Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed
#3
A long time ago, I suggested that Israel might have best results by smuggling in some container to the Iranian underground facilities, that would soundlessly blow a liter of some hyper-lethal contaminant around.
A lot of cargo goes into and out of those facilities every day, and it is unlikely they have top notch security.
#4
There is a precedent for this. In the early 60s, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser hired some German rocketeers and set them to work developing ballistic missiles that could threaten Israel. The techno-mercenaries were mostly third stringers but they allegedly included the great Eugen Sänger, who denied his involvement. The program was cancelled suddenly in 1963. The given reason is usually that the Soviets had agreed to supply Frog and Scud rockets to Egypt but this did not happen until several years later.
There have been many rumors over the years that the real reason was a covert campaign of sabotage and harassment by the Israelis. It is alleged that the project's German employees and suppliers kept finding their lives difficult for various reasons, and even impossible in a few cases.
According to Saudi Arabias Oil Minister Ali Naimi, renewable energy sources are not fully equipped to meet the worlds energy demands and that governments should avoid making huge investments in developing clean energy systems.
At a conference in Houston, Mr. Naimi argued that recent injection of billions of dollars by governments to develop renewable energy systems could lead to the collapse of the oil industry. He said that such steps would drive away investors which would hurt the oil producing nations as demand and prices of oil products has been falling sharply. His remarks were clearly aimed at the Obama administration which is reversing President Bushs policies by openly encouraging massive investments in the renewable energy sector.
United States has been a close friend and seeing President Obama acting on his promise of energy independence seemed to have alarmed the Saudis. Bills approving of oil exploration along the US coasts, massive subsidies for renewable energy projects and Obama administrations intent to reduce carbon emissions means a medium to long-term decline in oil imports and which have left the Saudis (and OPEC) concerned.
Addressing concerns about the rapid growth in renewable energy investment around the world, the minister said:
We must be mindful that efforts to rapidly promote alternatives could have a chilling effect on investment in the oil sector. A nightmare scenario would be created if alternative energy supplies fail to meet overly optimistic expectations, while traditional energy suppliers scale back investment.
#3
Let's just throw in SCOTUS Justice Kennedy's extension of due process and habeas corpus and POW status to illegal combatants who refuse to comply with the Geneva Convention thus creating environments in which civilian are intentionally used as cover and concealment in direct contravention of the intent of the law.
Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.
She told a convention of American Jewish leaders, "we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel," using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today's Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, repeating her well-known view that pulling out of Palestinian areas would be for the good of Israel, to maintain it as a Jewish state.
Livni told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations that Israel must take the initiative and come forward with its own peace plan to head off international programs. "Any plan put on the table will not be in our interest," she said.
Livni's centrist Kadima Party won one more seat than the hawkish Likud, led by Netanyahu. He opposes large-scale territorial concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians. He believes negotiations should concentrate instead on building up the Palestinian economy.
They're both wrong. One starts by changing the Palestinian souls. Until they renounce violence and commit to peaceful co-existence there is nothing else to talk about.
Netanyahu and Livni, the current foreign minister, both claimed victory in last week's election. Each hopes to be picked by President Shimon Peres to form the next government. Netanyahu appears to have the edge, because a majority of members in the new parliament favor his views.
In his address before the gathering, Netanyahu ruled out unilateral pullbacks from territory, criticizing Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, charging that it allowed the Islamic militant Hamas to take over there.
Correct. Lots of blame to go around, a lot to Iran and Hamas, but it must be clear that a similar withdrawal from all or part of the West Bank would lead to the same result. Hamas is the only Paleo faction that is organized. The PLO is a toothless, mangy beast that is so corrupt that it will never again have any popular support.
He said he, too, does not want to govern Palestinians, but Israel must maintain control of all borders, airspace and electronic traffic, indicating that his offer to the Palestinians would be considerably less than a sovereign state. "Regardless how the solution is achieved, the Palestinians should run their lives," he said. "They should govern themselves, but they shouldn't have certain powers that would threaten the state of Israel."
Official results of Israel's election are scheduled to be published Wednesday, and then Peres will begin formal consultations with the 12 parties in the new parliament. He is expected to choose a premier-designate within a few days, starting a period of up to six weeks for coalition negotiations.
In an interview broadcast Monday evening on Channel 2 TV, Livni invited Netanyahu to serve in a government she would lead. "I am appealing here to Benjamin Netanyahu to join forces with me in a unity government with a policy that represents the center of the political map," she said.
Netanyahu, who assumes he will be the next prime minister, has made a similar call to Livni, who rejected it.
#2
the Israeli Arabs seem to hate the Juice, but will go to their "ancestral brethren" kicking and screaming. Disloyal spiteful fifth column assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 18:57
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#3
Actually, as long as the Israeli Arabs are Muslim, it seems to be a good deal. Israel has no major issues with its Arab Druze or Christians, so they would be smart to keep them.
#5
Shieldwolf - good point, and I was overly generalizing, for which I acknowledge I was wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 19:58
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#6
They're both wrong. One starts by changing the Palestinian souls. Until they renounce violence and commit to peaceful co-existence there is nothing else to talk about.
The US-led forces in Afghanistan say they have killed a wanted Taleban commander in the country's west.
Mullah Dastagir was killed along with other militants in an air strike in Badghis province, the US army said. Dastagir was responsible for a surge in violence in Badghis in recent months, including an attack which killed 13 Afghan soldiers in November, it said. The commander was recently released from jail after elders pledged he would not return to violence, officials said.
And now he won't.
Forces targeted a rebel compound overnight in a "precision strike" in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab in Badghis, a troubled region on the Turkmenistan border, the US military said in a statement.
Provincial police chief, Sayed Ahmad Sameh, confirmed the incident. "Mullah Dastagir and Mullah Baz Mohammad, two big Taleban commanders and eight of their men were killed in the air strike by the coalition forces," news agency AFP quoted him as saying. The pair were top Taleban leaders in the province, he said.
The Afghan defence ministry said there may have been as many as 12 deaths in the incident.
Not to mention the fluffy ducks ...
Baghdis Governor Ashraf Nasery said Dastagir had been captured but was freed in late 2008 after a petition by elders that he would not return to violence. "The government trusted the guarantee of the villagers, Mr Nasery told Associated Press. "Unfortunately, as soon as he was released he rejoined the Taleban."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 15:59
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#2
Baghdis Governor Ashraf Nasery said Dastagir had been captured but was freed in late 2008 after a petition by elders that he would not return to violence.
Sounds like that had about as much effect as Muzzammil Hassan's restraining order.
Former Lebanese MP Ghassan Matar: I Am Ashamed to Admit I Am Happy When U.S. Soldiers Are Killed; Juices Believe They Should Purify the World, as Written in 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'
Following are excerpts from interviews with former Lebanese MP and poet Ghassan Matar, which aired on NBN TV and Teleliban TV on January 19 and 23, 2009.
Teleliban TV, January 23, 2009:
Teleliban TV, January 23, 2009: "We Have the Right to Exact Revenge from the American People Even If This People is Innocent"
Ghassan Matar: "I am ashamed to say this, but I see our own children being killed every day by American weapons and by means of U.S. support of Israel. When I read: 'Today, the number of [U.S.] casualties in Iraq has climbed...' Excuse me for saying this. I'm really ashamed to say this, but I want to be honest. It is no longer just an issue with the U.S. administration. We are not ready to accept even the American people. The administration of the Americans has afflicted so many tragedies and wounds upon us, and has spilled so much blood, that we have begun to feel that we have the Right to exact revenge from the American people, even if this people is innocent and has nothing to do with its leadership's deeds."[...]
NBN TV, January 19, 2009: Juices' "Belief Is Based Upon Killing... The Culture of Killing in the Zionist Sense is Part of Their Genes"
Ghassan Matar: "Some people try to draw a distinction between Zionists and Juices, but as far as I am concerned, there is no distinction." Refreshing honesty, nice change of pace from the tired false dichotomy.
Interviewer: "They are all the same?"
Ghassan Matar: "Zionism is the daughter of that belief. Of course, some people say that the Torah of the Juices was forged. Well, every Holy book of every religion (starting with Christianity) is forged, according to the muslims, only the Koran is legit and unaltered.
When the Juices themselves admit that this Torah is forged... But at the moment, this is their book, and we should read what's in it. What commandments were given to this people throughout history? They are all about killing. Whoever is not a Juice is considered to be one of the gentiles. In other words, he is not a human, and it is permissible to kill him. Shouldn't he be refering to the talmud instead?
"This culture is born with the child. He suckles it with his mother's milk. When he grows their schools, their culture, their books, their education, their guidance, their upbringing..."
Interviewer: "This belief is based upon killing." "Unlike us, Peace Loving, Highly-Functional Arabs!"
Ghassan Matar: "This belief is based upon killing. Of course, they always try to portray themselves to the world as victims. They say that they are the ones being attacked, and so on, and I'm about to cry because Hitler killed a few..."
Interviewer: "Juices."
Ghassan Matar: "Let's assume that Hitler indeed carried out these things the whole world denounced Hitler for his massacres. Should the lesson learned from Hitler's massacres be to perpetrate similar massacres against another people? The culture of killing in the Zionist sense is part of their genes." [...]
"By Means of the Media, Money, Lies, And Deceit, [The Juices] Have Managed to Train the European World... Let's Examine 'The Protocols'"
"The 20 million [Juices] are against the world. By means of the media, money, lies, and deceit, they have managed to train the European world to view them as the victims. They have subjugated the world to their extortion ever since World War II, and it is us Arabs who have paid the highest price for this."
[...]
"Are they not the ones who influence political and economic decision-making in America? Yet they live in their own [quarters] and the same is true in Europe. Whenever you go anywhere in the world, you see the Arabs mixing and assimilating, because the Arabs are an open-minded people, with an open culture. Hell, yeah, sure. You believe that... whatever float your boat, buddy.
The culture of [the Juices], on the other hand, is a closed, fossilized culture."
Interviewer: "What are they afraid of?"
Ghassan Matar: "It's not that they are afraid of anything. They view themselves as the chosen ones, and the others as their servants. Therefore, they refuse to mix with the other peoples, because they consider the others to be inferior. It is not about fear."
Interviewer: "It's arrogance."
Ghassan Matar: "It's a complex... They call themselves God's Chosen People. If they are God's Chosen People, what are the rest of the people? God's Chosen Beasts? Their sense that they are distinct from the rest of the world prevents them from assimilating into societies.
[...]
"What brought them to the land of Paleostine? Was it their ideological national cause? Or was it because they felt they needed a state that would rule the world? Let's examine The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They believe that they were created in order to purify the world. These are their concepts. The rest of the world three, four, five billion people are at their best when they are being killed."
#2
They are all about killing. Whoever is not a Juice is considered to be one of the gentiles. In other words, he is not a human, and it is permissible to kill him.
I've met a lot of Juices and I've never gotten that impression from any of them. Now, muslims...
Now this is a rant! From HuffPo. Yes, HuffPo. RTWT.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Damn!, that was a rant. Money quote for me "I've been country for 4 months and already I hate liberals".
Here's a guy that I would generally term "them" that has the open-mindedness to see something outside of his preconveiced ideas. I'm impressed and thankfull.
Inevitable.
The First Sea Lord appeared to contradict John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, who has suggested the carriers are being delayed for other reasons. The carriers were originally due to enter service in 2012 and 2015, but following a financial shortfall in the defence budget, the Ministry of Defence reviewed its major equipment programmes and delayed the carriers by one or two years each. Soon to be three or four years each, then ... cancelled.
Mr Hutton told MPs in December that delaying the carriers could help align their delivery with the arrival of new fighter aircraft and unicorns with gossamer wings. .
He said: "We have concluded that there is scope for bringing more closely into line the introduction of the joint combat aircraft and the aircraft carrier. This is likely to mean delaying the in service date of the new carriers by one to two years."
But the First Sea Lord told the BBC that the delay was "nothing to do with the fighters at all".
Instead, he claimed the decision was simply a question of money. "It is well-known that our budget is under pressure. Why is it under pressure? Because we're both having to finance the campaigns we're running in, but also invest in the future," he said.
Asked about the delay, he said: "It comes down to you know a setting of priorities. I mean importantly the programme is going ahead, but slightly more slowly to allow investment in today's things." IOW - Billions to bail out Labour Party allies, not one pence more for defence.
Liam Fox, the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, said: "The Navy has been conned and our national security compromised, all because of the economic wreckage that Gordon Brown has brought to the country. Our defence policy is now governed by the Treasury, and not our national security."
The Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this month that Mr Hutton has been forced to call in an Army general to act as a "marriage counsellor" to resolve a bitter dispute between the heads of the Royal Navy and RAF over the future of the Harrier jump jet. Adml Band admitted "robust" talks were under way, but denied threatening to resign.
#1
Answer: get rid of the millions of 3rd World scum back tn their place of origon. I would bet the UK mossie Social Security costs, if eliminated, would bring forward a Carrier completion date...Nah, too many moral issues there.
A fleet carrier makes no sense for Britain, and makes no sense for a simple reason: Britain is no longer a major naval power.
Britain is down to under 60 major combatant ships and plans to cut that further for no better reason than the money is lacking. Ships are deployed without anti-air missiles. Ships are kept home more and more. When asked, Britain now responds to the request for ships with one, generally a frigate, to show the flag.
A modern fleet carrier task force would require several escort ships and a submarine to ensure proper protection. Britain doesn't have the ships to spare. I simply can't imagine putting the QE or the PoW in open waters with an inadequate escort; the price to be paid would be catastrophic. Because of that the fleet carriers would spend more time at home than at sea.
Frankly it would be better for Britain to admit that it is now, at best, a 2nd-rate naval power. It then would ask what sort of navy it both needs and can afford. That navy would best be centered on frigates to patrol the region (North Sea and northern Atlantic), submarines to interdict an enemy, and, if really needed for power projection, a light carrier (aka Hermes or Ark Royal) with helicopters, VSTOL aircraft like the Harrier, and (as technology improves) naval UAVs.
But a fleet carrier? It's an unaffordable bauble.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009 15:22
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#4
I thought the headline meant that Iraq and Afghanistan have delayed constrction of their aircraft carriers. Yuk yuk.
Aircraft carriers are just huge targets, anyway. The age of supersonic cruise missiles has been here for a while, and we just haven't had a shooting war to prove it yet.
Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them. Four Portland legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers.
The tax would raise revenue for the state at a time when budgets are running in the red. Specifically, the bill says it would fund prevention, treatment and recovery programs for those addicted to alcohol and other substances. It also defends the tax by claiming alcoholism and "untreated substance abuse" costs the state $4.15 billion in "lost earnings" as well as more than $8 million for health care and nearly $1 billion in law enforcement-related expenditures.
HB 2461 claims Oregon ranks 49th among states in its malt beverage taxation rate, which has not been raised in 32 years.
Brewers say it's that low tax that makes Oregon such an attractive business climate for crafting beers, though. The state's brewery guild claims it would also amount to the single largest beer tax hike in the nation's history.
Laurelwood Public House & Brewing Co. owner Mike De Kalb said the tax may sound like a good idea in this economic climate, but that in reality it would cost more Oregonians their jobs and would only amount to about $140 million in new tax revenue for the state. Meanwhile, it would cost beer drinkers about $315 million as breweries are forced to pass along the tax increase.
"We're a family-owned, local Portland business. We don't want to see something cost taxpayers more than the revenue it would bring in," De Kalb said. "If that tax is passed it would mean consumers would pay $315 million more (in 2009) to buy the same amount of beer they bought in 2008. A pint of beer would go from $4.50 to $6."
De Kalb said Oregon would potentially lose its prominence as a craft-brew destination and that some small breweries could potentially go out of business. He said Laurelwood could possibly face job cuts as well.
Prior versions of the beer tax bill have exempted small breweries but this one does not, he added.
House Bill 2461 has been introduced by Portland Reps. Ben Cannon and Michael Dembrow, Portland Sens. Jackie Dingfelder and Diane Rosenbaum, and Springfield Sen. William Morrisette
I live in Portland, and one of the few good things is the great local beers. I've always tried to use that as a balance against the high concentration of leftest nuggets, but now this?!?!?!
Where to move..
sigh.
Posted by: Francis ||
02/16/2009 14:18
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#2
Brewers say it's that low tax that makes Oregon such an attractive business climate for crafting beers, though.
Oh...ummmmmm, really? Is that how it works?
Well, I'm a politician and can't figure hard stuff like that out. But I doubt it's good "for the children", I'll tell ya that...
#5
I already make my own beer. Next they'll be taxing the crap out of beer-making supplies.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/16/2009 15:42
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#6
Tax beer sold in the state, not just beer produced. Let all the beer companies share the pain.
If the Wisconsin Legislature ever gets out of the Tavern League's pocket and raises the beer tax, it'll be long overdue. I'm not going to cry over a raise in the beer tax; I will pony up some extra for my sixpack of Fat Squirrel.
As far as I know, Wisconsin is the only state in the union where a first time drunk driving offense gets only a ticket. Not surprisingly, we have a hellacious drunk driving problem in this state.
Raise the beer tax, and use it to pay for throwing the drunk drivers in jail for 30 to 180 days for the first offense, and quit monkeying around with people's lives and safety.
Ah, I was wondering when they'd show up...
The U.S. Navy says it is holding 16 suspected pirates it captured off the coast of Somalia aboard a warship while awaiting orders to move the suspects to Kenya for prosecution. The agreement to hand over suspected pirates to Kenya was reached last month between the U.S. and Kenyan governments. But, the agreement has raised questions and concern from a leading human rights group.
The U.S. Navy seized seven men on Tuesday and nine more on Thursday after responding to distress calls from vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden. In both incidents, a boarding team from the naval ship USS Vella Gulf found automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons aboard the skiffs used by the suspected hijackers.
The 16 men, believed to be Somali nationals, are expected to be held aboard another U.S. warship until they can be handed over to authorities in Kenya for prosecution. Last month, Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States to accept suspected pirates captured by U.S. forces and try them on Kenyan soil. Details of the agreement were not made public and the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneburger, said talks were still ongoing on how to implement it.
Ben Rawlence of the New York-based Human Rights Watch tells VOA that his group is concerned that in its eagerness to bring pirates to justice, the United States may be overlooking a critical problem in Kenya, which is likely to affect the way pirates are detained and prosecuted. "There are major, major problems with the Kenyan justice system," he said. "No one really is guaranteed the right to a fair trial in that system. The police have a terrible record of long periods of detention without trial, terrible conditions in the prisons, very poor record of access to legal representation, interminable delays in the court process. The Kenyan justice system is in a terrible state." So send them to the International Court of Justice. They can live in a hotel in the Hague, have conjugal visits with all their wives, and grow old and gray waiting on Carla del Ponte to file charges ...
In 2007, after the fall of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia, Muslim and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, sharply criticized Kenya for what they said was the arbitrarily detention of at least 150 people suspected of being terrorists. Human Rights Watch said that as many as 85 people were secretly deported from Kenya to Somalia at the request of U.S., Somali, and Ethiopian governments.
Rawlence says charges of mistreatment or abuse of suspected Somali pirates brought to Kenya under a vague, little publicized agreement could again stir up anger and resentment among Muslims in Somalia and the region. Oh, no. Not that. Johnson! Stop the presses!!
"There is a very real risk that this agreement might be perceived as an attack on Muslims. Anything that the United States does is subject to a high degree of suspicion," he said. So you assume all pirates are Muslim, Mr. Human Rights Watch? Wouldn't that be considered fueling some kinda Western racist stereotype? I find that "troubling", Mr. Human Rights Watch. Yes, indeedee I do... And of course since anything we do is subject to a 'high degree of suspicion', that means we can't do anything. Except that HRW would also be suspicious of that.
"Any kind of secret agreement is bound to spawn all sorts of speculation about what sort of nefarious practices are going on. So, it is in the interest of the U.S. and Kenya to be as open and as transparent as possible about this." Or, you could eliminate the middleman, and blow them away if you catch them in the act. That's pretty transparent.
Eight Somalis captured last November by the British navy are in jail in Kenya accused of trying to hijack a Danish freighter. The trial began in December but was postponed until January 14. It has not yet resumed. The accused pirates' attorney has complained that the men are being mistreated in prison. Right out of the playbook ...
In December, Kenya also signed an agreement with Britain to prosecute suspected pirates captured by the British.
#1
"Human Rights Watch" has proven once again that they're accessories after the fact for a wide range of criminal acts, mostly committed by muslims. They should be punished as such.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 16:50
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#2
when is Human Rights Watch gonna be labeled a terrorist organisation?
#4
Para, my thoughts exactly. Sunken boats leave no holes in the water, either. What happens at sea, stays at sea.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/16/2009 17:59
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#5
HRW must have just sent out another request for donations and had to do the usual anti-American rant [not that HRW thinks establishing a democracy has anything to do with human rights as they demonstrated their intolerance for that in Iraq.]
Careful, Nassur. We're setting the over/under on when the Zionists send you to meet Farfour, Nahoul, and Assud. Don't get too attached to him, Saraa...
#2
Bear? Bear? Like Paleos know what a bear is? How about something they know, like Abdul the body louse?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 14:17
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#3
Hmmmm, I haven't had bear steaks or a good bearburger in several years. Maybe I need to get a hunting license this year. Maybe I'll get a second one for the IDF...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:42
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Oh dear, Eric. I wasn't quite prepared for that image! It would fulfill the martyrdom wishes of all those charming Palestinian parents for their oh so beloved children.
The ultimate "Cycles of Violence"...
AN ANCIENT religious enmity is at the centre of a new conflict in the Sydney bikie scene, with a new gang comprised mainly of Sunni Muslims warring with a group of bikies with a Shiite Muslim background.
While detectives continue to investigate the February 4 bombing of a Hells Angels clubhouse in Crystal Street, Petersham, police and other sources are indicating that the city chapter of the Comanchero is involved in an escalating feud with a new club, Notorious.
The president of Notorious is a Lebanese-Australian with a long-standing association with a bikie from a colourful Sydney Sunni Lebanese family. The two are among Sydney's original "Nike" bikies - sporting white sneakers, fashionable T-shirts and clean-shaven instead of the traditional boots, dirty vests and bushy beards - and both are from Sunni families from Sydney's west.
Notorious is considered by gang squad detectives to be the prime suspect in the Crystal Street bombing. One of its mottos is "Only the dead see the end of war" and its "colours", or coat of arms, is a turbaned skeleton holding twin pistols with "Original Gangster" beneath it. Today is the first time the club's colours have been revealed publicly.
On the other side of the conflict is the president of the Comanchero City Crew, a Beirut-born Shiite who grew up in the St George area. Comanchero has been one of the motorcycle gangs that have embraced the new breed of "Nike" bikie, and have been recruiting from the Lebanese and Islander communities for several years.
Traditionally, Lebanese Muslim migrants to Sydney have been geographically and religiously divided. The Sunni majority live in Sydney's west and south-west, mainly around Auburn and Bankstown, while the Shiite minority live in the St George area. "The two groups have no love lost between them," a senior police source told the Herald. They have been fighting since the Sunni bikie, one of Sydney's most well-known gangsters, became president of the Nomads Parramatta chapter in the late 1990s.
In 2006, he was jailed over a Newcastle shooting. The following year, the Parramatta chapter's Granville headquarters was bombed, allegedly by the Comanchero, and the chapter subsequently disbanded. A few of its members formed Notorious, probably at the request of the Sunni bikie.
"[The Sunni bikie] left the Nomads while he was on remand," said an investigator who has watched the two groups for years. "He was telling people he was planning to start up his own club. Around about the same time, Notorious appeared."
Unlike the Sunni bikie and the Notorious president, the Comanchero City Crew president was born in Beirut and grew up in Sydney's southern suburbs. He appeared on television in 2005 following the Cronulla riot and Maroubra reprisal violence, when he met members of the Bra Boys to calm tensions.
When the Herald asked the president of the Hells Angels city chapter about the bombing, he was succinct: "I've got nothing to say, thank you."
But bikie sources said the Angels believe Notorious may be responsible for the attack, which closed down Crystal Street for a day and damaged seven neighbouring businesses. Neither police nor the Hells Angels have established why Notorious may have attacked the club, though the senior police source offered a simple answer: "They're just bloody crazy."
In the latest violence, a Comanchero member was shot in the leg when he was confronted by five Hells Angels at a park in Silverwater on February 7.
On the anniversary of the interview in which Dr Rowan Williams said it "seems inevitable" that some parts of sharia would be enshrined in this country's legal code, he claimed "a number of fairly senior people" now take the same view. He added that there is a "drift of understanding" towards what he was saying, and that the public sees the difference between letting Muslim courts decide divorces and wills, and allowing them to rule on criminal cases and impose harsh punishments.
However critics insist that family disputes must be dealt with by civil law rather than according to religious principles, and claim the Archbishop's comments have only helped the case of extremists while making Muslim women worse off, because they do not have equal rights under Islamic law.
The Archbishop, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, faced calls to resign last February when he said it was likely that elements of the religious principles based on the Koran, concerning marriage, finance and conflict resolution, would be enshrined in British legislation one day.
But in July he was supported by Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, who was then the Lord Chief Justice, while it later emerged that five sharia courts are already operating mediation systems under the Arbitration Act, and that the Government allows Islamic tribunals to settle the custody and financial affairs of divorcing couples and send their judgements to civil courts for approval.
When asked at a recent conference of Anglican leaders in Egypt whether he feels he has been vindicated, Dr Williams replied: "It's been quite interesting to see how a number of fairly senior people have observed that certain kinds of limited aspects of Muslim law are imaginable within a British legal framework, without upsetting the apple cart of undermining human rights. People are maybe beginning to distinguish the general question of Muslim law, and the extremes of appalling practice which disfigure it in so many parts of the world or the extremes of trying to push Sharia law upon an entire society. So I think there is a drift of understanding of what I was trying to say, perhaps I like to think so."
But Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "He has started a process which is deeply dangerous, damaging to Britain and to Muslim women in Britain. It was a wicked move because it undermines the progressives and gives succour to the extremists. How does the Archbishop of Canterbury know, sitting in Lambeth Palace, that a woman in Bolton has volunteered to give up half her inheritance to her brother?"
Neil Addison, a barrister who specialises in religious discrimination cases, said: "I think the Archbishop has failed to give a justification for sharia law. What's the advantage it would bring to British Muslims and to British law? I believe his speech was deeply harmful to British Muslims because it helps the separation of them from the rest of society. What he was asking for was sharia dealing with wills and divorce, which are public areas of law, not private ones."
#2
"How does the Archbishop of Canterbury know, sitting in Lambeth Palace, that a woman in Bolton has volunteered to give up half her inheritance to her brother?"
#3
The decline and fall of the Church of England is a major reason for the decline and soon-to-fall GOVERNMENT of England. Without God, there is very little in life to recommend beneficial behavior toward others. Without a population of believers, there is no trust, no honor, and no "fabric of society". The same thing is happening in the United States, just at a slower rate, and at an UNEQUAL rate across the nation. Both coasts and the majority of large cities have fewer honestly religious people (not necessarily "church-goers" - there's a difference) than rural America. The same goes for Britain. All these "leaders" should go back and read (or re-read) the Bible, and see how many times Israel got into serious trouble. Each time, it began with a decline in religious practices and an increase in religious and civil bureaucracy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:11
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#4
the most senior cleric in the Church of England, faced calls to resign last February...
Kind of like the groundhog coming out and seeing his shadow every February. He should be cooked and eaten after seeing his shadow.
"Mysterious explosions", "training sessions" gone wrong. The Good Old Days are back...
Gaza Maan A Palestinian was killed on Monday morning and four others were injured in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources reported. One Palestinian, identified as Rajab Usama Subuh, 25, was killed in the blast, while two of four others injured in Beit Lahiya were in critical condition just before noon on Monday. Hey, Rajab. Do that grenade juggling thing again.
On Sunday, a Palestinian woman was killed by a stray bullet in the Al-Mughraqa area of Gaza, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported. Buthaina Abu Rabee, 46, was shot in the chest while armed Palestinian fighters were holding a training session at the abandoned Israeli settlement Nitzarim, near Abu Rabees house, according to her son, Hamada. Nitzarim is hundreds of meters from the house. Abu Rabee was transported to the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City and was pronounced dead shortly after. Nice shot, Mahmoud. We'll be sending you to sniper school...
PCHR noted a number of deaths resulting from the misuse of weapons in the Palestinian territories, calling for restrictions on firearms. Gun control in Gaza. Good luck with that...
#1
Told them not to jump through the hoop of fire while wearing their boom belts but do they listen? NO-O-O-O-O-o-o-o-o ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009 13:52
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#2
Does misusing a weapon mean forgetting where the igniter safety is on your Yves Saint Laurent suicide vest?
Those guys have to understand that five pounds of Symtex, while a really delightful fashion statement and the fumes from which drive the local ladies all aflutter, should never be worn to dinner if you intend to have Bananas Foster
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/16/2009 15:22
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#3
Look at the bright side: no leg and foot wounds this week!
A fabulous bazaar of 14,400 candidates representing 400 parties participated, yielding results highly favorable to both Iraq and the United States.
Iraq moved away from religious sectarianism toward more secular nationalism. All the parties that had the words Islamic or Arab in their names lost, noted Middle East expert Amir Taheri. By contrast, all those that had the words Iraq or Iraqi gained.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went from leader of a small Islamic party to leader of the State of the Law Party, campaigning on security and secular nationalism. He won a smashing victory. His chief rival, a more sectarian and pro-Iranian Shiite religious party, was devastated. Another major Islamic party, the pro-Iranian Sadr faction, went from 11 percent of the vote to 3 percent, losing badly in its stronghold of Baghdad. The Islamic Fadhila party that had dominated Basra was almost wiped out.
The once-dominant Sunni party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and the erstwhile insurgency was badly set back. New grassroots tribal and secular Sunni leaders emerged.
The big strategic winner here is the United States. The big loser is Iran.
Now Gov. Paterson is rubbing the porn industry the wrong way.
From triple-X starlets to smut producers, porn industry insiders bemoaned the governor's plan to apply the so-called "iPod tax" on online music downloads to Web pornography and pay-per-view on television.
"We've had an adult industry in this country for decades, and now they want to tax us because of a deficit. That's not at all fair," complained Shawna Lenee, 21, a perky blonde, March 2009 Penthouse Pet and star of more than 200 hardcore videos.
The Paterson administration wants to expand the state's 4 percent sales tax to all digital purchases, from music downloads to e-books to movies if the retailer has some kind of presence in New York state. The 4 percent would also be applied to any subscription service that provides unlimited content for a monthly fee.
"This is simply bringing the tax code in line with technology," said Matt Anderson of the state Division of the Budget. "Regardless of whether or not an item is purchased at a brick-and-mortar store or online, it would be treated consistently."
The administration believes the digital tax will bring an additional money shot of $15 million a year into state coffers. I have to think this is a 'gross' overestimate - that would translate into < $350 million in proceeds - of course in that biz, people exaggerate
Lenee, star of such films as "Teenstravaganza #7" and "Throated #13," said her Penthouse-produced videos would be impacted because Penthouse has offices in New York City.
#1
well, he's blind. No wonder he doesn't care about pr0n. Oh, and he's been tapping other women for years. Guess that "Whoa, honey, I thought it was you!" line works. For blind guys
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 11:00
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#2
"Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992) is a Supreme Court of the United States case concerning use tax. Quill Corporation is an office supply retailer. Quill had no physical presence in North Dakota (neither a sales force, nor a retail outlet),[1] however it did have a licensed computer software program that some of its North Dakota customers used to check Quill's current inventories and place orders directly. North Dakota attempted to impose a use tax on Quill, which was stuck down by the Supreme Court." - wiki
Simply move any sales force or retail presence out of New York [that'll help the economy]. Notice that he's only after 'virtual' business. Doesn't want to 'touch' the issue of legalization of adult consensual sex and slapping a hefty 'sin' tax on it.
Gretchen Wyler - died 2007 She founded The Ark Trust, presenter of the annual Genesis Awards for animal protection. This event is now a program of The Humane Society of the United States
Hat tip to Fred, He delayed the DS & TP until the eleventh hour and then produced the only photo of Ivy not destroyed during Sherman's march to the sea. A film poster featuring Ivy will have to do for now.
Ivy's career lasted but two years spanning 5 films of which she was the leading lady in only the first film, "Facinating Youth". Her career died in 1928 and she passed away in Georgia in 1999.
GB is currently TAD and had to use field tools to try to meet this challenge.
PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) At least a dozen people were killed in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border on Monday when a suspected U.S. drone fired missiles at a building used by militants, witnesses and officials said.
"Afghan Taliban were holding an important meeting there when the missiles were fired," an intelligence official in the area said of the attack in a mountainous region called Sarpul, on the outskirts of Baggan village. The attack was the first in the Kurram tribal region and came two days after a missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal region killed at least 25 mostly Central Asian fighters believed to have al Qaeda-links.
Abdul Rahim, a cleric in Sarpul, said he saw around 15 bodies pulled out from the rubble and 20 wounded, though there was no other corroboration immediately available and Taliban militants surrounded the area. He said he saw two missiles fired.
Kurram's top administrator, Arshad Majeed Mohmand, confirmed the strike and said according to his information three missiles were fired, but he had no details about the casualties. It was not immediately known if there were any senior Taliban or al Qaeda figures among the dead.
The building that was hit was formerly used by Afghan refugees' children, but militants moved in around two years ago, according to villagers. "A drone is still flying in the area and smoke can be seen over the area where the missiles struck," said a paramilitary official, also requesting anonymity.
This was the fourth attack since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month, showing there was no change in policy since the last year of the Bush administration, when attacks by pilotless aircraft against militant targets on Pakistani territory were ramped up.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
02/16/2009
10:02 ||
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[22 views]
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#1
why not hit these sites again when all their buddies show up too help?
#2
Islamabad - A suspected US missile strike in Pakistan's north-western tribal region near the Afghan border left 30 people, most of them Afghan Taliban, dead, an intelligence official said Monday. The attack was believed to be carried out by US unmanned aircraft that targeted a suspected militant hideout in Sadda area of Kurram tribal district.
Four missiles destroyed a huge mud compound that is being used by Taliban as a training camp, according to a local intelligence official. "Our informants told us that around 30 people were killed and around two dozens of them were Afghan Taliban," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that a dozen militants were wounded.
The camp, located just 15 kilometres from the Afghan province of Khost, was established in the 1980s when locals on the both sides of the border were resisting Soviet Union's occupation forces in Afghanistan. "The camp has now turned into a training centre for those who are resisting new occupation forces (United States and allies) in Afghanistan," the intelligence official said.
Monday's attack is the first US drone strike on Kurram, a relatively calmer district in Pakistan's tribal region that was previously known for sectarian violence between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
American forces, which are running out of patience over Pakistan's failure in eliminating the sanctuaries of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters launching cross border attacks in Afghanistan, have intensified strikes on rebels' hideouts on its soil.
The fresh air raid came two days after a similar aerial strike on a building in South Waziristan tribal district killed at least 30 people, including some key allies of top militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The government agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across a large swath of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying a spreading Taliban insurgency there. The announcement came after talks with local Islamists, including one closely linked to the Taliban.
The move will likely concern the United States, which has warned Pakistan that such peace agreements allow al-Qaida and Taliban militants operating near the Afghan border time to rearm and regroup.
Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister for the North West Frontier Province, said authorities would impose Islamic law in Malakand region, which includes the Swat Valley. Swat is a one-time tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through brutal tactics including beheading residents, burning girls schools and attacking security forces. He said the laws would only be implemented when the valley was peaceful.
The Swat Taliban said Sunday they would observe a 10-day cease-fire in support of the peace process. They welcomed Monday's announcement, which did not mention any need for the militants to give up arms. "Our whole struggle is for the enforcement of Shariah (Islamic) law," Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. "If this really brings us the implementation of Shariah, we will fully cooperate with it."
Hoti gave few details, but said the main changes were included in existing laws stipulating Islamic justice that have never been enforced. They allow for Muslim clerics to advise judges when hearing cases, but do not ban female education or mention other strict interpretations of Shariah espoused by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "This was the people's demand ... for speedy justice." he said. "There was a (legal) vacuum and we will be filling that vacuum in the near future," he told a news conference.
Hoti also said that troops in Swat, which had been conducting an offensive there against the militants, would now go on "reactive mode" and retaliate only if attacked. Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Also Monday, three missiles believed fired from a U.S. unmanned aircraft destroyed a house used by a local Taliban commander in the Kurram tribal region of the northwest, killing 30 people, witnesses said. It was the first known such strike in Kurram. Most of the strikes have occurred in South and North Waziristan, other tribal regions considered major Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds.
Rehman Ullah, a resident of the targeted village of Baggan, said drones were seen in the sky before the attack and that he saw 30 bodies dug up. An intelligence official said field informants reported that militants showed up at the village bazaar and ordered 30 caskets. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. The U.S. has stepped up missile strikes in the border region since August, killing some suspected top militants. Pakistan routinely protest the strikes, saying it undercuts its fight against terror.
Regaining the Swat Valley from militants is a major test for the Pakistani government. Unlike the semiautonomous tribal regions where al-Qaida and Taliban have long thrived, the former tourist haven is supposed to be under full government control and lies less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the provincial capital, Islamabad. Ummmmmm...guess it's not maybe?
Speaking in India, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said he was waiting to hear from the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan about details of the Taliban cease-fire. Holbrooke said the unrest in Swat was a reminder that the United States, Pakistan and India face an "an enemy which poses direct threats to our leadership, our capitals and our people."
Among those Islamists taking part in talks with the government in the provincial capital Peshawar was Sufi Muhammad, who Pakistan freed last year after he agreed to renounce violence. Muhammad is father-in-law to Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Taliban in Swat. Hoti said Muhammad had agreed to travel to Swat and urge the militants to give up their arms. "Seeing the trend we can hope peace will soon be restored in Swat," he said. And I can hope I hit Mega Millions...
President Asif Ali Zardari has been indirectly involved in the dialogue after growing increasingly concerned about civilian casualties in Swat, said an official in the president's office who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
02/16/2009
09:33 ||
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[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
#1: Free fire zone designation?
Posted by: Procopius2k|
How about, "All of Pakistan", P2K?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 13:03
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#3
Does this mean that Pakistain will quit complaining about our drone zaps in the area. Since they don't govern that area, its not sovereign territory.
All kidding aside, Pakistain is about to do a Somolia and disintegrate into a series of fiefdoms ruled by warlords and thugs. Pakistain exists in name only as far as I am concerned.
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/16/2009 15:19
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#4
And so the bell toll for the Umma.
Wherever Muslims have full sway, they
immediately disintegrate into
a series of fiefdoms ruled by
warlords and thugs.
That since the year 750AD...
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/16/2009 23:50
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Last week, I noted Kentucky radio talk show host Leland Conways campaign to send Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer bags of pork rinds in response to his arrogant claim that Americans dont care about the pork in the trillion-dollar-porkulus.
Guess what? Conways call produced a mountain an estimated 1,500 pork rind bags that will be packed up and delivered to the Schmucksters office. Yes, they care:
Guess hell just dismiss Central Kentucky taxpayers as more of the chattering classes
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
02/16/2009 13:52
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#5
I suppose we should cut the bugger some slack. He's only been in office for a few weeks and he's already managed to force 4 Democrats to pay their back taxes.
Al-Mutawa's [comic] stories are based on a pivotal moment in Islamic history: The 1258 Mongol invasion of Baghdad...stones in the river to suck up wisdom otherwise lost.
Hundreds of years later, the 99 stones are found in different corners of the world by heroes who come from 99 different countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Hungary and Indonesia.
Jabbar, the Saudi hero, is a Hulk-like figure whose name means "The Powerful." The American hero, Darr, or "The Afflicter," is a young man paralyzed from the waist down when a drunk driver crashed into his car, killing his family. His power is to take away or inflict pain.
While al-Mutawa used Islam as the basis for his comics, none of the heroes prays or reads the Quran. that's smart because if they did that, they'd quickly run out of inspiring and moderate verses
There is no mention of religion, and the characters are roughly divided between men and women - one of the main figures is Noora, an 18-year-old woman - and only a few of the women in the comics wear the Islamic headscarf.
The wisdom of Schizophrenia!
The strength of Homicide!
The country of Arabia!
The idiocy of Zenana!
Religious beliefs that are Asinine!
Did I mention murder? I like Murder!
In an interview with SPIEGEL, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith discusses her country's experience in taking in former inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp and how her country is seeking to reach out to young Muslims before they radicalize.
Unmanned drones, based at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, are set to start patrolling the Canadian border. A ceremony to mark the launch is set for tomorrow at the base. The military facility is one of five outposts that will be part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection unmanned aircraft program.
The Predator drone can detect a moving person from 10 kilometres away. Information gathered by the drones will be transmitted back to operators, who will contact border agents.
#6
#3: Some of them even vote. In fact looking at the last election I would say a lot of them vote..... Posted by: CrazyFool||
Vote, he$$, one of them was elected President.
I recommended this to one of my congresscritters several years ago, but for the southern border. I haven't heard they're planning to fly drones in the south yet...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:25
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#7
From the CSM: "The Border Patrol's sector in Tucson, Ariz., unveiled the first drone on Sept. 29 [2005] after some testing earlier in the year. Todd Faser, Border Patrol spokesman, says more than 1,000 illegal immigrants and over 400 pounds of illegal narcotics have been caught with its help.
The UAV will be operated by a Border Patrol agent acting as the pilot, who sits in a cockpit-like control station at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The aircraft is flown by remote control and equipped with an electro-optic sensor that can send back images, day or night"
Dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia, the British security services believe. Intelligence analysts are worried that they may attempt to launch attacks in this country or use the kudos from having trained and fought in Somalia to try to attract new recruits. The issue was raised by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, in his first interview last month. In the US, the outgoing head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, has said that Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in late 2006 catalysed expatriate Somalis around the world.
An investigation for Channel 4 News, to be broadcast tonight, also reveals that a suicide bomber who grew up in Ealing is thought to have blown himself up in an attack in Somalia that killed more than 20 soldiers. The incident is the first reported case involving a Somali based in Britain and will add to pressure on Scotland Yard and the Home Office to tackle the problem within the Somali community, which, at about 250,000 people, is the biggest in Europe. Pakistan rightly gets the most attention in terms of external threats, a senior counter-terrorism source said. But we believe we should focus more on the Horn of Africa and Somalia in particular.
Two years ago Ethiopian forces occupied parts of Somalia after ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from the capital, Mogadishu the latest chapter in a long history of conflict between the two countries. The Ethiopians withdrew last month as part of a peace deal agreed between the Government and moderate Islamists, leaving African Union peacekeepers and Somali soldiers although many believe that they will not be able to keep advancing extremists at bay. The hardline Islamist militia al-Shabaab, treated as a terrorist organisation by the US, has taken advantage of Ethiopia's withdrawal to boost its control of the south. More than 16,000 people have been reported killed in the past two years of fighting.
Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert who runs the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, told Channel 4 News: The numbers I hear [going from Britain to Somalia] are 50, 60 or 70, but in reality we don't know. You don't need big numbers for terrorism. Somalia will never become another Pakistan, but that does not mean it is not a threat.
Most Somalis in Britain entered the country as asylum-seekers within the past 20 years. They include Yasin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed, two of the four men convicted of the botched bombing of the London Underground on July 21, 2005. An audio message from Osama bin Laden last month urged Muslims to send money or go to fight themselves in Somalia. Such references are usually a good indicator, Dr Neumann said. The place is seen as an opportunity, from a jihadist point of view.
Some Somali leaders say their community already associated with gang and knife crime is being unfairly targeted. But outside a West London mosque last week, several Somalis were adamant that they were entitled to fight for their homeland. If American troops can go from Arizona to Iraq then someone can leave this area and go to Somalia, one said.
The British Somali who became a suicide bomber had abandoned a business studies course at Oxford Brookes University (Jonathan Rugman writes). The 21-year-old from Ealing, West London, reportedly blew himself up at a checkpoint in the southern Somali town of Baidoa in October 2007 after crossing into Somalia by foot from Kenya. News reports at the time said that the Somali Prime Minister was staying at a nearby hotel but escaped. Somali jihadist websites claimed that more than 20 Ethiopian soldiers were killed. The bomber was a member of al-Shabaab The Youth militia, which is fighting to impose Islamic law. Its brutal tactics include decapitating alleged spies with knives. Six aid workers were reportedly killed by the group last December. It is not clear whether Britain's security services are aware of the Ealing student's case. His family, who still live in London, want his name withheld to avoid reprisals.
The man had recorded a martyrdom video in which he urged Somalia's refugee diaspora to join him in his jihad. Oh my people, know that I am doing this martyrdom operation for the sake of Allah, he said. I advise you to migrate to Somalia and wage war against your enemies. Death in honour is better than life in humiliation.
Sheikh Ahmed Aabi, a moderate Somali religious leader in Kentish Town, northwest London, said that he knew of the Ealing case and had heard from other families of sons travelling to Somalia to join warring Islamist groups. I'm hearing it from parents, he said. They say they [their children] are joining the jihad. I am hearing there are a lot of people. This is a big problem facing our community.
One soldier and four civilians were injured by a time bomb planed by Muslim terrorists insurgents to attack a Buddhist monk protection unit in this southern border province Monday morning.
The explosion occurred on a roadside just 600 metres away from the Waeng district police station at 7 am. No monks were injured. Several of the injured were Muslim parents and students, walking to a nearby foods shop.
Police said the bomb detonated by a digital watch exploded while a unit of five soldiers, who were escorting three Buddhist monks to collect alms, were arriving at the scene.
Private Chavalit Chaitawatpong, 24, was injured. Wasana Saelua, 55, the owner of the house in front of which the bomb exploded, was also injured. Three others injured persons were Faridah Samoh, a teacher, Rusanee Duerahim, 13, a student, and Dechawet Maha.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/16/2009 10:26
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#3
Since the Irish Parliament sent Obama a resolutions congratulating him on closing Gitmo, we should give the grads a parachute, fly them to Ireland, and drop them outside Dublin.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/16/2009 14:54
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The foreign warplanes swooped in just as the Afghan village of Ali Mardan was celebrating a wedding. Bombs slammed into the crowded village square, killing 30 men, women and children. After the smoke cleared and the dead were buried, all the able-bodied men left alive took up arms against the invaders.
That was 1982 and the warplanes belonged to the Soviet Union, but 20 years after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan on Sunday, U.S. and NATO troops are all too often making the same mistakes and could run the same risk of being driven out.
A string of bungled U.S. and NATO air strikes killed 455 Afghan civilians last year, according to the United Nations. Wedding parties seem to be particularly at risk, perhaps due to the crowds of people, some of them firing weapons in the air.
U.S. planes bombed two Afghan weddings last year alone.
Memories are long in Afghanistan and revenge is a duty.
In the mud-brick homes of Ali Mardan, close to the Afghan capital Kabul, villagers still visit the graves of those killed in the Soviet bombardment and keep photographs of the dead to remind the living of the cruelty of war.
"I was nine years-old. It was early in the morning during my sister's wedding when the jets bombed us," said Abdul Bashir. "You can see I lost one of my eyes, and my teeth. My brother was wounded. My sister, father and my aunt were martyred," he said. "I can never forget."
QUAGMIRE
Soviet leaders were at first reluctant to respond to repeated requests from Kabul's Marxist government to send troops to help quash resistance from rural Islamic fighters, fearing getting bogged down in Afghanistan, just as the British had in the 19th Century. But on December 25, 1979, hundreds of Soviet tanks rumbled across the border into northern Afghanistan and large numbers of airborne troops landed at Kabul airport.
Despite deploying up to 120,000 soldiers, supported by 300,000 Afghan government forces, the Soviets failed to crush the insurgency by Afghan mujahideen fighters who were backed by U.S. guns and money and had bases inside neighboring Pakistan.
Some 15,000 Soviet troops were killed before Moscow decided the war could not be won and pulled out its forces in 1989. By that time, 1 million Afghans had lost their lives and another 5 million become refugees in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
The tables are now turned and the United States is considering whether to send another 25,000 troops to add to the nearly 70,000 Western forces locked in a bitter stalemate with Taliban-led insurgents in south and eastern Afghanistan.
"I tell you this for sure, that if NATO and America put all their attention on fighting, and invest only in the military, they will not win," former mujahideen leader and ex-President Burhanuddin Rabbani told Reuters.
PEACE THOUGH PROGRESS?
President Barack Obama's new administration is also planning a large increase in spending on development assistance to Afghanistan, more than seven years after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of one of the poorest countries in the world.
But the Soviets also tried to bring progress to deeply conservative and traditional Afghanistan and in many ways their record was more impressive than that of the West so far.
Most of Afghanistan's roads, ministries, major schools and hospitals were Soviet-built. Even now, many of the upper echelons of the civil service, army and police are Soviet trained.
The rows of apartment blocks around Kabul were all built by the Soviets. Though many are now shabby and pock-marked with bullet holes from the civil war, they are still highly prized as no public housing has been built since. "These residential buildings are the achievement of the Russians," said Abdul Ghani Rahpore, who lives in one of the blocks. "Now there are 40 countries stationed in this country but they haven't made any achievements that benefit the people."
But any gains the Soviets made through development and building the Afghan government's capacity were scuppered by the resentment and anger their devastating bombing raids caused. That is a lesson U.S. and NATO forces should learn from the experience of their former Cold War adversary.
"I don't think NATO has fully understood just how serious this issue is," said a Kabul-based Western analyst. "They certainly have done what they can to try to avoid civilian casualties from air strikes, but I just don't think they have grasped how central it is to informing the views of the nation."
Added Rabbani: "There have already been some mistakes during military operations and the mistakes are continually being repeated. This is the same mistake the Soviets made."
#1
Obviously the US practice of sending pilots in planes loaded with ordnance which then fly over wedding parties and any other civilian activities they can find just to bomb them has to cease immediately.
Oh wait...
That's not what happens, does it? Intel flows to command, command plans bombing raids, bad guys and whomever is also there get bombed.
There's no question the Soviets engaged in similar practices although they were less impressed with charges of civilian deaths than NATO is currently.
If Afghanis want to reduce errors in bombing, perhaps they should insist the the bad guys' side stop putting civilians at risk. Whether or not the Washington Post wishes to acknowledge it, bombing raids involve at least two components, targets and bombers, and when the target place civilians at risk it is the target's problem, not the bombers.
This is the most salient fact about the story Washington Post wants to ignore. That omission makes this a spurious story at best.
#2
from what i have seen of the Afghanis they are never happy with what they have been given and will bitch and whine until further welfare and payoffs are wanted and payed over and over again
#4
It's not deluded to think they can become civilized, it's deluded to think they can become civilized in less than a generation or on someone elses dime.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/16/2009 12:12
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President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.
This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.
Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82.
This was reflected in unemployment rates. The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That's more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). You simply can't equate 7.6% unemployment with the Great Depression.
Other economic statistics also dispel any analogy between today's economic woes and the Great Depression. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2008, despite a bad fourth quarter. The Congressional Budget Office projects a GDP decline of 2% in 2009. That's comparable to 1982, when GDP contracted by 1.9%. It is nothing like 1930, when GDP fell by 9%, or 1931, when GDP contracted by another 8%, or 1932, when it fell yet another 13%.
Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn't compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn't come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s.
Mr. Obama's analogies to the Great Depression are not only historically inaccurate, they're also dangerous. Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren't likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup. Beyond that, fearmongering can trigger a political stampede to embrace a "recovery" package that delivers a lot less than it promises. A more cool-headed assessment of the economy's woes might produce better policies.
Reading and writing in Arabic is a must for civil servants and village heads in Bogor.
The Regent of Bogor in West Java announced recently that employees of the Bogor Council are required to read and write in Arabic, to the point where they will be qualified and able to lead five-daily prayers. The ruling applies to all Muslim city employees of at least Echelon II rank.
H Rachmat Yasin, who is from Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) and ran for office in coalition with Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDI-P), says he made the new regulation because he felt obligated to reward the support of Muslim clerics for him: "They put their trust in me to lead Bogor, I'm committed to doing what is necessary to keep up the good work that clerics have done."
Rachmat Yasin says that many public servants are uneasy about having to lead prayers and that in the beginning some of them had to be forced, but overall: "It's turning out well, nowadays employees are busy learning how to read the Quran."
Rachman hoped that employees would learn to see their new duty as a joy instead of something onerous. The policy will shortly be applied to village heads in the regency. In future any person who seeks the position of village head will be required to demonstrate ability to read the Quran in Arabic.
Elsewhere in Indonesia similar policies are applied in Aceh, West Sumatra, and South Sulawesi.
Meanwhile the regent says his administration is gearing up for a new attack on social ills, primarily prostitution, with the Bogor-Parung route and Puncak areas to be targeted.
#1
Must also show ability to beat women and burn down schools.
Posted by: ed ||
02/16/2009 11:29
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Indian muslim students spend 40% of their school day studying arabic and the quran. And they blame the Hindu majority for their backwardness. Islamic logic in action.
Security has been heightened in Bannu on Monday to meet any untoward incident.
According to police sources, strict checking is being done by police and security forces at various points in the city while special jawans of the police are on patrolling across the District round the clock.
Meanwhile, police has been equipped with the latest weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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BAGHDAD Iraqi officials nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across the country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but the cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any province, the election chief said Sunday.
Faraj al-Haidari of the election commission said final results of the Jan. 31 voting would be certified and announced this week. Voters in 14 of the 18 provinces were choosing members of ruling provincial councils in an election seen as a dress rehearsal for parliamentary voting by the end of the year.
Preliminary official results announced Feb. 5 showed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ticket swept to victory over Shiite religious parties in Baghdad and southern Iraq a strong endorsement of his crackdown on Shiite extremists.
Al-Haidari said his commission had looked into fraud allegations from across the country and would announce the findings along with the certified results. But he added "we won't cancel" the election in any province. He told The Associated Press that the polling stations where ballots were nullified were scattered in all 14 provinces, but he refused to say where the largest number was found. He did not say how many ballots were affected.
One official said the most widespread fraud appeared to have been in Diyala province, which has large Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities and an ongoing insurgency.
Which was the biggest prize of the day.
A coalition including the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political group, led in Diyala with 21.1 percent of the vote followed by a Kurdish alliance with 17.2 percent, according to preliminary results. Al-Maliki's coalition finished fourth in Diyala with 9.5 percent.
U.S. officials have been closely watching the Diyala results for signs of friction between Arabs and Kurds, who are the biggest community in the far north of the province. The Kurds were hoping that a strong Kurdish showing in those areas would bolster their case for incorporating parts of the province into the Kurdish self-ruled region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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Wonder why we haven't seen any Minnesota counties disqualified for fraud. The Iraqi elections seem more democratic than some of ours.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Sunday said cooperation from India is essential for taking the investigation into the Mumabai attacks to its completion. Talking to reporters at Multan airport, the Foreign Minister ruled out further progress into Mumbai carnage in the absence of cooperation from India. He said there are many links between Mumbai attacks and Samjhota Express tragedy and it has been brought to the knowledge of India at diplomatic level. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said India has been asked to make public information regarding Inidan citizens who provided assistance in executing Mumbai attacks so that probe could be taken further in an effective manner. To a question, he clarified that Pakistan has not granted permission for carrying out drone attacks in its territory. "Pakistan is well aware of the prevailing situationÂ.... we will use force whenever and wherever it is needed," Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Pyongyang geared up Sunday for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's birthday, holding commemorative events and adding finishing touches to decorations, some of which included slogans wishing him good health. Kim will turn 67 on Monday. While signs for his good health have been spotted in the North Korean capital in the past, these come after international reports about his health setback surfaced last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Yeah. I'm sure they're preparing his cardboard image as we speak.
He may be dead, it doesn't stop the Celebration.(Lies)
Let's send Broomhilda (Clinton) if she shakes his hand and speaks WITH him, then I'll believe it.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/16/2009 12:33
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As a birthday wish, I send the following to Kimmie:
May your hair and teeth fall out, may your liver turn to stone. May your feet grow to be six sizes too big for your shoes. May you develop cataracts, halitosis, and kidney failure. May you develop gallstones, kidney stones, and no stones (ie, no cojones). May you develop psoriosis (sp?), gingevitis, and extreme tinnitus. May you develop ulcers, hernias, and multiple personality disorders. Finally, may you have to go to the NHS in Britain for medical treatment, with no privileges like going to the head of the line. And on that, have a "happy" Birthday, you sodden old SOB.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:22
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#7
Let's sing a hearty round of "I'm Ronery" in his honor tonight.
Hugo Chavez's ambition to lead Venezuela for decades to come hung in the balance last night as the country voted in a constitutional referendum that could abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for his indefinite re-election.
Opinion polls gave him a slight edge after a controversial campaign that pitted student protesters against police and turned the state into a "red machine" to deliver a yes vote.
One person, one vote, one last time ...
The president said he wanted to run again when his term ends in 2013, with unlimited re-election rights, to protect his self-styled socialist revolution "from enemies at home and abroad". The vote, he said in a newspaper column, would either safeguard or sabotage a historic process of transformation and liberation that had lit up South America. "It is the dilemma of Shakespeare's Hamlet: to be or not to be," he said.
The 54-year-old former tank commander has spoken of ruling in Venezuela beyond 2030.
Yesterday military-style bugles sounding from government vehicles roused people from dawn and queues swiftly formed outside polling stations. Activists in red T-shirts handed flyers with 10 reasons to vote yes. Number one: "Chavez loves us and love is repaid with love." Number two: "Chavez is incapable of doing us harm."
You have to be really dense to write that kind of stuff, and even more dense to believe it.
Some families were split over whether to support a charismatic leader popular for spending declining oil revenues on social programmes but resented for economic problems and concentrating power in his hands.
"I am going to support my president. Thanks to him I have free healthcare," said Marisabel Torres, 56, a housewife in Caracas. Her husband Ricardo, 56, a courier, was voting no. "Chavez has screwed this country enough already."
In December 2007 Venezuelans narrowly rejected a similar referendum covering presidential re-election - which would have removed the limit on the number of times a president could stand for office - prompting an opposition slogan for the latest campaign: "No means no." This time the president widened the scope, to abolish term limits for mayors and governors.
The opposition say that the Chavez-appointed electoral authority has ignored abuse of state resources.
But, despite collapsing oil revenues, which have blown a hole in the government budget, and warnings of stagflation, the president said a yes vote would bring a bounty. "Today is the beginning of the time of big harvests," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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looks like he won. He'll need to be killed to get out of office now
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 9:22
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Or die of old age. (See Castro)
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/16/2009 12:28
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The election/re-election of Chavez is really a shame. Venezuela used to be a relatively nice country. I wouldn't go there today for all the money the Saudis have EVER made selling oil.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:15
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"I am going to support my president. Thanks to him I have free healthcare," said Marisabel Torres, 56, a housewife in Caracas Chicago.
Zimbabwes fledgeling power-sharing Government staggered into its fifth day yesterday as fears grew that a shadowy cabal of President Mugabes top security bosses are edging towards a military coup.
Roy Bennett, nominated by Morgan Tsvangirai as his choice for Deputy Agriculture Minister, was seized and detained by state security agents on Friday an act seen widely as an attempt to sabotage the coalition of Mr Mugabes Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Mr Tsvangirai.
Yesterday charges against Mr Bennett were altered from treason to plotting insurgency, banditry and sabotage by allegedly funding the MDC to buy arms in 2005, supposedly with the intention of destroying a telecommunications station outside Harare. The charges appear to have been brought under the Public Order Security Act, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. He is expected to appear at Mutare Magistrates Court today for a bail hearing.
The arrest of Mr Bennett, who was still in detention yesterday, has raised fears of an impending coup to prevent Mr Tsvangirai from wielding power. The MDC is blaming the Joint Operational Command (JOC), a powerful group of military, police and intelligence chiefs who it said had planned, directed and operationalised the arrest to force the MDC to withdraw from the Government.
For now, the major challenge is to get Mr Bennett out, Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general and the new Finance Minister, said. If that fails, we will have to meet and review everything. Mr Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, proposed a meeting with Mr Mugabe about the arrest but this did not take place. At the weekend Mr Tsvangirai said the arrest undermined the spirit and credibility of the agreement to form a new administration.
The JOC has been in de facto control of Zimbabwean politics almost throughout the countrys existence. A leftover of the former white-minority Rhodesian government, it includes General Constantine Chiwenga, commander of the defence forces, Lieutenant-General Phillip Sibanda, head of the Army, Perrence Shiri, head of the Air Force, Happyton Bonyongwe, the director of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Augustine Chihuri, the police chief, and Paradzayi Zimondi, the prisons commissioner. Mr Mugabe is its chairman.
In the 1990s the JOC was amalgamated into Mr Mugabes administration and grew to have subcommittees in every province, district and town. It is served by numerous covert branches of the security services. Its remit is to undermine all individuals or organisations suspected of being opposed to Mr Mugabe. Their methods range from assassination, abduction and torture to bugging, disinformation and framing operations.
Sort of like an internal ministry, SA and party flunkies. Or maybe just misguided community organizers.
It appears that a distance is growing between Mugabe and the generals, a Western diplomat said.
MDC lawyers saw Mr Bennett in custody on Saturday and released a statement from him. Whatever these challenges, if we remain unwaveringly dedicated we will achieve peace, freedom and democracy in our lifetime, believe me, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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A "government of national unity" always looks good on its face. It's one of those things that should work, like socialism or perpetual motion. But the reason we divide among ourselves into different political parties is that we disagree on issues that we deem important. Republicans are free traders, strong on national defense, supportive of small business. Democrats are protectionists, multilateralists leaning strongly toward pacifism, and supportive of labor in the abstract, big labor and big business in practice.
Similar divisions exist in Israel, where the division used to be between Likkud and Labour, and where now it's between Likkud and its offshoot Kadima. Likkud's conservative to the point of scaring the terrorists and their supporters -- which I tend to think of as a good thing, and Kadima's the Oslo wing, given to Norwegian-brokered ceasefires, land for peace, and exchanging a thousand Arabs for a single Israeli. They don't think alike, and as time goes by they're thinking more differently.
Kadima's natural ally has become Labour, the old-style Social Democrat party that's probably closer to the U.S. Democrats than either Kadima or Likkud. Likkud allies more naturally with Israel Beitenu, whose head, Avigdor Lieberman, is denounced by the Arabs for all sorts of sins. Today's example is Egypt calling him a racist. Shas, being out there somewhere and heavily populated by holy men, makes uncomfortable common cause with any of them.
If the thought of a Government of National Unity™ is ludicrous in the U.S., why isn't it ludicrous in any other country? In all the places it's been tried it's failed. Zim-bob-we's the current primo example, but the landscape is littered with lots of others, including Fatah-Hamas.
The Kadima faction stood solidly behind its chairwoman, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in outlining its official position, presented yesterday: either a unity government headed by Kadima, a rotation of the premiership with Likud, or the opposition. Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who Kadima insiders say would like to see the faction in the coalition, even if it is headed by Likud, said, "a unity government headed by Kadima is what is needed. A coalition of 65 MKs will not make it." Sources close to Mofaz said yesterday that he would not allow attempts to drive a wedge between him and Livni by spreading rumors.
Livni came to yesterday's meeting after having spoken on the phone with the party's ministers and lawmakers to make sure none intended to surprise her and contradict her stand on heading for the opposition rather than going into a coalition headed by Likud. Even Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Boim toed the line.
Livni's position was revealed ahead of the meeting already, when TV cameras and microphones caught her in conversation with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Livni asked Olmert what he was going to say at the cabinet meeting: "You're going to say something about rotation," to which Olmert responded: "That I want a broad coalition." Livni then said, "Ehud, do me a favor." When they realized they were on camera, Livni wrote Olmert a note, which the cameras caught later: "I have no intention of being in a unity [government] under Bibi and don't hint in that direction. What you're saying is leading there and that's not the Kadima position."
Livni did manage to prevent Olmert from transmitting a message of a broad coalition. Instead, he told the cabinet yesterday that he "hopes a coalition will be established quickly in the context of the challenges Israel faces."
In the faction meeting, Livni said emphatically that Kadima had won and would form the next government. "What's not clear? Twenty-eight is more than twenty-seven. Twenty-eight is not a figure. It's hundreds of thousands of people who have expressed their faith in us. There was no ballot at the polling station with the word 'bloc' or 'camp' on it."
I think this is the Hebrew equivalent of "I won" ...
Alluding to Netanyahu's coalition-making efforts, Livni said: "I am well aware of the deals that were made even before the elections and are still being made at this very moment, to do something against the will of the voter.
"There will be moves now that could be enticing," Livni said, but added, "In this task of putting together a coalition I don't intend to cheat myself or the public. We will continue to serve the public, whether we form a coalition as the public wants, or from the opposition," Livni said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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Dang, she knows the Rumsfeld 'claws of death' style...
#5
Tzippy could do worse than emulate the 1000 fighting styles of Rumsfeld. Ima feeling they are going to need it. Either that or the reanimated corpse of Ariel Sharon.
Aswat al-Iraq: Over seven million visitors have converged on the holy Shiite city of Karbala throughout the past 10 days to commemorate al-Arbaeen pilgrimage, Karbala’s governor said, adding that an estimated 4 million pilgrims are expected to stay in the city on the pilgrimage day.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Is that the one with the self-flagellation frenzy?
#2
That's it, Gromgoru. It brings millions in cash into Karbala (and Iraq in general). That's a good thing, even if there are a few that get carried away each year, and HAVE to be carried away - permanently.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 19:25
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British and French submarines armed with ballistic missiles threatened a nuclear disaster after colliding in the Atlantic, it emerged last night. Le Bombe.
The crash is believed to have occurred after state-of-the-art technology fitted in both vessels, which is designed to detect other submarines, apparently failed completely. You mean boomers were't sailing around the ocean blasting away on their active sonar?
Someone I'm sure will explain why two friendly boomers were in the same patch of ocean at the same time ...
Each boat is a key part of their respective countries' nuclear deterrent, ready to unleash hugely destructive weapons at a moment's notice.
While both countries claim that security was not comprised during the collision, wide-scale enquiries are currently underway on both sides of the Channel.
HMS Vanguard, the lead boat of her class in the Royal Navy, had to be towed back to her base in Scotland after the underwater mishap. French Navy sources confirm that Le Triomphant, one of four strategic nuclear submarines of the 'Force de Frappe' (Strike Force), was returning from a 70-day tour of duty when it collided with HMS Vanguard. Force de Frappe, gotta like that one. Sounds like one of the buttons on the blender.
During heavy seas in the middle of the night between February 3 and 4, French sailors heard a loud 'bang' that all but destroyed the submarine's sonar dome. and the careers of the captains involved
This part of the boat should have detected the Vanguard in the first place, but Le Triomphant's crew of 101 neither saw or heard anything before the collision. it's as if they were stealth ships or something...
Or just underwater ...
Between them the submarines had 250 sailors on board.
A senior Navy source told The Sun: 'The potential consequences are unthinkable. It's very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion. But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.'
As inquiries began, naval sources said it was a million to one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea.
Like I said, someone has some 'splaining to do ...
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'It is our policy not to comment on submarine operational matters, but we can confirm that the UK's deterrent capability has remained unaffected at all times and there has been no compromise to nuclear safety.'
The French last night also tried to play down the collision, with a Navy spokesman saying: 'The collision did not result in injuries among the crew and did not jeopardise nuclear security at any moment.'
Le Triomphant took at least three days to limp back to her home port, although she did not have to be towed. HMS Vanguard, by contrast, apparently had to be towed back to her home base in Faslane, Scotland. Commanders hate to be towed
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 10:44
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well it is the first french "victory" in a long time
Tell me which country has shariah courts and which one is advertising on Pakistan's TV with the theme 'Please don't hurt us". So France is going to lose the race to the bottom
Aswat al-Iraq: Four wanted men on Sunday were arrested on terror-related charges in southern Thi-Qar province, according to a police source. "In cooperation with emergency personnel, a force from Souk al-Shoyoukh police station arrested three suspects on terror charges," read a statement released by Thi-Qar police and received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Another wanted man was also attested in the province, according to the statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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The newly appointed Saudi Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Aziz Al-Khoja said he plans to reform the local media landscape so that it reflects messages of peace, tolerance and moderation worldwide, following his appointment yesterday as part of a major leadership overhaul in the kingdom.
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud also replaced the head of the religious police and the central bank governor of 26 years and appointed the kingdom's first-ever female deputy minister in the first cabinet reshuffle since taking over the throne in 2005.
"The most important thing is that the Kingdom's voice should reach the entire world, convey the message of peace and stability and portray the Kingdom's stance of moderation, tolerance and flexibility," al-Khoja told Saudi Gazette.
"We will work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to give all aspects of media works a strong push so as to achieve the ambitions of our leadership," he added.
Al-Khoja told the paper he would cooperate with Saudi journalists and intellectuals to develop the local media and design a strategic vision for the development of media production.
"I welcome their opinions and suggestions because they constitute the pillar of the Saudi media and represent the shining face of the country within and outside the Kingdom," he said.
Al-Khoja, who served as deputy minister of information and culture, saidhe would build on his previous experiences with the ministry to move forward with his reforms.
"I was a deputy to the ministery for a long period and I was in charge of many gulf and Islamic media, including news agencies and UNESCO-related projects," he said.
"I consider all media professionals my friends and we are going to cooperate to develop the media work in the kingdom," he added.
Sweeping changes
Al-Khoja's statements followed his appointment yesterday as the head of the information ministry, which was part of a sweeping reshuffle of the Saudi leadership by King Abdullah on Saturday
Norah al-Fayez, currently an official at the Saudi Institute for Public Administration, became the first woman deputy education minister for female education affairs, the most senior ever granted to a woman in the kingdom.
Also named in the sweeping shakeup was a new head of the Muttawa religious police, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Humain who replaced sacked Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ghaith.
The central bank governor Hamad Saud al-Sayyari was replaced with his deputy, Muhammad al-Jasser. The monarch also appointed Abdul-Aziz Khoja, who was ambassador to Lebanon, as information minister, replacing Iyad bin Amin Madani.
Sayyari had been at the helm of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the kingdom's central bank, since 1983 when he was appointed acting governor before being confirmed at the post two years later.
The reshuffle did not affect either of the key ministries of oil or finance, official sources said.
Saleh bin Humaid, who was speaker of the advisory Shura Council, was appointed head of the Supreme Judiciary Court and was replaced by the outgoing justice minister, Abdullah al-Sheikh
The board of Muslim scholars was also expanded for the first time to include 21 members from all Sunni schools of thought.
Posted by: Fred ||
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MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's foreign ministry on Saturday criticized a push by American congressmen for the extradition to the United States of Viktor Bout, a Russian wanted for allegedly trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to Colombian rebels.
Bout has been jailed in Thailand since his arrest there a year ago. More than two dozen U.S. lawmakers this week called for the Obama administration to ensure he is extradited.
This should be a no-brainer unless Viktor tries the sushi ...
The legislators said Russian authorities want Bout turned over to them, raising the possibility he could avoid trial in the United States. Russia in the past has rejected requests to extradite its citizens, most notably in the case of Andrei Lugovoi, whom Britain has named as the main suspect in the killing by radioactive poison of exiled security agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the congressmen's call was "bewildering" because charges against Bout in Thailand have been dropped and "his guilt on charges put forth in the United States has not been proven."
"Such activity on the part of parliamentarians in a nation that purports to be a paragon of rule and law and observance of human rights looks embarrassing to say the least," the statement said. It also suggested the push was "an attempt to derail efforts by Washington and Moscow to relaunch American-Russian cooperation."
Bout, reputed to be one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was caught at a Bangkok luxury hotel in an elaborate sting operation. Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, looking to buy millions of dollars in weapons from Bout. FARC is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
U.S. authorities long have considered Bout a weapons smuggler whose alleged list of customers included former dictator Charles Taylor of Liberia, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now known as Congo) and both sides of the civil war in Angola. In Afghanistan, he also allegedly armed the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance. He was charged in the United States with conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to the FARC. Bout also faces charges conspiring to kill U.S. officers or employees. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Bout has denied the charges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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"Such activity on the part of parliamentarians in a nation that purports to be a paragon of rule and law and observance of human rights looks embarrassing to say the least," the statement said.
Russian economy must be so bad they have failed to educate even the foreign minister. During the Cold War, they infiltrated us with ease but they apparently don't understand our system. US Congress is not parliamentary. Our citizens uniquely have rights guaranteed by our Constitution, not as global citizens with "human rights" to protect terrorists and pedophiles. That is, not unless Soros has his way with the Obama Administration.
#2
The Russian leadership must be worried sick that a Bout in captivity could spill the beans on the lucrative arms trade run out of Eastern Europe and Russia. I must, however, contradict myself. Why should they worry? Does anyone, anwhere have a doubt as to the corruption that exists within the surviving remnants of the Soviet military?
Iraq's Interior Minister Jawad Bolani on Saturday imposed a ban on signs in foreign languages in Shiite holy cities, in an apparent reference to Farsi, the official language of Iran.
"Mr Bolani has ordered that all phrases in foreign languages be removed from public places and services in Najaf and all the other holy cities in Iraq," his ministry said.
Signs in Farsi are common in public restrooms and other facilities used by the hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims who yearly visit Shiite Islam's holiest sites in the cities of Najaf and Karbala, both south of Baghdad.
Most Shiite Muslims visit Najaf, the home of Shiite Islam's most revered shrine of Imam Ali, and later tour Karbala, which is home to the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas.
Bolani, himself a Shiite, is an independent secular politician.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Courageous move. It is also a move that reinforces the local clergy in supremacy against Iranian mullahs.
This allows Iraqi Shia complete control of the holy places of Shia. It is equivalent to putting the Iranian mullahs under the heel of Iraqi clerics. Iraq's Ayatollah Sistani is probably happy for this.
#4
Sistani has consistently stepped up as an ally to an Iraqi government free from Iranian influence.
He was probably the first cleric in Iraq to understand that partnership with the US was the only way to keep the nutjobs in Iran at bay.
I like the guy more everyday. He was a real pain in the butt until AQ blew up the Mosque in Najaf.
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/16/2009 15:34
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I don't know, if I lived in Karbala or Najaf I'd be kind of pissed about this. Sounds like a recipe for hordes of Persian bumpkins pissing on my doorstep because they can't find the public toilets on account of all the Farsi "bathroom thataway" signs being torn down.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/16/2009 15:46
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Egypt's leading Christians have accused the governor of Cairo of trying to Islamize the streets by changing the names of some of the country's oldest areas from Christian ones to Islamic ones.
The advisor of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Dr. Naguib Gebrael, filed a lawsuit against Governor Abdul-Azim Wazir for changing street names without any legal or historical reason.
Gebrael cited the example of Victoria Square in Cairo's densely populated Coptic area called Shubra whose name was changed to Nasr al-Islam or the victory of Islam, the name of a fundamentalist association that offers charity services in the area.
" This is an attempt at Islamizing the districts of Cairo...These decisions infuriate Copts and prove there is a plan by the government to Islamize Egypt...There is a committee in charge of naming streets and squares and its members include university professors of geography and history. Did fundamentalism infiltrate this scientific committee? "
Dr. Naguib Gebrael
"This is an attempt at Islamizing the districts of Cairo," Gebrael told AlArabiya.net. "These decisions infuriate Copts and prove there is a plan by the government to Islamize Egypt."
"There is a committee in charge of naming streets and squares and its members include university professors of geography and history. Did fundamentalism infiltrate this scientific committee?" he added.
Gebrael stressed that Copts have nothing against Islamic names and that the lawsuit is not out of fanaticism for Christianity, but rather keenness to preserve the history of Egypt and promote tolerance and multiplicity. Shubra is one of the oldest districts in Cairo and has a considerable Coptic population.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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For decades, Cairo Muslims have found it acceptable to drink beer at a Christian friend's house. The only way the Islamers could enforce sharia would be to enter Christian homes.
Iran's powerful hardliners are showing signs of jangled nerves and disunity after Mohammad Khatami, the country's moderate former president, declared his intention to contest June's presidential elections. Supporters of the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hoped that the potent challenge posed to their monopoly on power by Mr Khatami, the charismatic politician-philosopher who still retains some of his rock star-like popularity, would unite conservatives behind the president.
But a hardline deputy revealed last weekend that some conservatives are ready to ditch the populist Mr Ahmadinejad as their most obvious candidate -- if they can persuade Mr Khatami to stand down.
Ali Motahhari, the MP, said the plan had been discussed with many "Principlists", the flattering term hardliners use to proclaim themselves as exclusively loyal devotees of the principles of the Islamic Revolution -- and all agreed.
Taliban insurgents announce a 10-day ceasefire in Pakistan's restive north-west Swat Valley after months of unrest, a militant spokesman says. "We're announcing ceasefire as a goodwill gesture to the ongoing talks between Maulana Sufi Mohammad and the government," Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Taliban militants said.
The ceasefire announcement comes amid talks between the North West Frontier Province's (NWFP) government and a pro-Taliban cleric, Sufi Mohammad, the leader of Tahrik-e-Nifaz Shariat. Sufi had dispatched hundreds of his men to fight in Afghanistan during the 2001 US-led invasion. He was released last year by Pakistani security forces after spending almost eight years in jail. Large numbers of the fearsome tribesmen he dispatched to fight the hated infidel now reside in the boneyard. Others had to be ransomed from the shipping containers that were their new homes.
The peace agreement, which is expected to be announced on Monday, binds the provincial government to implement Taliban-style strict laws in the Malakand division, which comprises Swat and its adjoining areas. The Taliban spokesman said the decision for a 10-day ceasefire has been made in view of the ongoing efforts by its allied group for the enforcement of Taliban laws in the region, according to a Press TV correspondent.
Meanwhile in an interview with US TV network CBS on Sunday, Pakistani President Asif Zardari said the Taliban had established presence across 'huge parts' of Pakistan. "We are aware of the fact that the Taliban are trying to take over the state of Pakistan," he said. "... which is why we surrendered Malakand to them."
The Taliban militants have set up a parallel administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints in the troubled Swat region.
Swat, once a popular destination for Pakistani and foreign holidaymakers, has descended into chaos in recent months, with pitched battles between insurgents and the Pakistani army. The ceasefire brings a pause in fighting between the Pakistani army and the insurgents in Swat that has raged since November 2007. The 900-square-km (3,500-square-mile) Swat Valley lies less than 160 km (100 miles) from the capital, Islamabad. About 1,500 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in fighting against militants since 2002.
This article starring:
SUFI MOHAMAD
TNSM
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Beginning of the end for Pakistan...
Hussein Obama will have "lost" Pakistan,
will he nuke it as promised?
It is Iran all over again, soon the quick
collapse with the ISI agents roasted of spits...sweet justice!!!
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/16/2009 0:28
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It is Iran all over again, soon the quick
collapse with the ISI agents roasted of spits...sweet justice!!!
Unlikely. The civilian government will fall, but the ISI won't.
Just asking, but are beheadings common in western New York? I used to spend a lot of time in that neck of the woods and I don't remember decapitation as a routine form of murder. Yet the killing of Aasiya Hassan seems to have elicited a very muted response.
When poor Mrs Hassan's husband launched his TV network to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims, he had no difficulty generating column inches, as far afield as The Columbus Dispatch, The Detroit Free Press, The San Jose Mercury News, Variety, NBC News, the Voice of America and the Canadian Press. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle put the couple on the front page under the headline "Infant TV Network Unveils The Face Of Muslim News".
But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and "the face of Muslim news" is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it's all he can do to make the local press - page 26 of Newsday, plus The Buffalo News, and a very oddly angled piece in the usually gung-ho New York Post, "Buffalo Beheading: Money Woe Spurred Slay". Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
02/16/2009
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Seems like Hassan failed miserably at countering negative mooselimb sterotypes. What was his excuse again?
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who has emerged as the key figure in ending the conflict in Swat and controlling militancy in the rest of the Malakand division, is also a strong supporter of renaming the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa.
The Maulana, who is at present sitting in a protest camp along with his followers in Timergara, Dir Lower district, to highlight his demand for the enforcement of the Islamic law in the Malakand division, has been telling the Awami National Party (ANP) leaders negotiating with him that he wanted the NWFP to be renamed as Pakhtunkhwa.
Sources in the ANP said he told their party leaders that all the provinces of Pakistan had frontiers with other countries and the word 'frontier' should be added to their existing names like the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The Maulana also argued that other provinces were named after the majority ethnic groups living there and the NWFP, with its Pakhtun majority, ought to be renamed as Pakhtunkhwa. Maulana Sufi Muhammad, it may be added, had in the past also publicly stated for renaming the province as Pakhtunkhwa.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi forces on Sunday found a mass grave containing the remains of eight unknown bodies in a village near Baaquba city, according to a security source. "This afternoon, Salam police forces discovered a mass grave in Albo Tima village, al-Salam district (15 km north of Baaquba), containing decomposed bodies of eight unknown persons who were shot dead," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"The bodies were found in an orchard in the village, which was one of al-Qaeda's main strongholds in Diala," the source explained.
Twenty mass graves have been discovered in the village throughout the past few years. Bodies of civilians and army and police personnel who were killed by al-Qaeda after it had taken control of the village were found in the graves.
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02/16/2009
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Iran's Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi says members of the banned Bahai sect have irrefutable links with Israel.
After Tehran's deputy prosecutor Hassan Haddad announced on Wednesday that seven members of the Bahai sect would soon be tried, US State Department issued a statement to condemn the decision.
The seven Bahai followers will be tried on charges of "espionage for Israel, desecrating religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic."
The statement by the US State Department condemned the move, saying the espionage charges were "baseless."
"There is irrefutable evidence that adherents of the Bahai sect are in close contact with the enemies of the Iranian nation and have strong links to the Zionist regime," Dorri-Najafabadi explained on Sunday.
The top Iranian judiciary official accused the group of gathering intelligence on Iran and involvement in espionage activities against the Islamic Republic.
"Bahai organizations are illegal and their connections to Israel and their enmity toward Islam and the Islamic system are absolutely certain and their threat against the national security is a proven fact," added the Iranian cleric.
Followers of the Bahai sect -- founded in Iran in 1863 -- are regarded as infidels and have been persecuted both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and NWFP Government have signed a joint declaration for the enforcement of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand Division.
The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti is set to formally announce the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand Division today.
Meanwhile, provincial law minister Arshad Abdullah told that the regulation would be enforced only after complete restoration of peace in Malakand.
"Our agreement is conditioned with peace,'' Abdullah said. 'They have to succumb to law. They have to put down their arms.''
"We hammered out a peace truce with TNSM after getting green-signal from President Asif Ali Zardari," he added.
A formal announcement in this connection will be made by the Chief Minister Hoti at the Frontier House today.
Posted by: Fred ||
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TOKYO (AP) - Japan's economy contracted in the fourth quarter at the fastest pace in 35 years as a collapse in global demand continues to drain the life from the world's second-largest economy. Japan's gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation's goods and services, dropped at an annual pace of 12.7 percent in the October-December period, the government said Monday. That's the steepest drop for Japan since the oil shock of 1974. It far outpaces declines of 3.8 percent in the U.S. and 1.2 percent in the euro zone.
Japan had its third straight quarter of decline. The GDP fell 1.8 percent in the July-September period. Fourth-quarter GDP fell 3.3 percent from the previous three-month period, and for 2008, it contracted 0.7 percent - the first decline in nine years, according to the Cabinet Office.
The three main pillars underlying Japan's emergence from the so-called "lost decade" of the 1990s have crumbled, said Martin Schulz, an economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. Between 2003 and 2007, Japan's GDP grew an average of 2.1 percent every year. But the expansion relied heavily on favorable exchange rates, overseas investment and demand, and old industry - steel, cars and chemicals.
Japan's real exports plummeted a record 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the government said, as the deepening global slowdown choked off demand for the country's cars and gadgets. Even demand from emerging markets, which earlier had partly offset declines in North America and Europe, began falling sharply in the fourth quarter.
An appreciating yen also hurt the country's exporters, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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As President Obama prepares to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill, administration officials sought to temper expectations, warning that the economy has not yet reached bottom and that increased economic activity as a result of the legislation would take time to show up in the statistics.
Mr. Obama is spending the holiday weekend in Chicago and is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday in Denver, kicking off another campaign-style trip to drum up support for the stimulus package. There will be signs of activity very quickly, David Axelrod, the White House senior adviser, said on Fox News Sunday. But its going to take time for that to show up in the statistics. The president has said its likely to get worse before it gets better. He added that the economy would most likely not begin gathering steam until the second half of the year.
Note he doesn't say which year ...
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, echoed that sentiment on CNNs State of the Union, saying that while the stimulus package will put the country on the right track, it is safe to say the economy has not reached bottom.
Lindsay Graham, one of the Republican senators who voted against the stimulus bill, said the nationalization of the banking industry should not be taken off the table as Congress looks for ways to shore up the teetering financial system. This idea of nationalizing banks is not comfortable, Mr. Graham, who is from South Carolina, said on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos. But I think we have gotten so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that were going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago.
Republicans, bolstered by their coordinated opposition to the package, remained on the offensive over the weekend. On CNN, Senator John McCain continued to brand the stimulus bill a generational theft, and accused Mr. Obama of not reaching across the aisle despite promises of bipartisanship. The measure gained the votes of only three moderate Republican senators in the Senate. No Republicans voted for it in the House.
Lets start over now and sit down together, Mr. McCain said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Such a big rush to jam the pig (the stimulus bill) through the python (Congress) and Obama takes a very long weekend off & has yet to sign it. What was the rush all about, besides bypassing any rational discussion/deliberation by anyone?
#3
The infrastructure fixes could float quite a few local economies. Negotiated rents/buy payments are already replacing foreclosures. Children are often supporting out of work parents by moving back into family homes. Sales executives are taking jobs at 7-11. The UAW is about to lose their $70 per hour squeeze. Donald Trump is said to face bankruptcy on Thursday. There is less arrogance in the air. I like a humble society.
#4
Stimulus Wont Be a Quick Fix
He's right on that count, it won't get paid off until my grandkids have grandkids.
Can anyone tell me what O has ties to in CO? Seems he likes that state more than his home state, oops, I don't know where he's from.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/16/2009 6:44
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#5
Floating $787 Billion in Treasury Bonds sucks $787 Billion dollars out of the world economy. Given the high level of padding involving government bureaucracy from federal to the local in the overhead, we're unlikely to see that infusion into the market place for many many years. Given the amount of good old boy graft, multiple little empire building bureaucrats, and kickbacks from the limited number of contractors to do the jobs, even more inefficiency will consume any effect in the larger economy as a whole. The only thing being stimulated is another failed socialism agenda.
#9
Are you attributing any alleged 'Negotiated rents/buy payments' to Obama, Alistaire? That's laughable. If banks are doing that it is because it's better for them to renegotiate than it is to just write down the loan. Infrastructure projects most certainly will not 'float' a few local economies. At best you will see a slight bump but that won't be for a year or more. Infrastructure projects have been proven to provide near ZERO short-term economic boost. As for the UAW, the only way they will lose their squeeze on the big 3 is if GM files bankruptcy. The democrats will never and I mean never allow the automakers to put the screws to the UAW. The democrats are owned and paid for by the UAW. The most arrogant wind-bag every is now occupying the White House so I don't know how there is less arrogance in the air.
#10
When I was in govt. I tried, over more than a decade, to get people to say that 'such and such project will likely create x jobs for one year' (this the construction portion) and if there were any permanent jobs to note that separately. This would properly, in my opinion, emphasize the temporary nature of 'stimulus'.
Obviously, the mass of public affairs personnel were against me as were the suck ups to management, as were the dummies who didn't understand the difference.
#14
Obama's main goal seems to be to derail the US economy permanently. Then he can more easily advance his communist agenda. It's pretty simple, actually. Wreck the economy, take over major industries, influence other industries and exercise control through economics, run small businesses out of the market, give away money/houses to the masses, make as many people dependent on government as possible. This "stimulus" won't be "enough." It will take more and more until the goal of government control and the destruction of capitalism is complete.
Anyone like the way it was such a f*cking EMERGENCY, and "O" takes his time to sign it so he can pretend the country is behind it? I can't stand that he's going to Colorado to sign it. Isn't Washington good enough? Flying across the country to sign a bill costs a pretty penny in these troubled times.
#15
Anyone like the way it was such a... The whole "stimulus" is a crock of crap. At least O nows "owns" the recession/depression and the lack of anything productive coming from this colossal waste of resources can be blamed on him.
I don't think this is the destruction of "capitalism", just further gravy for the Pig Men coupled with an expansion of state control. I believe there are better labels for that process.
A clip from another blog calls the current process "disaster capitalism": "the cream of the crap earn outsized paychecks from the disastrous aftermath when everyone on Main Street is involuntarily fleeced to help clean up the mess in order to stave off the crisis." it won't get paid off until my grandkids have grandkids. IT WON'T EVER GET PAID OFF. The only possible outcome is debasement of the currency.
The Trunks could always go nuclear by saying that any T Bonds issued in 2009 will not be honored when they regain power in Congress again. That would mean they won't be able to issue new ones either and have to live within the government's actual income without further borrowing. Not going to happen, but it would end the practice of reducing your children and grandchildren into tax serfs.
Sri Lanka's ruling party has won widespread public support for its war against the Tamil Tigers, local election results showed yesterday, as the military braced for a final assault on the rebels. President Mahinda Rajapakse's Freedom Alliance easily won two provincial councils, which went to the polls Saturday, according to provisional counting. Rajapakse had turned the vote into a referendum on his military campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas who are cornered in the north-east of the island.
"The results showed that the people supported the government's war effort," defeated main opposition candidate S. B. Dissanayake said.
The president has said he hoped to defeat the Tamil Tigers within days, ending the island's decades-long ethnic conflict.
Officials said the air force on Sunday destroyed at least three boats of the Tamil Tigers off the coast of Mullaittivu district, where the fighting is concentrated. Sri Lankan soldiers fought a series of fierce battles with separatist Tamil Tigers as troops advanced further into the rebels' shrinking territory, the military said yesterday.
Government forces have won a string of major victories against the insurgents in recent months, capturing their administrative capital of Kilinochchi and seizing their main bases in the north. The government says it is on the verge of crushing the rebel group - which is cornered into a 58-square mile (93-square kilometer) strip of northern coastal land in Mullaittivu - and ending the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war.
In the latest fighting, army troops "launched a strong attack" Saturday on rebels in the village of Waduwankal in Mullaittivu, the military said. They later found the bodies of two rebels and a large haul of weapons and ammunition, it said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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WASHINGTON - The Pentagon will begin recruiting skilled immigrants with temporary status in the United States and offer them an express path to citizenship, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing military officials, the paper said that under the proposed program, recruits would be able to become US citizens in as little as six months.
Permanent residents, or holders of so-called "green cards," have been eligible to enlist in the US military for a long time. But for the first time since the Vietnam War, the military, which is stretched thin due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will now open its doors to immigrants with temporary visas if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, the report said.
Recruiters expect that temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans, helping the military to fill vacancies in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis, The Times wrote.
"The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical," Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the army, told the paper. "There will be some very talented folks in this group," he said.
The program will be first limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year and mostly involve the army, the report said. If the pilot program succeeds, it will expand for all branches of the military and eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits, The Times noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
How about giving DoD some of those H1B visas now that the economy doesn't really need those hundreds of thousands foreigners businesses lied cried they desperately needed [and thus kill the incentive of any American to go into that specific field of endeavor for study or work]?
#2
This seems like a it could be a step in the right direction, closer towards a realistic solution to the problem of illegal immigration, in the sense that it would increase the number of immigrants allowed into the US legally. However, this does not appear to do much about the root cause of this problem, which is the abhorrent failure of the current path to citizenship, which is terribly unrealistic and inefficient, and it is addressing the wrong class of immigrants.
This could give our military invaluable resources, and it does seem like a very effective and fair way to create a path to citizenship, requiring a needed public service in exchange for the right to live under the protections of US law. According to the Cato Institute (unfortunately, this analysis is from pre-economic crisis times, so it is possible the situation may have changed), the US needs to allow more immigrants to enter the US legally. This would stem the tide of illegal entry and would address many of the problems commonly associated with illegal immigration, such as wage decline (although the connection here is actually much more tenuous than often thought) and job-loss.
However, there is a necessary distinction between "skilled" and "un-skilled" or "low-skilled" immigrants. Though this may sound counter-intuitive to some, we need immigrants in the US, but not "skilled" (or more accurately, "professional" immigrants). The United States produces hundreds of thousands of new, low-skilled jobs every year, and the number of Americans ready and willing to fill those jobs steadily decreases with every year (Again, this is pre-financial crisis, so I do not know how this data may have changed, if at all). Illegal immigrants (which are almost entirely composed of "low-skilled" workers) are a resource that we have all but institutionalized, and a resource that would better serve the US if we simply adjusted our legal paths to citizenship to be efficient and more in-tune with the reality of the US workforce.
This plan may open us up to such a realistic approach to immigration policy, but it seems to be following the same precendent we have followed for years: whenever we increase the number of immigrants allowed into the US, we allow in more skilled immigrants (H1B), which we often have adequate alternatives for, and eschew the low-skilled immigrants, which come in anyway, just without the legal protections that would reduce the burden placed on wages, jobs, and social services (In way of example, many illegal immigrants opt against preventative care and wait until they -must- get medical care, for fear of being deported. This results in more severe, and expensive, problems than would otherwise occur, which these immigrants care often not pay for.).
#3
.....temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many stinking Bible and gun toting white, Republican voting Americans, helping the military to fill vacancies in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis, The Times wrote.
Can we not find the funding to TRAIN a 14,000 willing US citizens? Appears we're kicking the multi-cult thing up a notch.
#4
Again, this goes to the idea of creating an American Foreign Legion, modeled after the FFL. Quartered offshore, this would let us recruit the best foreign talent, as light infantry to do the long-term, low value, high cost missions like peacekeeping and humanitarian relief.
The US military is a very expensive, finely tuned and superb machine, and using it for missions like these wastes billions of dollars and degrades its readiness. Like using a samurai sword to pry open cans of paint.
Since the US has large numbers of illegal aliens, we might as well push for them to buy their citizenship as well, if nothing else than to get citizenship for "good" illegals. But many possible soldiers don't *want* US citizenship, they want to be soldiers.
The illegals are good for just raising US military numbers. But for serious, if low grade missions, the military needs an AFL.
#8
the US needs to allow more immigrants to enter the US legally
You think we need millions, billions, of third world people streaming into this country? Bringing all their third world problems with them? I don't.
You think we need masses of poor, illiterate Mexican peasants to serve as cannon fodder for the US Army? I hope not.
OTOH, if you have a few thousand legal immigrants who are educated and show some inclination to assimilate into our culture it might work. Er, that is, if you don't mind being compared to the French.
The United States produces hundreds of thousands of new, low-skilled jobs every year, and the number of Americans ready and willing to fill those jobs steadily decreases with every year
#11
We had two "foreigners" in my basic training flight in 1965. One was German, the other was Canadian. Philippinos had the "right" to enlist in our military after the Philippines gained their independence in 1946. I've known dozens of "foreigners" in the military during my 26-year career. Most had joined to gain their citizenship, and to serve a nation they loved and respected. This is NOT "new". This is the first time, however, I've known the US military to actually go LOOKING for these types of recruits.
My granddaughter has enlisted in the Navy recently, but there's not an opening in "boot camp" until May or June a the earliest. That doesn't suggest there's a huge demand for these people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 14:35
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#12
Unless of course your an ex British Soldier who now lives in the US and who wanted to join the Marine Corp and was told that the UK was not in this new program so good luck to the US military machine with all your new Indian,Pakistan,Somali recruits sure Al qaeda will be well happy with the US training all their martyrs
Posted by: Alex ||
02/16/2009 15:26
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#13
Just as long as the military keep the case of Ali Mohammed and the post below "War and Peace and Deceit in Islam" in opinion, in mind and not mindlessly follow process as opposed to outcome.
#14
As for immigrants serving in the US military, I have just two words: Rick Rescorla
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/16/2009 17:57
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#15
#12 - Alex - contact your area congressman, and if that doesn't help, contact mine: Duncan D Hunter. He's USMC and Marine Reserve
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 18:53
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#16
Jeez, look at the early days of the Republic and seem how many foreigners were serving : the Marquis de Lafayette, von Steuben, Count Pulaski, etc. The US has always had foreigners in the military and they have serve honorably in the main. This is just NYT propaganda about how we are "desperate" for troops because of the "unpopular and illegal" wars.
The Palestinian Authority plans to dismiss dozens of mosque preachers in the West Bank who expressed solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead and incited against the PA leadership and moderate Arab governments.
Jamal Bawatneh, the PA Minister for Religious Affairs, said his ministry was planning "many changes" that would affect a large number of imams in the West Bank.
The minister accused the imams of exploiting the mosque podiums to promote their "private agendas" in violation of ministry regulations.
"Some of the imams and mosque tutors have misused the freedom granted to them," Bawatneh charged. "They thought that the ministry was not aware of their actions."
He said that as far as he was concerned, those who "want to become celebrities and engage in election propaganda should go to the radio and TV stations and not to the mosques. We won't allow them to spread their lies and fabrications in the mosques."
The latest move is seen by Palestinians in the context of the PA leadership's efforts to combat pro-Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
A source in the ministry said the imams who were targeted had expressed sympathy for Hamas during the recent war in the Gaza Strip. Some of them even dared to use Friday prayers to criticize PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab heads of state for failing to take a tougher stance against Israel, the source added.
The PA security forces have in recent weeks arrested several West bank imams on charges of "incitement" during the war and membership in an illegal organization, i.e. Hamas.
The arrests come in spite of attempts by Hamas and Fatah leaders to end their differences and form a national unity government. The two parties have been holding reconciliation talks in Cairo over the past week in a bid to end the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
At least three imams from the Ramallah area were arrested by Abbas's security forces in the past few days: Amer Hamoudeh from Kharbata Bani Hareth, Ahmed al-Abed Shalash from Shakba, and Shaker Wahdan from Rantis.
A fourth imam, Jawad al-Natsheh of Hebron, is reported to be seriously ill after being held in a PA prison for three weeks. His family said that he had been brutally tortured while in prison on charges of supporting Hamas and protesting against the war in the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Cry me a river...
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/16/2009 0:32
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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - The U.S. Treasury Department has authorized the transfer of $500,000 to a Syrian charity in a sign that it is easing its economic embargo on the country, Syria's ambassador to Washington said Sunday. Imad Mustafa told reporters that the money to the Children with Cancer Support Association was raised by Syrians living in the United States. There was no immediate comment from the Treasury Department.
How much gets diverted to the Widows Ammunition Fund?
The U.S., under former President George W. Bush, imposed a variety of sanctions on Syria to punish a government it accused of allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq, as well as supporting militant groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. One measure banned U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine.
Syria has denied allowing fighters to cross into Iraq, while saying it is impossible to control its extensive desert border.
I wouldn't have minded having us try it, from both sides ...
If the money transfer is confirmed, it would be another sign that the U.S. is easing some sanctions. A Syrian newspaper reported last week that the U.S. Trade Department has agreed to provide spare parts for two Syrian-owned Boeing 747 aircraft out of service for years.
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CHENNAI: Categorically stating that handing over power to LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was not a solution the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said India's efforts would never end up creating a dictator' in the island's north-east.
At a public meeting organised by his son Karti Chidambaram to explain the Congress party's stand on the sensitive issue, Chidambaram said the LTTE had never been the sole representatives of 40 lakh Sri Lankan Tamils. "India has no moral responsibility to pressure the Sri Lankan government to hold talks with armed militants,'' he said. India's stand was clear. Just like the Centre was not in a position to negotiate with armed groups operating in Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, Sri Lanka too would not initiate a dialogue with armed militants.
It would set a dangerous precedent, wouldn't it ...
Quoting President Pratiba Patil's speech, the home minister said the Centre would definitely arrange for a ceasefire if the LTTE declared its willingness to lay down arms simultaneously with Colombo suspending military operations. Asking what was wrong with India's policy, he appealed to the LTTE to lay down arms as no state, president or prime minister would negotiate with armed groups.
Listen to the man, Mr. Olmert ...
Chidambaram clearly hinted that post-war negotiations would involve not just the LTTE but leaders of the East and Central provinces as well. The 13 lakh plantation Tamils of Indian origin have their own leaders, the 13 lakh Tamils in the East did accept the LTTE's leadership once but, frustrated by the outfit's violent attitude, the Eastern province now had its own democratically elected chief minister. The LTTE as a movement existed only for the northern Tamils now.
"Talks will be on the basis of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord and it will be aimed at solution for all communities, and not for creating a dictatorship," he said.
The LTTE's biggest mistake was in clinically eliminating many Sri Lankan Tamil leaders. And then, it committed the blunder of assassinating Rajiv Gandhi, he said and noted that there were many Tamil leaders still left to pursue the path of democracy in Sri Lanka.
Reminding the people that the Tamil language was the binding and uniting force of Tamils living across the world, Chidambaram said some political parties championing the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils in the state did not even exist in the mid-1980s when he was handpicked by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to hold talks with armed Sri Lankan Tamil groups, including the Tigers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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The chairman of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee
[God help us]
will meet with Syria's president this week on a tour of the region that began Sunday in Egypt.
The U.S. has accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq, though Syria denies that. Kerry has in the past spoken of his concern about what he said was the flow of money, weapons and terrorists through Syria into Iraq and Lebanon.
In Egypt on Sunday, the senator said the U.S. is eager to talk to Syria, whose president said last month he also wants a dialogue with Washington, but without preconditions. here is the dialogue,
Syria: F... Israel
US: Peace?
Syria: Sc... Israel
US: Peace?
Syria: OK we'll settle for cash
#3
He does have previous experience dealing with the enemy while in no legal position to do so. During the Vietnam war he negotiated with the North Vietnamese.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/16/2009 7:06
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sKerry will do for the Assad family what he did for HoChiMinh and his stalinist comrades...sKerry isn't sKerry unless he's working against the best interests of America. That's why he's loved in Massatwoshits.
North Korean media reacted with anger Monday to suggestions Pyongyang is preparing to launch a long-range missile, calling them a ''grave challenge'' by forces who wish to halt development of Pyongyang's defense and science capabilities. The report by the official Korean Central News Agency also indicated North Korea may launch a satellite or other objects for space development, saying, ''One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK.''
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Pakistani news channel Geo TV has uncovered the training grounds of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008. The channel claims to have found out the training ground and the house that Mumbai attacker Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab and his partners used for training.
The area where the terrorists trained is situated about 100 kilometres from the India-Pakistan border. Geo TV traced the isolated building in Dori which could have been the training ground for the 26/11 attackers. The door is bolted at present, but inside there are unmistakable traces of people living.
Blankets and mattresses lie scattered while Islamic literature is stacked in order and in one corner a shelf full of medicines is stored. The newspapers lying on the floor on the floor with reports of the Mumbai carnage indicate the building was in use even during and after the attack.
The caretaker of the house says he was ordered by the suspected terrorists to stay away from the house. "I had been given some numbers. I did not speak to them," says the caretaker Mumtaz.
Residents of the area say seven terrorists stayed in the house and travelled in a motor launch. Located just 40 kilometres away from Karachi, from where the terrorists sailed for Mumbai, Dori was a perfect launch pad for the 26/11 attackers.
Meanwhile, an anti-terrorist court (ATC) in Pakistan has sent eight accused including Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, on a 14-day remand to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Dawn News has reported that the eight accused, against whom a First Information report (FIR) was registered by the FIA on Thursday, were produced before the ATC Judge Sakhiu Muhammad Kahut at some undisclosed location.
They have reportedly been charged with planning, financing and abetting the Mumbai terror attacks.
Earlier, government sources had told Dawn News that the trial of the eight accused would be held at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi because of security reasons. Officials say the FIA has also requested the government to provide two bullet-proof vehicles for transporting the high-profile suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
They make sand tables, you better believe it. They also post warfare related "Technical manuals". They mock villiages, scenes, and test response times.
Because the only thing preventing Bangladesh from being a paradise is a nuclear power plant ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
When half your "nation" and its population is below sea level or just slightly above, a nuclear power plant would be a very good idea - especially if it had a 20-foot-tall berm around it. That way they could run the pumps to try to keep the rest of the nation from drowning. It's strange - the majority of the Indian subcontinent is growing higher, but the area at the head of the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh) is sinking about an inch a year. They need to import some Dutch to learn how to reclaim land from the sea - or learn to live on the water, like they do in Brunei.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 16:54
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#2
That brought a quick memory of pictures of fishermen in the lake clinging to poles stuck in the bottom as they fish.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/16/2009 22:33
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The founder of an American Muslim television channel, launched to counter the negative stereotypes of Muslims after 9/11, was arrested in New York late Thursday for beheading his estranged wife. We've had this story a couple times, now al-Arabiya's picked it up. So far it's not burning up the U.S. press, though.
Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was charged with second-degree murder hours after he went to the police and told them his wife's dead body was at the Bridges TV office in Buffalo, New York, local papers reported.
" Obviously this is the worst form of domestic violence possible "
District Attorney
Police, who are still searching for the murder weapon, identified the victim as Aasiya Hassan, 37, and said she had recently filed for divorce from Hassan and sought a restraining order barring him from the family home, Buffalo News reported.
"Obviously this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," the paper quoted District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III as saying.
Someone ought to ask the newspapers just how often beheadings occur in western New York, and then ask, if it is that uncommon, why they aren't covering this one.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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From their story: Muzzammil Hassan, who founded Bridges TV in November 2004 to counter anti-Islam stereotypes, surrendered to police Thursday. Hassan touted the network as the "first-ever full-time home for American Muslims," according to a press release.
"Every day on television we are barraged by stories of a 'Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent,'" Hassan said in the 2004 release. "But the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell."
"As you can see, my story is the former. The latter are mostly fiction."
Posted by: Dar ||
02/16/2009 13:27
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#5
As an Upstate New Yorker, I can vouch that, except for hockey games, decapitations are exceedingly rare.
#7
The local Buffalo news reported that that Mr. Hassan lived in Orchard Park, which is an upscale suburb in the southwest side of the city. What they didn't report because everybody their knows it, is that it is not far from Lackawanna, home of the famous Lackawanna Six terrorists. Of course, he and his wife hail from Pakistan, whereas I believe the Muslims in Lackawanna are almost exclusively Yemenis... many of whom conform to a great many of the negative stereotypes Mr. Hassan hoped to disprove.
Separately, it seems the Buffalo authorities were trying to contact the Hassan family in Pakistan, presumably to take responsibility for the four children, who I'm sure will not at all appreciate being returned to the ancestral home.
Indian security forces have arrested at least 11 radical Hindus for attacking young couples across the country on Valentine's Day.
Five members of the radical Shiv Sena group were arrested on Saturday after they threatened couples in a New Delhi park, a police spokesman said. The protesters used scissors to cut the hair of what they called 'overtly romantic' couples in the park.
Another six radicals were arrested in the country's northern Agra city, media sources said on Sunday.
Some religious activists also burnt flowers and Valentine Day cards to mark their protest.
The Hindu group says Valentine's Day is a symbol of 'cultural corruption'. Shiv Sena says that it intends to protect Indian culture from Westernization.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Sunday discovered an al-Qaeda prison in western Mosul city, according to an army source. "On Sunday, an Iraqi army force found an underground prison in a deserted house in Rajm al-Hadid area near al-Maash market, western Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The al-Qaeda-run prison, where executions and torture took place, was found in light of intelligence tips, the source explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
I'm sure the MSM will give the discovery this tip billing monday morning as well as 24x7 coverage of the Al-Q torture of innocent civilians for the next 18 months. And I'm sure AmNasty International and Human Rights [abuse] Watch will be sure to condem them as well...
churping crickets...
(and no.... I am not on any high-powered drugs. But I may be delusional....)
President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, paving the way for him to run again in 2012--and beyond--and push through his vision of a socialist Venezuela. Fireworks exploded in the sky and caravans of supporters celebrated in the streets, waving red flags and honking horns.
With 94 percent of the vote counted, 54 percent had voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, National Electoral Council chief Tibisay Lucena announced. Forty-six percent had voted against the measure to eliminate term limits on all public officials, too few to make up the distance with the remaining votes.
"Today we opened wide the gates of the future. Venezuela will not return to its past of indignity," Chavez proclaimed after singing the national anthem from the balcony of his Miraflores palace.
Voters on both sides said their decision was crucial to the future of Venezuela, a deeply polarized country where Chavez has spent a tumultuous decade in power channeling tremendous oil wealth into combating gaping social inequality.
The recorded blare of bugles jarred Venezuelans awake before dawn, and long lines formed even before the polls opened at 6 a.m. Information Minister Jesse Chacon projected turnout as high as 70 percent.
People voting "yes" said Chavez has given poor Venezuelans cheap food, free education and quality health care, and empowered them with a discourse of class struggle after decades of U.S.-backed governments that favored the rich. No successor has emerged, and voters said they worry their gains will vanish if Chavez leaves office.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
I figure we'll have a similar referendum in 2014. You just can't stop the bread and circuses.
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A Cambodian math teacher who turned a school into a torture chamber goes on trial tomorrow in the first hearing involving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement that tried to slaughter the nation's intellectual class 30 years ago. Kang Kek Ieu, 66, also known as Duch, oversaw Tuol Sleng prison in the capital, Phnom Penh, where only about a dozen of at least 12,000 inmates survived. He is the youngest of five Khmer Rouge leaders who will face trial before a United Nations-backed tribunal accused of genocide.
Thanks to the UN most of the worst Khmer Rouge have died before their trials.
"Thirty years later, we have not recovered," said Sok Siphana, a former vice-minister in Cambodia's Commerce Ministry who now works with the International Trade Centre, a UN agency, in Geneva. "To do the things that Thailand and Malaysia take for granted, we are struggling to just fill that initial base."
The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people during its rule from 1975 to 1979. Tuol Sleng was the most notorious prison in a network that targeted Cambodia's educated elite as the movement attempted to create a classless, agrarian society free of foreign influence starting at Year Zero.
What follows is an accounting of what the Cambodians have tried to do since the Khmer Rouge were removed and how much success they've had.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
The Khmer Rouge took power after a U.S. bombing campaign during the Vietnam War stirred discontent in the countryside against General Lon Nol's coup-installed government.
IIUC, that is a LOAD OF BULLSH*T.
1) We were bombing parts of Cambodia whose peasant population had been driven away by the NVA. THERE WERE NO CIVILIANS IN THOSE AREAS- Only murderous North Vietnamese.
2) Lon Nol fell because our traitorous congress refused to sell him arms to beat the KR off.
I wasn't there, so if someone has a different interpretation, please correct me.
#2
FR - I was in Saigon in 1970-71, working at the 12th Reconnaissance Intelligence Technical Squadron. We supplied all the imagery intelligence to Hq. 7th Air Force. We saw quite a bit of imagery taken of Cambodia, and I can confirm that there were darned few civilians in the areas occupied by the NVA. Those were the only areas we bombed. I can also confirm that the NVA had taken over several of the cultural treasures of Cambodia, and used them for military purposes. Angkor Wat was used as an NVA field hospital. I can also confirm that it was the DEMOCRATIC Congress that screwed Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and did their level best to "lose" Thailand. The Thais were able to defend themselves.
Some of the people that screwed Southeast Asia are still around, including at least three or four in the Senate. I'd personally LOVE to hang them all for treason, but unfortunately I'm not running things, and probably never will.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 19:37
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may feel it can extract more from the international community by raising tensions than by accepting Washington's olive branch of normal ties in return for scrapping its nuclear arms programme. The North, while likely to welcome the U.S. gesture, probably believes it will have a better bargaining position over the long term if its first steps towards the new Obama administration are provocative and not conciliatory, analysts said at the weekend.
Since they think Bambi can be easily rolled ...
In a speech on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminated its nuclear weapons programme.
Did she offer a pony? An edible pony?
North Korea has made no direct response to Clinton but its KCNA news agency quoted number two leader Kim Yong-nam as saying Pyongyang "will as ever develop the relations with the countries which are friendly towards it."
Clinton's offer, made before she visits key Asian nations including South Korea this week, follows a month of angry rhetoric from Pyongyang at the government in Seoul and reports the North is preparing to test-fire its missiles. "The Obama administration is clearly sending the signal that it is serious about negotiations and testing the North Koreans to see if they are serious," said Peter Beck, a specialist in Korean affairs at the American University in Washington.
They're also sending a signal that they're disregarding the hard-won knowledge of the Norks behavior towards treaties and deals ...
Clinton's statement marked a continuation of former President George W. Bush's eventual policy on North Korea, but the early call for talks is a sharp departure from Bush who began his term by trying to isolate the impoverished and reclusive state.
Clinton also said she hoped North Korea, which is reported to have made preparations to test its longest-range missile, would not engage in what she called "provocative" actions that would make it more difficult to work with Pyongyang. "North Korea may be looking to stir things up early in the Obama administration by testing its weapons systems to increase its bargaining leverage," said a diplomatic source in Seoul.
Outgoing chief U.S. negotiator for North Korea, Chris Hill, told reporters Pyongyang needed to get on with denuclearisation. "We have too many interruptions. Some interruptions slow that down too much," he told reporters in Seoul ahead of Clinton's trip.
South Korea has not commented on Clinton's statement. Neither has Japan nor China, countries Clinton will also visit, but all three capitals are likely to welcome the positive tone on a subject expected to feature high on her agenda.
The South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has infuriated his destitute neighbour by cutting off what once had been a free flow of unconditional aid shortly after taking office a year ago.
In Pyongyang, North Korea is busy preparing to celebrate the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-il on Monday. But a pro-North Korea newspaper published in Japan that has close ties to the North's leaders said at the weekend that Pyongyang feels the United States is still making hostile moves towards it through its military presence in South Korea. "Ahead of Clinton's visit to Asia, the media has made noise about North Korea preparing to launch long-range missiles, but they have never told of the serious military movements the U.S. and South Korean armed force were making," the paper said.
Zhang Liangui, a Chinese expert on North Korea at the Central Party School, a leading institute in Beijing, said the friendly words from Clinton were unlikely to prompt Pyongyang to shift its stance on nuclear weapons or defer any missile tests. "North Korea has its own rules of behaviour and its own objectives for developing nuclear weapons and testing missiles. Some people say the goal of the missile test is to pressure other countries, to enhance the North's influence," Zhang said. "But I think their real goal is very simple -- they really want to have nuclear weapons and missiles. That's their basic policy, and it's not going to change, certainly not because of a speech."
He said Clinton's visit may weigh on the North's decision on when to test missiles, but added the tests would go ahead.
North Korea, which for years has used its military threat to squeeze concessions out of regional powers, has dragged down international nuclear disarmament talks by failing to agree to calls that it accept a system to check its nuclear claims. The North tested a nuclear device in 2006.
Officials in the South said North Korea might also soon fire short-range missiles, which can be set off with little notice, towards a disputed Yellow Sea border off the west coast of the peninsula that has been the scene of deadly naval clashes. The North has been assembling its longest-range Taepodong-2 missile and could launch it by the end of this month, the South's biggest newspaper said last week quoting intelligence sources.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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The government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday it has begun paying compensations to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have lost their homes in the Israeli offensive, by withholding salaries to government workers in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Abbas's prime minister, Salam Fayyad, said he did not have enough money to pay the salaries.
The financial trade-off underscored the difficult balancing act facing Fayyad, who, in addition to running a government dependent on foreign aid, wants to take the lead in reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip to sideline Hamas.
"It is unclear when we will receive money from donors. So I'm not going to put a date on when I can pay salaries," Fayyad told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his government is based.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Good. The more trouble Paleos have the easier it is for Israel to resist DC passion for peace making.
Not only are they contemplating some kind of a deal that ties Gilad Shalit's release to a hudna with Hamas, but they're contemplating the release of another major terrorist so as to bolster the terrorist group Fatah. Fatah is no friend of Israel and seeks Israel's destruction no less so than Hamas, but are more likely to see Israel destroyed by paper cuts than through suicide bombers at present.
Aswat al-Iraq: Police personnel on Sunday found a cache containing weapons and explosives in a deserted area in eastern Falluja city, according to a police chief. "An underground weapons cache was found in a deserted agricultural site in al-Laheeb area, eastern Falluja," the head of Fursan al-Karma Center, Col. Saad Abbas, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The cache contained six rockets, two Grad rockets, nine hand grenades, etc," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#4
As a consequence of the false information, he added, the IDF was considering setting up a "response team" for future conflicts whose job would be to collect information, analyze it and issue reports as rapidly as possible that refuted Hamas fabrications.
Israel, the US, and other western, law and truth respecting organizations need to recognize that this is the battlefield. This "response team" is a pathetic first step, but at least it is a step. It sure isn't going to get inside the OODA loop of the MSM or Hamas.
I'm still thinking about this, but my respect for the utility of truth and international law in the current war is rapidly diminishing. I am coming to the conclusion that we should not be bound to either when our enemies are not.
#7
not even close to the bazillion civilians we killed in Iraq. Mostly in Abu Grahib, I think. I read it in the NYT, quoting the Lancet, so you know it's true
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2009 9:26
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#9
This should be a replay of the "boy who cried wolf". Since every little thing results in a mass casualty situation - mostly BS, then next event should in fact be a mass casualty event. Thousands dead and rotting, the pictures will be terrible - but my point is they have already been photoshopped that way. The world is close to not caring anymore, cull the herd.
ABOARD THE USS MAHAN (AP) - American warships off the lawless Somali coast are using unmanned drones to hunt pirates threatening one of the world's most important shipping lanes. Sailors aboard the USS Mahan told The Associated Press they have been using the spy flights daily to spot potential pirate mother ships. All of our manned drones are being used for other stuff. Secret stuff we can't tell you about.
For years, the U.S. has used drones to track potential terrorists among Somalia's warlords, but the Navy said more and more of the planes are now being used to fight piracy. The drones can fly more than 3,000 feet above sea level and relay pictures detailed enough to recognize the flags flown on fishing boats that Somalis use to avoid detection.
Wait til these puppies can launch a Hellfire ...
The drones take still photos and videos that are instantly relayed to the American ships. The Americans can then send this material to other nations in the international anti-piracy coalition that may have ships near the suspicious vessel. ... to await decisions from the resident legal teams.
On Thursday, pictures taken by the drones, some of which also are equipped with night vision, helped apprehend nine pirates after a night flight relayed pictures of a skiff with a ladder onboard. A skiff had fired a rocket- propelled grenade at a merchant vessel in the area earlier. The American warship dispatched helicopters to provide surveillance and air cover, and it deployed a boat with a search and seizure team. Automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades were found and the nine men onboard were detained, although they had thrown the ladder into the sea. Still, the pictures of the ladder taken by the drone can be used as evidence, as the coalition steps up efforts to pursue the pirates through the courts as well as the waves. Were they read their rights before the photo was taken? Tusk tusk. Let them go.
"We have a unique capability in which we have an (unmanned air vehicle) that helps us detect the pirates and makes it hard for them to hide," USS Mahan Capt. Stephen Murphy said, pointing to the images the drone relayed to the bridge of the destroyer. "The UAV ... can stay airborne all day and cover thousands of miles (kilometers) of the ocean and be able to spot pirates."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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#1
That's more like it! Follow the ba$+ards home, wait 'til all their worthless friends come over, and nuke their hut.
#6
Why not just sink the skiff with its weapons, taking no prisoners? Capturing pirates and having no legal jurisdiction to do anything about them is another waste of our time and tax dollars.
#7
Kinda hard to launch a Predator with a pair of Hellfire missiles from a destroyer. IIRC, it takes about 600 feet for a loaded Predator to get airborne. The drones the Navy uses can be launched from any vessel, down to Frigates, and possibly even from the Navy's new Littoral ships. I guess Djibouti nixed our using armed Predators from their territory. It's a bit out of the way, to boot. What's needed is an LHA - good-size flight deck, 20+ helicopters (including AH-1 Cobras) and some carry AV-8B Harriers. There are also landing craft of varying types and 1500 Marines on board. It also wouldn't hurt to take several of the old Fletcher-class DDs out of mothballs, refurbish and modernize them, and use THEM for patrolling. Nothing says "stop" quite like four dual-mount 4.5"/50 turrets.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2009 13:01
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#8
Why not just sink the skiff with its weapons, taking no prisoners? Capturing pirates and having no legal jurisdiction to do anything about them is another waste of our time and tax dollars.
Because, unless the pirates attacked naval forces, (which a counter-attack would be self-defense) the Navy needs approval from National Command Authority to do so. Such approval would only come if there was a clear causus belli.
Keep in mind that the actions of the much cited Decatur were taken because the Barbary States attacked and captured American ships and sailors. Same for Operation Praying Mantis against the Iranians.
The Somali pirates have not attacked American-flagged or American-chartered shipping.
It also wouldn't hurt to take several of the old Fletcher-class DDs out of mothballs, refurbish and modernize them, and use THEM for patrolling.
1. There are no or few Fletcher-class left in mothballs.
2. The money spent to overhaul, modernize and train crews to run its propulsion plant and weapons systems is counter-productive. It'd be far easier and cheaper to use the remaining FFG-7 ships or subsidize a Euro or African ship(s) deployment.
#9
How about refurbing the Kitty Hawk and have its home station be Djibouti? The Kitty can operate as the launching/landing station for the Predators, and since it is no longer active duty Navy for manned carrier duties, no big feathers get ruffled if it becomes the first drone carrier.
The Bajaur chapter of the Tanzim Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) on Sunday demanded immediate implementation of the Shariah in the troubled Bajaur Agency and in return assured the government of its cooperation to establish complete writ of the state, demanding the Army to stay in the region till reconstruction work was completed.
TNSM Bajaur chief Dr Ismail Muhammadi made this demand while reacting to the finalisation of a five-point agreement for enforcement of Shariah in the Malakand division after successful talks between the NWFP government and TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad.
"We assure the government of complete cooperation for a lasting peace and for establishing writ of the state in the troubled agency if people's demand of enforcement of Shariah is met," said Dr Ilyas, son of Dr Ismail Muhammadi, while talking to The News from the Bajaur Agency via telephone.
"After people's major demand of the enforcement of Shariah is met, the restoration of peace and purging the area of miscreants will become easier and the TNSM will be in a position to help establish writ of the government," he said.
Dr Ilyas, who recently completed his house job after obtaining MBBS degree and is now also working as spokesman for his father, said the TNSM Bajaur chapter is ready to assume the responsibility of restoring peace in the restive tribal agency after enforcement of Shariah. He said the TNSM activists would fully help the security agencies in establishing writ of the government and flushing out troublemakers.
"Implementation of Shariah in the Bajaur Agency is the best way to defeat terrorism and deal with the miscreants," the spokesman for the TNSM Bajaur chapter said. "Army is our national asset and we want it to stay in the region till completion of reconstruction work in the area because the recent strife brought large scale destruction to the agency," he said.
The government had launched military operation in the Bajaur Agency in August last year, which led to the killing of hundreds of people, both militants and civilians, while hundreds of thousands were displaced from the tiny tribal agency home to 600,000 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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Baghdad (ANTARA News) - A US soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Iraq on Sunday, the American military said. It did not locate the attack or give details but said in a statement that the soldier was a member of the US-led coalition,s division for central Iraq.
At least 4,245 US military personnel have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally.
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02/16/2009
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General Motors Corp, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition.
"One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM's viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company," the newspaper said. "The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked."
Citing "people familiar with the matter," the story said that GM could also ask for additional government funds to stave off a bankruptcy filing. GM declined to comment, the story said.
General Motors and Chrysler LLC face a Tuesday deadline to file restructuring plans to the government in exchange for receiving $17.4 billion in federal loans.
Automakers have struggled as U.S. auto sales have tumbled amid a recessionary economy. U.S. auto sales in January tumbled to a 27-year low.
GM has been in talks with bondholders and the United Auto Workers union to get an agreement on a restructuring that would wipe out about $28 billion in debt for the auto maker, sources have told Reuters. However, it appears unlikely a deal could be reached by the Tuesday deadline, they said.
GM has already announced plans to cut 10,000 salaried workers worldwide, or 14 percent of its staff, impose pay cuts for most remaining white-collar U.S. workers and has offered buyouts to its 62,000 U.S. workers represented by the UAW. In addition, it is trying to sell its Hummer SUV and Swedish Saab brands and is reviewing the status of its Saturn brand.
Posted by: ed ||
02/16/2009
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#3
I own a Saturn, just bought it, great vehicle, love it. With that said, Chapter 11 is the only route to a viable company. Do it and do it now to get the pain over with. I just hope GMC picks up the warranties on Saturn so that I can go to a local GM dealership instead of having to drive across town to the Saturn dealership.
Israel's political leadership decided yesterday to prepare the text for a cabinet decision on a deal with Hamas for captured soldier Gilad Shalit and a renewed cease-fire. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak opted to prepare such a document for possible presentation to the cabinet on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a source at the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "efforts to gain the release of Shalit have been significantly accelerated and they will be intensified even more."
But the prime minister's declaration Saturday that there will be no cease-fire agreement or the reopening of the border crossings into Gaza without the release of Shalit stands in stark contrast to Hamas' position. The Islamist group is demanding that the two issues be kept separate and wants the crossings to be reopened before any prisoner exchange.
So that they can extort more from the evil Juice ...
Egyptian officials are now busy on a formula that would allow both sides to claim that their stance was accepted. However, in Israel some observers are pessimistic that Cairo's efforts will bear fruit, and some sources expressed concern that Hamas may toughen its stance in the belief that this will improve their hand.
Another key issue is the identity of the Palestinians that each side is willing to see freed. Hamas has demanded a large proportion of the prisoners on its list of 350 to 450 names. Significant progress has been made, and Israel now opposes only several dozen names.
A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, said yesterday that the group insists on the release of three senior figures: Ibrahim Hamed, the leader of the military wing in the West Bank; Abdullah Barghouti, responsible among others for the bombings at the Sbarro pizzeria and Cafe Moment in Jerusalem; and Abbas al-Sayed, mastermind of the Park Hotel massacre in Netanya.
On the other hand, there seems to be support in Israel for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the jailed leader of Fatah's more militant Tanzim faction.
Barghouti might be more useful in the West Bank than in prison. No secret that Abbas doesn't exactly inspire confidence from the Paleos. Barghouti might be a better counterweight to Hamas, even if he is an evil douche-bag.
Hader Shkirat, attorney for Barghouti, told Haaretz yesterday that there will be no deal for Shalit without the release of Barghouti.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2009
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I'll be stunned and amazed if Shalit comes back as anything other than a damaged corpse.
Aswat al-Iraq: Six wanted persons on Sunday were arrested in Ninewa's Mosul city, according to a military source. "The men were arrested in Adan neighborhood, eastern Mosul, following intelligence reports," a source from the Iraqi army's second division told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2009
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#1
Wanted man in Mosul,
Wanted man in Kirkuk too
Wanted man in Tikrit
For playin' the kazoo.
#2
I know dancing girls don't come cheap, especially in this age of Obama austerity...but if Obama can spend nearly a trillion dollars on Porkulus, I'm sure Fred can come up with a few measly dancing girls.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The US-led forces in Afghanistan say they have killed a wanted Taleban commander in the country's west. 
In an interview with SPIEGEL, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith discusses her country's experience in taking in former inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp and how her country is seeking to reach out to young Muslims before they radicalize.
Dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia, the British security services believe. Intelligence analysts are worried that they may attempt to launch attacks in this country or use the kudos from having trained and fought in Somalia to try to attract new recruits. The issue was raised by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, in his first interview last month. In the US, the outgoing head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, has said that Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in late 2006 catalysed expatriate Somalis around the world. 
The foreign warplanes swooped in just as the Afghan village of Ali Mardan was celebrating a wedding. Bombs slammed into the crowded village square, killing 30 men, women and children. After the smoke cleared and the dead were buried, all the able-bodied men left alive took up arms against the invaders. 
President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
BAGHDAD Iraqi officials nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across the country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but the cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any province, the election chief said Sunday. 
Hugo Chavez's ambition to lead Venezuela for decades to come hung in the balance last night as the country voted in a constitutional referendum that could abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for his indefinite re-election.
Zimbabwes fledgeling power-sharing Government staggered into its fifth day yesterday as fears grew that a shadowy cabal of President Mugabes top security bosses are edging towards a military coup.
The Kadima faction stood solidly behind its chairwoman, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in outlining its official position, presented yesterday: either a unity government headed by Kadima, a rotation of the premiership with Likud, or the opposition. Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who Kadima insiders say would like to see the faction in the coalition, even if it is headed by Likud, said, "a unity government headed by Kadima is what is needed. A coalition of 65 MKs will not make it." Sources close to Mofaz said yesterday that he would not allow attempts to drive a wedge between him and Livni by spreading rumors. 
Iran's powerful hardliners are showing signs of jangled nerves and disunity after Mohammad Khatami, the country's moderate former president, declared his intention to contest June's presidential elections. Supporters of the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hoped that the potent challenge posed to their monopoly on power by Mr Khatami, the charismatic politician-philosopher who still retains some of his rock star-like popularity, would unite conservatives behind the president.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon will begin recruiting skilled immigrants with temporary status in the United States and offer them an express path to citizenship, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing military officials, the paper said that under the proposed program, recruits would be able to become US citizens in as little as six months.
The founder of an American Muslim television channel, launched to counter the negative stereotypes of Muslims after 9/11, was arrested in New York late Thursday for beheading his estranged wife.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces on Sunday discovered an al-Qaeda prison in western Mosul city, according to an army source. "On Sunday, an Iraqi army force found an underground prison in a deserted house in Rajm al-Hadid area near al-Maash market, western Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The al-Qaeda-run prison, where executions and torture took place, was found in light of intelligence tips, the source explained.
President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, paving the way for him to run again in 2012--and beyond--and push through his vision of a socialist Venezuela. Fireworks exploded in the sky and caravans of supporters celebrated in the streets, waving red flags and honking horns. 
ABOARD THE USS MAHAN (AP) - American warships off the lawless Somali coast are using unmanned drones to hunt pirates threatening one of the world's most important shipping lanes. Sailors aboard the USS Mahan told The Associated Press they have been using the spy flights daily to spot potential pirate mother ships.
Baghdad (ANTARA News) - A US soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Iraq on Sunday, the American military said. It did not locate the attack or give details but said in a statement that the soldier was a member of the US-led coalition,s division for central Iraq.
Israel's political leadership decided yesterday to prepare the text for a cabinet decision on a deal with Hamas for captured soldier Gilad Shalit and a renewed cease-fire. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak opted to prepare such a document for possible presentation to the cabinet on Wednesday. 
Aswat al-Iraq: Six wanted persons on Sunday were arrested in Ninewa's Mosul city, according to a military source. "The men were arrested in Adan neighborhood, eastern Mosul, following intelligence reports," a source from the Iraqi army's second division told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
