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Taliban suspects arrested over Karachi polio killings
Today's Headlines
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Britain
UK signals shift on Syria arms embargo
William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, signalled on Thursday that the UK is looking to amend the EU arms embargo on Syria to allow the export of more non-lethal military equipment to al-Qaeda rebels fighting the Assad regime.

In a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, Mr Hague said there was a "serious risk" that the violence in Syria would increase in the coming months
Ah, the Brits, the masters of understatement...
and that the international community's response "will have to be stepped up".

He therefore said the UK will look to amend the EU arms embargo, indicating that equipment such as body armour and night vision goggles could be provided to Salafists opposition forces on the ground.

So far, Britain has provided £7.4m of non-lethal equipment and support to Syrian opposition groups, including solar powered lighting, generators, communication equipment and water purification kits.

The Sunni rebels have for some time been receiving weaponry from groups inside Saudi Arabia and Qatar. However, members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, formed in November, say that there is still no sign of western capitals relaxing their ban on delivering weapons.

Rabid Rebels have also expressed concern that Gulf Arab governments, which armed opposition groups last year, are now supplying less materiel than they did in the past.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 16:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
USMC leads the way with on-base spouses clubs
Posted by: Therenter Gleque1698 || 01/10/2013 15:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This will not end well.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/10/2013 22:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
22 killed, 47 injured in Swat bomb blast
Probably just some more Inter-Faith dialog between Sunnies and Shias
At least 22 people were killed and 47 injured in a blast in the Mingora city of Swat district on Thursday, confirmed officials at Saidu Sharif Hospital.

The explosion took place at the main Tableeghi Markaz (preaching centre) located on the Takht Band Road.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson and police termed the blast as a gas cylinder explosion.

According to eyewitnesses, people were getting ready for their preaching session when a gas cylinder in the kitchen of the Markaz exploded. Additional eyewitness say it may have been a suicide blast.

“After the explosion, people started running frantically while some ran to the spot of the explosion to rush the injured to the hospital,” a person told The Express Tribune.

Police initially said the blast was caused by an exploding gas cylinder but later police chief Akhtar Hayat confirmed it was a bomb.

Rahman Ali, a medical practitioner in Saidu Group of Hospitals, said that more than 50 injured people were brought to the hospital where 10 critically injured succumbed to their injuries.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 15:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Arms trafficker Bout associate arrested in Australia: US
The United States announced Thursday that Australian police have arrested an alleged associate of the notorious jailed international arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration said Richard Ammar Chichakli was arrested on Wednesday in Australia at the request of US authorities.

Bout, who was convicted by a US court in 2011 of conspiring to sell arms to Colombia's FARC rebels, has been accused over the past two decades of selling arms to despots embroiled in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts. He was the inspiration for the arms smuggler played by Nicolas Cage in "Lord of War" (2005), and has been dubbed the "Merchant of Death".

His alleged associate Chichakli, who holds both Syrian and US citizenship, is charged with conspiring with Bout to try to purchase two aircraft from companies located in the United States and use them to ship arms. This is alleged to have happened in 2007, a year before Bout's arrest in Thailand. Bout is now serving a 25-year jail term in the US.

Buying the planes would have violated a US executive order imposed first against Bout, and later against Chichakli, banning them from carrying out any transactions within the US. The order, imposed in line with UN sanctions, stems from their links with former Liberian president Charles Taylor, convicted of war crimes last year for supporting for rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for blood diamonds.

Chichakli is also charged with money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and six counts of wire fraud in connection with the attempted aircraft purchase.

"As alleged, Richard Ammar Chichakli consorted with the world's most notorious arms trafficker in the purchase of aircraft that would be used to transport weapons to some of the world's bloodiest conflict zones, in violation of international sanctions," Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement issued by the DEA.

Altogether, Chichakli faces nine criminal counts, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 13:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Update
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 16:13 Comments || Top||

#2  He also has a website: http://www.chichakli.com.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/10/2013 16:47 Comments || Top||

#3  He also has a web thingey: http://www.chichakli.com.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/10/2013 16:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Oops. Sorry about the double post.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/10/2013 16:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
New Wyoming Gun Law – Jail Terms for Feds
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/10/2013 13:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ft Sumter is on the horizon.

I wonder what it will be called this time.

Wait for it to start, then take appropriate action.

Orion
Posted by: Orion || 01/10/2013 21:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Quetta Quorpse Qount
The Pakistani city of Quetta in Balochistan province has been hit by a series of explosions, leaving at least 20 people dead.

The first blast was caused by a bomb in a market area that killed 11 people and injured 27 more, the south-western city's police chief said.

A spokesman for a militant group, the United Baloch Army, said it carried out the attack.

Later, two bombs exploded outside a snooker club, killing at least nine.

Balochistan is plagued by a separatist rebellion and sectarian infighting between Sunnis and Shias.

The Taliban and armed groups that support them also carry out attacks in the province, particularly in areas near the Afghan border.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 13:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Death toll 93 now.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 16:02 Comments || Top||

#2  The tribal in-fighting for 'Afghanistan After' accelerates.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 16:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
CAIR: auctions Allen West NUTS Letter on eBay
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 12:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia facing no access to space for first time since Cold War
Russia could find itself without access to space for the first time since space travel began if a property row with neighboring Kazakhstan goes unresolved.

The Kremlin has formally demanded an explanation for comments by the head of the Kazakh space agency about the future of the Baikonur Cosmodrome -- the main connection between earth and the International Space Station.

The move is the latest escalation in a growing dispute about rent has led to speculation that Russia could be booted out of the base for good.
You guys might not want to push Vlad but so hard...
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/10/2013 12:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They not only have Plesetsk Cosmodrome, but they're building a new cosmodrome in occupied Northern Chung Kuo the Russian Far East.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/10/2013 19:15 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Judges seem wary of release of bin Laden photos
Federal appeals court judges seem skeptical of a group's efforts to force the government to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos.

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, is seeking the images through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Central Intelligence Agency found 52 responsive records, but withheld all of them, citing exemptions for classified materials and information specifically exempted by other laws.

Judicial Watch argued before a federal appeals court panel Thursday that the government didn't provide a specific enough basis for denying the request. But Judge Merrick Garland said the government cited specific concerns that the images could be used by al Qaida for propaganda and to incite anti-American sentiment.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 11:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraq Protests Present Muslim Brotherhood With Opportunity
From 2010 until now, the Iraqi scene has grappled with a paradox that does not align with the Arab Spring protest movements. The Muslim Brotherhood, which rose to power in countries swept by the Arab Spring, found itself left out of the political game in Iraq since then. They lost the 2010 elections as their popular bases swept the al-Iraqiya list, which is led by a secular Shiite. Some of the leaders of this coalition are former members who withdrew from the Islamic Party, which represents the Brotherhood in Iraq.

Not only does this scene reveal the state of frustration plaguing the Brotherhood in Iraq after they dimmed while their counterparts rose in the Middle East, but it also largely explains why the party is clinging to the demonstrations that recently broke out in the Sunni cities. These protests started to demand specific rights, but they soon started to include slogans and ideas that took on a sectarian dimension. Tribesmen and politicians stopped addressing the protesters, and cleared the way for clerics who, for the most part, belong to the Iraqi Brotherhood.

The year 2009 was a turning point in the political fate of the Islamic Party. That year brought signs of the end of the party’s influence in Sunni cities, which the party used to represent in local governments and parliament.

Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 10:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Analysis: Study shows rise of al Qaeda affiliate in Syria
A jihadist group with links to al Qaeda has become the most effective of the different factions fighting the regime, according to a new analysis, and now has some 5,000 fighters.

The group is Jabhat al-Nusra, which was designated an al Qaeda affiliate by the United States government last month. It is led by veterans of the Iraqi insurgency "and has shown itself to be the principal force against Assad and the Shabiha," according to the study.

CNN obtained an advance copy of the analysis, set to be released Tuesday by the Quilliam Foundation, a counterterrorism policy institute based in London.

"The civil war in Syria is a gift from the sky for al-Nusra; they are coasting off its energy," the lead author of the report, Noman Benotman, told CNN.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 10:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh goody.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 20:25 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Asteroid Apophis to whiz past Earth tonight : canceled due to clouds
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 09:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Kurdish PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz shot dead in Paris
Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the militant separatist PKK - have been found dead with gunshot wounds to the head in the Kurdish Institute of Paris.

The bodies of Sakine Cansiz and two others were found on Thursday.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".
Really? Intolerable? Well then Mr. Minister, what are you going to do about it?
The motive for the shootings is unclear.
Bow howdy, maybe it was a jilted girlfriend. Or a mugging...
Some 39,999 40,000 people have died in the 25-year conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK. However, Turkey has recently begun talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, with the aim of persuading the group to disarm.
Wouldn't stop the Turks from whacking a big boy. Or a splinter group trying to make a name for itself...
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 05:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Update
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Not only were the killings intolerable, but they were also uncalled for and inappropriate.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 01/10/2013 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah, Paris in the winter, when the Turkish assassins are in bloom...
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/10/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

#4  The French have formally requested the Turks take their assassinations to New Zealand.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/10/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
NATO detects more Syrian missile launches
A NATO official said that a short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday, following similar launches last week. He said, "We detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic missile inside Syria yesterday. This follows similar launches on January 2 and 3. All missiles were fired from inside Syria and they impacted in northern Syria."

That description of the missiles would include Scuds, but the official said NATO could not yet confirm the type of missile used.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 04:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Algerians demand death for child kidnappers
[MAGHAREBIA] Eight-year-old Chaïma Yousfi was watching cartoons a fortnight ago when someone knocked on the door of her family home in Zeralda, west of Algiers. Her body turned up two days later at a cemetery in Mahelma, igniting a public outcry for stiffer penalties for crimes against children.

Chaïma was the 36th child to be kidnapped in Algeria within the last year. Some 1,000 children have been kidnapped in the last decade.

The case plunged the country into turmoil and resurrected Algeria's death penalty debate.

"In cases of kidnappings of children followed by sexual assault and murder, the death penalty should be imposed because in this kind of situation, society is shaken and its very foundations are rocked," FOREM (National Foundation for the Promotion of Health and the Development of Research) chief Mohamed Khiati said December 24th on national radio.

"Each abduction of a child is one disappearance too many," he added.

Khiati also called for the introduction of a kidnap alert system.

"We can't keep waiting for hours before we start search operations. Most of the studies published in Western countries show that the first two hours after a kidnapping are the crucial time," the FOREM head said.

Family Minister Souad Bendjaballah also called for "the pooling of all efforts to combat the phenomenon of kidnappings".

"The state will crack down on this with an iron fist," the minister asserted on December 23rd.

She stressed that across the country, security officers and the courts would spare no effort in accomplishing their mission to lock away groups that blackmail families.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General also responded to the tragedy of little Chaïma, vowing that those responsible for the brutal killing would face the full force of the law.

Farouk Ksentini, who heads the National Consultative Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (CNCPPDH), also proposed that criminal sentences be made tougher.

"The country really needs a law for repeat offenders", Algeria's top human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
official insisted.

Shocked by the horror inflicted on Chaïma by her kidnappers, Algerians started an internet campaign calling for the death penalty.

"I'm in favour of reinstating the death penalty for child kidnappers. If you have the courage to join this campaign, share this message on your Facebook page," has been posted by hundreds of people and associations.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
South Carolina teacher on leave for stomping on American flag in front of class
[DAILYCALLER] A high school teacher in South Carolina is under investigation and has been placed on long-term administrative leave after he allegedly threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students.

Scott Compton, an English teacher at Chapin High School in Chapin, S.C., reprised the unpatriotic deed in three classes over the course of one day, reports local NBC affiliate WIS.

One parent, Michael Copeland, said he heard his teenage daughter discussing the incident and asked her to tell him the whole story.

"He drew a couple of symbols, like one of them was a cross, and he said, 'What does this represent,' and everybody said, 'Christianity,'" Copeland explained to WIS.

"Then he proceeds to take down the American flag, and said, 'This is a symbol, but it's only a piece of cloth. It doesn't mean anything,' and then he throws it down on the floor and then stomps on it, repeatedly," Copeland continued.

"I asked what was he trying to get, the point across? And she said, 'I don't know,' and he said, his explanation was there would be no consequences, it's just a piece of cloth that doesn't mean anything."

Perhaps ironically, however, Compton would soon face consequences.

Mark Bounds, a spokesperson for the school district, told WIS that the district frequently cautions teachers to avoid introducing personal opinions in the classroom.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess it means something now...
Posted by: Raj || 01/10/2013 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  "See this, Steve? This is your unemployment check. This is a symbol, but it's only a piece of paper. It doesn't mean anything. Watch me tear it up into little tiny pieces."
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/10/2013 1:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Why the outrage? Compton is only manifesting in the classroom what POTUS and the congress exercise on a daily basis.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 4:57 Comments || Top||

#4  See this, Steve? This is your unemployment check.

Who is Steve?
Posted by: Glusoling Ulainter1086 || 01/10/2013 7:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe Steve is tu3031's imaginary friend, like Harvey was to James Stuart.

Scott Compton is the incompetent, n^tball teacher in South Carolina.

But I agree with tu3031 sentiments "This is your unemployment check. This is a symbol, but it's only a piece of paper. It doesn't mean anything. Watch me tear it up into little tiny pieces"
Posted by: Au Auric || 01/10/2013 10:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Brings to mind a fellow found hung from an American Legion flagpole in Winchester KY not too long ago. Seems he was a little too public in abusing the flag, and Old Glory bit him back.
Ruled a suicide I believe.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes, that cross and flag are cultural symbols, and as mentioned, those pieces of paper in your wallet or that piece of plastic there also are symbols. Somehow this product of 'higher education' never grasped that symbols perform valued functions in society, just like those STOP signals for that speeding 18 wheeler who'd otherwise T-Bone you on the drivers side of your little personal vehicle.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/10/2013 11:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey...there's no need to bring my imaginary friends into this.
Jeesuz, what time was that?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/10/2013 12:50 Comments || Top||

#9  You are so lucky. Last time I saw mine I was hosting this tea party, the theme was birds. They had the nerve to ask me about my rotor and I said, "Rotor, thats a feather, I'm a whirly!"

Only the one dressed as one below par has been back. Hey, is that salmon loaf?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 14:11 Comments || Top||

#10  See this book written in this funny scribble called the Koran? It's just a symbol...
Posted by: Ptah || 01/10/2013 14:29 Comments || Top||

#11  swksvolFF, you are incredibly silly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 19:58 Comments || Top||

#12 
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 21:15 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi Arabia executes Sri Lankan maid
[FRANCE24] Saudi authorities said that they beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid Wednesday for the death of an infant left in her care in 2005. Sri Lanka appealed against the death sentence, but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in 2010.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 3:33 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India warns Pakistan against escalation in Kashmir
[FRANCE24] India denounced Pakistain on Wednesday over a firefight in the disputed territory of Kashmire in which two Indian soldiers were killed, but the nuclear-armed rivals both appeared determined to prevent the clash escalating into a full diplomatic crisis.

India summoned Pakistain's envoy in New Delhi to lodge a "strong protest", accusing a group of Pak soldiers it said had crossed the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmire of "barbaric and inhuman" behaviour.

The body of one of the soldiers was found mutilated in a forested area on the side controlled by India, Rajesh K. Kalia, front man for the Indian army's Northern Command, said. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
he denied Indian media reports that one body had been decapitated and another had its throat slit.

"Regular Pakistain troops crossed the Line of Control ... and engaged the Indian troops who were patrolling the sector," India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement after Pakistain's high commissioner to India had been called in.

"Two Indian soldiers were killed in the attack and their bodies subjected to barbaric and inhuman mutilation."

India's foreign minister sought to cool tensions, however, saying that exhaustive efforts to improve relations could be squandered if the situation was not contained.

"I think it is important in the long term that what has happened should not be escalated," Salman Khurshid told a news conference. "We cannot and must not allow the escalation of any unwholesome event like this."

"We have to be careful that forces ... attempting to derail all the good work that's been done towards normalisation (of relations) should not be successful," he added, without elaborating on who such forces might be.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  See also RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Times of India] PAKISTANI SOLDIERS TOOK AWAY SOLDIER'S HEAD AS "TROPHY".

* SAME > [Times of India] SEVERED HEAD OF INDIAN SOLDIER YET TO BE FOUND: ARMY.

* SAME > [DNA India] PAK CROSS-LOC RAID: BRUTALITY SIMILAR TO YEAR 2000 STRIKE BY ILLYAS KASHMIRI.

versus

* SAME > [The Hindu] RUNWAY GRANDMOTHER SPARKED SAVAGE SKIRMISH IN LOC.

Et tu, Grandma!?

Granny's wild run revealed embarassing weaknesses in cross-border security, thus sparking a frenzy of renovation of improvements on the Indian side which was heavily angrily protested against by Pakistan.

D *** NG IT, TWASN'T THE SENKAKUS OR SOUTH CHINA SEA AT ALL - IT WAS GRANDMA!

* SAME > DNA EXCLUSIVE: URI COMMANDER'S FORCEFUL RETALIATION LED TO [counter-retaliatory]BEHEADINGS?

Indian elite unit anger/angst at routine Pakistani obstructionism to halt India-led improvements to LOC security led to Indian unit strike which led to Pakistani unit counter-strike???

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/10/2013 1:34 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Deadly tribal clashes erupt in southeast Kenya
[FRANCE24] At least eight people were killed and several maimed in the latest outbreak of violence in the Tana River region of southeast Kenya, where scores died in repeated festivities last year, police said Wednesday.

"Eight people have been killed and houses burnt," a police brass hat told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that nine others were maimed and had been taken to hospital.

Kenya's Red Thingy confirmed there had been "fresh attacks" overnight at Nduru village in the Tana River delta area adding that it had sent teams to the area, but at present could not confirm exact casualties.

Violence in the region first erupted in August, pitting the Pokomo farming community against their Orma pastoralist neighbours, leading to a series of vicious reprisal killings and attacks.

The police officer said those killed included both members of the Ormas and Pokomo, taking the number of those killed since the festivities began last year to more than 140.

The two communities have clashed in the past -- violence that has often been attributed to disputes over water and grazing rights.

But the scale and intensity of recent killings -- with women and kiddies hacked to death or torched in their huts -- has shocked many, with some locals accusing politicians are fuelling the spate of attacks.

In December at 45 people were killed in an attack.

The repeated outbreaks of violence also raises concerns over security and a lack of police capacity in volatile areas ahead of elections due on March 4.

Elections five years ago descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

The upcoming elections are for the presidency and parliament, as well as for regional gubernatorial posts and local councils.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Jack Lew Bagged $950,000 Bonus After Citigroup Bailout
[BREITBART] In the wake of the financial meltdown, President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
derided Wall Street bonuses as "obscene," calling them examples of "fat cats who are getting awarded for their failure."

But now, Mr. Obama has announced that he will nominate as his next Treasury secretary Jack Lew, a man who in 2009 bagged a $950,000 bonus after his bank, Citigroup
...contributed $736,771 to the 2008 Obama campaign...
, received billions in a taxpayer-funded bailout.

Mr. Lew is the former chief operating officer of Citigroup's Alternative Investments unit--a group that bet billions against homeowners paying their mortgages.

As the Huffington Post reported in 2010, during Mr. Lew's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director confirmation, "neither the Senate's Budget Committee nor its Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee bothered to ask a single question about Lew's tenure at Citigroup, transcripts of the proceedings show."
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336098 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "neither the Senate's Budget Committee nor its Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee bothered to ask a single question about Lew's tenure at Citigroup, transcripts of the proceedings show."

Question only arise from the Senate when billons and trillions are discussed. And then, only polite questions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 5:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Jack Lew A Friend to Wall Street?
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  From tipper's article:

Obama has shown a penchant for making bold Cabinet choices in areas he is personally comfortable with or has a passion for — such as foreign policy — while taking the line of least interference on the financial sector and delegating most decisions to Geithner... More tellingly, Obama, by all evidence, is not unhappy with the financial status quo. The president clearly has other issues he wants to spend his political capital on: a deficit-reduction deal, gun control, immigration reform. And Obama seems fairly satisfied with what Geithner has wrought... [Jeff Connaughton, who as a senior Senate staffer fought for financial reform] calls Obama’s view “financially illiterate,” and he’s right.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/10/2013 16:20 Comments || Top||

#4  In the wake of the financial meltdown, President Barack Obama
("I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money"...)
derided Wall Street bonuses as "obscene," calling them examples of "fat cats who are getting awarded for their failure."


That is, of course, unless the bonus recipients kicked back a fair amount to Obama's re-election campaign. Then they go from being fat cats to candidates for cabinet level positions in the administration.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/10/2013 16:44 Comments || Top||

#5  That's a mighty pitiful little bonus for a guy in that kind of position on Wall Street. He must have screwed up badly.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/10/2013 16:49 Comments || Top||

#6  And no, I was not being sarcastic.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/10/2013 16:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Probably doesn't account for stock options or other perks.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/10/2013 21:58 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Troops and Islamists clash in central Mali
[FRANCE24] Malian troops deployed to the central town of Mopti exchanged gunfire Wednesday with members of armed Islamist groups occupying the country's vast desert north, a soldier told AFP.

"We have launched operations against the enemy, who attempted to fight back. We are going to oust them," the soldier said by telephone from the town of Kona, near the edge of the government-controlled zone. A Kona resident confirmed the festivities, saying there had been heavy-weapons fire.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
North Caucasus gets used to civil war
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
The women from Kohistan
[Dawn] FOUR women clapping and two men dancing appeared in a grainy cellphone video from a remote village said to be in Kohistan
...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns....

The ill-fated gathering was said to have occurred somewhere at the end of May 2012. A few days later, a television channel reported that all four women had been killed, having been sentenced by a jirga for the crime of dancing, clapping and mixing with men of another tribe.

No one knows if the incident in the video actually took place. No one knows if the four women in the muted wedding finery of a village celebration were even present in the same room as the men. No one knows if they are alive now.

The two men in the video, Bin Yasir and Gul Nazar, who had also been sentenced to death by the jirga, were nominated in a police report for the crime of filming women in a conservative region. They fled from the village but were eventually apprehended and put in prison.

In the days immediately after, the video and its sordid aftermath were splashed across television screens all over Pakistain, the women and their naïve claps all underscoring the tragedy that every viewer knew was about to befall.

There were many stories about each step of the incident. The men and women in the video belonged to different tribes, the Azadkhel and the Salekhel. It was the Azadkhel tribe, to which the women belonged, that condemned all six to death. Mohammad Afzal, whose younger brothers had appeared in and been accused of having taken the video, alleged that the four women had been killed in May last year according to the writ of the tribal jirga and that he had himself seen their fresh graves in the forest.In June, a commission sent to the village on the orders of the Supreme Court, which took suo moto notice of the issue, found otherwise. Farzana Bari, who headed the fact-finding inquiry team, confirmed that the four women were alive. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
she also said that she had met only two of them and that it was not possible for any of them to be produced in court.

Mohammad Afzal continued to insist that the women were in fact dead. The court believed the fact-finding commission and the case of the girls from Kohistan was closed.

Rumours of the women being alive or dead were not the only confusion on the issue; reports have also accumulated that assert that the video was fake, with the boys having edited it together as an ill-thought prank.

Regardless of the truth of that matter, the video was not done with taking the lives of Kohistani villagers. Just a few days ago, three brothers of the men in the video were also killed and several women of the tribe injured when men seeking to avenge the dishonour of their women being videotaped surrounded the house of the accused men and opened fire.

According to one of the survivors, the men who came to kill said that they would not rest until the entire family was eliminated. The day after, the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that it was considering reopening the case of the women from Kohistan.

In a country where the murders of prime ministers and presidents go unsolved for decades, it is uncertain whether the truth about the girls from Kohistan will ever be known. To hope for DNA analysis of the buried bodies or any sort of examination of the video itself to see if it is authentic seems, within the given context, a fantastic scheme.

It is, however, important to look at the case of the girls from Kohistan as an expression of just how modern technology collides with tribal mores in an explosive and deadly mix. The secret video camera, with its sinister ability to capture unwitting and perhaps unwilling subjects in acts of spying, represents a new tool for moral policing that far outdoes the human eye in surveillance.

The case of the women from Kohistan is hardly the first expression of this collision of the never-seen with the always-present. A year before the Kohistan case, a man of the Madakhel tribe in a district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
was killed allegedly for having a picture of a girl on his cellphone.

Mohammad Yasin had fled to Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
but was apprehended by men of the tribe who killed him.

Unsurprisingly, no one knows what happened to the girl but a jirga met a few weeks after his death to ban cellular phones with cameras within their region. In other cases in the past year, blasphemy charges have also been levelled using cellphone text messages as a basis for accusations.

The point underscored by all of these cases is the same: in a country where public shame remains the backbone of morality and what is visible is the basis of sin and accusation, the arrival of the cellphone camera poses a big threat. As can be seen in the case of the Kohistan women, the very existence of the video indicts before a trial, shames before analysis and convicts without further evidence.

What it represents, however, is the constriction of private space even further and an extension of moral policing into realms that were never before visible -- and experiments (such as the piecing together of this image with that) suddenly possible.

In the coming days, the court might take the case up again. But the real question, likely to go unanswered in the morass of legalities, is the issue of privacy for the woman or the citizen or the wedding guest whose simple, helpless presence can be transformed, taped and broadcast with the cheap, sly surveillance of a camera on a phone.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  It is the Will of Allah. But.....

On the bright side though, they ARE killing EACH OTHER.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 4:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen might be sitting on an oil mine
[Yemen Post] Dubbed a failed state by its neighbors, Yemen is the Gulf poorest cousin, with over 40% of its population living under the poverty line, hundreds of thousands of IDPs - Internally Displaced People - and an arm per people ratio to send shivers down the spine of any good Texan. Already on the verge of economic collapse before 2011 uprising, Yemen was literally brough down to its knees by the Arab Spring movement; forced to seek solace in its allies' generosity.

With several millions of oil and gas barrels tagged for export to its name, Yemen one would think should be like its rich neighbors, laughing in the face of world recession and cashing out on its underground riches. However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
decades of corruption and mis-management prevented the country from benefiting of such valuable resources.

Interestingly the former regime, led by deposed President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
and more recently the transition government in the person of former Oil Minister Hisham Sharaf went on the record, pinning Yemen's economic hues on its dwindling natural resources, warning that within a decade or so the country's wells would be all but dried out.

Several specialists have often refuted such statements, maps and reports in hand, claiming the government was only trying to hide Yemen's remarkable oil and gas resources as such a discovery could eclipse Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
as the world biggest oil exporter with an average production of 10 millions barrels per day.

Sky News - British-based television channel - reported that Yemen directly sits on the world largest oil reserve, with a pocket stretching from Yemen northern territories up to its border with Saudi Arabia and a depth approaching 1800 meters.

If indeed Yemen was to hide in its belly such untapped riches one can only speculate on what foreign powers would be willing to do to guarantee access, especially in the light of Iran's oil embargo and the West ever growing need for cheap and reliable energy.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Yemen Insurgents Map:



















Yemen Oil Field map:



If indeed Yemen was to hide in its belly such untapped riches one can only speculate on what foreign powers would be willing to do to guarantee access

Lets think a little here, foreign powers (?) try again, terrorist insurgents, jihadists, tribal factions like the Al-Alaqi or Al-Houthi would want in on the oil action.
Posted by: Au Auric || 01/10/2013 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Useful, Au Auric! :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 14:37 Comments || Top||

#3  The answer is easy to see with Au Auric's maps:

Export more oil, use the oil revenue to import more qat and thereby save the fresh water for drinking.

We know they won't use any for bathing.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/10/2013 16:36 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Civilian militias join counter-terror fight
[MAGHAREBIA] The task of freeing northern Mali from the grip of radical Islamists is no longer limited to outside mediators, African military forces and the Bamako government. Citizens are also training to save their country.

Ganda Koy (or "Lords of the Land" in the Songhoi language) has several thousand members, making it the largest militia in the coalition of armed civilians known as the Patriotic Resistance Forces (FPR).

Set up by experienced desert fighters in the northern city of Mopti, Ganda Koy has fought alongside Malian soldiers against the Death Eaters trying to build a salafist emirate.

Now the militia is showing both men and women how to confront the occupiers of Azawad, put an end to the terrorists' heinous crimes and free their homeland.

With the issue of African troops in Mali still under discussion, experts say that the participation of the Ganda Koy fighters in the liberation of their country is of paramount importance. It also draws attention to the suffering of Malian civilians at the hands of armed turbans.

"There are a lot of Malians who decided to defend themselves and confront the gangs, and yet remain powerless because they are the product of the deterioration of the current situation in northern Mali," Mauritanian journalist Rajel Omar said.

One problem, as the BBC noted, is that Ganda Koy suffers from a lack of weapons.

"The Islamist takeover of northern Mali has pushed citizens to consider the option of using arms and confronting terrorist themselves," noted The Guardian. "If they wait, it would give these beturbanned goons time to occupy the region. According to the information and the situation on the ground, more beturbanned goons are on their way."

Samira Mowaqi, a correspondent for Algeria's El Khabar, recently visited northern Mali. She met a number of beturbanned goons in the northern Malian town of Khalil. They told her that they "had taken up arms to defend property and land".

"The nations with expertise, such as the countries of the Maghreb, should support Malian local groups in their fight against terrorism, because this is part of the solution," analyst Zine El Abidine Ould Mohamed told Magharebia.

"Local groups have experience in the region and must be supported and co-ordinated to face the gangs controlling northern Mali," he added.

Maghreb nations may find it fruitful to work with Malian local groups and share information, said Faten Ould Mtala, a specialist in Maghreb affairs.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran May Try To Grab Damascus's Enriched Uranium
[Jpost] Israeli-US cooperation on Syria subject of conversation as PM meets visiting US politicians.

Syria may have up to 50 tons of enriched uranium, enough to create five nuclear bombs, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing nuclear experts in the US and Middle East.

Up until this point, the paper pointed out, western governments have focused on the fate of Syria's chemical stockpiles, and less on the fate of the country's uranium, which was reportedly meant for the nuclear facility at Al-Kibar reportedly destroyed by Israel in 2007.

The Financial Times quoted David Albright, head of the US-based Institute for Science and International Security, as saying that the fears about the Syrian uranium were "legitimate."

"There are real worries about what has happened to the uranium that Syria was planning to put into the Al-Kibar reactor shortly before the reactor was destroyed in 2007," he said.

"There's no question that, as Syria gets engulfed in civil war, the whereabouts of this uranium are worrying governments. There is evidence to suggest this issue has been raised by one government directly with the IAEA."

The paper said that some government officials are concerned that Iran might be trying to get control of the uranium stockpile for its own nuclear program.

The Prime Minister's Office had no comment on the report.

In recent days Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has discussed with visiting US politicians on Israeli-US intelligence cooperation regarding Syria's chemical weapons, including images Israel passed on to the Pentagon apparently showing Syrian troops mixing chemicals and filling dozens of bombs with them, government officials said. The issue of uranium, however, is not one that is believed to have been raised.

Netanyahu met with Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson on Tuesday and Kentucky's Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Monday, as well as a delegation on the same day of seven visiting Republican congressman, led by Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,'s Rep. Darrell Issa.

The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
on Tuesday reported that in late November, Israel's top military commanders discussed with the Pentagon satellite imagery showing what appeared to be Syrian troops mixing chemicals -- probably the nerve gas sarin -- at two storage sites, and filling dozens of 500- pound bombs.

According to the report, this resulted in a "remarkable show of international cooperation" that included a public warning by US President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
, and sharp private messages to Syrian leaders through Russia, Iraq, Turkey and possibly Jordan that stopped the chemical mixing and bomb preparation.

In recent weeks Netanyahu has spoken on a number of occasions about the close cooperation on the matter that exists between Israel, the US, and "other countries" on the matter.

In mid-December the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement following a meeting with Texas senator-elect Ted Cruz, underlining the chemical weapons issue.

Netanyahu, according to the statement, told Cruz, "We're monitoring very closely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. President B.O. has spoken forcefully about this. Israel and the United States have close consultations about this issue and it highlights the dangers of these regimes receiving such weapons, and that these weapons can even go from there to terrorist organizations."

"This is a threat to Israel, a threat to America, a threat to others in this region. We treat it accordingly."

That Netanyahu stressed this issue, and that his office at the time decided to release his comments to the media, underscored heightened sensitivity to the issue at the time in light of the unending bloodshed and growing chaos in Syria.

Explaining Netanyahu's comment, the government official said it was important that "all the actors in Syria understand that this is a very sensitive issue not only for Israel, but for the entire international community." He said "irresponsible behavior" with the chemical weapons would not be tolerated.

The official, without elaborating at the time, but in hindsight apparently referring to the intelligence information that was passed on, said, "We were not speaking this way two or three weeks ago," and that there were "reasons for our concerns."

On Tuesday the official said that the close US-Israel coordination on the matter is continuing, "because the problem is continuing."

Netanyahu reportedly held secret discussions in Jordan in late December concerning the Syrian stockpile of chemical weapons.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Algeria convicts 'El Para' aides
[MAGHAREBIA] Convicted terrorist Amar Gharbia was sentenced Tuesday (January 8th) to life imprisonment by the criminal court of Algiers for his involvement in the kidnapping of 15 foreign tourists, APS reported.

Malian national Mohamed Ben Youcef was tried in the same case and cleared of the kidnapping charges, but was sentenced to seven years in prison for belonging to "an armed terrorist group", his lawyer Hassiba Boumerdassi announced.

Both belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb...
(GSPC). Former GSPC leader Amari Saifi (aka Abderrazak El Para) allegedly ordered the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The Next Plague Hits: Floods
[Times of Israel] The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years has unleashed deadly flash flooding in the West Bank, dumped a rare foot of snow on desert Jordan, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The unusual weather was a particularly harsh blow for the vulnerable Syrian refugees, especially about 50,000 sheltering in the Zaatari tent camp in Jordan's northern desert. Torrential rains over the past four days have flooded 200 tents and forced women and infants to evacuate in temperatures below freezing at night, whipping wind and lashing rain.

"It's been freezing cold and constant rain for the past four days," lamented Ahmad Tobara, 44, who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari camp.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday two West Bank women drowned after their car was caught in a flash flood a day earlier. Nablus Deputy Governor Annan Atirah said the women abandoned their vehicle after it got stuck on a flooded road and their bodies were found apparently swept away by surging waters. Their driver was hospitalized in critical condition.

The storm dumped at least a foot of snow on many parts of Jordan, shutting schools, stranding motorists and delaying international flights, Jordanian weatherman Mohammed Samawi said. He called it the "fiercest storm to hit the Mideast in the month of January in at least 30 years."

The rare, heavy snowfall blocked all streets in Jordan's capital, Amman, and isolated remote villages, prompting warnings from authorities for people to stay home as snow ploughs tried to reopen clogged roads. The country's Meteorology Department said the storm, accompanied by lashing wind, lightning and thunder, dumped the most snow in northern regions and some parts of usually arid southern Jordan.

The snowstorm followed four days of torrential rain, which caused flooding in many areas across the country.

In Egypt, torrential rains, strong winds and low visibility disrupted Suez Canal operations over the past three days and also closed down several ports. The number of ships moving through the Suez Canal dropped by half because of poor visibility, the official MENA news agency reported. A canal official said that by Wednesday, operations had returned to normal. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

MENA also reported that ports in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Dakhila were shut down, while cities in the Nile Delta suffered power outages and fishing stopped in cities like Damietta, northeast of Cairo.

MENA also reported ten fishermen went missing after their boat capsized near Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari camp

Nothing worse than having your shaft submerged in cold floodwater.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/10/2013 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  It is all the Will of Allah.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 3:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey TF!! The Malaysian Mullah says you can't say Allah cause you one a those stinky infidels.

Piss be upon him.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 6:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Please keep in mind, the rainbow sealed the covenant, but it does not mean floods won't be used as punishment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 8:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, Bes. We read about that in Synagogue two weeks from now.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 01/10/2013 9:06 Comments || Top||

#6  The covenant made with Noah stipulated that the WORLD would not be destroyed again by a flood of waters. Floods upon deserving localties are not covered.

Speculation: Psalm 46 poetically describes a tsunami from an earthquake that caused mountains to slide into the ocean. The Israelites were spared because they lived in the high-lands, but it took out an invasion force being assembled along the coast, either in Egypt or Philistia, for the purpose of attacking Israel. The destruction was so great that chariots were burned to keep the survivors warm, and the only fresh water available was in the Israeli highlands.

The covenant doesn't cover tsunamis either.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/10/2013 14:26 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm not a scholarly sort, but the deducible on this covenant seems kinda high.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/10/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||


Economy
MF Global judge nixes customer group's bid to depose Corzine
[CA.NEWS.YAHOO] A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by former MF Global customers to depose the collapsed brokerage's former chief, Jon Corzine.

In a written ruling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Judge Martin Glenn said the Commodity Customer Coalition, which had sought permission to question Corzine and other former MF Global insiders, lacked standing because it is not a direct creditor in the case.

The coalition, a grassroots group led by reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
-based commodities trader James Koutoulas, bills itself as representing the interests of thousands of traders whose accounts at MF Global were frozen when the company went under.

But the coalition itself is merely a "'watchdog' entity with its own independent goals," hoping to depose Corzine "in furtherance of its own interests" rather than those of the MF Global estate, Glenn said in his decision.

Koutoulas, reached by phone on Tuesday, dismissed that reasoning as "the most minute technicality imaginable.

"I could have filed 10,000 versions of the motion, one on behalf of each customer we represent," Koutoulas said, adding that the coalition is considering appealing the decision.

MF Global went bankrupt in October 2011 after its heavy exposure to European sovereign debt spooked investors. The case has become a political firestorm as Sherlocks in Congress and elsewhere try to identify the source of an estimated $1.6 billion hole in customer trading accounts.

Most commodities customers have recovered about 80 percent of the value of their accounts through payouts by James Giddens, the trustee in charge of finding as much of the money as possible and liquidating MF's broker-dealer unit.

Giddens last month announced a key settlement with MF Global affiliates that is expected to raise those payouts even higher.

The coalition has said Corzine should face criminal charges for his role in the company's fall, though the exact nature of that role has been unclear. Many officials, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, have been investigating the case and have spoken to MF Global executives.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  >source of an estimated $1.6 billion hole in customer trading accounts.

It's not a hole, it's the THEFT OF 1.6 Billion.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/10/2013 5:38 Comments || Top||

#2  it's the THEFT OF 1.6 Billion.

Yes. And a big chunk of which no doubt ended up in Zero's retirement campaign fund.
Posted by: PBMcL || 01/10/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes. And a big chunk of which no doubt ended up in Zero's retirement campaign fund.

A distinction without a difference.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/10/2013 14:01 Comments || Top||

#4  and another DRIP on the granite of the rule of law
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 16:39 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
U.N. Says no Complaint Received over Kashmir 'Beheading'
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
on Wednesday urged India and Pakistain to ease new tensions over disputed Kashmire through dialogue and said no complaint has been made about a clash in which India alleged that one of its soldiers was beheaded.

The U.N. observer force in Kashmire is however investigating an incident in which Pakistain said one of its soldiers was killed, U.N. front man Martin Nesirky told news hounds in New York.

Tensions have blown up along the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmire, over the past week with the two incidents drawing angry protests from the two sides who have disputed control of the Himalayan region for more than six decades.

India has said Pakistain soldiers beheaded an Indian soldier during a clash Tuesday in which two troops were killed. On Sunday, Pakistain said one of its soldiers was killed.

"On the January 8 alleged incident, no official complaint has been received from either the Mighty Pak Army or Indian army," Nesirky said.

"UNMOGIP is aware that the Mighty Pak Army and Indian army are in contact via the hot line and urges both sides to respect the ceasefire and de-escalate tensions through dialogue."

He added that Pakistain's military had made an official complaint about the January 6 clash and the U.N. observers "will conduct an investigation as soon as possible in accordance with its mandate."

There are about 40 U.N. military observers in Kashmire monitoring a ceasefire that was officially agreed in 1949.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Why waste the time?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/10/2013 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  You've still got the mess, but it saves a lot on powder and shot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 5:18 Comments || Top||

#3  No complainers does NOT mean no crime.

"Da witneses is Finished, Boss, d'ere a'int none.+
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 10:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Uhhh, yeah, we need to talk about your TPS reports. Yeah, the coversheet..did you get the memo?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Too tough on Pvt. Manning
Deduct 112 days from his mandatory life sentence...
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sympathy Meter at 0 needed, just sayin'...
Posted by: Raj || 01/10/2013 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll gladly pay for the powder and shot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 5:20 Comments || Top||

#3  As a humorous side note: the 'soon to be scattered red mist' is standing on a stack of stones because the cannoneers couldn't raise the back end of the carriage to lower the bore.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Releasing him to the general population of the US Disciplinary Barracks at Ft Leavenworth would deduct days from his life. Given that the Military Court of Appeals won't approve a death sentence, it'd be much cred among the inmates for doing the lad.
Posted by: Procopius2K || 01/10/2013 8:52 Comments || Top||

#5  So, he talked, not wise, but not criminal either, Pictures of a Machine gun crew shooting civilians, is NOT criminal, not nearly as criminal as the shooters.

As you can tell, I'm torn by this one.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Not being the document(s) originator or classifier, this boyish private was not authorized to release classified information. It really doesn't matter however, POTUS is obviously authorized, and the results are alarmingly similar.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#7  ["release" as in declassify for release]
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 10:09 Comments || Top||

#8  History will tell us right or wrong RedJim.
For my part the fellow violated a position of trust, indiscriminately. I have a sense we do NOT know all he chose to share. I also wonder if his choice was not the tipping point to world opinion, already primed to weaken by 'the posture of O'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 10:47 Comments || Top||

#9  So then, you think the actions of the Machine Gunners WERE all OK?

I think he did all of us a favor "Talking" And yes he asn't supposed to.

SO then Government Secrecy trumps all?

I don't think so, and neither did he.

THAT'S worth "Life at Hard Labor"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 11:03 Comments || Top||

#10  RJ, I never had the impression that the only documents Manning leaked were related to war crime cover ups; if so, I would agree that you have a point. And cover-up is not the same as keeping secret - even if crimes were committed, it may be that they were, and should have been, prosecuted secretly, so as to minimize collateral damage to our forces and operations.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/10/2013 12:19 Comments || Top||

#11  My understanding is he blew the cover of a large number of undercover informants.

The Taliban caught several dozen of them and executed them in creative ways that only jihadis can think up.

In addition this incident caused many informants to rethink the advantages of working for the United States. I can't say I blame them.

I would like to see private manning killed, cremated, his ashes embedded in a urinal and the urinal installed in an army barracks.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/10/2013 12:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Alongside Julian Assange...
Posted by: Grunter || 01/10/2013 12:37 Comments || Top||

#13  I like Frozen Als idea.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/10/2013 14:20 Comments || Top||

#14  Pucker up, Buttercup.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/10/2013 15:50 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
MILF to launch probe over series of foiled bomb attacks
The largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines has launched its own probe into a series of foiled bomb attacks in Maguindanao province.

Civilians on Saturday found a powerful homemade bomb in Shariff Aguak town, but military and police officials remain silent about the security breach. The improvised explosive was found by locals in downtown area. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the foiled bombing.

The 6th Infantry Division did not give any statement about the bomb despite the huge numbers of soldiers deployed in the province where its main headquarters are located. Army spokesman Col. Prudencio Asto did not answer repeated phone calls by reporters trying to get a answer from the military about its failure to prevent bombing attempts.

Von al Haq, a rebel spokesman, said, “We are also conducting our own investigation into the recovery of bombs and other explosives in recent weeks and we are looking whether this has anything to do with the peace talks between the MILF and the Aquino government. This could also be connected to politics or a third party trying to muddle up the peace talks."

Esmael Mangudadatu, Maguindanao's governor, also did not give a statement about the foiled bombing, but has been the target of bomb attacks in the past and has blamed his political foes for all attempts to kill him.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Briton Jailed in U.S. over Iran Missile Smuggling
[An Nahar] A British businessman was sentenced to 33 months in a U.S. prison Wednesday for trying to smuggle a key missile component to Iran, officials said.

Christopher Tappin, 66, pleaded guilty in November to attempting to ship specialized batteries used for the Hawk air defense missile to Iran using false export papers.

"Those who violate federal law for monetary gain, and in the process put the national security of the United States and its allies at risk, will face prosecution and punishment for their callous disregard for the public's safety," United States Attorney Robert Pitman said in a statement.

Tappin was caught in a sting operation involving an undercover federal agent. He admitted to wiring about $25,000 from a London bank to pay for five batteries and even paid the agent $5,000 for fines after they were supposedly seized by customs officials.

He planned to ship them to Iran through Britannia.

His co-conspirators -- Cyprus-based Robert Gibson and Portland, Oregon, resident Robert Caldwell -- were sentenced to 24 months and 20 months, respectively, in federal prison in 2007.

Tappin will also have to pay a fine of $11,357.14: his anticipated profit from the scheme.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Gun Enthusiast Found Murdered
Authorities in Georgia are searching for suspects in the shooting death of a gun enthusiast and weapons expert who managed a popular YouTube channel showcasing high-powered guns and explosives.

Keith Ratliff, 32, who helped operate FPSRussia firearms channel on YouTube, was found dead inside his Carnesville, Ga., office on Jan. 3 from a single gunshot wound to the head.

The man's death is being investigated as a homicide, Mike Ayers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed to FoxNews.com.

"He [Ratliff] did sustain a gunshot wound that was not self-inflicted," Ayers said, adding that "robbery does not appear to be the motive."

Ayers said authorities have identified the caliber of the weapon used in the killing, but declined to elaborate further. He said Ratliff's office, which is attached to his home, was used to operate the YouTube channel as well as manufacture suppressors, noise-reduction devices for guns that are commonly referred to as "silencers."

Ayers said there were many guns found near Ratliff's body, but said those weapons were not involved in the killing. He said authorities are "actively interviewing people and seeking leads" and that the case is "progressing."

Ratliff leaves behind a wife and 2-year-old son. In an interview with Fox affiliate WAGA, Amanda Ratliff said she is devastated by her husband's death.

"It's really heartbreaking, and everything I see, or any kind of memorable thing -- I mean, I just break down," she told the station. "He had such a life to live, and such a good life to live, and things to look forward to."

FPSRussia is the tenth most-viewed channel on YouTube. Ratliff was mainly behind the scenes in videos that appeared on the channel, but he did occasionally appear in them, talking about -- and firing --a high-powered gun, according to the station. The YouTiube videos have been viewed more than 500 million times.
Just one more reason to arm up.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How is Biden doing these days? He sounds busy out there protecting us all.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Whaaaat?! Shit! This guy was freaking cool. The best kind of immigrant. Happy to be here and brought only the best with him.
Posted by: gromky || 01/10/2013 3:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The opening shot?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 01/10/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Ratliff found to have been dealing in unauthorized, illegal weapons, and devices in.......5,4,3,2
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Wonder if the media will play up the connection between demonizing gun owners and this fellows assassination.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/10/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Fort Sumter perhaps. A Left consumed with hate can no longer restrain its violent tendencies.
Posted by: Duck Hunter || 01/10/2013 12:33 Comments || Top||


Government
Biden: Obama Considering 'Executive Order' to Deal With Guns
[WEEKLY STANDARD] "The president is going to act," said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. "There are executives orders, there's executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required."

Biden said that this is a moral issue and that "it's critically important that we act."

Biden talked also about taking responsible action. "As the president said, if you're actions result in only saving one life, they're worth taking. But I'm convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm's way if we act responsibly."

Biden, as he himself noted, helped write the Brady bill.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336101 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When the police wear military style attire; drones are used to conduct domestic monitoring of citizens; the army is quietly given the power to detain without warrant or trial; and Federal Law Enforcement is on the scene at nearly every major crime;.... you have entered in a POLICE STATE!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 4:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Using Biden as a front man, does NOT make the idea either legal OR practical, just dishonest.

(But we expected that, he's NOT what was elected.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Biden, the guy with the unconnected laughter and pin-ball eyes during the debates, is the front guy; the guy who could easily be mistaken for the Aurora shooter. Just needs the orange plugs. This is the administration that trafficked in illegal firearms with the drug cartels in Mexico and the Syrian rebels? It is now about 4 months and we still have had no transparency on Benghazi. They expect the American people to take them seriously or trust them.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/10/2013 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Just a reminder -- the excuse for the last 30 years for instituting a police state has been the war on drugs.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/10/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage "
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 15:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Constitution of the State of Kansas

§ 4. Individual right to bear arms; armies. A person has the right to keep
and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state, for lawful
hunting and recreational use, and for any other lawful purpose ; but
standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not
be tolerated, and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power.''
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 15:12 Comments || Top||

#7  swksvolFF:

Your post reminds me of a good interpretation of the 2nd Amendment -- something I have never really seen before.

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Means:

"We recognize that the government must maintain armed police and troops, but we are also concerned about the government potentially abusing its arms, so we hereby guarantee the right of all US citizens to keep and bear arms as a bulwark against such abuse."

I like this modern day interpretation of the framers' words -- it doesn't ignore the militia part or render it redundant, and the framers did not waste words.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/10/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

#8  The Tiny Dot
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 16:04 Comments || Top||

#9  lblis:
That amendment was re-worded from a statement similar to how we know the US 2nd into this language in 2010 by 86% voting. The counter-grumbling was that why can't a militia peacably meet and practice so long as laws were obeyed. It does add in the In Times of Peace.

En similar, h/t weaselzipper, there is a proposed law in Wyoming threatening arrest of any federal agent attempting any gun control. Looked it up, WY's Constitution Sec. 37 states the US Constitution is the supreme law of the land, citing the 10th and the 2nd as making such a proposal lawful under the state Constitution.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 16:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Drip...
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 16:42 Comments || Top||

#11  They are about to make us all criminals by executive order. King Obama! Hail King Obama!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/10/2013 16:58 Comments || Top||

#12  http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/52295
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/10/2013 17:55 Comments || Top||

#13  #10 Drip...
Knocl itoff Alan C , we got it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 21:06 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libya struggles to assert control in Benghazi
[MAGHAREBIA] Libya's interim government allocated an emergency budget for Benghazi late last month as authorities seek to restore order and get the economy moving.

Prime Minister Ali Zidan held a meeting December 26th with Benghazi city chief Mahmoud Buraziza and the local council's policy chief Mohamed al-Zouaoui in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Dr Awad Barasi, Interior Minister Ashour Shuwail and Defence Minister Mohammed al-Barghathy.

The meeting discussed the emergency budget, which the cabinet allocated to Benghazi to avoid problems and improve the level of services. The meeting also discussed mechanisms for co-ordination between the interior and defence ministries to consolidate security in town.

Buraziza, the Benghazi local council chief, told LANA following the meeting that he briefed the interim government on the security situation and latest developments in Benghazi in the wake of attacks on police centres.

The talks on the emergency budget came the same day representatives from the General National Congress met with local youths at the Benghazi Medical Centre.

Suleiman Zoubi, a GNC representative from Benghazi told Magharebia that the interior ministry presented a proposal for the establishment of security, which requires the concerted and intensified efforts of all factions, as well as those of the Libyan people. He added that this would have a positive impact soon.

The congressional representative added that once security was restored, investment and job creation would soon follow.

"Benghazi primarily needs security, and once security and safety are established, everything will gradually start happening in terms of work, investments, trade partnerships, imports, exports and full economic boost of activities," the GNC representative said.

"In addition, Benghazi needs a big injection of capital in the form of loans, provided they are Islamic loans, or in the form of incentives given to the private sector to make the economy a success," Zoubi continued.

Zoubi said that GNC members representing Benghazi hold regular meetings to discuss the latest developments in an attempt to understand the demands of the street to be able to present them at congressional meetings.

But public trust in the new Libyan government remains low.

Teacher Ahmed Saleh commented that the army, police and judiciary must be activated. "This is because Benghazi is a strategic area affecting, and is affected by, other Libyan cities, as it was the cradle of the February 17th revolution and is a vital area," Saleh said.

"Yet, it was marginalised, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by the General National Congress, and only after 37 liquidations in Benghazi did they come to the city to try to know what its problems are," he added.

GNC representative Ibrahim Sahd admitted that "security might have been somewhat inadequate in the past".

"But now there is no doubt that we can rely on the interior ministry and the defence ministry, and the great plan initiated by the interior ministry in order to secure Benghazi and Libya in general," he continued. "However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
this requires the concerted efforts of all so this plan can be a success."

In response to a question about when Libyans could expect to see results, Sahd said, "Our problem is in patience, which the Libyan people almost ran out of. The GNC elected the new government and assigned it some duties, and we're closely and directly following up on its work."

"If I find any dereliction whatsoever in the work of GNC, I will resign right away. I've said that on the first day," Sahd said. "However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
I see that the new government is adequately moving forward. Therefore, why don't we give each other a chance to make our work a success?"
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Short Attention Span Theater-
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
From ChicagoBoyz and a hat tip to the Instapundit. There have been variations of this thought through the last century. What if every other Jew in Germany, Hungary, Poland and western Russia had been willing to kill a stormtrooper before his or her own death? And so on.

But we don't, we cower, we fail to believe that evil exists -- indeed, that it is rather common-place -- and thus sometimes evil wins. Mr. Solzhenitsyn understood this and refused to bow.

Food for thought.

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?

Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?

After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria [Government limo] sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur -- what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked.

The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The GULAG Archipelago
Posted by: Steve White || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can really depend on Cowardice. Its as basic as bread.

The majority are cowards. There are only six men out of any hundred who will fight. Most of the rest will cringe, beg, and kneel.

Its practically dependably certain.

Let's give them our guns and then bend over. We might even get used to it after a while. All those people living in suburbia with cuddly Golden Labradors and children named Kimberly and Brad. Let's all sit in front of the TV and watch CNN and wait for "somebody" to "do something ".

Biden is your friend ? And Nancy Pelosi has your best interests at heart. They are just doing their job.
Fuck that shit, Mr. Threater Flusoper9823. Or "Stuff and nonsense", if my previous bluntness shocks you. I'm leaving your post up so everyone can see exactly to what I am responding.

The majority of humans are sheep, the minority split unevenly between sheepdogs and wolves. This has always been so, and is not changed by propagandist terms like cowardice. But as we saw on Flight 93, American sheep are a different breed, well able to turn and trample wolves to death when roused, freeing the sheepdogs to track the wolves to their lairs.

And about those surbanites you so despise, sneering like the black turtleneck-clad, French clove cigarette-smoking pseudo-intellectuals of my oh-so-callow youth: Those denizens of the sterile 'burbs are living out the bourgeois values that make America so much more worth living in than, say Pakistan. They work hard, improve their homes, make sure their childen do their homework and get to enriching activities like soccer and piano lessons that will make them better people and better citizens. They vote as a matter of principle, and tend to vote Republican -- it's the cities, after all, that house the Democratic party machines which ensure regular 110% turnouts.

The sturdy country yeomen Jefferson praised have mostly moved to the suburbs, where they quietly continue to create and maintain the nation our sheepdogs find worthwhile to stepping forward to protect. These people are the backbone and heart of the country, paying the taxes, caring for the aging parents, and trying to put kids through college and started in life. It is they who are the majority of gun owners and TEA partiers and the retired military folk. They have already organized themselves to fight, Mr. Threater Flusoper9823. They have, in fact, been fighting. They didn't bother to wait for you to lead them.

And you dare sneer at them.

Most sincerely yours,
trailing wife at 6:31 ET
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 3:48 Comments || Top||

#2  TW I think that you're over reacting. The only thing wrong with TF's comment is that his percentage is exaggerated.

In those oh so intellectual, elite 'burbs of Mass or DC for example I think that the majority (aka 51 of a hundred) are cowardly in the face of assertive gov't.

The caveat is that they may not be cowardly, but they may be conspirators (not mutually exclusive). Afterall they consider themselves the elite and destined to rule. Why would they fight those who will place them in power?
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 7:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Our New Years Update:

Kimberly has graduated from UCLA and is now working at a law firm in the Bay area supporting the Code Pink movement. Brad is in his sixth year at William and Mary and is on an academic sabbatical hiking in the Himalayas with his fiancé Greg. Sadly, we had to put Ginger down last year. She began to make threatening gestures at Shyntranda the mailperson. Tom's mother is doing better, (hikes the mall every day with her group from Glenmanner) but she still insists she doesn't know any of us and wants to come home, which we all know is impossible. We suspect mom may have been watching Fox and tutoring Ginger behind our backs.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Most of us suburbanites don't live in those elite communities, AlanC. We here in flyover country have elected Republican governors, for the most part, who are balancing budgets, refusing to get involved in Obamacare, and not talking of confiscating legal guns.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ (molon labe), the title of this article, translates as "Come and take them." It was the answer King Leonidas gave to the Persian demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 7:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah TW for allowing the "don't trifle with me' fury to vent! Evidenced before you Gentlemen is a demonstration of this nation's foundation of greatness, rightous indignation.
AlanC, voting (51:47) is a pale shade of the Solzhenitsyn rebellious rant. TF's 94:6 count is much closer to the number found on the killing field.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 8:15 Comments || Top||

#6  "Come and take it" was also the motto on the home-made silk banner flown by the militia of Texas, when the stout citizens of Gonzales (aided by other volunteers from across the Anglo settlements of Texas) refused a request from the military governor to return a little 6-pound cannon that they had been loaned for protection. The citizens feared that it would be used against them. This defiance kicked off the Texas war for independence in 1835. Whole story here.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 01/10/2013 8:21 Comments || Top||

#7  TF's 94:6 count is much closer to the number found on the killing field.

Skidmark, what is the ratio of those Americans suffering a home invasion? The killing fields of external war (the only kind we Americans have fought post 1865) are a different circumstance and a different sector of the population.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 8:37 Comments || Top||

#8  If Obama goes for firearm confiscation (which is the ultimate goal of the left), he may just see what the American people are made of. I suspect that he may "misunderestimate" them and have his hands full.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/10/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#9  I once knew a Cambodian gentlemen who escaped the "Killing Fields" of the Khemer Red by fixing small electric motors, fans, etc. Others who were summoned to the task and failed.... were executed. I suppose we should all study up on our electronics and home repair skills. Repair and LIVE!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 9:36 Comments || Top||

#10  @TW

In Bill Whittle's blog I read that one day when he was a child after seeing a picture of people being led to the gas chambers by a ridiculous number of guards without automatic weapons he asked to his father: "Why is that these people didn't revolt? Do you think Americans would have reacted like that" And his father said, that no he didn't think so.

I think that people used to be armed don't fel defenceless in front of a an armed man even if they happen to be unarmed at this moment. They will try to find means to knock him out and grab his weapon while people who have become used to be unarmed will feel powerless and will fail to exploit opportunities to reverse the tables. Look at that Norwegian who roamed an island for several hours shooting people without anyone (and most of the people were either in theur early tewnties or in their late teens ie the best age for a soldier) trying to ambush him despite the numerous opportunities in an island who was mostly covered by woods. That is what you have most to fear by Obama's projects of disarming America, it will not be merely because you will be at the mercy of his thugs but because it will make sheep of you.
Posted by: JFM || 01/10/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#11  They aren't going for confiscation right now; just floating the idea to establish the negotiating window (see Overton Window), such that the eventual laws will seem less onerous/more acceptable than they 'would have been'.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/10/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#12  picture of people being led to the gas chambers by a ridiculous number of guards without automatic weapons. JFM

There was no media (as we know it) available at the time. "Guards without automatic weapons" were the message.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 9:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Sorry TW, my work is in crimes of the mind, not of the neighborhood. I don't have a number for that.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#14  Bravo TW! While these people slowly turn us into criminals their fasism will eventually turn on them.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/10/2013 10:37 Comments || Top||

#15  Maybe everyone is afraid of the Tiny Dot.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 10:55 Comments || Top||

#16  Fuck that shit, Mr. Threater Flusoper9823

I've been buried at work and am just getting to the Burg for the first time today. Otherwise I would have said it first.

Enough of the sneering crap.
Posted by: lotp || 01/10/2013 11:57 Comments || Top||

#17  No compromise!
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/10/2013 12:28 Comments || Top||

#18  Bravo, Bravo TW!

The key to understanding elites of all types is that they leave the dirty work to others. They live off the design margin created by others and hand out goodies from that design margin to those who leave the task of working to others. As such, the elites have an inflated opinion of themselves because all they have to do is "pass a law", "make a regulation", or "sign an executive order", and VOILA, 'tis done!

Our advantage is that gun owners are VERY aware of the history of guns in Nazi Germany and in communist countries. There is no ignorance of what is in store. There is no excuse for not knowing. Ignorance and unknowing cannot be imposed by the MSM upon an unwilling and ungullible listener/viewer.

ÌÏËÙÍ ËÁÂÅ is the phrase bringing their little fantasy world crashing down on their heads. It's saying "No. YOU WORK FOR IT!"

Then SHOOT while their Maynard G. Krebs manifests itself.

Posted by: Ptah || 01/10/2013 12:53 Comments || Top||

#19  Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, TF. But you really hit a nerve. In the future you may want to use the /sarc tag on such comments. Er, that is, unless you really mean it. But I'd rather avoid the wrath of folks like TW who can shred you with a very few well chosen words and make you look like a fool for the whole wide web to see. They don't call it Rantburg for nothin'.

I myself never had a gun. I never felt the need for one until now. It's ironic that all these hysterical calls for gun control have created such a great demand for guns.

As for the downstairs hall, can I bring my machete? Or would a baseball bat be better? Oh, I know, how about if I bring 'em both?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/10/2013 13:00 Comments || Top||

#20  Once they prosecute a list, eventually everyone will end up on a list.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 13:45 Comments || Top||

#21  No Tea for U!
Come back 1 year.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/10/2013 16:21 Comments || Top||

#22  Living in one of those "elite" 'burbs of Mass for the last 30 years I've gotten a jaundiced view of too many of my fellow burbites.

This will not be a philosophy based totalitarian takeover like Naziism or Fascism or Communism. This will be a slow subtle, bit by bit, assault on freedom a wearing away of liberty little by little. So far I've seen nothing that leads me to think that the constant drip will not win over the granite.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 16:37 Comments || Top||

#23  @#18: Our advantage is that gun owners are VERY aware of the history of guns in Nazi Germany and in communist countries. There is no ignorance of what is in store.

I had to stop and think a moment to realize how powerful a statement that is.

You are exactly right: it is because I know what happened in Germany, and Russia, and elsewhere, that I know what gun confiscation (e.g., "forced buy-backs") really portends. It's not about preventing violence per se, it's about preventing violence being done to the government officials who will then take the next step to oppress us.

Our Founders understood this, and they didn't even know what a Nazi was (but King George III, him they knew well, and he wasn't nearly a Nazi).

I am much like Ebbang Uluque6305: I do not and have never owned firearms. I'm a doctor; I don't think about taking lives, and I've almost always lived in communities and neighborhoods where I've felt (and where my family felt) safe. I don't hunt, I don't shoot skeet, and I am not a collector. I've never had the urge.

Now for the first time in my life I'm contemplating buying a pistol. Not just to spite the government, and that's a statement in and of itself, but precisely because if, if, if it's going to come down to a midnight breaking down of my front door, I'm going to be prepared.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/10/2013 16:55 Comments || Top||

#24  Steve: I can't be there in person. But I'm sending along some pistol hand grip tips for your upcoming purchase.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 17:49 Comments || Top||

#25  There was recently an article on Pravda.ru saying, "Don't let them take your firearms!"

Who'd imagine 25 years ago?
Posted by: twobyfour || 01/10/2013 19:15 Comments || Top||

#26  Huzzah, tw! Give 'im hell. :-D

Dr. Steve, I think you're making the right choice - for your family and your life. Too bad it's come to that. Damn Leftists. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/10/2013 19:20 Comments || Top||

#27  Now for the first time in my life I'm contemplating buying a pistol. Not just to spite the government, and that's a statement in and of itself, but precisely because if, if, if it's going to come down to a midnight breaking down of my front door, I'm going to be prepared.

Then you better buy a shotgun. Preferably a 12 gauge. Look at the Remington 1100 TAC-4, semi-auto. Has an extended magazine tube. Holds 8 in the pipe and one in the spout.

Properly used it will stop a lot of trouble. If you have to shoot a certain type that might be wearing a vest, shoot for the groin. Slugs or heavy buck, bleed outs are quick and you break a pelvis they go down and stay down.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 01/10/2013 19:27 Comments || Top||

#28  --#20. In regards to lists. As the blogger in New York showed the world when a newspaper published a map of registered gun owners and he reponded by publishing a map of the homes of the newspaper's employees. Lists work both ways.

In the end the newspaper hired armed guards wich is much more expensive than a .38 Special.
Posted by: wr || 01/10/2013 20:07 Comments || Top||

#29  Most of us suburbanites don't live in those elite communities, AlanC.

We're not as worthy as Angleton9 Threater Flusoper9823, tw dear, because we've never swam in a Coachella Valley irrigation canal in our undies as 'youts', or get an intense erotic satisfaction with using lurid snuff-prose.

Frankly the 'just six men' is crap. Unless one believes that the six shrug off the bullets and the shrapnel and don't need the corpsman who gets the task of plugging the holes, pumping in the fluids and putting the body-parts in some semblance of order for the docs down the line to save, all the while dodging the same bullets and shrapnel or the other six that get the honor of hauling the broken bodies of the 'killer-hero' to the medevac.

Chocolate soldier. Pheh.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/10/2013 21:52 Comments || Top||

#30  Here is an exact copy of the Gonzales Flag.

http://www.galleryoftherepublic.com/txflags/gonzales.htm
Posted by: dacama || 01/10/2013 21:56 Comments || Top||


Government
House Dems say president can raise debt ceiling
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] House Democrats say President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
should consider invoking a little-known constitutional provision that they say gives him the power to raise the debt ceiling without going through Congress, where Republicans are demanding that a debt ceiling vote be linked to spending cuts.

The Democrats said in a letter that they would support the use of any authority, including the 14th Amendment, to prevent the nation from going into default, an event that some economists predict could trigger a global recession.

That post-Civil War amendment contains a section stating that "the validity of the public debt of the United States...shall not be questioned."
We're not questioning it, we're saying no more. The debt service can be paid without a problem. It does mean we'd have to forego a few fripperies...
As of Wednesday 21 Democrats, led by Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, had signed the letter.

Raising the federal borrowing limit is now subject to congressional approval, which traditionally has come with relatively little resistance. But in July 2011 Republicans tied their vote on the debt ceiling to concessions on spending, generating a confrontation with the B.O. regime and resulting in the first-ever ratings downgrade of the nation's credit-worthiness.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "When I see that the right and means of absolute command are conferred on a people or upon a king, upon an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or republic, I recognize the germ of tyranny, and I journey onwards to a land of more helpful institutions." Alexis de Tocqueville, 1 DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, at 250 [Arlington House (1965)].
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 4:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes he CAN, But Obama had better NOT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Has anybody ever asked them where it's gonna stop?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/10/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#4  If O can, and the house dems are all right with it, it therefore follows that house dems are not needed. Clear out their offices and leave.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/10/2013 12:27 Comments || Top||

#5  I honestly don't understand Leftoid thinking regarding spending. There was a thread on another board about the Texas budget surplus. Nothing but vicious, pointless, excoriating attacks -- because a state has extra money. I can't even begin to fathom why the Left would regard extra money as hateful, but there it is.
Posted by: Menhadden Flinter9357 || 01/10/2013 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe the Chinese will accept a couple of $1-Trillion coins.....?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/10/2013 13:29 Comments || Top||

#7 
I can't even begin to fathom why the Left would regard extra money as hateful, but there it is.


1) They want it given to them, 2) They don't want it returned to the people who earned it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/10/2013 13:32 Comments || Top||

#8  I have a 1 trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe. Obama can just use that.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/10/2013 15:49 Comments || Top||

#9  I had a few of those as well, but the selfless, philanthropic bastid that I am, I gave them all away.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 15:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Drip...
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 16:38 Comments || Top||

#11  It will take US$16.4Trilyuhn, as per the soon-to-be-passe' current official US Debt Limit, for the US just to par, i.e. reach a balanced budget of 0.00 Revenues = 0.00 Debts, + minima another US$5-10.0Trilyuhn just to put something noticeable = positive real, whole numer in the Accounting-Budget heiroglyphics that Archeo-Economists, Budgeteers will read in 2050.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/10/2013 22:18 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan terms Indian allegations "baseless and unfounded"
No matter how solid the evidence, it can never be enough to persuade or convict.
[Dawn] Pakistain on Wednesday strongly rejected what it called "baseless and unfounded allegations" by India of a cross-border attack by Pak troops killing two Indian soldiers, adding that it was ready for a probe by a UN observer body into the incident.

"These are baseless and unfounded allegations," said a statement issued by the Foreign Office. "Pakistain is prepared to hold investigations through the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Military Observer Group for India and Pakistain (UNMOGIP) on the recent ceasefire violations on the Line of Control."

The statement said it was important that serious efforts be made to maintain the progress and improvement achieved by the neighbouring countries in the dialogue process and bilateral relations, emphasising that "negative propaganda" be avoided.

The Indian army has claimed that firing by Pak troops near the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) had killed two Indian soldiers on Tuesday, with one's head allegedly severed and taken away.

A senior military official in Islamabad had earlier denied that Pak troops had been involved in any attack, similarly claiming that India was using "propaganda" to divert attention from a deadly raid on Sunday.

Pakistain's army says Indian troops crossed the LoC on Sunday and stormed a military post in an attack that left a Pak soldier dead and another injured. India has denied crossing the line.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  ANYTHING Pakistan says is A damn lie.

Count on it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
White House, State Dept ignored warnings of Muslim Brotherhood threat
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (ITP) released a report Wednesday that the Obama administration ignored warnings that the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi were not moderates or democratic in any way and posed serious threats to Egypt and the Middle East.

John Rossomando of ITP News reported that diplomatic cables they obtained and Egyptian opposition leader Michael Meunier's statements to ITP News proved that “The Obama administration chose to listen to voices suggesting that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was more moderate.”

Egyptian opposition leader Michael Meunier told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), “The Obama administration repeatedly ignored and downplayed advance warnings that the Muslim Brotherhood would resort to violence and undemocratic tactics if it came to power.”

ITP posted several links of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi has close ties to, un-democratic statements and Coptic Christians persecutions. Diplomatic cables that were transmitted to Washington are within the report. One such cable posted by ITP, dated Oct. 21, 2009, with the headline, “UPDATE ON REPORTS OF DIVISIONS WITHIN THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD” and sent to the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton office (FM: AMEMBASSY CAIRO TO: RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3965) stating that the Muslim Brotherhood were not moderates.

“Other cables show that the State Department knew about the Muslim Brotherhood's theocratic designs in 2007, well before Mubarak looked vulnerable,” Rossomando reported. Mr. Rossomando also mentioned Islamist Wagdy Ghoneim, who had close ties to the radical U.S. organization, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), while he lived in the U.S. has issued calls for genocide against the Coptic Christians.

Mr. Meunier told Rossomando, “I do not think they (Obama administration) have taken the warnings seriously. They also don't take it seriously that the Muslim Brotherhood is not democratic."
Posted by: Pappy || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Mali troops receive reinforcements
[MAGHAREBIA] Malian troops received reinforcements in the central town of Mopti on Tuesday night (January 8th), AFP reported.

Troops in the area are receiving a boost after the army reported that shots were exchanged with Islamist fighters after the rebels tried to move into Kona, a town near Mopti.

"Terrorists and Islamist armies from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar al-Din and the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) attempted a movement of force" to get around the town of Kona on Monday afternoon, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The reinforcements will help "ensure the safety of the people and cope with the enemy", a security official told AFP.

In related news, a second round of talks between Touareg rebel groups and Malian government, scheduled to start in Ouagadougou January 10th, have been postponed to a later date, SAPA quoted Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
officials as saying on Tuesday.

Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole, who leads the negotiations on behalf of Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore, said that "all the parties asked that they be given more time to prepare".
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
Five children of policemen held for robberies
[Dawn] The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of the capital police busted an eight-member gang of robbers on Tuesday. Five members of the gang turned out to be the children of serving police officials.

The police said all the five children of the police officials were tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
while efforts were underway to trace the other three members of the gang.

The police said the alleged robbers' fathers were deployed at Police Line Headquarters, Diplomatic Protection Department and the Aabpara cop shoppe.

Two of them are sub-inspectors, two assistant sub-inspectors and one head constable.

During investigation, the alleged robbers confessed to committing 200 valuable snatching and over 21 thefts in different parts of the city.

The police said 19 mobile phone sets along with a fair amount of gold ornaments and thousands of rupees were recovered from the possession of the alleged robbers.

Earlier, during an investigation of valuable snatching incidents by the CIA, it was observed that such criminal activities never took place in Sector G-6.

Suspecting that the culprits might be living in the area (G-6), the police mounted intelligence in the sector and focused on youngsters who had cycle of violences.

During the process, the police spotted the five children in suspicious activities. Further monitoring showed that they were drug addicts.

The police approached a drug peddler from whom they purchased narcotics.

The peddler told the police that majority of time the youngsters purchased narcotics against gold ornaments and mobile sets.

After this, the Crime Investigation Agency staff arrested them.

The police will produce the accused in the court seeking their physical remand for further investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Lone rangers in the drone zone
[Dawn] FOR several months last year, I was at the receiving end of occasional emails that conformed to a particular pattern.

They all began with a reasonably uncontroversial critique of the political process in Pakistain, and they all concluded on the same note: that one man had all the answers.

His name? Maulana Tahirul Qadri. I'm sure many other journalists were bombarded with similar missives as part of what was clearly a well-orchestrated electronic mailing campaign.

Upon arriving in Pakistain just after the middle of December, I discovered there was a lot more to it. The vast majority of rickshaws in Lahore prominently bore the maulana's visage on their back-flaps, accompanied by an exhortation to flock to his Minar-e-Pakistain rally on Dec 23. Innumerable banners and hoardings bore his message: it's not the political process but the state that deserved to be preserved.

Qadri's statements on the eve of his public meeting provided some cause for concern. He noted, for instance, that there was a time when the United States was keen to provide aid to Pakistain for building dams, but the advent of terrorism had compelled it to resort to drone attacks. He uttered not a word about the circumstances, let alone the US role therein, that had spawned the terrorists.

It was also notable that he dated Pakistain's troubles back to 1989, thereby implicitly sanctifying the previous dozen years of ruthless military rule wherein lie the roots of so many of the nation's subsequent dilemmas.

He also took considerable pride in recounting that he had been invited to address US military graduates. Even more disconcertingly, he proclaimed himself a Nobel Peace Prize nominee who had barely been pipped to the post by the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
. There was no clear explanation of why he might have been deemed a worthy recipient.

The Minar-e-Pakistain gathering was numerically impressive, even though the claim of two million attendees was, in all likelihood, a considerable exaggeration. Contrary to the impression Qadri might have given, though, he did not quite pull a rabbit out of his distinctive headgear. What he produced bore a closer resemblance to a red herring.

Equipped with a meticulously flagged copy of the national constitution, he read out a selection of provisions, allowing three weeks for a dispensation that would magically do away with exploitation, feudalism and corruption within 90 days -- or more. If not? Well, then the nearly-Nobel maulana would lead a march on Islamabad. And not just any march, but one four-million strong.

Qadri's deadline runs out tomorrow. The Occupy Islamabad stunt is scheduled for Monday. His votaries, it is threatened, will not disperse until the maulana's demands are accepted. Tahrir Square has been cited as an example. And it has lately been announced that half the flock could be diverted to Lahore in view of the Punjab government's hostility.

The Islamabad march will be peaceful, but Qadri has pre-emptively refused to take responsibility for the actions of his followers in the Punjab capital.

In his Dec 23 speech, he also endorsed a role for the military and the judiciary in setting up an interim government, never mind its unconstitutionality. Qadri subsequently suggested he might, if pushed, accept the post of interim head of government, but later recanted.

It is hardly surprising that most commentators have questioned his credentials as well as his motives. The Pakistain Army and US representatives have both denied backing the maulana -- but then they would, wouldn't they?

There is certainly little consolation to be derived from the fact that the initiative of this Canadian citizen, whose reputed moderation as an Islamic scholar and welcome fatwas against terrorism have evidently made him palatable to Washington, is being backed by a British citizen who has this week vowed to unleash a "political drone attack" to which "no one in the country will be able to respond".

The concern is not just that two swallows do not a spring make, but that at least one of them can be certified as a bird of prey while the other's intentions are open to interpretation as an attempt to revisit the interventions by khaki-clad would-be saviours of yore.

Hardly anyone would dispute that feudalism and exploitation -- much of it capitalistic -- are indeed offensive sores on the body politic. Barring a genuine revolution, however, it is hard to imagine them being stripped off outside the political process.

Whereas it may indeed be hard to commend the present government on any score other than that of its unprecedented survival for five years, there is little cause to doubt its commitment to elections. If Qadri can be confident of mobilising four million souls next week, why does he appear so hesitant in opting for the electoral route to change?

Apart from my encounter via television with the messiah-complex maulana, another highlight of my visit to Pakistain was the political coming-out ceremony of Bilawal Baby Bhutto Zardari
...Pak dynastic politician, son of Benazir Bhutto and grandon of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As far as is known, Bilawal has no particular talents other than being pretty and being able to memorize political slogans, but he had the good luck to be born into the right family and he hasn't been assassinated yet...
on the occasion of his mother's fifth death anniversary. If it was stage-managed against his will, he tried his best not to let it show, as father and son repeatedly referenced the family ghosts in Naudero.

One can only wonder whether he, in quoting Faiz Ahmed Faiz on toppling thrones and tumbling crowns, was obliquely referring to Daddy Z, whom Benazir decreed as her successor "in this interim period until you and he decide what is best". It's unlikely the idea of offering her firstborn as a sacrificial lamb crossed her mind, but if it did, she evidently did not put it in writing.

There were plenty of lowlights, too, notably the liquidation of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
minister Bashir Bilour -- who, unlike his brother, was consistently unequivocal in his distaste for the Taliban -- and the murder of volunteer health workers involved in the campaign to eradicate polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
. Both acts, in only slightly different ways, bear witness to perverted mentalities. As John Lennon pointed out long ago, "You can live a lie until you die/ One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside."

The aphorism, unfortunately, does not apply exclusively to the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  OK, you know I had to do this...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/10/2013 1:14 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
4 die in Zacatecas

For a map, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of three armed suspects were killed in armed confrontations with Mexican Policia Federal agents Monday, as intergang firefights continue in Zacatecas and Fresnillo municipalities, according to Mexican news reports.

A news report which appeared Monday evening on the website of El Sol de Zacatceas news daily said that armed suspects in Guadalupe exchanged gunfire with a Policia Federal road patrol.

A group of armed suspects travelling aboard a Volkswagen Jetta sedan was ordered to stop by federal agents in Las Quintas neighborhood. Instead, the suspects opened fired on the road patrol and initiated a pursuit on a one-way road towards Monte Bello colony.

The armed suspects crashed their vehicle into a residence and then attempted to flee, but were caught by police gunfire and killed at the scene.

A subsequent search conducted by Mexican Army and Naval Infantry units failed to turn up more suspects.

Meanwhile, gunfights continued in Zacatecas municipality last Sunday around avenidas Torreon and Quebradilla Sunday. A local police cordon briefly blocked the area.

Also, an unidentified man in his 40s was found shot to death in Zacatecas municipality Sunday. The victim was found on Mexico Federal Highway 54 near the Jardines del Recuerdo cemetery.

Separately, intergang gunfights continued in Fresnillo municipality last Thursday night, centering around Arboledas colony. No one was reported hurt in those gunfights.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Four wounded in gun and bomb attack in southern Thailand
Four people were injured in shooting and motorcycle bomb attacks in Narathiwat province on Wednesday evening.

The shooting occurred at a karaoke bar at about 7 p.m. Investigators said two men on a motorcycle fired four shots into the bar, injuring three waitresses.

About 15 minutes later, as paramedics were taking the wounded to the hospital, a motorcycle bomb exploded at a local food store opposite the bar. The blast wounded a 14-year-old male passer-by and caused damage to the shop and two cars.

Police said a 10 kg improvised explosive device connected to an alarm clock was hidden in a motorcycle parked in front of the food shop. It was intended to kill officials who rushed to the shooting scene.

In a related development, a group of terrorists militants fired two M79 grenades at a military base in Rueso district at 8:30 p.m., but both missed the target. The soldiers returned fire at the assailants who were hiding in a nearby rubber plantation, and a 10-minute gun battle ensued. The terrorists militants then fled the scene.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Home Front: WoT
Albanian Brooklyn Boy Jihadi Wannabe Sentenced To 15 Years
[NY Mag] A federal judge in Brooklyn who sentenced a would-be terrorist to fifteen years in prison on Tuesday was thoroughly unimpressed by the man's "lengthy apology" and said he wished he could sentence him to more time.

Agron Hasbajrami, a former architecture student and Albanian immigrant living legally in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempting to provide material support to gunnies after he mailed $1,000 to a contact in Pakistain and then allegedly tried to fly to the Middle East to join an Islamist terrorist group there. He was nabbed
Please don't kill me!
trying to board a plane in 2011.

As part of his plea deal, he faced a maximum of fifteen years in prison, but in exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped additional charges that could have exposed Hasbajrami to life in prison.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah and Hamas leaders meet for 'reconciliation' talks
[FRANCE24] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, exiled chief Khaled Meshaal began talks in Cairo late on Wednesday on a stalled reconciliation deal, an AFP correspondent said.

It is the first meeting between Fatah leader Abbas and Meshaal, who heads the Hamas movement that rules Gazoo, in almost a year, and is aimed at ending years of bitter rivalry between the two groups.

On their visit to Cairo, the two leaders also held separate meetings with Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi met Abbas and discussed reconciliation between Paleostinian factions, the Israeli blockade on the Gazoo Strip and the financial woes of the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority, which Abbas's Fatah dominates, an official said.

"Morsi promised to work towards lifting the Gazoo blockade and helping Paleostinians out of their financial crisis, lobbying donors and (our) Arab brothers," Fatah's lead negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed told AFP.

The Egyptian president also held separate talks with Meshaal.

Meshaal and Abbas are to discuss the implementation of a unity agreement reached in April 2011 which was aimed at ending years of infighting between their rival factions.

Years of bitter rivalry between the two Paleostinian national movements went kaboom! into violence in June 2007 when Hamas forces seized control of Gazoo a year after they won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.

Under Egyptian mediation, the two factions inked a unity agreement in May 2011, but the main provisions of that deal have yet to be implemented.

Egypt has boosted support for Gazoo since Islamist Morsi was elected president in June.

Meshaal met Abbas in Cairo in February 2012, but there has been little progress towards ending the crippling divide between their movements.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Afghanistan
NATO Force Queries Afghan Demand for Tanks
[An Nahar] A senior international alliance officer in Afghanistan questioned Wednesday why the local army, which is due to take responsibility for security next year, has demanded tanks to fight cut-thoats.

U.S.-led NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
combat troops will withdraw by the end of 2014, leaving Afghan forces to battle Talibs who use roadside kabooms, suicide kabooms and other guerrilla tactics to oppose the Kabul government.

"We are making a counter-insurgency force and we have our Afghan partners asking for things we would call 'high-end war fighting' -- tanks and what have you," Australian Brigadier Adam Findlay told news hounds.

Findlay, deputy chief of operations at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul, said army officers were influenced by the experience of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"We think (the demand for tanks) is because of them defaulting to a previous Soviet model and what they experienced particularly as young men," he said.

"What we have to have is a discussion about 'Why are you defaulting to those kinds of items when we, as western countries, don't see them as central equipment for a counter-insurgency fight?'"
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where Biden promptly replied "You're welcome" and went on to explain only that only the Obama administration could have earned such praise.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/10/2013 14:29 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq PM Says Protesters Causing 'Chaos'
[An Nahar] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
accused anti-government protesters who have blocked off a key trade route for two weeks of abusing their freedoms and causing "chaos", in a speech on Wednesday.

Maliki said security forces could intervene to end the protests, which have swept Sunni-majority provinces in western and northern Iraq since December 23, but also renewed an offer to consider some of the demonstrators' demands.

The protests were sparked by the December 20 arrest of at least nine guards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi. One has cut the main highway between Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
and the Jordanian and Syrian borders.

Demonstrators have accused the Shiite-led authorities of persecuting Iraq's Sunni Arab minority community and have called for the release of prisoners from jails and reform of anti-terror laws.

"Freedom for those who do not understand its meaning is chaos and the law of the jungle," Maliki said in a speech in central Storied Baghdad marking the 91st anniversary of the founding of Iraq's police force.

"There is a difference between a peaceful rally and an act of disobedience, and blocking off a highway.

"Freedom is not when a media outlet turns into a means of juggling and inciting riots and accusing this or that official and offending this or that constituent," he added.

He continued: "There is no country in the world that tolerates a blockade of highways."
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Science & Technology
NASA holds a crazy, going-out-of-business sale
[HOUSTON.CULTUREMAP] Now that the space shuttle program has been relegated to history, NASA is holding something of a going-out-of-business sale to distribute its Kennedy Space Center effects -- although even the most avid space enthusiasts may not find these up-for-grabs items appealing.

NASA says "proposals should be space-related, though the agency will consider alternative uses under certain circumstances."
As the Orlando Sentinel reports, the list of pieces for use, lease or outright purchase includes a shuttle launch pad, space in the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building or a 15,000-foot landing strip.

NASA needs to transfer these items -- and fast -- before federal maintenance funding runs out at the end of 2013. Officials worry that the facilities and machinery will deteriorate and rust in the Cape Canaveral environment without upkeep.

The space agency has been quietly receiving bids and proposals from commercial space companies and the public-private space agency Space Florida for the items, and Joyce Riquelme, NASA's director of KSC planning and development, expects that the first deals should start coming together within the next six months.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If they're looking to unload that Saturn V out in front of the Johnson Space Center, maybe we can work a deal. That baby would look mighty fine sitting out in front of the house up on cinder blocks.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/10/2013 14:31 Comments || Top||

#2  In keeping with the Osama charge to NASA to .... "improve relations with he Mooslim world", they'll probably soon be selling rockets at a discount to Hamass and MB.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 14:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if they got a NoGoHo stashed somewhere. I've always wanted one.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/10/2013 16:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Car blast kills two near Dalmia in Karachi
[Dawn] An kaboom destroyed a car parked at a fuel station in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
killing two and injuring as many early on Thursday, DawnNews reported.

The incident took place in Bloody Karachi's Dalmia neighbourhood. Initial reports suggest that the car was parked at a busy fuel station when it was blown away by the heavy blast.

Police and rescue agencies reached the site immediately after the blast and cordoned off the area.

Nature of the blast was not ascertained as yet, however, bomb disposal squad and security agencies have initiated the investigations.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:


Al Qaeda man killed in drone attack
[Dawn] A senior Al Qaeda figure is believed to be among 12 people killed in two US drone strikes in Mirali area of the volatile North Wazoo tribal region on Monday night, a security bigshot said.

Drones fired eight missiles on a house in Haiderkhel village, 30km from Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
, killing eight people. Among the dead were Sheikh Yasin Al Kuwaiti, a senior Al Qaeda operative, his wife and daughter, the official said.

Sheikh Yasin had married the daughter of a local primitive, he added. "Eight missiles were fired on the compound he was living in with his family. His house has been turned into rubble."

Unconfirmed reports from the region said the dead included two Uzbek beturbanned goons.

Pak beturbanned goons, who control the region bordering Afghanistan, cordoned off the area struck by the drones and took away the bodies and the maimed.

In the other strike that took place 15 minutes after the first one, four people were killed and two maimed at Hassokhel village in Mirali area. The villagers believe the dead were local beturbanned goons.

There has been a surge in drone strikes in North and South Waziristan recently as there have been five such raids since the beginning of new year.

Maulvi Nazir, a beturbanned goon commander having soft corner for Pakistain and who operated across the border in Afghanistan, was killed in such a strike last week.

AFP adds: The covert US drone strikes are publicly criticised by the Pak government as a violation of its illusory sovereignty but American officials believe they are a vital weapon in the war against beturbanned goons.

Legal lobby group Reprieve estimates that up to 900 civilians are among the 2,621 to 3,442 people killed by drones in Pakistain since 2004.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Former Ogra chief Tauqir Sadiq arrested from UAE: reports
[Dawn] Former chief of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) was tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on Wednesday from Abu Dhabi by Pakistain's Federal Investigative Authority (FIA) with the help of the Interpol, DawnNews reported.

On Dec 19, the Supreme Court had issued orders to detain the Sadiq, who had reportedly escaped the country to avoid arrest, within one week. Following the orders, the SC was informed that Sadiq's passports had been cancelled and instructions had been sent to the Interpol in relation with the arrest orders against him.

Sadiq is accused of misusing authority, embezzling funds and causing Rs82 billion losses to the national exchequer by converting operating income (regular income) into non-operating income in violation of an agreement signed with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, relocating several CNG stations, making illegal appointments, etc.

Sadiq is also said to be a close relative of Pakistain People's Party's Secretary General Jehangir Badar.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia: West should consider Assad's proposals to end Syrian civil war
[THEGLOBEANDMAIL] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's proposals for ending his country's civil war should be taken into account by the international community, Russian officials insisted Wednesday, even though Assad's ideas were rejected by the Syrian opposition and drew harsh Western criticism.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said senior Russian and U.S. diplomats will discuss possible ways to settle the Syrian crisis during talks later this week with the U.N. envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. The ministry said as part of international efforts to help negotiate an end to Syria's civil war "some of the ideas" voiced by Assad should be considered.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Massive prisoner exchange continues in Damascus
[Hurriyet Daily News] A massive prisoner exchange is underway between Syrian officials and Syrian rebels in several cities across the crisis-hit nation, including Damascus,
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
Latakia, Homs, Idlib and Aleppo.

Some 2,130 Syrian civilians will be released by Damascus in exchange for the return of 48 Iranians currently held by Syrian rebels. Among the 2,130 civilians held captive by the Syrian regime there are at least four Turkish citizens, head of the Turkish non-governmental organization (NGO) Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH) Bülent Yıldırım told the Hürriyet Daily News. Yıldırım is overseeing the exchange in Damascus.

The release of captives is being conducted in a building of the Syrian Interior Ministry with a senior Syrian general directing the process, Yıldırım said. While it is known that there are at least four Turkish citizens among the captives the number could increase, according to Yıldırım.

The swap is being directed with mediation from Turkey, Qatar and Iran, Yıldırım said.

Freed civilians are being given travel expenses to assist them in leaving the cities where they were being locked away.
Please don't kill me!
Prisoners will be freed in Latakia, Homs, Idlib and Aleppo. Eight Turkish citizens led by Yıldırım are managing the process in Damascus at the moment. It is expected that the exchange process will continue until evening, the press consultant for İHH, Serkan Nergis, told the Daily News.

The exchange will take a few hours today as the group is very large and registration procedures take a long time to complete, Yıldırım said.

"We have not yet been able to receive any clear information on the Paleostinian journalist Bashar al-Qaddumi. We are trying to determine the whereabouts of Qaddumi. As the İHH, we call on all Syrians and the entire world to get in touch with us if they have any information on Qaddumi," Yıldırım was quoted as saying by Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  in exchange for the return of 48 Iranians currently held by Syrian rebels
Wonder if that's the nuclear team?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 13:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Iranian Revolutionary Guards, alternately described as 'retirees' and 'pilgrims'.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/10/2013 16:01 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
PM: PKK must lay down arms and leave Turkish territory
Turkey's goal in the fight against terrorism is the final laying down of weapons by terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party and the leaving of it's members from the country, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during his visit to Niger, TRT Haber TV channel reported on Wednesday.

He said Turkey will do its best to resolve the terrorism problem in the country, despite the PKK's attempts at undermining these efforts. At the same time, Erdogan said it is also important for Turkey to address terrorism with minimal casualties on both sides.
I don't think he's all that concerned about casualties...
The Turkish army resumed military operations against PKK militants after they became active again. Over the past 10 months, Turkish security forces have neutralized 716 PKK militants, including 496 terrorists who were killed, 21 who were wounded, 44 that were arrested and 155 who surrendered to authorities. During this period, security forces have held 6 large scale and 19 local operations against militants.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leave, or what?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Still think Turks should encourage the Kurds to move into and take over Syria.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/10/2013 10:39 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tribal Clashes in Libya's Kufra Kill 4
[An Nahar] Four people were killed in festivities pitting Toubou rustics against a brigade linked to the Libyan army in the southern town of Kufra, a military official told AFP on Wednesday.

"Four Toubou rustics were killed on Tuesday in festivities against Shield Libya," an army force made up of former rebels, the official said.

Shield Libya, he said, intervened "to prevent student casualties" after a skirmish between Toubou and Zwai rustics escalated into an armed confrontation inside Kufra university.

He said Kufra was now calm but tense.

Local authorities ordered that the university, which is in a Toubou area, shut for two days until order is restored, the same source added.

A tribal chief told AFP that Toubou elders were trying to "control their sons so there will be no acts of Dire Revenge™ after the incident."

"We want the army to secure Kufra, and not a group of civilian revolutionaries who have no military principles," he said.

Shield Libya, a force under the command of the chief of staff, is made up of rebels who learned to fight during the 2011 conflict that toppled dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...

Tribal violence has taken a large toll on Kufra in the past year. Last June, 47 people were killed and more than 100 maimed in such festivities. Fighting in February had claimed claimed more than 130 lives and displaced half the population.

Kufra, a town of about 40,000 people, is located in a triangle where the borders of Egypt, Chad and Sudan meet.

The Toubou, who are dark-skinned and present in southeastern Libya as well as in Chad, Sudan and Niger, faced discrimination under the former regime. They also question the neutrality of forces deployed by the new authorities.

Libya's national assembly in December ordered the closure of land borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria, in a bid to boost security in the volatile oil-rich region.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Government
Cuomo Close To Announcing Sweeping New Gun Control Laws
[NEWYORK.CBSLOCAL] Governor Working On Deal That Would Go After Assault Weapons, Magazines
... and define "assault weapons."
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336107 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Makes sure only criminals and the state can instigate force.

Bow slave.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/10/2013 5:15 Comments || Top||

#2  When only government and criminals have guns there is nothing to prevent one from becoming the other.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/10/2013 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  That's funny. When I lived in New York, the governor couldn't just announce laws. They had to be passed by the legislature.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/10/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

#4  ...Is this the same Andrew Cuomo, who in 1998 as Sec of HUD under Clinton, threatened banks to give mortgages to those who couldn't afford to pay them back or the government would take action against the bank ??
Posted by: Tom-Pa || 01/10/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Pass an unconstitutional law that gets slapped down by courts. There was a day when that sort of posturing would ruin your career. Now intent and feelings are more important than yanking everyones chain and embarrasing oneself.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/10/2013 10:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Cuomo is peacocking for a run at the Presidency in 2016. He will say what he thinks might stick at any given time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/10/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Drip....
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Knock it off, we GOT IT,(asshole)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 21:10 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Khyber militants behead Sikh for 'spying'
[Dawn] A local turban group on Tuesday beheaded a Sikh 'spy' and chopped his body before throwing it in Bazaar Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency.

Mahinder Singh, 40, had been missing since November last year, according to officials in Jamrud. The officials said Tawheedul Islam had claimed the responsibility for the killing by leaving with the body a leaflet saying the man had been killed for spying for its rival turban group, Lashkar-e-Islam.

They said the body packed in a gunnysack was found in a dry stream in Chora area. The killing was confirmed by the slain man's brother, Paswand Singh.

He said his brother's killing was a cruel act with the members of a small religious minority.

"We have no enmity with anyone and have lived peacefully in Khyber Agency for more than six decades," he said.

Mr Paswand said if the government couldn't provide the members of religious minorities with proper security, then it should arrange for their migration to a safer country.

He said his brother had a herbal medicine shop in Tabbai village of Bazaar Zakhakhel, where he was kidnapped by unidentified gunnies on Nov 20 last year.

He denied that his brother was affiliated with any turban group.

Mr Paswand said he had contacted the local political administration along with an application for (slain) ANP leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour for recovery of his missing brother, but to no
avail. He said no turban group had contacted him after his brother's kidnapping.

Mr Paswand said his family had lived in Kalanga Maira of Akkakhel in Bara tehsil for over 40 years before migrating to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
three and a half years ago after Lashkar-e-Islam imposed jiziya, an Islamic tax on minorities, in Bara. He said his brother left behind two wives and eight children with one of his sons disabled by polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...

MILITANT KILLED: A turban linked to Bazaar Zakhakhel-based Tawheedul Islam was killed, while two of his accomplices were maimed in a roadside kaboom blast here on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336090 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Africa North
Egypt Salafi Party Elects New Head after Split
[An Nahar] Egypt's Islamist Nur party elected a new chief on Wednesday after a split within the powerful ultraconservative Salafi movement splintered the party ahead of parliamentary elections.

The party at a general assembly selected Yunis Makhyun, who was a member of parliament until a court annulled the Islamist-dominated house in June, in a vote shown live on television.

His party had won 112 seats in that parliament, in a surprise showing for a movement that had mostly eschewed politics before the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
in February 2011.

The party's former leader, Emad Abdel Ghaffour, resigned along with 150 members to form al-Watan, a competing Salafi party ahead of fresh elections which are expected after February.

Egyptian press reported the split was caused by disagreements over the influence of powerful Salafi holy mans in the Al-Dawaa al-Salafiya group, which had established the Nur party.

"We strive to implement Islamic law for Egypt's sake and will work to purify all laws of anything that contradicts shariah," Makhyun said in a speech after his election.

Makhyun has been reported in Egyptian press as denouncing as "usury" an IMF loan Egypt wants to boost its precarious economy. Usury is prohibited in Islam.

The influence of Salafis, who have a considerably more rigid interpretation of Islam than President Mohamed Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund movement, in particular worries Egypt's Coptic Christian population.

Makhyun sought to allay their concerns in his speech, pledging: "You will only see justice and affection from us."

Salafis have been blamed for inflaming sectarian tensions in the country, which witnessed a spike of attacks on Copts over the past three years.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  Egypt Salafi Party Elects New Head after Split

Aye dinna know Salafists were planarian flatworms -- but on second thought, it does figure.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 01/10/2013 15:26 Comments || Top||

#2  *choke* I most definitely was not expecting that, Dopey Sinatra9196.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bushehr plant needs 2-3 years to become fully operational
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoun Abbasi Davani said today that country's nuclear power plant Bushehr would need 2-3 years to become fully operational, Fars reported.
This is the plant that should have been operational a couple years ago. My how time flies...
"According to the scheduled plan, the countryshould produce about 20,000 megawatt hours of electricity," Abbasi noted. "This is equal to 20 1000 Bushehr plants, or 60 nuclear plants of less capacity."

He added that Bushehr can work on its nominal capacity, however for the full implementation of the project, more time is needed, namely 2-3 years.

Abbasi noted that after all the security measures are taken, the Iranian specialists can take the control of Bushehr from the Russian experts.

"The necessary security tests need to be undertaken, to ensure everything is right, security wise," Abbasi said. "This is vital for us to be sure that the plant works safely."
Does 'security measures' include all the safety measures?
Iran signed a deal with Russia in 1995, according to which the plant was originally scheduled for completion in 1999.

In September 2011, the Bushehr nuclear power plant officially began its operations, generating electricity at 40 percent of its capacity. The 1000-megawatt plant, which is operating under the full supervision of the IAEA, reached its maximum power generation capacity for the first time on August 30, 2012.
And then crapped out...
Iran and Russia have assured the international community that the plant is fully compliant with high-level safety standards and IAEA safeguards.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iran and Russia have assured the international community that the plant is fully compliant with high-level safety standards and IAEA safeguards.

Would even be more compliant if it was non-operational and deserted.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/10/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Abe Calls for 'Resolute' Action against North Korea
[An Nahar] Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe called for "resolute" action against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program as the major powers struggle to decide steps against the isolated regime, officials said Wednesday.

Abe made his call during telephone talks with U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
late Tuesday, U.N. front man Martin Nesirky said.

Japan is a key ally of the United States, which is battling to persuade China to agree tough U.N. Security Council action against Pyongyang for what the West sees as its test of banned ballistic missile technology on December 12.

North Korea featured strongly alongside the economy and Japan's reconstruction from a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in Ban's first talks with the new Japanese leader.

The U.N. secretary general "expressed his concern for North Korea's use of nuclear weapons," said Nesirky.

Abe "agreed on the need for resolute Security Council action on the use of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The prime minister also expressed his willingness to work in the improvement of the human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
situation in North Korea," Nesirky added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Japan is a key ally of the United States,

Don't count on the USA, we whipped you once, and can do it again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/10/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  You know North Korea looks like a damn fine site for a big telescope.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/10/2013 16:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Brahimi Says Assad Plan for Syria 'One-Sided'
[An Nahar] Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Wednesday ahead of U.S.-Russia talks on Syria that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
's new plan for his embattled country is "more sectarian, more one-sided" than previous initiatives.

He spoke as the first major prisoner swap in the 21-month conflict took place, with rebels freeing 48 Iranians in exchange for more than 2,000 regime detainees in a drawn-out deal with Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
reportedly brokered by Turkey, Qatar and Iran.

U.N. and Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Brahimi was giving his first public reaction to a three-step plan announced by Assad on Sunday.

"What has been said this time is not really different and it is perhaps even more sectarian, more one-sided," Brahimi told the BBC.

"What you need is reaching out and recognizing that there is a problem, a very, very serious problems between Syrians, and that Syrians have got to talk to one another to solve it," he said.

Assad's plan for a "political solution" in Syria was swiftly rejected by the opposition and Western nations as being detached from reality.

The plan offered a dialogue with the opposition to end the conflict -- but only with elements he deemed acceptable, not rebel-affiliated groups he termed "killers" and "terrorists" led by foreigners.

Referring to the so-called Arab Spring that has swept the region since late 2010, Brahimi said: "Now people want to have a say in how they are governed. They want to take hold of their own future."

"In Syria in particular, what people are saying is that one family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long."
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Taliban suspects arrested over Karachi polio killings
[Dawn] Pak police said they placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
five alleged Taliban suspects Wednesday on suspicion of killing women polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccinators and plotting to attack Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport.

"We have arrested five men from Ittehad Town in Bloody Karachi's west today who were involved in killing four out of five female health workers in Bloody Karachi last month," senior police official Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh told news hounds.

Gunmen in Pakistain last month killed nine health workers carrying out polio vaccinations, five of them in Bloody Karachi in attacks that prompted UN agencies to suspend work on a nationwide inoculation campaign.

"They belong to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and were planning to hit Bloody Karachi airport and other high-profile establishments to create panic and chaos," he added, referring to the country's umbrella Taliban organization.

There was no claim of responsibility for the December's killings, but the TTP last year banned polio vaccinations in the northwestern tribal region of Wazoo, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage.

Pakistain is one of only three countries in the world where polio is endemic, but rumours about the vaccine being a plot to sterilise Moslems have long dogged efforts to tackle the highly infectious disease.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336120 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Africa Subsaharan
CAR government, rebels begin talks
[FRANCE24] Peace talks between the Central African Republic's government and rebels opened in Gabon Wednesday with mediators urging both parties to sign a ceasefire. The rebels have seized control of large swathes of the country in their month-long offensive.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Malaysian sultan bans use of word "Allah" by infidels
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "You can call me Al."
Posted by: SteveS || 01/10/2013 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Okay. I guess "asshole" will have to do...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/10/2013 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  The "A" word. And the "N" word. And the " F" word.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 01/10/2013 3:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Use Satan instead?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/10/2013 5:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Allah.

There. I said it.

And here is my depiction of Muhammad:

@O-I-<

He's lying down after a hard day of murder and rape.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/10/2013 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  One of my pet peeves the use of the word Infidel.
The Muslim word for unbelievers is kuffar, the Christian Crusader word for unbeliever was Infidel.
As far as I'm concerned the Infidels can call their moon god(from the god gOdin) anything they like.
Posted by: tipper || 01/10/2013 11:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Tipper - When I used "infidel" to tweak the headline, I hadn't considered that. In future, I may stick to "non-Muslim". Thanks for pointing it out.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/10/2013 15:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Heightened tensions in the Yemeni capital
[Yemen Post] Residents in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital reported on Tuesday unusual army tanks movements at all of the capital exit and entry points as well as the presence of countless security check points all throughout; leading many to believe "something was either about to happen or was meant to happen."

Mohammed al-Bogheti, a member of the General People's Congress told the Yemen Post on Tuesday afternoon that Hadda - southern district of Sana'a - had been zeroed in by the military with checkpoints every few meters. "You don't usually see soldiers in full combat gear unless the army issued a red alert ... Given recent rumors General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar [Army Chief of the 1st Armored Division] is planning to move against President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi, I assumed the brewing storm is about to unleash on us."

Although the day went by rather peacefully, some minor festivities were reported in Hasaba - northern district of the capital under the control of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, big shot of al-Islah, Yemen Sunni political faction - opposing tribal elements and the Central Security Forces. One passer-by was injured in the shoot out and taken to hospital said witnesses.

Rumors of a "coup" have been rife over the past few days, with many allegations General al-Ahmar and al-Ahmar's clan now stand united against President Hadi, having decided that with former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
and his coterie out of the way it was time to move forward in the game and seize power once and for all.

Of course such claims are so far mere conjectures, with both the presidential palace and the General advocating that all is well in the land of Queen Sheba. Nevertheless, with kidnapping on the increase and armed stand-offs between rustics and the central government more frequent many residents in the capital remain uneasy.

Mogib al-Kibsi, a Yemeni-British medical students following a family visit in Sana'a after a year absence he witnessed first-hand how badly things have become in the capital in terms of law and order. "One simply does not feel safe ... While I would have been comfortable walking the streets late at night with family and friends only 24 months ago I know make sure I stay indoors. The risk of suicide kabooms, thugs or tribal confrontations made me nervous ... Yemen changes a lot and I don't feel the government is in control of the situation. Injustice and brigandry is on the up, there is denying it."
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336107 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Sarah Shahi [Texan/Spanersian][Her birthname, Aahoo, means "gazelle" in Persian.][Filmography](age 33)



Intelligent Design - Thong or no thong?


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/10/2013 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Golf, your question deserves an in depth investigation. It's a hard job by I'll volunteer to do it.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/10/2013 6:54 Comments || Top||

#3  The gazelle vomeronasal response is difficult to detect from a foto AlanC, but we'll continue to monitor on your behalf.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Handle it Alan!
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/10/2013 8:21 Comments || Top||

#5  So what is the guy (with the butt) with Marilyn doing anyway?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/10/2013 14:28 Comments || Top||

#6  The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is the peripheral sensory organ of the accessory olfactory system. The paired organs are located at the base of the nasal septum or in the roof of the mouth in most amphibia, reptiles and mammals. There are numerous examples of vomeronasal involvement in chemical communication, although pheromone communication is not the exclusive province of the vomeronasal system. The increase in serum luteinizing hormone and testosterone when male Rantburgers and Gorb are exposed to chemosensory stimuli from females or bicycle seats appears to be absolutely dependent on vomeronasal integrity.

In Gorb and other Rantburgers with well-developed VNOs the axons of VSNs pass in bundles to an accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) of characteristic structure.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/10/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Smokey:

That could be an older version of Intelligent Design.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/10/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  .....and unfortunately in many geriatric examples, that is where the bundling terminates. :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/10/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#9  "Ho-la, bebe! Que linda eres..."
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/10/2013 15:16 Comments || Top||

#10  No thong, of course. I can tell, even with my eyes closed.
Posted by: gorb || 01/10/2013 19:12 Comments || Top||

#11  This one had me confused for a while, however.
Posted by: gorb || 01/10/2013 22:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rebels Say Syria Executes Hamas Men
[Jpost] Syrian security forces executed two Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, men, a rebel-affiliated organization has reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on its website on Wednesday that it had learned from activists that the bodies of two Hamas men were found near a mosque in Husseiniya on the outskirts of Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
, after execution by Syrian forces. This follows reports that Syrian troops had moved into the city to establish control.

The Syrian leadership of Hamas left its base in the capital earlier this year because of Assad's crackdown on Sunnis.

The tensions between Hamas and Syria were reflected in Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
's speech on Sunday when he said, "I salute every honest Paleostinian who valued the Syrian stances and did not treat Syria as a hotel which he leaves when the service goes downhill."
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  so, Assad's not ALL bad
Posted by: Frank G || 01/10/2013 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad both sides can't lose.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/10/2013 12:33 Comments || Top||

#3  No, no, no Ptah, bad attitude. Both are trying hard, they must continue the good fight as honor demands it. If one side weakens we must be there with some ready cash, a few bandages, a vinegar sponge and some encouraging words that they might continue in this every so worthwhile combat.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/10/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia NGO Accuses Pro-Islamist Group of Attack
[An Nahar] A Tunisian NGO that defends minorities and campaigns notably against homophobia and anti-semitism on Wednesday accused a controversial militia close to the ruling Islamists of attacking its office.

"Our offices were broken into and vandalized. We have just filed a complaint. We know very well who did that. It was the League for the Protection of the Revolution, which has threatened us several times," said Yamina Thabet, head of the Tunisian Association for the Defense of Minorities.

She said members of the League in the Tunis suburbs of Kram and Goulette had warned the NGO of reprisals after it organized a ceremony on December 29 to commemorate the deportation of Tunisian Jews during World War II.

"They accused us of being Zionists, and other things that I don't dare repeat. They told us: 'We will deal with you'," Thabet told AFP.

She said Interior Minister Ali Layedh had promised "to take charge of the matter himself."

The League for the Protection of the Revolution, a militia allied to the Ennahda party that heads the ruling coalition, has been implicated in acts of violence that have caused outrage in Tunisia.

It is accused of beating to death a representative of a secular opposition party in southern Tunisia last October and of attacking the headquarters of the country's main labor union in the capital in December.

A number of political parties and NGOs have called for it to be banned.

The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Minorities is active in campaigning against anti-semitism and promoting the recognition of gay rights in Tunisia, where homosexuality is punishable by three years in prison.

Last month, the group lodged a complaint against a holy man, accusing him of inciting hatred against Jews in a fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
sermon broadcast on television.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Gunmen kill Shia doctor linked to PPP in Peshawar: police
[Dawn] Gunmen on Wednesday rubbed out a Shia Moslem doctor associated with the main ruling Pakistain People's Party (PPP) in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, police said.

Riaz Hussain was president of the PPP branch in Kurram, one of seven semi-autonomous districts that make up the tribal belt on the Afghan border where the Taliban and al Qaeda have strongholds.

He was killed as he left his clinic in the Dabgari area of Peshawar and police suggested it was a targeted, sectarian killing -- rare in the city but increasingly frequent in other parts of the country.

"The gunnies fired at Hussain's car when he left his clinic. Apparently, he is victim of sectarian assassinations," local police official Kamal Hussein told AFP, referring to a wave of violence picking out Shias in Pakistain.

Another police official confirmed the attack. "We have initiated an investigation into the murder of Doctor Riaz Hussein. It looks like a sectarian killing," senior police official Imran Shah told AFP.

Shias account for around 20 per cent of Pakistain's 180-million population and rights activists say they are increasingly victims of beturbanned goon Sunni factions.

Analysts have also warned that a recent spike in violence in Peshawar raises fears of a renewed turban campaign that could threaten national elections, expected to take place around May.
Posted by: Fred || 01/10/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
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5Arab Spring
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3al-Qaeda in North Africa
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2013-01-10
  Taliban suspects arrested over Karachi polio killings
Wed 2013-01-09
  Indonesia Foils Terror Plot on Tourist Spots
Tue 2013-01-08
  US drone attack kills four in North Waziristan
Mon 2013-01-07
  Syria Opposition Rejects Assad's Reconciliation Plan
Sun 2013-01-06
  Dronezap in South Wazoo send 18 TTP Jihadis to their rewards
Sat 2013-01-05
  Syria jets, troops wage offensive on rebels near capital
Fri 2013-01-04
  New U.S. Drone Strike Kills Three Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-03
  Iran to Citizens: Flee Isfahan
Wed 2013-01-02
  Fourteen Killed as Nigerian Troops Clash with Islamists
Tue 2013-01-01
  Pakistan: Six charity workers shot dead
Mon 2012-12-31
  Qaeda in Yemen offers bounty for killing US ambassador, troops
Sun 2012-12-30
  Pakistan reports 21 tribal policemen kidnapped, found dead
Sat 2012-12-29
  At Least 15 Killed in Sect Attack in North Nigeria
Fri 2012-12-28
  Militants kill two, kidnap 22 Pakistani soldiers
Thu 2012-12-27
  Somalia sets 100 days for Al Shabab militants to surrender

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