Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
02/05/2009 20:07
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#2
"Hold muh beer and watch this...."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2009 22:02
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#3
when doing maintenance/grooming (and especially when drunk), always use proper tools. In this case, an electric clipper would've been appropriate, but noooooo, he had to use the pruning shears
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2009 22:05
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via instapundit.com
President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.
CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.
CBOs basic assumption is that, in the long run, each dollar of additional debt crowds out about a third of a dollars worth of private domestic capital, CBO said in its letter.
CBO said there is no crowding out in the short term, so the plan would succeed in boosting growth in 2009 and 2010.
The agency projected the Senate bill would produce between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent higher growth in 2009 than if there was no action. For 2010, the plan would boost growth by 1.2 percent to 3.6 percent.
CBO did project the bill would create jobs, though by 2011 the effects would be minuscule.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009
19:32 ||
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#1
This shouldn't take a 5 year study as they already have the records for many years in the past. It just takes someone to review the files and question family and co-workers. Most of that may have already been done.
#3
The article mentions PTSD, weather and possible side effects of medication as possible factors contributing to this spike. Sleretle suggests the inauguration of Obama as another factor.
One that hasn't been mentioned is the economy. We have soldiers who've been deployed 4 and 5 times now. That's a huge emotional and financial strain on their families - and doubly so if they are reservists or guardsmen who were called away from higher paying jobs. If a soldier's spouse just lost her job, or if he worries about being unable to resume his regular work when he rotates home, it's another and major stressor on top of all the rest.
Add in losing your girlfriend or spouse, or the possibility of policies under the new administration that seem, perhaps because you're already depressed, to render the deaths of your buddies meaningless ....
#5
I haven't seen the age breakdown, but if many of these soldiers are single, 18-24 and being treated for PTSD, then the anti-depressant side effect theory is pretty likely.
But if they were older, or are married, yeah - the economy is a huge worry right now.
Years ago when our toddler and I followed 2Lt Lotp to the Silicon Valley area, there was no variable housing allowance. We got the same housing pay for one of the most expensive areas in the country as people sent to Mississippi and Alabama. Painful.
There were enlisted elible for welfare benefits in our area that year, a fact that finally shamed Congress into changing the housing payment.
#6
The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone -- six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.
The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.
7 with 17 pending [a maybe] for 24 which is 6x of 8 for 2008. How many murders have occurred in Chicago in January? Yes the Army is smaller than the population of Chicago as a whole, but just use the population profile of mostly young males 18-36. Still, be very concern, but its not the world ending either. There are about 520,000 in the regular lists, not counting reservists and NG on active duty who'll be off the active rolls by 30 Sep. I suspect we lose something close to this in accidents [on duty and vehicular]. Again, it needs attention, but this is also MSM crisis reporting as well.
1999: The first Victoria's Secret online fashion show also becomes the first major webcast, attracting an estimated 1.5 million viewers worldwide. The 21-minute spectacle featured VS supermodel Tyra Banks and a pulchritudinous supporting cast flaunting the latest in boudoir apparel.
Video at the link.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/05/2009
14:51 ||
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Awwww... Bummer.
Lux Interior, co-founder and lead singer of the pioneering horror-punk band the Cramps, has died, the group's publicist said. He was 60.
Interior -- whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser -- died Wednesday of a pre-existing heart condition at a hospital in Glendale, Calif., publicist Aleix Martinez said in a statement.
Interior met his future wife Kristy Wallace -- who would later take the stage name Poison Ivy -- in Sacramento in 1972. The pair moved to New York and started the Cramps with Interior on lead vocals and Ivy on guitar. The group was a part of the late `70s early punk scene centered at Manhattan clubs like CBGB, alongside acts like the Ramones and Patti Smith.
Their unmistakable sound was a lo-fi synthesis of rockabilly and surf guitar staged with a deviant dose of midnight-movie camp. Some called it "psychobilly."
The pale, tall, gaunt Interior appeared shirtless with black hair and tiny, low-slung black pants, looking part zombie, part Elvis Presley as he crawled, writhed and howled his way across the stage.
The group had the raw intensity of punk, but took the music in new directions by incorporating theatrical elements, often horror-themed, in songs like "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns." Their breakthrough debut EP was 1979's "Gravest Hits."
The band made a notorious appearance at a California mental institution, Napa State Hospital, in 1978. The performance, whose video is still popular on YouTube, was a punk-era echo of the Folsom Prison concert of Johnny Cash, one of the band's influences.
Interior was widely rumored in 1987 to have died from a heroin overdose, and his wife received flowers and funeral wreaths. "At first I thought it was kind of funny," he told the Los Angeles Times at the time. "But then it started to give me a creepy feeling."
The Cramps' lineup changed often through the decades but Interior and Ivy remained the center. Their bluesy, trebly sound -- the group didn't have a bass guitarist -- resonates in modern minimalist groups like the White Stripes and the Black Lips.
The band's last release was the 2004 rarities collection "How to Make a Monster." They were still touring as recently as last November.
Hamas negotiators left Egypt without a long-term cease-fire with Israel on Thursday but not before some members of the militant group's delegation were stopped at the Gaza border carrying millions in cash.
The delegation walked away from the cease-fire talks because of disagreements over the blockage on Gaza and border security. Talks will continue at a later date.
An Egyptian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the group initially refused to be searched by Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing. When the group relented, authorities found $7 million and 2 million euros ($2.5 million) in cash in their suitcases. Another security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said $9 million and 2 million euros were found. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.
The money was later deposited in an account in Egypt by a Hamas member who stayed behind while the rest of the delegation was allowed to return to Gaza, the second security official said. It was not clear what would happen to the money.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The incident is a sensitive one for Egypt, particularly now, when Israel is demanding a halt to Hamas smuggling into Gaza as part of truce negotiations.
Israel and Hamas do not talk directly, so Egypt has been mediating the talks on solidifying the shaky cease-fire that went into effect on Jan. 18, ending Israel's three-week offensive on Gaza.
#1
When the group relented, authorities found $7 million and 2 million euros ($2.5 million) in cash in their suitcases. Another security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said $9 million and 2 million euros were found. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.
ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the transfer of 175 million shekels ($68.11 million) to Gaza today to go towards paying civil servants' salaries, a senior government official said.
"Despite the state of war, Israel is obliged under the Paris agreement to transfer money into Gaza," the official quoted Mr Olmert as saying in reference to an accord under which Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak opposed the decision, the official said.
Israel generally prohibits the transfer of cash to the Gaza Strip under a tight embargo it imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007.
On Tuesday Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad urged Israel to allow cash into the besieged Gaza Strip to ease the territory's liquidity crisis.
The crisis has worsened since Israel launched a 22-day military onslaught against Gaza on December 27.
JERUSALEM (Rooters) - Nazi-hunters in Israel and Germany expressed doubts on Thursday about reports that Aribert Heim, dubbed "Dr Death" for killing concentration camp inmates with lethal injections to the heart, died in Cairo in 1992.
Officials at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem and Germany's Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg said there was neither solid evidence of Heim's death nor any remains of the man who fled West Germany in 1962.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Reuters there was "no doubt" Heim had lived in Egypt -- as German television network ZDF and The New York Times reported. "But the question is whether he died in Egypt? We have serious doubts about that," Zuroff said.
Heim, the most notorious surviving perpetrator of the Nazi killings of 6 million Jews, died in Cairo in 1992, ZDF said. It said Heim spent nearly 30 years there and converted to Islam in the early 1980s.
"I'm not yet convinced about these results," Joachim Riedel, the deputy head of the Ludwigsburg investigation agency, told Reuters. "It's possible that someone is trying give investigators the runaround or throw us off the track.
"We've experienced it often enough in the past. I'll believe it when we have an official forensic examination."
Heim has been accused of killing hundreds of inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria by injecting gasoline into their hearts and performing surgery and severing organs without anesthesia, crimes he documented himself, Zuroff said.
People who said they knew Heim after he converted to Islam and lived in what is now a shabby hotel near downtown Cairo described him as a friendly man who kept a low profile.
Abu Ahmed, a hotel worker, said he had no idea that the man who changed his name to Tarek Farid Hussein was wanted. "He was a man of good deeds," he said. "He helped needy people."
Tareq Abdel Moneim al-Rifaie, a 51-year-old dentist whose father was Heim's dentist in Egypt, said he had met Heim once or twice at his father's offices in the late 1980s. "I was definitely surprised to know he was wanted," he said. "We used to refer to him as the German man," he said, adding Heim used to send them chocolate and cakes from Groppi, a well-known confectioner and coffeehouse in downtown Cairo.
But he added his family had the impression Heim "hated Jews, or had problems with them" and sent them a paper he had written arguing that modern Jews were not Semites.
Germany's ZDF, in footage from a documentary being aired in full on Thursday, showed Heim's son Ruediger saying his father had died of cancer of the rectum on August 10, 1992, after spending 30 years in Cairo under the assumed name.
Zuroff said news of Heim's death came as the Simon Wiesenthal Center was preparing to triple its reward for finding him to 1 million euros. He said the reports lacked concrete evidence. "What is not clear, what is missing from the presentation by ZDF and the New York Times, is the conclusive proof he indeed died in Egypt in 1992," Zuroff said. "There's no grave, there's no body. We can't do any DNA testing."
Riedel too was skeptical. "The son's statements are curious. For years he said he did not know anything about his father's whereabouts," he said.
ZDF said it was believed Heim's body was buried in a pauper's cemetery near Cairo's old town.
An Austrian doctor with Adolf Hitler's infamous SS, Heim is said to have removed organs from victims without anesthetic. He kept the skull of a man he decapitated as a paperweight.
Heim was captured by U.S. forces near the end of World War Two but released in 1947. He worked as a doctor in West Germany until coming to the attention of war crimes investigators, and fled in 1962.
THIRTY people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in central Pakistan overnight, a senior security official said.
"The death toll is now 30," the official said on condition of anonymity. "It is increasingly clear that it was a suicide attack," he said.
Police and rescue workers earlier said at least 21 people were killed and dozens wounded in the blast in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan, in the country's central Punjab province.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/05/2009
14:24 ||
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#1
A mosque got Boomed?
File under "Signs and portents".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/05/2009 15:51
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#2
This calls for Dire Revenge!
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 15:59
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The United States is considering resuming military cooperation with hardline Uzbekistan as a potential backup plan given the uncertain future of a nearby air base that is a main artery for troops and supplies for the widening Afghanistan war, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Defense officials say they are examining options for supply routes through a semicircle of nations from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf that could be used in place of a strategic air base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Uzbekistan is a surprise contender because diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Uzbekistan are rocky at best. The Uzbeks expelled the U.S. from a base on its soil in 2005, and the two nations have traded accusations ever since.
Defense officials said planning to substitute for the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan is a preliminary hedge in case the Bishkek government makes good on a threat to expel the United States from a base that serves about 15,000 U.S. personnel coming and going from Afghanistan each month, along with 500 tons of goods.
Defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are preliminary and the United States is still negotiating with Kyrgyzstan about continued use of the base. Several officials said that dispute is likely to come down to money: Either the United States agrees to a significant increase in rent of Kyrgyzstan will yield to Russian pressure to kick the U.S. out.
Another potential option, although one with significant logistical problems, would be a new air supply route from the United Arab Emirates, one official said.
"It's just at the point of looking at it. There aren't cost estimates yet," or other crucial data that the new Obama administration would need, one official said.
The United States has been seeking additional supply routes into Afghanistan for months, driven largely by worry about the safety of overland routes from Pakistan. Uzbekistan and a neighboring Central Asian state, Kazakhstan, have been part of that planning, one official said.
Military leaders have said in public that they were examining and testing new overland options, but details have been slim. The possibility of renewing ruptured ties with Uzbekistan predated the Manas problem but it gained ground as a result, officials said.
The U.S. has been testing, for some months, alternative Central Asian overland supply routes into Afghanistan and expect to fully implement by spring a deal with Uzbekistan in which U.S. non-lethal supplies would be moved into Afghanistan by commercial rail from Uzbekistan. The rail route has been tested a number of times, with U.S. financial compensation to the Uzbeks, to haul lumber, fuel, cement and other supplies into Afghanistan.
The United States set up Manas and a base in neighboring Uzbekistan after the September 2001 attacks to back operations in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from the base on its territory in 2005 in a dispute over human rights issues, leaving Manas as the only U.S. military facility in the immediate region.
In a visit to the base last month, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the U.S. pumps $150 million annually into Kyrgyzstan's economy, including $63 million in rent for Manas.
Kyrgyzstan has complained that the U.S. is stingy, and announced this week it was evicting the U.S. At the same time Kyrgyzstan collected billions in new Russian aid.
Kyrgyzstan's prime minister said Thursday the country is still in talks with the United States over the base.
Russia has long been irritated by the U.S. military presence in what is considers its natural areas of influence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Kremlin is widely believed to be behind the move against the U.S. by Kyrgyzstan's government, which submitted a draft bill to parliament Wednesday that would close Manas. Lawmakers have decided to delay a vote until next week.
#1
Turkmenistan. Oh and move a loggie base from Germany to Georgia.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 14:43
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#2
They are "hard" on islamonazis. That's good, isn't it?
Posted by: Shineting Protector of the Platypi9343 ||
02/05/2009 15:08
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#3
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > MOSCOW REACTS TO US BUILDUP IN AFGHANISTAN [Russia believes USA = US-Allies/NATO trying to surround or encircle Russ + China in Eurasia].
* On a separate note, CMF POSTER > on Board-Forum controversy as per the closure of the MANAS US Airbase by the host Kyrgyzstan Govt being symbolic of US failure or pullout from Central Asia + GWOT > POSTER argued that GUAM, "LIKE HAWAII" IS AN ASIAN ISLAND = ASIAN AND IN ASIA, AND ONE DAY [Guam or BOTH?]WILL BE RETURNED TO ASIA VEE INDONESIA OR OTHER ASIA COLLECTIVE???
A woman in South Korea who has taken the written exam required for a driver's license nearly every day since 2005 has failed again but is hoping attempt No. 772 will be the charm.
The aspiring driver took her first test in April 2005, according to Choi Young-chul, an official at the North Jeolla Province driver's license agency in Jeonju, 150 miles south of Seoul.
She has taken the test a record 771 times, most recently on Monday, but has yet to pass. She said she plans to take the test again but did not say when, he said Thursday.
The 68-year-old has spent $3,000 on fees for the test, he said. Applicants must score at least 60 on the written exam before they can get behind the wheel for a driving test. Choi says she's scored as high as 50.
"I feel sorry every time I see Cha fail. When she passes, I'll make a memorial tablet myself and give it to her," Park Jung-seok, a traffic police officer at the agency, told the Korea Times newspaper.
No other details about her identity were released other than her family name, Cha.
#4
Perhaps it is unkind but I think it is just as well she has failed the written exam. I suspect she would not pass the practical either. Amusing at first blush BUT....
This woman is 68 and there was no mention of physical or mental problems however I think there has to be some. Note: I had a 75 year old neighbor tear off the corner of my garage a while back and she still wanted to drive. I got new tool boxes, garage door, motorcycle trailer out of that one. Lucky it didn't get the Harley.
I intend to start practicing civil disobedience. In the case of Treasury Secretary Geithner, I am going to have a rubber stamp made that says "Tax Cheat!" in block letters. Every time I see a piece of paper currency with Geithner's signature on it, I am going to stamp over his name with my Tax Cheat stamp. Sure, this action is just as futile as my vote, but eventually maybe others will reach the same conclusion that I have: it is far past time to make our voices heard. Please see the linked article for a website the author went to for a custom rubber stamp which cost around US$6.50. This is not an endorsement for the stamp company, only a noted reference.
Human rights groups argued Wednesday that a detailed probe into Hamas's firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli communities is not necessary, because it constitutes such a "blatant" war crime. By contrast, Israel's actions are more complex, and therefore do require such investigation, they said.
Oh, so the International Criminal Court will prosecute Hamas without further delay, will they ...
War crimes, said Sarit Micha'eli of B'tselem, are those actions that violate Article III of the Geneva Convention, and it was clear that Hamas was in violation of the requirement of distinction between civilian and military targets.
"It makes it quite easy regarding Hamas. It is quite clear that they are attacking and targeting civilians. When someone straps a bomb on themselves or fire missiles at civilians, the details are less important. It is clearly a war crime without even looking at the details," she said. "Even if they fired a Kassam missile as a military target, the fact that it is an inaccurate weapon, it would still count as an indiscriminate attack."
"With Israel things are more complicated because Israel states it does not deliberately target civilians and that it safeguards them. With Israel, you have to investigate each specific incident because even if a civilian is killed in an attack, it doesn't mean its necessarily a war crime. Targeting civilians is a war crime, but the damage to civilians in a given situation isn't indicative of a war crime."
"The Israeli authorities deny everything, so one has to prove what happened in a way that you don't need to do with the Palestinian rockets," said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was quoted by AP Wednesday as saying Hamas attacks on southern Israel towns are "a means of self-defense."
"Those are not civilians. They are all soldiers," Barhoum said of the residents of southern Israel. "We are firing at places that bring us the F-16s, the warplanes and the tanks."
But Micha'eli dismissed Barhoum's statements as absurd. "No credible human rights law expert would accept that excuse," she added.
From the (transparency-infested/ snark off) swamp that gave us Obamacles!
Posted by Dan Mihalopoulos at 6:40 p.m.
Mayor Richard Daley said today Chicago has compiled a wish list of "shovel-ready projects" to spend federal economic stimulus funds on should Congress approve a plan.
Unlike hundreds of other cities, however, Daley said Chicago won't make its list public.
"Yes, we do, we have our list, we've been talking to people. We did not put that out publicly because once you start putting it out publicly, you know, the newspapers, the media is going to be ripping it apart," Daley said.
"It's very controversial. Yes, we have ready projects from the Board of Education to the City Colleges to the Park District to the CTA and the city of Chicago. Oh yes. Us and New York decided not to do that. We thought we could go directly into the federal bureaucracies and the different departments," the mayor added.
Later, Daley was asked why he wasn't being more transparent.
"Read some of your newspapers. Heh heh," he replied.
#1
"It's very controversialcrooked. Yes, we have my favorite contractors, ready projects from the Board of Education to the City Colleges to the Park District to the CTA and the city of Chicago. Oh yes. Us and New York decided not to do that as opposed to sharing with the little people down state. We thought we could go directly into the federal bureaucracies and the different departments since we is a special country unto ourselves...so's to speak," the mayor added.
The old Daley apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
#2
Make it easy on everybody, Richie. Reclassify them for distribution in a timely manner.
Brother in Law, Uncle, Wife's Aunts Cousin, Frank the Union Guy from Down Da Street, Councilman X's Frat Buddy From College, Judge X's "Niece's Father"...
See? Much easier...
#1
Good for her. Still, the MSM treats this as a typical strong woman vs. the patriarchy story, no mention of the pre-neanderthal islamology that created the mess. Too bad the slobbering liberal sisterhood in the Western world won't condemn the barbaritry hinted at here. It'd be "judgemental," an' you know, we can't have that...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:11
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Buffalo State College hosts the national teach-in on Global Warming Situations today a day the local temperature bottomed out at minus 6 degrees.
No evidence of global warming here, at least not this morning, when unofficial reports to the National Weather Service listed temperatures as low as 9 degrees below zero elsewhere in Erie County.
"We didn't have temperatures forecast to be quite that cold," weather service meteorologist David Zaff said this morning. "When you have snowpack on the ground and clear skies, temperatures can plummet. It's called radiational cooling."
That cooling phenomenon, under mockingly clear skies, posed a hardship for some morning commuters and some finger-numbing discomfort for others.
"Compared to a normal winter day, our call volume is up about 25 percent, and it's directly related to the cold," said Diana Dibble, public affairs manager for AAA of Western and Central New York.
#1
Program Note: History Channel International will re-broadcast "Little Ice Age, Big Chill" this Saturday. See how Global Warming is causing an Ice Age.
A US Army deserter seeking asylum in Germany based on his moral opposition to the Iraq invasion is confident his request will be granted after a gruelling nine-hour hearing, his lawyer said Thursday.
The closed-door hearing in the western German city of Karlsruhe sought to establish whether the deserter, Andre Shepherd, 31, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, had a credible reason to go AWOL, his lawyer, Reinhard Marx told AFP.
"It was just a fact-finding exercise so Mr. Shepherd was questioned about his situation as a soldier, about his motivation to join the army and how he decided to leave the army," he said.
Immigration officers also asked about the internal US army procedures for leaving the army and on what grounds a soldier can claim conscientious objector status, he added.
"This was a very, very long interview, but I expected that," he added.
Citing profound moral opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Shepherd walked off his base in southern Germany in spring 2007 and spent 19 months on the run before applying for asylum in November last year. He is the first US army deserter to seek asylum in Germany.
Before then, he had completed a five-month stint in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 where he serviced Apache helicopters as part of the 412th Aviation Support Battalion.
When ordered back to Iraq, he felt he could not continue to take part in what he said is a "completely illegal war" and became the first US soldier to claim asylum in Germany in what could be a landmark case.
The immigration office in Nuremberg will consider the case and the final decision will be taken by Germany's interior ministry, most likely in three or four months, the lawyer said.
"It is in their hands to decide now," said Marx, adding, "we are very confident."
Shepherd's case is "very credible," he said. "I found it was very clear that he was in a situation where he had no other choice: he had to go to Iraq or he had to leave the army illegally."
A spokeswoman for the immigration ministry was tight-lipped following the hearing.
"For data protection reasons, I cannot give out any information about the content and the length of the hearing. The hearing took place yesterday and Shepherd gave his reasons for claiming asylum," she told AFP Thursday. "His reasons will now be broadly examined and then we will make a decision. It is a completely normal asylum procedure like any other. I cannot say how long it is likely to last."
Shepherd has vowed to appeal if the application is rejected.
Speaking to AFP on Monday, Shepherd said, "I will definitely fight on, as I don't believe I or anyone else should be prosecuted for doing what they think is right."
He added that if asylum is granted he would "definitely settle in Germany" and has "absolutely no desire" to return to the United States, despite the change of power in the White House.
The case could have profound legal and political implications. If Shepherd is granted asylum, it could open the door for other applications from the up to 80,000 US soldiers based in Germany.
Tim Huber from the Military Counseling Network, which has been working with Shepherd, told AFP on Monday the case would have a "huge impact."
"There would not be a whole lot stopping US soldiers walking off their bases" to claim asylum, he said. Except Duty, Honor, Country - obsolete concepts in a post-modernist world, where nothing is greater than one's immediate gratification.
For this reason, both Shepherd and Marx are concerned that politics could play a part in the ruling. "Legally, it's an open-and-shut case. Politically, we don't know," Groucho Marx said.
#1
The case could have profound legal and political implications. If Shepherd is granted asylum, it could open the door for other applications from the up to 80,000 US soldiers based in Germany.
It will also have geopolitical ramifications that will echo for decades or longer.
#3
"I will definitely fight on, as I don't believe I or anyone else should be prosecuted for doing what they think is right."
So anything this crapweasel thinks is right is OK?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/05/2009 15:42
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Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/05/2009 15:48
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#2
$80 million is a lot of money. I hope they thought to mark the bills and see where they actually flow to, especially if looking for magnetic mines and heat seekers.
Criminal gangs have tried to blackmail shop owners and managers at one of the Stockholm areas most popular shopping centres, according to employees at the mall. Vinny? Vito? Nunzio?
Sven, no doubt.
"The same gang has come to us three times in two months," said an employee from the Kista Galleria mall, located north of Stockholm, to TV4. The employee added that a colleague of his was punched for not giving the gang members money. "He didnt come back to work after that."
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, added that when he tried to intervene in the matter, he felt that one of the men had a bulletproof vest. He wishes police would do more to counteract the problem. Yeah, well ...
"Just having police walk by means a lot. The police should be a bit tougher, then this wouldnt have been any problem," he said. The police are pretty busy all over Sweden at the moment.
The head of Kista Galleria, Gunnar Mässing, said that the arrival of the gangs is a relatively recent phenomenon. "They first turned up here in 2008. Tenants came to us and said that they were being bothered by organizations and people whom they felt threatened by," Mässing told TV4. Trickle, trickle, torrent ...
Kista Galleria has about 50,000 visitors a day and an annual turnover of 2.2 billion kronor ($264 million).
Mässing said that, as of yet, mall management doesnt know of any criminal gangs that have succeeded in establishing ties to the shopping centres stores. Mall management: "Don't worry, customers!"
Nevertheless he remains concerned that several stores remain vulnerable for extortion."The tenants who are the primary targets for these sorts of visits are restaurants, cafes, dry cleaners; that is to say, stores which have a high volume of cash transactions," he said, adding that he has alerted tenants that mall management will do what it can to help them deal with the unwanted guests.
"Were managing the situation with the utmost seriousness because we know what these types of organizations are capable of doing." Mall management is managing with utmost seriousness. That's a relief when dealing with thugs wearing bullet-proof vests.
But the mall employee remains concerned for his safety.
"Gangs are here all the time. Im worried that theyll be waiting for me in the garage or at home," he said. Yes, that's progress, of a kind ...
US President Barack Obama has warned the US economy was getting sicker every day, injecting another jolt of urgency into his calls for Congress to pass his huge stimulus bill. The president also called on politicians to bridge old partisan divides and line up behind the $US900 billion ($A1.4 trillion) package, in another veiled shot at Republicans who are opposed to significant parts of the bill.
"By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression," Mr Obama said in an opinion article in The Washington Post.
Please, it's not even the recession of 1981 yet ...
"Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone - millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished."
So let's spend and borrow more money we don't have, even though that's what got us into trouble in the first place ...
Mr Obama heaped more pressure on Congress to pass the bill, as wrangling on its contents went on in the Senate amid more grim economic data. "Every day, our economy gets sicker - and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now," Mr Obama wrote.
"We have a choice to make, we can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress.
"Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us, but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship."
Mr Obama also made reference to his election victory in November for the third time in two days, making clear the point to Republicans that he believes he has a mandate to push through change.
He also blamed past Republican policies and a dearth of infrastructure spending for the economic crisis and impact of catastrophies such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a Minnesota bridge collapse in 2007. "We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail," Mr Obama said.
The Minneapolis bridge crumbled due to a design flaw. The levees failed because the locals in charge of keeping them repaired blew the money on graft and corruption. Which, in a way, leads us to where we are now ...
It was still unclear when the final vote on the Senate version of the package would take place, as politicians worked through long lists of amendments.
Republicans are complaining that the bill contains insufficient tax cuts and is laden with spending on unnecessary projects which will not immediately create jobs.
#2
president o'bullshit, please lissen up: When all the gubbmint practices and policies that have put the economy in the toilet HAVE BEEN RECINDED, we can then talk about what to do to fix the problems. Not now, not before. OK, shithead?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:00
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#3
He also blamed past Republican policies and a dearth of infrastructure spending for the economic crisis and impact of catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a Minnesota bridge collapse in 2007.
Most people won't even realize those were in some very blue areas.
#5
Sucking up a trillion dollars with Treasury Bond [as in bondage/serfdom] from the economy to be blown away in a wasteful petty political rewards system will certainly make the economy weaker in the long run. Dependency(tm) is, however, a key element of the Donk concept of governing. Do it quick before the smucks figure out the game.
THE Israeli navy intercepted and boarded a Gaza-bound Lebanese aid boat at sea and was escorting it to the Israeli port of Ashdod, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.
"At first the ship understood we were prohibiting it from heading to Gaza and steered towards El-Arish" in Egypt, Mr Barak said. "From Egyptian territorial waters it tried to slip into Gaza waters. That is when the Israeli navy boarded it, and it is now taking it to Ashdod," he said.
The military said the crew would be questioned by police and that any humanitarian goods aboard would be taken to the Gaza Strip. It dismissed claims the navy fired at the vessel. "No gunshots were fired on board during the boarding and capture of the cargo boat," the military said in a statement.
One of the organisers of the shipment claimed earlier that the Israeli military had fired at the vessel. "We were informed by the crew that Israeli forces boarded the ship after firing shots at it," Maen Bashur said.
He said the Israeli navy had asked the crew to turn back before seizing the vessel. "Two Israeli gunboats intercepted the ship on Wednesday night while it was in international waters trying to reach territorial waters in northern Palestine," Mr Bashur said.
"The ship was asked to turn back as two Israeli military helicopters flew over the area and fired flares. The aid boat moved away, but it has been trying since early Thursday to reach Gaza through Egyptian territorial waters," he added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called on the international community to press Israel to allow the vessel which was carrying medical supplies, food, clothing and toys, to reach Gaza.
On board the "Brotherhood Ship" were eight people including the former Greek-Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem, Monsignor Hilarion Capucci, who left Jerusalem in the 1970s after serving time in an Israeli jail for membership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The Togolese-registered Tali had passed via the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus where authorities inspected the cargo before it headed for Gaza.
An Israeli military spokesman said that by entering Gazan coastal waters, the crew "raised suspicion, as it could threaten security concerns, or furthermore, the boat could be used for smuggling banned equipment (weaponry, etc) into or out of the Gaza Strip".
He stressed in a statement that "any organisation or country that wishes to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, can do so via the established crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip with prior co-ordination".
#1
Doha-based Al-Jazeera television quoted a correspondent aboard the vessel as saying the Israeli navy had fired shots then boarded the Tali and beaten passengers and crew.
"They are opening fire toward the vessel ... there are Israeli soldiers who have actually boarded the vessel," said Salam Khoder. "Three of them are pointing their weapons at us ... They are beating those on the vessel, they are beating and kicking us."
They might as well. Al-Jizz will say they did anyways...
#2
"The ship was asked to turn back as two Israeli military helicopters flew over the area and fired flares.
Flares! The Perfidious Juice have attacked the innocent, peace-loving humanitarian ship with deadly magnesium weapons!!1!! That's gotta be like war crimes and stuff. Somebody call The Haig! No, not ex-Secretary of State General Alexander, ya dopes. The one in the Netherlands.
Get out your hankies, folks...
Assud, to program hostess Saraa: "The Zionist enemy is treacherous, and it kills everything, but I never thought it would kill the children of Palestine, and that it would bomb the Al-Aqsa TV station. As you know, Saraa, Al-Aqsa TV has a special section for children. Children always go there to play and have fun. They come to me and you to listen to beautiful stories for their benefit." The ones about Jooo killing. And the other ones about...Joo killing.
"But Saraa, I went to Al-Aqsa TV when they said it would be bombed. I couldn't believe it would really be bombed. I went there, and I collected the gifts, books, magazines, and stories, which belong to the children of Palestine, the Pioneers of Tomorrow, so I could remove them before the station was bombed. But Saraa, when I went in - I don't know what happened. All I know is that they brought me here, to Shifa' Hospital, and left me here, Saraa. Praise be to Allah." [...] My Pioneers of Tomorrow Decoder Ring says...D...U...C...K.
Duck? But I'm a rabb...
"Saraa, my will is that you tell our beloved children never to forget Jerusalem, Saraa. You must pass this legacy on to our beloved children. They must never forget Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, the prisoners, or the refugees." Don't kill the job, Saraa! DON'T KILL THE JOB!
"Remind them, Saraa, that we have a land to which we must return, by means of the steadfastness of the resistance and the mujahideen, by means of the steadfastness of knowledge and the fear of God. Tell them that Assud died as a hero, as a martyr. Tell them that Assud died a martyr's death, Saraa."[...] They killed Assud! Those bastids!!
"We should teach our children that we have a land to which we must return: Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. We will return to all these cities, Allah willing. Saraa, I implore you... I entrust you with the legacy of protecting Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the blessed land of Palestine. Listen to me, Saraa: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and the Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." ROSEBUD...thump
Assud dies.
#1
Gaza TV goes through these psychopathic animal characters faster than the IDF goes through Hamas honchos.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 14:28
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#2
This has affected me deeply. Words cannot describe the despair I felt upon reading his last instructions to Saraa. How heartbreaking.
I feel the need to send flowers to his memorial. Do you think the florist in Gaza can properly spell "Adios, chingado!" correctly on the sash? Or would "Besa mi pinche culo" be more appropriate?
NEW DELHI (Reuters) Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has said Pakistan's spy agency was linked to planners behind the Mumbai attack, the first time the government has directly named the organization over November's deadly raids. "The perpetrators planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organizers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI," Menon said in a speech in Paris, referring to the military spy agency.
Menon's speech steps up India's rhetoric against Pakistan and reflects growing frustration from New Delhi. In the speech, Menon accused Pakistan of "prevarication" in investigating the attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice. The speech was delivered at a foreign affairs conference in Paris on Wednesday but was released to the media on Thursday by India's foreign ministry.
Relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have been strained since militants killed 179 people in the attacks, and India has put dialogue on hold. Pakistan said Indian officials should avoid making such statements at a time when Islamabad was in the process of investigating the matter. "One should not jump the gun. Some patience should be shown," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said. ...while we plan the next one.
Analysts and diplomats said Menon's remarks were a sign of India's impatience with Pakistan and a growing feeling in New Delhi that the civilian government in Islamabad would do nothing that would show the ISI in a critical light. "These comments are a result of that endless wait, and India believes that the civilian government of Pakistan has been given a tight brief by the army not to allow the heat to reach the corridors of the ISI," Naresh Chandra, India's former ambassador to the United States, told Reuters. "The patience is coming to an end and it is beginning to evolve as an endless exercise as India is waiting for a fair response from Pakistan for far too long."
India blames the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group for the attacks in its commercial hub and said there must have been support from Pakistani official agencies, but generally never mentions the ISI by name.
Pakistan has denied any involvement by state agencies and says it is investigating a dossier of information from India. It still has not responded to India's dossier. The dossier contained the confession of a surviving attacker, satellite phone intercepts between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, and a list of Pakistani-made weapons used by the militants, India said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that Pakistan must fully investigate the attacks in India's financial hub and cooperate with the Indian government on the issue. Harrrrumph harrrumph harrrumph...
Menon said a promising peace dialogue with Pakistan had fallen victim to repeated breach of a 2003 ceasefire between the two countries, increased cross-border infiltration and attacks on Indian interests and cities from Pakistan. He said India was willing to work with Pakistan and the international community to bring peace in South Asia. "Given the fragile and unfinished nature of the polity beside us, there is much that the international community can do to help," he said. "For instance, arms sales to Pakistan totally unrelated to the fight against terrorism or extremism are like whiskey to an alcoholic, a drug reinforcing an addiction, skewing the internal political balance, and making the consolidation of democracy more difficult."
#1
India, shut your pie hole. You have already demonstrated the lack of will to do anything about it. Words are cheap.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
02/05/2009 11:25
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#2
I agree, Yosemite Sam, in this case talk is no substitute for action. Sometimes it can be, but not here.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/05/2009 12:30
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#3
The terrs travelled from the extreme north of Pigistan to the south. Doing so required passage through Pigistan's numerous check points. Then there was the rental of the cargo ship, and matter of preparing statutory declarations as to use for importing cargo. And more red flags arise as to why the ship went out empty of all but terrs and their weaponry. Finger pointing is easy.
Posted by: Shineting Protector of the Platypi9343 ||
02/05/2009 15:06
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#1
....because the intrastate and interstate trafficking of firearms are so commingled, full regulation of interstate commerce requires the incidental regulation of intrastate commerce;
#3
A bill submitted to the House of Representatives, and immediately sent to Committee. How often is something like this submitted, without ever once passing out of committee, let alone to a House vote matched by a Senate vote, then a reconciliation bill submitted to both houses of Congress? Let's worry about this if it gets to the reconciliation stage, although you might want to write to your Representative, and possibly even both Senators.
Rush introduced a 1993 bill that would have banned handguns for anyone who was not in law enforcement and added an increase in the licensing fee for gun dealers from $10 to $3,000.
...he volunteered for the Army but went AWOL in 1968 and co-founded the Illinois Black Panthers...
#6
Handguns and semiautomatics which feed from a "detachable device", presumably meaning a magazine, from the text. So sounds like my shotgun's in the clear, and any bolt-action rifle.
It excludes any "antiques". God only knows how you define that.
Horrible bill, but the above stipulations will let the willful & wishful close their eyes and claim that it isn't aimed at "hunters and people with heirlooms".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 12:56
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#7
Geee....will ya' look at the size of the nose on that camel?
#8
Why not just house to house through the 'hood and confiscate anything more dangerous than a butter knife? After all, that's where 90% of the problem lies. I volunteer Chicago to be first.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 13:54
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#1
Is she waiting until the levees thaw out so they can be blown up? And is it too cold for hunter/killer dolphins? And when will some country singer comment that Barack Obama hates white people?
America's CEOs are coming under fire these days not just for their hefty salaries but also for their use of private jets, limos with drivers and free trips to posh resorts.
But they aren't alone in living this lavish lifestyle -- the president of United States gets all these perks and more. And unlike some of his Cabinet appointments, he doesn't have to pay taxes on these benefits.
Taxes are for little people and Republicans.
It might be a bit of a stretch to compare today's corporate titans with the commander in chief, but some Wall Street bloggers clearly upset with President Obama's attempts to rein in executive pay are doing just that.
"Some accountability needs to be put in place. We won't have them kicking sand in the face of taxpayers any longer," said one private equity worker on Dealbreaker.com, a Wall Street gossip site and blog.
#2
..some Wall Street bloggers clearly upset with President Obama's attempts to rein in executive pay are doing just that.
Pox on both houses. One for massive greed and the other for massive ego. We have young men and women out there making both's existence possible who aren't pulling more than a fraction of compensation either see. And they have taxes yanked out of their pay every day like most Americans who aren't getting a bailout. You want to keep your business afloat and demand a bailout, you then work for us and you can live on salaries capped just like SES/GS salaries. If you don't want to take that pay, you don't need our money. Your bonus is to keep your job.
#3
Those other young men and women are Baby Killers(tm) and don't count. Didn't you get the Twitter from the One explaining this? He certainly explained it clearly on al-Arabiyah.
#4
The office gets those perks, not the man. Comes with the title. Always has.
If Wall Street's pissed off, tell em not to take the taxpayer money. See how they like driving cabs...
#6
In most, if not all countries, the head of state does not pay taxes.
Air Force 1 comes with the job of commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/05/2009 14:45
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#7
Well, Obama is working hard to lose $3.5 trillion of Americans' money. What should his salary and perks be capped at? Why is he getting a $11.2 billion helicopter ride. That's $400 million per helicopter and climbing. Give him CHANGE and let him ride the bus. And the 2 new Air Force Ones. Will the cost be contained to less than $2 billion? That's the entire Wall Street bonus budget blown on president Obama's rides and spinner rims aren't even included in the package.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 14:58
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Evil al-Qaeda chiefs are raping young male converts to shame them into becoming suicide bombers, it emerged yesterday.
The intense social stigma and fear of more gay sex attacks leaves Muslims prepared to die.
The warped new tactic was revealed by a reformed Algerian militant. Abu Baçir El Assimi said: "The sexual act on young recruits aged between 16 to 19 was a means to urge them to commit suicide operations." A 22-year-old had suffered sexual injuries before being shot dead on a suicide mission in Tademaït, Algeria, three weeks ago. Samples taken from his body are being analysed in a bid to identify his torturer. And the US military discovered two years ago that al-Qaeda were dishonouring women in Iraq to turn them into suicide bombers. A terror leader would marry, then let another man rape his wife.
It was also revealed yesterday how a 51-year-old woman militant had recruited more than 80 women as suicide bombers. Samira Jassim, who calls herself "the mother of believers", targeted the weak and troubled. Arrested after a tip-off, she admitted orchestrating 28 successful bombings.
Experts believe al-Qaeda's sick tactics may be a sign of desperation. One said: "Perhaps they are running short of potential martyrs."
#1
the worst is not the evil in this woman. The worst is the nihilism in our societies whre rich western white kids (and their tecahers) in Berkeley and similar places choose to side with such scum.
#2
One might think that homosexual rape even for the purpose of jihad would be unacceptable for muslims.
One would be wrong.
Jihad trumps the need for 5 times a day prayer, for abstinence from alcohol, from fasting in Ramadan, making the pilgrimage to mecca, etc. This is despite the fact that jihad is not one of the 5 pillars. Saladin did not fast during Ramadan and won victories over the crusaders and modern jihadists use this as a proof text.
So if you can dispense with the fast, surely you can dispense with the ban on gay sex.
#5
Um, this is the same culture where supposedly the youngest member of military units are often, even today, the designated rape object for the rest of the unit on designated days. That little cultural fact explained a WORLD of things about Arab & culturally Arab militaries' performance for me when I learned about it.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 10:16
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#6
Oh, BTW, I should clarify that I'm talking about cultures here, not religions. As far as I can tell, this cultural callousness towards rape & sexual violence seems orthogonal to Islam. I'd guess that it has something to do with a millennium of institutionalized slavery within the culture, but I don't know enough about the subject to be sure.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 10:20
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#7
Hey look, the "prophet" at the centre of i-slam was a paedophile.
What actions would you expect from followers of such an evil man?
#12
Rape is an idea method to use, as under shariah law they must produce four witnesses.
Another method is for a member of al-Qaeda to marry a woman and then dishonour her in some way, such as letting someone else rape her. This would leave her with no choice but to end her life, Captain Shown, 34, said.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 12:54
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#14
Your shitty propaganda wont work and Alqaeda is doing great job. You, fuckers, created Alqaeda when you wanted to rule everybody in muslim world. You corrupted all muslim leaders but you can't corrupt Alqaeda! Cheers Ben laden! :)
#18
By the way, Alqaeda means "the base". It was created to stop american imperialism in Muslim world. Everybody in muslim world could be an alqaeda member. You can't, you fuckers, kill 1 billions muslim people! :)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:17
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#20
And, let's be clear and up front: Killing everyone who cleaves to a BAD IDEA is not genocide. So don't bother whining about it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:19
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#21
Read your own history, Moronman. It was created to stop Russian imperialism:
"The name 'al-Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al-Qaeda. The name stayed." -- Osama bin Laden
#23
Bla bla bla... Armed with nukes, satellites and all the shit you're proud of; and yet, every 2 or 3 months, Ben Laden :) is still talking and talking :) !! Where is your fucking proudness when you are not able to kill the Man! I mean ben Laden.
#24
Bend over is dead. Western media (and CIA and State Dept.) self-haters are putting words in his rotting former mouth, muzzomess. You got to be proud...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:26
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#25
Gotta say Bin Laden is a typical Arab coward, shooting his mouth off from a dirty cave while Americans kill what little balls is left in the Arab gene pool. When we get done, what's left of the Arab world will be afraid of their own shadow and held in zoo cages for children to laugh at and.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 13:31
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#26
You don't get it, do you? I'm talking about the new face of Alqaeda. The one which is present in every muslim world and that every little muslim child is proud of.
I knew that CIA had created alqaeda to fight russians in Afghanistan. Thank you CIA; You fuckers are doing good job!
#31
My theory is that there is something about Sabrina that tends to bring these little pseudo jihadis like moronman out of the woodwork. Not like I'm formally tracking it or anything but it just seems that when Sabrina graces the Defender-Scimitar and Times-Picayune these little devils start blathering in their typical incoherent manner.
So take a good look, moronman. Does this person bother you?
#32
#14 Your shitty propaganda wont work and Alqaeda is doing great job. You, fuckers, created Alqaeda when you wanted to rule everybody in muslim world. You corrupted all muslim leaders but you can't corrupt Alqaeda! Cheers Ben laden! :)
Posted by: Midoman 2009-02-05 12:58
You do know you "prophet Mohammad" was a rapist right?
#33
Quoting David Bromberg, about your precious bend over, muzzomess: "And I'll see him dead, and I'll see him dead, and I'll see his lover dead, and I'll see that faggot dead...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:43
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#34
She got fake boobs and she is blonde. I like them brunettes and natural; But still, you remain a stupid fucker! :)
#35
I'll take a stupid fucker with good taste in women over a muzzomess any day...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:49
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#36
Moronman is the kind of Muslim that cheers every time al-Qaeda suicidal maniacs kill civilians. It hasn't dawned on him that they've killed more Muslims that non-Muslims and more women and children than men. They're too stupid to win.
#37
Does your ?girlfriend? / goat have a nice moustache / goatee, muzzomess?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 13:52
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#38
Posted by: Midoman 2009-02-05 13:45
But you failed to answer the questions. As a service to you I have listed them here for your convenience.
You do know you "prophet Mohammad" was a rapist right?
Midoman, So how old were you when your father/uncle/friend of the family raped you?
Pitcher or catcher, Midolman?
You're getting kinda vehement, Midolman. has this story struck a nerve?
#39
What good taste asshole? All your women are whores. A 35 yo woman of yours fucks more than 500 men on average before she got married. What are you talking about?
#40
I don't believe they were fake. She became famous in the early 1950's. Dunno if they had quite perfected that kind of surgery back then.
But you must admit, Midoman, she is much more fetching than a goat.
If you muzzies weren't so inbred and backwards you might be able to produce women like this too. Then you'd be a lot happier and you could forget about your bloody moon god.
#41
She gets around, or ore likely USED TO, mebbe, but she ain't got a moustache / goatee, and she knows how to bathe. That don't describe your mom, muzzomess...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 14:01
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#42
Fathers/uncles/family friends rape don't count in the Arab world. The probability is near 100% for both boys and girls so all that is swept under the magic carpet and re-virgining doctors are kept very busy.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 14:01
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#43
Oh now y'all have done it. You made the muslim mad. Again. Snicker
#44
How horrible that these young people are so exploited without ever having a chance at all the wonders life has to offer.
So moronman, you support this?
al-Qaeda chiefs are raping young male converts to shame them into becoming suicide bombers
So in doing so the chiefs are shamed as well, but keep repeating this act, is this your job or your leader?
al-Qaeda were dishonouring women in Iraq to turn them into suicide bombers. A terror leader would marry, then let another man rape his wife.
These are cold blooded scoundrels, not to be identified as being in the human race.
Yes JFM you nail it in #1.
Posted by: Jan ||
02/05/2009 14:06
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#45
Of course! Human life means nothing. Something muzz and western liberals can agree on...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 14:08
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#47
Midoman, you and al-Qaeda are about as relevant to the Muslim world as any bunch of 20-something neo-Nazi skinheads are to the western world: non-productive, violence-inciting trash that needs to be taken out.
#50
Ok, which one of these guys are you really, Midolman? Did you outrank your hero at #92?
Only slightly less sexy than our own commander in chief, the Ichabod Crane of Tora Bora could use a new look. Note to Osama: camouflage jackets have been out since the millennium. (Hey, since the military cant find him, maybe the fashion police should be on the case.) Sure, theres not a surplus of couture outlets or even dry cleaners in Afghanistan, but even Al-Zarqawi knew how to apply a little eye-liner and lip gloss.
#52
Midol-man, I looked at your facebook page. You've got a lot of half-naked hussies as "friends." You should be stoned along with them - you're very unislamic.
But I didn't see a pic of your favorite goat. Or maybe you're someone else's favorite goat?
Sucks to be you.
You should strive to be a better moslem - starting by not using ANYTHING invented by infidels, or Joooooooos.
Like your computer, phone, electricity ....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2009 14:47
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#53
You're just a bunch of slaughters and killers. Fuck you all! Butchers!
What about Vietnam?
What about Irak?
What about Afghanistan?
#57
Vietnam fell to the communists because we weren't aggressive enough.
Iraq just held another free election unlike eight years ago when it was "vote Saddam or die."
Afghanistan was under the Taliban until al-Qaeda forced us to do in weeks what the Russians couldn't do in a decade.
So, are those your examples of American imperialism? What treasures did we loot and bring home? How many slaves did we take? How did we benefit besides removing a bunch of neo-Nazis like you from power?
The interwebs? The one invented by Crusaders, infidels and Jews? Hey, come to think of it, pretty much all of the modern world was invented by Crusaders, infidels and Jews.
#59
Midoman: do you support men marrying women, having a friend rape them, and then talking them into being a suicide bomber to "restore" their "honor" (which the Islamic men took away)?
Another question: if you are so against us, why aren't YOU a suicide bomber. Talk is cheap. You can use a bunch of profanity here. Big deal. You guys love to talk and talk.
I have never seen Arab men have any trouble having sex with multiple women. But then they want "pure" women.
Do you support the "mother of believers" who would arrange rapes in order to convert young women (who would have been unnecessarily traumatized) into being suicide bombers?
Do you?
Do you?
Do you?
I will answer. Moslems like Midoman feed on anger and hate because they feel "humiliated" because they have been sexually violated, usually by clerics. Young boys are considered "nymphs" and are often sodomized by men they look up to, just like al-Queda chiefs are doing.
It is exploitation.
Midoman WILL NEVER EVER EVER actually talk about the issue. He'll just bellow and roar, like they all do. They are a singularly irrational people.
#62
Get the fuck out of poor people's countries!
Listen up, Mido:
We would never have entered Iraq if Saddam had never entered Kuwait.
We would never have entered Afghanistan if the Taliban had not supported bin Laden in killing 3,000 innocent people on 9/11.
Get out of poor people's countries? You mean like Pakistani's are staying out of Afghanistan and Kashmir? Like Iranians are staying out of Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza? Or do you mean like you Egyptians (who are supposedly at peace) are letting explosives and rockets tunnel into poor little Gaza.
BTW, how did Islam spread all the way to the Atlantic? Peace?
#63
We're all still waiting for you to comment on the TOPIC of using rape as a recruiting tool for suicide bombing, Midoman. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
#64
Moslems like Midoman feed on anger and hate because they feel "humiliated" because they have been sexually violated, usually by clerics. Young boys are considered "nymphs" and are often sodomized by men they look up to
That's how they built the jihad movement. Strip them of their individualism, focus on the Koran.
#65
Ok bastards! Let's talk about suicide bombing!
I'm against all form of raping but support suicide bombing!
Because muslims don't have your missiles and satellites! Still, suicide bombing and road bombs are the best weapon for blowing up your assholess! What else! You kill with your means and we do the same! Suckers!
#66
It would be really interesting if Midoman (or another islamo-thug) would opine on whether they agree that Mohamnmed was a pedophile. Certainly by definition of most western law, he was/is...
#70
I think I can tolerate being called names by Midoman and being cursed by him, but what I can't tolerate is having someone think that Sabrina (the one born in 1936) had fake boobs.
They were real.
There is a modern Sabrina (Sabrok) who has fake boobs and who stars in many videos on youtube but that's not the Sabrina in the image in comment #31.
#71
Waaaah! Boo hoo! We don't have your super weapons so we have to blow up busses and pizza parlors!
God, what a whiny bitch!
I'm betting "catcher", Midolman...
#72
Also, I don't think Midoman or other Islamo-thugs realize just how much contempt we in the western world have for them militarily. That is, hiding behind women, children, numerous civilians, and in assorted burquas just does not engender a great deal of respect from anyone who has served in any type of *real* military. Between your protestations of bravery (we are "Lions of Islam") and your practical cowardice, you make quite the spectacle of yourselves...
#74
Because muslims don't have your missiles and satellites!
Muslims don't have these things because they turned away from reason and science to mire themselves in medieval theology, a repressive social and political system and often outright superstition.
Where they've acquired them lately it has - in every case - been by borrowing, stealing or learning from the West.
THAT is as much a source of the Midoman's simmering humiliation as sexual matters.
Although it does seem as if many in the Islamic world are really, really obsessed with sex - who's getting it, who hasn't and how to impose oneself on those who cannot resist: boys, women raped at their husband's instigation or that of a 'believing' female fanatic, Europen women gang-raped by Muslims taken in and given generous welfare benefits without any work required.
Sex, violence, hatred. Sex, violence, hatred. A simmering stew of futility and impotence.
And underneath all that - massive, massive shame. Shame for themselves, their people and their culture.
#76
See, you know nothing about how muslims work in theis mmind. You know nothing about their faith and their relation with their God. You need some real fixing and a lot of updating!
Suckers!
#77
Actually, I do know a fair amount about Islam. I also know a fair amount about some Muslim countries, having done business in several. I have several Muslim friends, quietly pious people who contribute to the world around them and live gentle lives. THOSE Muslims I respect.
Not you.
Meanwhile, you sit in Morocco spewing impotent hatred over an Internet you couldn't build if your life depended on it.
#78
Elsewhere on the burg today: THIRTY people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in central Pakistan overnight, a senior security official said.
Happy, Mido?
#79
You're your own worst enemy, Midolman. All we gotta do is hit the right button and then watch the Amazing Seething Muslim.
It's quite humorous actually...
#81
I don't hate you suckers! I just wanted you to be friends with the rest of the Wordl.
I'm fucking doing business with Europeen countries, China and Middle East.
Still, fuckers, you're responsible of a lot of damage! And bastards, with your way of living, and your crooks sucking your blood in Wall Street shit, you make everybody on bankruptcy!
Fuck sick! You don't live as everybody normal does, do you?
You, Screwers of the Universe, you don't give a shit of the rest of the World, do you fuckers!
#82
Wow, Midolman really can't tolerate being taunted by a girl, can he?
(Off in the distance, I hear.....laughing, coming from Barbara's direction. She's yukking it up so hard she can't operate the popcorn machine!)
I wish Al-aska Paul was here. He could tell us if the Brave Lion of Islam, Midolman, gets any virgins for this, or if he still has to play "girlfriend" for the rest of the madrassah.
#85
You don't live as everybody normal does, do you?
Damn straight, cupcake! Our poor people get vaccinations, have air conditioned homes, eat wonderful BBQ pork, drink beer, and drive SUV's. They wear as much or as little clothing as they please, and their women don't have to legally tolerate being treated like second class pack animals. They live better than the overwhelming majority of people in whatever little fifth world superstitious hellhole you call home do.
And they do all that without ever once getting their face in the dust, vowing submission to some possibly mythical deity.
#86
I'm not against Jews. I have a lot of Jewish friends her in Casablanca. Morocco is a better place for Jews than Israel.
Yet, you're supporting zionists while killing Palestinians. You fuckers Yankee screwers have to moderate your support! :)
Suckers!!
#87
So, you like suicide bombings? Like these? The 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history.
The 14 bombers, most between 20 and 24 years old, bombed several places on the night of May the 16th.
Another bomber killed three passersby as he attempted to bomb a Jewish cemetery. He was 150 yards (140 m) away from the cemetery and likely lost, so he blew up by a fountain. Two additional bombers attacked a Jewish community center, but killed no one because the building was closed and empty. It would have been packed the next day.
Another bomber attacked a Jewish-owned Italian restaurant, and another blew up near the Belgian consulate which is located meters away from the restaurant, killing two police officers.
In all, 12 bombers died, along with 33 civilians. Two bombers were arrested before they could carry out attacks. More than 100 people were injured. Eight of the dead were Europeans (three Spanish among them) and the rest were Moroccan.
#88
"Our poor people get vaccinations, have air conditioned homes, eat wonderful BBQ pork, drink beer, and drive SUV's"
What is that?
You're perfectionist while maximizing the living but still 600.000 americans are dying from cancer every year, 70.000 fire arms homicides and 2 millions women are raped every year! Get updated asshole! What I can't stand is the way you borrow the money from China to get a living!
What is that? are you some kind of bums?
Answer me fuckers!
#90
Israelis could be the best friends Palestinians ever had, even better than their Arab brethren, if Hamas and Fatah and the power mad mullahs didn't have so many of them convinced that Jews are sons of pigs who need to die. Jews have better things to do than kill Palestinians. There are many, many Palestinians living in peace and prosperity inside Israel. Hamas should let the Jews help them develop resort hotels on the Mediterranean, let the Jews teach them modern agricultural techniques, etc. Jews would be glad to do it for a little peace. But the hate gets in the way.
Oh, and what evil has the Great Satan done in Morocco lately? Hmmmmm....
#91
600.000 americans are dying from cancer every year, 70.000 fire arms homicides
And yet the average lifespan is 78.1 years in the USA and 71.5 years in Morocco.
#92
Well I'm taking about Moroccan Jews. Many of them have returned back to Morocco after they got in Israel and suffered from Ashkenazi hatred knowing that the Ashkenazi shit are top in army and government!
#93
Midoman could benefit from more reliable sources of statistics.
I have a little sympathy with Midoman, however. It's really extraordinarily difficult for someone from a small country to visualize how big and how diverse the US really is. Even most Europeans don't manage it unless they've lived a LOT of places here for a long time.
So he tries to form a picture for this country and what he gets is .... photos and films, often coarse and juvenile at best, without realizing that they don't represent the lives or beliefs of most Americans. He gets statistics that may or may not be accurate but that are almost always out of context, lacking the reality behind them.
I mean, come on: women having sex with 500 men before they marry? In a nation of 300 million people there may be such a woman. She may even have a friend or two like her. What she would not be is representative of Americans as a whole.
But as I said, when you live in Morocco chances are the picture you get of the US is distorted.
Hell, many of the Saudi princelings with whom I interacted, some of whom went to college here, didn't have a clue. Why should Midoman?
No, the problem isn't the fact that he has such a distorted view of the US. The problem is that he is consumed with hate and shame, which makes talking with him and those like him a waste of time.
#94
What I can't stand is the way you borrow the money from China to get a living!
GDP per capita:
USA $48,000
China $6,100
Morocco $4,000
Midoman Clueless
#95
I don't hate you guys! I'm just pissed off by your stupidity and the shit of your Bush's ruling of the world. USA used to be great and everyboy loved it!
#96
On that note I'm going to leave and go chuckle over Rep. Hilda Solis (nominee for Secretary of Labor) and her tax issues. Wow can The One ever pick 'em.
#97
Well Saudi princeling shit are just oil and petrodollars you're looking for.
Tell me, wordy man, if saudi shit hadn't oil, which is a muslim oil and the benefits should be invested in muslim world instead of your Citibanks and shit of your wall street crooks, what would you do? :) fuckers!
You think you love Arab People? Fuck sick liar!
#98
Lots of our own people hate Bush. I had issues with him myself but I think he's a pretty likable guy and he did a lot of good things too. That's how it is when you're President of the United States. You just can't please everybody. But what did he ever do to you?
#99
I'm back. Why would oil in Saudi Arabia belong to Muslims worldwide? Would natural gas in Texas belong to Christians worldwide? Logic does not seem to be a Muslim strong point.
#100
At least muzzmess has stayed around to play the game. That's different. Not better, mind, just different...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2009 17:26
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#101
Muslim world used to be one entity once! Europeen came and divided muslim in little pieces when they defeated Othoman Empire. Later, they placed Israel to divide the Muslim World in 2 blocks.
You've never done anything to help muslims get together. On the contrary, you keep dividing it more and more! What the hell! And now, Irak will be divided in 2 or 3 pieces! :) You're doing great job!
#102
Casablanca, Morroco: (h/t midoman...muzzie de jure)
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.
#103
Muslim world used to be one entity once! Europeen came and divided muslim in little pieces when they defeated Othoman Empire. Later, they placed Israel to divide the Muslim World in 2 blocks.
You've never done anything to help muslims get together. On the contrary, you keep dividing it more and more! What the hell! And now, Irak will be divided in 2 or 3 pieces! :) You're doing great job!
We all make mistakes. We've tried to reverse that one, but every time the Turks keep laughing at us and then hang up the phone.
Indeed, the Arabs raped and pillaged their way to something like an empire for a short while. But that empire never covered even the majority of Muslim countries today and Islam has always been fractured, from the earliest time: Sunni vs. Shia, the Arab slave owners vs. those in Africa whom they held in captivity, the Turks vs. the Arabs.
And you wholly miss the point that places like Indonesia were NEVER part of some unified Caliphate.
I never said I loved Arabs in general. I said I did business in multiple Muslim countries including with the Saudi kingdom (business that had nothing to do with oil) and have Muslim friends. Significantly, none of them is a jihadist, all are educated and productive people of peace. They don't spew hatred and profanity on the Internet or anywhere else.
I'm starting to feel sorry for you. Your soul must be very soiled indeed for this sort of hateful language to pour out of you again and again.
#106
yeah well, your mistakes are bloody ones and irreversible!
Keep making mistakes until the day of judgment!
If you dont' believe in God, you'll be surprised!
Midoman, many here do indeed believe in God. Just not the one you worship. Not the one whose believers torture people to death and gleefully capture their agony on video. Not the one whose believers call other people pigs and apes. Not the one whose preachers preach hatred and poison the minds of children from an early age.
Not the one whose believers seem to be happy to kill innocent Muslims through cowardly acts of violence in public places.
#108
Sorry for the language! :) I learned it from your movies and I exerce her. In arabic, I speak very respectfully. I can't use such stinky words in Arabic. Impossible! Our movies and tv shows are respectful. I mean your society is violent and brutal; so your movies and tv show reflect it! Or maybe the opposite!
#109
Ok, Midoman... you start by cheering Al Queda rapists and Bin Laden, then you talk about Crusade-era grievances, decry the worldwide sale of mideast oil on an open market, and proclaim yourself a friend of Moroccan Jews.
Does Not Compute.
You just sound like a classic, barely-literate, internet troll.
The only real mistake the US had made in recent times was Bush not nuking Mecca and Medina after 9/11. And that mistake is VERY reversible. Believe me, you have no idea what a truly pissed-off America would be like!
#110
By the way, Midoman, our movies and TV are fictional. They are NOT REAL, and do not reflect actual life in the USA. Let me repeat, what you see on TV or movies is NOT reality. We have free speech here, which means anyone can make any kind of crappy movie or TV show they like, even if it is not respectful or even full of outright lies (which most are). I realize this is something very difficult for you to understand, but you would do well to try to grasp this distinction.
#111
I can't use such stinky words in Arabic. Impossible! Our movies and tv shows are respectful
Arabic - at least Classical Arabic, which is the form I learned a little of - can be quite beautiful, a language made for poetry.
Unfortunately, there are Muslim preachers speaking on TV in Arabic who do so with a great deal of hatred and gleefully encourage violence. My Arabic is modest but even I know that. Their hatred and dirty souls pollute and bring shame on that language.
#112
Ok lotp! you said you were a woman and I respect your good words. I will not use bad words when taking to you even if, you could be the sibling or the mother of some stupid us serviceman or servicewoman in Irak or Afghanistan.
Dites moi si il ya quelqu'un ici qui comprend le francais. Je pourrais exprimer le fonds de ma pensée et ne pas etre en désavantage de parler et de m'exprimer dans ma quatrième langue.
Ou alors vous etes tous des illettrés ne parlant qu'une seule langue!
Anyway, u can't nuke Mecca! We believe, we Meslims, that Mecca has her protector! We strongly believe that the moment you really think doing it, you will be destroyed! A big, a giant, an extremely large cyclone will ravage USA and wipe out all of you. Or may be an earthquake 100° on Richter scale will strike and gobble you up. Where is USA? Gone! You can't detroy Mecca and you can't detroy the Coran. Just try it, you fools!
#113
I believe in God. I do not believe that Islam is the One True Religion. From what I've heard I believe your prophet Mohammed was in fact more of a warlord than anything else. He forced his twisted religion onto people at the point of a sword and his followers are continuing to do the same thing today. If you had a really good religion you could spread it with the power of persuasion and there would be no need for violence. I prefer Christianity because Jesus taught us to love one another, even to love our enemies. I do not believe that God wants us to kill each other. Think about it. If you are a parent who loves His children you do not want to see them killing each other.
We are not what you see in the movies. If you think Hollywood is a twisted, evil place you are partially correct. But even that is too simple to be entirely correct. We're not simple. We are so complicated that we don't even understand ourselves all the time. We are not perfect. We do not claim to be. But we're not that bad either.
#116
The real Mecca has already been destroyed by
the Takfir wal Hihra(the banned heretics)
These Mahdists(Messianists) have already
bulldozed most ancient relics from Muhammad days.
They disbelieve in the Sharia and only have
these creeds:
NOTHING IS TRUE,
EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED(for the advent of the Messiah-Mahdi)
They already tried to blow up the Caboose(grand mosque with the Kaaba) in the seventies
and they, with Ahmajinedad, are trying
to provoke civilization into nuking Mecca
so in turn they will slaughter us all...
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/05/2009 18:49
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#117
Ha ha ha! An earthquake or cyclone will save Mecca... That's funny. Actually, we CAN nuke Mecca. And if people like you keep up with your shit, we probably WILL. We could use ICBMs, or ship-launched tomahawks, or submarine-based missiles. It will be very easy!
Doesn't Islam mean "submission"? That's all we ask for. Submit to the obvious superiority of our Western ways, and the world will be at peace. We'll even let you continue bowing to your idols 5 times a day, and sodomizing goats or camels (whichever you prefer). Submit to us, or face the ugly consequences.
#118
Oui, je parle français. Je m'excuse, mais si mon français ne comprend pas votre slang et blasphématoire. Je l'ai appris pour lire Pascal, Molière, Racine et d'autres grands écrivains, et non pas pour échanger des insultes sale.
#129
If that Facebook page really is our Midoman, no wonder he's cranky. That mustache is quite sad, really.
Up until Midoman showed up the other day, I had been looking forward to the visit my husband promised me long ago to Morocco, where he spent several enjoyable months working, back in the 1980s -- a factory start-up for a product his team had developed for the local market. Now, I ponder a conversation I had with the wife of a colleague who'd joined her husband on a similar trip.
The lady and her husband were staying in a lovely international hotel on the beach, I assume in/near Rabat. She went down first, and put down towels for herself and her husband, and lay down to sun for a few minutes, as we American women are accustomed to do in peace and safety. A Moroccan gentleman came up to her, and said, "American woman, you want to f*ck?" Naturally, she was startled, as American men have better manners. "No, thank you," quoth she, for her own manners were impeccable, even under such strong provocation. "Besides, my husband will be here in a moment."
"That's ok," responded the Moroccan gentleman, "It won't take that long."
Thank goodness the husband in question appeared just then, causing the Moroccan gentleman to leave very, very quickly.
Which, my dear Midoman, is why your strident threats evoke amusement rather than fear... and your claims to love America and the West to ring very hollow, indeed. As for your multiple languages, see how they fail to impress normal Americans, habibi? Think, my dear, what those other Americans must have been thinking when you boasted of such knowledge to them.
The behaviour of Al Qaeda and those who groom female suicide bombers is what we expect from such brave Lions of Islam. Bluster and bombast overlaying incompetence is what we expect from those like Midoman who like their comfort too much to bestir themselves to do more than prance about the internet pretending.
#132
Barbara, you are much like the lovely, well-mannered American lady in my tale. That poor Moroccan gentlemen never knew how lucky he was that her husband arrived at that moment, else he would have scuttled away missing those bits necessary to not take very long. Like you, she played for keeps.
(Yes, Nimble Spemble dear, this time I know exactly what my words implied.)
A top Islamic Jihad commander was killed by IDF special forces in the northern West Bank town of Kabatiya Wednesday overnight. Security officials said Ala Abu Rob, described as the organization's commander in the town, had in recent months attempted to carry out terror attacks in Israel. He was also responsible for several past attacks.
The army said troops entered Abu Rob's home and, identifying him as armed, shot and killed him. They then found several ammunition clips and an explosive device in the house. Abu Rob's brother said the 21-year-old had been arrested in the past and has been wanted for the past year and a half. He said troops barged into their home and shot his brother while he was sitting at a computer. The army had arrested most of Abu Rob's subordinates in recent weeks.
Two suspected terrorists insurgents were killed in a gunfight with police and soldiers here Thursday afternoon. Police said authorities from the special military-police taskforce clashed with terrorists insurgents in Khuan Lan village in Tambon Pien of Songkhla's Sabayoi district at 1 pm.
Your editorial "Obama and Iraq" (Jan. 27) highlights many factors regarding the U.S. strategy in Iraq but neglects to mention the role of the Kurds. Within Iraq, the Kurds have been America's strongest ally in both Iraq's liberation from Saddam Hussein and in the democratic transition after the fall of the previous regime. Our peshmerga forces have fought and died alongside U.S. soldiers combating terrorists in Iraq. The Kurds deeply appreciate what the U.S. has done by ridding Iraq of a regime that employed chemical weapons against us and that was responsible for the death or disappearance of more than 180,000 Kurds.
The autonomous Kurdistan Region is a model for the rest of the country with respect to our culture of tolerance and our commitment to good governance. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is also unwavering in its support for federalism and the Iraqi constitutional process. We are also concerned about any possible trends that seek to accentuate tensions between Arabs and Kurds, whether in Mosul, Kirkuk, Diyala or elsewhere.
The KRG agrees that the drawdown of U.S. forces must be responsible, and driven more by conditions inside Iraq rather than by a timetable. The gains in Iraq over the past year have been substantial, but the politics remain fragile, especially following the provincial elections held on Jan. 31. We still must navigate the referendum on the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement to take place late this summer, and parliamentary elections to be held by the end of 2009. Should there be a U.S. redeployment in Iraq, the KRG is fully committed to working as a partner with the U.S. to ensure security and stability in Iraq.
#2
From day 1, the Kurds should have been wheeling and dealing at a furious pace to insure their rear ends were covered six ways from Sunday. They rate right up there with Jews for being persecuted and hated in the Middle East.
And though they have made some ties with Israel, they should have strongly and openly come out as Israel's second best friend and military ally. This would have caused major shock waves in the ME, as well as some serious realignments of power.
The Kurds should be shaking in their boots right now. While it was good that they spent their money on economic development, it also means that the Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Syrians are going to want to steal what they have built.
#3
With all appropriate considerations for their many blemishes, blah blah blah, this sort of letter tragically confirms that the Iraqi Kurds have more honor and sense of responsibility about the sacrifices of American blood than about half of Americans themselves. As a special forces friend has said since 2006, the biggest challenge to morale is now "why bother?", when large parts of the country and most of the "elites" are indifferent or hostile to their efforts and sacrifice.
The shop worker from Guangzhou, China, died moments after he put a new battery in his phone, it has been claimed.
It was believed that he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket when it exploded.
China's daily Shin Min Daily News said the accident happened on Friday, Jan 30, at 7.30pm. An employee at the shop told local media that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood. The employee said the victim had recently changed the battery in his mobile phone.
Police are investigating what caused the explosion and whether the phone was counterfeit. The make and model of the phone are not thought to be known.
Local reports said that this was the ninth recorded cellphone explosion in China since 2002.
The Shin Min Daily News published advice for consumers on how to avoid being hurt by exploding mobile phones, following the latest incident.
Some of the tips were:
-- Always use original batteries.
-- Do not expose your mobile phone to high temperatures, and avoid exposing it to direct sunlight.
-- Avoid long phone conversations. - Do not critisize the Chinese Communist Party
HAWAII just had a vivid lesson in health-care economics, learning that if you offer people insurance for free - surprise, surprise - they'll quickly drop other coverage to enroll.
As a result, Hawaii is ending the only state universal child health-care program in the country after just seven months.
The program, called the Keiki (Child) Care Plan, was designed to provide coverage to children whose parents can't afford private insurance but who make too much to qualify for other public programs (such as Medicaid and Hawaii's State Children's Health Insurance Program). Keiki Care was free for these gap kids, except for a $7 office-visit fee.
But then state officials found that families were dropping private coverage to enroll their children in the plan. "People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink of Hawaii's Department of Human Services.
In fact, 85 percent of the children in Keiki Care previously had been covered under a private, nonprofit plan that costs $55 a month.
When Gov. Linda Lingle saw the data, she pulled the plug on funding. With Hawaii facing budget shortfalls, she realized it was unwise to spend public money to replace private coverage that children already had.
Yet Lingle is facing a political firestorm in the state from critics who say that she's denying children health insurance - notwithstanding the fact that children in Hawaiian families earning up to $73,000 a year are eligible for Medicaid.
Because she's a heartless Pub, you see ...
All this is a lesson for political leaders in Washington who are drafting plans now to expand SCHIP to children in families earning up to $82,000 a year or more. That expansion would wind up doing what Keiki Care did: mainly crowd out the private coverage that millions of middle-income kids already have.
During last year's Washington debate over expanding SCHIP, many politicians took a principled stand against expansion of the program into these middle-income families. They supported President Bush's veto because they feared that expanding coverage to children in higher-income families would largely just crowd out existing private insurance. Plus, two-thirds of kids who lack health insurance are already eligible for government help through either SCHIP or Medicaid. The opponents of expansion said Congress' first priority should be to make sure these poorer, uninsured children are taken care of.
States have struggled to get these children enrolled. If there is a stampede to cover higher-income kids, the poorer kids will likely continue to get left behind.
The Hawaiian debacle should also be a caution to Barack Obama, who wants to mandate that all children have health insurance. This would plainly not only require penalties for those who didn't comply but also new programs to help parents get their children covered. The risk of crowd-out will be great.
MIT economist Jonathan Gruber says his studies "clearly show that crowd-out is significant" - on the order of 60 percent. In other words, SCHIP coverage replaces private health insurance 60 percent of the time, and the rate will be greater if we extend eligibility to higher-income families.
Universal coverage in any form is an increasingly elusive goal. Several states (including California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Wisconsin) have attempted major efforts to advance toward health coverage for all citizens. All have had to turn back because the costs were prohibitive.
Massachusetts enacted a universal-coverage law in 2006 - but state officials no longer claim that achieving that goal is even possible. The law's backers had insisted that universal coverage was imperative to get costs under control - yet the state faces serious budget shortfalls even after imposing new fees and taxes and getting an extra $21 billion from the federal government to try to balance the program's books.
Health reform is a tricky business; any change can bring unintended consequences - especially if lawmakers don't get the incentives right.
That's why Hawaii had to say, "Aloha," to its Keiki Care program twice in just seven months.
Notably absent from the final bill is a provision that would have blocked Medicare and Medicaid funds to new or expanded physician-owned hospitals. That language was in the initial House version, but the Senate omitted the restriction in its bill.
Additionally, the legislation makes children of legal immigrants eligible for SCHIP as soon as their parents arrive in the U.S., instead of having to wait five years as was previously required. Isn't that special, they'll get the same benefits as illegal aliens.
Republican lawmakers tried but failed to maintain the five-year exclusion.
The expanded SCHIP will now cover an estimated total of 11 million children in working-poor families who don't quality for Medicaid.
Plus any other child whose parents decide to drop insurance and pick up state coverage instead, as in Hawaii.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the expanded coverage will add $32.8 billion to the cost of SCHIP from 2009 to 2013. The extra cost is to be covered by a 68-cent-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax.
House majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) lauded the bill's passage. "We can't patch every hole today; but if I could pick just one leak to stop, it would be in the hold where we keep our sick children," Hoyer said. "If you asked me for the most efficient use of a single healthcare dollar, I would put it toward covering more children."
This was pushed through in direct violation of Obama's promise of a 5 day review period for all legislation.
#1
Apart from the debate over socialized medicine, how much money could be saved in annual health care costs if the government outlawed cigarettes instead of taxing them which gives the government a vested interest in tobacco companies? Wonder if it would be less than, equal to or more than this new cigarette tax is gonna raise? But I guess the problem with that is those savings wouldn't go to the government. Besides, we gotta get them old folks outta the way somehow so they stop draining the Social Security funds.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A recently retired Mexican army general whose bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday near Cancun had taken over as the area's top antidrug official less than 24 hours earlier, officials said.
Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñonez, his aide and a driver were tortured before being killed, said Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. He said there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime.
"The general was the most mistreated," Rodriguez said at a Tuesday night news conference monitored by El Universal newspaper. "He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken."
An autopsy revealed Tello also suffered broken knees and was shot 11 times, Mexico City's Excelsior newspaper said.
Tello had just been appointed a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality, which includes the city of Cancun. Tello, who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63, had moved to the resort area three weeks ago.
The three victims were found inside a white Toyota pickup truck outside of Cancun on the road to Merida. The truck belongs to the Benito Juarez municipality, Excelsior said, citing Luis Raymundo Canche, an assistant prosecutor for Quintana Roo state.
The three men were abducted Monday night, possibly in Cancun, tortured and then later shot to death, El Universal said, citing prosecutor Rodriguez. The bodies were found with their hands bound, the newspaper said. The killings happened around 4 a.m., the prosecutor said.
The other two victims were identified as Lt. Julio Cesar Roman Zuniga, who was Tello's aide and the chief bodyguard for Mayor Martínez, and civilian driver Juan Ramirez Sanchez.
Tello is the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years. Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Cancun street in 2006. That crime remains unsolved.
The killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rates in its history -- around 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, according to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has characterized the battle among drug cartels and with government authorities as a "civil war."
On Tuesday, 12 men were gunned down in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, Excelsior reported Wednesday. Eight other people were shot and killed in Chihuahua last weekend.
More than 200 people have been killed this year in Ciudad Juarez, the largest city in Chihuahua and considered the most violent town in Mexico, El Tiempo newspaper said, citing local authorities. Last year, according to the National Commission on Human Rights, there were 1,900 organized crime killings in the state of Chihuahua. About 1,600 of those slayings occurred in Ciudad Juarez.
The names of several thousand clients who lost money investing with Bernard Madoff have been released in a New York City court filing. Bernie's list of victims is overwhelmingly Jewish. The list has over 13,000 accounts on it. It's my understanding you can find a lot of luxury items for sale in Palm Beach at bargain prices. I'm surprised this guy hasn't been shot.
His potential victims are so numerous, so high-profile and the sums he apparently stole so vast, the financial analyst who blew the whistle on Madoff says he expected a bullet or worse for his trouble. "If he found out we were tracking him, I did not think I was long for this world," said Harry Markolpolis.
The riveting testimony came on Capitol Hill as a seemingly endless list of victims was released in a court filing in New York.
The 162-page list of big money names includes Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and developer Larry Silverstein, along with the merely wealthy and thousands of others who hoped Madoff would help them become that way. The names come from all corners of the country and beyond -- Florida, California, and plenty from New York. They include big businesses that might have known better, like Citi Corp., Cablevision, and Bank of America.
There was clean money apparently mixing with dirty money funneled into Madoff Securities through off-shore accounts. "When you're that big and that secretive you're going to get money from criminals like the Russian Mob and the drug cartels," said Markopolis.
Markopolis tried to blow the whistle on Madoff eight years ago and told the House Financial Service subcommittee, but no one in the government seemed interested.
The list was compiled by AlixPartners LLP, a Dallas company hired as claims agent by the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. It contains about 13,000 names, including at least six Madoffs and even Bernie Madoff's own attorney.
Authorities say Madoff admits he lost more than $50 billion belonging to investors. Defense lawyers say he has cooperated with authorities to help identify assets.
A senior official from the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says five rockets have been discovered near the country's border with Israel.
Milos Strugar says the rockets were discovered along with a launching pad by a patrol of peacekeepers Wednesday near the town of Naqoura where the UN force is headquartered. They were not set to be fired.
Strugar said Lebanese army units were called in and an investigation was underway.
The militant group Hezbollah, which has a strong presence in south Lebanon, has a large rocket arsenal, but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Rockets from Lebanon were fired into Israel on two occasions during Israel's Gaza offensive last month. Palestinian militant groups are suspected of having fired them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Turkish President Abdullah Gul held talks in Riyadh on Wednesday within a four-day visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss the Middle East conflict and promote stronger economic ties between the two countries.
Speaking before his departure to the Saudi capital Tuesday, Gul said he and King Abdullah would discuss the situation in the Middle East after "the tragedy in Gaza" as well as developments in Iraq. "We will discuss what we can do together for lasting peace and stability in the region," he told reporters.
Turkey took an active role in efforts to end the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip and vehemently criticized Israel, a close ally, for the deadly offensive.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday stormed out of a debate on the Gaza war at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a clash with Israeli President Shimon Peres, saying Israel committed "barbarian" acts in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Gul said he would also promote economic exchanges between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, stressing that the target was to boost the bilateral trade volume from the current level of about $5.5 billion (4.3 billion euros) to $10 billion in 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: Basra’s Umm Qasr port on Wednesday received one passenger ship, according to the Iraqi ports department’s relations & information chief. “Today, Umm Qasr port received a Jordanian passenger ship,” Abdelkareem al-Basri told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
I was looking for a cheap cruise to break the winter blues.
Aswat al-Iraq: Two civilians on Wednesday were injured when an explosive charge detonated near a U.S. patrol vehicle in eastern Mosul, according to a police source. According to the same source, another explosive charge targeted a police patrol in Bab al-Toub area, downtown Mosul, causing no casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Nine members of a Bara-based militant group were killed in an encounter with the police and the Qaumi Lashkar comprising armed villagers when they allegedly attempted to kidnap the Nazim of Bazidkhel union council near here on Wednesday morning.
Three policemen sustained injuries in the first incident of its kind in which the police and villagers joined hands to take on the extremists operating in Peshawar.Police and villagers told The News that members of the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam entered the Bazidkhel village in two cars and a motorbike in a bid to kidnap Faheem, the Nazim of the local union council.
As villagers and cops were already on alert, an encounter took place, which left seven attackers dead.A source said two more militants were killed near Badaber when they were fleeing on a motorcycle. Another source said nine were killed but two others managed to escape.
The bodies were later shifted to Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines in Peshawar for identification. The dead were identified as Saif, Jamshed, Wakil, Jehanzeb, Tariq, Sher Gul, Abdul Haq, Zahid and Wilayat. All of them were sporting long beards and hair, the typical style of militants operating in the tribal areas and around Peshawar.
"One of the attackers in his dying declaration said that they had been sent by Mangal Bagh to kidnap Faheem," a source told The News. Meanwhile, Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh threatened the Bazidkhel villagers with reprisals if found to be involved in killing nine of his men.
Speaking on his illegal FM Radio channel on Wednesday night, he argued that 13 of his men had gone to Bazidkhel to offer Fateha and condolences to someone in the village when they were attacked and nine of them were killed. He demanded that those villagers who weren't part of the Lashkar should hoist black flags on their houses. He said their failure to fly black flags would be evidence that they were part of the Lashkar and, therefore, killers of the nine Lashkar-e-Islam members.
Apart from heavy contingents of the police and the Frontier Constabulary that were rushed from across the provincial capital to Bazidkhel, a large number of armed people from the nearby villages also reached the village to tackle the militants and let them know that they would no more be tolerated.
Police and the the FC carried out a search operation in Bazidkhel and nearby towns after the incident. The busy Badaber bazaar was deserted when shopkeepers downed their shutters after rumours that militants were planning to attack the Badaber police station.
Earlier, a spokesman for the Lashkar-e-Islam denied that the slain men wanted to attack the Badaber police station. However, spokesman Misri Khan conceded that their men were on their way to Bazidkhel to take action against some criminals and elements opposed to their organisation.
"Ours is a peaceful organisation that never attacked the security forces and the police. Had they gone there to attack the Badaber police, they would have first attacked Hayatabad and Sarband police stations," he claimed.
The spokesman alleged that their men were stopped at the FC check-post, arrested and later killed by the cops and criminals from Bazidkhel. "We are aware of all those who are behind this act," he added.
However, the Inspector General of Police, NWFP, Malik Naveed Khan, contended that the attackers were from Lashkar-e-Islam. "Peshawar is safe. We will continue to take action against extremists," pledged the provincial police chief.
A series of meetings of the elders of Matani, Badaber, Adezai, Bazidkhel, Sheikh Mohammadi, Mashokhel, Mashogagar, Shahabkhel, Ahcar, Bahadar Killay and several other villages was held recently that decided to raise Lashkars to take on the militants and criminals, patrol the area and prevent kidnappings.
"The government should come up with a clear-cut policy on eliminating these elements. This is the issue of our survival and that is why we have stood up," union council Nazim Faheem told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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The United Nations has constituted a three-member commission to investigate the Benazir BhuttoÂ's slaying, state TV reported Wednesday. The announcement was made by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while meeting to President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad today. While President Zardari thanked the UN chief for this decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese official who recently visited Pyongyang that he is waiting to see the policies of the new U.S. administration, in what was believed to be an indication his country will not make major moves until they become clear, diplomatic sources said Wednesday. The comments, made to Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, are the first known to have come from the leader about the U.S. administration since President Barack Obama took office in late January. Barry ought to shoot down his shiny new rocket he's gonna be testing and see what he says then...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Yep, station an Aegis cruiser offshore near where the missile test will be and shoot it down. Too bad BO doesn't have the balls to do it. Barring that, the Japanese could do it - they have SM-3 missiles.
(AKI) - Militants are carrying out attacks against NATO supply lines in northwest Pakistan to avenge the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has purportedly said in a new audio message. The message was released hours after militants blew up a key Khyber pass bridge on a road along which 80 percent of NATO provisions enter Afghanistan.
The tape's authenticity has not yet been verified.
"We cut off supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan in solidarity with Gazans," al-Zawahiri said in the 17-minute tape posted overnight to jihadist websites.
"We repeat to our brothers in Gaza that we are with them and will avenge them in Afghanistan by fighting head on their modern-day Crusader campaign which extends from Chechnya to Somalia and from Afghanistan to North Africa," al-Zawahiri stated.
"I give you some good news. The moment that Israel launches bomb attacks against Gaza, Islamabad has been forced to cut off NATO supplies," he said.
Pakistani authorities estimate it will take at least 10 days before the bridge is rebuilt and NATO's Khyber pass supply route can reopen.
Militants also destroyed 10 container trucks of NATO supplies in the Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan. The militants set fire to the trucks in a parking lot early on Wednesday.
Entitled 'Plots and the Sacrifice of Gaza' the audiotape bears the logo of Al-Qaeda's Al-Sahab media arm.
Against the backdrop of a still image of al-Zawahiri, Arab leaders and dead Palestinian children, he urges Muslims to inflict human and material losses against western and Arab states and Israel and to overthrow Arab regimes.
Al-Zawahiri also mocks US President Barack Obama's expression of concern over the killings in Gaza as an empty gesture.
"We received your deep concern accompanied with thousands of rockets and bullets, and tonnes of white phosphorous, mixed with the blood, body parts and tears of the Muslims in Gaza.
"But the deep concern of Obama did not last for long. During his inauguration speech, he did not mention one word about what happened in Gaza, as if nothing happened."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: The police have found a large cache of Iranian-made weapons in western Tikrit city, according to a security source. "The cache was found in a village near al-Tharthar Lake in western Tikrit in light of intelligence reports," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The caches included anti-armor missiles, mortars, an amount of explosives, Katyusha launch pads, and remote control detonators," the source noted. "Police forces arrested three wanted men, who led the security apparatus to six other wanted men," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
But but but ... Tikrit is a Sunni town. The Sunni couldn't possible cooperate with Iran.
#2
Weapons are fungible, Glenmore. Even assuming that Sunni militias don't cooperate with Iran (a position I don't take, FWIW), Sunni and Shia militias certainly do from time to time. I wouldn't be surprised if Iranian-made EFPs show up in Turkey any day now, used by terrorists in that perennial Turkish-Kurdish COIN clusterfuck.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 10:30
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Took the snark right out of my mouth, Glenmore.
And this is no small matter. The bizarre, delusional, obsessive belief that Shi'a and Sunni outfits and regimes don't/won't cooperate against us and other enemies is central to the fantasy world in which so many nominal adults exist, incl. in the intel and foreign policy communities.
...and are my arms tired.
(AKI) - The United Nations's secretary-general Ban Ki-moon visited the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday on an unannounced trip. As the United States prepares to increase the number of troops in the country in the face of a resurgent Taliban, Ban said the United Nations was strongly committed to delivering peace in the country.
Ban pledged to give Afghanistan the UN's full support ahead of elections due in August this year.
"This year is going to be a very important and a crucial year for the Afghanistan people and government in many aspects, in addressing security challenges and also establishing fuller democracy and development and prosperity," Ban said at a joint media conference with president Hamid Karzai.
The secretary-general expressed his determination to see Afghanistan "enjoy full democracy, full security and full development".
"It is clear that Afghanistan will continue to face many challenges in 2009, but I think we can confront them." In the meantime, any good restaurants in town?
With presidential and provincial council polls scheduled for 20 August, he said the UN would ensure that the Afghan independent electoral commission received the funds it needed from donors.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
United Nations was strongly committed to delivering peace in the country
Former president Mohammad Khatami, who for two terms led failed attempts to give Iranians more legal freedoms and end Iran's international isolation, has decided to run in upcoming elections, aides, political allies and family members said Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Complaints of cheating among rival parties in Saturday's provincial elections have threatened to boil over into violence in Anbar.
Official figures from the polls have yet to be released, but the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni group which holds seats in the national parliament, said unofficial tallies showed it would retain control of the province.
The claims triggered immediate accusations of fraud from tribesmen, many of whom are leaders of the Sahwa, or Awakening, militias which have helped the U.S. military battle al-Qaeda in the province.
The stakes are particularly high in Anbar where a greater majority of Sunni parties did not participate in the 2005 election and many have high hopes of winning seats this time round.
Awakening leaders are threatening to take up arms over what they see as voter fraud at the hands of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), Iraq's largest Sunni Arab party which has controlled Anbar since 2005 polls mostly boycotted by Sunni Arabs.
Anbar was under curfew for a night and Maliki sent an envoy there to meet with local security forces and urge calm.
Preliminary results are expected on Thursday but final results will not be released until the end of the month, when electoral officials have finished investigating any complaints.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(AKI) Saudi Arabia has issued a list of 83 militant fugitives based overseas and called on them to turn themselves in to authorities and "return to a normal life." Looks like it's time to stock up on the fingerpaint...
According to a report in the local newspaper, 'al-Watan', 81 citizens and two Yemenis may have fled the country in order to re-enter secretly and carry out attacks. Why not skip the sneaking out part and just attack? Just a thought...
Saudi television read the names and showed photos of some of the wanted men and said they had "adopted the straying ideology," a reference to al-Qaeda. Authorities have asked them to give themselves up to police and "return to a normal life". Repent, boys! Again!
But they fear they may be following Muhammad al-Awfi and Said al-Shahri, who after returning from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, fled to Yemen to form a new terror cell.
Saudi Arabia also put hundreds of militants through a rehabilitation program which included education by clerics to "correct" their thinking and financial help to start a new life. I say again. Repent, boys! Hot chow, smokes, and crayons await you!
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Norwegian government announced Wednesday that it will allow Muslim women police officers if they choose to wear the Islamic head scarf. "After advice from police management, it has been decided that rules on police uniforms will be modified to allow for the wearing of a religious scarf with the uniform," the justice ministry said in a statement.
Previously it was not allowed for Muslim police women to wear the veil because of rules banning the display of any sort of political or religious affiliation.
After months of debate, the police management said it was in favor of permitting the scarf to be worn with the uniform in order to improve the possibility of recruiting in Norway's Muslim community. "We think it's necessary to recruit widely and to develop a police force which reflects all classes in society, regardless of beliefs and ethnicity, which is more important than demanding a neutral uniform," wrote police chief Ingelin Killengreen.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Impartiality is not as important as diversity. Nice. /s
#3
Norway is lost. Only thug states allow for the concealment of the identity of their police forces.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/05/2009 10:04
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Of course, it will be timed to coincide with seating a couple of replacements on the Supreme Court so as to make it "Constitutional". That is how it will work out, I do believe.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/05/2009 10:38
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How did that happen? The above comment was for the article below! Weird.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/05/2009 10:39
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Do they mean the veil, a hijab, or just a scarf of the sort Benzir Bhutto was so fond of? Do they plan to allow modification of the police uniform to meet whatever changing standard of modesty the jihadis decided to claim that day, or will there be a uniform headscarf provided for those who desire to wear it? The article is not clear.
Last month's IDF operation in Gaza did not go far enough, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Speaking during the Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu said the government stopped the operation before the military could halt Hamas arms smuggling through tunnels under the border with Egypt. He also called for removing Hamas from power. "I want to praise the chief of staff and express my appreciation for the defense minister for his preparation work, and the IDF soldiers," he said, adding, however, that the government "did not allow the military to plug the hole in the South."
Netanyahu said the Hamas regime in Gaza was an extremist fanatic regime backed by the extremist fanatic government of Iran. "There is no choice but to uproot the Iranian-backed regime in Gaza," he said. He stopped short of saying that he would attack Gaza again to bring that about if he is elected.
Netanyahu also warned that any territory Israel relinquishes will be "grabbed by extremists," referring to the possibility of trading West Bank land for peace in a deal with the Palestinians.
He said negotiations with the Palestinians should concentrate on economic issues and policing. "That is not a replacement for political negotiations" toward a peace treaty, he said. "It is the only path toward them."
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#1
He sure has my vote! Wait, I'm not an Israeli citizen. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Right?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/05/2009 10:45
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Bibi is the only one the Palestinians/Arabs fear.
Militants on Wednesday fired rockets at a military garrison in Landikotal, injuring a soldier of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, and torched 12 trailers in another attack on a parking lot.
Official and tribal sources said the militants fired several rockets and mortar shells from an unknown location at the Landikotal Cantonment area in the wee hours of Wednesday. A junior commissioned officer (Subedar) of the Frontier Corps was injured in the attack.
The Frontier Corps personnel retaliated with heavy artillery fire in the direction from where the rockets were fired. The firing continued for hours. Subsequently, the militants attacked a private parking lot and torched 12 empty trailers, which had arrived from Afghanistan, in the Khyber Sultankhel area of Landikotal.
The sources said a dozen masked men broke into the parking lot and overpowered the watchmen before setting ablaze 12 trailers. They sprinkled petrol on the trailers and torched them. Briefing media persons about the two attacks, Political Agent of the Khyber Agency, Tariq Hayat, said the Shinwari tribe had been fined Rs 20 million under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) for the attack on Landikotal Cantonment.
The Shinwari tribe has called a grand Jirga to discuss the situation arising out of the announcement of fine by the authorities. Regarding the bridge blown up the other day, the political agent said to reconnect the Landikotal Tehsil with the rest of the country, a road had been made in a dry stream over which the old bridge was built. The road would remain operational till the reconstruction of the century-old bridge.
After remaining suspended for 24 hours, the supplies to Nato and the US troops operating in Afghanistan were also restored through the newly-constructed road.A press release of the ISPR said Army engineers were working round-the-clock to complete the repair work on Ali Masjid Bridge within the next 72 hours.
The Army engineers, with the help of the Frontier Corps, are working day and night to complete the repair work on the ancient 110-year-old and 48-metre-long steel bridge over a culvert near Ali Masjid, which was blown up by militants late Monday night. All the required construction material and heavy machinery have been sent to the site, it said.
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Suuuuuuuurprise, suuuuuuurprise, surprise...
An academic whose estimates of civilian deaths during the Iraq war sparked controversy has been criticised for not fully co-operating with an inquiry.
Gilbert Burnham said in the Lancet medical journal in 2006 that 650,000 civilians had died since 2003 - a figure far higher than other estimates.
A polling association in the US said Dr Burnham had refused to supply "basic facts" for its inquiry into his work. Some "guy" told me. He seemed legit.
It did not comment on the accuracy of his conclusion. It didn't have to.
The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)began investigating Dr Burnham's work in March 2008 after a complaint by one of its members. His research was based on a survey of Iraqi households and concluded that by July 2006 about 655,000 Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the US-led invasion. The Iraqi government does not keep precise records of civilians killed and neither do US forces, but in 2006 the Iraqi health ministry estimated that between 100,000 to 150,000 civilians had died.
The AAPOR's executive council said in a statement carried by the Associated Press news agency: "When asked to provide several basic facts about this research, Burnham refused." It said it wanted to know the wording of questions asked and instructions and explanations given to respondents. "Dr Burnham provided only partial information and explicitly refused to provide complete information about the basic elements of his research," said Mary Losch, chair of the association's standards committee. She added that Dr Burnham's refusal to co-operate "violates the fundamental standards of science, seriously undermines open public debate on critical issues and undermines the credibility of all survey and public opinion research."
A spokesman for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where Dr Burnham works, said they were disappointed AAPOR had said he violated the code of ethics. However, the spokesman pointed out to AP that neither the researcher nor the school were members of the association. So I guess that makes it okay. Good day, sir...
The level of civilian casualties in Iraq has been a controversial issue ever since the US-led invasion of 2003.
For Dr Burnham's study, researchers spoke to more than 1,800 families comprising 12,800 people, comparing mortality rates in selected areas before and after the invasion. Its conclusion was undermined by allegations that the number of people surveyed was too small and that the authors may have inflated the figures for political reasons. Johnson! Stop the presses!!
The Lancet said it had no comment. Ummmmmmmmmmmm...we'll get back to you. When? Probably the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The independent Iraq Body Count, which counts only confirmed deaths, currently has a range of between 90,556 and 98,850. Well it took long enough but..heh...heh...heh...
Let me tell y'all how bad this is.
It's a clear rule in science, be it biomedical or physical, that you always, always, always are transparent in your methods. You report a summary of your methods in whatever paper you write, and you always, always, always make original methods and data available on request. The Lancet makes clear, in its instructions to authors, that data must be available on request by qualified investigators via the STROBE guidelines.
Dr. Burnham clearly violated the rules. He clearly should be sanctioned. His article is an embarrassment to Lancet and his behavior is disgraceful.
Equally bad is the fact that Lancet resisted questions about his article for years. This is going forward only now that Bush is out of office. Since the early 70s we've seen increasing cases of politicized science and maniupulated data. The result is that many people distrust science as a whole Understandable, but not the right response IMO.
The right response is to enforce the scientific method and the peer review and transparency that make it work.
#3
His research was based on a survey of Iraqi households and concluded that by July 2006 about 655,000 Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the US-led invasion.
...and then it goes on to talk about various other numbers.
It's a misleading quantatative discussion that avoids some qualitative questions, like how did the civilians in question die.
#4
A key element of what I've called A World Gone Stupid (TM) since shortly after 9/11.
What's most troubling is how "transparent" the fraudulence of these stunts has been. Whether it's these absurd inventions about Iraq, or AGW. The clown Hansen at NASA has been pulling shit like this for years, and yet has not been fired and shamed into silence.
Yet again, it was criminally incompetent of the Bush administration and DOD not to take this nonsense on directly, publicly, and in a vituperative manner guaranteed to get attention. The absurdity of the numbers, given the nature and size of military operations and violence in Iraq at the time, was one thing. But it was equally important to remind everyone that almost all of the killing, and virtually ALL of the killing of non-combatants, was being done by the enemy, not the Coalition.
Since we now are ruled by Beltway retards and affirmative action mediocrities who are especially ignorant and morally inverted in these matters, it will only be the occasional, obscure b-slap like this, from within their respective communities, that will do anything to correct the record.
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed after falling on a government report that showed U.S. inventories of the fuel jumped more than twice the amount analysts forecast. Supplies rose 7.2 million barrels to 346.1 million barrels last week, the highest since July 2007, according to the Energy Department yesterday. Inventories were forecast to climb 3 million barrels, the median of 14 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Prices rose earlier on signs OPEC is implementing a record production cut announced in December.
Weve got a tremendous surplus in oil supplies and it will only go higher, said Sean Brodrick, natural resource analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter, Florida. Demand is falling faster than OPEC and other producers can cut back.
Crude oil for March delivery fell 14 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $40.18 a barrel at 11:28 a.m. Sydney time on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures declined 46 cents, or 1.1 percent, to settle at $40.32 a barrel in New York yesterday. Prices are down 9.9 percent this year and 55 percent from a year ago.
The increase last week left stockpiles 15 percent higher than the five-year average for the period, the department said.
The price of oil for delivery in April is $3.92 a barrel higher than for March. December futures are up $13.29 from the front month. This structure, in which the future months price is higher than the one before it, is known as contango, and is often an indicator of oversupply.
The contango is fascinating, said Christopher Edmonds, the managing principal of FIG Partners Energy Research & Capital Group in Atlanta. It shows that a lot of investors are banking on the fact that the economy is getting better in the second half of the year. I dont know how realistic that is.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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investors are banking on the economy is getting better in the second half of the year
Or that the Steelworkers would not reach contract agreement with the refineries, resulting in supply disruption.
#2
I really think there's a huge bit of lying about fuel costs, first we hear the gas stations are losing due to reduced sales, and a brand new superstation is being built around the corner from my home? WTF?
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/05/2009 22:31
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Foreign militants are flooding from Iraq into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, the Afghan defense minister has said.
Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said there were about 15,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but their numbers were being swelled by foreign insurgents moving in from Iraq, where violence has fallen after a U.S. troop "surge" and other measures.
"Since last year, as the result of the success of the surge in Iraq, there has been a flow of foreign terrorists into Afghanistan," Wardak told a news conference. "There have been engagements...in 2008, and in some of these engagements, actually 60 percent of the total force which we have encountered were foreign fighters," he said.
Wardak was speaking after he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, U.S. General John Craddock.
There was a 33 percent rise in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in 2008, according to NATO-led forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Documents have surfaced in Egypt showing the world's most-wanted Nazi war criminal, concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim, died in Cairo in 1992, Germany's ZDF television and The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The report said Heim was living under a pseudonym and had converted to Islam by the time of his death from intestinal cancer. Found something even better than the old National Socialism?
(IsraelNN.com) Senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud A-Zahar has made no public appearances since the beginning of the Cast Lead counter-terror operation in Gaza. While other Hamas leaders have issued frequent condemnations of Israel and proclamations of victory, A-Zahar has remained silent, leading to theories that he was wounded or fled during the fighting. According to rumors that apparently began with an anonymous IDF report, A-Zahar was injured in an IDF strike during Cast Lead. He was secretly taken to an Egyptian hospital in Cairo for treatment. Pray for sepsis ...
Egyptian officials have denied that A-Zahar was in Cairo. Nope. Haven't seen him. But we'll say "hi" if we do...
Western diplomats told the Hebrew-language daily Maariv that A-Zahar had fled, fearing assassination. Other senior Hamas leaders were killed during the operation, including Nizar Rayyan and Said Siyam. A-Zahar escaped Gaza by hiding in an ambulance headed for Egypt, the sources said. He even disguised himself by shaving his beard, they added. Did he put Wart-Be-Gone on his nose? Was he wearing his Mom's best clothes?
If A-Zahar is in hiding, he may have fled to El-Arish -- his mother's hometown, located in the Sinai Peninsula. Hi, ma! I'm home! Hide me! "You can have your housecoat back now."
If A-Zahar is found to have fled Gaza during the IDF operation, he is likely to lose much of his public support, analysts pointed out. That'll last about a month, given the Paleo attention span.
In such a scenario, they said, he would be rejected by both Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah. Really? That doesn't seem to affect the Heroes of Damascus.
Hamas denies that A-Zahar fled, or that he was wounded in Cast Lead. Maybe it's a situation like "Sleeper". Maybe he got blown up and all they saved was the wart and now they gotta figure out how to clone him.
This article starring:
MAHMUD A ZAHAR
Hamas
NIZAR RAIYAN
Hamas
SAID SIYAM
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
All he's got to say is "kill the juice" and he's back in the fold.
Walid Nouar and Christian Ganczarski, a German covert to Islam, face stiff sentences Thursday, when a Paris court decides their role in the deadly 2002 suicide bomb attack in Tunisia, international press reported on Wednesday (February 4th). On April 11th, 2002, Nouar's brother drove a fuel-filled tanker into a synagogue on the Tunisian vacation island of Djerba, killing 14 Germans, five Tunisians and two French citizens. The purported mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, Pakistani Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is charged with planning the Djerba attack, but the Paris court chose not try him in absentia.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks barking up the wrong tree if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
MK Narayanan, Indias national security advisor, said that the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies in a bid to bring about improved ties between the two nuclear armed neighbours.
I do think that we could make President Obama understand, if he does nurse any such view, that he is barking up the wrong tree. I think Kashmir today has become one of the quieter and safer places in this part of the world, Mr Narayanan said in an interview with CNBC TV18.
Its possible that at this time there are elements, perhaps in the administration who are harking back to the pre-2000 era.
The warning comes as Richard Holbrooke, Mr Obamas special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, prepares to come to the region for the first time in his new capacity. Mr Narayanan is close to Manmohan Singh, Indias prime minister, and Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress Party.
Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two wars and where both countries mass troops, is a highly sensitive issue for New Delhi.
Last month, David Miliband, the UKs foreign secretary, angered the Indian government by saying that the unresolved dispute over Kashmir was a cause of terrorism in the region. Its vilification of Mr Miliband was interpreted as a tacit signal to Washington to keep out.
Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority, was claimed by both India and Pakistan following partition in 1947 at the end of British rule. Since 1989 New Delhi has been battling a separatist insurgency in a struggle estimated to have cost up to 70,000 lives.
Earlier this year large anti-India protests drew up to 500,000 people onto the streets and led to the imposition of a long curfew. But New Delhi was encouraged by a largely peaceful state election late last year that recorded a better than expected voter turnout.
References made by president Obama, which seem to suggest that there is some kind of link with settlement on Pakistans western border and the Kashmir issue certainly have caused concern, said Mr Narayanan. But he said the new US administration and India had yet to have direct contact over the issue.
C. Raja Mohan, professor of international relations at Singapores Nanyang University, said New Delhis treatment of Mr Miliband had helped persuade Washington to abandon any overt linkage of the Kashmir dispute with combating extremism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Washingtons decision to drop India from formal inclusion in Mr Holbrookes special envoy mandate reflected these sensitivities.
You kill a chicken to scare a monkey, Mr Mohan said at a recent seminar in New Delhi on US relations with South Asia. We killed the chicken and the monkey got the message.
Mr Mohan said India and Pakistan had agreed a basic outline of a peace deal on Kashmir during the tenure of Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf, but that the process had faltered as Mr Musharraf had weakenend and finally lost power.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/05/2009
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#1
I sure hope BO doesn't f*ck up our nascent partnership with India, but Ima feared he will.
#5
And so one of the most consequential strategic accomplishments of the Bush years is put at risk, right off the bat, by the empty suits who've been rewarded with power after years of clueless and dishonorable behavior.
The British Council has stopped work in Iran because of "intimidation and harassment" of its staff by the Iranian government, it will be announced today. The cultural and educational centre decided to close its doors in Tehran after its entire local staff of 16 was summoned by security officials to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office at the end of December and ordered to resign.
"An order of that kind in present circumstances in Iran is not something you can refuse ... If not explicit, there was an implicit 'or else'," the British Council's chief executive, Martin Davidson, told the Guardian. "Once the security apparatus begins to display threatening behaviour to local members of staff who have no real protection, then that is unacceptable."
The British Council's withdrawal from Iran marks the lowest point in Iranian-UK relations since Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines two years ago. Even during that crisis the Tehran office continued to operate, providing a library, English language learning centre, and guidance for Iranians applying to study in Britain.
Today's announcement has echoes of the closure of offices in two Russian cities a year ago, under similar pressure. But the British Council has continued its work in Moscow despite the cooling of relations. There are also British Council centres in Zimbabwe and Burma. Iran is the only country in which the council has been stopped from working altogether.
"This is really the culmination of two years of pressure from the authorities on our operations. They first refused to issue visas for our UK director to go in. They then began to put pressure on our Iranian partners to slow down or cancel work with us," Davidson said. Shortly before the staff were ordered to resign, passports were confiscated from two employees as they attempted to leave the country to attend what the British Council described as a "routine meeting". Davidson said he was hoping for an opportunity to talk to the Iranian government about resuming work there. An Iranian embassy spokesman in London said yesterday that he had been unable to get a response from Tehran to questions about the British Council's closure.
The British Council was invited to open an office in 2001 and has organised joint educational events and exhibitions on the arts and climate change. There are 2,000 Iranian students in Britain and at the time of the closure of its Tehran office, the British Council was working with the state education system, organising a course for 40 teacher trainers. It was about to launch a co-operation scheme involving universities in both countries. Noting that Iran was operating cultural centres in Britain, Davidson said: "Cultural exchange should be a two-way street, not just one-way."
Distrust of Britain in Iranian official circles goes back to colonial days. State-sponsored media often accuse British intelligence of being behind acts of sabotage and attacks by rebels in its provinces, and Britain is blamed for rallying UN security council support for sanctions resolutions aimed at Iran's nuclear programme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2009
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Unknown gunmen shoot and kill the managing director of a local radio station while injuring another at Mogadishu's Bakara market. What's the frequency, Achmed?
The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon as three unidentified armed men opened fire in the biggest trading center in Somalia. The attack accordingly claimed the head of HornAfrik radio, Said Tahlil Ahmed, and left the managing director of Shabelle radio, Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, slightly wounded, a Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported.
The Wednesday assault took place between Dahabshiil building and Nation Link Telecom building as the managing directors of various local radio channels were heading back to their stations following a meeting at a bazaar's building. The meeting had earlier been called by senior al-Shabaab officials.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the assassination and the motive behind the murder remains unknown.
Said Tahliil Ahmed is the second media person killed in Mogadishu so far this year. Weeks ago, insurgents had targeted Shabelle radio reporter, Hassan Mayow, in the Somali capital.
The wave of killing and injuring media people in lawless Somalia is an intentionally organized drive to silence journalistic voice in the Horn of Africa state.
HornAfrik takes pride on its journalistic independence. According to the BBC, its broadcasts have in the past 'angered both the government as well as the opposition.'
Last year, former managing director of HornAfrik radio, Ali Iman Sharmarke, and his colleague, Mahad Ahmed Elmi, were assassinated in Mogadishu.
Elmi was gunned down by two assailants as he headed for work. A few hours later, Sharmarke was killed as explosives planet in his car went off on his way back from Emil's funeral.
Two other Somali journalists, one working for Reuters and the other for Voice of America who were traveling with Sharmarke, were injured in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
In never ceases to amaze me that they still have the amenities of normalcy in Somalia, like radio. Next thing you know they will have a Coke bottling plant.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/05/2009 10:30
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Panasonic Corp. said Wednesday it will slash 15,000 jobs and shut down 27 plants worldwide to cope with plunging demand for its TVs, semiconductors and other electronics products.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
Perspective: They amount to about 5 percent of its 300,000-strong global work force.
A policeman accused of killing Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu broke down in court yesterday as he accused 'important witnesses' of lying to pin the full blame on him. Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar also denied shooting Ms Altantuya, 28, and blowing up her body with explosives in a jungle in Puncak Alam here between 10pm on Oct19 and 1am on Oct 20, 2006.
He said he was involved in the matter only because it was a request from a superior officer who is also an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Sirul, 36, said he had agreed to patrol the house of political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, when another accused, chief inspector Azilah Hadri, 32, told him that the directive came from Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Musa Safri.
Sirul and Azilah were accused of killing Mr Abdul Razak's former lover, Ms Altantuya. Mr Abdul Razak, a close friend of Datuk Seri Najib, was acquitted of abetting the murder last year. The close affiliations with Mr Najib had given his political enemies opportunities to drag him into the case.
In his testimony on Jan 15, Azilah denied killing Ms Altantuya and said he had never planned to do so.
Azilah also stated that DSP Musa had asked him to help Mr Abdul Razak.
As Sirul read out his 15-page testimony from the dock without taking oath yesterday, he said he never knew Ms Altantuya or Mr Abdul Razak.
He broke down when he appealed to the court to have mercy on him as he had been made a 'scapegoat' in the case to protect those with the cruel intention of killing the Mongolian woman.
'I appeal to this court to take into consideration that throughout the trial, I had followed the proceedings and witnessed how several important prosecution witnesses, especially those from the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters, made up stories, lied and constantly changed their stories during cross-examination.
'I did not have any intention to harm or even take the victim's life with such cruelty,' Sirul said in between sobs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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The NWFP government on Wednesday decided to provide Rs10 million to help the affectees of Swat operation. Meanwhile, authorities started the registration of displaced people in all major cities of the province. Provincial Minister Sitara Imran told Geo news that government would provide meal to every person at Mangora refugees camp. The government will further make stay arrangements for around 1000 refugees in Jalozai Camp set up in District Nowshehra, she announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
What does it take to be an afectee? Where can I sign up?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/05/2009 10:47
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Wednesday arrested six men, who are wanted on criminal and terror-related charges, in Basra province, the media office of Basra's police said on Wednesday. "Police forces conducted a raid search in different parts of Basra, during which six wanted men were arrested," the office told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The forces seized 1.5 kg of TNT explosives," it noted. "It also seized 10 rifles, hand grenades, pistols and an amount of ammunition and arrested more than 30 wanted men from Jan. 28- Feb. 3," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed criticism of US and Nato-led forces on Wednesday and said he was determined his government would take a stronger role in the deployment and work of foreign troops.
Last month, Karzai's government presented a draft proposal to Nato with a list of measures aimed at preventing civilian casualties, including a demand that arrests of all Afghan nationals be made by Afghan security forces only and that there be "high-level" co-ordination of air strikes. "Our demands are clear and they are that house searches of Afghans, arrests of Afghans and civilian casualties must cease. And they (US and Nato countries) are naturally putting on pressure to make us silent and retract from this claim. This is not possible," Karzai said.
Taliban attacks rose by 33 percent last year, according to Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, with casualties among foreign soldiers, Afghan forces and civilians alike, all up from 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
Reminder: the general objectives that led to the September 11, 2001 were drawn up in Afghanistan, while that country's government harbored the planners. Americans do NOT have to be magnanimous toward the successor government.
President Barack Obama's closest economic advisers are signaling that the financial crisis will require more money and more U.S. government intervention to correct. I, for one, am surprised---what it didn't take them longer to admit it.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Taliban fighters seized control of the Shamozai area on Wednesday after a day-long siege and fierce battles in the northwest Swat Valley. The militants seized control of a police checkpoint, blew it up and abducted 30 policemen.
The action is seen as retaliation after the army recently intensified its operation in the Swat Valley to re-take it from militants, following massive Western pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on extremists in the northwest of the country. "This is a serious offence and the state wil re-establish its writ at all costs," said a security official in Swat on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The official said the local population has been given 24 hours to evacuate Shamozai before the military carries out a major air and ground offensive to recapture the town "very shortly".
Several areas of Swat are reported to remain under curfew for the eleventh day amid the evacuation of locals on a massive scale and continued shelling of militants' hideouts.
"There is a revolt in the Federally administered tribal areas (FATA) and in North West Frontier Province and the masses should be awakened and prepared to face all kind of situations," the chief minister of NWFP, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, said in a statement issued shortly after the fall of Shamozai.
Hoti's comments came as militants destroyed 10 container trucks of NATO supplies in the Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan. The militants set fire to the trucks in a parking lot early on Wednesday.
The 10 trucks had managed on Tuesday to cross a bridge in the Khyber pass before this was blown up by militants, severing a key NATO supply route.
Officials estimate it will take at least 10 days to rebuild the bridge, located near the Ali Masjid fort on the strategic Peshawar-Torkham Road.
Every day 300 to 400 NATO supply containers are dispatched from two ports, Bin Qasim and Karachi Port, both situated in Karachi, bound for the Afgan cities of Kandahar and Kabul.
Eighty percent of NATO supplies pass through Khyber Agency on their way to the biggest American base in Bagram, Afghanistan and to Kandahar Airfield through Quetta and Chaman.
A large part of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province is now in the hands of Taliban militants, who are preparing to use it as their base for a fresh Spring offensive against NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Abducted policemen released in Pakistan
Taliban have released 30 Pakistani security personnel who were taken hostage in an overnight operation in the restive Swat valley. Taliban Spokesman Muslim Khan said Wednesday that the decision was made after the men promised to halt their cooperation with the Islamabad government and quit their jobs, A Press TV correspondent reported. The men were abducted after hundreds of insurgents took over a police station in the Shamoza area in the troubled valley on late Tuesday after a daylong gun battle.
This article starring:
MUSLIM KHAN
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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The city of Costa Mesa has agreed to waive all fees and allow my daughter to get her out of impound and returned to her rightful ownership.
IT was approximately $1550 plus other admin costs, which now can be spent on that which she had originally intended it....on her pursuit of a degree and either an MBA or a Juris Doctorate...
Thanks for all of your concerns and advice. I would also like to think that being embarrassed by the public scrutiny for their money grubbing ways on Rantburg also contributed to this largess
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/05/2009
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#1
What is this story about, mods?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/05/2009 6:35
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#2
his daughter's car was impounded - personal rant
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2009 7:01
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#3
No worries, we made a few calls and the fix was in.
#7
It's nice you'll be able to keep the Benz and hold onto a few dollars with the California income tax rebate IOU and all. I wonder how many Californians will be changing thier W-4 Withholding tax? Ole 2009 might be a real lean year for the California tax coffers.
She went from shear terror and tears of frustration and fear to tears of joy when she got the call from the Costa Mesa police.
I personally think that someone on the Police Dept smelled a rat. She'd only lived in that apartment about two weeks and a policeman drives down an alley to find her car? Personally the person that deserves the thanks is the police LT that thought something was fishy and did some checking...obviously...some kind of scam and kick back scheme with some tow service.
Anyway, next time I'll post something more meaty and interesting to the "Burg" in general.
Posted by: James Carville ||
02/05/2009 20:56
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Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate are at odds over Obama's proposed financial stimulus package, exceeding over $900 billion.
Late on Tuesday, senators attached to the proposals an extra $11 billion in tax benefits for those buying new cars and also approved $6.5 billion for the National Institute of Health.
That pushed the value of the plan, aimed at pulling the US out of its current economic malaise, from $884 billion to more than 900 billion. A week ago, the House of Representatives adopted a plan worth $819 billion.
The rising cost of the package, however, has triggered calls for its total cost to be slashed with some Republicans calling for a complete overhaul of the Democrat-drafted text.
Some of the major changes to the 900 billion-dollar economic stimulus package proposed by opponents in the Senate would strip off a provision that would have provided $246 million in tax breaks for Hollywood studios for writing off production costs.
The opponents also refused to add a provision that would have temporarily cut the tax rate to 5.25 percent from 35 percent on profits companies earn overseas and bring back to the United States.
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama urged Congress to pass the bill saying the economic situation is too dire for any foot-dragging, but he is said to be open to "nips and tucks" in the massive plan.
According to a Rasmussen poll published on Wednesday, 50 percent of voters think this stimulus plan -- the second such plan after a 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout approved under the Bush administration in October -- could make things worse.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
I think the $900 billion bailout plan will be very helpful for the economy.
#4
It doesn't matter a whole lot what kind of spending (pork, whatever) is in the stimulus package; the point is to get the money out there moving around. For the past decade the escalating housing prices caused people to spend money (money they did not have) and thus stimulate the economy. Now even those of us who could afford to spend money are saving more instead. So, if the little people won't/can't spend, the politicians will have to do it for us.
(I am not being entirely sarcastic with that; but I am skeptical that bubbles and other artificially stimulated economies are optimal in the long term.)
#7
Bosoeker, I think idiot Pelosi mis-spoke from her "script" again. As pointed out in yesterday's Pelosi thread, there was a link to "Newsbusters" that showed she previously said 500 MILLION in a Sunday Morning one-on-one interview with Chris Wallace of Fox. This was on )1/18/09, better than 2 weeks ago. I think her Alzeimers is kicking in..
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
02/05/2009 8:47
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#8
I'll go with Alzheimer's and dementia. No problem.
#9
Fine, Glenmore. Then they can cut my taxes and I'll go out and spend the money on MY priorities. Since it doesn't matter how it's spent, you Keynesian you.
#10
Printing money and increasing taxes while giving money to the indolent and lazy is destructive to the economy. When the government prints money and increases debt inflation increases. Go back and read the simple records of the French Revolution with the opulence of the wealthy. True production of goods and services increases the economy. Do your research. Socialism is a failure in the historical setting. Northern Europe is in chaos financially
#11
I think if there is going to be a stimulus then it needs to be directed to our manufacturing industry. Much like how oil is an imported resource that we need to remove our dependence on, product manufacturing resources need to be brought back home. I was reading articles over at americanboom.com about what a devastating effect moving these jobs over seas has caused. And it is not exactly all of the "big" companies fault, if Americans were willing to pay a little more for products made here than those jobs may have not ended up over seas.
Posted by: Anthony ||
02/05/2009 11:04
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#12
mojo,
I am not actually a Keynsian, I was just taking that position for the sake of discussion. ASSUMING Keynsianism, then cutting taxes and letting YOU choose how to spend your money would not work, since you might choose to SAVE it (perhaps not the wisest choice in times of runaway inflation, which is the ultimate result of printing more money, but ...) If the GOVERNMENT takes your money (from your savings, via inflation, or from your income, via taxes) they can be sure it was getting spent and 'stimulating' the economy.
In my real opinion, the economic system is too complex to 'manage' and in the long run we'd probably be better off not even trying - but that causes discomfort, even pain, to lots of people, making 'management' a very appealing political position.
#13
Government spending is only stimulative when it is spent. Most of the spending won't hit for at least a year if not more. And of course the big O is right that the tax cuts won't help, at least the tax cuts they have in the bill, they are too marginal. $10-15 more in paycheck? That's not going to change spending habits. There are two issues that need to be addressed first and foremost, first is the housing markets. They need to be jumpstarted to stop the freefall in homeowner equity. How best to do that? I don't know the best way, but $15k in tax deductions for buying a home should help some. We could burn down all of the vacant homes, haha, that actually would help a lot. Except it would be pretty CO2 heavy! The second thing that needs to be fixed is the liquidity in the banks. The reason banks aren't loaning isn't because they are scared (although they are) but it is because they don't have the reserves. How do you fix that? Good question. The answer I believe is you don't, wait for the bad paper to clear out of the system. Let the fever run its course, so to speak. And of course all of the stimulus supporters completely ignore the downside to this spending. Inflation. And it's going to be huge inflation. Guaranteed. Even Keynes knows that high inflation follows high government borrowing/spending. Oh and giving people who don't pay taxes a tax credit? That will help China more than anything. BTW, I have a 'shovel-ready' project O could fund. I own a lot and I am ready to build. But I can't until I sell my current home.
Singapore's deputy prime minister says the city-state plans to build a new prison within five years for terror detainees after a suspect escaped custody last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian-led bloc of post-Soviet nations has agreed to establish a rapid-reaction military force to combat terrorists and respond to regional emergencies, Russian media reported Wednesday. On Wednesday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- decided on the rapid-reaction force at a Kremlin summit, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
Quick: what's seven times nothing?
The group's security council "spent a long time discussing the central issue of forming collective reaction forces and, generally, of rapid reaction to possible threats," said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, according to Russian news agency Interfax. "Everyone agreed that the formation of joint forces is necessary," he said.
Officials told Russian media that all the members had signed the agreement, though Uzbekistan submitted a special provision. Uzbekistan doesn't mind contributing military units to the rapid-reaction force "but does not consider it necessary for the moment" to attach emergency responders, drug-control forces and other special services, organization spokesman Vitaly Strugovets told Interfax.
Russian media reported that the force will be used to fight military aggressors, conduct anti-terror operations, battle regional drug trafficking and respond to natural disasters. The force will be based in Russia under a single command, with member nations contributing military units.
With Vlad's most trusted general in charge.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2009
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#1
"Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan"
After announcing $2 billion in loans from Russia, the president of Kyrgyzstan announced the United States will no longer have access to the Manas air base, the lone base U.S. commanders have permission to use in Central Asia and a key supply line for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
"More than once we have discussed with our American partners the subject of the economic compensation to Kyrgyzstan for the presence [of the U.S. base], but unfortunately, we did not find an understanding from the United States," Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Tuesday. "For over three years, we have been talking of the need to review the terms of the agreement, which do not satisfy us completely, yet we have not seen an understanding from the United States."
Less than 24 hours later, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he and his ex-Soviet allies want to cooperate with Washington in Afghanistan in return for no expansion among NATO membership and a U.S. reversal on a missile defense shield for Europe that Russia opposes.
"Missile defense is a piece of it," said George Friedman, CEO of Stratfor Security. "The entire question that's on the table here is will the U.S. recognize the Russians' sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union in return for providing a supply line into Afghanistan?"
#8
Azerbaijan has got to be feeling the cold sweats tonight. Armenia just signed the practical equivalent of a military alliance with Azerbaijan's Caspian neighbors, or at least, those of them other than Iran and Turkmenistan. Couple that with last year's little demonstration in Georgia and Azerbaijan's backed into a corner.
I betcha we're going to see a Turkish/Persian axis in a few months, if Obama can't back up the implicit Bush/Clinton alliance with Azerbaijan. The Kyrgyz eggsplat doesn't bode well for *that* bet.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 12:39
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#10
Why would the Azeris sweat. They are going to be rich and can afford to swamp the Armenians. It's the Armenians who need the alliance w/ the Russians. Armenia is land locked and surrounded by muslims except for Georgia, and that route is definitely closed to any Russian help.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 14:09
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#11
They should be sweating because the Azeris can't fight for shit & their wealth is dependent upon secure pipelines which the Georgia war just demonstrated to be easily disruptable, and a Caspian oil industry shared by, oh, you know, all the other members of this new "anti-terrorism force". Armenia's dependence upon Russian handouts isn't anything new. They've got a Russian division or two parked in their backyard. But Armenia's membership in a Warsaw Pact Part II with the non-Turkish members of the post-Soviet Near East *is* new.
Look, I'd prefer to favor the Armenian cause. They're plucky, pugnacious, resilient, and a regional underdog. But they've got some damned poisonous relations with the Azeris & their deal with the Russian devil puts them firmly into the category of international "black hats".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 17:06
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Two gunshots were fired at the 'Sinai' Jewish center in Amstelveen, Holland overnight Tuesday, Bnei Akiva emissary Nadav Hardov told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. No one was wounded in the incident, and the bullet holes in a window were only discovered on Wednesday morning when a maintenance man arrived at the premises.
Hardov, who also works with the Jewish Agency, said that police were investigating the alleged shooting, and did not yet know whether anti-Semitic or anti-Israel motives were behind it.
Approximately 30,000 Jews live in the Netherlands.
Not for much longer ...
In Istanbul, meanwhile, Turkey's main Jewish group urged the state Wednesday to prosecute what it called anti-Semitic acts linked to the IDF's Gaza operation. The group, Musevi Cemaati, or Jewish Community in Turkish, said that some Turkish "fringe" newspapers and other media were continuing to disseminate anti-Semitic messages, including terms such as "bloody Jews" and criticism of the Torah.
Silvyo Ovadya, the head of Musevi Cemaati, said last week in an interview with Haberturk television that there were several hundred examples of recently published articles with anti-Semitic messages linked to the Gaza war.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
Visit or go shopping in The Hague. You'll see 30,000 mooslims before lunch.
Better yet take the train to Rotterdam and walk through the station and try to count the number of tall, white Dutchmen and ladies - you'll only need your left hand. But you'll need a Cray computer for all the Muzzies.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/05/2009 10:33
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#4
Dutch were big contributors to the Waffen SS...
#5
#4 Dutch were big contributors to the Waffen SS... Posted by: borgboy
They were also the second most active resistance fighters in WWII, behind the Norweigans and ahead of the Yugoslavians, Danes, French, Poles, Romanians, Hungarians, Russians, and Belgians - in that order, IIRC.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2009 12:18
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#6
Roumanians and Hungarians poured in severqal divisions into "Operation Blue" - the '42 offensive against Stalingrad and the Caucasus. As far as the Poles and Russians, if they looked cockeyed at a German they were shot as they were considereed untermenschen. Dutch were considered "Aryan" and were allowed much more leeway...
Experts from nine countries including the United States, Britain and France met in Copenhagen Wednesday to discuss ways of combating weapons smuggling into Gaza, the Danish foreign ministry said.
The meeting took place amid calls for demonstrations in Copenhagen denouncing what organizers called "the Danish government's one-sided acceptance of a pro-Israeli agenda."
The Initiative for a Free Palestine group sent out flyers calling for protests at the Danish foreign ministry to highlight the right of the Gaza population to defend itself from Israeli aggression.
" At the same time, it is important to ensure that an opening of the borders does not entail that the population of Gaza once again risk to be taken hostage by fighting initiated by Hamas "
Per Stig Moeller
No political decisions are expected at the two-day conference, which will focus more on arms trafficking from the sea than the underground tunnels between Egypt and the Palestinian territory.
The meeting "will seek to map the challenges related to illicit arms trafficking to Gaza, including the political, juridical, diplomatic and technical aspects of potential international contributions to handle this challenge," the ministry said in a statement.
The countries attending the meeting were invited for their "maritime expertise," the ministry said. The experts come from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
They would do better to get geotechnical and sensor experts together. With some explosives experts thrown in.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) condemned Wednesday Hamas' confiscation of aid supplies as the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a $600 million reconstruction program for Gaza.
Stolen aid
" UNRWA condemns in the strongest terms the confiscation of its aid supplies and has demanded that it is returned immediately "
UNRWA
UNRWA said Hamas had seized hundreds of food parcels and thousands of blankets destined for Gaza civilians in the wake of Israel's war and demanded their immediate return. "At 14:30 on 3 February, over 3,500 blankets and 406 food parcels were confiscated from a distribution store at Beach Camp in Gaza by police personnel," it said in a statement.
"This took place after UNRWA staff had earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run ministry of social affairs. "The police subsequently broke into the warehouse and seized the aid by force. The aid was due to be distributed to five hundred families in the area," UNRWA said.
"UNRWA condemns in the strongest terms the confiscation of its aid supplies and has demanded that it is returned immediately." Or...what?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/05/2009 10:48
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#3
When playing tennis and playing by the rules of the game, your opponent needs to follow the rules to make the game a challenge. When I follow the rules and the opponent violates the rules the game turns into chaos. Read the Koran and read the history of the movement. Go back to the great movement of Islam in the 1000-1100 and trace the militant journey across Afica, through Spain, and into Eastern Europe.
Two terrorists surrendered to Algerian security services in Beni Bouatab, between Ghilizane and Ain Defla in Chlef province, El Khabar reported on Wednesday (February 4th). The repentant terrorists reportedly fled suspicious comrades to turn themselves in and benefit from the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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The House Democratic Caucus spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money over the past five years for its annual retreats at resorts in Pennsylvania and Virginia. On Thursday, Democrats will head to the Kingsmill Resort and Spa in historic Williamsburg, Va., for the three-day planning powwow. The resort boasts multiple championship golf courses, a full-service spa and six restaurants.
Individual lawmakers pay for most of the expenses related to retreat lodging through their campaign committees, but the Democratic Caucus subsidizes some of the costs for what aides consider "official business" -- to the tune of nearly $100,000 each year, according to a Democratic aide involved in retreat planning.
Good thing they aren't Wall Street bankers. Imagine the outcry ...
For instance, the caucus picks up the hefty transportation tab, as well as the thousands of dollars in expenses each year for guest speakers, food and entertainment, according to financial disbursement records.
The situation in Sri Lanka certainly looks as though the war with the Tamil Tigers is almost over, although over the last 25 years the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have demonstrated the ability to recover from adversity several times.
The Tamil Tigers certainly seem to be on the back foot, but even if they are crushed militarily, major questions will remain about the future political make-up of the island, and the conflict will remain unresolved in the long term.
The quest for meaningful devolution of power is one that has dominated Tamil politics since the mid-1970s, since parliamentary options were effectively closed, leading to armed conflict between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan armed forces.
The role of both Norway and neighbouring India needs to be brought back into the picture in order to help broker a lasting peace. Although India has its domestic problems at the moment - such as tensions with Pakistan and forthcoming elections, its interests in regional stability should be used as a positive influence in Sri Lankan politics.
Clearly, there is a significant danger in Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa assuming all-out victory. The increased attacks on journalists also echo the darkest days of the Premadasa regime in the 1990s, an era that ultimately led to war resuming with an even mightier force on both sides.
The Sinhalese could certainly be stupid enough to throw away the chance they have to reunite the island. So too the defeated Tamils could swear that the next generation will get Dire Revenge and continue the fight with boom-babes and assassins.
However, bringing India and Norway back into the picture only makes continued strife inevitable. They'd call for endless negotiations and compromise. The eyes of the world community would be on them. They might even be unfortunate enough to have a special rapper from the U.N. take up residence in Colombo. All of that guarantees more trouble.
The government must now say that peaceful Tamils will be protected and that all citizens on the island, Sinhalese and Tamil, will have their basic rights guaranteed. That means a vote in the parliament, protection in the courts and the right to say and think what they wish. If the government does that Sri Lanka will return to being a far-off island with tropical breezes and white-sand beaches. If they don't, it won't matter what anyone else does.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2009
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > LTTE, SRI LANKA, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL OF THE INDIAN OCEAN + INDIA AND CHINA FACE OFF IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.
ALso on PDF > SOUTH ASIA AFTER 26/11 [Mumbai Attack = Its not good news].
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa proclaimed in an Independence Day message on Wednesday that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam would be "completely defeated in a few days," potentially signaling an end to a 25-year insurgency that is one of the world's longest ongoing conflicts.
The rebel's last holdouts are penned into a small zone in the north of the island nation, and reports from the war zone indicate that they are close to being overrun amid fierce fighting with government forces. Civilian casualties have been significant: United Nations officials said that 52 civilians were killed in the past day, and that cluster bombs had struck a hospital.
But Rajapaksa used Sri Lanka's national day to emphasize that the end of fighting might be near. Government forces have taken over major rebel-held areas and cornered the Tamil Tigers in a 120-square-mile stretch of coastal land -- though analysts say guerrilla fighting might persist for months. International diplomats have begun urging the government to turn its focus from conflict to crafting a truce agreement with the rebels, increasing humanitarian help for those caught in the war zone and negotiating a long-term agreement with the country's Tamil minority.
"For nearly three decades, we were forced to celebrate independence with an illegal armed group operating in our country," said Rajapaksa, who spoke from a heavily secured beachfront stage, guarded by tanks and navy ships, as 4,200 decorated service members marched in a military parade. "We have now been able, within a short period of 2 1/2 years, to completely defeat the cowardly forces of terror."
He also appeared to reach out to hundreds of thousands of minority ethnic Tamils who have sought political asylum in the West. "At this moment I urge all Sri Lankans from all communities who fled the country because of the war to return to their motherland," Rajapaksa said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
ION SRI LANKA, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > SRI LANKAN ARMY CAPTURES REBEL SUBMARINES - THE TAMIL TIGERS HAD SUBMARINES [covert Midget/Mini-Sub factory]! PDF POSTERS MAJORILY SUSPECT EITHER INDIA ANDOR ISRAEL as likely foreign source since the Tamil Tigers as a Militant org are gener viewed as NOT being TECH-SAAVY???
OTHER > Tamil Tigers notsomuch "defeated" as stopping their armed campaigns for a time and going into deep cover [e.g. HAMAS = POLITICAL?].
The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday claimed to have killed six people, including three Indian engineers, in Mandozai area of the Khost province.
A senior Taliban commander, who wished not to be named, called The News from an undisclosed location and claimed they blew up a pick-up truck, carrying three Indian engineers and their two Afghan security guards and a translator to the site.
He said the Indian engineers were working on the India-sponsored Rs 100 million Khost-Kabul Road. "We had warned them earlier through local tribal elders not to work on the road project as by doing so they would be helping the US forces in strengthening their roots in Khost province," remarked the Taliban commander.
He said his men had planted an improvised explosive device to hit the latest model pick-up truck. "We want to make it clear that Taliban will not allow foreign construction companies to work in our country where our people are fighting the US-led occupation forces," the militant commander explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
Not as dangerous as in the USA. Over 125 highway workers each year are killed while on the job. Careless drivers mostly. Keep that in mind next time your driving and you see the "work ahead" sign. This public service announcement brought to you by an ex-construction industry rantburger.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/05/2009 10:29
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#2
Jack, the three construction workers killed in Colorado Springs all died from "freak accidents". Two were killed when a crane overturned. I don't remember how the third one died, but it was some kind of weird accident. Construction work is dangerous. When you add in the hazard of people shooting at you and blowing things up, it gets REALLY dangerous. The taliban continue to prove to the entire world they're just a half-step up from rabid animals.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2009 11:57
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Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Wednesday called for new talks between major powers aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The ancestors of these creatures were British. If it keeps the nattering lefties employed and out of the way it's worth it ...
I suspect it isn't quite so benign.
Obama's signalled his hostility to our nuclear arsenal. And this is only one of many steps that will be pushed forward now that he's in the White House. For instance, the UN has pushed for years to try to force the US to register and restrict private ownership of small arms including handguns for self defense.
Another important dimension to the anti-nuclear movement is the desire by many to neutralize Israel's only deterrent against the Arab masses who threaten its very survival and that of Jews around the world. Nukes are horrible, genocide's pretty bad too even if it's "only" aimed at the Jews.
#1
It must be nice to have a bigger, heavily armed brother so one can go and stupid shit, like walking naked in bad neighborhoods w/ nothing but gold chains. I'm sure Obama's got your back Britain.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2009 13:25
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#2
Well I'm sure everyone will agree except China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea . . . and Israel. The Brits have become morons. Obama is exactly the same.
(AKI) - Philippine vice-president Manuel "Noli" De Castro on Wednesday said he was prepared to go into the jungles in the country's south to negotiate the release of three aid workers being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants.
The Red Cross workers, Italian Eugenio Vagni, Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba were abducted from their car on the Muslim-majority island of Jolo after a humanitarian visit to a local prison three weeks ago.
"Our government is doing everything to rescue and free the victims as soon as possible," De Castro said. "If I can help to secure their release, I am wholeheartedly ready to render my service and assistance."
De Castro released a statement a day after kidnappers allegedly claimed that they were open to talks but demanded the vice president head the government negotiation panel.
According to the Philippines' GMTV, De Castro said he needed the authorisation of the army but he wanted to uphold the government's policy that no ransom should be paid to the kidnappers.
The request for De Castro's involvement is believed to have come from Albader Parad, one of the leaders of Abu Sayyaf, who was interviewed by telephone by journalist Arlyn dela Cruz from the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, published on Wednesday.
Dela Cruz said that Parad passed the telephone to the aid workers and he spoke to Andreas Notter and Mary Jean Lacaba but they could not communicate because the line was unclear. However, he confirmed that the three hostages were in good health.
"We are fine," Andreas Notter reportedly told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in the telephone interview.
"They treat us fine, but my colleagues suffered severe diarrhoea," Notter said, adding that his fellow captives were now doing better after their office sent medication.
Parad also invited the Italian Ambassador, Rubens Anna Fedele, to join a team headed by De Castro and meet him.
De Castro seems to have been chosed because he played the role of mediator in 2000 and helped negotiate the release of several people kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf.
Notter, 38, was kidnapped on January 15 along with Eugenio Vagni, 62, and Mary-Jean Lacaba, 37, while on a humanitarian mission on the southern island of Jolo for the Red Cross.
He said all three were being held together, and were allowed to regularly call their families and colleagues.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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North Korea is believed to be preparing to test a Taepodong-2 missile from a launch pad at Musudanri in northeastern North Hamkyong Province, a Seoul newspaper reported Wednesday. ''A U.S. reconnaissance satellite has recently detected the movement, from a missile factory near Pyongyang, of a train carrying large cylinder-shaped objects, believed to be rockets for the Taepodong-2 missile,'' the Chosun Ilbo quoted a South Korean government source as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009
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#1
This would be a great chance for a live-fire test of the AEGIS ABM refit. Would it *technically* be an act of war to interfere in a weapons test like that?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/05/2009 10:45
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
A woman in South Korea who has taken the written exam required for a driver's license nearly every day since 2005 has failed again but is hoping attempt No. 772 will be the charm.
Talk about great timing.
Evil al-Qaeda chiefs are raping young male converts to shame them into becoming suicide bombers, it emerged yesterday. 
A top Islamic Jihad commander was killed by IDF special forces in the northern West Bank town of Kabatiya Wednesday overnight. Security officials said Ala Abu Rob, described as the organization's commander in the town, had in recent months attempted to carry out terror attacks in Israel. He was also responsible for several past attacks. 
Your editorial "Obama and Iraq" (Jan. 27) highlights many factors regarding the U.S. strategy in Iraq but neglects to mention the role of the Kurds. Within Iraq, the Kurds have been America's strongest ally in both Iraq's liberation from Saddam Hussein and in the democratic transition after the fall of the previous regime. Our peshmerga forces have fought and died alongside U.S. soldiers combating terrorists in Iraq. The Kurds deeply appreciate what the U.S. has done by ridding Iraq of a regime that employed chemical weapons against us and that was responsible for the death or disappearance of more than 180,000 Kurds.
The shop worker from Guangzhou, China, died moments after he put a new battery in his phone, it has been claimed. 
HAWAII just had a vivid lesson in health-care economics, learning that if you offer people insurance for free - surprise, surprise - they'll quickly drop other coverage to enroll. 
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 -- President Barack Obama signed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill into law this afternoon, expanding coverage to 4.1 million more kids and extending the program through 2013.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A recently retired Mexican army general whose bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday near Cancun had taken over as the area's top antidrug official less than 24 hours earlier, officials said.
The names of several thousand clients who lost money investing with Bernard Madoff have been released in a New York City court filing. 
A senior official from the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says five rockets have been discovered near the country's border with Israel. 
Turkish President Abdullah Gul held talks in Riyadh on Wednesday within a four-day visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss the Middle East conflict and promote stronger economic ties between the two countries. 
Nine members of a Bara-based militant group were killed in an encounter with the police and the Qaumi Lashkar comprising armed villagers when they allegedly attempted to kidnap the Nazim of Bazidkhel union council near here on Wednesday morning.
The United Nations has constituted a three-member commission to investigate the Benazir BhuttoÂ's slaying, state TV reported Wednesday. The announcement was made by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while meeting to President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad today. While President Zardari thanked the UN chief for this decision.
(AKI) - Militants are carrying out attacks against NATO supply lines in northwest Pakistan to avenge the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has purportedly said in a new audio message. The message was released hours after militants blew up a key Khyber pass bridge on a road along which 80 percent of NATO provisions enter Afghanistan. 
Complaints of cheating among rival parties in Saturday's provincial elections have threatened to boil over into violence in Anbar.
(AKI) Saudi Arabia has issued a list of 83 militant fugitives based overseas and called on them to turn themselves in to authorities and "return to a normal life." 
Last month's IDF operation in Gaza did not go far enough, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. 
Militants on Wednesday fired rockets at a military garrison in Landikotal, injuring a soldier of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, and torched 12 trailers in another attack on a parking lot.
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed after falling on a government report that showed U.S. inventories of the fuel jumped more than twice the amount analysts forecast. Supplies rose 7.2 million barrels to 346.1 million barrels last week, the highest since July 2007, according to the Energy Department yesterday. Inventories were forecast to climb 3 million barrels, the median of 14 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Prices rose earlier on signs OPEC is implementing a record production cut announced in December.
(IsraelNN.com) Senior Hamas terrorist 
The British Council has stopped work in Iran because of "intimidation and harassment" of its staff by the Iranian government, it will be announced today. The cultural and educational centre decided to close its doors in Tehran after its entire local staff of 16 was summoned by security officials to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office at the end of December and ordered to resign.
Unknown gunmen shoot and kill the managing director of a local radio station while injuring another at Mogadishu's Bakara market. 
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Wednesday arrested six men, who are wanted on criminal and terror-related charges, in Basra province, the media office of Basra's police said on Wednesday. "Police forces conducted a raid search in different parts of Basra, during which six wanted men were arrested," the office told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The forces seized 1.5 kg of TNT explosives," it noted. "It also seized 10 rifles, hand grenades, pistols and an amount of ammunition and arrested more than 30 wanted men from Jan. 28- Feb. 3," it added.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Taliban fighters seized control of the Shamozai area on Wednesday after a day-long siege and fierce battles in the northwest Swat Valley. The militants seized control of a police checkpoint, blew it up and abducted 30 policemen. 
Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate are at odds over Obama's proposed financial stimulus package, exceeding over $900 billion. 
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian-led bloc of post-Soviet nations has agreed to establish a rapid-reaction military force to combat terrorists and respond to regional emergencies, Russian media reported Wednesday. On Wednesday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- decided on the rapid-reaction force at a Kremlin summit, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) condemned Wednesday Hamas' confiscation of aid supplies as the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a $600 million reconstruction program for Gaza.
The House Democratic Caucus spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money over the past five years for its annual retreats at resorts in Pennsylvania and Virginia. On Thursday, Democrats will head to the Kingsmill Resort and Spa in historic Williamsburg, Va., for the three-day planning powwow. The resort boasts multiple championship golf courses, a full-service spa and six restaurants. 
The situation in Sri Lanka certainly looks as though the war with the Tamil Tigers is almost over, although over the last 25 years the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have demonstrated the ability to recover from adversity several times.
(AKI) - Philippine vice-president Manuel "Noli" De Castro on Wednesday said he was prepared to go into the jungles in the country's south to negotiate the release of three aid workers being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants.
