Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalRussia to Reply to US Attorney General’s Snowden Letter
Source: RawStory
MOSCOW, July 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Justice Ministry is preparing a reply to the US attorney general’s letter seeking the return of fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to America to face espionage charges, the Justice Ministry’s press office said on Sunday.
“The Justice Ministry of Russia will prepare a reply to a letter by US Attorney General Eric Holder, which was received on July 24, 2013,” the ministry’s press office said, without specifying the nature of the reply or the time it would be ready.
In his letter, Holder assured Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov that US prosecutors would not pursue the death penalty against Snowden in connection with espionage charges for leaking information about classified government surveillance programs.
“The charges he faces do not carry that possibility, and the United States would not seek the death penalty even if Mr. Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes,” Holder said in the letter, adding that Snowden’s grounds for seeking temporary asylum in Russia are “entirely without merit.”
Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130728/182460211/Russia-to-Reply-to-US-Attorney-Generals-Snowden-Letter.html
US Drone Kills 6 Suspected Militants In Yemen
SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- A Yemeni military official says a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed six alleged al-Qaida militants in the group's southern strongholds.
The official said Sunday the attack took place late Saturday in the town of Mahfad in Abyan province and targeted a car carrying the suspected militants. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said security forces have identified three of the slain men. He gave no further details.
Washington considers al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, known as the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as one of the world's most dangerous terrorist groups.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-28-10-38-22
Egypt Turmoil: Morsi Supporters Defy Removal Threats
Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi have defied threats of removal from their sit-in protest in Cairo, despite the deaths of dozens in clashes with security forces.
Speakers from the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood addressed protesters overnight, saying they would not back down from their demands.
They want Mr Morsi - removed from power by the army on 3 July - reinstated.
But the interior minister has warned them they will "soon" be dispersed.
Meanwhile, the US has expressed deep concern at the bloodshed - the worst since Mr Morsi was ousted.
US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the violence and called on the Egyptian authorities to "respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression".
MORE...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23480957
Analysis: Who's Backing Who As Syria's Civil War Threatens To Spread
By Mandy Clark and Paul Nassar, NBC News
News analysis
Syria’s two-year civil war has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent at least 1.7 million refugees spilling across its borders.
It has already affected neighboring countries, and now threatens to drag in the United States.
What began as a popular movement, demanding the removal of autocratic President Bashar Assad, has become an increasingly sectarian conflict.
About three-quarters of Syria's Muslims are from the Sunni sect. However, the Assad dynasty, which has ruled the country since 1970, is from the minority Alawite sect which is close to Shiite Islam.
The sectarian divide is important because it lies at the root of instability not only within Syria but also in Iraq and other pockets of the Middle East.
ASSAD’S FRIENDS
MORE...
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/28/19679903-analysis-whos-backing-who-as-syrias-civil-war-threatens-to-spread
Bahrain Raise Alarm Over Rising Violence
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Bahrain's king urged lawmakers Sunday to move ahead with proposed harsher measures against escalating attacks by Shiite-led opposition factions, including banning protest gatherings in the capital, after top government officials joined an emergency parliament session to discuss the Gulf nation's nearly 30 months of unrest.
It was unclear what new steps could emerge more than two years after Bahrain lifted temporary martial law-style rule. But the endorsement for speedy action by the king virtually clears the way for tougher codes that also could include freezing bank accounts and stripping citizenship over links to violence.
The gathering also underscored the growing alarm in Bahrain that the Arab Spring-inspired uprising by the kingdom's majority Shiites could be drifting into an even more violent stage. A spate of recent bomb attacks, including a blast Saturday, has wounded several policemen and suggests that militant groups are operating with greater autonomy.
Bahrain's main Shiite political blocs have denounced the attacks, but also complain about widespread injuries among protesters from security forces using bird-shot fire and tear gas.
More than 60 people have died in Bahrain's upheaval as Shiites press for a greater political voice in the strategic Sunni-ruled kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Activists and Shiite leaders place the death toll above 100.
more...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_BAHRAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-28-11-14-08
Syrian Army Consolidating Gains In Key District In Homs As It Pushes Offensive On The City
Source: Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants forged ahead with their assault on a key rebel district in the central city of Homs Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar Assad’s forces try to crush resistance in the few remaining opposition-held neighborhoods in the city known as the “capital of the revolution.”
The push on Homs is part of a broader government offensive on rebel-held areas that has seen regime troops retake some of the territory they have lost to opposition fighters in Syria’s more than 2-year-old conflict. Assad’s forces turned their sights on Homs, the country’s third-largest city, after capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month.
Government troops have made headway in Homs in recent days, capturing a 13th century landmark mosque in the contested Khaldiyeh neighborhood that had been in rebel hands for more than a year. Homs holds immense symbolic and strategic importance to both sides, and the ferocity of the fighting for control of it has left much of the city in ruins.
The opposition accused the regime of pulverizing Khaldiyeh and said their victory was “hollow.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-opposition-condemns-alleged-executions-of-soldiers-says-it-will-investigate/2013/07/28/1157586a-f780-11e2-a954-358d90d5d72d_story.html
No Time Limit For Snowden's Stay At Transit Zone: Russian Authorities
MOSCOW, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian laws do not limit the time for U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden's stay at the transit zone of a Moscow airport, the Justice Ministry said Saturday.
"Russian law does not stipulate the duration of time for which a foreign citizen may stay in the airport's transit zone or liability for staying for a long time in an airport's transit zone without documents," the ministry said in a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency.
When a foreign citizen applies for a temporary stay on Russian territory, a territorial body of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) will make a decision on whether to grant a temporary asylum within three months, the statement said.
When granted asylum and passing a mandatory medical examination, the person "is entitled to receive a standard certificate from a territorial FMS body," it added.
MORE...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-07/28/c_132579638.htm
Israeli Activists Replace Threatening Military Signs With Messages Of Peace And Resistance
For several years now, all roads branching off of major Israeli-controlled West Bank highways and taking drivers towards Palestinian villages and cities, have been dominated by the presence of red trilingual warning signs. The signs threaten Israelis that the roads lead to Palestinian Authority controlled areas. Driving on them should thus be considered both a violation of the law, which officially forbids Israelis from entering “Area A” (although this law is almost never enforced), and a risk to one’s life, the signs warn.
On Saturday, July 13, a group of Israeli women went on a road trip to replace these threatening signs with more inviting texts. They traveled between several Palestinian towns and with the help of local residents, covered the military’s red with sheets of more colorful cloth. The messages on the new signposts read: “Civilian zone: No entry to the army! This road leads to Palestinian settlements. Israeli civilians, do not be afraid! Come and visit Palestinian settlements, refuse to be enemies!” (The Hebrew and Arabic versions use alternative words for “settlements,” which do not correspond to the English word for illegal Israeli settlements.)
The group, called “We do not obey,” previously gained considerable attention for publicly stating that they break the law and illegally enter Palestinian villages in order to smuggle Palestinian women through checkpoints into Israel.
“We got really good reactions from Palestinians wherever we went, and people told us they feel like the original signs portray them as would-be murderers to be careful of,” Rivka Sum, one of the activists in the group, told +972. “One person said that every day when he comes home from work and drives by that sign, he is immediately depressed by the thought that Israelis reading it might think of him as a blood-thirsty cannibal or something.”
MORE...
http://972mag.com/israeli-activists-replace-threatening-military-signs-with-messages-of-peace-and-resistance/76431/
Lucky they weren't shot in the back for defacing israeli property...
Profiting Off War: A Look Into The World Of Israeli Arms Dealing
War in Israel has become a constant source of profit, with the West Bank and Gaza Strip used as experimental sites for arms dealers backed up by intellectuals. These are the protagonists of ‘The Lab,’ a new film by Yotam Feldman. In its exceptional interviews, the film reveals that the image of the arms dealer operating in the shadows is a thing of the past.By Eilat Maoz (Translated from Hebrew by Guy Eliav, edited by Ami Asher)
A laboratory is a site where scientists conduct experiments under controlled conditions – a space where large-scale phenomena such as hurricanes are miniaturized and tiny objects such as microbes are magnified to observe complex processes and learn how to control them. A laboratory is where the world is divided into predictable phenomena and observable objects. Where knowledge is created and later disseminated, making the world better understandable and better organized, through the lens of the knowledge we have accumulated about it.
Yotam Feldman’s new film, “The Lab,” introduces us to the men who made the Occupied Palestinian Territories the largest and most advanced weapon-testing laboratory: arms dealers and developers, defense experts and industry leaders. Despite the urge to compare it to other Israeli documentaries which have recently exposed the secret lives of the people running the occupation (such as “The Law in These Parts” and “The Gatekeepers”), “The Lab” is above all a film about knowledge. Security knowledge created in the flexible zone between two dimensions separated by a very blurred line: the military and the market.
On the first plot level, “The Lab” follows Naomi Klein’s claim that the main reason for Israel’s economic prosperity at a time of political instability and global crisis lies not in its outstanding human capital that enables it to smoothly escape the negative economic repercussions, but rather the continuation of regional conflicts. In The Shock Doctrine, she shows that most of Israel’s economic growth can be attributed to the huge defense industry, which has become Israel’s main export industry, particularly following 9/11 (In 2012, Israel was ranked the world’s sixth largest arms exporter). She also claims that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not only the world’s largest open-air prisons, but also the world’s largest test-labs, where “Palestinians are no longer just targets. They are guinea pigs.”
For Feldman, recent military campaigns, primarily Operation Cast Lead, illustrate the transformed nature of war: from a temporary disturbance involving damage to life and property, to a fixed, profitable state of affairs. Thus, the film joins other voices seeking to assess the profits derived from the occupation, and not its alleged costs to the Israeli society. The film’s true power is revealed, however, not when it shows up uninvited to closed events in order to confront the profiteers, but in the exceptional interviews held with them. These reveal that every arms dealer has a worldview that is quickly unfolded in front of the camera. Warmongers, it seems, no longer operate in the shadows. If arms are sold in the open market, they should be treated like any other commodity, and since what is hidden cannot be sold, the veil of secrecy must be quickly removed from the security market, turning the occupation from a disgraceful well-known secret into a selling point.
MORE...
http://972mag.com/economic-strength-is-more-than-a-rhetorical-pun-its-a-work-plan/76488/
Obama Says He Has Narrowed Down Decision on Next Fed Chairman
President Barack Obama said his nominee for Federal Reserve chairman will be someone who embraces the central bank’s dual mandate to promote price stability and maximum employment, and he has narrowed his choice “to some extraordinarily qualified candidates.”
“I think you can anticipate that over the next several months, an announcement will be made,” Obama said in an interview with the New York Times (NYT) on July 24, according to a transcript published today on the newspaper’s Website. Obama said he has yet to make a final decision and will announce a choice within “several months.”
Obama isn’t expected to nominate a successor to the current chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, until at least September, an administration official said yesterday. He wants a chairman who understands the Fed’s dual mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability, Obama said in the interview at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
“And when unemployment is still too high, and long-term unemployment is still too high, and there’s still weak demand in a lot of industries, I want a Fed chairman that can step back and look at that objectively and say, ‘Let’s make sure that we’re growing the economy, but let’s also keep an eye on inflation,” Obama said.
“If the markets start frothing up, let’s make sure we’re not creating new bubbles,’” he said.
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-27/obama-says-he-has-narrowed-down-decision-on-next-fed-chairman.html
Profile Information
Member since: 2003 before July 6thNumber of posts: 29,876
