Hi there, !
Today Wed 09/04/2013 Tue 09/03/2013 Mon 09/02/2013 Sun 09/01/2013 Sat 08/31/2013 Fri 08/30/2013 Thu 08/29/2013 Archives
Rantburg
531702 articles and 1855987 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 74 articles and 98 comments as of 14:32.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Badie suffers heart attack in jail
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
3 20:33 Uncle Phester [1] 
0 [] 
2 22:08 Procopius2k [1] 
1 14:20 Spot [] 
6 19:30 mossomo [5] 
0 [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
3 21:32 Uncle Phester [2]
0 [1]
1 11:52 GolfBravoUSMC []
0 []
0 [1]
3 09:47 Fred []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
1 07:13 Glenmore []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
10 21:54 Barbara [1]
2 07:17 Besoeker []
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [2]
1 21:55 Uncle Phester []
4 12:29 Besoeker []
7 22:31 Uncle Phester []
0 []
3 13:22 Fred []
0 [1]
0 []
1 18:13 Bobby [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
2 15:09 Shipman []
0 []
0 [1]
2 08:47 AlanC []
0 []
1 12:09 Pappy []
1 08:33 Pappy [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
10 21:21 Uncle Phester [1]
1 12:40 Besoeker []
0 []
4 10:21 Procopius2k []
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 09:00 Redneck Jim []
1 14:29 airandee []
0 []
0 []
0 []
4 12:25 Pappy []
2 07:59 Shipman []
0 []
1 08:27 Besoeker [2]
Page 6: Politix
3 17:45 Dopey Sinatra []
0 []
3 16:37 lord garth []
2 14:22 Spot []
4 08:04 Shipman []
-Land of the Free
Champ's EO will kill the 110 year old Civilian Marksmanship Program
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/01/2013 11:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I participated in a CMP event over 20 years ago. It was a blast, but I never took it far enough to quality for a free M1. A good friend did, though, and he said he would not do it again due to the amount of paperwork and background checks required.
Posted by: Spot || 09/01/2013 14:20 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Odhikar Report on Hefajat Deaths: Questions aplenty
[Bangla Daily Star] Odhikar's fact-finding report, "Assembly of Hefajat-e Islam Bangladesh and Human Rights Violation", is a composition of half-truths, biased and one-sided presentation of what happened on May 5 and in the early hours of May 6 in the capital, according to an analysis by The Daily Star.

The June 10 report says nothing about the destructive activities by Hefajat men, the involvement of Jamaat-Shibir activists and their instigation of acts of violence. But it has elaborately described the role of law enforcers and pro-ruling party men.

Hundreds of unruly Hefajat men were involved in widespread violence, including arson and even torching of bookshops that sold copies of the holy Koran. Though many TV channels broadcast the incidents live, Odhikar is completely silent about it. It has depicted Hefajat-e-Islam as a very peaceful organization and its leaders and activists as innocent individuals.

While being flushed out of Shapla Chattar, Hefajat men attacked a policeman with bricks near the Alico building in Motijheel, leaving him dead on the spot. A correspondent of The Daily Star covering the event on that night witnessed it, but the Odhikar report made no mention of it.

The 28-page report starts with an introduction of Hefajat and its objectives. It termed Hefajat a people's platform, a non-political and socio-cultural organization, and mentioned its objectives were to promote "social dialogue to dispel prejudices that affect community harmony and relations".

In reality, Hefajat's character is completely the opposite of what the Odhikar report states. The organization's recent activities, provocative speeches of its leaders, the 13-point demand, its anti-women and anti-constitutional stance clearly go against the spirit of community harmony. It is against the secular education policy and has staged violent demonstrations against the government's avowed policy of equal rights for women.

Hefajat is no longer a non-political organization. Practically, it is now a political force -- very much aligned with the BNP, Jamaat and other Islamist and smaller political parties.

Posted by: Fred || 09/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia Today's Editor-In-Chief: Russians' POV
h/t Gates of Vienna
these are Russians' POV not mine. But IMO, well worth knowing
...Simonyan: If you tune in to CNN or the BBC on a regular day, 80 or 90 percent of the stories are identical. We want to show that there are more stories out there than the 10-a-day that you usually encounter. I'm not saying that you should watch only our program; I'm saying that you should also watch it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Russian media have a slightly more dramatic take on your objectives. Many are comparing the network to the Ministry of Defense. You said it yourself, when Russia goes to war …

Simonyan: ... then we will join them in battle, yes. That goes for the country's real, armed conflicts. Do you remember the August war of 2008? Back then, most Western media outlets acted as if they were Georgia's ministry of defense.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In 2008, Russian troops invaded Georgian territory after President Mikheil Saakashvili gave the order to attack South Ossetia, a separatist republic with close ties to Russia.

Simonyan: All of the Western broadcasters gave only the Georgian side of the story. Saakashvili was featured on all the networks; his statements were broadcast on all the programs. It was said that Russia started the war.* It was said the country's troops bombed a busy market in the provincial town of Gori. We immediately sent our correspondents out there, who found no trace of either shootings or bombings. Western broadcasters focused their entire coverage on the suffering of Georgian civilians. There was no mention of South Ossetians, meanwhile, who were suffering nightly artillery attacks at the hands of Saakashvili. It was pro-Georgian propaganda, pure and simple.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: It wasn't that one-sided. SPIEGEL, for one, reported at an early stage that it was Saakashvili who had fired the first shot. A European Union committee came to the same conclusion.

Simonyan: Sure, afterwards! But how many people actually ended up reading the EU report? The majority of people to this day believe that Russia started the war totally unprovoked. The evil Russia pounces on poor little Georgia.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you explain Russia's negative image?

Simonyan: The West never got over the Cold War stereotype. One thing that only few journalists understand is that Russia started dissolving the Soviet Union of its own accord. We were the ones to realize that Communism was a failure. We understood that it was wrong to impose our will on other nations. We released the Eastern bloc into freedom. We are a different country today, one with a different mentality -- which is something that Western journalists sometimes find difficult to comprehend. You, for example, stated earlier that Russia was acting aggressively without backing it up with facts.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/01/2013 14:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
THE MARXIST-LENINIST ROOTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Salt added by me for the nonsense about an "American Union"...
h/t Gates of Vienna
Below is my translation of an interview with former Soviet dissident and political prisoner Vladimir Bukovsky by Alessandra Nucci, published in the December 2012 issue of the Italian periodical Radici Cristiane. What he says helps to understand what lies behind the European Union project and its similarities with the Soviet Union, a subject on which Bukovsky has written a book.

Vladimir Bukovsky, 70, is one of the most famous ex-political prisoners of the former Soviet Union. In total he spent twelve years in internment, in prisons, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals, before being released and swapped for the Chilean prisoner Luis Corvalan in 1976. Since then he has lived in Cambridge and has taken British citizenship.

In 2007 he co-authored with Pavel Stroilov EUSSR: The Soviet Roots of European Integration in which he reconstructs, on the basis of documents copied from the Soviet archives in 1992, plans to transform the European Union into a Union of Socialist Republics in all identical to the former Soviet Union.

...Are they therefore all socialists in Brussels?
The project is socialist. I do not know these people personally, but most of them are on the Left, more or less extreme. That means that they favour statist solutions and the regulation of everything. And they all talk like in Lenin's book The State and Revolution, which explains how the nation state will die. His words are that it will "fade until it disappears".

...Among your predictions for the EU-USSR there was also the gulag. Do you confirm it?
Unfortunately, yes. The EU is creating it slowly. Political correctness is imposed not by persuasion but by repression. In Britain just last month they jailed for hate speech a nineteen-year-old who had written something offensive on Twitter about a black football player. He was sentenced to a month and a half in prison.

As nobody protests, they will gradually widen the net and eventually we will get the gulag. And remember that the European police force is granted immunity, something that was not granted even to the KGB!

Is Barack Obama not part of all this?
For now, Americans do not perceive the European Union, do not see where it is going. But America has a parallel special project, the American Union. If the process includes the United States of America, what hope is there to stop this global government? It will fail, because it is too big to handle. It is impossible to govern such a huge entity. And notice that the most common resistance is not open, but passive: sabotage.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/01/2013 14:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps Bukovsky is referring to NAFTA?
Posted by: Pappy || 09/01/2013 19:40 Comments || Top||

#2  NAFTA was a sort of Common Market which was in turn the lead in to the eventual EU.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/01/2013 22:08 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trying to Help Syria Would Destroy It
Syrians are fond of saying that their country is "the beating heart of the Arab world," having played an outsize role in the history and politics of the region, from the Islamic golden age in the 7th century and the Arab Revolt during World War I to the Arab-Israeli wars. After 2-1/2 years of civil conflict, however, it is becoming more difficult to think of Syria as the spirit and soul of the region.

There was a moment early in the Syrian crisis when one could imagine that foreign intervention would have had salutary effects. In January 2012, I wrote that it was "time to think seriously about intervening in Syria" and laid out moral and strategic arguments in a piece for the Atlantic's Web site.
No link to the "I toldya so" article.
At that time, the conflict had killed 5,000 people, the vast majority at the hands of the regime. This was more than Moammar Gaddafi had killed on the eve of NATO operations in Libya. If Libyans deserved protection, then Syrians did, too.
No blood for oil! Besides, some of see how well Libya turned out.
There is another concern that should figure into the president's calculations: The missile strikes the White House is contemplating would advance Syria's dissolution.

Assad would remain defiant in the face of an attack. It is not as if he is constrained now, but he would probably step up the violence both to exert control within his country and to demonstrate that the United States and its allies cannot intimidate him.
Like a schoolyard bully, he'd make more innocents pay the price.
At the same time, the regime's Iranian patrons and Hezbollah supporters would increase their investment in the conflict, meaning more weapons and more fighters pouring into Syria -- resulting in more atrocities. And on the other side, Syrian opposition groups would welcome a steady stream of foreign fighters who care more about killing Alawites and Shiites than the fate of the country. This environment would heighten Syria's substantial sectarian, ethnic and political divisions, pulling the country apart.
Like Yugoslavia, but with more brutality.
The formidable U.S. armed forces could certainly damage Assad's considerably less potent military. But in an astonishing irony that only the conflict in Syria could produce, American and allied cruise missiles would be degrading the capability of the regime's military units to the benefit of the al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting Assad -- the same militants whom U.S. drones are attacking regularly in places such as Yemen. Military strikes would also complicate Washington's longer-term desire to bring stability to a country that borders Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.
Washington just wishes this would all go away. Champ made nice to everyone, why can't they all just get along?
Unlike Yugoslavia, which ripped itself apart in the 1990s, Syria has no obvious successor states, meaning there would be violence and instability in the heart of the Middle East for many years to come.
I like popcorn as much as anyone, but I think there may be better outcomes without our intervention. Champ already has zero credibility. Nothing he can do now to restore it.
Posted by: Bobby || 09/01/2013 15:10 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  there would be violence and instability in the heart of the Middle East for many years to come

Unlike the peace & calm reigning before?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/01/2013 15:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Our Syria plan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/01/2013 16:14 Comments || Top||

#3  If there could be some way to contain Muzzie Community Activists without their problems spilling over to Israel, I am sure most of us would like nothing more than to see them resolve their internal issues to the last kaboom standing.

My cynicism, however, says that our Executive Branch, with support of many in Congress, is doing everything they can to bend to the wills of other than those of the American public at large.

I wish some Constitutionalist leader(s)(names anyone?) c/would step forward to, at least superficially and for the good of Country, make The President (only) look strong, while successfully bending the arc of his trajectory.

I believe we are doomed to be involved in a foreign civil conflict with no accrual of positive benefit or outcome near term, and the potential for long-term serious ugly; Syrian civilians shall become spoils.

War, like things that have T's or T's are gonna' be a problem, something I doubt Mr. Obama's staff has wrapped their heads around....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 09/01/2013 20:33 Comments || Top||


Hammer: Champ miscalculation on Syria could result in regional war
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/01/2013 00:04 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I kind of agree with Krauthammer. A token slap on Syria's wrist will embolden Iran.

Although I also think Iran's anti-Israeli rhetoric is just that, rhetoric.

But if Hezbollah start firing rockets at Israel, and Israel smacks them hard and hits Syria, Iran may respond against Israel with chemical weapons, and frankly Israel may feel now is the time for a couple of tactical nukes against Iran's nuclear program.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/01/2013 5:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Former anti-war protester (Kerry) and Nobel Peace Prize Awardee (Obama) pushing for US military action / intervention in a ME civil war.

Guess I'm just not smart enough or am distracted by "Clinging to my guns or religion" to see the justification....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 09/01/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#3  The Miscalculator in Chief, making a wrong call? What blasphemy. I generally listen closely to what the 'Hammer' has to say. A professional, psychiatric opinion is undoubtedly the correct approach when dealing with victims of lifelong narcissism.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/01/2013 11:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Besoeker

"Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:

Believing that you're better than others
Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
Exaggerating your achievements or talents
Expecting constant praise and admiration
Believing that you're special and acting accordingly
Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings
Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
Taking advantage of others
Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
Being jealous of others
Believing that others are jealous of you
Trouble keeping healthy relationships
Setting unrealistic goals
Being easily hurt and rejected
Having a fragile self-esteem
Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

In addition to these symptoms, the person may display arrogance, show superiority, and seek power."

We all know his speeches a full of "Me, Myself and I" but when he had that Photo Op Friday and said "His Military" it was all I could do to keep from throwing something through my 52" flat screen.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 09/01/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, always heartwarming to listen to these preppy, plastic, beltway folks who employ personal pronouns such as "I, me, we, us, our, ours" when referring to the tasks reserved for rough men who must remain ready to go into harm's way.

I despise these been nowhere, done nothing parasites, and their fungal, life sucking spawn.



Posted by: Besoeker || 09/01/2013 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Men make.
Parasites take.
Posted by: mossomo || 09/01/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
7Govt of Syria
5Arab Spring
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
3Hezbollah
2Commies
2Govt of Pakistan
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Narcos
1Taliban
1Abu Sayyaf
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Iran
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2013-09-01
  Leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Badie suffers heart attack in jail
Sat 2013-08-31
  Breaking: Obama hands the ball off to Congress
Fri 2013-08-30
  Egypt Police Arrest Senior Islamist Beltagi
Thu 2013-08-29
  Report: 20 Injured In Another Chemical Attack In Syria
Wed 2013-08-28
  DEATH SENTENCE FOR Maj. NIDAL HASAN
Tue 2013-08-27
  Belmokhtar, MUJAO launch new jihadist group
Mon 2013-08-26
  Security forces claim seizure of 500 kgs explosives in Khyber
Sun 2013-08-25
  Hungry Boko Haram hard boyz turn cannibal
Sat 2013-08-24
  Twin blasts at Lebanese mosques kill at least 43
Fri 2013-08-23
  Musharraf charged with Benazir's murder
Thu 2013-08-22
  Two Somalis Killed, Swedish Pol Wounded in Mog Attack
Wed 2013-08-21
  Hundreds dead in Syria gas attack
Tue 2013-08-20
  Boko Haram chief shot, may have died: Nigerian army
Mon 2013-08-19
  Dozens of Egyptian policemen killed in North Sinai blast
Sun 2013-08-18
  250 Kgs of Explosives Found in Car near Naameh Municipality Building

Better than the average link...



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.
3.239.13.1
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (21)    WoT Background (30)    Non-WoT (12)    (0)    Politix (5)