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Pro-Morsi forces take to streets in 'Eid of Victory' rallies
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
3 20:31 trailing wife [12] 
5 16:55 Besoeker [2] 
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19 21:48 Zenobia Floger6220 [1] 
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10 17:32 irishrageboy [11] 
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4 09:00 Shipman [1] 
1 12:43 Pappy [2] 
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1 00:37 JosephMendiola [6] 
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
2 23:15 Redneck Jim [3]
4 12:13 Besoeker [1]
6 23:17 Redneck Jim [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Firm that checked NSA leaker's background under investigation
[CBS News] The evil government contractor that performed a background investigation of the man who says he disclosed two National Security Agency surveillance programs is under investigation, a government watchdog said Thursday.
Gov't watchdogs? Tier-Sprechschule graduates no doubt, I can hear them barking from the towers.
Patrick McFarland, the inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management, said during a Senate hearing that the contractor USIS is being investigated and that the company performed a background investigation of Edward Snowdenski.
Where's the bus? Can we get those USIS goats under the bus? Hurry will you, someone must be blamed, and we need another media diversion at once.
McFarland also told lawmakers that there may have been problems with the way the background check of Snowdenski was done, but McFarland and one of his assistants declined to say after the hearing what triggered the decision to investigate USIS and whether it involved the company's check of Snowden.
Trigger? How about the need for media diversion and regime deflection ?
"To answer that question would require me to talk about an ongoing investigation. That's against our policy," Michelle Schmitz, assistant inspector general for investigations, told reporters after the hearing. "We are not going to make any comment at all on the investigation of USIS.
We are simply hoping you will focus on them and not us."

USIS, which is based in Falls Church, Va., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nor can they legally as I recall.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she and her staff have been told that the inquiry is a criminal investigation related "to USIS' systemic failure to adequately conduct investigations under its contract" with the Office of Personnel Management.
Anyone conducting a criminal investigation of Benghazi "systemic failure" yet ?
McCaskill said that USIS conducted a background investigation in 2011 for Snowdenski, who worked for government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
And he was working for whom at that time ?
Snowdenski says he is behind the revelation about the NSA's collection of Americans' phone records and Internet data from U.S. Internet companies.
Yes, it appears he is in fact behind the revelations.
"We are limited in what we can say about this investigation because it is an ongoing criminal matter," McCaskill said.
Anything further and I would have to kill you. I hope you understand.
"But it is a reminder that background investigations can have real consequences for our national security."
The 'little people' being reminded once again regarding consequences.
McFarland told reporters that his office has the authority to conduct criminal investigations. How did low-level contractor gain access to NSA programs? Pentagon reviewing private contractors, Hagel says.....
Er huh, he was assigned those duties and granted access by a US Gov't employee and supervisor ?
A background investigation is required for federal employees and contractors seeking a security clearance that gives them access to classified information.
TS-SCI along with a full scope poly if you work for the Klingons or NSA as I recall. Any deception indicated on the poly ?
Of the 4.9 million people with clearance to access "confidential and secret" government information, 1.1 million, or 21 percent, work for outside contractors, according to a January report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Of the 1.4 million who have the higher "top secret" access, 483,000, or 34 percent, work for evil contractors.
Snowdenski is now a wobbly 26 years of age. Three of those 26 years he reportedly worked for the leading US Intelligence service of the nation. That leaves some 4-5 years after high school to amass a treasonous history of cunning deception, and evil doing. How could USIS have missed it? Yes, how could they ?
I'm coming a little late to this post. But as I see it, the real scandals are --

1) we hire consulting companies to do vital security screening

2) they do a lousy job

3) we don't care that they do a lousy job

In a just world USIS would already have lost its contract, and the other screening companies would have federal auditors on them like the IRS on a Tea Party tax exemption application.

Besoeker asks the right question about the skinny little creep: what'd he do before he got his job with the NSA? Why isn't the journalism community digging into this punk's life? We knew more in 48 hours about Joe the Plumber than we've learned about Snowden. The reporters are all over whether Champ will cancel a summit with Vlad, but they have a curious lack of curiosity in exhuming Snowden's past.

But that's still small ball.

We have a system in which systemic failure no longer is examined, let alone punished. We focus on the tawdry and let important things slip by quietly.

How many other Snowdens are out there? How many times has our security screening failed? How will we even know? And what will it take to get people in Washington to look, let alone act?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 01:02 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh, barking dawgs, I get it, took me awhile tho.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/10/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL - It's MoDo but Furred Reich is a hell of a headline.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/10/2013 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Champ referred to him as a "hacker", but then the Champ thinks Charleston, SC is in the Gulf. Director NSA announced this week that the agency has undertaken a huge cutback in "system administrators" [SYSADMIN] types. Well, here's a flash; SYSAD people do a bit more than 'Sneakernet' data from one computer or computer system to another. But as usual, some type of corrective action needed to be made public...ie, as we all know, motion equals progress(M=P), so lets whack the contract SYSAD geeks and USIS background investigation pukes. What a wonderful way to deflect responsibility and at the same time create a cool diversion from a massive, illegal, programmatic activity.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 11:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Besoeker: they're giving the "civil libertarians" what they think they want: dismantling the agency itself to take our minds off the more basic question: can we trust the people commanding the agency or not?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/10/2013 14:59 Comments || Top||

#5  can we trust the people commanding the is agency or not? Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain

In the Army, an Aricle-32 Investigation determines whether wrong-doing, or something unlawful has occurred. An investigating officer is appointed, given specific instructions and a timeline for completion, and that is his or her job until completed. In the civilian world a Grand Jury is convened to accomplish much the same. From both of these, a decision is rendered regarding the need to present a recommendation of formal charges based on findings. Unfortunately, congressional hearings and media sessions are NOT the same.

The key missing piece in the majority of these scandals is the appointment of an investigating officer by an appointing authority. I think we know who the appointing authority is, and precisely why nothing is taking place.

As far as Snowden goes, he's still innocent until PROVEN guilty of formal charges in a court of law.

I don't trust any of them. Snowden could probably be rehabilitated at some point and go on to serve a useful and productive life. The rest of them, I doubt it.


Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 16:55 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Obama Confirms Sealed US Charges In Benghazi Attack
[Ynet] President Barack Obama
Because I won...
said on Friday that US authorities had brought criminal charges for the attack in Benghazi, Libya, last year in which US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

Obama said in response to a question at a White House news conference that the charges were under seal and there was little he could say about them. "It's sealed for a reason, but we are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack and we're going to stay on it until we get them," he said.
"Somebody get me CNN on the line. Their reporter knows where to find him."
US economy. US economy. Please pick up the white courtesy phone...
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia

#1  "It's sealed for a reason, but we are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack and we're going to stay on it until we get them," he said.

"We had a little delay because our Attorney General was...uh.. preoccupied for the past few months."
Posted by: Pappy || 08/10/2013 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Criminal charges? With Miranda Rights and CSI and trials and lawyers? Howzabout this: we find the people who did this, apparently not too difficult a task, and we whack them. And their accomplices, associates. and friends, if you want to make the point totally clear. That point being it is hazardous to your health to kill Americans. Let them hate, so long as they fear.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/10/2013 1:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Unless the "Sealed US Charges" contain the names of Champ, Poonetta, and the Hildebeast, I'm really not much interested.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 2:22 Comments || Top||

#4  A man who uses Drone wack-a-slope daily with far less due process is bothering with lawfare when dealing with people who have actually demonstrated, not just a 'threat', homicidal behaviors. This is like OJ spending his 'free' time looking for the actual killers of Nicole and Ron.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/10/2013 9:51 Comments || Top||

#5  I saw something earlier today that suggests it is illegal to mention sealed charges unless in the process of executing them. For the Rantburg lawyers: Is this correct? Is the president exempt by virtue of his office?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 12:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Supposedly it runs afoul of some federal law. Unfortunately, no one in our media seems to know what it is.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/10/2013 12:40 Comments || Top||

#7  While we're at it, what sort of 'reason' could there be for sealing the charges? So the bad guys don't know we have a warrant out for their arrest?
Posted by: Bobby || 08/10/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Laws are for little people.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/10/2013 12:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Must be because Obama's college records are involved somehow. Why else seal them?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/10/2013 13:24 Comments || Top||

#10  The charges are sealed so that now the administration can avoid answering questions because of an ongoing investigation that they are not allowed to talk about.
Posted by: irishrageboy || 08/10/2013 17:32 Comments || Top||


Nour leader: Monopolising govt was Brotherhood's biggest mistake
[Al Ahram] Salafist Nour Party leading figure Sherif Taha called the Moslem Brüderbund's decision to monopolise the political scene in Egypt "their biggest mistake."

Taha, a member of the Nour Party's supreme committee, said his Islamist party consistently advised the Brotherhood not to field a candidate for presidency at all -- but in the case they do enter executive office that they form a national unity Cabinet.

In an exclusive interview for Al-Arabiya news channel, Taha indicated that his party isn't even considering fielding a candidate for the next presidential elections. The biggest mistake Islamists can make would be to overtake politics from the beginning without gradual steps, he indicated.

The Nour Party, Egypt's largest Salafist party, has come under strong attack from other Islamists for accepting the army-sponsored new roadmap which removed the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi.

"We want to be part of the political scene and reject any calls to exclude the Islamist current, but at the same time refuse to let the Islamist current lead the scene and bear the heavy burden all alone," Taha continued, adding that they joined the roadmap after realising Morsi is no longer capable of ruling.

On 3 July military Commander-in-Chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi unveiled a new roadmap for Egypt's political future, which included the removal of president Mohamed Morsi to make way for prompt presidential elections.

The new roadmap was announced in the presence and with the approval of several political figures, including the Nour Party. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb and Egypt's Christian Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II were also present.
Posted by: Fred || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  The biggest mistake Islamists can make would be to overtake politics from the beginning without gradual steps

It took what, about a hundred twenty-five years for the US Left to take over?
Posted by: Pappy || 08/10/2013 12:43 Comments || Top||


Egyptian Army Denies Reports about Israeli Air Strike Killing Militants in Sinai
[An Nahar] Several Egyptian snuffies were killed in an air strike in Sinai on Friday as they prepared to launch a rocket into Israel, security sources and witnesses said.

The source of the strike was not immediately clear. Some sources spoke of an Israeli air strike conducted from Israeli air space and others credited the Egyptian military.

But Egypt's military denied any Israeli strike.

"There is no truth whatsoever to any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory and the claims that there is Egyptian and Israeli coordination on the matter is utterly baseless," military front man Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement.

He said the armed forces and expert teams were still combing the area where two kabooms were heard.

State media said at least five members of a cell led by local Islamist snuffies were killed in the raid.

Earlier, Egypt's army said two kabooms were heard at around 4:15 pm (1415 GMT) in the Al-Ojra area, three kilometers (around 1.8 miles) from the border with Israel.

"The armed forces are combing the area of the kabooms to find out the cause," Colonel Aly said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula

#1  An IDF Drone repor attacked + destroyed two Rocket Launchers in Rafah, Egypt in what is technically an Israeli milstrike agz sovereign Egyptian territory.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/10/2013 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  JosephM, Turkey for some reason claims Egyptian helicopters killed the rocketeers, and Israel is not claiming the hit, so clearly nobody wants a war started now over whatever actually happened.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 0:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Obviously the IAF is running CAS for the Egyptian Army in the Sinai attacking Palestinians. I suspect the chocolate covered cotton market is roiling.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/10/2013 8:59 Comments || Top||


Anti-US hostility ramp up in Egypt - WSJ
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Saudis give $100m for global counter-terror centre
Reaffirming his country's determination to combat terrorism, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, has donated $100 million for supporting the international counterterrorism centre under the UN.
There aren't many countries in the world that know terrorism better than Saudi-controlled Arabia...
In a joint Eid Al Fitr message with Crown Prince Salman, King Abdullah said: 'Terrorism threatens global peace and stability.'

He also called for joint international efforts to fight terrorism without any leniency toward militants and their sponsors.

'We should understand that terrorism will not disappear within a limited period. So we have to be prepared for a long fight with terrorism.

'Whenever we try to tighten the noose it could become increasingly aggressive and violent. But we have strong faith in God that it would be defeated,' the message said.

While the Saudi King along with Prince Salman cautioned the Ummah (nation or community) against the danger paused by the distorted ideologies, King Abdullah stressed at the importance of activating the international counterterrorism centre, which he proposed during an anti-terror conference in Riyadh February 5, 2005.

Saudi Arabia had previously donated $10 million for the counterterrorism centre.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talk about Chutzpah.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/10/2013 3:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Why the UN and not Interpol I wonder?
Best way to launder the bribes I guess.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/10/2013 7:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Terror=Shite/Christian/Jewish etc
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/10/2013 13:51 Comments || Top||

#4  He who pays the piper calls the tune. The House of Saud has been impacting tertiary education in this way for decades, with endowed programs for this at Harvard and endowed chairs for that at Yale and Georgetown and elsewhere.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||


7 Saudis among militants killed by drones in Yemen
[Al Ahram] At least seven suspected snuffies from Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
were among the alleged al-Qaeda members killed in Yemen in a recent wave of U.S. drone strikes, senior Yemeni officials said Friday, suggesting that Saudis are increasingly crossing the border to carry funds or seek terrorist training.

With several U.S. diplomatic posts closed temporarily in Africa and the Middle East this week amid a global alert about terrorism, Washington evacuated most of its personnel from Lahore, Pakistain's second-largest city. The U.S., along with Britannia, also flew diplomatic staff out of Yemen's capital of Sanaa this week.

Since July 27, drone attacks in Yemen's southern and central provinces have killed a total of 34 snuffies suspected of being members of the country's al-Qaeda branch, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, security officials have said.

On Thursday alone, the officials said U.S. drones conducted three Arclight airstrikes, killing 12 krazed killers.

The drone strikes occurred in areas where the terrorist group enjoys protection from anti-government tribes or hides in mountainous areas.

The terror network bolstered its operations in Yemen more than a decade after key Saudi operatives fled here following a major crackdown in their homeland. The drone strikes and a U.S.-backed offensive that began in June 2012 have driven snuffies from territory they had seized a year earlier, during Yemen's political turmoil amid the Arab Spring.

The senior Yemeni officials who said the seven Saudis were among the victims of the drone attacks said intelligence suggested the foreigners had crossed the border between the neighboring countries to either ferry in money to the terror group or to train in al-Qaeda camps. "Al-Qaeda is especially recruiting tech-savvy and well-educated Saudis," one of the security bigshots said.

He added that the terror group also is bringing in Paks, who are explosives experts. He cited Ragaa Bin Ali a Pak bomb maker who was killed in a drone strike.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Saudi political analyst Anwar Eshki said the kingdom is aware of Saudis crossing into Yemen.

"The kingdom is tracking down those people ... but there are hundreds of organizations and groups that work on recruiting them," he said.

One suspected Saudi krazed killer was among seven who were killed by a drone in the southern city of Shabwa. Four other Saudis were maimed in the same attack, according to a senior local government official who also spoke anonymously because he was not allowed to talk to news hounds.

While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not talk about individual strikes. The program is run by the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA, with the military flying its drones out of Djibouti, and the CIA out of a base in Saudi Arabia.

Asked at a White House news conference about the drone strikes, U.S. President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
said: "I will not have a discussion about operational issues."
Posted by: Fred || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Britain
Al-Qaeda Threatens Britain's Tottenham Soccer Club; Calls Management 'Greedy Jews'
[Algemeiner] English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hostspur had more than angry fans to contend with this past weekend as rumors that star player Gareth Bale would be transferred elicited an angry response from terror group al-Qaeda.

According to Italian media, Ahmed Al Dossari, the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, threatened the club on an unnamed website over the transfer because of its support among the Jewish community in London. Israel's Channel 2 tied the soccer threat to the US State Department decision to close its Middle East embassies, and encourage all US citizens to evacuate Yemen, because of al-Qaeda threats.

The Italian reports quote Al Dossari as describing Tottenham as "unscrupulous merchants. Jews who will be punished for their greed by the wrath of God and by the sound of arms."
Over a soccer trade? Wow.
According to British media reports, Tottenham is asking for a world record transfer fee in excess of $123,000,000 from Spanish club Real Madrid for Bale.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  Wehell lessirree - FRENCH CROISSANTS, but NOT CANNIBALISM, were banned by SYrian Rebels in Aleppo, while [Western style] MEN'S LONG TROUSERS/PANTS were banned by the Hard Boyz in NW Pakland in favor of traditional Islamic wear.

Now cometh Soccer.

NOT GOOD FOR FRENCHISM/FRENCHY-NESS WHEN FANCY BAKERY BREAD LOSES OUT TO CANNIBALISM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/10/2013 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  They're just ticked off about the Spurs' new American coach.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 08/10/2013 1:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Al Qaeda - Barcelona fans?
Posted by: Raj || 08/10/2013 8:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Well I finally have a Metric Football team to root for.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/10/2013 9:00 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Rally Organizers Deny Ties With Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
Red meat for the WoT watcher all the way through. Here are the opening and closing paragraphs for a taste.
[Breitbart] Organizers of a rally planned for Washington, D.C. on Saturday in support of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi deny being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, or being Brotherhood supporters. The rally, they said during a news conference Friday, is about justice in Egypt.

A long record, in many cases tested in court, says otherwise.

The recently-formed Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR) news conference featured Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a spokesman for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Dardery and other speakers decried the "military coup" in Egypt and called for Morsi's release after more than a month in custody.

"This is not about the Muslim Brotherhood. It is not even about Dr. Morsi, said Shaker Elsayed said in response to an Investigative Project on Terrorism question about Muslim Brotherhood connections.. Dr. Morsi happened to be from the Brotherhood, but it could have been anybody else. If we allow the rule of law to be broken and the democratic rules to be violated, it will happen to anybody and Egypt will never have stability, progress, investment, or a future. So we have nothing to do with your claims."

Last month, we showed how a similar rally that made no mention of the Brotherhood, but emphasized support for democracy, was a façade to hide support in the U.S. for the Islamist movement. A look at the players behind Saturday's rally shows another Brotherhood "Grand Deception" is afoot, despite organizers' denials.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 07:05 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  EADHR

Each A Dick Head Retard

(With apologies to all other retards)

Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/10/2013 14:12 Comments || Top||

#2  An excellent photo OP for the surveillance teams.
Unfortunately, the deep cover terrorists activists are not vocal or prone to attending mass gatherings.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/10/2013 20:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Unfortunately, the deep cover terrorists activists are not vocal or prone to attending mass gatherings.

That's ok, Skidmark. The really bad guys will show up in the second or third order contacts of those photographed. That's why we gave the NSA all those cool new toys, after all.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 20:31 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Blimps for D.C. Really.
Two blimps, 2.7 billion dollars, to make sure no one sneaks up on us and blows D.C. to hell.
And yes - we know the Hindenburg was a dirigible, not a blimp and carried hydrogen, not helium. Just consider it an analogy for your tax dollars.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO iff the US is serious about establishing GMD-TMD in East Asia including Guam-WESTPAC, then it should dev + forward deploy ABM-BMD armed NT Blimps to same.

Can "defensively" intercept Enemy BMS at mid-phase, or "offensively" blow 'em up right on the enemy's launchpad(s) = origin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/10/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  #define Tinfoil_Hat

*Snort* Cruise missiles. Yeah. Sure champ. Then why do they have video cameras & turreted FLIRs?

These were the same systems we used in Iraq & the Stan to keep an eye on the areas around our FOBs. Still did not manage to stop the random rocket attacks.

Coupled with the latest and greatest in pattern matching analysis software, I predict the intent is to "keep an eye on" the serfs proles potential trouble makers terrorists.

They are more worried about random tea party types showing up and doing, "something". Like voting real conservatives in in the republican primaries, or visiting their congressman and reminding him/her that they need to trim back the budget and potentially put the good people surplus government workers out of a job.

Also-- this looks like someone had to burn up some program dollars, so why not?

#undef Tinfoil_Hat
Posted by: Nguard || 08/10/2013 0:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Fine.

I'll post it:

Posted by: badanov || 08/10/2013 1:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Somehow that song is apropos this entire damn political administration.
Posted by: badanov || 08/10/2013 1:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Union balloons were employed around Washington DC and Manassas in 1861.

Perhaps it's for a similar reason.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/10/2013 2:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Ist 2 billion what used to buy a B2 or a carrier? Now it only buys 2 blimps and groud station?
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/10/2013 2:46 Comments || Top||

#7  With his appointees on the LRB, these will be Union balloons too.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/10/2013 7:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Good one, B.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/10/2013 8:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Well if it's Washington of course it would be Union balloons, Teamsters I'd guess.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/10/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Blimps moored on the Washington Monument ?
Posted by: 3dc || 08/10/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#11  Blimps for D.C.

The Christie 2016 slogan?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/10/2013 12:09 Comments || Top||

#12  more
Posted by: newc || 08/10/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Well, that went to the wrong place. my bad
Posted by: newc || 08/10/2013 12:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Blimps moored on the Washington Monument ?

Close alongside.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/10/2013 12:48 Comments || Top||

#15  I thought Al Qaeda was on the run and we didn't have any real enemies?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/10/2013 14:00 Comments || Top||

#16  They are more worried about random tea party types showing up and doing, "something". This will do nothing to defeat a terrorist attack. The detect an attack after the mortar is fired, and rarely helped to defeat anything prior to the event. It will do very little to protect against an external threat. But for a march on DC or riot, it would be great... Looks like Zero is getting worried he just might be expected to move out someday.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/10/2013 17:44 Comments || Top||

#17  Well, that neatly explains the recent outbreak of concern trolling about the Strategic Helium Reserve...
Posted by: mojo || 08/10/2013 19:38 Comments || Top||

#18  Please also consider these can be instantly available cell jammers with repeaters. With NO permissive intervention all civilian cell traffic can be stopped but C2 frequencies can still be served.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/10/2013 20:26 Comments || Top||

#19  What lurks upstairs alone or in pairs
And watches the little shrimps?
What's pumped full of gas and checks out your ass?
It's Blimps, Blimps, Blimps!

It's Blimps, Blimps, it's big, it's spendy, it's good.
It's Blimps, Blimps, it spies on your neighborhood!
etc.

Do not taunt Magic Fun Blimp.

Not a flying toy.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 08/10/2013 21:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria denies attack on president’s motorcade
Syrian authorities took the rare step of denying media reports of an attack on President Bashar Al Assad’s motorcade as he travelled to a mosque on Thursday to attend prayers marking Eid. It was the first report of a direct attack on Assad’s convoy since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011.

Several media outlets, including Saudi-based Al Arabiya satellite channel, as well as activists on the ground, had said that a rocket attack targeted Assad’s motorcade as he travelled to the Anas bin Malik mosque in central Damascus to join the Eid Al Fitr prayers.
Pray for sepsis...
“Regarding the information reported by Al Arabiya, I can assure you that it is completely false,” Information Minister Omran Al Zohbi told state television.

“The president arrived at the mosque driving his own car, he attended the prayer and greeted everyone in the mosque as he does every day when he meets people,” Zohbi added.

The minister slammed reports of the attack on the motorcade as a “projection of the dreams and illusions of certain media and the governments behind them,” adding that they were a “joke”.

“Everything is normal,” Zohbi added. “They wanted to spoil the celebrations for Syrians.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog could not confirm the reported rocket attack but said mortar shells early Thursday hit the upmarket Malki area in central Damascus, near to where Assad was attending the Eid prayers, and where the president’s offices are also located.

The NGO did not report any casualties or victims in the shelling, which however indicated that rebels seeking to topple Assad are able to launch attacks despite relentless attempts by regime forces to clear the capital of insurgents.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Report: S-300 Missiles To Be Delivered To Syria In Summer Of 2014
To be rapidly followed by the delivery of Israeli anti radiation missiles.

No charge.

[Ynet] Russia has not delivered advanced S-300 missile systems ordered by Syria although several have been built and Damascus has paid a multi-million deposit, Vedomosti daily reported Friday, citing arms industry sources.

A batch of the systems was due to be sent to Syria this spring, according to the Russian arms export agency's contract with Damascus, but the systems are now apparently due for delivery no earlier than the summer of 2014, Vedomosti said. Syria has paid a deposit of several hundred million dollars, the sources said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria on Menu as Ban, Russia FM Hold Working Dinner
[An Nahar] U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
emphasized the need to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict when he met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, a U.N. front man said.

Russia, the United States and the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
have been attempting to set up a conference aimed at ending the brutal civil war, which has left more than 100,000 dead.

But a conference initially planned for June failed to materialize.

Russia is the Syrian regime's main ally and has repeatedly blocked Western-backed resolutions at the U.N. Security Council.

In a U.N. statement Thursday following his working dinner with Lavrov, Ban expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
over the "escalating humanitarian crisis" in Syria and "the disconcerting rise in sectarian violence."

Ban added, however, that he was encouraged by the resumption of direct talks in the Middle East grinding of the peace processor and pledged full U.N. support for the negotiations.
Posted by: Fred || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Some Perts are arguing that Syria could effectively replace AFPAK or Pakistan as the base/center of Al-Qaeda, AQ Affiliates, + other International terror groups iff Baby Assad is overthrown.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/10/2013 0:37 Comments || Top||


Charbel Shies Away from Confirming Abduction of Turkish Pilots by Zuwar al-Imam Rida
[An Nahar] Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Friday that Lebanese authorities were investigating a claim made by a previously unknown group for kidnapping two Turkish pilots in Beirut.

In remarks to Voice of Leb radio (93.3) and several TV stations, Charbel said: "We haven't heard of the so-called Zuwar al-Imam Rida."

The investigation will reveal whether such a group truly exists or it is "fictional," he said.

The alleged responsibility for the kidnapping came after al-Jadeed TV reported that the group was asking for the release of nine Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria in return for setting free a Turkish pilot and copilot kidnapped by gunnies at dawn Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
France, US Top Al Qaeda's List Of Western Targets
[La Belle France24] An analysis by a private US intelligence firm of jihadist messages released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in 2013 shows that La Belle France ranked second as the main Western focus of the group's jihadist propaganda, after the US.

La Belle France ranked second as a Western target of interest for AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), according to an analysis of jihadist messages released by al Qaeda's most dangerous branch in 2013.

In a study of more than 45 messages this year by the terror group, a private US intelligence firm found the US to be the number one Western target of interest for AQAP, followed by La Belle France.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


The French Salafist Accused Of Killing Tunisian Politician
[La Belle France24] The main suspect in last week's killing of Tunisian politician Mohamed Brahmi is a well-known figure in French intelligence circles. Boubakeur Hakim, a Frenchie of Tunisian origin, has come a long way on the jihadist trail.

From Gay Paree's 19th arrondissement, to a network dispatching bully boyz to Iraq, to prison cells in Syria and La Belle France, Boubakeur Hakim has come a long way on the jihadist trail.

Now the 30-year-old Frenchie of Tunisian origin is implicated in what could be his most high-profile case to date.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia



Who's in the News
34[untagged]
4Arab Spring
4Govt of Syria
3al-Qaeda in Arabia
2al-Qaeda
2Ansar al-Sharia
1Muslim Brotherhood
1al-Nusra
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula
1Govt of Pakistan

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-08-10
  Pro-Morsi forces take to streets in 'Eid of Victory' rallies
Fri 2013-08-09
  Zanzibar: Acid attack on two British women volunteer teachers
Thu 2013-08-08
  Rebels attack Assad motorcade
Wed 2013-08-07
  Kashmir: Five Indian soldiers killed in shooting
Tue 2013-08-06
  Clashes between Military, Insurgents Kill 35 in North Nigeria
Mon 2013-08-05
  Thirty killed in heavy fighting in Syrian mountains
Sun 2013-08-04
  9 Afghans killed in attack on Indian consulate
Sat 2013-08-03
  22 Police, 76 Taliban Killed in Afghan Battle
Fri 2013-08-02
  At least 40 killed in Syrian weapons depot blast
Thu 2013-08-01
  Qaida Chief Says Syria Exposed Hizbullah as Iran 'Tool'
Wed 2013-07-31
  Pakistan Elects Mamnoon Hussain President
Tue 2013-07-30
  Manning Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy
Mon 2013-07-29
  US drone kills 6 suspected militants in Yemen
Sun 2013-07-28
  Report: Hizbullah Wired Money To Bulgaria Bomb Suspects
Sat 2013-07-27
  Muslim Brotherhood claims its supporters massacred in Cairo


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