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Nigeria Says It Has Retaken Five Islamist Strongholds
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
More Americans Murdered In Mexico Than In Any Other (Foreign) Country In The World
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/21/2013 08:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  648 American citizens were murdered in Mexico between October 2002 and December 2012
About like Chicago in 2012

...more U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico Chicago LAST YEAR than were killed in “terrorist action” around the world, according to the AFP. The analysis by the major newswire calculated those deaths at 300 since October 2002

Seems like we should bring the troops home and fight terror on the streets with more police. Redirect the spending: "Think Global, Bribe Local!"
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/21/2013 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The crucial part:

The database shows the date, location and type of death, but does not give information as to who the person was, or whether or not the victims are American gangsters working hand in hand with Mexican cartels.

Not exactly the way I would have phrased it, but the odds that a significant number of dead were tourists from the US Snow-Belt would seem to be rather low.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/21/2013 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  There is a large amount of Americans that were born in the US, but most of their family lives south. That is pretty much why.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/21/2013 15:16 Comments || Top||

#4  I've travelled extensively in rural Mexico for 15 years and never had any problems. I don't participate in the drug trade though. Most don't make it very long when they get involved.
I think DarthVader is correct, it starts small, and ends with the kid lying face down in a ditch.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/21/2013 20:59 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Chevron countersues: Kennedy fat payday hardest hit
That'll cut into the ole cabana boy trips to Acapulco, I s'pect...

Since late 2010, Washington, D.C. law firm Patton Boggs has been poking a sleeping tiger. It has filed three peculiar federal lawsuits -- in its own name, not on behalf of any client -- against Chevron, the third-largest corporation in the United States. These cases have fared poorly; two were quickly dismissed, and a federal magistrate judge recommended tossing the third in March.

On Friday, the tiger awoke. Chevron (CVX) sought a federal judge's permission to bring counterclaims against the 455-lawyer firm for alleged fraud and deceit for its conduct in representing the Amazon Defense Front, which obtained a $19 billion environmental judgment against the oil giant in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, in February 2011. Chevron also seeks to charge the firm with "malicious prosecution" for having pursued its three lawsuits in bad faith. Chevron seeks to hold the law firm liable for any damages Chevron suffers from the Front's allegedly fraud-infested litigation, plus punitive and treble damages.
Posted by: badanov || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting. A few months ago PB laid off a few dozen associates and staff. No partners got the ax, but I know one began planning an exit strategy, because PB is shifting away from litigation and more toward lobbying. Wonder if this is related? Chevron can absorb a $19B judgment. PB cannot.
Posted by: RandomJD || 05/21/2013 6:36 Comments || Top||


Two FBI Hostage Rescure Team (HRT) members killled in training accident
Nobody saying how.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fell from a helo while fast roping.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/21/2013 8:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Pirate rescue training for fast-roping to a deck, no 'planned' water contingencies. Bet the PPE were manual.

Helo catches a downdraft, doink, into the drink. Drowned, dragged by a helicopter.

Sad to see you go, brave souls.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/21/2013 12:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I smell a cock-up.

Pre-1984 Summer Olympics high-speed/low drag Bureau HRT train-up at LAX. Coms, security perimeter, snipers established. HRT vehicles and assault team rush to exercise airliner containing terrorists and hostages. Assault team assembles under fuselage and wings. Embarrassed assault team leader discovers boarding ladders not in kit.

US Army advisors work feverishly to contain laughter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/21/2013 12:34 Comments || Top||

#4  One of them is from this area. I heard on the news this morning that they fell 90 feet into the water. Does that seem right?
Posted by: Barbara || 05/21/2013 13:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Lost a friend and former shipmate in a fast roping accident during an exercise. Sometimes it happens. Not exactly a laughing matter.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/21/2013 13:35 Comments || Top||

#6  You will not attain 'terminal velocity' at 90 feet, but falling from that height can easily kill you, particularly if you're loaded down with weapons and gear. If you survive the impact, the challenge then is not being pulled down by your gear [or if jumping, entangled in a parachute] and drowning.

Yes, training accidents are sobering events. If you took my #3 as some attempt at humour, you're fuk'n wrong!
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/21/2013 14:37 Comments || Top||

#7  If you took my #3 as some attempt at humour, you're fuk'n wrong!

Then I stand corrected.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/21/2013 16:57 Comments || Top||

#8  No, it was me that was wrong and churlish. My apologies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/21/2013 16:58 Comments || Top||

#9  S'okay. Water, bridge.

I suspect it was 90 feet onto the deck of a ship, or fall-impact with a portion of the ship. I've seen severe skull and spinal impact injuries occur after a drop of 7 feet onto the deck or equipment; survivable skull injuries after being thrown 20-feet up after an explosion.

Still a lousy way to go.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/21/2013 17:21 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
51 24 reported dead in OKC storm
The dead are gone. Pray for the survivors.

A massive tornado that ripped across Moore Monday afternoon has killed at least 51 24 people. The twister wiped out neighborhoods, destroyed two schools and left dozens injured.

The state medical examiner confirmed the number of people killed, but there's no specific number on how many people have been injured.

The powerful tornado first touched down in Newcastle and churned toward Interstate 44 and S.W. 149th Street. It hit Plaza Towers Elementary School, which is northeast of S.W. 19th and Santa Fe. There are still reports of children and staff still trapped in the debris. Emergency workers are on the scene, searching through the debris. There are also unconfirmed reports children were killed at the school.
Posted by: badanov || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's now up to 91.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/21/2013 7:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Having seen the magnitude of the devastation - block after block utterly flattened - I dread how much higher the numbers of killed and injured will go.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/21/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Sad news coming from my Oklahoma radio stations.

Save some prayers for the responders: they will need strength in body, mind, and spirit. Good people in that part of the country, they know the clock is ticking and will work to the bone.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/21/2013 9:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Radio announced that food and clothing donations should wait until they are properly set up to received goods. Red Cross and Salvation Army donations are appreciated, I would add if they are made to the local chapters it helps immensely.

I hope what I'm hearing is not accurate.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/21/2013 10:39 Comments || Top||

#5  The American Legion has responded well.

Good to see the toll estimate down. Seems The Science Goof has weighed in - must need some money; last week he was doing a third rate local commercial.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/21/2013 14:36 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Ugandan Police Raid Two Newspapers, Radio Station
[Naharnet] Ugandan police raided two newspaper offices and two radio stations Monday, after reports of a falling out among army generals over whether the president's son is to succeed him.

"Police ordered our operations shut down under the pretext of carrying out a search," said Alex Asimwe, managing director of The Daily Monitor, one of the country's main daily newspapers.

Around 50 armed coppers took part in the search, he added.

"It is unacceptable that our business should be crippled on a dispute which should be settled in court," he said.

The raids come after newspapers printed a leaked confidential memo by a senior general, David Sejusa Tinyefuza, alleging that President Yoweri Museveni was grooming his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to succeed him and plotting to assassinate those opposed to the plan.

Several other generals -- among them police chief Kale Kayihura, chief of defense Aronda Nyakirima and Museveni's brother Salim Saleh -- condemned Tinyefuza's memo.

But Elly Tumwine, the most senior military figure in the country after Museveni himself, broke ranks by saying there should be no rush to condemn Tinyefuza and that he should be allowed to tell his side of the story. Tumwine was joined by Greg Mugisha-Muntu, another general and former army commander.

The radio stations KFM and Dembe FM, both owned like the Monitor by the Nation Media Group and located in the same building, were also caught up in the raid.

Both stations were taken off-air.

Police also raided the offices of The Red Pepper newspaper, which said "heavily armed" officers had told staff they "are not allowed to leave the premises and no one is allowed in".

Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said that search warrants had been issued to recover "blurbs" sent out by Tinyefuza.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, besides sending SOF to help train foreign military, are we sending DoJ to help train local state police?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/21/2013 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't worry - it could never happen here!
Posted by: Raj || 05/21/2013 13:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Navy dolphins find century-old torpedo
posted cuz it's damn interesting, and the Dolphins are awesome
A 19th-century self-propelled torpedo, one of the first ever to be developed and used by the Navy, has been discovered by specially trained dolphins off the San Diego coast.

The 130-year-old Howell torpedo was found in March near Hotel del Coronado during a mine-training exercise. The Navy trains and uses dolphins to find and mark the location of underwater objects as part of its Navy Marine Mammal Program.
they also speak Farsi
“A diver went down and began to sweep the dust and debris off, and they realized that they had found something significant,” Christian Harris, operations manager with the Navy Marine Mammal Program, said Monday. “Subsequently, it was recovered, and that’s when the light went on that what the dolphins had discovered was a really old marine artifact.”
"Oh sh*t!"
Old and rare.

Only 50 Howell torpedoes were produced, and just two of them have ever been recovered. The Howell torpedo, an 11-foot-long brass torpedo, was developed between 1870 and 1889.

It was driven by a 132-pound flywheel spun to 10,000 rpm before launch. It had a range of 400 yards, a speed of 25 knots and a warhead filled with 100 pounds of gun cotton.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/21/2013 13:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A "Blast from the Past".
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 05/21/2013 15:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope the dolphins get to keep the proceeds after it's sold to the guys on "Pawn Stars".
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/21/2013 16:10 Comments || Top||

#3  D *** NG IT, its a Genui-i-ine "Howell"!

This was from a time before WW1, WW2 where Torpedoes were brand new naval combat toyz + looked more like Nemo's pointy Sub from "20,000 Leagues" than the designs we see today.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/21/2013 19:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Flywheel powered? You gotta be kiddin' me!
Posted by: Bobby || 05/21/2013 20:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Fa find Bee. The ball on Bee's back is bad.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 05/21/2013 20:39 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Families of Aazaz Pilgrims Sneak into Turkish Cultural Center, Detain its Director
[Naharnet] The families of the Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region sneaked into the Turkish Cultural Center in downtown Beirut on Monday to protest the ongoing abduction of their loved ones, reported LBCI television.

They then headed to the office of the center's director, where they said that they would keep him locked up until the building is shut down.

Spokeswoman for the families Hayat Awali told LBCI that the director had pledged to close the center, but he failed to do so.

The families will therefore remain in the building until it is shut down, she explained.

She added that the relatives of the pilgrims sneaked into the building through the backdoor.

"The families' move is legitimate and I laud their positivity in ending the protest, because they want the success of Maj. Gen. Ibrahim's efforts," Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case of the kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims, said outsite the Turkish Cyltural Center.

"The families' protests are open-ended because they are legitimate and we cannot impose on them a certain timing for their moves, but we urge them to keep the protests peaceful."

Zgheib warned: "Turkey must understand that all options are on the table if they don't cooperate in the case of the abductees and they must exert more practical steps."

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon...
Daniel Shoaib, the brother of pilgrim Abbas Shoaib, told news hounds: "Out protest has ended and we staged it because of the insolence of the Ottoman ambassador who has crossed all limits."

MTV said that the security forces at the facility had been guarding the front door as part of the routine security measures imposed at diplomatic centers.

On May 9, the families briefly blocked the road near the Turkish Cultural Center amid heavy security deployment.

In May 2012, 11 pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo region as they were making their way back to Leb by land from pilgrimage in Iran.

Two of them have since been released, while the rest remain held in Aazaz.

The families of the captives have held Turkey mainly responsible for their ongoing abduction, vowing to target Turkish interests in Leb in order to pressure Ankara to exert efforts to release the pilgrims.

They have held demonstrations near the headquarters of Turkish Airlines in Beirut as part of these actions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Home Front: Culture Wars
Weird scenes inside the Gold Mine: RIP Ray Manzerek
The Doors' founding keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, died in Germany Monday after a long fight with cancer, his publicist said in a statement. He was 74.

The artist had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer.

The Doors formed in 1965 after Manzarek happened to meet Jim Morrison on California's Venice Beach. The legendary rock group went on to sell 100 million albums worldwide, establishing five multiplatinum discs in the U.S.
Posted by: badanov || 05/21/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fun music when I was a kid. Looking back on it, The Doors music has worn a bit thin.
Posted by: Thromotch Pheatle9230 || 05/21/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I still like listening to them. Takes me back. Can't remember what it takes me back to though...
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/21/2013 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  One of their top 10 hits - rated number two on a list Seems appropriate for Ray's passing.



The Doors - The End by kornophyl
Posted by: Thiling Noodleman5194 || 05/21/2013 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Can't remember what it takes me back to though...

One of the signs that you were there, man!
Posted by: SteveS || 05/21/2013 12:27 Comments || Top||

#5  He broke on through to the other side
Posted by: European Conservative || 05/21/2013 14:23 Comments || Top||

#6  As someone who thinks much of the music from my misplaced youth is "thin", I actually think to Doors music has proven itself to have staying power beyond the Boomers.

One interesting band fact is that both Morrison and Manzerak actually had college degrees, Morrison from USC and Manzerak had 2- DePaul and UCLA. Other than Mick with his Econ degree, that was rare then, and rarer now.

I now find much of the music from those days unlistenable- the first 500'times I heard Stairway to Heaven was pretty epic, the last 1000 times not so much. It's also worth noting some bands from the past I wrote off as gimmicks I am finding are actually wearing pretty well upon hearing 20 years on- Rush , maybe Guns and Roses.

This I will predict with certainty... No one will be listening to Kanye in the elevators in 2020
Posted by: Capsu78 || 05/21/2013 20:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Other than Mick with his Econ degree, that was rare then, and rarer now.

Brian May made up for everyone else..and is a helluva musician/guitar player as well
Posted by: Frank G || 05/21/2013 20:48 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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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
Tue 2013-05-21
  Nigeria Says It Has Retaken Five Islamist Strongholds
Mon 2013-05-20
  Syria: 20 Hezbollah Fighters Killed In Qusair
Sun 2013-05-19
  Syria army 'storms' rebel town Qusair
Sat 2013-05-18
  Moroccan Jailed For Milan Synagogue Bomb Plot
Fri 2013-05-17
   Syrian troops flush out rebels from prison
Thu 2013-05-16
  Nigeria declares 'massive' military campaign on borders
Wed 2013-05-15
  IMU takes credit for Quetta suicide bombing
Tue 2013-05-14
  Nigeria Court Convicts Iranian of Illegal Arms Shipment
Mon 2013-05-13
  Tunisia Police Disperse Salafists in Two Cities
Sun 2013-05-12
  Pak: Dozens killed in poll day violence
Sat 2013-05-11
  Car bombs in Turkey near Syria border killed more than 30
Fri 2013-05-10
  Syria troops, Hizbullah advancing on Qusayr
Thu 2013-05-09
  Nigerian cult ambush kills 46 policemen
Wed 2013-05-08
  Lashkar-i-Jhangvi's Karachi chief arrested
Tue 2013-05-07
  22 dead as police clash with Bangladesh Islamists


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