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Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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17:11 1 21:17 Frank G [336120]
16:59 2 19:03 DarthVader [336103]
16:52 7 19:51 DepotGuy [336122]
11:42 11 22:33 SteveS [336142] 
11:36 17 22:40 Beavis [336100]
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07:47 5 17:25 Maggie Flomong2662 [336123]
07:34 12 21:31 JosephMendiola [336112]
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05:34 5 16:42 Pappy [336107]
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-Obits-
Former NYC mayor Ed Koch dead at 88
Posted by: Whosing Glaise4353 || 02/01/2013 19:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram crisis: Nigeria raids 'kill 17 militants'
Nigeria's military said it has killed 17 insurgents in an attack on two training camps belonging to the Boko Haram Islamist group.

One soldier was also killed in the firefight that broke out after they moved in on the camps, backed by helicopter gunships, the military said.

Spokesman Lt Col Sagir Musa said the "fortified" camps were in a forest and a game reserve in Borno State.

Boko Haram is seeking to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria.

The group has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010.

The military "conducted two special operations supported by Nigerian Airforce helicopter gunship[s] to dislodge Boko Haram training camps" in the Ruwa forest and the Sambisa Game Reserve, Lt Col Musa said in a statement.

"The camp was properly... fortified and had training facilities, an armoury, accommodation, a drug store, kitchen, vehicle holding area, latrine and water points," he said.

Boko Haram has not yet commented on the incident.
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 17:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336120 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boko Haram has not yet commented on the incident.
"I'm dying and in pain *GAhhhhh!*. My blessed replacement will carry *Allah it hurts!* forward in our succccessfffullll"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 21:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Congressional Report On Terrorism Finds Islamist Ideology is Motivator
The path from believing in radical Islamist political ideology to plotting attacks in the homeland can be triggered by a number of factors, a new Congressional Research Service report finds.

The report focuses on homegrown Islamic terrorism, which in itself is remarkable given the reluctance many in Washington have had to clearly naming a leading source of the terrorist threat. The title, “American Jihadist Terrorism: Combating a Complex Threat,” uses the kind of language all-but-banned by the executive branch since 2008. Cabinet officials in the Obama administration have strained to avoid references to jihadist violence.

But the Congressional Research Service is tasked with producing “authoritative, confidential, objective and nonpartisan” analysis, rather than catering to political semantics. The 137-page report contains more than 500 references to “jihad” or “jihadist.” The term “Islam” or “Islamic” is used 117 times. It doesn’t deny the existence of other forms of violent extremism, including “radical environmentalism, animal rights, or anti-abortion causes,” but the report’s focus is on the threat of attacks motivated by radical Islam.

That is something House Democrats have treated with shrill accusations of bigotry.

The report examines 63 homegrown jihadist plots since 9/11, noting that nearly two-thirds of those took place in just the last three years. That spike “suggests that ideologies supporting violent jihad continue to influence some Americans—even if a tiny minority,” the report says.

Among those are two deadly attacks that have not even been charged as acts of terrorism. The shootings at Fort Hood and at a Little Rock, Ark. military recruiting office were “lone wolf” attacks that left 14 people dead.
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 16:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Duh! (again)
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/01/2013 18:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh gee. Really?

Who would have thunk?
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/01/2013 19:03 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Is Islam Incompatible with Western Values?
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 16:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336122 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, pretty much.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/01/2013 17:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Watch special on anti drone clothing guess they want people used to head coverings all crap!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:15 Comments || Top||

#3  This has got to be the 1 millionth article I have seen asking the same, very obvious and rhetorical question.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 17:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Duh!
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/01/2013 18:20 Comments || Top||

#5  This has got to be the 1 millionth article I have seen asking the same, very obvious and rhetorical question.

They didn't like the answer they got the first 999,999 times and were hoping for something different...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 18:39 Comments || Top||

#6  ..sort of like the EU, you keep taking referendums to ratify till you get the result the ruling caste wants.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/01/2013 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  The fact that you have to ask the question pretty much provides the answer.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/01/2013 19:51 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Fireworks cause deadly highway collapse in China
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/01/2013 11:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336142 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not a whole hell of a lot of rebar in that bridge deck.

But hey, what do we Ugly Americans know anyway?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 13:53 Comments || Top||

#2  looks like an expansion joint between deck sections atop a Pier Cap - not necessarily gonna have a lot of rebar between sections. Then again, it IS China, land of the Flyash Liberation Army
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 14:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Henan province. Hmm.

I don't know how the central government there allocates who gets bridges with rebar and who doesn't.

I mean, you can be fairly certain that Shanghai probably gets rebar in their freeways, and that Harbin didn't get enough.... guess Henan doesn't get enough either.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/01/2013 15:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Looks like courtesy rebar on the deck, Commodore Frank. The bridge was supported by 5 precast concrete I beams underneath.

If a whole semi load of fireworks went off nearly at once, there may have been no hope for that bridge, or the people thereon.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/01/2013 16:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah Frank, I'm not a SE but I would expect to see precast beams with a continuous deck. Looking at it now I think you are correct, but why would they build it that way???
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 17:31 Comments || Top||

#6  I could'a been some kicka$$ fireworks and shoddy construction. The Chinese are well known for both.

Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/01/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Or the money for the construction went elsewhere. Like an officials pocket.
Posted by: Charles || 02/01/2013 19:42 Comments || Top||

#8  If a whole semi load of fireworks went off nearly at once, there may have been no hope for that bridge, or the people thereon.

Something similar to gunpowder is used in fireworks. A truck full of fireworks might have been more than the bridge could take. It doesn't have to blow the bridge into billions of pieces - it just has to deliver a shock wave big enough to collapse it. And it looks like that is exactly what happened. Ultimately, they have to look at regulations for trucks carrying hazardous material.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/01/2013 19:55 Comments || Top||

#9  current seismic practice is to tie both deck sections together with restrainer rods and/or cable (Coalinga/Landers lessons), and install shear haunches so the section don't displace off the pier cap (Northridge lessons). It appears this bridge had neither, so... vertical displacement at gravitational speed plus explosive force. WE learn more from failures than practice
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 20:22 Comments || Top||

#10  Cool picture.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/01/2013 21:40 Comments || Top||

#11  shear haunches

Wait! Are we talking civil engineering or GB's daily Birthday Gam Shot?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/01/2013 22:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
IRS: Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Be $20,000 Per Family
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/01/2013 11:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some more detail from Vodkapundit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/01/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Speaking in economic terms, the government does not understand that as you increase the cost of a commodity, in this case a mandated level of coverage, the demand will drop, Obamacare will increase not decrease the number of people without insurance. Secondly, if both members of the example household are working and are not being provided with insurance the employer is also paying a $1,500 fine for not providing insurance. Effectively a nice $3,900 per person tax.
Lastly, the rising uninsured may not be a bad thing after all. Insurance only unconstrains demand. If demand is constrained by individuals having to pay full price themselves, demand will fall and health care may come under market forces that will bring health care into market equilibrium instead of forever rising in cost.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/01/2013 12:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't worry, I'm sure it will come to be known as the George W Bush Healthcare Tax somehow.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 17:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Also, I'm still surprised regulary by people remarking to me that they assumed it would be free.
They're feeling kinda dejected.
Poor things.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 17:41 Comments || Top||

#5  $20,000 to buy the bronze plan or $2,400 to go without...

It is a tax! Nobody's gonna buy the bronze plan, they're just gonna pay the penalty!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/01/2013 18:21 Comments || Top||

#6  I said at the very beginning of this, back in 2009, that the whole point of ObamaCare was to destroy the current practice of medicine and health care financing so as to make way for a universal, single-payer, enforced-coverage model of health care.

The progressives couldn't get that in one step, and they could persuade Americans to give up what they had, so first they had to destroy what we had, so that they could offer up something 'better'.

I am more convinced than ever that this is the plan.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 18:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Yokay, I'll bite, as per anti-Sovereign, anti-Nationalist, + anti-US OWG NAU 2015 + ANTI-BORDER "CANTONIZATION/ENCLAVIZATION" OF AMERIKA what or how much will Mexico, Canada, + Greenland, etc. be contributing $$$ wise to said NAU in order to MUCHO LOWER the costs of said Bammer-care to Amerikan families + individuals, AAYYY???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 19:00 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: junkiron || 02/01/2013 19:17 Comments || Top||

#9  What Dr. White said. Some doctors are abandoning medicine. At least two of my doctors have bailed out early. I have heard of others. It would seem that that might suggest a shortage of doctors in the future. If med schools lower their standards to attract more to fill these shortages, doctor and treatment quality could suffer. Everything has been turned upside down by the statists. Market forces are not in play. Supply and demand and incentives that result are not in play.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 19:32 Comments || Top||

#10  I am not normally a vindictive person, but I want those damn tax forms to go out stating those payments. I really, really do. Badly. Just so I can laugh at some of the faces of those who voted for this monstrosity.
Posted by: Charles || 02/01/2013 19:45 Comments || Top||

#11  I am more convinced than ever that this is the plan.

I used to smirk at the notion the leftist clan was cunning enuff to devise a program destined to fail all as a ruse to be replaced by Universal Care. Not smirk'n so much anymore.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/01/2013 19:48 Comments || Top||

#12  @#9.

we are importing more MDs every year. Who cares how many we graduate.
Posted by: bushman || 02/01/2013 20:13 Comments || Top||

#13  One of the first rules you learn in Econ 101 is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every bill passed into law is paid for by some group of people. Medical care is not and never will be free. Somebody always pays for any medical care any person receives. You cannot give 30 million people health insurance they cannot afford without someone else paying for it.

Obama tried to pass off the illusion that the wealthy would be providing health care for the poor. But now that the law has been passed, and we can see what's in it, it should be obvious that the cost of Obamacare is, and always was, designed to be be born on the backs of middle class wage earner.

The Obama administration has gone to great lengths to prevent the full shock and realization of what Obamacare will cost all tax payers until after the 2016 Primary Elections.
Posted by: junkiron || 02/01/2013 20:53 Comments || Top||

#14  I have been giving seminars on Obublecare the last several weeks. It's to cumbersome to meet implementation this year. Hell they just pushed off the employer notification requirement that was supposed to happen 3/01 because DOL hasn't written the regs, the IRS hasn't defined the benefit package and HHS didn't the boilerplate explanation that the employers are to hand out ready and there is no exchange in place
Posted by: Beavis || 02/01/2013 21:02 Comments || Top||

#15  A friend recently received a letter from her primary care provider. The letter was to inform her that as of January 1, 2012 her doctor would no longer be accepting new patients on Medicaid or Medicare.

It was also to inform current Medicaid and Medicare patients that they should contact an advisory service they had set up to assist current patients in arrangeing for an alternative form of payment or a referal to another medical facility.

My friend is disabled and on SSI. Medicaid is her only possible means of payment. The advisory service referred her to the nearest alternate medical facility which is in another city one hour and 45 minutes away. The state will provide her with transportation, but only if as many a five people need to go on the same day.

If you don't think Steve White is absolutely right, then you probably just haven't received your version of the letter yet.

Posted by: junkiron || 02/01/2013 22:16 Comments || Top||

#16  $2400 will buy you a nice rifle decked out with lasers and nifty scopes, and a mess o' bullets.

People will not be payin' the tax, just say'n.
Posted by: rammer || 02/01/2013 22:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Rammer there is no tax/penalty unless you get a refund. That's just how insidious this is
Posted by: Beavis || 02/01/2013 22:40 Comments || Top||


How to Win a Negotiation With Obama
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/01/2013 09:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just tell him you don't negotiate with adolescents.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course, you will have to put up with the glares, getting put on the enemies list, and the pounding of fists. Maybe the throwing of shoes too.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Easy. Become a foreign enemy. He'll bow to you...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 10:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Say you are a caddy.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 11:09 Comments || Top||

#5  The way to win a negotiation with Champ is to not negotiate with Champ. Tell him how it's gonna be, ignore the cry baby routine, the. When his tantrum is over do what you said you were going to do.

Btw - this also works well on young children.
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 || 02/01/2013 11:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Nobody actually clicked the link, eh?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/01/2013 13:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Did we need to?
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 15:29 Comments || Top||

#8  I suspect the best way is to wear a Chewbacca mask and give him orders.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 02/01/2013 16:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Putin isn't at the table.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 16:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Be a Klingon. Like his wife...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/01/2013 21:56 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentina pulls out of Falklands talks
Hector Timerman
Argie FM
has refused to meet representatives of the Falkland Islands government, which Argentina does not recognise as legitimate.
i.e.: the Argies know the island's citizens don't want any part of the corrupt broke chavismo from Evita and cronies
The islanders were expected to tell Mr Timerman that Buenos Aires should respect islanders' rights and leave them in peace.
yup
Mr Timerman had initially asked for a one-to-one meeting with Mr Hague.

In words bound to raise tensions between the UK and Argentina over the issue Mr Timerman said he was sorry that Mr Hague "can't meet without the supervision of the colonists from the Malvinas".
Obama: "or Maldives!"
He said that the United Nations regards the dispute over the islands which Argentina knows as the Malvinas as a bilateral issue between Buenos Aires and London.

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has in recent years strongly asserted her country's demands for the Falklands to come under its sovereignty despite the opposition of the islanders.
talk about colonialism
Earlier this month, she had an advert published in British newspapers claiming that Argentina had been stripped of the islands in "a blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism".

David Cameron has repeatedly insisted the residents of the Falklands must decide their own future and a referendum on the islands' political status is to be held in March.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 08:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Britain will never give in to Argentina,the islanders have stated who they want to be ruled by,and it ain't Argentina.
Posted by: Albert Grundy9543 || 02/01/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Does the Mapuche Liberation Front exist? If not, why not? Maybe something for the FO to look into.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 02/01/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Right about now would be a good time for Obama to pledge support for the Brits in this matter. A strongly worded statement might actually keep Christina from doing something stupid. Well, it's a nice thought anyway.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/01/2013 12:21 Comments || Top||

#4  If I remember correctly, it was an Obama decision to re-open negotiations concerning the Falklands, I think even stating them as Malvinas, back when they were backing every hack in the OAS. It was not long afterwards Argentina publically stated their interest in the islands (and surrounding resources).

I believe the Obama opening the issue happened quite soon after the confirmation of a major oil reserve.

*off the top of the head, so don't quote without some research.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 12:40 Comments || Top||

#5  British should demand that Argentina stop this war for oil and territorial agression etc before it starts. Make it clear that British citizens have lived their for 150 years and Argentinas imperialist ambitions cannot be allowed. Use the peacenick/marxist code words that apply and hammer them out so there is no confusion that somehow Argentines are there waiting for liberation or some nonsense.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 02/01/2013 12:55 Comments || Top||

#6  A good article from the international legal perversive, mainly to do withe the concept of Uti possidetis, which Israel also invokes.
Falklands are British, not Argentine
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 15:26 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Ankara bombing near US Embassy, 2 dead, a bunch injured.
Ankara: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside the US embassy in Turkey's capital Ankara on Friday. Initial reports suggest that three people have been killed in the blast.

The suicide bomber, a security guard, a US staff member are reported to be dead, according to the Turkish police. Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs in India has confirmed that all Indians in Turkey are safe.

The bomb appeared to have exploded inside the security checkpoint at the entrance of the embassy. Private NTV television said two security guards at the entrance were killed.

The embassy building is heavily protected. It is near an area where several other embassies, including that of Germany and France, are located. Police sealed off the area and journalists were being kept away. There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic militants are active in Turkey.

Kurdish rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, have dramatically stepped up attacks in Turkey over 2012. As well, homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida have carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, killing 58, in 2003. The targets were the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the US Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
Posted by: Whaiter Unuth4031 || 02/01/2013 07:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336123 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic militants are active in Turkey.

Not to mention extreme nationalists and Kemal-type socialists, but those don't make for good press.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 10:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Prelim ID of bomber has been released on updated news reports. Lebanese? This was a remarkably fast identification of a perpetrator. They must have had camera coverage of the outside perimeter of the US embassy. Even so - wonder how they ID'ed him so quickly?? It's almost like they had this person under surveillance or something.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 12:24 Comments || Top||

#3  The way we fumbled the Bengazi fight tells a weakness that the enemy is about to exploit. I expect to see a lot more of this in the near future and some real fireworks next September.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/01/2013 12:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Why waste free explosives from the Libya crap their all John mains brothers in arms , was there signs of a high speed chase?
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:19 Comments || Top||

#5  What really matters is the state department or al Qaeda winning the twitter war!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:25 Comments || Top||


Police: Suicide Bombing At US Embassy, 2 Dead
[AyPee] A suspected jacket wallah detonated an bomb at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital on Friday and at least two people are dead, a police official said.

An News Agency that Dare Not be Named journalist saw a body in the street in front of an embassy side entrance. The bomb appeared to have went kaboom! inside the security checkpoint at the entrance of the visa section of the embassy.

Several ambulances were dispatched to the area. An AP journalist saw at least one woman who appeared to be seriously injured being carried into an ambulance.

Private NTV television said two security guards at the entrance were killed.

There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic faceless myrmidons are active in Turkey.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 07:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336112 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic faceless myrmidons are active in Turkey

And we know it wasn't the Kurds.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/01/2013 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Angry home-grown Armenian Anabaptists ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#3  What movie prompted it this time?
Posted by: JonC || 02/01/2013 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4  What movie prompted it this time?
Argo
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/01/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Update from AP:

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive Friday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a Turkish guard in an attack that Turkish officials blamed on domestic leftists.

A police official, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that the bomber is most likely a suspected member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#6  What movie prompted it this time?

Duck Soup.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/01/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#7  The Postman surely, but Duck Soup? I think not.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/01/2013 14:15 Comments || Top||

#8  The future must not belong to those who slander Kevin Costner!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

#9  They were looking for stuffing with pork in it!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:20 Comments || Top||

#10  What movie prompted it this time?

Strawberry Shortcake v. Rainbow Brite: The Final Conflict
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 02/01/2013 18:31 Comments || Top||

#11  #10 What movie prompted it this time?Strawberry Shortcake v. Rainbow Brite: The Final Conflict


;)
Posted by: linker || 02/01/2013 19:25 Comments || Top||

#12  #10 lol.

No one evar! suspects the Shortcake.

* FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ANOTHER BENGHAZI? REPORT OF THREAT TO US EMBASSY IN KABUL | FOX NEWS.

Made threat to strike Kabul station = Afghanistan, thus of course Ankara = Turkey was hit???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 21:31 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
The case for torture.
Did "enhanced interrogation techniques" help us find Osama Bin Laden and destroy al-Qaida? Were they torture? Were they wrong? Yesterday, three former Klingon officials grappled with those questions in a forum at the American Enterprise Institute. The discussion was supposed to be about Zero's Zero Dark Thirty. But it was really a chance to see in person the thinking of the people who ran and justified the detainee interrogation program. It's also a chance to examine our own thinking. Do we really understand what the Klingons did and why? Was the payoff worth the moral cost? And what can we learn from it?

Posted by: Anginelet Angager2639 || 02/01/2013 07:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have that feeling of being tortured for the last four years and anticipate it for the next four years--may 16.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:49 Comments || Top||

#2  From the Slate (!) article:

"12. If you refuse to exploit prisoners, you’ll end up killing your enemies instead. All three panelists trashed the Obama-era conceit that we’re a better country because we’ve scrapped the interrogation program. What we’ve really done, they argued, is replace interrogations with drone strikes. “We have made it so legally difficult and so politically dangerous to capture,” said Hayden, “that it seems, from the outside looking in, that the default option is to take the terrorists off the battlefield in another sort of way.” Rizzo agreed, and he paraphrased The Godfather to suggest that the new policy is bloody and stupid: “You can’t kill everybody.”*

13. Face the dilemma. The panelists welcomed moral debate about EITs but scorned the delusion that these methods hadn’t produced vital information. Candor about the cost of your principles, they argued, is a basic rule of moral health. “We need to be honest with ourselves,” said Rodriguez."

Interesting article on a panel discussion including Michael Hayden.
Posted by: KBK || 02/01/2013 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Setting aside moral arguments - which are important IMO. The main practical argument against torture is that it will just make the enemy smarter and more determined - if they know torture is definitely going to happen in captivity ... then they will be sure to kill themselves during their attack or blow themselves up afterwards. i.e. "save the last bullet for yourself". It's dumb to get captured if you know you're facing painful torture. The main practical argument in favor is that it gives interrogators extra leverage - another tool to use. But it's just one tool.

If you read the old books by SAS commandos - back when they occasionally wrote stories about their experiences in Iraq - they will tell you that pain was not their biggest problem in captivity. Their biggest problem was highly skilled interrogators who really knew how to ask hard questions in a repetitive and grueling way. It's a long-term method of applying psychological pressure on prisoners - but very effective. The Chinese are good at it.

Torture is for yard apes. But there are plenty of apes on the planet.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 12:33 Comments || Top||


Britain
'A priceless heritage destroyed by Islamic barbarians'
Atheist Richard Dawkins has outraged Muslims after describing looters who destroyed manuscripts in Mali as ‘Islamic barbarians’.

The 71-year-old author of The God Delusion was referring to the severe damage caused by Islamist extremists to a sacred library in Timbuktu but his remarks were seen as insulting to all Muslims.

Oxford University academic Professor Dawkins told his 600,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday: ‘Like Alexandria, like Bamiyan, Timbuktu's priceless manuscript heritage destroyed by Islamic barbarians.’

But his comments were criticised, with some followers claiming he was unjustly attacking Islam and others saying he should be considering vandalism committed by Christians, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Muslim Twitter user ‘Shawa5i Al Nasseri’ from the United Arab Emirates said: 'You call us barbarians, truly no respect', before later adding: 'How do you explain this "destroyed by Islamic barbarians?”’

Professor Dawkins responded to the comments by saying: ‘You mean you were one of those who burned the books in Timbuktu? No? I thought not. So I wasn't calling you a barbarian was I.’

He also said to all of his followers: ‘I was calling Islamic BARBARIANS barbarians’, adding: ‘By “Islamic barbarians” I mean those Muslims who are also barbarians. I do not of course mean all Muslims.’

Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 06:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336117 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Behold the.... Richard Dawkins Delusion.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  An example of consistency failing to confer credibility. Stopped clock and all that...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  ‘I was calling Islamic BARBARIANS barbariansÂ’, adding: ‘By “Islamic barbarians” I mean those Muslims who are also barbarians. I do not of course mean all Muslims.Â’

What about Muslims who are barbarians, say, only on Fridays? Are old folk, who are burning books in London to keep warm, barbarians? Are people who destroy particular pages of a religious manuscript for socio-political reasons (like Ian McKellan) barbarians? Can the good Oxford Professor explain that in a tweet?

Gee, this is fun.

Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 10:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently the locals had taken the manuscripts and hidden them a year ago, so the destruction wasn't snything like what was originally claimed.

It doesn't make the attempt any less barbarous, though.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 11:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Gee, this is fun.

Making fun of a self identified "serious person" like dawkins is harder on him than a steel toed kick in the nuts.

Do they still call themselves "brights?"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm so non-diety but condemned mad, I'm gonna tell the truth!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 11:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently the locals had taken the manuscripts and hidden them a year ago, so the destruction wasn't snything like what was originally claimed

Darn, there goes the insurance claim...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 16:44 Comments || Top||

#8  The Terrorist Life Insurance Policy is still in play though.
Posted by: Charles || 02/01/2013 19:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Skinless barbarians in a sandpaper world, anyone?
Posted by: gorb || 02/01/2013 19:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I'd like to see a coarser grade of sandpaper applied to them, gorb.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/01/2013 21:38 Comments || Top||

#11  with Kosher salt and lemon balm
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 21:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Suicide bomber outside mosque kills 19, wounds 45 in Pakistan northwest
[REUTERS] A jacket wallah killed 19 mostly Sunni Mohammedans and maimed 45 on Friday in a crowded market outside a mosque in Pakistain's restive northwestern town of Hangu, police and officials said.

Hangu, part of Pakistain's border region with Afghanistan, has been racked by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite tribes.

It is just a few km from Parachinar, which has a significant Shi'ite population against whom hardline Sunni cut-thoat groups have launched attacks for years.

"Most of the dead were coming out of a mosque in the marketplace after Friday prayers when the bomb went off," senior police officer Imtiaz Shah said.

No group has grabbed credit so far.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 05:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336107 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi

#1  Jolly fun fellows these Pakistanis.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/01/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I've run out of popcorn on this one.

Have we any idea what all of the killing in Pakistain supposed to accomplish? Who is on whose side and do we have a program? Gosh I wish these guys would wear jerseys with numbers.

What are the "sides" in this one? Who is carrying water for who?

OR Gasp! is this really an example of what Islam will evolve to when they take over the world?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/01/2013 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  That's my there BC; if they ever did conquor the world there would be the playoffs to determine who is the mostest purest.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 13:59 Comments || Top||

#4  actually there are two moxques and a courtyard and misc stuff between them and the bomb went off after Friday Sunni prayers were over but while Shiite prayers were still finishing up

the bomber may have simply gotten the time wrong or the bomber may have targeted Sunnis who were anti taliban
or there are other possibilities
Posted by: lord garth || 02/01/2013 15:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, heaven knows how many times one forgets to call the mosque to find out what time services are...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 16:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
AMPAC Calls for Million Muslim March on Washington on Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks
We at AMPAC (American Political Action Committee) are planning an historic event for 9.11.13 where one million Muslims will march to Washington D.C. and demand that our civil rights be protected by our government. We are demanding that laws be enacted protecting our 1st amendment . We are asking President Obama to fulfill his promise from his first campaign for Presidency of a transparent government. Lastly we are asking for the release of the 9/11 commission report to the American people.

On 9.11.01 our country was forever changed by the horrific events in New York. The entire country was victimized by the acts done on that day. Muslim and Non Muslim alike were traumatized but we as Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains. To this day every media outlet and anti Islamic organization has committed slanderous and libel statements against us as Muslims and our religion of Islam. Yet our Government either sits idly by and does nothing to protect our freedoms or it exacerbates the problem with its constant war on terrorism in Islamic countries, congressional hearings on Islam in America, and its changes to the NDAA law. These lies told to the American population has made it impossible for us to do true Dawa. Why do we have to defend our religion while doing Dawa? Why can't we just share the perfection of the Quran and the beauty of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SWS)?

It is time for us as Muslims in America to stop being defensive and start being proactive by using our right to vote and our freedom of assemble and let our voices be heard by our country and the world. Stand with us help us fight the injustices being committed against us. Help us to wake the American citizen up to the truth and together Muslim and Non Muslim can take our country back to its true Democracy which is "For the people by the people". Our Prophet in his final message told us: "Whoever sees an injustice should set it right by means of his hand; if not, by his tongue; if not, then by his heart and that is considered to be the weakest of faith." And more to the point "If my nation are afraid to say to the oppressor, 'O oppressor!', then there is no hope in them."
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 04:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Muslims were traumatized on 9/11

They lamented the body count was too low.

Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains

Tell me how many Muslims 7 year opld girls have been chased by a non-Muslim, grabbed by the hair and shot in the head while the murderer laughed and filmed the secene on his mobile phone. Jus tell me.

And just tell me how many fatwas you have issued against bin Laden or the people who throw acid on Afgahan girls or cut their hands for haing lmearned to write. Just tell me how many fatwas.

the beauty of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SWS)?

murderrer, robber, perjurer, torturer, raper, pedophile. That is what you can infer from an official translation of the "Life of Muhammad" from arab sources..
Posted by: JFM || 02/01/2013 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  this oughtta look like laundry piles on a slow conveyor belt
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Also how would you tell chutzpah in Arabic? Decent people who really condemn 9/11 would call fopr a million Muslim march against jihadists not that. In many countries and specially in Muslim countries there have been pogroms for far lesser offences than that. There was none in America. And thety dare to complain.
Posted by: JFM || 02/01/2013 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Take plenty of photos and DNA samples.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  JFM, those two posts comprise a lovely thing. You bring the rant into Rantburg today.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  They lamented the body count was too low.

Ran out of candy.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/01/2013 12:39 Comments || Top||

#7  "We at AMPAC (American Political Action Committee) are planning an historic event for 9.11.13 where one million Muslims will march to Washington D.C. and demand that our civil rights be protected by our government."

Civil rights? First ya' gotta be civil.

FOAD.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/01/2013 13:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Nuts!
Posted by: SteveS || 02/01/2013 13:55 Comments || Top||

#9  This is obviously coming from the "I will stick a knife in you and twist, and you will smile, thank me profusely and ask for more" school of public relations.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/01/2013 15:18 Comments || Top||

#10  AMPAC (American Political Action Committee)
Surely AMPAC stands for American Muslim Political Action Committee. I wonder why their press release neglected this fact? Maybe trying to play down the fact that they are Muslims.
The Three Stages of Jihad might have the answer.
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 15:46 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel may feel need to strike Syria again
An Israeli air attack staged in Syria this week may be a sign of things to come.

Israeli military officials appear to have concluded that the risks of attacking Syria are worth taking when compared to the dangers of allowing sophisticated weapons to reach Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon.

With Syrian President Bashar Assad's grip on power weakening, Israeli officials fear he could soon lose control over his substantial arsenal of chemical and advanced weapons, which could slip into the hands of Hezbollah or other hostile groups. These concerns, combined with Hezbollah's own domestic problems, mean further military action could be likely.

Tzachi Hanegbi, an incoming lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and a former chairman of parliament's influential foreign affairs and defense committee, signaled Thursday that Israel could be compelled to act on its own. While Israel's preference is for Western powers to gain control over Syria's arms stockpile, he said there are no signs of that happening.

"Israel finds itself, like it has many times in the past, facing a dilemma that only it knows how to respond to. And it could well be that we will reach a stage where we will have to make decisions," Hanegbi told Israel's Army Radio Thursday. Hanegbi, like other Israeli officials, would not confirm Israeli involvement in the airstrike.
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 03:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336127 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A warm and fuzzy story! Karma and all that!
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 11:04 Comments || Top||

#2  PM Netanyahu said as much during the 2012 POTUS Elections, i.e. that Iran's NucProgs M-U-S-T be dealt wid in 2013, + that Israel will do it alone iff need be iff the US + International Community, UNO won't act.

Benji's surgical strike on Syria is as much a challenge to POTUS Bammer as to Iran, albeit IMO Israel vee MOSSAD, OTHER INTEL will likely first try to gauge the risk of poten Sunni Muslim mil intervention before it proceeds wid any MilAction to unilaterally attack Iran's Nucprogs in coming days, wid or widout the USA = POTUS Bammer.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 18:47 Comments || Top||

#3  If it feels good, do it.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/01/2013 21:12 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
The Vulnerability of Elites:
Geopolitical Risk in 2013
Categorizing the major themes, risks, opportunities, and wild cards--based on discussions of the Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk in Dubai, November 2012
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 02:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336112 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Term limits for our Congresscritters? Although it would be hard to bring about, term limits would put a crimp in the seniority system, committee appointments, party power, and cozy lobbying arrangements.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Elect people who don't want the job. Jury duty type selection with the electorate choosing from the stuckees. After all it takes a long time to become a good political crook. Ward heeling, etc...
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 11:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Also move government entities around geographically without moving expenses for the employees. That way only dedicated will follow. Right now if you lay somebody off in say energy the sob pops up with a new job in say interior dept. If you shuffle the placement, new employees don't come from an old pool of bureaucrats.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||

#4  1) A no dynasty amendment. If mommy or daddy or auntie or uncle are elected, you are ineligible to run for elective office. For the term of YOUR life, not theirs.

2) Part time legislature which only meets at points equidistant from large urban areas.

3) Rinse and repeat.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  The problem with term limits is that the government then is captured by the staffers, who always remain.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 12:53 Comments || Top||

#6  The problem with term limits is that the government then is captured by the staffers, who always remain.

Set limits for them too. And NO lobbying.
Posted by: Goober Thud2822 || 02/01/2013 13:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Move the capital (Legislature, Executive, perhaps Judicial as well) every 4 years to a randomly selected city (out of 2,000).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/01/2013 13:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Salaries, healthcare and pension program equivalant to or less than comparible in the private sector.

Aids and staffers beyond the number required are paid for out of the politicians salary. Use the number of staffers required 20 years ago as a baseline.

Crimes commited while in office get an extra decade in prison for abusing the public trust.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/01/2013 14:42 Comments || Top||

#9  Salaries, healthcare and pension program equivalant to or less than comparible in the private sector

"less than" means the corruption in the upper levels of government, gets a better than average chance to move to the lower levels.

See: Mexico, Mexican police, etc.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 14:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Move the capital (Legislature, Executive, perhaps Judicial as well)
to Tok, Alaska, or maybe Ely, Nevada, than somewhere else in a few years.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/01/2013 14:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Sorition

For example the Doge of Venice
New regulations for the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their object was to minimize as far as possible the influence of individual great families, and this was effected by a complex elective machinery. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who actually elected the doge. None could be elected but by at least twenty-five votes out of forty-one, nine votes out of eleven or twelve, or seven votes out of nine electors
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/01/2013 15:03 Comments || Top||

#12  What about Detroit?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/01/2013 19:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Jeez, AP, don't you think Detroit already has enough problems? (Admittedly self0inflicted)
Posted by: Barbara || 02/01/2013 21:37 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
First Gendarmaria Nacional forces deploy to western Chihuahua

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

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A new security operation set to begin in 30 days in western Chihuahua will include elements of the new Gendarmaria Nacional police, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news story posted on the website of El Mexicano news daily, Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte Jacquez announced Thursday that a large security operation would begin in the sierras of western Chihuahua state centered around Guachochi municipality.

According to the account, the security operation would include federal, state and local security forces, including the new Gendarmaria Nacional. The Gendarmaria Nacional is the centerpiece of Mexico's latest security strategy. The new operation was discussed during what was termed in the article as a security roundtable attended by several northern Mexico state governors and federal security officials.

The announcement, made by Governor Durate in Guachochi municipality, probably refers to the security meeting held last Saturday in a Chihuahua, Chihuahua airport hangar. That meeting was attended by Procuraduria General la Republica (PGR) or attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) General Cepeda Salvador Cienfuegos, Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR) Admiral Vidal Francisco Soberon Sanz, undersecretary of the interior for Security Manuel Mondragon y Kalb, as well as the governors of Sinaloa, Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora states.

What was specifically discussed in that meeting was not disclosed to the press, although the governors in attendance were placed on notice that things have changed with the newly elected government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

According to a separate news report which appeared on the website of Sin Embargo news, part of the operation will include conducting checkpoints at specific locations in the region, which is already established practice in some Mexican Army commands.

The area around Guachochi municipality is included in the command of the Mexican 42nd Military Zone, which maintains at least one infantry company sized base in the region.

It should be noted that last May, during the Choix, Sinaloa shootouts, it was reported by Mexican news agencies that drug gang shooters from Sinaloa had exfiltrated from Choix municipality into western Chihuahua to escape Mexican Army and naval infantry counter operations in the area. By this writer's count, a total of 56 individuals were killed in May in northern Sinaloa state that month, making it one of the bloodiest battles in Mexican Drug War history.

The sierras of western Chihuahua are also known as the Tarahumara Sierras, the home of the Tarahumara Indians. The area suffered greatly in the drought which gripped the region a year ago and sparked a nationwide relief effort. The Taramhumara Indians are subsistence farmers.

A few areas in the Tarahumara region also aid drug cartels in growing drugs, sometimes by force, and are often treated like serfs by local drug gangs.

During the relief efforts last year, news reports from the area leaked out that local government officials had withheld aid from residents to obtain promises of votes.

According to a separate El Mexicano news account last November, some local private aid agencies were robbed of millions of pesos by local criminal gangs. Eight robberies took place in Chinipas, Guachochi, Temoris and Palmillo and Parral.

President Pena's big social initiative, La Cruzada Contra la Hambre, or Crusade against Hunger will likely use local and state government agencies to distribute aid to the region. Chihuahua state is facing midterm elections for local deputies in July, and those elections could be a a factor in this new security operation.

The El Mexicano report failed to state in specific detail how the new Gendarmaria Nacional would be used except to gather intelligence on criminal activities in the area.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336098 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Malian Military: 4 Dead, 5 Wounded in Mine Blast
[An Nahar] A Malian military front man said on Thursday that four soldiers died and five others were maimed when their vehicle hit a land mine in eastern Mali.

Modibo Traore told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the soldiers were killed Wednesday evening in the town of Gossi.

The town is located between the towns of Hombori and Gao, both of which had been under Islamist rule until the French-led military offensive began earlier this month.

The French and Malians have been able to grab back control of the placid provincial capitals of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal in a matter of weeks.

However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
questions remain about whether the Malian military and its West African allies can hold the cities once the French leave.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
Two more die of measles
[Dawn] Two more children died of measles in Lahore on Wednesday taking the corpse count to five in January.

Health Department sources said one-year-old Zubair died at Children's Hospital and five-year-old Eman at Mayo Hospital due to measles complications.

Also, another three dozen children suffering from measles were shifted to hospitals of the city.

The number of measles-affected children is increasing day by day that shows the disease has taken an ugly turn towards epidemic.

Over 400 measles-related cases have surfaced in January in the Punjab capital.

Young Doctors Association, Pakistain, Secretary-General Dr Salman Kazmi, in a statement held the chief secretary, the director general of health, the EPI programme director and the health secretary responsible for the deaths and demanded their resignations.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  It's hard for us to take seriously in the West - but measles actually kills a lot of kids in the third world. No resistance.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't Christian Scientists have similar beliefs about vaccines and treatments?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:43 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Anger in Nigeria: Official steals 110 million euros, fined 3,500
[OBSERVERS.FRANCE24] Hundreds of protesters descended on Nigeria's justice ministry in Abuja on Thursday after a court handed down a strangely lenient sentence to an official convicted of embezzlement. The former boss of Nigeria's police pension fund, John Yakubu Yusufu, was convicted Monday with stealing 23.3 billion Nigerian naira (about 110 million euros) meant for retired police officers. A judge gave him the choice of either spending two years in jail or paying 750,000 naira (about 3,500 euros). Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter option.

Even in a country where corruption is seen as rather commonplace -- Nigeria ranks 139th out of 174 countries in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index -- the sentence has shocked many. Anti-corruption activists joined up with youth organisations to protest against what they consider an outrageous decision on the part of the case's judge. Demonstrators chanted and booed at the justice ministry's gates until representatives were allowed in to drop off a petition. They demanded that not only Yusufu's case be re-tried, but also that the judge be investigated and that vast reforms be undertaken to improve the country's judicial system.

In a surprising twist of events, Yusufu was remanded to prison on Wednesday evening on separate charges involving the alleged embezzlement of another 289 million naira (about 1.3 million euros) from the police pension fund. Anti-corruption campaigners say their protest may well have inspired this move. Yusufu has pleaded not guilty to these new charges.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Opposition Says Talks Must Focus on Assad Departure
[An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Coalition said on Thursday that any talks on the country's political future must be about the departure of the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad.
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...

A day after SNC chief Moaz al-Khatib expressed openness to discussion with members of the regime, the political commission issued a statement reaffirming the group's charter that "any negotiation or dialogue must be about the departure of the regime and its pillars."

It added that it welcomed "any political solution or international effort aimed at achieving that objective."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Niger ready to host US drones for Mali surveillance
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Niger said Wednesday it was ready to host a base for US drones monitoring movements by Al-Qaeda-linked groups currently based in northern Mali.

"If Niger has an opportunity to receive support in the shape of aircraft or drones to monitor suspicious movements from Mali, we will not turn our nose up at it," Defence Minister Karidjo Mahamadou told AFP.

He added however that he was not aware of any formal deal allowing the deployment of US drones on Niger's soil.

A US official said Monday that the Pentagon was planning to station drones in the region -- most likely in Niger -- to bolster surveillance of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its allies.

Washington has expressed fears that AQIM, one of the groups that seized control of northern Mali 10 months ago, was expanding its ambit in the region and turning into a global security threat.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Reminds me of the old joke...What do you call people from Niger?
Ahem...

AoS
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 02/01/2013 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Allies, hopefully.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 12:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
BLA commander among six killed in Kalat
[Dawn] At least six people, including a 'commander' of the proscribed Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
Liberation Army (BLA), were killed Thursday in an operation by security forces in Kalat district of insurgency-hit Balochistan province, security officials told DawnNews.

A front man for the Frontier Corps (FC) said that an operation was carried out in the Mangochar area of Kalat district Thursday morning.

The front man confirmed that a BLA commander was among six people killed in the offensive. He added that forces had also incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
five people from the area and that a cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them.

The FC front man added that the operation was carried out following directions from the provincial administration.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Menendez 'likes the youngest and newest girls'
[DAILYCALLER] In a little-noticed email published online Wednesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a young Dominican woman wrote nine months ago that she slept with 59-year-old New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez at a series of sex parties organized by Dr. Salomon Melgen, a longtime Menendez campaign donor.

"That senator also likes the youngest and newest girls," the woman wrote on April 21, 2002, according to an English translation provided to The Daily Caller by a native Spanish speaker.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

Normally, I'd say any Senator found to be doing something like this would be at the 3'45" of toastage.

But this guy's got a (D) after his name . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 02/01/2013 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Love that toast thing (picture above).
I'm thinking that our dear Senator should maybe move to the Dominican Republic permanently - to be close to all those "new girls".
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 0:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Menendez 'likes the youngest and newest girls'


um...doesn't everybody?
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 02/01/2013 2:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd bet there's more to come, like a narcotics or human trafficking connection. Can't see the Bureau and DoJ getting all worked up over what we've seen so far. Notice how Harry Reid and the Dems simply become livid when the topic is brought up. Got to be more to the story. This could get very, very ugly. I hope Carlson's security is up to snuff.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 6:31 Comments || Top||

#5  How new and how young were they? Understood that he liked them not legal? We have a law that applies worldwide that says 18 is jailbait. The Senate can't let this go, they will have to toss him out of the club.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Christie would end up making the replacement appointment.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#7  I used to think that'd be good, John. Now ... I'm not so sure.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/01/2013 10:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Here comes senator boo boo.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 12:20 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
South Korea Warns Pyongyang Against Nuclear Test
[An Nahar] South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak held an emergency security meeting Thursday that warned North Korea of "serious consequences" if it went through with an expected nuclear test.
What kind of serious consequences?
Yup, it's silly for the ROK to make threats. They should go on about their business, very quietly, building rockets -- to put satellites in orbit, which they proved this week they can do -- and building fast breeder reactors -- which they have to supply uranium for their nuclear electricity industry. Let their quiet actions inform the Norks just who has the ability to go nuclear and deliver...
The meeting at the presidential Blue House included the defense minister, National Intelligence Service chief and the national security adviser.

A statement issued afterward said Lee had insisted on a strengthened defense posture, given Pyongyang's apparent desire to take advantage of the ongoing leadership transition in the South.

Lee will be formally replaced as president by the newly elected Park Geun-Hye on February 25.

"The government urges North Korea to immediately stop all provocative statements and actions and abide by international obligations including U.N. Security Council resolutions," the statement said.

"If the North miscalculates and commits a provocative act again, it would face various serious consequences", it added.

North Korea has threatened to carry out its third nuclear test in response to U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its long-range rocket launch in December.

It has also warned of "physical counter-measures" against the South if Seoul "directly participates" in the U.N. sanctions.

North Korea said its rocket launch was a scientific mission aimed at placing a satellite in orbit, but most of the world saw it as a disguised ballistic missile test. South Korea staged a satellite launch on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Science & Technology
Deeper, Deeper, Oh Please Deeper
OK gang, put away the tube sox....this article is about MOP's (massive ordnance penetrators)....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  D *** NG - well, there goes one afternoon fantasy I'll never get back again!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  In other Joe M news: Ron "The Hedgehog" Jeremy has suffered a aneurysm. Coincidence? I think not
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Snark of the Day to Frank!
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 11:05 Comments || Top||

#4  The "piles of laundry on a slow conveyor" is better.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 14:45 Comments || Top||


BAE kicks the persistent surveillance game up a notch.
Developed by DARPA and BAE Systems, The $18.5 million Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) program will be the most advanced surveillance system in the sky.

Once attached under an unmanned aerial vehicle, an ARGUS camera can patrol at 17,500 feet and send back high resolution images of 1.8 gigapixels.

The images are so crisp and clear that an analyst can actually see what color guayaberas a subject is wearing.

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's a whole *bleep*load of data to process, filter and store.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/01/2013 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Who is the pen who pulled guayabera out of a sombrero?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 15:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Four Thai soldiers injured in ambush
Four soldiers were seriously injured in a gun attack that was followed by an explosion targeting their colleagues who were coming to rescue them in Narathiwat province late on Thursday afternoon.

The attack occurred as six soldiers in a security team assigned to escort schoolteachers, were traveling in a military jeep. They were leading a convoy of teachers driving a pickup truck, a car and a motorcycle.

Gunmen hiding in a roadside rubber plantation fired almost 30 shots at the soldiersÂ’ vehicle with M16 and AK-47 assault rifles. The driver and three others were hit in the arms and legs. All of the injured are in critical condition.

As the teachers raced away from the scene, the unitÂ’s leader, who was unhurt, radioed his base to ask for backup. A six-member rapid response team was dispatched to the scene. However, another group of terrorists militants hiding in the roadside forest detonated a bomb targeting their vehicle, and a five-minute gunfight ensued.The bomb caused no injuries. Thirty-two spent M16 and AK-47 cartridges were collected from the spot where the attackers were hiding.

ThursdayÂ’s attack came on the same day as Thailand's foreign minister led 15 delegates from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to a meeting with the chairman of the Pattani Islamic Committee and local religious leaders while on a visit to monitor the current situation and the progress in the government's efforts to conclude the southern conflict.

Also:
Villager killed in Yala attack
Posted by: ryuge || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
UN Voices Outrage Over Reported Tahrir Square Rapes
Human rights officials call for action after 25 women said sexually assaulted during recent rallies in Cairo

UN officials on Thursday deplored reports that 25 women were sexually assaulted during recent protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and demanded that Egyptian authorities take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, said her agency "is deeply disturbed by the gravity of recent attacks against women, including the reports of sexual assault, many of which occurred in the same Tahrir Square in which women rallied to contribute to a better future for their country."

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said about 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square in demonstrations in recent days, in some cases with extraordinary violence.

Tahrir Square, the center of the 2011 uprising, has been the scene of a number of assaults against women -- both protesters and journalists -- in the aftermath of the revolution. In October, a correspondent for La Belle France 24 TV was "savagely attacked" near Tahrir after being seized by a crowd, the network said.

Complaints about the problem, which has long been a feature of Egypt's society, gained prominence during the 2011 popular uprising that unseated Mubarak. Women activists and news hounds told of severe assaults by men in Tahrir Square, the focus of the mass protests.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Bomb hits Benghazi police station
[MAGHAREBIA] A bomb exploded early Thursday morning (January 31st) at a Benghazi police, Libya Herald reported. No casualties or major damage to the Al-Birkah facility were reported.

A similar bomb attack on Tuesday struck an unused United Nations building in the city's Ghut Shaal district.

The police station blast is the latest in a series of attacks on Benghazi security officers. At the beginning of January, Lieutenant-Colonel Nasser Al-Moghrabi of Benghazi's Criminal Investigation Department was killed execution-style by a single gunshot to the head.

Two Benghazi police officers also died this month in separate car bombings.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A computer dim attack!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:24 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Three killed as muggers push them off train
[Bangla Daily Star] Three passengers of a train including a woman were killed, while one was severely injured when a gang of muggers pushed them off a running train in sadar upazila yesterday.

The dear departed were identified as Khayer Miah, 40, Shud Miah, 50, and Shahana Begum, 50, of Merashani village under Bijoynagar upazila of the district.

The injured Md Rubel Miah, 25, was taken to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital for treatment.

The Dhaka-bound Titash Commuter Train reached Pagachang station around 5:20am when eight muggers boarded the train and started robbing the passengers, Rubel told The Daily Star.

At one stage, they pushed four passengers off the train at different points between Pagachang and Kurulia bridge, he added.

On information, police rushed to the spot and rescued Rubel and recovered the bodies of the three.

They were going to Dhaka for medical check up for the purpose of immigration, Rubel said adding, they belonged to the same village.

A case has been filed with Akhaura Government Railway Thana, said Abul Kalam Azad, officer-in-charge (OC) of the station.

There were four coppers in the last compartment of the train and had no knowledge of the robbery taking place, Azad added.

"The compartments are not connected by corridors, which was why police could not move around to guard the other compartments," the OC said.

Md Jahidul Islam, additional superintendent of Brahmanbaria Police, said law enforcers were trying to track down the criminals.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The compartments are not connected by corridors, which was why police could not move around to guard the other compartments," the OC said.

We'll be on our cellies in the smoking car if you need us. See you in Dhaka, well... most of you.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Happens in NYC too. Could arm the passengers.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Bernard Goetz was not available for comment.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 12:08 Comments || Top||

#4  These muggers should be referred to as murderers, and in the near future, executed murderers.
Posted by: RJ45ACP || 02/01/2013 20:49 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea Imposes Martial Law Ahead of Nuclear Test
(RIA Novosti) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has issued a secret order to put the country under martial law in preparation for a third nuclear test in its history, a South Korean newspaper reported on Thursday.
How could that possibly differ from everyday North Korean totalitarian rule?
Kim Jong-un convened an emergency meeting with top defense and security officials last Saturday and supposedly said: "The country will be under martial law starting from midnight on January 29, and all the frontline and central units should be ready for a war," Korean Joongang Daily reported, citing an unidentified source.

The paper also speculated that the new nuclear test could be held either on February 16, the birthday of former leader Kim Jong-il, or February 25, the inauguration day of South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye.

North Korea vowed on January 23 to strengthen its military capabilities and step up its controversial nuclear program shortly after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on the country over the December rocket launch.

Pyongyang also pledged to end any efforts at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and to withdraw from six-party talks.

Satellite images have shown that the reclusive communist regime has been digging a new underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country's northeast, where it conducted two previous nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [London Daily Telegraph = AFP, etc.] NORTH KOREA UNDER MARTIAL LAW: "BE READY FOR WAR".

SINK THE "GEORGIE", SINK THE "GEORGIE", i.e. USN CVN USS GEORGE WASHINGTON???

What is it wid the DPRK + that US CVN???

Its the Cherry/Apple Tree that First POTUS GW in legend chopped down as a kid, isn't it???

and

* SAME > [CNN] US: NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TEST "SOON" [can take place anytime].

versus

* SAME > XI: GET USED TO AN ASSERTIVE CHINA, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE! | [Global Times] XI'S MESSAGE SHOWS CONSISTENT DIPLOMACY.

RELATED SAME > DEFINITIVE SHIFT IN CHINA'S FOREIGN POLICY.

ARTICS are consistent wid my argument that, as per histoire', China will keep up its calls for mutual diplomacy + negotiation, etc. UNTIL THE DAY + HOUR THE PLA SUDDENLY SHOCKINGLY MYSTERIOUSLY OPENS FIRE AND ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY ANYTHING + ANYONE JAPANESE + JAPANESE SDF, COAST GUARD ETC. IN + NEAR THE CHINA-CLAIMED SENKAKUS.

Again, China wants TAIWAN - it desires the Senkakus + Okinawa to guard the approaches to, from WESTPAC vee its future PLA Milbases on Taiwan. WIDOUT CONTROL OR SOVEREIGNTY OVER TAIWAN, IN CHINA'S MIND THERE IS NO "POST-US", FUTURE "WORLD NO.1", "MANIFEST DESTINY", AT LEAST FOR MOST OR ALL OF THIS 21ST CENTURY [2050-2100]. 'Tis anathema = absolutely positively categorically undeniably ... ... @etc. unacceptable to China.

D *** NG IT, IT DOES N-O-T COMPUTE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 1:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Rock, Paper, SCISSORS?
Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman?

No problem -- just grab a pair of scissors and fight back!
If you are fast enough you can block the bullets with them.
That's some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted on the agency's Web site just a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

"If you are caught out in the open and cannot conceal yourself or take cover, you might consider trying to overpower the shooter with whatever means are available," says the narrator in the video, which shows an office worker pulling scissors out of a desk drawer.
Of course, firearms for self-defense are right out. They are so dangerous, you might shoot your eye out.

HIDE AND COWER:
A Homeland Security video shows these scenes as helpful advice to workers on what to do if a mass killer strikes their office -- grab any weapon at hand, and hide under a desk.
Desks are impervious to bullets. They also function as a Cloak of Invisibility.
The video, titled "Options for Consideration," also advises that people who get caught in an "active shooter" situation should run away, hide under a desk or take cover out of the line of fire.
I wouldn't disagree with any of this advice. I don't go to work armed, it interferes with the drape of my white coat. So if some seriously disturbed person decides to shoot up my office, clinic or hospital, I hope I'll have the presence of mind to throw heavy objects at him and (at the same time) get the hell out of the way.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This was a Kiddie School - there are no sharp scissors kept widin easy or un-locked/un-secured + un-watched reach of the youngsters. The best one can find is either a kiddie pencil or a kid whose famous for deadly eagle-eye spitballs.

School Admin, Supply, + certain Offices will have these, but MOST OR ALL OF THE KIDS, ETAL. WILL BE DEAD OR DYING BY THE TIME AN ADULT(S) FINDS THIS STUFF
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I always wanted one of those Cloaks of Invisiblity myself. Where is Harry Potter when you need him??
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 0:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Forget the rock, paper, scissors. Go with the Makarov.

Training video. Skip the sight picture training, I doubt any of you need it. Klik on "Crapr" and go for it. Sorry about the absence of proper translation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 6:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Scissors? Don't show up to a gun fight with scissors.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Whatever happened to "appealing to the shooter's humanity"?

/sarc
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 12:02 Comments || Top||

#6  A person should only have firearms from hugging too much.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 12:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Hiding under the desk just means you are all waiting for the killer to find you one by one. Better to have a group charge the bastard enmasse if there was no way to sneak out.

Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/01/2013 14:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Here is what I taught my son and his chums when they were in elementary and junior high.
1. Lock or bar the classroom door and get out of view.
2. Load up with anything in your hands: little stones, coins, sand, pencils, anything that can be thrown.
3. Lay down a barrage toward the head and eyes of the perp. Doing that will remove 80% of the sensory inputs of the perp.
4. If the perp is neutralized by the barrage, then rush him and gouge his eyes out.

My son and his chums realized that they were the sheepdogs protecting their flock and they would not cower and die like cowards. Best chance for all to live.

Scissors......tell me another joke.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/01/2013 16:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
[Dawn] Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpuri, a top holy man of the Jamia Banuri Uloom Islamia was rubbed out Thursday, with at least nine other people killed in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in the last 24 hours, officials said.

Deenpuri, 60, was a top mufti at the seminary. He was being driven in a car with a fellow holy man when a gunman opened fire near the eastern neighbourhood Nursery.

"We have got blurred close-circuit camera footage that shows there was a single gunman who was waiting for them," a senior police official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

"When the car slowed down near a traffic intersection, he opened fire to stop it and then attacked them at close range," he said.

Fellow holy man Mohammad Saleh, 45, and driver Hassaan Shah, 27, were also killed.

"It was a assassination and could have a sectarian dimension," another security official told AFP.

Seven others have died in acts of violence in the city since late Wednesday, he said.

Fear and panic gripped the area after the killing of Mufti Deenpuri, as enraged protestors erupted into the streets disrupting vehicular traffic on Sharea Faisal, which is one of the main arteries of the city.

Two people were bumped off near the Northern Bypass area.

Earlier, three bodies, bearing torture marks, were found stuffed in gunny bags in Bloody Karachi's BaldiaTown area. The victims were kidnapped a day earlier from Orangi town's Mominabad area in Bloody Karachi.

Another tortured body was found in Timber market area of Bloody Karachi.

One person died in a gun firing incident in the city's Landhi area.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336129 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Report: IAF Strike Hit Iran Revolutionary Guards In Syria
The poor darlings. Remember, dear Reader, it isn't kind to snicker.
[Jpost] The Iraqi paper Azzaman quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying Thursday that the alleged Israeli attack on Syria caused heavy casualties of special Iranian Guards at the Syrian facility. The sources also said that the attack took place more than 48 hours before it was reported,
Oh my. Or, perhaps, whoops.
eventually being leaked by Israel.

The source for the story, who was interviewed by the paper in London, said that the report about a strike on a convoy to Leb was probably meant to divert attention away from the main objective of the operation, which used F-16 aircraft to fire at least eight guided missiles at the facility.

The source also said that the base was heavily fortified and contained experts from Russia and at least three thousand Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have been guarding the site for years. Many of these Iranian Guards suffered casualties.
Despite their name they don't seem to be very good at guarding, at least if Juices are involved.
Israel most likely got its intelligence, said the source, from penetrating deep inside Iran and from other operations meant to penetrate Hezbollah.
Indeed. It was probably the spy squirrels.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336122 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whoa, this keeps a'gettin better + better.

Once again, Israel shows its gonads + throws down the gauntlet to Rising Iran.

Israeli gauntlet to POTUS BAMMER???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 0:03 Comments || Top||

#2  the paper Azzaman, has, in the past, accepted money from the saudis to tilt their news articles

but who knows, maybe this time they are right
Posted by: lord garth || 02/01/2013 0:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "experts from Russia" The Russians may be POed also but what are they going to say about why the "experts" were there...
Posted by: Thor Glusons7527 || 02/01/2013 0:24 Comments || Top||

#4  That's gonna bring the soup to a rolling boil.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 0:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Guess that answers my question about why they hit the convoy instead of the warehouse, eh?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/01/2013 2:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Syrian Rebels 'Steal' Credit from Israel for Attack
Syrian rebels said that Syria was wrong to condemn and threaten Israel; it was they, not the IDF, that carried out an attack Wednesday
Posted by: tipper || 02/01/2013 4:37 Comments || Top||

#7  tipper,
this all would be very amusing and mirth making if the possible consequences weren't so dire.

Make no mistake that I'm all for the Juice in this but I just can't imagine all the combinations of war that could break out when the dam is breached......and where/how Zero would would get US involved.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/01/2013 6:59 Comments || Top||

#8  If the map I posted yesterday is accurate, there certainly are [or was] a large number of military barracks in that area. Hopefully we've reimbursed the Israeli Air Force for the bombs and gas and provided timely bomb damage assessment imagery. It's the least we could do.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 7:00 Comments || Top||

#9  and where/how Zero would would get US involved. Posted by AlanC

A catastrophic, 9/11 style attack on the homeland, followed by a declaration of national emergency would be my guess. Both the Congress and the constitution would then go on a very, very long recess while the Champ sorted things out to his liking.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 7:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Between Benghazi and the Hagel debacle, I'm no longer able to see obooboo as some hyper-competent Manchurian candidate. I'm more afraid of the majority of the American electorate...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Hagel's inability to anticipate trip-wire questions, along with his inability to think quick enough to come up with reasonable answers [and reasonable, intelligent answers were available] should disqualify him. Sorry Chuck, does not appear you've got the right stuff.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#12  Many of these Iranian Guards suffered casualties

????????????
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/01/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#13  The mission was a success. Glad to see that someone's got a set.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:20 Comments || Top||

#14  Syrian rebels.... they, not the IDF, that carried out an attack Wednesday

That's gonna create a little 'chaff', especially if a rebel unit was involved in the attack in some way.

Sorry Chuck, does not appear you've got the right stuff

But his record!
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#15  Pretty much what Debka has been saying... Interesting.
Posted by: Water Modem || 02/01/2013 10:59 Comments || Top||

#16  But his record!

Mah RECORD? What the HELL you wanna bring that up for? I DONE mah TIME. Ah PAID mah deb to societee.

How the HELL was AH sposed to know she was ONLY 14!!!

/Cheech and Chong...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Ah, no coach, your, heh, won-lost record...

Oh, that record...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#18  More appropriate to sen. menendez (D!!!) but I had to go with it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/01/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||

#19  Israel signed on to the club med pact with the euro trash don't the Jews have oil interest with Iran France and Russia in Mali?
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:17 Comments || Top||

#20  Israel signed on to the club med pact with the euro trash don't the Jews have oil interest with Iran France and Russia in Mali?

Israel has found their own oil and gas, Maggie Flomong2662, both on land and in the Mediterranean, and is working with Cyprus to get theirs out of the sea. I'm not sure what you're getting at with the rest of your post -- no doubt I'm thinking more slowly than usual today.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 17:59 Comments || Top||

#21  WAFF > [Gulf NEWS] ISRAELI MEDIA WARNS OF ESCALATING CONFLICT [albeit not necessarily
"immediately" or near-term], RETALIATION FROM HEZBOLLAH EXPECTED SINCE "RESTRAINT" COULD BE CONSTRUED AS "WEAKNESS".

and

* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS, FREEREPUBLIC > PANETTA: IRANIAN THREAT TO MIDDLE EAST STABILITY INCREASING, as proven by Israeli IDAF air strikes agz Iran-origin, Hezbollah-bound, Syrian-controlled missle truck convoy.

* SIASAT DAILY > ISRAEL INFORMED US BEFORE BORDER STRIKE [Syria attacks].

* SAME > SYRIA'S FUTURE WILL NOT INCLUDE ASSAD: US.

Despite its air strikes yesterday, IMO unlike the Bammer Admin = USA Israel per se is covertly in no rush to see Baby Assad leave power from Israel's "Best Frenemy Forever" Syria - moreso given the chaos in Libyuh + Egypt after the fall of Uncle Muammar + Mubarak, the presence of anti-Assad + anti-Rebel Qaeda + Pakistani Taliban, etc. foreign fighters in Syria, + growing foreign + local Radical threat to Saudi Arabia + Jordan. IFF ANYTHING ISRAEL WANTS BABY ASSAD TO STAY ALAP.

Now comeths ...

* SAME > NUKES COULD STILL BE HIJACKED BY RADICALS: PAK SCIENTIST [Pervez Hoodbhoy].

As US + AFPAK get closer to 2014, PAKISTANI NUCLEAR SECURITY REMAINS PROBLEMATIC.

Once the Taliban, etal. start their de facto formal participation in the processes of Pak Govt, IT WILL BE NEXT-TO-IMPOSSIBLE TO PREVENT THE HARD BOYZ FROM HAVING SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE-N-CONTROL OER PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL.

In addition, once intense cooperation wid Nuke wannabe SHIA IRAN begins, the US-ALlies should expect Pakistan's arsenal to be used as a shield = "Nuclear Umbrella" protecting any and all Iranian + Radical Islamist activities, espec pro-Islamist,pro-Caliphate Militancy-Insurgency, from US, Western, + non/anti-Islamic threats.

FORM OF PAN-ISLAMIST, RO-ISLAMIST NUCLEAR GOOD-COP-VS-BAD-COP AGZ US + NON-ISLAMIC WORLD, HOW CHINA USES NORTH KOREA, etc.

* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > NETANYAHU DRAWS "LINE IN THE SAND" AGZ IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM, BUT FOR THE US. 2013 IS LAST YEAR US + INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY [UNO = UNIAEA] CAN PEACEFULLY PUT EFFECTIVE STOP TO IRAN'S NUCLEAR VENTURE WIDOUT RESORT TO WARFARE - US IS ONLY WORLD POWER THAT CAN UNILATERALLY FORCE EITHER IRAN CONCESSION OR IN ALTERNATE DESTRUCTION OF IRAN'S PROGRAM.

Iran has times stated that any military attack by Israel + IDF agz its Nucprog, Allies, or Interests will be deemed by Iran the same as an attack by the USA agz same, justifying an Iranian military counter-response or other [Proxy Terror = Hezbollah, etal.] as decided by Iran.

BY ITS STRIKES ON SYRIA ISRAEL HAS MET IRAN'S CONDITIONS AS ABOVE DESPITE IRAN'S THREAT OF MILITARY ANDOR TERROR COUNTER-REPONSE - the ball is now in Tehran's court.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 22:19 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
China hacked NYT computer systems, paper says
[FRANCE24] Hackers have infiltrated The New York Times' computer systems in recent months, a move that may be linked to its October exposé of the wealth amassed by relatives of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the paper said Wednesday. China has denied the claims.
There's not a day that goes by when somebody's not trying to break into the Burg. The majority of those trying to break down the door are Chinese.
What could the Chinese possibly want with Rantburg? They are at best a tertiary interest here, and everything is open source anyway.

Update from Ynet:
The Wall Street Journal also says its computers have been infiltrated by Chinese hackers trying to monitor the newspaper's coverage of China.

The Journal didn't address how the hacking of its systems occurred, but it said it has faced such threats from China in recent years and denied that attempt stemmed from a desire to "gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heck, the Chinese could just sign up for direct delivery of the all the White House press releases and cut out the middle man.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/01/2013 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  My fav headline on this thus far, over at breitbart's thingey:

"Commies hack commie hacks."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/01/2013 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  The New York Times is awful.

(How awful is it Swikky?)

Its so awful, the Chinese have to hack their computers to spell check.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  "Look - this stuff was rejected by Xinhua as impossible parttisan hackery. Yet the Americans seem to think it has some credibility. I suspect a double-trick, Chin! It's a trap!"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 10:05 Comments || Top||

#5  There are some good contenders for snark of the day.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Wonder if they left Tom Friedman's schtuff unmolested?
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 12:06 Comments || Top||

#7  why would they hack their biggest supporters and most loyal shills?
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/01/2013 17:36 Comments || Top||

#8  If the communist chines goverment hacked into the NYT to influence public opinion in their favor and to increase the socialist progress of the Obama Administration, how could you tell?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/01/2013 18:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe the chicoms are training newbies on the NYT. Kinda like Zweibach toast for teething babies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/01/2013 23:26 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Holds Black Bloc Member over 'Israeli Sabotage Plan'
[An Nahar] Egyptian authorities on Thursday placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
a member of the Black Bloc beturbanned goon group suspected of planning to carry out an Israeli-directed sabotage plan, the official MENA news agency said.
Oooooh, the Israelis. No doubt a cunning plot was involved -- those Israelis are better than anyone when it comes to cunning plots.
One person "belonging to the Black Bloc organization was tossed in the slammer
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
inside a building overlooking Tahrir Square carrying Israeli plans to target petrol companies and vital installations, maps of these places and instructions on setting fire to some places," MENA reported.

Israel firmly rejected the notion of its involvement in any such plot.

Egypt's state security prosecution is currently questioning the suspect who is accused of "belonging to an illegal organization and planning to sabotage private and public property."

According to MENA, the suspect admitted to belonging to the Black Bloc, a group of masked faceless myrmidons who have appeared among protesters in recent festivities with police.

The suspect was spotted by a security guard in a residential building off Tahrir Square and handed over to police, MENA said.

Israeli foreign ministry front man Yigal Palmor said he had no idea whether or not the Black Bloc member intended to carry out a plan of sabotage, but the claim of Israeli involvement was "utter nonsense."

Elsewhere, another suspected Black Bloc member was arrested after placing an order with a clothing factory in the city of Mahalla, north of Cairo, for black masks and outfits for the group, the prosecution said in the report.

The arrests come on the eve of planned protests against President Mohamed Morsi as deadly unrest has swept the country.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Hey, let's go down to the local tailor & get some masks & stuff.
Posted by: tipover || 02/01/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Since they don't have a Reichstag...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Can't he just call the ACLU if he is black?
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, ferchrissakes. Mods, is "Maggie Flomong2662" Angleton9's new temporary nym? :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/01/2013 18:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Judging by the IP, I'd say it's our Canadian/upstate NY troll.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/01/2013 20:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mortar shell kills six of a family
[Dawn] Six members of a family were killed when a mortar fell on a house in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Wednesday, sources said.

They said that a stray mortar fired from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location hit the house of Ghani Gul in Sponrhai area of Kukikhel
...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government...
, killing six members of his family.

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread...
security forces said that curfew would be imposed in the entire Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency from Thursday morning.

They made announcements through loudspeakers in most parts of Bara, advising local people to remain inside their houses till next order. The security forces didn't cite any reason for imposition of the indefinite curfew in the entire Bara.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Africa North
UN speeds up peacekeeping force plan for Mali
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The United Nations is speeding up planning for a peacekeeping force in Mali as French and Malian troops steamroller into territory seized by Islamists, diplomats and officials said Wednesday.

The UN Security Council could start talks within days on moves that would probably incorporate African troops now gathering in Mali into a formal blue helmet force, diplomats said.

"There is increasing talk now of maybe moving straight to a UN peacekeeping operation. And that is one of the options the council will be looking at in the next few days," said one senior western diplomat.

UN officials said that planning for a peacekeeping force started months ago, before France intervened on January 11 to halt an Islamist advance on the Mali capital, and is now at an "advanced" stage.

After halting the advance by al-Qaeda linked groups, French troops on Wednesday entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in norther Mali, as part of a counter-offensive which has seen Islamist fighters disappear into the desert.

The success of the French campaign means "it might be possible to move faster than originally thought to a full UN peacekeeping operation," the western diplomat added.

Other Security Council diplomats confirmed that talks on the next move in Mali could start soon. US ambassador Susan Rice has proposed several times in council talks in recent weeks that a peacekeeping force must be considered, diplomats said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Briton Finds 'Rare Whale Vomit' Worth 50,000 Euros
[An Nahar] A British man has been offered 50,000 euros for a strange-smelling rock his dog found on a beach, which is likely a rare form of whale vomit used in perfumes, the BBC reported Thursday.

Ken Wilman was walking his dog Madge in the coastal town of Morecambe in northwest England when she began "poking at a rather large stone" with a waxy texture and yellowish color.

At first he left it on the beach, but "something triggered in my mind," Wilman said, prompting him to go back and retrieve the object, which he believes is a piece of ambergris, a substance found in the digestive systems of sperm whales.

Whales sometimes spew up ambergris, which floats on water and has been highly prized for centuries. It is used in perfume-making for the musky fragrance it acquires as it ages -- but newer ambergris is foul-smelling.

"When I picked it up and smelled it I put it back down again and I thought 'urgh'," Wilman told the BBC.

"It has a musky smell, but the more you smell it the nicer the smell becomes."

He is waiting for tests to confirm his find is ambergris, nicknamed "floating gold," but says he has been offered 50,000 euros (£43,000, $68,000) for it by a French dealer.

"It's worth so much because of its particular properties," Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrates at the National Museum of Scotland, told the broadcaster.

"It's a very important base for perfumes and it's hard to find any artificial substitute for it."

The substance gets a mention in the classic 1851 whaling novel Moby Dick, where author Herman Melville writes: "Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! Yet so it is."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First, a righteous "EEEEEEWWWWWW", followed soon by a righteous, PETER GRIFFIN-ESQUE "YOU BASTARD"!

As per any good Weekend King-fu Movie, I DEMAND REVENGE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  You gotta be BS'ing me ... this can't be real.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  This "whale vomit" is amber gris ie the most coveted asset the Moby Dick men were looking for.
Posted by: JFM || 02/01/2013 3:15 Comments || Top||

#4  right...just hang out at a Hometown Buffet on a Friday Night...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/01/2013 7:38 Comments || Top||

#5  OK got it - ambergris. That rings a bell. I didn't read the whole article. I hate this new form of pseudo-journalism ... where reporters take well-known info and disguise it to make it sound like a discovery. It's annoying.
Posted by: Raider || 02/01/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Opportunity knocking for those with the rosie o'donnel seasons.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/01/2013 11:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Picture = 1000 words - could BURP be one of them ?

Ambergris (pron.: /ˈæmbərɡriːs/ or pron.: /ˈæmbərɡrɪs/, Latin: Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.

Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. However, as it ages, it acquires a sweet, earthy scent commonly likened to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency. The principal historical use of ambergris was as a fixative in perfumery, though it has now been largely displaced by synthetics.

I would like to have provided you with an Olfactory link to fecal odor, but I think some of you are capable of providing your own
:-O
Posted by: Jaick Ulaigum3043 || 02/01/2013 15:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Kidnappers Kill Son of Herat Businessman After Ransom Paid
[Tolo News] The son of a Herat businessman has been killed by his captors 35 days after he was kidnapped and held for ransom, local officials said Thursday.

The father of the boy said the kidnappers had initially asked him to pay US$400,000 for his son's release. This was negotiated down to US$90,000, which he paid, but the boy was still killed and buried - probably in order to protect their identities, the father told TOLOnews.

A number of Herat province residents brought the unearthed body of the boy before the governor's office and demanded harsh punishments for the perpetrators.

Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamidi, acting police commander of Herat province, told TOLOnews that the boy was kidnapped near his house 35 days ago. The police have detained six men and two women as key persons in the kidnapping, with one person still missing.

"We detained six men and two women in connection with this and they have confessed their crime," Hamidi said.

Cases of kidnappings in Herat have dropped in the last two months compared to six months ago, however the recent incident has reignited concerns for the ruthless criminal behaviour.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Polio drive in Swabi resumes today
[Dawn] The district administration and health officials after holding successful talks with the vaccinators have decided to resume the ongoing anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
campaign in the district.

Deputy Commissioner Syed Mohammad Shad said that they succeeded in convincing the vaccinators to resume their duties from Thursday to complete the ongoing anti-polio drive.

In this connection, two meetings were held at the office of deputy commissioner to discuss provision of security to the vaccinators and resumption of the polio campaign.

The meetings were attended by District Health Officer Dr Zafeer, in-charge of Expanded Programme for Immunisation Dr Mohammad Riaz, Superintendent of Police Abdul Rashid and lady health supervisors.

The campaign was put off in the district on Tuesday after an attack on the polio team in Kala village. A policeman, who was providing security to two women vaccinators, was killed in the attack. The vaccinators remained unhurt in the attack.

Sources said that lady health supervisors informed the officers that they would contact the 754 lady health workers (LHWs) to ascertain whether they were ready to resume their duty or not.

The campaigners, when contacted, said that they were reluctant to resume the campaign owing to threat to their lives. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
the administration reduced the area of the campaign and vowed to provide full-fledged security to them.

"We have planned to administer anti-polio drops to 252,216 children in the district. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the two-day campaign is yet to be carried out," said Dr Riaz.

Sources said that more than one-third of the target children were already covered in the campaign and the remaining would be covered when the drive would restart on Thursday.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
the duration of the campaign has been kept secret owing to security reasons.

The health authorities have constituted 538 mobile teams and 24 transit points for the anti-polio drive while 754 LHWs are participating in the campaign. It has been learnt that the health authorities want to complete the drive as soon as possible.

Police, when contacted, said that no one grabbed credit for the killing of their colleague and no arrest was made in the case. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
they said that police were alert and vigilant round the clock.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
the deputy commissioner has imposed ban on riding double in the district. The deputy commissioner said that the ban would remain imposed for a few days but he did not disclose as to when the ban would be lifted.

He said that motorcyclists were involved in majority of the incidents of terrorism occurred in the district during the current month.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Heather Morris[Filmography](age 26)



Intelligent Design


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/01/2013 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I've got socks older than Heather although this does not seem to matter with some members of the Senate from NJ.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:05 Comments || Top||

#3  That one goes to 11, hey?
Posted by: Perfesser || 02/01/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Big ass tattoo - FAIL
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/01/2013 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  OK how many others didn't notice the tramp stamp?
Posted by: Whomomp Pelosi8966 || 02/01/2013 11:00 Comments || Top||

#6  There's something disconcerting about her nose. It was so distracting I didn't notice if her elbows were pointy or not.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/01/2013 15:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Heather Morris has been kidnapped!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/01/2013 23:32 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Islamists 'disqualified' from talks, Mali's president says
[FRANCE24] Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traoré ruled out talks with the al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups who seized control of the country's north for nine months, saying they were "not eligible for dialogue" in an interview with Stéphanie Braquehais, the RFI-France 24 correspondent in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Traoré said he would be willing to meet with the region's Tuareg rebels, however.

Ansar Dine 'disqualified'

"It is obvious that Ansar Dine is now disqualified...whatever clothes they are wearing," Traoré said. "The only group with which we can imagine potentially successful negotiations is the MNLA [Liberation Army of Azawad, a Tuareg rebel group] --on the condition that they give up all territorial demands and agree to definitively re-integrate into Mali. We seek solutions in democracy, de-centralisation, and development" between Mali's government and "legitimate representatives" from the north on Wednesday.

For nearly ten months, northern Mali was controlled by a motley mix of rebels groups -- including al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups such as Ansar Dine [Defenders of the Faith].

The fall of northern Mali into rebel hands was sparked by the MNLA's declaration of independence from the rest of Mali last year. But the Tuareg rebel group then lost control of vast tracts of the region to militant Islamist fighters.

During a lightening offensive, which began January 11, French troops, backed by Malian soldiers and a multinational West African force, met little or no resistance as they advanced over a vast desert territory the size of France.

The French troops entered Mali's remote northern city of Kidal--the last stronghold of Islamist rebels--late Tuesday after an intervention that saw the French-Malian contingent regain control of the cities of Gao and Timbuktu in less than 48 hours.

Along with Gao and Timbuktu, Kidal was under the control of Islamists militants. While they held regional power, the rebels enforced a harsh interpretation of Sharia law and destroyed ancient mausoleums they considered heretical.

Malian army ensuring 'no ethnic warfare'

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Wednesday repeated Washington's call for Malians "to refrain from retaliating against Tuaregs or other ethnic minorities."

Reporting from Timbuktu a day after the historic city was liberated, FRANCE 24's Matthieu Mabin said hundreds of people attacked and looted shops belonging to the Tuareg and other lighter skinned ethnic groups -- commonly called "Arabs" -- in Mali.

Earlier this week, FRANCE 24's Mehdi Chebil documented a case of Malian soldiers targeting an elderly man mistakenly assumed to have Islamist links in the central Malian city of Diabaly.

In his interview with RFI-France24, Traoré insisted that the Malian army was ensuring that such "ethnic warfare" would not occur, adding that "in Mali, this type of problem does not really exist".

"The [Malian] army has been there to tell the people not to pillage and not to generalise [when it comes to other ethnic groups]," Traoré said. "They are there for a clear cause: to reclaim our territory and to make sure our country finds peace and a normal constitutional life again."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine


Caribbean-Latin America
Gangs rob at least five buses in Durango

For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

At least five buses have been robbed at gunpoint near a northeast Durango municipality near La Laguna since last Sunday, according to Mexican enws accounts.

A news report which appeared last Monday on the website of El Mexicano news daily said that a group of athletes from Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ) were stopped by armed suspects in Cuencame de Ceniceros municipality, and stripped of cell phones and cash.

Cuencame de Ceniceros is on Mexico Federal Highway 40 about 40 kilometers southwest of La Laguna. In the Sunday attack, armed suspects riding aboard a truck forced the three buses carrying the students to stop. One of the bus drivers was reported hurt.

A news report by Richard Ibarra which appeared on Yancuic news website said that the attacks began last Tuesday, which does not line up with the El Mexicano account, which said one attack took place on Sunday

In the Yancuic account, the office of the Durango Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or state attorney general said one of the attacks took place near the village of Chocolate early Tuesday morning.

When Mexican federal security forces arrived at the Chocolate location, they found five vehicles, an abandoned truck, passengers and a driver. The Yancuic account also said another two public buses were robbed as well.

Additionally, a truck was attacked with small arms in Gomez Palacio Thursday, but no one was reported hurt in that attack.

Meanwhile in Torreon, Coahuila, four more dead were found, bringing the total murdered in Torreon to 42.

According to several news reports posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, three individuals were found shot to death near the intersection of Calle Joaquin Moreno and Avenida Juarez in Torreon. The dead were identified as Jesus Humberto Martinez Escarcega, 25, Alexis, 17, and Claudia Berenice Guzman Reyes, 30.

In other news, in perhaps the most stark statement to date of the security situation, the Durango FGE was forced to admit that security operations on the Durango side of La Laguna are no longer under the control of her office.

A press report brief which appeared on the website of El Siglo de Torreon news daily reported the remarks of Lt. Adelaido Flores Diaz, director of Torreon Direccion de Seguridad Publica Municipal, as saying Seguro Laguna was now in operation.

Seguro Laguna was the name of the now cancelled security program which operated in the region between October 2011 and November 30th 2012. The then Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) or interior minister Alejandro Poire cancelled the operation when violent crime fell in the area.

The decision to cancel Seguro Laguna left Durango governor Jorge Herrera Caldera practically screaming in the press for federal security assistance. The only federal response since last December was to close Centro de Readaptcion Social Numero 2 in Gomez Palacio, before a decision was made to reintroduce federal security forces, such as army, naval infantry and Policia Federal units to the region. The decision to close the CERESO, made by new SEGOB Miguel Osorio Chong, has complicated state security efforts, now that detainees must be taken to the Durango state capital 150 kilometers away.

In a brief statement to the press, Durango FGE Sonia Yadira Garza Fragoso said that Seguro Laguna was no longer in operation and that the Mexican Army now solely controls security operations in the region.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Nine suspected militants killed in Orakzai airstrikes
[Dawn] Nine suspected hard boyz were killed and three hideouts demolished in Arclight airstrikes conducted by Pak security forces in the upper Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
, DawnNews reported on Thursday.

According to assistant political agent Rafiq Mohmand, the Arclight airstrikes took place in the Arghanjo area of the upper Orakzai Agency.

An ongoing military offensive against suspected hard boyz in the tribal agency appears to have gained momentum, with security forces claiming to have killed dozens of hard boyz and destroyed their hideouts in the past week.

Security officials claim that up to 92 per cent of Orakzai agency has been cleared of hard boyz in the ongoing military offensive in the restive tribal region.

Orakzai is one of Pakistain's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pak Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked hard boyz are said to have carved out strongholds.

The area was the original base of Pak Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud before he moved to South Wazoo to take up the Taliban leadership after the death of his predecessor, Baituallah Mehsud.

Unlike the six other tribal agencies, however, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan. The rugged mountainous territory provides a crucial link for hard boyz operating in other tribal regions, as it borders the regions of Khyber and Kurram on the Afghan frontier. It also borders Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province and Pakistain's main northwestern city, as well as the garrison town of Kohat.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Bangladesh
Killing, violence mark hartal
[Bangla Daily Star] At least three people in Bogra were killed in festivities during yesterday's hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
demanding the scrapping of the international crimes tribunals and release of its top leaders being tried for war crimes.

Jamaat claimed the victims, Abu Ruhani, 22, Mizanur Rahman, 30, and Abdullah, 21, were its activists.

The party and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district tomorrow protesting the killings.

At least a hundred people, including 10 coppers, were maimed in Bogra yesterday when the pickets and law enforcers clashed. Pickets even snatched a rifle from a policeman.

At least 35 people were placed in durance vile
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in connection with the violence.

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon...
an auto-rickshaw driver in Feni crashed his vehicle into a tree while trying to outrun the pickets chasing him. He departed this vale of tears at a hospital.

A policeman in Jessore suffered minor injuries when pickets attacked him in Monirampur but he later died of a heart attack at a hospital.

Law enforcers picked four persons in connection with the attack.

Yesterday, Jamaat and pro-Jamaat student body Islami Chhatra Shibir men went on the rampage across the country and vandalised more than 60 vehicles, mostly buses and trucks, and torched over 25 vehicles including four police vans.

The half-day hartal in Dhaka and Chittagong, dawn-to-dusk elsewhere, was also marked by kabooms of homemade bombs, violence and detention.

The rampage comes a day after Jamaat-Shibir men vandalised and torched vehicles in the capital supporting the hartal. Yesterday, the violence was scattered across the country.

In Bogra, some unidentified people launched an attack on a group of pickets, including Abu Ruhani, in front of Govt Mojibur Rahman College in the town around 12:30pm, witnesses said.

Ruhani along with other injured were rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared Ruhani dead.

He is the president of Shibir unit of Azizul Haque College (old building) and a third-year student of the sociology department.

Witnesses said unidentified people dragged Mizanur, owner of Bhai-Bon Hatchery (fish fry farm) at Subgram, out of his establishment and hacked him with sharp weapons around 12:45pm.

Seriously injured, he was rushed to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
at 1:15pm.

Jamaat-Shibir men armed with lethal weapons brought out a procession in the town carrying the two dead around 4:30pm but police obstructed them.

Around 5:30pm, the pickets set fire to a students' dorm at Jamil Nagar area of the town. Pro-ruling party activists allegedly dominate the dorm.

Police and Rab personnel came to disperse the protesters, triggering a 40-minute clash that left Abdullah, 21, a Shibir activist of Bogra Shaheed Chandu Stadium Unit, killed.

Presidents of Bogra District Bangladesh Chhatra League
... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ...
and Jubo League
... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League...
Mashrafi Hero and Manzurul Alam have claimed that they were not responsible for the deaths.

"None of our activists staged any demonstrations yesterday," said Mashrafi of the pro-ruling party student body.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (A-Circle) Maqbul Hossain and Officer-in-Charge Syed Shahid Alam of Bogra Police Station told The Daily Star that all the three dead in Bogra belonged to Jamaat-Shibir.

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise immediately began speaking in tongues...
Zahirul Haque, 50, constable of Monirampur Police Station in Jessore died of cardiac arrest just after a clash between police and Jamaat-Shibir men early yesterday. He had sustained injuries during the clash.

In Feni, driver of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw Mohammad Emon, 25, departed this vale of tears at Feni Sadar Hospital after he suffered serious injuries when his vehicle hit a tree.

Emon, the lone bread earner of his family, was going to Sharshadi from Feni when pickets chased his vehicle and he tried to escape with his vehicle.

Three passengers on his vehicle were also injured.

In the capital, Jamaat-Shibir activists launched an attack on law enforcers from a procession at Bijoy Nagar around 7:00pm.

"Over 100 Jamaat-Shibir activists equipped with sticks and brick chips made the attack but police dispersed them after a half-hour-long clash," said the officer-in-charge of Paltan Police Station.

Earlier in the day, Jamaat-Shibir men set fire to three vehicles in Mirpur-11, two each in Postagola and Shonir Akhra.

They also vandalised nine buses and went kaboom! eight homemade bombs in the city while the law enforcers rounded up 15 pro-hartal activists.

In Chittagong, pickets went kaboom! homemade bombs, torched at least seven vehicles and vandalised two minibuses.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Afghanistan
Illiteracy Will Not Hold Afghan Forces Back: Seddiqi
[Tolo News] The Afghan Ministry of Interior (MOI) Thursday dismissed the remarks of a US official that rampant illiteracy among the ranks of the Afghan army was proving a "huge challenge" to training, saying it will not undermine the strategy ahead.

"Illiteracy cannot put obstacles in the way of the withdrawal and transition process," MOI front man Sediq Seddiqi said.

US Deputy Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter said in an interview with Bloomberg this week that Washington will push ahead with plans to provide the Afghan armed forces with more weapon artillery and armored vehicles to enhance its capabilities, but noted illiteracy is holding the army back in other ways.

Illiteracy among Afghans "is a huge challenge and one that we have confronted for five or six years," Carter said. Training Afghan troops for military roles requires "basic literacy training - training people to count and write basic sentences," he said.

Providing more details on different types of artillery to be delivered to Afghanistan, the Pentagon deputy pointed out the effectiveness of mortars and airforce aids.

"Mortars will help Afghan troops to do their own indirect fires as the US scales back air support, he said, adding that Afghans were familiar with the weapon from the Soviet period.

The Pentagon is also working "through acquisition issues" in order to provide Afghanistan with a light-attack plane, Carter said.

US officials have previously said that most of the staff within the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are illiterate and that it has caused great challenges in training them for independent operations.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Illiteracy cannot put obstacles in the way of the withdrawal and transition process," MOI front man Sediq Seddiqi said.

Spot on Sediq. "Illiteracy" should be one of the primary justifications for withdrawal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/01/2013 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Bowling ball score card math made mandatory in New York State will though. Fill out the score card and then the angle of fire! When do then zombie kill teams start cleaning out sectors of three piece suit areas?
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Illiteracy Will Not Hold Afghan Forces Back

No more than graduates of the Chicago public school system.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/01/2013 19:24 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria seethes, vows Dire Revenge™ over Israeli air strike
Syria threatened dire revenge on Thursday to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the attack.

Syria sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General stressing the country's "right to defend itself, its territory and sovereignty" and holding Israel and its supporters accountable.

"Israel and those who protect it at the Security Council are fully responsible for the repercussions of this aggression," the letter from Syria's Foreign Ministry said.

The Syrian military denied there was any weapons convoy and said low-flying Israeli jets had crossed into their country over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to bomb a scientific research center near Damascus.
"What kind of research?"
"Scientific research!"
It said the target was in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus and about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who in December became one of the most senior Syrian army officers to defect, told The Associated Press by telephone from Turkey that the site they said was targeted is a "major and well-known" center to develop weapons known as the Scientific Research Center.
See? Both sides are correct!
Al-Shallal, who until his defection was commander of the military police, said no chemical or nonconventional weapons are at the site. He added that foreign experts, including Russians and Iranians, are usually present at such centers.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali threatened retribution for the Israeli airstrike, saying Damascus "has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation."
Well, you do have the option, though capacity looks a little iffy...
He told Hezbollah's al-Ahd news website that it was up to the relevant authorities to prepare the retaliation and choose the time and place.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned Major-General Iqbal Singh Singha, the head of mission and force commander for United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights, to complain about the Israeli violation. At UN headquarters in New York, deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said: "UNDOF did not observe any planes flying over the area of separation, and therefore was not able to confirm the incident." UNDOF also reported bad weather conditions, he said.
"Nothing! We saw nothing! Tell them, Hogan!"
Hezbollah condemned the attack as "barbaric aggression" and said it "expresses full solidarity with Syria's command, army and people."
While it stays in its hidey-holes...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also WAFF > SYRIA, IRAN THREATEN RETALIATION AGZ ISRAEL [implications = inferences agz "Tel Aviv" proper].

* RELATED SAME > SYRIA PROTEST OVER ISRAEL ATTACK, WARNS OF "SURPRISE" [counter-response], agz Israel at its own leisure = discretion.

* SAME > [Video]POSTER THREAD: IS IT TIME FOR AMERICA TO EXERCISE THE NUCLEAR OPTION ON IRAN?

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS [long]> INTERNATIONAL + ARAB CONDEMNATIONS OF ISRAELI AGGRESSION ON SYRIA.

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [BBC News] WILLIAM HAGUE: I'M NOT CONDEMNING ISRAEL OVER "ATTACK" ON SYRIA, but prefers to focus on the root/basic causes of the ongoing Syrian Crisis.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/01/2013 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: junkiron || 02/01/2013 7:46 Comments || Top||

#3  The seething reminds one of Baghdad Bob: Best (or worst) of BB. Baghdad Bob apparently retired from the MSM in 2003. His spirit lives on in the U.S.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/01/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#4  At least with Bob you knew whose side he was on AND he never pretended to be giving news.

I'd give him a job in PR and marketing anytime had he lived.

He actually makes more sense than Piers or Rachel or even 60 minutes.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/01/2013 13:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Qaim announces grand operation to restore peace in Karachi
[Dawn] Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday announced to carry out a "grand operation" to wipe out terrorism and restore peace in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
, DawnNews reported.

The announcement comes as the city witnessed the killing of 10 people on Thursday, including Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpuri, a top holy man of the Jamia Banuri Uloom Islamia.

Another religio-political leader showed his displeasure and called for protests against the assassinations.

"We have no expectations of getting justice," said Qari Mohammad Usman, the Bloody Karachi chief of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
-Fazl (JUI-F), one of the largest Sunni political parties.

"This entire nation, the citizens of Bloody Karachi, the students and holy mans are exhausted from carrying the bodies of our elders... The time is near when we will give a call for everyone to come out into the streets," he said.

After holding a high level security meeting at the chief minister house in Bloody Karachi, the chief minister ordered to call more police contingents from other districts of Sindh to be deployed in the metropolis.

Shah ordered a joint police-rangers targeted operation against the beturbanned goons who have spread a deadly wave of violence in the financial hub of the country.

Expressing outrage at the additional inspector general of police in Bloody Karachi, he ordered him to restore peace and not to hesitate from taking any large scale action in the city.

He called for bringing more police force from interior Sindh and rid Bloody Karachi of the myrmidons.

Speaking to media representatives after the meeting, provincial Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said the operation will begin from today, adding that more security check posts will be built at all entry and exit points of the city.

He said that a conspiracy was being hatched to disrupt peace of the metropolis and hoped that the criminals would go on a defensive after the planned operation.

A high level delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
(MQM) is also meeting the chief minister in this regard.

Earlier today, members of the MQM had staged a walk-out from the Senate session protesting against the government's failure to curb violence in Bloody Karachi.

Meanwhile,
...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell...
the party chief Altaf Hussain also assailed the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) led provincial government for not controlling the law and order situation in the Sindh capital.

He condemned the killing of Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpuri and declared it as a tragic incident.

Moreover, Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
also condemned the incident and said there was no writ of the government in Bloody Karachi.

He assailed the government for not caring about the civilians and said the city has been left at the mercy of the killers.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Culture Wars
Ooops, remember the people who brought you MMGW?
Study finds leafy green vegetables top source of food poisoning; more deaths tied to poultry.
Mayor Bloomberg to the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, the obvious solution to this is more USDA inspectors and regulations. That way, the stuff can rot in warehouses waiting to pass gubamint inspection!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/01/2013 10:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria Ruling Party Leader Relieved of Duties
[An Nahar] The central committee of Algeria's ruling party relieved its chief Abdelaziz Belkhadem of his duties on Thursday, in the FLN's biggest internal crisis for a decade, an AFP journalist reported.

Members of the National Liberation Front held a vote of confidence, with 160 voting in favor of and 156 against the resignation of the secretary general, with seven spoiled ballot papers.

Belkhadem admitted defeat, saying: "I have triumphed because my party has triumphed. I quit with my head held high and hope that whoever succeeds me will do better."

His adversaries had feared the influential former premier may force the party to re-elect him.

The FLN, to which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term...
also belongs, and which holds almost half of the seats in parliament, had been riven between supporters of Belkhadem, 67, and high-profile critics who accused him of nepotism.

"Belkhadem is playing with his political destiny at this meeting (for the vote of confidence). We fear a repeat of what happened at the last central committee meeting" in June, said former minister Boudjemaa Haichour, one of the leading party rebels, ahead of the vote.

Belkhadem, who insisted that he won the central committee's vote of confidence then, was accused of orchestrating an "organic coup," and the two factions nearly came to blows.

Eight ministers, all on the central committee, subsequently called for his resignation and accused him of using "state institutions to realize personal ambitions."

On Tuesday, Belkhadem denied outright the existence of a crisis and accused his critics of trying to stir ill-feeling between him and Bouteflika.

If there were a crisis, "it must stem from ideas, differences in orientation or management among its members, which absolutely do not exist," he said in an interview with the private Nessma TV channel.

He also said he was being targeted personally.

The call for him to step down came after another former premier, Ahmed Ouyahia, quit as secretary general of FLN ally the Rally for National Democracy (RND) after coming under pressure from within his party.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
2 More Anti-polio Workers Killed in Pakistan Attack
[An Nahar] A bomb Thursday killed two polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination workers in Pakistain's northwestern tribal region, officials said, the latest in a series of such attacks which have now killed 19 in two months.

There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the killings. But the umbrella Taliban faction last year banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Wazoo, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage.

"The two-men team was visiting Mali Khel village in upper Kurram tribal region when an improvised bomb planted along the roadside went off, killing them on the spot," Jawad Ali, in charge of the campaign in Kurram, told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He said the team had been visiting different areas which were not covered by a three-day campaign that ended Wednesday.

Local administration official Javaid Ullah confirmed the incident.

Kurram is part of the semi-autonomous tribal belt near the Afghan border where Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked hard boyz have carved out strongholds to plot attacks on Pak, Afghan and Western targets.

It is also rife with sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Moslems.

Pakistain, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where polio is endemic. But rumors about vaccines being a plot to sterilize Moslems have long dogged efforts to tackle the highly infectious disease.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  They don't let the kids even play Marco polio over what the phuck!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/01/2013 17:22 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia Extends State of Emergency for a Month
[An Nahar] Tunisia's presidency said Thursday it is extending for one month the state of emergency imposed after the fall two years ago of long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

"President Moncef Marzouki has decided, after consulting the heads of government and Constituent Assembly, to extend the state of emergency from February 1 to March 2, 2013," a presidency statement said.

In October last year, the authorities prolonged the state of emergency by four months, whereas before it had been extended on a month-to-month basis.

The four-month extension from October 31, continuing special intervention powers for the police and army, came after a series of Islamist attacks.

Tunisia's state of emergency was decreed in January 2011 after Ben Ali, the first despot to be toppled in an Arab Spring popular uprising, fled the country for exile in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Civil Marriage: Shiite Council Says It's 'Legally, Ethically Rejected'
[An Nahar] Vice-President of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan on Thursday called on the leaders of religious communities in Lebanon to form a committee to discuss the adoption of civil marriage in the country.

"An extensive study of civil marriage must be undertaken," Qabalan stated during a meeting with a delegation of Lebanese student and youth organizations.

He remarked: "The investigation needs to take into consideration religious laws and concerns and it should be beneficial to the people".

Meanwhile, the Religious Evangilization Committee of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council stated on Thursday its rejection of civil marriage for "ethical, constitutional, doctrinal and national concerns".

"This union contradicts with the constitutional form of marriage adopted in the country and it is a revolution on the Lebanese culture of citizenship," the committee said in a released statement.

It added: "Civil marriage threatens the concept of family founded on ethical and spiritual grounds".

The statement referred to several articles in the Lebanese constitution to describe the handling of personal affairs by religious authorities as a "source of richness and cultural diversity in Lebanon not a matter of a political debate that has long divided the people".

"Religious marriage does not contradict with a civil and secular state," the committee stated, adding that it preserves communities' "ethical and ideological privacy".

It expressed: "Allowing a minority to infiltrate the historical cultural structure of the country is an attack on and a threat to both Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon".

The statement urged political and religious communities to "thoroughly reflect and use their wisdom before expressing their views on this issue.

Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Qabbani had issued a fatwa on Monday against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country.

Qabbani branded as an apostate any Muslim politician who approves civil marriage legislation, saying offenders would not be eligible to be buried in a Muslim cemetery.

The religious edict came a day after President Michel Suleiman tweeted that he would remain steadfast in supporting such unions, while Prime Minister Najib Miqati wrote on his Twitter account that a consensus was required to address the issue.

The campaign for civil marriage in Lebanon has gained momentum with a daring initiative to create new jurisprudence.

Kholoud Sukkarieh and Nidal Darwish announced earlier this month they had wed as a secular couple by having their religious sects legally struck from their family registers under an article dating from the 1936 French mandate.

Suleiman has since lobbied for a civil marriage law as a "very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity."

Suleiman had tweeted that he would "respond to the evolution and aspirations of the people and prepare the appropriate laws for the issue of civil marriage."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Two More Killed in Cairo Clashes, Death Toll Reaches 56
[An Nahar] Two more people died in festivities between police and protesters near Cairo's Tahrir Square earlier this week, the health ministry said Thursday, bringing to 56 the number of deaths nationwide in a week of violence.

The two -- a 26-year-old male and another unidentified man -- were shot in the head and chest during festivities late on Tuesday night and shuffled off the mortal coil overnight, health ministry front man Ahmed Omar said.

The protests took a violent turn on Saturday after a court sentenced 21 residents of the canal city of Port Said to death for their involvement in football-related violence last year.

Anger on the street has been directed mainly at Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his Moslem Brüderbund movement who have been accused of monopolizing power and failing to reform post-revolt Egypt.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Brahimi Will Not Return to Damascus, Guarded on Talks
[An Nahar] International Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Thursday he has no plan to return to Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
and gave a guarded response to an offer by an opposition leader for talks with government figures.

"It is worthy of note," Brahimi said of a statement by Syrian National Council leader Moaz al-Khatib that he was "ready for direct discussions" outside of Syria.

But the U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy said the reaction of the government and other opposition figures would be crucial.

U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
also welcomed the offer by Khatib but said the conflict levels are already "intolerable."

Brahimi and diplomats have noted that Khatib has set major conditions such as the release of 160,000 detainees held by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad;s
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
forces.

Amid general gloom about prospects for a negotiated end to the escalating 22-month old war, Brahimi said he would not return to Syria unless developments change.

"If I go to Syria, it's because there is something that I need to do," he told the U.N. News Service.

Brahimi this week urged the U.N. Security Council to end its wrangling over Syria and unite to force talks to end the conflict which the U.N. says has left more than 60,000 dead.

The veteran envoy said that political talks had to be pursued as the fighting worsens.

"Our efforts at starting negotiation have not been very successful. But the military campaigns have not been successful either in finishing the conflict," he told the U.N. agency.

"Nobody has said it's going to be easy," he added. "But perhaps negotiating is better than killing each other."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


White House Warns Syria Not to Transfer Arms to Hizbullah
[An Nahar] The White House on Thursday warned Syria not to transfer weapons to Hizbullah, as tensions mounted following reported Israeli raids on a military research center and a Leb-bound weapons convoy.
That'll work, 'cause our foreign policy is being run by The Smartest Man in the Room. And soon it'll be executed by the prettiest.
"Syria should not further destabilize the region by transferring weaponry to Hizbullah," said Ben Rhodes, a U.S. deputy national security adviser.

Earlier on Thursday Syria warned that it reserves the right to retaliate to what it says was an Israeli air strike on a military research center near Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
, as it lodged a complaint with the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...

Israeli officials and the military have declined to confirm or deny any involvement in the alleged attack, and had no comment on separate reports that its warplanes had struck a weapons convoy along the Syria-Leb border.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Home Front: Politix
CAIR Member Seeks Seat on New York City Council
Zead Ramadan, head of the New York branch of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-affiliated CAIR, to run against Jew for seat on New York City Council.

The head of the New York branch of a Hamas-affiliated group is seeking a seat on the New York City Council.

The New York Daily News reported that Zead Ramadan formally announced on Tuesday his plans to run for the City Council seat being vacated by Councilman Robert Jackson, who plans to run for Manhattan Borough President.

Ramadan has already raised nearly $41,000, according to city Campaign Finance Board records, and says he would be the Council's first-ever Arab-American member.

"I grew up in this community, and I know northern Manhattan as good as almost anybody," Ramadan told the Daily News. "I've been part of this community since October 1971."

Ramadan is a Paleostinian Authority Arab who was born in Kuwait and immigrated to Washington Heights with his family, including seven siblings, as a kid and quickly assimilated, the report said.

He is, among other things, the president of the board of directors of the New York Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric, accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating genocide and of being a terrorist state.

CAIR's Florida chapter operates a website titled "Calling Islam," which features several articles by Harun Yahya, an anti-Semitic Turkish writer who denounces Zionism as a fascist movement akin to Nazism, as well as "a racist and colonialist ideology" that is based on "Social Darwinism," according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

In 2008, CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist money laundering case in U.S. history -- the trial of the Holy Land Foundation in which five HLF officials were convicted of funneling money to Hamas.

U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis ruled that, "The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the association" of CAIR to Hamas, upholding their designations as unindicted co-conspirators. In 2008, the FBI formally ended all contact with CAIR because of its ties to Hamas.

Individuals from CAIR visited the White House at least 20 times starting in 2009, according to a recent investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT).

In 2010 the organization gave a lifetime achievement award to Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent who resigned after she said in an interview that Jews should "get the hell out of Paleostine" and go back to Poland and Germany.

One of Ramadan's rivals in the race for City Council is a Jewish man, Mark Levine. According to his website Levine, who launched his campaign in early December, has earned endorsements from New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and Assembly Member-Elect Gabriela Rosa.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Ramadan is a Paleostinian Authority Arab who was born in Kuwait and immigrated to Washington Heights ...

BZZZZT. In other words he's a Kuwaiti.

How can you be a member of a country that doesn't exist, when you're clearly born in another country?
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 02/01/2013 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  BZZZZT. In other words he's a Kuwaiti

Oh no, Mikey -- he wasn't born into the right tribe to be a Kuwaiti, any more than those Koreans who've lived in Japan for generations are Japanese. What he is, is Arab-American with an affinity for the ancestral terrorists despite being here 40 years, just like those Irish-Americans who raised money for the IRA.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/01/2013 4:49 Comments || Top||

#3  IIRC, after GW1, the Kuwait govt kicked out the Paleostinians. Because of their track records.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/01/2013 19:10 Comments || Top||


Europe
Cheered in Mali, Hollande still losing the war at home
[FRANCE24] President François Hollande faced on Thursday the first nationwide strike by French civil servants since he took office last May. Hollande, a Socialist, has been hailed at home and abroad for routing Mali-based Islamists with a lightening military intervention, but he is quickly falling out of favour among his key voting constituencies.

Thousands of civil servants, including hospital personnel and teachers, took to the streets in Paris and across the country to demand better pay and more jobs. Unions organising around 120 marches throughout France said they would rally around 100,000 people.

Victor Alavar, a 48-year-old nurse on strike, said patients were suffering because of the "chronic" deficit of hospital staff. "Sometimes [patients] have to wait three to six months for certain surgeries, and there are more and more accidents," he said.
And now they'll wait another day for surgery because you decided not to go to work...
Alavar, who works at a major hospital in the southwest city of Toulouse, said the government was closing smaller rural hospitals and certain specialised care units, putting growing pressure on the already limited staff at large hospitals like his.
Same things have happened in the U.S. Chicago has closed a number of hospitals these last two decades. But we don't go out on strike over it...
"Little by little workers are being pushed to their limits, and some of them break. I have colleagues who go on sick leave with depression; one female nurse recently had a heart attack. It's getting worse," he lamented.

Thursday's collective groan against France's Socialist-led government may the first mass strike since the left took power last year, but it is also likely the first of many. France counts 5.2 million state civil servants.

Paris primary school teachers closed almost all schools in the French capital on January 23 to protest Hollande's first major education reform, and have promised to do so again on February 5. Some unions representing civil servants are threatening to go on strike again on February 12.

Teachers in particular, but state employees in general, voted in mass for Hollande last May. Many among them now say they are disappointed over what Hollande has done, or failed to do, so far.

"This government promised change, but has continued the same policies of the previous one," Alavar said. "Today's strike is just the beginning stage."
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Central African rebels warn president over peace deal
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Central African Republic's main rebel grouping on Wednesday accused the president of not keeping his end of the peace deal that brought an end to their military offensive earlier this month.

The Seleka coalition, which had looked poised to advance on the capital Bangui before a power-sharing deal was struck under regional pressure on January 11, charged President Francois Bozize was clinging to the defence portfolio.

"President Bozize... has scrapped the defence minister job and opted for an assistant defence minister. In other words, he remains head of state and de facto defence minister," Seleka spokesman Florian Ndjadder told AFP.

The Libreville negotiations that yielded a deal between the regime and the rebels provided for a member of the opposition to be appointed prime minister and a Seleka member to be handed the defence portfolio.

Opposition leader Nicolas Tiangaye was subsequently named prime minister but the process appears to have snagged over the defence portfolio.

The Seleka coalition launched its offensive in early December, arguing that Bozize's regime had failed to comply with previous peace deals that should have given demobbed rebels jobs or integrated them in the regular forces.

Bozize's camp has in recent days also accused the rebels of violating the terms of the deal agreed in the Gabonese capital by pressing on with military operations and being responsible for several looting incidents.
Posted by: Fred || 02/01/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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3Arab Spring
3TTP
3Govt of Pakistan
2Commies
2Govt of Syria
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Baloch Liberation Army
1Hezbollah
1Ansar Dine

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On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-02-01
  Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Thu 2013-01-31
  Boko Haram 'commander' declares ceasefire
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Sat 2013-01-19
  Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
Fri 2013-01-18
  1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister

Better than the average link...



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