djibnet.com: agentlo - Affichage d'un profil

Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade its neighbouring Gulf State Qatar by land and sea unless it cuts ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, closes Al Jazeera, and expels local branches of two prestigious US think tanks, the Brookings Doha Center and the Rand Qatar Policy Institute.

The threats against the television station Al Jazeera, Brookings Institute and the Rand Corporation, were made by the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin Faisal in a foreign minister's meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh last week, according to a source who was present. Bin Faisal said only these acts would be sufficient if Qatar wanted to avoid "being punished."

News of the threats to shut down the Brookings and Rand Corporation think tanks in Doha will embarrass the US president Barack Obama, who is due to visit Riyadh at the end of month. His Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker was in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, where she told AP that she will tell officials from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that closer economic cooperation with Washington is a bridge to building deeper security ties.

The Saudi royal family were enraged and threatened, in equal measure, by the role Al Jazeera played in the first years of the Arab Spring , which saw fellow potentates deposed in popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt . They are now equally upset at the sympathetic coverage the Doha-based television station gives to the opposition, secular and Islamist, in Egypt. Three journalists from Al Jazeera, its Egypt bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy the Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed appeared in court in Cairo last week accused of "joining a terrorist group, aiding a terrorist group, and endangering national security." A fourth journalist, from Al Jazeera Arabic, Abdullah al-Shami is being tried in a separate case.

The military backed government in Egypt accuse Al Jazeera of providing a platform for the supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi, and the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. "Journalists are not terrorists," Fahmy shouted from the cage in the courtroom.

The threat to lay siege to Qatar was made in private before the Kingdom withdrew its ambassador to Doha and issued a decree on Friday declaring the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, alongside Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the Nusra Front.

The threat of a sea blockade is not taken seriously in Qatar. But the state's only land border is with Saudi Arabia and is therefore easily closed. At present a substantial amount of the fresh food and goods the bustling city of Doha needs every day passes through this border. There are only 40 miles of sea and land borders between the two states, and clashes have taken place along them in the past. The border was disputed for 35 years. Qatar and Saudi Arabia skirmished in 1992, when Saudi troops occupied a border post. A final border agreement was only signed in 2001.

The increasingly McCarthyite tone adopted by the Saudi monarchy in its public pronouncements about the Brotherhood is thought to be a sign of desperation at the way events in Egypt are turning out. Supporting the military dictatorship in Cairo is costing the kingdom and its ally in the United Arab Emirates dear. Together they have spent $32 billion propping the coup up, with no end in sight to the chaos.

The Egyptian authorities are battling continuing protests by Morsi supporters and secular activists, a mass campaign of civil disobedience including attacks against policemen and police stations, strikes, an insurgency in the Sinai peninsula, as well as drive by shootings and bomb attacks mounted by Islamic militants. In hinting that he would run for the presidency, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said his country needed 3 trillion Egyptian Pounds, twice the current public debt to refill the nation's empty coffers.

The draconian decree issued on Friday will have a dramatic impact on free exp​ression in Saudi Arabia itself. Cast in the most general terms, it targets not only supporters of named banned organizations, but anyone "preaching any atheistic thought." It bans all protest and anyone attending conferences or symposia, locally or internationally "that target the security or stability of the country and stir up sedition within society."

Article four of the decree outlaws: "whoever manifests affiliation to any of these [groups] or expresses sympathy with any of them or promotes any of them or convenes meetings under their umbrella whether inside or outside the Kingdom."

The articles continues: "This includes participating in all forms of media, whether audio or print or video, and in social media networks of all forms and types, audio, print and video, and in internet websites by reporting or re-transmitting any of their contents in whatever format, or the use of the slogans or emblems of these groups and currents or the use of any such symbols that may express support for them or sympathy with them."

This is aimed at the millions of twitter accounts in the Kingdom, which has become the only unfettered means of expressing opinion and dissent.

Analysts elsewhere in the Gulf expect the Saudi tactics to backfire. They have already paralyzed the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Oman refusing to expel Qatar and Kuwait deeply uneasy. It is also propelling the start of a significant regional realignment. Within hours of the Saudi decision to withdraw its ambassador to Doha, the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad in support. Doha has also become closer to Iran as a result of its bust up with Riyadh.

The open diplomatic warfare between Riyadh and Doha pits two generations of Gulf ruler against each other - the 89-year-old Abdullah bin Abdulaziz versus the 33-year-old Tamim bin Hamad. It will be interesting to see which generation prevails.

Source: https://www.middleea... r-confrontation

Commission unveils first EU Anti-Corruption Report

Corruption continues to be a challenge for Europe. Affecting all EU Member States, corruption costs the European economy around 120 billion euros per year. Member States have taken many initiatives in recent years, but the results are uneven and more should be done to prevent and punish corruption. These are some of the conclusions from the first ever EU Anti-Corruption Report published today by the European Commission.

The EU Anti-Corruption Report explains the situation in each Member State: what anti-corruption measures are in place, which ones are working well, what could be improved and how. National chapters in English and in national languages are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/... rruption-report

The report shows that both the nature and level of corruption, and the effectiveness of measures taken to fight it, vary from one Member State to another. It also shows that corruption deserves greater attention in all Member States.

This is illustrated by the results of a Eurobarometer survey on the attitudes of Europeans towards corruption published today. The survey shows that three quarters (76%) of Europeans think that corruption is widespread and more than half (56%) think that the level of corruption in their country has increased over the past three years. One out of twelve Europeans (8%) say they have experienced or witnessed a case of corruption in the past year. Eurobarometer results are available here.

"Corruption undermines citizens' confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law, it hurts the European economy and deprives States from much-needed tax revenue. Member States have done a lot in recent years to fight corruption, but today’s Report shows that it is far from enough. The Report suggests what can be done, and I look forward to working with Member States to follow it up", said Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.

Corruption affects all Member States - in many different ways
Here are some of the main corruption-related trends across the EU:

1. Control mechanisms
Use of preventive policies (e.g. ethical rules, awareness-raising measures, easy access to public interest information). There are large differences between Member States concerning prevention of corruption. For some, effective prevention has contributed to a strong reputation of little corruption, others have implemented preventive policies in an uneven way and with limited results.
External and internal control mechanisms. In many Member States, internal controls on procedures within public authorities (particularly at local level) are weak and uncoordinated.
Conflicts of interest. Rules on conflicts of interest vary across the EU, and the mechanisms for checking declarations of conflicts of interest are often insufficient. Sanctions for violations of rules are rarely applied and often weak.
2. Prosecution and punishment
Criminal law rules making corruption a crime are largely in place, in line with the standards of the Council of Europe, UN and EU legislation. Still, EU Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA on combating corruption in the private sector has been transposed by Member States into national law in uneven way.
The efficiency of law enforcement and prosecution in investigating corruption varies widely across the EU. Outstanding results can be seen in some Member States. In some others successful prosecutions are rare or investigations lengthy.
Comprehensive corruption crime statistics are missing in most Member States, complicating comparison and assessment. Procedural rules, including rules on lifting immunities of politicians, obstruct corruption cases in certain Member States.
3. Political dimension
Political accountability. Integrity in politics remains an issue for many EU States. For instance, codes of conduct within political parties or elected assemblies at central or local level are often missing or lack teeth.
Financing of political parties. Although many Member States have adopted stronger rules on party financing, considerable shortcomings remain. Dissuasive sanctions against illegal party funding are rarely imposed in the EU.
4. Risk areas
Within Member States, corruption risks are generally higher at regional and local levels, where checks and balances and internal controls tend to be weaker, than at central level.
Urban development and construction, as well as health case, are sectors vulnerable to corruption in a number of Member States.
Some shortcomings exist regarding the supervision of state-owned companies, increasing their vulnerability to corruption.
Petty corruption remains a widespread problem only in a few Member States.
Public procurement: an area vulnerable to corruption
The Report includes a special chapter on public procurement. This is a very important area for the EU economy, as approximately one fifth of the EU’s GDP is spent every year by public entities buying goods, works and services. It is also an area vulnerable to corruption.

The Report calls for stronger integrity standards in the area of public procurement and suggests improvements in control mechanisms in a number of Member States. Detailed information and specific points suggested for further attention can be found in the country chapters.

Background
The EU Anti-Corruption Report covers all 28 EU Member States. It consists of:

A general chapter summarising the main findings, describing corruption-related trends across the EU, and analysing how Member States deal with corruption in public procurement.
28 Country chapters providing a snapshot of the situation regarding corruption, identifying issues that deserve further attention, and highlighting good practices which might inspire others.
The Report also includes the results of two Eurobarometer surveys on the perception of corruption amongst European citizens on the one hand and companies on the other.
Useful Links
EU Anti-Corruption report including country chapters, Eurobarometer surveys, factsheets and questions and answers: http://ec.europa.eu/... rruption-report

Cecilia Malmström's website
Follow Commissioner Malmström on Twitter
DG Home Affairs website
Follow DG Home Affairs on Twitter
Contacts :
Michele Cercone (+32 2 298 09 63)
Tove Ernst (+32 2 298 67 64)

Well well, so much about the talk about corruption in African countries.

Hello Thorgal Thorel gives us your 2 cents on this topic and please don't hijack the topic with irrelevant out of subject We would like to have a decent discussion on this with you since you keep saying that Djibouti is corrupted to the roots.

Also I wonder why the EU never done an Anti-Report all this while?

Dear Djibnaute please welcome for this horrorful moment where two hearts will be united to live in a nasty, hateful, of a love-hate relationship.

Between two spineless souls.

Elmi aka the Chaman, the Canibal, the Putschiste General, etc..etc..(because we don't know what next he will claim) and least but not last the Teacher

Thorgal aka the attention seeker, Darwin Alice, Pioupiou, the more Djiboutian than djibouti people, the racist islamophobe, Mr. I know all and the soldier who get paid although other don't get paid on time

Elmi do you take Thorgal as your spineless other half in summer,autunm,winter, spring to chase one another in all topics like school kids in djibnet?

Thorgal do you take Elmi as your spineless other half in summer,autunm,winter, spring to chase one another in all topics like school kids in djibnet?

I hereby declare you the most entertaining spinless couples in Djibnet and your name should be the Thorel couple.

Have nice day

BIN LADEN’S MOVEMENT IS THRIVING,
by Eric Margolis.
4 May 2013

NEW YORK – Two years ago this week, US special forces shot and killed Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man.

American TV is filled with chest-thumping and flag-waving about how bin Laden was hunted down and executed. For most Americans, bin Laden was the acme of evil and author of the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people. Good riddance.

Hunting “bad guys” is a venerable American tradition from the days of the Wild West and the Roaring 20’s: Billy the Kid, Pancho Villa, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger. The TV program “America’s Ten Most Wanted” remains one of the nation’s most popular programs. Osama bin Laden was the ultimate most wanted.

However, this simplistic “good guys v. bad guys” tale remains troubled by the facts. Why, for example, was a clearly retired bin Laden living without bodyguards in a villa in Abbottabad, Pakistan? Was he really found by the CIA’s patient detective work, or betrayed for the $25 million put on his head by Washington? Did Pakistan really not know Osama was in Abbotabad, and hour’s drive from its capital, Islamabad?

Why was bin Laden executed gangland style and not brought to stand proper trial in New York City? A trial could have finally determined if he was in truth the author of 9/11, as alleged by the US government and media. If not, who was?

Circumstantial evidence regarding 9/11 points to bin Laden. But he always denied responsibility for the attacks, though he applauded them after the fact. The Afghan Communists produced fakes tapes supposedly showing bin Laden demonstrating how the attacks were made. These fakes tapes ran widely on US TV.

The 9/11 attacks were planned in Hamburg, Germany and, apparently, Madrid, Spain, not by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, as the US claimed. The planners and executors of the attacks were mostly Saudis, not Afghans.

After the attack, US Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded Afghanistan’s Taliban government hand over bin Laden. Taliban refused to do so without a proper extradition request detailing bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11. Powell promised to issue a White Paper about bin Laden’s guilt, but never did so. Why? Probably because the US could not assemble a convincing case. US forces invaded Afghanistan and began their hunt for the elusive bin Laden.

The Bush administration, caught sleeping on guard duty, needed a target for America’s fury over 9/11: Afghanistan, Taliban (which had nothing to do with 9/11), bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization were blamed. Al-Qaida was wildly exaggerated by western governments and media into a nefarious worldwide network of fanatical Islamic conspirators worthy of Dr. Fu Manchu.

I was in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the birth of al-Qaida and spent many hours with its founder, Sheik Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden’s mentor. Al-Qaida was a rest house for jihadists going to fight in Afghanistan; it never had more than a few hundred members. Al-Qaida was not run by CIA, but the US planned to use bin Laden’s men against Muslim regions of western China in the event of a US-China war.

Al-Qaida’s so-called “terrorist training camps” in Afghanistan were in fact mostly run by Pakistani intelligence to train guerillas for use in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Al-Qaida was dedicated to battling Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Afghan Communists, and KGB agents of influence, warlords Ahmad Massoud and Rashid Dostam.

In 2010, then CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there may only be 25-50 al-Qaida members in Afghanistan. But the convenient myth of al-Qaida continues. While America glories in killing bin Laden, many in the Muslim world still see him as an Arab Che Guevara, one man against the mighty US imperial order. Most Muslims disapproved of the 9/11 attacks, yet many felt a sneaking admiration for the Saudi firebrand whose goal was to drive western influence from the Muslim world.

Osama bin Laden is dead, and discarded at sea in true pirate “dead men tell no tales” tradition. But the anti-western movement he began is alive and growing: al-Qaida was not an organic organization but a trans-national movement.

Anti-western groups have sprung about across the Mideast, Africa, Central and South Asia. Many have adopted the al-Qaida brand name. That was bin Laden’s plan.
30

copyright Eric S. Margolis 2013

The numbers of suicide bombing all accross the Muslims world either in Shia or Sunni community was something to ponder on. Besides there are others parties at play who will benefits from a clash between these two (Shia vs Sunni) while the oil resource is reapen.

I agree that some might do this atroce act out of desperation but seeing it daily I kept wondering why young people would blew themselves although many Fatwas has decreed that is Haram.
The funny part is that always the ID or passport or the suicider will be intact like the case of this Russian lady passport

I did not believe my eyes when I searched in the internet about powerful drugs and found this.

Here is what I found, so make your own judgement.
The borrachero tree, which is marked by beautiful white and yellow blossoms that droop ever so innocuously from the plant's slender branches, holds a secret that few people outside northern South America know about. The tree's seeds, flowers, and pollen possess hallucinogenic chemical substances that, when inhaled or consumed, are capable of eliminating a person's free will, and turning him or her into a mindless zombie that can be fully controlled without any inhibitions.
Back in May, the U.K.'s Daily Mail ran a report on the borrachero tree, also known as the "drunken binge" tree, explaining how a substance derived from it, scopolamine, blocks a person's ability to form memories, and temporarily inhibits his ability to make free will choices. When inhaled or consumed, in other words, scopolamine can turn any person into a robot that will do whatever another person tells him to do, even if it means robbing his own house.
"The drug ... turns people into complete zombies and blocks memories from forming," wrote the U.K.'s Daily Mail about scopolamine, which is technically a refined, chemically-altered version of the natural, mind-altering substances found in the borrachero tree. Scopolamine is often used in Colombia and elsewhere by criminals to mind-control others for the purpose of committing crimes.
"Scopolamine is a drug like no other. Nothing can compare," said Demencia Black, a Colombian drug dealer, to Vice's Ryan Duffy during an interview that was later compiled into a full-length, investigatory documentary. "You could be walking ... and suddenly 'poof' (implying that you quickly blow scopolamine powder in someone's face) ... with just that flash the person is totally drugged."
"You wait a minute and when you see it kick in, then you know that you own that person. You can guide them wherever you want. It's like they're a child. You say, 'Take me to your house, give me your checkbook, take out your savings, give me your credit card numbers,' just like that."
This is precisely what happened to a woman named Carolina who was drugged with scopolamine and apparently told to rob her own house, and hand over the belongings to her captors. Though she does not remember any of it, Carolina says she happily gathered all of her belongings, as well as her boyfriend's savings and camera equipment, and helped load it up into the vehicles of her captors.
Carolina counts herself blessed, despite her losses, as many others have had much worse things done to them while under the influence of scopolamine. Reports indicate that scopolamine is often used for much worse crimes, including as a means by which to influence a person to commit more atrocious acts like rape or even murder.
You can watch the complete, two-part scopolamine investigation by Vice at: http://www.dailymail.co. uk
(As a warning, the film contains language and other content that is inappropriate for children).

Source: http://www.naturalne... ntrol_drug.html

NB: Also this might explain the current changes of some members of the forum who hallucinate about non-existing threats and false historical past

I see people getting angrier and some will hijack the post through useless discussions.