o Veteran Canadian pilot Chris Goodfellow says his viral online post debunks claims that the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight was hijacked
o Instead, he hails captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah a hero, insisting the only reasonable scenario is that a fire broke out and the pilot was trying to make an emergency landing at the nearest safe airport
o He says Shah turned the plane to aim for a 13,000 foot strip Palau Langkawi but was likely overcome by smoke before he could land
o The aircraft then continued flying as a 'ghost plane' for several hours before finally running out of fuel and crashing into the Indian Ocean
o He predicts the wreckage will be found somewhere west of the Maldives today
the course change was programmed into the airplane before the 'good night' comment
the transponder was disabled before the 'good night' comment
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/19/2014 8:59 Comments ||
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#2
If it's correct, and if the alleged sighting in the Maldives is correct, then a line projected through the Maldive location from the last previous reasonably known point, combined with the fuel load and the consumption rate at 5000' should lead to a splash point, and I doubt it would be that far past the Maldives.
Yeah, there are problems with this theory, but there are problems with all the theories.
I am, however, gob smacked by the serendipitiousness of a 777 disappearing at the same time the Rooskies are bitch-slapping PrezBo. If you can't be good, be "lucky"..
"Previous reports indicated that the plane flew towards Checkpoint Gival, south of the Thai island of Phuket, and was last plotted heading northwest towards another checkpoint, Igrex, used for route P628 that would take it over the Andaman Islands and which carriers use to fly towards Europe."
#6
USG saying surprisingly little about the disappearance. Jay Carney offers grin and denial regarding Diego Garcia question in presser. USN pulls ship(s) out of Indian Ocean search. IDF takes precautions. I think more is known by the intelligence community than is being discussed on the teevee.
#7
Besoeker: you've seen that map with the arcs based on the Last Ping?
There was a ping before that. And a ping before that.
The plane could have refueled at an airfield in the Maldives and gone on to elsewhere. I doubt the people who were there to refuel it were doing so so they could take it to Kerguelen and crash it.
#8
The high jack doesn't fit the current narrative on terrorism by the WH.
The jet will be coming to a major city near you in spectacular fashion. They've figured out how to avoid radar flying low and they have found holes in the civil radar systems.
Our intel guys can't find their butt with both hands, the politicalization of our intel organizations has ruined their ability to think logically.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/19/2014 11:13 Comments ||
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#9
Yes, saw the wide arc soon after 'climb out' from Kuala Lumpur, vs sharp vector to port as previously reported. The wide arc was reported to have been programmed, and not hand flown. Also noted the late arriving Thai radar report.
#13
I read, with the MH370 transponder off, SIA68 would not detect MH370 via TCAS. MH370 would be able to use "other" means to pickup SIA68's TCAS signal, and listen in on ground control radio transmissions.
Personally, I don't buy the fire, ghost plane and crash scenario. Could have happened that way, but I don't buy it right now.
#16
TCAS would pick up any active mode S transponder and have bearing and altitude information. Conversely TCAS would not register an aircraft with its mode S transponder turned off.
[An Nahar] A case of sexual harassment in one of Egypt's largest universities has sparked outrage after the dean said the women's outfit triggered the incident.
In a video that has gone viral on social networks and has been covered by local media, Cairo University security guards escort a student wearing tight black pants and a long sleeved pink top after she hid in a toilet from dozens of male students who were sexually harassing her.
More than 99 percent of women in Egypt have been subjected to a form of harassment, according to a study carried out in 2013 by U.N. Women.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] BNP Chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... is likely to appear before a Dhaka court today in the charge frame hearing in Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.
The chairperson's counsel Md Sanaullah Miah told the Dhaka Tribune that, "Khaleda Zia will appear in the Special Judge Court no-3 around 12:00pm."
Md Ariful Islam, bench officer of the court, said the newly appointed Judge Basudev Roy would hear the cases today, which was fixed on February 16.
Earlier on January 15 last year, Khaleda secured permanent bail in the cases and the court on February 16 this year granted a time petition to Khaleda until today for the last time to frame the charge.
With this deferral, the court had adjourned the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case 41 times and the Zia Charitable Trust graft case 11 times for charge frame hearing.
Zia Charitable Trust graft case
On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the case with Tejgaon cop shoppe against four people -- Khaleda, her former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Islam Munna and Manirul Islam Khan, former personal secretary of BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka -- on charge of abusing power for collecting funds from unknown sources.
The IO of the case, pressed charges against the accused on January 16, 2012.
Of them, Harris has been staying abroad since 2007 while Ziaul and Monirul are now on bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
"Won't work; if it could it would've been done by now" said kerosene magnate John D. Rockefeller about that idiot Edison's ideas about incancescent lighting.
#3
From ThoriumMSR Monthly - PROS and CONS List of Thorium based Nuclear Reactors
Excerpt - Cons:
In some Thorium MSR Protactinium 233 will be removed and sequestered for a period of time until it decays to Uranium 233. I understand that this would make it possible to have a pure quantity of Uranium 233 which is fissile and could be formed into an atomic bomb.
In my opinion a significant reason that the Thorium MSR is not going forward is that once it is built the vendor is unlikley to be able to have long term recurring revenue. Current PWR vendors have significant recurring revenues related to selling new fuel elements.
#6
Why should Putin actually believe this statement is more relevant than Bush's empty threats ("These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.") made post 9/11?
NATO and the US lost the 9/11 war. The punks have a good reason to feel very lucky.
#2
I'm pretty sure alarm bells were triggered by the intel community, and poo-pooed by the "establishment". I checked out the Google imagery over Russia. Most of it is from last summer, but even then you could tell that Russia was building up its strength in the area. Russia has a shortage of cash, but no less than FIVE Russian airfields near the Crimea were being upgraded. While some of the aircraft movements could have been to disperse aircraft from regular airfields undergoing upgrade, some of it was definitely equipment moving in from other places.
The Russians also used the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as cover for moving additional weapons and troops into the area. MOST of the additional troops were located to the east of Ukraine, and around Krasnodar, near the Kerch Straits and the Sea of Azov. Most of those troops and equipment were in place as early as August of last year.
I'm not surprised that Russia would do whatever it took to retake the Crimean Peninsula. Sevastopol contains the largest Russian shipyard for surface fleet construction, and was where Russia's first aircraft carrier was built. One thing to watch closely: if the Russian grain crop is poor, Putin will take the rest of the Ukraine. That area isn't known as a breadbasket for no reason. It's the best farmland in all of Eastern Europe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2014 14:00 Comments ||
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#3
We weren't caught off guard, Bumble just completed his brackets
#7
"NATO allies criticize U.S. for being caught off guard by RU military in Crimea."
It's your continent, not ours. How about taking care of your own neighborhood? Dragged into two European fratricides in the early 20th Century and tagged with performing military welfare for over another 50 years isn't enough?
Simferopol — Ukraine said one of its soldiers was killed in Crimea Tuesday in the first case of bloodshed since Russian troops and pro-Kremlin militia seized the rebel peninsula almost three weeks ago.
"The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage," Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told an emergency government meeting.
"Russian soldiers have started shooting at Ukrainian military servicemen, and that is a war crime," he said at the nationally televised session.
He was speaking after President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty claiming Crimea as Russian territory following the Black Sea region's overwhelming vote on Sunday in favour of switching from Ukrainian to Kremlin rule.
Regional defence ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov told AFP the soldier had died after being shot in the neck when a group of gunmen stormed a Ukrainian military base in the northeast of Crimea's main city of Simferopol. Seleznyov said another soldier was wounded but did not specify whether the base was stormed by Russian soldiers or pro-Kremlin militia who also patrol the peninsula.
The defence ministry spokesman said pro-Russian forces had by late Tuesday taken complete control of Ukraine's Simferopol base.
"The centre has been taken under their full control. All the servicemen inside were lined up in a row and their documents seized," he said. "They were all informed that they were under arrest."
Seleznyov said he could not immediately say how many Ukrainian soldiers had been arrested or the number of pro-Russians involved in the attack.
There was no immediate reaction to the reported death from either Russian authorities in Moscow or the peninsula's rebel leadership.
Ukraine's navy chief Sergiy Gayduk had told the same government meeting that an officer had been shot and injured in the leg "during an attack against a base in Simferopol."
He did not specify where or when the attack happened or who was behind it and it was not immediately clear if it was the same incident.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... , defying Ukrainian protests and Western sanctions, yesterday signed a treaty making Crimea part of Russia but said he did not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine.
In a fiercely patriotic address to a joint session of the Russian parliament in the Kremlin, punctuated by standing ovations, cheering and tears, Putin lambasted the West for what he called hypocrisy. Western nations had endorsed Kosovo's independence from Serbia but now denied Crimeans the same right, he said.
"You cannot call the same thing black today and white tomorrow," he declared to stormy applause, saying Western partners had "crossed the line" over Ukraine and behaved "irresponsibly."
He said Ukraine's new leaders, in power since the overthrow of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich last month, included "neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites."
Putin said Crimea's referendum vote on Sunday had shown the overwhelming will of the people to be reunited with Russia after 60 years as part of the Ukrainian republic.
La Belle France's foreign minister, meanwhile, said leaders of the Group of Eight world powers have suspended Russia's participation in the club.
The other seven members of the group had already suspended preparations for a G8 summit that Russia is scheduled to host in June in Sochi.
To the Russian national anthem in Moscow, Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty on making Crimea part of Russia. During his address, Putin was interrupted by applause at least 30 times.
"In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia," Putin said. He thanked China for what he called its support, even though Beijing abstained on a UN resolution on Crimea that Moscow had to veto on its own, and said he was sure Germans would support the Russian people's quest for reunification, just as Russia had supported German reunification in 1990.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I may be wrong, but I still haven't found anyting yet on the MSM-Net to indicate that Russia's parliament as a body or entity, + independent of Putin [andor Medevedev?], has formally approved the annexation or accession of the Crimea to the RussFed.
Ergo LEGALISM + PCORRECTNESS-DENIABILITY = PUTIN STILL HAS A DIPLOMATIC WAY OUT TO AVOID SANCTIONS + WAR WHILE RUSSIA ALSO STILL GETS ITS VERSION OF "GITMO" IN THE CRIMEA/BLACK SEA???
Plus also a major opportunity for Russia's Orthdox Church to assert + show itself on near-Vatican-style global scale.
#3
Yes, the German 'Greens' who made their country more dependent upon imported gas. The same 'Green's' in this country who want to make sure no gas is available for export. Watermelons - green on the outside, red on the inside.
#6
The president of the Russian Federation replied "Poshli nahuy dolboeobi!". Which, freely translated, means "I'm very, very hurt by your censure. In fact, I'm wounded to the depths of my sensitive Russian soul."
UkraineÂ’s deputy national security chief and leader of the nationalist group Right Sector threatened to destroy RussiaÂ’s gas pipelines in retaliation for the countryÂ’s recent actions in Ukraine.
Dmitry Yarosh, who is also running for president in the upcoming May elections in Ukraine, told media that this aggressive action would have to be attempted to stop “World War III” and punish Russia for their intervention into his native country, Forbes reports.
“We cannot allow the enemy to carry out a blitzkrieg attack on Ukrainian territory,” Yarosh said, according to The International Business Times.
“Let the ground burn under the feet of the occupiers! Let them choke on their own blood when they attack our territory! Not one step back! We will not allow Moscow’s beserk, totalitarian regime to spark a Third World War!” Yarosh declared in his interview with Ukrainian media.
#1
Be it anti-US OWG Globalism or the "Great Game", a Russo-Ukrainian war, US-Russia, or Euro-Russia war plays into the hands of the Soon-to-be-Nuclear Hard Boyz + their similarly Soon-to-be-Nuclear Global Jihad.
Plus any other Wannabe Govt-State + non-Muslim MilTerr Group(s) out there.
#2
At last check, the Ukraine is repor mobilizing up to 40,000 troops to offset agz Russia's 22,000 in the Crimea.
* RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES > MOSCOW'S VISION FOR UKRAINE'S FUTURE, as based on its acceptance of a separate sovereign Crimea.
Russia favors a MULTI-NATINAL SUPPORT GROUP = PLANNING GROUP ALA A POST-CRIMEA UKRAINE.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > TIMES OF ISRAEL: ISRAEL CANNOT RELY ON A "WEAK" US TO DEAL WID IRAN, YA'ALON WARNS. A "WEAK" US IS STRENGTHENING RUSSIA'S HAND IN THE CRIMEA CRISIS AS WELL AS STRENGTHENING CHINA'S HAND IN EAST ASIA-PACIFIC.
* TOPIX > [National Post] OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY LEGACY WILL BE MORE ABOUT "RISK MITIGATION" [Redux = Minima Risk] THAN GREAT TRIUMPHS.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > UKRAINE CRISIS COULD STRENGTHEN RUSSIA-IRAN-CHINA TIES - AS-MONITOR.
* YAHOO NEWS > [New] PM TELLS UKRAINIANS: NO NATO MEMBERSHIP, ARMED GROUPS TO DISARM.
The threat to close the Bosphorus to Russia comes from a report by Hvylya, citing a Turkish diplomatic source. According to the source, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone and warned of the consequences for conflict with Ukraine. The Hvylya source was also reported on by UNIAN.
Concerns were also raised about the possible threat to ethnic Crimean Tatars in the region, citing recent murders and communications with Tatar leadership. Erdogan's call to Putin warned that if Russia invades Ukraine, and so-called 'Crimean self-defense' forces engage in violence against the Tatar minority, Turkey will be forced to close passage into the Black Sea to Russian ships.
Extranational protection of ethnic minorities was originally used as pretext for the Russian invasion of Crimea.
In a separate announcement, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Moscow was pursing "self-willed policy" in the region and urged Russia to respect the territorial integrity of its neighboring countries. "The security of Tatars is the main strategic priority for Turkey," he remarked. "Pandora's box should not be opened. If you create a de facto situation in Ukraine, this will have a domino effect on all the countries in the Eurasia region," Davutoglu said in televised remarks made the day of the Russian implemented referendum.
Methinks Turkey means it will be the USS GEORGE BUSH CVN + BG, at last check presently sailing around the Aegean, that will close the Bosphorus to the RussNav???
#9
AlanC, yes Turkey could probably close the Bosphorus with land based artillery.
Of course, Russia would probably immediately invade Turkey in order to defend their "right" to access the Mediterranean.
Since Turkey is a member of NATO, this would oblige the US to counterattack.
Hilarity (and WW III) ensues.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/19/2014 11:19 Comments ||
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#10
I don't see Russia invading Turkey. Turks would fight back, they have a disconcerting tendency to be very tough fighters and they might make Vlad look bad. They've done it before and Vlad would be wise to consider the possibility they would do it again. Russians and Turks have been going at it for centuries. This, of course, is the one big problem with Crimea and the Black Sea. Supposedly it is the warm water port that the Russians have always coveted. But that Bosphorus choke point makes it all conditional on the good will of the Turks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/19/2014 14:41 Comments ||
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#13
They used to close the Bosphorus with a chain. IIRC the Persians crossed it with a boat-bridge. Also, IIRC, the UK tried to run the Bosphorus in WWI and got rocked, using artillery, mines also being a big part of it.
#16
@15 Any anti-tank weapon should be fairly effective on a warship, presuming of course you can get close enough.
The Black Seas fleet does not seem to be very large, 2 cruisers, 1 destroyer, 2 frigates, 1-2 Kilos, with the frigates and 1 cruiser in the ASW role. All except for the Kilos are over age and really only the Slava class cruiser Moskva and the 2 Kilos can be considered a credible threat against first line Nato naval forces.
[DAWN] CHINIOT: A girl was allegedly kidnapped, forcibly married twice before being gang-raped and stripped naked in Dire Revenge™ for her brother's act.
Sanaullah, 22, son of Noor Muhammad of Mawar Bhattian, had allegedly eloped with the daughter of Mallah of the same village after the families refused to marry them.
The girl's family called Panchayat which decreed that Sanaullah's sister would have to marry Zahid Ali, brother of the girl who had eloped with Sana.
After the decision of Panchayat, accomplices of Zahid kidnapped Sana's sister from her house, held Nikah with her and divorced her after five days. Later, Zahid and his family gave her in the Nikah of Zahid's cousin Noor Ahmad. Some days later, four members of Zahid's family gang-raped her and subjected her to torture.
They stripped her naked, tied her with a tree in the village and called her parents to get their daughter back in return for their girl. The family got her back a month after her alleged kidnapping.
The girl approached the magistrate at tehsil Lalian who ordered her medical examination and registration of case.
Chiniot DPO Munir Zia confirmed a Panchayat had forced the victim to marry Zahid to avenge the act of her brother in February but neither she nor did her family approach the police for registering a case.
The girl submitted an application to the police on Monday and an FIR of kidnap and rape had been registered with Mohammadwala cop shoppe.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey, Allah, instead of a kitten,
Could there be a Mohammedan smitten
Every time that a stodgy
Misogynist hadji
Goes ape over something you've written?
[DAWN] SHIKARPUR: A jirga held in Wazirabad found some Jagirani rustics guilty of having illicit relationships with two girls of the Mahar tribe in a karo-kari (honour killing) case.
The jirga, which was held under the supervision of Pakistain Mohammedan League-Functional politician Ghous Bux Khan Mahar, imposed a fine of Rs2.4 million on the Jagiranis payable to the Mahars.
Ustad Abdullah Mahar, Haji Mushtaque Mahar and others from the complainant side and Ali Muhammad Jagirani, Hadi Bux Jagirani and others from the defence side were present when the verdict was announced on Sunday night.
According to the proceedings, which were conducted by MNA Mahar, Ms Shahnawaz aka Shani, daughter of Sanaullah Mahar, and Ms Reema, daughter of Ustad Abdullah Mahar, were killed by their parents in the name of honour over the suspicion that they had illicit relations with Jagirani rustics.
The Jagirani tribe was ordered to pay Rs400,000 each on charges of kidnapping the two girls. Similarly, another fine of Rs400,000 each was imposed on the accused for having illicit relationship with the girls. The driver, Khair Mohammad Jagirani, was asked to pay Rs400,000 for helping the accused in the crime. Besides, the Jagiranis were directed to pay Rs400,000 to the Mahars in compensation for the expenses incurred by the latter in the matter.
The accused paid Rs100,000 on the spot and promised to pay the remaining Rs2.3 million to the Mahar family in three instalments.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Supreme Court was informed on Monday that a rape victim who had set herself on fire and later died in a hospital in Punjab was neither medically examined nor a DNA test was carried out.
And a report submitted by Punjab IG Khan Baig further deepened the mystery surrounding the incident and raised questions because it was full of twists and turns.
The report submitted to a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani claimed that three sisters of the dear departed deposed during a police inquiry that their father Ghulam Farid had got the rape case registered to misappropriate cattle heads given to him by a brother of the accused Nadir Hussain.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know why they would, he gives them everything, Amnesty, Free Phones, Welfare, and above all Respect, never lies (To them) and Always tells the truth. (Yes Sarc)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/19/2014 12:23 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[DAWN] SHIKARPUR: A jirga held in Wazirabad found some Jagirani 
And a report submitted by Punjab IG Khan Baig further deepened the mystery surrounding the incident and raised questions because it was full of twists and turns.
