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Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
5 16:34 Besoeker [336078]
7 19:43 JosephMendiola [336113]
-Obits-
Thousands attend Chris Kyle funeral - Breitbart
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 07:00 || Comments || Link || [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The bravest of the brave.

Their ideal is our legacy. Their Sacrifice our Inspiration.

Rest in peace.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 9:13 Comments || Top||

#2 



There were no reported attendees from the Obama administration. Only true Americans showed up. By the thousands. A Texas size tribute.


The patriotism shown along 200 mile funeral procession was more than adequate.



Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/13/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Thank you, Besoeker. Thank you, Dino Shomomp7692. We are grateful to have had Mr. Kyle among us for as long as we did.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/13/2013 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
-- L. Binyon
Posted by: SteveS || 02/13/2013 13:06 Comments || Top||

#5 


RIP cowboy Chris Kyle.
Posted by: wr || 02/13/2013 15:42 Comments || Top||

#6  There were no reported attendees from the Obama administration.

Fitting I'd say. No sense fouling good Texas air.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 16:30 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
'Femen' activists go topless to hail pope's resignation
[FRANCE24] Eight Femen activists flashed their breasts in the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Tuesday to mark Pope Benedict XVI's resignation announcement a day earlier, yelling "No more homophobe" and "Bye bye Benedict!"
Boy howdy. How original. Hasn't anyone told these loons that that shit is just so played?
Posted by: Fred || 02/13/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336113 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pictures or GTFO...
Posted by: Raj || 02/13/2013 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Yawn || 02/13/2013 7:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Toss them into the Seine to cool off a bit.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 7:14 Comments || Top||

#4  "This is a sacred place, you can't strip here," said a Frenchwoman.

'nuff said.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/13/2013 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Yawn, fuck you. The Pope was never a Nazi. He grew up in Germany and was forced to join the Hitler Youth and the German army.

The idea that he would be interested in naked altar boys is slander pure and simple.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/13/2013 9:18 Comments || Top||

#6 

Might we delete #2 please ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 9:40 Comments || Top||

#7 
Maybe if they get some little boys to turn out naked they might get the old Nazi's attention.

You don't like him as Pope, but he'd be welcome as a Boy Scout counselor?
Posted by: Fred || 02/13/2013 9:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Israel for Jews Yawn has been 'smokeyed'.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/13/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Sorry (sorta), Fred.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/13/2013 9:46 Comments || Top||

#10  I'd take these overly hormonal little beasts more seriously if they would at least saw SOMETHING about the treatment of women by our favorite groups in Pakistain, Afghanistan, and of course down in Tahir Square, home of those lovely boys in the Moslem Brotherhood...

Since none of these feminist groups EVER criticize anything except Christianity and the US, they have no credibility with me at all.

And you forgot the chanting of incoherent irrational slogans coming from the Loon's mouth.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/13/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#11  You don't like him as Pope, but he'd be welcome as a Boy Scout counselor?

1. The commenter is a Brit; they were corrupted a long time ago.

2. Consider who the commenter is.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/13/2013 11:11 Comments || Top||

#12  Since none of these feminist groups EVER criticize anything except Christianity and the US, they have no credibility with me at all. Bill Clinton

You're much too charitable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Pics or it didn't happen.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/13/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#14  Pics or it didn't happen.
DarthVader, here you go.
Posted by: tipper || 02/13/2013 12:33 Comments || Top||

#15  I'm a big fan of boobies, but I never understood the whole naked protest thing, except maybe as some sort of personal theater.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/13/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||

#16  Link doesn't work, so, it didn't happen?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/13/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||

#17  What Bill said.

Wotta buncha maroons. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/13/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#18  Try this in a mosque, you brave girls
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/13/2013 15:39 Comments || Top||

#19  "There's no boobs in the Cathedral!"

Au contraire, mon frere...
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/13/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||

#20  Ditto Bill C.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/13/2013 18:12 Comments || Top||

#21  Ditto, #18 EC!
Posted by: Barbara || 02/13/2013 18:28 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Change hits Algerian parties
[MAGHAREBIA] A year before the presidential elections, several heavyweights have disappeared from the Algerian political stage.

The Algerian political scene bereft of its big names is akin to an "elephants' graveyard", Liberté commented.

"For twenty years now, this mammoths' tomb has swallowed up the beautiful flower of Algeria's political future, which must now be consigned to the past, of course," the February 3rd editorial said.

"From Sifi to Belkhadem, Redha Malek, Taleb El-Ibrahimi, Benbitour, Hamdani, Hamrouche, Benflis, Boukrouh, Sadi, Ait Ahmed, Ouyahia and Soltani have all played their part in keeping politics going before this was crushed by indifference," the Algerian daily opined.

A popular adage says that when the National Liberation Front (FLN) catches a cold, Algerian politics sneezes. Indeed, the changes have been coning at breakneck speed.

The January departure of FLN party chief Abdelaziz Belkhadem is just the latest in a series of changes to Algeria's political landscape.

Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) head Said Sadi also stepped down last spring to make way for Mohcine Belabbas, the former leader of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS).

Political parties including the National Democratic Rally (RND), the Movement for a Peaceful Society (MSP) and the FFS also recently experienced changes in their leadership.

El Watan suggested that the "political killing" of the leaders of the FLN and RND was possibly part of a plan to make way for surprise replacements.

"The crisis that the FLN has gone through of late and the way in which the party's secretary general, Abdelaziz Belkhadem -- who was known for his loyalty to the president, to whom he owed his career -- was removed could indicate the lack of a consensus at the very top with regard to the 2014 presidential elections," the Algerian daily editorialised.

The only prominent political group that has enjoyed relative stability is the Workers' Party (PT) led by Louiza Hanoune.

In an interview with Magharebia, MP Ramdane Taazibt said his party was not affected because "the bylaws and internal regulations are adhered to within the PT".
Posted by: Fred || 02/13/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336083 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuelan drug kingpins in power for (at least) four more years
In September 2008, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) called out three high-ranking officials in the Hugo Chavez regime for supporting the drug-trafficking activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-terrorist organization. Their assistance to FARC included: supplying the group with weapons and ammunition, granting Venezuelan citizenship to group members, preventing law enforcement from interfering with the group’s drug-trafficking operations, protecting a wanted Colombian terrorist in Venezuela, allowing the group to use Venezuelan territory for drug-trafficking and terrorist activities, and even partnering in drug trafficking. In other words, these men are guilty of violating international law several times over.

The three senior officials named were: Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, at the time the director of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Directorate (DGIM); Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, at the time the director of Venezuela’s Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP); and Ramon Emilio Rodriguez-Chacín, who was acting as Venezuela’s minister of interior and justice.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that in 2009 Venezuela was the main cocaine transit country in the Western Hemisphere. Today, Venezuela remains as relevant as ever in the cocaine-supply chain. So what became of the three OFAC-designated kingpins mentioned above? Were they questioned, investigated, or dismissed after OFAC’s announcement?

Not at all. In Bolivarian Venezuela, loyalty to the dying caudillo is all that matters, and the three kingpins and Chavez have a history. All three are members of the military; all three participated in the coup d’état led by Chavez in February 1992; all three were arrested and did time in jail as a consequence; all three were promoted within the military ranks and to important governmental roles once Chavez reached Venezuela’s presidency; and all three have been supported publicly by Chavez since OFAC’s announcement. So instead of demoting or dismissing them, Chavez gave them his full support and more power. Rangel-Silva was appointed as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rodriguez-Chacín was designated as Venezuela’s representative in multilateral talks with FARC. And Carvajal was kept in command of military intelligence.

Posted by: tipper || 02/13/2013 14:20 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan Sentences ex-President, Brother in Absentia
[An Nahar] A Kyrgyz military court on Tuesday sentenced in absentia former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev to 24 years in prison and his brother Janysh to life for crimes committed while they ruled the country from 2005-2010.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was toppled in a bloody 2010 uprising fueled by his family's rampant corruption, was convicted of abuse of power by the Bishkek military garrison court.

His brother Janysh, the former head of the state bodyguard service under Bakiyev, was meanwhile convicted of multiple murder.

Both men fled to Belarus after the 2010 revolution and Minsk has so far refused requests from Bishkek's new rulers to extradite the pair.
Posted by: Fred || 02/13/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Why Can’t This Economy Really Get Going?
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/13/2013 18:50 || Comments || Link || [336119 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Debt replaced comparative advantage destroyed by incomes taxes. Now there's no ability to have more debt the economy will shrink until tax moves from work to land values.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/13/2013 19:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Slaves only work enough to avoid punishment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/13/2013 21:13 Comments || Top||


The Ugly Truth About Our Economy
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/13/2013 16:18 || Comments || Link || [336127 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Goes along with the higher education bubble.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/13/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Also on DV's link, one of the most brilliant young women of our time, Amity Shlaes
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/13/2013 16:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I was listening to a local radio jock on the way homw who was talking about Champs speech. I about spilled my coffee when he referred to POTUS as that idiot in the WH. I just wonder why more people don't have his awareness.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/13/2013 18:16 Comments || Top||

#4  ..because there are more people who receive other people's free money from the idiot.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/13/2013 21:15 Comments || Top||


Europe
France Arrests 15 Kurds in PKK Probe
[An Nahar] Fifteen Kurds have been enjugged
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in southwestern La Belle France in an anti-terror probe into extortion rackets used to raise funds for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), legal sources said Tuesday.

The people arrested in the cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse
...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
are suspected of being senior figures within the regional structure of the organization, the sources said.

The arrests came as German federal prosecutors on Tuesday pressed charges against a 46-year-old Turkish man suspected of raising money for the PKK throughout Europe.

The PKK, which took up arms in its campaign for autonomy in southeast Turkey in 1984, is branded a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have in the conflict.

Three Kurdish women activists were rubbed out in Gay Paree last month. The driver of one of the women has been charged with their murder.
Posted by: Fred || 02/13/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336090 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Iran's 'fake' fighter jet spotted in the air
With a little help from Photoshop
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/13/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336126 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gizmodo is all over this one.
Posted by: Raj || 02/13/2013 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  D *** NG IT, I don't see Godzilla anywhere around, do you???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/13/2013 0:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, he's right here Joe.

Posted by: junkiron || 02/13/2013 6:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Sometimes we look at a photograph and we know something just doesn't look right, but we just can't seem to put our finger on what is wrong with the image.

In this case we know instantly that the image was "Photoshopped" because the plane and the background (the mountain) were photographed from two different perspectives. Or angles.

In photography perspective means - where was the photographer standing in relation to the subject when he/she took the picture ? In the Iranian Photoshopped image you will notice that, in the case of the background, the photographer was high above the mountain, and from the photographers perspective, he/she was in a position directly in front of the mountain. (head on)

In the case of the jet plane, if you look at the two tail sections, you will notice that the photographers perspective (position) was slightly above the plane and almost all the way to the left.

The image looks phoney because from the photographers perspective the plane would have been flying out of the image, or on the far right, not on the far left.

If you place the plane on the far right of the image, the first thing you notice is that the plane has no exaust. That is probably why the "Photoshop Artist" put the plane on the left and cut off the tail section.

Another dead give away that an image has been "Phoshopped" is the image resolution. Resolution is the size and shape of the pixels. In this case, not only are the two images different resolutions, but the plane has been given a "motion blur" which causes the planes pixels to become rectangular and pointed on the left.

AS A SIDE NOTE:

The image of Obama's birth certificate (on his website) is comprised of four different sized pixels.
It is quite easy to program Photoshop to copy only the pixels of a certain size.
If you do this four times what you come up with is the four original documents used to composite the final image.
Also the ink on each document is a different color of black. In addition all the text edits made are a fifth color of black. If you program Photoshop to copy only the fifth color of black, what you come up with are all the text edits they made on the final draft of the birth certificate.
Posted by: junkiron || 02/13/2013 19:20 Comments || Top||

#5  *happy sigh* Rantburg has the best experts! That was a pure pleasure to read, junkiron.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/13/2013 21:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
School attacks, "terrorist threats" have Alabama careening toward panic
Posted by: tipper || 02/13/2013 19:27 || Comments || Link || [336110 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
8Arab Spring
4Govt of Syria
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Pakistan
2TTP
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2Commies
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
1al-Qaeda

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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.
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2013-02-13
  Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo
Tue 2013-02-12
  KCNA confirms: Pudgy sets off a nuke
Mon 2013-02-11
  Seven killed, 11 injured in attacks across southern Thailand
Sun 2013-02-10
  Syrian troops, rebels clash over Damascus highway
Sat 2013-02-09
  India Executes Man Convicted in 2001 Attack on Parliament
Fri 2013-02-08
  Suicide bomber hits north Mali, troops clash in capital
Thu 2013-02-07
  Syrian Army Launches 'All-Out Attack' on Capital Region
Wed 2013-02-06
  Fat Lady Sings for Abd el Kader Mahmoud Mohamed el Sayed
Tue 2013-02-05
  Second big turban nabbed in northern Mali
Mon 2013-02-04
  Ansar Dine #3 arrested in northern Mali
Sun 2013-02-03
  Yemen Troops Kill 12 'Qaida Militants' in Restive South
Sat 2013-02-02
  Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
Fri 2013-02-01
  Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Thu 2013-01-31
  Boko Haram 'commander' declares ceasefire
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo

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