#1
Methinks its more correct to say China is LEARNING it - some things can only be learned Hands-on or by the "School of Hard Knocks".
* ION CHINA DAILY FORUM > CHINA DEFENDS ITS SURVEILLANCE OF THE DAOYUS ISLANDS, vee Nippon.
Beijing is repor planning to send more armed vessels to the disputed islands after latest incident, vee "Gunboat/Battleship Diplomacy".
* TOPIX/WORLDNEWS > JAPANESE LEADER [PM Noda] WARNS AGZ CHINESE [+ DPRK] MILITARY BUILDUP.
Japan regards the situation in NE Asia as increasingly tensive = "challenging", wid both Rising China + North Korea as its biggest MilPol concerns.
Again, China wants sovereignty oer the Daoyus [Japan = Senkakus] + access rights to former vassal kingdom OKINAWA [Ryukyu Kingdom], NOT ONLY FOR TRADE + NATIONAL MODERNIZATION BUT ALSO TO PROTECT ITS DESIRED PLA BASES ON FUTURE POST-REUNIFICATION TAIWAN.
#2
I just started reading Glenn Beck's new book about the Federalist papers. The second paper, "translated" into current English, is about the value of sea power. Hamilton wrote it, I think. I'd go get it, to be sure, but it's upstairs....
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 22:03
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#3
Roger That! It'd be be a tough slog, only to return back downstairs only to crash...
#4
The Original Argument - The Federalists' Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century. Chapter 3 - Paper No. 11 - How the Union Will Foster Commerce and a Navy by Alexander Hamilton.
Al said, "The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral."
Many things have changed since the 1790's, but not human nature.
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 22:44
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#5
I stand corrected for being too presumptuous, snarky and vain.
A woman in Peoria, Illinois stood up to let Mitt Romney know she wants free birth control. Romney responds by telling her to 'vote for the other guy' if she's looking for 'free stuff'.
Woman: "So youre all for like, 'yay, freedom,' and all this stuff. And 'yay, like pursuit of happiness.' You know what would make me happy? Free birth control."
Romney:"You know, let me tell you, no no, look, look let me tell you something. If youre looking for free stuff you dont have to pay for, vote for the other guy. Thats what hes all about, okay? Thats not, thats not what Im about."
#7
Obama is going to pay my rent and give me gas money from his own stash. What do I care if he has to tax some wrinkly old Republican guy to get the cash. They're all racists anyway.
Why wouldn't I vote for Obama? Aside from believing in America, I mean.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/20/2012 18:53
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#9
Romney did not really answer the heckler right, but when you are up front of a crowd with your prepared speech, someone can throw you off.
The woman said, "So youre all for like, 'yay, freedom,' and all this stuff. And 'yay, like pursuit of happiness.' You know what would make me happy? Free birth control."
Romney needed to say,
"If you want free stuff, then vote for the other guy. Just remember that free stuff runs out when the government goes bankrupt, and then there will be no more free stuff --- for anyone. Nothing is free. Freedom is not free. Try to remember that."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/20/2012 19:56
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#10
Other People's Money.
Everything is free, when it's paid for with other people's money.
Except everyone pays for "Other People's Money". Pay sales tax? That's somebody's other people's money. Pay rent? A part of that goes to property tax, which is also other people's money for someone.
Have a job? Income tax and FICA are both "Other People's Money." Except the pols only want you to think of somebody else's "Other People's Money" - lately, the rich people are the current source of still more "Other People's Money."
There's no such thing. It's all your money. My money. Our money. Anything you don't pay for directly. Roads. Defense. FAA. Life Insurance, car insurance, health insurance. Disaster relief. Foreign aid. Post office. Government. Every single dime you do not control yourself goes into the giant bin called "Other People's Money."
So pay attention. Other people's money is your money!
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 22:18
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#11
Socialism is about squeezing money out of the young (forcing them to get health insurance) to give to the old (using up health insurance at a rapid clip). Now Obama is throwing the young a bone. A very, very small bone and some of them are grabbing on it like a mad dog because they really want to believe they haven't been historically screwed by their savior.
Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird joined Israel in blocking a senior Hamas official from addressing a session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Baird said he'd been "troubled" to learn Ismail Al-Ashqar had been scheduled to appear at a session on the human rights body in Geneva.
"As soon as I learned of this matter, I instructed our delegation in Geneva to make our opposition known at the highest levels and in the strongest of terms," he said.
"I also instructed the Canadian delegation not to attend any meeting or function where this individual was or might be present. I am pleased to note that the accreditation has since been revoked."
Baird's decision came after Israel's ambassador the United Nations, Ron Prosor, filed a formal complaint asking Al-Ashqar be removed from the UNHRC schedule.
It was reported the UN chief in Geneva later prevented Al-Ashqar from entering the session, and requested he leave UN compound in Geneva as well.
The move came after Israel filed an official compliant when it was learned Hamas lawmaker Ismail Al-Ashqar was scheduled to attend.
Israel, the European Union, the United States, Canada, and Japan all classify Hamas which actively targets Israeli civilians while seeking the destruction of the Jewish state as a terror organization.
Last January, Baird and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney put up a "not welcome" sign for members of Hamas who might attend an International Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in Quebec City this fall.
President Barack Obama has condemned Iran for the creation of an "electronic curtain" which stops the free flow of information and ideas into the country. Speaking to the Iranian people in a video released to mark Nowruz, the Persian new year, the president announced the issuance of new guidelines "to make it easier for American businesses to provide software and services into Iran that will make it easier for the Iranian people to use the internet".
"America seeks a dialogue to hear your views and understand your aspirations," he said. This will be achieved by establishing greater access to the internet for Iranian citizens.
A Gallup poll showed that 81 per cent of Americans favour direct dialogue with Iran rather than military action.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hit back at international critics on Tuesday. In a Nowruz broadcast on state television, he vowed a forceful response to any military strike from either Israel or America. The Ayatollah also responded to growing concerns that Iran is operating a programme to develop nuclear weapons.
"We have said that we do not have atomic weapons and we will not build any. But if there is any attack by the enemies, whether it be the United States or the Zionist regime, we will attack them at the same level as they attack us," he said.
"She was very much, as we would say, left wing. She [created] a very, very good impression. She seemed to be very bright, very respectful of others," said Gaia Servadio, a writer and historian who has worked with Asma on several art projects.
"It's a very nasty regime... Thousands of people have been killed. So it's very difficult to say: poor woman. She certainly should have found a way to talk."
But she's very left wing, so when Pencilneck's killed all the opposition there'll be some reason for her to be welcomed back into the best circles...
#2
Its going to take a sea change in politics and a change in thinking about Detroit to ever resurrect it. It could be done but I don't think it will happen.
#5
This is a tough one in some ways. The people have created this mess by electing those that taxed and spent the city into bankruptcy and ruin.
If you have someone take it over, they need receivership powers to make changes, which is basically a limited dictatorship.
If the citizens and voters don't like that, then I see no alternative but to let it go and fail. Once one runs the show to solve the problem, then it becomes one's problem and the citizens are off the hook.
In an ugly but effective way, this needs to be a lesson for everyone in the country in responsibility. Detroit will start changing or it will go extinct.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/20/2012 17:36
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#6
Step 1: get rid of the current voters who created this mess.
The smart ones are already gone. In 1950 (post WWII), population of Detroit proper was ~1.8 million. By 1980, after The Great Society and a few riots, population was down to 1.2 million; today, about 700,000. Said another way, half a million people have bailed in a few decades.
Interestingly, one of the arguments against some sort of state manager running the place is that this would disenfranchise voters and make the city into a 'plantation'. Personally, I see it as appointing a court-ordered guardian for someone who is mentally unable to handle their affairs.
#7
I keep wondering how the guy in Hardcore Pawn (on Court TV) survives - you have to take in more than you pay out to make a profit. Somebody up there has some money.
(No, I don't watch it - checked it out but there's too much yelling.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/20/2012 18:51
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#8
D *** NG IT, DID THE NORTH KOREANS INVADE BUT NO BODY KNEW???
Yokay, I'll bite, I thought "Da Plan" as preferred was to let the Saudis or other Coalition buy the City + turn it into a Shining Beacon/Burd of glorious righteous, post-Modern Muslim, Corporate Middle East-ness in midwest America???
Espec vee the proposed GREAT LAKES FTZ = EEZ-SEZ???
If youre looking for insight into the Palestinians mindset, a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research offers some fascinating glimpses into their views on everything from killing Jews to fiscal responsibility.
The poll found a significant decline in Hamass popularity in the Gaza Strip and a decrease in the positive evaluation of Gazas Hamas government. Only 27% of Gazans said they would vote Hamas if elections were held today, down from 35% three months ago, while only 36% approved of the Hamas governments performance, down from 41%. Sounds encouraging, right?
But heres the kicker: The poll was taken immediately after Islamic Jihads recent rocket assault on Israel, and the pollsters said the drop in Hamass support was probably due [partly] to Hamas behavior, standing on the sideline, during Gazas rocket war with Israel. In other words, according to a leading Palestinian pollster, the way to win the Palestinian publics affection is by indiscriminate rocket fire on Israeli cities, and Hamass popularity suffered because it sat this round out. And were supposed to believe a Palestinian state would live in peace with Israel?
No less enlightening, however, were the questions about the Palestinian Authoritys financial crisis. The PA has a $1.1 billion hole in its $3.5 billion budget for 2012, mainly due to a drop in international donations. Yet when it tried to solve the problem with a mix of tax increases and spending cuts, a public outcry forced it to retreat. So the poll asked how Palestinians thought the problem should be solved.
It turns out that only a minority (38%) favor any kind of self-help measure: 9% back tax increases, while 29% support cutting expenditures by putting civil servants on early retirement. The majority, 52%, prefer returning to negotiations with Israel in order to obtain greater international financial support.
The U.S. must stick to its strategy in Afghanistan, including the planned withdrawal calendar, over the next several months despite recent setbacks that have tested Americas relations with the Afghans, the top U.S. commander for the war is telling Congress.
Gen. John Allen is heading to Capitol Hill Tuesday for the first time since the Koran burnings and last weeks shooting spree by a U.S. soldier inflamed anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan. The incidents spawned attacks against U.S. forces and prompted Afghan leaders to demand that American troops pull out of local villages and rural areas.
The upheaval has fueled Congressional opposition to the war, insuring that Allen will face lawmakers who are bitterly divided and increasingly skeptical of the administrations strategy.
In frank testimony prepared for delivery to the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday, Allen argues that while the last few months have been trying, the coalition and its Afghan allies have made progress and degraded the insurgency.
This campaign has been long. It has been difficult, and it has been costly. There have been setbacks, to be sure, were experiencing them now, and there will be more setbacks ahead, Allen says. I wish I could tell you that this war was simple, and that progress could be easily measured. But thats not the way of counterinsurgencies.
A petrol-bomb attack on a community centre has prompted fears among Melbourne's Alevi population they could be targeted with more violence on religious grounds.
Glass bottles containing petrol and set alight were thrown at the front and rear doors of the Alevi Community Council of Australia centre in North Coburg overnight.
No one was inside the centre at the time of the incident, but a centre spokeswoman said the building's rear door was badly burnt.
Surmeli Aydogan, the council's community liaison officer, said the centre's users were also concerned to find notes pinned to the fence threatening Alevis on religious grounds unless they "testified" that Allah was the only god to be worshipped.
Ms Aydogan said the centre had previously received threatening phone calls, but had dismissed them as pranks. However, she said the attack with petrol bombs had left the council's members shaken.
Alevi is a branch of the Sufi order of Shia Islam.
Over the night of March 19 and early morning of March 20, Bejing local time, a message about a large number of military police showing up in Beijing spread widely across microblogs in mainland China.
The key figures in the action are said to be: Hu Jintao, the head of the CCP; Wen Jiabao, the premier; Zhou Yongkang, who has control of the Peoples Republic of Chinas police forces; and Bo Xilai, who was dismissed from his post as head of the Chongqing City Communist Party on March 15 by Wen Jiabao, after a scandal involving Bos former police chief.
Li Delin, who is on the editorial board of Securities Market Weekly and lives in Dongcheng District of Beijing, wrote on his microblog a report that confirmed unusual troop movements: There are numerous army vehicles, Changan Street is continuously being controlled. There are many plainclothes police in every intersection, and some intersections even had iron fences set up.
#2
Of course it is possible that someone grabbed a unique opportunity but the Soviets more or less set the standards for bloodless coups and coups almost always happen Friday evening Saturday morning to ensure things can be settled for good before the regular folks tune into the news and workplace gossip on Monday. Cuts down on a lot of problems and I know the Chinese would be aware of it.
Efforts to reunify the Palestinians behind one leadership appear to have hit a dead end: Hamas leaders ruling the Gaza Strip have concluded that subordinating themselves to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be wasting a golden opportunity offered by the Arab Spring.
The thinking, as revealed in interviews with top Hamas officials, is that the regional rise of political Islam in the wake of the past year's uprisings means this is the time for their Islamic militant group to dominate.
As part of that hard line, some say Gaza abandoned by Israeli settlers and soldiers in 2005 should steer Palestinian politics instead of the West Bank, where Israel holds far more sway.
"We want the West Bank to come under the Gaza umbrella, simply because Gaza is liberated, and the government there is elected," said a top Hamas official, referring to 2006 parliamentary elections that produced a short-lived Hamas-led government in the West Bank and Gaza. After Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, the Western-backed Abbas dismissed that government and appointed his own in the West Bank.
A unity deal brokered by Qatar last month was to end five years of separate governments Hamas in Gaza and Abbas in the West Bank. Under the agreement, Abbas is to lead an interim government of independent technocrats for several months, until elections. As interim prime minister, he would regain at least a measure of control in Gaza.
The top Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, signed the deal without consulting with the movement, pitting him against much of the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
It was part of Mashaal's attempt to steer Hamas away from longtime patrons Iran and Syria and closer to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which markets a more tolerant Islam and has urged Hamas to moderate. Mashaal's pledge to Abbas last month to halt violence is part of that shift.
While the Brotherhood has urged Mashaal to make concessions for the sake of reconciliation, Gaza's Hamas leaders believe they shouldn't be asked to share control at a time when their movement is finally breaking out of its isolation.
In a test of wills, it increasingly appears that the Gazans will prevail since implementing a unity deal would require their cooperation on the ground.
EU foreign policy chief related shooting of French Jews in Toulouse to "what is happening in Gaza"; Ban condemns attack.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni each criticized EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday for relating the murder of French Jews in Toulouse with "what is happening in Gaza."
Speaking during a visit to China, Liberman said that the comparison was inappropriate and that he hopes that she retracts her statement. The children Ashton should be talking about, he continued, "are the ones in southern Israel who live in constant fear of rocket attacks [launched against] them from Gaza."
Ashton told a group of Palestinian youth in Brussels on Monday: "When we think about what happened today in Toulouse, we remember what happened in Norway last year, we know what is happening in Syria, and we see what is happening in Gaza and other places - we remember young people and children who lose their lives," AFP reported.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak harshly condemned the statement, calling it "outrageous and far from reality."
"The IDF operates with maximum caution in Gaza in order to prevent harm to innocents," Barak said. "I hope that the EU's foreign minister will quickly realize the mistake she made and withdraw her comments."
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni also called on Ashton to retract the statement, which she called "unacceptable, outrageous and wrong."
"There is no similarity between an act of hatred or a leader killing members of his nation and a country fighting terror, even if civilians are harmed," Livni added.
Ashton's statement came after a gunman opened fire at a crowd of parents and children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France on Monday, killing four people.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai also denounced Ashton's statement Tuesday and called for her resignation.
"The statement by Lady Ashton further harms the ability of the European Union to be an honest broker" between Israel and the Palestinians, Yishai said.
"[Ashton] can no longer serve in her position," the interior minister added.
#1
Bull-SHIT! China was (and still is) crippled by multilingualism. I know people who can speak five languages and it doesn't make any difference as to their intelligence level. They can just speak more languages, is all. If I need to communicate, hire a translator. The benefits of everyone speaking ONE common language are enormous.
What about dialects? I will tell you for a fact Southern US English is quite different than Northern Midwest, both of which are different than US University English or US Media English.
#3
Having one common language, like having one common currency, does indeed make daily life flow more easily and efficiently at the macro level, gromky. Hiwever, the article addresses what's going on inside an individual skull.
About twenty percent of Americans live in a household where more than one language is spoken, and even more have to learn the language of the neighborhood. How many of us have picked up a working knowledge of Spanish just to be able to walk down the street? Even I know what pendejo means! Not to mention how many times I've been caught out in Cincinnati speaking in German with the trailing daughters.
Speaking more than one language enriches one's life and is an enjoyable mental exercise. But there is a reason so much of the world uses English as a lingua franca.
#5
It doesn't make you smarter, but it does make you better educated. There is a difference.
Also, it matters *what* languages you speak. I believe that one of the reasons for the success of the English speaking world is the richness and flexibility of the English language.
My kids learn Latin, Chinese and -- because he keeps begging me to teach it to him -- German. Right off the bat it helps with their English grammar, spelling and composition. My oldest has just been accepted to an ivy school at age 16.
#6
Ours is the only industrialized culture in the world where people consider themselves educated without learning a second language. And for an country that depends on foreign trade, we are woefully ignorant of geography.
The headline is a bit silly (most headlines are), but the article generally makes sense. No BS here, Gromky. When you stimulate one area of the brain, the stimulation spills over into adjacent areas of the brain as well. I've had to pay special attention to these things because we have a houseful of Aspergers kids, and we have used music and languages not only for their own sake, but for the other skill sets that occur in the same brain area.
#7
Re #1: Ribbentrop was an accomplished multi-linguist AND considered a first-class dummy by his own people. Language skills have nothing to do with intelligence. Period.
#8
I last took German in high school in 1966. In 2008, I was admiring the ceiling of the castle of mad King Ludwig in Bavaria, (Germany) when the word "grossartige" popped into my head.
We were traveling with a couple who lived in Germany for several years, and I asked what grossartige was. She had to look it up, and the second synonym was "fantastic". I had remembered the German word from 40 years previous, but forgotten its English equivalent.
Strange thing, the mind, especially the language part!
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 12:46
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#9
Bobby, THAT'S ME TOO!! 1966 high school German was the last I took, still remember a little. The funniest thing though was when I went to work for a German company.
We went out for a drink on a trip to Krautville an I asked him the correct pronunciation of "dark beer". The waiter came up and my boss (born and raised in Heidelberg) says to him "Two dark beers." (I almost hit him ;^)
It seems that almost everyone around Waldorf (SAP HQ) speaks English BECAUSE it is such a multi-national company. English is EVERYONE'S second language.
#11
Most people would prefer Americans remain ignorant of their geography. Our way of learning is pretty thorough.
I picked up a little German from my father when I was a kid. After two world wars, it seemed like a citizen's duty. Got to jr hi about 1957. Tried a little kraut on a guy supposed to be the German teacher. He put up his hands. Probably not the first time.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/20/2012 13:50
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#12
"Oh, I forgot to ask, does knowing ABAP, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal and Basic (4 dialects) count?"
According to George Gilder, yes.
"Ours is the only industrialized culture in the world where people consider themselves educated without learning a second language."
We don't have the need here--not for travel and not for business. So if you don't count 2 years of high school Spanish (and you shouldn't count that) and people who grew up in bilingual households, you are left with a group who almost certainly have studied. But without a need for it, there are plenty of well educated people who have not learned a second language.
#13
AlanC: There is the discipline of thinking logically that comes from trying to spell out how to do things to a computer that comes with any programming language. However, it is said that the concepts and programming methodology to program LISP well actually aid people in thinking. I've had several situations where I could not code the solution in Basic, but had to code it in Lisp and back translate to Basic to get it to work.
#15
Most other industrialized nations (meaning Europe) speak more than one language because they are tiny and have to deal with their neighbors. That is not necessarily an asset, just a fact.
I don't doubt a lot of intelligent people know more than one language but I do doubt it was the language skills that made them intelligent. Seems like someone got that backwards.
#16
Now, what really helped me learn French better in Graduate school than in undergraduate was my knowledge of how to define and analyze Computer programming languages and how to translate programs written using them into executable code. Programming language theory, alongside Backus-Naur Form as a language to define programming languages, not only helped me understand some programming languages, but a subset of French was defineable as well. I was told, when I visited France afterwards, that I spoke it okay, but much too fast.
What REALLY puzzled them was that they couldn't place WHERE from france I COULD have been from: I was sometimes from normandy, sometimes from Strasbourg, sometimes from Paris. When I explained to them that my First quarter french teacher spent his language year in Bretagne, the second spent it in strasbourg, and the third was a fussy, precise Dame from Paris, they nodded and smiled in deep understanding.
My mom, though born and raised in Haiti, always sounded as if she came off the Docks of Tours: utterly classic and pure French. Turns out her dad forced his kids to pronounce their french from the France's version of the BBC, and all newscasters in france practically are born or lived in the Indre-et-Loire district.
#19
Smarter? Smart is realizing there is frequently a big difference between intelligent and educated. Smarter is knowing that and that there is an even larger different between intelligence and wisdom.
But learning a second language is fun, good mental exercise, and stimulating.
Also helps settle certain school kids down when they know you can understand their Spanish!
When Husband's French failed in Geneva two summers ago, and the shopkeepers/waiters/friendly persons from whom we asked directions didn't speak English, my Spanish worked. Go figure.
#22
One definition of smarter is using your brain more effectively. In other words, acting closer to one's potential. Mr. Wife loves to tell people I'm smarter than he is. But he is a very quick and broad thinker, makes connections others don't see, remembers everything, and is very, very practical. So his useful intelligence is worth much more as the world counts such things.. He also has studied French, German, Spanish and Arabic...and art.
Me? I've studied Hebrew, German, Spanish, Flemish (which is not proper Dutch, as my mother is fond of pointing out), and just enough French to slip quickly into English. ;-). I find that different languages contain a slightly different world view or philosophy. Flemish/Dutch is earthier than English, for instance, which was rather startling for me, but no doubt salutary...and made me see my very ladylike mother in an entirely new light.
#25
It doesn't surprise me that bi-linguals are better able to apply multiple solutions to the same general problem, which is essentially what the studies show.
This isn't evidence they are smarter, or more capable.
I have lived in a number of different countries and never had the need to learn the language beyond a few words for taxi drivers and the market.
I still travel quite a lot in Asia. These days its rare to find a taxi driver who doesn't speak some English.
My view is that the only language skill that matters in the modern world is a good mastery of English.
Unfortunately, I see an increasing deterioration in English skills as people get younger.
Notice the one piece of information not in the story. The name of the judge who released the miscreant. In New Mexico all judges are subject to a public confirmation vote on a routine basis.
#2
The only way they could argue for Garcia to remain locked up, even in a mental health facility, is if his crimes were of a violent nature and the crimes he's charged with do not fit the legal requirements.
There is a good part of the problem - burglaries are not considered 'violent' crimes.
#1
Indeed we shall see London be the beacon of Islam in our lifetimes.
It will start by a massacre of all christian infidel citizens of London, forcing all women to wear the traditional moslem dress, traditional female genital mutilation being passed as compulsory municipal bylaw, with other sharia nonsense following.
When your own christian elected mayor starts to speak like this, I advise all citizens of britain to buy guns and stock up on ammunition.
Britain and France will be the first to fall under the rule of the new Califate
Mark my words!
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/20/2012 7:50
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#2
A common theme of the US also EZ, as we seem to have elected a 'mayor' of similiar ilk.
#5
Elder of Zion, the other option is they overreact and start rounding up Muslims. Probably deportations rather than camps this time around but still, the Europeans can be brutally efficient and horridly callous if they wake up to the threat.
#2
I remember when LtCol West made a remark about something happening to Muhammad after Khadijah's death...this guy brings it up to. I've read through the quran but as I have heard it is not in chronological order I couldn't discern a sequential worsening of dogma from the golden-rule-mode to the talibunnie fruitcake philosophy.
#3
I think about that time Mo was also kicked out of Mecca (I believe it was right after or around the time of the Satanic Verses - False Prophets had a tendency to be put to death back then) and made his way to Medina.
#4
Those who profit most from Islam are the Imams. Then all males. Women don't stand a chance. Especially if Islam is widespread in the local population.
So why are so many on the left so open armed about accepting Islam into their communities?
1) They left feels invincible in their own power and feel by being accepting of "fringe groups" they are adding to their own power and the Islamists can be controlled.
2) But when the agitation (violence) begins by the ever growing Islamic segment the left will not be able to overcome it and eventually that society will be forced to submit unless considerable counter violence is unleashed to expell the Islamists.
That is one of the dangers leftists bring upon the nations they influence.
Posted by: Black Charlie Bonaparte7194 ||
03/20/2012 16:20
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For a map, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Six unidentified individuals were shot to death in an apparent pursuit and ambush in Apodaca municipality, Nuevo Leon Monday afternoon, according to Mexican news accounts.
The victims were aboard their Nissan Sentra sedan in La Encarnacion colony when armed suspects, who had been following shot them. The attack took place on Calle Ignacio Sepulveda.
Three of the victims attempted to flee the gunfire but were hit a short distance away.
Three other individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang violence in Monterrey.
Two unidentified youths were shot to death Monday morning. The victims were near the intersection of Calles Lazaro Cardenas and Calle Praga in El Torre colony aboard a Jeep Patriot SUV when they were struck by gunfire. The victims were apparently pursued by their attackers before they were killed.
An unidentified individual was found dead aboard a vehicle in Arturo B. de la Garza colony in south Monterrey. The vehicle had been immolated.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Washington Post] Tonga's King George Tupou V died at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital Sunday, according to Tonga's Ministry of Information and Communications.
Government spokesman Paula Mau said his body will be flown home and arrive in the small Pacific island nation on Monday. The body will lie in state for two days at the royal palace in the capital, Nuku'alofa, before being transported about 300 meters (1,000 feet) to the royal tomb.
Mau said he expects thousands from Tonga and many foreign dignitaries to attend the funeral. The country has begun three months of official mourning. Wearing black is encouraged and celebrations and music are discouraged.
The new king, Crown Prince Tupouto'a Lavaka, will go by the title King Tupou VI.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
His father reigned for 40 years, but he only reigned for 6.
[Pak Daily Times] At least eight people were killed and 15 others maimed in festivities between security forces and faceless myrmidons in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, officials said on Monday. Four faceless myrmidons and one soldier were killed when faceless myrmidons stormed a security forces checkpoint late on Sunday in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town of restive North Wazoo Agency (NWA). The army retaliated with an assault early on Monday on suspected terrorist hideouts outside the town, but the attack left three civilians dead and 15 maimed, security officials said. "Militants attacked our checkpoint in Miranshah on Sunday evening and killed one soldier, we retaliated... and rubbed out four beturbanned goons," a security bigshot told AFP. On Monday morning "we fired shells and destroyed five shops in Datakhel near Miranshah" from where military convoys had recently come under attack, he said. Two security officials confirmed the civilian deaths in Monday's attack, but the military refused to do so. "Three non-combatants were killed and 15 were maimed when the security forces fired shells at the suspected beturbanned goon hideouts," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity. Terrorists have killed more than 4,800 people across Pakistain since government troops raided Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad in July 2007. US officials say Pakistain's tribal districts provide sanctuary to the Taliban fighting a 10-year war against foreign troops in neighbouring Afghanistan and to al Qaeda-linked faceless myrmidons plotting attacks on the West.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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North Korea has told the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization that its first stage of a rocket it is to fire next month will land in waters 140 km west of Byeonsan Peninsula and the second 190 km east of the Philippines.
The rocket is ostensibly to carry a satellite into orbit to mark the centenary of nation founder Kim Il-sung
It's more of a demonstration of the usefulness of a three-stage rocket to throw payloads long distances...
in a plan that has drawn condemnation from the international community
Except Iran, Zimbabwe and Syria...
because it violates restrictions of North Korean missile activity.
The first stage of the rocket will drop around 450 km from a launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, and the second one will drop somewhere about 3,000 km away. The third stage is expected to carry the payload for another 1,000 km using its own booster rockets.
The waters where the first stage will fall are on the open sea and neither North Korean nor Chinese territorial waters. The closest coast is China's Weihai on the eastern tip of the Shandong Peninsula around 250 km away. But the government here worries that the first stage could fall on land. A senior government official said, "Given the level of North Korean technology, we cannot rule out that the rocket will veer off its scheduled trajectory and fall on the South Korean coast."
Depends on when the SM3s hit it. But the announced track of the missile is for it to fly to the southwest of the launch site: towards China. That's not in alignment with the usual orbital mechanics to launch something into orbit from the northern hemisphere.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2012
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#1
Maybe there is some connection with 3dc's overflight warning.
[Pak Daily Times] At least five persons, believed to be terrorists, were killed and one injured in a roadside kaboom blast in remote Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Monday. According to sources, the roadside kaboom hit the vehicle of the cut-throats in Dwa Thoi area of the valley, Bara tehsil, killing five of them. The injured was shifted to a hospital and was stated to be at death's door. The vehicle was also destroyed in the kaboom.
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#1
Interesting. Work accident? Internal dispute? Or do we have people re-directing their own weapons against them? Three flavors of goodness.
KABUL, Afghanistan: The Afghan government is giving companies extensions ranging from a few weeks to 90 days to change from private security guards to a government-run force, NATO officials and security company managers said Sunday.
The reprieve comes just three days before the March 21 deadline that the Afghan government had set for the majority of companies to start using government-provided security.
Private development companies have said the move is threatening billions in US aid to the country because companies would delay projects or leave altogether because they didnt feel safe using strictly local security.
President Hamid Karzai has railed for years against the large number of guns-for-hire in Afghanistan other than his own, saying private security companies skirt the law and risk becoming militias. He ordered them abolished in 2009 and eventually set the March deadline for all firms except those guarding military or diplomatic facilities to take on government guards.
But the process has been chaotic and has been weighed down by lengthy contract negotiations, making it appear unlikely in recent weeks that the Afghan Public Protection Force would be ready to take over for some 11,000 private guards by the deadline.
People involved in the handover said Sunday that companies that are still far from signing contracts are being allowed to continue to use private guards for a limited period of time, most ranging from 30 days to 90 days. Managers of private security companies, who spoke anonymously to avoid endangering contracts, said they had been called into a meeting with Afghan officials to explain the process for obtaining the interim permits.
Noorkhan Haidari, the business manager for the APPF, said the permit process was still under way and declined to comment further. Other APPF officials did not respond to calls seeking comment.
A number of deals have already been signed. So far, the APPF has signed 16 contracts with companies to provide security and licensed 14 Risk Management Companies, according to a NATO official. The Risk Management Companies will essentially act as go-betweens for companies and the government agency in order to help manage the guards, payments and help hold the Afghan guards to an international standard.
But Afghan officials have said that there are about 75 companies they need to sign contracts with in order to complete the switchover and there were worries that holding to the March 21 deadline would create security gaps.
If the changeover doesnt happen smoothly, a raft of international aid projects could be in danger. Insurgents regularly attack development projects here, so private development companies that implement most of the US aid agencys programs employ private guards to protect compounds, serve as armed escorts and guard construction sites.
Most companies working on development projects are being issued temporary 30-day permits for their private security guards, while companies working on convoy contracts are being given 90 days, the NATO official said. The development companies have a shorter extension because their projects tend to be easier to guard and many are already close to having a contract negotiated, the official said.
One element to the delay may have been that international military advisers who are helping the Afghan officials were blocked from going to the APPF offices following the shooting deaths last month of two Interior Ministry advisers by an Afghan driver. The APPF advisers are back at their offices now, though with some increased security, according to the NATO official.
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[Pak Daily Times] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said that US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops must not withdraw from Afghanistan until local forces are able to ensure security for the country. Lavrov told a local television channel that it was a point of "international law" that the Afghan government must "possess the capabilities to maintain law and order" before international forces leave.
And there's no one more acquainted with law and order than a Russian foreign minister...
"The presence of the international stabilisation force in Afghanistan has been mandated by the UN Security Council. The mandate is clear. They must fulfill this mandate before they leave," he said.
After more than 10 years of war there are still about 130,000 NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in fighting against an ongoing Taliban insurgency. Foreign combat troops are due to leave by the end of 2014 and increasing efforts have been made to train the Afghan army and police to take responsibility for their country's security. Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... Washington is negotiating a strategic partnership agreement with Kabul, and looking at the issue of permanent US bases in Afghanistan post-2014. Lavrov said it was "strange" to insist on the withdrawal of troops while at the same time "Washington is discussing with Afghanistan very purposefully about establishing four or five military bases for the post 2014 period".
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#1
Lavrov said it was "strange" to insist on the withdrawal of troops while at the same time "Washington is discussing with Afghanistan very purposefully about establishing four or five military bases for the post 2014 period".
Strange indeed since we can only marginally protect and sustain the bases there now. I cannot imagine a Taliban government permitting such an undertaking.
#2
STFU Russia. I could also cite plenty you "MUST" with your Upside down history. So, America is in Afghanistan to help Russia? You never knew?
And to get train lines, and invade an ally while we are working at YOUR soft underbelly.
You should have been FAR more helpful asshole.
Now, this will be ends.
And if you dick me with Israel, I will have so many fudge packing Moslems in your nest you may never sleep again.
The USA gets help finishing and leaving Afghanistan. Do It, Russia.
#5
Russia can't afford to build the outposts B. So the US will, as shared use sites. Launch points, listening posts, staging areas, etc. Border 'stans squeezed between Russia and the outposts, a good viewpoint for the Saudi/Iran containment war, excellent drop point for orbital intel of Africa and eastern China, premier interdiction position for the Pak/India conflict, oil line defense forces for the pipes from Russia to Europe, the list goes on and on.
IMHO.
#7
Read, US-NATO IN POST-2014 AFGHAN/AFPAK = NO JIHAD IN TAIJIKISTAN + KYRGYZSTAN, AKA MAMA RUSSIA'S UNDERBELLY.
Lavrov has officially denied that any Russian Warships are even near Syria, let alone docked there wid alleged on-board Russ SpecFors = Anti-Terror Troops - YET, AFTER ALL THAT, THIS AM RUSSIA IS SUDDENLY NOW WILLING TO SUPPORT A UN MANDATE AGZ BABY ASSAD [Fox News].
[Pak Daily Times] A lawyer at the Faisalabad Sessions Court on Monday slapped a civil judge for rejecting a bail plea of a man accused of robbery.
According to witnesses, Advocate Mohsin Nabeer appeared in the court of Civil Judge Azhar Ali Jaffari to seek bail for the accused. The civil judge rejected the bail, which provoked Nabeer to attack the judge. The lawyer slapped the judge, dragged him out of the court, and passed abusive remarks against him. Staff in the court caught the lawyer and handed him over to police, but some other lawyers freed him from the police custody. The lawyers also attacked some other judges, using abusive language against them. All judges left work in protest and gathered in the court of Civil Judge Azhar Ali Jaffari. Taking action against the lawyer, Punjab Bar Council (PBC) suspended his practice licence.
The PBC Executive Committee chairman issued the order. The lawyer was also directed to appear before the disciplinary committee on March 22.
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#1
Bad lawyers, or Bad Judges?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/20/2012 9:30
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#2
Lawyers assaulting and besmirching other lawyers. The end must be near.
DENPASAR, Indonesia: Indonesian police shot dead five suspected terrorists militants planning attacks on the resort island of Bali, including an assault on a night club popular with foreign tourists, the national counter-terrorism agency and police said on Monday.
Good going, police!
The five terrorists men, who were shot dead in overnight raids on the island, were linked to the banned Jemaah Islamiah group, which carried out nightclub bombings on Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, most of them Australian tourists, officials said.
The five terrorists arrived on Bali on March 17 and surveyed La Vida Loca nightclub in the Seminyak beach resort, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Kuta where the 2002 attack took place.
"Last night we have paralyzed five terrorists criminal perpetrators who were planning to commit terrorist acts ... All the terrorists suspects died during the raids because they defied or shot back with pistols at the police officers," national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.
"The terrorists perpetrators have surveyed several places and among them are a gold shop in Jimbaran, a money changer and cafe La Vida Loca," he said.
It was not clear how advanced the preparations for attacks were. Authorities declined to give more details of the threat or say when the attacks were scheduled.
"We will say no more!"
National police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution said some terrorist members of the terrorist group were still at large.
"They have made drawings of these locations as their targets," he told a news conference.
Three people were killed in the beach resort area of Sanur and two in the island's capital, Denpasar, and police said they recovered two rifles, two ammunition magazines, 48 bullets and a balaclava.
In Sanur, witnesses saw pools of blood outside a security guard post and police forensic officers at work behind a police line.
Police earlier said the terrorists suspects planned armed robberies to raise funds and they linked the five terrorists to a group that had conducted bank robberies in the city of Medan on Sumatra island.
"This is an terrorist militant group, a splinter group of Jemaah Islamiah who established a training camp in Aceh," said Nasution, referring to a province on the far north of Sumatra.
Australian media quoted another senior police officer as saying it was possible the terrorist group had been planning to carry out attacks on Thursday, the eve of Nyepi, or the annual Day of Silence marking Bali's Hindu New Year. Balinese hold parades on the eve of Nyepi, which draw large numbers of tourists, the Australian Associated Press said.
The killings follow the beginning of a trial last month of an Islamist militant accused of making the bombs used in the 2002 Bali nightclubs attack.
Umar Patek, who was captured in the same Pakistan town where U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, is also accused of mixing chemicals for 13 bombs that detonated in five churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve, 2000, killing about 15 people. Security officials say he belonged to Jemaah Islamiah.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Interpol said Sunday it had issued an international "red notice" warrant for Libya's ex-spy chief Abdullah Senussi at Tripoli's ...a confusing city, one end of thich 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... request following his arrest in Mauritania. Better late than never, I guess.
"At Libya's request, Interpol has issued a Red Notice for Colonel (Muammar) Qadaffy's former director of military intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, for fraud offenses including embezzling public funds and misuse of power for personal benefit," the organization based in Lyon, La Belle France, said in a statement. He looks kinda like I always imagined Luca Brasi looked, only not as pleasant.
It said the request for the 62-year-old was in addition to another Red Notice issued by Interpol at the demand of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for Senussi in September for crimes against humanity.
Senussi was tossed in the calaboose late Friday at Nouakchott airport as he arrived on a regular flight from Casablanca in Morocco carrying a fake Malian passport.
Both La Belle France and the ICC had filed formal requests to extradite him, a security source in Nouakchott said, but Tripoli has insisted that it should put him on trial.
Libya is determined to try the feared former right-hand man of fallen leader Qadaffy and a delegation from the ruling National Transitional Council was expected to visit Mauritania soon to discuss Senussi's handover.
"Interpol has committed itself to supporting Libya's efforts to achieve its goal of rebuilding their country and... their request for an Interpol Red Notice for al-Senussi is a clear demonstration of their commitment to international police cooperation and justice," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said in the statement.
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A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions.
Oh it will be serious all right. Champ might have to apologize again. But it will raise the ante for Turkey's assistance to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebels, likely deter somewhat any urge the Israelis have to gob smack Hezbollah, and clearly will deter the West from doing in Syria what it did in Libya.
Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.
Now the Russian Black Sea fleet's Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.
The Iman replaced another Russian ship "which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens," the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.
And which may have been providing electronics intercept and jamming assistance for Iran in case Israel were to fly the northern route on the way to Tehran...
RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the US and to the UN had no comment, saying they have "no particular information on" the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.
Last week Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no plans to send troops to Syria. "As for the question whether I consider it necessary to confront the United States in Syria and ensure our military presence there... in order to take part in military actions -- no. I believe this would be against Russia's national interests," Lavrov told lawmakers, according to RIA Novosti.
Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied reports that Russian special forces were operating inside Syria. He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. government had not heard of the reports of Russian troops in Syria and declined to comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.
Which is precisely why NATO and the US have taken no action.
#2
Someone at Belmont club believes this is an advance unit to move the WMD's moved from Iraq to Syria out of the country. Since when did a tanker require a squad of MARINES???
[Yemen Post] The former Attorney-General Abdullah Al-Olfi has said t that he was fired by the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... before the investigations of Al-Karama Friday (Friday of Dignity) were completed.
In remarks to an Emeriti newspaper, Al-Khaleej, Al-Olfi said he was fired after he threatened to resign in case the defendants of the massacre were not tossed in the calaboose.
Al-Olfi further said that the Public Prosecution did not face any pressures whether by the First Armored Division headed by the defected General Ali Mohsin Saleh or the then- opposition and the ruling party, stressing that the prosecution embarked on its investigation professionally.
He further said that the prosecution took many procedures regarding the investigations, affirming that it visited the scene of the crime as well as hospitals where the casualties of Al-Karama Friday were transferred.
Sources of the Public Prosecution office said that 79 persons had been charged with the killing and injuring of a number of citizens inside the Change Square existed before Sana'a University.
Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindowa accused on Sunday the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh of committing the crime of Al-Karama Friday on which forces loyal to Saleh killed dozens protesters and injured hundreds others.
On a ceremony marking the annual anniversary of Al-Karama Friday held on Sunday, Basindowa affirmed that the events of Al-Karama Friday pushed many Yemeni officials to denounce the massacre, pointing out that some military divisions declared their support to the revolution.
Families of Al-Karama revealed on Sunday that four lawsuits had been filed against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and some of his aides before international courts.
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[Yemen Post] Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindowa has accused the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... of committing the crime of Al-Karama Friday on which forces loyal to Saleh killed dozens protesters and injured hundreds others.
"The excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on Al-Kharama Friday led to agitate the anger in the hearts of Yemenis, and made the regime fails to achieve its desires of that brutal attack against the protesters," Basindowa added.
On a ceremony marking the annual anniversary of Al-Karama Friday held on Sunday, Basindowa affirmed that the events of Al-Karama Friday pushed many Yemeni officials to denounce the massacre, pointing out that some military divisions declared their support to the revolution.
He strongly criticized the propaganda used by officials loyal to Saleh against the interim government, reminding them of power outages and the acute oil derivatives under the rule of Saleh.
He cited that his government works to provide essential services, stressing that most people know who stand behind insecurity and attacking power lines in some areas, pointing out to those people are aids and supporters of Saleh.
He declared about a government donation of YR 50 million for the families of deaders of the Yemeni revolution.
Meanwhile , President Abdu-Rabo Hadi issued a decree of appropriating all civilians who were killed in 2011 due to the peaceful protests as deaders of the nation.
The decree issued on the annual anniversary of al-Karama Friday also appropriated a salary for each martyr as well as those totally displaced persons.
It further directed the interim government to provide health care for the injured and transfer those who were seriously injured to outside hospitals.
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[Yemen Post] In anticipation of a potential attack, heavy security presence were witnessed on Sunday and Monday around the Central Prison in the southern port city of Aden, according to locals and eyewitnesses.
Yemeni Ministry of Interior revealed that it had gathered intelligence information, indicating that some cut-throats intend to launch an attack targeting the Central Prison in AL-Mansoura district of Aden. The purpose of such attacks is to set some of their imprisoned beturbanned goons free.
After receiving intelligence information that there was a potential terrorist attack on the facility, security forces took precautionary measures, intensified its presence in the vicinity of the prison, and would remain alert, said the Media Center at the Ministry.
Al-Mansoura prison has witnessed some riots and escape attempts by the inmates in December.
Last month, al-Qaeda beturbanned goons carried out a fierce attack on the central prison of Radda, some 170 km southeastern the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, killing the prison guards and releasing dozens of detainees.
Aden was the scene of terrorists' attacks as of late, undermining the security of the vital free zone.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing stepped up its attacks lately, taking an advantage of the current state of unrest the country is experiencing.
New President Abdu Rabu Mansoru Hadi vowed to eradicate the cut-throats and pursue them to their last hideout, but only hours after his inauguration speech the terror network attacked the Presidential Palace in Mukala, the quiet provincial capital of southern province of Hadramout, killing at least 25 soldiers and wounding dozens others.
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The main union representing French domestic intelligence officers, those charged with counter-espionage and anti-terror investigations, called Wednesday on its members to stage a protest.
The head of the SNOP union, which represents senior police officers and is the main labour body for members of the DCRI security agency, said his members planned a "gathering" at their Paris headquarters on Friday.
Union secretary general Jean-Marc Bailleul said his members were protesting "human resources management" at the spy agency, and in particular the recent naming of a senior administrator to a post normally held by a field agent.
A smaller union said it wanted no part in the protest, and it was not clear how many of the agency's 4,000 intelligence officers planned to take part.
The head of the DCRI, Bernard Squarcini, said he had resolved the dispute by closing an administrative post in the anti-terror divisions and giving it to a "field-tested officer" from the ranks represented by SNOP.
Bailleul said his union would reject any attempt by agency outsiders to make political capital out of the internal labour dispute, at a time when France is in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is running for re-election, made it a priority to reform the DCRI, which his government set up as a merger of the former DST domestic security service and RG political police. But he has also been criticised for allegedly being too close to Squarcini, who is under judicial investigation over allegations he illegally ordered surveillance on a journalist from Le Monde newspaper.
[Pak Daily Times] Around a million loyalists of holy manMoqtada 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... rallied in south Iraq on Monday decrying poor services and rampant graft on the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion against Saddam Hussein.
Protesters flooded the centre of the southern port city of Basra for the rally, with demonstrators waving Iraqi flags and portraits of the anti-US Shia holy man and his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999 by assailants thought to have been sent by Saddam.
The demonstration came just days before Iraq is due to host an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... summit, the first meeting of the 22-nation body since Saddam's 1990 invasion of neighbouring Kuwait. Reading remarks composed by Sadr, currently in Iran, Sadrist religious leader Sheikh Assad al-Nassari told the crowd: "We cannot rest when there is injustice against us." "Demand your rights, I will support you, and with our unity we will be strong. You must fight for a stable nation."
Two officers in the police and army in Basra put the number of protesters at one million, while Sadrist officials claimed 1.5 million attended. An AFP journalist put the number of protesters at several hundred thousand. Demonstrators, many of whom came from different provinces to take part in what was dubbed the "Day to Support Oppressed Iraqis", shouted: "Yes to rights! Yes to humanity! No to injustice! No to poverty! No to corruption!"
Some protesters held aloft electrical cables, water canisters and shovels to symbolise the poor services that plague Iraq. Others carried empty coffins with words plastered on them such as 'democracy', 'electricity', 'education' and 'services'. Despite increasing oil production, Iraq suffers from electricity shortages, with power cuts multiplying during the boiling summer, poor clean water provision, widespread corruption and high unemployment.
Sadr's movement, which counts around 40 MPs and several ministers as part of its political bloc, organised the demonstration to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam.
The rally had no widespread anti-American message, though some protesters held aloft placards that read "No to America" and "No to Israel". US forces, who numbered nearly 170,000 at their peak in Iraq, withdrew from the country in December, and now just 157 soldiers remain under the charge of the US embassy in addition to a marine detachment responsible for the diplomatic mission's security. In recent years, the Sadrist movement had organised demonstrations on April 9, to coincide with the day the US officially ousted Saddam.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... Iraq has agreed to repatriate Saudi prisoners who fought alongside hard boyz against US-led forces under a deal that signals further improvement of relations between the two major Arab countries.
The prisoner exchange deal comes less than a month after Soddy Arabia named an ambassador to Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... for the first time since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. It also comes ahead of an Arab summit in Storied Baghdad on March 29 which has been delayed twice by regional turmoil and acrimony between Storied Baghdad and some Sunni Moslem Gulf Arab states over a crackdown by Bahrain's Sunni rulers on Shia protesters.
"The agreement emanates from the strong relations between the two brotherly people and in the interest of strengthening friendship and cooperation between them," the Saudi Justice Ministry said in a statement. It was issued after the accord was signed in Riyadh by Justice Minister Muhammad al-Eissa and his Iraqi counterpart Hassan al-Shimari.
An Iraqi Justice Ministry front man said the deal was part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's efforts to strengthen ties with Soddy Arabia. "The two sides agreed that this will be effective as soon as possible," front man Haider Al-Saadi said.
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#1
Maybe the OWS kids should set up a Baghdad Branch.
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 10:05
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[Bangla Daily Star] Yemeni authorities said yesterday they had tightened security around the city of Taez, a day after an American was rubbed out there in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda. Well, yeah. Now that they know they have a problem with al-Qaeda infestation they should.
The top security commission in Yemen's second city met in the wake of Sunday's attack and agreed to reinforce policing, according to Saba state news agency. I mean, everything was so placid before this happened. How were they to know?
The measures include a ban on carrying weapons in the city, "Yew boyz are gonna have to leave that Frog-7 with the bartender in this here town!"
as well as reducing the time during which cycles of violences are allowed to circulate, it said. "Can'tcha read the sign, fellow? It distinctly says 'No exploding between 7pm and 7am! Are you blind?"
Two gunnies riding a motorbike on Sunday rubbed out the deputy director of the International Training Development Centre (ITDC), a US citizen, in the Sena neighbourhood. ... because training is un-Islamic...
A statement attributed to al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen grabbed credit for the attack, saying the man had been proselytising for Christianity. ITDC director Waldemar Braun denied the charge of proselytising and named the victim as Joel Shrum, saying he was a development worker. "Actually, he just hollered 'Holy Jeezis Christ!' a few times..."
"Unfortunately, Mr. Shrum has been accused of being a part of proselytising campaign, but the staff of ITDC, which consists of Mohammedans and Christians working together, has continually focused on human development, skill transfer and community development," Braun said in a statement. He described Shrum as a "very professional employee who highly respected the Islamic religion." That and $3.95 woulda got him a cuppa coffee at Starbucks. In Yemen it got him a lead sandwich, hold the bread...
The US embassy in Sanaa said on Sunday it did not have any information about the killing and that it was investigating the report. That's diplo talk for "What?"
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#1
That's diplo talk for "we honestly don't give a shit about the lives of American citizens abroad and this whole thing is very inconvenient."
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A car bomb exploded in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas Monday afternoon, according to Mexican news accounts.
Ciudad Victoria is the capital of Tamaulipas.
The bomb was set in front of the offices of Expreso newspaper on Bulevar Adolfo Lopez Mateos in Almendros colony.
No one was reported hurt in the blast.
A kindergarten and a grocery store are also located nearby but were not affected by the explosion. Damage was limited to workshops in the building. Five vehicles parked nearby were also damaged by the explosion.
Several grenade attacks have been made in Ciudad Victoria in the last few days.
The latest took place Saturday night near the Ciudad Victoria city hall near the intersection of calles Morelos and Hidalgo in Zona Centro. Armed suspects aboard a sedan threw the grenade at the building.
No one was reported hurt in that attack.
Last Wednesday, several grenade attacks were made against a car dealership and a police academy building. One unidentified individual was killed in those attacks and another two were wounded.
Those attacks took place around the same time as two other small arms attacks in the city which killed two and wounded one. To read the Rantburg.com report on last Wednesday's grenade and small arms attack in Ciudad Victoria, click here Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two women have been killed by Sudanese aerial bombing in South Kordofan, rebels said on Monday after Hollywood star George Clooney accused the Khartoum regime of war crimes. And who should know better than George Clooney?
Sudan's armed forces denied the latest allegations by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). "No, no! Certainly not!"
"We didn't bomb any place," said the army front man, Sawarmi Khaled Saad. "Maybe it was somebody else. Have you asked Ethiopia?"
One woman was killed in Kalkadda, near Kauda, while another died farther south when Antonov planes dropped their bombs, the rebels alleged. "My wife!"
Several cattle were also killed, they said. "My cow!"
To be fair, she was an exceptionally beautiful and well-behaved cow.
The bombing occurred even though there has been no combat between government and rebel forces in those areas of South Kordofan for three or four days, SPLM-N front man Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP.
Clooney, who recently made a clandestine trip to the oil-rich area bordering newly independent South Sudan, told a United States Senate hearing last week he saw hundreds of people running to the hills or hiding in caves because of the omnipresent drone of Antonovs which have left them living in fear.
The mountainous zone was on track for "a major humanitarian crisis" because of persistent bombings by government forces that have impeded agriculture, Princeton Lyman, the US special envoy on Sudan, told the same Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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[Pak Daily Times] A top United States (US) diplomat is urging Western countries to increase funding for Afghanistan, as they prepare to pull their troops out of the restive area.
Marc Grossman, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistain, said on Monday he expects problems in the country, but the risk of setbacks is reduced if funds are raised to enable a "sufficient and sustainable number of Afghan National Security Forces".
Grossman was speaking in Copenhagen at the start of a tour of European countries. The US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... plan to keep some forces in Afghanistan through the end of 2014 when Afghanistan will assume the lead combat role across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
If I have to tangle with you, I will be pissed.
Stop acting like spineless asshats and when you report to US, DONT LIE.
If you string this, This dies.
Stop being ass#%'s and solidify your place before we just let all of you stab each other in the neck because that's YOUR culture.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Theresa Russell aka Milena Flaherty in "Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980)" aka Catharine Petersen in "Black Widow (1987)" aka Lady Harriet Coal in "Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets (1995)" aka Emma Marko in "Spider-Man 3 (2007)" aka Sandra Van Ryan in "Wild Things (1998)" aka Lina Moebius in "The Believer (2001)" aka Gabriela in "Kafka (1991)" aka Cecilia Brady in "The Last Tycoon (1976)" (age 56)
"Far better to do nothing at all and hope it all goes away," is the considered opinion of the by-lined New York Times journalists, who very carefully managed to create two pages of beautifully written text without so much as a single actual quote, not even an anonymous one. But the editors published it on page A1 anyway
* SAME > WIPING SAUDI ARABIA OFF THE MAP | JEWS AND ARABS CAN AGREE NUCLEAR IRAN IS TO BE FEARED.
versus
* ZEROHEDGE > "WE ARE THIS FAR FROM A TURNKEY TOTALITARIAN STATE", in the US of A.
America = Amerika, the OWG Mighty USSA versus the OWG Weak USRoA Global SSR.
* SAME > [Russia Today] DID OBAMA SIGN MARTIAL LAW EXECUTIVE/PRESIDENTIAL ORDER?
D *** NGED NORTH KOREAN INVASION OF CONUS-NORAM [Red Dawn II].
Solar Flare? Asteroid? Peak Oil-Resources? All?
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > BARACK OBAMA [quietly?] PREPARES US FOR WAR, LIKELY IN ANTICIPATION OF IRAN-ISRAEL BLOWUP | ED BLACK: BARACK OBAMA PREPARES [US] FOR WAR FOOTING.
Lest we fergit, NOSTRADAMUS = IRAN/PERSIA WILL NOT + NEVER EVAR! BE DEFEATED UNTIL CUSTER + 7TH CAVALRY "HOLD THE LINE", agz Enemy human waves.
[1960's GUAM TAOTAMONAS = OLIVER STONE'S "PLATOON", AL GORE + VIETNAM M-16, SLASH AS VAL KILMER in "THE DOORS", + TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS here].
D *** NG IT, SO THE SWORD'S NAME IS "EXCALIBUR", WHATS THE BIG DEAL!?
#3
DUH !!
Did Pentagon also find Perils in a nuclear Iran attacking the US with nukes 5 years from now ?
Classical case of "his master's voice" trying to win Champ some quiet time till after the elections, which IMHO will cost much more American blood being spilled after the elections and clearly jeopardize the success of any attack on the nuclear sites once the Iranians move them 200 meters below solid rock.
Typical Obama tactics of ignoring threats with the hope that they can be passed on to anyone suceeding him as POTUS.
Obambi will go down history dustbin as the POTUS who decided not to decide.
A veritable coward !
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/20/2012 7:29
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#4
Does Google have a site for translating JM posts?
#5
At this point, Israel should consider its ugly trump card. That is, concede that in a war with Iran, Israel's military would be so degraded that Israel would be vulnerable to its unstable neighbors, whose sole inclination would be to capitalize on that weakness and destroy Israel.
Therefore, during or after such a war, Israel will have no other choice but the use of nuclear weapons against any aggressor nation or even a heavily armed enemy living under the protection of another nation, such as Hezbollah.
Compounding this, other nations that aid or assist, directly or indirectly, secondary attacks against Israel in that time frame, will also be held accountable, even if they are just unable or unwilling to control the violent impulses of their citizens or parts of their government that engage in belligerent acts.
If the Muslim world joins in solidarity to attack Israel, then the entire Muslim world could be forfeit. And consideration must even be given to those European powers offering weapons and aid to Muslim nations to destroy Israel.
Since the rest of the world has chosen to blather and procrastinate in subduing Pakistan and Iran's drive for nuclear weapons, now it must consider the very real prospect of medium scale nuclear war consuming much of the region.
#6
United States found it was pulled into the conflict after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials
I wonder if the game has a "Gee, maybe it was all just a terrible mistake" option, wherein the POTUS refuses to retaliate?
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
03/20/2012 9:59
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#7
Anonymoose,
I think this time we will indeed be forced to use nukes.
It is not clear what type of nukes and in what manner they will be used, but the situation may force us to use them.
In particular take into consideration the following:
1)A weak at the knees POTUS who might try to punish Israel for doing what he himself does not want to do.
2) A very serious chance that the destabilized Syria, Egypt and Lebanon will join the Hamas, Hizbullah the Iranians at an attempt to put an end to us once and for all. We will not be able to fight on four different fronts while sustaining a long range effort to defang the Mullah's (not for long anyhow). Therefore asction must be very quick and devastating in order to be able to finish the main goal and free the army for defending our borders from closer enwemies and the Iranian proxies.
3) The fact that the US will not supply us with the Big Bunker Busters, and what we have in stock may be inefficient against the Fordo fortifications may necessitate the use of one or more nukes (either Tactical nukes for penetration or a Dirty bomb that will bar access to the site for hundreds of years).
4) We have a long and sad experience with winning in the battlefield only to be forced to accept an armistice by either the US or the UN, instead of dictating the outcome on our own terms. We cannot have this happen in Iran !. Therefore, any attack on Iran must be quick and devastating to ensure that we erase their program in such a way so as to prevent them from doing anything nuclear in the next 20 years. - Nukes are the only way to guarantee that we achieve the military and political goals quickly enough before any of the Eurabs or some of our other "friends" will manage to force us to stop the operation short of achieving anything significant.
5) The political and economical cost of an Israeli operation will be so high (always convenient to blame the Jooooos for doing what you were afraid to do yourself), that we must ensure that the results will be immediate and long lasting - I think a three foot layer of highly radioactive glass over most of the sites might do wonders to guarantee good results that will certainly justify the political and economical high cost of such an attack.
I think that all rational military strategist will see this and take this into consideration !
Including the great world denuclearizer Hussein O'Bamba.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/20/2012 10:11
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If you aren't still totally stunned,and can still speechify; "Was there any particular part of JM's previous comment you'd like to have interpreted? Perhaps I can help...
#12
E of Z,
A US Led/supported/ In-flight refueling-sips strategy should have been "Job One". Since Pharaoh had no idea of what that meant, He instead decided to use AF-1 to facilitate 20 more fund-raisers before TGIF (He's such a Rad Marxist, don't you think?).
[Pak Daily Times] An Egyptian military court on Monday acquitted the brother of al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... , Mohammed al-Zawahiri, overturning a death sentence in a new trial, his lawyer and his son told AFP.
The court also acquitted Mohammed Islambouli, whose brother Khaled assassinated former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, they said. They had been convicted of planning terrorist attacks. "Thank God, he was found innocent," Zawahiri's son Abdelrahman told AFP by telephone after the verdict. "We expect him to be released in the next few days," his lawyer Kamel Mandur said.
In 1998, Zawahiri and Islambouli were sentenced on charges of undergoing military training in Albania and planning military operations in Egypt.
Mandur said the trial also acquitted several other former terrorists, including the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and mentor of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Sayyed Imam Fadl.
But Fadl, like the others acquitted, had shunned violence in the late 1990s and engaged in a war of letters with Ayman al-Zawahiri, denouncing al Qaeda's attacks.
Mohammed al-Zawahiri was released by the military along with other prisoners after Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... fall before the rulers appeared to have a change of heart and had him relocked away within 48 hours.
His son said that Zawahiri had disappeared in the United Arab Emirates and was then secretly renditioned back to Egypt after his sentencing.
He said that in 2001, the US asked Egypt for help in identifying a charred skull found in caves in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains after a battle with al Qaeda terrorists, suspecting it to be the remains of Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The US asked Egypt for a DNA sample from Mohammed al-Zawahiri, said his son Abdel Rahman.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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[An Nahar] Chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Monday condemned an attack by an unidentified gunman who killed four people at a Jewish school in La Belle France, including an Israeli-French dual citizen.
"We strongly condemn all terrorist operations, and in particular the attack today in Toulouse," he said in an statement.
French authorities said at least four people -- one adult and three children -- were dead in the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse.
An Israeli relative of the dear departed man named him as Jonathan Sandler, originally from Jerusalem, who had moved to La Belle France last year.
Israeli media said that two of the three children killed were Sandler's children, aged three and six.
A French prosecutor said the gunman appeared to have first shot Sandler outside the school before one of his weapons jammed, and had then entered the school grounds where he sprayed the area with bullets.
The incident came just days after two previous shootings in the region by a man on a cycle of violence who killed three French soldiers.
Police in southwestern La Belle France launched a major manhunt last week after the killing of three paratroopers and the wounding of another in two separate, but connected, incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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[Pak Daily Times] While hearing a suo motu case regarding irregularities and non-payment of salaries to Pakistan Railways (PR) workers, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered the PR authorities to curb corruption in the department.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the case. PR Chairman Arif Azeem, counsel for PR Rai Nawaz Kharal, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) additional prosecutor general and former Railways Board secretary Shafiqullah appeared before the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Not impossible though, as Jimmuah and his friends would lean on Champ to get move the food aid through. Either Champ can show that he can be tough and lock the food aid down until the rocket launch is canceled for good, or he can be his usual indecisive, squishy self and give the Republicans a gift for the fall campaign.
The United States says North Korea's planned rocket launch imperils the delivery of food aid as part of last month's agreement on nuclear inspections. North Korea announced Friday that it will launch a satellite-carrying a long-range rocket in April.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says the North Korean launch would violate UN resolutions prohibiting the use of ballistic missile technology and counters last month's agreement to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to again inspect North Korean nuclear sites.
"This calls into question whether, when the DPRK entered into that agreement with us, they did so in good faith. Because at the time, we did warn them that we consider that a satellite launch of this kind would be an abrogation of that agreement," Nuland said.
Nuland says it is a highly provocative move that makes the delivery of 240,000 tons of food aid hard to imagine. While she says the United States does not link humanitarian assistance with political issues, Washington will not deliver food aid to Pyongyang unless it is convinced that food will go to those in need.
"It's very hard to imagine that if we have a satellite launch -- which would call into question their good faith and whether they keep any of the commitments that they make, that we would be able to have confidence in the monitoring arrangements that we are trying to make with them, or that the environment would be such, would be sufficiently tension-free that we could actually implement those agreements," Nuland said.
Nuland says the Obama administration's special representative for North Korea, Glyn Davies, has spoken with his counterparts in China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea and they are all working to encourage North Korea to sanity change course.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2012
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#1
More difficult to imagine than already is in North Korea???
#4
Hope that was reactive B. and not a reasoned thought. I'm thinking of the 20-30% un/under-employed and trailing baby boomers learning new ways to cook potatoes and oatmeal.
#6
hard to imagine? sort of like the sactions Bambi placed on all that traded w/ Iran for oil; only today to have Hillary exempt 16 countries? how's that bluffing game working for ya, you spineless piece of Kenyan shiite?
China on Friday expressed unusually strong disapproval of its ally North Korea's plan to launch what it says is a satellite to mark the 100th anniversary of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung next month.
They'll need to do more than this to curb their dog...
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun called in North Korean Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong on Friday night and expressed his concerns, according to the ministry Saturday. It is the first time in the year and three months since the North shelled South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island that the Chinese government has called in Ji.
Zhang reportedly said China is closely looking at North Korea's plans and the international community's reaction, and that the peace and stability in Northeast Asia are "the shared responsibility of the countries involved." He added China truly hopes to improve the current situation.
Experts see that is the strongest rebuke from China since the North's second nuclear test in 2009.
China apparently does not accept North Korea's claim that it is launching a satellite for scientific purposes.
No one else does, either...
When North Korea unveiled its uranium enrichment program to the U.S. at the end of 2010, the Chinese Foreign Ministry backed North Korea, saying it has the right to use civilian nuclear power, but there was no such support for what is widely believed to be a test run for a long-range missile under the guise of a satellite launch.
The fact that North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, who represents the North in six-party nuclear talks, is still in Beijing suggests that North Korea is concerned about China's strong opposition. Ri was originally scheduled to return to North Korea from Beijing on Saturday after concluding visits to the U.S. and Russia.
On Monday he will reportedly meet with Wu Dawei, China's special representative for Korean affairs, to hear Beijing's position on the rocket launch, and return to North Korea on Tuesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2012
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#1
Why would anybody believe what the Chinese are reported to have said, about anything?
#2
because credible reports about Chinese disapproval of NK behavior are important? That IS their little yappy dog
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2012 9:34
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#3
Sorry, but Credible?
according to the ministry suggests that North Korea is concerned about China's strong opposition Experts see China apparently what is widely believed still in Beijing suggests he will reportedly
[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... has claimed the PML-N and PPP leadership have joined hands for concealing their corruption and misdeeds, which was evident from the Senate, by-elections and passage of the 20th Amendment.
Imran Khan was addressing a presser at his residence on Monday, in which Pakistain Democratic Party chief Nawabzada Mansoor Ali Khan also announced the merger of his party with the PTI. During the speech, Imran Khan also announced that the PTI's central working committee had decided to appoint Javed Hashmi chairman of the party.
Imran Khan said that PML-N leadership fully supported the PPP's corrupt government and President Zardari. While criticising Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , he said that both were corrupt and whenever difficult time would come on the country, they would definitely flee from Pakistain. He said the PML-N had supported President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... during his address at the joint session of parliament.
Answering a question about Fazlur Rehman, he said he was the biggest "munafiq" in the Pakistain because he had been a part of every government in the past and was now afraid of the PTI.
Commenting on PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's statement, he said that the whole nation knew how the PML-N had come into being and its billions of rupees corruption. He challenged Nisar Ali Khan to prove if the ISI supported or established the PTI. He said that these were merely allegations. He asked the PML-N to first tell the nation who made the ISI's political wing, what would happen after General Pasha's retirement and who took amount from Mehran Bank.
He said that the PM supported the president to save the corruption of billions of rupees, which was stashed in Swiss banks. Imran said that both the prime minister and President Asif Ali Zardari looted the country. He said that President Asif Ali Zardari looted the country with both hands and then shifted the money to Swiss banks. There was a dire need to get rid of corrupt President Zardari, he added.
He said that due to the wrong policies of the PPP government all institutions, including PIA, Pakistain Railways and others, have reached at the brink of destruction while ever-increasing price hike had made the lives of the people miserable. He claimed that no one could stop the tsunami of the PTI and its upcoming gatherings in Sialkot -- March 23, Mianwali -- March 24 and in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... -- April 8 will prove the growing popularity of the party.
The PTI chief said that intelligence agencies should not interfere in politics on the lam. He demanded the chief justice of Pakistain to probe the Mehran Bank scandal.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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[An Nahar] Syrian security forces on Monday killed 30 people across the country, activists said, following unprecedented pre-dawn deadly festivities in the heart of the capital Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... Nine people were killed in Deir al-Zour, six in Daraa, three in Hama, three in Idlib, three in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , three in the Damascus suburbs of Qatana and Douma, two in al-Qameshli and one in Homs, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Pre-dawn fighting in a heavily guarded area of Damascus, the capital's fiercest since a revolt against Assad's regime erupted a year ago, came as residents still reeled from deadly weekend bombings.
At least three rebels and a member of the security forces were killed in the upscale western neighborhood of Mazzeh, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
and monitors reported.
"Three bad boyz were potted and a fourth was tossed in the clink in the fighting between security forces and an armed terrorist gang sheltered in a house of a residential district," the television channel said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said four rebels were killed. The fighters fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the home of a top army officer as they brought the conflict to the capital, he said.
Murtada Rashid, an activist in Damascus, said blasts and heavy shooting could be heard in Mazzeh and two other districts, Qaboon and Arbin.
A Qaboon resident who did not wish to be identified said "we woke up at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) to the sound of heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades."
In Mazzeh, which is overlooked by Assad's clifftop presidential palace and home to several embassies, terrified locals were woken by the rattle of gunfire. "We were very scared," one told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A mission sent by U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... special envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... arrived in Damascus for talks on a monitoring operation to end the conflict that monitors say has cost more than 9,100 lives since last March.
Monday's festivities in the capital came after twin car booms destroyed two neighborhoods of Damascus on Saturday, killing 27 people, according to the interior ministry.
An Observatory statement said fresh fighting broke out between rebels and security forces in the Qaboon and Barzeh areas of Damascus.
Troops backed by dozens of tanks also raided districts of Deir Ezzor city in eastern Syria, the Observatory said, a day after at least 25 army deserters were killed in seizing its Hamidiyeh district.
Five soldiers, including two officers, were also killed, it said.
In central Syria, soldiers bombarded the Bab Sbaa, Khalidiyeh and Karm al-Shami districts of Homs, which has been relentlessly pounded since early February, the monitoring group said.
Troops in the northwestern province of Idlib attacked Abdita, home village of defector Colonel Riyadh Asaad, head of the Turkey-based rebel Free Syrian Army, local activist Nurredin al-Abdo told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > DON'T RELY ON ARAB STATES TO SAVE SYRIA.
[KELLY "THE HELL YOU SAY" BUNDY here].
versus
* REAL CLEAR POLITICS > SYRIA UPRISING: THINK TANK: US INTERVENTION IN SYRIA COULD REQUIRE 300,000 TROOPS [200-300K], COST US$300.0BILYUHN [$200-300.0Bil], per Year for every Year US Troops are there.
Brookings Institute Saban Center for ME Policy.
ARTIC > denotes that iff the US desires to stop the killing + abuse, etc. of ordinary Syrian Citizens by Assad's forces, "INVASION MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO DO SO ... ONLY WAY THAT WOULD BE GUARANTEED TO DO SO".
THATS JUST SYRUH - WHAT MORE IRAN???
As also complemented by ...
* IIRC TOPIX > ONE YEAR AFTER IT BEGAN, "ARAB SPRINGS" ARE SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL.
Lebanon? Turkey? Egypt? Nuke-armed Pakistan + AFPAK? Somalia + whole of Central Africa?
[Pak Daily Times] Slain al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden's ... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water... brother-in-law has filed a petition in the civil judge Islamabad's court for the custody of his sister Amal Asada and her children. Zakariya has filed the petition through his counsel. According to the petition, the Pak officials indicated that he could take his sister and her children to Yemen. The petition also read that a case had been registered against them. Zakariya requested the court to permit him to meet his sister. The court has reserved its judgement in this regard. On the other hand, according to a report issued by an intelligence agency, Osama bin Laden's three wives, Khaira, Saham and Amal, and two daughters, Mariyam and Samia, entered Pakistain illegally. The report also read Osama's wives and daughters also gave birth to children in Pakistain and hid their identity when admitted to a hospital. The report read further Osama's family was not cooperating with the investigation officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
Osama's #1 + #3 Babe repor had a big catfight in prison custody oer the circumstances behind OBL's death.
Couldn't be WHITNEY HOUSTON because she was back here in CONUS.
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... rejected on Monday Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Trampler of Homs... remarks that his regime will remain, "but Syria will be divided." That's why Wally needs a food taster and a remote starter for his car.
He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: "The political solution that calls for the end of the Syrian regime is the only way to settle the crisis."
"No sound human being cannot but support the political solution to the crisis because the alternatives will mean the eruption of civil war," he added.
"It's only logical that the political solution favor the Syrian people and its demands," he noted.
Furthermore, the MP said that he is still hoping that Russia would play a central role in ending the crisis, which requires immediate action "because experience with the Syrian regime has taught us that it is adept at stalling."
Jumblat wondered however if reaching a political solution would be possible under the current ruling family in Syria, noting that it had squandered opportunity after opportunity for saving the country from its crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
Widout the Lebbies or Syruh there will be no major Iranian Navy presence in the Mediterranean, let alone the far Atlantic - Iran will have to be content competing agz Pakistan + Turkey for strategic access to Sri Lanka + Hainan.
You can just hear CHINA + INDIA + ASEAN TWIDDLING THEIR FINGERS, CAN'T YA!?
[Pak Daily Times] A German-Afghan man whose information prompted terrorism warnings across Europe in 2010 went on trial in western Germany on Monday; on charges he was a member of al Qaeda and another terrorist group. Ahmad Wali Siddiqui I happen to know from experience that Germans are named Fritz, or Rudi, or Heinrich, or something like that, unless they're Helgas. No self-respecting Schweinehachsenfresser would be named Ahmad.
looked relaxed as his trial opened at a court in the western city of Koblenz. No pleas were entered under the German system and Siddiqui did not immediately address the charges against him, telling the court about his upbringing and how he immigrated to Germany as a teenager.
The 37-year-old was captured by US troops in Afghanistan in July 2010 and, while in jug, provided details on alleged al Qaeda plots supposedly targeting European cities. No attacks materialised. He is accused of membership in al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and faces a possible 10 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged that Siddiqui trained with both terrorist groups in Pakistain and in the border region with Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, with an aim of taking part in jihad, or holy war. Authorities had said he was one of about a dozen radical Mohammedans who left the northern German port city of Hamburg in 2009 to pursue terrorist training in the border region.
Another member of the group, German-Syrian dual national Rami Makanesi, was convicted last year in a Frankfurt state court of membership in al Qaeda and sentenced to four years and nine months. He was placed in durance vile in Pakistain in June 2010 and then extradited to Germany. Before going to Pakistain, Siddiqui and several other suspects met at Hamburg's al Quds mosque, the prayer house that had served as a gathering point for some of the September 11 attackers before they moved to the US to attend flight schools in 2000, German intelligence officials said.
This article starring:
Ahmad Wali Siddiqui
Rami Makanesi
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03/20/2012
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[Pak Daily Times] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... has failed to properly investigate or provide compensation for civilian deaths caused by its air strikes during the seven-month operation in Libya that helped bring about the overthrow of Muammar Qadaffy, ... who is now napping peacefully in the dirt... Amnesia Amnesty International said on Monday.
Echoing similar criticisms aired this month by their paymaster Russia, Amnesty said scores of Libyans who were not involved in the conflict had been killed or injured in NATO bombings but there had been no legitimate investigations.
"NATO officials repeatedly stressed their commitment to protecting civilians," Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Adviser at Amnesty, said in a statement. "They cannot now brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret without properly investigating these deadly incidents."
It's called a 'civil war', Donatella, it happens.
Inquiries should determine whether any civilian casualties resulted from a breach of international law, and if so, those responsible should be brought to justice, Amnesty said. The NATO military mission, authorised by the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Security Council, began on March 31 last year with the aim of protecting civilians under attack or threat of attack. NATO forces carried out some 26,000 sorties including some 9,600 strike missions and destroyed about 5,900 targets before operations ended on Oct. 31.
Investigators for the UN Human Rights Council concluded earlier this month that NATO had caused civilian deaths but had taken extensive precautions to ensure civilians were not killed. Amnesty agreed NATO had made significant efforts to minimise the risk of civilian casualties, through precision bombing and warning where strikes would occur. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the rights group said that did not release NATO from the responsibility to carry out investigations into any deaths, or making reparations to victims or families of those killed.
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BAQUBA, Iraq: Bombers struck five times in a province north of Baghdad yesterday evening, killing at least three people and wounding more than 30, police said.
Diyala province, a fertile agricultural region criss-crossed by canals where Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds live side by side, has long been one of the most volatile areas in Iraq. Mondays bombings all took place after sunset in the provincial capital Baquba or towns and villages to the east.
A car bomb in the town of Balad Ruz, in a district occupied mainly by Shiite Kurds, killed one person and wounded 12 including four children police said. Balad Ruz is about 20 km east of Baquba.
A roadside bomb near a police station in Baquba wounded four policemen and 12 civilians, and another explosion 10 km to the east wounded three civilians.
Two bombs stuck to cars killed the drivers of the vehicles, one in Baquba and the other in a village 25 km to the east.
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[Pak Daily Times] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (KP) Inspector General (IG) Akbar Hoti claimed on Monday that Mangal Bagh, ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... chief of a banned outfit, was killed in a military operation in Kurram Agency. ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... Talking to news hounds, Hoti said the warlord was killed during a skirmish with security forces in the tribal region where a military offensive is underway. Bagh's banned Laskhar-e-Islam (LI) operates in Kurram and Orakzai agencies. At least 51 cut-throats and four soldiers have been killed in air strikes and festivities with security forces in Kurram and Orakzai over the past week, officials said on Sunday. On the other hand, the banned outfit rubbished the claims and said Bagh was alive and staying at a safe place.
LI commander Muhammad Hussain told a TV channel that Bagh was not killed in a military offensive. Bagh, a former bus driver, wais at the forefront of the increasing Talibanisation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the country's northwest. His forces mounted increasing attacks on Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and, in broad daylight, kidnapped residents for high sums of ransom. He was the leader (and according to some reports, founder) of LI, a paramilitary organization operating in Khyber and Orakzai agencies.
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[An Nahar] Somalia's al-Qaeda allied Shebab hard boyz fired mortars at the presidential palace in the capital overnight, killing six civilians in a camp for displaced people nearby.
The hardline Islamist group said its salvo of "midnight mortar attacks" were targeted at the palace, and boasted of killing African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and government soldiers.
But AU force front man Paddy Ankunda said only non-combatants were killed, adding the shells missed the presidency by about 300 meters and hit one of the many crowded camps.
"A father, mother and two of their children have all died, after a mortar shell smashed into their hut, and another round killed two other civilians," said Abdiwahid Mohamed, a witness.
"People were sleeping when the mortar shells started falling, it killed a number of civilians at a camp near the presidential palace," said Colonel Bare Mohamed, a government security official.
The presidency -- guarded by a 10,000-strong AU force -- has come under several recent attacks, including a jacket wallah attack claimed by the Shebab that killed five people last week.
"It's the second attack on the presidential palace in a week, demonstrating the sheer impotence that is surrounding the weak apostate regime," the hard boyz said in a message posted on Twitter.
"In every alley, every corner and every lane of Mogadishu, a mujahid (Islamist fighter) lies in wait for them," the rebels added.
Muktar Ali, another witness, said at least six mortar shells hit around the camp for displaced people in war-wracked Mogadishu and three inside. Seven other people were maimed.
"We are burying the dead at a cemetery not far away from the camp," he added.
The hardline Islamists have resorted to guerrilla tactics after the majority abandoned fixed bases in Mogadishu in August in what the Shebab claimed was a tactical retreat but the AU mission said represented a military defeat.
The Shehab last month also lost control of their strategic base of Baidoa to Ethiopian troops and pro-government Somali forces, the second major loss in six months.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... experts warn the Shebab are far from defeated and remain a major threat, especially now they have switched to guerrilla tactics.
The Shebab and other militia groups have tried to exploit the power vacuum in Somalia, which has had no effective central authority since plunging into war 21 years ago when president Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
In recent months however, the Shebab have faced increasing pressure from the armies of Somalia's neighbors.
Kenya sent its troops into southern Somalia to fight them last October, blaming the Shebab for the abductions of several foreigners. Its troops have now been incorporated into the AU force.
Ethiopian forces entered Somalia a month later in the west, as international diplomatic, military and relief efforts focus on ending the conflict in the south.
At a London conference last month, international powers pledged to boost aid for Somalia to tackle Islamist militancy, piracy and political instability, warning that failure to help could hurt the rest of the world.
The mandate of the government expires in August and the fragile administration's international backers have ruled out any further extension, pressing for the formation of a new administration that can impose nationwide authority.
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[An Nahar] Two more generals have decamped Syria and linked up with rebels trying to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... regime in Damascus, ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... a Turkish diplomat said on Monday.
The latest defections mean a total of nine generals have deserted since the revolt against Assad's rule erupted a year ago, many of them seeking refuge in neighboring Turkey.
In addition, around 200 more Syrians crossed into Turkey on Sunday, bringing the total number of refugees to 16,100, the same official added on condition of anonymity.
"The generals arrived Friday and nearly 200 other people, most of them women and kiddies, have crossed over since yesterday", the official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has been at the forefront of international criticism of the deadly crackdown on protestors and has become the main haven for opposition groups and rebel fighters.
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[Bangla Daily Star] German dictator Adolf Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like... had a secret Nazi ranch near Hollywood in Los Angeles from where he intended to rule the world had his country won World War II, say historians.
Built by US sympathisers of the Nazi cause, Hilter's Murphy Ranch was tucked away in the idyllic Los Angeles hills between celebrity mansions and olive trees.
In fact, it was the heavily guarded home to a community of 50 Hollywood fascists who had planned to ride out the war there until the Third Reich was victorious, according to the historians.
The day after Pearl Harbour was bombed on December 7, 1941, police raided the place and took away its occupants.
Now ravaged by time, the property still stands a mile or so from the home of director Steven Spielberg; one of the most haunting landmarks in Los Angeles, it will soon be turned into a picnic area for hikers, the 'Sunday Express' reported.
Historian Randy Young said, "This was supposed to be the seat of American fascism ...a political system developed in Italia symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... from where Hitler would one day rule the US. They may've been Nazis but they're Nazis with taste."
In 1933, the 55-acre ranch was sold by screen cowboy Will Rogers to mining fortune heiress Jessie Murphy who later became enchanted by a charismatic German known only as Herr Schmidt who was secretly Hitler's special agent in Caliphornia.
Hitler's man in Hollywood persuaded her to invest US dollars four million to equip the property with a diesel power plant, a 375,000 gallon concrete water tank, bomb shelter and 22 bedrooms.
The plan was to turn it into a fascist Utopia where they and their Nazi friends could farm the land and live self -sufficiently far from the world's gaze until their big moment came, say the historians.
This article starring:
Historian Randy Young
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#3
Nah, methinks it was Stalin who hoped to ruled the world from Hollywood. He had one hell of a lot more than 50 sympathizers working in the biz, plus Malibu would have been a really appealing place to wait out those nasty Russian winters.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
03/20/2012 9:12
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#4
He still has a heck of a lot of 'sympathizers working in the biz' Ricky
The first stage of a North Korean three-stage rocket to be launched next month is expected to land around 140 km off the coast of Byeonsan in the West Sea, raising the question how it is to be retrieved. The first stage will likely separate at an altitude of 250 to 300 km
Lower than that, figure no more than 20 to 30 km at most...
and fall at a site around 450 km from the launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province.
"The first stage will drop faster than the speed of sound, and most of it will burn up during the descent, but some debris could fall into the ocean," a government source here said. He added the South "would be able to gain detailed information about North Korea's long-range missile by analyzing the debris."
South Korean and U.S. officials believe the relatively shallow waters of the West Sea will make it easier to recover pieces of the first stage. The average depth of the West Sea is around 40 m and the South Korean and U.S. navies have the technology to locate and recover the debris there.
South Korea and the U.S. apparently plan to deploy spy satellites, high-tech surveillance aircraft and Aegis destroyers to pinpoint the location where the first stage will land. The South Korean Navy has two Aegis-class destroyers capable of tracking North Korean ballistic missiles from 1,000 km away. Torpedo search vessels equipped with the latest sonar equipment, as well as special navy divers will also be deployed to search for debris.
Some fear that the rocket could malfunction and crash into South Korean waters or on land. But experts say the North might will blow up the rocket if it strays off course, either with remote-controlled systems from Tongchang-ri or by using explosives mounted on the rocket.
Then the Norks might claim that the ROK or the US 'interfered' with the launch of their baby...
South Korea has only PAC-2 Patriot missiles whose capacity is too limited to shoot down long-range North Korean missiles or rockets.
We can fix that...
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[An Nahar] Russian media reports said a Russian military unit had arrived in Syria, a development that a United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions.
The Russian Black Sea fleet's Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard, according to the Interfax news agency.
The Assad regime insists it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.
The Iman replaced another Russian ship "which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens," the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.
RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic-language website. The Russian embassy in the U.S. and the Russian mission to the U.N. declined to comment, saying they have "no particular information on" the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.
Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.
Last week Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no plans to send troops to Syria.
"As for the question whether I consider it necessary to confront the United States in Syria and ensure our military presence there ... in order to take part in military actions -- no. I believe this would be against Russia's national interests," Lavrov told politicians, according to RIA Novosti.
Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied reports that Russian special forces were operating inside Syria. He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. government had not heard of the reports of Russian troops in Syria and declined to comment.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Declaring countrywide protest rallies for tomorrow, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said indicting Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... in an August 21 grenade attack case is nothing but a conspiracy to keep him away from the next national polls.
"None out of the 61 witnesses had mentioned his [Tarique] name before further investigation into the allegations. Even the prime accused Mufti Hannan in his statement said he had never been to Hawa Bhaban [BNP chairperson's former political office] or met Tarique Rahman," Fakhrul told a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan office.
As part of the programme, the BNP will stage a protest rally in front of its office tomorrow.
A Dhaka court on Sunday framed charges against 30 accused including Tarique in the supplementary charge sheet of the killing case.
The BNP leader alleged that the present investigation officer Abdul Kahar Akand has named BNP's Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman only to satisfy the government. "He [Akand] aspired to win nomination from Awami League in the last general elections. He was brought back from retirement to carry out further investigation."
Fakhrul condemned the government initiative to try Tarique in the grenade attack case and demanded withdrawal of all the cases against him. "Tarique Rahman has emerged as a popular leader among the youth. He has started working to make Bangladesh a modern country."
He claimed that Tarique was not allowed the privilege of self-defence before framing of the charge in the case.
When he was told by a newsman that a notice was published in different newspapers asking Tarique to appear before the court, Fakhrul said "Everything should not be seen from a legal point of view. It's a political case. Tarique Rahman has been indicted in the case because of political reasons."
Even Tarique Rahman was not allowed to appoint a lawyer to organise his defence in the court, he argued.
Responding to a journalist's query about whether a runaway accused can get this opportunity, he said, "We have nothing to say if you [journalists] talk in the tone of the ruling party... He [Tarique] is abroad with permission from a court for medical treatment. Despite knowing that, another court has shown him as a runaway."
Several pro-BNP lawyers and party leaders were present at the presser.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... 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 close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. 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... acting chief Maqbul Ahmed yesterday in a statement demanded release of party's Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed and asked the government to withdraw the allegations against him.
The government has indicted him (Mojaheed) in the August 21 grenade attack case only to exact political Dire Revenge™, he alleged.
Twenty-four AL leaders and workers were killed and around 300 others were maimed in the gruesome attack on an AL rally on August 21, 2004.
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[Yemen Post] Yemeni fishermen managed on Sunday to capture an Eritrean soldier after Eritrean naval boats attempted to assault some Yemeni fishermen inside international territorial waters.
The only thing more humiliating would be if they were fishergirls.
Security sources confirmed that Eritrean naval boats intercepted three Yemeni boats that belong to fishermen at Taklai area, located in the international territorial water between Sudan and Eritrea and attempted to force them [the fishermen] to accompany them to the Eritrea.
The soldiers started jumping in the boats, however, two boats managed to flee while an Eritrean soldiers was in and reach Yemeni territorial water.
The third boat with three fishermen on board were force to go to Eritrean shores, added the sources.
Eritrean security sources stated that it had released the boat, however, it kept the three Yemeni fishermen as hostages until the Eritrean soldier is released.
That makes no sense, as the Eritrean navy went hunting before it lost its soldier through incompetence. What, pray tell, was their original intent?
Yemeni security source told Yemen Post Eritrea is trying to secure captives swap to press Yemen release the soldier.
Eritrean naval forces invaded the some Yemeni islands after the civil war. But Yemen preferred to resolve the issue peacefully and referred the case to the Security Council which passed a resolution obliging Eritrea to hand over the island to Yemen.
This incident is one of a series of attacks and assaults by Eritreans who keep on targeting Yemeni fishermen, taking an advantage of the weak dysfunctional Yemeni navy.
In other words, the darlings went in to bully some poor fishermen, and got their noses bloodied for the attempt.
Fishermen have repeatedly called on their government to shoulder its responsibility and protect its citizens against the frequent attack by Eritrea.
With all the pirates and such in that part of the world, not to mention the habit of Yemeni men to go about armed, the wonder is that the fisherman are not.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2012
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#1
They released the boat and it bravery sailed home, who are they kidding? The Eritreans now have a new flagship is more like it!
Posted by: Steven ||
03/20/2012 1:22
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Swiss judge has resigned from Cambodias UN-backed tribunal of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of war crimes, alleging staunch opposition from a Cambodian counterpart to the crucial investigation of new suspects.
Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said Monday the conflict had created a dysfunctional situation on the court, which is seeking justice for an estimated 1.7 million people who died of starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care or torture during the communist Khmer Rouges 1970s rule.
Opposition to expanding the trials is not new. Prime Minister Hun Sen has publicly chided and threatened the tribunal several times, saying it should not extend its prosecutions to more Khmer Rouge figures, some of whom have become political allies.
Kasper-Ansermet had replaced a German judge who himself left in October and also cited government interference. Human Rights Watch already had accused Siegfried Blunk of failing to conduct genuine and impartial research beyond the one suspect convicted last year and the top Khmer Rouge leaders currently on trial in the second case to go before the court.
Kasper-Ansermet said in a statement issued by the tribunal Monday that a Cambodian colleague, You Bunleng, had constantly contested his authority. He accused Bunleng of active opposition to new cases and said that during an informal meeting, Bunleng had refused to even discuss them. Bunleng could not immediately be reached for comment.
Prosecutors have compiled substantial evidence for so-called Cases 003 and 004, which include two top military commanders who also were leaders in Cambodias post-Khmer Rouge military, according to confidential court documents obtained by AP. The documents allege both took part in purges that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.
The government, however, has openly stonewalled. Hun Sen told Ban last year that new cases would not be allowed. He has warned that new cases could spark renewed civil war, though his opposition likely stems from the many Khmer Rouge officials, like himself, who are now in government and who fear investigators could find new evidence of war crimes.
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[Yemen Post] Official sources denied media reports that a high-ranking military delegation headed for Washington with the aim of holding talks with US officials in Pentagon regarding arrangements to restructure the Yemeni army and security apparatus, Al-Kalij newspaper reported Saturday.
"Chief of Staff and a high-ranking military delegation are set to pay a visit to USA soon, but their visit aims to discuss with Pentagon a raft of issues with regard to the bilateral military cooperation," Al-Kalij quoted the sources as saying.
No time frame was set to the visit, according to the sources, which considered the army shakeup is an internal issue that not US nor any country else would be allowed to interfere in.
The sources also dismissed media reports that the Military Committee, tasked with restructuring the army and clear armed manifestation from the central cities, received proposal from the Washington embassy, describing them as baseless.
Worried about the security situation in Yemen, US embassy mooted a proposal intended to remove the current obstacles standing in the way of implementing army shakeup provision that was a major term of the Gulf-initiated accord, the reports said.
The US embassy allegedly suggested that ten key army commanders quit simultaneously.
The commanders suggested to resign at the same time are Ahmed the eldest son of former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , who is the commander of the elite Elite Republican Guards that accounts for more that 40 percent of the national army, and Ali Mohsen AL-Hmar, the army general who defected against his former ally and sided with the revolution, as well as 8 of their loyal commanders.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Tonga's King George Tupou V died at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital Sunday, according to Tonga's Ministry of Information and Communications.
[Pak Daily Times] At least eight people were killed and 15 others 
North Korea has told the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization that its first stage of a rocket it is to fire next month will land in waters 140 km west of Byeonsan Peninsula and the second 190 km east of the Philippines.
At least five persons, believed to be terrorists, were killed and one injured in a 
[Pak Daily Times] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said that US-led 
A lawyer at the Faisalabad Sessions Court on Monday slapped a civil judge for rejecting a bail plea of a man accused of robbery.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Interpol said Sunday it had issued an international "red notice" warrant for Libya's ex-spy chief Abdullah Senussi at 
International Criminal Court
[Yemen Post] The former Attorney-General Abdullah Al-Olfi has said t that he was fired by the former president 
[Yemen Post] Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindowa has accused the former president 
In anticipation of a potential attack, heavy security presence were witnessed on Sunday and Monday around the Central Prison in the southern port city of Aden, according to locals and eyewitnesses.
Moqtada 
[Bangla Daily Star] Yemeni authorities said yesterday they had tightened security around the city of Taez, a day after an American was 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two women have been killed by Sudanese aerial bombing in South Kordofan, rebels said on Monday after Hollywood star George Clooney accused the Khartoum regime of war crimes.
A top United States (US) diplomat is urging Western countries to increase funding for Afghanistan, as they prepare to pull their troops out of the restive area.
Zawahiri
Chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Monday condemned an attack by an unidentified gunman who killed four people at a Jewish school in 
cycle of violence
While hearing a suo motu case regarding irregularities and non-payment of salaries to Pakistan Railways (PR) workers, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered the PR authorities to curb corruption in the department.
Pakistain 
Nawaz Sharif
President Asif Ali 
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces on Monday killed 30 people across the country, activists said, following unprecedented pre-dawn deadly 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
[Pak Daily Times] Slain al Qaeda chief 
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
[Pak Daily Times] A German-Afghan man whose information prompted terrorism warnings across Europe in 2010 went on trial in western Germany on Monday; on charges he was a member of al Qaeda and another terrorist group. 
[An Nahar] Somalia's al-Qaeda allied Shebab 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
German dictator 
[An Nahar] Russian media reports said a Russian military unit had arrived in Syria, a development that a 
Declaring countrywide protest rallies for tomorrow, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said indicting 
[Yemen Post] Yemeni fishermen managed on Sunday to capture an Eritrean soldier after Eritrean naval boats attempted to assault some Yemeni fishermen inside international territorial waters. 
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Swiss judge has resigned from Cambodias UN-backed tribunal of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of war crimes, alleging staunch opposition from a Cambodian counterpart to the crucial investigation of new suspects.
[Yemen Post] Official sources denied media reports that a high-ranking military delegation headed for Washington with the aim of holding talks with US officials in Pentagon regarding arrangements to restructure the Yemeni army and security apparatus, Al-Kalij newspaper reported Saturday.
