Video of U-28A at site
Four Hurlburt Field airmen died Feb. 18 when their U-28A was involved in an accident near Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, located in the Horn of Africa.
Capt Ryan P. Hall from the 319th Special Operations Squadron, Capt Nicholas S. Whitlock and 1st Lt Justin J. Wilkens from the 34th Special Operations Squadron and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten from the 25th Intelligence Squadron were killed in the crash. No other personnel were on board the aircraft, according to a press release from Hurlburt Field.
The U-28 was returning from a mission in support of OPERATION Enduring Freedom.
Hall, a 30-year-old from Colorado Springs, was a U-28A pilot on his seventh deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2004, receiving his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corp at The Citadel. He had been assigned to the 319th SOS at Hurlburt Field since 2007 and had more than 1,300 combat flight hours.
Whitlock, a 29-year-old from Newnan, Ga., was also a U-28A pilot and was on his fifth deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2006, receiving his commission through the Officer Training School. He had been assigned to the 319th SOS and then to the 34th SOS at Hurlburt Field since 2008 and had more than 800 combat flight hours.
Wilkens, a 26-year-old from Bend, Oregon, was a combat systems officer on his third deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2009, receiving his commission through the Air Force Academy. He had been assigned to the 34th SOS at Hurlburt Field since April 2011 and had more than 400 combat hours.
Scholten, a 26-year-old from Upper Marlboro, Md., was a mission systems operator assigned to the 25th IS at Hurlburt Field since 2009. He enlisted in the Air Force in 2007. He had more than 900 combat hours in six different airframes and was on his third deployment.
"The Hurlburt Field community expresses our deepest condolences to the family of the crew, and we share in their sorrow. Our efforts are focused on helping them through this difficult time," said Col. Jim Slife, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing. "We will never forget the valuable contributions these brave men made to their country and community."
The U-28A is a single engine, manned fixed wing aircraft developed around the Pilatus PC-12 airframe that provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of special operations forces.
The cause of the crash is unknown at this time. The Air Force is committed to a thorough investigation, and more information will be released as it becomes available.
Suspected Afghan police opened fire on Albanian and other foreign troops in the war-wracked country's south Monday, killing an Albanian soldier, and wounding an Albanian and another international soldier, authorities said. Eleven suspected policemen were arrested. An entire troop of turncoat assholes? Karzai will pardon them and condemn USAF for getting in the way of their bullets
The death was the first for Albanian troops in Afghanistan. RIP - and thank you for your sacrifices
The shootings appeared to be the latest in a growing number of attacks by Afghan police or army soldiers on foreign forces, a trend that has raised concerns about the vetting of Afghan recruits and threatened the international military commitment to the country. Last month, France suspended its training program and warned it may withdraw its forces a year ahead of schedule after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers. which is the point
Monday's shooting occurred in the village of Robat, in the southern district of Spin Boldak near the Pakistani border, Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq said. The troops were accompanying a USAID team for a meeting about opening two schools and a health center, Albania's defense ministry said. schools and health centers are unIslamic
The soldiers "found themselves attacked by a group of persons wearing uniforms of the Afghan police," Brig. Gen. Viktor Berdo, head of Albanian land forces, told reporters in Tirana.
The Albanian ministry said the remaining soldiers "arrested 11 Afghan policemen who opened fire." Should've killed each and every one of them
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2012
16:31 ||
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As lotp was saying a week or two ago...
Nevada has become the first state in the country to approve regulations that will allow self-driving vehicles on the road in that state.
Google Why does it have to be Google?
has been working on an autonomous car for a couple of years. Back in 2010, it first gave the public a peak at a Toyota Prius it modified with lasers (mounted on the car) and computers. That technology delivered data to the driving system so it computed the speed, direction etc. of the car. In Googles car, theres a person in the driver seat or front passenger seat, but they are not controlling the car.
Since then Google has worked with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, automakers, insurance companies and others to develop regulations for self-driving cars. These are the rules for companies to test autonomous cars in Nevada and for general public use. Nevada's a good place to start - for much of the state cruise control and good wheel alignment can let your car self-drive. Then you run into a mountain range. Or even another vehicle once in a while.
Google has already logged thousands of miles testing self-driving cars. CEO Sergey Brin has said he wants the Google autonomous test car to log a million miles without an accident.
#1
I wonder if proposed DoT rules against use of electronic devices by the driver would apply to a non-driving driver? Or more likely (given that this is government I'm talking about) the rules would prevent the car from using electronic devices while driving itself?
There are millions of Christians in Syria, who probably have the Russians and Chinese to thank that they may live there a little longer.
The Security Council vetoes, a fortnight ago, on a resolution calling upon Syria's dictator to step down, and supporting an Arab-sponsored plan to "end the violence," put paid to any immediate prospect of western intervention.
The outrage expressed by Hillary Clinton, William Hague, and other western foreign ministers, probably concealed a little relief, for the vetoes provided the excuse they needed to avoid the issue, while continuing to posture about "humanitarianism" and "democracy."
...Christians were as common in Syria as in Egypt, before their numbers were immensely swelled by refugees from Iraq - well over a million fleeing up the Euphrates River valley, from anti-Christian persecution by Iraq's Islamists. By now, there could be more than four million Christians within Syria's borders.
When the Assad regime falls, it will be open season on them, on the Alawites, and all the other minorities. Granted, Assad is a monster who has earned an ugly fate. But at what expense should we indulge the fleeting satisfaction of deposing him?
#1
There were good reasons we backed the Shah, Mubarak, Saleh, etc. over the years - bad as they were, they were the best available option. Assad - and even Daffy - are probably the same.
In 1969, after six months alone on the Atlantic battling storms, sharks and encroaching madness, John Fairfax, who died this month at 74, became the first lone oarsman in recorded history to traverse any ocean.
In 1972, he and his girlfriend, Sylvia Cook, sharing a boat, became the first people to row across the Pacific, a yearlong ordeal during which their craft was thought lost. (The couple survived the voyage, and so, for quite some time, did their romance.) Ms. Cook, who became an upholsterer and spent the rest of her life quietly on dry land (though she remained a close friend of Mr. Fairfax), lives outside London.
For all its bravura, Mr. Fairfax's seafaring almost pales beside his earlier ventures. Footloose and handsome, he was a flesh-and-blood character out of Graham Greene, with more than a dash of Hemingway and Ian Fleming shaken in.
At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle.
At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, I thought you said you were going to apprentice to a pilot.
he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/20/2012
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#1
Nothing succeeds like success. DARPA and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have led the way in an s-load of amazing technologies.
The US has long had a technology oriented scientific community, unlike the Soviet Union that was far more oriented to basic science.
The US realized this created a gap between basic science and technology, which was to be filled by first creating ONR in 1946, and DARPA in 1958.
It worked splendidly. The Vietnam War then gave the impulse and opportunity to field test innumerable technologies, and the agencies kept a steady flow going to the battlefield, giving the US a huge boost in practical war tech.
Both agencies have websites, but post-911 they are far less inclined to release information about ongoing projects, which truly cover the gamut of anything that might be of military use or interest.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:38
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#3
It's part of a multi-layered defense. For the big missiles launched from Iran, Israel and the US have PAC-3, Patriot, and Arrow anti-missiles. Over the horizon detection is done with X-Band radar.
This leaves an estimated tens of thousands of smaller rockets and missiles from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and possibly the West Bank, many of which are believed to be able to hit Tel Aviv.
-- Presidents Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski.
-- Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation.
-- Summer 2011, in Marthas Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.
-- June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana.
-- Presidents Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.
-- Christmas 2010, in Hawaii.
-- August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.
-- August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash.
-- August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.
-- August 2010, summer vacation again at Marthas Vineyard.
-- July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
-- May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago.
-- March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City.
-- Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break.
-- August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.
-- August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Marthas Vineyard, Mass. And that doesn't seem to include the royal couple's 'date night' to NYC.
George W. Bush, at this time of his presidency, had made 30 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 220 days. The Obamas vacation day count is less than half of that.
#7
To paraphrase Ann "Forget I voted for Obama" Althouse, this is a metaphorical Smart & Talented Woman's way of dealing with frustration, in this case the limited role of the First Lady.
Personally, I think she should be given additional responsibilities related to the national interest. Like parachuting into Syria as head of a State mediation team.
#8
Like parachuting into Syria as head of a State mediation team.
And order them to eat their vegetables and low-fat chicken nuggets?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/20/2012 16:04
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#9
From what I hear, staffers throughout the White House breathe a sigh of relief every time she goes away. They might be arranging these vacations just so the boss can get some work done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2012 16:09
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#10
In that case, Doc, all the more reason to keep her from going on these jaunts....
One of the biggest rebel groups in Sudan's Darfur region said it was holding 52 international UNAMID peacekeepers mainly from Senegal on Monday. A spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement said, "We are holding the UNAMID soldiers because they entered our territory without permission and because they were accompanied by three Sudanese we suspect work for the security services."
#1
I guess the can keep the peace ... er quietly ... in that corner over there ... for a while ...
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:40
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Years ago, National Lampoon did a comic featuring UN peacekeepers in Vietnam. Hopelessly stifled in bureaucracy and frivolous complaints, accomplishing nothing while surrounded by carnage and brutality, which they couldn't even agree to "deplore".
#1
The Iranian problem can be solved by replacing the regime. In Pakistan, the problem goes much deeper.
Best sentence i have read in ages.Pakistan is more of a problem than Iran.The Saudi funded education system in Pakistan has alot to do with this.Anyone non muslim is the enemy mentality.
A Syria-based activist says three columns of army reinforcements including tanks are heading toward the restive central city of Homs.
Mustafa Osso says the regime appears to be preparing to storm rebel-held neighborhoods in the city before a referendum is held Feb. 26 on a new constitution.
An kaboom tore through a polling station in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Monday and gunfire was heard shortly after the blast, an official said, a day before an election to replace Ali Abudllah Saleh, Yemen's ruler for three decades. No casulaties were reported.
"The kaboom caused a big hole in the building's wall and shattered the window glass of nearby houses," the official said.
Lawyers for the Indonesian bad boy who helped assemble bombs used in the 2002 nightclub blasts on Bali island said Monday that the charges against their client are obscure and should be dropped.
They also told the West Jakarta District Court that the country's tough anti-terrorism law can't be applied retroactively, and because Umar Patek didn't take part in preplanning meetings he also was not guilty of premeditated murder.
Egyptian security sources and members of the Syrian opposition are claiming that the two Iranian ships docked off the Syrian coast have "military communications jamming devices that are disrupting communications made by the Syrian opposition via satellite," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.
Interesting use of the ships. Wonder if this is something they just thought of on the spot or if it is part of the reason they came.
According to the report, an Egyptian security source noted that recently the Syrian regime has been finding it hard to monitor opposition calls.
#5
by Dope, I assume he was talking about drugs, not Obama?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2012 16:14
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#6
It's funny the blog didn't mention Calderon's spikng the ball into the end zone claiming a significant drop in homicides in Juarez over the past year.
#1
Fundamental problem is that its still a tribal society. You have to pick who you want to keep the place from getting out of control the next time not some State Department defined model of 'progress'.
#2
Looks like the choice will be South Korea or Vietnam. It's not like we are going to go back in after the Taliban owns half the country again.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:42
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#3
BREAKINGNEWS.com > [WSJ] AFGHANISTAN TO SPY ON ITS SOLDIERS, IN EFFORT TO HALT ATTACKS ON COALITION FORCES.
and
* TOPIX > [E-Ariana] TALIBAN [Peace] TALKS TO FAIL WIDOUT ALL GROUPS: HIZB-I-ISLAMI.
* SAME > HAMID GUL: BALUCHISTAN RESOLUTION PROVES US WANTS TO BREAK PAKISTAN INTO PIECES.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > PAK TALIBAN GAINING MORE RESOURCES FROM [high-profile = Gangster/Mafia-style] KIDNAPPING.
$$$ etc.
* SAME > [NY Post] PAKISTAN EXTREMISTS [000's] SHOUT "DEATH TO AMERICA" AT ISLAMABAD RALLY.
Also demand HOLY WAR at mass rally organized by approximately 40 different Political-Activist Groups.
#2
Funny, I don't remember reading much about it after our revolution, except for a few tories moving to Canada maybe with tar and feathers for decoration.
#3
It was bad and split families. Tory families ended up starving in Jamaica. On he whole, though, British society was pretty orderly so raping, pillaging and murdering didn't hit the revolution scene until the French made their opus.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:50
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Animals are insanely complex biochemical machines that produce equally complex tissues. And digestion of such tissues is designed to both take maximum value from them, yet discard chemicals that would be otherwise toxic.
While we can subsist for a while on minimal micro-nutrients, the bodies of people who eat this stuff for any length of time will adapt to find it inedible and loathsome to the taste.
I would relegate this idea to the category of "space food", an all-pill diet they used to imagine was the future back in the 1960s.
"But it has the MDA of protein, carbohydrate, and fats, so you *should* be able to live on it."
#2
..the bodies of people who eat this stuff for any length of time will adapt to find it inedible and loathsome to the taste.
Meat as we know it by taste is largely the result of 20th Century animal breeding and refrigeration. Tender and rare is very modern. Most of what people got as meat for most of history was local and eaten immediately or salted or seasoned heavily - and still is in most of the world. There's an entire business to supply cable channels under the guise of entertainment with the various means both local and international on how to cover the taste of meat.
Don't forget Vegans seem to more or less subsist without it. Every Vegan is not lacking in vitamins or nutrients.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/20/2012 10:56
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#4
Actually Vegans DO lack vitamins or nutrients unless extremely careful about what they eat. A minor deficiency can take years to show. Man is an omnivore, the body usually tells you when it needs something if you care to listen.
#5
...yes I understand the point, but those who do pay attention to the vitamin and nutrient content of their diet can make it happen. And yes, those sharp teeth in the front are for something more than grinding grain and veggies and more on the lines of ripping and shredding.
#6
It's often more subtle than that. For example, only recently was it learned that raw food does not equal cooked food as far as useable nutrition goes. People who subsist on only raw food (a fad diet) are very prone to develop malnutrition. This is because cooking makes far more nutrients available, and far easier to digest.
Meat contains a huge number of important nutrients, and it is now known that even if adults are vegetarians, they should feed their children meat at least until their teenage years or they may develop physical problems in their later years. Fairly new research.
However, this is a different subject than what I was driving at. Artificial meat almost certainly does not contain the same nutritional value as real meat. Yes, it can have the same amount of protein and fat, but it will lack trace amounts of hormones, and likely minerals, as well as who knows what our bodies are attuned to receive via meat.
So my suspicion is that this could very well taste like meat at first. But after consuming it a few times, it will start to taste worse and worse. The opposite phenomenon, of nutritious and useful food tasting better and better, is well known.
#2
Japanese during WW11 did the same thing with supply lines cut. Developed live harvesting to an art. No refrigeration. I have read several stories of this organ harvesting especially in rural China. Mobile units collect then just dump bodies along the side of the road. Korean war Vets will tell you of the human wave attacks. People are just blades of grass. No checks and balances. Total government rule from a minority few who know what is best for everyone. King of the hill game some of us played as children. Some like our current administration play it for keeps.
#3
The best bet to ruin this game would be the equivalent of suicide pills that so contaminate the internal organs that they would kill the transplant recipient.
The way to do this would be to put it in a small, hard, waterproof pill, that would be easily hidden beneath the skin, so it could not be taken from them in a body search. It could remain there for years.
Since the likely would not be killed during arrest, they would have time to figure out that they were going to be harvested, cut a small hole in their skin, remove the pill and crush it in their mouth.
After a few hundred transplant failures, word would get out that something is severely wrong, but it would take a very long time to figure out what.
#3
Several years ago I spoke to an elderly woman from England. I asked her about her healthcare in her home country. She was about 89 and said "them that has gets and them that don't waits". That is as accurate as I can recall, her response.
Cindy Crawford aka Kate McQuean in "Fair Game (1995)" aka Cindy in "Body Guards (2000)" aka Sandra in "The Simian Line (2000)" aka Kate McQuean in "Fair Game (1995)" (age 47)
Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear program at an underground plant near the city of Qom, a diplomat has told the BBC, just days ahead of a visit by United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... nuclear inspectors.
Iran appears to be poised to install thousands of new centrifuges at the underground site in the northern city, a Vienna-based diplomat told the British broadcaster late Friday.
The BBC said the centrifuges could speed up the production of enriched uranium, which can be used both for generating nuclear power and to manufacture atomic weapons.
Iran said on Wednesday it had installed another 3,000 centrifuges to increase its uranium enrichment abilities, but it was unclear Sunday whether these were the same as those mentioned by the diplomat.
Inspectors from the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, are due to visit Tehran this week.
Iran insists that its nuclear drive is peaceful, but Western countries suspect the Islamic Theocratic Republic of trying to develop an atomic bomb.
Iran has been slapped with four sets of U.N. sanctions and a raft of unilateral U.S. and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... measures over its nuclear drive.
LONDON: Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned Israel against military action on Iran. Hague says economic sanctions and negotiations had to be given a real chance to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. He says, I dont think a wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran.
He has no alternative except to wait for the sanctions to fail.
Hague said in the interview with the BBC on Sunday that a nuclear-armed Iran would result in another cold war in the Middle East.
No, it would be rather hot...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2012
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#1
Remember when vinyl records would skip, so they would do the same brief bit of music and lyrics over and over again?
"...economic sanctions and negotiations had to be given "a real chance" to convince Tehran..."
Except that nobody has jostled this record player for *years* now.
I like to point out that Europeans criticize "cowboy" America for frequently nipping serious problems in the bud. However their attitude is to hold committee meetings until the situation is so horribly out of control that the only option left is nuclear weapons.
#2
Maybe Israel should consider a more subtle attack on Iran. One method that comes to mind is induced earthquakes to soften up and demoralize the nation... They could do what the USSR did to China that led up to the great 1976 Tangshang earthquake.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/20/2012 12:38
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#3
Of course that took nearly 13 underground n-tests on several fault lines.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/20/2012 12:40
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#4
I like to point out that Europeans criticize "cowboy" America f
Anonymoose, you might find Anti-Americanism, by the French philosopher-journalist Jean Francois Revel helpful. He traces the origins of the various contradictory anti-American memes in a brief, crisply written volume. You may remember his Without Marx or Jesus, written after his first visit to America in the early '70s.
#5
"Hold committee meetings until the situation is [horribly] out of control" ...
D *** NG IT, "THE SIMPSONS" > HIS NAME IS SCORPIO, HE HAS THE DOOMSDAY DEVICE + A BIKINI-CLAD GIRLFRIEND KILLER BODYGUARD-OFFICE/AFFAIRS MANAGER, HE'S OBSCENELY UPSET BECAUSE GOVT. BIGWIGS IN CONFERENCE THINK A US-MADE LANDMARK BRIDGE BUILT TO LAST A THOUSAND YARNS SUDDENLY COLLAPSED + EXPLODED BY ITSELF EVEN AFTER THEY SAW SCORPIO PUSH THE RED BUTTON.
Well there ya go.
* ION YNETNEWS > US OFFICIALS: ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN WOULD REQUIRE 100 PLANES, from the IDAF in highly difficult or problematic, simultaneous strike on multiple Iran Nuke targets.
* WAFF > IRAN IS MORE DISTANT THAN OSIRAK | ISRAELI [air]ATTACK ON IRAN NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT SOUNDS.
* BREAKINGNEWS.com > IRAN THREATENS TO EXTEND OIL EMBARGO IMPOSED ON BRITAIN + FRANCE TO OTHER COUNTRIES.
BEIRUT: Gunmen assassinated a senior prosecutor and a judge in a restive province in northwest Syria on Sunday, the countrys state news agency said, while activists reported that security forces shelled rebel-held areas in the besieged city of Homs.
SANA news agency said gunmen opened fire in the morning on a car carrying Idlib provincial state prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammed Ziadeh. The agency said the two were killed instantly along with their driver.
Syrian rebels control parts of Idlib province, which borders Turkey. It has been one of the regions hardest hit by a government crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar Assads regime.
SANA said the prosecutors assassination came a day after gunmen shot dead Jamal Al-Bish, member of the city council of the nearby northern city of Aleppo, Syrias largest. It said he was killed outside the city, a center of support for President Bashar Assad that has been relatively quiet since the uprising began.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2012
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#1
Tribal payback during the chaos or part of the Syrian appeals process?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:57
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#7
For about the same area, I can imagine them packing a Taser-type probe ejecting stun gun, as an over-under with a gun. Maybe only three rounds, but far more versatile.
And instead of just a flashlight, combine it with a high intensity strobe light that would temporarily blind at night. Likely using the Taser battery.
Syrian security forces on Sunday killed at least 20 people across the country and flooded a tense neighborhood where a mourner was rubbed out in the largest anti-regime rally seen in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , activists said.
Regime troops killed nine people in the restive northwestern province of Idlib, nine in the central protest hub of Homs, one in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour and another in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the uprising, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Protesters seemed to be more emboldened in Damascus after 11 months of revolt which has largely beat feet the city.
Although the security deployment thwarted attempts to stage new protests in Mazzeh neighborhood, scene of a Saturday funeral that turned into a huge anti-regime rally, business there ground to a halt, activists said.
Mohammed Shami, a front man for activists in Damascus province, said most shops were shut in Mazzeh as well as in the Barzeh, Qaboon, Kfar Sousa and Jubar districts.
Student demonstrations had been expected in Mazzeh but security forces were stationed around schools, Shami said.
"Security forces are heavily deployed throughout Mazzeh," he said.
Another activist, Abu Huzaifa from the Mazzeh Committee, said police forced the family of Samer al-Khatib, 34, who died after being shot in neck during the mass funeral on Saturday, to bury him in a small ceremony earlier than planned, in an apparent move to prevent protests.
In central Damascus shops opened as usual, witnesses said, while state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed live interviews from Mazzeh with people who claimed life was proceeding normally.
Dib al-Dimashqi, a member of the Syrian Revolution Council based in the capital, told Agence La Belle France Presse earlier that "huge demonstrations" were expected, but adding that security forces had imposed a tight clampdown round the city.
"There is a large security presence," he said.
In a message to Damascus residents on the "Syrian Revolution 2011" Facebook page, activists said: "The blood of the deaders exhorts you to disobedience," after more than 6,000 deaths since anti-regime protests erupted in March, according to activists' estimates.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... the official SANA news agency said a "terrorist group" rubbed out prosecutor Nidal Ghazal and judge Mohammed Ziyadeh and their driver in the northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday.
It said that another "terrorist group" on Saturday had killed Jamal Bish, a city councilor in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... Security forces on Sunday rubbed out a woman when they stormed the town of Sukhna in Homs province as they hunted activists, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.
It also said that a man was rubbed out at a checkpoint in the northern province of Aleppo.
A lawyer was rubbed out as troops stormed the town of al-Ashara in the province of Deir al-Zour, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Regime forces pounded the flashpoint central city of Homs for the 15th straight day, activists said.
Sporadic shelling that targeted the Baba Amr neighborhood in the defiant city of Homs intensified in the afternoon, at the rate of 4-5 rockets a minute, said Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution.
He said the districts of Bab Sbaa, Bab Dreib and al-Safsafa were being targeted with sporadic shelling.
Abdullah voiced fears of the army being reinforced.
"News has been leaked to us from army officers about a bloody attack that will burn everything in Baba Amr. We were expecting the attack two nights ago, but it could have been just delayed because of the snowstorm," he said.
Saturday's funerals in Damascus were for four people, including two teenagers, killed on Friday when security forces fired on protesters in Mazzeh which houses many government offices and embassies.
"The funerals in Mazzeh turned into protests -- it was the closest major gathering to Omayyad Square" in the city center, Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.
Shami said that some 15,000 people had turned out despite the snow.
He said the shootings during the funerals, in which many people were maimed, were followed by a "wave of searches and arrests" across the upscale district which is overlooked by the presidential palace.
Activists described demonstrations held on Friday in Damascus as "unprecedented," saying there were 49 in all.
Agnes Levallois, a Gay Paree-based Middle East expert, said the demonstrations in Damascus indicated growing pressure on the government.
"We said from the onset that the day when huge demonstrations will spill out in Damascus and Aleppo, it will be the end of the regime," said Levallois.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq : The toll of the suicide bombed car reached to 15 killed and 29 wounded, according to security sources here today. The explosion took place at the entrance of Police Academy east of Baghdad.
Earlier reports said that a suicide bomber carrying an explosive belt exploded himself at the entrance of the Academy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2012
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RIGA, Latvia: Latvian voters resoundingly rejected a proposal to give official status to Russian, the mother tongue of their former Soviet occupiers, though the referendum defeated Saturday is expected to leave scars on an already divided society.
Russian is the first language for about one-third of the Baltic countrys 2.1 million people, and many of them would like to accord official status to the language to reverse what they claim has been 20 years of discrimination.
As opposed to the discrimination against ethnic Latvians in the 50 years before that...
But for ethnic Latvians, the referendum was a brazen attempt to encroach on Latvias independence, which was restored two decades ago after a half-century of occupation by the Soviet Union following World War II.
Many Latvians still consider Russian the lingua franca of the Soviet Union as the language of the former occupiers. They also harbor deep mistrust toward Russia and worry that Moscow attempts to wield influence in Latvia through the ethnic Russian minority.
With over 93 percent of ballots counted, 75 percent of voters said they were against Russian as a national language, according to the Central Election Commission results. However, in the eastern region of Latgale, which straddles the border with Russia, a majority of voters approved changing the constitution to make Russian a national language. The region is Latvias poorest and has a high percentage of ethnic Russians and other minorities.
Wonder if Putin is going to start demagouging for the 'rights' of the Latgalians...
The referendum sparked high voter participation, with more than 70 percent of registered voters casting ballots considerably higher more than in previous elections and referendums. Long lines were seen at many precincts both in Latvia and abroad, with voters in London reportedly braving a three-hour wait.
Though the Russians who spearheaded the referendum admitted they had no chance at winning the plebiscite, they at least hope the approximate 25 percent of support will force Latvias center-right government to begin a dialogue with national minorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians moved to Latvia and the neighboring Baltic republics during the population transfers of the Soviet regime. Many of them never learned Latvian and were denied citizenship when Latvia regained independence, meaning they dont have the right to vote or work in government.
According to the current law, anyone who moved to Latvia during the Soviet occupation, or was born to parents who moved there, is considered a noncitizen and must pass the Latvian language exam in order to become a citizen. There are approximately 300,000 noncitizens in Latvia.
Politicians and analysts said the plebiscite will widen the schism in society and that the government will have to undertake serious efforts to consolidate the countrys two groups. Many fear the disgruntled minority will keep up the pressure by calling for more referendums to change Latvias constitution for minorities benefit.
Or they could move to Russia, the Ukraine, or Belarus, where they'd at least speak the language.
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CHAMAN: Levies Force placed in long-term storage 13 Afghan nationals under Foreign Act near the Pak-Afghan border on Sunday. According to Levies officials, the afghan nationals entered Pakistain illegally. They wanted to go to Iran through Pak. One person involved in human trafficking was also placed in long-term storage, Levies Force said. They were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) after initial investigations were completed.
A queer little item. I've no idea what it means: why Iran, how so human trafficking if they all wanted to go there?
Afghan police have captured a group of terrorists taking 41 Afghan children to Pakistan to receive insurgent training, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Sediq Sediqi, said that the terrorist group was captured in the Watapor district of eastern Kunar province by Afghan police.
"They wanted to take Afghan children to other side of the border and bring them back to conduct terrorist activities against the Afghan people," Mr Sediqi said.
He said that despite problems that remain within the Afghan National Police - such as illiteracy and the lack of professionalism - the force had performed well recently.
In the past 11 months, 481 terrorists have been killed and 147 others have been wounded by the Afghan police. Another 295 were captured, Mr Sediqi said.
ISLAMABAD: Peace efforts in Afghanistan are likely to fail if they do not include all krazed killer groups, a senior member of the country's most notorious Death Eater's faction said on Sunday.
"If any group is isolated or ignored, that group would create resistance or become opposition, and can cause problems," Ghairat Baheer, of Hizb-e-Islami, told Rooters in Islamabad.
"To bring instability or disturb the situation of Afghanistan is not difficult. It is very easy," he said.
Hizb-e-Islami, is a radical krazed killer group with widespread national support in Afghanistan, shares some of the Afghan Taliban's anti-foreigner, anti-government aims, and wants to oust international forces. The group, led by Afghan warlord and former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... , claims to have thousands of fighters in its ranks, based mainly in Afghanistan's restive east, bordering Pakistain, and in the north.
The US State Department lists Hekmatyar as a "terrorist" for supporting Taliban and al Qaeda attacks, but US and Afghan officials have met with Hizb-e-Islami representatives in the last two months to help end the war, now in its eleventh year.
"There is communication, and there is negotiation going on between Hizb-e-Islami and the American and Afghan governments," said Baheer, Hekmatyar's son-in-law.
While the Taliban are the focus of media attention, there are a number of other krazed killer organizations that want a say in Afghanistan's future. They include the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, one of the most feared Afghan Death Eater groups blamed for many high-profile bombings.
"There should be a comprehensive solution involving all parties and groups," said Baheer, a doctor by training.
Baheer, who was held in US detention at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, for six years until his 2008 release, said he had not seen enough progress in US-Taliban talks to suggest they were any closer to formal negotiations.
"So far, they have not been able to agree on even minor issues that could be taken as goodwill gestures. There's no official inauguration of the Taliban office, there is no release of prisoners and no one has been removed from the blacklist," he said, adding, "Things are stuck. We are also in a wait and see situation."
Islamic snuffies using network website MohammedanPrisoner.com to preach hatred from behind bars
Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada and Osman Hussain are some of the snuffies using the site
Website is used as networking tool for jihadist turbans
Posts celebrate murder of innocent people and urge fresh atrocities against the West
Inmates urged to lie about their reform to get early release to continue holy war
Letters reveal prisoners are radicalising other inmates
Ministry of Justice said it recognises risk posed by bad turban offenders
Islamic snuffies are using the internet to spread their hatred from behind bars.
Dozens of letters written by some of the world's most dangerous snuffies - including those locked up for murderous plots in Britannia - have been published on MohammedanPrisoners.com
The hate-filled messages celebrate murder of innocent people and urge fresh atrocities against the West.
The website is being used as a networking tool for the jihadist hard boyz - many with links to al-Qaeda - and encourages the public to send emails, with the promise that their letters will be passed onto the inmates.
Its users include notorious hate preachers Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada. who was released under strict bail conditions, which include a ban on him using the internet, this month.
Leaders of terrorist plots targeting passenger planes and London landmarks are also said to have used the website, including Hussain Osman, nabbed for his botched attempt to blow up Shepherd's Bush Tube station in 2005.
It is claimed the website was set up by Abdul Muhid, a member of the banned Al-Muhajiroun group, who has served time in jail for inciting murder and hatred during protests over Prophet Mohammed cartoons.
The Sunday Times reported that among messages posted on the website, are some from Abdulla Ahmed Ali, caged for at least 40 years as leader of a suicide plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets.
Ahmed hails the 'humiliating defeat' inflicted on NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
His message - posted last month - read: 'If the mushriks [non believers] can leave their families and sacrifice their lives and limbs to occupy, enslave and oppress the ummah [global Mohammedan community] then we too can sacrifice 100 times that to defend it.'
There are also jihadist messages from Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, nabbed last year after calling on Mohammedans to copy Roshonara Choudhry and murder MPs who voted for the Iraq war.
Ahmad's letters also includes calls for inmates to lie about their reform so they can be freed early to the continue their holy war and reveal bad turban material is freely available to inmates and that he is in direct contact with Choudhry.
Last July he wrote: 'I received a letter from that sister during the week. She said it feels like she was only locked away yesterday and the last year of her life has been the best.'
Choudhry, who attempted to murder former Labour minister Stephen Timms, is also reported to have posted on the website, describing the euphoria she felt from having the support of Mohammedans when she was nabbed at the Old Bailey.
Another inmate, Hamza Davidson, 34, who is serving a life sentence, is said to have claimed to be studying books by Bilal Philips, a Jamaican preacher who calls for homosexuals to be executed and was banned from Britannia.
Other letters reveal snuffies are radicalising other inmates. A Commons select committee report on radicalisation this month claimed one prisoner was persuaded to become a jacket wallah within 72 hours of arriving at London's Belmarsh prison.
The website also features jihadist video footage and legal experts have warned the website could have breached laws on inciting terrorism.
Labour MP Steve McCabe, who sits on the Commons home affairs committee, said: "Some of this stuff sounds dangerously close to incitement.
'If the prison authorities claim they are monitoring and censoring material, then they are clearly not doing it effectively.'
The website was taken down after the newspaper contacted Muhid - but a single homepage remains and features and email address fro people to send their letters, and quotes from the Qur'an.
Muhid denies glorifying terrorism, has offered to take down anything amounting to incitement and stressed inmates' letters had to be screened by prison authorities.
He said he did not intend to break the law, and added: 'Our role is to connect prisoners with the outside world...increasing the morale of these people.'
But Muhid admitted a disproportionate number of letters were sent to inmates with terrorism links and said the only just law is Islamic law.
A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) source said prisoners were not able to contribute directly to websites and that the department was aware of it.
An MoJ front man said: "The National Offender Management Service (Noms) recognises the risks posed by bad turban offenders and those who seek to radicalise others and takes their responsibility to effectively manage these risks seriously.
"Since 2007 a dedicated, expert unit has led a programme of work across prisons and probation to strengthen our response to the threat from these offenders, drawing on our long history of managing terrorist prisoners and other dangerous individuals.
"All high-security establishments have a dedicated counter-terrorism unit, and a national unit also exists to analyse intelligence from the High Security Estate.
'Noms' response to the current threat has included staff training in extremism awareness, the ongoing development of interventions designed to assist offenders in disengagement from extremism and the strengthening of the role of the Mohammedan chaplain in prisons.'
#1
Another inmate, Hamza Davidson, 34, who is serving a life sentence, is said to have claimed to be studying books by Bilal Philips, a Jamaican preacher who calls for homosexuals to be executed and was banned from Britannia.
No relation to the Davidsons near Manchester and Sale.
#2
I don't suppose it's possible to track the accesses of this website? At least not politically? Can we maybe track the Brits and have them track for us?
Gunmen believed to be Somali Shehab faceless myrmidons killed a Kenyan policeman in the northeastern border region with war-torn Somalia, the latest in a string of attacks, police said Sunday.
"We lost one officer in the raid late on Friday night, and another person shot in the attack is still in hospital," a police brass hat in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The attack took place at Fafi in Garissa district, some 50 kilometers from the frontier with Somalia.
"One rifle loaded with at least 20 bullets was stolen by gunnies, who beat feet to Somalia," the police officer added.
Regional police chief Leo Nyongesa confirmed the attack, adding that no arrests had been made but that "the attackers are being sought."
The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks in northeast Kenya since Nairobi sent troops into southern Somalia last October to fight al-Qaeda-allied Shebab cut-thoats.
Regional armies are pushing against Shebab positions in Somalia, with Kenyan forces in the far south, Ethiopian soldiers in the west and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... forces in the capital Mogadishu made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.
In retaliation, the Shebab have carried out grenade attacks and abductions in areas near the porous Kenya-Somalia border, killing and wounding several people.
If elections were held last week, right-wing bloc would grow to 76 mandates, Kadima and Labor would each get 12 seats, according to a poll by the Geocartography Institute.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Independence Party is not expected to get any seats in the next Knesset.
More details on the poll results at the link for those interested in such things
#4
Bibi should prep the msm press and Pharaoh about the gravity of this current conflag., set the date for a Chi-town "Kiss-of-Death" meeting, and then not show up... I Stand with Israel.
A roadside kaboom blast killed four people and injured 10 other passengers on a bus east of the Algerian capital on Sunday, local news websites reported.
A security source confirmed the blast to AFP but did not give a toll or say whether the victims were civilians or military.
The Arab-language En Nahar said the bomb had been intended for a military convoy but went off early and hit a civilian bus transporting people between Les Issers and Bordj Menail, around 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of Algiers.
According to the website of the French-language al-Watan, some of the victims were in a critical condition and not all of them were on the bus. Al-Watan said the bomb exploded remotely as a convoy of security forces was going past and gunshots were also heard. The road was closed to traffic for several hours and only reopened after all traces of the attack had been removed, it added.
The region east of Algiers is one of those most affected by attacks from Islamist groups, notably Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which regularly targets security forces.
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For a map, click here For a map of Coahuila state, click here?
This report also appeared on borderlandbeat.com
By Chris Covert
In an unusual speculative Sunday morning report, El Diario de Coahuila reported that Policia Federal (PF) units have abandoned the La Laguna region.
La Laguna region encompasses the cities of Torreon, Coahuila and Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio, Durango, where since October 2011, a major security operation -- dubbed Segura Laguna -- has been underway including Mexican Army PF units, Coahuila and Durango state police and local police in a comprehensive plan to tamp down on cartel violence in the region.
According to the report, Policia Federal Preventativa (PFP) patrol units have not been seen in the region for at least two days prompting speculation PF units have been ordered to leave La Laguna. The report cites recent violence, the latest of which was the discovery of three dead in Gomez Palacio, Durango three days ago and the murder of the Saltillo, Coahuila police chief -- the second such murder in as many months.
The report also charges PF agents with adding to the problems of violence.
Other violent incidents have taken place as well, but in Saltillo mainly involving Los Zetas cartel operatives. Those confrontations have included firefights between Los Zetas and federal and state security forces, as well as intergang fighting.
Los Zetas maintains a presence, if weakened, in neighboring Zacatecas state, that despite an increase in deployment of Mexican Army troops to that state.
A month ago, a senior commander, General Marco Antonio Gonzalez Barreda was replaced by another field commander, General de Division Roberto de la Vega Diaz, who was assigned as commander of the Mexican IX Military Region, based in Saltillo. That command encompasses Coahuila and Chihuahua states, including the La Laguna region.
The rotating of field commanders is not ordinarily done, because commanders tend to remain at their posts until their mission is complete, or if a sharp reverse has taken place. The ongoing violence in Saltillo prior to the January 18th, 2012 rotation may have been as much a factor in the decision to replace General Gonzalez Barreda as the recent violence in the same time frame in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, where General de la Vega came from.
A total of 4,000 federal and state effectives have been deployed to the region so far.
Last May, 2011 1,500 Mexican Army troops and another 300 PF troops were sent to Coahuila. Last September, 2011, additional troops were deployed to the La Laguna region, in apparent anticipation of the start of the Segura Laguna security operations.
Late in December, 2011, parts of the Mexican 15th Motorized Cavalry Regiment were deployed to Saltillo, Coahuila after a two day road march to reinforce security efforts in northern Coahuila, including Piedra Negras. Those troops were earmarked to participate in the ongoing security operations in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon states
This latest report is surprising in light of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's remarks in Juarez last Friday when he credited the presence of federal security forces including PF operatives with reducing the violence in that border city.
The IDF is planning to deploy an Iron Dome battery in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area for the first time as part of a drill simulating a missile attack, Ynet learned Sunday.
#1
To even suggest that such a deployment is temporary is pretty silly. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Dimona should have permanent anti-missile defenses like Moscow. Then layer them outward from there.
A kaboom Sunday in Pakistain's troubled northwest killed six members of a tribal militia set up to combat bad turbans, and maimed three others, an official said.
The bomb, in the lawless Khyber tribal district on the Afghan border, was planted by local bad turban group Lashkar-e-Islam, which is led by warlord Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , said local government official Khalid Mumtaz.
"It was a planted bomb and exploded when the anti-snuffies reached a private checkpoint" run by the bad turbans, who had deserted the checkpoint, Mumtaz told AFP.
Islamist bombers and gunnies have killed more than 4,800 people across Pakistain since government troops raided an turban mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.
A Lebanese TV channel is reporting that Syria is recalling its Ambassador to Egypt Yossef Ahmad, after earlier on Sunday Egypt instructed its Ambassador to Damascus, who is currently in Cairo, not to return to Syria "pending further notice."
I'm keeping the official Rantburg ululator near at hand, awaiting official confirmation.
[Magharebia] Algerian experts believe one of three gunnies killed in a recent Algerian army Arclight airstrike near the Malian border to be a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), based on DNA evidence, El Khabar reported. Samples are being compared with DNA from family members of Yahia Djouadi, alias Abou Ammar, known also as Abu Al Hammam, and of his military commander Mohamed Ghedir, alias Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, among other AQIM leaders.
The three bad boyz were potted just hours after the ANP thwarted the Tinzaouatine terrorist attack, killing seven other terrorists.
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QUETTA: A complete shutter-down strike was observed in the scenic provincial capital on Sunday against the rise in kidnappings. The strike call was given by Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... Fazal. All main business centres, including Liaqat Bazaar, Abdul Sattar Road, Prince Road, Macanigi Road, Kansi Road, Alamdar Road, Mission Road, Kandhari Bazaar, Fatima Jinnah Road, Masjid Road, Jinnah Road, Mizan Chowk, Seraib area and Hazar Ganji Market remained closed. There was very little traffic on the roads. Law enforcement agencies and police personnel were deployed in the city to control any untoward situation. Meanwhile, ...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients of increasing volatility... the JUI-F took out a rally and demanded the government to arrest the kidnappers of JUI-F Quetta chapter secretary general Abdul Sadiq Norzai, who had been released by his captors.
RIBAA SARHAN, Jordan - Jordan says it has set up a refugee camp near its northern border with Syria, in preparation for what many fear may be a mass exodus of Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland.
Sami Halaseh of the public works ministry says the 323 square-foot (300 square-meter) area, located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the border, is expected to be ready in two weeks.
Sounds small. How many of these are they going to need?
I think someone mislabelled the measurements. I believe 300 square meters is a bit more than 3,000 square feet. About the size of a medium sized American house.
For example, 300 square meters is 40 x 7.5 meters, or about 130 x 23 feet. That's a small storefront.
Perhaps it is then intended to be a processing center, where refugees check in and are given a chit for the bit of dusty wasteland where they may sit until it is time to go back home.
The size is also ideal for a set of holding cells...
The camp will be monitored by a round-the-clock police guard. It's the first camp to be set up for Syrians in Jordan since the uprising against the President Bashar Assad's regime began eleven months ago.
Aid officials estimate upwards of 10,000 Syrian refugees already live in Jordan, mostly in private apartments. But they said the numbers are growing as the Syrian military escalates attacks on restive cities.
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Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force has launched massive military maneuvers in the Yazd Province to improve the combat preparedness of Iranian armed forces in the event of an attack.
Deputy Commander of IRGC Ground Forces Brigadier General Abdollah Araghi said that all aspects of passive defense, dispersion of military forces, deception of enemy, camouflage as well as the elements that would save functioning forces will be practiced during the drills codenamed "Val Fajr."
The senior IRGC commander said that while all phases of "Val Fajr" drills have been planned in a centralized manner, they will be carried out in a decentralized approach.
"This means that every member of the military [forces] wherever he is stationed must show self-reliance and use the equipment he has to fight the mock enemy and complete his mission," he added.
Brigadier General Araghi added that the integration of curvilinear and linear artillery fire together with various forms of kaboom will be put into effect during Val Fajr ground drills.
Last month, the IRGC staged Shohaday-e Vahdat (Martyrs of Unity) maneuvers in the vicinity of Khaf city in east Iran to enhance the combat capabilities of IRGC armored forces and to practice asymmetric war tactics against mock enemy.
The IRGC Ground Forces also carried out Hamiyan-e Velayat (Supporters of the Just Jurisprudent) from February 4 to 5 near Jahrom city in southern Iran in which all the elements of aerial combat were put into practice.
Everyone wants to have a hand to play in Pakistain's Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province. The latest player to unmask itself is the United States. Even as tensions brew between Pakistain and the U.S. over a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking illusory sovereignty for the volatile province, officials reveal that the U.S. has been pushing Islamabad for permission to establish bases in Balochistan for intelligence operations against bordering Iran.
"Like always, things are not what they look like, and how they unfold ... lies at the heart of all (this). The outburst in America for Balochistan is part of an ambition to set up intelligence bases close to the Iranian border," an official told The Express Tribune on Sunday, indicating that the Congressional hearing and proposed resolution were playing their part as pressure tactics.
"They (Americans) want to use our soil against Iran, which we can never allow," said the official, who did not want to be named.
Three officials, two from the security agencies and one from diplomatic circles, confirmed that American diplomats and military leaders have been requesting permission for their agents to operate near the Iranian border in Balochistan.
The revelation came days after a bill was moved in the House of Representatives, blaming Pak security agencies for forceful disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan and calling for the liberation of the country's largest province. It also follows the visit of Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad to Pakistain for a trilateral summit.
Officials said that ostensibly, U.S. authorities were seeking Pakistain's permission to establish bases in Balochistan, claiming to counter the activities of the Afghan Taliban, whom they blame for operating out of the picturesque provincial capital under the umbrella of the so-called Quetta Shura. Islamabad, however, denies the presence of any such Taliban shura or council.
The proposed resolution adds to the rising chorus of voices across the country pointing fingers over the troubles of the violence-ridden province, including the Pakistain Mohammedan League- Nawaz (PML-N) which has vowed to introduce a resolution in the National Assembly, Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... , the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... and even the Pakistain Bar Council among others.
Trilateral Summit Statement
Earlier last week, a joint declaration was issued at the conclusion of the Pakistain-Iran-Afghanistan summit in Islamabad, where all three sides vowed to put up collective resistance to any new misadventure by any force in the region.
Experts say the statement was a veiled reference to American ambitions to put an end to Iran's nuclear drive.
In December last year, President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... delivered a speech at a gathering of Pakistain Peoples Party workers, saying he would never allow his country to become part of any other war theatre in the region.
"We are the well wishers of all and don't want to make any more enemies," the president said in remarks that officials interpreted as a snub to American pressure seeking permission for anti-Iran intelligence operations.
#1
Zardari delivered a speech saying, "We are the well wishers of all (except, of course, Israel, the USA, India and Afghanistan), and don't want to make any more enemies, (like, of course, Israel, India and Afghanistan)," the president said in remarks that officials interpreted as a snub to American pressure seeking permission for anti-Iran intelligence operations.
#2
"They (Americans) want to use our soil against Iran, which we can never allow," said the official, who did not want to be named.
No surprises here. Meanwhile, ISAF continues to host PAK Army spies LNO's at critical US FOBs and provide certain levels of intelligenc collection to the Paks.
#3
Since the Paks leak like a sieve, it would be best to ruin their cred by feeding them disinformation to forward to Iran. Then, if they actually discovered something true, the Iranians wouldn't believe it.
#4
We are the well wishers of all and don't want to make any more enemies
They have an A-Z of enemies mainly down to their intolerance to anyone non muslim.
At least Iran is honest re Western hostility are Pakistan or Saudi who do it in a proxy/two faced way.
#5
Post-2014 Afghanistan needs direct or strategic access to the Sea of Oman + Indian Ocean iff it + US-West ever hope one day to see it transform from a seeming uncontrollable "Wild Wild West" in West Asia into a successful, self-reliant or mostly self-reliant country. DITTO FOR THE EX-SOVIET STANS IN CENTRAL ASIA REGION [C.A.R].
STOPPING NOW WOULD BE AKIN TO POTUS TEDDY ROOSEVELT = USA GIVING UP AFTER STARTING THE CONTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL.
Egypt's finance minister says Cairo expects to sign a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund for $3.2 billion next month. The state-run al-Ahram daily of Sunday quoted Mumtaz al-Said as saying that sum would be disbursed in three stages: the first upon the deal's signing, and the second and third three and six months later, respectively.
North Korea on Sunday threatened a sea of fire "merciless counter-strike" a day before a South Korean firing drill in the West Sea and warned residents on the five northwesternmost islands to "evacuate to safety in advance."
In an "open notice," the North Korean western front command claimed nearby waters are under North Korean sovereignty. The North will retaliate the moment South Korea starts "a reckless military provocation in these waters and even a single column of water is found to have risen there," it added.
It warned all civilians living or working on the five islands or nearby to evacuate before 9 o'clock Monday, when the firing drill near the sea border starts.
Such rhetoric is customary whenever South Korea conducts military drills, but Pyongyang on Aug. 3, 2010 threatened a "powerful physical retaliation" ahead of a South Korean firing drill near the five islands and then lobbed about 130 rounds of artillery shells into waters near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime sea border, in the West Sea six days later. Some of the shells fell into the South Korean waters.
"The firing drill on Monday is one of several annual routine exercises," an officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said. "There are no signs of a provocation from the North for now, but we're heightening alertness just in case."
Meanwhile, the North has ratcheted up denunciations of President Lee Myung-bak again since the death of former leader Kim Jong-il. It denounced Lee three times in November and six times in December but about 250 times in January, and the frequency is rising.
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#1
And in other unusual news announcements: "Water is wet."
#2
I wonder which poor sucker has to chart NK denunciations. I always feel sorry for the poor Certified Nursing Assistants who have to inspect and rate bowel movements.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/20/2012 12:55
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North Korea watchers in the West think Jong-un has been "too quiet" of late.
Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency says a fire broke out at the country's biggest petrochemical facility but was quickly extinguished.
Mehr says there were no casualties or serious damages from the fire at the Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Complex in southwestern Iran.
Operation Lemony Snickett, insh'allah maintenance, or just the kind of thing that happens around petrochemicals from time to time? Likely we will never know, but we needn't care about the cause when we can enjoy the result.
KARACHI: Kidnapping for ransom has become an easiest way to get money.
According to details, the trend of kidnapping for ransom has risen frequently in the commercial hub of the country, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , where majority of people are paying ransom for release of their dear ones.
Sources privy to the matter said that the areas, including Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Shah Latif Town, Gadap Town and Bin Qasim Town are hit by this menace. It is pertinent to mention here that most cases of kidnapping have been taking place in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gadap Town and Bin Qasim Town.
Sources in Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) revealed that the majority of the families declined to register the case and also restrained police interference for recovery of victims. They pointed out that there are two kinds of kidnapping gangs operating in the city. The major groups are operating from interior Sindh, where such sort of group has been operating since long. The currently emerging groups are affiliated with different terrorist organizations.
The sources revealed that a few of the groups were locally operating while many of them were circumstantial group formed because of poverty. They said that intercity groups were usually taking the victims to their hometowns, where accessibility of law enforcers is limited because of the tribal system.
It is pertinent to mention here that the agencies, particularly dealing with the cases of the kidnapping for ransom remain incapable to resolve the issue due to lack of equipment essential to track down the terrorist groups.
The sources pointed out that the disciplinary institutions had an authority and the mechanism to track down cellular calls and locations, but those institutions did not allow relevant authorities to install the tracking mechanism and to contact directly Pakistain Telecommunication Authority.
CPLC sources said a total of five persons' kidnapping cases were registered out of three reached home after paying ransom, one was got freed by CPLC and AVCC and other was still missing.
Some 106 cases of kidnapping were registered last year. In 2002-2011 period, a total of 879 cases of kidnapping were registered. In 2002, as many as 25 people were kidnapped while in 2003, some 33 people were kidnapped. In 2004, the number of abductees was around 39 while in 2005, the number hit 39. In 2006, the number of kidnapped people declined to 28 and in 2007, this ratio doubled with 64. The 2008 also showed increase as 92 people were kidnapped and in 2009, this number was 85 while in 2010, this number crossed 112 and in 2011, some 125 people were kidnapped.
It may be noted that different sorts of modus operandi were used by bandidos for kidnapping for ransom. One of the doctors was kidnapped recently while he was on his way to home in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, when a car hit another car accidentally on the National Highway.
The doctor said on anonymity, "I applied brake as they hit my car when they kidnapped me at gunpoint and took to an unknown location where they dumped me for 20 days and started calling for Rs5 million ransom. My family avoided the risk and paid Rs0.5 million for my release after longstanding negotiations."
TEHRAN: Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it has begun a two-day land military exercise to upgrade its capabilities to defend the country against possible external threats. Commander of the Guard's ground forces Mohammad Pakpour said on comments posted on the force's website sepahnews.com that the manoeuvres dubbed Valfajr, or Dawn, began on Sunday outside the city of Yazd in central Iran.
The Guard is Iran's most powerful military unit. The exercises are the latest in a series of manoeuvres held amid escalating tensions between Iran and the West over Iran's nuclear programme. The US and Israel have not ruled out military strikes against Iran's programme, which they say aims at developing weapons technology. Iran says the programme is for peaceful purposes.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... Iran is to host a high-level team from the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday as part of efforts to defuse dire international tensions over its atomic activities through dialogue. But other words being spoken in Israel, the United States and Britannia -- and Iran's defiant moves to boost its nuclear activities -- underlined the prospect of possible Israeli military action against the Islamic republic. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday said his country was keen to quickly resume mooted talks with world powers, once a place and date were agreed.
#1
By most accounts Iran's IRGC + regular Armed Forces remain "defensive" forces, albeit one can make good arguments that Iran is trying to change their orientation wid its nuclear shennanigans + other, e.g. its stated desire for "blue-water", trans-Continental Naval Reach + Strategic Airpower.
IN THE TIME BEING, AS PER ANY "US-IRAN" WAR SCENARIO IT STILL COMES DOWN TO THE US = US-LED UN COALITION POTENS HAVING TO PUT HEAVY COMBAT UNITS ON THE GROUND IN IRAN PROPER.
* IIRC TOPIX > VARIOUS > WHOM IS STRONGER: IRAN OR THE WEST [read, USA]?
Clash of Will, + Economies, of which Iran's econ is deemed is better financial/accounting shape than the debt-burdened USA despite its smaller size, IRAN IN BETTER SHAPE TO RESIST LT ECON HARDSHIP(S) = UN SANCTIONS THAN US BELIEVES???
The Public Diplomacy Ministry plans to send 100 Israelis from different sectors in society abroad to represent and defend the state during Israel Apartheid Week. The "Faces of Israel" mission, which leaves next weekend, includes settlers, Arabs, artists, experts in national security, gay people, and immigrants from Ethiopia. Actor Aki Avni will also join the group.
The participants in the project have undergone several weeks of training in the Public Diplomacy Ministry, and will visit dozens of college campuses to battle the "apartheid" label in New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Toronto, Montreal, Dublin, London, Madrid, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The mission will be split into 20 groups that will participate in conferences and panels, as well as speak directly to college students.
"Most of those who hate Israel have the same disease: ignorance," Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein said. "We are sure that the answer to the attempts to de-legitimize Israel is not just to give facts and data, but to bring Israel to them."
According to Edelstein, the groups plan to explain to students that they are all Israelis who come from different walks of life, yet choose to remain in Israel. The mission's participants were chosen to show that Israel has a diverse society that values equality and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... , he explained.
The minister said he hopes that students abroad who are meeting real Israelis for the first time will stop the "messages of incitement and hatred that, at the end of the day, could reach students that are the leaders of tomorrow."
#1
Men have made some words evil. The real irony is the only thing that has saved the nation of Israel has been it's insistence from the beginning on it's being distinctively .... set apart and "seperate."
Senior officer in the Southern Command says "ongoing attacks -- by rockets and along the border -- are cumulatively more than enough to justify immediate action"; IDF to deploy Iron Dome near Tel Aviv.
Calls are mounting within the IDF's Southern Command to launch a large-scale offensive against Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... in the Gazoo Strip in the face of continued rocket attacks over the weekend.
On Saturday night, the Israel Air Force bombed a number of targets in the Strip in response to the firing of a number of Grad-model Katyusha rockets into Israel. One landed in Beersheba on Saturday. In another attack, an RPG was fired at an IDF patrol along the border with Gazoo.
"There is no need to wait for a provocation to launch an offensive against terrorist infrastructure in the Gazoo Strip," a senior officer in the Southern Command explained. "The ongoing attacks -- by rockets and along the border -- are cumulatively more than enough to justify immediate action."
Last month, The Jerusalem Post revealed that the IDF General Staff had ordered the Southern Command to speed up preparations for a possible large-scale operation in the Strip within the coming months.
Preparations included finalizing operational plans and distributing them between the various units that would be deployed inside Gazoo.
During Operation Cast Lead, Israel's anti-Hamas operation launched in late 2008, the IDF established brigade-level units that combined armor, infantry and combat engineer forces. A similar model would likely be applied to a future operation in Gazoo as well.
The debate within the IDF is whether it needs to wait for a successful attack by Gazoobeturbanned goons -- be it a rocket attack that causes casualties or a successful cross border attack -- or if the sporadic rocket fire is enough of a justification to launch an operation today.
In 2011, 680 rockets and mortar shells were fired into Israel, including 80 long-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets, in comparison with just two Grads in 2010. Since the beginning of 2012, nearly 30 rockets have been fired into Israel.
Ahead of a future conflict, the IDF will this week deploy the Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system near Tel Aviv.
IDF sources stressed that the deployment of the missile defense system was done as part of a program -- revealed in the Post last April -- to place system deployment locations outside all major population centers throughout the country.
While the IDF's intention to deploy the Iron Dome outside of Tel Aviv was revealed last year, the deployment was delayed until this week.
* Taliban open fire on Islamic fascistiretrieving bodies from debris
* Two gun-hung tough guys killed in retaliatory fire
LANDIKOTAL: At least nine members of a local militia were killed and four others injured when a bomb planted by gun-hung tough guys went kaboom! in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Sunday.
According to local political administration, the bomb was planted by the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) gun-hung tough guys at Stana checkpoint at Nari Baba, which was recaptured by the Zakakhel lashkar, Tawheedul Islam (TI), following an encounter. The nine volunteers of the peace force, who were killed, included its commander, Naek Afzal Afridi. The TI volunteers had repelled an attack from the banned LI, but the gun-hung tough guys had reportedly planted explosives in the checkpoint before leaving it. The bomb exploded when the TI volunteers recaptured the post. As a result, nine TI men were killed and four injured. The gun-hung tough guys also opened fire on Islamic fascistiretrieving bodies from the debris. Two of the bad boyz were potted in retaliatory fire.
Pakistain has outlawed the Lashkar-e-Islam, which is not formally linked to the Pak Taliban. But it shares similar ideology with the Taliban and other terrorist groups in the tribal regions along Afghan border. The group sometimes shares manpower and resources with other terrorists.
The militia fighting the Lashkar-e-Islam is composed of local rustics frustrated with the growth of Taliban-style groups in their territory. Such militias were started by the government in its campaign against the Pak Taliban in the Tribal Areas.
The blast in the border region with Afghanistan shows the challenges that these militias and their government supporters face as they try to purge the volatile border region of groups such as the Taliban and al Qaeda who have grown in strength over the last decade. Separately, at Sheen Drand Akakhel in Bara, a mortar shell fired from an unidentified location landed in the house of one Abdalkhel, killing two children and injuring five others.
CAIRO - The head of Egypts Supreme Constitutional Court says that nominations for presidential candidates will open March 10 and last four weeks.
Farouq Sultan also says the date for the presidential election has not yet been set but that a decision is expected soon. He said Sunday the vote will likely take place over one or two days, and vowed it will be held before the end of June. That is in line with the current timetable set forward by Egypts military rulers.
Activists who are angry with the militarys handling of the countrys transition since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last year are calling for early presidential elections, but the ruling generals still have the support of a broad spectrum of the Egyptian public.
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Iran is to supply Leb, Syria and Iraq with electricity after an economic memorandum of understanding was initialed to this effect between the four countries in Tehran on Saturday, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.
Senior Iranian energy ministry official Muhammad Bahzad, Iraqi Electricity official Adel Mahdi, Syria's deputy energy minister Hisham Mushaffaj and Lebanese electricity official Najib Saleh put their initials on the MOU.
Iranian official Bahzad said Iraq would get 1,000 megawatts while Leb and Syria would both share between 200-300 megawatts.
The MOU will likely be put into effect within the next two months pending ratification by the four countries, Bahzad added.
#3
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > IRAN MULLING CREATION OF 100-MILYUHN STRONG BASIJ ARMY.
In the Name of Allah, the Prophet, the Ayatollah Khomeini, + the freedom of the Quds.
BR POSTER = opined that this is an interesting schema by Tehran since Iran's national population at this time is only 73.0 Milyuhn, SO WHERE WILL THE MISSING MILYUHNS-N-DILYUHNS-N-... OF BASIJ COME FROM???
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.
Suspected Afghan police opened fire on Albanian and other foreign troops in the war-wracked country's south Monday, killing an Albanian soldier, and wounding an Albanian and another international soldier, authorities said. Eleven suspected policemen were arrested.
Russians and Chinese to thank that they may live there a little longer.
A Syria-based activist says three columns of army reinforcements including tanks are heading toward the restive central city of Homs.
Egyptian security sources and members of the Syrian opposition are claiming that the two Iranian ships docked off the Syrian coast have "military communications jamming devices that are disrupting communications made by the Syrian opposition via satellite," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
A 
Mahmoud 
Asif Ali 
