Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading to a “far greater financial crisis” than the current one.
The mind boggles at a financial crisis far worse than the current one. Is such a thing possible? Even with this one, it may already be too late to prevent social unrest, especially in Britain, which is tipped to be one of the worst-hit countries economically.
The spectacle of bankers continuing to award themselves bonuses while taking taxpayer support is feeding an extraordinary public rage and a fierce sense of injustice. With 40,000 people losing their jobs each month, it is a recipe for trouble, come the traditional rioting months of the summer.
It won’t be bankers being lynched, of course, but small shopkeepers in inner-city areas having their windows smashed and their stock looted. The only surprise is there haven’t already been antibanker demonstrations in Threadneedle Street – secretly cheered on by 99 per cent of Middle England.
"It" is shortages of critical commodities, a worrisome example of which is the raw materials used to prepare pharmaceutical drugs. Last week a Wegmans pharmacy in upstate New York ran out of OxyContin® and several other prescription medicines. Customers were told that Wegmans' supplier did not have the ingredients to make several medicines and did not know when they would have them. Wegmans isn't a mom-and-pop corner store with no buying power. It's a 71-store chain on the east coast, is one of the largest private companies in the US and had sales of $4.8 billion in 2008.
Tasmania and India are the largest producers of thebaine, the active ingredient of OxyContin®, which is one of 20 alkaloid compounds derived from the opium poppy. Alkaloids cannot be stored by law, so each year's crop size is limited by the expected sales. However, it's only February so the shortage in the US is not due to exporters' supplies having run out.
There is a worldwide shortage of acetonitrile, a critical chemical ingredient used in the purification of pharmaceutical compounds. Acetonitrile is a by-product of the automotive industry and is in short supply due to the worldwide slowdown in that industry, which, in turn, has caused chemical production facilities to close.
Another drug in critical short supply is leucovorin, a generic used in the treatment of colon cancer. Its shortage, too, is due to "manufacturing" delays, according to the suppliers. In an interview with Forbes, Michael Katz, chair of a committee of patients that advises the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, said, "I've never heard of anything like it." The ECOG group of doctors, who have played a key role in testing new cancer medicines, recently started hearing from hospitals that they were almost out of leucovorin. There is a fear that shortages will occur more frequently with generic drugs because the margins are so thin. Even worse, many of the most important cancer drugs have gone off patent, according to Katz. Further, he wonders why there is no system to catch these shortages before they harm patients or halt clinical trials. The shortage is so acute in Florida that many cancer patients are receiving lower-than-prescribed dosages or none at all.
Going forward, a number of factors will influence the availability of life-saving medicines and other critical commodities.
Supply disruptions: The majority of growers and producers of the raw materials for drugs are in Asia. You remember the cliff dive of the Baltic Dry Index last year. It was a reflection of severe disruptions in international trade, which, in large part, was caused by the unwillingness of banks to accept letters of credit. This could be the reason for the shortages of opium distillates, which are showing up in US pharmacies now.
Profitability and production stoppages: Indian pharmaceutical companies have stopped manufacturing some unprofitable drugs and they threaten to cut back on more. Their profits have been eroded by the fall in value of the rupee, which has raised their procurement costs for both packaging materials and bulk purchases of raw materials from China.
Distribution: Trucking companies across the country are both cutting back on routes and closing due less business and higher costs. This reached crisis proportions during the gas price spike last spring and summer and is continuing due to reduced demand for hauling. Bankruptcies were up more than 118% by the second half of 2008. In a Reuter's interview, industry consultant Fred Crawford said he expects the acceleration of bankruptcies seen in the second half of 2008 to continue this year.
If demand for medicine decreases in a depression, it's not because people aren't sick. In fact, more people are sick, but they can't afford medical care. If you've come across the crisis-preparedness list of 100 Things that Disappear First, you know that drugs are at the top of the list. Well, we are in a crisis and, sure enough, medicines are disappearing.
#1
100 Things that Disappear First
"From a Sarajevo War Survivor:...
3. After awhile, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold's."
The Romans used sponges and recycled. Paid the 'washers' at the public toilets for clean ones. Call Mike Rowe, we may have a new "Dirty Jobs" episode in the future.
#3
deflation should cause some shortages and disrupt just-in-time supply chains, but I doubt serious effects in the US due to the reserve currency status of the dollar.
During the great depression even having money couldn't get you basic staples in under developed areas due to supply chain problems.
Today we have longer shelf lives, so the risk of not being able to sell items is unlikely to ever cause those kind of shortages.
Bottom line is food will inflate irregularly, luxury goods across the line, big ticket items will deflate.
No big deal, the expectation is that the CDS problems will be dealt with this year either by bailout or bankruptcy, and recovery during 2010.
slow bailouts and/or nationalization of banks can be a big problem (japan model) It doesn't clear up the problem like bankruptcy does.
This article was published in Geostrategy-Direct, an open source intelligence (OSINT) newsletter that has a good track record.
The report would probably seem preposterous if it weren't for the fact that Team Obama already waived sanctions on Syria and is considering opening travel to Cuba.
DOSSIER: Ehud Barak
'Change' the mullahs can believe in: Obama to drop sanctions on Iran
TEL AVIV -- Israelis may have gone to the polls hoping for "Change" but the status quo is all any of the candidates could look forward to whatever the outcome. Defense Minister Ehud Barack, has already glimpsed the future and has warned about what it holds.
Meanwhile, the status quo means continued rocket and missile attacks while international aid pours into the Gaza Strip and bolsters a regime run by Hamas, which is still considered by the United States to be a terrorist organization.
But "Change" is taking place, Barak has intimated, originating not in the Mideast but in Washington, D.C. in the form of a U.S. reconciliation with Iran.
Such a process could result in U.S. acceptance of Teheran's nuclear weapons program and the downplaying of its threats against Israel.
Just as Barack Obama entered office facing a massive economic crisis beyond the scope of his experience, likewise the new Israeli leader will have to make or delay making difficult strategic decisions from the minute he or she enters office.
Barak has already signaled what the new government can expect, officials here said.
The United States has abandoned its policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran's nuclear and missile program, they said.
The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy.
"We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran," an official said.
Barak confirmed the new U.S. policy. In an address to the Herzliya Conference on Feb. 3, Barak said Washington did not say whether it would resume sanctions against Iran.
"We must arrive at a strategic understanding with the United States over Iran's military nuclear program and ensure that even if at this time they opt for the diplomatic option, it will only last a short time before harsh and necessary sanctions are imposed," Barak said.
Obama decided to end sanctions against Iran after determining that the U.S. measures had failed to block Teheran's missile or nuclear weapons program, officials said. Under the administration of former President George Bush, the United States accelerated sanctions on Iran in 2008.
In his address, the Israeli defense minister indicated that Obama had forged an entirely new approach toward Iran. He said the Israeli government has sought a briefing from the new U.S. administration.
A U.S. defense source said the White House would no longer enforce sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The source said the decision has already been relayed to Iran.
"The administration has abandoned sanctions entirely," the U.S. source said. "It is a completely new ballgame."
Similarly, Obama has decided on a new U.S. ambassador to Syria and is expected to lift sanctions against a nation charged with aiding Al Qaida in Iraq and secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance.
Diplomatic sources said Obama, in consultation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has asked Frederic Hof to become the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005. The sources said Hof, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Middle East Policy Council, agreed to take the post.
The sources said the Obama administration was expected to suspend U.S. sanctions on Syria's military and energy programs. They said Hof would be authorized to facilitate an expansion of U.S. relations with Syria, which deteriorated under President George Bush.
In 2005, the United States withdrew its ambassador to Damascus in wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria was blamed for the car bombing in Beirut in which Hariri and many of his bodyguards were killed.
The sources said Obama sent emissaries to Syria in September 2008 and pledged that if elected he would reconcile with the regime of President Bashar Assad. After his election victory, they said, Obama sent another message that promised to appoint an ambassador within the first weeks of his administration.
A self-proclaimed polygamist was sentenced Friday to seven consecutive life prison terms for torturing seven of his 19 children, abusing four others and imprisoning two of his three wives. Mansa Musa Muhummed, 55, also was sentenced to additional terms totaling 16 years and eight months by Riverside County Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson III, who said Muhummed's treatment of his family amounted to "a reign of terror over defenseless children."
"If his appeals are exhausted and he does not prevail, he will die in prison," said Peter Morreale, Muhummed's attorney.
Muhummed was convicted in June of 25 counts, including torture, child endangerment, false imprisonment and corporal injury on a spouse.
At his trial, several of Muhummed's children and stepchildren testified against him, telling jurors they had been beaten, starved, strung up by their feet and forced to eat vomit and feces. Doctors had said the children were extremely malnourished, with one 19-year-old daughter weighing 56 pounds.
"I'm still having nightmares and flashbacks," said Marlon Boddie, 29. "He don't need no mercy. He don't need no type of mercy. He knew what he was doing."
Muhummed -- whose given name was Richard Boddie -- denied the charges and blamed one of his wives for the alleged abuse. He was a convert to the Muslim faith, which he said gave him the right to have multiple wives. "They need to adjust their lives as they see fit and hope and pray God has mercy on them," he said of his children. He also told the court that he accepted he may have made mistakes as a father.
He was arrested in 1999 after one of his wives slipped a 13-page letter to a postal service worker describing the abuse. Another wife, Marva Barfield, agreed to plead guilty to one count of child endangerment and testified against Muhummed. She will likely be sentenced to time served, Deputy District Attorney Julie Baldwin said.
Sentencing came nearly a decade after Muhummed's arrest. His trial followed nine years of delays in which he represented himself and changed lawyers multiple times. Earlier Friday, he sought to have his attorney removed and filed a motion for a new trial, claiming he had new evidence to help clear his name, but the judge denied the motions.
Mexico will start a national register of mobile phone users that will include fingerprinting all customers in an effort to catch criminals who use the devices to extort money and negotiate kidnapping ransoms.
Under a new law published on Monday and due to be in force in April, mobile phone companies will have a year to build up a database of their clients, complete with fingerprints. The idea would be to match calls and messages to the phones' owners.
Hundreds of people are kidnapped in Mexico every year and the number of victims is rising sharply as drug gangs, under pressure from an army crackdown, seek new income.
Lawmakers who pushed the bill through Congress last year say there are around 700 criminal bands in Mexico, some of them operating from prison cells, that use cell phones to extract extortion and kidnap ransom payments.
Most of Mexico's 80 million mobile phones are prepaid handsets with a given number of minutes of use that can be bought in stores without any identification. The phones can be topped up with more minutes via vendors on street corners.
The register, detailed in the government's official gazette, means new subscribers will now be fingerprinted when they buy a handset or phone contract.
The plan also requires operators to store all cell phone information such as call logs, text and voice messages, for one year. Information on users and calls will remain private and only available with court approval to track down criminals.
It was not clear whether the government would provide any funding to aid in the logistics of the register.
Billionaire Carlos Slim, who controls Mexico's No. 1 cell phone operator America Movil, said the law would be more useful if it tracked the movements of cell phone users. "What needs to be done is another type of more effective measures," Slim told reporters.
Former Finance Minister Francisco Gil Diaz, head of the local unit of Spain's Telefonica, has criticized the law, saying it will only create more bureaucracy for operators. Telefonica is Mexico's No. 2 mobile operator behind America Movil.
Lawmakers say phone users must immediately report lost or loaned phones to avoid being held responsible for a handset used in a crime. Carlos Slim is becoming a "dangerous billionaire", like George Soros.
#2
Southern African Development Community Tribunal, a court of last resort which ruled that Mr Mugabe had ethnically purged white farmers and failed to pay compensation.
Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.
Narcissistic leaders are nefarious and their effects pernicious. They are subtle, refined, socially-adept, manipulative, possessed of thespian skills, and convincing. Both types equally lack empathy and are ruthless and relentless or driven.
Perhaps it is time to require each candidate to high office in the USA to submit to a rigorous physical and mental checkup with the results made public.
I. Upbringing and Childhood
Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations. Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident. Then, his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia: a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a step-father. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995.
Pathological narcissism is a reaction to prolonged abuse and trauma in early childhood or early adolescence. The source of the abuse or trauma is immaterial: the perpetrators could be dysfunctional or absent parents, teachers, other adults, or peers.
II. Behavior Patterns
The narcissist:
Feels grandiose and self-important (e.g., exaggerates accomplishments, talents, skills, contacts, and personality traits to the point of lying, demands to be recognised as superior without commensurate achievements);
* Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion;
* Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions);
* Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation – or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic Supply);
* Feels entitled. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her unreasonable expectations for special and favourable priority treatment;
* Is "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends;
* Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with, acknowledge, or accept the feelings, needs, preferences, priorities, and choices of others;
* Constantly envious of others and seeks to hurt or destroy the objects of his or her frustration. Suffers from persecutory (paranoid) delusions as he or she believes that they feel the same about him or her and are likely to act similarly;
* Behaves arrogantly and haughtily. Feels superior, omnipotent, omniscient, invincible, immune, "above the law", and omnipresent (magical thinking). Rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.
#4
I say, merely narcissistic. My father has full-blown pathological NPD. He has a master's degree and a couple mil he inherited, works weekends at Lowe's for the employee discount, lives underground in an old missile silo ringed with security cameras 100 miles from civilization, thinks Men In Black use defense satellites to spy on him, eats grade B eggs, wears rags, and buys only used books, and left his daughter, wife, and mother-in-law to rot in the street, while making generous campaign donations to Ron Paul. He insists there is no such thing as objective reality, paranoid delusions of persecution define his world, and he actually believes that the silo will be enshrined as a museum upon his death. The only thing separating him from Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczinski is balls. My point: Obama may be a self-aggrandizing opportunist, but real NPDs cannot maintain relationships or function in reality in any meaningful way.
From the Kulture of Korruption Department:
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post -- something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.
Didn't he also tell the Senate that there was no solicitation?
Burris (D-Ill.) acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.
The affidavit is dated Feb. 5 -- three weeks after Burris was sworn in to replace President Obama in the Senate.
With things going so well in Iraq, the embed count is nearing zero.
FT. LEAVENWORTH, KAN.
THE Missouri River runs brown in the winter. Standing on the western bluff, you look down past still-visible wagon ruts marking the start of the Santa Fe Trail and on to the landing that served Lewis and Clark.
Across the river's great bend, bare trees fringe the floodplain that rises to the low hills of Missouri. Under the winter sun, the panorama gleams with a heartland beauty. A passenger jet rises in the distance.
Turn around: You're at the heart of Ft. Leavenworth, the soul of the US Army, where centuries of ghosts watch over men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
From here, the Cavalry rode west and the troop trains rolled east.
Amid the old brick quarters and barracks, Sherman had second thoughts about his career and a young instructor named Eisenhower, who longed to be fighting in France, dressed down a carefree volunteer named F. Scott Fitzgerald.
At dawn, the ghosts congregate so thickly by the old parade ground that you almost feel their touch as you jog by. They come out to recall the campfires and campaigns, and to stand watch over those who've rallied to their traditions, who took up the guidons and flags.
The spirits who once wore blue then gray, Cavalry twill or olive drab, are proud these days. As a new class of officers enters the Army's Command and General Staff College, virtually every one wears a combat patch on the right sleeve. The ghosts understand.
The wraiths are there by the chapel, standing to. They once rode west across an unmapped prairie, stormed Mexico City's gates, faced off at Vicksburg and finally quelled the Apaches. They went over the top in France, survived the Bataan Death March and rode helicopters into firefights. They understand.
But the old ghosts don't understand the times beyond the post's front gate. They can't understand the devious spite the nation's elite directs toward our troops.
How could these spirits - who saw more American soldiers die in an afternoon than have fallen in six years in Iraq - comprehend the privileged Americans who delight in tales of rising military suicide rates or "vets gone wild," while ignoring the heroes who've won a war that America's intellectuals declared unwinnable?
Well, Sherman's wraith understands: At one point in our Civil War, he banished the press from his camps and hankered to string up a few reporters.
But the other ghosts are befuddled. Grant, our greatest general, believed that crises would bring out our best.
Earlier this week, I spoke with present-day officers studying at Ft. Leavenworth. It struck me, yet again, that we have never had a better Army. (The Navy, Marines and Air Force are represented, too - by tradition, all the services send contingents to each others' staff colleges.)
These men and women in US uniforms are serious and skilled, bold and uncomplaining. What's striking is how little they expect: Of all Americans, they have the least sense of entitlement and the greatest sense of duty.
Nor is the officer corps forged by our current wars a breed of yes-men. They've learned the hard way to ask the toughest questions. Listen to the majors in the new class and you find Army officers dubious about our lack of a strategy in Afghanistan, Air Force pilots appalled at the waste involved in buying the F-22 - and sailors (far from the sea) thinking beyond the horizon to future threats.
And then there are the Marine officers, ready for anything.
The closest thing to bitching I encountered was an observation by a superb public-affairs officer with whom I worked in Anbar: Now that things are going so well in Iraq, he reports, the press isn't interested - the embed count is dropping toward zero.
Well, during my latest visit to Ft. Leavenworth I didn't meet any of the tormented, twisted soldiers the press and Hollywood adore. Just the men and women who stand between our country and the darkness.
They're home with their families for a bit, but the workload at the Staff College is heavy. Officers who grasp the tenets of counterinsurgency have to master big-war planning, too. We need to be prepared for any conflict.
And these officers who, for a few months, have traded their weapons for computer screens, will be ready. These are the men and women the headlines ignore. Because these are the officers who won.
The ghosts can stand at ease.
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and a Command and General Staff College grad (barely).
This article reports expected results of the ruling by Coleman's lawyers that is diametrically opposed to the article earlier posted (which originated at CNN.com)
Dealing a blow but not a knockout to Republican Norm Coleman's hopes, the judges in the U.S. Senate election trial on Friday tossed out most of the 19 categories of rejected absentee ballots they were considering for a second look, making it clear that they won't open and count any ballots that don't comply with state law.
On its face, the ruling looked to be a victory for DFLer Al Franken, whose lawyers had urged the judges to turn down 17 of the 19 categories and said Friday that they had very nearly done it. "We are obviously very pleased with the court's decision ... there's a large chunk of ballots that have now been taken out of play," said Franken lawyer Marc Elias.
But Democrats want every vote to count™ ...
But Coleman's attorneys saw it differently, saying that the ruling leaves untouched about 3,500 of the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots they want the court to open and count, enough to make it possible for Coleman to overcome Franken's 225-vote certified recount lead.
Continued on Page 49
All nine were seized by police travelling towards Preston close to junction 1 of the M65 at 9pm on Friday.
Photographs taken at the scene of last night's incident on the M65 appear to show two vans surrounded by police vehicles. One van bears an image of the Palestinian flag on its side while the other has signs saying Stop Killing Children, Free Palestine, and From Blackburn (UK) to Gaza.
An aid convoy for Gaza, organised by George Galloway MP, was due to leave London today. They were arrested in connection with terrorism offences but six were later released without charge.
The three men in still custody are aged 26, 29 and 36. Detectives would not confirm the ethnicity of the suspects or whether any explosives or weapons were found in the operation.
The M65 - close to the junction with the M61 - was closed off following the operation by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit.
Police said local officers with knowledge of the communities are deployed in and around the Burnley area where the searches are taking place and nearby residents will be receiving information in the form of a letter throughout the day.
Chief Superintendent Neil Smith, Divisional Commander for Pennine Division, said: "This is a very sensitive time for all our communities and we are working hard to ensure everyone is kept up to date with as much information as we can give. "We will endeavour to carry out any searches as quickly as possible to minimise impact on the area concerned. However, enquiries of this nature are complex and may take time to resolve.
"I would like to thank local residents affected by these searches for their cooperation and ask that they remain patient. We will ensure people are kept updated in relation to the investigation as and when we can."
A spokeswoman for Lancashire Police said the men were arrested "on suspicion of committing offences under the Terrorism Act 2006."
She added: "The motorway was closed for a short period of time as a number of vehicles were seized. The arrests are part of an ongoing intelligence-led operation and investigation by Lancashire Constabulary and the North West Counter Terrorism Unit."
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said.
Several more purported militants were wounded in the attack in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where Al Qaeda leaders Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding.
Taliban fighters surrounded the compound targeted Saturday in the village of Shrawangai Nazarkhel and carried away the dead and wounded in several vehicles.
Intelligence officials said the victims included about 15 ethnic Uzbek militants and several Afghans. Their seniority was unclear. Two of the officials said dozens of followers of Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, were staying in the housing compound when it was hit.
The accounts of Saturday's incident could not be verified independently. The tribally governed region is unsafe for reporters. The U.S. Embassy had no comment, while Pakistani government and army spokesman were unavailable.
#2
Taliban fighters surrounded the compound targeted Saturday in the village of Shrawangai Nazarkhel and carried away the dead and wounded in several vehicles.
Might have been a good opportunity for a follow up strike.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2009 12:00
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#3
I think something a little more potent than AGM 114 Hellfire is being used to serve up the fine results we have been seeing lately.
H-fire is a good missile for picking off individual tanks, SUVs, or mud huts, but its usual 35lb warhead seems unlikely to eliminate 27 Talibs unless they were all in the same room.
#5
re: atomic the h fire could have caused secondary devices too explode causing that many casualties, but you could be right just give it a few more days and a senator or pres will tell everyone
#6
Atomic,
I suspect these hellfires have a thermobaric warhead.
From wikipedia:
"Rather than providing protection as they would from conventional explosive ammunition, structure interior walls, particularly cement or other hard surfaces, magnify and channel the shockwaves created by a thermobaric detonation. The stronger the walls, the higher the pressureÂ’s reflective effect. The turbulent mixing of fuel with ambient oxygen is induced by the presence of walls through enhanced mixing from three different types of instabilities as well as from enhanced chemistry from temperature and pressure velocity gradient in differing fuels,creating a piston type afterburn reaction in enclosed structures."
"The 48-lb (22 kg) AGM-114N Hellfire Metal Augmented Charge introduced in 2003 in Iraq contains a thermobaric explosive fill, utilizing fluoridated aluminium layered between the charge casing and a PBXN-112 explosive mixture. When the PBXN-112 detonates, the aluminium mixture is dispersed and rapidly burns. The resultant sustained high pressure is extremely effective against enemy personnel and structures."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/14/2009 14:06
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#12
GolfBravoUSMC, the Brits are ecstatic with the combat performance of their MQ-9s and are buying more. Mantis is just one more euro attempt at a viable UAV. To BAE's credit, this is one of the few not based on the IAI Malat Heron TP.
#1
And just why would that surprise anyone? The secret that isn't a secret in DC is that politicans don't read the bills, staffers do. Politicians vote based on what there staffers tell them
#3
This is good ammo for the trunks. Let it be known that the democrats all voted together for a trillion dollar spending bill that they never even read.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/14/2009 13:18
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#4
i doubt the staffers had time too read the entire bill since it was only printed the night before the vote, i thought they where gonna have too have like 48 hours too read every nill under osama
#1
This is not surprising when you consider how far our educational / academic / moral / religious standards have fallen in a mere 25 years.
Just sayin', ya' know.
Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb. They made that position pretty clear in the election campaign.
In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability. That's clarifying, not correcting. The One does not make mistakes.
Obama's nominee to serve as CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, left little doubt about his view last week when he testified on Capitol Hill. "From all the information I've seen," Panetta said, "I think there is no question that they are seeking that capability." And we know Penatella has a lot of intelligence background and experience to draw upon in reaching that conclusion.
The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program. U. S> and European? Seemed like it was all Bush at the time. Now the CIA is going to have to change its mind again so The One can implement Bush's policies after throwing some bones to the useful idiots who got him elected?
As the administration moves toward talks with Iran, Obama appears to be sending a signal that the United States will not be drawn into a debate over Iran's intent. "Ich gewann."
"When you're talking about negotiations in Iran, it is dangerous to appear weak or naive," That's going to be a pretty tall order for Bambi given what has gone down in the last month.
said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-proliferation organization based in Washington. Hmm. Wonder what their pressers said a year ago.
Cirincione said the unequivocal language also worked to Obama's political advantage. "It guards against criticism from the right that the administration is underestimating Iran," he said. Those fools on the right are always suckers for falling in line behind policies that are rational and in the nations best interest even if they don't help them politically. What fools. Bwahahahaha.
Iran has long maintained that it aims to generate electricity, not build bombs, with nuclear power. But Western intelligence officials and nuclear experts increasingly view those claims as implausible. Fingers in the air.
U.S. officials said that although no new evidence had surfaced to undercut the findings of the 2007 estimate, there was growing consensus that it provided a misleading picture and that the country was poised to reach crucial bomb-making milestones this year. What has changed? Hmmm. Let me get a CIA analyst to see if we can figure this out.
Obama's top intelligence official, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, is expected to address mounting concerns over Iran's nuclear program in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Maybe he can tell us what has changed since January 19th, 2009.
When it was issued, the NIE stunned the international community. It declared that U.S. spy agencies judged "with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Traitors.
Somewhat dated and possibly a dupe, but useful for those planning an escape from the snow. That it is not news is a statement of how bad things have gotten.
After a long, controversial career, Brig. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñones retired from active duty last month to work for the Cancun mayor and fight the drug cartels that have penetrated much of Mexican society. He lasted a week.
Tello, 63, along with his bodyguard and a driver, were kidnapped in downtown Cancun last Monday evening, taken to a hidden location, methodically tortured, then driven out to the jungle and shot in the head. Their bodies were found Tuesday in the cab of a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading out of town. An autopsy revealed that both the general's arms and legs had been broken.
The audacious kidnapping and killing of one of the highest-ranking military officers in Mexico drew immediate expressions of outrage from the top echelons of the Mexican government, which pledged to continue the fight against organized crime that took the lives of more than 5,300 people last year. Military leaders, who are increasingly at the front lines of the war against the cartels, vowed not to let Tello's death go unsolved or unpunished.
Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.
"It's alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere," Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. "I've never heard of this company."
Another contributor listed as a PMA lobbyist is, in fact, a sales manager for an inflatable boat manufacturer in New Jersey. John Hendricksen said he did make campaign donations but never worked at PMA and does not know how he ended up listed in records that way.
Continued on Page 49
A terrorist suspected insurgent was killed Friday when soldiers raided their camp Friday, resulting in a gunfight. "Lieutenant Daeng, that asstard's shootin' at us!"
"Hmmm... I suspect he's an insurgent!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Whoa! There's gonna be Dire Revenge™ for that, Sarge!"
Six soldiers from the Narathiwat Taskforce 30 were deployed to inspect an orchard behind a mosque in Ton Tanyong village in Tambon Salow of Rusoh district and found the camp. When the soldiers arrived at the scene, some 10 terrorists insurgents opened fire at them. The two sides exchanged gunfire for about 10 minutes before terrorists insurgents retreated into a forested area. Soldiers inspected the scene and found the body of Saman Rapu, 31 a resident of Narathiwat's Si Sa Khon district.
The authorities believed the camp belong to an RKK or young warrior unit led by Tuwaeahdunan Nima and the unit has been operating in Ruson and neighbouring districts. The authorities seized 10 mobile phones, an assortment of pistols and some dried foods from the camp.
The United States signaled a willingness on Friday to slow plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe if Russia agreed to help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Plans for the shield have contributed to a deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties over the past few years, but the new administration of President Barack Obama has said it wants to press the "reset button" and build good relations with Moscow.
"If we are able to work together to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, we would be able to moderate the pace of development of missile defenses in Europe," a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters.
It was the most explicit statement yet by an administration official linking the missile shield to Russia's willingness to help resolve the international stand-off over Iran's nuclear program.
He spoke as Undersecretary of State William Burns held talks in Moscow, the most senior U.S. official to do so since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month.
Burns signaled the United States was ready to look at remodeling its missile defense plans to include Moscow.
"(Washington is) open to the possibility of cooperation, both with Russia and NATO partners, in relation to a new configuration for missile defense which would use the resources that each of us have," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. Burns gave no details.
In another sign that strained relations may be thawing, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet Russia's foreign minister in Geneva next month.
The more flexible U.S. position on its missile shield addressed one of Russia's chief complaints against Washington. Moscow viewed the plan to site missiles in Poland and a radar tracking station in the Czech Republic as a threat to its security in its traditional backyard.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a security conference in Munich, Germany, last week that the United States would press ahead with the missile defense shield, but only if it was proven to work and was cost-effective.
TACKLING IRAN
The Kremlin has been pressing Washington to give ground on the missile shield in exchange for Russia helping supply the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
But the U.S. official in Washington focused on Iran.
"The impetus for the deployment of the missile defense systems is the threat from Iran. If it is possible to address that, then that needs to be taken into consideration as you look at the deployment of the system," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States has led a drive to isolate Iran over its nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to develop atomic weapons and Tehran insists is for the peaceful generation of electricity. Continued...
#3
but he made big speeches and promised alot of shit. I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, i 'm beginning too wonder if he will even want another term after the first month of this one
#5
Been said before - Obama represents the final triumph of style over substance, but now even the style is slipping. I suspect theres a lot of buyer's remorse out there with more to come.
Posted by: Hupaiting Scourge of the Apes6083 ||
02/14/2009 13:32
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#6
For the Big O administration, it is a race between total control of the country and collapse of the administration.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2009 14:01
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#8
Obama scares me more than Pakistan.The damage he and the donks have already done to our childrens future is immense, with more to follow.....
Wait till we seem the accommodations coming for mooselimbs here, and a renewed focus on "right-wing domestic terrorists", right after the fairness doctrine passes and what's left of the actual American people realize what has been done to permanent end the Republic. As we organize and dissent, Domestic Terrorism becomes the focus, then gun control, then......
Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft has killed at least four people near the Afghan border. Prob'ly launched from within Pakistain, right, Diane?
The officials say some people have also been wounded in Saturday's attack in the South Waziristan tribal region. Those'd be wimmin and children, some puppies and a few fluffy bunnies...
They say intelligence agents are trying to get more details. "Wossa motta? Usually there's lotsa dead kittens? Agent 472, go find them!"
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its fight against terrorism, but it has opposed missile strikes in the country's tribal regions where Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents are believed to be operating. ... since that's not only where the terrs are, but also where half the ISI is, and not a few retired generals...
The U.S. has launched more than 30 missile attacks in recent months.
#1
Update
At least 25 al Qaeda-linked militants, mostly Uzbeks, were killed in a missile strike by U.S. drones in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Saturday, a senior Taliban official.
"Our people have informed us that at least 25 people were killed. It could be more. Most of them are Uzbek mujahideen," the official told Reuters.
now to just ad say 6 zeros to the end of that figure.
that might put a dent in the jihadi supply chain
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/14/2009 3:00
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#3
The current military "leadership" has no imagination. They struck. The local taliban rushed to surround the house. That's the ideal time to ARCLIGHT the entire village. You'd at least add a couple of zeroes to that count, Abu, and most of them would be taliban. The next time there's a dronezap, NOBODY will rush to surround the house or bring out the evidence. The amount of additional evidence collected will greatly improve, especially if there's a special-forces team nearby.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/14/2009 14:10
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#4
Secondary strikes, followup strikes, suicide boomers who wait for the authorities to show up after an initial attack...that's been a favorite AQ tactic for years. Give 'em a little dose of their own medicine.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2009 18:25
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Read the whole thing - Its very good. Here are a few tidbits....
H/T Weasel Zippers.
And yes this belongs in WOT Operations.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Thank you for inviting me. Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for showing Fitna, and for your gracious invitation. While others look away, you, seem to understand the true tradition of your country, and a flag that still stands for freedom.
The Houses of Parliament is where Winston Churchill stood firm, and warned -- all throughout the 1930's -- for the dangers looming. Most of the time he stood alone.
In 1982 President Reagan came to the House of Commons, where he did a speech very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom. He introduced a phrase: 'evil empire'. Reagan's speech stands out as a clarion call to preserve our liberties. I quote: If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.
There might be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam.Islam will never change, because it is build on two rocks that are forever, two fundamental beliefs that will never change, and will never go away. First, there is Quran, Allah's personal word, uncreated, forever, with orders that need to be fulfilled regardless of place or time. And second, there is al-insal al-kamil, the perfect man, Muhammad the role model, whose deeds are to be imitated by all Muslims. And since Muhammad was a warlord and a conqueror we know what to expect.
Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda. He was invited to Westminster by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent's Park mosque three weeks before. Mr. Rideh, suspected of being a money man for terror groups, was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit.
Well, if you let in this man, than an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Mr Churchill's spirit is still very much alive. Well since they did refuse him enterance I guess its dead now... sad.
And you prove that the European Union truly is working; the free movement of persons is still one of the pillars of the European project.
But there is still much work to be done. Britain seems to have become a country ruled by fear. A country where civil servants cancel Christmas celebrations to please Muslims. A country where Sharia Courts are part of the legal system. A country where Islamic organizations asked to stop the commemoration of the Holocaust. A country where a primary school cancels a Christmas nativity play because it interfered with an Islamic festival.
You might have seen my name on Fitna's credit role, but I am not really responsible for that movie. It was made for me. It was actually produced by Muslim extremists, the Quran and Islam itself. If Fitna is considered 'hate speech', then how would the Court qualify the Quran, with all it's calls for violence, and hatred against women and Jews?
Mr. Churchill himself compared the Quran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Well, I did exactly the same, and that is what they are prosecuting me for.
I wonder if the UK ever put Mr. Churchill on trial.
We have to defend freedom of speech.
For the generation of my parents the word 'London' is synonymous with hope and freedom. When my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a daily glimpse of hope, in the darkness of Nazi tyranny. Millions of my country men listened to it, illegally. The words 'This Is London' were a symbol for a better world coming soon. If only the British and Canadian and American soldiers were here.
What will be transmitted forty years from now? Will it still be 'This Is London'? Or will it be 'this is Londonistan'? Will it bring us hope, or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery?
The choice is ours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We will never apologize for being free. We will never give in. We will never surrender.
#1
You are correct that this belongs in Ops. Unfortunately the major battles are being fought in the Houses of Parliament and in every home and government in the west. And though our troops are doing well on the kinetic fronts, we have suffered primarily defeats on the contemplative fronts. It is not yet May 1940, and I suspect that it will be some time before we see it. When it arrives I have no doubt of how true freeborn Englishmen and Americans will respond to their Churchill. I just hope and pray too much ground hasn't been yielded to the serfs and submitters for liberty and freedom to prevail.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2009 11:46
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#5
The average Brit is awake, AU. It's their "leadership" that's dead from the neck up. They've lost their right to self-defense, they've lost most of their rights to free speeach, the right to petition their lords for the redress of grievences (that dates back to the Magna Carta), and much more. If I were an intelligent, middle-class Brit, I'd leave for the US, Canada, or Australia - where at least some freedoms are still protected.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/14/2009 14:03
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#6
The US Military in Afghanistan has already weighed in on this.
They were not on the side of freedom.
Their commander in chief at the time was not B. Hussein Obama, but G. Hussein Bush.
Afghan intelligence agents have said they are investigating links between Pakistan and Taliban militants who killed 26 people in three simultaneous suicide bomb and gun raids on state offices in the capital, Kabul.
The three coordinated raids on two ministries and a prisons department office on February 11 show a new tactic by the Taliban, who have previously only attacked one target at a time.
The raids may have been inspired by last year's attacks in Mumbai, India, and were designed to cause maximum panic and publicity, but analysts said Afghan forces blunted the effect by acting quickly to kill the militants.
"As they were entering the Ministry of Justice before starting their indiscriminate killing of the civilians in there, they sent three messages to Pakistan calling for the blessing of their mastermind," Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said.
The National Directorate of Security is investigating the possible link to Pakistan, a spokesman for the state intelligence agency said on February 12.
Since the beginning of last year, the Taliban and their allies have launched fewer attacks inside the heavily guarded capital, but those they have carried out have tended to be against high-profile targets designed to grab media attention.
The February 11 attacks also came on the eve of the first official visit to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama's new regional special representative, Richard Holbrooke.
"These suicide bombers were not the ordinary Taliban type of suicide bombers who come and blow themselves up somewhere. They had rifles as well and their aim was not to immediately explode themselves," said Haroun Mir, political analyst and co-founder of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies.
"It was in my opinion to take hostages and continue the way they did in Mumbai, to paralyze Kabul and hopefully inflict a big blow to Mr. Holbrooke's trip to Afghanistan. This trip is a very important trip to Afghanistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Only 288 were innocent civilians, the report says. The Palestinians reported 1,330 fatalities but did not submit their names.
The intense three weeks of fighting, which erupted on December 27, has killed more than 1,300 people and injured thousands in Gaza. A shaky cease-fire was being implemented by both sides and a formal deal for a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas could be signed by next week, according to Hamas officials.
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02/14/2009
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Aswat al-Iraq: Thirteen members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in a raid by Turkish warplanes on an area in northern Iraq on Friday, according to the Turkish Anatolian news agency.
"The 13 PKK fighters were killed in the area of Haqquq late this week while hideouts and logistical units of the organization were destroyed," the official news agency quoted Turkish military sources as saying.
However, an official at the PKK relations office, Hafal Roz Hallat, discredited the reports.
"None of the PKK headquarters in northern Iraq came under attacks this week," Hallat said, adding the last Turkish air attacks took place on February 5, 2009 but left no casualties.
The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984.
Iraqi border areas in the Kurdistan region, adjacent to Turkey and Iran, are coming under occasional Turkish air attacks and Iranian artillery shelling allegedly to strike the strongholds of the PKK and the PJAK (Partiya Jiyana Azada Kurdistanê in Kurdish or Kurdistan Free Life Party), both are against Turkey and Iran respectively.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Sen. Edward Kennedy, battling brain cancer, is in Florida and will miss the final Senate vote on the economic stimulus package.
The Massachusetts Democrat is continuing his treatment and physical rehabilitation, and Democrats don't need his vote for final passage, spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said Friday.
Kennedy plans to travel between Florida and Washington for future Senate business "until the weather gets warmer here," Wagoner said.
Kennedy had returned to the Senate on Monday for an earlier vote on the economic stimulus plan. He voted for the bill on a test tally. It was passed 61-36, one more vote than the 60 required to overcome objections.
It was Kennedy's first visit to the Capitol since he suffered a seizure on the day of Obama's inauguration last month. He was using a cane and appeared to have lost a bit of weight, but he seemed energetic and happy to be around his colleagues again.
"He's doing very well and he's on top of things," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who is a longtime Kennedy friend.
The 76-year-old lawmaker was stricken at a legislative luncheon in the Capitol following Obama's swearing-in, leaving many of his colleagues and friends shaken and worried. He spent the night in the hospital after doctors diagnosed him with "simple fatigue" following the frigid outdoor inauguration ceremony and warm indoor reception.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#2
The 76-year-old lawmaker was stricken at a legislative luncheon in the Capitol following Obama's swearing-in, leaving many of his colleagues and friends shaken and worried not stirred.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/14/2009 16:39
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#3
Gawd hep me I LOL'd hard.
I will see you again in deh sink trap.
(word is that it's been re-done with orange shag carpets, that's roumors tho, don't quote me.)
She first swung into action 50 years ago, helping her boyfriend Batman rid Gotham City of villains until she was killed off in 1979.
Now Batwoman is making a comeback, replacing Batman - who is missing, presumed dead - in the popular DC Comics series. And this time around the superheroine's alter ego, Kathy Kane, is a red-headed lesbian. Ohfergawdsake.
Billed as a "lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night," the new Batwoman is clad in a figure-hugging black outfit with knee-high red stiletto boots.
She is set to appear in at least 12 issues of the Detective Comics, the first of which will appear in June, the BBC reports. "We've been waiting to unlock her - it's long overdue," DC Comics writer Greg Rucka said.
#3
You think they've already run this by Hollyweird for their multi-media game plan and future movie deal given how crappy tinsel town has been in coming up with scripts and writing beyond blockbuster movies based upon comic heroes. Guys, when your story lines match titles of crappy adult vids, you are in the institutional death spiral you not going to pull out of.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/14/2009 9:05
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#5
"I know it was Batwoman, officer! She had long red hair, a sleeveless Bat-lumberjack shirt and vest, Bat Levis and Bat Birkenstocks, and a tattoo of 'Ellen' on her shoulder!"
#15
This is a calculated move. They figure the title is dead so why not (a) possibly attract young boys to the title (b) earn kudos with the certain people because they are being 'risky'.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is making key decisions, recovering ''significantly'' from a stroke he is believed to have suffered last August, the U.S. Office of National Intelligence said in an annual report Thursday. ''Kim probably suffered a stroke in August that incapacitated him for several weeks, hindering his ability to operate as actively as he did before the stroke,'' according to the annual threat assessment report National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair submitted to Congress. Good to hear it. How's his megalomania and his bipolar syndrome?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
it really affected his golf game - last week he shot a 30
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2009 8:01
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#2
Smile pls, think of em field guidance at movie time
lifter your armers like too fly over sea of fire pls
Whicher Juche year you hatched?
Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has denied that US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas are being carried out from Pakistani airbases. "We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan," he told a private TV channel. About comments by the US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein, Mukhtar said, "I do not know on what she based all this."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Baluch Liberation United Front (BLUF) has released pictures and video of abducted UN official John Solecki and demanded the release of 141 women detainees within 72 hours. Solecki, who was abducted on February 2 from Quetta, was apparently shown in a video aired by Geo News on Friday, calling for his release saying he was unwell. The video shows close up the face of a blindfolded man, apparently that of John Solecki. "This is a message to the United Nations. I am not feeling well, I am sick and in trouble. Please help solve the problems soon so I can gain my release," the person says. It was not apparently clear if he was speaking under threat. The video was shot on a mobile phone and delivered on a memory card to the television station. It was not immediately clear when the video was taken. BLUF demanded the release of 141 women detainees within 72 hours and to know the whereabouts of 6,000 missing people.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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A military operation is not the only solution to the Swat situation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday, adding that other measures would be taken to tackle the situation. He told journalists after a meeting at the Planning Commission that every step would be taken, with consultation of the provincial government, to restore peace in Swat. Asked about whether Pakistan expects a similar response from India over the Samjhota Express tragedy, as the latter did for the Mumbai attacks, the premier said additional information has been sought from India. He said that action would be taken accordingly after receiving the information. Regarding the award of tickets to the Senate, the premier said a board appointed by the Pakistan People's Party had decided on the people to be nominated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- In a rare extensive military shakeup, North Korea said its leader Kim Jong-il appointed a new defense minister and chief of General Staff, spawning speculations about his intentions as cross-border tension mounts. Unusual in that it was even announced, the reshuffle reported by the state-run media on Wednesday has drawn attention because of the sensitive timing.
The new top military brass appeared to be combat savvy and are known to be close confidants to Kim, analysts said. The shakeup should not be overstretched to portend imminent military action, they cautioned, but seems to carry an intended message -- the aging leader is still in firm control of the North's military even after a reported stroke in August, and any important decisions, including missile activities and the naming of his successor, will be his own.
Cha Doo-hyeogn, a North Korea specialist with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-run think tank, said the North Korean leader maintains his absolute power by regularly changing the top military leaders. "Kim promotes the military as the nation's top priority, but he knows the danger of it. Characteristic of a regime controlled by one man, the leader does not give all the power to a single person," Cha said. "With the shakeup, Kim Jong-il is showing that he is powerful and is the only one who can decide on military action and a successor."
North Korean reports gave no background information, but the new appointees are believed to be veteran soldiers credited for their combat strategies than for their political connections, analysts said. Kim Yong-chun, new minister of the People's Armed Forces of the National Defense Commission, equivalent to South Korea's defense minister, orchestrated the North's military when its navy clashed with South Korea along the volatile western sea border in 1999 and 2002, leaving scores of soldiers dead or wounded on both sides.
The western sea border was unilaterally drawn by the U.N. Command following the Korean War, and Pyongyang insists it should be redrawn farther south.
Little is known about another new official, Ri Yong-ho, the new chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff, the counterpart to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ri's predecessor issued a warning on Jan. 17 that the North's military will take an "all-out confrontational posture" against South Korea if Seoul adheres to its hardline policy.
Seoul analysts cautioned against reading too much into the shakeup. Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute, an independent think tank, said while the timing is noteworthy the North Korean leader customarily changes officials to keep their power in check. Who takes the posts is not so important, as the military is controlled by the party in the North Korean system," he said. "It would be extreme to connect this to a missile decision or a border clash."
Seoul officials described North Korea's announcement of the shakeup as "unusual." It may be an internal message aimed at drawing citizens' attention to the heightened tension with South Korea, said Lee Sang-min, an official with the Unification Ministry in charge of North Korean politics.
More reshuffles may follow as North Korea holds sham parliamentary elections on March 8, in which some analysts say young technocrats will be promoted to prepare for the post-Kim Jong-il era.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009
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#1
I don't know what to think of this article. North Korea hasn't been involved in a military operation in 50 years. They might have all kinds of "strategies" but they are all untested.
Does anyone really believe the NorKs could actually feed and fuel an army in the field for any significant period of time? I believe the country would fall over under the weight of a complete mobilization.
#5
Any extended campaign would assume Nork control of the air and that is just not happening : the Norks are lucky to get 150 hours a year in the air, they are short on spares for all aircraft, and the South Koreans have a well-integrated air defense system with Nike Hercules, Patriot, Stinger, and other missile systems. Also, the SKAF has modern fighters with modern missiles, and fly the Western standard of hours in their aircraft.
Another consideration for the Norks is just how many of their mortars and cannons will be functional once they start their super barrage : Nork Quality Assurance is not very high, and a 120mm mortar detonating in its tube eliminates that crew and weapon.
#6
The only hope the NorKs would have is to deploy more targets than we can shoot. Considering that we are going to clobber anything that is moving, and we aren't going to present them with any targets to shoot back at. We would, I assume, hammer them with stand-off weapons that are extremely accurate, possibly with additional targeting provided by drones that would be nearly impossible to see, let alone hit.
They have a military that is basically 1960's and 1970's technology. They are going to get hammered but good and not able to hit back at what is hitting them.
Their first response once their attrition rate gets too high is to simply stay still and try not to use the radio. At that point the advance stops and we have, for all practical purposes won. If they can't move, can't communicate, and don't have anything to shoot at, they won't be a very effective fighting force.
Their only hope would be that Obama is such a coward that he won't have the stomach to get involved.
US President Barack Obama will soon tell Pakistan about a new American strategy on drone attacks, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday. According to a private TV channel, the foreign minister told a British radio station that Pakistan had already demanded that the United States stop drone attacks in the Tribal Areas. He said Pakistan had fully cooperated with the US in the war on terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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The ongoing construction at the "Banani BNP Palli" stands as a glaring example of nepotism during the four-party rule, as the then government allotted the Rajuk plots to party men, businesspersons and intellectuals loyal to it.
Former ministers, state ministers and lawmakers of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, son of the immediate past president and pro-BNP intellectuals controversially got the plots abusing power and violating the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) rules.
Although the caretaker government initially withheld the registration process of the plots, it later allowed the allottees to go ahead with construction at the housing project popularly known as "Banani BNP Palli".
During the interim rule, only three of the 50 allottees declined the plots, say sources in Rajuk. But others have got their plots registered, while many of them have already erected six-storey houses there.
"We have already given clearance to the registered plots, for which the allottees have deposited all instalments as per the government decision," says an official of Rajuk.
Forty-five plot owners have so far completed the registration process and two more have also got the clearance after paying the instalments.
Four more plot owners who shifted their possession of plot from an Uttara project to Banani also got clearance after registration.
Earlier, Rajuk suspended the process of registration on February 26, 2007 after the military-backed caretaker government assumed power. But the authorities lifted the suspension on January 29 last year and approved construction on the plots without any public announcement.
According to rules, people having land property in the capital are not eligible to get Rajuk plots. But some of the allottees own land property in the capital.
Though applications were sought through an open announcement for the plots in 2004 and around 3,000 people applied, only influential BNP ministers, state ministers, lawmakers and BNP-leaning intellectuals got those at the fag-end of BNP rule.
Former mayors of Rajshahi and Barisal Mizanur Rahman Minu and Mojibur Rahman Sarwar, MP will be the next-door neighbours in Banani. Houses of former BNP state ministers Alamgir Kabir and Prof Rezaul Karim of Narayanganj are also next to each other.
Besides, former state ministers Fazlur Rahman Patal, Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, former lawmaker Md Alauddin, and former DU vice-chancellor Prof Maniruzzaman Miah have already raised six-storey houses on their land.
Their caretakers are taking care of the under construction buildings.
Most of the allottees started the construction even before registration or paying the instalments. Some of them are behind bars but have managed to have the land registered in their names.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said on Thursday that his organization supports an 18-month truce with Israel, though it would not be linked to a prisoner exchange deal to free kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Reuters quoted Abu Marzouk as saying that the Egypt-mediated truce would be announced in the coming two or three days. "It will be in a short period, God willing... within two days," he said.
Abu Marzouk, in Cairo for truce talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, told Al-Jazeera that Hamas was waiting for Israel to approve the details of the emerging agreement.
Taher Nunu, another member of the Hamas delegation in Egypt, also said the cease-fire would be officially announced within three days. "Most of the obstacles preventing us from consolidating an agreement have already been solved," Nunu said, adding that the agreement would ensure an end to the fighting with Israel and the opening of the crossings into Gaza.
Earlier, a senior Egyptian official said "the discussions with Hamas representatives in Cairo were very successful" and an agreement would be signed as early as Thursday night.
The delegation also included Hamas "Foreign Minister" Mahmoud Zahar and Gaza legislator Salah Bardawil, an Egyptian official said.
Hamas would accept an 18-month truce if Israel stopped its "aggression," i.e. attacks, lifted its blockade and opened the Israeli border crossings with the Gaza Strip, the official said earlier Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
Israel needs too grow some balls and tell them FOAD , sorry but Schalit is dead and they are still using him as a bargaining chip
VILNIUS - Lithuania is to begin talks with the United States on taking in two prisoners from the controversial US Guantanamo detention facility on Cuba, Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said Friday. ‘On February 5 we received an official request from the United States to contribute to the resolution of the Guantanamo question,’ Usackas said.
The US asked Lithuania to ‘host two people’, he added. ‘It is a request from our close friends, a particularly important ally,’ the minister said, adding that talks would begin next week in Lithuania.
Sure hope the mooks like snow ...
A final decision would come ‘within several months,’ he said, adding: ‘Whether we decide to host these people will depend on whether they represent a danger to national security.
‘The persons concerned will also have to express their full agreement to come to Lithuania,’ the minister added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009
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Kwame Kenyatta says some of his fellow members of the Detroit City Council have brought negative and embarrassing attention to themselves and the city.
It's almost a certainty that Council President Monica Conyers is part of that group.
Conyers' at-times fiery personality and tough talk come at an even tougher time for a city mired in debt and steeped in scandal.
The wife of Democratic Congressman John Conyers has been criticized for using taxpayer-funded police bodyguards to chauffeur their son to an exclusive private school. Monica Conyers also has opposed legislation that would expand Detroit's aging Cobo convention center.
Conyers hasn't responded to interview requests from The Associated Press.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
you can youtube the detroit city council and see these clowns in action - it's painfully embarrassing to watch. One of the females was wearing a tiara during one of their meetings and calling one of the councilmen "shrek". They are ingnorant and unprofessional beyond belief. It's no wonder detroit is the stinking piece of monkey crap that it is, the inmates are clearly running the asylum.
A ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza had no weaponry aboard but carried material for making munitions, Cyprus said Friday. Cypriot-flagged container ship Monchegorsk suspected by US of carrying an Iranian arms shipment bound for Hamas in Gaza anchors off the Cypriot port of Limassol last month.
Defense Minister Costas Papacostas said more than 90 containers loaded with "raw material that could be used in the manufacture of munitions" would be stored at a naval base.
The Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk has anchored off the port of Limassol since it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion from US officials of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas in Gaza.
The US military said it found artillery shells and other arms aboard the ship after stopping it last month in the Red Sea. But it could not legally detain the ship, which continued on to Cyprus.
On Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman denied reports that the ship was carrying Iranian weapons destined for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said that Cypriot authorities had inquired about the ship's cargo but accusations that weapons were on board were baseless.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Iraq's senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has suggested his anti-US movement could return to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia alliance. "If there is an intention to reform policies and put in new systems and controls that are not ethnic or sectarian or partisan and include all political powers ... we are with this idea," Sadr said in a Friday prayers message read out in mosques.
Found out you're irrelevant, eh ...
He also urged all Iraqi factions to join hands to make the new policies take effect, and defeat the enemies of the nation. That'd be us, of course.
The remarks follow Iraq's January 31 provincial elections, in which Sadr-backed candidates became the second-largest party next to Maliki's allies in several provinces, including the capital Baghdad.
Sadr's comments echo a call the premier following the polls, in which he urged political parties to work together to strengthen provincial councils and help rebuild the war-torn country. "The hearts of Iraqis no longer have patience with the lack of services" in the country, Sadr said. "Alliances should not be with the former sectarian power that has brought us previous wars and hunger, and should also avoid the powers that tend towards the former regime," he added.
The Free Independent Movement, backed by Sadr, has said that it may return to the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes Maliki's Dawa party, under the conditions. In September 2007, 32 Sadrist lawmakers quitted the United Iraqi Alliance, complaining that Maliki had stopped seeking their consultation after a dispute over a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
of course, Mooky is still hiding in Iran, right? P*ssy
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2009 8:07
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Maybe he'll come home for spring break. Anyone seen his grades? What's the situation with the scholarship? Does he have a letter-sweater yet? If not, why not?
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminates its nuclear arms program and stressed her desire to work more cooperatively with China.
Speaking ahead of a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week, Clinton also said North Koreans deserved political rights, urged Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, in a comment that may irk Beijing, said Tibetans and all Chinese deserved religious freedom.
Searching for a way to end North Korea's nuclear programs is likely to be one of the main topics on Clinton's week-long trip to Asia that will also cover the global financial crisis and climate change.
"If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program, the Obama administration will be willing to normalise bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty, and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people," Clinton said at New York's Asia Society.
While the offer echoes an approach ultimately pursued by former U.S. President George W. Bush, in emphasizing it Clinton was underlining U.S. President Barack Obama's desire to revive diplomacy with the secretive, communist nation.
However, Clinton also said she hoped North Korea, which has unleashed a salvo of bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks and is reported to have made preparations for a long-range missile test, would not engage in what she called "provocative" actions that would make it more difficult to work with Pyongyang.
Talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms program have been stalled for months. Pyongyang complains that aid given in return for crippling its nuclear plant at Yongbyon is not being delivered as promised in a six-party deal it struck with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The secretive North has balked at a demand by the other powers that it commit to a system to verify claims it made about its nuclear program, leaving the talks in limbo.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
ION KOREAS, TOPIX > ARTILLERY BUILDUP SEEN ALONG KOREAN BORDERS [mainly NOKOR 100-mm Arty, up approxi 30% since 2007]; + NORTH KOREA VOWS TO "CRUSH" SOUTH KOREA ["maritme sea border" row]; + US SPY/INTEL CHIEF: NORTH KOREAN NUKES ARE FOR SURVIVAL [defensive], NOT WAR [offensive]. Nukes are NOKOR's last-ditch = final option in case of threat to regime.
More than a year after the deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID), the UN is still begging the international community for the helicopters the peacekeepers need to do their jobs.
In an interview ahead of UNAMID's deployment, its commander, General Martin L. Agwai of Nigeria, said he needed a minimum of 18 utility helicopters to carry out his mission successfully. Speaking in November 2007, Agwai told AllAfrica: "As of today, there is no country in the world that has volunteered to give us that capability - zero."
Nine months later, Agwai's force still had no helicopters. In response, an international coalition of activists published a report assessing which countries had the type of machine needed for Darfur.
The report concluded that six countries were best placed to supply the mission. It said that, between them, India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Spain could provide 70 helicopters. The report added that 14 nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could come up with a total of 104 helicopters: among the bigger contributors, Italy might be able to supply 13, the Ukraine 14 and the United States 30.
This week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the UN Security Council that UNAMID's strength had grown to 12,541 military personnel, representing 64 percent of the 19,555 mandated by the UN. But with violence escalating in Darfur, he said the impact of the extra peacekeepers had been limited by "logistical constraints." Among them: the continued absence of the 18 medium utility helicopters the mission needed.
"The provision of outstanding equipment, in particular military helicopter assets, remains critical to increasing the mobility and operational impact of the mission," Ban told the Security Council. "I reiterate my appeal to member states who are in a position to provide these mission-critical capabilities to do so without further delay."
Ban did note what he called a "welcome development" - one country had offered tactical helicopters. The country? Ethiopia. The number of helicopters? Five.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009
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#1
i'm sure we'll be giving them 118 brand new ones now
#3
What would be the cost for a Euro NATO country to put a helicopter support squadron into Darfur? Two dozen copters with pilots, ground crews, proper support and security would do. Perhaps each major Euro country could sign up for a year's duty. Start with France, or maybe Germany.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009 15:41
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Sri Lanka rejected on Friday Britain's appointment of a special envoy to oversee the end of its war with Tamil Tiger separatists, and thousands more people fled a war zone growing smaller by the day. "Piss off! It's our country and we'll oversee the end of the war ourselves, thengyu bellymush!"
The military said at least 34,000 people this year have fled the war zone in the Indian Ocean island's northeast, where troops are battling to crush a 25-year-old civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. "After 25 years and multiple Norwegian- or other furriner-brokered ceasefires we've got this down, and it doesn't involve somebody flyin' in from London to tell us what we should be doing!"
More than 1,600 people reached military-controlled areas on Thursday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Approximately squat were headed the other way, toward the Tamil Tiger areas...
The area now held by the Tamil Tigers has shrunken to just 142-square kilometres, he said. Tens of thousands of people are trapped between troops and the LTTE, drawing international concern for their welfare. There was never all that much concern about the Tamil Tigers gnawing off something like 40 percent of Sri Lanka is their personal "homeland," perfecting the art of the suicide boomer, drafting wimmin and little kiddies into their army and inflicting carnage upon the Sinhalese population apparently at random. But if there's some danger of one of these endless rebellions that results in an endless supply of refugees to be cared for by an NGO bureaucracy actually being ended there's always multiple attempts to put the brakes on short of making the problem actually go away.
The United Nations is preparing for an exodus of 150,000 people. That's right, Brethren and Sistern! 150,000 refugees are gonna descend upon the UN building in Noo Yawk, where they're gonna need fed and housed at UN expense...
On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed former state secretary of defence Des Browne special envoy to Sri Lanka, saying he would focus on the humanitarian situation and government efforts to forge a last political solution to the war. The "political solution" involves heaps of dead guys in tiger-striped camo, hopefully topped by Prabhakaran swinging from a length of hemp.
Sri Lanka's cabinet rejected the decision as unilateral. "That means nobody asked us."
"There should be approval from both countries and there is no need for that type of an appointment. It's quite unnecessary," cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said. "So piss off. Let us know when a special envoy actually gets bad guys to stop killing people or gets somebody out of jug."
Britain had no immediate comment, a spokesman for the High Commission in Colombo said. "Alistair, is there egg on my face?"
"Why, yes, Percy. I believe there is."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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First India bitch slaps Milliband and now this. C'mon, Britain. Wake up, dammit!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2009 11:54
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Security forces on Friday arrested five would-be suicide bombers and scores of illegal Afghan immigrants during raids in Quetta, officials said. "Intelligence agents raided a house and arrested five suspected suicide bombers, along with five suicide jackets and explosive material," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. They are being interrogated at a secret location, he added. Religious paraphernalia and pictures of Taliban leaders were confiscated from the rented house in Pashtoonabad, the official said. "Preliminary investigation reveals that three of the suspected bombers are residents of Waziristan and two are locals," the official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
A court in central Bosnia sentenced an imam on Friday to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing a girl during religious classes, the first such conviction of a Muslim religious official in the Balkan country.
Resad Omerhodzic was accused of taking female students to a remote mountainous village and abusing them sexually. A family of one girl filed charges against him.
"This is a conspiracy against me," Omerhodzic said after leaving the courtroom in Travnik flanked by his supporters.
"I was sentenced ... because of a media campaign." His lawyers said they would appeal.
Nobody from the girl's family was available for comment after the verdict.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
The conviction is because it was a girl, right?
Five children have been killed after a shoot-out between Taliban insurgents and Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, the Australian Defense Force said.
The incident happened on February 12 in Oruzgan Province, where Australia's special forces were clearing a number of houses in the hunt for insurgents, defense officials said in a statement. "Current reporting indicates that those killed include a suspected insurgent and, sadly, local nationals including five children killed, and two children and two adults injured," it said. Those injured in the incident were treated at the scene and evacuated for further treatment. The article doesn't say who shot 'em, which makes me suggest it was the Talibs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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MOSCOW - The United States is ready to look at re-modelling its missile defence plans to include Moscow, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday in a concession to Russian opposition. The Kremlin has been pressing Washington to give ground on the proposed missile shield in exchange for Russia helping supply the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan—a priority for new President Barack Obama.
Bambi's gonna cave ...
Washington and Moscow have in the past discussed a compromise deal that would give Russia a role in the U.S. shield but those talks petered out in the last days of the previous U.S. administration.
“(Washington is) open to the possibility of cooperation, both with Russia and NATO partners, in relation to a new configuration for missile defence which would use the resources that each of us have,” Interfax news agency quoted U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns as saying.
The U.S. embassy in Moscow confirmed the text of the interview. Burns, a former ambassador to Moscow, was in Russia this week for talks with officials. Burns gave no details on what form the new missile defence configuration might take, but the wording he used appeared to go further than previous U.S. proposals aimed at easing RussiaÂ’s concerns.
Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told Reuters in an interview that Moscow would have to wait to see how Washington follows up on Burns’ remarks. But he said if the United States reviewed its missile defence plans “it will be a big present not just to Russia but a gift to Europe and Russia and the American people themselves because we will be able to find an alternative answer for the defence of our peoples from rogue states”.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009
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#1
These difficulties will soon be resolved. If the new administration can't trust the Russians, who can they trust?
#2
Yeah, for the next four years we can forget about the Russians, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea. Obama will concentrate fighting the REAL enemy - the Republicans (as well as small business and taxpayers).
#5
Who y'gonna believe? The govt of Pakistan or Diane Feinstein?
Gosh. That's a tough one.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2009 11:34
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#6
OT
I'd like to thank Fred and his Crew for providing a site for me to read since before I got here in '03. How the years fly when there's something fun to read.
I would also like to apologize to the mods for getting myself zapped from the O-club. A round for those with unrevoked privileges.
Ima still loiter without purpose in burg proper so long as I can be stomached.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/14/2009 14:23
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(AKI) - The Islamist Hamas movement says it's ready to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and endorse a long-term truce with Israel, according to a report by Arab daily, al-Hayat. The report said Hamas would endorse the Egyptian-brokered deal providing Israel agreed to the list of prisoners Hamas is seeking in exchange for Shalit.
Shalit would be freed as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel that would see as many as 1,000 Palestinians, including women and children released. The move would be part of a broader 18-month truce between Hamas and Israel, due to be reached within two days.
"We have accepted the truce with the Israeli side for a year and a half, in which the six crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel will be opened, while Israel has to stop any military aggression," said senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, quoted by Egypt's state news agency MENA.
However, Marzouk said that Israel still had to agree to the list. "We want the release of our detainees in exchange for Shalit," said Marzouk, adding that Hamas has already submitted its preferred list of names of Palestinian prisoners. "If Israel agrees to our list, we will make the deal."
However, Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 prisoners, but diplomats have said Israel would free closer to 1,000.
The truce says that Egypt must open the Rafah border crossings under supervision from international monitors and border guards. Turkey may also send a force to oversee operations at Rafah. There would also be a 300-metre buffer zone established along Gaza's border with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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This past week, a Tennessee journalist, George Poague of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, surveyed the Tennessee power structure in light of the nation's current economic crisis and, by way of noting the bad aroma now attaching to the financial sector, had this to say: "We've read about the Merrill Lynch CEO (since fired) who spent more than a million bucks redecorating his office. That included a trash can costing $1,400. Just before Christmas, he gave billions in bonuses to Merrill executives - their reward for destroying the company."
From there Poague, pointing out the U.S. automakers had a harder time coaxing bailout money from Congress than had Wall Street, went on to excoriate U.S. Senator Bob Corker for taking positions which he deemed detrimental to the domestic auto industry and concluded: "When Corker showed up at the Detroit auto show last month, auto workers said the senator should receive a pay cut, or should have his job outsourced. See how you like it, Bob! That made me laugh. At the very least, Corker should be given a buyout and replaced. Is Harold Ford Jr. still available?"
Connecting the dots reveals an irony not touched upon by Poague: Included in the lucky Merrill executives getting those pre-Christmas bonuses was almost certainly Ford, a ranking Merrill Lynch executive since February 2007 and one so highly regarded that Bank of America, which absorbed the fallen brokerage, kept the former Memphis congressman on as a rainmaker.
Indeed, Ford reportedly was the featured speaker only last week at a hedge fund group on behalf of the Merrill Lynch division. And a googling of his activities on behalf of the brokerage since his initial appointment in February 2007 (some three months after losing a U.S. Senate bid) as a Merrill Lynch "vice chairman and senior policy advisor," shows a vast and varied itinerary -- ranging from a visit to China as the face of Merrill Lynch to featured spots on financial panels organized by the likes of the prestigious Brookings Institution.
And Ford continues to be a hot property on the political market as well. His name is continually put forth on lists of potential Tennessee Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 2010, and any number of traditional party brokers are angling to get him to make that race.
As of now, the recently married Ford has not closed the door on running for governor, though those who know him wonder if he would be wiling to undertake an administrative job confining himself to the Volunteer State and to forgo his current vistas, which -- besides the Merrill Lynch position, estimated by the New York Post to pay him $3 million annually -- include heading up the Democratic Leadership Council, appearing as an analyst on national political affairs at MSNBC, and maintaining a relationship to Vanderbilt University as a featured adjunct professor.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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My 2 cents. He'll run if he believes he can win and make boodles of money in the process. His Father was convicted of bribery while a State Congressman. He did run a clean campaign when running for the Senate, though. He is a Spread the Wealther, as long as it's not hia wealth.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2009 9:33
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Senator Arlen Specter is one of only three Republicans to support the economic stimulus bill in Congress, and the latest Rasmussen Reports survey in Pennsylvania shows that his position is costing him support back home.
Just 31% of Keystone State voters say are more likely to vote for Specter because of his position on the stimulus package while 40% are less likely to do so. Arlen knows perfectly well that by the next time he's up for election all this will be forgotten. He'll campaign on having Led the Fight™ for something to do with children or puppies or both.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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not nearly as much as his vote is hurting the rest of us... and our kids... and grandkids... and...
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/14/2009 2:57
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I disagree about Arlen's future. Part of Penna. turning blue is that the RINOS have left the GOP. Arlen's base in Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester Counties is no longer blue and will not be able to support him in the primaries. The west is furious. People are still PO'd about the Whiskey excise.
Fast Eddie's quandary will be whether to move to open primaries so voters don't get a choice in the general or to let the trunks become a permanent minority as in other one party states. The seat will turn officially blue in 2010. But it has been for some time any way. Thanks to George Bush.
#3
Spector only voted for the Stimulus because it provided 30 million for one of his pet projects. I believe it was the National Institute of Mental Health, but I could be wrong.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2009 9:36
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And to the constituents of the Democrats who voted against it, and to the constituents of nearly all of the Republicans which combined could number into the hundreds of millions of Americans, Barry, Reid, Pelosi say shut up and go to hell!
#7
Spector only voted for the Stimulus because it provided 30 million for one of his pet projects. I believe it was the National Institute of Mental Health, but I could be wrong.
Posted by Deacon Blues
And Pelosi got $30 Mil for her mouse pet project. Apparently the market price of rodents is $30 million.
Arlen should retire and die in whichever order is best according to God
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2009 11:22
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#8
If we are lucky maybe his vote will knock him out of office and the people in Pennsylvania will get a real representative in Congress. Dump Murtha too.
Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen arrested three Iranian gunmen in a neighborhood in Khanaqin district on Friday, a local official security source said. "The three Iranians, who were carrying guns and most probably belong to the Iranian intelligence, were captured in Tolfrosh neighborhood in Khanaqin, (155 km) northeast of Baaquba," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The source noted that the Iranians are suspected of "involvement in terrorist operations in the district recently". "They have rented a house in Khanaqin without telling the security agencies first," the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
"They have rented a house in Khanaqin without telling the security agencies first," the source said.
Y'all of course noticed their mistake was not telling the security agencies first. ;-) Seriously, is Iran getting desperate?
Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, was given in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team which conducted the Mumbai probe. According to sources of the investigation team, Lakhvi was in the custody of intelligence agencies until now but after the registration of an F.I.R, his custody was handed over to investigation team for further interrogation. Sources further told that parents of Ajmal Kasab, lone surviving gunman captured during the Mumbai attacks, had been shifted to Islamabad. The investigation team is involving activists of the banned outfits in the probe for arresting two others accused Abu Hamza and Abu-al-Kama. They will be arrested soon, sources told. "Yep. Yep. All we gotta do is round 'em up! How many guys named 'Abu Hamza' are there in Pakistain, anyway?"
Lakhvi is likely to be produced before an Anti Terrorism Court on Saturday, seeking his physical remand. "Bailiff! Nail his foot to the floor!"
[BANG! BANG!]
"Owwww!"
This article starring:
ABU AL KAMA
Lashkar-e-Taiba
AJMAL KASAB
Lashkar-e-Taiba
ZAKI UR REHMAN LAKHVI
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Two bomb blasts in eastern Algeria killed seven people in the hours after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he will run for a new term, APS news agency quoted security sources as saying Friday.
Four members of the same family, including two women and a baby, were killed by the first bomb, which exploded in Foum El-Metlag, as their van passed by late Thursday.
The second exploded moments later when emergency services and security forces arrived. A local official was also badly wounded, APS said. The attack took place outside the town of Tebessa near the border with Tunisia.
The Tebessa region, near the Tunisian border some 630 kilometers (400 miles) east of Algiers and 200 kilometers from the coast, has been largely spared the violence blamed on militants which has wracked Algeria for years.
Security services said the attack was also unusual in targeting civilians.
Most attacks have focused on security force personnel or public buildings within 100 kilometers of the capital, where the north African branch of al-Qaeda is active.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
(AKI) - At least 30 people were killed and 35 others were wounded in a suicide attack south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday. The bombing which occurred near the town of Iskandariya, was the third in a string of attacks targeting Shia pilgrims in Iraq.
The bomber reportedly hid her explosives under an abaya, a traditional garment. "A female bomber blew up an explosives belt strapped to her body among a crowd of Shia pilgrims who are heading for Karbala," a source told the news agency, Voices of Iraq.
Many of the victims were women and children and the death toll was expected to increase.
Scores of pilgrims from all over Iraq and other countries have begun their pilgrimage to Karbala.
An official local source said nearly 125,000 Arab and foreign pilgrims had arrived in Karbala for the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage scheduled for Monday. Scores of pilgrims from inside and outside Iraq have started the long trek on foot for the pilgrimage. There is increased security at Iraq's holy sites in preparation for the occasion.
Friday's blast came a day after eight people were killed in a bombing in Karbala where the pilgrims are gathering for the religious festival.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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The government has no alternative except to use force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday while vowing to eliminate the insurgents.
He was addressing a meeting jointly presided over by the president and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review the situation in FATA and Swat.
The president said the Taliban wanted to impose their political agenda on the people of Pakistan through use of force, adding that the government and the people would never allow a handful of insurgents to do so. Paying tribute to the bravery and patriotism of the members of law enforcement agencies, he said many of them had laid their lives on the line and many more had been injured in the line of duty. "They are our heroes," he said.
ISI chief: During the meeting, sources said Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha gave a detailed briefing on the current situation in Swat and FATA and the ongoing efforts of law enforcement agencies to restore normalcy in the troubled areas.
The participants expressed satisfaction with the ongoing fight against the Taliban, and vowed to continue until the Taliban had been removed and the government's writ had been restored.
Earlier, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the COAS called on the president at the Presidency and discussed various security concerns. They also discussed the Indian response to the Pakistani investigations and said Pakistan was committed to bringing anyone involved in the Mumbai attack to justice.
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GAZA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli F16 warplanes struck on Friday night two targets near Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, no injuries were reported, witnesses said. Jabalia residents said the Israeli aircraft hovered over the northern area of the Gaza Strip, where two big successive explosions struck the area, adding the two explosions were a result of Israeli missiles fired at east of the refugee camp.
Earlier on Friday, Israeli F16 warplanes carried out three separate airstrikes on the borderline area between southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and Egypt, adding that the air strikes targeted underground tunnels used for smuggling.
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip came after a pro-Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for launching two homemade rockets from the Gaza Strip at the southern Israeli towns of Sderout and Ashkol. The group, called the Brigades of Hezbollah in Palestine, said in a leaflet that its militants fired two "al-Radwan" rockets from Gaza at southern Israel, "to revenge the crimes of the occupation."
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Security forces on Thursday claimed to have killed four militants during a clash following an attack on a checkpost in Shandai Mor area of Bajaur Agency.
The military sources said the militants attacked the checkpost with rocket launchers and other heavy weapons. The security personnel deployed at the checkpost repulsed the attack. The ensuing fighting between the Taliban and security forces left four militants dead, the sources added.
Meanwhile, security forces continued targeting suspected hideouts of militants in different areas of Khar Tehsil, including Inayat Kellay, Bychena and areas of Mamond Tehsil. The forces used heavy artillery and mortar guns to pound the positions of militants. However, there were no reports of casualties. Curfew remained imposed in majority of the areas of Bajaur Agency, causing numerous problems for tribesmen.
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As people across the world prepare to celebrate Valentine's Day, florists and toy stores in Saudi Arabia prepare to hide their red roses and romantic gifts in an annual struggle between the country's religious police and its love birds.
Toy stores have cuddly red teddy bears and candy merchants have heart-shaped red boxes of bon bons in stock, but all are hidden out of sight.
It is the annual battle between Saudi romantics and the Muttawas, or religious police, who believe that Valentine's Day is a pagan holiday not suitable for the homeland of Islam.
Like every year, imams sent out reminders of a years-old fatwa reminding people that Islam does not recognize Valentine's Day, and according to media reports the education ministry sent out circulars about the day in an effort to prevent the most vulnerable-- dreamy-eyed students --from succumbing to Westernized thoughts of romance.
Red gifts hidden
Meanwhile supermarkets have tucked away red gift items that might get them shut down for a day or two, and chocolate shops have done the same.
Two days before Feb.14 a florist in Riyadh's up market Suleimaniya district was shipping out wreaths of red roses and crimson apples in the middle of the afternoon, the time that everyone else, including the Muttawas, is at rest.
"Every year they try to stop Valentine's Day," said a Pakistani deliveryman as he packed the wreaths into a van. "The Muttawa will come tonight. If they catch me they will take all of these and destroy them."
The Muttawas--which go by the official name of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices--are only a nuisance, not a reign of terror, said a choclatier in front of his shop.
His Valentine's assortments are mixed colors -- red, blue, green etc-- so that he doesn't attract undo attention. "Sales are still good," he said, not wanting to be identified to be on the safe side.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict form of Islamic Sharia law and prohibits the intermingling of the sexes in public.
Across other parts of the Middle East, Arabs and Muslims alike prepared to celebrate the day with their significant other with many saying they do not pay heed to the religious undertones of Valentines Day and simply view it as a day to show someone you love them.
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#1
Afghans come off too me as a bunch of snitches. I mean hell they can be bought for very little and give up every damn body whether guilty or not within a 100 mile radius
No three brigades. Maybe one battalion or two. And air support.
The way you deal with the Heroin trade is, if there's poppies growing in an area where the local warlord is supporting the Taliban, you burn them. Maybe from the ground, or maybe from the air in such a way that they can't do anything about it but watch their liveleihood burn.
If they don't want to be at the top of the list, they can stop funding the Talibunnies and fund some retainers to get out there and chase the Taliban.
(NECN: Hartford, CT) - People in this quiet neighborhood in Stamford, Connecticut are mourning the loss of a neighbor. Beverly Eckert was on Continental Connection flight 3407 that crashed outside Buffalo.
Beverly's husband, Sean Rooney, was killed on 9-11.
She was headed to Buffalo to award a scholarship in her husband's name at the high school where they met. As co-chairwoman of "voices of September 11" Beverly fought hard to get the 9-11 commission report released, worked to get high rise building codes upgraded, kept a close watch on the prosecution of the terrorists. That work brought her to the highest offices in the nation. President Barack Obama met with her just a few days ago.
Connecticut governor M. Jodi Rell ordered the flag at the 9-11 memorial on Sherwood Isle lowered to half staff.
A sad loss, her and all the folks on that plane. Rest in peace and thank you, Beverly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Republican Norm Coleman was dealt a major legal blow Friday evening as the three judge panel overseeing the post-election trial issued an order that significantly limits which rejected absentee ballots may be reconsidered in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race election. Counting improperly rejected absentee ballots to prevent what they say was voter disenfranchisement has been a pivotal theme of Coleman's case.
In their order, the judges said they are "confident that...there is no systemic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee balloting procedures."
They also stressed that merely proving a ballot was rejected wrongfully -- the issue much of the testimony thus far has been devoted to -- is not sufficient grounds to request that it be opened and counted. That voter, they said, may have cast a ballot in person on Election Day, or submitted a subsequent absentee ballot that was counted.
They wrote that each side must prove that the ballots they want counted were "legally cast" and that cannot be done simply showing a ballot was wrongfully rejected.
The judges also outlined ten categories of absentee ballots that will not be considered in the trial because, as they write, the ballots in these categories "are not legally cast under relevant law."
Categories that will not be considered include absentee ballots submitted by non-registered voters, absentee ballots inside a return envelope not signed by the voter or absentee ballot applications that were not signed, and absentee ballots that were dropped off in person on election day.
Coleman is challenging the results of the state recount that put Democrat Al Franken in the lead with 225 votes.
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#1
Will they go thru and toss the ballots Franken got under those circumstances?
This thing is RIGGED.
And the people fo Minnesota are complete fricken IDIOTS. Minnesoata, the Stupid State.
#2
"They wrote that each side must prove that the ballots they want counted were "legally cast" and that cannot be done simply showing a ballot was wrongfully rejected."
WTF? Shouldn't Coleman's lawyers be petitioning a Federal judge based on this statement to declare the election null & void? The counted 'found' ballots before the recount even began have far more questions surrounding them than any potential absentee ballots.
Regardless, this article must have originated at the HuffPost (this is CNN, after all), because the Coleman team sees this ruling in much different light than this article projects, as noted here
Page-busting link modified.
"...Coleman's attorneys saw it differently, saying that the ruling leaves untouched about 3,500 of the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots they want the court to open and count, enough to make it possible for Coleman to overcome Franken's 225-vote certified recount lead.
Coleman lawyer Fritz Knaak said that those remaining votes -- along with the ballots of registered voters who were thought to be nonregistered as well as the ballots of voters whose signatures looked mismatched but weren't -- will eventually result in Coleman's return to the Senate."
A Russian daily claims Somali pirates hijacked Israeli-owned Ukrainian vessel MV Faina after a tip-off about its destination and cargo. A Georgian cell operator directed the call from the port city of Odessa, Kommersant quoted Ukrainian security sources as saying.
Pirates captured the arms-laden Faina along with its 21 crewmembers in the Indian Ocean on September 25, 2008, sparking international concern over the possible sales of its sophisticated military cargo. The ship was released after 20 weeks on February 5, when pirates received a $3.2 million ransom.
Faina's Israeli owner Vadim Alperin was accused of delaying the release by refusing to directly negotiate with pirates. Media outlets also raised questions over the real destination of the cargo, citing sources in Somalia who claimed the shipment was purchased by Kenya to arm Sudanese rebels in the Darfur region.
The Kenyan government has denied the allegations.
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Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, must have taken more than one short sharp shock with a cheap and chippy chopper
the beheading of a woman, after her husband -- an influential Influential and honourable
member of the local Muslim community -- reported her death to police Thursday. Which sequence leads me to believe the beheading was not the cause of death. What was? Acid bath?
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. May she rest in peace after apparently enduring Hell on earth.
Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder. You may put him on the list -- you may put him on the list;
And they'll none of 'em be missed -- they'll none of 'em be missed!
"He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning. "Officer, I'd like to report a death in my family."
"Who wuz that?"
"My wife."
"Oh, yeah? What'd she die of?"
"Her head fell off."
Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body. "Well, Dr. Quincy? Is she dead?"
"I duuno about that half of her, but this half is."
Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. Rim shot.
The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon. Did they search the son's room?
"Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said today. Just wait Frankie. Some one will top it.
Authorities say Aasiya Hassan recently had filed for divorce from her husband. "She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February]," Benz said. Those court orders, they provide such protection. That's why there is such respect for the law. Of course filing for second degree doesn't hurt either.
Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned before Village Justice Deborah Chimes and sent to the Erie County Holding Center. I heard one day
A gentleman say
That criminals who
Are cut in two
Can hardly feel
The fatal steel,
And so are slain
Without much pain.
If this is true,
It's jolly for you;
Your courage screw
To bid us adieu,
And go
And show
Both friend and foe
How much you dare.
#1
but please do remember... do not take matters of defense in to your own hands. it is far more important to leave such matters to the duly sworn police authorities and to make every effort to be a good witness.
well, at least that is what the liberals keep telling us. wonder how well it worked out for Mrs Hassan (may she rest in peace)
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
02/14/2009 2:53
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#2
Another highly educated, liked by all his non-Muslim acquantiances---"just a regular guy", Muslim takes the mask off.
Trying to quiet her crying infant son, the young mother grabbed her 11-year-old's hand and told him to follow her. Starting out at dusk, they spent hours hiding in the jungle terrain, crouching amid the crossfire between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Like thousands of other civilians stuck in the epicenter of the seemingly final battles of this civil war, Sashi Kumari Selvarajha's family was struggling to flee through marshlands and across the front lines, hoping for safety, she said through tears. But just as they crossed the line, she said, rebel forces open fire.
"We started running on Monday night. But we didn't think it was safe. So we stopped to sleep in the jungle. As the sun rose, we fled. But my husband and mother-in-law got killed," said a distraught Selvarajha, 31, as she unloaded her bags at a crowded camp for the war-displaced in government-held Vavuniya District, where 2,000 haggard and dehydrated civilians arrived Wednesday. "I'm never going back to that place."
Hers is a rare firsthand account of the harrowing flight of thousands of civilians to this heavily fortified frontier town. It came as the Sri Lankan army said it would end a largely ineffective "safe zone," which health officials and diplomats said had been shelled by both sides. Instead, troops would set up a new safe zone on a 7.5-mile-long strip of land on the northeastern coast where civilians were already seeking refuge, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said Thursday.
Most civilians who flee the fighting are put into military-run camps that officially do not allow outsiders. Stone-faced and red-eyed relatives line up behind sandbags, coils of barbed wire and machine-gun nests as soldiers check their identity papers before they can find missing loved ones.
A brother and sister stood weeping inside the camp and told how their 41-year-old father was shot dead when they attempted to cross into government-held areas. Their mother and sister are fighting for their lives in Vavuniya's hospital.
"We lost our father. We lost everything," said Rasendran Nitha, 17, who huddled with her brother, Rasendran Radanraj, 20. "We don't know what to do. We desperately need peace in Sri Lanka."
As the army continues its offensive to end the 25-year-long rebel war, the Sri Lankan government has come under increasing international pressure to halt its offensive and allow an estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern Wanni region safe passage.
The government has refused and also says the number of trapped civilians is lower. It argues that the Tigers, known for their frequent use of suicide bombers, are using civilians as human shields, a claim that rebels deny but that diplomats and human rights workers here agree is taking place.
Letting up on the fighting would allow the rebels to escape along with the displaced, President Mahinda Rajapakse's government has said. The United States has labeled the Tigers a terrorist group. The government says tens of thousands of civilians have fled the ever-shrinking coastal strip controlled by the Tigers, now estimated at less than 61 square miles.
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SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign minister on Thursday urged North Korea to stop its reported preparations for another missile test, warning it would otherwise face a slew of international sanctions. Yu Myung-hwan echoed strong warnings by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates against Pyongyang's latest provocative moves, saying a missile launch would "seriously imperil not only inter-Korean relations but also the security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."
Intelligence reports emerged recently that North Korea is preparing to test-launch a Taepodong-2 missile, which is supposedly capable of striking the western United States.
"Such a behavior by North Korea will lead only to its isolation," the minister said in his monthly press briefing. If North Korea fires the missile, Yu said, it would constitute a clear breach of U.N. resolutions 1795 and 1718, adopted after the communist nation's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
Good luck with getting the UN to help out ...
"I would like to use this opportunity to say again that given the the vast sanctions ...(conducting a launch) is anything but in the interest of North Korea," he said.
The foreign minister refused to comment on how prepared the North's may be to carry out such a missile test, saying it is a matter of military intelligence.
He added the North's recent behavior will be discussed in his meeting with Clinton in Seoul next week, as well as joint strategy to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear program and the future of the Seoul-Washington alliance. Clinton is scheduled to visit Seoul from Feb. 19-20 as part of her first regional tour with stops in Japan, Indonesia, and China.
The U.S. has informed South Korea that Clinton will listen to the opinions of the countries and discuss the "big picture," Yu said.
And then stab you in the back ...
"In that sense, we plan to discuss the big picture of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and talk about how to handle the North Korean issue, as well as have broad consultations on ways to coordinate policy on global agendas such as terrorism, climate change, and financial crisis," he said.
Asked whether South Korea had information on who will be Washington's envoy to Pyongyang, Yu avoided a direct answer. "I am not in a position to confirm," he said, about reports naming former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Stephen Bosworth. Foreign news agencies reported Bosworth is likely to be tapped the new U.S. envoy to six-party talks, a forum also joined by South and North Korea, China, Russia, and Japan aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear development. Reports said the U.S. is expected to announce the choice before Clinton's Asia tour.
"I just would like to say that he has expertise and a lot of experience on Korean affairs," Yu said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Having a Clinton at DoS and Bambi in charge concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud has severed contacts with Swat Taliban chief Mulla Fazlullah for "unknown reasons", a 17-year-old boy who has left the ranks of the Taliban revealed on Friday, a private TV channel reported.
The boy, seeking anonymity, told the channel that he had met Fazlullah three times and had quit the Taliban at his father's insistence.
He disclosed that about 12,000 Taliban, including 2,000 aged between 11 and 15 years, were being trained at a facility run by the Taliban in the mountains of Swat. He said most of the recruits belonged to poor families and had volunteered to fight for the Taliban. The boy claimed that the Taliban in Swat were 'receiving' weapons from Dir, Bajaur Agency and Afghanistan.
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U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter says she is not ruling out a bid for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Judd Gregg next year.
Her 2nd District Democratic colleague, U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, has said he intends to run. Shea-Porter has not gone that far, but said this afternoon, "I am not ruling it out."
She cited a recent Public Policy Polling survey, which found that she and Hodes fared about the same against two potential GOP candidates, former Sen. John E. Sununu and former Rep. Charlie Bass. The polls, she noted, "showed everybody in a dead heat, so I think it's going to be really interesting for people who love to watch politics."
The 1st District representative said her cell phone "has been ringing off the hook."
But she said she is focused on the stimulus package, the economy in general and two wars. She said that instead of focusing on raising money, "I think I should be talking about policy.
"If anyone is going to run for the U.S. Senate, they need to put out why they're running and when they're running, and that deadline is not until June 2010," the filing period for 2010 candidates for federal and state offices.
"Right now these problems that this country is facing are so enormous that to me it's just not a good time for me to talk about anything except what we can do to help our state."
The second-term Democrat this afternoon praised the House's passage of a $787 billion economic package that is now headed to the Senate. Shea-Porter, who represents the state's 1st Congressional District, said the package is "good for the country and good for New Hampshire" and will help Granite Staters "pretty much across the board.
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The Israeli military said rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries on Friday, a day after Hamas said it had accepted an Egyptian-brokered 18-month truce with the Jewish state, which Egypt would announce in 48 hours, a senior Hamas official said.
Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzuk said after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that Hamas had accepted the truce in return for the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
"We have agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half (in return) for the opening of all six passages between the Gaza Strip and Israel," MENA quoted him as saying.
Egypt will announce the agreement after contacting Israel and Palestinian factions, he said.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP in Jerusalem that he did not wish to comment.
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#1
Hamas sees truce with Israel within 48 hours
Preparations to celebrate Truce(TM) with massive qassam salvo are well underway?
Peshawar police arrested at least 60 persons including seven Afghan nationals and 15 suspects, and recovered drugs and arms from their possession on Friday, police said. A statement issued here said that 60 persons were nabbed and two Kalashnikovs, eight pistols, five kilogram charas, 181 rounds and 11 bottles of liquor were also recovered. Police arrested at least seven Afghan nationals for illegally staying in the city while three accused dacoits were also arrested from Agha Mir Jani with arms. Meanwhile, Chamkani police recovered three kidnapped persons without payment of any ransom and arrested seven accused kidnappers during past one and a half month. The kidnapped persons were identified as Imad, Abdul Wahab and Mohsin Sajjad. A statement issued here said police also arrested 11 wanted men and recovered Rs 47,500, four mobile phones, four vehicles and five pistols. Police also recovered 20 pistols, four rifles, 350 kilogram charas and arrested 10 proclaimed offenders.
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The Taliban on Friday killed two burqa-clad women in Kohat district and dumped the bodies by a roadside, officials said. It was not immediately clear who had killed the women, but a local security official said the Taliban were most likely responsible. Police official Riaz Khan said the slain women had a 'bad reputation' and were warned by people about a year ago to abandon their 'immoral ways'. The bullet-riddled bodies of the women, about 25 and 40 years old, were dumped on a roadside. Kohat borders the restive town of Hangu and Bajaur Agency, a flashpoint for sectarian and Taliban violence.
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Thousands of people on Friday marched through streets of Mingora to demand an end to the ongoing military operation in restive Swat valley. Despite heavy rains, thousands of protestors gathered in Odigram area, on the outskirts of Mingora to register their protest. They called for government to immediately halt the military operation and make all out efforts for the restoration of peace in the troubled valley. The protestors were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans of Shariah. They chanted slogans in support of Shariah law.
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The traditional newspaper is dying. The Evening Standard has been sold off for a pound to a former KGB agent, the Los Angeles Times is bankrupt and even the New York Times is in trouble. Mexican plutocrat Carlos Slim may become its largest shareholder in return for financing the paper's billion-dollar debt. Except for the financial press, newspapers have failed to convince readers to pay for online access -- and there is no reason to think that readers will suddenly succumb to the charms of PayPal.
The newspaper bust has been good for one business. Policy wonks have been charging into the breach with a host of different solutions to the escalating crisis. Aside from the usual appeals for tax breaks and bail-outs, the more innovative proposals come in two types.
On the private side, there have been calls for charities to endow newspapers or to subsidise political reporting. On the public side, the success of the BBC and American Public Broadcasting provides a paradigm that might be extended to the print media.
On the private side, there have been calls for charities to endow newspapers or to subsidise political reporting. On the public side, the success of the BBC and American Public Broadcasting provides a paradigm that might be extended to the print media.
There is a third way out. We urge democracies throughout the world to consider the creation of national endowments for journalism that are carefully designed to confront the impending collapse of investigative reporting.
The real concern is not the newspaper, but news coverage. It's not clear that print news is a viable technology. Classified ads are more efficiently delivered by websites. Nobody under 50 waits to read all about stock prices or sports scores in the morning edition. The government should sit back and let the market decide the right way to distribute the news.
But there are huge costs to losing a vibrant core of investigative reporters covering local, national and international stories. The internet is well suited to detect scandals that require lots of bloggers to spend a little bit of time searching for bits of incriminating evidence. But it's no substitute for serious investigative reporting that requires weeks of intelligent inquiry to get to the heart of the problem. Without Woodwards and Bernsteins, there will be even more Nixons and Madoffs raining mayhem and destruction.
It will take decades to revitalise investigative journalism if we allow the present corps of reporters to disintegrate. This is happening at an alarming rate. A Pew study indicates that 15,000 journalists lost their jobs in the US in 2008, with reductions of more than 20% at large newspapers. These grim numbers are harbingers of a worldwide crisis that undermines the very foundation of liberal democracy. Any serious solution should focus exclusively on this problem -- the collapse of investigative journalism, not the fate of particular delivery systems.
The problem with a BBC-style solution is clear enough. It is one thing for government to serve as one source of investigation but quite another for it to dominate the field. A near-monopoly would mean the death of critical inquiry.
There are serious problems with private endowments as well. For starters, there is the matter of scale. Pro Publica, an innovative private foundation for investigative reporting, is currently funding 28 journalists. It is hard to make the case for a massive increase in private funding when university endowments are crashing throughout the world, imperilling basic research. More fundamentally, a system of private endowments creates perverse incentives. Insulated from the profit motive, the endowments will pursue their own agendas without paying much attention to the issues that the public really cares about.
Here is where our system of national endowments enters the argument. In contrast to current proposals, we do not rely on public or private do-gooders to dole out money to their favourite journalists. Each national endowment would subsidise investigations on a strict mathematical formula based on the number of citizens who actually read their reports on news sites.
Some might find this prospect daunting. Readers may flock to sensationalist tabloids that will also qualify for grants for their "investigations". But common sense, as well as fundamental liberal values, counsels against any governmental effort to regulate the quality of news. So long as the endowment only subsidises investigative expenditures, in-depth reporting will get a large share of the fund -- provided that it generates important stories that generate broad interest.
The endowment must monitor media hits and circulation counts. This is doable. Advertisers already rely on independent audits. So can the government. Some governmental monitoring of financial matters is also necessary. News organisations would otherwise be tempted to obtain subsidies for marketing and business operations. Without minimising the problems involved in institutional design, the creation of an effective and disciplined national endowment seems entirely realistic.
The crisis in reporting comes at the worst possible time, when a broad range of industries are lining up for big bail-outs. We generally oppose government efforts to second-guess the market. But this case really is special. Liberal democracy can survive a crisis in the auto or construction industry, but it cannot do without a vibrant fourth estate.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009
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#1
IMO, the establishment of National Endowment for Child Molestation is even more urgent.
#2
The real alternative is to go back to their roots as simply broadsheets for the political parties they represent. Back in the 19th Century, that is what they were. That they started to attract advertising and make money was just a spin off rather than a goal. So, let's see the parties directly carry the load of propagandizing the masses rather than any government subsidy. Pay your party dues and get a subscription at the same time. Of course, the Donks won't support this because it would involve their own money. Socialism only works till the other guys money runs out.
#3
I don't see how this can occur without the government also (eventually) regulating the content. Anything that government dollars are spent on, the argument goes, are subject to "accountability" which is subject to political pressure from the party in charge.
#4
"Anything that government dollars are spent on, the argument goes, are subject to "accountability" which is subject to political pressure from the partythe Far-Leftist Democrats, no matter which party is in charge."
Fixed that for ya', W.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/14/2009 10:22
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#6
" losing a vibrant core of investigative reporters covering local, national and international stories"
Losing? It hasn't existed in 20 years. They are all slanted now, from the choice of pejorative and prejudicial wording, slecting which facts to include or ignore to slant individual articles, to the choice of which stories to puslish and which to ignore.
#8
Pro-terror presstitutes should consider the fate of their predecessors, Goebbels and Streicher, and count themselves lucky if bankruptcy is all they get.
#9
There already is a national endowment for journalism. It's housed in the Columbia University's School of Journalism, the University of Missouri's School of Journalism (or is it Mississippi? 3dc can tell us), etc.
Mohanpur Police yesterday arrested two people in a case filed in connection with killing 15 people during the Liberation War in 1971.
Police arrested Daud Hossain, 70, and Nur-e Anwar, 65, at their homes in Bamundighi Berabari of Mohanpur upazila around dawn. Daud is a Jamaat-e Islami activist while Anwar belongs to BNP, said Aminul Islam, Mougachchi union BNP organising secretary.
"We are interrogating the arrestees as we had a number of complaints against them. We are also looking for the absconding suspects of the war crime case," said Asaduzzaman Milon, officer-in-charge of Mohanpur Police Station.
Seventeen others are also accused in the case.
Merajul Islam Sheikh, son of Basir Uddin Sheikh, one of the 15 martyrs, of Birsoil in Shahmakhdum lodged the case with a Rajshahi court on June 22 last year and police recorded the case on September 13.
The accused include Shafiullah, Moyeen Uddin, Boyen Uddin of Modanhati, Daud Ali, Nur-e Anwar, Shamsuddin, Sirajul Islam, Motiur Rahman and Awal of Berabari, Alam, Abdul Hai, Abdul Mannan of Mohisbathan, Abu Sayeed of Durgapur, Jan-e Bux, Abdul, Rejbul, Kalim and Kalu of Shahmakhdum.
In his complaint, Merajul said the accused were collaborators of Pakistani forces and were engaged in robbery, murder, arson and rape at Modanhati and other villages during the war.
On November 30, 1971, they abducted the 15 people who were helping freedom fighters at Bogpara Mugroil of Mohanpur. The next morning, all of them were tied together and shot dead.
The 15 martyrs are Nazrul Islam, Idris Ali, Zabibur Rahman, Rashid Sheikh, Jeker Ali Sheikh, Bashir Uddin Sheikh, Mofir Uddin, Fakir Uddin, Yunus Ali, Nuruzzaman, Seku Sardar, Kutub Ali, Meser Ali, Reaz Uddin and Baddyanath Risi.
A monument was later erected at the spot.
"The war criminals are still alive and they are known as Razakars," said Merajul, who had to move to Rajshahi city as the accused kept on issuing death threats.
Now a rickshaw puller, Merajul demanded exemplary punishment for the collaborators.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Looks like the RAB has adapted to the bad publicity ...
A regional leader of outlawed New Biplobi Communist Party (NBCP) was shot dead by unidentified assailants at Charbiharia village under Khoksa upazila of the district on Thursday night.
One less commie, gunned down in the middle of the street by 'unknowns'. Gee, wonder who has it in for the commies of Bangladesh?
The dead was identified as Bikash Kumar Bose, 36, son of Bipul Kumar Bose of Mulgram village in Kumarkhali upazila.
No idea where that is.
Bikash was a close associate of NBCP chief Akidil Hossain who was killed in a 'shootout' with police in February 1 last year.
A shootout, then an outlaw shot dead. Hmmm ...
According to police, a gang of 5 to 6 shot Bidkash in the chest and abdomen and left the scene. He died instantly.
Right on the spot, didn't even get time to croak 'rosebud' ...
Hearing gunshots, locals rushed to the spot and found Bikash lying in a pool of blood. On information, police rushed to the village, recovered the body and sent it to Kushtia Sadar Hospital for autopsy.
"Here's another one for you, Dr. Quincy!"
"Stack him in the back with the others, Sam."
No one was arrested in connection with the killing as of 7:00pm yesterday.
Almost as of no one had ever been there ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Putting this little F4 into his warm nest, that it might thrive and grow. I hope GreenSteve don't kill it in the cradle.
Pakistan on Friday urged India to "come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy" and expose those responsible for acts of "commission and omission" to help uncover full facts and bring the perpetrators to justice. Boy, I am such a dullard! For the life of me, I can't understand why, if Pakistain -- or "plausibly deniable non-state actors" send kill teams to India, why India has to "come clean" and expose people responsbile for acts of "commission and omission."
Responding to a statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Lok Sabha, the foreign office said Pakistan expects India to come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy. They aleady said that once...
It also demanded India to "expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission in a transparent manner." Pakistan said the reality of Mumbai attacks were increasingly getting mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India. Actually they're not. Pak is trying to obfuscate them into some sort of mixture, but it's a success only in the minds of Pak politicians and generals, retired or otherwise.
Mukherjee told Lok sabha, a day after Pakistan's response to the Indian dossier; "Authorities in Pakistan have to choose the kind of relationship that they want with India in future; much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion." Sounds like they've made their choice, doesn't it?
The spokesman said Pakistan has so far refrained from commenting on Indian internal affairs. "We have acted with a high sense of responsibility and exercised restraint," he added. "Mukherjee's remarks are essentially a rehash of the standard Indian line against Pakistan and in complete variance with the imperatives of a serious approach to uncover the "full facts "relating to Mumbai attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice," the foreign office statement said. I think the standard Indian line against Pakistain is that they're all nuts. Events to date seem to bear out that assessment.
The Spokesman said "we have a distinct sense that the reality of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which were whole-heartedly condemned by the international community and Pakistan, is getting increasingly mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India." To the extent that parties within India want something done about the attacks, which were on their sovreign territory. Some parties are more timid than others, and still others are looking toward their own political gain, but nobody's harboring warm fuzzies toward Pakistain except for possibly Dar ul-Uloom Deoband.
Mukherjee told the parliament that India will continue to review the situation, including Pakistan's responses "and will take further steps that we deem necessary to protect our people." Twist it as you will, that sez they haven't dropped the matter, and they're not going to let Pak drop the matter.
The foreign office spokesman said "the Government of Pakistan expects India to come clean on the multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy and expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission in a transparent manner." That's the third time they've repeated that, word for word.
The spokesman said Pakistan has offered India a hand of cooperation. "We do so in the interest of regional peace and security," the statement said. Then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Steel don't burn, come clean and let the troofers set you free.
Three days after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced a $50 billion program to prevent home foreclosures, a powerful Democratic congressman who is deeply involved in the housing crisis suggested that $50 billion might prove to be just a down payment for a larger taxpayer-funded program.
"We may need more than $50 billion for foreclosure [mitigation]," Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told reporters Friday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. If there is not a high re-default rate after the $50 billion is injected into Treasury's homeowner bailout plan, the government should consider spending more money to fund the plan, the Massachusetts Democrat said.
Mr. Frank said deteriorating home prices were a major cause of the plunging value of mortgage-related assets, which have blown huge holes in the balance sheets of many of the world's largest banks.
And foreclosure mitigation is the best way to slow down home-price depreciation, he argued.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Did anyone ask the proud papa of the financial crisis about the stunning success of his sub-prime loan "love child" with Herb Moses?
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.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said.
A 
Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft has killed at least four people near the Afghan border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is making key decisions, recovering ''significantly'' from a stroke he is believed to have suffered last August, the U.S. Office of National Intelligence said in an annual report Thursday. ''Kim probably suffered a stroke in August that incapacitated him for several weeks, hindering his ability to operate as actively as he did before the stroke,'' according to the annual threat assessment report National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair submitted to Congress.
Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has denied that US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas are being carried out from Pakistani airbases. "We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan," he told a private TV channel. About comments by the US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein, Mukhtar said, "I do not know on what she based all this."
Baluch Liberation United Front (BLUF) has released pictures and video of abducted UN official John Solecki and demanded the release of 141 women detainees within 72 hours. Solecki, who was abducted on February 2 from Quetta, was apparently shown in a video aired by Geo News on Friday, calling for his release saying he was unwell. The video shows close up the face of a blindfolded man, apparently that of John Solecki. "This is a message to the United Nations. I am not feeling well, I am sick and in trouble. Please help solve the problems soon so I can gain my release," the person says. It was not apparently clear if he was speaking under threat. The video was shot on a mobile phone and delivered on a memory card to the television station. It was not immediately clear when the video was taken. BLUF demanded the release of 141 women detainees within 72 hours and to know the whereabouts of 6,000 missing people.
A military operation is not the only solution to the Swat situation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday, adding that other measures would be taken to tackle the situation. He told journalists after a meeting at the Planning Commission that every step would be taken, with consultation of the provincial government, to restore peace in Swat. Asked about whether Pakistan expects a similar response from India over the Samjhota Express tragedy, as the latter did for the Mumbai attacks, the premier said additional information has been sought from India. He said that action would be taken accordingly after receiving the information. Regarding the award of tickets to the Senate, the premier said a board appointed by the Pakistan People's Party had decided on the people to be nominated.
VILNIUS - Lithuania is to begin talks with the United States on taking in two prisoners from the controversial US Guantanamo detention facility on Cuba, Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said Friday. ‘On February 5 we received an official request from the United States to contribute to the resolution of the Guantanamo question,’ Usackas said.
More than a year after the deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID), the UN is still begging the international community for the helicopters the peacekeepers need to do their jobs.
MOSCOW - The United States is ready to look at re-modelling its missile defence plans to include Moscow, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday in a concession to Russian opposition. The Kremlin has been pressing Washington to give ground on the proposed missile shield in exchange for Russia helping supply the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan—a priority for new President Barack Obama.
(AKI) - At least 30 people were killed and 35 others were wounded in a suicide attack south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday. The bombing which occurred near the town of Iskandariya, was the third in a string of attacks targeting Shia pilgrims in Iraq.
The government has no alternative except to use force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday while vowing to eliminate the insurgents.
GAZA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli F16 warplanes struck on Friday night two targets near Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, no injuries were reported, witnesses said. Jabalia residents said the Israeli aircraft hovered over the northern area of the Gaza Strip, where two big successive explosions struck the area, adding the two explosions were a result of Israeli missiles fired at east of the refugee camp.
As people across the world prepare to celebrate Valentine's Day, florists and toy stores in Saudi Arabia prepare to hide their red roses and romantic gifts in an annual struggle between the country's religious police and its love birds. 
A Russian daily claims Somali pirates hijacked Israeli-owned Ukrainian vessel MV Faina after a tip-off about its destination and cargo. A Georgian cell operator directed the call from the port city of Odessa, Kommersant quoted Ukrainian security sources as saying. 
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud has severed contacts with Swat Taliban chief Mulla Fazlullah for "unknown reasons", a 17-year-old boy who has left the ranks of the Taliban revealed on Friday, a private TV channel reported. 
Pakistan on Friday urged India to "come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy" and expose those responsible for acts of "commission and omission" to help uncover full facts and bring the perpetrators to justice.
