Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called on foreign allies Tuesday (January 6) to provide more support - but not troops - to help the country's military and paramilitary forces fight militants in the lawless northwestern tribal areas that border Afghanistan. According to the Associated Press (AP), Zardari reiterated that Pakistan's forces, combined with efforts by the Afghan military across the border, could crush the Taliban-and al-Qaeda-linked militants believed to be based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) if they were provided with the right international support. We will CRUSH them with your American dollars!
No details were provided. Zardari made his comments during his first official visit to Afghanistan since he took office in September. Afghanistan, NATO and the US have been critical of Pakistan's approach toward the rebels in FATA and have urged Islamabad to step up its campaign against the militants in order to reduce violence on both sides of the border. Pakistan has launched several large-scale offensives in recent months, but has refused to allow foreign troops access to FATA and has been critical of at least 25 suspected attacks on rebels by suspected unmanned US drone aircraft since August. Details? We don't need no stink'n details!
The AP reported analysts as saying the two nations are dependent on each other for lasting peace. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that suspected Taliban militants killed three policemen and kidnapped three others late Tuesday in Hangu district, a part of North West Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan. The incident occurred at a police checkpost after officials imposed a curfew in the area ahead of a religious procession for minority Shia Muslims.
The Taliban, who are Sunni Muslims, have recently imposed their version of Islamic Sharia law in parts of Hangu, which is prone to violent sectarian clashes between Shias and Sunnis during the Shia religious ceremony of Ashura, according to the BBC. Authorities increased security measures across the country on Wednesday (January 7) in anticipation of sectarian conflicts due to the annual processions during Ashura, which marks the death of the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the Pakistan-based Dawn news agency reported.
In North Waziristan agency in FATA, militants killed two Afghans and dumped their bodies by a road near Mir Ali town Wednesday. According to Reuters, residents said the men were accused of being spies for US forces in Afghanistan. Similar incidents have occurred each of the last few days in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/11/2009
17:36 ||
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#1
WAFF > FOREIGN MILITANTS ATTACK IN PAKISTAN: DOZENS REPORTED DEAD [FATA PakArmy Checkpoints areas near Afghan-PK Border].
#1
This, of course, is from Iowahawk, but by way of some curious intellectual property theft and re-theft, with some hilarious commentary along the way.
Link through the youtube to Iowahawk's website for the backstory on all this.
Lt. Gen. Harry W. O. Kinnard, who inspired the storied retort "nuts" to a German surrender ultimatum during the Battle of the Bulge, died Monday in Arlington, Va. He was 93.
General Kinnard parachuted into Normandy in the first hours of D-Day. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism during Operation Market Garden, the airborne attack in the German-occupied Netherlands. And he helped pioneer the airmobile concept, sending troops into combat aboard helicopters during the Vietnam War.
But he was perhaps best remembered for what happened in December 1944 at the Belgian town of Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division, short on clothing and boots in a snowstorm and bitter cold, was surrounded by German troops.
Bastogne, at the intersection of important roads, was a crucial objective for the Germans in their surprise attack in the Ardennes region of Belgium, an offensive that had created a "bulge" in Allied lines.
On Dec. 22, two German officers approached the American lines in Bastogne carrying a demand that the American commander surrender his troops within two hours or face annihilation from an artillery barrage.
The message was passed on to Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, acting as division commander while Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor was in Washington.
General Kinnard, a lieutenant colonel at the time and the division's operations officer, would recall that General McAuliffe "laughed and said: 'Us surrender? Aw, nuts.' "
As General Kinnard related it long afterward in an interview with Patrick O'Donnell, a military historian: "He pondered for a few minutes and then told the staff, 'Well, I don't know what to tell them.' He then asked the staff what they thought, and I spoke up, saying, 'That first remark of yours would be hard to beat.'
"McAuliffe said, 'What do you mean?' I answered, 'Sir, you said, 'Nuts.' All members of the staff enthusiastically agreed. McAuliffe then wrote down: 'To the German Commander, Nuts! The American Commander.' "
The note was carried back to the German officers by Col. Joseph Harper, a regimental commander. The officers did not seem to understand it, so Colonel Harper told them, "If you don't know what 'nuts' means, in plain English it is the same as 'go to hell.' "
The 101st held out, and four days later an American column broke through the German lines, lifting the siege. That response of "nuts" came to epitomize the grit of American soldiers in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.
Harry William Osborne Kinnard II, a native of Dallas, entered military service after graduating from West Point in 1939.
Having fought extensively with the airborne, he oversaw a more modern way to get troops into combat quickly when he commanded the 11th Air Assault Division (Test), created at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1963 to develop the airmobile concept.
That became the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile), and General Kinnard commanded it in November 1965 when it undertook the Army's first major engagement of the Vietnam War, the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. North Vietnamese casualties were heavy, but that encounter in the Central Highlands left more than 300 Americans dead and foreshadowed a long war of attrition. The battle was recounted in the 1992 book "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young," by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway.
General Kinnard retired from military service in 1969. He is survived by his wife, Libby; his sons, Crew and Robert; his daughters, Susan Payson, Kathleen Coursey and Cynthia Harmon; his stepdaughters, Libby Nicholson and Janmarie Hall; his stepson, Col. Tom Nicholson Jr.; 16 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.
General McAuliffe became famed for the "nuts" reply, but sometimes grew weary of hearing the story retold. On one occasion, he thought he had a respite.
"One evening a dear old Southern lady invited me to dinner," he recalled. "I had a delightful time talking to her and her charming guests. I was pleased because no mention was made the entire evening of the 'nuts' incident. As I prepared to depart and thanked my hostess for an enjoyable evening, she replied, 'Thank you and good night, General McNut.' "
ISRAELI soldiers and civilians working along the border fence with Syria have come under gunfire from inside Syrian territory.
No one was wounded in the rare incident that came amid heightened alert in Israel along its northern border as the military offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip entered its third week, a senior military official told AFP. A person opened fire at a group of soldiers and civilians repairing the fence along the border with Syria," the official said.
The Israeli military filed a complaint to the United Nations force monitoring the usually calm border between Israel and Syria, he said. "UN forces are currently conducting searches along the Syrian side of the border," the official said.
The bullet-ridden body of Shabana in the centre of Mingora's Green Square sent two clear messages to the locals in the Swat Valley's largest town: "un-Islamic vices" will no longer be tolerated, and the Taliban is now effectively in control.
Shabana's body was found slumped on the ground, strewn with bank notes, CDs of her dance performances and pictures from her photo album. In case anyone had not grasped the message the local Taliban commander Maulana Shah Dauran broadcast a warning on one of its FM radio stations in the valley: his men had killed her and if any other girls were found performing in the city's Banr Bazaar they would be killed "one by one".
This weekend the last of the bazaar's dancing girls, many of whom had trained under Shabana's wing and lived in her house, were seen loading their belongings on to trucks and fleeing to the relative safety of Karachi and Lahore, where their talents remain in great demand.
The banishment marks a key turning point in the battle for the Swat Valley between Taliban militants and the Pakistan Army. It followed recent orders to close down girls' schools in the valley, shut shops selling music CDs and films, and edicts on barbers to stop shaving beards.
The performances of the dancing girls in Banr Bazaar had been one of the city's last "vices", but in the narrow street where, until last week, they plied their trade, signs were posted on doors stating: "We have stopped dancing, please do not knock on the door." The street now closes at 8pm and only those who live there can leave or enter.
More than 1,000 girls have now fled, though some who remained told The Daily Telegraph that Shabana had paid the price for publicly defying the Taliban's radio mullahs and that she had ignored personal warnings to stop the performances and the training of young dancers in her home.
"On the eve of January 2, some men knocked at the door and asked for a dance party," said Shabana's father Qamar Gul. "She instantly agreed and opened the room and asked the men to wait while she prepared herself." When she returned the four men said: "Let us start." They seized her at gunpoint and told her they were going to slit her throat.
Shabana begged repeatedly while crying for help but they dragged her out of the house, took her to the Green Square and shot her.
Fayaz, a Banr Bazaar resident, said he had now moved to a safer part of the city, and only arranges dance events for selected known clients.
He said dancing could earn about 50,000 rupees (£415) a night, but the business was now finished. The Taliban had denounced the dancing as prostitution, he said, but only 1 per cent of the community was involved.
Farzana, a Banr Bazaar dancer who has moved to Peshawar, said: "We are here for a temporary period. We entertain only selected people and not everyone because we are threatened even in Peshawar. Several of our colleagues have already shifted to Lahore and Karachi, but Banr Street is where we opened our eyes, passed our youth and have acquaintances and fans."
She tearfully broke into verse: "This street, this house, don't come here again - now I have left the place, so there is no one for you."
Posted by: john frum ||
01/11/2009
14:25 ||
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#3
It's not going to happen. The assumption is that all Presidents have a "pocket pardon" for the top echelon of their administration. So unless they cut one of them loose and throw him to the dogs, or until they do something illegal after their retirement, they are hands off.
#1
What is this, a slow news week? We get Prince Harry goofing around three years ago and an O!bama interview from the last millennium. I guess there is only so much Juice-bashing you can do before the readers get tired.
In other news, whale oil futures down; pirates infest the Barbary Coast.
#2
I have a sister on my motherÂ’s side, she is half Indonesian like my motherÂ’s second husband, and I also have brothers and sisters on the Kenyan side. They are very scattered, some live in Germany, others in Kenya, some here in the U.S." ....Scattered I tell you! Scattered! Some are on the moon, and there are even more that I know nothing about. Did I tell you I was born in Hawaii?
Vandals spray-painted the words "Death to Israel'' on two synagogues and a Jewish school early Saturday in three separate incidents police say could be linked and are being investigated as hate crimes.
In each case, the vandals -- at times donning masks -- used orange-colored paint, also shattering glass windows with bricks and rocks at two of the buildings.
A witness and security cameras identified the perpetrators as two men.
Moshe Perlstein, rabbi at Lubavitch Mesivta of Chicago, said cameras captured video of the men damaging his rabbinical school at 2756 W. Morse starting at around 4:40 a.m. The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window, he said. The video has been turned over to police.
Similar graffiti was found at Anshe Motele Congregation, 6526 N. California, rabbi Alan Abramson said.
Lincolnwood police said vandals also scrawled "Death to Israel'' and "Free Palestine'' on the outside walls of Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation, 7117 N. Crawford. Mitchell Sandler, past president of the congregation, said they threw at least two bricks at the front doors, damaging four windows.
Lincolnwood Police Lt. Mark Brines said police were notified at 6:10 a.m. that a caretaker in the building heard a brick crash through a window at the temple. The caretaker saw "two unknown males running from the scene,'' Brines said.
Because all three buildings were used by orthodox Jews, Sandler said it appeared the men were targeting more devout Jews. "This was a cowardly act in the middle of the night,'' Sandler said. "Obviously there is dismay because of what's been happening in the Middle East.''
Local Jewish leaders were alarmed by what they see as a "rash'' of incidents targeting Jews. "It's disturbing,'' said Jay Tcath, senior vice president of the Chicago Jewish Federation.
The incidents come a little more than a week after Ida Crown Jewish Academy, at 2828 W. Pratt, received a mailed bomb threat that also made reference to other Chicago-area Jewish institutions and day schools, said Jay Tcath, senior vice president of the Chicago Jewish Federation.
And police said they are investigating as a hate crime a Dec. 29 incident in which a man hurled a Molotov cocktail at Temple Sholom of Chicago, 3480 N. Lake Shore Dr., after making "derogatory comments'' to a passerby.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been notified, police said. No arrests have been made.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009
12:53 ||
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#2
Yet if anyone so much as looks at a mosque cross eyed, CAIR and their ilk start screaming Islamophobia at the top of their lungs.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/11/2009 13:46
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#3
The investigation here should be interesting. Chicago is far behind London in public surveillance devices, but way ahead of most of the country. I wouldn't doubt that the CPD has more evidence piling up, given the amount already recovered. There's also a local trend of false flag actions, but that would be news coming from the locals here.
All in all, sounds like low level bigoted vandalism rather than a serious terror threat, but best to suppress this nonsense now if at all possible.
President Bush says he refused to "bail out my political party" by withdrawing troops "during the darkest days of Iraq," a decision now lauded by his father in an unprecedented joint interview of both presidents by Brit Hume on "FOX News Sunday."
"During the darkest days of Iraq, people came to me and said, 'You're creating incredible political difficulties for us,'" the current president said as his term draws to a close. "And I said, 'Oh, really? What do you suggest I do?' And some suggested retreat, pull out of Iraq.
"But I had faith that freedom exists in people's souls and therefore, if given a chance, democracy and Iraqi-style democracy could survive and work," the president said. "I didn't compromise that principle for the sake of trying to, you know, bail out my political party."
The president's father, former President George H.W. Bush, became emotional when assessing his son's tenure. "You can make a tough decision and stay with it," he told his son before turning to Hume in the White House Diplomatic Room. "And he's been tested unlike any other president with 9/11. So he passed the test."
He said political invective has "gotten worse" since his days in the White House, adding: "It's offensive, very offensive."
The younger Bush agreed. "The biggest disappointment in the political process, that's been this kind of bitterness by a few people to the point where they don't want to have a logical discussion or a civil discussion about policy," he said. "They just want to tear you down."
But with the war in Iraq nearly won after years of setbacks, the younger Bush exudes serenity as he wraps up his two terms in the White House. "I'm better than fine -- I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration," he said. "I know I gave it my all for eight years, and I did not sell my soul for the sake of popularity. And so when I get back home and look in the mirror, I will be proud of what I see."
Bush said he was also proud of the CIA, although he acknowledged the agency has leaked intelligence secrets. "There have been disappointing moments when information came out of the agency," he said. "You can't stop leaks. And you don't know how many people were leaking, but I can assure you, the vast majority of people in the CIA were very cooperative."
Bush said he is planning to write a book about his presidency. "I'm toying with the idea of maybe describing the toughest decisions I had to make as president, and the context in which I made them," he said. "It is very hard for people to remember what life was like a mere four or five years ago. And it's going to be very important for me to recreate the environment in which I had to make certain decisions, particularly the environment of right after September the 11th, 2001."
Bush conceded that his prosecution of an increasingly unpopular war contributed to the fact that the Republican Party "got whipped in 2008." And he warned that a comeback will be difficult "if the party is viewed as anti-immigrant."
But he said the GOP should remain anti-tax and pro-military. "We shouldn't change our philosophy," he said. "We may want to change our messaging. We definitely want to change messengers. We need a new group of leaders."
He added: "I had one in mind. But he evidently didn't agree with his older brother."
It was a reference to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who announced last week he would not run for a Senate seat.
Unlike his son, the elder President Bush served only one term, leaving him to wonder about "things I'd like to have done" on his "unfulfilled agenda." But he has remained active since leaving the White House, even skydiving well into his golden years. He plans another jump in June, when he will be 85.
"I think he's a nut to jump out of airplane at age 70, 75, 80 and 85," remarked his son, who added: "Actually, I think it's cool."
His dad, who now walks with a cane, agreed. "You don't want to sit around just because you're an old guy, drooling in the corner," the elder Bush said. "Old guys can still do stuff." To which his son quipped: "You can drool and jump at the same time."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009
12:50 ||
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#1
Good for him - he has principles.
No wonder the Dems and the MSM (but I repeat myself) hate him.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/11/2009 13:48
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#2
I can look at all the things I disagree about Bush with and realize, after the fourth month of having a president who votes Present and endlessly holds up a wet finger into the wind, that I'll probably miss even those positions.
Only if the party allows the usual suspects and apologists to frame the issue as immigration and not illegal immigration. Most of the population has no problem with those who go through the legal process of immigrating and entering the country. It's allowing the disingenuous to get away with framing the debate any other way that gets you in the corner. And as long as you permit it by not forcefully and loudly proclaiming that [to include throwing in the destruction and economic drag that illegals place upon the society] point, that you get what you deserve.
#1
I'm not sure that directing the anger at the policemen is the moral of this nightmare. They seem just two small players in a bigger drama who perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly decided to remove the flag. It seems to me that scape-goating them allows the real problem (the one that is far bigger than two cops making a decision in the heat of battle) to be brushed aside while we all argue over what the cops should or should not have done.
#2
They didn't "join" jew-hating muslim mob, they did what european powers-that-be (and the Us too, in some large extent) do, they APPEASED. It's unfortunate perceptions seem trapped for worse in a fantasied replay of WWII, with its victimization and its ogres... and it's even quite ironical in a very definite sense, as that fantasy worldview which was partly (not completely, gentiles did that a LOT, too, in many regards, "anti-fascism" as defined by the marxists is the official dogma of the Western Enlightened Elites) by portions of the jewish talking class intended on securing themselves a secure positioning in the guilt/victimhood race... BUT, this was turned upon its head by the memetic jujutsu of the cultural left (and also, ironically, by the remnants of the actual nazi propaganda apparatus that set itself in the service of the arabs after WWII)... and now, perception is : JUICES = NAZIS, PALEOS = WWII JEWS.
And you've got pretty funny after-effects, like that victimhood race, with blacks (by that, I mean the black talking class) in western countries being jealous of the jews, because they expect to reap more victimhood benefits from their supposed "victim" status, and assert jews 'stole' their thunder and are getting an underserved share of the White Guilt booty... and now, even "western" muslims are playing that card, see, they're more "discriminated" than the jooooooos, so whitey has to bend over for them even more...
Last time, about the Copenhague schools, I believed there was a lot of fantasies flying around, with the idea that europeans are all closet neo-nazis all waiting for a Furher so they can indulge again in their natural fascistical impulses and start chasing jews again (this is a common thread of thoughts at NP!, for example), IE, Europe is a continent of antisemites by birth, perpetual nazis, etc, etc... I find those american conservative fantasies rather interesting, but I'd just like to point out that the utmost majority of "european" antisemitism is due to our guests, and that the point of convergence with them actually includes the ANTI-EUROPEAN trends of the political/intellectual landscapes, a very diverse set of people whose common links are antisemitism and a reject of classical liberalism (free market & capitalism, freedom of thought, freedom of association, individual-based society, and let's be honest, Christianity); that's why you'll see the far-left and the far-right converge (at least on the idea of common ennemies for the wingnuts, who hates more the jooooooooos and the americano-zionists than the muslim colonizers they so lament) with the muzzies.
BUT, the common european man on the street has nothing to do with that; problem of Europe is that it has been neutered by decades of endoctrination (just as the USA are, I like to think to a lesser extent, be honest about it, you're sick too), NOT that it is a 1930's rethread.
#4
What I mean is that 2008 Europe, politically, demographically, and socially (and even humanly) is not the 1930's Europe. It's a spent force, mostly, with the "dangerous" elements being imported foreign populations, aided and abeitted by the dominating ideology of civilizational suicide. Commies and nazis actually still are here, but they're only very marginal auxiliary forces to this dynamic.
Don't forget who set the dance : the leftists may be thinking they are "using" mass immigration to get rid of the old order, and they're doing everything in their power to use that, but when push comes to shove, and when the leftist students have their ritualized fun by demonstrating against their daddies and mommies about school reforms and such, they get beat up and humiliated by the Youths who now have their own ritualized fun of turning every demonstration and public event into a "let's bash whitey's face in" festivity.
So, yes, commies and nazis were allied, but this was then, today, european political violence and extremism is just a sideshow to the actual action; real european problem is impotence.
#5
I think what you may be reaching for, anonymous5089, is the concept of nihilism, invented in Europe and a leading cause, along with Romanticism of manly warfare, of precipitating the first world war. The thing is, back in the day nihilism was in it's own way muscular and even positive in its destructiveness, looking to clear the many layers of historical underbrush so that an unencumbered modernity could emerge. Nowadays that nihilism, that clearing away, leads merely to the peace of the grave; there is no vision of anything new to replace the old.
#6
Kevin knows what Nihilists are - he's a Lebowski Dude
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 14:58
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the concept of nihilism
"Nihilists! *Bleep* me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."
-- Walter Sobchak, "The Big Lebowski"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 15:00
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#9
Rather than nihilism in its "ideological" form, I'd rather blame cultural pessimism as *engineered* by the gramscists of all stripes, coupled with the after-effects of long term soviet strategic disinformation & demoralization, and a spiritual void stemming from a kind of secularism enforced by a nexus of ideologies that can all be traced to the Enlightement.
This void is filled by a post-Christian messianism which is itself a secular religion, where the crucified Christ is the idealized non-european Noble Savage.
Rather than suicide or decay, I'd rather say western civilization has been killed on purpose, by people working for the Greater Good, to implement their utopia. Doesn't matter that their utopia is ultimately an impossiblity that is a failure, there is no centralized Grand Conspiracy, just automatons doing the part for which they've been programmed, and they come in all shapes and churches, but they do tend toward the same ultimate goal.
Really, it's the ultimate "grey goo" End of the World, except the nano-bots work on society and minds, rather than matter.
#10
love your comments 5089. We are sick too. Our current congress is corrupt and seem to feel no need to actually represent the people. I'm not sure when it happened, but it seems we woke up one morning and realized that we no longer matter in the political process. Not only do we not matter, there seems little we can do about it. They will be coming for our guns very soon and then the transition from citizen to peasant will be complete.
So even though much of America is still sane, as are many French, British or Europeans, there is little that we can do but sit back and watch the madness unfold and wonder what went wrong.
#11
That's an unfortunate event but has of course nothing to do with police "joining the mob".
It's a de-escalation move which may be questionable, but in Germany the police was within its legal rights. They decided that removing the flags was better than putting the people in the house in danger.
It is sad to see this, but it is within the law and has nothing to do with Israel and antisemitism.
Rather it sheds a grim light on the demonstrators (mostly Turks from the militant Milli Gorus). The demonstration at that point should have been dissolved but removal of the flag seemed to be the easier action.
I should mention that Munich had two demonstrations this weekend.
On Saturday the Gazalovers turned to the street, shouting things I'm not repeating here but were truly reprehensive. The large majority were Palestinians, mostly with hidden faces, and militant commies (also mostly with hidden faces).
There was another demonstration today at the central square of Munich. This one I took part in. It went very respectfully, without any insults and absolutely no violence.
I guess you know who those demonstrators were.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/11/2009 18:24
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#12
It is sad to see this, but it is within the law and has nothing to do with Israel and antisemitism.
I wonder whether the German police would have torn down a flag that deeply offended a right wing party. Or one that called for forceably reducing the earth's human population in honor of Gaia.
Somehow I think not. And therefore this IS about antisemitism and Israel, not as the sole cause but as the weakest point in European integrity.
#13
Or to be less charitable, it is about the cowardice of the authorities and their willingness to let Jews in Germany be the victims of mob violence.
#14
No, since this would happen in a non political context as well.
Let's say a large soccer mob is provoked by a flag (of an opposing group) hanging from a window police might opt for de-escalation as well and tear it down instead of risking violence.
I'd rather think they would be more cautious about an Israeli flag so I suppose the situation was dicey
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/11/2009 19:32
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#15
A basic rule of behavior:
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
Mob violence, hate speech and threats by Muslims are being rewarded daily in Europe now. When Muslim immigrants and their children establish police 'no go' areas in Britain, in the banlieus of Paris, in Malmo and elsewhere, the authorities respond by ....
not going there.
When Muslims in Britain threaten and attack Jews, the authorities respond by ...
telling the Jews to keep a lower profile or just move away.
When rapes increase by over 400% in Sweden within a decade and it turns out that nearly all that increase consists of Muslim immigrant/offspring rapes of ethnically Swedish women, the authorities respond by ...
withholding the detailed statistics and threatening journalists who attempt to print them.
When German tourists travel to Muslim areas in Africa and elsewhere and are kidnapped, German authorities respond by ...
paying millions of Euros in ransom.
I fear it won't be long before you all are openly paying a dhimmi tax to the barbarians whom you're embracing. At this rate it won't even be a demand of the Muslims -- the European authorities will eagerly suggest it.
Zimbabwean air force, military, police and intelligence officials raided a boy-scout camp and arrested three white farmers on charges of training insurgents, the Zimbabwe Independent said, citing people it didn't identify.
The adventure camp, known as Kudu Creek, was suspected of being used as a base to train bandits who plan to topple President Robert Mugabe, the Harare-based newspaper reported. The site provides outdoor activities and leadership training for schoolchildren, it said.
The raid was described by one observer as a full-scale military exercise, the Independent said.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena didn't answer calls to his office and mobile phones today when Bloomberg News tried to contact him for comment.
#1
It has been quite a while since I was a Boy Scout, and although I can conceive of a merit badge for cholera prevention, I would be most surprised if there was one for overthrowing punk-ass kleptocrat dictators. Sorry, I mean senior African statesmen.
#2
A highly placed police source told the Zimbabwe Times that the operation was led by Air Vice Marshals Henry Muchena of the Air Force of Zimbabwe and Army Chief of Staff, Martin Chedondo, who arrived at the place aboard the AFZ helicopter.
Robert will be so very proud. Forget the merit badges, Sprockets with "V" device for these high ranking crime fighters. It's been 30 years on, but you never know when those evil white colonial Selous Scouts will attack again!
Something quite strange is happening in Britain lately, jewish and pro-Israel supporters getting warning from police for " causing provocation" or even worse, your friend gets beaten up at your door way by so called "asian youth", his blood drips all over the floor and cops warn you to leave your house for several days untill "asians" calm down. Go figure out.
'In front of us walked a young man, wearing a kippah. He got out of his bag an Israeli flag and was immediately taken to the side by two police officers.
'After questioning him for about 10 minutes, he was issued a caution. After he was released we went up to talk to him - he showed us the police caution - and I kid you not - it stated that by getting out an Israeli flag he was causing provocation to the pro Palestinian demonstration'.
Or how about police searching "asian youths" for bricks and knifes but giving warning to Israel supporters not to "anger" them.
#1
I'm surprised that anyone is still wondering. I believe the crowning Imam Chuck will reuslt in the retirement of the name Charles for another 300 years.
#2
Anarcho-tyranny. The new western form of governement, to various degrees, from Germany, to the USA. I still think the lead trio is France-Belgium-The UK, in whatever order the latest depressing news will give.
#4
In London we are too PC/multicultural and are scared of being accused of being racist whilst cities like Liverpool and glasgow take no shit from their immigrants!!!!
Rantburgers immigrants only make 5-7% of the general population however with rising birth rates amongst muslims this will cause problems in london,Birmingham and Manchester/Leeds in years too come!!!!
#5
SUN TZU > the Enemy is not responsible for the strengths or weakensses of one's Shield + Camp. MUSLIMS ETC., THEN, ARE NOT [wholly?]RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FAILURES OF CHRISTIANS.
The United States and Georgia signed an accord here Friday to bolster defense, trade and energy ties in a new sign of US support for Georgia after its brief war with Russia in August. The deal shows the way for Washington and Tbilisi to boost "cooperation in defense, trade, energy security" and strengthen Georgia's budding democratic institutions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a signing ceremony.
The Charter on Strategic Partnership amounts to what US officials say is a declaration of intent by President George W. Bush's departing team to deepen US-Georgian cooperation without committing his successor, Barack Obama.
The accord, similar to a strategic agreement Washington signed last month with Ukraine, risks raising tensions with Russia, which is concerned about Western encroachment on former Soviet territory.
Before signing the document with her Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze, Rice renewed US support for Georgia's territorial integrity in an allusion to its war with Russia in August over breakaway regions of Georgia. She also reiterated strong US support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to eventually admit Georgia as a member. NATO ministers agreed last month to boost ties with both Georgia and Ukraine, but without granting them the status of official candidates to join the alliance.
Vashadze said the signing marked "a historic day" for Georgia. "This is the stepping stone which will bring Georgia to Euro-Atlantic structures, to membership within NATO, and to return to family of Western and civilized nations," he said. The document "brings not only rights, but also obligations to Georgia to be responsible ally, to be democratic, open and liberal society," Vashadze said.
The United States and Georgia "intend to pursue a structured plan" to train and equip Georgian forces to boost their capabilities to eventually operate with NATO troops, according to a copy obtained by AFP. Both nations intend to "expand the scope of their ongoing defense and security programs" in order to boost peace and stability.
On the economic front, the two countries intend to pursue an Enhanced Bilateral Investment Treaty and to explore the possibility of a free-trade agreement. The deal also seeks to promote energy security after the United States said Monday that Russia's move to cut gas to Ukraine, hitting supplies in Europe, a "show of force" by Moscow aimed at demonstrating control over its neighbors.
"The United States and Georgia intend to explore opportunities for increasing Georgia's energy production, enhance energy efficiency and increase the physical security of energy transit through Georgia to European markets," the document said. They intend to "develop a new southern corridor to help Georgia and the rest of Europe diversify their supplies of natural gas by securing imports from Azerbaijan and Central Asia."
Posted by: ed ||
01/11/2009
11:49 ||
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HMS Chivas? Read on:
BUZZARDS BAY -- (naturally)
The training ship at Massachusetts Maritime Academy is a floating testament to public service and advancements in education. And now it has a new name that matches its mission.
With cadets braving the cold and lining the decks of the 540-foot ship throughout a dedication ceremony yesterday on campus, a collection of dignitaries and more than 100 people looked on as the T.S. Enterprise became the Kennedy.
The decision was made to change the name to honor the family's maritime and public service legacies, said Adm. Richard Gurnon, college president. If it sinks, will they wait 6 hours to report it?
"The name Kennedy represents Cape Cod to people all over the globe," Gurnon said.
Although U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was not present, his great nephew Joseph P. Kennedy III, 28, was on hand to represent the family. He was joined by several high-ranking politicians, including U.S. Rep. William Delahunt and Senate President Therese Murray.
Delahunt, a close friend and frequent sailing partner of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, spoke of the special relationship between the Cape, the college and the Kennedy family. Glub, glub, glub....
He also said that while the decision to rename the ship may have been prompted by the discovery of Kennedy's brain tumor last summer, Delahunt said the chance to honor the Kennedy family was "long overdue." Some kind of brain disease is definitely involved in all aspects of the Kennedy Cult..
He went on to describe the similarities between the college and Sen. Kennedy, who enjoys sailing in Cape waters and is never more alive and at peace than when he's on the water and at sea. For the love of God...
"When we talk about this family, it's important to note, for those of us who share this peninsula embraced by the sea, that this is about more than simply a legacy of significant legislations," Delahunt said. "It is about the spirit reflected in this special family that we call our own. A spirit that is symbolized by the sea and this institution." Cutty Sark?
Capt. Thomas Bushy, vice president of marine operations at MMA, ordered cadets to empty a bottle of champagne overboard to "appease the gods of the sea." Forty years ago, they wanted to sacrifice a virgin but had to settle for... Well, never mind.
After that, Kennedy III, a student at Harvard University, addressed the crowd. He said the institution holds a special place in the hearts of the Kennedy family because it represents the clan's three great joys: the sea, public service and the importance of education.
"This means a lot to my Uncle Teddy," Kennedy III said. "We're grateful to all of you for honoring our family." "hic"
Sen. Kennedy was not present, but sent remarks via e-mail yesterday. "It's very moving for our family to receive this tribute from Mass. Maritime, which we'll cherish forever," Kennedy wrote. "In the years ahead, we know we can count on Mass. Maritime to continue its great mission and we're deeply honored to be associated with it."
The Kennedy shoves off this morning as 500 cadets embark on the annual sea term, for more than a month at sea. This tub draws too much water for a visit to Chappaquiddick. Probably just as well.
#1
...Well, in fairness - Joe Kennedy, Jr. died a hero's death over England in WWII, JFK may have gotten his PT Boat T-boned by the only other ship within a hundred miles but redeemed himself by saving his crewmen, and RFK did - albeit briefly - serve as an AB Seaman in WWII. If they want to commemorate that record, I'm down with it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/11/2009 11:39
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#2
** Shakes head **
For a moment I thought Shipman changed his online name to please the Kennedys; at least, that's what the headline said.
#6
According to one book I read, PT109 was the only war vessel to be sunk by ramming in modern times. I do agree that JFK was a hero for saving his crew.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/11/2009 12:45
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#7
Having PT109 sitting in the water like a duck was probably a court martial offense. JFK saved a lot of the crew was heroism. Normally would have neutralized each other, but the press tipped the balance in JFK's favor. And the rest is history, sort of.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/11/2009 13:01
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#8
They should haved renamed it the "Oldsmobile" to honor Ted's maritime legacy.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
01/11/2009 13:36
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#9
Ted's maritime legacy
Calls to mind a National Lampoon parody of a Volkswagon ad. Picture showed a Volkswagen floating down a river. Caption read "If Ted Kennedy had owned a Volkswagon, he'd be President today"
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - At least 40 militants were killed and scores of others wounded as security forces repulsed an attack by about 600 fighters in northwestern Pakistan.
Six security forces were also killed and seven others wounded in the pre-dawn attack in Mohmand agency.
Insurgents attacked the Frontier Corps' Mohammad Ghat camp at about 2 a.m. Sunday with mortars and rockets, then opened small arms fire on a checkpoint near the camp, said a military official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment to the media.
The attackers were eventually driven off but scattered skirmishes continued Sunday, he said.
The Mohmand agency lies along the volatile Afghan border and the military official said the bulk of the militants crossed over from Afghanistan and later joined up with Pakistani allies. He said at least 40 militants were killed in the fighting.
The lawless and remote mountain region is believed to be used by pro-Taliban militants as a launch pad for attacks into Afghanistan, and is difficult for reporters to access.
Pakistan has deployed tens of thousands of troops to police its tribal regions, but Western and Afghan officials say that has not deterred militants.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/11/2009
10:04 ||
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[9 views]
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#1
didn't call in air support? Oh yeah, they're all posted to the Indian border
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 10:15
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#2
Insurgents attacked the Frontier Corps' Mohammad Ghat camp
Just Frontier Corps. Not real Pak army. Expendable.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/11/2009 18:50
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#1
Another monster created by unions out of control which have become as destructive as any 'Robber Baron' owner ever was. The elected body of the people is sovereign. There can be no equality between the body as a whole and any subset in standing or negotiations. No public employee has the right to strike against the people. If they don't want to work, then they can seek employment elsewhere. These fundamentals have been thrown out because of the corruption of the political process by the money the union does not use to support its membership, but to buy and own seating representatives just as the Robber Barons did a hundred years ago. Four legs good, two legs better.
#2
most public agencies will be forced to cut bennies for new employees, privatize non-essential jobs, furloughs, etc. I know ours is - hiring freeze has been in place for a while.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 11:02
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#3
p2k, hold on a second.
I was a guvmint employee (city of Phoenix, state of AZ) for over ten years. During that time I was a union member, I was specifically NOT allowed to strike. If I would have participated in one, I would have been immediately fired.....and the union would NOT have tried to save my job. I also had times when I couldn't have joined a union if I tried....that jobsite didn't have one and we had to sign an agreement not to have one. (Yep, imagine that!)
Also, one other thing that is not explored in this article is whether or not NYC was making the proper contributions for the past decade (or more) to the pension fund, what their investment mix is, or if they pulled dumb tricks like San Diego's pension fund did that they now have to make up for. (Of course, that would take some research, maybe reading of a dry actuary's report, and the NY Slimes ain't interested in doing that. Better to just paint them all as a bunch of fat, lazy pigs.)
#4
Thanks Frank & Blondie. I can testify that Idaho has the same policies; you strike you get fired. I get tired of some blasting in all directions w/r to government employees. I note they are usually the first to bitch and the LAST to compliment good service.
I can also testify that Idaho state employees on average are 15-20% behind the private sector on wages for equivalent work. We have a decent (and properly paid for with co-pay by both employer and employee) but not gold plated health and retirement package. We have managed to keep the politicians sticky fingers out of the retirement funds (they have tried) so with decent management it is still healthy. Funny how decent fiscal policies on the part of both parties minimizes problems and I really sympathize with those who have been torched.
The State's income will be hit this year. There will be programs cut, some layoff's, not filling vacancies. The politicians here are prone to not increase wages when times are GOOD let alone when times are tight.
Thousands of British Jews turned out on Sunday afternoon for a pro-Israel rally in London and Manchester, held after a series of protests across Europe condemned Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza in often anti-Semitic terms. Organizers estimated that as many as 20,000 people participated in the London demonstration, which took place in Trafalgar Square. A parallel rally was held in Manchester's Albert Square.
"It was important for Anglo-Jewry to show support and solidarity with Israel. I felt proud to be Jewish," said Theo Julius, a participant at the London demonstration. Demonstrators waved placards reading "End Hamas Terror," and "Peace for the People of Israel and Gaza." These rallies were peaceful, unlike yesterday's pro-Hamas demonstration in London. Go figure.
#1
A few days ago, 12 000 turned out in the streets of Paris in support of Israel, at the call of the very consensual, Pc jewish representative council (Crif)... and, also, unlike the commies-immigrants demos/riots, no torched cars, no looted shops, no ululating, no "France, you're screwed, the hamas is in the street" cries by the demonstrators.
#5
Not all the demonstrators were Jewish. Several hundred British Anglicans turned out, too. A friend of mine from when we lived in Raunds was there with three others. I wouldn't be surprised that the next march would be Anglicans screaming outrage at their "religious leadership".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2009 15:04
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#6
I attended the one in Munich.
A peaceful mix of Jews and Non-Jews.
Not that anyone tried to make a difference
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/11/2009 19:50
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A Muslim man who attacked his sister leaving her covered in bruises all over her body has been jailed for 10 months.
Mohammed Ellahi arrived at his parents' home to find his mother and sister involved in a heated row. But 34-year-old Ellahi, a married man from Hitchin, decided to get involved himself and after calling his sister a bitch began punching her about the face and head. His sister Tasleem Begum lived there with her parents.
The prosecutor said Ellahi then used two metal rods that were part of the structure of a glass topped coffee table to hit Tasleem all over her body. The court heard the sister subsequently spent three days in hospital being treated for her injuries.
The prosecutor said the sister had been divorced after an arranged marriage had broken down and the mother was not happy with her choice of friends. It was also being suggested that the sister should travel to Pakistan. It was then that Ellahi attacked the girl leaving her covered in bruises to her face, arms, shoulder, legs and back.
The court heard the sister managed to escape from the house when her brother went upstairs to look for her mobile phone so he could see who her friends were. Miss Carter said Tasleem ran to the home of friends who phoned for an ambulance. Police also arrived on the scene and accompanied her to hospital.
#1
Stupid man! Doesn't he know that a woman is to be beaten everywhere except her face and head, so as not to spoil her beauty for her future husband? On the other hand, it is nice to see a grown man so protective of his mother.
#2
If he had been in Pakistan, and had killed his sister, he probably would have claimed it was an honor killing, and gotten an even lighter sentence, if any.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/11/2009 12:41
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ISRAEL has indicated for the first time today that an end is in sight to its war on Hamas, amid some of the heaviest clashes of an offensive that has killed nearly 900 people in the Gaza Strip.
Infantry units backed by tanks pushed deeper into Gaza's main city, sparking some of the fiercest battles yet of the 16-day-old war Israel launched on the Islamists in response to rocket fire from their stronghold.
But Israeli officials suggested the Jewish state is nearing the end of its deadliest ever offensive in the Palestinian enclave, despite having last week waved off a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to the fighting.
"The decision of the (UN) security council doesn't give us much leeway,'' Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio. "Thus it would seem that we are close to ending the ground operation and ending the operation altogether.''
Silly man. What power does the UNSC have? Saddam defied them 17 times and would have gotten away with it 17 more if George Bush hadn't been president -- which he won't be in nine days.
Anyone honestly think the UNSC can enforce a resolution? Anyone honestly see international 'peace-keeping' troops in Gaza, getting potted by Hamas hard boyz and being blamed by the Israelis (if no one else) every time a Qassam heads outbound?
Finish the job. If the goal is to break Hamas, break them.
Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state is nearing the goals it has set for its operation, but said fighting will continue for the time being. "Israel is approaching these goals, but more patience and determination are required in order to reach these goals'' and "change the security reality in the south in a way that will allow our citizens to live in security and stability over a long period of time,'' Mr Olmert said at the start of the cabinet meeting.
Both Israel and Hamas last week brushed off the UN Security Council resolution that called on both sides to stop fighting, and the early Sunday hours saw Israeli troops push deep into the territory's main population centre.
Troops crept into the southern Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood in the early morning hours, encountering roadside bombs, mortars and gunfire from Palestinian fighters, witnesses said. The troops withdrew at daybreak, but hundreds of panicked residents fled from the area, clutching small children and hurriedly-packed bags after a sleepless night.
#2
deadliest ever offensive in the Palestinian enclave, despite having last week waved off a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to the fighting
Frank, DeaconMan... AP... if Ima still on the floor in 12 hours pls thro me a blanket over.
Around 500 supporters of IsraelÂ’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks gathered in front of CopenhagenÂ’s City Hall in a peaceful demonstration organized by the Danish Zionist organization.
No doubt many more would have liked to be there, but as the President of the Danish Zionist Union, Max Meyer, explained to Danish TV2, he had been inundated with mails and phone calls from people who expressed their 100 percent support for the cause, but were simply too afraid to attend. And for good reason. A couple of days before the demonstration, a far-left grouping calling itself “the Gaza Initiative” had announced their intention to turn up with pictures of dead Palestinian children in order to “bring the war home on Danish ground”.
Had it not been for a heavy and very competent police presence, the demonstrators would no doubt have been attacked by a group of around 60 shouting and screaming Muslims and their Danish supporters that had gathered on the other side of the street. In a scene that has been repeated throughout the Western world over the past few days, these lovers of little children called for jihad and for killing the Jews, some raising their hands in the Hitler salute.
Similar scenes could be observed yesterday (Friday) in Aarhus as reported by the intrepid blog Uriasposten. Here a Danish Make Love not War segment from the far left, represented by among others the Socialist Unity List, had teamed up with Palestinian women carrying the Hizbollah flag and young Arabs shouting “Allahu akbar”, “Takbir” (expansion, conquest) and “We want war! We want war!”
Unfortunately, the journalists from the mainstream press must be hard of hearing, for the war cry did not find its way into their reports. This should come as no surprise given the decidedly pro-Palestinian slant that totally dominates the mainstream media. Day after day they stick to the same theme: What can the “international community” do to curb Israel’s blood thirst? Why have the Israelis decided to kill innocent women and children? The fact that Hamas is openly bragging about their use of civilians as human shields has rarely been mentioned. Nor has the fact that photographers have repeatedly been assaulted in both Aarhus and Copenhagen when they tried to take pictures of Muslim demonstrators. The same happened during the violent attacks on a small pro-Israeli demonstration in Oslo on Thursday.
Among the speakers at the pro-Israeli rally was Zionist leader Max Meyer. He expressed his regret that the war has resulted in many civilian casualties, but he emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself. “Hamas has wanted this war. Israel cannot and should not tolerate a movement that has openly declared its intention to wipe the country off the map,” he said. He went on to hammer the international community for its demands that Israel should simply accept a cease-fire while Hamas continues to shower Israeli civilians with rockets.
The foreign policy spokesman of the Danish People’s Party, Søren Espersen, reminded the demonstrators of the daily situation in Sderot and other population centers in southern Israel. He quoted Barack Obama’s statement that Israel had an obligation to take military action against Hamas terrorism when he visited Sderot a few months ago.
Among the speakers was also Frederiksberg City Councilor Pernille Høxbro, who is elected on the Conservative list. To the delight of the crowd, used to Conservative Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller’s PC criticism of Israel’s “overreaction” and his appeals for armistice at all costs, Ms. Høxbro minced no words: Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East and we have a duty to support it. She also noted that Hamas is waging war on Christians and has killed women that have refused to wear the veil. Another bit of Gaza reality that has been underreported by the Danish press.
True to form the counter-demonstrators embarked on a spree of vandalism and mayhem after the rally was finished. A mother and her child were dragged out of a car but rescued by police. Around 70 Hamas-supporters were arrested, 30 of them minors. Only the courageous and vigilant Danish police stand between democratic civilization and a break down of public order. As did Berlin’s “green police” in 1932 – the year before Hitler took over.
A Times writer joins Taliban fighters in an especially dangerous part of Afghanistan. The men appear to have no fear of squalor troops, and prove to be noble savages gracious hosts.
#5
:-) TW
Thank you. I just couldn't bear to let that repulsively obsequious intro stand unaltered. To spend time with the Taliban and have your lead observations be that they are brave and gracious! It's just unbelievable that journalism has descended to such blatant self-parody and that so few are outraged . . . or even care.
#6
It's just unbelievable that journalism has descended to such blatant self-parody and that so few are outraged . . . or even care. Posted by: ryuge 2009-01-11 13:30
Ryuge - when all you see whenever you pick up a newspaper, turn on the television, or listen to "news" on the radio is barnyard dung, adding the sh$$ from a new animal is hardly noticeable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2009 15:01
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#7
A sign of the parochial outlook of both journalists and readers, ryuge. In their universe, those who stop for a cup of afternoon tea must, perforce, be civilized, as opposed to the reality that the open-minded can see: stopping to catch their breath after exerting themselves in the mountains, while simultaneously tenderizing captive meat.
#8
One has to wonder of the LA-Times was 'embedded' with their heroes back when the Brave Lions of Islam saw fit to kidnap that group of Korean girls last year. One has to wonder of the LA-Times participated in the rapes and murder of the victims along with their 'noble' hosts. One has to wonder if the LA-Times was aware and/or participated with the murder of school girls and burning of schools.
#11
Perhaps we could send a "Thank you" to this reporter for his coded spy messages in his news stories. Let's see how his hosts act then.
Everyone who posts a message here could run a better newspaper than the LA Times: check your facts, publish the truth, when in America, support America.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Taliban's traditional stronghold in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and said the new U.S. administration will fully support troops battling the resurgent militants. Thousands of new American troops will be joining the battle against the Taliban this year, and Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.
"I am very interested in what becomes of this region because it affects us all," Biden said during his visit to Kandahar province, according to a statement issued by the NATO-led force. Biden was on the second day of his trip to Afghanistan.
During his time in Kandahar, Biden was briefed on activities of coalition forces in the south by Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart C. de Kruif, NATO's regional commander. They discussed "the future of southern Afghanistan, to include the addition of American troops later this year," the statement said. In Kandahar, Biden "reaffirmed his and President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to fully support troops and their efforts in the region," the statement said.
America's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, told Biden on Saturday that thousands of new American troops expected in the country's south will need more support items "like helicopters, engineers, military police, transportation assets," said Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman.
#4
Gitmo likely won't close in his first 1000 days, and maybe not even in his first 2000 days if he is reelected. Unless we can find a satisfactory way to deal with the hard core terrorists that are there.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/11/2009 12:35
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#5
The Big O projected Hope and Change™, and people who voted for him put their version on the screen, but reality has a way of forcing your hand when you are in the driver's seat.
Change, like recycled Clinton hacks. Change, like spending your way out of the hole that the Dems and Repubs dug with irresponsible spending.
Change, like talking about closing Gitmo until you find out that you have the most fanatic and twisted minds in custody there.
The only thing now that saves our republic is that the Islamic nutcases who want to destroy us are still more stupid than our leaders. Wonder how long that will last?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/11/2009 12:48
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#6
Sounds like Richard Pryor when he filmed one of his movies at a state prison. Figured out the inmates were there for a reason.
Islamic Jihad' published Saturday evening photos of IDF weapons and equipment allegedly seized by its military wing. The group claims its members collected the loot following heavy exchanges of fire between gunmen and IDF troops barricaded in a house east of Khan Younis. A statement published by Islamic Jihad's military wing said group members were able to seize a LAW rocket, two-way radios, medicine, and clothes. Photos published by the group also feature empty packages of Israeli hotdogs left behind by IDF troops.
Islamic Jihad said the equipment seized included blood-soaked IDF uniforms. The group said the incident in question took place Friday yet the details were only being published at this time due to security considerations.
"Our message to the gutless enemy is that our fighters will ambush you everywhere," the group said. "They will surprise you and hurt you in response to your crimes in the Strip. You should be aware that we still possess many surprises that will hurt you and make you sorry." However, the photos published by the group make it difficult to ascertain whether the LAW rocket launcher indeed has a missile in it, and whether it was seized recently.
Meanwhile, the IDF has boasted somewhat more impressive achievements Saturday. The army said it killed Gaza City rocket chief Amir Mansi, a central figure involved in Grad rocket attacks on Israel. That last bit was already reported here, but how could I spoil a story that ended so beautifully? ;-)
#3
"Our message to the gutless enemy is that our fighters will ambush you everywhere,"
Ambushee (advancing into enemy urban territory without bombarding it flat) = gutless, ambusher (in burka, pretending to teach kindergarten) = courageous.
#4
So, they got hold of an used LAW tube and some litter, plus some left-overs from the evacuated home... Dude, the Arab Fighting Man IS the most manly-man!... And anyone who sez there's a deep-seated psycho-sexual insecurity in the male arab psyche that is repressed by abusing in boast, words or acts those perceived as weak or feminine is just pure slander.
Rather than giving a knee-jerk reaction by boycotting American goods, Muslims will be in a better position to fight oppression by strengthening their economic position.
Johor Corporation Berhad (JCorp) chief executive officer Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim said this when asked about the drive to boycott American products in protest against Israel's self-defense atrocities against the Palestinians. "The boycott will only hurt our own people as the businesses provide thousands of jobs here."
He was speaking at the Intelligent Chess Challenge 2008/2009 at Persada Johor Convention Centre here yesterday. He had earlier presented prizes to the winners of the challenge.
Ali said Arab countries were unable to fight Israel because of their economic dependence on the United States. "If we go to war with Israel, we will be wiped out because of its superior technology and weaponry. We can only afford the same level of technology and weaponry if our economy is on par with it." He said the business jihad advocated by JCorp could be the foundation to improve the economic position of Muslim countries although it might take a long time.
On the possibility of KFC Holdings (KFCH) Berhad being boycotted, Ali said the bulk of Malaysia's trade with the United States consisted of non-food products such as aircraft and computer software. He said it was unlikely that Malaysia or other Muslim countries could do without these products. "Are we going to drive Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia to the ground just because they use Boeing aircraft? Can we afford to dump our computers because they use Microsoft software?"
Ali said although the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise originated in the United States, the owners in Malaysia were locals. He said there was no drop in KFCH sales following the call to boycott American brands.
#2
He said the business jihad advocated by JCorp could be the foundation to improve the economic position of Muslim countries although it might take a long time.
The reality is every Muslim country is a tick/parasite the western world. For them to jump off the infidel world would be a benefit to the infidel world. So it ain't gonna happen, parasites are just that...parasites.
Terrorists Suspected separatist rebels have killed four civilians in Thailand's jihad-infested insurgency-hit far south, according to police.
Three rubber tappers -- a Muslim woman and two Buddhist men -- were shot dead in an attack early Sunday in Yala province, police said. Two other men were wounded in the ambush. On Saturday evening in nearby Pattani province, a 54-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting.
#1
Paging HRW to the white courtesy phone. [Where has your outrage about the hundreds/thousands of civilians murdered, butchered, burned alive by the Islamist in Thailand?/rhetorical question]. It's not like there's a principle involved, you're just on the other side.
UN experts said the US' abstention on last week's Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza should be viewed as a warning to Israeli leaders that Washington's patience may be running thin.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spent three days in New York shuttling between conference chambers with her cell phone clutched tightly in her hand helping broker a deal between Arab nations and Western powers, told reporters Friday that the abstention was intended as an endorsement of the multilateral peace talks taking place in Cairo. Methinks, at least some, Israeli leaders recognize that there is difference between the numinous Miz Rice and US of A.
Israel said Saturday it was shocked and distressed by a senior Vatican cardinal's likening of Gaza under Israel's military offensive to a concentration camp. Surprise meter
#2
As a Catholic, I can say that this Cardinal can FOAD - he doesn't represent me. His comments were inappropriate and incorrect. If you can't do better, just shut up
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 16:17
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Gary Dugan, the chief investment officer for the US bank, said there has been a remarkable change in sentiment. "People are genuinely worried about what the world is going to look like in 2009. It is amazing how many clients want physical gold, not ETFs," he said, referring to exchange trade funds listed in London, New York, and other bourses.
"They are so worried they want a portable asset in their house. I never thought I would be getting calls from clients saying they want a box of krugerrands," he said.
Merrill predicted that gold would soon blast through its all time-high of $1,030 an ounce, and would hit $1,150 by June.
The metal should do well whatever happens. If deflation sets in and rocks the economic system it will serve as a safe-haven, but if massive monetary stimulus gains traction and sets off inflation once again it will also come into its own as a store of value. "It's win-win either way," said Mr Dugan.
He added that deflation may prove the greater risk in coming months. "It's very difficult to get the deflation psychology out of the human brain once prices start falling. People stop buying things because they think it will be cheaper if they wait."
Merrill expects global inflation to hover near zero, with rates of minus 1pc in the industrial economies. This means that yields on AAA sovereign bonds now at 3pc will offer a real return of 4pc a year, which is stellar in this grim climate. "Don't start selling your government bonds," Mr Dugan said, dismissing talk of a bond bubble as misguided.
He warned that the eurozone was likely to come under strain this year as slump deepens. "There is going to be friction as governments in the south start talking politically about coming out of the euro.
I don't see the tensions in Greece as a one-off. It is a sign of social strain in countries that have lost competitiveness."
#2
The more resilient economies will do well. (Comparably) hard times are always when better policy shines. The dollar and the pound will come out of this well compared to the Euro.
That will help temper the rise in oil prices in the short and medium term and will prevent gold from going parabolic.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:29
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#3
Yea but I expect gold value to fall once Soody princes start selling gold plumbing from their houses.
#8
Used to use a chunk of depleted uranium for ballast on the racecar. One of mah fellow co-owners knew somebody that worked with an NHRA Pro-Stock Bike team. Appearantly, they take their business seriously and want their weight in as small a package as possible.
Neat stuff. Far more functional than gold.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 21:01
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#9
Gold hasn't been performing all that well as a hedge. There isn't any inflation. The price of gold has been falling. Gold works better when there is inflation. That won't be happening until the government cranks up the money presses. Though this might be a good time to accumulate as gold will probably skyrocket in about 2010 or 2011 as the boomers start to retire and the Social Security trust fund teat runs dry for Congress' deficit spending.
I would look for companies that might benefit from major public works programs. Granite Construction (GVA) comes to mind.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi security forces arrested 16 wanted persons in Baghdad during the last 24 hours, the official spokesperson of Baghdad's Operations Command (BOC) said on Saturday. "The arrests took place through security operations throughout Baghdad," General Qassim Atta told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The forces also defused one booby-trapped car and five roadside bombs," he said. Atta pointed out that seven displaced families returned home in Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Reported yesterday but there's always a reason to ululate ...
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip on Saturday targeted Hamas operative Amir Mansi, a senior member of Izzadin Kassam, the group's military wing.
A senior commander of IDF operations in the Strip said that Mansi was the head of the Gaza Strip rocket division, and was Mansi was previously involved in dozens of rocket attacks against Israel in recent weeks.
He was also said to be a close associate of Hizbullah, and was known to receive information from the group on a regular basis.
Mansi was killed whilst attempting to fire mortars at Givati troops at Jabal Rice, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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A preliminary investigation into the fatal shooting by the Israel Defense Forces into a United Nations building in northern Gaza on Tuesday reveals the Israeli troops firing on the building missed their targets by some 30 meters.
Hamas is claiming the mortar fire killed 42 people and left dozens wounded, but senior IDF officers say the figures are dubious and that Hamas is inflating the numbers.
The probe, which was conducted by the Paratrooper Brigade whose troops were responsible for the area, found that the army's location system to pinpoint launch sites indicated that militants had launched a Qassam rocket into Israel from within a yard adjacent to the courtyard of the UN building.
The troops had intended to launch a smart missile to take out the Palestinian launch team but a technical malfunction made this impossible, according to the probe. The commanders of the force instead decided to fire on the Qassam team with mortar shells equipped with a Global Positioning System for accurate fire.
However, the GPS element has an error margin of 30 meters and one of the three rounds fired by the paratrooper force slammed into the building owned by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA.
Two of the rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas' military wing who probably belonged to the squad that fired the rockets.
Nonetheless, in discussing the incident with Haaretz, some IDF officers say the force should have refrained from using mortar rounds and relied instead on more accurate fire. Military sources said the UNRWA building was marked on the maps of forces operating in the area.
Other officers said they found the death toll published by Hamas grossly exaggerated, pointing out that a week ago only three IDF soldiers were killed when a tank fired two rounds - which have a much larger impact than mortar rounds - into a building which was occupied by 50 IDF soldiers.
Officers interviewed for this article pointed out that Hezbollah resorted to similar inflation tactics after an IDF bomb landed on a UN post in Qana in southern Lebanon in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
More UN piss-me-off. You knew damn well the Paleos would be firing from your doorstep. Its what they do. Maybe use some brains and get the F out as soon as Hamas starts firing rockets into Israel.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:21
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Aswat al-Iraq: The Supreme Court said on Saturday it will decide whether the Iraqi government has immunity in American courts for the acts of Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a report published by the Web site Law.com.
Tareq Harb, the chairman of the Iraqi Legal Culture Association, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Saturday (Jan. 10) that the Iraqi funds enjoy immunity even against acts committed during the time of the former regime.
Foreign nations usually are immune from lawsuits in U.S. courts, but federal law strips that protection from countries that support terrorism. Under Saddam, Iraq was considered a state sponsor of terrorism. But the Iraqi government, backed by the Bush administration, says the U.S.-led invasion that deposed Saddam and a federal law enacted in 2003 restored Iraq's immunity to lawsuits in American courts.
Americans suing Iraq include CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, who was held for more than a month during the Gulf War in 1991. The Iraqi government also is being sued by the children of Kenneth Beaty, an oil rig supervisor, and by the children of William Barloon, an aircraft maintenance supervisor. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for the emotional distress they said they suffered because of their fathers' treatment while in Iraqi custody.
In 2001, U.S. District Court judge Louis Oberdorfer in Washington, D.C., found the two men had been tortured after being illegally detained in Baghdad. The judge awarded Beaty, of Mustang, Okla., $4.2 million, and awarded Barloon, of Jacksonville, Fla., $2.9 million. The men worked in Kuwait when picked up by Iraqi guards in separate border incidents, Beaty in 1993 and Barloon in 1995. The Iraqi government sentenced Beaty and Barloon to eight years in prison for illegally entering Iraq.
Beaty was released after a ransom of $5 million was paid to the Iraqi government, Beaty's lawyers say. Barloon was released after being held for 126 days. At the time of an earlier lawsuit by Beaty and Barloon and their spouses, U.S. law deprived Iraq of immunity from lawsuits. At issue in the case brought by the men's children is whether a federal law enacted in 2003 and a related presidential order restored immunity from lawsuits to Iraq.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia says it does not, that the law applies narrowly to legal restrictions on assistance and money for the new Iraqi government. Chief Justice John Roberts, then an appeals court judge, said in an earlier case that the 2003 law and the president's order were sufficient to block the lawsuits.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
Sri Lankan security forces were ready to deal a "decisive blow" to the remaining Tamil Tiger rebels following the capture of the highly strategic Elephant Pass, the defence ministry said yesterday. After four days of fierce fighting, government forces on Friday established full control over the causeway, which links the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the mainland.
"The fall... has deprived the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the most crucial strategic ground at the 'Jaffna gateway' following an eight year occupation," the ministry said. "Troops are now poised at launching a decisive blow at the remaining LTTE strong points at Mulliyan, Chempiyanpattu, Chundikulam and Kaddaikadu."
The ministry had already declared that the ethnic rebels were facing near "extinction" after security forces captured their main political headquarters of Kilinochchi last week. "The end-game of LTTE's protracted separatist cause is reaching its final stages, as the advancing security forces overran the most fortified LTTE northern garrison" at the Elephant Pass, the ministry said.
The Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting since 1972 for a separate homeland, had held the pass since April 2000, and its loss is another huge blow to the separatists after the fall of Kilinochchi last week.
"Our forces have recorded another historic victory today," President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation on Friday. "That is the complete dislodging of the Tigers from Elephant Pass and the security forces establishing their authority there," he said.
The military now controls a 142-kilometre (88-mile) stretch of the important A-9 highway and can supply troops and nearly half a million civilians in Jaffna by road, the president said.
Government forces were also moving towards the remaining jungle hideouts of the Tigers in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu amid rebel resistance, the army said. The rebels are now almost totally confined to the jungle and lagoon district, where some 300,000 civilians are also living.
The army on Saturday accused the rebels of killing seven civilians who were fleeing from the town of Murusumoddai, near Mullaittivu district. Troops also recovered 11 rebel bodies following heavy fighting around the Murusumoddai area on Friday, the army said.
The LTTE meanwhile accused troops of directing artillery fire towards an internally displaced camp inside rebel-held Mullaittivu on Friday, killing one man and injuring four others. The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, vowed in a radio broadcast in November to fight on and evict government forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Reopening the road to Jaffna is huge, the SL army is really pouring it on. Now, to mop up the remaining areas that the rebels hold territory, and hopefully begin democracy and reconciliation programs in the siezed territory.
#4
While it was "fun" at first, the majority of the Tamils in Sri Lanka today just want to get on with living and don't much care for the LTTE. Freeing them from that yoke of tyranny would be a good thing. Reinstituting the rule of law and democratic behavior would be well-received by everyone but the militants, who won't be pleased with anything but a unilateral victory. Screw them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2009 14:54
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President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's program to provide heating oil to poor American families was never halted, despite concerns that deliveries might be interrupted.
Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. had to make a public announcement that the aid would continue after its partner nonprofit group said Citgo stopped the free fuel shipments because of the world economic crisis. "They are speculating on all sides that Venezuela has suspended its program of cooperation with the poor of the United States," Chavez said. "No, it was never suspended."
Chavez did not address whether oil shipments were ever interrupted.
Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp. _ a charity organization run by Joseph Kennedy, the eldest son of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy _ on Monday alerted households benefiting from the four-year-old program that oil shipments were in doubt.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Oogo should make a show of this and announce he is expanding the program. Let's milk this SoB all we can.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 0:47
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A piece of history has been unearthed at Antietam National Battlefield in Washington County -- the remains of a soldier who died in that Civil War battle, almost 150 years ago. Archeologists are now working to find out as much as they can about that soldier, and give him a proper burial.
The Battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862 remains the bloodiest day in American history. On that one day, more than 23,000 men were killed, wounded or captured. The bodies of hundreds of soldiers were buried on the field. Years later, the Army moved many of the Union dead to the Antietam National Cemetery. Confederates were moved to cemeteries in Hagerstown or Frederick.
But some bodies were missed. And this past October, a man walking through the battlefield came upon what he thought were human remains, and he was right. Part of what he found was a human tooth. 'Actually it was an impacted wisdom tooth was what it was,' said John Howard, superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield.
The National Park Service called in a team of archeologists to search the site, and they found more artifacts including the soldier's belt buckle, and several buttons from his jacket. 'Each one was spaced exactly the same distance apart so you know that when they laid him to rest his coat was buttoned and it laid directly down his chest,' Howard said.
The buttons also revealed the man was a Union soldier from New York State. Scientists at the Smithsonian studied the tooth, and determined that he was between 18 and 21 years old, but it's unlikely that they'll ever know exactly who he was. 'For example if there was only one New York Soldier left unknown, well then it would work but there are more than that,' Howard said. 'There's probably close to 60 or 70 that we know of just from very fast research.'
Regardless, the remains are being treated with the utmost respect. 'He was somebody's brother, perhaps somebody's father, definitely somebody's son. And that's the way we treat these remains,' Howard said.
The last discovery like this was in 1989, when the remains of four Union soldiers were found. The man who found the remains this time left the battlefield without telling anyone who he was. Officials with the park service are hoping he'll come forward, because they would like to thank him.
#2
The man died for arguably one of the greatest causes in human history. Its nice to see that he is being treatet with the respect he deserves.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:04
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#3
Not far from where I live is a Civil War burial ground with at least 22 graves. The University of Tennessee did a little work and determined there are 18 Confederates and 4 Union but nothing has been done in 15 years to try to determine who they were. It's on private land and is the place where the dead from a Skirmish on the Holston River are burried. There were 300 Confederate Infantry and 2000 Union Cavalry. I have an ancestor who took part in this fight. The landowner keeps the place cleaned of all undergrowth and debris.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/11/2009 9:40
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A surreal scenario is expected to play out Wednesday in the Illinois Senate: Against a ceremonial backdrop of pomp and circumstance, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich will preside over the swearing-in of the very same lawmakers whose first order of business will be to consider whether to dump him from office.
The first impeachment trial of a governor in Illinois' long, corrupt history is expected to look a lot like the last one that gripped the nation's attention a decade ago-- President Bill Clinton's 1999 U.S. Senate trial, even if it could stretch out longer than the three weeks that one lasted.
The 59 senators--37 Democrats and 22 Republicans, including three freshmen--will act as the jury. The state Supreme Court's chief justice, Thomas Fitzgerald, will preside. A special prosecutor hired by the House will trade rhetoric with Blagojevich's defense team, likely to be led by renowned criminal attorney Ed Genson. And all the drama will unfold live to the public, including deliberations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Gov. Rod Blagojevich will preside over the swearing-in of the very same lawmakers ...
The Iraqi government has announced the arrest of a Saudi Arabian militant linked to a 2000 hijacking and more recently accused of violence in Iraq.
The Interior Ministry said Ayish al-Harbi has been accused of leading a three-member criminal gang involved in the killing of police and army officers and forcing families to leave their homes in Iraq. He and the other two suspects were arrested on Dec. 17, according to the statement posted this week on the ministry Web site.
Harbi was a former captain in the Saudi border guards and entered Iraq in 2000 after participating in the hijacking of a plane en route to Britain, the statement said. The plane instead landed in Baghdad. The two hijackers, who were identified at the time as Faisal al-Biloowi and Ayish al-Faridi, surrendered peacefully after hours of negotiations and the 103 passengers and crew members were unharmed.
This article starring:
Ayish al-Harbi
Faisal al-Biloowi
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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[10 views]
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The wives of the leaders of seven Muslim countries Saturday condemned the Israeli attack on Gaza and called on the international community to end the suffering of women and children there. They were joined by the daughter of the Libyan leader Moamer Gaddhafi after a meeting in the city of "Women for peace in Palestine."
The meeting was organized by Emine Erdogan, wife of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a news agency report. Among those attending were Queen Rania of Jordan, Asma al-Assad, wife of the Syrian leader, Aicha Gaddhafi, daughter of the Libyan leader, and Wafa Suleiman, wife of the president of Lebanon.
" I hope our meeting will be an instrument of pressure on Israel for the immediate halt of the attacks on Gaza "
Emine Erdogan
"I hope our meeting will be an instrument of pressure on Israel for the immediate halt of the attacks on Gaza," Erdogan told participants in the meeting in an address carried live on Turkish television.
She spoke of a "humanitarian drama" in Gaza and urged the international community to put an end "to the sufferings of women and children" in Palestine which "attacked the most basic freedom, that of life."
Earlier those attending the meeting had met representatives of Turkish aid organizations operating in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
of course, the leaders themselves were busy hiding under the bed.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/11/2009 1:53
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The Taliban are running parallel courts in several areas of Swat district to provide what they call 'speedy and easy justice' to people. However, the NWFP government says the Taliban are doing so to attract the attention of the public and the media.
During a visit to the valley, Daily Times learnt the Taliban courts were functional in many parts of Kabal, Matta and Khwazakhela tehsils.
70 courts: Locals said with the exception of Kanjoo town and Mingora city, more than 70 Taliban courts were functional in the valley.
"Some of those are working secretly, while others, located in areas under the control of the Taliban, are openly hearing and deciding cases and awarding punishments to those found guilty under the Taliban code of conduct," Mingora resident Mehboob Ali said.
He said the Taliban were mostly conducting the courts in the hujras (guest houses) of their supporters or in buildings vacated by residents who migrated from the valley due to Taliban attacks. Ali said several of the Taliban judges did not have school or religious education. He added most of the cases presented before the Taliban courts were about monetary and land disputes and the Taliban judges usually decided the cases within a few hours. "Disregarding the nature of their decisions, many people in those areas prefer the Taliban courts because of their quick decisions," said another local Shehzad Mehmud, who claimed a lawyer of Matta tehsil had lodged a complaint regarding a monetary dispute with a Taliban judge who decided the case on the spot.
He said the maximum time taken by a Taliban court to decide a case was two or three days. Besides imposing fines, the Taliban courts were also punishing those found involved in petty crimes like theft, robbery or using narcotics with lashings.
About a week ago, the faces of two people were blackened on the orders of a similar court in Hangu district and they were paraded on donkeys in a market. A Taliban group has announced sharia in parts of Hangu. Swat District Coordination Officer Shaukat Ali Yousafzai refused to comment. However, NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told Daily Times the government would not allow a parallel government or courts in the province. "What is the legitimacy of such courts and who will go there?" he asked and vowed stern action. "This is a challenge for us and we know how to cope with this challenge," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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U.S. President George W. Bush deflected Israel's secret request last year for bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex, saying he had authorized covert action to sabotage Tehran's suspected atomic weapons development, The New York Times said.
Is there anything the NYT won't leak if it harms our national security?
Citing U.S. and foreign officials, the Times reported on Saturday the White House was unable to determine whether Israel had decided to carry out the strike before Washington objected or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was trying to get Bush to act more decisively before he leaves office this month.
Details of the expanded U.S. covert program and the Bush administration's efforts to talk Israel out of attacking Iran emerged from 15 months of interviews with current and former U.S. officials, international nuclear inspectors, outside experts and European and Israeli officials, the Times said. None of those interviewed would speak on the record, the paper said, adding it omitted many details of the covert efforts from its report at the request of senior U.S. intelligence and administration officials.
So not a word of this may be true ...
It said the interviews also suggested "that while Mr. Bush was extensively briefed on options for an overt American attack on Iran's facilities, he never instructed the Pentagon to move beyond contingency planning, even during the final year of his presidency, contrary to what some critics have suggested."
But aware that financial sanctions against Iran were inadequate, Bush turned to the CIA, according to people involved in the covert program, authorizing a broader effort aimed at Iran's industrial infrastructure supporting its nuclear programs, the Times said.
So now the NYT is going to blow Operation Lemony Snickett ...
While the paper said details were closely held by U.S. officials, it quoted one as saying, "It was not until the last year that they got really imaginative about what one could do to screw up the system."
But the official said "none of these are game-changers" in that the efforts would not necessarily cripple Iran's program.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Half the world could have told this story in one sentence. The US has a covert program to attempt to disrupt the Iranian nuke program, but it can't stop the nuke program completely.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 0:19
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#2
Why put anything from THAT paper as a post? I do not see them having any cred, or business for that matter.
Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza yesterday and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel.
Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid the heavy fighting. The Israeli threat to launch a "new phase" in its two-week-old offensive that has already killed more than 800 Palestinians came in defiance of international calls for a ceasefire.
Israeli planes sent a cloud of white leaflets fluttering across the Gaza City skyline warning residents it would soon step up its war on Hamas and other militant groups.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
do not lift your boot off their throat as long as there is life in their eyes. a job half done is worse than never starting.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/11/2009 0:47
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#2
Question for Israeli Rantburgers.
Do your politicians have the support neccessary to take Gaza and run a long term COIN op there?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 0:56
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#3
We are seeing in Gaza, and have seen to lesser extent in Iraq and afghanistan, a change from war being impersonal to war being personal.
Wage war and your house and (hopefully) your relatives houses will be bombed. Civilian causalties will in all likleyhood be your relatives.
Terrorists are no longer fish swimming in the sea. They are fish with bright neon targets on their back.
#4
Wrong question Mike N. The right question is "Do Israelis recognize that it's Metzada/Warsaw Ghetto time again---only this time we've an equalizer?".
#6
Haaretz and JPost both report that some Hamas units are low on ammo; others have lost enough personnel to be essentially ineffective. Hamas leaders are holed up in hospitals and some foreign counsels.
Woah. Bet you're glad you're not down there, huh, Khaled? A guy could get hurt... As Israel warned of an escalation of its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the leader of the militant Palestinian group vowed Saturday that Israel had squandered any chance of settlement and negotiation.
Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal gave a fiery speech on the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera condemning Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, describing it as a "holocaust."
Easy for Khaled to call for people to rise up, he's safe in Damascus ...
"You have finished off the last chance and breath for settlement and negotiations," he said, calling on Arabs to continue their protests to pressure their leaders and the international community. "We are living the hardest moments of the resistance now, we want another intifada in Palestine and on the Arab street."
Meanwhile, Israel pounded rocket sites and tunnels Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation, and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas predicted a "waterfall of blood" unless all parties adhere to the U.N.'s call for a durable cease-fire.
Hamas fighters kept up attacks on southern Israel, launching 15 rockets. And with neither side ready to step down, the death toll in two weeks of fighting rose to more than 800 Palestinians, according to Palestinian medical officials, and 13 Israelis. Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid heavy fighting.
Mashaal's comments come as a Hamas delegation is in Egypt, together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss an Egyptian cease-fire proposal and possible international monitoring force to enforce an agreement.
Mashaal said that any international monitoring force would be treated as "occupation" force and Hamas said that before any negotiations could take place, Israel had to halt attacks, pull out of the Gaza Strip and lift the siege of Gaza. He did say, however, that the group would deal with any peace proposals with an "empty open mind." So what are you willing to give up before negotiations can take place? The male prostitutes at the Damascus Hilton?
Diplomacy was not finished, but it appeared to be in retreat following both sides' defiance of Thursday's U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a halt to fighting. Struggling to keep peace efforts alive, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited representatives of Gaza's Hamas rulers to Egypt for further talks on his cease-fire initiative.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Y'know, calling 600 some-odd terrorists and terror supporters killed in combat operations a "holocaust," to a people who know firsthand what a real holocaust is... well, it is so dumb it's almost funny. Should we call a "waaa"mbulance for the little cry-babies? I mean, are you gonna be fearsome martyrs and fight to the death, or not?? These people a truly pathetic.
#3
I hope Israel had a satellite in place to track this prick home from the press conference. I'm not big on the idea of Israel going around popping radical figures, but this guy is one I would like to see them do away with.
At minimum I would enjoy Livni going on a ridicule offensive against this maggot.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:38
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#4
"You have finished off the last chance and breath for settlement and negotiations,"
You know, that's so sad, because if hamas proudly stood for something, it sure was for settlement and negociations and all that peacenik stuff, that's what they lived for. Such a waste.
Protests in the Arab world calling for an end to Israel's bloody invasion of the Gaza Strip grew in size and intensity on Friday, with clashes between rival political parties in Palestine - and riot police in Egypt failing to stem a 50,000-strong rally. Supporters of the Hamas movement clashed with members of Fatah during protests in the Occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC technically are bankrupt and Chrysler is a step away from death, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
"GM and Chrysler are insolvent. Without federal funding they are bankrupt," McAlinden said at a conference today at the joint office of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. If the government took half of all of the bailout money away, they would go back to being bankrupt, he said. "GM will not meet the initial conditions of the loan. But the conditions will change so GM can keep them," McAlinden said.
His prognosis for Chrysler is not as rosy. "Chrysler will go away," he said. "Most cats don't have that many lives."
McAlinden described the company as being in hibernation, operating at a "one beat per minute level." Chrysler idled all North American manufacturing plants this month and entire floors in its Auburn Hills headquarters are empty in the wake of recent 5,000 white-collar buyouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#2
So long, Chrysler. Ima gonna miss ye. Spend the rest of mah days romanticizing the Charger, Charger Daytona, Superbird, Challenger, Cuda, Road Runner, Super Bee and its little crash helmet wearin logo, Duster Twister, Dart Demon, Fury, 300, Imperial, Savoy, torsion bars, A body, B body, Dana 60, 727, 833, 340, 440, Hemi, Cummins, Pistol Grip, Tic Tach, Rapid Transit System. I'm sure there's more that I can't think of at the moment.
Put Jeep in good hands. The Wrangler is a piece of Americana.
Ya still own NHRA horsepower tho, and nobody can take that away from you.
And thank you for your efforts during WWII. Your country appreciates it.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 0:39
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#3
There may never be a better, more heartfelt Chrysler eulogy than Mike N's. The way he puts it, I don't want them to come back.
-Power Wagon (the original, not the later version)
but other wise you got it right.
Agree on the Wrangler, it's a seventy year old concept that still works. Hope the Dakota survives, too, it's the only midsize pickup made today that has a V-8 option.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/11/2009 7:06
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#6
Mike,
Don't forget the K Car - damn near a new Model T that saved Chrysler the last time. Unfortunately they left it in production too long...and it was there their troubles began.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/11/2009 7:57
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#7
My first car was a 70 Dodge Dart Swinger. Slant 6, tonneau roof.
Put a lot of miles on it despite the gas crisis in 73. Alas, it got totalled when an idiot rammed into it trying to get out of the parking lot in a hurry one icy day. sniff
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 11:17
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#11
First girl I had a crush on had a Plymouth Road Runner. To this day I'm not completely sure if it was her or her car ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009 12:24
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#12
Owned and wore out a 1965 D-100 Pickup, it lasted 860000.00 (That's right Eight hundred and sixty thousand miles) looked like shit, but those slant sixes live forever.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/11/2009 17:03
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#13
on a mopar thread who can forget the movie 'vanishing point'?
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/11/2009 20:33
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#14
I will always remember that afternoon behind the wheel of my '64 Plymouth Valiant when the throttle return spring broke and the throttle locked in a full open position. Man, what a ride!
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi policemen on Saturday captured two suspects in the northern part of the district of Talafar, a security source said. "A police force, in collaboration with local residents, arrested two suspects inside a house in al-Nour neighborhood in northern Talafar," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Talafar lies 60 km west of Mosul. "The two are now under investigative custody on charges of planting improvised explosive device," the source said, not giving more details.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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They're going to need more than three rings. by P.J. O'Rourke
Is it too soon to talk about the failed Obama presidency just because Obama isn't president yet? That depends upon how quickly Barack Obama is able to apply the lessons he's learned from Management Secrets of the Illinois Governors. So far he's not doing very well. He has allowed America's current number one jackleg, crackpot, smut-mouth, slime-licking politician to give the Obama Senate seat to a lovable old African-American doofus whom no one has the heart to execrate. Roland Burris will be the kind of ornament to this year's Senate that the broken plastic Rudolph with its antlers missing was to last year's Christmas tree.
Speaking of "witch," am I the only person who experienced an unexpected surge of warm fellow-feeling for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when Hillary was named secretary of state? I wouldn't wish dealing with her on my worst enemy, who'd be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Then Obama took Bill Richardson--one of his earliest important supporters and among the smartest, most experienced, and, certainly, most affable of Washington insiders--and put Bill at the Department of Commerce. I will read from the roster at the Secretary of Commerce Hall of Fame, its inductees dating back to the Harding administration:
Norman Mineta
Mickey Kantor
Ron Brown
Robert Mosbacher
Howard Malcolm Baldrige Jr.
Philip Morris Klutznick
Maurice Stans
Henry Wallace
Harry Hopkins
Herbert Hoover
Even a Blagojevich knows that Washington isn't Chicago. In Washington you don't place a loyal and able political ally in some obscure public office to garner campaign contribution boodle from local highway contractors. And--oops, that seems to have been the problem with the Bill Richardson nomination.
Come on, Obama, what kind of Democrat are you? I thought Democrats were supposed to be good at this stuff. It's us Republicans who stink at political corruption. One clumsy little elephant misstep and it's GOPterdämmerung with villainy that lives on in popular legend for generations--McCarthyism, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Enron, Jack Abramoff. But when Democrats get their hand (or other body part) caught in the till, folk heroes ensue--Boston's James Curley being reelected while jailed, Washington's Marion Barry being jailed while elected, Quixotic Bill Clinton unfazed by the Rush Limbaugh windmill and riding off into the sunset with fair Dulcinea Lewinsky unceremoniously dumped from the saddle. And, of course, there's Obama's Toddling Town, the Windy City of Richard and Richie Daley with its "corruption that works."
So what's the big deal about Bill Richardson and the highway contractors? You want those highway contractors making their Democratic presidential contributions during the primary campaigns of 2012 when the "failed Obama presidency" is being challenged at the polls by Hillary Clinton?
Speaking of "witch," am I the only person who experienced an unexpected surge of warm fellow-feeling for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when Hillary was named secretary of state? I wouldn't wish dealing with her on my worst enemy, who'd be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I think about the next four years of Hillary's dutiful efforts at global peacemaking, and I hear a chorus of voices echoing around the world--from Israelis and Palestinians, Iraqis and al Qaeda, Taliban and NATO troops, Pakistanis and Indians, Sri Lankans and Tamil Tigers, Georgians and South Ossetians, Colombian soldiers and FARC guerrillas, Hutus and Tutsis, Congolese rebels and other Congolese rebels--all saying, "Thanks, but we'd rather be killed by each other than nagged to death by you."
Mr. future ex-President Obama, if I may address you personally, let's discuss your laundry list of hope and change. In your opinion how often is change really a good thing? Changing a tire. "You'd better change your ways." Change of life. "Spare change, Man?" Any change in a wart or mole.
If change came in a box, what kind of box would it come in? You've read your Bulfinch's. After Pandora opens her container (made of recycled material so that death and disease leave a small carbon footprint) and all the evils that plague mankind have been loosed on the world, what's left inside? Do you think it's a good sign when nothing remains but hope? What would your girls have liked best for Christmas? A kennel with a puppy? Or a carton full of empty promises?
In the language of politics there is only one translation for the phrase "hope and change," to wit, "big, fat government." Mr. Obama, if you're going to give us big, fat government, you need to be a big, fat politician. You need to be a Tip O'Neill, a Teddy Kennedy, a Richard Daley, a Bill Clinton at the very least. And you don't seem to be a big, fat anything--literally or otherwise. You seem to be . . . smart and organized. Like Jimmy Carter!
So we may speak without compunction of the failed Obama presidency. What a blessing that it's a failure. Things are bad enough the way they are. There's already a huge ongoing government intervention in the economy. Bringing the government in to run Wall Street is like saying, "Dad burned dinner, let's get the dog to cook." Now the government's going to take over the auto industry. I can predict the result--a light-weight, compact, sustainable vehicle using alternative energy. When I was a kid we called it a Schwinn. And next in line for political therapy is health care. Voting will cure what ails you. Go to the doctor when you've got cancer, and he'll say, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. I'm going to treat your disease by going inside this small, curtained booth and putting an 'X' next to a very special name."
If we want this sort of thing and lots more of it, we'll need somebody better--that is to say worse--than Barack Obama. Is Obama the man who can make the wolf of partisan spoils dwell with the lamb of public interest, and the leopard of increased political power lie down with the kid of individual liberty; and the calf of personal responsibility and the young lion of social engineering and the fatling of free enterprise together; and a lawyer from Hyde Park will lead them? (And will Nancy Pelosi eat straw like Dennis Kucinich?)
No. Barack Obama doesn't have the outsized personality and flair for bunkum that is necessary to lead even America's sheep-like electorate into such ravenous company. Thank God.
Barack Obama is not a P.T. Barnum of the Washington Big Top. The real P.T. Barnum had a side-show attraction where a lamb, a wolf, a leopard, and a lion had been trained to stay with each other in one cage. Asked if this was difficult Barnum said, "No. But every now and then we have to get a new lamb."
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pressed his rivals Hamas on Saturday to accept an Egyptian plan to end Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to discuss the proposal. "We hope that the (Hamas delegation) will reach an agreement without hesitation," Abbas told journalists after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who floated his peace plan on Tuesday.
Hopes for peace are increasingly focused on Egypt's mediation efforts since both Israel and Hamas brushed off a U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday calling for an immediate truce in the fighting.
The Egyptian plan seeks to meet Israel's requirement of preventing weapons going to Gaza through Egyptian tunnels and Hamas's demand for a reopening of Gaza's borders to normal traffic.
Abbas stressed he wanted an international force in Gaza rather than controlling traffic on the Egyptian side of the border, as suggested by European countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
IRAN is repor demanding HAMAS NOT ACCEPT, ala FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX.
The US Department of Justice has moved to confiscate nearly $3 million from bank accounts in Singapore, which are allegedly linked to a bribery scandal in Bangladesh, involving Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia. The justice department is seeking a forfeiture action against the accounts that are alleged to be the proceeds of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bribe public officials in Bangladesh and their family members, in connection with various public works projects, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division on Friday in Washington DC.
The forfeiture action against the funds, held by multiple account holders, was filed on Thursday in a US district court in the District of Columbia.
The complaint relates primarily to alleged bribes paid to Koko, in connection with public works projects awarded by the government of Bangladesh to Siemens AG, a German industrial conglomerate, and China Harbour Engineering Company. The complaint said at least one payment to each of the purported consultants was paid from a US bank account.
Koko was arrested in Bangladesh along with his mother Khaleda Zia on Sept 3, 2007 after a bribery case had been filed by the country's Anti-corruption Commission (ACC). He was however later released on parole on grounds of ill health, and is now reportedly undergoing treatment in Bangkok.
The ACC on December 18 of last year disclosed that Koko has foreign currencies worth around Tk 11.43 crore deposited in a Singapore bank. With help from the Singapore government, the ACC of Bangladesh unearthed information that Koko has 20.61 lakh Singaporean dollars and 2.61 lakh US dollars. The Singapore government also froze the account and sent necessary documents to the ACC.
According to the US justice department forfeiture complaint, the majority of funds in Koko's account are traceable to bribes allegedly received in connection with a China Harbour project for building a new mooring containment terminal in Chittagong port.
"This action shows the lengths to which the US law enforcement will go to recover the proceeds of foreign corruption including acts of bribery and money laundering," said Matthew Friedrich. "Not only will the department, for example, prosecute companies and executives who violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, we will also use our forfeiture laws to recapture the illicit facilitating payments often used in such schemes."
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (Siemens AG), a German corporation, and three of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty on December 15, 2008, to violations of and charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The company will pay $800 million in criminal and civil fines after admitting it paid bribes to government officials in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Siemens Bangladesh admitted that between May 2001 and August 2006, it caused corrupt payments of at least $5,319,839 to be made through purported business consultants to various Bangladeshi officials in exchange for favourable treatment during the bidding process on a mobile telephone project. According to the forfeiture complaint, the bribe payments from Siemens AG and China Harbour Engineering Company were made in US dollars, and the illicit funds flowed through financial institutions in the US, before they were deposited in the accounts in Singapore, subjecting them to the US jurisdiction.
Money laundering laws in the US cover financial transactions that flow through the country involving proceeds from foreign offences including foreign bribery and extortion.
In August 2006, the US president announced a national strategy to internationalise efforts against kleptocracy to fight high level corruption around the world. The strategy combines policy and law enforcement tools of several federal agencies, including the departments of justice, treasury, state, and homeland security.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Linda Samuel and Trial Attorney Frederick Reynolds of the Criminal Division's Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Additional assistance was provided by the Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs.
The case was investigated by FBI's Washington Field Office in cooperation with Bangladeshi law enforcement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is vacationing in Malaysia, to where he has also transferred funds, according to South Africa's Saturday Star newspaper.
I didn't know a suitcase could carry that many Zim-bucks ...
Nah. Zim-bucks are for the "little people"...
It said Mugabe's wife, Grace - who went with their four children to Malaysia before Christmas - had organised a transfer of 92,000 dollars from Zimbabwe's central bank.
Perhaps that's the last $92,000 remaining in Zim and he's leaving.
$92,000 doesn't spend far in Malaysia ...
Mugabe, who followed on last Monday, was using the vacation for routine health checks, while his personal doctor had also helped organise transfer of personal funds to Malaysia and also Singapore.
The 84-year-old's vacation, due to last a month, comes as the former model African state endures the toughest economic and political crisis in its history.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
He really should consider asking Grace's mum to come stay in the presidential palace and assist with child care. White domestic help is bloody difficult to find these days and those Au Paire bills must be staggering.
The arrest of two key Taliban commanders has raised hopes among the authorities for recovering the Afghan and Iranian diplomats missing since last year, officials said on Saturday.
"If the two commanders' release can help recover the two missing diplomats, the federal government may allow authorities to go ahead with the plan," the officials told Daily Times. Security forces arrested senior Taliban commander Ustad Yasir on January 3, and Mustafa Kamal Kamran 'Hijrat,' wanted by the government for attacks on NATO truck terminals in Peshawar, on December 9. Both are Afghan nationals.
Both the arrests were made from the Hayatabad residential area, according to senior security officials. Afghan ambassador-designate to Pakistan Abdul Khaliq Farahi was kidnapped in Hayatabad district on September 22 and commercial consular at the Iranian Consulate, Hashmatollah Atterzedeh, in Peshawar on November 13 last year.
"There is pressure on Pakistan to secure the release of the two missing diplomats from Iran and Afghanistan. A single day does not pass when the Iranian and Afghan diplomats do not visit the governor, the chief minister or the head of intelligence networks to seek progress," the officials said. It was proposed to use the two arrested Taliban commanders as a 'bargain chip' to win freedom for the missing diplomats, the officials added. NWFP Police chief Malik Naveed suspected Mustafa Kamal's 'involvement' in Farahi's abduction.
Wanted: A security official said the two arrested Taliban commanders were not wanted by the United States, adding, "The best use of the two men can be their exchange with the missing diplomats' who appear to have been abducted by the Taliban than simple kidnappers." The government has not formally acknowledged reports saying the two senior Taliban commanders were taken into custody but it has not denied the reports either.
If the authorities free Ustad Yasir in return for the recovery of either the missing Afghan or Iranian diplomat or both, it will be the second time that the Taliban commander would get a new lease on life.
He was first arrested in the NWFP in 2005 and handed over to Kabul. The Afghan government released him from Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi prison in exchange for the abducted Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in early 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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It's hard to pinpoint the worst part of the public lands legislation bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is calling up for an under-the-radar Sunday vote tomorrow.
The 1200-page, pork-laden, $10 billion proposal locks up millions of acres of energy-rich property by designating it as environmentalist-friendly "federal wilderness" area where not even as much as a bicycle would be permitted to travel across the land. Many of these areas recently became available when the ban on domestic drilling in Western states expired last fall and the liberal left couldn't muster the courage to keep it in place due to rising energy prices. Now Democratic leaders are using different legislative strategies to put a new kind of ban in place.
One Republican House staffer put it this way: "Reid is going to make it federal land so no one can touch it. He's locking up the equivalent of ANWR."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Someone take him out back and read Senator Reid the Riot Act.
An act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the rioters.
I. Whereas of late many rebellious riots and tumults have been in divers parts of this kingdom, to the disturbance of the publick peace, and the endangering of his Majesty's person and government, and the same are yet continued and fomented by persons disaffected to his Majesty, presuming so to do, for that the punishments provided by the laws now in being are not adequate to such heinous offences; and by such rioters his Majesty and his administration have been most maliciously and falsly traduced, with an intent to raise divisions, and to alienate the affections of the people from his Majesty therefore for the preventing and suppressing of such riots and tumults, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the offenders therein; be it enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and of the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That if any persons to the number of twelve or more, being unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, to the disturbance of the publick peace, at any time after the last day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, and being required or commanded by any one or more justice or justices of the peace, or by the sheriff of the county, or his under-sheriff, or by the mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other head-officer, or justice of the peace of any city or town corporate, where such assembly shall be, by proclamation to be made in the King's name, in the form herin after directed, to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, shall, to the number of twelve or more (notwithstanding such proclamation made) unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously remain or continue together by the space of one hour after such command or request made by proclamation, that then such continuing together to the number of twelve or more, after such command or request made by proclamation, shall be adjudged felony without benefit of clergy, and the offenders therein shall be adjudged felons, and shall suffer death as in a case of felony without benefit of clergy.
II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the order and form of the proclamation that shall be made by the authority of this act, shall be as hereafter followeth (that is to say) the justice of the peace, or other person authorized by this act to make the said proclamation shall, among the said rioters, or as near to them as he can safely come, with a loud voice command, or cause to be commanded silence to be, while proclamation is making, and after that, shall openly and with loud voice make or cause to be made proclamation in these words, or like in effect:
Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King.
And every such justice and justices of the peace, sheriff, under-sheriff, mayor, bailiff, and other head-officer aforesaid, within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, are hereby authorized, impowered and required, on notice or knowledge of any such unlawful, riotous and tumultuous assembly, to resort to the place where such unlawful, riotous, and tumultuous assemblies shall be, of persons to the number of twelve or more, and there to make or cause to be made proclamation in manner aforesaid.
III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if such persons so unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled, or twelve or more of them, after proclamation made in manner aforesaid, shall continue together and not disperse themselves within one hour, That then it shall and may be lawful to and for every justice of the peace, sheriff, or under-sheriff of the county where such assembly shall be, and also to and for every high or petty constable, and other peace-officer within such county, and also to and for every mayor, justice of the peace, sheriff, bailiff, and other head-officer, high or petty constable, and other peace-officer of any city or town corporate where such assembly shall be, and to and for such other person and persons as shall be commanded to be assisting unto any such justice of the peace, sheriff or under-sheriff, mayor, bailiff, or other head-officer aforesaid (who are hereby authorized and impowered to command all his Majesty's subjects of age and ability to be assisting to them therein) to seize and apprehend, and they are hereby required to seize and apprehend such persons so unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously continuing together after proclamation made, as aforesaid, and forthwith to carry the persons so apprehended before one or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace of the county or place where such persons shall be so apprehended, in order to their being proceeded against for such their offences according to law; and that if the persons so unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled, or any of them, shall happen to be killed, maimed or hurt, in the dispersing, seizing or apprehending, or endeavouring to disperse, seize or apprehend them, that then every such justice of the peace, sheriff, under-sheriff, mayor, bailiff, head-officer, high or petty constable, or other peace-officer, and all and singular persons, being aiding and assisting to them, or any of them, shall be free, discharged and indemnified, as well against the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, as against all and every other person and persons, of, for, or concerning the killing, maiming, or hurting of any such person or persons so unlawfully, riotously and tumultuously assembled, that shall happen to be so killed, maimed or hurt, as aforesaid.
Dis just the frist part of it. According to my calculations it means: Stop ye damn riot or Ima send the boys after ye.
I could be wrong of course. It's January, I stll got 27 l3ft.
Pakistan condemns the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and considers it a blatant violation of international law and a war crime, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Zamir Akram has said. Akram was speaking on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference at a special session of the Human Rights Council, according to a message received here on Saturday. The session was held to discuss the human rights situation in the occupied Gaza Strip. He said the UN Security Council's (UNSC) call for a ceasefire should be immediately implemented. He said the unrestrained use of force, the killing of innocent civilians including women and children, the bombardment on UN safe havens and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people were war crimes and crimes against humanity. He called for bringing the culprits to justice. Akram said the 1.5 million people of Gaza had been subjected to a crippling blockade for the last eighteen months. He urged the UNSC and the world to help end the Israeli aggression on Gaza, ensure cessation of all hostilities and provide immediate protection for the Palestinian people and secure a ceasefire and return to calm.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Hopefully, soon to be echoed by "Indian brutalities" in Pakistan.
#2
Pakistan is right to complain. How dare a nation track the terrorists to their home bases to effectively deal with them - sets a very scary precedent!
#4
Apparently Akram still hasn't figured out the cause-effect thingy. Cause: Hamas shoots rockets at Israel. Effect: Israel blockades Gaza. Cause: Hamas keeps shooting rockets at Israel. Effect: Israel invades Gaza to shut down the rocket attacks. In the course of that, yes, some innocent (more or less) people get killed. However, Israel is targeting Hamas and its leaders. The fact that Hamas is a bunch of pussies who hide behind women and children is unfortunate.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/11/2009 19:16
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A Yemeni court began on Saturday the trial of three nationals accused of establishing contact with the office of Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and offering their collaboration to the Jewish state.
The three men are accused of operating under the name of Yemen's Organization of Islamic Jihad and spreading false news of attacks on government buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Yemen between May and September 2008.
The prosecution charged the main defendant, Bassam al-Haidari, 26, of writing directly to the prime minister of Israel by email, offering to work for the Jewish state.
" We are the Organization of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything "
Extract from email allegedly sent to Olmert
"We are the Organization of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything," Haidari said in the email sent to Olmert, the prosecution charged.
The list of charges says that Olmert responded to Haidari, also known as Abu al-Ghaith, welcoming his offer to collaborate.
"We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent," Olmert was quoted as writing back.
According to Yemen's SABA news agency three of the six-member network confessed to working for Israel through communication with the office of PM Olmert and with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.
The group, which includes Imad al-Rimi, 23, and Ali al-Mahfal, 24, has also claimed in Internet messages signed by Abu al-Gaith that it prepared 16 car bombs to attack governmental buildings and embassies, according to the charges.
The three defendants denied all the charges and demanded a lawyer. The court agreed to their demand and adjourned the hearing to January 17.
Yemeni authorities rounded up six suspects in Sanaa shortly after a September 17 attack on the U.S. embassy that killed 18 people.
The interior ministry said at the time that the arrested group included Abu al-Ghaith al-Yamani, who was the signatory of an Islamic Jihad claim of responsibility for the attack on the U.S. mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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Its sad commentary that this charge will be believed by many Yemenis. What good a few islamonuts in Yemen could possibly be to Israel and why Ohlmert would communicate with them personally is not something that will be considered critically by nearly enough people.
I really wanna like these backward ass muzzies, but sometimes they make it soooo friggin difficult.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:14
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Tribal elders on Saturday pledged that the tribesmen would strike back if India imposed war on Pakistan. Attending a jirga of tribal elders from the North and South Waziristan agencies, they said six million tribesmen would not bear Indian threats any more. More than 100 elders of various tribes in Jandola, Kurram Agency, Orakzai and other agencies were present in the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the jirga members said Indian intelligence agencies had began propaganda against Pakistan in a bid to isolate it internationally. They warned India against threatening Pakistan, saying the country was fully capable of replying in a befitting manner in case of war. The elders said the tribesmen would fight along with the army in case of Indian aggression against the country. The jirga members also condemned Israeli government's atrocities against innocent Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
If this comes to pass, the Indians should be quite liberal in reducing the number of tribesmen, say by 5.8 million.
#2
India remembers the tribesmen. What they did in 1947 will not be forgotten.
"Dirty, blood-stained, ill-kempt with ragged beards and hair; some carrying a blanket, most completely unequipped," wrote Father George Shanks, a missionary priest in Baramullah, describing the ill-disciplined tribal army as it entered the town.
They were armed "with rifles of Frontier make, double-barrelled shotguns, revolvers, daggers, swords, axes and her and there a Sten gun. Jostling one another, shouting, cursing and brawling, they came on in a never-ending stream".
The tribesmen ransacked the mission (raping many nuns), looted Muslim homes and businesses, and abducted Sikh girls and women.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/11/2009 10:53
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yeah, I'm thinking an even 6 mil dead is a good start
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 10:57
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THAILAND raised security on Saturday for its largest by-elections, which will test support for the kingdom's new Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva. The authorities banned alcohol and deployed extra police officers in the 22 provinces voting on Sunday, when 29 lawmakers will be elected following a December court ruling that dissolved two political parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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This article is mostly bullshit. The elections are not national/provincial - the election is only in Bangkok, and it is for the Bangkok Governor (effectively, the Mayor - but Bangkok is classified as its own state). This election is to pick a new Bangkok Governor, to replace the one who resigned last December, amid corruption charges (taking kickbacks on procurement of fire trucks).
For at least the nine years that I have lived in Thailand, they have always banned alcohol sales the day prior to voting day, and on voting day. The ban is not generally enforced for restaurants - and enforcement this weekend was pretty lax in the ex-pat bar areas.
I also think that the Thai Police have always been at full strength on election days - simply to keep order at polling places. Yesterday was also "Children's Day" in Thailand - and it was for nationwide events in support of that holiday that extra police were dispatched around the country - mainly to control traffic at special events.
So - this "Thailand Ramps Up Security" article is pretty much making news out of nothing..
Following a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court, Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state, has certified Roland Burris' appointment to the Senate, removing a major roadblock against Burris' ascension to the body. According to his office, White has signed a certificate saying that Burris' appointment document is "true and accurate."
The move came just hours after Illinois' top state court ruled that White's approval was not necessary for a valid appointment to the Senate for Burris by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The Illinois House earlier in the day had impeached Blagojevich by a vote of 114-1. Blagojevich has been indicted on a number of federal corruption charges, including allegations that he attempted to "sell" President-elect Barack Obama's seat in the Senate to the highest bidder.
Burris' attorneys argued White's certification, following the earlier state court ruling, meant there was no reason that the Burris' appointment should not be accepted by Democratic leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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F*ckwit is not taking the gaspipe well. No adequate oil income, no support, let's try and create an external enemy!
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he's investigating whether representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas met with leaders of the political opposition, and said he may expel them from the country. With this guy, the embassy folks probably already have a bag packed at all times...
Chavez said he knows a group of opposition leaders recently flew to Puerto Rico to meet with "U.S. advisers" to discuss strategies to defeat the president's proposal to eliminate his term limits in a referendum this year. Chavez said U.S. Embassy representatives may have been present. "If I can confirm this, I'll throw them out of the country," Chavez said at ceremony in Caracas commemorating the launch of Venezuela's first satellite. The extended altitude bottle rocket named "SS Chavez!", which then fell into the ocean
The socialist Venezuelan leader expelled the U.S. ambassador in Caracas in September and has repeatedly accused President George W. Bush of supporting opposition groups in Venezuela. Venezuela is the fourth-biggest supplier of foreign crude oil to the U.S. and nobody else can handle your sulfurous (might wanna remember that term, Hoogo?) sh*t
Jennifer Rahimi, the deputy press secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, said the accusations that U.S. diplomats met with opposition leaders are "completely false." and stoopid, even if true. Who's your Daddy, b*tch?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009
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#1
We should pull our staff out of there on the basis of 'Hugos Assinine Retoric'.
I really think its time for a policy of 'We'll be nice so long as you're not a total dick'.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 1:47
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#2
With oil hitting near $40 a barrel, maybe its an opportune time to have Hugo do his expel game, so we can match it with an Cuban embargo game. Tough getting that oil to Gulf Coast refineries for processing in those circumstances.
#3
Here's a thought -- let's use the excuse of expelling our diplomats to withdraw our media? Let's take away this clown's megaphone so Chuckles Chavez can die a nice quiet death by withering away w/out his grow light?
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/11/2009 11:06
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#4
Regular Joe, are you assuming the lame stream media would cease writing this maroons' every utterance against the U.S. simply 'cause our diplomats are no longer in country??
Eric H. Holder Jr. is facing increasing resistance to his bid to become the next attorney general, emerging from President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet nominees as the prime target of Senate Republicans, both because of troubling episodes during his service in the Clinton administration and because of the sensitivity of the post overseeing the Justice Department.
With two days of confirmation hearings set to begin Thursday, Holder must demonstrate his independence from Obama to a vocal chorus of GOP lawmakers who want to warn the incoming president that he should not veer too far to the left on national security and judicial nominations. The attorney general plays a pivotal role in those issues, which are of intense concern to conservatives.
What was considered a smooth path to confirmation has recently been complicated as signs of hostility toward Holder have increased over the past month. Political operative Karl Rove and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for example, singled out the longtime Washington lawyer as the candidate who would face bruising questions. "The attorney general nominee, Mr. Holder, has got serious questions to respond to with regard to his role in the . . . pardons at the end of the Clinton administration and some other matters," McConnell said yesterday. "Beyond that, I don't anticipate trouble for the new president's nominees."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Holder is sleazeball. He and Gorelick should be in jail
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 9:42
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#2
Yup. Apparently politicalization of the Department of Justice is okay with the Dhimmicrats now ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009 12:26
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#3
He'll be a good dawg, like Janet Reno was. No disrespect to dawgs.
BTW, what is the Rantburgers' read on the conformation of Leon Pinetta as head of the CIA?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/11/2009 13:06
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#4
shows how serious Obama is about national security that he puts a political hack with NO intelligence experience in charge of Central Intelligence Agency. Was Henry Cisneros unavailable?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 13:18
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#5
My prediction on Pinetta is he will expand oversight dramatically and tie every operational proposal up with legal reviews from hell. Both agency internal and external. I look for nothing good to come of this appointment, but it will be a great day for lawyers and intelligence oversight gurus.
SAN MIGUEL, Costa Rica, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Rescue workers dug into collapsed hillsides on Saturday searching for bodies and possible survivors two days after a strong earthquake killed 20 people. Rescuers fanned out into remote jungle areas on the flanks of the Poas Volcano to excavate landslides in search of 40 people missing from Thursday's 6.1-magnitude quake.
The Red Cross in Costa Rica said 20 bodies have been recovered. About 40 people were still missing, civil protection spokesman Reinaldo Carballo told Reuters.
Colombia and the United States sent military helicopters to help the Costa Rican government, which does not have an army. Bottled water, electric generators and rations sent by the U.S. military began to reach shelters crammed with Costa Ricans who lost their homes.
Hundreds of Costa Ricans and foreign tourists stranded by cut-off roads have already been moved to shelters or evacuated by air to the capital San Jose.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/11/2009
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Classes of Khulna Medical College (KMC) were suspended sine die yesterday after a fierce clash between the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS). At a medical school? Obviously they don't have enough homework. Perhaps they were running short of cadavers ...
Sources said at least seven persons were injured, four of them critically, in the clash Friday night when the BCL men made an attempt to set a room of Shibir leaders on fire at a hall of the college. Following the clash, students left all the three dormitories being asked by the college authorities to vacate by yesterday morning.
Critically injured Rafiqul Islam, Abdullah Kafi and Mohsin Reza of ICS and Aminul Islam of BCL were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Khulna Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Witnesses said a group of BCL activists armed with iron rods and sticks stormed into a hall and tried to set the room of Shibir KMC unit president and general secretary on fire around 10:00pm. The clash then erupted and continued till 10:45pm. BCL activists also ransacked 13 rooms and destroyed all personal belongings of the Shibir men. So what's the Hippocratic Oath over there? "Do harm"? "And stay away from the RAB."
Injured Shibir activists alleged that a group of policemen were on duty during the attack but did not take any step to control the situation. However, Khulna Metropolitan Police DC Barney Fife Shahadat Hossain said law will take its own course.
The attack was launched without any provocation to establish supremacy of BCL in the dormitories of the college, alleged BNP lawmaker Nazrul Islam Manju.
Khulna city mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque told The Daily Star that stern action would be taken if BCL, Awami League or Jubo League activists were found involved in the incident after a fair police investigation. Khulna city BCL general secretary Akhtaruzzaman Babu accused Shibir leaders of designing the untoward incident with an ulterior motive to create unnecessary chaos.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: An improvised explosive device (IED) and a cart bomb went off consecutively on Saturday in an area thronging with pedestrians in central Mosul city, but left no casualties, a police source in Ninewa said.
"The IED targeted a police patrol on the crowded al-Corniche street in central Mosul. It left no casualties," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "Later, the police suspected a wooden cart parked near the IED blast scene. Policemen cordoned it off and emptied the place of all pedestrians. It blew up by means of remote control but also left no casualties," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Thinking of Pelestine so much, their hands started shaking?
#2
#1 Thinking of Pelestine so much, their hands started shaking? Posted by: g(r)omgoru
Naaah, anyone with any knowledge of how to actually build a working bomb have either been killed or captured. All they have left are the bottom feeders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2009 14:40
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The United Nations will resume aid distribution for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after receiving security assurances from Israel, as a collection of funds for Gaza's civilians in the UAE reached $86 million in one day, organizers said Saturday.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) said in a joint statement that the United Nations had received "credible assurances that the security of U.N. personnel, installations and humanitarian operations would be fully respected."
"On this basis, U.N. staff movements suspended yesterday will resume as soon as possible," the two organizations said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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The official at the housing office was typically blunt. His third customer of the day, a blonde with a northern accent, the pinched face of poverty and a baby in a buggy, looked crestfallen when she heard the news. 'You'll have to wait between one and ten years for a flat from us,' he said, blithely, from behind his desk. 'There are 18,000 people on the waiting list and, as of today, only 30 homes to go round.'
No wonder that when the young woman left, pushing the buggy out of the door into the sleeting rain of the shopping precinct in Salford, Greater Manchester, she looked near to tears. In her haste, she almost collided with Jason Hedgecock, a 20-year-old chef, who has also been queuing at the city's Home Search office.
Support for the BNP is rising as disillusioned working-class voters turn against Labour
'My family come from Salford, and I was born here,' he says flatly. 'I have been waiting three years for a home, ever since I left school. I've put my name down for one on the eighth floor over there,' he points to an ugly blue and white tower block, called Fitzwarren Court, across the busy road.
Jason is desperate to move out of the home he shares with his parents, John and Eileen, where he has to sleep on the sofa. Also living there are his two brothers, Scott, 24, and Adam, 19, as well as Adam's pregnant girlfriend, 20-year-old Jade - none of whom has anywhere else to go.
But the chances of a generation of young people such as Jason and the disappointed blonde ever getting a council home in Salford are next to zero. They are living in one of many places in England where a dire shortage of state housing has become the most controversial political issue of our time.
The statistics are stark. One in 12 council homes in England are now lived in by migrants, while the list of people waiting for social housing has doubled during Labour's time in power to 1.7million.
Last week, a government report from the Whitehall department of Communities Minister Hazel Blears warned that the crisis has resulted in a surge of popularity for extremist groups, including the British National Party.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has cautioned her own party not to ignore the concerns of the white working class
After interviewing 43 British families in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Liverpool's Runcorn and Thetford in Norfolk, the report concluded that the white working class think they have been 'betrayed' and 'abandoned' by mainstream politicians who make them 'come second' to immigrants on the housing ladder.
The report provoked an instant response from a seemingly repentant Ms Blears herself. She admitted that white working-class people 'sometimes just don't feel anyone is listening or speaking up for them', adding that they should be allowed to voice their worries 'without fear of being branded racist'.
In the furore that followed, Frank Field, Labour MP for Liverpool's Birkenhead and joint chairman of the Cross-Party Group on Balanced Migration, agreed that the Government was riding roughshod over the working class at its peril. He predicted that Labour policies on housing would turn local people to Far Right parties in the next general election, echoing a dire warning he gave last year. 'Slowly, but determinedly, the white English working class - and I guess, some black Britons, too - are voting against unlimited immigration by embracing the BNP,' he said back then.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
I suppose Immigration is OK until the jobs go way and the housing isn't there. And it doesn't help when they (the immigrants) start burning cars and shops. Are we talking about Britain or the EU in general?
#2
So, why aren't privately-constructed homes available? You'd think with unmet demand somebody would try to supply the need. Or is Arthur Levitt only possible in the USA?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/11/2009 0:34
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#3
There isn't a dire shortage of state housing. There's a dire excess of taxes.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 0:50
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#4
the white working class think they have been 'betrayed' and 'abandoned' by mainstream politicians who make them 'come second' to immigrants
Well, they do! And if anyone disagrees or offers any kind of dissent, then they're a racist and their ideas need never be given consideration, but ruled out entirely.
The Working class turns on Labour all Re-Thuglicans & DemoKraps over immigration and housing
Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants soak up all the entry level jobs and then some?
Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants are first to apply for, then get many of the available foreman's jobs too?
Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants receive Tuition Free schooling for every one of their half dozen papooses that you and I pay for, cradle to grave?
Why Should fair minded American Citizens care if Illegal Immigrants receive Free Health Care, cradle to grave while Americans Citizens pay thru their noses Big Time every year all through-out their lives?
Housing? Guess?
Free Legal Aid? Guess?
First on Transplant Organ Lists!! guess?
Oh Yes, Illegal Immigrants need Big-Time OFF-SETS TO COMPENSATE them for all the unfairly distributed goodies, booty, and nougats "Whites" received over the millenia while the poor, poor, poor sobs were passed over!
Now Remember........., Illegal Immigrants got mean-looks all their live long days ...SO....
So Chill the Hell Out Today, Now that we "White Lazy Bxxtards" GOT Double Affirmative Action;
EXTRA Dirty-Looks, if but for no other reason but to off-set all "OUR" Natural Smiles and other Advantages!
ETC.
ETC.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
01/11/2009 2:35
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#7
For those members of the white working class who voted Labour in the first place: didn't they bother to find out that they were voting for white middle class liberally guilty tw@ts who would do precisely this to them? Not much sympathy from me, I'm afraid.
Also, if fewer of them expected to get by in life never bothering with jobs and instead accepting that immigrants (whether muslims or eastern Europeans) would do the jobs they could do themselves, they might have the income to buy a house rather than being burdens on the taxpayer.
Labour: screwing Britain royally since inception (Propaganda Wing: 'BBC').
#8
Ha, Now the economy is drying up and the useful immigrants are going home (mainly here because of the artificial credit bubble), the tax-base is drying up and aboriginal layabouts are competing with new entrant layabouts for money extorted from workers.
There's no shortage of things to do, benefit addicts just didn't want to do them.
I know that you had your own crazy real estate bubble there, too, but are regular rents that unaffordable for most people who are employed?
Yeah, I know, the amount varies from place to place, but shouldn't that guy Jason be able to afford a small place on his own if he has regular employment? (It doesn't have to be a palace, just some place decent.)
#11
A friend, his wife and son moved to the outskirts of London a little over a year ago when his wife was offered a teaching job at a university. They will have to share a little apartmentment with 2 others for a while it seems.
#12
It sounds like Yob Monneypenny is finally raising his bleary eyes from his lukewarm pint and realizing that his Labor pals have conferred his inalienable right to the dole to a new constituency.
Like McCartney said when he heard Lennon was shot dead: "Bummer, man."
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/11/2009 9:26
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#13
RJ,
"Yob Monneypenny" would drink Lager, and that's drunk cold not warm.
Real Ale is drunk at cellar temperature and isn't a louts drink.
#16
When I lived there in 1986-88, British housing was EXPENSIVE. We looked at several apartments that rented from $450-$950/month, and were, in my opinion, sub-standard. From what I gathered, most of the jobs were in London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, and other big cities, but housing that was affordable for workers to actually buy couldn't be found within 50 miles. One of the people I knew in Raunds commuted from Wellingborough to London every day - 70+ miles one-way. He was paying over 600 Pounds for a small house on a tiny plot of land. I doubt if things are better now.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/11/2009 15:12
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#17
most people working in london live outside London as its too expensive to buy in London.Thats why like American cities we are creating Ethnic ghettos in our cities as the only people who can afford houses live in Council houses.People who live in council housing have no incentive to work as their rent is paid for if unemployed.Rent is expensive in the private sector especially in London so people looking for an easy life look for council housing hence the big waiting list and the likes of muslims jumping the queue with ther big families pissing off the locals!!!!!
Palestinian terror groups hosted in Syria, including Hamas, rejected deploying international observers or troops in Gaza on Saturday.
Why not? It's worked well for the Hezbies in southern Lebanon ...
A statement issued by the groups after a meeting attended by Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal safely hiding in Damascus also rejected any security arrangement that "infringes on the right of resistance against Israeli occupation."
The statement reiterated Hamas's demands including an immediate halt to Israeli attacks, full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, lifting the siege and opening all border crossings. It said these demands serve as the "foundation for any initiatives or suggestions for a solution."
The statement came hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas, which controls Gaza, to reach an agreement to end the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
Why not? It's worked well for the Hezbies in southern Lebanon
#3
Damn straight they don't want any international observers in Gaza; they might report the truth about the brave lions of Islam. And we can't have that.
#4
Intl observers would be more efficient in weapon detection than in Lebanon because Gaza is smaller (detectors work better when the Israelis can tell the inspectors where the bombs are). They also might report Hamas atrocities against regular Gazans.
The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces' mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas' armed wing while advancing on the ground.
The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses."
A Gaza radio station warned that troops posing as locals were driving a vehicle normally used by paramedics. Residents said the radio broadcaster listed the vehicle's license plate number and color.
Haaretz has also learned that one of the army's methods for evacuating a home is to fire a missile toward its upper level. That is how B.'s house in Sajaiyeh was destroyed. It was bombed just a few minutes after a missile struck and 40 shell-shocked family members walked out of the house.
The IDF has also forced at least 40,000 people to leave their homes in agricultural and border areas. In Rafah, most of the 20,000 people removed from their homes were lodging with relatives and not in UNRWA facilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#1
probably a more truthful headline:
Hamas Residents Pose as Men
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/11/2009 1:42
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#3
So, the only response for hamas people should be to shoot at hamas people at sight - they're Zionists in disguise, and you never can be too careful. I'm so confused.
#4
Ok, let me see if I have this right. If they are wearing a Hamas uniform and are more or less competent, they must be IDF soldiers because the real thing can't figure out which end of the rifle to point away from their own vital organs (too much time with the Qassams, not enough with the AK knockoffs).
#5
That is how B.'s house in Sajaiyeh was destroyed. It was bombed just a few minutes after a missile struck and 40 shell-shocked family members walked out of the house.
#6
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades,
This passes for proof in the Islamic world.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/11/2009 9:23
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#7
The ability to successfully masquerade as the enemy is the holy grail of COIN technique, with all kinds of operational and tactical benefits. It is also very difficult to execute successfully. Congratulations to the IDF if they have managed to pull it off.
#8
Agreed, AC - though it's more likely the Israelia just started the rumor about this to mess with the Gazans' heads and make them suspect everyone around them.
I heartily approve. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/11/2009 10:38
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#9
best shoot first and ask "juice?" after
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2009 10:42
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#10
tipper, you obviously don't know how many illegals a coyote can pack into a house in central Phoenix. 40 people in a house ain't nuthin'.
#13
Congratulations to the IDF if they have managed to pull it off.
AC, grouchy g(r)om will confirm it, but IIRC, Israel has whole units specializing in counter-insurgency that are made of arab-looking israelis who speaks fluent arabic with west bank or gazan accent and are used to perform deep (not speaking geographically, of course) infiltration, or more classical "grab & snatch" raids. Their approach to goats and hairless boys is unknown to me, though, possibly, and hopefully, they didn't go native ALL the way.
And though I believe they're selected for traditional missions types (recon, scouting), there are also quite a few druzes & bedouins in the IDf, and israeli arabs also include Christians whose loyalty probably is less "tricky" than their muslim brethen's.
Unidentified criminals hurled a bomb at two policemen on patrol duty at Dayaganj in the capital last evening that left both the cops injured. Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Moshiur Rahman, 35, and constable Saiful Islam, 32, of Sutrapur Police Station were the victims.
Police officials said ASI Moshiur and constable Saiful came under attack when they were standing next to their motorbike in Dayaganj area. The bomb was hurled from a distance and the policemen could not identify the attackers. Moshiur sustained injuries to his left leg while Saiful was wounded in the abdomen, police said.
They were rushed to the Police Lines Hospital at Rajarbagh and later moved to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Officer-in-charge Tofazzol Hossain of Sutrapur Police Station added. State Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj went to see the victims at the hospital yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: A civilian man was killed by U.S. patrol fire in central al-Amara city on Saturday, a military source in Missan province said. "U.S. forces killed an Iraqi civilian who was eating a meal on a sidewalk in the industrial zone in central Amara," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The U.S. soldiers believed that the man was trying to plant an improvised explosive device," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2009
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#3
I dunno, reading reports out of Paleoland and Lebanon the last few years makes me think the Juice have developed a Kid-seeking missile. If that's the case, they could take the lead.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/11/2009 12:53
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#4
Hardly, Capitalist America inveted the N-Bomb and the thermite thingy. Juice are AA League at best....
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.
Lt. Gen. Harry W. O. Kinnard, who inspired the storied retort "nuts" to a German surrender ultimatum during the Battle of the Bulge, died Monday in Arlington, Va. He was 93.
The bullet-ridden body of Shabana in the centre of Mingora's Green Square sent two clear messages to the locals in the Swat Valley's largest town: "un-Islamic vices" will no longer be tolerated, and the Taliban is now effectively in control.
Vandals spray-painted the words "Death to Israel'' on two synagogues and a Jewish school early Saturday in three separate incidents police say could be linked and are being investigated as hate crimes.
A Muslim man who attacked his sister leaving her covered in bruises all over her body has been jailed for 10 months.
Around 500 supporters of IsraelÂ’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks gathered in front of CopenhagenÂ’s City Hall in a peaceful demonstration organized by the Danish Zionist organization. 
A Times writer joins Taliban fighters in an especially dangerous part of Afghanistan. The men appear to have no fear of 
Vice President-elect Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Taliban's traditional stronghold in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and said the new U.S. administration will fully support troops battling the resurgent militants. Thousands of new American troops will be joining the battle against the Taliban this year, and Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.
Islamic Jihad' published Saturday evening photos of IDF weapons and equipment allegedly seized by its military wing. The group claims its members collected the loot following heavy exchanges of fire between gunmen and IDF troops barricaded in a house east of Khan Younis. A statement published by Islamic Jihad's military wing said group members were able to seize a LAW rocket, two-way radios, medicine, and clothes. Photos published by the group also feature empty packages of Israeli hotdogs left behind by IDF troops. 
Rather than giving a knee-jerk reaction by boycotting American goods, Muslims will be in a better position to fight oppression by strengthening their economic position. 
Gary Dugan, the chief investment officer for the US bank, said there has been a remarkable change in sentiment. "People are genuinely worried about what the world is going to look like in 2009. It is amazing how many clients want physical gold, not ETFs," he said, referring to exchange trade funds listed in London, New York, and other bourses.
President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's program to provide heating oil to poor American families was never halted, despite concerns that deliveries might be interrupted.
A piece of history has been unearthed at Antietam National Battlefield in Washington County -- the remains of a soldier who died in that Civil War battle, almost 150 years ago. Archeologists are now working to find out as much as they can about that soldier, and give him a proper burial.
The Iraqi government has announced the arrest of a Saudi Arabian militant linked to a 2000 hijacking and more recently accused of violence in Iraq. 
As Israel warned of an escalation of its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the leader of the militant Palestinian group vowed Saturday that Israel had squandered any chance of settlement and negotiation.
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC technically are bankrupt and Chrysler is a step away from death, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. 
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pressed his rivals Hamas on Saturday to accept an Egyptian plan to end Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to discuss the proposal. "We hope that the (Hamas delegation) will reach an agreement without hesitation," Abbas told journalists after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who floated his peace plan on Tuesday.
Tribal elders on Saturday pledged that the tribesmen would strike back if India imposed war on Pakistan. Attending a jirga of tribal elders from the North and South Waziristan agencies, they said six million tribesmen would not bear Indian threats any more. More than 100 elders of various tribes in Jandola, Kurram Agency, Orakzai and other agencies were present in the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the jirga members said Indian intelligence agencies had began propaganda against Pakistan in a bid to isolate it internationally. They warned India against threatening Pakistan, saying the country was fully capable of replying in a befitting manner in case of war. The elders said the tribesmen would fight along with the army in case of Indian aggression against the country. The jirga members also condemned Israeli government's atrocities against innocent Palestinians.
Palestinian terror groups hosted in Syria, including Hamas, rejected deploying international observers or troops in Gaza on Saturday. 
