Chinese warships sent to fight piracy in waters off Somalia were stalked by an Indian attack submarine and the two sides became locked in a tense standoff for at least half an hour, mainland media reported yesterday. After rounds of manoeuvring during which both sides tried to test for weaknesses in the other's sonar system, the two Chinese warships managed to force the Indian submarine to surface. The Indian vessel left without further confrontation.
The incident was reported by Qingdao Chenbao yesterday and was widely carried by major mainland websites such as Sina.com and QQ. Both Beijing and New Delhi were silent about the matter. This is the first reported military standoff between China and India since a bitter border war in 1962.
The incident took place on January 15 in waters near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, which separates Yemen and Djibouti, at the western end of the Gulf of Aden. The Chinese destroyers had picked up an unidentified submarine on their sonar, the report said.
The Chinese navy soon identified it as a 70-metre-long vessel armed with 20 torpedoes. Although the report did not directly specify the model, it provided a file photo of a Kilo-class submarine belonging to the Indian navy, which fit the description.
The submarine tried to evade the Chinese warships by diving deeper. But the warships continued the chase. The report said the Chinese ships sent an anti-submarine helicopter to help track the submarine, which had tried to jam the Chinese warships' sonar system.
But the two destroyers eventually cornered the submarine and forced it to surface. The report said the submarine had been trailing the Chinese ships since they had entered the Indian Ocean on the way to Somalia. It said that at one point the Chinese commander even ordered the helicopter to have its anti-submarine torpedoes ready.
The Indian submarine is believed to have been collecting electronic signals and sonar data from the Chinese warships. Such information would be crucial in naval conflicts.
The two destroyers China sent to Somalia are among its most advanced warships. One of the destroyers, Haikou, was commissioned in 2005.
It is rare for mainland media to report such a close encounter between the Chinese navy and foreign warships. Although deemed a provocative and unfriendly gesture, it was not unusual for one country to send submarines to collect other navies' information.
In 2006, a Chinese submarine was detected stalking the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk near the Japanese island of Okinawa. The Chinese submarine eventually surfaced close to the US battle group.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/03/2009
18:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
INDIA has rampaging Radical Islam to its front, CHINA in its rear + Tibet, + MAOISTS/NAXALITES within, and the US-NATO in-between.
#4
From experience, the diesel boat had no chance of evading if it had no intentions of firing. With a submerged speed of 5-7kts and maybe a top of 12kts max in short bursts, it had no chance of getting away from air assets. Hope we had something more capable nearby to pick up all the data. The only thing that sounds fishy (no pun intended) is the statement "which had tried to jam the Chinese warships' sonar system". That sounds like BS or an uninformed writer spicing it up.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
02/03/2009 22:43
Comments ||
Top||
#5
After rounds of manoeuvring during which both sides tried to test for weaknesses in the other's sonar system, the two Chinese warships managed to force the Indian submarine to surface.
Here's the question - if both are in international waters, why would there be any confrontation? It seems to me that both parties have a legitimate right to be exactly where they are.
#6
Also if this account is true, it seems to me that the Chinese aren't shy about shadowing other navies, but get their dander up when they're being shadowed, instead.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — The bound bodies of a Mexican general and two soldiers were found Tuesday morning near Cancun, news reports said.
Authorities were investigating whether one of the soldiers was a bodyguard for Cancun Mayor Gregorio Sanchez, El Universal newspaper said on its Web site, citing the prosecutor for Quintana Roo state.
“Without a doubt, this was an organized crime execution,” said prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. “You can see they were followed and then intercepted. They tied them and machine-gunned them.”
#1
A general? Is that like a general of parking tickets, or an honest-to-god military general in the armed forces??? If the latter, that's pretty embarrassing for Meh-Hee-Koh.
Khaled Abu Toameh is not your typical Palestinian journalist. He began his career at one of Yasser Arafat's newspapers and today he writes for the Jerusalem Post. He has produced video for European TV stations, and even blogged for a while at Commentary Magazine in New York. It's impossible to cram Toameh into a convenient ideological box, though that doesn't stop some people from trying.
I met him briefly a few weeks ago on my trip to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee when he gave a talk to me and my colleagues and answered some questions at the end. I'm reproducing the entire transcript here because I think he deserves a full hearing.
Hamas, Fatah, Americans, Israelis, Europeans, Arab governments, American foreign correspondents -- just about everybody involved in any way with the conflict comes under some well-deserved fire. There's something here for just about everybody to like and dislike, and I'm publishing what he said without quote-shopping or cherry-picking his words for convenience.
What follows is a very long panel interview of Mr. Toameh. Amazing. Mr. Toameh has quite a few interesting opinions that will cause you to re-think what you're thinking about the Paleos. RTWT.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
16:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Totten will go anywhere in search of a Moderate Muslim. But the rest of us---we have to go by averages.
#2
I think you ought to read what Mr. Toameh said again. He's making very clear that a lot of the thing we in the West believe about the Middle East just isn't so. Sure would like it if Totten could talk some sense into Bambi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009 23:16
Comments ||
Top||
NATO would not oppose individual member nations making deals with Iran to supply their forces in Afghanistan as an alternative to using increasingly risky routes from Pakistan, the allianceÂ’s top military commander said Monday.
Gen. John CraddockÂ’s comments came just days after NATOÂ’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, urged the U.S. and other members of the Western military alliance to engage with Iran to combat Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
“Those would be national decisions. Nations should act in a manner that is consistent with their national interest and with their ability to resupply their forces,” Craddock, an American who is NATO’s supreme allied commander, told The Associated Press. “I think it is purely up to them.”
Securing alternative routes to landlocked Afghanistan has taken on added urgency this year as the United States prepares to double its troop numbers there to 60,000 to battle a resurgent Taliban eight years after the U.S.-led invasion.
It also comes at a time when the main supply corridor through neighboring Pakistan is becoming increasingly dangerous as insurgents attack convoys that supply the foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Some political and military leaders have hinted at the need for closer cooperation with the government in Iran over the war in Afghanistan, where some 70,000 NATO and U.S. troops are currently trying to beat back the resurgent Taliban.
The United States has viewed IranÂ’s role in Afghanistan with suspicion, although the Islamic Republic has a long history of opposing Taliban rule.
U.S. officials have previously alleged that Iranian-made weapons and explosive devices were finding their way in the hands of insurgents in Afghanistan. But such criticism has been muted recently as President Barack ObamaÂ’s administration tries to set a new tone in relations with Iran.
Some experts suggest that nations with good relations with Iran such as France, Germany and Italy may try to set up an alternate supply route to western Afghanistan via Char Bahar, a port in southeastern Iran.
“NATO is looking at flexible, alternate routing. I think that is healthy,” Craddock said, when asked about the possibility of using Iranian territory for supply.
“Options are a good thing, choices are a good thing, flexibility in military operations is essential,” he said. “What nations will do is up to them,” he said, without elaborating.
CraddockÂ’s comments came after U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said last month that America had struck deals with Russia and several Central Asian states close to or bordering Afghanistan to allow supplies to pass through their territory.
U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan get up to 75 percent of “non-lethal” supplies such as food, fuel and building materials from shipments that cross Pakistan.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/03/2009 20:13
Comments ||
Top||
#2
hmmm, nothing could possibly go wrong there
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/03/2009 20:17
Comments ||
Top||
#3
PAKISSTANI DEFENCE FORUM POSTER > believes that, as per 1980's PAKISTAN + AQ KHAN, IRAN will allow NATO [US?]to come through in order to keep NATO pre-occupied and diverted from its NucDevProgs???
#4
It's worse for the EUros than depending on the Ruskies who cut off their gas? They've made their peace with Iran. They've submitted and they're part of Dar es Salaam. Face it, we can't supply the place. Get Out Now.
Frontpage InterviewÂ’s guest today is Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com. He is currently a national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a researcher for the Reform Party of Syria. A frequent guest on radio and TV programs, he is the author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
FP: Ryan Mauro, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Mauro: Thank you Jamie.
FP: We’re here today to discuss “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around U.S.,” the new documentary being released by the Christian Action Network. Tell us about it.
Mauro: This documentary is premiering at Washington D.C.Â’s Landmark Theater on February 11, at 7:30 PM. It is free to attend and I strongly encourage everyone in the area to come, and those out of the area to go to ChristianAction.org and order a copy. The Christian Action Network (CAN) is a non-profit organization and I personally will not see a penny from the sales. This documentary is simply too important; the threat too severe; and the public too unaware for me to not promote this is any way possible and call myself a patriotic American.
“Homegrown Jihad” documents the networks of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a terrorist group run by a radical Muslim leader in Lahore, Pakistan named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, an individual who, as I said in my last interview, does us the favor of not hiding his true colors. While he casts himself as a peace-loving Muslim, his actions and the actions of his network are anything but. In the documentary, we show a secret videotape, one which Gilani strictly instructs his followers to keep hidden, where he personally engages in terrorist training, from killing guards to hijacking vehicles to setting off explosives. On this tape, he says that those seeking to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” can contact any of his “Muslims of America” compounds in the United States, almost all of which still operate today.
“Muslims of America” is a group set up by Gilani to act as a thinly-veiled front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra. There are at least 35 “Muslims of America” compounds in the U.S. alone, along with at least 3,000 members, many of which have criminal backgrounds. The websites of these compounds do not hide the fact that they are devoted to, and are led by, Sheikh Gilani. The compound at Red House, Virginia, even has a street named after him. With Gilani saying things like “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are in America”, “Jews are an example of human Satans,” and “Act like you are a friend, then kill him”, we need to question the motives and beliefs of those who live in and are educated in his communities and take action to stop them from acting upon these beliefs.
Members of this group continue to be arrested and convicted for involvement in terrorism and all sorts of criminal activity. Members are also required to make a pledge: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.” They continue to recruit members, build and expand compounds, and operate in isolation, away from the eyes of the public.
Perhaps the most riveting part of the documentary is when CAN travels to several of these compounds in an attempt to get members of the group to view the terrorist training videotape and get a reaction. Before joining CAN, I personally visited the 70-acre large headquarters in Hancock, New York. Although the residents were friendly, almost immediately after greeting the man who I spoke to, he said with a disarming smile, “Are you Jewish? It’s clear that the anti-Semitism and overall beliefs of Sheikh Gilani are present at these compounds.
FP: What sort of terrorism has Jamaat ul-Fuqra been involved in?
Mauro: Members of the group have carried out at least 17 firebombings and 10 assassinations, including stabbing a moderate Muslim cleric to death, bombing a power station, killing police officers, and attacks on Hindus. In 1991, five members were involved in a plot to bomb a Hindu temple and an Indian-owned cinema near Toronto; in 1993, one member was involved in the World Trade Center bombing; and five were involved in the massive “Day of Terror” plot aimed at bombing various buildings in New York in 1993.
There have also been various suspected links between Jamaat ul-Fuqra members and terrorist plots since then. It was reported that the Beltway Snipers of 2002 took shelter in one of GilaniÂ’s compounds in Georgia, and it was also reported that the Pakistani government thought that Shiekh Gilani may have funded a plot in 2006 to hijack airliners leaving Great Britain on the way to the U.S. so they could be blown up in mid-air using funds supposedly raised to help earthquake victims in Kashmir.
Let us not also forget that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped on the way to meeting with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan. Although the government has not charged Gilani with involvement in the murder, GilaniÂ’s website says that Pearl was part of an assassination team sent to kill him, and Gilani maintains that Pearl is still alive, despite the fact that his beheading was videotaped. ThatÂ’s just one of the various conspiracy theories Gilani espouses, from 9/11 and Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories, to New World Order and Illuminati forces aimed at destroying him and controlling the world, to secret Zionist control of the government media. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009
15:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
I normally do not post on websites or blogs but at this point in time I am so anguished by what my daughter is going through that I have to express it to someone.
My daughter is a student at Orange Coast College. She has a little apartment in Costa Mesa on an alley. Her car was "impounded" by the City of Costa Mesa because her vehicle registration was expired. Something most cities write a ticket for and levy a small fine if you show up with the registration renewal. How did a police man get down in that alley and find her car? He would have known from the police computer that the owner was a early twenties girl living on her own.
My daughter pays for her school with a Governor's grant from the State and by working part time as a waitress in Newport Beach. She does not have much money. I am not in a financial position to contribute much more than a tank of gas occasionally and an odd $100 every so often.
The City of Costa Mesa wanted more money than my daughter had to pay the impound fees, by the time she got the money together, it was over $1000 for three weeks plus her car insurance had expired. The City of Costa Mesa wants to auction off her car if she does not come up with the money by the end of this week. I think the end game here is that the City of Costa Mesa really wants the car and makes the impound fees so high that students and people who are having a hard time making ends meet will walk away from the car.
My daughters car is a little Mercedes 230 hatchback that she got a great deal on after her Plymouth Breeze was totaled by a woman running a red light. Mercedes Benz gave her 0% financing and a great price on the little car because it was a lease unwind. The payments on it are less than they would have been on the Toyota Corolla she went to the dealer to buy in the first place. She is not some pampered Orange County princess, she is a good kid working her butt off to get through school.
So my daughter is giving money to the City of Costa Mesa that could be better spent on her schooling. The City is generating funds preying on people who are on limited incomes and seizing property and selling it for a traffic offense that just about every city in California writes a ticket for NOT IMPOUND THE CAR.
I have to say that last night was a hard night for me, watching my daughter cry her eyes out, just scared to death of losing her car and her means to earn a livelihood. She and I have managed to scratch together the last of the money the City is demanding, unless of course they pull some other fees or surcharge out of their butt to keep the car long enough to auction it. Scratching together means I have to skip a car payment and my daughter has to borrow money from her boss and her friends and live on oatmeal for a month.
How do you auction off a $15,000 car for a $1300 bill? Does the owner get the balance of the proceeds or does the city keep it all?
As I said I am so outraged by this practice that I feel as if I have to express my anguish over this to someone. I am writing a letter to the Mayor of Costa Mesa, and you know what the response to that will be.
This is just another way that politicians in come cities in California have adopted practices to raise money that prey on citizens through outrageous fines, fees and police state thuggery.
If any of you astute readers out there have a suggestion or know of some recourse I might have to recover my daughter's money. I would appreciate a note.
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/03/2009
14:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
California Department of Motor Vehicles is probably the most unpopular of a state bureaucracies. I never understood why a car has to be registered every year except that it's an opportunity for the state to collect an extra tax. You register the car when you buy it. That should be enough but not in California. But even if the registration is expired it shouldn't be more than a fine, not an impound.
#2
The State of Georgia has a liberal immigration policy for California residents, plenty of value for your housing dollar, excellent colleges, a good supply of used cars, and we pay only an initial vehicle registration.
#5
JC - any car found operating or parked on a city street with an expired reg past 90 days is routinely impounded in CA. It's not just Costa Mesa
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/03/2009 20:55
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Frank G. is correct. I had an old truck that got impounded on this. Buying the tag & paying the fine is bad enough, but leaving it in impound for more than a day or two is where they side swipe you and run up the charges. Your daughter is between a rock and a hard spot unfortunately. Was the alley public or private property ? If it was a city alley, there's not much you can do except pay.
#7
it is 6 months and not 90 days...you can drive your car up to six months and all it is a fix it ticket. After 6 months they will impound -- driving or parked. I routinely drive up to the very last day of the 5th month :)...welcome tho the rebublic of kalifornia
Posted by: Dan ||
02/03/2009 21:14
Comments ||
Top||
#8
James, as a former parking enforcement ossifer....don't bother with the mayor. He/she/it probably won't even read it, has no interest in the matter and most likely has no authority in that area. (Most mayors are basically trotted out for ceremonial crap...the real bizness is covered by city managers and staff.)
Find out who is in charge of that towing detail. Write the sergeant/captain, whatever. CC the chief. Ask them as nicely as you can stomach about the circumstances of your daughter's tow.
Maybe everything wasn't followed to the letter and they can cut her a break. Hell, maybe everything was, and they still might (yeah, yeah, yeah youse guys....believe me, it did happen when we got someone who didn't start screaming about their civil rights being violated and how we were all Nazis.) We were so shocked to deal with a mature adult that we decided to be nice the four times it occurred. Couldn't hurt to try.
Don't bother with Besoeker's suggestion. It will only put them on the defensive and they will enforce every tiny detail of the law if the media is there. You don't want your daughter to be an example to others now, do you? That's what they will do if you trot out there, steaming mad, with Eyewitness Newz in your wake.
#9
Make sure your daughter graduates and then gets a good job, and her taxes, out of state.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 21:42
Comments ||
Top||
#10
CNN + CNBC > California's State Deficit of US$40.0Bilyuhn is so huge that even iff the Congress passed any of the proposed STIMULUS BILLS, THE AVERAGE STIMULUS AMOUNT CA-SPECIFIC LEGAL RESIDENTS MAY RECEIVE WOULD NOT MAKE A DENT IN REDUCING THE STATE DEFICIT, and in fact may be held back by the STATE GOVT = SACRAMENTO + GOVERNATOR IN ORDER TO JUST TRY OR ATTEMPT TO CATCH UP ON ITS DEFICIT [Best-Case > ONLY A MINOR TOTAL DEFICIT REDUX]???
#11
CA State Deficit is so big and so bad that State Govt. Politicians and US CongressCritters may try to LEGISLATIVELY BLOCK OR DIRECT PAYMENTS TO INDIVIDUALS, etc., or DIVERT TO THE STATE GOVT COFFERS BEFORE "DISTRIBUTION/DISSEMINATION" TO SAME [read, IFF ANY = LEGISLAT "DELAY"].
long report at the link. Among other recommendations: create a congressional intelligence appropriations committee & peel intel budget out of DOD. Focus hard on Pakistan, Iran, NorK. Strengthen IAEA and "forge an international consensus that no new states, including Iran and North Korea" be allowed to possess uranium - enrichment or plutonium - reprocessing programs. Notes the growing danger of chem and bio WMD.
conclusion: "Unless urgent preventative action is taken, a terrorist attack involving a WMD - nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological - is more likely than not to occur somewhere in the world in the next five years."
Militants blew up a bridge in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, cutting the major supply line for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan with an explosion that turned the narrow span into a jagged metal "V." It was the latest, and perhaps most serious, attempt to block supplies to the U.S.-led mission against the Taliban.
The length of the slender metal bridge slanted to one side and was blocked by an overturned truck that spilled dozens of dusty bags into the pavement. Traffic from the bare hills continued on foot, with Afghans and Pakistanis, including women in burqas, hurrying their baggage over the dry riverbed.
A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said supplies along the route had been halted "for the time being," but stressed the alliance was in no danger of running out of food, equipment or fuel.
The latest attack on the famous Khyber Pass highlights the urgent need NATO and the U.S. have for alternative supply routes to landlocked Afghanistan through nations to its north, especially as the U.S. plans to double its troop numbers in the country this year.
Up to 75 percent of the fuel and supplies destined for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan travel through Pakistan after being unloaded at the port of Karachi, and most are driven along the Khyber Pass.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009
14:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Time to deduct a little more from the stipend we give to the Paks.
#3
This hurts the Pak government and economy more than it hurts us. It's more of a diplomatic opportunity for us. The question is do we have the moxie in our government to take advantage of it? Seems doubtful.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/03/2009 19:18
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yes but the cost was tremendous (Fuel salaries etc)
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/03/2009 19:28
Comments ||
Top||
#5
If the Paks ain't there we have no place to short-stage.... most of the flights into Berlin were less than 400 miles one way.....
Terror suspects being held under Britain's house arrest-style detention program are in contact with extremists and plan to carry out attacks in future, the lawyer responsible for overseeing the country's terror laws said Tuesday.
Britain's Home Office said 15 terror suspects are being held under the regime, which monitors suspects who are considered a risk to national security but have not been charged with a criminal offense. Suspects must observe strict curfews, wear an electronic tag and can be banned from using cell phones and the Internet.
Lord Alex Carlile, who oversees Britain's terrorism laws, said that though suspects can be banned from meeting certain individuals, some are still in touch with known extremists.
Some suspects are able to dodge checks and "manage to maintain some contact with terrorist associates ... and a determination to become operational in the future," Carlile said in an annual report published Tuesday. "For some people, these measures simply aren't doing the job, while for others, they violate the basic legal principle that we are innocent until proven guilty," Chris Huhne, a lawmaker with the opposition Liberal Democrat Party said.
Carlile said that the number of people held under the program had risen since last February, when around 12 suspects were being monitored. He said that since the program was introduced in 2005, a total of 38 people have been held — 23 of whom have been released or deported out of Britain.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009
14:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM POSTERS > BRITAIN in time will prob become a MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRY, WHILE INDIA WILL HAVE HUGE MUSLIM POPULATION OF 300-500MILYUHN???
Spanish police arrested 13 people Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups. A police statement said the detainees — 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian — are suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling.
Police said they were investigating whether the group may also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups. Spanish police often use that term to refer to Islamic extremist organizations, but a police official refused to say if that applied this time.
Earlier, news reports citing police sources said 15 people had been arrested on suspicion of forging passports for use by al-Qaida members. Police in Madrid said they could not comment on that.
Eleven of the arrests took place in Barcelona and two in the eastern city of Valencia. Police agents wore masks to conceal their identities. The statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand.
The group allegedly stole passports in Spain and forwarded them to Thailand, where they were altered before being sent back to crime gangs in Europe.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009
14:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
US President Barack Obama came under pressure today to resist protectionism in reaction to the global economic crisis as top companies announced massive losses and protests broke out in Europe.
"We must avoid protectionism," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said when asked about a "Buy American" clause in Mr Obama's $US888 billion ($1.4 trillion) economic stimulus plan.
"Protectionism is the wrong answer" to the economic crisis, she said.
The German leader's comments came after a similar warning in a speech in Tokyo by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who said: "Beggar thy neighbor policies will never give a good result."
There is growing concern among economists that some of the anti-crisis measures being implemented by governments to save jobs and aid ailing industries are contributing to a new wave of protectionism.
#1
Before you get to carried away with your bashing Angela, please take an afternoon off, visit your local Baumarkt and see how many home improvement items you can find NOT made in Deutschland und Ă–sterreich.
#2
By the time the Morales' cokeheads get their stuff together the world will have moved onto carbon or silicon nanowires.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 15:07
Comments ||
Top||
#3
That any company would depend on Bolivia for its supply is madness. Note that Chile has 60 percent as much Lithium as Bolivia and it is a much friendlier and more sophisticated country to work with.
#5
SPACEWAR > OFFICER: EUROPE COLD BE WITHIN IRANIAN BALLISTIC MISSLE RANGE[ditto for Southern Russia + West China = aka ISLAMIST MILIT-TERR contested areas]???
#6
The base adds $150M each year to the economy, including $60M rent. That's 3% of GDP (was 5% a few poorer years ago). To jeopardize that income stream, and possibilities of supplying increased forces in Afghanistan, for $150m, a loan and a Bear hug is penny wise, pound foolish.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 21:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's peanuts compared to the "stimulus" they're trying to screw us with.
Trying to screw us they are. That is why they originally included the $400,000,000 worth of condoms [and birth control]. The countries going to hell in a handbasket fast. Our founding fathers would not have tolerated this b.s.
#6
Maybe if we paid better than the petitioners who dump into their reelection skim funds, not only would we probably get better candidates but then we would own them rather than be owned by the aforementioned alliance. You pay cheap and you're shocked, shocked to see the type of bums congresscritter you get.
#7
Compare iwd CHINESE MIL FORUM > THE END OF CAPITALISM? NEW BILL INTRODUCED IN THE US CONGRESS WILL LIMIT OR CAP WALL STREET/CORPORATE EXECUTIVES' SALARIES AT US$400,000 PER YEAR [US Execs NOT allowed anymore to earn more per Annum than the POTUS = POTUS OBAMA]???
UH, UH, D *** NG IT, WE IN THE GOVT. WANT TO MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CATEGORICALLY UNDENIABLY UNEQUIVOCALLY ........@ETC. FINGER-POINTING CLEAR TO THE AMER PEOPLE - YOU US EXECS = WALL STREET FAT KATS WILL EAT NOTHING MORE = NOTHING LESS THAN EXPENSIVE, LOW-END WEALTHY LUXURY CLASS WINE-AND-STEAK/ESCARGOTS AND LIKE IT, BUSTER!
You can just feel the LONG-TERM, MORE-THAN-TEN-YEAR RECESSION = GREAT DEPRESSION 2, OR WORSER, can't ye!?
Jitendra Kumar Mohala, a 42-year-old chartered accountant, who claimed to be an armed hijacker onboard a Delhi-bound flight from Goa, reportedly claimed to be different things - a DGCA official, a sky marshal, a pilot. But nothing was as scary as his claim of being a hijacker. "He claimed to belong to a terror group called Maula and told an air hostess that he was carrying a pouch of infected needles that, if pricked, could sedate people. Psychologists say Mohala could be suffering from frustration aggression syndrome, which manifests itself in sudden bouts of violence behaviour. Is that anything like Sudden Jihad Syndrome?
He has been remanded to 14 days' judicial custody. He has been booked under sections 336 (endangering life and personal safety of others) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, as well as Suppression of Unlawful Act Against Safety Of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, which is non-bailable.
The other two persons detained along with Mohala - Sameer Uppal and Harmeet Anand - were released by Sunday late evening after questioning because there was nothing to suggest that they were active participants in the incident.
Sources said, during the flight, the chartered accountant made a dash to the front end of the aircraft where airhostesses were seated. "The crew got very scared but at the last minute, Mohala went inside the lavatory and locked himself there for some time. He went to the toilet many times. He also kept changing his seat during the flight," said sources. Typical hijacker or system testing behaviour. Why didn't they just lock him into the lavatory, given that his threat was needles, not bombs?
IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh commended the airhostesses' conduct. "The challenge for them was to keep each other
informed of what was going on without spreading panic among passengers. They, along with the pilot, did an amazing job of keeping calm while assuming all along that the unruly passenger could be armed," Ghosh said.
The flight's commander, captain Amit Singh, also played safe. I'd rather my pilot were effective rather than safe, but I'm hardly an expert on such things.
At 5.15pm, he told Delhi ATC on common frequency that an unruly passenger was creating ruckus on the plane while asking for priority landing. Suspecting something was wrong, the alert ATC official left this plane's frequency on so that they could hear what's transpiring in the cockpit. "This way, the ATC heard Captain Singh's conversation with the four airhostesses and thought they could have a hijack situation. Then the pilot asked for a discreet frequency as all planes use common frequency on final approach to hear what's going on in the sky and ground around them. This collective approach of the airhostesses, pilot and ATC ensured no one - passengers and other aircraft - knew about the unfolding midair terror drama," said sources. Ignorance could have meant death, but at least nobody panicked.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.
"Now we must move forward," Obama said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.
Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader and a strong backer of Obama's presidential bid, said he would have been unable to operate "with the full faith of Congress and the American people."
"I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction" to Obama's agenda, he said.
Obama had given Daschle two jobs—to be White House health czar on top of the post leading the Health and Human Services Department—and Daschle is relinquishing the czar post too. The developments called into question whether Obama will be able to move as quickly as he has promised on sweeping health care reform—one of the pillars of his first 100 days agenda.
"It really sets us back a step," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "Because he was such a talent. I mean he understood Congress, serving in the House and Senate he certainly had the confidence of the president."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
14:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I bet his value as a "advisor" to the drug companies just crashed. No more $1 Million/year paydays from the Big Pharma.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 15:17
Comments ||
Top||
#3
His wife was getting lots of money from some airline organization based upon his prestige as a Senator.
Sometimes it isn't the elected official that is getting the money, it's the spouse or the kids....
I'm glad this weasely little piece of crap bailed out. He was such a complete backstabbing a$$ when he was the Senate Majority Leader.....
I hope they send him to jail....like they would me if I had done this.
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/03/2009 15:20
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Another crook goes virtually unpunished. If the President and the Senate wanted to restore some faith, they should all volunteer for IRS auditing. Of course that risks a vacuum in the Senate.
#6
Obama's "Chief Performance Officer" also withdrew today, also due to not paying her taxes.
He keeps nominating fat cats who don't pay their taxes. It's almost like he wants to fail.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/03/2009 16:09
Comments ||
Top||
#7
So, even after all this, if he didn't drop out do you think he would've been approved by his buddies in the Senate?
Um no, he wouldn't have been. That was the point. Someone did a nose count in the Senate last night, then looked at the polls this morning, and didn't like what they saw. Daschle got the call shortly thereafter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009 16:19
Comments ||
Top||
#8
"I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction" to Obama's agenda, he said.
Daschle is not a distraction, he's an embarrassment.
#13
Al Capone went to the Federal pen for something like $20K and was left to rot. How come Tommy Thumb is waltzing around DC and owes $140+ ? The bastard ought to be in Leavenworth. Make that Gitmo.
Google has lifted the lid on its first major upgrade to its global mapping software, Google Earth. Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain. Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain. The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world's leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.
Al Gore was at the launch event in San Francisco which, Google hopes, will take its mapping software a step closer to total coverage of the entire globe. In a statement, Mr. Gore said that the update would make Google Earth a "magical experience. You can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet's surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions."
Approximately 70% of the world's surface is covered by water, which contains nearly 80% of all life - yet less than 5% of it has actually been explored.
Google Ocean aims to let users visit some of the more interesting locations, including underwater volcanoes, as well as running videos on marine life, shipwrecks and clips of favourite surf and dive spots.
Conservation organisations hope the tool will improve awareness of issues facing undersea life. "With this, everybody can see the unbelievable beauty of our marine life and how incredibly threatened it is," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the global marine programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). "We hope this major technological innovation will get the public more involved in marine conservation and encourage governments and businesses to stop driving ocean species to extinction."
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/03/2009
13:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...encourage governments and businesses to stop driving ocean species to extinction."
Or provide them with a magical tool for locating schools of tasty sea kittens.
Vice President Biden administered the oath of office to Hillary Clinton at a State Department ceremony -- and momentarily botched the oath by tripping over his words, but made a quick recovery (even though the crowd had chanted "Get it right" before he even started).
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allan™ Imposed Hitler On the Joooos to Punish Them – 'Allan™ Willing, the Next Time Will Be at the Hand of the Believers™'
Following are excerpts from speeches delivered by prominent Sunni scholar Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 28 and 30, 2009.
January 30, 2009: Hitler "Put The Jooooos In Their Place"
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: "Throughout history, Allan™ has imposed upon the [Joooos] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place.
"This was divine punishment for them. Allan™ willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers™." [...]
January 28, 2009: I Will Die As A Martyr Shooting Joooos
Al-Qaradhawi: "To conclude my speech, I'd like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allan™ will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad™ and Resistance™, even if in a wheelchair.
"I will shoot Allan™'s enemies, the Joooooos, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. "I'm a mouse, hear me roar!"
Praise be to Allan™, Lord of the Flies Worlds. Allan™'s mercy and blessings upon you." "Thankyouverymuch, I'm here all week; take the veal!"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/03/2009 15:02
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The Joos could have fun with this, by pointing out that while Allan might have been mad at them, he really hates the Muslims, having reduced them to ignorant swine that even Joos, Christians, pagans or even atheists can whip like dogs.
Opponents of the government have been calling for an "Obama-style" stimulus plan, one that puts money directly into the pockets of working people. Oh, so now The One is putting money directly into the pockets of working people, is he? Pardon moi, but I think Madame Pelosi has other ideas.
It's long-standing tradition that just before the chief executive enters a room for a speech, he is announced: "Ladies and Gentlemen – the President of the United States," is the standard introduction spoken by a staff member of the White House Communications Agency.
But this morning when Mr. Obama entered the East Room to address an audience about the economy, there was no announcement. He just walked right in – announcing his own presence with a hearty "Hello, everybody – good to see ya."
On Day One of his presidency, everywhere Mr. Obama went they played "Hail to the Chief" for him – but not since. In fact the U.S. Marine Band's duties at the White House over the last 10 days appear to have been dramatically downsized.
Instead of the usual contingent of trumpets, tubas and drums, a single piano player now provides musical interludes before and after the president's appearance.
And the tunes have little connection to the military marching music of John Phillips Souza that is the usual accompaniment to presidential appearances. These days the pianist's repertoire includes Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and StingÂ’s "Desert Rose."
"He's not a 'Pomp and Circumstance' kind of guy," says press secretary Robert Gibbs of the new president.
#1
"Desert Rose"? You mean that Sting song that they pretty much stopped playing after 9/11 because of the Arabic chanting in it? (Disclosure....I actually liked the song. It was great to speed along the highway in a Corvette with it blaring on the speakers. Not that I ever did that.)
I think we can come up with some other appropriate songs to play. My nomination is "Send in the Clowns".
#8
The Marine Band is indisposed rehearsing L'Internationale.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 13:26
Comments ||
Top||
#9
With all the sabre rattling going on, I suspect we'll be seeing the new flag very soon. My guess is it will be white on a field of white. Or possibly solid red on a field of red.
#10
Wiki cc Cole Porter: He did not register for the draft, yet loved to tell the press that he had joined the French Foreign Legion. In reality, he went to work for the Duryea Relief Fund and maintained a closet full of various tailormade military uniforms that he wore when the mood suited him. The French Foreign Legion, however, claims Porter as an enlistee and displays his portrait in its museum in Aubagne.
So, the President of the United States has muzak played for him - how common. Appalled he is not having played the piano classics of Scott Joplin; you know like The Entertainer or Fig Leaf Rag.
Sting - isn't he the guy who tried to kill moaddib?
#15
These things will catch up. Just watch how pissed he will become when people start treating him like "Joe the Plumber" instead of the president. There was a reason pomp and circumstance is used.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
02/03/2009 17:21
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Mike beat me to it.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/03/2009 17:49
Comments ||
Top||
#17
How about playing The Entertainer on piano, you know the theme song from the movie, "The Sting."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/03/2009 21:15
Comments ||
Top||
Massachusetts has ordered a tire chain to charge Bay State residents a 5 percent sales tax on their purchases in New Hampshire in an unprecedented move that could have huge implications for consumers and other merchants.
Town Fair Tire Centers, which is based in Connecticut but has six shops in New Hampshire and 25 in Massachusetts, is fighting back with a lawsuit now before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that accuses the state of violating the US commerce clause. If Massachusetts prevails in the case, which is likely to be heard next month, it could drive up costs for consumers and retailers such as Best Buy and Sears that sell expensive home appliances and other goods in New Hampshire, which doesn't have a state sales tax. It also could mean millions of dollars in new tax revenue for the Commonwealth as it faces a $1.1 billion budget deficit, according to tax analysts.
"This is a first-of-its-kind case," said Fred Nicely, general counsel of the Council on State Taxation, a nonprofit trade association of multistate corporations engaged in interstate and international business. "There's huge ramifications to the entire retail community."
#1
Ha ha ha. Oh boy is this good. NY threatened to do something like that years ago and sent agents to mark down NY license plates that were shopping in Elizabeth, NJ. Didn't last long.
#2
Louisiana has taxed purchases made out of state for years - but the burden of reporting and paying is on the Louisiana resident, as a line on the income tax form. Needless to say, compliance is not perfect. I have trouble seeing how Taxachusetts has jurisdiction to require NH merchants to do anything.
#4
These aren't NH businesses, they are Mass businesses with 25 stores in Mass. They can keep the 25 store in Mass and pay the tax or they can close them. The next step will be to tax internet purchases. And that is where this is really headed. And Bambi will support it.
Proponents were outspent 10:1 by people who like taxes.
And, yes, MA also has a line on the state income tax form requiring you to remit MA sales tax on your out of state purchases for which you paid no tax.
#8
It's not a first-of-its-kind case, it's a purely unconstitutional imposition of costs on one state by another. It'll never survive the first federal court challenge.
#9
OTOH, on CNN AM, US$40.0BILYUHN-AND-THENSOME DEFICIT-RIDDEN CALIFORNIA is NO LONGER NOT JUST "CALIFORNIA" OR THE "[US]STATE OF CALIFORNIA", BUT IS NOW "THE CAL-ZONE/CALIFORNIA ZONE", as in OWG-NWO SOVEREIGN ZONE = EURO-ZONE!
WASHINGTON: During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.
The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not formally registered as lobbyists.
President Barack Obama said Monday that he was "absolutely" standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle, his nominee for health and human services secretary, and Daschle, who met late in the day with leading senators in an effort to keep his confirmation on track, said he had "no excuse" and wanted to "deeply apologize" for his failure to pay $128,000 in U.S. taxes.
But the episode has already shown how, when faced with the perennial clash between campaign rhetoric and Washington reality, Obama has proved willing to compromise.
Every four or eight years a new president arrives in town, declares his determination to cleanse a dirty process and invariably winds up trying to reconcile the clear ideals of electioneering with the muddy business of governing. Obama on his first day in office imposed perhaps the toughest ethics rules of any president in modern times, and since then he and his advisers have been trying to explain why they do not cover this case or that case.
"This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "He harped on it, time after time, and he created a sense of expectation around the country. This is exactly why people are skeptical of politicians, because change we can believe in is not the same thing as business as usual."
And so in these opening days of the administration, the Obama team finds itself being criticized by bloggers on the left and the right, mocked by television comics and questioned by reporters about whether Obama is really changing the way Washington works or just changing which political party works it.
#1
Let's not rush to judgement just because His cabinet seems to be filled with tax cheats and lobbyists. I'm sure there are much bigger promises He is going to renege on.
If her cheating had involved a 5 or 6 figure number she might have hung in there. But $298, "Oh, the humanity!"
WASHINGTON (AP) - Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.
Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.
"Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday. The 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was expected to explain her reasons for pulling out later in the day.
When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.
Since then, administration officials refused to answer questions about the tax error, which she resolved five months after the lien was filed. Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, took his name out of consideration when his confirmation appeared headed toward complications because of a grand jury investigation over how state contracts were issued to political donors.
More recently, Timothy Geithner was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes, and Tom Daschle is still waiting to see if his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes will harm his nomination to be health and human services secretary.
On paper, Killefer brought impressive credentials to the two jobs Obama selected her for: deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, which requires Senate confirmation, and a new White House post, chief performance officer for the entire federal government, which does not require confirmation.
Killefer oversees McKinsey's management consulting for government clients. During 1997-2000 in the Clinton administration, Killefer was assistant Treasury secretary for management. As such she was the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for the Treasury and its 160,000 employees and led a modernization of its largest component, the Internal Revenue Service.
But for nearly a month, the administration had refused to answer how its choice to make government workers more efficient and more responsive had bungled her household payroll taxes.
The AP reported that on March 7, 2005, the D.C. Department of Employment Services slapped a tax lien on her home in the tony Wesley Heights neighborhood. The local government alleged that just three years after she left the high-powered Treasury post she began to fail to pay unemployment compensation tax for a household employee. And she failed to make the required quarterly payments for a year and half, whereupon a lien for $946.69 was placed on her home.
That sum included $298 in unpaid taxes, $48.69 in interest and $600 in penalties. The lien was filed March 7, 2005, but Killefer didn't get the lien extinguished for almost five months, not until July 29. During that period, Killefer and her husband, an economics professor, had a teenage son and daughter, but she had two nannies and a personal assistant to run her life when she was on the road, she told Harvard business students back then.
#6
From the Times. It appears Captain Louis Reynault has joined the editorial board...
After this editorial was published, Tom Daschle did the right thing – for himself and more important for the Obama administration – and withdrew his name from nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He may have been propelled to do so by the news that Nancy Killefer, who was appointed by Mr. Obama to the newly created position of White House chief performance officer, had also withdrawn – citing her own tax troubles. The withdrawal of Ms. Killefer had left a lot of people, including us, scratching their heads and wondering what had become of President Obama's high ethical standards. It should not be hard for the new president to find high-quality appointees to both of these posts. Before he names them, he might have his team do a little more thorough scrubbing of their tax returns. Americans have the right to know that their appointed leaders pay their full share of taxes.
Maybe Barry's "high ethical standards" are not what you think they are?
#7
"Is it just me, or does $600 in penalties seem excessive for $298 in unpaid taxes?"
Is it just me, Al, or could she have avoided $600 penalty by just PAYING HER DAMN TAXES like the rest of us little people do?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/03/2009 16:37
Comments ||
Top||
#8
and also Ms Killefer actually paid those taxes and penalties long before Obama had nominated her. Daschle didn't pay until some time after Obama clinched the nomination and Geithner didn't pay until after he was nominated.
#9
Ms. Killefer's declination might have had little to do with her tax issue. I would like to think she experienced an epiphany in judgement based on the character of her future handlers.
LOL. Groundhogs are ornery critters who don't take kindly to posturing politicians. Especially ones who take their food while trying to score PR points.
#4
Jimmy the Groundhog, Wisconsin's answer to Punxuntawney Phil, is more gentlemanly--at least the current Jimmy IX is. It helps that the mayor of Sun Prairie, WI, by virtue of his office, has the ability to speak Groundhogese; so when the cantankerous Jimmy VIII wouldn't come out of his hutch, the Mayor was still able to make the pronouncement! The present Jimmy IX, rescued after a roadside accident, is very calm and willing to let school kids pet him. He gives the mayor no grief on the big day.
Bloomberg obviously does not have the same perks as the mayor of Sun Prairie. He should call up the mayor of Sun Prairie and ask how it's done.
OLUMBIA, S.C. -- Strapped to his dying instructor a few thousand feet from the ground on his first skydive, Daniel Pharr found himself floating toward a house and some trees.
The military taught the 25-year-old soldier not to panic. And TV taught him to pull the toggles on the already-deployed parachute to steer. So Pharr grabbed the right handle and pulled to avoid the house and tugged again to miss the trees, landing safely in a field about a third of a mile from their intended landing spot.
Pharr said he wrestled out of the harness binding him to his instructor, George "Chip" Steele, and started CPR trying to save him from an apparent heart attack.
Steele was later pronounced dead, but the tragedy could have been worse: Other instructors at the skydiving school told Pharr if he had pulled the toggle too hard, the chute would have spun out of control, and he could be dead, too.
"They told me afterward that it was amazing that I knew to do that. This is my survival instinct at that point. I just kind of did what I had to do," said Pharr, taking a break Monday from his job at Fort Gordon.
A GEITHNER/DASCHLE/RANGEL INSPIRED IDEA FROM JIM BENNETT: “There must be some way for the GOP to move out aggressively on the administration’s IRS problems beyond making speeches that will be forgotten within days. I am sensing a huge anger on this out there. What about the idea of a moratorium on IRS audits for middle-class taxpayers (using any of Obama’s campaign-trail definitions, from $250K/yr on down) for at least a year? Obviously the IRS is short on auditors, so why not deploy them where they are most needed?”
Posted by: Mike ||
02/03/2009
08:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe they could jumpstart the economy by introducing a moratorium on interest and penalties for us common folk making under $250k.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009 9:06
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Obviously the IRS is short on auditors, so why not deploy them where they are most needed?"
That would be Hollyweird and Wall Street, both of whom are big donors to "Name that Party". Obviously a no-go from the start. Must keep the serfs nervous, cause no one ever expects The Spanish Inquisition the audit.
COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.
Of course he has. WhatÂ’s the line from Scrooge - better they should die, and decrease the surplus population? IÂ’m surprised thatÂ’s not an applause line these days. If Scrooge had forbid Crachet from putting on more coal because it would contribute to global warming, heÂ’d be the hero, and Crachet would have got the three spirits.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the governmentÂ’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming.
It hasn't taken long, but itÂ’s taken hold: children, to some, are not bundles of joys, but bundles of sticks whose inevitable combustion harms the planet. It doesnÂ’t matter whether reducing the population might deprive the world of another Mozart or a scientist who can cure cancer; the latter would just mean people living longer and going more harm, and itÂ’s an act of pure cultural arrogance and classism to suggest we need another Mozart anyway. (Plus, non-political culture we cannot afford in these desperate times. ItÂ’s not that it makes people think the wrong things; it just takes up time that could be spent thinking about the right things.)
“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table.”
I think there might be other ghosts jostling to be heard. Smaller ones. . . .
Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/03/2009
08:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.
Kill 'em when they're old by not treating them, kill 'em before they're born actively. Why don't we just gun down people at random then?
#9
Truly, the left and greens are proving themselves to be The Culture of Death. Abortion. Euthanasia. Now shifting funding away from treating illness to instead preventing or destroying life.
I know, this again. It would be unwise to assume the Norks aren't inching forward in their WMD programs and might get it right some day; or any day, for that matter. Note that this rocket is closely related to Iran's satellite launcher, as discussed elsewhere at Rantburg.
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is preparing to test fire a long range missile capable of striking the United States, according to media reports in South Korea and Japan this morning.
The Yonhap News Agency in Seoul quoted South Korean officials who described satellite image showing a long cylindrical object being transported on a train through the North Korean countryside. The sinister object has been identified as a Taepodong-2, an intercontinental missile with a range of more than 4000 miles, capable of crossing the Pacific and striking targets in Hawaii or Alaska.
It is impossible to confirm independently reports from North Korea, one of the world's most isolated and hardline dictatorships, where government of information is almost total. But the country is known to have an active missile programme, as well as nuclear warheads -- although crucially it probably does not have the technology to mount a nuclear device on a long range missile.
If Bush were still president and if this thing ever got out of the atmosphere, it might make a good impromptu target for the BMD guys in Alaska.
You know, just to make a point.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
02/03/2009 9:23
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Considerable appreciation to W. Bush for ramming through a BMD, despite concentrated opposition from a Democrat congress. There are times when being a hard ass and insisting is so damn right, and this is one of them.
#7
This is why we have a national missle defense - liberals take note.
(It would be a shame if something were to happen to the missle before launch. Too bad we don't seem to have a spy agency capable of doing it.)
#13
And Mr. Limpwrist still wants to cancel the Missile Defense program.
Wants? Don't worry, it's coming ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009 13:53
Comments ||
Top||
#14
AP (Fox news?) once again shows its total ignorance of things military. The three missiles shown in the photo are two Nike Hercules, and the tall skinny one in front is a Pershing. NONE of them are of North Korean manufacture.
A constant diet of tree bark and grass will depress a person's IQ by 20-30 points. I can't explain what's happened to people who work for AP - they certainly can eat better than most North Koreans.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/03/2009 13:56
Comments ||
Top||
#15
We'd wear that "awjeez" picture out if we used it every time the NORKS step out of line.
#16
Wish I had a Nike-Hercules, I would feed it every day and use it only for good. I would groom it and make sure it had the good linkery, every day I would do this. I would teacher it new tricks and and give it a new lease on life, and when a Bear comer a little too close for mai liking....
#18
MIL FORUM POSTERS > NOKOR's greatest advantage is that the majority of SOKOR's civilian population is conentrated/located in or near SEOUL, within striking range of NOKOR's reported 12,000 ARTY SHELLS, NK Tacair, + SRBMS + LR Rockets equipped wid CBRN-NBC warheads, espec CHEMWAR [targets = SOKOR milfors + possibly JAPAN]. NOKOR's nukes are perceived as being mostly ineffective in stopping let alone defeating the highly modern, professional, and tech-potent SOKOR Armed Forces, USA, andor JAPAN's SDFS. IT IS BELIEVED BY MANY NETTERS THAT NOKOR WILL CHOSE TO ATTACK SOKOR AND OR JAPAN FIRST IN PREEMPTIVE FIRST/MILSTRIKE(S), and later HOPE FOR CHIN MIL INTERVENTION TO STAVE OFF DEFEAT AND PREVENT A FULL US-SOKOR, ETC. MIL TAKEOVER = OCCUPATION OF THE NORTH???
#19
As argued or premised times before, a DANGEROUS REALIST SCENARIO would be a US FIGHTING A CONVENTIONAL OR LIMITED NUCLEAR WAR AGZ IRAN + NOKOR + TAIWAN at the same time, given IRAN + NOKOR's penchant for moving in anti-US geopol lock-step wid the other. Can add a SOUTH ASIAN INDO-PAKI-CHIN CONFLICT TO THE EQUATION, AS PER MUMBAI, + CHIN VS. REST OF ASIA OVER DISPUTED EAST-SOUTH CHINA SEA ISLANDS.
IMO this alleged NOKOR T-2 LR ICBM MISSLE TEST should be taken as evidencia that IRAN WILL INDEED GO NUCLEAR + CONDUCT ONE OR MORE INDIGENS NUCBOMB TESTS NLT 2010 [absolute maxima 2012]. ITS MORE NOW TO IRAN + NOKOR'S ADVANTAGE TO DO SO WID THE US NOW IN A DEEP, LIKELY LT "RECESSION" = GREAT DEPRESSION-II AS PER THE MSM-NET.
E.g. CHINESE/WORLD MIL FORUM POSTERS > the issue as per a new KOREAN WAR 2 IS NOT IFF THE USA HAS "THE WILL" TO FIGHT, BUT THAT CAN SHE $$$ AFFORD TO, I.E. ECON ABLE TO FIGHT ONE OR MORE SIMUL MAJOR REGIONAL WARS POTENS INVOL NUCLEAR COMBAT/WARFARE [Limited TacNuke War + Limited Strategic NucWar - Total NucWar]???
#20
WORLD MIL FORUM POSTER > argued the US suffered SERIOUS DOMESTIC ECON TROUBLES AFTER FIGHTING THE FIRST KOREAN WAR 1950-53, and exclusive of any econ probs related to WW2.
#21
Not likely unless the Norks plan on bombarding the US with Jucheman pamphlets. I believe their test bomb fizzled. Miniaturizing a nuke and having it survive a rocket trip is on another level of difficulty.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 21:51
Comments ||
Top||
Iran said it has launched its first home-built satellite into orbit, in a move likely to further alarm an international community already at odds with Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive.
"Dear Iranians, your children have put the first indigenous satellite into orbit," a jubilant President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks broadcast on state television on Tuesday. "With this launch the Islamic Republic of Iran has officially achieved a presence in space."
The Omid (Hope) satellite was sent into space on Monday evening carried by the home-built Safir-2 space rocket, Iranian news agencies reported.
The launch -- which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution -- comes with Iran still defiantly refusing UN Security Council demands to freeze sensitive nuclear work.
The West suspects Iran of secretly trying to build an atomic bomb and fears the technology used to launch a space rocket could be diverted into development of long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Ahmadinejad said the satellite carried a message of "peace and brotherhood" to the world and dismissed suggestions that Iran's space programme had military goals, saying: "the world rejects such old talk."
"We have a divine view of technology unlike the dominating powers of the world who have Satanic views," he said. "The satellite and the rocket were made by Iranian scientists, and under the protection of the 12th Imam." Yet, left-dhimmis will reflexively yell "racism!" if we point out that this guy is batshit crazy.
Ahmadinejad has made scientific development one of the main themes of his presidency, asserting that Iran has reached a peak of progress despite international sanctions and no longer needs to depend on foreign states for help. "On the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution and with the order of the president, the national Omid satellite was launched," the Fars news agency declared. "This is the first satellite launched in the history of our nation and it was carried by the Safir-2 satellite carrier."
The state news agency IRNA said the satellite would take orbital measurements and would circle the Earth 15 times every 24 hours.
Iran sent its first Safir-2 into space in August. The rocket is about 22 metres (72 feet) long, with a diameter of 1.25 metres (a little over four feet) and weighs more than 26 tonnes. Iran's most powerful military missile, the Shahab-3, has a diameter of 1.30 metres and measures 17 metres in length. It has a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) -- putting archfoe Israel and US forces in the region within reach.
A year ago, Iran triggered concern in the West when it said it had sent a probe into space on the back of a rocket to prepare for a satellite launch, and announced the opening of its space station in a remote western desert. The launch of the probe, Kavoshgar (Explorer), was also timed during the anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
Iran has pursued a space programme for several years, and in October 2005 a Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina-1 was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.
Reza Taghipour, head of Iranian space agency, said Iran would launch another satellite carrier by the end of the Iranian year on March 20, Fars said. Is this the "Sputnik from Hell?" That depends on what the media choose to make of it. Has Iran made a giant leap toward great power status, or have they pulled off a costly and irrelevant stunt by recycling ancient technology?
The rocket was named as "Safir" in today's announcement but is almost certainly the same as the "Shahab SLV" reported last year. This is a derivative of the North Korean No Dong IRBM, which is part of a huge family of rockets derived from the infamous "Scud" (R-17) which, in turn, can trace its own ancestry all the way back to the German V-2 of World War 2.
Fwiw, the first American satellite, Explorer, was launched just over 50 years ago on an American development of the V-2, the Jupiter C (aka Redstone MRBM)), and American Moon rockets were designed by none other than the V-2's creator, Wernher von Braun.
It might seem to be axiomatic that any rocket powerful enough to put a satellite into orbit around the Earth could also launch a warhead to the other side of the Earth, the required Delta/V being lower for the latter.
This is not really the case, however, especially for a relatively new program like Iran's.
Nuclear warheads have a certain minimum mass and a first generation weapon is likely to be quite heavy (the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs weighed on the order of 5 tons.) A satellite can be a great deal smaller. The aforementioned Explorer of 1958 weighed just 31 pounds and its ill-fated predecessor, Vanguard, was the size of a grapefruit and weighed just 3 pounds. With all the miniaturization of electronics since 1958, the Iranian satellite might be a glorified cellphone for all we know.
For the record, Encyclopedia Astronautica gives the Iranian rocket's LEO payload as 60 kg, but that is mostly a guess from the known characteristics of the various components. At that, it could carry a minimum size nuke (about twice the mass) to a target on the order of 6000 km away. It is highly unlikely that Iran can build a nuke that small or integrate it into a workable re-entry package.
Once the rocket works, however, the next step is to upgrade its capability and it isn't much of a leap from there to a real threat.
#3
"the Omid (Hope) satellite was sent into space on Monday...Iran would launch another satellite"
That would be called "Change" no doubt. These were prophesied by teh one.
spit
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
02/03/2009 9:37
Comments ||
Top||
#4
I wonder if the EUros are rethinking their opposition to missle defense installations in eastern Europe? If they are, maybe we could sell them some. I wouldn't pay a plug nickel of US money for them, though. Time for EUrope to be weaned off the US taxpayers teat.
#10
Let us pose this to those who would ignore it:
We have a Christian view of technology unlike the axis of evil who have Satanic views," Bush said. "The satellite and the rocket were made by American scientists, and under the protection of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."
#13
The entire point of sputnik was to show America that Russia could lob a payload onto any place on the planet. And if one can launch an orbital payload, they can launch a suborbital ballistic payload. And if one can hit the target in space to place an object into a usable orbit, then they can hit the spot on a suborbital trajectory that will result in a ballistic path to the target. You just need to hit the correct point at the correct speed and trajectory and let gravity do the rest. It is just math and a Nintendo DS has more computing power than our original ICBMs had.
They might not be able to put one in a 100 meter circle but they could darned sure put one in a 100 mile circle and any point within 100 miles LA would be "good enough".
#14
A little small for an ICBM. But a good size for an MRBM to hit Europe. Too bad Europe's buddy, Obama, is going to gut the Euro missile defense project. Be careful what you wish for Gunter.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 21:56
Comments ||
Top||
The Four Chaplains were four Army chaplains who gave their lives when the USAT Dorchester was hit by a torpedo and sank on February 3, 1943. They helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their life jackets when the supply ran out. 230 men of the 902 aboard survived the attack.
The chaplains were Lieutenants Rev. George L. Fox (Methodist); Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (Jewish); Fr. John P. Washington (Roman Catholic); and Rev. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed). The four chaplains were all sailing on the USAT Dorchester troop transport ship on 3 February 1943 when the vessel was torpedoed by the German U-Boat U-223. As the vessel sank, the four chaplains calmed the frightened soldiers and sailors, aided in the evacuation of the ship, and helped guide wounded men to safety. The chaplains also gave up their own life vests.
The Day the Music Died (February 3, 1959), was the day of the plane crash that killed three popular American rock and roll musicians. Early that morning, at approximately 1:05 AM Central Standard Time, a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, crashed in a farmer's field en route to a concert near Fargo, North Dakota, killing all three performers as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The phrase "The Day The Music Died" was coined by Don McLean in his 1971 song about the crash, "American Pie".
And the three men I admire most:
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/03/2009
07:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Barry Again Fails to File Tax Forms also known as F6 on the Washington Post Macrowriter
D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has again failed to file his tax returns.
The former District mayor has not submitted federal or city tax forms for 2007 -- the second instance in which he has not filed required returns while on probation for tax offenses, said two sources familiar with the situation.
Barry's current trouble stems from a guilty plea in 2005 to two misdemeanor tax charges. He admitted not filing federal or D.C. tax returns from 1999 through 2004 and said that he did not pay most of the taxes he owed on more than $500,000 in income. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson sentenced him to three years of probation in March 2006.
#5
Too bad he's so along in his years. The One could have faced some serious competition for the nomination. Tax cheat that he is however, isn't there some administrative appointment still vacant?
#6
The sad part is that few of the people in the DC Ward he represents bother to watch the news or read the paper (I wonder how many of them can actually read) and so they will vote him back into public office as a member of the DC City Council where he will waste another term doing absolutely nothing for the people who elected him except collect a paycheck.
The alleged computer handiwork of a Quebec man accused of disseminating terrorist propaganda and playing a part in an overseas bomb plot was put on display at the opening of his terrorism trial Monday. Said Namouh, 36, is facing four terrorism-related charges including conspiracy, participating in a terrorist act, facilitating such an act and committing extortion for a terrorist group.
The Crown contends that Namouh is a member of the Global Islamic Media Front, an organization involved in propaganda and jihad recruitment and described as a media tool for al-Qaida. They say Namouh put the final touches on some instructional and propaganda videos broadcast on the Internet.
An RCMP investigator itemizing hundreds of files found on Namouh's computer played three of the videos found on the hard drive. Mike Sforza, an RCMP computer-crimes specialist, played two instructional videos put together by Namouh detailing how to transfer files to a website and a how-to video using a Global Islamic Media Front program to encrypt messages. The program is called "Mujahedeen Secrets." The officer also displayed a video purportedly created by Namouh detailing the capture of three American soldiers in Iraq entitled "The Romans and Apostates Hell in Mesopotamia."
Crown prosecutor Dominique Dudemaine told court he will present a wide range of audio, video and chat transcripts from jihadist forums. There will also be records of money transfers Namouh allegedly received from a suspect in Austria and an inventory of Namouh's computer. Authorities claim the Moroccan native had ties to the Global Islamic Media Front, which was plotting terror attacks in Germany and Austria.
The Crown also alleges Namouh is responsible for publishing propaganda videos following the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston in Gaza in March 2007 by a group known as the Army of Islam.
Dudemaine says his team will have to prove that both groups are terrorist organizations as neither appears on Canada's list of terrorist organizations -- but even so, there is a link between both groups and al-Qaida. "All of this constitutes terrorist activities to create propaganda and recruitment for the benefit of al-Qaida," Dudemaine said.
Namouh is accused of conspiring with an Austrian man, Mohammed Mahmoud, described as a leader of the Global Islamic Media Front. The initial charge against Namouh was to have conspired in 2007 "for the purpose of delivering, placing, discharging or detonating an explosive in a place outside Canada" with Mahmoud. The terrorism charges were subsequently added.
The beheading of two paramilitary rangers by suspected Islamist militants in Yarang district of Pattani province Monday was believed to be a revenge in retaliation against the mid-January killing of a partially-disabled Muslim by government officials, according to the Internal Security Operations Command.
The two victims, identified as Neehasan Neewae, 30, and 56-year old Chua Chotirat, were ambushed by an unknown number of suspected militants in a para rubber plantation about two kilometers from their outpost in Yarang district as they were on their way to carry out their routine psychological warfare mission. After the ambush, the militants shot the victims at point-blank range, cut their heads and then set fire to their bodies before leaving with their two service pistols. The severed head of Chua was left at the scene but the one belonging to Neewae is yet to be located.
Isoc officials suspected that the killing and beheading of the two rangers was a revenge attack in retaliation against the killing of Abdul Arshi Kongsathien on January 16 in Yarang district of Pattani. The killing of Abdul Arshi has led to protest by his friends of relatives who maintained that the victim whom they claimed was partially disabled and could not fire a gun was murdered by the authorities. However, the authorities maintained that Abdul Arshi could use a gun and that the .38 calibre revolver seized from the victim had been used in the commission of at least 10 criminal acts resulting to seven deaths, including two policemen, and five injuries. They also claimed that traces of gun powder were traced on the victimÂ’s hand.
Apart from the deep suspicion in the minds of the locals over Abdul ArshiÂ’s death, the killing of a religious teacher, Abdul Karim Yusoh, who was shot dead in front of a mosque in Saiburi district of Pattani on January 30 by gunmen riding on a pickup truck has also fuelled deep mistrust of the officials. Yusoh had just been released from jail after he was acquitted by the court. Shortly after his release, he told the Issara news agency that he was afraid that he might be silenced by the authorities. Student activists have called for an independent probe into the killings of Yusoh and Abdul Arshi to clear the air about suspicion of foul play by the authorities.
The gruesome mutilation of the two rangers has added to a total of 26 beheading cases registered in the strife-torn deep South in the past five years since violence flared up in 2004. The first beheading took place on May 27, 2004 in Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat and the victim was identified as 63-year old Chiang Padkaew. The last one was reported on September 21 last year and the victim was identified as Prateep Sombat, 51, in Srisakhon district of Narathiwat.
Earlier Mr Panyasak Sophonvasu, a researcher of the security studies project of the Office of the Research Support Fund, said that the beheadings of victims in the deep South by suspected Islamist militants were copycat acts borrowed from the extremists in Iraq and were intended to strike fear among government officials and Muslim civilians who collaborate with the officials.
The Turkish immigrant who supplied the map of Fort Dix in a terror plot to attack the Army base wants to fire his attorney, saying his appointed counsel did not honor his requests to testify or accept a plea deal before trial. Serdar Tatar, formerly of Cherry Hill, wrote the letter dated Jan. 22 to U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, who presided over the case of the Fort Dix Five late last year and is scheduled to sentence the men in April.
Tatar and his co-defendants were convicted Dec. 22 of conspiracy to kill members of the U.S. military after an eight-week federal trial. They were acquitted of attempted murder. All face life in prison.
The letter is one in a series of notes the men, all foreign-born Muslims who grew up in South Jersey, have sent to the judge since their May 2007 arrest. At least three of the convicted men have written to Kugler, all proclaiming their innocence, since the jury returned its verdict. Also, the judge has received letters in recent weeks from family members of the men.
In the most recent letter, Tatar raises an ineffective assistance of counsel argument and alleges that he was "unduly prejudiced" by the representation of attorney Richard Sparaco. Sparaco and four other prominent South Jersey attorneys were assigned to the case to represent the men in their more than $2-million, government-funded defense. The judge praised their work at the end of the trial.
Tatar, writing from the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, tells the judge he wanted to testify in his own defense, but couldn't because the attorney was unprepared. "I was absolutely prepared and testifying was something we discussed and the decision not to was made for many, many reasons I cannot discuss," Sparaco said Monday.
Tatar also said he would have accepted a plea deal in the case, but is quick not to admit guilt. "Although, I maintain my innocence and continue to maintain my innocence, I wanted to mitigate the risk of conviction by entering into a plea and proffer agreement with the government," he wrote.
Sparaco said there were plea discussions. "But, there was no real offer," he said. "It was plead guilty and face possible life in prison."
Tatar took a map from his father's former Cookstown pizzeria, which served Fort Dix, and gave it to a government informant who said he was looking to make the United States pay for something it did to him. He later told a Philadelphia police officer he thought the man was involved in a terrorism plot. When questioned by the FBI, Tatar, who already was under investigation, denied giving the informant the map.
Sparaco said Monday he will continue to represent Tatar until the judge tells him otherwise, saying the letter was "pretty routine from someone facing life in prison." Sparaco was the first of the five defense attorneys to ask the judge to overturn his client's conviction or schedule a new trial after the verdict. Those motions are pending.
#1
when your counsel is free and you are guilty you can't bitch too much but it seems these imported militants think our justice system is a catch and release system. wonder where they got that from
A Muslim cleric convicted of forming a terrorist cell in Australia was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in jail, bringing the country's largest terrorism trial to a close. Six of his followers were ordered to serve between six and 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors accused Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, a former aviation engineer who moved to Australia from Algeria in 1989, of urging his followers to carry out a violent attack within Australia to pressure the government to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Australia supported the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 and had combat troops there when Benbrika and his followers were arrested. According to prosecutors, Benbrika said that it would take at least 1,000 deaths to achieve his goal.
The seven men were arrested in November 2005 after an undercover police operation found they were plotting to attack landmarks in their home city of Melbourne. The men were convicted last September under legislation introduced in Australia following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The Victoria State Supreme Court sentenced Benbrika to 15 years for intentionally directing the activities of a terrorist organization, seven years for intentionally being a member of a terrorist organization and five years for possessing a compact disc connected with the preparation of a terrorist act. He was the first person to be convicted of leading a terrorist group inside Australia. He was ordered to serve the terms concurrently and taking into account time served since his arrest, he will be eligible for parole in about nine years. The other six men received sentences ranging from four to eight years for their participation in the terrorist cell.
Benbrika and his six followers were arrested in a series of raids in 2005 after authorities who had intercepted the men's phone calls found that they had formed a terrorist cell with the intent of pursuing violent jihad.
#1
Good going, mate! At least some one other than us are getting serious about the domestic variety.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/03/2009 10:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
When the time comes, strip them of their Australian citizenship or legal residency, then send them back to their country of origin. And may the U.S. do the same with our convicted terrorists.
#3
OK Maybe I'm just dumb, Why in the hell would you send this bastard back to be worshiped, and copied.
Swing the bastard from a short rope/long drop. Cremate the remains. Nothing to worship and copy.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/03/2009 13:54
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Benbrika, who has never worked since he arrived in Australia,lived on welfare and fathered seven children.
In a sense you might have to feel sorry for him. Imagine they might all blow up while he is still in the jug.
#5
I've said it here before and I'll say it again. I know second hand Camp Delta is filled with some of the meanest and most hateful pieces of human refuse there is. To drag them out and shoot them would be to do each and every one of us a favor.
Bambi isn't that much of a realist.
POTUS asks his science advisor "How much is 2 + 2?": "Four, Mr President."
Asks the head of the US Census Bureau: "4 +/- 0.0756 Mr President".
Asks his chief economic advisor: "How much would you like it to be, Mr President?".
#2
An economy like our own has never existed in human history. There have been largely agrarian economies and, since the 19th century, industrial economies. Both of which are simplistic by any comparison to what’s happening now. Therefore modeling is not and can not be a science. There is no history. It’s happening right now. It’s a SWAG at best. It’s a product of literally millions of players, input, and outputs, each with its own agenda and objectives. It’s a beast in and of itself. All you can do is ride beast. Sometimes you can prod or encourage the beast in a desired direction. However, when the beast gets its own mind, it can eat you alive. Beast riding is an art not a science. There are those who think they can tame the beast, but have shown that they only kill its spirit and thus the beast as well, leaving no one the ability to ride it. However, since the beast is largely composed of humans, the successful principles laid out for human behavior have the closest application to the economy. Ignore those principles because you believe you’re smarter than those before you, or because you wish they weren’t so, only brings distress and failure in the end.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) yesterday handed over the cab service offices to its three lessees--BM Transport, Green Bangla and Baba Auto Gas after ousting the 'grabbers' from the cab service counters at Zia International Airport.
On Sunday, Leaders and activists of Airport police station unit of Awami League (AL) took control of the cab service counters after driving out the three lessees of CAAB. Nurul Islam, chief security officer of CAAB told The Daily Star that they handed over the offices to the authorities of the three firms at about 11:00 am in the presence of its chairman.
Earlier, police drove out the AL men who locked the offices of the three firms.
Officer-in-Charge of the Airport police station Khan Mohammad Sirajul Islam said additional police have been deployed in front of the airport terminal to avert any untoward situation.
The AL men locked the rooms of the three firms, owned by Sramik League leaders and workers, and took the possession of those offices on Sunday claiming that they have obtained a court ruling recently in favour of them.
Earlier on Saturday, some Juba League activists swooped on lessees' men at the airport to take control of the cab service counters there, leaving three people injured. The three firms won the bid last year, but the previous holders, a consortium of 14 firms, filed a writ petition alleging irregularities in the tender. Recently, they obtained the court ruling in their favour.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A Qassam rocket struck an open area in Sha'ar Hanegev Monday evening, despite separate cease-fire declarations by both Israel and Hamas which ended Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip last month. The rocket caused no injuries or damage.
Earlier Monday, three mortar shells hit the Eshkol region, also causing no injuries or damage.
In response to the mortar attack, the Israel Air Force bombed a car in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical workers reported that one person had been killed in the bombing, and three others were wounded. The Israel Defense Forces said it targeted gunmen who had fired the mortars.
Witnesses said the air-strike hit the men while they were traveling in a car in the town. Their identities were not immediately known.
Late Sunday, IAF aircraft bombed a Hamas security building in the central Gaza Strip and two other targets in the southern coastal territory, Palestinian witnesses said, also in response to a spate of cross-border rocket fire. Witnesses in the central Gaza village of Mughraqa said a missile struck after dark in a cluster of caravans that served as a Hamas security headquarters.
They said the site had been evacuated, apparently after Israel telephoned warnings to Palestinians in Gaza to leave any buildings where weapons were located.
The other two strikes were on suspected sites of tunnels along the border with Egypt, Hamas said. Palestinians reported huge explosions as Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the border, where Hamas operates tunnels to smuggle in weapons, food and other goods.
Before the attack, Israeli aircraft flew over the Gaza-Egypt border, setting off sonic booms, and witnesses said hundreds of people who work in the tunnels there ran away fled, along with residents.
The news comes as Israel's leadership warned Sunday that the response to the rocket attacks from Gaza would be fierce. The disagreements between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on the one hand, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak over an "arrangement" with Hamas have intensified.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
a missile struck after dark in a cluster of caravans that served as a Hamas security headquarters.
they have gone to the mattresses shakey shacks!
While everyone is looking at Tom Daschle's tax problems (I am too, working on a story for tomorrow morning), a new issue has arisen concerning another Obama cabinet nomination, that of Rep. Hilda Solis to be Secretary of Labor.
Solis had a rough hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee when she declined to answer all sorts of seemingly noncontroversial questions about her positions on basic labor issues. (Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus wrote a frustrated account of the hearing, asking, "How can senators consent if they have no clue what policies they might be consenting to?") Now, some committee members want to know more about Solis' relationship with a pro-labor group called American Rights at Work. On the group's website, Solis is listed as a member of the board of directors, and she also served as Treasurer of the organization from 2004 to 2007. The question is whether Solis, who as a member of Congress is prohibited from lobbying Congress, fully disclosed her relationship with the group.
American Rights at Work is an important part of Big Labor's push for the Employee Free Choice Act, known more accurately as card check. A recent account in the lefty journal In These Times says that, "Early this year, unions plan to present 1 million signatures in support of EFCA to Congress, and they are calling on allies from civil rights, environment, religious and other movements to broaden the campaign beyond labor. American Rights at Work, a labor-founded coalition, is playing a leading role in this effort."
No one is accusing Solis of concealing her connection with the group; it was common knowledge in the labor world, and she listed it in the paperwork she submitted for her confirmation hearing. But she did not list it on the disclosure forms she was required to submit to the House of Representatives. It was an unpaid position, so there is no problem with income. But there are questions about whether Solis, as Treasurer, played a de facto role in the group's lobbying activity; if you're a member of Congress, you're not supposed to simultaneously lobby Congress. (Solis has told the Senate that she did not take part in the group's lobbying activities.) In any event, you're required to list your affiliation on disclosure documents, which Solis did not do. (On January 29, she filed amended disclosure forms with the House, listing her association with the labor group.) Some Senate Republicans don't view this as a major issue with the Solis nomination, but they do want to know more about her specific activities for American Rights at Work.
#2
.....if you're a member of Congress, you're not supposed to simultaneously lobby Congress. (Solis has told the Senate that she did not take part in the group's lobbying activities.)
Total bunk! This was way, way back in 2004-2007 and the 15 minute Congressional lying, cheating, and stealing Statute of Limitations has long run out. Besides, we were fighting "W" then and she was a Congresscritter from California, which trumps all laws, rules, and covenants.
African Union peacekeepers opened fire Monday on civilian vehicles and fatally shot 18 people after an AU vehicle was hit by a land mine, officials and a witness said.
The peacekeepers fired at three minibus taxis carrying civilians after the land mine damaged an AU vehicle in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, said the city's deputy mayor, Abdifitah Ibrahim Shawey.
"A land mine hit one of our vehicles and then we came under small arms fire."
AU peacekeeping force spokesman Bahoku Barigye said the Ugandan contingent of the AU force was responding to gunfire and he does not know whom they hit. "A land mine hit one of our vehicles and then we came under small arms fire. We did not intentionally kill civilians," Barigye told The Associated Press, adding that one Ugandan soldier was wounded.
The incident happened on a road in southern Mogadishu linking the presidential palace and the airport. Both are among the government installations the AU force guards as part of its mandate in Mogadishu. "There was a huge explosion, which blew up one of the Ugandan military vehicles, lifting it off the road," said Mohamud Abdisamad, a resident of the Waberi district where the violence happened. "Afterwards, Ugandan soldiers started shooting at people in the three buses wildly."
Ali Muse, one of the coordinators of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said the service transported 18 dead and 11 people wounded from the scene of the violence. Muse said the dead and wounded had gunshot wounds.
A senior police officer, Gen. Yusuf Hussein Dumal, accused the AU peacekeepers of intentionally shooting the civilians. "It is unfortunate for both the Ugandan government and for the Somalis as well. What happened here was a clear massacre against civilians," Dumal said. "This is not peacekeeping."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
"This is not peacekeeping."
You can't keep what you don't have in the first place. It is the key misunderstanding in the whole war-peace process. First you have to win the war, THEN you can talk about keeping the peace.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took the reins of the 53-nation African Union at a summit in Ethiopia on Monday amid concerns over deadly unrest in Madagascar and a bid to indict Sudan's president for war crimes. Gaddafi, who has long promoted stronger union within the organization and poured money into some parts of Africa, was handed the chairman's gavel by outgoing AU leader Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president, to warm applause from other leaders.
But Southern African leaders had lobbied for a leader from their region, as the next summit moves to crisis-hit Madagascar, according to delegates to the summit. Other African nations were also unhappy about the choice of Gaddafi as the bloc's chairman but under AU rules the post rotates among Africa's regions and this year was set to go to a North African leader. Gaddafi was the only one present.
"United States of Africa"
" I hope my term will be a time of serious work and not just words...I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa. "
Gaddafi
The Libyan leader was elected in a closed-door vote and vowed to press ahead with plans to create a "United States of Africa" despite other leaders' reluctance to back his objective. "I hope my term will be a time of serious work and not just words," Gaddafi said in his inaugural speech. "I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa," he said, admitting that African leaders were "not near to a settlement" on the issue. "We are still independent states."
Gaddafi and Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade have been calling for years for an accelerated process towards a union government, saying it is the only way to meet the challenges of globalization, fighting poverty and resolving conflicts without Western interference.
Kikwete told a news conference on Sunday night the meeting had agreed only to change the name of the current AU Commission into an "authority," rejecting a proposal by the body itself to transform it immediately into a union government. But many African heads of state are loathe to relinquish any of their sovereignty, and during closed-door talks on Sunday, they again postponed his dream of closer union.
Political unrest
The summit, which ends on Tuesday, has been overshadowed by political unrest in Madagascar, torn apart in a power struggle that has killed 68 people so far. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the summit he was "particularly concerned" about the crisis, and urged that all parties "address their differences peacefully and through existing constitutional mechanisms."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And MUGABE [read - ZS$1.0TRILYUHN = US$1.0]- CAN "THE COLONEL/LEADER" FROM LIBYA = UNCLE MUHAMMAR SAVE MUGABE FROM MUGABE, ZIMBABWE FROM ZIMBABWE???
IIRC, bad as it was I don't think even PRE-ADOLF HITLER/1933 WEIMAR GERMANY's HYPER-INFLATION WAS AS BAD AS ZIMBABWE'S - am I correct, or not!?
Given the resurgent Islamist troubles in MADAGASCAR [OWG Free Trade Zone = South Asia Zone], methinks Zimbabwe is all but formally demanding to be invaded by the UNITED KINGDOM + ITS ROYAL NAVY = "GRAND SQUADRON/GLOBAL TASK UNIT", BUT I DON'T THINK THE BRITS ARE MIL-ECON UP TO IT???
OTOH TOPIX > POTUS OBAMA + ADMIN > OBAMA'S [OWG-Global VIETNAMS [multi-Wars]?: THE USA, CHINA, AND ISLAM SOON TO COLLIDE/CLASH IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICAS?
CHALK UP ANUTHER ONE FOR YEAR 2009-2012[2016] POST-DUBYA PERIOD.
CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to pullout all US combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting on January 21, sources have said. But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.
Obama's decision to override Petraeus' recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including General Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.
A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilizing public opinion against Obama's decision.
Petraeus was visibly unhappy when he left the Oval Office, according to one of the sources. A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying: "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."
Petraeus, Gates and Odierno had hoped to sell Obama on a plan that they formulated in the final months of the Bush administration that aimed at getting around a key provision of the US-Iraqi withdrawal agreement by re-categorizing large numbers of combat troops as support troops. That subterfuge was formulated by the United States last November while ostensibly allowing Obama to deliver on his campaign promise.
Gates and Mullen had discussed the relabeling scheme with Obama as part of the Petraeus-Odierno plan for withdrawal they had presented to him in mid-December, according to a December 18 New York Times story.
Obama decided against making any public reference to his order to the military to draft a detailed 16-month combat-troop withdrawal policy, apparently so that he can announce his decision only after consulting with his field commanders and the Pentagon.
The first clear indication of the intention of Petraeus, Odierno and their allies to try to get Obama to amend his decision came on January 29 when the New York Times published an interview with Odierno, ostensibly based on the premise that Obama had indicated that he was "open to alternatives."
The Times reported that Odierno had "developed a plan that would move slower than Mr. Obama's campaign timetable" and had suggested in an interview "it might take the rest of the year to determine exactly when United States forces could be drawn down significantly."
The opening argument by the Petraeus-Odierno faction against Obama's withdrawal policy was revealed the evening of the January 21 meeting when retired army General Jack Keane, one of the authors of the Bush troop-surge policy and a close political ally and mentor of Petraeus, appeared on the "Lehrer News Hour" to comment on Obama's pledge on Iraq combat troop withdrawal.
Keane, who had certainly been briefed by Petraeus on the outcome of the Oval Office meeting, argued that implementing such a withdrawal of combat troops would "increase the risk rather dramatically over the 16 months."
He asserted that it would jeopardize the "stable political situation in Iraq" and called that risk "not acceptable."
The assertion that Obama's withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush troop surge and Petraeus' strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning.
Keane, the army vice chief of staff from 1999-03, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star army generals, and since Obama's January 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama's troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow the US withdrawal, according to a military source familiar with the network's plans.
The source says the network, which includes senior active-duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy.
If Obama does not change the policy, according to the source, they hope to have planted the seeds of a future political narrative blaming his withdrawal policy for the "collapse" they expect in an Iraq without US troops.
That line seems likely to appeal to reporters covering the Iraq troop-withdrawal issue. Ever since Obama's inauguration, media coverage of the issue has treated Obama's 16-month withdrawal proposal as a concession to anti-war sentiment which will have to be adjusted to the "realities" as defined by the advice to Obama from Gates, Petraeus and Odierno.
Ever since he began working on the troop surge, Keane has been the central figure manipulating policy in order to keep as many US troops in Iraq as possible. It was Keane who got Vice President Dick Cheney to push for Petraeus as top commander in Iraq in late 2006 when the existing commander, General George W. Casey, did not support the troop surge.
It was Keane who protected Petraeus' interests in ensuring the maximum number of troops in Iraq against the efforts by other military leaders to accelerate troop withdrawal in 2007 and 2008. As Bob Woodward reported in "The War Within," Keane persuaded Bush to override the concerns of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the stress of prolonged US occupation of Iraq on the US Army and Marine Corps as well as its impact on the worsening situation in Afghanistan.
Bush agreed in September 2007 to guarantee that Petraeus would have as many troops as he needed for as long as wanted, according to Woodward's account.
Keane had also prevailed on Gates in April 2008 to make Petraeus the new commander of CENTCOM. Keane argued that keeping Petraeus in the field was the best insurance against a Democratic administration reversing the Bush policy toward Iraq.
Keane had operated on the assumption that a Democratic president would probably not take the political risk of rejecting Petraeus' recommendation on the pace of troop withdrawal from Iraq. Woodward quotes Keane as telling Gates: "Let's assume we have a Democratic administration and they want to pull this thing out quickly, and now they have to deal with General Petraeus and General Odierno. There will be a price to be paid to override them."
Obama told Petraeus in Baghdad last July that if elected, he would regard the overall health of the US Army and Marine Corps and the situation in Afghanistan as more important than Petraeus' obvious interest in maximizing US troop strength in Iraq, according to Time magazine's Joe Klein.
But judging from Petraeus' shock at Obama's January 21 decision, he had not taken Obama's previous rejection of his arguments seriously. That miscalculation suggests that Petraeus had begun to accept Keane's assertion that a newly elected Democratic president would not dare to override his policy recommendation on troops in Iraq.
#2
ION TOPIX > SOUTH KOREA: NORTH KOREA IS PREPARING TO [test]LAUNCH AN INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSLE [LR ICBM], one that is potens capable of effectively hitting the West Coast of CONUS-NORAM???
#4
A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying: "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."
This sounds like leftist anti-military triumphalism.
Petreaus should publicly and noisily resign rather than act against the best interests of the nation and the military.
#5
"Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."
Blustering, arrogant, leftest bastards. None of them would make a pimple on the general's backside. General Petraeus will not abide much of this I can assure you. We'll lose him over it.
#6
"PetraeusThe American people made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with electing Barack ObamaGeorge Bush instead of Barack ObamaJohn McCain."
#7
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS/TOPIX > US PENTAGON CHIEFS TELL POTUS OBAMA: US MUST ROOT OUT/DESTROY PAKISTANI MILITANT HAVENS.
* SAME > US-NATO SUPPLIES IS SHRINKING IN AFGHANISTAN [RUSSIA Access denial, Closure of US AirBase in Krgyzstan]
READ - IFF RUSSIA + IRAN, ETC. REFUSE TO ALLOW LOCAL TRANSIT FOR US-NATO RESUPPLY INTO AFGHAN-PAK, THE US-NATO WILL BE FORCED TO MIL ATTACK AND INVADE IRAN.
#8
I've a family member who spent a considerable amount of time working with the Good General in Iraq. He says the same as Besoeker. If Barry goes ahead with the premature withdrawal, the general will not be around for it.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/03/2009 22:16
Comments ||
Top||
Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami gives ex-premier Mir-Hossein Mousavi a ten-day ultimatum to decide on his bid for presidency. "Or what?"
"Or... ummm... I'll give you another ten days."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Sunday said Pakistan has completed investigation into the Mumbai attacks and would soon formally respond to the Indian dossier. Addressing a press conference here at the PM House, after returning from Davos where he represented Pakistan at the World Economic Forum, Gilani said there was tremendous pressure of the Indian public on its government causing bitterness in the ties between the two countries. He said Pakistan always desired better ties with India and pointed that it enjoys cordial ties with Iran and Afghanistan. Â"I assure the world, the media and the government and people of India that the dossier has been investigated and has been forwarded to ministry of law and justice and after their approval I will take you in confidence.Â" The Prime Minister when asked about the statement by PakistanÂ's ambassador to United Kingdom regarding the Mumbai probe, said Â"at times people are not performing their duties but are doing duties of others.Â" He said he has already instructed his ministers not to interfere in matters related to others amd maintained, he was very strict about it and said he sought an explanation from PakistanÂ's High Commissioner to UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan and was satisfied with his response.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Palestinian militants shot at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank region of the Hebron Hills on Sunday morning. The troops subsequently returned fire, killing one of the gunmen.
None of the Israel Defense Forces soldiers was wounded in the gunfight, which took place near the West Bank settlement of Beit Yatir.
The incident was the latest in a recent upsurge of attacks in the West Bank following Israel's 22-day offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. About two weeks ago, IDF troops shot and killed a Palestinian who participated in a violent West Bank protest against the campaign in Gaza.
A few days earlier, a Palestinian militant stabbed an IDF soldier at the Almog junction in the southern West Bank, near the Dead Sea, and fled. The soldier sustained moderate wounds in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
INDONESIA is planning a crackdown on illegal polygamous marriages and will ask all Muslim couples to undergo pre-wedding marriage courses, an official said on Monday.
Religious affairs ministry official Nasaruddin Umar told AFP the government was concerned about rising rates of divorce, especially the increasing numbers of women who are leaving their polygamous husbands.
According to Indonesian court figures, in 2007 there were 937 cases of divorce due to differences over polygamy, up from a reported 813 in 2004.
Polygamy is technically legal in this mainly Muslim country, but only when the husband has registered his marriages and received the consent of his other wives.
'In our law, polygamy is allowed but the requirements are very hard. The man has to get the consent of his wife but a normal wife will never give consent to her husband wanting to marry another woman,' Mr Umar said.
'What's happening is that men are taking another wife without registering the marriage, usually through a religious ceremony which is considered legal for Islam.
'In the near future we will also issue a regulation that bans this kind of marriage.'
Mr Umar said the marriage course would last about one day and would be compulsory for all engaged Muslim couples hoping to marry.
'We will teach them about the risk of polygamy. The statistics show that polygamy does more harm than good,' he said.
'We have observed that the increasing divorce rate is caused by the fact that couples don't have sufficient knowledge about the substance of a marriage.' He said the idea was to 'eliminate or reduce the number of couples seeking divorce'.
Along with issues surrounding polygamy, the course would cover topics such as family planning and domestic violence.
'They will learn about contraception so that they won't have a child every year... About domestic violence, most married couples don't know that domestic violence can carry a jail sentence in this country,' he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Polygamy - the crime that is its own punishment.
#2
Read the Old Testament, and take a look at the polygamous families.
There's the Abraham/Sarah/Hagar triangle; the bitterness between Leah and Rachel, the bitchiness directed at Hannah by Peninah, who knows that their husband loves Hannah more, and so on.
Nowhere does the Bible describe a polygamous family that is harmonious. Indeed, Genesis states that "therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife." The verb "cleaving" in this context means sticking, like two lumps of clay molded into one ball.
Looks like Joseph Smith, Mohammed, and other didn't pay much attention to the details when they wrote their heresies.
INDONESIAN Islamic hardliners have called for a ban on international organisations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports said today.
The People's Ulema Forum (FUU) said the clubs were "infidel" fronts for Freemasonry and the world Zionist movement and threatened Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country. "They gather funds and give them to America and the Israeli Zionists," FUU chairman Atian Ali Mohammad Da'i was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe daily. "We urge all Muslims to renounce membership in the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. Otherwise they can consider themselves infidels."
Indonesian Muslims are overwhelmingly moderate but a vocal hardline fringe regularly succeeds in influencing policy-makers despite opposition from secularists, civil society groups and religious minorities.
The FUU is an ultra-conservative group that has used force to stop Christian services and in 2002 issued a death fatwa (Islamic ruling) against a Muslim scholar who had criticised conservative Islam, the Globe reported.
#3
Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy
IIRC, the hamas charter makes the same contention, and goes along the notion that joooos (excuse me, "zionists") are behind the french revolution, free-masonry, etc, etc... something that seems to escape the progressives. Not that I like free-masons much, but there's been at least one direct terror attack in turkey against a local lodge (turkish free-masonry being IIRC rather present & a force behind turkish ideology of secularism, just as it is in france).
North Korea says it would not dismantle its nuclear facilities unless South Korea's nuclear establishments and arms deals are inspected. A spokesman for the North's General Chief of Staff said Monday that "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula does not only mean Pyongyang's disarmament, but should also include verification of nuclear facilities in South Korea," the state's official KRT TV reported.
North Korea demanded inspectors probe the South to make sure it is not harboring US atomic arms and verify the alleged nuclear facilities, as Pyongyang claims Washington has armed the state with nuclear weapons after the 1950-53 Korean War.
After the war ended in a ceasefire rather that a peace treaty, he said the North and the South remained in a state of war and it was "a shameless act of imprudence," to believe that one side would willingly disarm. "As long as there is not any nuclear dismantlement in the South to clear nuclear threats from the United States, dismantlement to remove our nuclear arms won't materialize," the spokesman said amid stalled disarmament talks.
In 2003, the six-nation talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched to persuade North Korea into giving up its controversial nuclear program. The six-nation deal signed in 2007, offered energy aid to North Korea in exchange for the dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear plants and the handover of its nuclear weapons and material.
The talks, however, faced deadlock after North Korea refused to accept a system to verify its nuclear activities, arguing that the states should be given the chance to verify that US nuclear weapons have been withdrawn from South Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
FREEREPUBLIC > REUTERS.UK - SCENARIOS: WILL NORTH KOREA LAUNCH A WAR [T-2 Ballistic missle lauunch]?
#2
I'm not sure that word 'Nuclear" means what you think it means. Long will you glow.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/03/2009 19:39
Comments ||
Top||
#3
WORLD MIL FORUM [Chin = GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > IN POST-KIM COLLAPSE OF NORTH KOREA, US MUST SECURE NORTH KOREA'S BALLISTIC MISSLES, 6-8 NUCLEAR BOMBS/WEAPONS, NUCLEAR MATERIALS, AND APPROXIMATELY 4000 TONS OF CHEMICAL WARFARE, OTHER WMD STOCKS. THREE GENER PHASES FOR POST-KIM/COLLAPSE NOKOR NATIONAL STABILITY, RECOVERY, AND DEMOCRATIZATION - FAILURE OF ORDERLY SUCCESSION COULD LEAD TO NEW REGIONAL WAR AMONG COALITION MEMBER NATIONS, FOOD- AND LARGE-SCALE HUMANITARIAN CRISES.
* WORST-CASE SCENARIO FOR US > MAY REQUIRE UP TO 1.3MILYUHN US, US-ALLIED TROOPS, NOT 460,000 [3X more]???
Aswat al-Iraq: Joint forces on Monday arrested four gunmen in northeast of Baaquba, a security source said. "A joint force of police and army personnel arrested four gunmen in Balour region in northeast of Baaquba," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The force found also different kind of weapons at a house of one of the gunmen," he added, without giving more details.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
The death tally of militants, amid separate skirmishes between miscreants and security forces, has climbed to 35 on Monday, according to security forcesÂ' assertion. As per sources militantsÂ' hideouts, in separate areas in Swat including Char Bagh and Khwaz Khela, were pounded by security forces resulting deaths of thirty-five militants. It is pertinent to mention here, security forces imposed curfew on different areas in Swat on Sunday giving rise to likely intensive strikes against militants on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Iran's leading Reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi says he will join the upcoming elections with the campaign slogan of "Change."
Karroubi, who is among the several candidates officially registered to run in the June presidential election, said on Monday that he intends "to bring about change in Iran's Executive Body."
Karroubi's slogan, which brings to mind US President Barack Obama's campaign message of "Change you can believe in", comes at a time when there is wild talk of negotiations with the United States.
Regarding the issue of dialogue with the US, the former Iranian parliament speaker said he is in favor of talks.
Referring to a letter by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulating President Obama for his victory in the American presidential race, Karroubi said, "the congratulatory message has broken the taboo of negotiations with the United States."
"The letter has cleared the way for the start of dialogue with Washington in the framework of foreign policy," he added.
President Obama has reportedly been mulling over a response to President Ahmadinejad's letter and has so far drawn up at least three drafts for his Iran message.
Washington-Tehran relations were severed in the aftermath of the US embassy takeover in Tehran in 1980.
The two countries broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze in May 2007 during the Iraq security talks and have so far held three rounds of negotiations on an ambassadorial level over the issue.
America's Obama has vowed to engage Iran in direct diplomacy in order to resolve the country's nuclear dispute.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wasn't that Khomeini's tag line?
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 13:48
Comments ||
Top||
A Chinese government official has outlined new principles to stem the growing unrest from an economic downturn that has left 26 million migrant workers looking for jobs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ION WAFF > TAIKISTAN MAY BE LOOKING PAST RUSSIA, AND SEEING IRAN [don't like Russ new econ rapport /ventures wid UZBEKISTAN]???
#2
Do they plan to poison pet food and baby milk with industrial chemicals, as a cost-cutting measure? Lead paint on toys? Inquiring minds want to know....
#3
Wouldn't be easier just to open branches of the People's Bank of Beijing at our local Walmarts and start issuing credit directly to the consumers employing all those trillions of dollars of Treasury Bonds as the basis? Certainly that would cut out a lot of the middle men waste in stimming the economy and getting those kids off the farms and back into the factories churning out pet toys and next Christmas' aisle stuffers.
#4
A Chinese government official has outlined new principles to stem the growing unrest from an economic downturn that has left 26 million migrant workers looking for jobs.
They're going into the human-organ supply business in a big way.
#5
ION CHINA, WAFF > CHINA: TIANWAN NUCLEAR POWER STATION FIRE [Pre-BEIJING OLYMPICS; Russo-Ukrainian design].
CHINA has had FIVE-PLUS MAJOR NUCPLANT SHUTDOWNS OCCUR IN THE LAST 12 YEARS.
ALso, REDDIT/OTHER > SCIENTISTS:CHINA'S SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE [80,000 dead, 5.0Milyuhn homeless] MAY HAD BEEN MANMADE? China's new 315Milyuhn-tonne capacity Zipingu Hydro-Elex Power Dam + Lake Reservoir, completed in 2004 and one of 400 HE Dams-Stas China has inside the quake zone, was loc only 550 yards from the Sichuan quake epicentre. PWRSTA + DAM + LAKE, ETC. GROSS WEIGHT WAS TOO MUCH FOR LOCAL TECTONICS???
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in a rejoinder termed The Daily Star report headlined 'Jamaat to take on war crime trial' published on January 30 'baseless and false'. It also claimed the report as a 'syndicated propaganda.'
In the rejoinder, Jamaat said the then Pakistani government formed Rajakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and different other organisations. Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chattra Sangha and its leaders had no role and were not involved in those organisations. The rejoinder also states that propaganda is going on against Jamaat Ameer Maolana Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to confuse people.
OUR REPLY
In the rejoinder Jamaat did not refute the contents of our report. They have only denied Jamaat's involvement in some historical events of 1971, most of which remain as evidence in many documents. We, therefore, stand by our report.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred_
I kept hitting the Translate button, but I still have no idea what this guy is on about.
#2
During the war for Bangla independence from Pakistain, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its front organizations were on the Pak side. They formed the al-Badr organization and four or five others that operated as kill squads for the Paks. They were responsible for some pretty horrible massacres.
After the war, they kept their heads down and allied politically with the BNP. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina's father and the father of Bangladesh was assassinated and Jamaat's "nationalist" allies brought them a bit of protection. They were a part of the last BNP government, the one that was in place when Bangla was named the most corrupt nation on earth -- or maybe it was just the 172nd least honest, I don't remember.
Part of the resurgent Awami League's platform has been to try the war criminals from 1971, which would include a considerable chunk of the current leadership of the Jamaat. Bangla Daily Star's been pushing that editorially, and the Jamaat's response has been pretty weak: if they unleash the bully boyz on them, that increases the demand for trials. I'm enjoying the show, as John Frum is, no doubt, along with millions of others.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009 18:45
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Thanks, Fred__
why couldn't the author have explained it that well
Somali government has reportedly ordered military to take back the transitional administration's final stronghold from opposition fighters.
The country's soldiers started advancing towards the central town of Baidoa on Monday, after the government officials held talks in the southern town of Huduur to discuss the details of the move, a Press TV correspondent reported. The town, which is the seat of the Somali parliament, recently fell into the clutches of Al-Shabaab fighters.
The gunmen have been opposing the country's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on behalf of their superiors -- the Union of Islamic Courts. Following the fall of Baidoa Somali lawmakers, gathered in neighboring Djibouti in an attempt to shape a unity government in the Horn of Africa country under a UN-brokered plan.
Earlier in the day, the UIC voiced its opposition to the lawmakers' Saturday election of popular opposition leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed as the country's new president. The fighters "see the result of the conference of conspiracy in Djibouti as one that does not concern us and we do not recognize it," said Sheik Muse Abdi Arale, a top UIC official, Xinhua reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS/TOPIX > ISLAMIC COURTS LEADER [alleged Islamist "moderate']WINS SOMALI PRESIDENCY + ISLAMIST RADICAL LEADER IS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF SOMALIA.
That clip with Dean Martin and Dom DeLuise it a scream. God, they were funny. I nearly fell off the chair laughing. I used to watch Dean's show regularly, way back when, so I probably saw it a few decades ago, but it's great to be reminded.
How come they were so much funnier back then (even now) than "comedians" are today?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/03/2009 23:06
Comments ||
Top||
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed on Sunday gave a call for a shutter-down strike across the country on February 5 to express solidarity with people of Kashmir.
Addressing a news conference here at the residence of Mian Muhammad Aslam, Qazi said all the governments had failed on diplomatic fronts to highlight the Kashmir issue in its true spirit and to respond to India's propaganda in this connection.He thanked the successive governments for supporting the JI's stance of observing February 5 as the Kashmir Solidarity Day since 1990.
"I call upon the people all over the country to participate in the activities being organised to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people," he said. He said the government needed to review its Kashmir policy and give a befitting response to India for its worldwide
propaganda on the issue. He regretted that India had not moved an inch from its illegitimate stance while Pakistan had presented various options for the settlement of the dispute.
He said the Pakistan government should also explain the history of Kashmir to the world leaders and the youth. Qazi said the doors for any improvement in relations with India would open only once it accepted Kashmir as a disputed territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
Iran could gain the capability to make a nuclear weapon in 2-5 years but there is ample time to deal with the concern, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said in a televised interview.
Mohammad Al Baradei, director-general of the Vienna-based UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that after stockpiling enriched uranium, Iran would face further technical and political hurdles should it seek to build nuclear arms.
"There is a concern, but don't hype the concern," Al Baradei, alluding mainly to US and Israeli warnings, said in a CNN interview broadcast late on Sunday. "There is ample time to engage [Iran] and reverse the concern and to move into more engagement rather than more isolation."
Al Baradei said that for Iran to have weapons capacity, it would have to eject IAEA inspectors, leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reconfigure production to refine uranium to the high degree needed for bomb fuel and fit the material into a warhead:
"Even if I go by the CIA and other US intelligence, the estimations [are] that even if they go through all these scenarios, we're still talking about two to five years from now."
Western powers believe Iran's declared programme to refine uranium to the low level required for civilian nuclear energy is a front for gaining the means to reprocess it into highly enriched material for bombs at short notice.
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Ample time to deal with Iran, IAEA chief says
Cause how long does it take "the west" to drop its pants and bend over?
#2
"There is ample time to engage [Iran] and reverse the concern and to move into more engagement rather than more isolation."
Hopefully Al Baradei will be in Tehran when Israel finally does "move into more engagement." Every director-general of the IAEA should witness at least one mushroom cloud.
#3
Mo's just doing his job - seeing to it that at least one Islamist-loving shit-hole middle eastern country ends up with nukes. Then, after they immediately use it to fry Tel Aviv, the West(TM) finally has the excuse we need to exterminate every last one of the goat-humpers.
Maj. Gen. Andy Salmon, the British commander of multinational forces in southeastern Iraq, said on Monday that his forces will end their missions by the end of May and will be ready to leave the country as of next July.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
funny, i thought they had withdrawn in all but name much earlier
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/03/2009 1:14
Comments ||
Top||
#2
me too, no disrespect too any of their servicemen and women but more aimed at their politicos, you can go ahead and leave now thanks for all that you haven't done
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Monday praised Iran for playing a big role in helping Hamas during Israel's offensive in Gaza. Meshaal met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday during a visit to thank the country for its support. Mashaal told Ahmadinejad that Iran played a role in what he called the "victory of Gaza's people" in the war with Israel, according to Iran's state TV. Ahmadinejad warned Israel could be plotting to launch another invasion of Gaza. On Sunday, Israel threatened a harsh response to more rocket fire from Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#2
TOPIX/ISRAELFORUM > HAMAS OFFERS ISRAEL ONE-YEAR CEASEFIRE TRUCE [weirdly and mysteriously at same time as POTUS OBAMA may send home to CONUS bulk of US troops currently in Iraq]; + ISRAEL DEMANDS DEADLINES ON IRAN ANTI-NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS/TALKS [wid you-know-what-to-hit-the-fan OPEN-ENDED MILPOL OPTIONS AGZ IRAN IFF DIPLOMACY FAILS]???
Just over a week before Israel holds elections to choose a new government, the outcome of the war in the Gaza Strip has emerged as a central issue in the campaign, with the candidates sparring over whether the massive military operation went far enough.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
It's not war its a campaign in a war that started 1400 years ago.
Hamas reiterates that the resistance movement favors a truce deal that envisages the opening of all border-crossings into the Gaza Strip. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesperson for Hamas, said on Monday that the movement would agree to a one-year truce in and around the Gaza Strip provided the territory's border-crossings are opened.
Where is Fawzi? Cowering in Damascus?
"We agree in principle with a one-year truce," Barhoum said adding that Hamas has not ruled out an 18-month truce proposed by the Egyptian mediators. "Whether one year or a year and a half, it must be linked to the opening of all crossing points, including Rafah, and the lifting of the (Israeli) blockade," he said.
A Hamas delegation was due to travel to Cairo on Monday to present its response to the Egyptian proposals, Barhoum said.
Ahead of the final round of talks, Sami Abu Zuhri, another spokesman of the movement said Hamas will base its final decision on the Cairo talks.
Even though a ceasefire has been announced, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has not efficiently improved due to the 19-month blockade Israel has imposed on the coastal strip. As a result of the siege the crossings into Gaza remain closed and humanitarian aid entering the besieged strip remains below the minimum necessary for survival.
This article starring:
Fawzi Barhoum
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki appeared to strengthen his standing in several key areas of the country, while an Arab party edged toward control of a contested northern province, according to party officials reviewing preliminary results from Saturday's Iraq elections.
If Maliki's allies prevail, it would place his Dawa Party in a commanding position, strengthening it relative to other partners in the current government.
Leaders of the Sunni Arab al-Hadba-a party, meanwhile, said Monday the group had won roughly 60 percent of the vote in Nineveh Province, which is currently controlled by Kurds. Representatives of the Kurdish bloc acknowledged that preliminary results suggest they will get no more than a dozen of slots on the 37-seat provincial council.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Chief of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) Allama Ali Sher Hyderi was injured in a road accident here in Matyari on Sunday. He was on his way to Hyderabad from Khairpur when his double cabin vehicle turned turtle due to tyre burst. Hafiz Khalil Ahmed, Muhammad Ishaque, Abdul Samad, Ismail and Liaquat, who were accompanying him, also sustained injuries. They were rushed to a Hyderabad hospital where doctors described the condition of Hyderi as stable.
Meanwhile, a local Zamindar was kidnapped by six unidentified men from village Khuriri of Setharija town.
This article starring:
ABDUL SAMAD
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
ALLAMA ALI SHER HYDERI
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
HAFIZ KHALIL AHMED
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
MUHAMAD ISHAQUE
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
A Saudi-owned TV network says the Saudi government has issued a list of its 83 most wanted suspects living abroad and asked the Interpol for help in arresting them.
Al-Arabiya satellite news channel quotes an Interior Ministry statement as saying the list includes six former Saudi Guantanamo detainees that had been released.
Monday night's report only gave the name of one suspect, Saleh al-Qaraawi, describing him as the leader of Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia. There were also two Yemenis on the list.
The report did not give details about the whereabouts of the suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
More consequences of the Catch and Release™ program.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/03/2009 11:10
Comments ||
Top||
AL-Qaeda-linked militants holding three Red Cross workers in the southern Philippines are demanding that troops be withdrawn from the area as a condition for their release, a governor said on Monday. Sulu provincial Gov. Sakur Tan said the kidnappers made the demand in a letter given to the vice governor on Sunday when she delivered medicine to the victims.
The hostages - Italian Eugenio Vagni, Andreas Notter of Switzerland and Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines - were kidnapped from their car on Jan 15 after they inspected a sanitation project at a jail on Sulu's Jolo island, a predominantly Muslim region. Police said they were seized by gunmen who then handed them over to Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, whom troops have been battling for years in the region.
Mr Tan said the letter also asked that negotiators be named for talks on their release and suggested Tan, Vice President Noli de Castro, foreign ambassadors and senators as candidates. Mr Tan, who heads a task force dealing with the kidnapping, rejected any troop pullout and said he did not want any negotiators from outside the province.
Sulu Vice Governor Lady Ann Sahidulla, who received the letter, also met last Wednesday with two Abu Sayyaf commanders along with the kidnap victims at a jungle hide-out.
Manila's GMA television network said the handwritten letter was addressed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and was signed by Abu Sayyaf commanders Albader Parad and Radullan Sahiron, an elusive one-armed leader long wanted by US and Philippine authorities for involvement in several terror attacks. Mr Tan said he could not confirm the authenticity of the signatures.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
The UN chief says peacekeepers will not leave a town in southern Darfur as Sudan has requested because it wants to rout rebels who seized the town in mid-January.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says peacekeepers will not leave Muhajeria to allow Sudanese soldiers to take the town back from the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group. Ban was speaking to journalists on Monday.
Sudan made the request to the UN-African Union force on Sunday.
Sudan has regularly challenged the UN's presence in the country. UN and African Union officials say they are building the peacekeeping force in Darfur and plan to have it reach its full capacity of 26,000 soldiers and policemen by June.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
INDONESIAN Islamic hardliners have called for a ban on international organisations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports said on Monday.
The People's Ulema Forum (FUU) said the clubs were 'infidel' fronts for Freemasonry and the world Zionist movement and threatened Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country.
'They gather funds and give them to America and the Israeli Zionists,' FUU chairman Atian Ali Mohammad Da'i was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe daily.
'We urge all Muslims to renounce membership in the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. Otherwise they can consider themselves infidels.' He called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ban the groups.
Indonesian Muslims are overwhelmingly moderate but a vocal hardline fringe regularly succeeds in influencing policymakers despite opposition from secularists, civil society groups and religious minorities.
The FUU is an ultra-conservative group that has used force to stop Christian services and in 2002 issued a death fatwa (Islamic ruling) against a Muslim scholar who had criticised conservative Islam, the Globe reported.
Raja Juli Antony of the Maarif Institue, a moderate Islamic group, told The Jakarta Post there was no evidence that the Lions or Rotary clubs posed a threat to Islam.
He said they had made positive contributions to Indonesia's development through their charity works.
A senior member of the Indonesia Ulema Council, the country's highest religious body which last week issued a fatwa against certain forms of yoga, said it was not considering a ruling against the Lions or Rotary clubs.
The public service clubs - formed in the early 1900s and claiming some 2.5 million members around the world - were banned in Indonesia in 1962 for nationalist reasons but were allowed to reopen in 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
"They arrested him after a bomb mistakenly went off inside his house."
Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi army force on Monday arrested a shepherd for making bombs in west of Mosul, a military source said. "An Iraqi army force arrested a shepherd in Faqeerok village in south of Zamar district in west of Mosul for making bombs," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "They arrested him after a bomb mistakenly went off inside his house," he noted. "Honey! Have you seen my bomb?"
"I put it in the oven, dear. I was afraid it would get knocked over."
"Okay. Say! What's the tasty smell?"
"I thought I'd bake you a pie!"
"In the...?"
"... oven?"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
a bomb mistakenly went off inside his house," he noted.
Six personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were injured when their vehicle was hit by an explosives device planted by militants on a road in the Mulakhel area of Lakaro Tehsil in the restive Mohmand Agency on Sunday.
Sources said the vehicles of an official of the Thall Scouts and security men were passing through the Qayyumabad area in the Lakaro Tehsil and moving towards the Bajaur Agency when a roadside bomb went off.
The official and the security forces' personnel narrowly escaped as the device exploded just after the convoy passed through the area. Soon after the blast, personnel of the Mohmand Rifles, an FC wing, from the Darwazgai-II checkpoint rushed to the spot in a vehicle. As they reached the Mulakhel area, their vehicle was hit by another roadside bomb, which caused injuries to six personnel.
The injured were identified as Naib Subedar Rafiq and Sepoys Anjuman, Attaur Rahman, Noor Islam, Ijaz and Mujahid, who were rushed to a nearby military health facility. Reports pouring in from the restive tribal agency said that the militants also attacked the Mamad Gat camp with rockets and mortars from the Chamarkand, Chinari and Alingar areas.
However, the security forces in the Bhai Dag and Nawagai camps retaliated and targeted the suspected hideouts of the militants with artillery shelling. There was report of any casualties from either side.
The Peshawar-Bajaur Road remained closed for all kinds of traffic from early morning to 3:00 pm as a convoy of the security forces, backed by tanks and aerial support, was coming from Peshawar to the troubled tribal area. People of the area, particularly those migrating to safer places, faced problems due to the closure of the road. The security forces, along with officials of the political administration, also patrolled the Qandaro, Mulakhel and Mirzakhel areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
The Lebanese state authorities have issued numerous arrest warrants for Sahmarani for his involvement in terrorist activities. The paper added that members of Jund al-Sham and Usbat al-Ansar, who were trained for using explosive devices and launching rockets, joined the new faction.
According to Al-Balad, Jihad Movement for Gaza Support worked with members of the extremist group Fatah al-Islam such as Abdel Rahman Awad in an effort to operate against the interests of parties perceived to be connected with Israel in Lebanon and abroad. The paper mentioned that the Egyptian embassy in the Bir Hassan area was one of the faction's targets.
Al-Balad also reported that a Palestinian faction with "a jihadist and ideological" connection to al-Qaeda was preparing to target UNFIL troops. The paper reported that al-Qaeda official Abdullah Liyani al-Hassan arrived in Ain al-Hilweh in December 2008 to meet with Usbat al Ansar official Abu Obeida and Iraqi insurgent Khodr Ibrahim al-Naouchi.
Al-Balad wrote that Palestinian-Syrian Mahmud Ali As-Saghir and Palestinian-Lebanese Khamis Omar Ahmad, who are trained for launching rockets, were among those chosen to perpetrate the attack on UNIFIL, in addition to Bekaa refugee camp residents Imad al-Hajj Ali, Jamil Omar, Iyad al-Basbass and Wahid al-Hajj.
This article starring:
ABDEL RAHMAN AWAD
Fatah al-Islam
ABDULLAH LIYANI AL HASAN
al-Qaeda
ABU OBEIDA
Usbat al Ansar
GANDI AL SAHMARANI
Jihad Movement for Gaza Support
JAMAL HAMAD
Jihad Movement for Gaza Support
KHAMIS OMAR AHMED
Usbat al Ansar
KHODR IBRAHIM AL NAUCHI
al-Qaeda
MAHMUD ALI AS SAGHIR
Usbat al Ansar
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
OTOH REDDIT > ONLINE JOURNAL - ISRAEL IS PLANNING/DESIRES TO ANNEX LARGE PARTS OF IRAQ [ + Lebanon] FOR A "GREATER ISRAEL" [Israeli/Zionist Imperialism + KURDS]???
Greater PAKISTAN vs Greater INDIA vs ......
@etc. "GREATER -----"???
Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hamid Gul says Islamabad should not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against New Delhi.
"It is the matter of country's defense and existence, therefore, Pakistan should never be hesitant to use its atomic capabilities if need arises," a Press TV correspondent quoted Gul as saying on Sunday.
The ex-ISI chief who was speaking at the "Defense of Pakistan" conference held in Islamabad added that Pakistan's inferior military might would trigger the need for the use of nuclear weapons.
Gul further hinted that India had deployed 26 intelligence officers in restive Swat Valley and Kurram Agency in northwestern Pakistan, disguised as Taliban militants.
"It will not be easy for US and India to launch an attack on Pakistan as they are bound to face various challenges," he said, arguing that Islamabad has several other options as well.
Regarding the deployment of 20,000 US troops in Afghanistan along Pakistan's border areas, Gull said that Pakistan should ask the US to set a timeframe for the troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Tension mounted between the two nuclear-armed neighbors after a series of ten coordinated terror attacks rocked India's largest city of Mumbai in late November.
India holds Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for the attacks that left 170 people - including 22 foreigners - killed and 300 more injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
See also WAFF > HINDU LEADERS FOR "RELIGIOUS" INDIA [non-SECULARIST]; + INDIAN CATHOLIC GROUP ATTACKED BY HUNDREDS OF HINDU RADICALS ON ISLAND [going home from cross-river Parish/Church loc on MAJULI Island]. WARNED MAY BE HARMED OR KILLED UNLESS THEY STOP PROSELYTYZING/WORSHIPPING IN "LAND OF THE HINDU"???, + BANGLADESHI MILITANT GROUP IMPLICATED IN MUMBAI ATTACKS.
#2
ION "AEMRICAN TRAP", WORLD MIL FORUM > VIETNAM WAR-ERA US IMPERIALISM PROVED: DECLASSIFIED US NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY [NSA]INTEL DOCUMENTS REVEAL US HAD INDEED FAKED THE GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT, AND THAT "VIETNAM PEOPLE's ARMY" NVA INTEL OPERATIVES [US Govt-Military Traitors]NOT ONLY SUCCESSFULLY PENETRATED AND COMPROMISED US MACV COMMAND-N-CONTROL NETWORK IN VIETNAM, BUT WERE ABLE TO ORDER USAF BOMBING ATTACKS AGZ NORTH VIETNAM OVER SEVERAL US STRATEGIC AIR CAMPAIGNS [anti-US Media-World PYWAR]???
#3
HMMMMMMM, by the above it infers that the NVA = Commies indir controlled the USAF's + SAC's [Guam's AAFB] "ARC LIGHT" + LINEBACKER, etc. AIROPS AGZ NORTH VIETNAM + VIETCONG [COSVN], NOT THE USDOAF, USDOD-Pentagon, nor even the NCA + US Congresscritters???
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 13:21
Comments ||
Top||
#9
India is developing a layered ABM system that can absorb just about everything Pakistan tosses it, and has the capability of turning most of Pakistan to that yukky green glass state, and Pakistan is rattling sabers. What is it about Islam that destroys all capability for critical thinking?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/03/2009 13:49
Comments ||
Top||
Security forces pounded suspected hideouts of militants on Sunday in different areas of Mamond Tehsil in Bajaur Agency.Official sources said that several hideouts were destroyed. However, there was no report of any casualty. Meanwhile, the militants blew up a filling station in Nawagai area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Lebanon's only English-language daily is back on newsstands after it was forced to shut down for about two weeks due to a legal dispute with a creditor.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Ihab Issa says he cannot take any more war in the aftermath of Israel's onslaught against the Gaza Strip and swears that he will not be voting in Israel's February 10 general election. The 28-year-old restaurant owner is one of 1.4 million Palestinian-Israelis Arab-Israelis living in Israel, caught between a Palestinian identity, a militarized Jewish state and calls from prominent politicians for their "transfer" - the Israeli term of art for transferring Arab villages to the Palestinian Territories for equal acreage of Israeli communities beyond the Green Line - an Israeli euphemism for ethnic cleansing - off ancestral lands.
Palestinian-Israelis Arab-Israelis, descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who did not run away who were not ethnically cleansed from their lands by a Zionist terror campaign during the creation of Israel in 1948, now make up 20 percent of the population. But such a potentially powerful vote bank has been split by a proliferation of feuding parties.
For this election, however, Palestinian-Israeli Arab-Israeli politicians are daring to hope for the better, now that the supreme court has overturned a ban on their top two coalitions for allegedly failing to recognize Israel's right to exist. "We feel we are facing a real threat to our physical existence. In 30 years we might be 45-50 percent of the total population - a demographic time bomb for Israel," says Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour, who heads the United Arab Party and the moderate Islamist movement in Israel, at his office in Kfar Qasem, a Palestinian-Israeli Arab-Israeli town overlooking Israel's coastal belt.
One leading proponent of ethnic cleansing is Avigdor Lieberman and his rising Yisrael Beitenu party, tipped to win up to 16 seats and possibly join the next coalition government. But even Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads the ruling Kadima party, has urged Palestinian-Israelis Arab-Israelis to join a future Palestinian state, sparking uproar in the community.
The Palestinian-Israeli Arab-Israeli turnout has dwindled from 90 percent in the 1950s to 62 percent in 2003 and 56 percent in 2006 - and some 30 percent of those voted for Zionist parties. Wait... what?!? 30% support the Zionists?!?!?!?
"We are all working hard to better that percentage," Sarsour says with an eye on 12 to 15 Palestinian-Israeli Arab-Israeli MPs, which would be a significant increase on the nine in today's 120-seat Knesset or Parliament. Despite the growing concern, efforts to unite the main blocs in a single list of Palestinian-Israeli Arab-Israeli candidates failed, largely over personality issues.
Worse still, the Sons of the Homeland (Abna al-Balad) party has joined the hard-line Islamist movement in calling for a boycott of the ballot - a potential loss of around 10 percent of the electorate.
High in the hills at Umm al-Fahm - the main center of hard-line Islam in Israel -Afo Egbarieh sees depression all around. The senior Hadash communist party figure says the election is being held "in the shadow of war." "You can see it everywhere. People are depressed ... indifferent," says Egbarieh, who is number four on the coalition called the Arab Democratic Front for Peace and Equality. The front is fighting under the slogan "Protect our existence, build our future," but the doctor says he is concerned that "people are dealing with war as a protest, by not voting."
#2
You know I've been reading Iliad & Odyssey to my son (children version---he's only 3) for a last couple of weeks (it's his favorite book at present) and suddenly it struck me that "Odysseus and the suitors" (Ithaca = Land of Israel) is a perfect allegory for the solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
#3
Wait... what?!? 30% support the Zionists?!?!?!?
I'd guess most of them Zionists™ are either Christians, or homosexuals, or any other cateogry of "not arab/muslim" enuff to live happily ever after in the paleo Califate...
#5
You know I've been reading Iliad & Odyssey to my son (children version---he's only 3) ...
He'll be 15 when you finish.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009 13:56
Comments ||
Top||
#6
You're gonna have a smart kid! My nephew is 3 years-old, and his mom shows him "Little Einstein"(tm) videos. It's awesome to hear the kid say things like "My favorite composer is Tchaikovsky!"
#9
You're gonna have a smart kid! My nephew is 3 years-old, and his mom shows him "Little Einstein"(tm) videos. It's awesome to hear the kid say things like "My favorite composer is Tchaikovsky!"
#10
Hummm... well, Ima remember one of my kidz did have a huge interest in houseflies at that age. I learned later he though they were raisins, thought the sticky paper was some sorta serving arrangement.
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Istanbul, Turkey -- In an attack that underscored the vulnerability of Afghanistan's struggling security forces, a suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform slipped into a police compound and detonated a powerful explosive device Monday, killing at least 21 officers, authorities said. The attack in southern Afghanistan also wounded a dozen police officers, according to the Interior Ministry.
Monday's bombing took place in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan province. The province is part of a swath of southern Afghanistan where the insurgency is at its strongest. The Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack and boasted that its bombers could strike anywhere. The Afghan Defense Ministry said Monday that three other would-be suicide bombers, already outfitted with explosives-filled vests, had been arrested in Oruzgan, but did not say when.
The police officers, most of them reservists, were in the midst of an exercise when the attacker managed to make his way into their compound and into the center of a large group, said Juma Gul Himas, the provincial police chief. It was not immediately known whether the bomber was searched or screened upon entry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday proposed the construction of a 48-kilometer long tunnel that would connect the northern Gaza Strip with the southern West Bank, thus enabling freedom of movement between the two disjointed Palestinian territories.
While stumping on the campaign trail before students at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, Barak said it was possible to dig the tunnel, which would remain under Israeli sovereignty while the Palestinians would maintain authority over the corridor's traffic. The defense minister and Labor Party chairman said the project would cost between $2-3 billion, "a reasonable sum."
Barak devoted a significant portion of his statements to politics, criticizing his main rival in the upcoming parliamentary election Kadima. "What new politics is Kadima bringing us?" Barak said. "Kadima was unable to remake itself and so it will be unable to remake the entire country. The question is not who speaks more eloquently but who is capable of getting things done."
Barak also slammed Vice Premier Haim Ramon, "who was convicted in court of embarassing crimes and even asked during a cabinet meeting to establish a commission of inquiry to probe his investigators all the while they are investigating the prime minister."
Earlier, Barak laid into rival prime ministerial hopefuls Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday over years of inaction in the face of Gaza rocket fire.
"All of these critics were in decision-making positions and Hamas never received such a blow as this. After eight years of [rocket] fire from the Strip, I arrived and gave the IDF an order to batter Hamas, with deeds and not words," said Barak, referring to Israel's recent offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Livni, the foreign minister and Kadima party chairwoman, has been a senior cabinet member for much of the period mentioned by Barak. Netanyahu, the Likud chairman and current opposition leader, also held senior a senior position under former prime minister Ariel Sharon during the years of cross-border attacks.
Barak continued: "It's understood that we're in a period of elections, and every morning at the start of the cabinet meeting ministers wander around in front of the media, lashing out, rejoicing and announcing - [and] Hamas hears this as well."
His comments clashed with statements on Sunday by Livni who said that, if necessary, Israel would mount a new offensive in the Gaza Strip to choke off cross-border rocket fire.
"Those who need to plan the operations are the best people in the country, who understand better than a large number of the ministers - the members of the defense establishment and the IDF General Staff," the defense minister added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I had to look twice to make sure this wasn't from The Onion. I much prefer the idea of a canal from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. But I suppose a tunnel that could be converted to big water pipe would work.
Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal says that the resistance of the Palestinians brought Israel to its knees in the Gaza Strip.
Israel failed to topple the democratically-elected government of Hamas and was unsuccessful in achieving any of its other objectives, Mashaal told students at the University of Tehran Monday. Israel was unable to impose on us any of the conditions it had set for a ceasefire and in the end the Israelis were forced to declare a unilateral ceasefire, he added. The world witnessed how Israel used conventional and unconventional weapons - including white phosphorous - to massacre innocents in Gaza, continued Mashaal, adding, "But Israeli atrocities did not scare Gazans into surrendering."
Mashaal went on to praise Iran for standing by the Palestinian nation, saying, "Gazans have always appreciated the political and spiritual support of the Iranian leaders and nation. Iran is a partner in our victory."
He called on the Iranian nation to continue supporting Gazans in their efforts to reconstruct the war-ravaged coastal strip.
Tel Aviv launched Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip on December 27 to put an end to rocket attacks against southern Israeli towns.
At least 1,400 Palestinians died and 5,500 others were wounded during the 23-day offensive. Israel lost 10 soldiers in the fighting and three Israeli civilians were killed by Hamas rockets. Much more of that being brought to their knees stuff and the Paleos would be driven into the sea or something.
On January 18, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire.
At least 16,000 residential buildings have been damaged and 5,000 others have been reduced to rubble in the Israeli attacks.
An 18-month Israeli blockade on Gaza resulted in a humanitarian crisis which has been intensified in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead. Gazans are in dire need of fuel, electricity, medicine and other basic needs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
SO, they can BOTH be perpetual oppressed victims, AND, at the same time, victorious lions who defy all odds and come on top, because they're individually worth 7 sub-human infidels each?!
I like that, it's such a quaint insight into a non-western mindset... it might just work!
The Senate confirmed Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation's first African American attorney general by a vote of 75 to 21 yesterday. The Senate vote occurred four days after Holder overcame concerns by a small but vocal group of GOP lawmakers over his position on national security and gun rights, as well as his recommendations in two controversial clemency decisions by President Bill Clinton.
Holder's advocates marshaled critical support from a broad base of federal and state law enforcement groups as well as a bipartisan coalition of former Justice Department leaders, including onetime deputy attorney general James B. Comey, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh and President George W. Bush's terrorism and homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend.
His service in the Clinton years invited criticism from GOP lawmakers, who also questioned his approach to hot-button terrorism policies. At a grueling, seven-hour hearing last month, flanked by his wife and three young children, Holder labeled as "torture" the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding and vowed to make national security his top priority.
Holder also said that he would look askance at efforts to "criminalize policy differences" but did not conclusively rule out prosecution of Bush administration officials for their involvement in detainee questioning and warrantless surveillance operations. That issue emerged as a pivot point for conservatives such as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who voted in opposition to Holder.
Another nay vote came from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). Coburn concluded that Holder's recommendation of "neutral leaning toward favorable" in the last-minute 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich "should disqualify him from higher office."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
It's entirely possible we won't. Purely in the interest of fairness, of course.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009 9:38
Comments ||
Top||
#3
We'll have to go to faxes or hand copies like it was done in the former Soviet Union: "Samizdat."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/03/2009 11:24
Comments ||
Top||
#4
At a grueling, seven-hour hearing last month, flanked by his wife and three young children
He made his wife and kids sit thru a day-long Senate hearing? That sounds like torture to me. A little strange too; like when you bring your Mom with you on a job interview.
#7
I didn't realize the senate trunks were going to fight. I thought they were just going to make sure they got their fair share of pork. Like the Caliphornia trunks.
#8
Besides choosing their fights, having the dirt on somebody as powerful as attorney general gives them some leverage in the future. May help keep him in line. They overlooked Obama's birth certificate and other controversial issues, too, but it may come in handy to have an ace or two to play.
A senior Israeli official says Tel Aviv is likely to reject an arms order by Ankara after the Turkish prime minister's Davos remarks.
An Israeli defense ministry official told The Jerusalem Post that several Turkish requests for purchasing advanced military platforms, which were recently submitted to the Defense Ministry will need to be reviewed due to the change in political ties.
"Just like we don't sell advanced military platforms to Jordan and Egypt, we may decide not to sell to Turkey," the official told the daily.
The official, however, did not reveal what new military platforms Turkey had requested.
The relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv began to strain after Turkish officials started criticizing Israel's 23-day war in the Gaza Strip. The tension between the two side reached its peak after Erdogan stormed out of the Davos forum in front of Israeli President Shimon Peres and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Before marching off the stage, Erdogan had said that Israel committed "barbarian" acts in Gaza, and had lashed out at the audience for applauding Peres's remarks made in defense of the war.
Turkey and Israel had a strong partnership in military equipment and arms deals. The trade volume between Ankara and Tel Aviv was at USD 2.6 billion in 2007 and some suggest that USD 1.8 billion of the sum was attributed to military equipment trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Alternatively, Turkish Army can deal with that muzzy mutt & his pals.
The Sri Lankan government has said it cannot guarantee the safety of civilians living among Tamil separatists in the north of the country. "The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE terrorists," said Lakshman Hulugalle, a government spokesman, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
He urged civilians to seek shelter in a government "safe zone" - where there have been reports of shelling as well - but did not say how the civilians would be able to flee if they were being held against their will as human shields, as claimed by the government's military.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If the UN and the Red Cross have a problem with this let them take it up with the LTTE.
Turkey's role in mediating the Israeli-Arab conflict has been compromised by its leader's repeated censure of Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government official said Monday. "He won't mediate anything any more," the official said. "His stint as mediator between Israel and the Arabs is over, that's for sure. He won't be accepted as an honest broker by Israel at all."
The official said no official decision had to be taken, but that Israeli leaders spoke about Erdogan in such a way that made it clear they did not have faith in him as a mediator. Any Israel discontent is directed at Erdogan personally, and should not be misconstrued as a rupture with Turkey, whose cooperation Israel values, he added.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned the cabinet against deepening the schism with Turkey, a key Israeli ally. "[I'm] very concerned by [ministers'] behavior in public on the subject of Turkey," Olmert said. "Our relations with Turkey are important, and I recommend that we don't intensify our statements on the subject."
"We attach importance to our relations with Israel and we want to preserve those relations," Cemil Cicek, Turkey's deputy prime minister, told a news conference on Monday. "Turkey is not targeting Israel or its people. We have been expressing concern over the killing of civilians and human tragedy in Gaza."
The Turkish military, which suspects Erdogan's government wants to erode Turkish secularism, indicated that it, too, was interested in preserving the two countries' ties. "The rule is to act according to national interests in bilateral military relations with all countries," Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, the military spokesman, said Friday when asked if military ties might be cut.
Meanwhile, Turkey's Jewish community yesterday denied a report that a local synagogue had been set ablaze by vandals. "The reports published in foreign media organs saying that a synagogue in the northwestern part of Turkey was set ablaze are not correct," the Turkish Jewish community said in a written statement delivered to the Web site of the Turkish paper Hurriyet.
Earlier yesterday, sources within the Turkish Jewish community had said that vandals set a synagogue in northwest Turkey ablaze on Sunday. No one was reported as wounded in the alleged attack, which supposedly took place in the city of Bursa. Nor were there any reports on the extent of property damage, if any.
The Bursa synagogue was shut to daily services after the city's Jewish community shrank over the past few decades. Sunday's attack, if it indeed occurred, was the first such incident to take place in Turkey following Israel's Operation Cast Lead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Bursa synagogue was shut to daily services after the city's Jewish community shrank over the past few decades.
Where did they all go? I have some reading to do, I see.
#2
See also WAFF > TODAY'S ZAMAN OP-EDS > HOW LIKELY IS A [democratic-consensual]PARTITION OF TURKEY [post-KOSOVAR International recognition]?, + IS TURKEY PARTING WAYS WITH EUROPE?
Aswat al-Iraq: The Casualties from the bombing attack that took place on Monday in western Mosul rose to two dead and 10 wounded, according to a security source. "The death toll of the bomb blast that targeted a U.S. vehicle patrol on Monday (Feb. 2) in western Mosul rose two dead and ten wounded," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the two are a man and his son. The same source had said earlier that an explosive charge targeted a U.S. patrol vehicle in Raas al-Gada area, western Mosul, wounding six civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Jamaat-e-Islami NWFP chief Sirajul Haq has criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for not conducting an investigation into Benazir Bhutto murder case.
"The request to the United Nations for probe into Benazir Bhutto murder case shows mistrust in the national institutions," he told a public meeting in Nari Panoos area here Sunday. The Jamaat-e-Islami leader said the rulers should strengthen the country's own institutions instead of seeking help from others. He said some people were causing disunity among people by raising the issues of 'Sindhi, Balochi, Punjabi and Pathans' while some were promoting sectarianism by raising the slogans of Barelvi and Deobandi schools of thought.
Siraj also came down hard on the government for launching operation in Swat, saying that innocent people were being killed. "The PPP and ANP must quit power if they cannot protect people," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
Nothing to fear Siraj. All the evidence has been washed away and witnesses silenced.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2009 21:38
Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — The bound bodies of a Mexican general and two soldiers were found Tuesday morning near Cancun, news reports said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.
Google has lifted the lid on its first major upgrade to its global mapping software, Google Earth. Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain. Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain. The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world's leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers. 
Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allan™ Imposed Hitler On the Joooos to Punish Them – 'Allan™ Willing, the Next Time Will Be at the Hand of the Believers™'
WASHINGTON: During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.
Iran said it has launched its first home-built satellite into orbit, in a move likely to further alarm an international community already at odds with Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive.
African Union peacekeepers opened fire Monday on civilian vehicles and fatally shot 18 people after an AU vehicle was hit by a land mine, officials and a witness said.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took the reins of the 53-nation African Union at a summit in Ethiopia on Monday amid concerns over deadly unrest in Madagascar and a bid to indict Sudan's president for war crimes. Gaddafi, who has long promoted stronger union within the organization and poured money into some parts of Africa, was handed the chairman's gavel by outgoing AU leader Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president, to warm applause from other leaders.
Somali government has reportedly ordered military to take back the transitional administration's final stronghold from opposition fighters. 
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki appeared to strengthen his standing in several key areas of the country, while an Arab party edged toward control of a contested northern province, according to party officials reviewing preliminary results from Saturday's Iraq elections.
Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hamid Gul says Islamabad should not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against New Delhi. 
Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal says that the resistance of the Palestinians brought Israel to its knees in the Gaza Strip.
