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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
3 23:36 tipover [336103] 
3 19:09 Unererong Spawn of the Pixies4293 [336069] 
1 00:07 JosephMendiola [336070] 
2 19:30 trailing wife [336073] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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Economy
How A Handful Of Unsupervised MIT Economists Run The World
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 11:34 || Comments || Link || [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think we might do better with someone who actually ran a business who keeps an eye on the cash register and watches what comes in and what goes out.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:41 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and doesn't spend more than they have.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:42 Comments || Top||

#3  That's comforting.
Posted by: Unererong Spawn of the Pixies4293 || 12/12/2012 19:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Zero Dark Thirty: Did the real woman behind the bin Laden raid get passed over for promotion
In No Easy Day, Matt Bissonnette, the Navy SEAL who wrote the book detailing the assassination of Osama bin Laden, credits "Jen" a feisty female CIA analyst for leading them to the al-Qaeda leader.

In Zero Dark Thirty, the movie out next week on the hunt for bin Laden, the agent is named "Maya" and focuses on her decade-long hunt for the elusive terrorist.

A U.S. Navy SEAL team shot the al-Qaeda mastermind dead in May 2011 after a stealth raid on his compound in Pakistan.

No one knows the female agent's real name, but The Washington Post revealed Tuesday that all the attention she is getting is annoying colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency. The operative, who remains undercover, was passed over for a promotion many in the agency thought would be impossible to withhold from someone who played such a key role in one of the most successful operations in agency history, the paper reported.

The Washington Post profile says colleagues were jealous of the attention she was getting. The woman has also sparred with colleagues over credit for the bin Laden mission.

The Washington Post said this spring she was awarded the agency's Distinguished Intelligence Medal while dozens of others were given lesser awards.

A former CIA official told the paper that the agent hit "reply all" and in essence said, "You guys tried to obstruct me. You fought me. Only I deserve the award."

The agent has also come under scrutiny for her contacts with filmmakers and others about the bin Laden mission, part of a broader internal inquiry into the agency's cooperation on the new movie and other projects.
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2012 12:57 || Comments || Link || [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I haven't seen the movie but usually I don't think much of Hollywood's version of anything. Read the book "No Easy Day" and found it an interesting read.

I don't know much about the legalities of writing the book but there really didn't seem to be anything that rose to the level of violating national security--it seemed to be fairly sanitized and as the book said everything was in open sources.

Fox is credited (maybe discredited would be more appropriate) for "outing" the author. If true, that should not have been done. It also seems like there are a lot of people trying to claim to be the equivalent of the "trigger pullers" after the mission such as "Jen" and the Champ.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/12/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||

#2  **** cough **** cough **** cough ***...

To paraph ELMER FUDD OR ORVILLE RICKENBACHER,
"WWWEEELLLL NNNOOOWWWW, I WOULDN'T SAY THAT"!

My mind is torn - Osama, or loyalty as an American + Soldier to the Fed.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 19:37 Comments || Top||

#3  JohnQC; she doesn't claim to be a trigger puller but she does seem to think that she isn't getting proper credit for her work and that others are getting credit for what she did even as they initially resisted her theory's.
Posted by: tipover || 12/12/2012 23:36 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Faulty investigation helps terrorists go scot free
[Dawn] Police are finding it difficult to prepare cases against the suspects involved in terrorism as the lone Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) set up over three decades ago is ill-equipped and facing shortage of staff, badly affecting investigation by the law enforcers.

"We need to put the investigation system on scientific lines and prepare solid cases against the people incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
with explosives, firearms and contrabands as they often walk free from courts when police fail to present evidence that proves their linkage with the crime," official sources said.

They said that police were mostly relying on torturing a suspect during interrogation for extracting facts owing to old and outdated investigation system.

They said that presently only four per cent accused were sentenced in terrorism related cases.

The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
High Court on several occasions had directed police department to improve its investigation so that
solid cases could be framed and accused could be convicted.

Police got assistance from the US and other donors for their role against terrorism, but the Forensic Science Laboratory was still ill-equipped and short of employees to trace terrorists, officials said.

The FSL, established in 1976, was supposed to carry out scientific investigations to substantiate field probe into crimes and ensure dispensation of justice but it was becoming redundant, they said.

The officials said that some sections of the laboratory such as firearms, finger and footprints were in bad shape owing to shortage of staff and outdated equipment.

In many cases, police told the court that the accused in certain cases were very dangerous and should not be released because their freedom could jeopardise the lives of others but in the absence of any proof they were acquitted, officials said.

"The FSL is heading for a collapse. No employees have been inducted since its establishment. Many experts in other important sections like chemical analysis of rape victims, vehicle examination, drawing sketches of suspected jacket wallahs, narcotics, documents' examinations and finger and foot printing have retired and some are nearing age of superannuation," they said.

They said that they had no technical people to replace the retiring lot because people were not joining FSL, which worked under police department.

"During the past few months, at least five experts from different sections retired. Workload has been increased from 2,500 in 1976 to 60,000 cases per year but new people haven't been recruited by the government to save FSL from becoming ineffective," officials said.

They said that some efforts to upgrade the laboratory proved fruitless. A few years ago, the government planned a proper service structure for about 80 staffers of the laboratory but the plan couldn't see light of the day. The employees of the laboratory await promotion.

The officials said that FSL received specimen from the cop shoppes and political authorities of the entire
province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It required to dispose of al cases within due times but the same were often delayed, they added.

Home and Tribal Affairs Secretary Azam Khan told Dawn that upgradation of FSL was part of recommendations to improve conviction rate in Anti-Terrorism Court.

"Strengthening of scientific investigation is most important in terrorism cases. Along with the operational side the investigation aspect is very important," he said.

Mr Khan said that they needed transparent scientific and independent investigation to ensure its credibility. "A research cell has also been established that monitors the progress in terrorism-related cases," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Uh, uh, ZO NOES, NOT IN NOT-SCOTLAND, SAY IT TAINT SO!

gut nuthin - serusly.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:07 Comments || Top||


Collection of hides
[Dawn] THE strange case of the hides has not been brought to the fore by Robert Louis Stevenson but it does feature a split personality belonging to none other than the government. On the one hand, rulers instruct officials to stop banned faith-based groups from collecting the skins of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha. On the other, members of these, often pro-militancy, groups freely roam the streets, collecting hides. An intelligence report prepared in Punjab says the hides collected by some groups that have been proscribed or are under watch sold for more than Rs78m on the market last Eid. The actual figure may be much higher since it is almost impossible to verify the number of hides sold. An effort seems to have been made to come up with round figures. For instance, one group is said to have collected 60,000 hides in Lahore alone. But whatever the estimates, they piece together a picture that is disturbing and calls for action. Also mentioned in the intelligence report are specific instances which bring out the dangers of carrying out directives to keep these banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization
s from the lucrative business of hide collection.

The police have encountered the might of political groups over claims to hides. But in this case, they appear to shy away from their duties in the face of threats by banned faith-based groups. Indeed, the instance where police in a Punjab district are shown to have quickly released three men incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
for gathering hides is a true manifestation of the influence, actually fear, that some banned organizations exercise over the whole system. The report says the release came on the orders of senior coppers who are in turn answerable to the rulers.

Reflective of the general approach that manifests itself in other instances too, it seems it is the rulers who do not want to take on the might of such groups. There is a tendency to explain away this matter in terms of the growing religiosity in Pak society. This is something that cannot be denied; but what we have here is a classic case of camouflaging what is essentially a law and order issue. Just as coppers are inclined to blame petty crimes on poverty, the administration chooses to explain the leeway it allows banned groups on hides and the collection of cash donations by referring to the religious choices of the people. It is a simple problem: what is legally banned cannot be allowed. Unless we truly want this practice stopped, there is no use having intelligence officials trace all these hides to the market.
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336073 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Indirectly, the Artic does give reason why hunger is on the steep rise in Pakland.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/12/2012 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Indirectly, the Artic does give reason why hunger is on the steep rise in Pakland

Could you expand on that thought, JosephM? I don't see it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
5Arab Spring
4Govt of Syria
3Govt of Iran
2TTP
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2al-Qaeda in North Africa
2Govt of Pakistan
1Commies
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Palestinian Authority
1Salafists
1Taliban
1Thai Insurgency
1Global Jihad

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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
Tue 2012-12-04
  Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
Mon 2012-12-03
  Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Sun 2012-12-02
  Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters
Sat 2012-12-01
  Egypt assembly approves new draft constitution
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir
Wed 2012-11-28
  Packed Tahrir Square defiant as deadlock prevails

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