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Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: Politix
Assemblyman in jail, accused of threatening fellow lawmaker
A Democratic assemblyman is in jail, arrested for threatening Democratic Speaker-elect Marilyn Kirkpatrick, according to North Las Vegas Police and Democratic sources familiar with the situation.

Assemblyman Steven Brooks, 40, of North Las Vegas made threats to harm a public official Saturday afternoon, police said in a news release Sunday morning. A source said he was arrested with a loaded gun after threatening to shoot Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick and witnesses who corroborated the allegation prompted police to begin searching for Brooks. About 5:30 p.m., Brooks was seen driving in the area of Carey Avenue and Mt. Hood Street, where he was taken into custody without incident during a traffic stop.

Another Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Brooks publicly threatened to harm Kirkpatrick because he was unhappy with the committee assignments given to him by Kirkpatrick. The 2013 Legislature begins Feb. 4.
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 21:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
US Army memo: Risk Mitigation in the Face of Fiscal Uncertainty
Klik on "Related Links" to the right of this page to access the memo.
Posted by: Slose Ulinelet9392 || 01/20/2013 21:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, cut training and maintenance, SOP. Not that we have more General Officers per troop today than during WWII. /sarc off

You know leaving a MAG team in Europe and other first world countries and bringing the boys home would do a lot to cut down costs. Cut commitments, not fundamentals.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/20/2013 23:42 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Revolution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
The overthrow of the Saudi royals is finally a possibility. In an excerpt from a new Brookings Institution briefing book for Obama’s second term.

The Arab Awakening has made one possible for the first time, and it could come in President Obama’s second term.
Revolutionary change in the kingdom would be a disaster for American interests across the board. Saudi Arabia is America’s oldest ally in the Middle East, a partnership that dates to 1945. The United States has no serious option for heading off a revolution if it is coming; we are already too deeply wedded to the kingdom.

If an awakening takes place in Saudi Arabia, it will probably look a lot like the revolutions in the other Arab states. Already demonstrations, peaceful and violent, have wracked the oil rich Eastern Province for more than a year. These are Shia protests and thus atypical of the rest of the kingdom. Shia dissidents in ARAMCO, the Saudi oil company, also have used cyberwarfare to attack its computer systems, crashing more than 30,000 work stations this August. They probably received Iranian help.

Much more disturbing to the royals would be protests in Sunni parts of the kingdom. These might start in the so-called Quran Belt north of the capital, where dissent is endemic, or in the poor Asir province on the Yemeni border. Once they begin, they could snowball and reach the major cities of the Hejaz, including Jeddah, Mecca, Taif, and Medina. The Saudi opposition has a vibrant information technology component that could ensure rapid communication of dissent within the kingdom and to the outside world.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 17:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most Arab/Muslim governments are following the lead of their troglodyte populations. The zeitgeist in Dar Al Islam favors a return to 7th century social and legal practices, and a renewal of Muhammad's quest to conquer the world for Islam. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the Gulf state royal families ended up in the West after getting turfed back home.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 23:25 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Five suspected members of the Islamist group which held foreign and local workers hostage at an Algerian gas plant have been arrested, reports say.

The reports came a day after the Algerian authorities said all 32 hostage-takers had been killed at the In Amenas gas installation.

At least 23 staff at the facility died during the four-day siege, with some Western workers still unaccounted for.

The siege was ended in a raid by troops on Saturday.
Update from the Jerusalem Post:
Algerian special forces clearing the In Amenas natural gas plant after a deadly hostage siege captured a sixth militant alive on Sunday, a security source said.
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 12:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's a happy bonus. Looks like the Algerians will get some information, after all.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Will they die trying to escape (without legs or arms) in a few days?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Unfortunately prisoners 1 through 5 have responded negatively to today's conciliatory interrogation techniques. The Ryobi deep tissue foot massage therapy will begin tomorrow morning, at what would have been the breakfast hour. Our interviews and interrogation team are quite optimistic.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 14:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The people arrested may be workers within the BP plant who are suspected of collusion with the terrorists. It should still provide information - but their interrogations will not be a happy process.
Posted by: Raider || 01/20/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Ryobi deep tissue foot massage therapy

Okay, that got me laughing.

To be followed by the DeWalt painless brain probe insertion...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 14:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Trepanning by an Algerian Michael J Fox?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 14:55 Comments || Top||

#7  There are initial results showing trepanning is helpful for some health issues, though I can't remember what.

Separately, there must be cell phones and tablets hidden somewhere in the facility...
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 16:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Death toll at 81 and climbing. Some bodies are too mangled to identify at this time. Link
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||

#9  How many thousands of people were involved in this, anyway?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/20/2013 17:08 Comments || Top||

#10  A total of 685 Algerian and 107 foreigner workers were freed over the course of the four-day standoff.

Which means, if the numbers are accurate, 90% got out alive. I'll wager they (the survivors) are happy with the odds as well as the outcome.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 17:10 Comments || Top||

#11  "Death toll at 81 and climbing"

It's not clear who's a hostage and who's a terrorist. Could take some time to sort out. This event has been a nightmare from start to finish for Western Gov'ts.

Apparently the Algerians ran "clearance" operations to clear terrorists out of the plant. That is not the same as a rescue operation. You have to wonder why, when the terrorists were abducting hostages inside vehicles, that the Algerian soldiers did not just shoot out the tires. Why rip up the vehicles with fire from helicopters and security men?

Probably the truth will never be known ... except for those who participated. There will just bea final body count.
Posted by: Raider || 01/20/2013 19:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Update
Five kidnappers taken alive in Algeria
But "three others are at large", station director Anis Rahmani told AFP.

An AFP correspondent at the In Amenas hospital was told 12 of the bodies stored at its morgue were Japanese, after Tokyo said it had no confirmation on the fate of 10 of its nationals who went missing in the 72-hour ordeal.

"A terrorist shouted 'open the door!' with a strong north American accent, and opened fire. Two other Japanese died then and we found four other Japanese bodies" in the compound, he added, choking with emotion.
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 20:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Every human being is a hostage to his/her community. At any time they can tear off your limbs and impale your children on a stake in the garden.

Civilization is a word that means how likely is that to happen.
Posted by: rammer || 01/20/2013 20:54 Comments || Top||

#14  I expect these folks will get to grow all new fingernails and toenails soon. No permanent physical damage, but real painful when they're either being extracted, or having toothpicks inserted under them.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 21:49 Comments || Top||


Algeria terror leader preferred money to death
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 12:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pretty that Algeria jumped in to prevent ransoms from being paid. The large haul of foreign hostages might have given the jihadist kidnappers as much as $100m with which to extend their guerrilla war against the Algerian government, not to mention the neighboring African states. From the article:

Belmoktar prefers to trade his hostages for money, experts have said, and global intelligence unit Stratfor says he can get an estimated $3 million per European captive. The money allowed him to build one of the best-financed arms of AQIM. It may explain how he was able to strike out on his own six weeks ago to create "The Masked Brigade," whose inaugural attack was launched inside Algeria.

"MBM is more along the lines of, how do I negotiate and put extra money in my pocket?" says Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon, who has spent years tracking the terror network in this Sahelian country. "The others are purists."
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  I have heard both one-eyed willy was and was not at the gas plant; is this guy ass up or tits up?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 16:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like he hasn't changed too much since he was a kid visiting Guam???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2013 21:12 Comments || Top||

#4  one-eyed willy was and was not at the gas plant

I take it that's not a reference to Bill Clinton's 'little friend?'
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 21:56 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Work Accident, Drone kill 13 al Qaeda in Yemen
More than 10 suspected al Qaeda operatives were killed by an explosion in a house in south Yemen where they were making bombs and at least three others died in a drone strike, tribal and official sources said on Sunday.

A bomb ripped through a house in the province of al-Bayda on Saturday night, the state news agency Saba and a local official said. Three other suspected militants were killed in a drone strike in the central province of Maarib, also on Saturday, tribal sources and the Ministry of Defence said.
The house destroyed in al Bayda had been used for making bombs, an official from the area told Reuters on Sunday.

"We heard a massive explosion that terrified people and when we went to the house it was destroyed and everyone there was dead," the official said.
I love a happy ending.
In Maarib, a pilotless plane carried out two strikes against a car, a witness said.

"One of the strikes missed the target and the other hit the car and left the bodies of the three people in it completely charred," the witness told Reuters by telephone from the area.

He said unidentified people evacuated the bodies while tribesmen blocked the main road linking the capital of Maarib province with Sanaa on Saturday after the strikes.

Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 11:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to The Long War Journal, eight people, including two Saudi al Qaeda fighters were killed in the drone zap.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 12:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
California's Hispanic population to outnumber whites by end of 2013
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/20/2013 10:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hispanic derived from the Roman name for their province of Hispania, today known as the Iberian or Spanish peninsula which is part of Europe.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/20/2013 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Tentacles of failed states to the south. Nothing to celebrate. Something to watch.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Percentage of those that are illegal?
Posted by: tipover || 01/20/2013 12:23 Comments || Top||

#4  but the food will be faaaabulous
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 13:10 Comments || Top||

#5  declining birth rates and increasing migration as cause

They left out White emmigration (aka: getting the Hell out of there while you still can).

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/20/2013 14:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Here are some startling stats. In real numbers the Anglo population of California is less today than it was in 1970 after reaching it's peak in 1990. Anglos are voting with their feet. Is it any wonder this state is total Donk controlled. Look out America, this demographic Tsunami will be crashing on a beach near you soon.

California Population Anglo vs Hispanic

1940 Total Population 6,907,387
Anglo 6,182,111 - 89.5%
Hispanic 414,443 - 6%

1970 Total Population 19,953,134
Anglo 15,363,913 - 77.0%
Hispanic 2,733,579 - 13.7%

1980 Total Population 23,667,902
Anglo 15,762,823 - 66.6%
Hispanic 4,544,237 - 19.2%

1990 Total Population 29,760,021
Anglo 17,022,732 - 57.2%
Hispanic 7,678,085 - 25.8%

2000 Total Population 33,871,648
Anglo 15,919,675 - 47.0%
Hispanic 10,974,414 - 32.4%

2010 Total Population 37,253,956
Anglo 14,938,836 - 40.1%
Hispanic 14,007,487 - 37.6%
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/20/2013 14:16 Comments || Top||

#7  Victor Davis Hanson, evidently no one listened.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Even with the new taxes?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 14:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Unfortunately g(r)om, we've learned very, very little from observing your decades long Paleo struggle.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 14:38 Comments || Top||

#10  It's taken a Century and a half, but Mexico is finally taking back California. We should flip it to them quick, make some cash. Maybe sell it to the Oil Mogul down there.
Posted by: Charles || 01/20/2013 14:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Being illegal in California is a really good deal. Pay no taxes. Free healthcare and school. As I have said before, eventually the only people left in CA will be public employees, illegals and the super wealthy.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/20/2013 15:44 Comments || Top||

#12  "eventually the only people left in CA will be public employees, illegals and the super wealthy"

Under those circumstances, Iblis, I doubt the super wealthy will be super-wealthy for long. Then the burden will fall square on the shoulders of the public employees. Wonder what they'll do when they're taxed 50 or 60%? :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 01/20/2013 16:04 Comments || Top||

#13  leave
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||

#14  the only people left in CA will be public employees, illegals and the super wealthy.

It will be hell for the super wealthy if they choose to stay.

Looks like the "Open Borders" unrestricted immigration advocates such as George Soros have won in California. And thanks to Washington's wishy-washy politicians prostituting themselves for votes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

#15  by the way - it's been mixing for some time. My ex was half-Mexican. It's not the location of the last couple localities of your generations. Mine were Norwegian (2nd gen), French Basque (2nd gen), English mutt stewed in the South (10 gens at last count/tracking). It's a mindset.

If they come to be productive workers, great. Into the stew. If they're retro-nationalistic assholes? Ship their asses back. That's usually the second or third gen that have the time/$ to navel gaze and worship the "homeland"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 16:35 Comments || Top||

#16  I was watching a forensics/crime program last night. A thug (happened to be Afro-American) was robbing and bumping off Mexicans "because they work and keep money."
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 16:53 Comments || Top||

#17  Under those circumstances, Iblis, I doubt the super wealthy will be super-wealthy for long.

They'll just follow the model of the dozen or so families that own and operate Mexico proper, giving pious lip service to socialist-liberalism and democracy while practicing PRI politics and cronyism.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/20/2013 19:28 Comments || Top||

#18 
It will be hell for the super wealthy if they choose to stay.


NO, it will be Mayhico.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/20/2013 21:43 Comments || Top||

#19  ...oh, and I might add, exporting the mestizos to other states to avoid real reform or revolt. Cause that model worked to well so far.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/20/2013 21:59 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Is Mali the next Afghanistan?
The war rages about cities with names such as Goa and Timbuktu, in a sparsely populated, mostly flat, dusty and landlocked country in northwest Africa.

The combatants include a nomadic Berber people known as Tuareg, the French Foreign Legion and a coalition of al-Qaida affiliates who identify themselves with the Maghreb, the desert region of Northwestern Africa.

It sounds as if it could be the plot for a new Indiana Jones adventure. But those who study international terrorism say it would be a mistake for Americans to think of this conflict as anything but deadly serious. The war in Mali is the new front in the war on international terrorism.

Some U.S. officials have downplayed the threat, noting in congressional testimony that those involved in Mali don't appear capable of striking outside West and North Africa.

But in some ways, what's happening in Mali reminds experts of events in another little-known, faraway land in the latter half of the 1990s: Afghanistan. Back then, a fledgling al-Qaida, though already a known threat, was using remote terrain to train a generation of elite terrorist fighters. The threat of those fighters was that once trained, they were disappearing to await plans and opportunities to strike at the hated West.
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 05:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Logistically a far better place for the west to fight a war.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/20/2013 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The terrain appears to be more suitable than Afghanistan for rooting out terrorists. Mali has recently been declared the independent state of Asswad Azawad.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Most of the IED's and complex attacks in Afghanistan occur in, or within 5-7km of a village or urban area. It's basically a globally financed, regionally planned, and locally initiated warfare dynamic. I suspect the French may go about this one a bit differently that ISAF.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Most of the IED's and complex attacks in Afghanistan occur in, or within 5-7km of a village or urban area.

Burn the place down, and that's the end of the attacks. Ultimately, Sherman's policy in Atlanta needs to be repeated over and over as part of a guerrilla pacification campaign.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Not with a democrat in office!
/hattip

The latest tv news update on the gas raid and mali war was that the jokes at the movie awards about everyone being sick, were in fact funny and not rude or elitist, and that I am a racist of some sort.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 16:13 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Scientist seeks 'adventurous female' to give birth to Neandertha
Scientist wants to recreate Neanderthals
He says he just needs an 'adventurous' surrogate
Australian scientist says there may be some issues with that...


Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 01:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hopefully the record keeping portion can be tightened up a bit. Much appears to have gone missing from the first example in 1961; certificates of birth, foreign travel, Selective Service registration, college transcripts, etc.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Its so easy a cave man could do it.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/20/2013 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  bah! Someone already bore a Wookie. IYKWIMAITYD
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Homo sapiens' worst enemy is himself. Not satisfied, some clown wants to reintroduce Homo neanderthalensis. Didn't these guys watch Jurassic Park?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Doesn't this raise huge ethical issues? Oh wait. I forgot. "Scientists" (of the lefty variety, anyway) are exempt (Global warming, EPA, etc., etc.). Never mind...
Posted by: PBMcL || 01/20/2013 13:09 Comments || Top||

#6  ...watch Jurassic Park?

No, but I saw Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. at least 15 times.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 13:28 Comments || Top||

#7  I would support efforts to reintroduce a species of Raquel Welches...

Orion
Posted by: Orion || 01/20/2013 15:05 Comments || Top||

#8  When you can clone an earthworm from DNA, let's talk.
Posted by: KBK || 01/20/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Sharon Osbourne to the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: gorb || 01/20/2013 17:52 Comments || Top||

#10  OOOOOOOOOO, you just know "THE CHEETAH" CatBabe is gonna be watching!?

HHHHMMMM, HHHHMMMMM, could such a thing work to attract the traditional male demographic ala Marvel + DC Comics - don't think so iff she going to look just like a Femme version of Legion of Doom founder GRODD???

And then there's Grodd girl GIGANTA ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2013 21:09 Comments || Top||

#11  Solomon Grundy no like adventurous females!
Posted by: Secret Master || 01/20/2013 21:38 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Jihadists' Surge in North Africa Reveals 'Unexpected' Side of Arab Spring
As the uprising closed in around him, the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi warned that if he fell, chaos and holy war would overtake North Africa. "Bin Laden's people would come to impose ransoms by land and sea," he told reporters. "We will go back to the time of Redbeard, of pirates, of Ottomans imposing ransoms on boats."

In recent days, that unhinged prophecy has acquired a grim new currency. In Mali, French paratroopers arrived this month to battle an advancing force of jihadi fighters who already control an area twice the size of Germany. In Algeria, a one-eyed Islamist bandit organized the brazen takeover of an international gas facility, taking hostages that included more than 40 Americans and Europeans.
Posted by: tipper || 01/20/2013 01:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foresight is a function of intellectual maturity.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 2:22 Comments || Top||

#2  But he threatened to open the gates, sending through the economically ambitious of Africa to Europe. There are consequences for that kind of talk, as the dapper colonel discovered.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 4:00 Comments || Top||

#3  The Algerians also have little patience with what they see as Western naïveté about the Arab spring, analysts say.

Oh all you Mooselimb whiners with your coulda, shoulda, woulda. Didn’t you listen to Hillary yesterday? It’s called Smart Power for a reason. Now we could sit around all day pointing fingers or you can get on board. C’mon now…where’s your Unity of Vision?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/20/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Western naïveté ?

Not really. You've simply sited a convenient implement or cover for picking winners and losers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  I blame Bush.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2013 12:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Hmmmm. Some Spring. Wait till you see winter. More like Arab Autumn.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/20/2013 13:42 Comments || Top||

#7  When will Twilight of the Arabs happen?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/20/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||

#8  "Unexpected side of Arab Spring".

Africanized bees, who knew the could become so aggressive ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 17:15 Comments || Top||

#9  D *** NG, does BLUEBEARD + YELLOWBEARD know???

Oh wait, my bad, wrong crimes = activities,
.... ... OR IS IT???

Are we missing Uncle Muammar yet - IFF THE VATICAN + US-WEST = NON-ISLAMIC WORLD AREN'T CAREFUL, DIALECTICISM > will be helping Radical Islam + Global Jihad take over the World???

WID EYES WIDE OPEN, N-O-T EYES WIDE SHUT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2013 20:43 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
60.9% of all smokes in NY go untaxed
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/20/2013 01:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmmm, feeling the tax?
Perhaps it's too high, Naah, it's Democrats stronghold, there's no such thing as too much tax.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 1:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Hurray for human nature!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 2:25 Comments || Top||

#3  The tax is still paid, but to a different gang of organized criminals, and just not called a tax.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  I am told by friends in the FBI that every time the tax on cigarettes goes up the mafia pops champagne corks. That much more skim for them.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  The Laffer curve in full effect.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/20/2013 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Says there quite a few come from New Hampshire, which makes sense. What about Canada, what are the rules/regulations/potential savings from that trade route?

I'm sure the smuggler/vendors get their finders/risk fee. IMHO not a tax, as they are working for and taking risk on such markup where the tax is passively paid for a transaction. And since you may ask, I don't believe in that taxes built your roads crap, not until the governments start spending our money in a more efficient fashion will I sit at that table to listen.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 12:49 Comments || Top||

#7  I am told by friends in the FBI that every time the tax on cigarettes goes up the mafia pops champagne corks. Enterprising Muslims have also have recognized these economics. They have shipped low taxed cigarettes from the South to higher taxed places like Michigan and reaped the benefits. I recall reading in the past that some of these profits were being funneled to nefarious causes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 16:48 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Qadri to beat feet for Canada on Jan 28
ISLAMABAD - Whether or not Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has achieved his goals during the Islamabad sit-in, he may return to Canada later this month, according to TMQ sources.
My work here is done, citizens. And the food in Guelph is better...
However, TMQ officials have denied that he has been summoned to Canada for violating asylum rules. According to media reports, Dr Qadri will leave by an Emirates flight on January 28, a day after holding a meeting with government functionaries at the TMQ’s offices in Lahore for revamping of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

TMQ spokesman Tanveer Khan said here that it was true that Dr Qadri and his family had confirmed seats for January 28, since at the time of booking seats in Canada they were bound by international airlines laws to purchase return tickets.

He categorically denied Dr Qadri leaving the country on this date but did not rule out a journey in near future.
Depends on how hot Pakistan is for him on the evening of the 27th...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  violating asylum rules

then don't let him back. Make him stay in the real Asylum - Pakistain
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 8:44 Comments || Top||

#2  violating asylum rules

What would Nurse Ratched do?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:41 Comments || Top||

#3  "My work here is done, citizens. And the food in Guelph is better"

Not so. Unfortunately I once was forced to eat food in Guelph. Never again.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 01/20/2013 18:43 Comments || Top||


Terrorism-related cases: KP wants laws amended to protect judges, witnesses
[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government has proposed amendments to the relevant laws to protect the identity of judges, prosecutors and witnesses in terrorism related cases.

The proposal has been sent to the federal government in writing, according to provincial home secretary Azam Khan.

Mr Azam, who was present at a news conference along with information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and prisons minister Mian Nisar Gul here on Friday, told Dawn that amendments to Anti-Terrorism Act and the Action (In Aid Of Civil Power) Regulation 2011 had been proposed so that the identity of the judges and prosecutors of anti-terrorism courts and prosecution witnesses could be kept secret.

He said in absence of advanced investigation tools, those looking into acts of terrorism mostly relied on witnesses, who faced threats from terrorists.

"Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible for Sherlocks to prove terrorism charges against suspects," he said.

The information minister voiced concern over low rate of conviction of the terror suspects and said almost 90 per cent of the accused in cases of terrorism were acquitted due to threats to witnesses and judges.

The home secretary told news hounds that the provincial government had requested the federal government to make the amendments in question without delay for better conviction rate in the cases of terrorism.

He also said an amendment to the Explosive Act was also being proposed to learn about the users, use and quantity of bombs.

Mr Azam said Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had been the worst hit by terrorism between 2006 and 2012 as 186 suicide kabooms occurred there during the said period followed by 57 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and 81 in the country's other three provinces.

"It shows that bully boyz have mostly focused on KP," he said.

The home secretary said of 186 suicide attacks, 87 targeted police, 46 army, 10 different religious sects, 16 politicians, two foreigners and nine others.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: WoT
LA Times: White House, Pentagon In Dispute Over Mali War
[Jpost] The White House and the Pentagon are divided on the desired extent of US involvement in the conflict in Mali following the French intervention in the country and the hostage crisis at the gas complex in neighboring Algeria, the LA Times reported on Friday.

While US official don't view the Death Eaters in Mali as an imminent threat to the US, top Pentagon officials and army officers believe aggressive US military action in Mali is needed to prevent the extreme Death Eater groups from taking over the country.

Aides of US President Barack Obama
How's it going, Sunshine?...
, however, said it's unclear whether the Mali Death Eaters threaten the US. Those aides said they did not want the US to be drawn into another long-running conflict, similar to past conflicts in Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's wrong with letting EUropeans and Muzzies bleed each other?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 2:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Smells of Pentagon budget motivated mission creep. Provide them airlift and intelligence (if asked), and permit them to clean the stalls. African solutions for African problems.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 4:11 Comments || Top||

#3  U.S. AFRICOM objectives

••Counter al-Qa’ida and Other Terrorist Groups. In our approach to counterterrorism, we will continue to be guided by the President’s affirmation in the National Security Strategy that he bears no greater responsibility than ensuring the safety and security of the American people. Consistent with the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, we will concentrate our efforts on disrupting, dismantling, and eventually defeating al-Qa’ida and its affiliates and adherents in Africa to ensure the security of our citizens and our partners. In doing so, we will seek to strengthen the capacity of civilian bodies to provide security for their citizens and counter violent extremism through more effective governance, development, and law enforcement efforts.

••Advance Regional Security Cooperation and Security Sector Reform. We will deepen our security partnerships with African countries and regional organizations and their stand-by forces by expanding efforts to build African military capabilities through low-cost, small-footprint operations, consistent with the vision set forth in “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense.” We will also seek to strengthen the capacity of civilian bodies and institutions to improve the continent’s ability to provide security and respond to emerging conflicts. Moreover, U.S. military and civilian agencies will help establish effective partner nation security forces, intelligence organizations, and law enforcement and border control agencies that are subordinate to and operating jointly with their constitutional civil authorities.

••Prevent Transnational Criminal Threats. We will build comprehensive partnerships that leverage our land border, maritime, aviation, cybersecurity, and financial sector expertise to counter illicit movement of people, arms, drugs, and money, as well as guard against the criminal facilitation of weapons of mass destruction material and technology. We will work to curb armed robbery at sea and protect fisheries, and continue to implement our Counter-Piracy Action Plan off the coast of Somalia. Consistent with the Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, we will support efforts and build partner capacity to combat corruption and instability as well as to combat trafficking in persons.

••Prevent Conflict and, Where Necessary, Mitigate Mass Atrocities and Hold Perpetrators Accountable. Consistent with the objectives of Presidential Study Directive-10, we will address atrocity risks at the earliest stage possible to help prevent violence before it emerges, and bolster domestic and international efforts to bring perpetrators to justice. We will also cultivate deeper and broader support among governments and multilateral organizations to work toward the same objectives.

••Support Initiatives to Promote Peace and Security. We will support U.N. peacebuilding and peacekeeping missions in sub-Saharan Africa, including by working to ensure that peacekeeping missions are well-led, well-supported, and appropriately resourced in order to maximize their effectiveness. Within African countries, we will support those who work to overcome communal divisions in pursuit of sustainable and peaceful political processes.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/africa_strategy_2.pdf

So which one of these actions do not apply to the Al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) transnationl terrorist promoting conflict and attacking peace and security in Mali?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#4 
While US official don't view the Death Eaters in Mali as an imminent threat to the US

They're real hazy on the concept of anything at all being a strategic threat.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 10:41 Comments || Top||

#5  With it's (Africa's) many ills, one could ostensibly use those, quite inclusive mission statement bullets to take over the whole of Africa...or anywhere else. I agree with Fred, where is the "strategic threat" to the United States to be found.

History is replete with 20th Century examples of a modern, highly trained and motivated regional stabilization forces giving the heave-ho to terrorists, the Cubans, Russian advisors, and others of a similar ilk in the Sub-Sahara. Unfortunately our righteous leaders labeled them evil apartheid racists. They, along with the all knowing British, imposed sanctions upon them, and permitted their eventual collapse and transition to tribalism and communism. We are now to assume the clean-up mission, as the Chinese look on gleefully? We are now to buy our way out of betrayal with our own treasure and blood? I think not.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 11:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Besoeker,
I wasn't advocating the commitment of US ground forces. I was simply quoting a Whitehorse document on AFRICOM's mission. The contrast between words and deeds seems like hypocrisy to me. Just saying.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 11:46 Comments || Top||

#7  You're on target Mike, at least in my view. "Hypocrisy" at many levels.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry about the eight years of baby raping oil mongering. Hey, whose up for another little land war smack dab in the middle of a continent?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 12:11 Comments || Top||

#9  No swksvolFF,
Sun Tzu would advise hitting them where they are weak. They ain't growing food there. I say send irregular forces in to cut their supply lines. Let them wither on the vine. Add just enough drone zaps to make sleeping outside at night uncomfortable.

Mali is such a great place, I am sure that AQIM will get what they deserve.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 12:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Hell, can't we over-run Bermuda and it's neo-colonialist rulers instead? We're all set up for that right now.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 12:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Lot of 52 card pick up being played, but I thought I saw an article stating the local irregulars were part of the problem and the AU is having a tough time putting something together, seeing how the usual participants are either busy themselves or have no real interest in defending Mali, leaving the French, USA, and whomever local who is still a good bet.

I also thought I saw something about potential legal questions about how much the USA could officially contribute.

I do hope the baddies get hit, hit hard enough to know that shtty domino back the other direction. I hope they are weak. There has also been enough time to setup a defense against a counterattack. Be a real shock to find that column of French armored cars fighting through sixty miles of ambush up/back down that one real road, and finding out the baddies have some effective anti-aircraft capability.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 13:06 Comments || Top||

#12  The AU is also fairly busy in Somalia, and they have commitments still in Sierra Leone and (I think) Liberia. Did they ever get a force together for the Ivory Coast?

I don't think the AU has the forces for another commitment, and I'm more certain the French and FFL do not.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 14:41 Comments || Top||

#13  It would be nuts to go into Mali right now. The people are a critical component of the American war machine. And right now the people want nothing to do with another war. Dear Leader screwed up Iraq and he campaigned for a second term promising to screw up Afghanistan more. The people voted for it. So we're going to have to wait for something closer to Pearl Harbor before we rumble again.

What we should b3e doing right now is figuring out how to hog-tie the JAG for the next one. How much does JAG get cut in sequestration? Because ti should be the full Sherman.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/20/2013 15:01 Comments || Top||

#14  Amen and amen NS. They do have a totally separate agenda. They love getting involved in operations. I've watched a few in action.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 16:51 Comments || Top||

#15  what shade of lipstick to wear and what will go with the new flap less berka they all wear to show off their beards no doubt? What color are the boys wearing in the map room now a days or around the coy pond while practicing flap maneuvers? Still playing pin the beard on a frenchy are they?
Posted by: Angeck Elmasing1882 || 01/20/2013 16:57 Comments || Top||

#16 
They're real hazy on the concept of anything at all being a strategic threat.


I'm pretty sure they consider the US Constitution a strategic threat.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/20/2013 18:01 Comments || Top||

#17  "History is replete with 20th Century examples of a modern, highly trained and motivated regional stabilization forces giving the heave-ho to terrorists, the Cubans, Russian advisors"

actually Besoeker you have an idea there.
why don't we just hire the Cubans, with a few Russian advisors thrown in? Give them the task of cleaning out Mali. They've got previous experience in Africa, and no real job prospects at the current time :-)
Posted by: Raider || 01/20/2013 23:02 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Army smokes 6 bad guys

For a map, click here.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of six armed suspects were killed in a firefight with a Mexican Army unit in Veracruz state Friday night, according to Mexican news reports.

A report which appeared on the website of Milenio news daily said that the gunfight was initiated when armed suspects travelling aboard a GMC Sierra pickup truck were signalled by an army road patrol to stop. Instead the suspects opened fire on the military unit. Army return fire killed six suspects.

The firefight took place on a road between the villages of Tamarindo and Cardel in Puente Nacional municipality. The location is said to be close to Xalapa, the state capital of Veracruz.

Weapons and munitions seized in the aftermath include four rifles, six hand grenades and weapons magazines.

The army unit, part of the VI Military Region was operating as part of the Seguro Veracruz, a security program which was originally initiated during the administration of former president Felipe Calderon. It is one of four similar programs still in operation as a legacy of the previous administration. Only one security program, Seguro Laguna has been cancelled, although a similar program is in informal operation in that area.

The Milenio report included information from the VI Military Zone as to its activities since the start of the year. Army units in support of Seguro Veracruz program has detained 11 unidentified individuals and seized 15 rifles, 11 handguns, 48 weapons magazines and 1,142 rounds of ammunition.

According to a statement included in the report by General de Division Diplomado de Estado Mayor Rene Carlos Aguilar Paez, a total of 10 armed suspects have been killed in gunfights with the military since January 1st.

Seguro Veracruz also includes units of Mexican naval infantry.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com.
Posted by: badanov || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Blabber Against Netanyahu Will Backfire
[Ynet] If Likud gets 40 mandates next week, one of Netanyahu's first thank you calls should be to President B.O.

President B.O. should have known better than to intervene in Israeli politics so close to Election Day. It will backfire. Award winning journalist Jeffery Goldberg quoted President B.O. as saying "Israel doesn't know what its best interests are," while criticizing Netanyahu's geopolitical policies and speculating that if Israel continues such policies it will find itself internationally isolated. Such patronizing is counter-productive. In fact, Israelis resent external efforts to influence their internal politics and act accordingly.

On the eve of the 1996 elections, a very popular Bill Clinton vigorously campaigned for Shimon Peres against a younger Benjamin Netanyahu. Clinton figured Peres' "New Middle East" fantasy was feasible and within reach. He made every possible presidential commitment to promote Peres. Netanyahu campaigned for a responsible, steady and secure grinding of the peace processor. Some Israelis respected Clinton's commitment but most voted for Netanyahu. Political pundits have said that the president's intervention was one of the factors that put Netanyahu over the hump in the closest election in Israel's history.

President B.O.'s criticism of Netanyahu is a little bewildering in light of the fact Obama himself says he is aware of the severe threats posed to Israel by the tyrants and snuffies to its north and south, and the ayatollahs with nuclear aspirations to its east. Obama is also aware of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
' weakness as a viable, committed partner.

Obama is not Clinton. He is not as popular in America or in Israel. In fact, Obama is the only president to secure a second term with a smaller percentage of the vote than in his first election. Compared to 2008, Obama's share of the vote was down in every state except Hawaii and Mississippi. The president got about 7.8 million fewer votes from White Americans, 1.6 million fewer from African-Americans and 10% less from American Jews. From an Israeli perspective, polls suggested about 75% preferred Romney.

Therefore, since Obama ostensibly wants to weaken Netanyahu, the statements attributed to the president may be even more counter-productive than those made by Clinton and could help Netanyahu win by a landslide next week.

Ambivalent voters that may have preferred parties to the left or the right of Likud will now have a reason to bolster Netanyahu. Israel unites when faced by external threats and unjust criticism of its leaders. If the Likud gets 40 mandates next week, one of Netanyahu's first thank you calls should be made to President B.O..
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obama - the anti-Midas. Everything he touches turns to shit. Bibi should thank him
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Appears his stand on guns and the 2nd Amendment may be pushing his ratings down a bit. Perhaps a pheasant hunting trip to Kansas with Dick Cheney would reverse the trend.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
U.S. Orders Departure of Mali Embassy Dependents
[An Nahar] The U.S. State Department has ordered all family members of embassy employees to leave Mali, amid the country's escalating conflict with Islamist faceless myrmidons who control the vast arid north.

The order late Friday follows a tumultuous week in which gunnies across the border in Algeria staged a deadly raid on a remote gas plant, taking an unknown number of foreign hostages.

"On January 18, the Department of State ordered the departure of all dependent family members who are not employed at the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, Mali, for a period of up to 30 days," the notice stated.

It cited "ongoing fighting in northern and central Mali, fluid political conditions, the loss of government control of Mali's northern provinces, and continuing threats of attacks and kidnappings of westerners."

Mali also "continues to face challenges including food shortages, internally displaced persons, and the presence in northern Mali of factions linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)."

And although conditions in the capital remain calm, "the recent escalation of hostilities around Mopti in northern Mali has heightened tensions throughout the country," the warning said, also noting that Interim President Dioncounda Traore had declared a state of emergency on January 12.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
JI chief terms long march a drama
[Dawn] Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Amir Syed Munawar Hassan
... The funny-looking Amir of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009...
on Friday termed the Dr Tahirul Qadri's long march a drama that ended up in a frightful manner with his agreement with the government in which none of his demands was met.

Commenting on the agreement, the JI leader said Qadri who was overjoyed only a couple of days back on the Supreme Court's order for the arrest of the prime minister had finally accepted the script signed by the same premier.

Similarly, he said, Qadri was seen embracing and commending the same ministers and government representatives to whom he had been dubbing former ministers only two days back. Conversely, he said, the information minister who had been ridiculing Qadri in his talk with journalists a day earlier, was seen embracing him as a fast friend.

Hasan said Qadri had played with the sentiments of thousands of people, including womenfolk, and befooled them.

"Finally Qadri talked to the government team on the same terms upon which the government was ready to talk to him before his long march, and he also accepted government's conditions," he deplored.

The JI amir said the demand for dissolution of the Election Commission that had been set up with a consensus of all political parties and removal of the chief election commissioner was not only unconstitutional but also non-serious.

MWM: The Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Mohammedaneen on Friday criticised JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
for opposing governor's rule in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
"As Fazl stated that there should be an in-house change instead of governor's rule in Balochistan, it seems that he is concealing facts about the government failure that caused the killing of scores of innocent people there during the last few years," says a blurb.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Sniper fire kills French journalist in Aleppo
A Belgian-born French journalist, Yves Debay, has died from sniper fire in north Syria’s Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.
Given all the poseurs and fools in the world of journalism in Washington, New York, Ho'wood and so on, a journalist who goes to the front line and risks his life to get a story has my respect.
“He was killed on one of Aleppo’s fronts” on Thursday, said the Aleppo Media Centre, adding that he was “shot by a government sniper”.

Anti-government activists in Aleppo posted online photographs of Debay’s body and of his Press card, as well as an amateur video showing the corpse. The French defence ministry Press card, dated 2010, showed Debay’s name and picture.

The AMC’s Abu Hisham said via the Internet that he was first alerted of Debay’s killing by a volunteer at an Aleppo field hospital. Another activist said he helped put Debay’s body in an ambulance en route to the Bab Al Salama border crossing with Turkey. “It is not exactly clear how he was killed, but it seems like he entered a very dangerous street where the army and pro-government militia were positioned,” said the activist.

Debay founded Assaut magazine, a French publication specialised in defence. He reportedly described himself as a “rebel journalist”.

Debay was born in 1954 in Lubumbashi, in what was then the Belgian Congo. He volunteered until 1980 with the ex-Rhodesian army of the white minority regime that ruled what is now Zimbabwe until 1980.

At least 17 professional journalists and 44 citizen journalists have died reporting on one of the deadliest wars for the media in recent years, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kurds Demand Support from Syria Opposition as Rebels Attack
[An Nahar] The Ras al-Ain branch of the Kurdish National Council in Syria called on the Syrian opposition on Saturday to intervene over an ongoing jihadist assault on the northern city located on the Turkish border.

"Since Wednesday morning, some gangs have launched an offensive against innocent and unarmed civilians in Ras al-Ain using various types of heavy weapons and sowing fear and panic among children and women," a statement said.

"We condemn these cowardly attacks and call on the National Coalition, the Syrian National Council and the Free (Syrian) Army to pressure these Islamic fascisti to stop this criminal war, which is detrimental to the principles and objectives of the Syrian revolution," it said.

The council said hardline rebels were indiscriminately shelling Ras al-Ain with tanks and called on Turkish authorities to "stop interfering and supporting gangs to implement their own agenda."

"We ask our fellow Syrians inside and outside the country to stand beside their brethren in Ras al-Ain," it concluded.

On Saturday, one rebel was reported dead and three maimed in fierce festivities between Kurdish fighters and the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and several other Islamist factions in Ras al-Ain, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

On Friday, gangs loyal to Al-Nusra Front crossed into Ras al-Ain from the Turkish border with three tanks, a Kurdish activist from the city told AFP via Internet.

While Turkey supports the revolt against Assad, it is also home to a sizeable Kurdish minority that has suffered much persecution and suppression.

Activists say they fear Turkey may be using jihadists in Syria to fight its own battle against the Kurds.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  slowly the syrian conflict is becoming a 3 way battle w Alewite vs Islamist dominated rebels vs Kurds
Posted by: lord garth || 01/20/2013 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Orville Clarence Redenbacher moment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 4:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
McCain: U.S. Could be More Engaged in Ousting Assad
[An Nahar] Leading Republican Senator John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
said on Saturday night that Washington could be doing more to back the "effort" of the Syrian people in ending the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...

Speaking at the beginning of a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, McCain recalled his visit to a refugee camp in Jordan earlier that day, "to see the suffering of the Syrian people up close".

"It's very moving to see thousands and thousands and thousands of people who had to leave their homes, their families, some maimed, because of the brutal dictatorship of Bashir al-Assad," the veteran senator said.

"All of us believe that Bashir al-Assad's departure is inevitable, but we are also very concerned about how long that process will take," said McCain who was heading a delegation of U.S. senators to the region.

"There are some of us who would like to see the United States more significantly engaged in assisting the people of Syria in that effort," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  McCain - the guy who called the Libyan Islamists his 'heros'

McCain - the guy who, after Morsi's 'my 'nurse hatred for Jews' remark was taken out of context' excuse, asked Obama to increase aid to Egypt
Posted by: lord garth || 01/20/2013 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Give it a rest, McCain. You have nothing to offer but publicity. It is sad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/20/2013 2:44 Comments || Top||

#3  He's an excellent argument for term limits; has been for a number of years. We should be sending the Russians thank you notes on this one.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 4:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Easy to talk tough about removing a guy we all agree is an odious thug. Tough part is what happens next.

A fair number of us, including me, were all for removing Saddam, and we thought we had it figured out how things would play after that. Didn't turn out like we thought. Removing Saddam was still a great idea, and there's any number of innocents in Iraq who are (or at least should be) grateful, but al-Maliki and his gang aren't what we bargained for.

If McCain has a plan that will keep the al-Qaeda surrogates out of a new Syrian government, I'm all ears.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 14:45 Comments || Top||

#5  It's not clear to me what's wrong with those people shooting at each other instead of us.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/20/2013 15:04 Comments || Top||

#6  What NS said.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/20/2013 15:16 Comments || Top||

#7  airdrop ammo to both sides
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 15:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Mc Cain needs to be Un Elected.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 16:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Ditto RJ. A psychiatric eval might be a valid place to begin. I think the ole boy has a few dangling issues.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 17:13 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
West African Bloc Seeks Urgent U.N. Aid for Mali Force
[An Nahar] West African leaders Saturday sought urgent U.N. aid for a regional force to fight Islamists in Mali as President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
said French troops would remain as long as needed to stamp out "terrorism".

The emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc also called on member states and Chad, which has pledged 2,000 troops, to put words into action without haste.

Only about 100 African soldiers of a planned 5,800 African force have so far reached Mali, while La Belle France said Saturday that 2,000 French soldiers were now on the ground after Gay Paree launched an offensive a little over a week ago to stop Islamists swooping down from the north, which is under their control.

A statement at the end of the Abidjan meeting called on the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
"to immediately provide financial and logistical backing for the deployment of MISMA," the African force.
If MIASMA's gonna fight al-Qaeda to the death they need busfare.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  MIASMA - did they replace KAOS as Maxwell Smart's enemy?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:39 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Islamist Chief Killed in Revenge Attack in Mali's North
[An Nahar] Residents of the Islamist-held northern Mali town of Gao on Saturday killed a local jihadist leader to avenge the murder of a journalist, an official said.

Sema Maiga, a deputy of the town's mayor, said the Islamists beat local journalist Kader Toure to death after accusing him of "working for the enemy", adding that residents then "killed an Islamist chief called Alioune Toure".

Gao has for nearly nine months been under the control of Islamist faceless myrmidons from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad (MUJAO) who imposed a harsh form of Islamic law that included the amputation of the hands of thieves.

They had cut telecommunication links to the town to stop residents from passing information to advancing French and Malian troops.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Caribbean-Latin America
7 die in Sinaloa state including 5 bad guys

For a map click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of five armed suspects died in an armed confrontation with municipal police in Los Mochis municipality in Sinaloa state late Friday night, according to Mexican news reports.

A news report posted on the website of El Debate news daily early Saturday morning said that the gunfight began at about 2345 hrs on Friday and lasted until 0110 hrs Saturday morning.

The confrontation began in Valle Bonisto subdivision where local police were dispatched on reports of armed suspects in the area. When the police unit arrived they came under small arms fire from armed suspects who were hiding inside a residence. That sparked a nearly 90 minute long standoff which ended with five armed suspects dead and two police agents wounded.

The El Debate report said that police demanded surrender and were rebuffed. Police then used tear gas on the residence, and assaulted the position with gunfire.

The El Debate report also said that a top local drug dealer identified as Abraham Valencia Isabel Valdez AKA Patatos was among the dead. Another armed suspect killed in the gunfight was identified only as El Charro.

Among the armaments seized in the aftermath were three AK-47 rifles, three 9mm pistols and one AR-15 rifle.

Apparently an unidentified female was detained at the scene as well.

The article said that elements of the Mexican 89th Infantry battalion appeared at the location to provide additional security.

Earlier Friday another confrontation took place at around 2200 hrs according to a separate El Debate news report. Four armed suspects attacked two individuals in the Montecarlo subdivision, wounding one with a gunshot and the other with a stab wound in the chest.

The four suspects fled the area. A subsequent police search failed to turn up any suspects.

A news report posted on the website of Milenio news daily reported two other victims of drug or gang crime in Sinaloa state Friday.
  • In an industrial zone of Los Mochis a man identified as Alonso Acamoto Heredia, 23, was found shot once in the head.

  • Elsewhere in Sinaloa state, a man identified as José Genaro Lopez Flores, 41, was found shot to death in sindicatura San Blas in Las Flores subdivision of El Fuerte municipality.


Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemen gunmen blow up oil pipeline
Gunmen in southeast Yemen have blown up an oil pipeline that transports some 8,000 barrels per day to export terminals on the Gulf of Aden, suspending operations, a local official said on Saturday.

The unidentified assailants “planted an explosive device under the pipeline” overnight in the village of Rudum in Shabwa province, some 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the Nushaymah export terminal, the official said. The blast brought oil pumping to a halt, he added.

The pipeline is operated by the Korea National Oil Co (KNOC), and transfers crude from oilfields in the Iyadh region, also in Shabwa. It has been repeatedly attacked, as have other oil and gas installations in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation which relies on its modest energy exports as a main source of revenue.

Yemen lost more than $4 billion in revenues between February 2011 and July 2012 because of such attacks, Petroleum and Minerals Minister Hisham Abdullah said at the time.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Blast damages school in Badaber
[Dawn] Unknown attackers blew up a girls' primary school
In Pakistan, girls' schools are for blowing up.
in Badaber, a suburban area 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 on Saturday.

According to details, attackers had planted explosives near the main gate of the school situated in village Mashoo Khel and later detonated it with a remote control device.

Two rooms of the school were damaged completely and the blast also affected some other sections of the school building.

No loss of life has so far been reported. Police have started a probe into the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Arabia
Yemen Puts 21 'Qaida' Members on Trial
[An Nahar] A Yemeni tribunal specializing in terrorism began Saturday the trial of 21 suspected members of al-Qaeda, including three Jordanians and an Egyptian, accused of attacks against security forces.

The defendants, who appeared in four separate groups, one comprised of the Jordanians and Egyptian, have been charged with "belonging to a criminal gang linked to al-Qaeda to carry out attacks against the state police and the army," the indictment read at the hearing said.

The accused pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
and claimed their confessions were obtained "under duress and torture," an AFP correspondent reported.

The next hearing was set for January 26.

On Monday, nine Yemenis accused of complicity in a suicide kaboom that killed 86 soldiers in May 2012 and which was claimed by al-Qaeda had appeared in a similar court.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  The accused pleaded not guilty
Of course.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 15:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Suspected terrorists kill two in Tank
[Dawn] Three suspected snuffies on Saturday morning entered a house and rubbed out two persons in village Kot Azam, Tank district.

According to security forces, three suspects wearing FC uniforms entered the house of Ramzan and Rehman in Kot Azam village and shot both of them to death before fleeing the scene.

Security forces were in the area to investigate the facts behind the incident, and whether it was a personal enmity or a terrorist act.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Rape cases in Delhi jump 23 pc in 2012
Rape cases in New Delhi jumped 23 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, according to official figures, highlighting rising crime against women in the sprawling metropolis.

The numbers were released as the trial of five men was set to begin on Monday on accusations of murder, rape and kidnapping over the death last month of a 23-year-old gang-rape victim, whose assault sparked nationwide protests. The case against a sixth defendant, who says he is 17, is being heard separately by a juvenile court.

“The rate of conviction in rapes in Delhi is much higher than the national rate,” Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told reporters on Friday.

“(But) we are not taking solace in this. We need to do much more,” said Kumar, who has faced fierce public criticism for the perceived failure of his police force to check mounting crime against women.

For 2012, some 706 rape cases were registered — a 23.43 percent leap from the previous year, police said. Some 45 cases of rape and 75 cases of sexual molestation were reported to police in the two weeks after the brutal gang rape attack on the physiotherapy student on December 16, police said.

New Delhi, a city of 16 million people, has long been called the “rape capital of India”. It is known as the least safe major Indian city for women with more than twice as many rape cases registered in 2011 than commercial hub Mumbai.

Since last month’s gang-rape, protesters across India have demanded stronger punishment for crimes against women and better safety.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Morocco: Al-Qaeda-Affiliated Terrorist Cell Neutralized
[Ynet] Moroccan authorities announced they have neutralized an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist cell which enlisted youths to attacks nicknamed "jihad missions." According to the report, cell members operated in several cities in northern and central Morocco.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Schisms grow in Syria
[Dawn] A SCHISM is developing in northern Syria between jihadists and Free Syrian Army units, which threatens to pitch both groups against each other and open a new phase in the Syrian civil war.
Assad had only to wait.
Rebel commanders who fight under the Free Syrian Army banner say they have become increasingly angered by the behaviour of jihadist groups, especially the Al Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al Nusra, who they say aim to hijack the goals of the revolution.

The rising tensions are palpable in the countryside near Aleppo, which has become a stronghold for the well-armed and highly motivated jihadists, many of whom espouse the Bin Laden worldview and see Syria as a theatre in which to conduct a global jihad.

Syrian rebel groups, on the other hand, maintain that their goals are nationalistic and not aimed at imposing Islamic fundamentalism on society if and when the Assad regime falls.

Fighting between the well-armed jihadists and the regular units who accepted their help from late last summer would mark a dramatic escalation in the conflict that has claimed in excess of 60,000 lives. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
commanders in the north say such an outcome now appears unavoidable.

"We will fight them on day two after Assad falls," said one senior commander. "Until then we will no longer work with them."

In recent weeks, Liwa al-Tawheed and other militias who form part of the overall Free Syrian Army brand have started conducting their own operations without inviting Al Nusra to join them.

A raid on an infantry school north of Aleppo in mid-December was one such occasion, as are ongoing attacks against Battalion 80 on the outskirts of the city's international airport and a military base to the east, known as Querres.

"They are not happy with us," the rebel commander said. "But they had been hoarding all their weapons anyway."

Another significant issue for rebel leaders is what to do with state assets that have now fallen into the hands of the opposition.

"They see stealing things that used to belong to the government, like copper factories, or any factory, as no problem," said the rebel commander. "They are selling it to the Turks and using the money for themselves. This is wrong. This is money for the people."

Jabhat al Nusra does not eschew its links to Al Qaeda, or the fact that many of its members are veterans of the insurgency against US forces in Iraq, which morphed into a sectarian war between Sunni and Shia Mohammedans.

In interviews, the group's members say they have learned lessons from Iraq, which saw them battered to the point of strategic defeat by a combination of a sustained push by US and Iraqi forces and a rebellion by Sunni communities against Al Qaeda's pervasive and puritanical ways.

So far in Syria, Al Nusra has avoided targeting civilian facilities, or the country's minority communities. It has also started an outreach programme to communities ravaged by almost two years of war.

The aid work has won the group some support in the north of the country, while also earning the ire of rebel groups.--
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Afghanistan
Foggy Bottom not pessimistic about Afghanistan's future after U.S. forces withdrawal
They haven't the imagination for it, poor dears.
The U.S does not share a pessimistic view of Afghanistan's future after U.S. forces withdraw from there, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US Department of State Robert O. Blake, Jr. said at the media roundtable in Ashgabat.
That's why they're diplomats, you know...
According to one of the questions - most of the heads of state in Central Asia have a very pessimistic view of the region's future after U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

"No, we don't share that view," Blake said. "As you know, Afghan President Karzai just paid a very important visit to Washington last week. And, in his press conference with President Karzai, President Obama made several important points."
"What kind of 'important points', Mister Blake?"
"Very Important Points. Like choosing the right villa in the south of France. Or Hawaii."
First he made the point that most cities in Afghanistan and most Afghans are today more secure, and the insurgents continue to lose territory, he said.

"At the same time, the Afghan National Security Forces continue to grow stronger and now lead 80 percent of the security operations that are being conducted in Afghanistan," he said. "And, by February, they'll be in control of security in areas where 90 percent of the population lives."

"And I think importantly for Central Asians, the President announced that we will be announcing a responsible drawdown of our forces from Afghanistan that protects the gains that we and Afghanistan have made over the last several years," he said. "After 2014, U.S. security forces will be focused on continuing to train and assist Afghan forces, but also continuing the very important counterterrorism mission. The exact number of U.S. troops is the subject of negotiations that are now going on between the United States and Afghanistan."

"But a very important part of helping Afghanistan to ensure its own future will be to help ensure a proper economic transition, and again I want to thank Turkmenistan for the important role that it is playing to support regional integration efforts, and also to provide electricity to our friends in Afghanistan," he said. "As I said earlier, the TAPI project is one of the most important regional integration projects, because it will provide Turkmen gas for the growing Indian market, but it will also provide very substantial transit revenues for Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"Important progress has been made on the TAPI pipeline already by virtue of the gas sales purchase agreements and the road show that took place last September," he said. "The next step will be for a consortium to be formed and the details of that, of course, are still being worked out. I leave it to the government of Turkmenistan to provide any updates on that, because this will be their decision about who should form such a consortium and who should lead it. But this was an active topic of conversation today."
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Next to last para is the give-away. The poor bastid is stuck on "nation building". Those people have been getting by long, long before the first white man set foot on this shore. For foks sake leave them along and let them continue.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 4:32 Comments || Top||

#2  State can afford to be optimistic; aside from the career-enhancing moves of sucking up to former Soviet republics, they have had no 'skin in the game' in Afghanistan*.

* just as in Iraq.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#3  You mean the complete dissolvance of any official government and the potential civilian non-believer slaughter, with the eventual attempts on Karzai's life is optomistic?

Love that last line. The gas pipeline is very important for the economic health of all nations involved. Unless it is USA and Canada.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Two Soldiers Killed, Five Wounded in Nigerian Blast
[An Nahar] Two soldiers were killed and five others injured Saturday in an kaboom in Okene city in Nigeria's central Kogi state, an army front man said, adding that they were part of the contingent set to be deployed to Mali.

"We lost two soldiers while five others were maimed when the IED (improvised bomb) planted on their route went off and hit their convoy," Major General Bola Koleoso told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Koleoso said that the soldiers were among the troops being prepared for deployment in Mali as part of an African force to help the country retake its Islamist-controlled north.

"They are soldiers scheduled to go to Mali. We are preparing them ahead of their deployment to Mali," he said without giving further details.

He did not say if the attack, which he said was the handiwork of suspected Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Islamists, targeted specifically the troops being prepared for the Mali mission.

A contingent of 80 Nigerian troops departed for Mali on Thursday as part of the U.N.-mandated African force
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Britain
Rolling back PC in the classroom: UK history lessons
Children will be taught a sweeping chronology of world events ranging from the dinosaurs through to the fall of the Berlin Wall under plans to scrap politically-correct topics in history lessons, it has emerged.

A new curriculum in the subject is to be introduced by a team of academics and teachers in a move intended to give children aged five to 14 a clear narrative of the past, it was revealed.

The document -- published by the History Curriculum Association -- starts in the first year of primary school with the story of the dinosaurs, including how they lived, their extinction and fossils.
The challengers.
It moves on to Stone Age man, the Ancient Egyptians and the Romans before covering 2,000 years of British and world history through to the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union.

Other topics include the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the Crusades, the Tudors, the Civil Wars, the expansion of the British Empire and the World Wars.

The association is to send copies of its syllabus out to state academies and private schools, which are not forced to follow the National Curriculum, later this month.

Chris McGovern, the association's founder, said that the move represented a radical departure from the existing National Curriculum which sought to teach children through broad "themes" covering issues such as the role of women and social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.

He said the current curriculum -- published by Labour -- confused pupils by "jumping around in time" and underestimated the "capacity of young children to follow a narrative".

It was essential for any history curriculum to start with dinosaurs, he said, even though the topic is normally only covered in school science lessons.

"We should be starting off with what fascinates children -- dinosaurs and the world before there were people and a world that died out," he said.

"This introduces children to issues of sustainability at a young age besides capturing and using their very real enthusiasms. Ask five-year-olds if they would prefer to be taught concepts of chronology or dinosaurs."

The Department for Education is already rewriting the history curriculum as part of a major shake-up of subject specifications. It will publish its own primary and secondary school document later this term.
The powers that be.
A DfE spokesman said: "We will publish drafts of the national curriculum programmes of study shortly."
Don't let the gentility mislead you - in disputes like this the academic authorities play a nasty game. Let's hope the dinosaurs win out.
Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I believe it when I'll see it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 2:27 Comments || Top||


#3  Undoing labours shoddy pc workmanship. As a student the role of women was really boring and tedious, went through it for 5 months.
Posted by: Devilstoenail || 01/20/2013 7:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Children will be taught a sweeping chronology of world events ranging from the gay dinosaurs through to the fallof the Berlin Wall unfortunate demise of an icon famed for its stemming the tide of capitalist running dogs.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2013 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  ...was really boring and tedious..

Much of history was/is really boring and tedious. What is taught usually are the glimpses and sparks that alter the daily humdrum of existence. What has altered in Western society in the last hundred years has pretty much exceed change in the preceding two millenniums. Most of the population a hundred years ago lived in the rural environment with towns and villages who's pace of life and experience identified more with those who'd lived hundreds of years before them rather than today's metro/urban centric population. Until the advent of the railroads, most people were born, lived, and died within about a 20 mile radius. That was their world, their society, what they knew, and what they interacted with.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/20/2013 10:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Sustainability is code fore malthusian drivel.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/20/2013 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Most of the population a hundred years ago lived in the rural environment with towns and villages who's pace of life and experience identified more with those who'd lived hundreds of years before them rather than today's metro/urban centric population. Until the advent of the railroads, most people were born, lived, and died within about a 20 mile radius. That was their world, their society, what they knew, and what they interacted with.
Posted by Procopius2k


...and we appear to be returning to it under the current administration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Sounds to me like they're just replacing one form of PC with another.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/20/2013 11:51 Comments || Top||

#9  Not quite, Rambler. As I understand it, the historians want to actually center on facts and context within which facts occurred rather than feelings.
Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 16:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Wintour won't be ambassador to Britain
Another Woman For Obama slides under the bus now that she's no longer useful to him.
Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, has missed out on a chance to be Barack Obama's ambassador to London.

To the bemusement of many in her British homeland, Anna Wintour, the famously nasty haughty editor of the US fashion bible for upper Midtown, was being widely tipped as Barack Obama's next ambassador to London.

But as the president's second inauguration this weekend attracts to Washington an influx of celebrities who would normally be more at home in a fashion party than a political one, reports indicated that Miss Wintour is going to lose out on the most coveted US foreign service posting.

The president has instead decided to offer the ambassadorship to Matthew Barzun, who headed his formidable money machine as national finance chairman for the Obama re-election campaign, it emerged yesterday. Mr Barzun is a genial unfashionable 52-year-old from Kentucky who made his money from a Californian tech media website.
You both raised boatloads of money, but Barzun has connections to the big data analysis people from Silicon Valley who mined Facebook etc. to get Obama elected. He plans to use them next on the gun control issue. You? You just trashtalk and offer photo ops and he can have either any time he likes. You're yesterday's fashion, sweetie.
Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gosh. I was going to say, "good," but sounds like the Devil wearing Prada would have done less damage. Ah Well. Let it burn.
Posted by: RandomJD || 01/20/2013 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm not sure there's a point to commenting on this, whoever they were going to pick was going to be picked for maximum damage.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, then, maybe I can still make Ascot Opening Day. Unless I am cut cold. Which is what I expect.

Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 16:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran strengthened cyber capabilities after Stuxnet
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  getting a "webpage not found" when I use the link.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 01/20/2013 13:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Try this one.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  #1, Frozen Al; Res ipse loquitor. Their cyber capabilities are obviously strengthened, yes?
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 01/20/2013 18:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
The mess messiahs make
[Dawn] IF only our would-be messiahs arrived with less baggage, and were a little more credible. And would they please not parachute in to save Pakistain long after their sell-by date?

And yet, Paks are so impatient for change -- even for the worse -- that they grasp at any straw, hail any saviour who offers us a way out of the mess we perpetually place ourselves in. Over the years, messiahs have come in a variety of shapes; mostly they have worn khaki, but currently, we are blessed with a range of civilian options.

The latest one was, until recently, inhabiting a metal container with a bullet-proof glass side in the middle of Islamabad. From this bubble, he delivered threats, ultimatums and interminable speeches to an adoring crowd numbering anywhere from 20,000 to 'millions', depending on who you believe.

Luckily, this multitude was well-fed, even if it wasn't very warm and dry: according to one newspaper, the local caterers had received huge orders for cooked meals to feed the faithful. How they coped with other natural needs for several days does not bear thinking about.

There has been much speculation over Maulana Tahirul Qadri's source of funding: his TV advertising blitz, the logistics for his public rallies, and the cost of his 'long march' were clearly not cheap. Nobody has yet identified where all this money came from, and this mystery has fuelled many conspiracy theories.

Another puzzle is about exactly what he's peddling. On the one hand, he says he is all for democracy; but at the same time, he is using entirely undemocratic means, and advocating unconstitutional steps, to push his agenda.

If he's really so concerned with the situation, all he has to do is renounce his Canadian citizenship and run for the elections that are barely three months away. Come May, and his adoring millions will sweep him to power.

But that's the problem with all messiahs: they are in too much of a hurry to put in the hard grind needed to achieve power. Some use military muscle to get in, others turn to the street. And intriguingly, judicial authority is now being exercised to wield executive power.

One thing they all have in common is a deep distrust of the ballot box. Politicians have to work hard for votes, whatever their aims. For any political party to come to power anywhere in the world, its leaders have to make compromises and strike deals. Messiahs see things in black and white, and for them, political wheeling-dealing is anathema.

Of course, once they are in power, they barter away all principles for the sake of legitimacy and support. Witness the deals generals Zia and Musharraf both struck with the religious right.

Qadri's 'agreement' with the government is worth a lot less than the paper it's written on, but it did allow him to claim victory and declare his Islamabad farce over and done with.

And yet, despite our long and bitter experience of messiahs, we welcome them whenever a new one appears. Remember the enthusiasm civil society and the media showed for the restored chief justice five years ago? It was almost as though the Second Coming was upon us.

One dismissed and disqualified prime minister later, and with the possible arrest of another, some of Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry's supporters may be having second thoughts.

Those who had invested in shares will be feeling particularly aggrieved: in the wake of the recent Supreme Court directive for the prime minister's arrest, shares fell by 450 points in a single day, wiping billions of rupees off the stock market. Luckily there have been no calls for a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
inquiry into these huge losses....

For some time now, a number of state and non-state actors have seemed to be in a contest to show who can make Pakistain look most like a banana republic. What can the world make of a country that's locked in mortal combat with vicious groups of terrorists, and yet insists on remaining in a permanent state of political turmoil?

From one crisis to another is only a news cycle away. Just when it seemed that this government, corrupt and inept though it may be, was about to achieve the improbable by completing its five-year term, question marks have suddenly appeared.

One of Qadri's more inane demands related to the dismissal of the Election Commission of Pakistain. Considering that it is now headed by retired Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim -- Fakhru Bhai to his many friends and admirers -- this made even less sense than the rest of Qadri's wish list.

The head of the ECP is one of the most respected public figures in Pakistain, and his appointment was welcomed across the political spectrum. It is hard to think of a more upright and esteemed person for the job.

And this about sums up Qadri's grip on reality. Whatever his rhetoric, it is clear that he is the front man for shadowy agencies that have peered into our electoral future, and disliked all possible outcomes.

After the contentious Kerry-Lugar bill that sought to subordinate the army to the civilian government as well as the Memogate affair, the defence establishment has come to hate Zardari and the PPP.

Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
remains a threat, given his antipathy for GHQ following his arrest and exile under Musharraf. Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
has proved to be a punctured balloon. The PML-Q has very little support. And the MQM, despite its proven loyalty to the military, remains tied to its narrow urban base. Direct intervention is no longer an option.

So how to engineer a delay in elections with a long-term interim government under the army's thumb? Enter Qadri in his fish bowl after a slick media campaign to prepare the way. I am not a great one for conspiracy theories, but do believe in the old adage: "Follow the money".

Washington is the unlikely source for Qadri's funding for the simple reason that in case the democratic process in Pakistain is derailed, US laws would immediately block all military and civilian assistance. This would be a disaster for the Americans at a time they are disengaging from Afghanistan, and need all the influence they can muster in Islamabad.

One hopeful sign in this messianic mess is the strong signal sent out by Nawaz Sharif and other opposition parties in support of democracy. The other is the government's mature handling of the drama. Maybe there's hope for us yet.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Once again,

Yup Obama's going to leave a HELL OF A MESS, when he's out of office, Cleaning up the mess he's made will take about another 4 years.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm, wonder why it repeated, Mods please erase one.

Thanks
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 1:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Fixed, Redneck Jim. It happens to all of us, eventually.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 4:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
NIGERIA: Jaji Bomb Masterminds Arrested
[CODEWIT] 18 year old Ibrahim Mohammed Alilullah of Ilobu village in Ilobu LGA of Osun state and 50 year old yam hawker from Jalingo in Taraba state, Mohammed Ibrahim Idris, were on Friday paraded by the Department of State Security Service, SSS, as being part of the criminal masterminds of the kaboom at St. Andrews Protestants Military Church in Jaji, Kaduna state, Northern Nigeria, on the 27th of November, 2011.

The suspects who were tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
in Rafin Gusa, a suburb in Kaduna metropolis confessed to being members of the Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
sect. The teenager stated that he was indoctrinated into the dreaded sect by Late Bashir Madalla who trained him in the use of fire arms as well as production and priming of improvised bombs, IEDs.

The youngster told journalists at the SSS Headquarters in Abuja that he was introduced to the late sect leader by his Alfa, a muslim holy man who taught him and other children Islamic studies in Kaduna state.

According to him, the Alfa, whose name he gave as Raji gave his phone number to the late Boko Haram sect leader while he was visiting his parents at his home town of Ilobu, Osun state. The leader, he further stated, requested that he return to Kaduna that he had something for him to do. He complied and was picked up by the holy man and the late sect leader to the late sect leader's house in the state.

Alilullah also said that he only functioned as a courier to the sect before the Jaji kaboom. He said he used to pick up fertilizers and other equipment needed by the sect leader in bomb manufacturing. He also takes monies to some of the sect's suppliers for goods delivered to the group.

In the course of responding to questions from the newsmen, Alilullah admitted being part of the group that attacked St. Rita's Catholic Church, Badarawa, also in Kaduna state and St. Andrews Church in AFCSC, Jaji, Kaduna state.

On the Jaji attack, Alilullah, a junior secondary school drop out who spoke in fluent Yoruba language said that the late Bashir Madalla sent Late Mallam Lawal, one of the bombers who rammed one of the cars used in the operation into the church, to Damaturu, Yobe state to retrieve some military uniforms and weapons from a Boko Haram sect cell in Yobe.

He stated that Late Mallam Lawal personally wore the military uniform with the rank of Captain which afforded free access into the military formation in Jaji. Lawal it was who assumed leadership of the sect's unit following the death of Bashir Madalla.

On his part, the 50 year old father of four daughters, Idris, told newsmen that he was recruited by Mallam Lawal who used to be a yam hawker like himself, in Jalingo sometime in August, 2012. Lawal later relocated him to Kaduna state and secured a two bedroom apartment for them at Rafin Guza which served as the sect's safe house and operational base.

He said that one of the vehicles used in the Jaji attack, a Toyota Matrix, was primed by the youngster, Alilullah and the late Mallam Lawal in the apartment. He also said he was responsible for conducting surveillance on selected targets using the cover of a yam hawker.

The Deputy Director of the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, while appreciating the inestimable cooperation of Nigerians in the war against the perpetrators of terror, reassured the public of the collective resolve of security agencies to bring to an end the activities of unpatriotic elements and restore peace, security and harmony to the nation.

She also stated that some of the suspects apprehended alongside the duo are still being investigated, said paraded suspects would be handed over to the military whose facilities were attacked, for further investigations.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Economy
US Could Be Top Oil Producer This Year
by Walter Russel Meade
Because this will impact the financiers of jihad.
The U.S. could become the largest producer of oil this year, seven years earlier than expected, a recently published BP report predicts. In less than 20 years, it will be 99 percent self-sufficient in net energy. We've read the tea leaves, and they foretell a new world order...
Posted by: || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A leadership overhaul and we could be in a booming economy. Our problem is lack of leadership.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/20/2013 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Glenmore will enlighten us I hope, but this isn't about crude, we'll be importing that for awhile yet, this is about all the other weird shit you get from wells, refineries and industrial magic tricks.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 5:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The amount of crude we are getting from shale's is immense, so it's really not long before we could be completely self sufficient. The biggest problem is, we don't have the refinery capacity now for most of what we have. That's the true bottleneck right now and good luck trying to build any cause the EPA and greenies will demand their pounds of flesh.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/20/2013 6:23 Comments || Top||

#4  No worries. The Obafuhrer's EPA will keep the shale people and domestic prosperity in check. Perpetual crisis, problematic gloom, and fairness through gov't regulation are the lot of his subjects, not prosperity. As you may recall, he bows to the KSA; chin elevated to the zeks.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 7:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Its about time we did not rely on the saudis/wahhabis as they are our True enemies in the WOT.
Posted by: Glosh Smith8260 || 01/20/2013 9:22 Comments || Top||

#6  One way to become the largest producer is for KSA and Russia to reduce production, on purpose or by hostile actionc(s).
Don't look for self-sufficiency. And it's not (just) about refinery capacity. Mainly it's competition - our 'new' oil production is at the high cost per barrel margin, and can be replaced with lower marginal cost oil from other places as it becomes available (e.g. if pipeline capacity from Alberta tar sands explands, if foreign oil shale fracking projects ramp up, etc.) Also, can our development survive political opposition (to fracking, to Keystone, etc.)? And can we find enough qualified workers willing to work in North Dakota and/or South Texas?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Someone should explain to Mexico how much wealth would flow their way if they built a refinery someplace safe. Say halfway up Baha for example. Quick jaunt up to southern california.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/20/2013 10:03 Comments || Top||

#8  This is not likely unless the Saudis cut back a lot.

US production should make it to 6.2 M bar/day by the end of the year, maybe higher, but the Saudis are currently doing about 8 M bar/day
Posted by: lord garth || 01/20/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm all for fracking and shale production. But from what I've read here in Colorado, where are we going to get the required water?
Posted by: Sperong Untervehr5879 || 01/20/2013 12:10 Comments || Top||

#10  where are we going to get the required water?

Likely from recycling - it's already starting to happen.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  You will get the water from rain.

You will raise the price of water to accommodate the market for it.

High water, low yield stuff like growing corn will stop. High water, high yield stuff like oil will start.

Economics, it works if you let it.
Posted by: rammer || 01/20/2013 23:33 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria Crisis Ends in Bloodbath and France Confirms Troops Will Stay in Mali to 'Defeat Terrorism'
[An Nahar] A dramatic four-day hostage crisis at an Algerian gas plant ended in a bloodbath Saturday when Islamists executed all seven of their remaining foreign captives as troops stormed the desert complex.

Twenty-one hostages, including an unknown number of foreigners, died during the siege that began when the al-Qaeda-linked gunnies attacked the facility deep in the Sahara at dawn on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed, and special forces were able to free "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners," the ministry said.

The kidnappers led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former al-Qaeda commander in North Africa, killed two people on a bus, a Briton and an Algerian, before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the In Amenas complex.

Belmokhtar's "Signatories in Blood" group had been demanding an end to French military intervention against jihadists in neighboring Mali.

In Saturday's assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages," state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities.

A security official who spoke to AFP as army helicopters overflew the plant gave the same corpse counts, adding it was believed the foreigners were executed "in retaliation".

As experts began to clear the complex of bombs planted by the Islamists, residents of In Amenas breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"We went from a peaceful situation to a terror situation," said one resident who gave his name as Fouad.

"The plant could have went kaboom! and taken out the town," said another.

Brahim Zaghdaoui said he was not surprised by the Algerian army's ruthless final assault.

"It was predictable that it would end like that," he said.

Most of the hostages had been freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a rescue operation, which was widely condemned as hasty.

But French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
refused to lay the blame on Algeria.

The Algiers government's response was "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined bully boyz ready to kill their hostages," said Hollande.

Panetta added: "They are in the region, they understand the threat from terrorism... I think it's important that we continue to work with (Algiers) to develop a regional approach."

British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said the crisis had been "brought to an end by a further assault by Algerian forces, which has resulted in further loss of life".

"We're pressing the Algerians for details on the exact situation," he said.

The deaths were "appalling and unacceptable and we must be clear that it is the bully boyz who bear sole responsibility for it," he told a news conference with Panetta.

The hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, and the biggest by jihadists since hundreds were killed in a Moscow theater in 2002 and at a school in the Russian town of Beslan in 2004, according to monitoring group IntelCenter.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said five British nationals and a British resident are dead or unaccounted for.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said he had received "severe information" about 10 of his country's nationals who were still missing.

On Friday the gunnies, cited by Mauritania's ANI news agency, said they were still holding "seven foreign hostages" -- three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese and a Briton.

However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
Brussels said it had no indication any of its nationals were being held.

Algeria was strongly criticized for launching the initial assault, which the kidnappers said had left dead 34 of the hostages and 15 of their own fighters.

Belmokhtar also wanted to exchange American hostages for the blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and Pak Aafia Siddiqui
...American-educated Pak cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. In September 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in jug after a three-ring trial. Siddiqui, using the alias Fahrem or Feriel Shahin, was one of six alleged al-Qaeda members who bought $19 million worth of blood diamonds in Liberia immediately prior to 9-11-01. Since her incarceration Paks have taken her to their heart and periodically erupt into demonstrations, while the government tries to find somebody to swap for her...
, placed in durance vile
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in the United States on charges of terrorist links.

At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's assault.

But the State Department said "the United States does not negotiate with terrorists".

La Belle France, which said on Saturday that 2,000 of the 2,500 troops it had pledged were now on the ground in Mali, said that no more of its citizens were being held.

President Hollande said French troops would stay in Mali as long as is needed "to defeat terrorism" in the West African country and its neighbors.

Algerian news agency APS quoted a government official as saying the kidnappers, who claimed to have come from Niger, were armed with machineguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles.

This was confirmed by an Algerian driver, Iba El Haza, who said the hostage-takers spoke in different Arabic dialects and perhaps also in English.

"From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or (another) foreign language," Haza told AFP after escaping on Thursday.

"The bully boyz said: 'You have nothing to do with this, you are Algerians and Mohammedans. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners.'"
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  But the State Department said "the United States does not negotiate with terrorists"

Terrorists that have been duly elected to office, however, get White House visits.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2013 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  wanna bet Zero has the urge to lower flags to half-staff when Hoogo croaks?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  rough handling by the Algerians. Yes - it does convey as message of "No Compromise" to the terrorists. And ultimtaely by taking a very hard line Algeria may have fewer problems in the future. But it's far from clear that Algerian forces had the training or methods to handle a hostage situation with precision - sparing the lives of the hostages while taking out the terrorists.

BP will probably face civil lawsuits over the deaths. Questions remain about why these terrorists were able to penetrate the BP facility so easily. It definitely appears that the security precuations were lax .... which is unexplainable given the threat in the Sahara region.
Posted by: Raider || 01/20/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  It is a miracle, Hillary is able to talk again and she actually mentioned the word "terrorism!" Gasp! I thought I heard Zero mention this terrible "T" word that here-to-fore has not been mentioned during this administration.
Posted by: Glusosing Angolurt1779 || 01/20/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't know, kind of get the impression that the Algerians were not really approaching it as a hostage rescue mission. Sure did seem like the hostage exchange video was released as scheduled, not scheduled was such a quick counter-attack.

792 put at risk by a planned coordinated attack/take hostage mission and 32(?) lost. The baddies knew it was a one way road, what if they had pulled a Die Hard, asking for prisoner exchange while rigging the plant, ultimately to blow it and the hostages. Putting together powerpoints while the FBI negotiator flew into town a la Mersk Alabama would have been exactly their plan.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/20/2013 11:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Putting together powerpoints while the FBI negotiator flew into town a la Mersk Alabama would have been exactly their plan.
Posted by swksvolFF


Whahhaha, (actually not funny) but you certainly nailed it!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 11:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Now, when it's over---can we ask what youtube video caused this attack?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/20/2013 14:27 Comments || Top||

#8  I just found out there's a really bad video named Nuclear Rick Roll.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 16:23 Comments || Top||

#9  The Algerians get it. They get Americans, too. Inviting us in would have slowed things down and resulted in more deaths once the politicians started the obligatory handwringing and resulting waffling. Bravo for them. They did the job with what they had. I'll bet we don't see much of an encore from the bad guys there for a while. Unless the idiots at the UN create problems so they'll have more jobs for themselves in the future.
Posted by: gorb || 01/20/2013 19:32 Comments || Top||

#10  ditto gorb
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||

#11  What gorb said.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/20/2013 21:38 Comments || Top||

#12  a tragic accident for her....
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 22:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian pilot defects, bombs army positions
A Syrian pilot who defected used his jet to bomb government forces in an area outside Damascus, opposition activists said Saturday, dpa reported. The opposition Military Council in Damascus said "a (defector) pilot with his Soviet-made MiG warplane shelled military regime bases in Moadamiya district."

Damascus-based activist Haytham al-Abdallah told dpa the pilot was ordered to bomb civilians areas in the Ghotta region, east of Damascus, but he refused to obey orders.

Activists would not reveal the whereabouts of the pilot and his plane.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There may be a lesson in this for other leaders who might someday overstep their bounds and expect their military to continue to obey them.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  The Air Force is often the key instigator in your coupe de grasse, coupe de grasse, in tin-horn land.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  There may be a lesson in this for other leaders who might someday overstep their bounds and expect their military to continue to obey them.

You're always gonna get defectors, especially when you're 10% and the people you're relying on to get the job done are 60%. If he hasn't already purged his air force of Sunnis, it's time he did so. It's the one branch of the armed services where barrier troops cannot be used to keep the Sunnis in line.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/20/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
JTF Kill 3 Suspected Boko Haram Members, Arrest 1 In Kano
[LEADERSHIP.NG] The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano has killed three suspected members of the Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
in a shootout at Dorawa Quarters in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the State.

An eye witness, Muhammad Saminu, said he saw the JTF men mounting road and searching every car passing including passengers and their personal belongings apparently in search of the gunnies.

Another source said he saw some people who drove in a red Gulf car attacked men of the JTF and bravely ran away.

A policeman who pleaded anonymity said the JTF trailed the runaway gunnies and killed three of them and jugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
one.

The JTF could not be reached for confirmation, but the Police Public Relation Officer, ASP Magajin Musa Majia said the operation was carried out by the JTF.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Africa North
Algeria hostage crisis: Bloody climax to the battle for the desert gas plant
Islamist extremists "executed" seven hostages on Saturday before a final, bloody assault by the Algerian army ended a four-day siege in the desert.

Algeria's special forces stormed the gas complex, jointly run by BP and staffed by many British workers, after reports that the extremists had begun shooting foreigners they had kidnapped.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said five Britons and one UK resident, called Carlos Estrada, remained "unaccounted for" and the country had to "prepare for bad news". One Briton had already been confirmed dead on Wednesday.

In a series of further developments, it also emerged yesterday that:

  • a British worker was forced at gunpoint to persuade other Britons out from their hiding place, and was then executed himself;

    15 charred bodies were discovered by Algerian troops who stormed the complex;

  • terrorists tried to blow up the plant in a suicide attack before being killed by Algerian special forces;

  • booby trap mines were planted by the militants to try to prevent their capture;

  • American drones were drafted in as an international manhunt was stepped up for the fanatic behind the siege.

    The final assault on the gas processing complex began in the middle of yesterday morning, ending a hiatus of almost 48 hours after the first attempt by Algerian forces to overpower the terrorists.

    Security sources said the al-Qaeda militants' last stand had been in a factory or workshop area of the Tigantourine gas plant, which they had held since Wednesday.

    The group of about 40 men from the Masked Brigade, also known as Witnesses in Blood, had captured foreign workers in a residential area of the sprawling complex before being cornered in the main plant, about two miles away.
    I'm really starting to appreciate classical history, especially the way Rome dealt with this sort of crap.
    But even they had to teach the lesson again and again...
  • Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Before they begin the back slapping and sundowners, perhaps a review of the regional infrastructure security plan should be undertaken. Was there a security manager for this facility? Was there a security plan? What tools were available? Guard force? Many questions remain unanswered.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 01/20/2013 4:52 Comments || Top||

    #2  lotp, The 'Carthage delenda est' technique requires an opponent who has a place of value to be destroyed. Is there such a place in the Sahara/Sahel?
    Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:31 Comments || Top||

    #3  I haven't gotten to the point of mentioning Mecca, but I'm getting closer Glenmore. Riyadh would work as a proxy, I think.
    Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 16:29 Comments || Top||

    #4  The gas plant may have been the only real important place there, which is why AQ was attacking it.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 19:06 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Syria Decries War Crimes Petition
    [An Nahar] Syria's foreign ministry on Saturday decried a petition by 58 countries calling for a war crimes case against Damascus
    ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
    , in a letter to the president of the United Nations
    ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
    Security Council.

    "The Syrian government regrets the persistence of these countries in following the wrong approach and refusing to recognize the duty of the Syrian state to protect its people from terrorism imposed from abroad," it said.

    The ministry accused some signatories to the petition of funding, training and harboring "terrorists," a blanket term used to describe opposition forces trying to topple the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
    Horror of Homs...
    .
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


    India-Pakistan
    Two brothers among eight shot dead in Karachi
    [Dawn] Eight persons, including two brothers said to be sympathisers of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain
    ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts...
    , were rubbed out in different parts of the city in a matter of an hour on Friday evening, police said.

    They said that assailants riding a cycle of violence intercepted the two brothers -- Mohammad Akhlaq, 30, and Mohammad Irshad, 35 -- who were also on a cycle of violence, near Lasbela bridge in the Gulbahar area, fired at them and rode away.

    The victims suffered multiple bullet wounds and were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival, the police said.

    "According to initial information available to us, the two brothers belonged to the Deoband school of thought and were said to be sympathisers of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain," DIG-West Javed Odho said.

    The victims were shopkeepers and the police were not immediately sure about the motive for the killings.

    In another incident of drive-by shooting, two men belonging to the Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat were rubbed out on New M. A. Jinnah Road in front of the Islamia College.

    The police said that the two men were going somewhere on a motorbike when assailants, also riding a motorbike, targeted them and fled.

    Jamshed Quarters SP Usman Bajwa told Dawn that the victims were identified as Maulana Mohammad Ajmal, 44, and Kamal Shah, 25.

    The police shifted the bodies to the Civil Hospital 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...
    for medico-legal formalities.

    Body found

    The body of an unidentified young man was found in the old city area on Friday night.

    The police said that the trussed-up body was found in a narrow lane near Sobhraj Hospital. The victim had sustained a bullet wound in the head.

    Preedy DSP Zamir Abbasi said that the victim appeared to be in his mid-twenties.

    The body was moved to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi for a post-mortem examination.

    Couple found rubbed out

    A young girl and a man were found rubbed out in mysterious circumstances in a house in the Defence area on Friday evening, police said.

    They said that Waqasur Rehman had gone to the house of his relative Madiha in Defence Phase II Extension, where the shooting took place.

    The police said that the bodies were found in a position that suggested that the man rubbed out the girl and then did away with himself by firing a bullet to his head. But there was a strong possibility that someone else killed the couple and then tried to
    make it look like a suicide, they added.

    A brother of the dear departed girl, who was present in the house, was taken into custody for questioning, they said, adding that a pistol was also found from the scene of the crime.

    The police were investigating the incident. The girl and the man appeared to be in their early-twenties.

    Clash leaves one dead

    A young man was rubbed out in what was described as a clash between two groups in Mawachh Goth on Friday night.

    "A man by the name of Barkat has been killed in a fight between two groups of residents in Mawachh Goth," said the Keamari SP.

    "We are investigating the incident, but initial information suggested that it was a dispute between two Baloch groups in the area."
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan


    Revolutionaries left a lot to clear
    [Dawn] The "revolution" is over, its proponents have left but the filth they left behind was a great equaliser.

    The mess on Jinnah Avenue ensured that there was one road in Islamabad that was now as dirty as the rest of Pakistain. A civic agency worker said that "We have never seen such litter in our lives."

    "We removed over 100 tons of garbage," the front man for the civic agency told Dawn. A small crowd of CDA workers were busy removing the waste left on the avenue over four days. By 11am, they were visible everywhere, sweeping, picking up litter and tending to the poor trampled greenbelts.

    Three men cleaned up and hoed a cluster of cactus. "They even broke these," one of them said as he removed the crushed plant from the soil. There were little signs of the enthusiasm and the euphoria that was witnessed on Thursday night as people danced to celebrate the accord signing.

    Plastic bags of food, empty candy wrapped, cigarette and fruit juice cartons covered the road and the grass. The bags which had split open were providing a rice feast for the crows that were busy eating, impervious to the people passing by.

    Young Pukhtoon boys picked through the littler as well, unaware that their poverty had led to the four-day dharna and serious negotiations for their future welfare. Small trucks full of the waste drove away as cranes lifted the containers blocking Embassy Road from Jinnah Avenue.

    Shops -- some of them -- had put up their shutter, as the roads welcomed back their regular inhabitants. Shopkeepers, tradesmen and other who had stayed away for days were back, gazing indifferently at the operation clean up.

    Men were everywhere. Now that the middle class women eager for a change had left, Pak had reclaimed public space. No women were visible except for a television journalist and the few young women who had turned up with other youngsters to help clean up.

    A few groups of young students were helping clean up. Some of them wore ISF headbands while the other group walked on to the Avenue from Embassy Road, holding a banner announcing their intentions to clean up Islamabad.

    Both the groups were surrounded by television cameras and journalists, still hungry for the latest story of the morning after.

    In fact, the media was perhaps the only sign of a 'change' in society visible on the road -- even those who come to clean up afterwards are ready to provide a sound bite and a visual shot.

    "I want to see a clean Islamabad," maintained Abdul Ahad, a student of 10th grade, adding that "all of my friends decided to pick up the garbage once the marchers left.

    For Faryal Raza, a civil society activist, the road looked like a dumping site.

    "Litter is everywhere and an offal site around the corner was stinking," Ms Raza, 23, told Dawn. CDA worked quickly. By evening they had cleaned the place up.

    "There was massive garbage around my shop and thanks to the authority's quick action, the garbage was removed from the site," maintained Raja Tahir Abbasi, a shop owner at Blue Area.

    The front man maintained: "We are assessing the cost to the environment, especially the grass planted in the greenbelt, the plants and the grills along the Jinnah Avenue."

    The CDA officials took more than six hours to remove the garbage from the avenue. The verandas of a number of plazas along the boulevard were stinking because of the leftover.

    "At the entrance of my bank, the CDA is using a tractor to remove the garbage which is in tons," said Zeeshan Chaudhry, the operation manager of a multinational bank. "Nothing was damaged at our bank but a few flowerpots were broken. We have to carry out a cleanliness operation in the veranda of the building since it is stinking with the smell of rotten food," he added.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

    #1  Yup, Obama's going to leave a HELL OF A LOT ro clean up.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||

    #2  If he leaves...
    Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 10:00 Comments || Top||

    #3  Occupy Islamabad?
    Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

    #4  Occupy Islamabad

    Okay, you've described one of my hells.
    Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

    #5  Dare we fergit, FUTURE MAYOR OF SPRINGFIELD HOMER SIMPSON = " ... Can't someone else do it"!
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2013 20:46 Comments || Top||


    Good morning
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Birthday Gam Shot

    Joy Giovanni [Filmography](age 35)



    Intelligent Design


    Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/20/2013 2:36 Comments || Top||

    #2  Joyovanni indeed!
    Posted by: Whoth Henbane7090 || 01/20/2013 11:17 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    379 Egypt protesters pardoned
    An Egyptian criminal court has invoked a presidential amnesty and dismissed charges against 379 people accused of taking part in deadly clashes with police. The charges stem from nearly two weeks of street fighting on downtown Cairo’s Mohammed Mahmoud street in November 2011 that left 42 people dead.

    Young protesters, mostly die-hard soccer fans known as Ultras, led demonstrations against police near the Interior Ministry and Tahrir Square, the hub of Cairo’s activist movement. They were demanding a timetable for the military officers who were then ruling the country to hand over power and hold presidential elections, and denouncing violent security crackdowns on sit-ins.

    Judge Gamal Eddin Rushdi said Saturday that his decision was based on the pardon issued by President Mohammed Morsi.
    Bet he's out of a job by tomorrow...
    Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


    Hollande: Algeria Faced 'Coldly Determined Terrorists'
    [An Nahar] French President Francois Hollande
    ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
    Saturday came out in support of Algeria's deadly military strike against Islamist hostage-takers at a desert gas plant, saying the action was appropriate in the face of "coldly determined terrorists".

    Other nations have criticized the hasty military backlash that left several expatriate workers dead, with Britannia, Japan and Norway insisting they should have been forewarned of an army raid Thursday.

    La Belle France has refrained from criticizing the military action that claimed one of its countrymen among the fallen in the former French colony.

    "When there is a hostage-taking with so many people involved and such coldly determined terrorists, ready to kill their hostages -- which they did -- a country such as Algeria has had... the most appropriate responses because there could be no negotiations," Hollande told news hounds in Tulle, south-central La Belle France.

    The captors, calling themselves "Signatories in Blood", killed the last seven of their foreign hostages on Saturday before being bumped off at the remote gas plant, state media said, ending one of the bloodiest international hostage crises in years.

    Most of the hostages, including 573 Algerians and about 100 foreigners, had been freed when Algerian forces launched a rescue operation on Thursday, but some 30 remained unaccounted for.

    A preliminary government toll Saturday said 23 captives and 32 kidnappers were killed in the four-day hostage drama.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


    India-Pakistan
    PTI, Qadri have same objectives, different approach: Imran
    [Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
    ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
    (PTI) chief Imran Khan
    ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
    said on Saturday that he agreed with the points raised by Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri, however, the PTI does not believe in the approach chosen by the TMQ chief to achieve those objectives.

    Speaking at a presser in Islamabad, Khan said that his party has been raising the same points that Qadri raised for the past five years. However,
    facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
    the PTI believes in addressing those issues through democratic means.

    Khan further said that according to Qadri's demands, assemblies would have been dissolved through an unconstitutional way, which would have resulted in rewarding the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) with "political martyrdom".

    Reiterating his stance, the PTI chief called on the resignation of President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
    ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
    , claiming again that free and fair polls can not be held with Zardari as the president. Khan also criticised Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) chief's stance on the resignation of President Zardari.

    Moreover, Khan claimed that 90 per cent of the Pak public wanted change, which could only be made possible through transparent and independent elections.

    Rejecting any possibility of boycotting the upcoming polls, Khan reassured that the PTI would fully participate in the general election. Khan said the upcoming polls would be 'historic', and a means of achieving a 'revolution' in Pakistain.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


    Britain
    David Cameron to pledge 'in/out' EU referendum within days
    David Cameron will make a firm commitment this week to hold a referendum on Britain's future relationship with the European Union - including the option of leaving it.
    I'll believe it when it happens AND the votes are counted - and count.
    The Prime Minister will within days make the historic pledge of a national vote after the next general election in his postponed speech, which senior sources said last night they believe will satisfy most Eurosceptic Conservatives.

    However, he will not promise to pave the way for the referendum by introducing legislation in the current Parliament - something which will disappoint harder-line Eurosceptics.
    There it is - there's the window he/they'll climb out of.
    Is he thus threatening to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections? The Tories aren't that strong...
    Senior Government figures are understood to see such a move as a potential coalition-breaker - with the Liberal Democrats likely to vote with Labour in the Commons to block it.

    Mr Cameron is now expected to make the long-anticipated speech in Britain. He was due to deliver it last Friday in Amsterdam but was forced to postpone it because of the hostage crisis in Algeria.

    In extracts of the address already released in advance, the Prime Minister warns of the a growing "gap between" The EU's institutions and its citizens. He says there is: "a lack of democratic accountability and consent that is -- yes -- felt particularly acutely in Britain."
    Posted by: lotp || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  As well as its working now, why would any sane Brit vote to join that money sucking organization? If they do vote to join, do they then automatically assume their share of the EU debt?
    Posted by: USN,ret || 01/20/2013 8:42 Comments || Top||

    #2  They are already members, USN, ret, though not of the euro. The question before the voters is whether to withdraw.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2013 16:21 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Nawaz calls for correct use of ballot for positive change
    [Dawn] Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif
    ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
    has urged the nation to exercise their right of vote carefully and correctly in the upcoming general elections for bringing a positive change in the country.

    He expressed these views while addressing a public gathering organised by Sindh United Party (SUP) at Hala Bypass, district Matiari on Saturday.

    Sharif said that reforms could be brought about and the system can be transformed if the voters would elect sincere, dedicated and honest representatives so that corrupt practices in all fields could be rooted out.

    "If the people don't realise this, anyone can deceive them by staging a drama," he said.

    He was of the view that if the government had run country's affairs in consultation with the opposition, the scenario could have been entirely different.

    People are aware that who are involved in creating law and order situation 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...
    , he said.

    The PML-N chief, while reminding about his regular visits to different parts of Sindh during floods, said that he will not leave people of the province alone.

    He was critical of provincial health department' performance saying that 550 children have bit the dust due to measles outbreak.

    While claiming credit for the restoration of judiciary, he said that it is the apex court which is initiating suo moto actions against corruption, law and order, extortions and unconstitutional acts.

    "We saved the judiciary as the country will be further strengthened with presence of strong institutions," he claimed.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

    #1  "correctly" = "as I say",

    of course
    Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||


    Poverty alleviation not possible without job creation
    [Dawn] Institutional shortcomings, fiscal constraints and defective training contents are responsible for an ineffective technical and vocational education and training system in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
    ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
    , making the province to continue with a growing unskilled workforce.

    The Skills Development Plan (SDP), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, describes 'social versus economic demands, training contents, linkage of institutional training programmes with employment market, under utilisation of existing facilities, inflexibility/lack of autonomy, informal sector training, apprenticeship training, effect of globalisation and public sector allocations' as constraints and issues facing the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in the province.

    Setting a roadmap for the province to reduce its unemployment rate and overcome the skilled labour shortages faced by the public and private sector organizations by improving vocation and technical training in the province, the plan was put in place, in October 2012, with the assistance of GIZ, a German development organization, and other development partners of the provincial government.

    It was prepared for the provincial ministry for technical education, where, according to a relevant source, it remains unattended, accumulating dust because of official negligence.

    SDP asks for involving employers in designing training package, terming it vital to achieve the objective of quality control, relevance, standardisation and making training programme cost effective. Similarly, it emphasises the need for practicing public-private partnership as a pragmatic solution to make training programmes more meaningful and effective.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

    #1  Poverty is eliminated by making everyone equal, so there is no 'bottom xx%.' If nobody has a job there is no poverty.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

    #2  If nobody has a job there is no poverty. Alas, that seems to be the groupthink prevalent today.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 01/20/2013 16:41 Comments || Top||

    #3  Becuz under "Globalism" + OWG + OWG NAU, our mighty Mexican + Canadian + Greenlander, etc, NAU Brothers-n-Sisters will absolutely, unconditionally, undeniably, + unilaterally pay out mucho mucho $$$ to pay OWG-NAU Amerika's bills + to maintain its normal quality-of-life - SNIFF, SNIFF, JUST LIKE [not] DURING THE COLD WAR = DAYS OF WILY DASTARDLY "NATIONALISM" + "STATE SOVEREIGNTY"!

    ["STARSHIP TROOPERS" TEACHER MICHAEL IRONSIDE = teacing his class about the "MISTAKES OF CAPITALISM" ... or twas it the MISTAKES OF DEMOCRACY???].

    Just thing how great things will be once we once again ignore the Electorate = "the People" + that silly archaic Constitution, + set up EXTRA/POST-NAU HIGHER LEVELS OF [interim]OWG GOVERNANCE, i.e. TRAN-CONTINENTAL + TRANS-ATLANTIC + TRANS-ASIAN, .... ... @ETC.
    "UNION(S)"???

    [WAYNE'S WORLD "THUMBS UP" here].
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2013 21:02 Comments || Top||


    Southeast Asia
    Vietnam and Cambodia hit back at landmark Laos dam
    Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I'm looking for the original link, but I can't find it.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 10:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  Maybe this: link.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 10:32 Comments || Top||

    #3  I don't get it, that's cut-and-pasted from the address bar...
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 10:32 Comments || Top||

    #4  Here is a Reuters link.
    Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 01/20/2013 10:40 Comments || Top||

    #5  Thanks.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/20/2013 18:44 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    IMF rules out restructuring of Pakistan’s loan
    ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ruled out restructuring of the existing loan to Pakistan but indicated it might consider any such request by the interim government to be set up prior to elections.

    “The IMF rules do not allow restructuring of loan or postponement of repayment obligations,” IMF’s Pakistan representative Jeffrey R. Franks told a select group of journalists here.
    The IMF will instead paper over the problem with new loans. That generates new fees for the banks which they like and keeps the books all nice and tidy...
    He said the IMF estimates current year’s fiscal deficit at 7.5 per cent and external financing needs of ‘billions of dollars’.
    They're almost, not quite, in the same situation as Egypt, in that they can't feed themselves completely and don't have a lot of ways to generate revenue.
    Frank added that the fund has linked the future funding for Pakistan to “broadest and deepest” political support for upfront economic reforms and policy changes to prove the government’s seriousness.

    At the conclusion of negotiations with Pakistan, the IMF adviser for Middle East and Central Asia and IMF mission chief to Pakistan said Pakistan had not formally requested yet for a new programme, but if it requested, the disbursements would follow prior policy actions for macroeconomic stabilisation.

    This seemed to be a major departure from previous fund programmes under which successive governments used to get upfront disbursements for budgetary support before undertaking implementation of programme conditionalities, leading in most of the cases to premature termination of IMF programmes in the event of failures.

    “Current policies need to be adjusted upfront to qualify for a new programme,” he said, adding that the IMF mission could support a new programme before its management and the executive board when right policies were there to prove that authorities had taken steps for macroeconomic stabilisation.

    To achieve this, he added, Pakistan needed to take a combination of steps in the power sector and fair enforcement of taxation measures to bring down fiscal deficit to three or 3.5 per cent of GDP in two-three years.

    A set of policies that could help the economy achieve that goal needed to be agreed upon, he said.

    Inflation should also be seen to come down on a sustainable basis and reserves rise up to $15 billion. This would require a lot of macroeconomic adjustments through removal of bottlenecks. “These bottlenecks include correcting energy sector, followed by restructuring of public sector entities, improving business climate, better bureaucracy and improved and simple tax system,” he said.

    He argued that a major chunk of the economy was outside the tax net.
    And has been for 4,000 years...
    Some of the areas he mentioned for bringing into fair and transparent tax system included agriculture, services, retail business and withdrawal of exemptions allowed by different SROs and other legal or illegal instruments.
    Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Caribbean-Latin America
    20 die in extreme cold in Chihuahua state

    For a map click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here

    By Chris Covert
    Rantburg.com

    A total of 20 individuals have been killed in cold temperatures in Chihuahua state according to Mexican news accounts.

    A report posted on the website of El Economista reported that most of the dead have been in the state capital, Chihuahua city with a total of eight dead.

    Ciudad Juarez has reported six dead, while two each have been killed in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Delicias and Guachochi municipalities. Two of the dead in Chihuahua city were actually a married couple killed by poisoning from misuse of a heater.

    According to a news report posted on the website of El Imparcial news daily, in Sonora state rreports are of below freezing temperatures in eastern and southern sectors of the state. Yecora in the eastern mountain region reported three degrees Centigrade while Nacozari in the north also reported three degrees.

    In the northern states of Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi states, deeper into the interior of the country, upper elevations are expecting snow or sleet, and rain or mist in the lower areas.

    Elsewhere, according to a separate article posted on the website of El Economista, temperatures are expected to drop to below five degrees Centigrade in all six northern border states. In the gulf state, coastal areas are affected by high winds with gusts up to 80 kph. Along the Baja California Pacific coast and near the Yucatan peninsula in the extreme south winds are gusting up to 60 kph.

    Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com.
    Posted by: badanov || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Just how cold was it, all the way down to 80?
    Doesn't say.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 1:17 Comments || Top||

    #2  The El Economista story did not mention temperatures in Chihuahua state, but the story in El Imparcial did, the data of which I included because it had data about the eastern sections of the state. The El Imparcial story did report how coastal areas around he Gulf of California were enjoying high temps in the lower 90, albeit with high winds. The other El Economista story did mention general temps, which I included. One reading from an area in Chihuahua had the low reading of -18 C, which failed to make it in the story (Thought I included it, sorry)

    None of the two Chihuahua state Organizacion Editorial Mexicano (OEM) newspapers, El Mexicano nor El Heraldo de Chihuahua had a story about temps. I use OEM because they have a pretty good archives for me to check.

    I hope this explains everything.
    Posted by: badanov || 01/20/2013 8:37 Comments || Top||

    #3  Today - 80 and Santa Anas in San Diego. Last week down in the 20's overnight. Is AlGore around?
    Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 8:45 Comments || Top||

    #4  Maybe global climate changes comes more slowly to less-developed countries?
    Posted by: Bobby || 01/20/2013 8:54 Comments || Top||

    #5  Tucson had lows in the upper teens/lower twenties, and highs in the lower to mid forties for several days before it warmed up again around Tuesday. And yes, I know that for most of the country this would be standard to balmy, but for us natives it was frickin' freezing.
    Posted by: PBMcL || 01/20/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

    #6  I recall the Newfondlanders were having a "Heat Wave"(1954) And people were falling out from Heatstroke, sounds bad, right.

    The truth is, that the temperatue wednt to 70 and People were falling out with Heatstroke "BRCAUSE THEY WOULDN'T SHED THEIR LONG HANDLED UNDIES (Long Johns") so it was entirely self inflicted.

    Hence my Comment about "What? did it ge to 80".
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/20/2013 14:53 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    Yemeni Court Jails 3 Somali Pirates
    [An Nahar] A court in southeast Yemen on Saturday jugged
    Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
    three Somali pirates for 10 years each after convicting them of hijacking boats in the Gulf of Aden, Saba state news agency said.
    ... and if you can't believe the state news agency who can you believe?
    The defendants went on trial in 2011 after being charged with hijacking a Yemeni fishing boat and a foreign yacht with the aim of using the Yemeni vessel to carry out piracy attacks, Saba said.

    The judge also ordered the defendants to pay the owner of the boat 750,000 rials ($3,492) in compensation for the amount he fished on the day of the attack and for the 15 days they held him captive, Saba said.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


    Afghanistan
    Suicide Bombers Die in Botched Attack in Afghanistan
    [An Nahar] A jacket wallah and his accomplice were killed Saturday when their device went off in a botched attack on a district government headquarters in western Afghanistan, officials said.

    The two attackers were riding a cycle of violence when they were blown up, but there were no other fatalities in the attack on Guzara district headquarters in Herat
    ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
    province, the district governor Nesar Ahmad Popal told AFP.

    "It killed no one but the attacker and the helper," he said.

    Provincial police front man Abdul Raouf Ahmadi confirmed the details.

    No group has yet claimed the responsibility for the incident but suicide kabooms are among the tactics used by Taliban bully boys, who are leading an eleven years insurgency against the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
    ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
    The bombing came days after the Talibs stormed the Afghan spy HQ in Kabul, leaving one dead and 17 others -- mostly civilians -- maimed.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    India-Pakistan
    Peshawar roads blocked to bar processions
    [Dawn] Traffic on several busy roads of the lovely provincial capital, including Torkham Highway, remained suspended throughout Friday as police placed containers on them to block processions against 18 Bara killings ahead of the Governor's House.

    Long queues of vehicles, including containers, were witnessed on these roads, including Torkham Highway, which connects 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.
    to Afghanistan via Khyber Agency.

    Several other arteries were clogged with traffic as the alternate routes could not cope with the large number of vehicles, As a result, the situation turned chaotic.

    The road blockade disrupted the daily routine of the people, especially women and kiddies, who had to cover long distances to reach their destinations.

    Students, especially girls, were the major sufferers as due to closure of roads there was no public transport on the roads.

    "I have walked for almost four kilometres to reach my office as public transport vehicles were there on my route," said Hazrat Khan, working in a private office in Peshawar cantonment area.

    The decision to block these roads was taken in the wake of announcements made by different organizations, including Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
    ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
    -Fazl and Jamaat-e-Islami
    ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
    to hold demonstrations.

    As containers were placed on the main Torkham Highway near Karkhano Market adjoining to Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency, no vehicle could cross over to the tribal area and subsequently to Afghanistan.

    A police official said there were reports that protesters would enter from tribal areas to Peshawar and therefore, police had to block the roads, Peshawar roads blocked to bar processions
    including Torkham Highway.

    He added that police were tasked with stopping tribal area processions from reaching the Governor's House.

    The containers were also placed at Rehman Baba Chowk, Soekarno Square and FC Chowk, all leading to the Governor's House on Sher Shah Suri Road.

    Two days ago, the enraged rustics had brought bodies of 15 of the 18 slain persons from Bara to Peshawar before staging a sit-in for several hours near the Governor's House.

    Police had dispersed them after Wednesday midnight by using teargas, batons and water canon.

    Local residents have been facing problems for three days due to closure of Sher Shah Suri Road, one of the city's busiest roads.

    In absence of proper mechanism for public information, motorists were mostly unaware of the closure of roads and thus, leading to traffic jams.
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


    Africa Subsaharan
    Nigeria captures top Boko Haram figure
    [CANANUSA.ORG] Nigeria's military says it's questioning a leader of Boko Haram
    ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
    , the Islamic myrmidon group blamed for the killings of hundreds of civilians, after capturing him in the country's northeast early Sunday.

    Nigerian troops captured Mohammed Zangina shortly after midnight in the city of Maiduguri, said Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, a military front man. Zangina is a member of the Shura Committee, the movement's governing body, and has coordinated "most of the most of the suicide kabooms and bombings" in several cities, including the capital Abuja, Musa said.

    Nigeria launched a military crackdown on Boko Haram on New Year's Day. Human Rights Watch
    ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
    says the group -- whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" -- has killed more than 2,800 people in an escalating campaign to impose strict Islamic law on largely Moslem northern Nigeria.

    In the past, the group attacked other Moslems it felt were on an immoral path. But it has increasingly targeted Christians with numerous attacks on churches, as well as striking cop shoppes.
    This article starring:
    Mohammed ZanginaBoko Haram
    Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

    #1  "pliars, blowtorch and #7 truncheon, puhleez"
    Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2013 7:23 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
    33[untagged]
    7Govt of Pakistan
    4Boko Haram
    4al-Qaeda in North Africa
    3Govt of Syria
    2TTP
    1al-Nusra
    1al-Qaeda in Arabia
    1Jamaat-e-Islami
    1Pirates
    1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
    1Taliban
    1al-Qaeda

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    A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

    Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

    Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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    Meet the Mods
    In no particular order...
    Steve White
    Seafarious
    tu3031
    badanov
    sherry
    ryuge
    GolfBravoUSMC
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    trailing wife
    Gloria
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Sun 2013-01-20
      Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
    Sat 2013-01-19
      Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
    Fri 2013-01-18
      1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister
    Thu 2013-01-17
      41 snatched by AQIM in Algeria gas plant attack
    Wed 2013-01-16
      France deploys armoured vehicles towards northern Mali
    Tue 2013-01-15
      Pakistan paralysed after court demands PM arrest
    Mon 2013-01-14
      Famed Tunisia Mausoleum Torched by Salafists
    Sun 2013-01-13
      19 Killed in Failed French Raid to Free Somalia Hostage
    Sat 2013-01-12
      French commandos attack al-Shabab base, explosions, gunfire heard
    Fri 2013-01-11
      France confirms Mali intervention
    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

    Better than the average link...



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