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Syria Rebels Push into Police Academy as Jets Strike
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
18:07 4 23:41 JosephMendiola [336119]
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14:27 24 19:34 Northern Cousin [336114]
14:09 11 19:43 Thing From Snowy Mountain [336088]
13:40 1 14:25 trailing wife [336097]
13:24 5 20:49 DepotGuy [336097]
13:19 13 22:12 tu3031 [336085]
11:07 2 14:51 tipper [336083]
09:41 9 21:02 Barbara [336087] 
09:09 4 23:34 JosephMendiola [336099]
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00:00 7 15:35 Besoeker [336074]
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00:00 3 06:54 Besoeker [336077]
00:00 11 16:43 CrazyFool [336078]
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China-Japan-Koreas
China moves mobile missiles near coast amid tensions with Japan over islands
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 18:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336119 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bluster... or getting ready to rumble?
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 18:07 Comments || Top||

#2  IMO China is getting ready to rumble wid the US + Japan - however, iff histoire' is any measure they will first set up, satisfy, + prove before the World any + all legal precendents, etc. before the day when PLA suddenly + mortally opens fire on the JSDF + Japan CG. China will thus be justified in annihilating or massacring any JSDF + JCG due to Japan's seeming disrespect of China's arguments + "talking points". AS FAR AS CHINA WILL BE CONCERNED, ANY MASSACRE WILL BE JAPAN'S + O-N-L-Y JAPAN'S FAULT.

It will be the same for Nippon ally the US = US Navy-DOD.

Perhaps more importantly ...

E.G. TELEGRAPH.UK > EVEN IFF IRAN GETS THE BOMB, IT NOT WORTH WAR.

By that logic, ditto for the US = POTUS Bammer Admin vee the disputed tiny Senkakus/Diaoyus, ESPEC NOW WID SO-CALLED "SEQUESTRATION" CUTS LOOMING COME MARCH 1ST OR ASAP AFTER.

Lest we fergit, PENTAGON = the USN CVN USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" + CVBG MAY BE THE O-N-L-Y US NUCLEAR CARRIER THE US CAN DEPLOY OVERSEAS IN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS DUE TO SEQUESTRATION.

The Japan-based "Georgie" is highly unlikely to survive a dedicated unilateral or combined mass attack of PLA DF-16's, DF-21 ASBMS, andor ALCMS, SLCMS. IMO IT WILL BE THE FIRST, OR ONE OF THE FIRST, MILITARY TARGETS THE PLA WILL ATTACK ONCE A FINAL DECISION TO WAGE WAR AGZ JAPAN HAS BEEN MADE IN BEIJING.

Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/27/2013 18:39 Comments || Top||

#3  "The US can't intervene because it cannot econ or $$$ afford to".

The Bammer will be caught in a political trap because iff the DemoLeft + aligned can increase + expand America's deficits = US Welfare-Nanny State every year, BY DEFINITION IT CANNOT ARGUE THAT IT HAS NO MONEY TO MILITARILY INTERVENE ON BEHALF OF ITS OWN OVERSEAS ALLY(S) UNDER TREATY.

ANY ARGUMENT THAT THE US CANNOT AFFORD TO DEFEND + PROTECT ITS OWN OVERSEAS ALLIES WILL N-O-T FOOL CHINA NOR AMER'S ALLIES - IT WILL BE "PRIMA FACIE" DEFEATED WHILE THE US = POTUS BAMMER OR ADMIN IS MAKING OR SAYING IT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/27/2013 18:46 Comments || Top||

#4  See also TOPIX > [Asian Chronicle] THE "LAST PROVINCE": CAN TAIWAN RESIST BEIJING'S UNIFICATION DRIVE?

Personally, I'm more interested in Taiwan's ability to resist + defeat a massive Airborne-led PLA conventional forces assault + follow-on, where prohibitive PLA casualties is NOT a major factor/concern as far as Beijing is concerned, ONLY VICTORY.

* KYODO NEWS > THREE CHINESE VESSELS [again-n-n] ENTER TERRITORIAL WATERS AROUND SENKAKUS.

* GLOBAL TIMES > PLA PLANS 40 DRILLS IN 2013, ostensibly to improve the latent combat ability of the Chinese armed forces.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/27/2013 23:41 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Kansas Congressman takes no [bleep] from the Champ
Posted by: Pholugum Ebbenter2084 || 02/27/2013 15:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
Federal Appeals Court rules Sea Shepherd's anti-whaling tactics amount to piracy
Rolled over to Wednesday. AoS.
*snork* Finally calling a spade a spade pirate.
After two months of delay, federal judges yesterday outlined their reasons for ordering an environmental group known for harassing whaling ships to stay 500 yards away from the vessels.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in December, reversing a lower court ruling.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said the order was justified because Sea Shepherd's activities targeting Japanese boats near Antarctica amount to piracy.

"You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch," Kozinski wrote. "When you ram ships; hurl glass containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be."
Yee-ouch!
Kozinski, writing for the three-judge panel, said the researchers have the proper permits to comply with international whale hunting rules. The court sent the issue back to the district court for a trial and insisted that another judge be assigned to the case.
That's gonna leave a mark.
Love the part of the ruling about assigning it to another judge...
Link goes to the court decision (info in write-up not in publically available source yet).
Posted by: Barbara || 02/27/2013 14:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336114 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While I think whaling is barbaric, what Shepard's crew does is pure piracy. And they should be treated as pirates.

Build the gallows.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/26/2013 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Sink 'em. Problem solved.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/26/2013 14:46 Comments || Top||

#3  NO SHIT!!!
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/26/2013 16:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Regardless, Sea Shepherd’s acts fit even the district court’s constricted
definition. The projectiles directly endanger Cetacean’s crew, as the district court
itself recognized. And damaging Cetacean’s ships could cause them to sink or become stranded in glacier-filled, Antarctic waters, jeopardizing the safety of the crew.

The activities that Cetacean alleges Sea Shepherd has engaged in are clear instances of violent acts for private ends, the very embodiment of piracy. The district court erred in dismissing Cetacean’s piracy claims.
Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 17:30 Comments || Top||

#5  The district judge’s numerous, serious and obvious errors identified in our opinion raise doubts as to whether he will be perceived as
impartial in presiding over this high-profile case. The appearance of justice would
be served if the case were transferred to another district judge, drawn at random, and we so order in accordance with the standing orders of the Western District of Washington. The panel retains jurisdiction over any further appeals or writs
involving this case.

Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 17:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Ouch
Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 17:33 Comments || Top||

#7  We give words their ordinary meaning unless the context requires otherwise.
See Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1, 8–9 (2004); Antonin Scalia & Bryan A.
Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 69 (2012). The context
here is provided by the rich history of piracy law, which defines acts taken for
private ends as those not taken on behalf of a state. ... Belgian courts, perhaps the
only ones to have previously considered the issue, have held that environmental
activism qualifies as a private end. See Cour de Cassation [Cass.] [Court of
Cassation] Castle John v. NV Mabeco, Dec. 19, 1986, 77 I.L.R. 537 (Belg.). This
interpretation is “entitled to considerable weight.” Abbott v. Abbott, 130 S. Ct.
1983, 1993 (2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). We conclude that “private
ends” include those pursued on personal, moral or philosophical grounds, such as
Sea Shepherd’s professed environmental goals. That the perpetrators believe
themselves to be serving the public good does not render their ends public.

Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||

#8  http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2013/02/25/1235266.pdf
Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 17:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Just great stuff you provided Rantburg John Frum, but where in all this is the part for punishment ..... You know where the pirate walks the plank, is keel-hauled, draw and quartered, made to eat week old, gas station sushi.

Jeez! Lets get to the fun part of the story.
Posted by: Jotch Clogum5083 || 02/26/2013 17:55 Comments || Top||

#10  The appearance of justice would be served if the case were transferred to another district judge, drawn at random, and we so order in accordance with the standing orders of the Western District of Washington...

The context here is provided by the rich history of piracy law, which defines acts taken for private ends as those not taken on behalf of a state. ...


It'd be rather interesting were there to be a discovery process regarding Sea Shepherd's sources of funding.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/26/2013 17:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Thanks to a $5,000,000 contribution from American television personality and icon Bob Barker, Sea Shepherd was able to quietly purchase and refit the former Norwegian whaler in Africa. The ice-strengthened, fast, chaser boat quietly departed from Mauritius on December 18th to join up with the Sea Shepherd ships Steve Irwin and Ady Gil in the Southern Ocean.

Barker has also funded the cost of a helicopter that will accompany the societys ships. The aircraft is named The Nancy Burnet after the president of United Activists for Animal Rights, an organization Barker also supports. This new helicopter will participate in future campaigns.

"I'm delighted to be able to help the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in its mission to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the worlds oceans," said Barker. "There is lot of talk about preserving our ecosystems and species, but this is one organization that puts these words into action."
Posted by: Jotch Clogum5083 || 02/26/2013 18:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and is afterwards brought into or found in the United States, shall be imprisoned for life. 18 USC § 1651 - Piracy under law of nations
Posted by: john frum || 02/26/2013 18:14 Comments || Top||

#13 

Hope that stands for Bob Barker and others who have funded this organization, co-conspirators and all.

The Price is Wrong Bob !
Posted by: Jotch Clogum5083 || 02/26/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Have to throw in those associated within the Discovery Channel for being willing propagandists, with exclusive coverage of only one party and actively editing their video to further the cause of that party.

Worst pirate
worst pirate in the world
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/26/2013 18:54 Comments || Top||

#15  Information Dissemination has a photo and brief, but pithy, comment here.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/26/2013 20:22 Comments || Top||

#16  Sue Barker and the Discovery Channel for any damages. They'll be gone in a flash...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/26/2013 21:15 Comments || Top||

#17 
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 02/27/2013 0:45 Comments || Top||

#18  9th District court in San Francisco?!!!!!
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/27/2013 5:36 Comments || Top||

#19  Sink or capture their boats summarily with no fanfare and all force required. Use Navy SEALS to eliminate the Sea Shepherd pirates in the same fashion as the Somali ones. Shoot their aircraft out of the sky.

Try Barker, despite his age, for piracy and incarcerate him, and sue him for damages. Any other person or organization who contributes to this is to be tried for piracy and possibly treason. Confiscate their assets.

Shut down the Discovery Channel and confiscate their physical plant and assets, if they do not desist immediately in being accessories to the crimes of piracy committed by Sea Shepherds.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/27/2013 6:08 Comments || Top||

#20  Step 1: Photoshop the Sea Shepherd with a 5-inch gun mounted just forward of the bridge.

Step 2: Alert the Japanese Navy.

Step 3: Deny involvement.

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:17 Comments || Top||

#21  I love reading Kozinsky opinions.
Posted by: Sgt. D. T. || 02/27/2013 10:43 Comments || Top||

#22  That bit about the district court making a ruling without any precedent or view of reality is spot on.

Launcing anti-personelle devices, destroying power and navigation, ramming, its older than Greeks vs. Persians.

And when some land-lubbing high plains Kansan is watching Discovery Channel's show and slapping his head at how gawdaweful the seamanship is, I have to wonder why anyone would even let them port.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#23  My wife would sing along with the opening set, something like:

My world is a hamburger
topped with melteee cheeese.
Side of tater tots
oozing of some greeease.

All I know is what would happen if I was out on a yacht and started launching stuff at a coast guard ship. Hell, if I threw an empty can at someone's boat out at there local pond there would be issues.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 11:33 Comments || Top||

#24  "We conclude that “private ends” include those pursued on personal, moral or philosophical grounds, such as Sea Shepherd’s professed environmental goals. That the perpetrators believe themselves to be serving the public good does not render their ends public."

This is good stuff. And may give "ECO warriors" and those that fund them a need to rethink. I am talking the tree huggers, tree-spikers, transportation stoppers and public road blockers and all those other wonderful people that cause damage to others in in their zest for their "cause".

I am afraid this case is not over though. It hasnt gone to trial yet. And the finding doesnt quite marry up with the The Law of the Sea Convention which is about the closest one gets to a modern definition of piracy. ie you need the offence to happen outside of national sea borders (check); you need a form of assault on another ship (check); and you normally need some kind of private financial gain. (its in effect- robbery at sea). Not so sure it's there. BUT I like the finding. Maybe they shouldnt have charged for their film footage for the media?


Posted by: Northern Cousin || 02/27/2013 19:34 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China launches stealth frigate amid ocean tensions
China has launched the first ship in a new class of stealth missile frigates, state media reported Tuesday, amid ongoing tensions with neighboring countries over Beijing's maritime claims.

The People's Liberation Army Navy is building a total of 20 Type 056 Jiangdao class frigates to replace older models and bolster its ability to conduct patrols and escort ships and submarines in waters it claims in the South China and East China seas.

The first in the class, No. 582, was formally delivered to the navy on Monday in Shanghai, which is home to one of the country's largest complexes of naval shipyards, according to the official Xinhua News Agency and the navy's official website.

Newly promoted navy commander Wu Shengli attended the delivery ceremony, the reports said, an indication of the importance with which the service regards the new ships' mission.

The helicopter-equipped ships feature a sleek design to reduce clutter and make them harder to spot by radar and are armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. They also need a crew of just 60, two-thirds fewer than older vessels, a major advantage that should boost efficiency and relieve burdens in training and recruitment. At 1,440 tons fully loaded, is considerably smaller than U.S. Navy frigates, and is categorized by some observers as a member of the smaller class of ship known as corvettes.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 14:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like they are moving towards expendable ships. Most of the crew on a modern warship are there for damage control and replacements during combat. If they expect the ship to go down right away (if it is ever spotted) those numbers can be drastically reduced.

At some point you can make the hull out of plastic and drop the radar signature even further. Of course by that point I think you really are dead if the enemy spots you.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/27/2013 14:41 Comments || Top||

#2  If you can build six of these for the cost of a Burke, it may be that all six of them together would be much more survivable than a single Burke. Even if one isn't as survivable.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/27/2013 15:05 Comments || Top||

#3  It looks roughly equivalent in armament to the LCS (_IF_ we put a decent radar on it, and some decent anti-shipping missiles). Based on a Thai design they had built in China back in the mid-2000's, for a cost of about $ 50 million per.

If we pretend the CIWS cost about 25 million, that would give it a total cost of around 75 million... about 1/8 the cost of the first LCS ships.

How much does a Burke cost these days?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/27/2013 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  How much does a Burke cost these days?

I think if you have to ask, you can't afford it.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 15:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Snowy: that was the concept that drove the use of escort carriers in the Pacific in WWII. Sure, none of them were near as capable as an Essex class carrier, but you could build 4 escorts for half the cost of an Essex, and if one escort carrier was sunk (e.g., Leyte Gulf) you'd still have 3/4 of your escort fleet.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 16:02 Comments || Top||

#6  There are good and bad things to that type of strategy.

The plus side is you don't have all your eggs in one basket.

The down side is all your support costs (fuel, parts, repair, maintenance in dock, etc.) just quadrupled.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Hm.. I don't think it'll quite quadruple since the escorts are much smaller (and hopefully standardized).

I think the idea is that you may not get the firepower or cargo capacity of a larger, much more expensive vessel - but you can make a lot of the little buggers.
Isn't Iran doing this in the other extreame - counting on overwhelming U.S. fleets via a virtual Zerg swarm of little boats?

And if the folks back home elect a democrat and you get your budget slashed you can always part one out to the others.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 18:08 Comments || Top||

#8  That's true Dr. White, but you might want to note the number of Escort Carriers sunk and corresponding loss of high trained personel as opposed to the number of Essexs lost.

I think the score is like 9 to 0 in ships... but casualties, not sure about, I was just reading somewhere about this and can't remember where. :(

Mainly because Escort carriers were fighting out of class and getting their ass kicked in front line combat which they were not designed for.

Ah yes... from a commentor's link at CDR Salamander
Posted by: Shipman || 02/27/2013 18:09 Comments || Top||

#9  CrazyFool the costs are easily quadrupled, if not more. They may be cheaper to build but not cheaper to run. You got to have 4 times the berths, bunks, sailors, support people, military housing, storage for parts, fuel, drydock capacity, etc.

I would rather see larger ships with expendable unmanned escorts and planes. Yeah the target ship is a larger target and harder to replace, but you got to get through all the swarms of robots to get it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 18:49 Comments || Top||

#10  They may have copycated/ enhanced/ modelled their frigate on the new Singapore Frigates. They have a crew of about 75 and which they claim includes considerable manpower redundancies due to the automation factor. Sleek but with a lot of inner deck space. Had a tour with both US and Canadian Navy officers in 2010. Both saw a lot of power and advancements - and looked at the crew size of a 1/3 plus much greater fuel efficiencies and were very impressed. As an old army dog I nodded a lot but I sure undertand the concept. Standardize the design and pump out a lot. Oh ya, thats what the Russians did with their aircraft and tanks in WW2. Meanwhile The Western powers continue to overteck weapons, over plasticize and then build to the specs of the lowest bidder (or biggest lobbiest). Hmmmmm.

They seem to have the right ship for their "claimed" waters. Who knew the 200 mile EEZs under the Law of the Sea Convention would cause this much fun? Oh I guess it was obvious except to the diplomats.

What is missing from the discussion is the ongoing build up of subs. And its not just China.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 02/27/2013 18:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Shipman: Part of the problem with the Leyte Gulf comparison is that none of the 'jeep' carriers' aircraft were armed with armor-piercing bombs. They were all set up to do fire support of the Marines on the Beach, because Halsey thought he knew that those battleships were not a threat and that he needed to throw all the planes he had for that purpose against the Japanese carriers.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/27/2013 19:43 Comments || Top||


Europe
Former Mayor of Thessaloniki sentenced to life imprisonment in Greece
A court in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki has convicted three of the city's former top officials and sentenced them to life imprisonment for embezzling 50 million euros from the municipality between 1999 and 2008.

A Thessaloniki criminal court on Wednesday ruled that the city's former mayor, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, is guilty of embezzling almost 18 million euros from municipal coffers over the course of his two terms in office, handing him a sentence of life in prison.
What's that sentence in Euro-years: five?
Papageorgopoulos and 17 other officials stood trial for allegedly embezzling almost 52 million euros from the municipality's coffers, though the Thessaloniki court on Wednesday said that there was proof of 17.962 million euros having been misappropriated by the former mayor and his cohorts.

The Thessaloniki court on Wednesday also handed lesser guilty verdicts to the municipality's former general secretary, Michalis Lemousias, ex-cashier Panayiotis Saxonis and two more former directors of the municipality's financial services.

The other parties standing trial, including three former deputy mayors in charge of finances, were acquitted of all charges.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 13:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One hopes at least some of the missing funds will be recovered -- Greece could use a bit more of its own money at the moment.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US seeks ways to bolster support for Syrian rebels, Kerry says during French talks
The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Assad, and Kerry's comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve," Kerry said. "We need to help them to deliver basic services and to protect the legitimate institutions of the state."

The Obama administration is concerned about military equipment falling into the hands of radical Islamists who have become a significant factor in the Syrian conflict and could then use that materiel for terrorist attacks or strikes on Israel. But they're equally fearful that Syrians tired of constant instability will lose faith in an opposition that can do little to improve their daily lives.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 13:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is sort of like the GM of a baseball team saying "we have complete faith in our manager" right before firing him. The rebels are screwed now...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/27/2013 15:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve," Kerry said.

What are you waiting for? Do what you do best. Get your arss on over there, grab a pistol, and start shooting some of captured Syrian Army wounded.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 15:46 Comments || Top||

#3  The rebels are screwed now...

Essentially. The administration is trying to find a late-term, politically palatable resolution to a self-inlicted dilemma.

The opportunity for dealing with this issue has, IMNSHO, passed its use-by date. Then again, not-dealing with it was also an option.

Posted by: Pappy || 02/27/2013 15:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Shoot the winners.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/27/2013 16:39 Comments || Top||

#5  …but they also are believed to receive help from Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Ahh yesss…"help".
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/27/2013 20:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Woodward: Obama Exhibiting 'A Kind of Madness I Haven't Seen in a Long Time'
The Washington Post's Bob Woodward continues to break ranks with his Obama-loving colleagues by holding the President's feet to the fire concerning the looming budget sequester.
One finds integrity in some of the unlikeliest places sometimes, but I'll take it and endorse it whenever and wherever I see it...
Just days after he wrote a piece in the Post exposing the inconvenient truth that it was indeed the White House that initially proposed sequestration during the 2011 debt ceiling debate, Woodward appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday saying that Obama's decision to not send the USS Truman to the Persian Gulf as a result of these deliberations was "a kind of madness that I haven't seen in a long time"
Video at the link with transcript and commentary
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 13:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What I want to know is why it took so long for these geniuses to see through our current Grifter-in-Chief. Nearly half of us sussed it out on day one.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/27/2013 13:55 Comments || Top||

#2  SteveS, I have a sneaking suspicion that the geniuses did see through this poltroon early on. BUT, they never could talk themselves into believing that he'd be this bad because they couldn't get past the rose colored tint of their ideological spectacles.

They wanted to believe so badly that they ignored what their eyes and brain were telling them.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 14:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Also a lot of these geniuses believe what Obama believes, so they still see him as the light bringer.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Hear, hear, AC. Admitting Obama is scum, is admitting their core beliefs---the staff they use to define themselves---is wrong.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/27/2013 14:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe the Captian of the USS Truman should turn it around and run it right up the Potomoc.
Posted by: airandee || 02/27/2013 15:57 Comments || Top||

#6  IMHO Tyrant Barry is a full blown nutter. I really think his view of the world bears only some semblance of reality.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division || 02/27/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

#7  He's not a nutter. He's doing this crap on purpose. He WANTS to destroy this country. He wants a post American world.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/27/2013 16:55 Comments || Top||

#8  The market has been strong the past couple of days. I'm going out on a limb here, but it would appear the market likes the idea of a sequester.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 16:58 Comments || Top||

#9  When I read this I wondered where Woodward had seen this kind of madness in the past.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 17:00 Comments || Top||

#10  I had the same thought John, but I think I already know.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 17:02 Comments || Top||

#11  When I read this I wondered where Woodward had seen this kind of madness in the past.

Saddam's Iraq? Gaddafi's Libya?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 19:16 Comments || Top||

#12  BOB WOODWARD: A 'Very Senior' White House Person Warned Me I'd 'Regret' What I'm Doing

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bob-woodward-obama-sequester-white-house-reporting-price-politics-2013-2#ixzz2M9JBR7n4

My guess: ValJar....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/27/2013 19:26 Comments || Top||

#13  Well, this is who you're dealing with...

Posted by: tu3031 || 02/27/2013 22:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Terrorism More About 'Bloods and Crips' than 'Koran and Hadith'
A new, unprecedented study of the demographics of terrorists reveals that America's enemies are not coming from a distant land with foreign beliefs, but are created within a U.S. society that makes them prime targets for al Qaeda recruitment.

More than half of the convicted terrorists studied in "Al Qaeda in the United States" were college educated, 57 percent were employed or in school, almost half received terrorist training, and four out of five were U.S. residents. The data within the report is not new, but marks the first time it has been compiled to reveal terrorist trends, says former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, who authored the report's foreword.

The study, released Tuesday through the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was conducted through the London-based think tank The Henry Jackson Society, and repeats a similar analysis performed for the British government.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 11:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Everybody thank the colleges!
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/27/2013 14:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Rob, when all you've got is a hammer everything looks like a nail. They found that it has nothing to do with a particular religion or the communities (the ummah) of mosques. So nothing to see here, just some alienated yuffs, move along.
Islamic terrorism has more to do with social alienation, a propensity for crime, and gang culture than any one religion, Hayden said.

"This isn't about communities. It's not about large monotheistic religious groups," said Hayden. "It's about individuals who, for one reason or another in a small group, are attracted to the symbol of 9/11 rather than repelled."
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 14:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pencilneck One of Your Aircraft is Missing
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/27/2013 09:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow that guy is really stoked.

Same gig with the Russians in Afghanistan...missiles and helicopters do not mix well, unless of course you are an Apache.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 9:58 Comments || Top||

#2  He was akbaring in stoked style!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/27/2013 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Anyone tell what they used?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Looked like an SA-7.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks. MI-17 target?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 12:29 Comments || Top||

#6  A helo below 15,000 feet is dog meat for an SA-7. This HIND did not appear to initiate countermeasures [flares if it had any] either. Bad day all around.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 12:43 Comments || Top||

#7  MI-8 or MI-17. Same airframe.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 14:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Wife says who's doing all the shooting? The bad guys? Me: they're all bad guys in Syria.
Posted by: KBK || 02/27/2013 20:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Man, they're really in love with Allen's Snackbar.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/27/2013 21:02 Comments || Top||


Government
Sequester may [I say again may] exclude DoD intelligence personnel
The article notes that the furlough for the current year will be $4 to $5 billion for DoD; that's out of a ~$525 billion base budget. While much of that gets committed in various ways, we're still talking about 1 percent of total spending. For this we're going to furlough all or most personnel, gnash our teeth and rend our garments, Mr. President?

Bring. It. On.

Let's just see how that works.

Reminds me of an old joke of how you could cut the federal budget: wait for the next DC snowstorm (should be soon). Everyone in DC panics at the first hint of snow, of course, so go on TV and announce that because of the snowstorm, all non-essential personnel can stay home.

After the storm passes, fire all the people who didn't show up to work -- they're not essential, after all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 09:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This may have just been released.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Gee, back in the 70s when Congress failed to approve authorization for DoD (repeatedly month after month living on a continuing resolution, which itself went beyond being approved by payday too), we were told to report for work regardless and just hope that sometime in the month they'd get around to paying anyone, so anyone and their families could pay their bills and buy food.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 16:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I remember that, come payday we (Navy)Were "Paid" By voucher, redeemable when the congress approved, fortunately the Congress DID approve, by next payday, Didn't miss any cash.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/27/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Never say never ...

The US Debt has suppos risen US$5.0Trilyuhn every year since the Bammer has been in office.
As per DEBTCLOCK.ORG, the US National Debt was under US$16.61 as of late afternoon yesterday Guam time - this means that the US National Debt could be over US$21.0Trilyuhn by EOY 2013 = January 1st, 2014, sum that most Perts didn't expect the US to achieve until circa 2020-2022.
IT COULD BE AS HIGH AS US$46.0TRILYUHN BY 2020.

IS US INTEL AT RISK OF CUTS - OH YES, IT IS.

* FYI IIRC FREEREPUBLIC > [Weekly Standard] BUDGET CUTS COULD FORCE US ARMY AND MARINES TO REDUCE TROOP LEVELS BY 200,000.

* TOPIX > [Hamilton Spectator] CANADA WAITING TO SEE IFF BORDER PACT UNDERMINED BY US BUDGET CUTS.

Unless something changes, the US won't have to ability to oppose Iran andor China, etal. + still meet geopol, international obligations + planning requirements NO MATTER ANY RHETORIC TO THE CONTRARY.

IFF THE US CAN'T EFFEC SECURE ITS OWN NORTHERN BORDER WID CANADA, AKA A CANADA WHERE VIOLENT PRO-JIHAD ISLAMIST MILTERR GROUPS, CELLS + NETWORKS, ARE INCREASINGLY SETTING UP SHOP FOR PURPOSES OF TERROR, HOW CAN IT TAKE EFFEC MILACTION AGZ IRAN ANDOR CHINA, ETAL. OVERSEAS IN [Treaty]SUPPORT OF ALLIES???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/27/2013 23:34 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Be Careful: Russia is Back to Stay in the Middle East
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 08:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good, leave them a mess, of the kiddies at each others throats, to deal with.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 10:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India financed problems for Pak in Afghanistan, says US defence secretary Chuck Hagel
In a sharp contrast to US view on India's role in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama's defence secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has alleged that India has over the years "financed problems" for Pakistan in the war-torn country.

A video containing these remarks from an unreleased speech of Hagel at Oklahoma's Cameron University in 2011 was uploaded by Washington Free Beacon, sparking a strong reaction from India which said such comments are "contrary to the reality" of its unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghans.

Hagel, during the speech said, "India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front, and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border".

"And you can carry that into many dimensions, the point being [that] the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years," Hagel said.

Reacting to this, the Indian embassy here said,"Such comments attributed to Senator Hagel, who has been a long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations are contrary to the reality of India's unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghan people".
Remember when George W. Bush worked to bring about a rapprochement with India? How India would become our best friend in Asia and help stabilize the continent? Champ is throwing that away, too...
It added that India's commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan is unwavering, "and this is reflected in our significant assistance to Afghanistan in developing its economy, infrastructure and institutional capacities".

"Our opposition to terrorism and its safe havens in our neighbourhood is firm and unshakable.

"India's development assistance has been deeply appreciated by the people and the government of Afghanistan, and by our friends around the world including the US.

"We do not view our engagement with Afghanistan as a zero sum game," the embassy said.

Hagel's remarks are in sharp contrast to viewpoint of Obama Administration that has always been in praise of India's developmental role in Afghanistan and in fact has been pressing New Delhi to do more in Afghanistan.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 07:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is there any Muslim country that Hagel has criticized? Anyone remotely pro-US seems to be anathema to Hagel and his keepers.

This turd should be flushed along with the PoTUS that laid him.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Not mentioned is the financing by Pak of problems for India in war-torn Kashmir over the years. That's where Jihad Johnny spent his first tour before moving on to Afghanistan.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#3  please note mr hagel india is on our side not pakistan.
Posted by: Snomomp Schwarzeneggar3438 || 02/27/2013 14:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Can you name an ally this guy won't piss off?

I saw this article and my head nearly did the exorcist thing. Dang.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 15:00 Comments || Top||

#5  We still have allies ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 15:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Of course we have allies, the UN says we do!

/sarcasm
Posted by: Charles || 02/27/2013 16:17 Comments || Top||

#7  We still have allies ?

Texas. Maybe.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 17:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Glad to see he's getting right to work. Attaboy, Chuckie!
Posted by: Nero || 02/27/2013 22:51 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
TB attacks not down after all, blames computer error and AFG reporting - Aypee
WASHINGTON -- The American-led military coalition in Afghanistan backed off Tuesday from its claim that Taliban attacks dropped off in 2012, tacitly acknowledging a hole in its widely repeated argument that violence is easing and that the insurgency is in steep decline.

In response to Associated Press inquiries about its latest series of statistics on security in Afghanistan, the coalition command in Kabul said it had erred in reporting a 7 percent decline in attacks. In fact there was no decline at all, officials said.
We at the Burg already knew this; while we don't have access to DoD statistics we do read the Pakistan Daily Times...
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is among the senior officials who had publicly repeated the assertion of an encouraging drop-off in Taliban attacks last year, was disturbed to learn of the error, said his spokesman, George Little.
Did he fire anyone? Reprimand anyone? Put a letter into someone's personnel jacket? If he didn't do any of those things then he wasn't particularly disturbed...
"This particular set of metrics doesn't tell the full story of progress against the Taliban, of course, but it's unhelpful to have inaccurate information in our systems," Little said.
More at the two-letter news distribution service from which we're extracting fair-use material.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 07:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyway I was relieved that TB referred to the Taliban and not to tuberculosis.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/27/2013 14:14 Comments || Top||

#2  This just in - Facing Mass Layoffs, Taliban Protest US Sequester
QUETTA, PAKISTAN – As the United States rapidly approaches the deadline for sequestration, President Obama is getting support from an unlikely quarter: Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Muhammad Omar.

In a video released today, Taliban spokesman Zabibullah Mujahid read a statement from the group’s supreme leader: ”I, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Emir of the Taliban, Commander of the Boy Brigades, Custodian of the Holy Poppy Fields, Rocker of the Casbah, Sultan of Swing …”

After several minutes Zabibullah was able to read the actual contents of the statement, where the Taliban leader addressed what he referred to as the “dire consequences” if Congress fails to resolve the sequestration issue:

“Peace be upon you, American infidels. As you are aware, because of your inability to pass a simple budget, you are facing up to $40 billion in defense cuts for your fiscal year 2013,” Zabibullah read. “While we are totally fine with these cuts devastating your military and economy, there will also be some catastrophic consequences for us as well.”

“Half our budget comes from skimming off your operations in Afghanistan. Without hard American dollars, hundreds of Taliban fighters will be laid off over the coming year and forced onto the streets to beg like common women.”

Omar’s statement was rather apocalyptic at the consequences of the automatic budget cuts: ”With the money we have, we will barely be able to bribe members of the [Pakistani] Frontier Corps!”
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/27/2013 14:51 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Who Will the Muslim Brotherhood Heed: Allah or Tom Friedman?
Sigh. I really don't want to write this article, but we have too good a case study of contemporary Western foreign policy reporting, debate, and elite attitudes toward international affairs to ignore. Doing a better job here is vital, as this task involves the fate of millions of people, matters of war and peace, the most basic interests of the United States, and the decency of intellectual discourse.

I refer, of course, to Thomas L. Friedman's latest effort: "The Belly Dancing Barometer." (Tens of millions of lives are at stake -- that's worth a flippant title and goofy concept, right?)

Friedman writes:

Since the start of the 2011 revolution in Tahrir Square, every time the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood faced a choice of whether to behave in an inclusive way or grab more power, true to its Bolshevik tendencies it grabbed more power and sacrificed inclusion. [President] Morsi's power grab will haunt him.

The Brotherhood needs to understand that its version of political Islam -- which is resistant to women's empowerment and religious and political pluralism -- might be sustainable if you are Iran or Saudi Arabia, and you have huge reserves of oil and gas to buy off all the contradictions between your ideology and economic growth. But if you are Egypt, you need to be as open to the world and modernity as possible to unleash all of the potential for growth.

So, let me get this straight.

Friedman is saying that you cannot trust the Brotherhood, as it seeks total power and is anti-democratic.

Hmm: what's Friedman been saying the last two years? Well, he has been an apologist for the Brotherhood, a cheerleader for the course taken by the "Arab Spring," and has constantly insisted that the "democratic" revolution is going well. Indeed, in January 2012 I wrote an analysis of Friedman's coverage titled: "Friedman Cheers as Egyptians are Enslaved."

Now, when it's too late? Friedman is supposedly outraged to see what's going on there.

Now, he concludes that the Egyptian regime is not democratic at all.

However, he draws no conclusions about how U.S. policy should change to adjust for his discovery. Does Friedman now favor -- as he hints in the article -- using real pressure on Egypt if the regime continues to be repressive at home? Will he criticize Obama for not doing so?

If Mursi [I'll stick with my transliteration] has "Bolshevik tendencies," might that not also lead to his doing something nasty to U.S. interests?

It's like identifying a mass murderer, and then asking him "Do you really think you can get away with this without a vast criminal organization behind you?", rather than hollering: "Help! Police! There's a mass murderer over there!"
Posted by: Beavis || 02/27/2013 05:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexico's Pena Nieto Enacts Major Education Reform
[BBC] Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has enacted a major reform of the education system that includes new standards for hiring teachers.

The reforms appear set to weaken the powerful teachers' union, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, which has largely controlled access to the profession.

Until now, the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) has held sway over the criteria for being appointed and retained, a practice that has led to posts being inherited or sold.

The education system is believed to have thousands of phantom teachers on its books.

Ms Gordillo, who has led the SNTE for the past 23 years, and who was elected unopposed to another six-year term in October, was not present at Monday's signing ceremony.
See article below for an explanation of that little mystery. Life certainly is getting interesting, down south of the border.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 04:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has enacted a major reform of the education system that includes new standards for hiring teachers.

..which, if he's smart, bars anyone who's taught in the "Alto" California school systems.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I think the reform goes through given as how Ms Gordillo just got her butt thrown in the slammer for embezzlement of way too much money for a normal person to want.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 10:00 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian Educated In North Korea Becomes Minister
Was he one of the 11,000 who got a medal for helping with North Korea's latest nuclear test? And why would anyone go to North Korea for his education?
[Ynet] Iran's parliament has approved a North Korean-educated former military official for a key post in President Mahmoud Ahmadienjad's government.

The official IRNA news agency says Mohammad Hasan Nami, nominated by Ahmadinejad last week for the post of communications minister, got 177 votes in parliament on Tuesday. There were 243 politicians present in the 290-seat chamber.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 04:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Africa North
Egypt Courting Iranians For Tourism
[Ynet] As relations between two regional heavyweights continues to slowly improve, Egyptian minister flies to Tehran in bid to lure Iranian tourists to help his country's ailing economy
Lots of blahblah, here are the paragraphs of interest, showing Egypt's increasing economic desperation.
President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad said he anticipated that many of the eight to 10 million Iranians who holiday abroad every year will start coming to Egypt.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the sight of Iranian women, should they choose to wear the traditional Shiite cloak known as a chador, is likely to anger Egypt's ultraconservative Salafis -- Sunni Moslems who follow a doctrine similar to that of the Wahhabi movement in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
.
Despite the friction, Egypt needs the tourism.
So the first tour group will come to see the pyramids and Tahrir Square, watch the belly dancers, eat Egypt's traditional bread with lentils, and vainly try to keep their womenfolk from being interfered with by gangs of Egyptian men -- as they are wont to do these days -- and that will be the end of that.
The diplomat said that Egypt wants Iranian tourists to help improve the country's economy, since tourism is one of the nation's biggest revenue earners and employs millions of Egyptians. The diplomat was not authorized to speak to the press and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

Continued turmoil in Egypt has scared away tourists and foreign investors, pushing down foreign currency reserves to less than $14 billion and forcing Cairo to turn to oil-rich Gulf states for loans and handouts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 04:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the iranian tourists might like the egyptian balloon rides
Posted by: lord garth || 02/27/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  More likely it'll be groups of 30-40 youngish-to-middle-aged male Iranians; 'retired government employees' with a keen interest in the resort areas along the Sinai peninsula.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/27/2013 12:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Do you think they'll be taking balloon rides?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 14:56 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Likud: Deal with Bennett can be made immediately
Sorry to cut the celebrations among Israel's lefturd population short, but
Likud Beytenu and the Bayit Yehudi are likely to sign a coalition agreement in the coming days, sources in both parties said on Tuesday.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/27/2013 03:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Ireland: Forget neutrality... we must join fight on Islam fascists
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 02:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Plenty of Irish fought the various bad guys of the last hundred and fifty years. They just had to join the Brit army to do it.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/27/2013 7:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Neither is it a 'War on Islam'. For too long and too often it has been misleadingly described as such.

It is a war against a religious tyranny


And here we see the kind of intentional blindness and word games that refuse to identify the root cause. ISLAM is the religious tyranny and the tyranny is defined in the holy books.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Three cheers for the late Colonel Y. Filmore Blake [USMA Class of 1880] and the brave lads of the Irish Brigade. Great railroad dynamiters they were.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 8:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Our foe is every bit as ruthless as the Gestapo and every bit as devious as the KGB. Like Stalin and Hitler, the thugs who kill in the name of Islam seek to rule the world.

Some of the Irish seem to get it. Our forefathers came to America to escape the tyranny of the Church of England and to practice freedom of religion as outlined in our 1st Amendment. They didn't come here to be subjugated by Islam in the 21st century. The 1st Amendment is not a suicide pact.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  I have no problem with the Irish but their neutrality during WW2 was shameful.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/27/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#6  The Irish were rather annoyed at the British in 1939 and adopted the maxim of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,' and sat it out.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 15:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Blast inside Bara fort kills one, injures five
[Dawn] A security man was killed and five others were maimed in a blast in a military fort in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, officials said.

They said that the kaboom occurred in an ammunition depot inside Fort Salop, situated in the south of Bara Bazaar. They said that a security man was killed on the spot while five others received injuries in the blast that also damaged at least five rooms in the fort.

Officials said that the explosives that triggered the blast were seized during search operations at different times in Bara.

The British-era Fort Salop is now inhabited by Mehsud Scouts and most of the suspected hard boyz apprehended during operations are kept at the fort for interrogations. A large quantity of arms and ammunitions seized from hard boyz and also used during the ongoing military operation is also stored in the fort.

Security forces cordoned off the surrounding localities of the fort soon after the blast and did not allow anybody to get near the blast site. The injured coppers were shifted to a military hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.

In Jamrud, Khasadar Force defused an bomb planted along the roadside on Monday.

Sources said that khasadar
...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India...
s blocked the road and detonated the device in a dry stream before removing it from the roadside.

In Peshawar, suspected hard boyz blew up a government primary school in Badhber area in the small hours of Monday.

A police official said that Death Eaters planted an improvised bomb (IED) in Government Boys Primary School-II Masho Piki that went off after midnight.

The blast, he said, destroyed two rooms of the school building. He said that most of the schools in the surrounding areas were destroyed and only few of those were rebuilt.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
police said that 195 outlaws were jugged
Please don't kill me!
during a special campaign in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera on Monday.

A police front man said that the action was taken after terrorist activities took place in different districts. It was yet to be ascertained if any thug was among the arrested persons, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Bareknuckle Politics: Esther Gordillo busted for stealing
Protege of Salinas de Gortari gets arrested by another protege of Salinas de Gortari.

From TFA:

Authorities have arrested the leader of Mexico's largest union, accusing her of embezzling millions of dollars and using some of the money to pay for plastic surgery, shop at luxury stores and buy real estate.

Elba Esther Gordillo, who has led Mexico's high-profile national teacher's union for more than two decades, was in federal custody after she was arrested at an airport outside Mexico City on Tuesday, the country's attorney general told reporters.

Investigators from Mexico's treasury found that MX $2.6 billion (more than USD $200 million) had been routed from union funds into private bank accounts abroad, including some managed by Gordillo, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.
Posted by: badanov || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyway we can throw the head of the California teachers union in jail for something?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Teacher's union? Could happen.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:45 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
U.N. Condemns Gaza Rocket Attack
[An Nahar] The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
on Tuesday condemned the firing of a rocket from Gazoo into Israel which it said had broken the longest ceasefire between the two sides in recent years.

Gazoo cut-throats fired the rocket in what they said was a response to the death of a Paleostinian prisoner in an Israeli jail at the weekend. There are mounting international fears that serious new unrest could erupt in the Paleostinian territories.

"This was the longest period without projectiles fired from Gazoo in recent years, and both sides should work to consolidate the calm that prevailed before today," U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

He said the U.N. was "deeply troubled" by the rocket attack, which was the first since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a showdown between Gazoo and Israeli forces in November.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs

#1  And if they shoot more rockets, the UN will become deeply disturbed, and send a Strongly Worded Memo.

Israel, of course, must continue to honor the ceasefire.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/27/2013 8:40 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat men hurl bombs at lawmen
[Bangla Daily Star] Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
yesterday hurled homemade bombs at law enforcers at different points of the capital as they tried to stage demonstrations and damage vehicles.

Police picked up 10 Jamaat-Shibir men.

Around 200 Jamaat-Shibir men brought out a procession in Tikatuli around 9:00am, protesting the recent death of Shibir leader Ali Azgar Khan Rahat, witnesses said. As they tried to launch an attack, police chased them. The protesters hurled several cocktails at the law enforcers, in response to which police fired shots in the air, dispersing the crowd.

Jamaat-Shibir men also erupted into the streets in the capital's Sher-e-Banglanagar and Shyamoli, said Abdul Momen, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station. Police dispersed them and jugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
10 activists from the areas.

Rahat was injured on February 16 in a clash with police in Sylhet. The clash followed a procession brought out to demand the release of war crimes accused Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...
. Rahat departed this vale of tears on Monday.

On Friday, Jamaat and its sympathisers attacked law enforcers and journalists, tore and burned the national flag and vandalised Shaheed Minars to counter the mass demand for capital punishment to 1971 war criminals. They chose mosques as gathering points and launched attacks with handmade bombs, guns, and sticks, leaving at least four people killed and nearly 1,000, including 14 journalists, maimed.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Saudis Buying Balkan Arms for Syrian Rebels
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
has been supplying Syrian rebels battling the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
with arms bought from Croatia, according to The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

Citing unnamed U.S. and western officials, the newspaper reported late Monday that the Saudi-financed "large purchase of infantry weapons" was part of an "undeclared surplus" of arms left over from the Balkan wars in the 1990s and that they began reaching anti-regime fighters via Jordan in December.

That was when many Yugoslav weapons started showing up in YouTube videos posted by rebels, it said.

Since then, The Times added, officials said "multiple planeloads" of weapons have left Croatia, with one quoted as saying the shipments included "thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns," as well as an "unknown quantity of ammunition."

A spokeswoman for the Croatian Foreign Ministry told The Times that, since the start of the Arab Spring, the Balkan country had not sold any weapons to either Saudi Arabia or the Syrian rebels. Saudi and Jordanian officials meanwhile declined to comment, the newspaper added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336110 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  What's new? The Sauds have been bankrollers of terror all along. They are the Pakistainis with oil money. They never put their fat a$$es on the line. U.S. oil and energy independence ASAP.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  A spokeswoman for the Croatian Foreign Ministry told The Times that, since the start of the Arab Spring, the Balkan country had not sold any weapons to either Saudi Arabia or the Syrian rebels

And that's likely (and legally) accurate. There's probably a few arms brokers making bank.

What's new? The Sauds have been bankrollers of terror all along

It's not a simplistic as that with regards to Syria, if one takes the time and the energy to look at things, instead of merely spouting off rote commentary.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/27/2013 11:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Syria is not a simple matter; neither was Libya, nor Egypt. That does not make it untrue that the Saudis have been on both sides of the fence in the WOT.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 16:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Syria is not a simple matter; neither was Libya, nor Egypt.

Well, duh. The Sauds are financing weapons purchases for the rebels for a myriad number of reasons (among which may be by encouragement from the current US administration).

Your commentary reflected none of that.

That does not make it untrue that the Saudis have been on both sides of the fence in the WOT.

I never said it was untrue. I said that your commentary was "rote".

Your remarks remind me of dealing with Congressional staffers during my (mercifully) brief stay in DC. For the most part their jobs were to reinforce their boss' and their own political view/position, not necessarily to actually have to receive and evaluate a SITREP that would interfere with their mindset and digestion.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/27/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Ditto Pappy. I hold ghetto pimps in higher esteem than congressional staffers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 20:58 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Another business visited by the Champ goes tango-uniform.
Last week, it was announced that Ray's Hades Burger just outside the Washington beltway would be closing its doors. A fan of the burger joint was the POTUS, who had visited the location with his Russian communist counterparts.

Well, it's happened again. In August, Champ visited Star Brewery in Dubuque. And now a local publication reports that the business is closing its doors.

Star Restaurant and Ultra Lounge apparently has closed.

A sign posted on the front door of the Port of Dubuque restaurant, at 600 Star Brewery Drive, says the business is "permanently closed" KEEP OUT!

Owners Matt and Sarah Kluesner, who also own Crust Italian Kitchen & Bar in downtown Dubuque, did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

Star Restaurant was one of the anchor tenants in the Dubuque Star Brewery, which was renovated in recent years and became one of the major attractions in the redeveloped Port of Dubuque.

The brewery redevelopment project totaled $6.5 million and was led by local Dem, Wayne Briggs and a group he headed up called Port of Dubuque LLC.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Look for Democratic Donors,You'll find them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/27/2013 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  the Anti-Midas. Everything he touches turns to shit
Posted by: Frank G || 02/27/2013 7:50 Comments || Top||

#3  He's the Man With the Midden Touch.
Posted by: charger || 02/27/2013 11:10 Comments || Top||

#4  On the bright side, we have received 18" of snow since the SOTU killer drought segment. I think if he got on the 'prompter and said it is our patriotic duty to let the dryer eat our socks, every missing sock would be found within 48 hours.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 12:27 Comments || Top||

#5  As a matter of fact, Rays Hell Burger closed the one location to open very close by at a new location.

I've yet to go there myself but all my liberal friends love it and god knows there are plenty of liberals around this town to keep it going.
Posted by: eltoroverde || 02/27/2013 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  But I thought eating red meat meant you were a conservative?

Has PETA written a strongly worded memo to the empty suit yet?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 14:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Used to be a pretty good burger place up on Wisconsin called "Good Guys". Prolly gone by now.
:-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 15:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Is President Obama willing to draft women like 'Julia'?
Don't be silly -- Julia is a single mom and a web designer.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you're gonna use em the way we used Marines on Midway, or at the Chosen Reservoir, then yeah, they'd be handy to have. Sometimes you just run out of warm bodies to throw at an enemy. Men have to leave their jobs, homes, relationships and kids behind when they get drafted, so I really don't see what the difference is.

Excited girls?
You earned it!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/27/2013 9:03 Comments || Top||

#2  In the true nature of lowering standards, they're already covering their culpability in drafting Julia's daughter by proposing to end Selective Service.

I've posted before this is the indirect attack to end the 2nd Amendment. Selective Service is the selective activation of the federal militia. Do away with the Militia Act (ie Title X USC, para 311) and the arguement will be advanced that the 'justification' for the 2nd Amendment is mote as the 3rd Amendment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Relevant vid (somewhat). NTL.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Like Germany there will be non-military options if a Draft comes.

Julia will find her voter preference of D on the paperwork and will be assigned as a Poll Watcher. She will work 2 two days during her assignment and be possibly be paid as a reservist afterwards.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/27/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  The problem with 'alternative' service is 'involuntary servitude'. The militia, and thus selective service, is specifically identified as a power under Article I, Section 8, for regulating and organizing. Anything else is not. Of course, the Constitution is just a wad of paper to those now exercising power behind the fig leaf of its existence.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 16:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Julia will find her voter preference of D on the paperwork and will be assigned as a Poll Watcher Enforcer.

FIFY
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 18:10 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Ansar al-Sharia returns to Benghazi
[MAGHAREBIA] Five months after Benghazi residents drove out thug militias from the city centre, members of the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia
...an Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends...
brigade are now returning.

Patrolling hospitals and manning checkpoints, Ansar al-Sharia elements are back at their old posts. The Islamist militia was driven out of its main bases in eastern Libya' s main city last September following public outrage over the terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

"Ansar al-Sharia elements are back to secure vital areas in Benghazi without being asked to," 36-year-old employee at Benghazi Medical Centre Marawan al-Jahani said.

"However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
they are still not wanted in the streets of Libya. Truthfully, Libyan people are religiously moderate, open minded and don't accept any extremism," he added.

Some members of the thug militia were also present during celebrations marking the February 17th revolution, securing vital areas in place of police.

The militia also resumed outreach programmes in an effort to win over a local populace wary of the continued presence of rogue revolutionaries.

According to The Globe and Mail, Ansar al-Sharia has picked up where the weak interim government left off, filling a security vacuum and providing local humanitarian services. But many Libyans remain sceptical of the Islamist aid.

24-year-old water company employee Ahmed Mansour called for serving the country and loving it warmly. "However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
the fact that Ansar al-Sharia offers their services free of charge makes us wonder why Ansar al-Sharia in particular works with this spirit," he said.

"In my opinion, they have another purpose and are trying to proactively win people's trust. This group knows quite well that using direct force in Benghazi is not in its interest. Therefore, I believe that they have a hidden agenda that simple people can't see," Mansour continued.

"I don't want to cast doubts over their intentions, but it is still too early to praise anyone who wants to offer something to the nation and Benghazi without anything in return," he added.

Benghazi has been plagued by intermittent turmoil in recent months, with liquidations of security officials and sporadic bombings. While Ansar al-Sharia has denied culpability, Libyan authorities have been unable to curtail the violence or arrest those responsible for the attack on the US consulate.

The inaction over the Islamist violence comes despite intelligence and reconnaissance support from Libya's international partners. Drone over-flights are now a common occurrence in eastern Libya, where the aircraft provide information on the al-Qaeda threat for Libya and other countries.

Political scientist and former National Transitional Council member Fathi Baja told The Globe and Mail that "nobody" had authorised Ansar al-Sharia to resume operations or take up a security role.

"It's a tactic for returning to Benghazi. The government doesn't want a confrontation with them," he said.

A specialised committee has been set up to monitor the various groups in charge of security in Benghazi, according to Mohammed al-Tayeb, the person in charge of the security file within the city's local council.

"We're only overseeing the process without interfering in the responsible entities' tasks," al-Tayeb told Magharebia.

Members of the Islamist Rafallah al-Sahati battalion are also reportedly returning to their old positions within Benghazi.

Faraj al-Mejbri, an employee in the administration of Rafallah al-Sahati, said his group never expected to be driven out of the city in the public rage over the consulate attack.

"We didn't imagine that we would be treated like al-Fadheel Bou Omar battalion was treated when the young people rose against it during the revolution and the obscene words used to describe us," al-Mejbri said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia


Fighting erupts in Kufra
[MAGHAREBIA] Clashes between Toubou tribesmen and Libyan government forces at the week-end left two people dead in the restive Kufra region, PANA reported on Tuesday (February 26th).

Some 100 policemen and thirty vehicles were deployed in the town last week as part of the government's reconciliation efforts. On February 7th, leaders from the Toubou and Zuwayya tribes began reconciliation talks in Tripoli. Ethnic clashes between the two groups led to hundreds of deaths last year.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
'Heavy Fighting' in Strategic Sudan Border Town
[An Nahar] Heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy...
has occurred between government and rebel forces in a strategic Sudanese border town, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, giving the first independent confirmation of the key battle.

The fight for El Kurmuk -- which Sudan's army has denied -- is the most serious for more than a year in Blue Nile state, which has been largely sealed from the outside world.

"There has been heavy fighting since the start of this week," said the source, who cannot be identified.

Rebels claimed on Sunday to have pushed into Kurmuk's southwest.

Kurmuk, an important trading center on the Æthiopian border, is the third-largest town in Blue Nile and has been in government hands since November 2011.

Sudan's government severely restricts access to Blue Nile and South Kordofan, two states where the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North have been fighting since 2011.

Khartoum accuses South Sudan of backing the SPLM-N but the South denies involvement.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa North
Border guards storm Libya cabinet
[MAGHAREBIA] Dozens of Libyan border guards on Monday (February 25th) stormed the cabinet headquarters in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
to protest their salaries. They claimed that they had worked without pay since last March.

"We revolutionaries offered ourselves up for the protection of Libya and haven't spared anything," Youssef Abdul Hai said. "Right now, there is a state and we want our rights. We aren't cheats or crooks."

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Ali Zidan said that irregularities had been found in many revolutionaries' accounts. Some 250,000 duplicate names were identified. One name was repeated 20 times. A number of people also appeared to have the same bank account.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  The story about the messed-up accounts was actually recycled from the Detroit Public Schools.
The emergency manager decreed that everybody would have to pick up their checks in person. About 250 paychecks went unclaimed. So add a couple of zeros and you get the Libya story. Lazy journalism.
OTOH, it might be true. Maybe the border guards have been reading the Detroit Free Press and figured it would be a good idea.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/27/2013 7:04 Comments || Top||


Brotherhood mulls legal status, name change
[Egypt Independent] Moslem Brüderbund spokesperson Ahmed Aref said Tuesday that the group is working to ensure its operations and structure are in accordance with laws governing NGOs. The group's legal committee is also considering changing the Brotherhood's name to The Comprehensive Islamic Authority.

"The group is legalizing its status to accommodate the largest number of new members, and to be clearer to the public," Aref said."The new law is not only for NGOs but also for associations and foundations."

He added that the new entity would be supervised by the Central Auditing Agency.

The Moslem Brüderbund was officially banned by former President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. Its legal status is still in question, despite the group's rise to power in parliamentary elections last year. Its candidate Mohamed Morsy won the presidency as well in June.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky admitted the Brotherhood's legal status had not been resolved as of January, saying, "The group's current situation is not the best. The law should be applied equally to everyone. The group should be a role model."

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, did not face the same obstacles and received party status in June 2011.

Before the 25 January revolution, former Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
'>geriatric former President-for-Life Hosni Mubarak labeled the Brotherhood as a "prohibited group" under the Law 84 of 2002, which regulates NGOs. Legal experts describe the law as repressive since it targeted opposition and religious movements.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  changing the name from Moslem Brotherhood to Comprehensive Islamic Authority would be cool because of the acronym but a better name would be
'happy islam' party
Posted by: lord garth || 02/27/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  "Organizing for Action" ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Next step?

"Write 3 letters."
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 6:50 Comments || Top||

#4  The Comprehensive Islamic Authority? I would have thought they might go for something like "KIA," Killing Infidels Authority. I guess that is not subtle enough--wouldn't follow along with taqqiya and kitman.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  "Nutbag Central"
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/27/2013 16:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
SC orders 'permanent solution' to Quetta instability
[Dawn] The Supreme Court ordered authorities on Tuesday to develop a long-term strategy to protect the Hazara Shia community after kabooms killed nearly 200 of them in Quetta.

The apex court rejected a report on intensified measures to protect the minority ethnic community after the latest attack on February 16 killed 90 people in the lovely provincial capital of 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...

Representing the Balochistan government which had been ordered by the court to present a report, Additional Advocate General of Balochistan Azam Khattak said the provincial government had increased the number of police personnel and was checking vehicles.

It promised to install scanners to check for explosives.

But Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said this was not enough.

"You have to take long-term measures...you should go to the root cause of such incidents. The steps taken are temporary," Chaudhry said.

"This report has not given us any satisfaction," he said, ordering the arrest of all those responsible for recent attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Similar to Hitler's 'permanent solution' to his 'Jewish problem?'
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 7:45 Comments || Top||


Africa North
US sanctions Mali rebel leader
[News24] The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on a Touareg leader whose cut-thoat group seized much of northern Mali last year and prompted a French military intervention.

The State Department designated Iyad Ag Ghali, head of Ansar Dine, a global terrorist. The action blocks any assets he holds in the US and prohibits Americans from doing business with him. The UN also added Ag Ghali to its global sanctions list.

Ag Ghali's armed Islamists conquered much of northern Mali after a military coup in Mali's capital, aided by al-Qaeda's North Africa wing. In Timbuktu, he imposed strict Shari'ah law and forced thousands to flee; others were tortured and executed.

But a French-led intervention in January has turned the tide, forcing back Ag Ghali's rebels to mountainous hideouts near the Algeria border.

Separately, the US made further terror designations on a Pakistain-based Death Eater group and one of its leaders on Tuesday.

Since 2006, the Commander Nazir Group "has run training camps, dispatched jacket wallahs, provided safe haven for al-Qaeda gunnies, and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies," a State Department statement said. The sanctions extend to key commander Malang Wazir.

The group is named after Maulvi Nazir, a member of the Taliban but one whose faction agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistain military in 2009 and did not attack domestic targets.

Nazir was killed in a US drone strike in January.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  Sanctions? I think the French approach is more effective.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/27/2013 11:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothing wrong with a combined approach: deliver the sanction notice taped to the nose of a Hellfire...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 16:09 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea Leader Monitors 'Actual War' Drill
[An Nahar] North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw a live-fire artillery drill aimed at simulating an "actual war", state media said Tuesday, a day after South Korea swore in its first female president.
Ahah. No doubt an opfor exercise...
"An endless barrage
So they were exercising the logistics necessary to keep artillery at expenditure levels, and the batteries were no doubt jumping to new positions every few barrages to avoid counterbattery fire...
of shells were fired by artillery pieces on 'enemy positions', their roar rocking heaven and earth,
Artillery makes really loud "booms" when it fires.
and all of them were enveloped in flames," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Oh. Okay. Were they shooting back? What was the attrition level? Were they exercising maneuver under fire? How about combined arms? How about operational maneuver groups? Or has Baby Jong Il gotten that far in Military Science for Dummies?
"Feasting his eyes at the 'enemy positions' in flames, (Kim) was satisfied," the official agency added.
No doubt. But in "actual war" conditions there's an exchange of fire. Sometimes it's your own positions that go up in flames. I doubt Baby Jong Il would be happy with that.
KCNA gave no precise time or location for the drill, but its announcement followed Monday's presidential inauguration in the South, at which new leader Park Geun-Hye signaled a zero-tolerance policy to North Korea provocation.
Just about as subtle as a poke in the eye...
According to KCNA, Kim ordered the live fire exercise to test the capability of artillery units "to fight an actual war."
Isn't that why artillery does exercise regularly?
It marked the latest in a series of high-profile military inspections by Kim following the North's nuclear test earlier this month.
Field Guidance of the Songun Army First Juche forces...
Last week Kim oversaw an air force demonstration, a paratroop drill and a separate tactical attack exercise combined with live shell firing.
Wow.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  A legeng in their own minds.
Posted by: darrylq || 02/27/2013 7:04 Comments || Top||

#2  sorry, A legend in their own minds.
Posted by: darrylq || 02/27/2013 7:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lavrov Urges Syrian Opposition to Talk to Regime
[An Nahar] The Syrian opposition should enter into talks with the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
and put together a negotiating team, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...

"We are counting on the opposition, who will be meeting with representatives of Western and a number of regional countries in Rome, to also declare itself in favor of dialogue because they have voiced contradictory statements on that account and not only declare but also name their negotiating team," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying in Berlin.

Lavrov earlier Tuesday slammed "extremists" within the Syrian opposition he said were blocking the start of dialogue in war-torn Syria.

On Monday he hosted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Moscow, who in a ground-breaking statement said the Assad regime was ready for talks with armed rebels.

"They (representatives of the Assad regime) assured us that they both have a negotiating team and are ready to start dialogue as soon as possible," Lavrov was quoted as saying in Berlin.

He added that he and Kerry agreed at the meeting to do their best to help start talks in the war-torn country.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Karachi unrest case: SC orders suspension of 423 policemen
[Dawn] The Supreme Court of Pakistain issued a show-cause notice to the Inspector General of Sindh police and ordered the suspension of 423 personnel of the Sindh police involved in illegal activities on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

A larger bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali resumed the hearing of the case pertaining to the implementation of the court's earlier order over the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
law and order situation at the Supreme Court's Karachi registry.

During the hearing the court expressing its dissatisfaction issued a show-cause notice to Sindh Police IG Fayyaz Leghari.

In its remarks the court inquired as to why were 430 coppers, who were involved in illegal activities, not suspended and still posted for duties.

The court further remarked that not only were the corrupt coppers performing duties but were posted at sensitive locations as well.

The court the suspension of 423police personnel suspected of involvement in illegal activities and instructed Sindh's IGP to submit a reply within a day and adjourned the hearing of the case until tomorrow (Feb 27).
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Elimination of militant sanctuaries a must to keep schools safe
[Dawn] The problem of destruction of schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
cannot be resolved without the elimination of the bad turbans' safe havens in the adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas, experts have said.

The provincial civil administration appears to be helpless in nabbing and putting the culprits to trial by the courts because criminals remain unscathed and police without any success in making headway in any case so far, the people belonging to different fields of life told Dawn on Monday.

"They (terrorists) are trying to push Pakistain back to the Stone Age as they are attacking our future generation, wanting to keep our children uneducated," said Awami National Party MNA Bushra Gohar.

She said attacks on school buildings could not be stopped unless the bad turbans' hideouts in Fata were eliminated.

"Unless a decisive action is taken against their factories in Fata, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will continue to experience the pressure," she said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Gohar's rationale appears somewhat counterintuitive. Please explain why better educated murdering, nutjob scoundrels are actually needed ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:38 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Texas students dress in burqas, taught to call Muslim terrorists 'freedom fighters'
A Texas politician is launching an investigation after a high school teacher reportedly invited her female students to dress in burqas and refer to Moslem hard boyz as "freedom fighters."

State Sen. Dan Patrick told Fox News he is very disturbed by a Facebook photograph posted by one of the students in a world geography class at Lumberton High School, which showed them in Islamic garb. He also is investigating reports that the students were forced to write an essay based on an article in The Washington Post that blamed Egypt's turmoil on democracy rather than the Moslem Brüderbund.

"Parents are very sensitive to any issue that seems to be anti-American -- that blames democracy for some sort of trouble in the world," he told Fox.
"I felt like the line had been crossed," a parent of the daughter who posted the Facebook photo told Fox. "Christian kids who want to pray have to do it outside of school hours -- yet Islam is being taught to our kids during school hours."

The girl's father is confused why a geography class is teaching religion at all.

"She went from learning about Mexico to learning about Russia to learning about Islam," he told Fox. "Islam is not a country. Islam is not a continent."

The school district released a statement to Fox News defending the class: "The lesson that was offered focused on exposing students to world cultures, religions, customs and belief systems. The lesson is not teaching a specific religion, and the students volunteered to wear the clothing."
The parents contacted the principal, who defended the program required under CSCOPE, a controversial electronic curriculum system that provides online lesson plans for teachers, Fox News reports.

"This is the normal answer from every school using CSCOPE," said Janice VanCleave, the founder of Texas CSCOPE Review, which monitors what is being taught in the state's schools. "They are definitely promoting the Islamic religion."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The local board of education may wish to redraw "the line" when the Burqa kiddies begin squatting on the sidewalks and defecating. Just say'n.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Or, Besoeker, when the boys start dressing in burkas and going into the girls' locker room...
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 7:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "The lesson that was offered focused on exposing students to world cultures, religions, customs and belief systems. The lesson is not teaching a specific religion, and the students volunteered to wear the clothing."

How about some administrator and teacher cultural sensitivity training with a week in a North Korean Gulag environment. I'm sure you'll 'volunteer' too.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Changes are coming. CSCOPE Changes. The only way that oversight and and changes can be brought about in an out-of-control educational system is for parents to exert pressure on the school system, the State regulatory agencies, elected representatives, the PTA, the school administrators. They should use the media that is sympathetic. Raise holy hell!
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't know Besoeker - they (government) didn't seem to mind when the Occuturds did it.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Very true CF.

Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I was watching the Champ on teevee tell the Rosa Parks and the mean ole bus driver story. As you might imagine, it's one of personal fav's.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 12:01 Comments || Top||

#7  ...and our "melting pot" continures on its inexorable(?) march towards becoming a dumpster....

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/27/2013 13:54 Comments || Top||

#8  ....or a cannibal's pot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 14:22 Comments || Top||

#9  But that is in TEXAS and I assure you Governor Perry probably spit coffee all over his desk when he read this.

I expect some corrective action...rope...school administrators...tree. Some assembly required but then this is Texas and the good citizens will figure it out...the rope administrator tree thing.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 15:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done.
Take all the rope in Texas. Find a tall oak tree.
Round up all of them bad boys. Hang them high in the street
for all the people to see
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 15:50 Comments || Top||

#11  What else are cross-pieces on lampposts for?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah-Linked Militants Claim Gaza Rocket after Inmate Death
[An Nahar] Gazoo Islamic fascisti from Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired a rocket at Israel on Tuesday as a "preliminary response" after one of its members died in an Israeli jail.

It was the first time a Gazoo rocket had struck southern Israel in more than three months, and stoked fears that the mass protests in the West Bank over the fate of prisoners in Israeli jails could spread to the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run territory.

Following weeks of anger in support of four prisoners on long-term hunger strike, the issue came to head on Saturday with news that 30-year-old Arafat Jaradat, who had been interrogated for throwing stones, had died in jug.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs


China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korean General Behind Cheonan Sinking Rehabilitated
Kim Yong-chol, the man who was responsible for the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan, has been rehabilitated after a surprise demotion.

The official Rodong Sinmun daily on Tuesday ran a photo of Kim Yomg-chol applauding at a musical performance that North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un also attended. It shows him with his former insignia of a four-star general after he was demoted to lieutenant general three months ago.

An intelligence source here said 10 top North Korean military officials had either been demoted or sacked in October and November of last year, but only two were rehabilitated. They are new army chief Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yong-chol.

"This clearly shows who Kim Jong-un trusts in the North Korean military," the source said.

South Korean intelligence officials believe Kim Yong-chol was demoted by two ranks because of his poor performance last year. "He had been unable to rack up any notable achievements in 2012 and was held responsible for the arrests of a large number of North Korean spies in South Korea," a government source said.

Kim heads the General Reconnaissance Bureau, which spearheads spying and infiltration in South Korea. It was created in February 2009, when Pudgy Kim Jong-un was fingered as the successor to his father.

One high-ranking North Korean defector said Kim Yong-chol's rehabilitation "is a proclamation that Kim Jong-un has regained confidence in him."

The defector predicted North Korean provocations will now intensify with the start of the Park Geun-hye administration in South Korea and stronger international sanctions against the North.

Kim Yong-chol, the first head of the bureau, is believed to have orchestrated cyber attacks on South Korean firms and institutions in July 2009; a naval confrontation with South Korea in November that year; an assassination attempt on Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector, in February 2010; the sinking of the Cheonan in March 2010; the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November of 2010; a hacking attempt on Nonghyup Bank; and the jamming of South Korean GPS signals between 2010 and 2012.

Kim is no stranger to South Korean officials since he appeared regularly in talks with the South since 1989, when he was a major general. He became an experienced hand in negotiations and gained former leader Kim Jong-il's trust.

One Unification Ministry official who negotiated with him said he "always appeared when it was time to reach a decision. He has nerves of steel."
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Hayley Holt [English] [Filmography](age 30)



"Cracking Strawberry Creams"

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/27/2013 0:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Rebels Push into Police Academy as Jets Strike
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels on Tuesday pushed into the outer perimeters of a police academy in the northern province of Aleppo after a fierce two-day siege in which more than 70 combatants were killed, a watchdog said.

Regime forces retaliated with air strikes on rebels around the school, located near the town of Khan Assal, but were unable to halt their advance, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"This is one of the largest police schools in the country. There are now festivities on the grounds of the academy but the rebels have not yet reached the main building," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by phone.

In the past two days, festivities around the school have left 26 rebels, 40 soldiers and five members of pro-regime popular defense committees dead, the watchdog said.

Loyalist troops stationed at the academy fought back with mortars and rockets, while a number of soldiers defected and dozens were captured, it said.

The latest violence came after 154 people were killed nationwide on Monday, including 54 civilians, six of whom died in an apparent surface-to-surface missile strike on the northern province of Raqa.

The corpse count also includes 59 regime troops and 41 rebels, including one Libyan, said the Observatory, which collects its reports from a wide network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals across Syria.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336133 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Powers to offer Iran sanctions relief at nuclear talks
[Egypt Independent] Major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program, a US official said on Monday.

But the Islamic Theocratic Republic could face more economic pain if it fails to address international concerns about its atomic activities, the official said ahead of the 26-27 February meeting in the central Asian state, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...

"There will be continued sanctions enforcement ... there are other areas where pressure can be put," the official said, on the eve of the first round of negotiations between Iran and six world powers in eight months.

A spokesperson for European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads the talks with Iran on behalf of the powers, said Tehran should understand that there was an "urgent need to make concrete and tangible progress" in Kazakhstan.

Both Russia and the United States stressed there was not an unlimited amount of time to resolve a dispute that has raised fears of a new war in the Middle East.

"The window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot by definition remain open forever. But it is open today. It is open now," US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
told a news conference in London. "There is still time but there is only time if Iran makes the decision to come to the table and negotiate in good faith."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said there was "no more time to waste," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying in Almaty.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Europe
More on the Greek Gov't and it's Academi PSD contract
The Greek Gov't penned a contract with Academi (the new name for Blackwater) in November last year, though this was a secret agreement and you will not find details about it on the Academi website ). News of the contract leaked out end of January when the Greek ambassador to Canada, Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, let slip about it in an interview, which was then published in a blog (see highlighted sentence in red). The contract with Academi was confirmed a few days later via the Greek military news site Defencenet.

Blackwater/Academi are infamous as the company that ran mercenary operations during the last Iraq War and were engaged in unnecessary fire fights in urban areas, taking civilian lives. They currently have a forward ops base in Afghanistan.

We understand their principal role in Greece is two-fold [actually threefold, but this is an UNCLAS forum]. One is to spy on oversee police operations. They have been contracted to do this because the Government are aware that the police have been comprehensively infiltrated by members of the fascist Golden Dawn and so cannot trust the police to stay loyal....or actively enforce Federal laws. Their other role is to act as a neutral force to provide full protection to the Government against assault from any quarter. In effect, the Greek Government is under siege by the little people.
Posted by: Chinelet Fleling9007 || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A contract approved by the US State Department and probably funded by them as well. Greece is broke as I recall. Picking winners and loser once again, we've had such good luck in the past.

PSD = Personal Security Contract
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Correction & apologies: Personal Security Detail (PSD)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Greek BlogSpot link w/highlight portion
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Illegal immigrants set free from detention centers as sequester approaches
The sequester is officially still three days away, but the Obama administration already is making the first cuts, with officials confirming that the Homeland Security Department already has released several hundred illegal immigrants from detention in order to save money.

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336101 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yup, Obama wants us to think the worst, well Obama we think the worst , OF YOU, (I can't WAIT UNTILL HE'S IMPEACHED)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/27/2013 0:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Rest assured the Admin still wants to take away Amer's guns AMAP.

As for impeachment, its NOT gonna happen unless something akin to the 1960's Valachi hearings takes place. The way things stand currently, AFAIS McCain etal. have N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

The Bammer neeeds to be subpoenaed, as well as others inside the deep abysses of DepState, DOJ + USDOD. ANY LINKS BETWEEN BEGHAZI + "FAST-N-FURIOUS II" IN LIBYA, SYRIA - OR NON-EXISTENCE OF SAME- MUST BE VERIFIED.

THUS FAR MCCAIN + BOYZ JUST KEEP ASKING WIMPY QUESTIONS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/27/2013 1:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Communist bastid!
Posted by: Albemarle Spomomble1306 || 02/27/2013 2:16 Comments || Top||

#4  So, he does it in one big photo opportunity, rather than stealthy day to day. Big deal. Catch and Release(tm) has been the modus operandi of DHS and ICE for five years. They're just not hiding it anymore.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#5  A slight update:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the illegals aliens, who do not abide by the rule of law, and who undercut the wages of all lawful citizens.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/27/2013 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6  I guess putting them on greyhound busses and sending their asses across the border was too expensive. Cut one congresscritter's pay and you'd have the funds.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/27/2013 10:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Despicable and traitorous scum.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Everyone of these pogs in the administration should give up their chauffered limos, security details, and vacations in the name of austerity. Congress should only meet once every two years such as in Texas in the interest of damage control.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Tin pot dictator in every sense of the word, and he's dragging us all down to his level.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/27/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Communist bastid! THERE, I said it again.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 10:51 Comments || Top||

#11  This is the same kind of crap all municipalities and most states do when they have a budget shortfall - threaten the critical items (like Defense, Border Security, etc...) to force higher taxes to save their pet projects (Welfare, ObumbleCare, etc...).

The first thing that should be cut is any and all 'earmark' spending - that is almost total waste. Then start chopping anything the Federal government is doing that it has no authority to do (in other words enforce the 10th Admendment): Education, Environment Protection, FDA, ObamaCare, Health and Human Services, Welfare.

The absolute last things which should be cut is Defense - including Border Security (which is essentially what this is all about).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#12  Agreed CrazyFool.
Posted by: Chesney Smith9457 || 02/27/2013 11:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Did he give them cell phones too?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/27/2013 11:42 Comments || Top||

#14  Probably signed them up for Welfare, SSI, and registered them to vote before cutting them loose.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/27/2013 11:51 Comments || Top||

#15  Might as well arm them too. Ya know, to find out where they go.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 12:17 Comments || Top||

#16  It is my understanding that the National Guard can be called up by State Governors for domestic emergencies.

My understanding is that the number of illegals/criminals being released by Obama's Department of Homeland Security, a cabinet level department that Obama is molding into a group that could counter the National Guard, the number of illegals being released by the DHS is 10,000.

The proper approach is for Governors to call up the guard to apprehend the illegals. Followed up with the writing of articles of impeachment.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/27/2013 12:55 Comments || Top||

#17  Classic commie move right out of Castro's playbook.

Round them back up and drop them off in front of sasha and malika's school
Posted by: airandee || 02/27/2013 13:03 Comments || Top||

#18  He's creating a colossal train wreck that he will jump in and "fix" with an Executive Order.

Betcha!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 13:30 Comments || Top||

#19  Embarrassingly amaturish. Even people not paying attention will get it.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 02/27/2013 17:36 Comments || Top||

#20  Today Bammer tossed big sis under the bus for cutting the illegals loose.
Jay "I got my knee pads, Boss" Carney said that the WH had nuttin to do widit
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/27/2013 22:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algerian troops kill al-Qaeda commander
[MAGHAREBIA] One of the twelve Islamic fascisti killed by Algerian security forces at the week-end was identified as the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emir in Bordj Menaïel, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Sunday (February 24th).

In their latest large-scale security operations, ANP soldiers eliminated four Chlef Islamic fascisti in Boukaal Medajadji. Eight other al-Qaeda gunnies died Saturday morning in the Boumerdès town of Timezrit.

According to the defence ministry, three wanted criminals were among the dead. The army also defused bombs and seized weapons, grenades, ammunition and other equipment.

These operations reflect the determination of the ANP to "pursue remnants of terrorist groups, wherever they, until their utter elimination", a defence ministry statement said.

Over the last month, security forces and army units have stepped up actions against AQIM strongholds in the Kabylie region and on the southern border with Mali.

Army units eliminated four Ansar al-Din Islamic fascisti on the Mali border on February 16th. Security forces also killed two Islamic fascisti in blood-stained Tizi Ouzou on February 11th.

Algeria saw other gains against terror groups in Tigzirt on January 30th and February 3rd.

Army units also managed to thwart attacks against government positions in the south. Two weeks ago, they prevented an attack on a military garrison in Khenchela.

"We see our security at stake from time to time, due to the prevailing situation in Mali on our southern border and because the evil of terrorism cannot be denied, and we will not slacken for a moment in fighting it," President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third term, which is probably why Algerians are ready to dump him...
said in a recent message.

"The attack on the oil facility in the city of In Amenas in south-eastern Algeria on January 16th uncovered the brutality of the terrorist groups but showed also at the same time the capability of our military and our security forces who stood as one in response to this attack, which targeted one of the most important facilities in our country," he added.

During a ceremony to restart the Tiguentourine plant on Sunday, Prime Minister Abdelmalik Sellal said that Algeria was still a target for mercenaries in the service of international terrorism.

He called on the residents of border areas to be "more cautious and prudent", and to help security services thwart terrorist plots.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Egyptian churches will not be attending national dialogue
[Egypt Independent] The three Egyptian churches have excused themselves from the televised national dialogue session called for by President Mohamed Morsy for Tuesday.

Bishop Andrea Zaki, head of the Coptic Evangelical Church, told the state news agency MENA that the Coptic Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Churches had decided not to attend the session, but were calling for holding another private session with the president to address their concerns about a number of constitutional articles.

Zaki said that the suggestions and concerns presented by the three churches representatives during the previous dialogue sessions were not taken seriously by the presidency.

"We are convinced that such dialogues yield nothing new. That's why the churches representatives withdrew from the previous dialogue session," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hizbullah Says Nasrallah Did Not Leave Lebanon, Is in Good Health
[An Nahar] Hizbullah issued a statement on Tuesday denying reports that the party's leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has been transferred to Iran for treatment after falling ill.

"Nasrallah is in good health and he did not leave the country," the statement said.

The Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency had reported earlier on Tuesday that Nasrallah suffered a certain health condition several days ago and was transferred to a private hospital in Beirut's southern suburb and later to Iran for treatment.

"Nasrallah left Leb to Tehran via Rafik Hariri International Airport," sources close to Hizbullah had said, according to Anadolu.

The agency noted: "The Hizbullah leader is in a stable condition at the moment".

Nasrallah's last televised appearance took place earlier in February when he gave a speech during the annual commemoration of the party's "leader deaders".
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  update
Lebanese Terror Group Denies Hizbullah's Nasrallah Has Cancer
The Turkish Anatolia News Agency reported Tuesday that Nasrallah had been admitted to a private hospital in Beirut and later flown to Tehran, where he is being treated for cancer. The report cited “knowledgeable sources affiliated with Hizbullah” and followed a flurry of others over a 24 hour period in Lebanon.

All reports said Hizbullah’s secretary-general was ill and had been flown to a hospital in Iran for treatment.

One Jordanian news website raised the possibility on Monday that Nasrallah had been injured by shelling from the Free Syrian Army during clashes with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.

But a Hizbullah official denied all reports that Nasrallah might be injured or in ill health in an interview on Tuesday with the Al-Mayadeen satellite television network.
Posted by: tipper || 02/27/2013 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  He's vacationing in Cuba with Fidel and Hoogo
Posted by: Frank G || 02/27/2013 7:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Landmine blast leaves two dead in Bolan district
[Dawn] Two people bit the dust in a landmine kaboom in 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...
's Bolan district on Tuesday, said security officials.

According to details, the incident took place in Haft Wali area of Bolan district. Four local rustics were passing thorough a farming field when one of them accidentally touched a landmine, said officials. Two rustics was struck down in his prime due to heavy kaboom, they added.

Security officials cordoned off the area after the incident and initiated an investigation.

No group has so far grabbed credit of the incident.

Bolan is considered a sensitive area where incidents of landmine kabooms had happened in the past as well.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
BNP now ridicules Shahbagh protest
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP yesterday accused the Shahbagh youths and the government of dividing the nation in the name of the Projonmo Chattar movement.

It also said the Shahbagh demonstration was a "government-backed hocus-pocus" designed to divert people's attention from the Hasina administration's failures and corruption in various sectors.

The observations came at a rally in front of the BNP headquarters at Nayapaltan in the capital.

Around two weeks back, the main opposition party hailed the youths-led Shahbagh movement for capital punishment to 1971 war criminals.

Yesterday's rally was organised to protest the killing of four people in police firing in Manikganj during the February 24 hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
called by some Islamist parties.

At the gathering, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, "The youths' chants of hanging and slaughtering will not help build a decent society. We want to hear [from them] words of love and affection."

He said the government had been playing with fire and it would create a division among the people.

Mentioning some recent incidents of vandalism at offices, banks and insurance organizations owned by a particular party, Fakhrul, also spokesperson of the BNP, said: "The honourable prime minister, please stop this dangerous game. Don't have people pitted against each other."

Some leaders at the rally raised questions about the "steady and generous supply of foods" to the Shahbagh youths during their sit-in for 17 days in a row.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S. Senators urge EU to cut Payments-System link to Iran
U.S. lawmakers are calling on the European Union to "immediately" prevent Iran from using its cross-border payment system, known as Target2, to prevent the country from circumventing sanctions, Bloomberg reported.

"We strongly urge you to take all necessary measures to immediately cut off Iran's ability to use its foreign-held euros by prohibiting direct or indirect access to Target2 services by or on behalf of accounts owned or controlled by the government of Iran or its affiliates," the lawmakers wrote in a letter yesterday to EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

U.S. lawmakers are concerned that Iran is converting its foreign-held euros into local currencies, which "in turn free up significant funds to finance Iranian imports, stabilize Iran's monthly budget and allows the regime to continue to engage in sanctionable and illicit activities," according to the letter obtained by Bloomberg News after it was circulated by Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican.

The letter was signed by at least 35 senators, including a majority of members of the banking and foreign relations committees, according to a Senate aide who asked not to be identified because the letter hasn't been announced.

The 27-nation EU bans transactions with Iranian banks apart from some pre-approved payments including those relating to food and medicine.

The assets of at least three Iranian banks have been frozen as part of a list of sanctioned people and entities considered to be providing support to the Islamic Republic's government.

Sanctions have been imposed on Iran partly out of concern that it is seeking to develop nuclear-weapons capability, allegations its government denies.

The ECB said on Feb. 21 that no payments that contravene sanctions on Iran are cleared via Target2.

While information available on the ECB's website shows that four Iran-based banks have a total of six branches registered in the ECB's database of financial institutions, they may not be eligible to receive refinancing loans from the central bank.

"Though we recognize and appreciate the narrow mandate by which the ECB operates and respect the independence of this institution, we believe we all have a role to play in ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon," the U.S. lawmakers said.

"It is critical that the U.S. and Europe present a strong, unified front with respect to Iran's nuclear program."
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Six Foreigners Kidnapped off Nigeria Are Free
[An Nahar] Six foreigners kidnapped on February 17 by armed pirates from an oil service ship off Nigeria have been released unhurt without a ransom being paid, police said on Tuesday.

"All the six foreign hostages (were) released Monday evening unhurt. No ransom was paid before their release," said the police commissioner in Bayelsa state, Kingsley Omire.

Three Ukrainians, two Russians and an Indian working on the Armada Tuah vessel operated by the Lagos-based Century Group were seized by gunnies 40 nautical miles off southern Nigeria.

In the days after the kidnapping, police announced that the pirates had issued a 200 million naira ($1.3 million, one million euros) ransom demand.

But the police commissioner told Agence La Belle France Presse that the kidnappers abandoned their hostages while Nigeria's security forces were in pursuit.

"Their abductors abandoned them at a location close to (oil hub) Port Harcourt apparently when they knew we were closing on them," said Omire.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


Home Front: Culture Wars
Gun Free Tax Day Bill Filed For Texas Independence Day
DALLAS -- Guns are already selling at record levels across Texas. The state ranks among the highest in firearm sales.

A Plano lawmaker now hopes to make it even more enticing for Texans to become gun owners. State Rep. Jeff Leach, a 30-year-old Republican from Plano, filed a bill to make Texas Independence Day (March 2nd) a tax-free holiday for guns and ammunition.

"Gun owners and gun manufacturers in Texas need to know that Texas stands behind them," Rep. Leach said on Monday. He said he filed his bill -- called the Texas Gun Ownership Reinforcement Act -- in response to calls to tighten federal gun laws.

"It isn't meant to be disrespectful," he explained. "I understand that the gun debate is hot right now, but that doesn't take away the fact we are guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms."

The idea is modeled on the state's tax-free weekend for clothes and school supplies before every school year.

The gun idea is not completely unheard of; other states have offered to skip sales taxes on firearms. South Carolina created and later abandoned such a program. In 2009, Louisiana lawmakers passed a "Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday" on guns and ammunition that remains in effect. The tax-free weekend costs the state nearly $600,000 a year.

It's unclear how much money Texas coffers would lose under such a proposal, but Leach says it will likely be minimal.

"We need to be about encouraging and incentivizing lawful gun ownership in Texas, and this is what this is all about," Leach said.

The Plano lawmaker said his bill has wide support and has picked up 25 co-authors.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The tax-free weekend costs the state nearly $600,000 a year."

Really? i didn't know people money belong to the State.
With journalists leftist clique it is not surprising...
Posted by: Phaith Grique4599 || 02/27/2013 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  It's unclear how much money Texas coffers would lose under such a proposal, but Leach says it will likely be minimal.

Unclear? Minimal?

Please pull up the large PPT Econ-101 quad-chart. Yes the one which displays low taxes, consumerism, and trade as representing the fok'n engines of successful economics and prosperity.

Second order benefits? Very good Schmedley :-) The UPS man WILL get some overtime, buy a new pickup truck or take his wife out to dinner. A second range master MAY need to be hired. Those new pistols may need trigger jobs and scope sales for the rifles could go up as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Tax free holiday for guns in Texas? The increase in firearm's sales will be good for the Texas economy.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/27/2013 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't forget those of us who live 30 minutes away from Texas. Gas, food, outside monies.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 11:39 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Girl becomes KP's second polio victim this year
[Dawn] A three-month-old girl from Malakand district on Monday became this year's second polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
case in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...

Local officials told Dawn that Khais, a resident of Umar Killey Badragai Union Council in Dargai tehsil of Malakand district, had tested positive for polio at National Institute of Health, Islamabad.

They said the tehsil hadn't reported any polio case for five years. The first polio case of the year in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was reported on Feb 8 as a 13-month-old boy from Bannu district, Muzakar Khan, was diagnosed with polio.

The officials said no polio vaccination campaign had been carried out in the area for three months leaving many children, including the fresh polio sufferer, unimmunised.

According to them, last year, the province had 27 fresh polio cases, the highest number reported by any province in the country. Overall, the country's polio case tally was 58 last year.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Court throws out case calling for end of Israel-Egypt treaty
[Egypt Independent] The Cairo Administrative Court ruled Tuesday that it has no jurisdiction over a lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The court said the issue involves state illusory sovereignty, which is under the president's purview.

The plaintiffs said Egypt should void its peace deal over ongoing destruction of Islamic holy sites and the country's refusal to stop settlement building in Paleostinian territories, which they said is a violation of United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
conventions and treaty itself.

The court handed out the same ruling in a similar case last October.

A Freedom and Justice Party figure said Tuesday that the party's legal committee is working on a new draft law to amend the peace treaty. It will be sent to President Mohamed Morsy, so he and the new parliament can review it after the April-May elections, according to Osama Suleiman, the Freedom and Justice Party's secretary general in Beheira Governorate.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
At least five killed in Karachi violence
[Dawn] At least five persons, including a woman and a member of a religious organization, were killed in separate incidents of violence in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

An activist of a religious organization was killed when unknown gunnies opened fire in Karachi's Lines area.

Enraged protestors set out to the streets burning tyres and blocking roads in Saddar area. The demonstrators marched towards the Supreme Court's Karachi registry near Shaheen Complex demanding action against the killers. The protest was later called off after authorities held negotiations with the demonstrators.

One person was killed and another injured in a gun firing incident in Orangi town area of Karachi. Another person was killed in a firing incident in Surjani town Sector four area.

A woman was rubbed out in the city's Garden area. A body was found near Saeedabad graveyard on Tuesday. According to police the body bore marks of torture.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Court rules Gaza tunnels threaten national security
[Egypt Independent] The Cairo Administrative Court ruled Tuesday that smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gazoo Strip pose a threat to national security and should therefore be destroyed.

The court said the tunnels are not controlled by the state, which makes them illegal.

The Armed Forces said earlier this month that a crackdown on smuggling tunnels will continue due to security concerns.

Armed Forces spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali estimates that there are around 225 tunnels.

The tunnels are used to smuggle merchandise between the two territories due to an Israeli blockade implemented in 2007 when Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, took power.

Israel has called on Egypt to destroy the tunnels, fearing that weapons were being smuggling to orc groups.

Hamas condemned the decision to flood smuggling tunnels linking Sinai and Gazoo last week.

"The movement reviewed the issue of the destruction of tunnels with Egyptian officials and hopes that officials in Egypt understand the situation in Gazoo and the need for these tunnels," Hamas leader Salah al-Bardaweel said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336105 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Now there's an unexpected consequence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood taking over! Hamas, the Gazan Muslim Brotherhood, expected them to back up the War Against the Jooooos to the hilt, instead of this.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 3:40 Comments || Top||

#2  The court said the tunnels are not controlled by the state, which makes them illegal.

Guess who's green with envy?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/27/2013 3:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The court said the tunnels are not controlled by the state, which makes them illegal.

But they are controlled by Hamas, the duly elected authority in the territory of Gaza, which is not part of Egypt. Or does the Cairo Administrative Court assert Egyptian sovereignty over the Gaza Strip?

This could become interesting.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone think the Gaza Tunnel Authority is going to give up supervision to a bunch of Egyptians? And what about the Gaza Occupational Health and Safety Administration? And the Gaza Bureau of Labor Statistics?

Criminy people, the Euros are pumping all that cash in, the Gazans need to spend some on political cover and phony-baloney jobs. If not the Gaza Tunnel Authority, then where?
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  The main problem here is that tunnels have two ends.

One end is under the control of Hamas, the other Egypt. Did the water only flow half way through? 8^)
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 16:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Seems kind of funny that it appears that Israel's best ally ( for now) os Egypt. First, blasting bad guys, then flooding tunnels (multiple times) and then the Egyptian courts upholding the peace treaty.
Probably has Bambi's panties in a wad.....
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/27/2013 22:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Baghdad Security Tightened amid Budget Demo
[An Nahar] Security forces on Tuesday sealed entrances to Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
, set up checkpoints and searched cars during a protest to demand the approval of Iraq's state budget, an interior ministry official said.

The security measures were to "prevent the entrance of strangers and to control the security situation," the official said, adding there was a sit-in by supporters of powerful Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
in Tahrir Square in central Storied Baghdad calling for parliament to pass the budget.

Votes on the 2013 budget have been repeatedly postponed.

Witnesses reported demonstrations in other parts of the city as well.

It was not immediately clear if the additional security measures, which the ministry official said have caused heavy traffic jams across the city, were aimed at preventing people from joining the protests, or guarding them against attack.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Home Front: WoT
Barack Obama's Cairo Speech, and His Israel Problem
If the president hopes to accomplish anything important while finally visiting a key U.S. ally, he'll need an attitude adjustment, writes Marty Peretz.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Man, read the comments? Such a collection of vile, ignorant, racist, anti-historical venom is hard to imagine. (Insert head shak and eye roll)
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 8:14 Comments || Top||


Another Problem for the F-35
By Robert Farley

Over the past six years, few weeks have gone by in which analysts could say “Everything went well with the F-35 program.” The latest problems involve concerns about aircraft performance,amidst claims by foreign pilots that currently operational competitors (such as the Eurofighter Typhoon) can easily outclass the Lightning II. The same concerns obviously arise in context of comparison between the F-35 and the latest Russian and Chinese fighter aircraft.

F-35 advocates are quick to make the (appropriate) point that future aerial combat is unlikely to require the kind of capabilities that the F-35 lacks. Rather than nifty dogfighting skills, the fighter of the future needs to operate in a networked environment, capable of seeing, talking, and killing at standoff range. Advocates expect that the F-35 will fight under rules of engagement that allow Beyond Visual Range (BVR) engagement, and that advanced, networked sensor capabilities will solve the problems normally associated with BVR (the threat of shooting down civilian aircraft) by effectively eliminating the fog of war.

This is a genuinely fascinating, even compelling, vision of future aerial warfare. On its own terms it makes sense, not so much answering as bypassing the common critiques of the aircraft.

However, this vision has the potential to founder on two political realities. The first is that if, as advocates say, the capabilities of the F-35 metastasize (in terms of sensor reach and communications capability) as the fleet grows, the great cost of the aircraft runs the risk of reducing the numbers below a floor sufficient for carrying out this grand vision. This is especially true of U.S. partner nations, which will fly much smaller fleets of aircraft.

Perhaps more importantly, rules of engagement are inherently political. Civilian leaders, and their politically attuned senior military counterparts, will draw up guidelines for combat in context of political, not military, necessity. If the F-35 can only operate successfully in BVR context (and to be sure the networking capability of the F-35 make “BVR” a different proposition than with past aircraft), and if the civilians restrict the ability of the aircraft to operate under such conditions, then the utility of the fighter comes into grave question. This question is hardly academic, as potential peer competitors of the U.S. (including Russia and China) will undoubtedly take political steps to limit the ability of the F-35 to fight at full capability. Again, this may be even more true of the partner countries in the F-35 program, which often suffer from more rigorous political restrictions that U.S. forces.

The larger problem is that none of today’s major players have serious experience with fighting high end aerial combat against an advanced peer competitor. Most sophisticated air forces have invested heavily in experimental learning, in the form of Red Flag and its various clones around the world. These efforts place air forces light years ahead of their 1960s counterparts, which found (in the case of the United States in Vietnam) that actual air combat bore little resemblance either to earlier wars or to extant theoretical studies. Nevertheless, even the best experimental learning settings cannot replace experiential learning; combat in real war conditions, beset by all of the political baggage that necessarily afflicts military operations. Investing in an aircraft that can only maximize its potential in a particular, unusual political environment carries serious risk, and at the very least operators need to work out the implications of operations across the spectrum of political commitments.
I'd appreciate it if someone knowledgable about these things would explain why we have to buy the F-35 as opposed to an upgraded (for example) F-18E. What makes the F-35 worth it, particularly if Mr. Farley is right about BVR?
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  we badly need an updated fighter, this is the worst design they coulld build, everything including the kitchen sink's included, and not needed.

Far better to build a series of SPECIFIC fighters, Each are designed for a job, not the Pickup-Sports Car, Four wheel-and fancy crap added this is.

You want a plane designed for the job, not an aircraft carrier-ubmarine, speed corvette with Battleship Guns.

Knock it off.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/27/2013 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  we have several missions that are supposed to be served, e.g. recon, air to air and air to ground and several take off and landing modes, e.g., vertical, short (aircraft carrier) and conventional and, of course, it is to be used by the Navy, AF and Marines

if all these could have really been done, the manufacturing could have really benefited from economy of scale
Posted by: lord garth || 02/27/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||

#3  In the situation Farley invents for an F-18E would probably be run out of fuel by a land-based Su-30.

Personally, I think this is a lemon. We need to cancel it and start over.

Then in fifteen years we'll have a successful airplane rather like the F-35 is now, more or less, but it'll be portrayed as a failure, more or less like the F-35 is, and on the verge of production we can bitch and moan and cancel _it_ as well... disarmament by bureaucracy.

They're running the LRIP run like they're trying to run out the clock without producing anything.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/27/2013 0:50 Comments || Top||

#4  (I meant that as sarcasm btw.)
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/27/2013 0:50 Comments || Top||

#5  The F-35 was originally supposed to be a stealthy version of the F-16/F-18 and to compliment the F-22. As in F-22 kills things high and the F-35 kills things low. As originally designed, it was a very good idea.

Mission creep, being designed by committee and multiple nations, too many engineers and not enough riveters, etc. have doomed this project. It will still get built, there are too many nations and too many political futures on the line here, but this has become the example of how NOT to build an fighter.
It will get the job done, but for a shorter time frame, not as expected capabilities and far more expensive price than planned.

The next stealth fighter will be unmanned and will be much, much, much, much better at its job and a hell of a lot cheaper.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/27/2013 1:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Admittedly, ships and airplanes are not my thing, but I'll wager A-10 Warthogs are much cheaper. I know they've killed a arss load of Taliban. Just say'n.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:23 Comments || Top||

#7  The F35 was not designed to be a primary air superiority fighter. That's the F22's job. The F35 was stealthy in order to use limited munitions--because they were carried internally to reduce radar signature--to destroy the enemy's IADS. Once that had been accomplished and stealth was no longer necessary to spoof IADS, it could use larger, externally-carried munition loads to attack ground targets.
The last ground attack aircraft that could do both well was the P36, a P51 with airbrakes on the wings. Used as a dive bomber. But if necessary, it could dump its load and become...voila, a Mustang with all the P51's advantages. Or to put it another way, the last fighter that could do both well was the P51.
So the question is, I suppose, if the F35 has to duke it out with enemy fighters because something murphied and the F22 cover isn't around, are they reasonably survivable? IOW, are they stealthy enough to get away? Or at least present a threat the bad guy has to honor.
Keep in mind that, with the exception of Russia and China, our potential enemies can afford a pretty good IADS long before they can afford state-of-the-art air superiority fighters.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/27/2013 7:17 Comments || Top||

#8  The good news is that the Chinese have stolen all the plans and are building the J-35. It will bankrupt them.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/27/2013 8:02 Comments || Top||

#9  ..ah, yes, a devious plan of those inscrutable yankees.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/27/2013 9:30 Comments || Top||

#10  The design scope creep on the F35 is the same BS that made a hash of the F-111, trying to build a multi mission advanced supersonic fighter and they wound up with a very fast and expensive bomber (where most of the development money was spent trying to get the damned thing carrier landing capable...oh it still has the arresting gear hook but you can't get the thing to land on a carrier in one piece)

This BVR bull crap is the small technobabble that resulted in an entire generation of AF fighters that had nothing but missiles for armament. Funny you put a freaking PILOT in the damned things and they want to FREAKING CLOSE with the enemy. So they retrofitted everything with a GUN so when the missiles were gone and every one got inside the stupid assed BVR to dogfight they had something to fight with instead of having to throw a flashlight at a MIG.

Funny the entire concept of the VTOL is intriguing. Having an aircraft that did not need a runway because the other side blasted your runway to smithereens is a good idea. Of course that adds a lot of weight to the airframe but it does mean you don't need a freaking nuke carrier to field a squadron of fighters, anything with a large enough flat surface would work...beats the old float plane concept.

Anyway, BVR is BS, we have had the stupid AMRAM missile for years...the F-14 was the first aircraft designed around a missile concept....and I seriously doubt if its 50-100 mile range has been used more than once.

To show how crazy our stuff is, the Israeli AF used F-14's as AWACs to vector their F-16's and other stuff to the target.

When are they going to talk to pilots instead of fighter wannabees with stripes and technogeeks playing video games on flight simulators.

BVR is an old idea and its been a pox on our fighter development since the 50's. You don't see Russian fighters with no guns and lots of gizmos...a Russian platform is designed to fight and KILL...I don't know what ours are designed for anymore.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/27/2013 9:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Capabilities metastasize? Experiental learning? Advanced peer competitor? China dictating ROE capability? He writes like an F-35.
Posted by: KBK || 02/27/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Dear Bill, thanks for saving me from researching and typing.

I'm old enough to remember the kefuffle about F4 Phantoms and their lack of a gun and all those problems. SSDD

Worked in an industry, IS, for 30+ years where scope creep (or gallup) was the rule and it was a rare management that actually beat it.
Posted by: Alanc || 02/27/2013 9:58 Comments || Top||

#13  Corsair did well in air/ground, at least until the jets showed up.

Didn't they figure a way to rig F-14s for ground support?

I think we have already landed our unmanned stealth vehicle in Iran. And just joshing here, but if this turkey don't fly it is next unmanned stealth fighter ;)
What was wrong with the F-22 again, I forget? I seem to remember some oxygen system issues - you know, when it was up flying and winning spars against aces 1:5.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/27/2013 12:00 Comments || Top||

#14  The Corsair was not a dive bomber with the dive bomber's accuracy. Still, if you have a couple of deckloads off shore and can turn them around fast, they'll do fine. The same is true of any fighter,they can use guns and rockets effectively, but bombing means flying at the target and, sometime after it disappears under the nose, you drop the bomb. Better than nothing.
But they are fighters jury-rigged to bomb. The P36 stands as the best dual role ever.
Problem with the F14's gun, and probably others, is that it is oriented to shoot above the direction of the aircraft to allow for bullet drop. The A10, which has a different role, has its gun oriented below the direction of flight so it can strafe without aiming itself at the ground.
There was an F14 driver in Iraq who got so target-involved that his dive was too sharp which it had to be because of the orientation of the gun. His pullout stressed the aircraft so that he had to land on a strip rather than a deck.
Mixing the two roles gives you flexibility, but it removes the capability to be absolutely fantastic at one thing--like the A10. Which could carry a Sidewinder, I suppose, and if necessary point itself at an air threat and let the missile tell him when to shoot. I heard, couldn't corroborate, that even C130s flying from the UK to the Falklands during the Falklands war had Sidewinders hung on. If you fire one off, the other guy might be in the missile's envelope, or at least he'll have do dodge, which might give you some time. Fighters flying over the South Atlantic couldn't afford to burn a lot of fuel not in the flight plan. Water's pretty damn' cold and the Argies couldn't count on refueling.
If the other side doesn't have much air-to-air capability, you can bomb up your fighters and keep going back until you get the target or the democrats decide to lose the war, whichever comes first.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/27/2013 12:44 Comments || Top||

#15  The F-22 still costs three times as much as the F-35 today; that's why we drew the line at building more of them.

As I understand it, the Air Force had a guiding principle from the early 70s on: they'd have one high priced plane to achieve air superiority and one modestly priced plane to do everything else. That combo was the F-15/F-16 and it worked. Even as the AF adapted each to different roles it was clear that the 15 would rule the skies and the 16 would do the grunt work.

Now for the new generation that was to be the same: we'd have some F-22s to clear the air (not as many as the AF would like but enough) and some F-35s to do everything else -- cheap (comparatively) and capable enough.

That would work, too, if only the AF was the only US customer. But then you add the demand for carrier landings, and the demand by the Marines for VTOL, and the demands of our various allies for whatever they want (mostly cheap, cheap and cheaper), and you can see how this happened.

So I continue to wonder if the right thing to do is this:

1) cancel the F-35

2) build a few more F-22s

3) the Air Force gets F-22s to rule and F-18E (next gen) to do the grunt work (alternately, new, upgraded F-16s), and keep the A-10s for moving mud

4) the Navy gets more Lawn Darts, like it or not, and they get cracking on the X-47 project for naval carrier combat UAVs

5) the Marines get leftovers; they've proven that they do really, really well with cast-off equipment (Harriers, F-16s, etc)

6) sell F-22Js to Japan and a few F-22Is to Israel

7) sell upgraded F-18E (next gen) to everyone else in NATO, Australia, etc

8) sell modest F-16s to allies of convenience like Egypt, etc

It just strikes me that the F-35 is the proverbial camel that was a horse designed by a committee.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/27/2013 13:39 Comments || Top||

#16  swksvolFF, it wasn't a problem with the F-22's oxygen system, it was a problem with the O2 valve on the G-suit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/27/2013 14:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Pretty much everything you are reading today about the F-35A is a repeat of what you read in the 80's about the F-18A.

Now the F-18E/F/G are the standard to be measured against.

All the "news" about the F-35 is par for the course of usual Pentagon budget infighting. "If this thing is cancelled think out much money would be available for our program."

Until the F-35 kills more of it users than the V-22 there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to pay attention to in any of these stories.
Posted by: rammer || 02/27/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||

#18  Spent 1000+ hours in the backseat of one of the earlier versions of the BVR fighters. Of course it had morphed into an all purpose, do everything adequately but nothing well, fighter-bomber. Loved boresighting the centerline 'add/on' gun by kicking it into alignment between missions. Iron bombing was great and gave us tons of flight time going back to hit the same (undamaged) target over and over again. When we got laser guided munitions, the 'add/on' laser illuminator was stuck on the right side of the rear cockpit. I figured if I ever ejected it would be assumed I would become a left hander. The naval surveillance option was fun holding a four pound Nikon with a 200mm lens while pulling a three g turn around the target. Still have some of those blurred shots at home. Oh, at least the nuclear option seemed realistic, the CEP was very forgiving.

The F-4 was a great plane to fly in, loud and powerful. Just an abused weapon system that reminds me of the F-35. When the first Lighting II pilot gets tapped by an aspiring enemy fighter jock, the fact that it was meant to be a 'standoff' weapons platform will be of little consolation to the pilot as he is coming down in his chute.
Posted by: Total War || 02/27/2013 15:20 Comments || Top||

#19  Y'all beat me to a lot of the points; the F4 was supposed to be a fighter w/out guns. that didn't work out so well. The A36/P51 was a great bird that we almost didn't buy. The F-14 Bombcat was a pretty good air to ground bird, but only had room for 4 bombs, so utility was limited. A-7 was a good light attack bird, both for bombs and guns. F-16 pretty good light attack/fighter, Intruder great truck for taking bombs downtown in any wx, but they all lost out to the glitz of newer bigger one size fits most. A10 is probably the best friend a grunt ever had and the USAF parked them until the cry was too loud to ignore. Even a Spad would be good down low and slow.
(Spoiler alert for Dr. Steve) I 'd even take any of the Lawn Dart variants over the F-35.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/27/2013 22:34 Comments || Top||

#20  And, the manufacturing tolerances to get this thing together have driven costs out of sight; holes to 0.004", any deviation requires a full blown LM MRB review ( a bunch of engineers look around to see ifthe parts are useable) industry standard is 0.030, with line workers allowed to match drill skin panels to frames... not as JIT or Lean cool, but cheaper by a factor of 10, easily, ant the STOL lift fan is going to be a maintenance nightmare. can you imagine the FOD damage in the forward deployed arena, that big fan kicking up rocks and then sucking them in.... and don't forget about 6 months ago or so the tailhool was discovered to be too short on one end. makes you wonder just who is in charge.
at least they canceled the Dorito after spending ONLY 5 Billion dollars......
and nobody mentioned the AV-8, another CAS superstar...
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/27/2013 22:43 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Arrest warrant sought for 3 Jamaat leaders
[Bangla Daily Star] Three top Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
leaders for the second time yesterday did not appear before the International Crimes Tribunal-2 citing "unavoidable circumstances" to explain a contempt of court rule issued against them.

Claiming their absence as "disobedience to the court's order", the prosecution sought issuance of arrest warrant to ensure their presence.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan "for the last time" extended time until March 3 saying "necessary order" would be passed if the Jamaat leaders failed to appear before it next time.

Earlier on February 7, the tribunal asked the three to explain why contempt of court proceeding would not be initiated against them for making provocative and derogatory remarks about the tribunal.

Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan, Central Executive Council member Hamidur Rahman Azad, MP, and Dhaka city unit Assistant Secretary General Selim Uddin were asked to appear before the court on February 20.

The tribunal issued the notice on the basis of reports published in The Daily Star and the Prothom Alo on February 5 on a Jamaat rally held in the city the previous day.

The Prothom Alo quoted Selim Uddin as saying, "There is no scope for the controversial tribunal to deliver any verdict if the country is to be saved from a civil war." The daily quoted Azad as saying at the same programme, "This tribunal cannot exist anymore."

The Daily Star in a report headlined "Jamaat warns of civil war" quoted Rafiqul Islam as saying, "Don't push the country into a civil war by delivering one-sided verdicts against our leaders. If anything happens to Quader Mollah, every house will be on fire."

On February 20, Shahadat Hossain, lawyer of the Jamaat leaders, told the tribunal his clients could not appear before the court due to "unavoidable situations" and sought time.

The tribunal extended time until yesterday and asked the Jamaat trio to appear before the court "without further failure".

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
Golam Mohammad Chowdhury Alal, another lawyer of the Jamaat leaders, yesterday said their clients could not appear before the court due to "unavoidable situation" and sought at least seven days' time.

Alal did not elaborate on the "unavoidable situation".

Asked, Shahadat Hossain told The Daily Star their clients did not explain the "situation".

Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta said the Jamaat leaders' lawyers could not show any reasonable grounds for their absence and sought arrest warrant to ensure their appearance.

The tribunal gave them a "last chance" and extended the time saying, "If they don't appear before the court [next day], necessary order would be passed."
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


India-Pakistan
Policeman killed in fresh attack on polio team
[Dawn] A policeman was rubbed out Tuesday while protecting a polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination team, police said, bringing the corpse count in such attacks to 20 since December.

No one has grabbed credit for the killings.

Tuesday's killing happened at Ghalla Dher on the outskirts of the northwestern town of Mardan, on the second day of a three-day local anti-polio campaign.

"The female vaccinators went inside a house to administer the polio drops. A police guard accompanying the team was waiting outside," Mardan district police chief Danishwar Khan told AFP.

"Two people came on a cycle of violence. They opened fire and shot the policeman dead," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  Where do they find people brave (or foolish) enough to keep going into those places to administer vaccines?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/27/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia says suspected Belaid killer on the run
[FRANCE24] Radical Salafist Mohammedans murdered Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid, with four suspects tossed in the clink
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
and the killer identified but still on the run, Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said on Tuesday.
Yesterday they were saying he's in jug...
The breakthrough comes as Larayedh, named as prime minister-designate, presses efforts to form a new government aimed at pulling Tunisia out of a deep political crisis sparked by the February 6 killing of Belaid outside his home in Tunis.

"The killer has been identified and is being chased," Larayedh told a news conference.

"Four other suspects have been arrested. They are Tunisians and belong to a radical religious strand ... which we refer to as the Salafist movement," said Larayedh.

Belaid's daylight killing on February 6 sparked deadly street protests and strikes and exposed the widening fissures between the ruling Islamists and liberals.

It also threw Tunisia into its worst political crisis since the revolution two years ago that ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Larayedh said the four people arrested had "monitored (Belaid) for some time".

One of the suspects, he added, "confessed to having accompanied the killer on the day of the crime."

Police sources had earlier told AFP that those behind the killing were adherents of the Salafist movement, which is known for its radical version of Sunni Islam.

They said one of the suspects was active in the League for the Protection of the Revolution, a controversial group linked to the ruling Ennahda party and implicated in attacks on secular opposition groups.

The Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
have been blamed for several violent actions in Tunisia in the past few months -- including an attack on the US embassy last September that left four attackers dead -- with Ennahda being regularly accused by the opposition of protecting those behind the violence.

Larayedh declined to comment on who may have ordered the killing, even as Belaid's widow, Besma Khalfaoui, urged authorities to flush out those responsible.

"It is good to know who carried it out, but for me it is very important to know who ordered it... because this was a very well-organised crime," Khalfaoui told La Belle France's Europe 1 radio Tuesday during a visit to Gay Paree.

"We are asking for a trial, for further investigation, for everything to be known."

Belaid's brother, Abdelmajid, accuses Ennahda of being behind the murder, which the party has denied.

"It's Ennahda which gave the green light to kill my brother," he told AFP.

Khalfaoui was more cautious, saying only that "Ennahda's politicianship is involved."
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caribbean-Latin America
Bad guys spring 12 from prison in Tamaulipas, SEDENA seizes cocaine

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

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 12 inmates escaped from a prison facility in Tamaulipas state Tuesday, according to Mexican and official news accounts.

A news report posted on the Animal Politico news website said that armed suspects entered a Centro de Ejecucion de Sanciones (CEDES) prison in Miguel Aleman and released 12 inmates early Tuesday morning.

A total of 15 armed suspects arrived at the prison aboard several vehicles, dismounted and disarmed prison officials, taking keys to the cells. Apparently no shots were fired and no one was wounded in the escape.

The Los Zetas drug gang are known to stage mass prison escapes, the largest to date being the December 2010 escape from the Nuevo Laredo CEDES in which 151 inmates were let out and escaped aboard buses awaiting them.

A smaller but far more significant escape was last September in the Piedras Negras Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) in Coahulla where 131 inmates escaped, nearly all of them said to be members of Los Zetas. This escape is significant because of the security headaches of releasing so many criminals into an area to continue their activities. It has been reported in Mexican and English language press that the Piedras Negras prison escape was facilitated to "replenish" gang membership on the area.

The escaped inmates in Tuesday's prison break in Miguel Aleman were identified as Horacio Puente Alfaro (homicide), Daniel Alberto Solis Trejo (homicide), Enrique de la Peña Saenz, Alberto Campos Gordillo, José Ramirez del Angel, Jaime Rodriguez Hernandez, Patricio Gerardo Alvarez Sanchez, Víctor Hugo Alonso Alvarado, Miguel Angel Gonzalez Malpica, Rodolfo Lopez Cortes, Juan Carlos Coronado Vazquez and Mario Esteban Urbano Vazquez.

Meanwhile, in other drug war news further south in Cruillas municipality, a Mexican Army unit manning a checkpoint seized a total of 27 kilograms of cocaine. Cruillas is about 30 kilometers west of San Fernando municipality.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Escape" is no longer necessary in the US. Champ will simply let you following a short stay. Enjoy the shower, free chow, and warm bunk!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/27/2013 6:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Not Zetas. That is Gulf Cartel territory. If these "inmates" were sprung from the jail - it just means they are needed for a job on the outside. Watch for follow-up cartel violence.
Posted by: Raider || 02/27/2013 21:26 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Salafi Watan Party set to run in parliamentary elections
[Egypt Independent] The Political Parties' Affairs Committee approved the establishment of the Salafi Watan Party, headed by Emad Abdel Ghafour, on Tuesday.

The new political force plans to back candidates in every riding in the upcoming parliamentary slated to begin in April.

Ghafour, who resigned as chairman of the Salafi Nour Party and is currently serving as the president's community communication adviser, submitted 6,000 signatures from founding members of the Watan Party on 5 February.

Several prominent members of the Nour Party had resigned to join the new Salafi entity. Watan Party has already established 30 offices nationwide, according to an official statement. Ghafour has said more offices are in the works and would be would be inaugurated soon.
Posted by: Fred || 02/27/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under: Salafists



Who's in the News
35[untagged]
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4Arab Spring
3Govt of Syria
2al-Aqsa Martyrs
2Jamaat-e-Islami
2Govt of Iran
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Pirates
1Salafists
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Ansar al-Sharia
1Ansar Dine
1Commies
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Sudan

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2013-02-27
  Syria Rebels Push into Police Academy as Jets Strike
Tue 2013-02-26
  Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
Mon 2013-02-25
  Taliban suicide bombers hit Afghan cities, Kabul attack foiled
Sun 2013-02-24
  Karzai orders US special forces out of Afghan province
Sat 2013-02-23
  Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
Fri 2013-02-22
  Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire, Pastes Threat Posters In Borno
Thu 2013-02-21
  Bombing in Indian Hyderabad, at least 11 killed
Wed 2013-02-20
  French nationals kidnapped in northern Cameroon
Tue 2013-02-19
  Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Mon 2013-02-18
  Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
Sun 2013-02-17
  Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
Thu 2013-02-14
  Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks
Wed 2013-02-13
  Syrian rebels say they captured military air base near Aleppo

Better than the average link...



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