Des responsables américains ont partiellement confirmé les déclarations d’Erik Prince au magazine Vanity Fair, selon lesquelles la société dont il était président, Blackwater Worldwide, a collaboré aux opérations clandestines de la CIA pour la capture d’insurgés en Irak et en Afghanistan. Des privés auraient ainsi participé de manière “offensive” à des opérations visant à capturer ou à assassiner des individus, en violation des règles de droit international.

Après sa nomination à la tête de la CIA par la nouvelle administration, Leon Panetta avait ordonné la fin de toute collaboration de ce type avec Blackwater et demandé une révision de tous les contrats passés sous l’administration Bush. Panetta avait également suspendu un programme d’assassinats ciblés utilisant Blackwater, précisant que ces opérations, qui n’avaient conduit à aucun assassinat, avaient été approuvées par les différents échelons de la précédente direction.

Un programme qui prévoyait explicitement que les privés puissent participer à des engagements armés. Par le biais du House Intelligence Committee, le Congrès américain a ouvert, en juillet dernier, une commission d’enquête sur les programmes de l’Agence ordonnés par l’ex-vice-président Dick Cheney.

Du côté de Xe Services (ex-Blackwater), on dément mollement toute participation à des opérations clandestines, de même qu’à la CIA, où l’on n’évoque pas les opérations en Irak et en Afghanistan. Selon une source opérationnelle, des “échanges de services” sont parfois passés sur le terrain entre les forces spéciales et les privés, qui ont la même culture et se connaissent souvent.

Selon Jeremy Scahill, le programme de la CIA et les missions impliquant Blackwater sont strictement confidentiels. Au sein de l’administration Obama, on craint donc de trouver bon nombre de “cadavres dans les placards”, alors que certains responsables du camp républicain craignent de se voir exposés à des poursuites pénales. Deux privés ont été tués en Afghanistan en 2003, au cours d’une opération ayant impliqué des membres de la CIA. De même, à la fin 2006, douze hommes des “tactical operations” de Blackwater ont été recrutés pour un raid au Pakistan mené par le Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) dans une opération visant un camp d’Al-Qaida. Un appui apporté à des éléments de la Task Force 373, qui ne pouvaient bénéficier de renforts militaires, compte tenu de l’engagement en Irak.

Blackwater a également collaboré au programme de frappes aériennes au Pakistan, lancé en 2006 dans le cadre d’un accord entre Washington et Islamabad, concernant la traque de Ben Laden et autorisant le déploiement de forces spéciales américaines en territoire pakistanais.

Ces informations sur la participation de Blackwater à des opérations clandestines au Pakistan font surface après un premier scandale d’achat d’armes ayant impliqué Triple Canopy et l’ambassade des Etats-Unis à Islamabad. A la fin novembre, peu avant l’arrivée au Pakistan de Leon Panetta, le ministre pakistanais de l’Intérieur, Rahman Malek, a démenti que Blackwater ait opéré dans le pays, affirmant même qu’il démissionnerait si ces opérations étaient avérées. Selon lui, seule DynCorp est mandaté pour opérer sur des convois logistiques transitant vers l’Afghanistan.

Dans ce contexte, l’interview d’Erik Prince par Vanity Fair apparaît comme une menace à peine voilée d’un grand déballage sur les activités clandestines de l’administration Bush, en cas de nouvelles poursuites pénales. Prince laissait ainsi entendre qu’un projet d’élimination du docteur AQ Khan avait été préparé par la CIA avec sa société. Par ailleurs, la participation de Blackwater aux vols “clandestins” de la CIA (dans le cadre du programme de transfert clandestin de prisonniers), confirmée par une source américaine, pourrait refaire surface.

Les sociétés de sécurité et militaires privées (SSP/SMP) utilisent désormais également les réseaux sociaux sur internet pour recruter leurs personnels. Le britannique HART Group, a diffusé la semaine derniere via divers réseaux sociaux une annonce  de recrutement de 55 “contractors” dont une trentaine de PSD (Personal Security Detail) pour une mission à Kaboul.

Le groupe britannique a reçu quelques 300 offres de candidatures en moins de 2 jours, pour des salaires annoncés entre 7000 et 10000 dollars. Une mission qui  pourrait être destinée à assurer la protection d’une mission de l’Union  Européenne EUPOL. Un contrat pourtant attribué au printemps dernier à un concurrent, la société britannique Armor group (du groupe G4S) et qui vise à « garantir une protection complète et continue de tout le personnel d’EUPOL Afghanistan dans la ville de Kaboul et dans d’autres régions d’Afghanistan» et représente un effectif de 118 personnes. Comme le souligne une source dans le secteur, reste à connaître les questions d’engagements contractuelles et juridiques, certains des contacts du groupe étaient en effet domiciliés dans un paradis fiscal britannique. Il y a peu le groupe britannique proposait également des services de protection maritime auprès de divers clients opérant dans le  Golfe d’Aden.

From Vanity Fair le portrait “Glamour” du patron de Xe  (ex- Blackwater)  par  Adam Ciralsky – Vanity Fair – January 2010

Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy

Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.

DOC

When attempting to create a new SSP I came accross this error:

Failure!

Shared Services Provider creation failed

Reason: User Cannot be found.

Check event log for details.

Note: SSP provisioning will be retried periodically.  If you correct the error that caused this failure, provisioning will subsequently succeed.  To stop provisioning from being retried, delete the SSP.

This is because when creating a new SSP, the owner of the Central Administration site(primary site collection administrator) is specified as the owner of the SSP admin site. The problem described occurs if the owner (primary site collection administrator) of the Central Administration site no longer exists or has been changed. Changing the primary site collection administrator of the Central Administration site to a valid Active Directory account or returning it to the account required will fix the problem.

1. Go to SharePoint Central Administration -  Application Management
2. Click Site Collection Administrators under the SharePoint Site Management group
3. Make sure you select the Central Administration Site Collection
4. Update the Primary and secondary Site Collection Administrator accounts

Alternatively, use stsadm siteowner to change the site owner to the correct one.

I looked around and saw every person inside looking intently and listening attentively to our speakers. Yes, this has been the second day of our training here in Cebu City. Time really flies fast, right? Uh-huh.. It sure does.

I stared at reality and saw different faces of every person inside the session hall. I sensed that every one of them were eager – interested much to learn every single step of making blogs, taking pictures, and a whole lot more. Just like ME. I also felt the same burning of fervor inside of me especially on the “blogging” thingy since I already have lots of blogs but most of them weren’t updated. If I will enumerate all the things i learned, it will really take up much space. So I better not do it. Instead, I’ll tell you straight to the point that I have learned a lot of things from this training. From the simple yet subtle news writing to the vast and free yet limited feature writing… AaaH! What word could describe what I’m feeling right now. I really had no deep enthusiasm towards photojournalism because I believed that it was just as simple and natural like solving a gradeschool math problem. But yesterday, I realized that photojournalism was not simple and easy, at all! Really! And this training has really changed my perception and it gave me a profound insight towards taking pictures.

I have always been “in” to editing and I was really ecstatic when we were taught to use picasa and gimp although I know how to use them. But there are still room for some refreshments of the mind, right? Oh yeah!

And what else? I was introduced to an amazing thing but rarely used. Video blogging or should I say, Vlogging. Can you imagine?

What Smart Schools Program has offered to teachers and young students like ME is very significant, for it molds our capabilities in doing what we are best at. It gives us a sense of greatness since we are really lucky to have joined this training. And though I am out of my classes for a week, I could not bear to let go of this opportunity since “who knows” when it will be launched again.  And I would still satiate my hunger and starvation for knowledge, for it will be a one step forward towards the sweetest thing on earth, success.

THANKS TO YOU SMART,

As we enter the time of year when many people take on extra help for Christmas, use our top tips to help you get legal side of employing temps right:

1. Temps can be employed by an agency or directly by the organisation that uses them. If you are not sure who the employer is, it is usually the person who pays the temp their wages.

2. The end client can be liable for discrimination claims even if an agency is the employer, since temps can be an employee of the agency AND a worker for the client at the same time. These rights do not require any particular length of service.

3. Temps accrue rights in line with service, just like any other UK employee, which means they are building up rights to National Minimum Wage (NMW) and statutory holiday from day one.

4. Temps are entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP) provided they pay national insurance.

5. Temps with more than four weeks’ service are entitled to statutory notice of one week.

6. It is possible to contract with temps on a weekly basis, so that you give notice each Monday to terminate each Friday (and thus there is no need to give notice at the end of the temporary assignment). If you want to do this, take advice.

7. After one month’s service, temps have the right to a written statement of particulars of employment, and their temporary status should be set out clearly in that document. Theoretically that statement should be issued no later than two months after the start date, but it is always a good idea to get this document out as early as possible.

8. If you make a mini fixed-term contract and then change your mind, you may be liable to pay the balance of the term. Be careful when recruiting temps that you do not contract for more time than you mean to.

9. Continuous service has a complex set of rules. For example: if you recruit a temp for, say, four weeks, then another four weeks with a gap in between you can find that the week in between does not ‘count’ for continuity but does not break it either.

10. Temps with less than one year’s continuous service do not have unfair dismissal rights but they do have a full set of discrimination rights.

Whilst there is currently government consultation on giving temporary workers more rights, no changes have yet been made and temps have no specific right to benefit from the same terms and conditions as their permanent colleagues.

Annabel Kaye is Managing Director of Irenicon Ltd, a specialist employment law consultancy. 
Tel: 08452 303050 
Fax: 08452 303060 
Website : www.irenicon.co.uk. 
You can follow Annabel on twitter – http://twitter.com/AnnabelKaye and check our regular articles and news throughout the autumn on our blog site – http://irenicon.wordpress.com/

After you create a new SSP, you might find you get an “Access Denied” page when you click on User Profiles and Properties in the User Profiles and My Sites section of the SSP admin page, although you can access other parts of the SSP OK.

Adding your account into the Farm Administrators group doesn’t help.  Neither does giving your account full control over the SSP site itself.   But you might want to do both of those anyway if you’re an admin.

To fix this particular problem you need to go to Personalization services permissions and go the Manage Permissions: Shared Service Rights screen, give yourself Manage User Profiles permission (plus anything else you might find useful, like Manage Analytics etc.).   That will let you into the screens for managing profile import.

We should all ask from our state and these right wing politicians  Why?

Ayesha Siddiqa
Friday, 13 Nov, 2009. With thanks. Dawn on line

A few days ago I came across a letter to the editor in Dawn in which the writer had protested against the use of the word ‘Taliban’ to describe the brutal killers currently terrorising the nation. In the writer’s view, such people should be termed ‘zaliman’. I thought I would advise the writer to watch more television and read newspapers to get rid of his anger against the Taliban. Perhaps the writer would have benefited tremendously by watching a programme aired recently on a TV channel in which three distinguished maulanas — including Jamaat-i-Islami leader Fareed Paracha — argued that the Taliban were being needlessly maligned since there was no evidence available to prove that the attacks were being carried out by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Furthermore, it was said that the TTP’s claiming responsibility for terrorist attacks inside Pakistan did not add up to much since anyone could make those calls just to malign the organisation of non-state militants. The above interview came a couple of days after the army claimed to have found evidence of India’s involvement in the conflict in Waziristan. Islamabad should take the evidence to the International Court of Justice since it does not hope to get a fair hearing from anyone else in the world, certainly not the US. Since India and America are viewed as being ‘hand-in-glove’, Pakistan cannot afford to share the above information with Washington as New Delhi did in the case of the Mumbai attacks. The evidence of India’s involvement should be sufficient to put the aforementioned letter writer’s mind at rest. Now we no longer need to search for internal sources of violence. Since the responsibility of the conflict in the region is now the responsibility of the US followed by India, we need not even look at the fact that Pakistan witnessed about 45 terrorist attacks before 9/11 which many in this country view as the sole cause of strife and bloodshed in the entire region. We can no longer argue that 9/11 just expedited the process of bringing to the surface all those elements or networks that later caused violence in the region. I would go further and apprise the writer of another crucial fact that technically, there are no home-grown terrorists in Pakistan since there has never been any conviction in a major case of terrorism. The significant names that are associated with extremist terrorist activities such as Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Riaz Basra and Malik Ishaq of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)/Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), Qari Saifullah Akhtar of Harkat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami (HuJI) or Masood Azhar of Jaish-i-Mohammad (JM) and many others are foreign concoctions. The country’s legal system is such that the onus of proving an individual or organisation’s responsibility in an act of terror lies on the state. So, if the police are unable to bring concrete evidence before the court it is difficult to convict those accused of terrorism by the law-enforcers. Moreover, the legal procedures take so long that the prosecution (being the state) is unable to hold on to witnesses. They either die, are killed or are too scared to give evidence against organisations and individuals with a particular reputation. Technically, it is but fair to let people go if nothing can be proven against them. This was essentially the position which Pervez Musharraf took for not pursuing action against those who were swapped for the hostages of Indian Airlines flight IC 184 which was hijacked to Kandahar in 1999. Why arrest someone if even the enemy had failed to convict the people after keeping them in jail for so many years? Hence, it is not surprising that there are hardly any convictions. In a couple of cases where this has happened, as in the case of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder, the death sentence has not been carried out. We now know that Khaled Sheikh Mohammad of Al Qaeda and not Omar Saeed Sheikh committed the murder. Probably, it was in appreciation of Sheikh’s innocence that his jailers in Hyderabad allowed him access to several SIMs and mobile phones that he then used for very naughty activities, which we will not report here as acts of potential terrorism. One might just wonder about the killings of Shias in the country, which have been going on since the mid-1980s when the SSP was reportedly established to fight the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafria by the state. We hardly notice that last year there were systematic killings of Shias in Dera Ismail Khan and before that of Shia doctors in Karachi. The killing of Shias in Balochistan by the Taliban also goes unnoticed by the media and the authorities. Surely one cannot discuss Balochistan at all where there is much more serious evidence of India’s involvement. The maulanas might argue again that sectarian violence in Balochistan is an Indian/American conspiracy. The person who wrote the letter might decide to respond to this piece and might argue that the behaviour pattern of the Pakistani establishment and the bulk of the people remains the same. We accused the East Pakistanis of being Indian agents and said the civil war was caused by Hindu teachers in collusion with the Indian state. Any signs of India’s involvement very naturally mar our ability to look at other possibilities or threats. In East Pakistan’s case, for instance, the internal crisis had nothing to do with the unfair treatment of the Bengalis by the West Pakistani civil and military establishment. The only truth about that era was that the Mukti Bahini was trained by Indian intelligence. We in Pakistan are coming close to a point where we can comfortably forget that we have elements within that want to take over (perhaps not physically) the state in pursuance of their pan-Islamic agenda. The war being fought by Pakistan due to international pressure is what has caused all the violence. I would like to refer to the golden words of Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah in response to the allegation of south Punjab turning into a hub of extremism and terrorism. The minister felt there was no training taking place in the region and if people were getting recruited to fight in Afghanistan or other places, how could the government stop this. After all, we live in a free country. Under the circumstances, my only advice to the writer of the letter is that if he begins to feel unsafe vis-à-vis the presence of the ‘zaliman’ within, he/she should build additional bunkers outside the house. The writer is an independent strategic and political analyst.

En af de mest grundlæggende rettigheder i vort lokale demokrati er, at vi alle har mulighed for hver fjerde år at sætte kryds ud for det parti eller den kandidat, som vi mener bedst repræsenterer hvor egne holdninger og ønsker til den politiske udvikling i kommunen.
I mine pennestrøg op til Kommunalvalg 09, har jeg ridset nogle af mine egne mærkesager op, både her på bloggen og i den lokale presse. Sat overskrifter og indhold på det som jeg vil prioritere at arbejde for, hvis du sætter dit X ud for mit navn når du står i stemmeboksen ved tirsdagens kommunalvalg i Herlev.

Hermed en genopfriskning af mine vigtigste mærkesager:

• Tryghed for Herlevs ældre medborgere
• Øget indsats for socialt belastede unge
• Intensiveret indsats mod unges misbrug og handel med stoffer
• Forebyggelse af unges tilslutning til bander og deltagelse i kriminalitet
• Opdatering af skolernes IT-udstyr og lærernes IT-kompetencer

Ud over det anførte vil jeg selvfølgelig arbejde for at det lokalpolitiske program som Radikale Venstre i Herlev har lagt for de næste fire års arbejde, realiseres i et godt samarbejde med de øvrige partier i den nye kommunalbestyrelse. Til glæde og gavn for alle byens borgere. Du finder vores valgprogram her: radikale.dk/herlev

Husk at sætte dit kryds i morgen den 17. november. Valgstederne har åbne fra kl. 9 til 20. Og skulle du have lyst så kom og få en kop aftenkaffe, når valgresultatet læses op af borgmester Kjeld Hansen omkring kl. 22. Det sker på rådhuset, i den runde bygning.

Godt valg!

Monday, November 16th, 2009

This month Greenfox Schools is highlighting five excellent resources for sustainability education. The following list includes organizations listed in alphabetical order that provide useful tools for schools going green.

Read below and click on the links to learn more.

Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education

The Cloud Institute is a non-profit based in New York City that works nationally and internationally to promote sustainability education. The Cloud Institute’s approach to sustainability directly engages young people to work with their communities.  Cloud’s model for sustainability begins with its mission: to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future.  During the first phase of work, Cloud facilitators develop an awareness and shared understanding for Education for Sustainability (EfS) among staff, faculty, and administrators at a given school.   They work with the whole school system to collect baseline data, and assess the extent to which the school is teaching for sustainability.  Teachers work with the Cloud Institute to design EfS outcomes and indicators and to develop a pilot EfS unit.  Over time, facilitators work with the school to collectively develop an EfS Scope and Sequence that is mapped across the entire school curriculum.  This process allows teachers to collaborate and build on one another and to integrate the broader school community, and beyond, into their classrooms. These outcomes are achieved by differentiating professional development, coaching, and capacity building with participating faculty and administrators, trustees, parents, community partners, and students.

Facing the Future

Facing the Future is a non-profit based in Seattle, Washington, that supports teachers by providing resources that teach students about complex global issues, the linkage between local and global communities, and environmental sustainability. Facing the Future delivers curriculum workshops to middle and high school teachers, and maintains an online database of teaching material related to service learning projects of local and international interest. Serving public and independent schools, Facing the Future develops curriculum across all subjects, including math, science, history, geography, language arts, and more.

Sustainable Schools Project

The Sustainable Schools Project (SSP) is sponsored by Shelburne Farms, and is a partnership with Vermont Education for Sustainability. A dynamic new model for school improvement and civic engagement, the program helps schools use sustainability as an integrating context for curriculum, community partnerships, and campus practices. The SSP aims to improve communities economically, environmentally, and socially for current and future generations by facilitating curriculum and campus projects, offering professional development, and identifying funding sources for schools.

Roots & Shoots

Roots & Shoots is a program of the Jane Goodall Institute, and seeks to initiate positive change for communities, animals and the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action. Through service projects, youth-led campaigns and an interactive website, Roots & Shoots members make a difference across the globe. Here is Dr. Jane Goodall’s inspiring vision for Roots & Shoots: “Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light, they can break open brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds of thousands of roots & shoots, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls. We CAN change the world.”

U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development

The U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development unites leaders in education, environment, and business to promote sustainability education and government policy. The U.S. Partnership was established to fulfill the goals of the United Nations declaration of a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), a declaration that was established to promote the local and global acceptance of principles of “sustainable development.”

The K-12 Sector page provides a variety of resources from useful links to actual national K-12 sustainability education standards developed by the U.S. Partnership. The U.S. Partnership has launched the first national listserv for K-12 educators focused specifically on the topic of education for sustainability. Educators involved in teaching students in any subject in the K-12 arena are encouraged to join. The goal of the Sustaink12 listserv is for educators to communicate and collaborate on strategies to integrate education for sustainability into the teaching and operations of K-12 schools.

To join the listserv go to https://listserver.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=sustaink12

-Kristen von Hoffmann

The authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan were not quite done celebrating the proclamation of the Empowerment and Self-governance Ordinance of 20091, when a bomb rocked Gilgit town on September 27 sparking off the latest bout of Shia-Sunni riots.2 Gun battles in the aftermath of the blast have led to the death of more than twelve people, including Raja Ali Ahmed Jan, a prominent leader of the Pakistan Muslim League.3 The incidents, culminating in a short-lived peace in this Pakistani occupied Shia region of Jammu & Kashmir, have led to the detention of several civilians as well two policemen. Some of the arrested are allegedly linked to those who assassinated Deputy Speaker Asad Zaidi and his companions in Gilgit in April 2009.4 Zaidi was the third-most high profile Shia politician, after the revered clerics Agha Ziauddin5 and Allama Hassan Turabi, to become the target of sectarian violence – a menace that has troubled Gilgit-Baltistan socially and economically, since the 1970s. Agha Ziauddin’s death in January 2005 caused widespread clashes leading to a six-month long curfew and emergency, and loss of more than two hundred lives. Allama Turabi, shot dead in Karachi on July 14, 2006, hailed from Baltistan and was the President of Tehrik Jafaria of Pakistan (TJP). His death has been termed as detrimental to Shia rights’ movement in Pakistan.6

In the sequence of events, as one looks back, eighteen people including the Director of the Agriculture Department of Gilgit7 died in 2008 as a result of Shia-Sunni clashes. However, by far, 2009 has seen more sectarian killings than the previous two years put together. It started in the middle of February when two Shias were killed in an attack on a van in Gilgit.8 Then, on June 17, ISI personnel arrested a Shia political activist, Sadiq Ali, and tortured him to death.9 Two months later, when the leader of the banned anti-Shia political party Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan (SSP), Allama Ali Sher Hyderi was killed in Sindh, riots broke out in Gilgit leading to the closure of markets and heavy gun battle between Shias and Sunnis.10 In September, two Sunni Pashtuns and three native Shias were killed in Gilgit while a bus with Shia passengers coming from Baltistan was torched, causing several casualties.11

For centuries, people of Gilgit-Baltistan, professing various religions, co-existed in amicable conditions. It was only after Pakistan’s annexation of these regions in the seventies that anarchy began. First, authorities abrogated the State Subject Rule, the law that until then protected the local demographic composition, and encouraged Pakistani Sunnis to settle in Gilgit town. This illegal government-sponsored settlement scheme damaged the social fabric and provoked religious feuds that continue to simmer. Pakistan created a political vacuum and a law and order crisis, once princely states and time-tested administrative structures of Gilgit-Baltistan were abolished. While Islamabad refused to delegate powers to local Shias by establishing viable a modern political structure, the despotic military rulers maintained ad-hoc policies to govern the region with an iron fist. It was during the same time that Pakistan embarked on its well-rehearsed divide and rule policy to paralyze local society. It exploited ethnic and religious fault-lines to weaken the natives in their demands for genuine political and socio-economic rights. Government-led Shia-Sunni and Shia-Nurbaxshi riots caused acute socio-political polarization in Skardo during the early 1980s. Events like these forced members of the local intelligentsia like Wazir Mehdi, the only Law graduate of Gilgit-Baltistan from Aligarh University, to admit that unification with Ladakh and Kashmir brought culture and civilization to the region while opting for Pakistan has resulted in the arrival of drugs, Kalashnikovs and sectarianism. On occasion, agencies employ religious leaders to fan hatred. In one such incident, intelligence agencies released a Punjabi cleric, Ghulam Reza Naqvi, from prison “to be sent to Gilgit to keep the pot of sectarian violence boiling.” His release was granted after negotiations with SSP, which also got their leader Maulana Mohammad Ludhianivi freed from jail.12 A watershed in the history of Gilgit-Baltistan causing permanent trust deficit was reached in May 1988 when tribal Lashkars, after receiving a nod of approval from General Zia, massacred thousands of Shias in Gilgit and abducted local women. The intention was to undertake demographic change by force in this strategically located region sandwiched between China, the former Soviet Union and India.

The recent killings of Shias in Gilgit-Baltistan may also hinder the election process for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) that will take place in November of 2009. With the newly proclaimed self-governance ordinance, GBLA is expected to legislate on 66 articles pertaining to socio-economic and administrative issues. While local political institutions are evolving towards achieving genuine autonomy, the Sunni minority fears that the Shias would gain a majority in the assembly, which the former sees as a direct attack on its long term political and socio-economic interests in the region. The authorities intend to exploit similar insecurities to consolidate control over Gilgit city, which is not only the largest settlement in the region but also the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan. As the regional ballot is nearing, authorities may resort to electoral engineering to create a hung assembly, thereby stripping GBLA of the mandate to pass laws. The past experience of reorganization of constituencies along Shia-Sunni lines has also enabled Sunni candidates to gain a majority in various constituencies.

Gilgit city is divided into two constituencies – Gilgit-1 and Gilgit-2. Until a decade ago, voters from both constituencies sent Shia members to the local Council. The demographic change has turned the tide in favor of the Sunnis; in 2004, voters of Gilgit city returned Sunni candidates as winners. Shias in Gilgit-1 were further marginalized when the major Shia settlement of Nomal was transferred to Gilgit-4, thereby tilting the population balance. Since then, contests between Shia and Sunni candidates have remained neck to neck.13 The tipping point is the vote bank in the Amphari neighborhood with a mixed Shia-Sunni population where sectarian polarization will help the Sunni candidate gain a lead. Likewise, in Gilgit-2, the settlement of Pathans and Punjabis has changed the demography and this one-time Peoples Party (PPP) stronghold supported Hafiz Rehman of PML in the 2004 elections, which he won by a small margin of 500 votes.14 The voters’ list released recently shows more than a 80 per cent increase in voters’ numbers in Gilgit-1 (from 28,146 to 47,835) and Gilgit-2 (from 34,517 to 62,048) in just five years.15 Of these, a majority are Pakistani settlers who will impact election results in favor of Sunni candidates. The government is planning to increase the number of GBLA seats after the November elections and the above-mentioned additional voters in Gilgit city will lead to an out of proportion representation for Sunnis in GBLA. Such interference from Pakistan will only lead to further sectarian clashes and deaths.

Although sniper shooting has remained the primary method of sectarian killings, owing to Taliban influences bomb blasts are also becoming common. In May 2009, a bomb blast occurred in Baltistan, which led to the arrest of two Sunnis and recovery of explosive-making material and hand grenades.16 Later in July, a bomb was hurled at Bagrot Hostel, Gilgit, killing two and injuring several other Shia students.17 In April 2009, an Al Qaeda member, Abdullah Rehman, threatened to bomb a four-star hotel in Baltistan.18 Many Taliban who escaped from Swat and adjoining areas found shelter among Sunni extremists in Gilgit.19 Analysts fear that locals may benefit from the Taliban expertise in the field of bomb and suicide jacket making. Local youth is also susceptible to converting to the extremist Islamic ideology and joining the suicide bomber club as a result of Taliban influences. The fact that more than 300 suspected terrorists were expelled from Gilgit in October 2008 highlights fears that the Taliban presence in Gilgit-Baltistan is widespread.20 Successful Talibanization of Gilgit-Baltistan means more Shia deaths and continued arrival of Taliban in large hordes, which will hasten demographic change and hurt local cultural identity and ethnic solidarity. The ongoing military operation in Waziristan against Taliban and Al Qaeda may also create greater problems for Gilgit-Baltistan as Shia soldiers of the Northern Light Infantry Regiment will be in direct confrontation with those who perpetuated the Shia genocide in Gilgit in 1988

Notes:

1. 1. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KI16Df01.html
2. 2. http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=87717
3. 3. http://pamirtimes.net/2009/09/28/pml-leader-raja-ali-ahmad-jan-shot-dead-in-konodas-gilgit/
4. 4. http://pamirtimes.net/2009/04/21/asad-zaidi-deputy-speaker-nala-shot-dead-in-gilgit/
5. 5. http://pakistantimes.net/2005/01/14/top1.htm
6. 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allama_Hassan_Turabi#Early_life
7. 7. http://hunzatimes.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/five-of-a-family-killed-in-gilgit-attack-updated-news-news/
8. 8. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40756234671
9. 9. http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3193/
10. 10. http://pamirtimes.net/2009/08/17/violent-protests-in-gilgit-over-murder-of-ali-sher-hyderi/
11. 11. http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/pamir-times/854fb8cae3214331a32604745d595c27
12. 12. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C21%5Cstory_21-5-2006_pg3_1
13. 13. http://www.ciaonet.org/wps/icg449/icg449.pdf (pp:16)
14. 14. http://pakistantimes.net/2004/10/14/top2.htm
15. 15. http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87988&Itemid=2
16. 16. http://dardistannews.wordpress.com/2009/05/
17. 17. http://pamirtimes.net/2009/05/23/bomb-blast-at-hostel-in-gilgit-city/
18. 18. http://weeklybaang.blogspot.com/2009/04/weekly-baang-karachi-voloum-02-issue-08_3275.html
19. 19. http://dardistannews.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/taliban-hiding-in-gilgit-baltistan-operations-in-gb-asian-human-rights-commission-press-release/
20. 20. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/300-suspected-people-ex

My team were trying to implement VMM R2 in multiple domains topology. They installed VMM R2 on windows 2008 R2. We start by implementing VMM 2008 R2 and SSP (Self Service Portal)on Domain A.

We have users from domain A and B. Ans one way trust relationship between those domain from domain A to B.  i.e Domain A trust users from domain B.

This scenario was designed so that users from Domain A, B would have the capability to deploy new VMs using Web interface (SSP).

The installation went fine with local admin account (Domain user from domain A with local admin privilege) and I am able to see all users from Domain A and B and add them to Self Service portal users role.

The problem that users from domain B can’t log in to SSP while users from domain A can.

As per Microsoft Technet

Does VMM support cross-domain authentication?

Yes. Kerberos authentication is a prerequisite for VMM. To configure your environment to allow users in one Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain to access VMM resources in another domain, you can either ensure that both domains are in the same forest or configure a forest-level trust relationship and use Kerberos authentication. To set up a forest-level trust relationship, both domains must be in Windows Server 2003 forest mode. Windows 2000 Server does not support forest-level trusts.

So this was the first problem.. VMM should use Kerberos authentication while my one way trust was External ( NTLM ).. My domain are above 2003 so I delete my old trust and create new forest one way trust again.

Now VMM should work but Opsssss it did not ?!!!!!!

As per Microsoft technet it should work fine but nothing worked at all. After some digging with the trust we found it. it has to be 2-way forest level trust between the two domains. :S

And we got confirmation from Microsoft:

Based on this finding, I fully analyze all internal Kerberos traffic again and the two trust is required from SSP.

1. if we only configure one-way trust from SCVMM server domain to user domain, the DC in SCVMM domain will be able to establish secure channel with user domain and get the trust TGT ticket. Thus we can configure SSP and choose user from trusted domain.

2. However, when user accesses SCVMM portal from trusted domain, because it is one way and there is no trusted account for user domain in SCVMM domain, the user cannot get trusted TGT ticket and thus the user cannot get session ticket to access SSP.  The accessing will fail back to NTLM by SCVMM DC contacts DC in user domain for NTLM authentication.

According to authentication requirement for SCVMM, we need configure two-way trust so that user can get session ticket to access SSP in other domain.

So… to have users from different domain we need configure two-way trust so that user can get session ticket to access SSP in other domain.

G20 protesters in London

By Anna Fenton

Hundreds of people will assemble in Market Street, St Andrews at 1:30pm Saturday 7th, to say ‘nae’ to the G20.

The demonstration, which has been supported by Stop the War, the SSP, a growing number of unions and St Andrews student societies, has been called in order to demonstrate opposition to the policies of the G20 finance ministers who are meeting in St Andrews for a summit on the economic recovery.

The G20 is taking place next on 7^th November in St. Andrews, a month before UN climate change talks commence in Copenhagen.  Whilst the G20 itself is taking place outside of St. Andrews, many protest events will be taking place in St. Andrews’s centre. Campaigning groups united under the slogans ‘Put People First’ and ‘No more Business as Usual’ will be petitioning the G20 countries to take their views on board. 

“The G20 are continuing to prioritise unsustainable economic growth, which is causing catastrophic environmental degradation.  Whilst they enjoy their luxuries at the Fairmont hotel, we will be there as the voice of the voiceless,” said Amir Gholami, a third year philosophy student also at St. Andrews.

“I’m against the G20 because they are an unrepresentative, undemocratic organization that serves the few at the expense of the many. It’s like a private men’s club,” said Alistair Martin, a fourth year international relations student at Edinburgh.

‘Nae to G20’ say that the G20 has helmed one of the largest economic recessions in history and has been responsible for the growing gap between the rich and the poor.  Organisers have stated they do not want the G20 in their town, or anywhere.

“We are organising protests against the G20 to create a public discourse opposing the neo-liberal economic policies crafted by the G20, policies that are designed to advance the richest nations of the world at the expense of the poor. We are protesting because the multitude of voices resisting the G20 globally are not given a voice and as such must take to the streets to show their dissent” says Alex Brown, media liason for the group.

‘Nae Tae G20’ is a group made up of locals and students, ordinary people unhappy at the presence of the G20 in St Andrews.  As well as being endorsed by Stop the War and the Scottish Socialist Party, they also have the support of a number of other organisations, including Lower Rents Now! Coalition, numerous workers unions throughout Scotland and St. Andrews University student societies.

Speaking in The Courier earlier this week, Fife Police Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Barker said St Andrews should not experience any difficulties as a result of the protests: “Our policing intention over the period of the summit is to ensure the minimum level of disruption to the day-to-day lives of local people, consequently Fife Constabulary has utilised a dedicated team which has been planning for some considerable time for this event.”

In a sad outcome of a regular VVIP security proceeding, a patient with critical kidney failure lost his life in Chandigarh, India on his way to the hospital on Tuesday.

Sumit Prakash Verma (32) died on Tuesday after the security personnel allegedly delayed the entry of the vehicle carrying him to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh. The VVIP in question was no one less that the Prime Minster of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh who was at the time visiting the hospital for its 30th convocation.

The family of Verma, who was suffering from a major kidney ailment and had breathing trouble, alleged that their vehicle which had come from Ambala, 45 km from Chandigarh, was stopped at different gates of the institute by securitymen, leading to wastage of crucial time.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Traffic was halted on roads taken by the prime minister from the airport to the PGIMER and the vehicle had to make several detours. When they finally arrived at the main gate of the institute the security personnel posted there asked them to try another entrance.

The family went from one person to the other begging for entry as Verma lost precious moments.

“We went to the emergency and high emergency wards. He held my hands and said I won’t live for long. He was alive for an hour’s time in PGI. We had a harrowing time for two hours. As tears dropped from his eyes, I understood that he had breathed his last,” said victim’s niece.

“Our uncle was crying, saying please save me. He was only 32. My humble request to the PM is that the family should be looked after,” said Dheeraj Verma, victim’s nephew.

Now Verma’s family: His young widow and two children have no savings to fall back on, as Verma, a small businessman, was ailing for the last two years.

Source: ndtv.com

After the news broke out, PM’s Office (PMO) asked the hospital for a report though the hospital authorities maintained that no one was denied entry. In wake of the unfortunate incident the PM later on asked the authorities to be “more sensitive” to the concerns of the common man while making security arrangements.

The PM also followed this up with an apology letter addressed to the widow of Mr. Verma:

This is the text of the letter that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to the family of a patient who died during his visit to Chandigarh on Tuesday:
 
Dear Smt Verma,

I am writing to you to express my profound sense of sadness at the death of your husband Shri Sumit Verma yesterday.I understand that he could not get access to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Educationand Research, Chandigarh in time because of the restrictions in place for my visit there.This is something I deeply regret. I have issued instructions so that in future authorities are more sensitive to the concerns of the common man while imposing such restrictions for reasons of security.

 

With regardsYours sincerely

 

Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister’s letter

Source: ndtv.com

Sources reported that the family had accepted the apology and a compensation of INR 200,000.

Meanwhile in an interview with a national news channel the Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), S S Srivastav, claimed that the security arrangements had no hand in the death of the patient. He blamed the death on the fact that the family was travelling in a private vehicle and not an ambulance which made it pass through all the normal security protocols.

CNN-IBN: The Prime Minister has written to the family of the person who died because his security would not let him through into the hospital, apologising for what happened. The Prime Minister’s security as well as the local police are under the scanner. Would you like to clarify as to what exactly happened?

S S SRIVASTAV: Incidentally what happened was that they traveled in a private vehicle. There was no ambulance or any such vehicle that moved from there and there were some traffic diversions. We normally stop the traffic for a minimum possible time and Chandigarh has the advantage that there are multiple roads and crossings. So we normally ensure that the stoppage time is of not more than 2-3 minutes and then again we try to clear off the traffic as a soon as possible. So this family apparently got delayed a little bit because of one of the stoppages and subsequently they reached the PGI and they were guided to the appropriate gate from where they were supposed to enter.

 

Source: ibnlive.in.com

He also claimed that the family was escorted by security personnel to the emergency gate as they had reported to the wrong gate.

This is not a stray incident of discomfort to common people due to the elaborate security infrastructure around VVIP/VIP security. Hopefully the security personnel will take note of the issue and in future such unfortunate incidents would not be repeated.

NowPublic

Vores børn – vores ansvar!

Seattle Semi-Pro (SSP) Wrestling Team is gearing up for round III!  This local improve, comedy, group is definitely in a league of it’s own.  And why not?  It’s created by Jack Stratton (announcer for the Rat City Roller Girls) and stand-up comedian, Owen Straw.  So with just that snippet of information it should let you know how outrageous it is going to be.  If not, here’s a couple of picture of what one might expect to see: 10 Things Zine.

For more info on SSP, please visit their official website.

Doors are at 7:00 p.m. and the fight starts at 7:30 p.m. Only $6 to see the fight!

Frygten for kriminalitet har stor negativ indflydelse på borgernes følelse af tryghed og trivsel.
Håndtering og opklaring af  kriminelle sager ligger i politiets og domstolenes hænder. Men strengere straffe, der som bekendt har været den siddende regerings svar på den voksende kriminalitet, er med al tydelighed ingen farbar vej når det gælder at nedbringe kriminaliteten. Der skal satses målrettet og langt mere intensivt på det forebyggende arbejde. Og kommunerne bærer en vigtig og væsentlig del af ansvaret for forebyggelsesindsatsen. Også Herlev Kommune.

Der skal i langt højere grad satses på problemløsning gennem en helhedsorienteret indsats med målrettede sociale tiltag. I forhold til udsatte børns og unges opvækst under kaotiske familieforhold, i forhold til uhensigtsmæssige netværk, i forhold til mangelfuld skolegang, manglende uddannelse eller job og andre vigtige faktorer som har indflydelse på børns og unges oplevelse af eget selvværd og på deres sociale ageren.
Der bliver gjort et stort og godt forebyggende arbejde i Herlev, ikke mindst SSP-arbejdet mellem skole, sociale myndigheder og politiet er en meget vigtigt del af forebyggelsen.

Det forebyggende arbejde er alfa og omega for at kunne bibringe vore udsatte børn og unge en oplevelse af mening med tilværelsen, og give dem redskaber til deres egen deltagelse i samfundslivet, med forståelse for vigtigheden af at være deltagende i fællesskabet.
Radikale Venstre vil arbejde for at den forebyggende indsats prioriteres endnu højere og intensiveres langt mere målrettet.

Stem på Arne Jacobsen
Kandidat for Radikale Venstre i Herlev

I got this error on my test server, and by following http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938219 to remove the proxy settings that are configured in Internet Explorer on the server that hosts the Shared Service Provider (SSP), and then restart the Office SharePoint Server Search service. But the error is still there. Finally, I found someone add proxy serer in Crawling -> Proxy and timeouts. By click the “Do not connect by using a proxy server”, the crawling back to work.

It’s been a while I am here. We need a lot of hope and some entertainment while fighting for Jay’s come back, so here are some english subbed videos of sang sang plus. I hope you will like them.

Credits to : orenji728

If any thing doesn’t work, let me know by a comment.

Tenho visto em inúmeros sites, fórums, blogs e etc… o problema de perda da sincronização do perfil de usuários do banco do SSP com o Sharepoint.
Isso ocorre por que o controle dos registros é feito por GUID, e nesse caso se algum procedimento com o banco der errado, acontece a perda da sincronia. Aí o serviço chamado Serviço de Sincronização de Perfis tenta sincronizar os dados, como os GUIDs não são os mesmos, ele encerra a execução.
Para verificar se existem registros no seu banco de dados de SSP não sincronizados você pode utilizar o seguinte comando do STSADM: LISTOLDDATABASES

A síntaxe é a seguinte:
stsadm -o sync -listolddatabases 2

Após o comando -listolddatabases coloque o número de dias que deseja que sejam listados os bancos que não sincronizaram corretamente.

 Caso exista algum banco de dados listado no command prompt, você pode utilizar outro comando chamado DELETEOLDDATABASES que limpará os registros que não conseguiram sincronizar e com isso o Sharepoint na próxima vez que executar o serviço Serviço de Sincronização de Perfis conseguirá atualizar os dados do usuário normalmente.

Obs: Não tenha medo, esse comando não exclui dados do banco de dados de contéudo do Sharepoint.

A síntaxe é a seguinte:
stsadm -o sync -deleteolddatabases 2

Após o comando -deleteolddatabases coloque o número de dias que deseja que sejam deletados os bancos que não sincronizaram corretamente.

Agora é só aguardar a próxima vez que o serviço Serviço de Sincronização de Perfis rodar para que as alterações tenham efeito.

Abraços, até a próxima.

Sexta-feira passada, o deputado Michel Temer (PMDB-SP) saiu com um grupo de amigos para jantar. Um deles disse a Michel que estava chegando a hora de ele esvaziar a caneta.

Referia-se ao fim do segundo mandato do deputado como presidente da Câmara, que acaba em fevereiro próximo.

Michel passou a filosofar sobre a natureza fugaz do poder.

Contou que, quando era secretário da Segurança Pública de São Paulo, na gestão Franco Montoro (1983-1986), recebia pedidos e tapinhas nas costas de todos os lados. Era o tal.

Dias após deixar a secretaria, o hoje deputado foi até uma padaria perto de sua casa, caminhando, para tomar um cafezinho. O dono da padaria o olhava com um ar desconfiado.Depois de alguma hesitação, perguntou:

– O senhor não era o doutor Michel Temer ?

Resposta de Michel:

– É. Eu era!