#2
I actually met Jane Russell in the late 70's working in the Coronado Cays (Dick Van Dyke as well - he was very nice). That picture is a better memory. Yikes!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2009 0:54 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Special Sunday Edition, (Thanks Fred)
It's a good thing for her that Howard Hughes invented the underwire bra. She certainly comes from good Minnesota stock.
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Saturday was elected Somalia's president, leaving him in charge of a fragile peace process aimed at ending 18 years of civil conflict.
The young Imam promptly vowed to form a broad government and invited all armed groups in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation to join the U.N.-sponsored reconciliation effort.
"Extending a hand"
Sheikh Sharif, who chairs the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), comfortably won the vote held in neighboring Djibouti, only days after the Ethiopian troops who sent him into exile two years ago completed their pullout from Somalia.
He defeated Maslah Mohamed Siad Barre, a general and the son of a former president, in the second round of voting, according to an official tally of some 430 lawmakers' votes.
"We have 293 votes for Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and 126 for Siad," said Hussein Mohamed Jama, head of the presidential electoral commission.
"I declare Sharif Sheikh Ahmed the president of Somalia after winning this election," Parliament Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur said.
In a brief acceptance speech following a vote that ended after 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), Sheikh Sharif vowed to reach out to the former transitional government as well as to the Shebab, a hardline offshoot of the ICU which rejects talks.
"Very soon, I will form a government which represents the people of Somalia. We will live peacefully with East African countries and we want to cooperate with them," he said.
"I am extending a hand to all Somali armed groups who are still opposed to this process and inviting them to join us," he added.
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, long seen as the young cleric's main rival to take the helm of the war-ravaged country, pulled out of the contest after trailing Sheikh Sharif by a massive 160 votes in the first round.
"I am ready to cooperate with whoever is elected to make Somalia a peaceful country," he then said.
The vote by a parliament enlarged earlier this week to include Sheikh Sharif's moderate wing of the Islamist-led opposition started late Friday, after hours of intense discussions between MPs.
Sheikh Sharif, a former geography teacher educated in Sudan and Libya, ran in the election as the head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an Islamist-dominated opposition umbrella formed in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling into the Palestinian territory, security sources said on Saturday. "Alarms and surveillance cameras were installed last week along the 14-kilometre (eight-mile) border" to detect activity through smuggling tunnels, a security official said, declining to be named.
The sources said Egyptian authorities had begun installing the equipment two days ago with joint U.S., French and German expertise, and added that they hoped the sensors and cameras would help detect any tunnel construction in the border area.
"Cables that are part of a tunnel detection device are being installed along the Gaza-Egypt border," another security source said, adding the cables were being installed from south of Rafah to the Mediterranean coast. The source said some cameras and sensors had already been installed, and the cameras would be connected by the cables.
Israel bombed the tunnels during its recent 22-day Gaza offensive, and its military fears Hamas could use them to re-arm. But many tunnels have sophisticated systems and seem to have survived weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The United States has pledged 25 million euros ($32 million) in detection equipment to unearth smuggling tunnels, and U.S. army engineers have been providing technical assistance on the ground. France, meanwhile, has sent a frigate to patrol the waters off Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Egypt installing cameras, sensors at Gaza border
So nobody sneaks by without paying "Taxes".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/01/2009 15:15 Comments ||
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#2
Gotta pay for them cameras and sensors somehow.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/01/2009 16:28 Comments ||
Top||
Noche de Cristal?
The vandalizing of a Caracas synagogue late Friday only underscores the feeling of growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the South American nation, Jewish community members said over the weekend.
A group of people - reports run as high as 15 - broke into Caracas's Sephardic synagogue late on Friday, held the guard at gunpoint, wreaked havoc on the building and damaged the Torah scrolls. Before leaving at around 3 a.m., the vandals scrawled "Death to the Jews" and "We don't want Jews here" on the synagogue's walls.
The damage was discovered by community members on Saturday morning. The guard was found on the floor, one community leader said.
According to Paul Hariton, a former leader of the Ashkenazi community in Caracas, "this was a well-organized event. The attackers were heavily armed. They jumped a wall and overcame two guards. They even took the videotape out of the security camera before they left."
The US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the attack was "not a random event in Venezuela; it is directly related to the atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation promoted by President [Hugo] Chavez and his government apparatus."
The suggestion of government sanction for the attack was heard many times from Venezuelan Jews over the weekend, though most of them would not speak on the record. "I do not expect the law to be enforced," Hariton said simply.
The ADL called on Chavez "to abandon the official government rhetoric of demonization of Israel and Jews and to publicly denounce this wanton act of anti-Semitic violence."
Chavez called on the Venezuelan Jewish community to "declare itself against this barbarity" - Israel's recent offense against Hamas in Gaza - in a January 6 interview with Venezuela's state-run VTV television network.
"Don't Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we're witnessing," Chavez told the network.
According to Miami Herald columnist and Latin America expert Andres Oppenheimer, "Chavez-backed regional media carry anti-Semitic - and not just anti-Israel - stories almost daily."
For example, he relates, "As I'm writing this [on Thursday], a quick look at the Web site of Telesur, the Venezuela-based regional television network owned by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Paraguay, shows me a story entitled 'Gaza's Ruins,' which accuses Israel 'and the world's Jews' of failing to denounce alleged atrocities by Israeli troops and 'Jewish planes' in Gaza."
"We've never had such an incident. It looks well-planned," Daniel Ben-Naim, spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Venezuela, said of the synagogue attack. "We were afraid something like this would happen. The official press was becoming more and more anti-Israeli and anti-Jews. There are hundreds of anti-Semitic articles, ads and fliers."
According to Hariton, the government is using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a "scapegoat" to distract attention from Venezuela's most pressing problems. With crime at one of the highest levels in the world, "where does the Venezuelan government find the time to talk about terrorists getting killed in Gaza? It used to be a country friendly to Israel and the Jewish community," he said.
"You can disagree with Israel. That's fine," said Hariton. "But you can't go to a place where we worship and destroy it. That's clearly anti-Semitism." Coming to a community near you.
"Never again," they say? Well, it's happening again, right before our eyes. Forbearance and pacifism worked real well in 1933-45, didn't they?
I suggest a different course this time:
First they came for the pacifist Jews,
but I was not a pacifist, so I did not speak up.....
Then they came for the liberal Jewish professors,
but I was not a liberal Jewish professor, so I did not speak up....
Then they came for the media-activist Jews,
but I was not a media activist Jew, so I did not speak up...
Then they came for the self-hating liberal Jews who had supported them,
but I was not a self-hating Jew, so I did not speak up.
Then they came for the gun-owning Republican Jews,
#4
I wonder what would happen to Venezuela if we imposed an embargo against them like we do against Cuba. I do wonder how long Hoogo would last. Nobody else in the world will buy that sludge he calls oil. No money, no power, just coca and bullets.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/01/2009 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#5
One must remember that Hamas is quite active in Venezuela and there are many Iranians there too. Iran and Venezuela are allies.
Nine people, including three security personnel, were killed on Saturday in fresh incidents of violence in NWFP's Swat district.
Locals said three people were killed in a clash between security personnel and the Taliban in the Dherai area of Kabal tehsil.
Those killed were identified as Bakht Buland, Mian Pirzada and Akbar Zada, they said, adding a Taliban was also killed in the clash.
In the Aligrama area of Kabal, the Taliban attacked a security forces' convoy. Three security personnel were killed while another was injured in the attack.
Gunships: Three people were killed as helicopter gunships targeted Taliban positions in Kabal. The forces' air attack also destroyed a self-proclaimed Taliban court building.
The district's Kooza Bandai, Bar Bandai, Tangolai and Shakardara areas remained under curfew for the seventh day.
Arrests: Peshawar city police on Saturday arrested 15 people suspected of having links with the Taliban, during a crackdown in the Mathra police station precincts, police said.
Operations Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi told reporters that the operation was launched in Badi Koroona, Bela Mohmandan and Qila Shah Baig.
He said the area had become a hideout for the terrorists, who were attacking Peshawar, Charsadda, Mohmand and Khyber Agency from there.
Afridi said the police raided these hideouts during the early hours on Saturday, adding that around 200 police personnel took part in the operation.
The SSP said the police have also arrested some men suspected to be senior commanders of the terrorists operating from the area. He said the operation in the area was continuing.
He said the terrorist put up resistance in some areas and exchanged fire with the police, however, there were no casualties among the security personnel.
Afridi said some of the arrested men were assisting the terrorists by providing them with routes, while some of them were key commanders and were involved in crimes. Commenting on the increase in kidnapping incidents in the city, Afridi admitted that abductions had recorded a rise.
However, he said the primary concern of the police was fighting extremism, adding the number of abductions would come down, as the police were making all efforts to counter terrorism in the area.
Meanwhile, Daily Times learnt that one of the arrested people was a Taliban commander, suspected of training suicide bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[2 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
The premier also praised Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) staff for their efforts and the security agencies that protected the citizens during the course of the voting.
Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time to receive eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils amidst blanket security measures.
Four provinces, including the three autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk, have not witnessed local elections, in addition to oil-rich Kirkuk, where elections were postponed until reconciliatory solutions are reached for the political crises there.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
And all of this was made by possible by who, again?
#2
Pretty clever of those Jews! Call everyone and let them know that the missles are coming to hit the rocket caches, etc. Then, hit the buildings that have people streaming out of them. Reduce the enemy's inventory of weapons with efficiency and a minimum of fuss. And IDF gets refreshed information on other locations to find Hamas personnel. Ain't those UAV's great!
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/01/2009 18:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"SMS" = Kaiser Wilhelm's IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVY???
A Palestinian Grad rocket exploded in Ashkelon on Saturday morning, according to Israel Radio. The projectile struck an open field in the city. Authorities are now searching for the precise landing spot, Israel Radio reported. No injuries were reported in the attack.
Decision-makers in Jerusalem said Israel would continue to launch pinpoint strikes against Hamas and other Palestinian militant organizations in the Gaza Strip, Haaretz has learned.
Israeli aircraft on Thursday wounded 10 Palestinians in the attempted killing of a Hamas operative in southern Gaza. Palestinian militants launched two Qassam rockets and one mortar round into Israel, resulting in no casualties or damage.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, has vowed to strike Israeli targets, and Cypriot authorities Wednesday detained an Iranian arms ship that Israel believes may have been en route to Hezbollah.
The decision to carry out further pinpoint strikes against Hamas emerged after consultations between the security cabinet and top Israeli defense officials. The hostilities were necessary to let Hamas know that strikes against Israel would not go unanswered, one source said.
During the deliberations, intelligence officers said Hamas was trying to contain its radical elements because it was interested in cementing a cease-fire agreement. This, the intelligence officers said, was why the organization is delaying its response to recent strikes by the Israel Defense Forces.
The first IDF strike against Hamas after Operation Cast Lead came on Tuesday, after the death of one Israeli soldier in an explosion near the border with Gaza. Since then, the Israel Air Force carried out several retaliatory raids.
The latest, which wounded 10 Palestinians, was aimed at Mohammed Samiri, whom the IDF believes was involved in planning and carrying out the attack on the IDF patrol on Tuesday. According to reports from the Strip, Samiri was riding a motorcycle in Khan Yunis when a missile exploded near him, wounding him and several others.
Another IAF raid took out what the army believed to be a weapons production shop in Rafah.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
These no-damage-done rockets are just heightened-level stones like those thrown by youths at Israeli soldiers; a tactic to provoke a deadly Israeli response, with which to claim victimhood and demand outrage.
While a professional soldier, in their micro-theater, rightly refrains (in opposition, Im sure, to every instinct and fiber in their body), from being suckered in by blowing apart a prepubescent non-threat with a David (as in Goliath) complex, civilians must not be forced to accept the enemy lobbing missiles at their towns, regardless of the low casualty count.
Disgustingly, the Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Multi-Cultural Moral Equivalence and Prevention of Non-Progressives, a.k.a. the malicious, leftist Press, are the opinion-shapers of choice for the worlds lazy, narcissistic neo-sheeple.
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.
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Saturday was elected Somalia's president, leaving him in charge of a fragile peace process aimed at ending 18 years of civil conflict. 
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling into the Palestinian territory, security sources said on Saturday. "Alarms and surveillance cameras were installed last week along the 14-kilometre (eight-mile) border" to detect activity through smuggling tunnels, a security official said, declining to be named.
Nine people, including three security personnel, were killed on Saturday in fresh incidents of violence in NWFP's Swat district.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday expressed thanks to the Iraqi people and organizations that did their best to render the 11-hour marathon local elections "successful" less than one hour before all voting centers close in 14 Iraqi provinces. "The Iraqis have sent a message to the whole world through these elections and I thank all participants who bypassed their religious, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations," Maliki said in a speech he delivered after the provincial council elections were wrapped up today (Jan. 31).
