "will not be easy," Kerry said in a statement. "But if anyone can effectively navigate the space between agencies and branches of government, it's Cliff." Sloan, he said, is "the kind of bridge-builder we need to finish this job."
Sloan has served as a White House associate counsel under President Clinton, an assistant solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush, and a Supreme Court clerk. To bolster his credentials, the administration released statements of support from former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, former Solicitor Gen. Kenneth W. Starr and former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow.

Obama calls NSA secret data gathering 'transparent' in PBS interview

President Obama says the case of Edward Snowden, the government contract worker who leaked documents about two secret data gathering programs, had been referred to the Department of Justice for “criminal investigation” and Snowden’s “possible extradition.”
In an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose recorded Sunday and broadcast Monday night, Obama said he would not comment on any potential prosecution of Snowden, who is now believed to be in Hong Kong.
Obama also defended the National Security Agency spying programs and called them "transparent." 
“That’s why we set up the FISA court,” he said, referring to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes two recently disclosed programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.

7 New Revelations From Edward Snowden

Today, the Guardian hosted a live chat with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who disclosed classified information about top-secret NSA surveillance programs. Readers and journalists asked the 29-year-old, who was reportedly chatting over a secure internet connection, about his departure to Hong Kong, his new disclosures on the US hacking foreign countries, and his thoughts on the Obama administration. Here are the seven most significant revelations: