#4
ION TOPIX > RUSSIA: ANNAN IS ASSAD'S LAST CHANCE.
Looks like even pro-Assad Mama Russia has a limit???
* SAME > HEZBULLAH WANTS TO REMOVE FAR-REACHING SCUDS [SCUD-D's + AAMS/ADMS] FROM SYRIA, to Lebanon.
* SAME > US SAYS MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SYRIA "WILL LEAD TO GREATER CARNAGE" [ +
"greater chaos"].
* SAME > US REMAINS COMMITTED TO NON-INTERVENTION IN SYRIA.
versus
* SAME > HILLARY: RUSSIA'S STANCE [anti-Foreign, UN intervention] ON SYRIA COULD LEAD TO CIVIL WAR.
* SAME > IRAN: WESTERN INTERVENTION IN SYRIA "UNACCEPTABLE".
Iran sezzes it will resist any outside intervention in Syria agz its BFF Assad by any + all means necessary.
* WAFF > WSJ: NOTE TO SYRIA INTERVENTIONISTS - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR [youse just might get it]. Baby Assad's + Regime's "doomsday option(s)".
Aka "Mutually Assured Destruction/Annihilation", sub-aka "iff I do down, I'm taking Everybody + Everything in ME wid me", e.g. Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, + Hezbollah = Lebanon, etc. as Syria possesses a very large arsenal of SSMS + also the ME's largest stock of ChemWar, + possibly also BioWar, Weapons.
The United States has formally asked Iraq to extradite a suspected Hezbollah operative accused of killing American troops, a U.S. official told Reuters, amid heightened concerns in Washington that he may go free.
It was not immediately clear when the request was filed and Iraqi officials approached by Reuters denied knowledge of it, casting doubt on whether an extradition was seriously being considered at this point in Baghdad.
The fate of Ali Mussa Daqduq has been vexing American officials since last December, when the United States was forced to hand him over to Baghdad after failing to secure a custody deal ahead of the U.S. military's withdrawal from the country.
#3
Because he needs an excuse for the Dem-Jewish voters as to why there is no permission for Israel to attack Iran with real weapons (as compared to wimpy cyber ones).
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/01/2012 13:03
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#4
Obama gives away our treasure for a hopeless cause that is the housing market.
Now he's giving away information that should be kept secret (if for no other reason than to keep the Iranians guessing) in order to try to bolster his chances to win the presidential election.
This is not the actions of someone who has the best interests of his country in mind.
It may have a secondary consequence of taking some of the heat off of Israel, but Israel already essentially admitted they developed and fielded the Flame worm, so they don't really care all that much.
#7
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CONFIRMED: US + ISRAEL CREATED STUXNET, BUT LOST CONTROL OF IT, most likely due to alleged unilateral Israeli upgrades or modifications to the Stux Virus/Worm widout US knowledge. INTER-ALLIED HILARITY ENSUES.
ARTIC > OBAMA VEEP BIDEN = exclaimed D **** It, t'was the Israelis dat did us in.
Obama must be jealous - another step towards tyranny. Hoogo's imminent death sets the table for civil war
Until now, anyone with a gun permit could buy arms from a private company.
Under the new law, only the army, police and certain groups like security companies will be able to buy arms from the state-owned weapons manufacturer and importer.
The ban is the latest attempt by the government to improve security and cut crime ahead of elections in October uh huh....
Venezuela saw more than 18,000 murders last year and the capital, Caracas, is thought to be one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2012
11:28 ||
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#1
Tyrants always do this right before the full power grab.
The Justice Department ordered Florida's elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state's voter rolls of noncitizen voters.
Florida's effort appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act -- which governs voter purges -- T. Christian Herren Jr., the Justice Department's lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page letter sent late Thursday night.
State officials said they were reviewing the letter. But they indicated they might fight DOJ over its interpretation of federal law and expressed frustration that President Barack Obama's administration has stonewalled the state's noncitizen voter hunt for nine months.
"We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot," said Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was ordered by Gov. Rick Scott to conduct the search for potentially ineligible voters. Just the simple fact that Holder doesn't want the non-citizen voters off the rolls says TREASON. Obama and the dhims will not play fair, because they will lose. The blatant attempt to hold onto power shows them as the tyrants they are. There might be a legitimate reason for stopping a purge, but it's incumbent on the DoJ to make clear what that reason is in the letter. From what I've read, they cite the law without explaining further. That won't cut it.
#3
The DOJ's objection to removing non-citizens from the voter rolls is that it will disproportionately impact people who do not have the right to vote?
#4
Let's see, as I recall, Lyndon Johnson was president in 1965 and he had the arms of most members of Congress twisted up pretty well behind their backs. Y'all can keep on believing that jimmuh carter was the worst president evar but my vote still goes to old Lyndon Bull...but then that could be because I don't remember Franklin Roosevelt.
#5
I personally think that if the Government had taken a hands off position with the home mortgage mess and let the banks and investment houses eat their crappy financial schemes, we'd be out of the woods by now.
If Obama had just gone in his office, shut the door and vetoed every piece of financial legislation produced by Congress, we'd be around the corner.
The financial meddling,much as FDR's ill advised tinkering extended and made the Depression worse, has made this DEPRESSION worse.
We are in a Depression folks. No two ways to cut it unless you are a Nobel Laureate Economist with his head stuck to the shoulder blades up Obama's butt....are you listening Paul, you are an idiot.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 14:29
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#6
Holder has to go. He is a danger to our Republic. He is the most partisan, racist AG we have ever had.
#8
if the Government had taken a hands off position with the home mortgage mess and let the banks and investment houses eat their crappy financial schemes, we'd be out of the woods by now.
The Gov't was the cause of the mortgage mess in forcing the lenders to write mortgages they normally would not. ACORN called it red-lining and racism, but the bottom line was nobody wanted to write loans and mortgages to people who could not pay them back. Not unless the Gov't would buy the bad paper, which spiraled off into the mess we know today.
And yes, everything the Gov't has done to 'fix' the problem has made it worse.
The militants accused in a Pakistan court of conspiring with a doctor recruited by the CIA to find Osama Ben Laden said Thursday they had nothing to do with him and threatened to kill him.
Shakeel Afridi was on May 24 sentenced to 33 years in jail after he was found guilty of treason under Pakistan's archaic system of tribal justice.
He was arrested after US troops killed Ben Laden in May 2011 in the town of Abbottabad where he set up a fake vaccination programme in the hope of obtaining DNA samples to confirm the Al Qaeda leader's presence. But he was convicted for treason over alleged ties to Lashkar-e-Islam and not for working for the CIA, for which the court said it did not have jurisdiction.
So the Paks now admit that L-e-I might be a terrorist organization? There's news...
is a militant organisation feared for kidnappings and extortion in the tribal district of Khyber, where Afridi worked for years as a doctor.
The court said Afridi had "close links" to the group, saying the doctor's "love" for Bagh and "association with him was an open secret".
But a spokesman and a commander in the organisation both told AFP that they had nothing to do with Afridi.
"We have no link to such a shameless man. If we see him we'll chew him alive," the commander said on condition of anonymity.
So they're also zombies...
The spokesman, who gave his name as Ghazi Hussain, branded Afridi a "traitor, an enemy of Pakistan and of the Muslim nation".
"Whenever and wherever we get an opportunity to kill him, we will. If we can, we will even kill him inside the jail," Hussain told AFP.
The court said Afridi paid two million rupees ($21,000) to the faction and helped to provide medical assistance to militant commanders in Khyber. But the group said the $21,000 was a fine imposed for over-charging patients.
"Afridi and his fellow doctor were fleecing tribesmen, giving them fake medicines and doing fake surgeries. We had a lot of complaints against them and imposed a fine of two million rupees on them," the commander said.
Local residents also told AFP that Afridi was fined for performing "unnecessary surgeries and over-charging" patients at his private clinic in the town of Bara.
Hussain rejected any alleged links with Afridi as "false and concocted", saying he had been fined and expelled from Khyber "three or four years ago".
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council's Transportation Committee, did not explain who he believed would "get hurt" or who the perpetrators might be. But, he was clearly referring to civil disobedience or maybe even violence at the construction site.
"I'm trying to help you help yourself. When I say that, problems could arise. When you look at a community like Englewood [that] is challenged and you have over $1 billion of work coming through and there's no people of color working on that project, I'm afraid people are going to get hurt," Beale told Clifford during Thursday's committee hearing.
"When you look at the make-up of the community -- when you look at the unemployment rate ... in that particular community, it's probably 35, almost 40 percent. ... To have a contract come like this in the African-American community with less than one percent minority participation is an insult."
Clifford said he "respects and appreciates" Beale's point. But, he also stood his ground, arguing that Metra has "not done anything wrong" and "followed federal statutes to the letter."
As required by federal law, Metra established a 25 percent benchmark for "disadvantaged business enterprises," a category that includes any business with an annual net worth that does not exceed $1.32 million, Clifford said. That means small businesses as well as those owned by minorities and women.
It was bound to happen. The Israelis, growing weary of looking for a Palestinian leader actually committed to negotiating a two-state solution, are starting to consider laying down their own parameters for an interim situation and then waiting for Palestinians to come to the negotiating table.
No less a figure than Ehud Barak, the current defense minister and a former prime minister, this week floated the idea of Israel adopting a provisional arrangement or even unilateral action setting borders.
Hes not the only one. In forming a national unity government a few weeks back, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu elevated to deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz, a former paratrooper who saw action in three of Israels wars and who favors establishing a temporary Palestinian state on about 60 percent of the West Bank. And in April three prominent Israelis, including Ami Ayalon, a former official of the Mossad intelligence agency, advocated unilateral actions in an op-ed in the New York Times. They argued the Jewish state can transform the stalemate, writing, Israel can and must take constructive steps to advance the reality of two states based on the 1967 borders with land swaps regardless of whether Palestinian leaders have agreed to accept it.
Yo, Israel: you've won four major wars, put down several large insurrections, and numerous small groups of terrorist thugs. In world history, this is called, "VICTORY".
To the victor goes the spoils.
Now then: you've been too nice. You've been too moral. That's your problem right there. It is understandable given what has happened to the Jewish people these last few hundred years combined with the teachings of your holy book.
But you've got to get over this enough to start thinking of your long-term survival. Golda Meir pointed out that you would have peace with the Palestinians when they began to love their children more than they loved war, jihad and death.
That day doesn't seem to be around the corner, does it?
Ariel Sharon figured this out, and he had a solution. Draw a line in the sand. That's the border. Build a big wall: cconcrete, barbed wire, moats, alligators, sharks with lasers on their heads. What's inside is yours and you don't care what's outside, as long as what's outside doesn't threaten you.
And don't slavishly follow the 1967 border. You WON, remember? YOU get to decide where the border will be. You need some extra land to ensure your defense (or just to enjoy the view), take it. If you wish to be magnanimous, fine, but there's no requirement under international law for you to be a chump.
Put the onus on the Palestinians to make decisions. The world has been infantilizing them this past half-century. From the UNHCR to the Arabs to the Quartet to each and every American president since Harry Truman, we've treated the Palestinians as wards, incapable of being responsible for their behavior. That has to stop. Force the Palestinians to get their acts together.
But to do that, you have to treat them as a people. No problem. Build a wall. What's inside is Israel, what's outside is Palestine. Let the Palestinians figure out how to run it. Gobsmack them if they mess with you, and make sure that the Palestinians ALWAYS know that the mailed fist is ready. If they do manage to behave, then work with them to the extent that you can and desire.
It won't be peace. But it will be a lot more quiet.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2012 11:19
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#4
Yup. It's time to draw the line and end it. Keep Judah and Sumaria and lock the rest down. It's a done deal.You can never placate these children no matter what you do.
#2
The cross is offensive to mooslims. MEDIVAC helo's with red crosses.... good to go. MRAP's and other vehciles that transit haji villages....not so much.
#5
"The MNC-I SJA recommends against using the M249 on MRAP ambulances marked with a red cross. Though not a technical violation of international law, using an M249 on a vehicle marked with a medical symbol would have negative IO implications in the ITO."
See, shiite like that makes me wish I'd stayed in. Commanders are the client and it is the lawyer's job to get to yes. NOTHING forbids tactical self-defense, which is in fact explicitly authorized by Geneva and everything else.
However: I note that it only bars only crew-served weapons from the cupola. Surely there are other types of weapons that could be suitably employed?
#6
However: I note that it only bars only crew-served weapons from the cupola. Surely there are other types of weapons that could be suitably employed?
A forward air controller and a B1B loitering nearby?
#9
A B-1B can carry iron bombs,t's just a bitch to load being 15 feet from the ground to the bomb bay (who ever designed that obviously hated air crew).
AND it can drop 1000 lb bombs from here to next tuesday continuously, much in the grand tradition of the Arclights of B-52 origin.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 13:33
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#10
who ever designed that obviously hated air crew
The iron bomb capability was added well after the nuke capability. Actually it was added and then taken out as a "cost saving measure." Then it was re-added after Reagan left office.
It's greatest use now is to loiter in-theater with a bunch of JDAMs, and do the work of a dozen F-16s.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/01/2012 15:50
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#11
Note that it applies to US Army MRAP ambulances.
Somebody ever tell Mr. Yon that the Army isn't the only "military" in Afghanistan?
At least four Taliban fighters have been killed during a suicide attack in the border city of Khost in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban said its fighters rammed a vehicle packed with large amounts of explosives into the city's US military base on Friday.
The blast was heard throughout the city and smoke was rising near the base, a witness and nearby residents said.
There was no immediate word on casualties. NATO said it was aware of an incident in the area but it was too early to comment.
Violence has surged across Afghanistan since the Taliban began its yearly summer offensive in April, vowing to target Afghan government and security forces, as well as the 130,000 foreign troops in the country.
A police source said a gun battle was raging near the base and local security forces were unable to get close to the area.
The problem stems in part from the media's deep pockets and insatiable desire for real-world information that makes intelligence operations look like those of filmmakers' imaginations and wannabee self-longings. That is understandable, but this hunger is fed by inexcusable contributions otherwise known as "leaks and security violations" in exchange for favour, cex, and payment, from current and former, but mostly current who certainly should be former, U.S. officials.
#2
Yet the real-world operations, and lives, that inspire such thrillers are highly perishable. They depend on hundreds of hours of painstaking work and the ability to get foreigners to trust our government.
Our country was designed by our founding fathers with the idea that we shouldn't trust the government. Currently, our MSM tends to screw up the process by spreading disinformation.
#3
Hard to plug leaks when the leaker is the ultimate authority by law on what is and what is not classified. Just wait. That leak is likely to become a flood between November and January after Obama loses the election.
Public-employee unions in Wisconsin have experienced a dramatic drop in membership -- by more than half for the second-biggest union -- since a law championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker sharply curtailed their ability to bargain over wages and working conditions.
Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-the state's second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers-fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed AFSCME's figures. A spokesman for AFSCME declined to comment. See what happens when the employer no longer automatically deducts Union dues from the pay check.
#1
Collective Bargaining=Closed Shop
The Taft-Hartley Act outlawed the closed shop in the United States in 1947. However, politicians and 'social justice' schooled judges have allied with union organizations over the years created a linguistic fiction, "collective bargaining", that somehow compulsive union extortion deductions are not closed shop. See also Protection racket
#2
IMO the states of Wisconsin + PA + CA-Nevada are litmus tests for how the AFL-CIO = Big Labor will do under OWG-NWO, i.e. Space Govt-Order, + NAU. The riots we see occurring in the democratic socialist States of the EU/EuroZone will occur here also, albeit bigger + badder, iff the US Econ continues to tank.
WE READ OR HEAR ALOT ON THE MSM-NET ABOUT HOW THE US-ALLIES ARE KICKING RADICAL ISLAM'S BUTT ALL AROUND THE WORLD, BUT WHAT NEW ECON MARKETS ARE AMERICAN COMPANIES HETTING ACCESS TO IN RETURN.
HISTORICAL "IMPERIALISM" OR THE NEW "GLOBALISM/COMMUNALISM/COMMUNITARIANISM", ETC. MIL + ECON POWER ARE MUTUALLY INCLUSIVE, NOT EXCLUSIVE - MIL POWER WIDOUT NEW MARKET(S) ACCESS IS NONSENSICAL.
#1
I don't think we have to worry about particle accelerators. They're 1012 dimes a dozen.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/01/2012 7:48
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#2
Building nuclear power plants won't stop Turkey from becoming a Kurdish nation within the next two generations due to differential birth rates...and the Kurds like Israel.
But really, why is Erdogan worried? Surely his BFF Iran will supply all the oil Turkey needs...
An IDF soldier was shot dead early Friday morning in an exchange of fire with a Palestinian terrorist, who was also killed in the clash, near the Gaza border fence.
IDF soldiers detected an armed Palestinian trying to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. A force from the Golani Brigade was alerted to the scene of the infiltration. A gun fight ensued between the terrorist and the soldiers during which the soldier and terrorist were killed.
The IDF said that by stopping the terrorist, the force had stopped an attack inside the Israeli Home Front.
The incident came after two soldiers were wounded along the border with the Gaza Strip last week.
US and European regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up their own government's debta move that could end up making the debt crisis even worse, a Citigroup analysis says.
Regulators are allowing banks to escape counting their country's debt against capital requirements and loosening other rules to create a steady market for government bonds, the study says.
While that helps governments issue more and more debt, the strategy could ultimately explode if the governments are unable to make the bond payments, leaving the banks with billions of toxic debt, says Citigroup strategist Hans Lorenzen. Gee. Where have we seen this before?
"Captive bank demand can buy time and can help keep domestic yields low," Lorenzen wrote in an analysis for clients. "However, the distortions that build up over time can sow the seeds of an even bigger crisis, if the time bought isn't used very prudently."
"Specifically," Lorenzen adds, "having banks loaded up with domestic sovereign debt will only increase the domestic fallout if the sovereign ultimately reneges on its obligations."
The banks, though, are caught in a "great repression" trap from which they cannot escape.
"When subjected to the mix of carrot and stick by policymakers...then everything else equal, we believe banks will keep buying," Lorenzen said.
Institutions both in the U.S. and abroad have been busy buying up their national sovereign debt for years, he found.
Spanish banks bought 90 billion euros worth while Italian firms picked up 86 billion euros just between November and March. Even in the UK, which has avoided a debt crisis as it is outside the euro zone and able to set its own monetary policy, banks have increased holdings of gilts by 100 billion pounds over the past few years.
And in the U.S., banks, though having "comparatively low holdings" of Treasurys, have bought $700 billion of American debt since 2008.
"Ask the simple question: Why are banks buying sovereign debt when yields are either near record lows, or perhaps more interestingly, when foreign investors are pulling out?" Lorenzen wrote.
He thinks he has the answer.
For one, the European Central Bank's Long-Term Refinance Operations provided guarantees for the debt, which Lorenzen deems a "heavily sweetened form of financial repression given the pressure banks were under" to buy.
"Banks have ended up buying bonds at yields where they would happily have sold them only a few months prior," he said.
Moreover, banks are allowed to not count the sovereign debt against their Basel capital requirements. Also, Lorenzen argued, European banks have escaped the onus of stress tests this year, a less-than-subtle hint that authorities are willing to tolerate a bit of looseness in banks so long as they are helping to stave off a full-blown debt crisis.
"One doesnt have to be too cynical to hypothesize that all the disclosures on sovereign exposure have become a bit of a political liability at a point in time where the only buyers in size of periphery sovereign debt are periphery banks funded by the ECB," he said.
"As long as funding for sovereigns in markets remains in jeopardy, and as long as there is no clear move towards proper fiscal solidarity in Europe, we reckon there will be a strong political incentive to make banks captive buyers. That implies a move away from marking sovereign debt to market, away from raising risk weights, away from capital ratios that don't risk weight assets and away from stress tests incorporating government bonds."
For investors in bank bonds, the news is good for now.
"As long as policy remains to sustain the status quo, bondholders should come out fine. Conversely, if the burden becomes too great, then the alternative will most probably involve a radical departure from current convention to the detriment of bondholders," Lorenzen said.
"We suspect this binary outcome requires a political judgement that many funds are not particularly well placed to make." he added. "Instead of those economics, accounting and finance degrees perhaps you should have done political science after all."
Umar Patek is a tiny man, pixie-faced and slump-shouldered inside the white garment worn by devout Muslims. He said, "I'm a quiet person, shy, and low in education," just before his trial for terrorism and mass murder continued yesterday.
But this small man helped create the bombs that tore apart two Bali nightclubs 10 years ago and killed 202 people.
Patek has admitted mixing about 50 kilograms of chemicals to go into almost a ton of explosives used in the bombs.
Successfully mixing explosives that explode only on schedule is a rare ability, as the many reported work accidents over the years attest -- Mutual of Gaza has been paying out from reserves for ages, and Al Qaeda doesn't even offer insurance to the many MBAs who take their course.
But throughout the four months of his trial he has emphasised his unimportance. He told the court he was "a deer" among such "elephants" of the plot as the already executed Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi.
No doubt. But their plotting would have been to no avail, absent the technical skills of little Patek.
But in his heart Patek knew what he had done. He said, "My conscience says I am guilty. I did mix [explosive] materials."
Despite this, his lawyers have maintained that he should be found not guilty of the bombings, and guilty only of forging passports.
The man is a commercial artist as well? Truly, he has more than most to be modest about.
They say he opposed the killing of innocents, voiced his opposition to the Bali plot and participated reluctantly. Thus he had "not deliberately" contributed.
It's awfully hard to accidentally mix up a bomb capable of killing several hundred people...
The death sentence is possible for these charges but prosecutors have asked for life in prison. Yesterday Patek made a plea for 10 years or less. He said, "[The explosives I mixed were] less than 50 kilograms. I am guilty for that but ... I believe the panel of judges must consider my motive ... my state of psychology. The panel of judges must consider my disagreement [with the tactics] and that it wasn't my call."
"They put something on my neck, your honour. It controlled me completely...and nobody could hear me scream."
Patek said he was originally lured into jihad in 1991 by Dulmatin (killed in a shootout with police in 2010), who took him to Malaysia as a young man to find work and study religion under radical teacher Mukhlas.
Twenty years later he has lost little of his fanaticism. He said, "My position about jihad remains the same. It is an obligation of every Muslim to carry out jihad."
Kill him. Kill him now.
However, holy war should only be waged against those "who attack Muslims". He said, "My question was, did the Balinese attack Muslims in Bali? Or did the bule [white foreigners] in Bali attack Muslims? Or were they Jews? I think the correct way is to go to Palestine and fight the Jews who slaughtered Palestinians."
Other hardcore beliefs continue. Patek said Abu Bakar Bashir, now serving a 15-year jail sentence for supporting a jihadi training camp in Aceh, was harmless. He said, "I think he only preaches. I think there's nothing wrong with preaching."
Patek has issued apologies to his victims and asked their families to forgive him.
No.
Asked what he could do in reparation, he said there was nothing except to say that "Islam is not a religion of violence".
Except for the jihad thingy, but surely that is a minor detail.
#4
Patec was captured in January 2011 in Abbottabad. A few months later the Seals took out Bin Laden there. Was there any connection? If he squealed like a pig could that be the reason they are not asking for a death sentence.
#5
The little man was initially captured by PAK intelligence agents, who as we well know, do not use torture. Appears to have then been handed over to US Intelligence following the clearing of the cheque.
His capture in Abattabad was surely little more than a coincidence, yes an amazing coincidence. I blame the evil doctor Afridi....who appeared to have no connection, absolutely none, zipp, nada, to PAK intelligence. [snark off]
#6
Good link, Besoeker. Thank you. Click on Mr. Patek's name in the article, above, to see what we have on the gentleman in the Rantberg archive as well. I,d forgotten that Demolition Man was picked up in Abbottabad after visiting with Osama bin Laden, and that AP had a transcript of Pakistan's interrogation.
I'm just a poor old man. I have no time for law-breakers. My eyes are dim. I cannot see. My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent. My ears are grizzled. My eyesight is bad. My eyes are poor. My nose is knackered. My legs are old and bent.
#11
trailing wife, a bit more from Security Council
A. Individuals associated with Al-Qaida
QI.P.294.11. Name: 1: UMAR 2: PATEK 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: 1970 20 July 1966 POB: Central Java, Indonesia Good quality a.k.a.: a) Omar Patek b) Mike Arsalan c) Hisyam Bin Zein d) Anis Alawi Jafar Low quality a.k.a.: a) Pa'tek b) Pak Taek c) Umar Kecil d) Al Abu Syekh Al Zacky e) Umangis Mike Nationality: Indonesian Passport no.: na National identification no.: na Address: a) Indonesia b) Philippines Listed on: 19 Jul. 2011 (amended on 23 Feb. 2012) Other information: Senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah (QE.J.92.02.) involved in planning and funding multiple terrorist attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia. Provided training to Abu Sayyaf Group (QE.A.1.01.). In custody in Indonesia as at Feb. 2012.
The head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has called on Arab forces to confront Israel and for the international community to pressure the "Zionist government to withdraw from the land of Palestine."
"Let's you and him fight."
The comments by Brotherhood General Guide Mohammed Badie came in a written statement issued May 17 to commemorate Nakba Day, when Palestinians and other Arabs mourn Israel's creation in 1948.
The statement -- the existence of which was revealed Wednesday by the Investigative Project on Terrorism blog -- reminds Brotherhood followers of the movement's decades-long "sacrifices" in efforts to destroy the Jewish state.
"On this day, like every year, the Arab and Islamic nations remember the worst catastrophe ever to befall the peoples of the world," Badie wrote in the text, translated by The Jerusalem Post. "We demand the international community rectify the historic injustice [of 1948] and pressure the government of the Zionist entity to withdraw from the land of Palestine."
The statement portrays the Arab revolts of the last 18 months as part of an inexorable process to "liberate" land now in the State of Israel.
"Nurse! The green pills, and hurry! He's doing that thing again!!"
"We have toppled the most repressive regimes with purpose and determination," Badie wrote. "We have begun the era of liberation of all peoples, first of all the Palestinian people, [suffering from] the worst occupation known to man -- the Zionist occupation."
Which is why Eritreans and Chinese are passing through Egypt to sneak into Israel in record numbers.
Looks like someone is beginning to panic.
President Barack Obama, who was swept into office amid a financial crisis, is trying to avoid being swept out by one.
Obama administration officials are stepping up efforts to push Europe to quell an escalating debt crisis that poses serious risks to the U.S. economy just five months before the presidential election.
U.S. officials are trying to convey lessons from the 2008 global crisis to ease Spain's debt troubles before they cause more financial turmoil and harm to the world global economy. In private meetings, they are urging officials in the 17-nation euro zone to take swifter action to calm markets, reassure depositors about their banks' health, and prevent some of Europe's largest countries from suffocating under high borrowing costs and weak economic growth.
A key lesson from the crisis, U.S. officials say, is act quickly and decisively to stabilize the financial system and prevent investor panic.
For instance, U.S. officials want Europe to use the continent's rescue fund now around 700 billion ($866 billion)to provide assistance to governments struggling with soaring borrowing costs. Allowing the rescue fund to directly recapitalize banks, instead of forcing the struggling governments to borrow first from the rescue fund, would help prevent bank failures and enable the banks to continue lending, which would help support economic growth, the officials believe. Under this approach, the governments wouldn't have to boost their own debt loads by borrowing from the fund.
The U.S. channels much of its advice through the International Monetary Fund, in which it is the largest shareholder. The IMF has been urging Europe to use the rescue fund for that purpose, but the idea is opposed by Germany and other euro-zone nations.
The U.S. and IMF urge Europeans to move more boldly toward tying their national economies more closely together.
Spain's deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Thursday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pledged to work with Madrid in its fight to fix its escalating banking crisis.
Spain's No. 2 official said Geithner "has signalled that we're all working together in the same direction and that we have to find a solution for the banks."
#3
That sucking sound sounds like a roar now. I hope they take out the trash after they are swept out. The klingon's, lifer government types and so on.
#4
Saw this post "The Short Sellers Association (SSA) has just started a super pact for the re-election of Obama. In return ,the Obama administration has promised to continue blocking all attempts to reinstate the up-tic rule. No promises on tanking the economy though his record speaks for its self. All short sellers are encouraged to contribute a portion of recent gains".
Even in the worst of times some make good money.
Many have done well because of this administration. Crisis created means opportunity.
#6
...well, as long as you intervene to avoid the natural destruction in a free market place, you just, sort of putter down the road with the same lame institutions and their campaign contributors and special interests operators leaching on the back of everyone else, one self inflicted crisis to another.
#7
Have been reading about suspicions that the Fed is ramping up to bail out the European banks to save the Euro due to the assumed impact of a Euro bank run on 0's campaign.
#10
Ok - thanks. After the Fiscal Compact proves its futility, fewer countries may use the euro as their currency. But it doesn't need to be "saved." I could see some sneakiness via the IMF. Otherwise, I'd be inclined to call bull, because I just can't see what the rationale would be.
#11
I thought our best and brightest have already advised Spain and Greece on how to flip their debt?
Didn't Lehman Bros and JP Morgan/Chase and Gouldman Sucks all do a land office business in crazy crap financial schemes and shinnanegans with the EC?
I think the entire world financial crisis is a product of our nonsensical MBA programs at Harvard, U of Chicago, and Yale. Those leftie infested faculties have pumped a million miles of horse crap up the butts of nearly two generations of unethical twits in pinstriped suits.
PS is Legarde a relative of Janet Reno, Are we sure it is a woman?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 14:09
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#12
RJD,
Where I first saw this was back in Dec. & Jan. Apparently the Fed is printing money to swap for Euros and the Euros are using the dollars to bail out their banks. This was from the WSJ. Apparently since this is a "swap" and not a loan there's no need to really account for it.
Ron Paul, (yeah I know but he IS a Congress critter) is calling for his committee to investigate this funny number work as of this month I think that was also WSJ via another site. Supposedly the EU is getting this service for .5% rather than having to go to our over-capitalized banks and paying 1%-2%.
Some other mentions of funny business with the IMF.
#13
Saw this post "The Short Sellers Association (SSA) has just started a super pact for the re-election of Obama. In return ,the Obama administration has promised to continue blocking all attempts to reinstate the up-tic rule. No promises on tanking the economy though his record speaks for its self. All short sellers are encouraged to contribute a portion of recent gains".
Even in the worst of times some make good money.
Many have done well because of this administration. Crisis created means opportunity.
'Miss White' (Inside Man): "When there is blood in the streets, buy property."
Oddly enough, the wife and I took said advice last year. Sold our old place and bought a new one in a short sale. (see also: lemons and lemonade)
#14
Thanks for the follow-up AlanC. I'd be interested to know who is on the European end of the swaps - banks? governments? - but swaps and favorable interest rates do not = bailouts. Ron Paul is a kook when it comes to everything else, but I am glad he is watching like a hawk. Someone has to.
#15
RJD, I won't get into semantics cause I don't know finance that well, but, something about stinky fish comes to mind.
As I understand it the swaps were with the ECB, BUT, given the weird EU banking system I won't swear to it. I'm pretty sure that the individual European gov'ts are NOT involved, this is all the EUSSR.
#16
Central banks generally only do business with other central banks (Fed, ECB), and give the discount rate. Still, yes, the European banking system is absolutely byzantine, which the euro made ten times worse. E.g., the ECB can't print money as the Fed can. Each member state prints their own euros (a BIG reason everyone is panicking over Greece.)
I agree, I think it's safe to assume there's a fish rotting in there somewhere. I just sought clarification.
Suspected terrorists insurgents detonated a 5 kg roadside bomb in an attack aimed at a soldier patrol yesterday morning in Yala province, while Narathiwat's 32 Special Task Force apprehended one suspect in relation to the blast.
The bomb was detonated by a cellphone as a nine-man team of soldiers was patrolling to protect teachers. The explosion injured team leader Petty Officer First Class Rojana Kulampa and Private Wisan Kaewsithong.
At 10:30 a.m., the Narathiwat task force surrounded targeted areas and took a suspect in for questioning. They also notified village leaders about the reason for the arrest. Security camera footage showed two helmeted men on a motorbike planting the bomb.
#3
The British writer-philospher C.S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyranies, a tryany sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppresive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron;s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us wihtout end for they do so with approval of their own conscience."
Doesn't he realize that Obamacare is the reason his jobs production is so far down and just went even further sideways on him?
Supposedly, the SCOTUS will have their decision on Obumblecare some time in the next two weeks, we should all pray for the United States of America.
AND I agree with C. S. Lewis, a well intended busy body with a clear conscience is almost a sociopath, their self deluding feelings of doing good keep them from seeing the immense harm they do.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 14:01
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#6
Second term? Who in their right mind would want that?
#7
The British writer-philospher C.S. Lewis wrote, "Of all tyranies, a tryany sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppresive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron;s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us wihtout end for they do so with approval of their own conscience."
'Capt. "Redlegs" Terrell' (The Outlaw Josey Wales): "Doin' right ain't got no end."
The United States said Thursday that Pakistan has let back in two officers to work with its military after a six-month gap, in what it called a small sign of cooperation after soaring tensions. The Pentagon said that two liaison officers returned in the past week to the northwestern city of Peshawar after being kicked out by Pakistan in its outrage over a border airstrike that killed 24 of its soldiers.
Wonder what we had to pay...
But the Pentagon said that Pakistan has not let back trainers or reopened its border to NATO supplies, two of the main forms of support for the US-led war effort that have been shut down since the November 26 border incident.
The returning officers are in charge of liaising with the headquarters of Pakistans 11th Corps, which covers the lawless border region where the US-backed ISAF force believes Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters enjoy a safe haven.
The tactical and operational coordination between the ISAF and Pakistani military is getting better in fits and starts, to be sure, but it is getting better, said Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby.
This is another example of how that coordination is going to continue to improve, Kirby told reporters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Anti-government gangs in Syria have received directives to shift the focus of their terrorist activities from other cities to Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and nearby areas, Press TV reports.
Injured gunnies who have been recently transferred to Leb say they have been told to concentrate their activities on the capital and the neighboring regions.
The new plan includes increasing armed attacks on security targets in Damascus above other parts of the country.
According to the report, the criminal masterminds behind Syria's unrest have turned to destabilizing the capital, finding insecurity in the government's seat as the key to effective spreading of violence across the nation.
The revelation matches recent moves by armed gangs after a number of their terror cells were dismantled by the Syrian security forces.
The beturbanned goons are apparently missioned to engage the Syrian armed forces in the capital and inflict heavier blows on security forces in Damascus.
They have also turned to threatening local tradesmen and business owners in addition to bullying civilians.
Clashes continue between Syrian forces and anti-government gangs despite a ceasefire that was brokered by UN-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... 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... in March and took effect on April 12.
Reports say about 260 foreign observers are currently in Syria to monitor the cease-fire as part of Annan's six-point peace plan.
The Syrian government says the ongoing violence and the recent massacres of civilians in the country are being orchestrated from abroad and that security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
Weapons, ammunition, and a few Spetsnaz advisors will not be nearly enuf. I suspect we'll be seeing conventional Soviet Russian ground troops deploying to Syria quite soon.
#2
Hmm, it's going to be quite a reunion as the Spetnaz meets up with their Spetnaz alumni in the Foreign Legion. Of course with our SOG's, the SAS, the Foreign Legion, and goodness knows who else running around in the dark, they should rent a hotel and have a convention.
I don't think the Russian want to be holding the short end of the stick with Syria. While I think Obumble has screwed the pooch in the ME, the Russians have a far different problem, how do you get away from a tiger when you have it by the tail? If Iran goes publically nuclear and creates a mass murder in some city near you, the Russians will be tarred with the crime as an accomplice. I don't think they want that. At some point I think the mullahs will demostrate they are even too mad for the Russians and the Russkies will have to find an exit strategy from Iran and Syria.
If Iran's nuclear machinations wind up in a dirty bomb in London, Rome, or NYC, how are the Russians going to explain their refusal to bring Iran to heel and their support of Assad?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 13:41
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#3
There are already Russian ground troops in Tartus. It's just a matter of 'reinforcing' them.
[Bangla Daily Star] The gunnies accused in a Pakistain court of conspiring with a doctor recruited by the CIA to find the late Osama bin Laden ... who went titzup one dark and stormy night... said yesterday they had nothing to do with him and threatened to kill him.
Shakeel Afridi was on May 24 sentenced to 33 years in jail after he was found guilty of treason under Pakistain's archaic system of tribal justice.
He was incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! after US troops killed bin Laden in May 2011 in the town of 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.... where he set up a fake vaccination programme in the hope of obtaining DNA samples to confirm the al-Qaeda leader's presence.
But he was convicted for treason over alleged ties to Lashkar-e-Islam and not for working for the CIA, for which the court said it did not have jurisdiction.
Lashkar-e-Islam, led by warlord Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , is a beturbanned goon organization feared for kidnappings and extortion in the tribal district of Khyber, where Afridi worked for years as a doctor.
The court said Afridi had "close links" to the group, saying the doctor's "love" for Bagh and "association with him was an open secret".
But a front man and a commander in the organization both told AFP that they had nothing to do with Afridi.
"We have no link to such a shameless man. If we see him we'll chew him alive," the commander said on condition of anonymity.
Afridi's sentencing has exacerbated tensions in Pakistain's problematic relationship with the United States, where the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to cut aid to Pakistain by a symbolic $33 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
So IOW, Lashkar is saying that Islamabad is lying???
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Thursday said that Pakistain Moslem League- Nawaz (PML-N) was behind the conspiracy of Mohajir province, DawnNews reported.
Addressing a meeting of Pakistain People's Party's (PPP) provincial parliamentarians at Bilalwal House for taking them into confidence on a host of national issues in an interactive session that lasted for three hours, Zardari said that people of Sindh cannot be misled by having rallies in the province.
Referring to PML-N's recent campaign in Sindh, the co-chairman of the PPP said that people of the province are sensible enough to know that which political party was actually serving them and which was against their interests.
The president asked the politicians to spread the message of reconciliation in every nook and corner of the country for the upcoming elections as envisaged by Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... President Zardari said that the party wanted to "promote love and not hatred."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Tolo News] Five Afghan coppers were killed when a jacket wallah detonated his car, laden with explosives, near the police headquarters in southern Kandahar province on Thursday morning, a local official said.
Six others were maimed in the attack, provincial front man Jawid Ahmad Faisal said.
The incident took place at 10:30 am in the Argistan district and the injured were taken to a nearby hospital, he said.
More security forces have arrived in the area, he added.
No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Yemen Post] Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindwa has called the global world and Secretary-General of the Untied Nations to put extra pressures on impeders of change in Yemen.
In a speech delivered on Thursday at the Partners Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations held in Turkey, Basindwa said the global world should stand by the Yemeni people, calling for freeing the Third World Countries from oppression of their rulers.
Basindwa appreciated Turkey's reception of Yemenis who were maimed in anti-Saleh protests in Turkey's hospitals, stressing the importance of enhancing cooperation between Yemen and Turkey.
The forum, which is being convened by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeks to promote better cross-cultural relations worldwide.
The power transfer in Yemen remains deadlocked as relatives of 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... still refuse decrees of President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... and the interim government.
Saleh's nephew, Tariq Mohmmad Abdullah Saleh, in collaboration with loyal officers refuse to hand over the 3rd Republican Guard Brigade to the newly-appointed Abdul-Rahman Al-Halili.
The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar visited Yemen several times and put pressures on Saleh's family to hand over the brigade, but his efforts failed.
Armed men affiliated to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh prevented on Monday the new-appointed director of Radio and TV Institution, Eskandar Al-Asbahi, from entering the headquarters of the institution. Benomar told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that elements within Yemen are hindering the transition process.
Security Council had warned "all elements within Yemen" that severe sanctions would fall upon those who continue to prevent the country from moving toward democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Dawn] EVEN as Pakistain and the US try to negotiate their way into a workable relationship, American drone strikes continue. The last few days have seen a flurry of attacks, with five strikes following the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... summit at which the two countries failed to reach a deal on Isaf supply routes. Coming after Pak politicians called for their "immediate cessation", this is a snub that implies America respects neither Pakistain's illusory sovereignty nor the democracy it claims it wants to see flourish. More pragmatically, the continuing attacks are making progress on the relationship that much more difficult. Parliament's position could have been taken as a starting point from which to bargain. Pakistain has recognised the value of drone strikes in taking out some of its own enemies. A coordinated mechanism could be worked out in which Pakistain is given a role in the programme -- which should also help minimise civilian casualties -- in exchange for a promise not to disrupt strikes that target known hard boys. But as long as drone attacks remain a bone of contention between the two governments, continuing them only makes it harder to move forward with negotiations and gives Pak hardliners reason not to support a rapprochement and to incite already inflamed anti-Americanism. This isn't just a matter of a few hundred people protesting in the streets; it constricts the space available for parliament and the government to talk to the US.
Reports emerging from within the US administration indicate that it is not just Paks who question these attacks. The outgoing ambassador to Pakistain, Cameron Munter, appears to have disapproved of the handling of the programme here, and the Western media had earlier reported that the State Department is not as enthusiastic about it as the CIA. And despite reports that President B.O. himself approves many targets, in Pakistain drones also seem to hit those simply found in suspicious locations or around known hard boys. The tool is a deeply controversial one, and proceeding with disregard for Pak opinion will only make it more difficult to incorporate it into a functional US-Pakistain relationship.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I'm sorry - I'm know what "illusory sovereignty" specifically or definitionally means as per US, International Political Science + Govt. Affairs, but in this Artic + Others prior it seems the Author(s) want the same to mean "temporary/
false/subjective sovereignty"???
#2
I interpret the phrase as recognition of Pakistan, not as a modern nation-state, but more a geographic collection of ethnic tribes and governmental organizations, along with some non-state actors, all engaged in schemes and battles against each other in various combinations. Think South-Central Los Angeles, but with more players and without the stability.
#3
"Illusory sovereignty" is Fred's little joke, gentlemen. After all these years of reading such self-satisfied claptrap, he wrote a little automatic replacement program for such verbiage. The changes are indicated by a light grey underline. Click on the headline to open up the original article for comparison purposes -- Fred had fun with it. (It was also intended as a defense against Righthaven harassment, though I'm not sure it accomplished the purpose -- thank goodness that particular threat has been vanquished by the legal system eventually working as designed!)
#4
I understood the phrase as part of Fred's Snark-o-tron, but in every good joke, there is a grain of truth. (or kilo-grain)
In the case of Pakistain, 'illusory sovereignty' is quite apropos. They may play dress-up in Islamabad and pretend to be the government (when they aren't trying to whack each other), but how much influence do they have over the Federally Administered Tribal Areas? (and by influence, I mean something other than smuggling, gun-running and bribery)
IN a fit of pique, our security establishment decided to punish Dr Shakil Afridi to make Pakistain look strong after the the late Osama bin Laden ... who now dances with worms... raid made it look weak. Never mind the embarrassment of Pakistain being painted internationally as a country that regards someone helping track down the world's most wanted terrorist as deserving of years of punishment. But only in Pakistain can preposterousness be topped off with more of the same. According to documents accessed by this newspaper, it seems Dr Afridi was actually convicted by the Fata tribunal not for aiding the US intelligence apparatus in Pakistain, as was widely reported earlier, but for colluding with Mangal Bagh ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... , leader of the Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber Agency and a thorn in the side of the Pak state (though, like many bully boyz in the tribal region, the history of his relationship with the state isn't as straightforward as is now portrayed).
This abrupt change raises some difficult questions. First is the Pak government's silence in the face of the reaction provoked by Dr Afridi's sentencing. Not just was it condemned by some senior figures within the US government, the US Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to cut aid to Pakistain by $33m -- a million for each year of detention handed down to Dr Afridi, generally regarded in the US as a hero that helped bring down the world's most wanted man. Given the shaky juncture at which Pak-US relations currently stand, it is curious that there was no denial from official quarters that Dr Afridi had in fact been convicted for links to a Death Eater group. If the reason behind his conviction was different, why was this not clarified earlier? And if the charges included treason, as this government also indicated, why was he not tried in an open court under the regular laws of the land? There are, after all, numerous legal precedents of people being tried and convicted for providing information for recompense to a foreign government.
Yet another question is that, quite clearly, bin Laden -- and numerous other known bully boyz -- lived and moved freely on Pak soil for several years. But despite the institution of an inquiry commission into the bin Laden matter, the only head to have rolled so far is that of Dr Afridi. Had the state been apprehending and convicting bully boyz or those responsible for bin Laden's undetected presence in the country, Dr Afridi would have little to complain about. But his case appears to be more the exception than the rule. Preposterousness heaped on preposterousness: it's never a good way for any country to manage its affairs.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[An Nahar] President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... warned Thursday that Russia's position on Syria would not shift under pressure despite the crisis likely topping the agenda during his upcoming visits to Berlin and Gay Paree.
"Russia's position is well-known. It is balanced and consistent and completely logical," Interfax quoted Putin's front man Dmitry Peskov as saying.
"So it is hardly appropriate to talk about this position changing under someone's pressure."
Peskov said Russia's refusal to back further action against the regime after last week's Houla massacre and other attacks on civilians was based on an approach "completely free of emotions, which are hardly appropriate here."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
Of course their position will not shift. Russia takes the side of evil at every opportunity. I have no understanding of why that is. They seem to feel that it is their duty to hold any position that is exactly the opposite of ours.
#4
What a joke. Merkel will be at him fang and claw.
"face a grilling from both German Chancellor Angela Merkel". What, have they given China a pass on this?. Would Obama stand by an ally as determined as this. I think not. The EU is such a mess they could shoot themselves in the foot and blame someone else for doing it. Russia is a major trading partner with Europe and trade looks to expand between the two. Anarchy is a major problem for Russia. Syria could add fuel to this fire.
#5
Well ole Vlad needs to have himself a get out of town strategy prepared.
If Iran ever uses their nuclear products for a terrorist act, Russia will have to answer to a lot of really p.o.ed nations. And if Syria goes south inspite of weapons and advisors, Russia will have a real stinker on their hands dealing with the new regime.
Vlad should learn from the US experiences of the 1950's, how many times did arms sales and military advisors blow up in our face all over the world?
Right now Russia seems to not have a coherent foreign policy other than to oppose the US at every turn. with our amatuers running our foreign policy it makes Russia look silly. They need to be more original and independent of our silly misguided naive fumbling around and stake out a foreign policy that focuses on a world view and what is best for Russia and not just trying to spike our guns.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 13:56
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#6
Should he?
Last year, in Venezuela (population -29 million) around twenty thousand people got killed - a murder rate higher than in Syria (population - 23 million). That's first.
And second - as far as I know (Mrs. Carla del Ponte doesn't mention about it) Bashir al-Assad is not involved in human organs trade...
[Iran Press TV] The people in the United States will eventually launch a civil war against the minority capitalist cartels who are making enormous profits at the cost of the people's sufferings, a political analyst tells Press TV.
"Ultimately, people in the US are turning these international wars of aggression around and they are turning them into a civil war against the one percent that profits it as human suffering goes on," said Caleb Maupin, with the International Action Center from New York, in a Wednesday interview with Press TV.
Maupin pointed to Washington's resolve to continue its military adventurism across the world amid the deepening economic crisis in the country and the aggravating life conditions for the American public.
"Fundamentally, this is because the bankers and the one percent that run this country, the wealthy ruling class, have profits to be made from international aggression and from committing crimes and that is an outrage," he added.
"People are realizing that here in the US and that is why we are seeing all these uprisings; that is why these demonstrations are happening," the analyst pointed out.
Last week, the US Census Bureau's annual report revealed that the poverty rate among American women and kiddies reached a 17-year record high in 2010, standing at 14.5 percent.
This is while in the 2012 fiscal year, Washington has allocated USD 531 billion for its base military budget and USD 115 billion for overseas contingency operations.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... the Republicans who control the US House have embarked on cuts to food aid, health care and social services in an attempt to boost Pentagon spending.
The exacerbating economic conditions, corruption, poverty, as well as social and economic inequality in the US have sparked the anti-capitalism Occupy movement in major cities in the US since September 2011.
The protesters use the slogan, "We are the 99 percent" to distinguish themselves from the one percent of Americans who are in possession of the greatest portion of the nation's wealth.
This article starring:
Caleb Maupin
International Action Center
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
Go Covet your Neighbors hummveeee and cable channel and IPad and IPhone and steal it. See how long that lasts you.
You want a "civil war"? Stop stuffing ballot boxes and working your political agenda around the DAMN RULES>
#2
See also CHINA DAILY FORUM > ONE IN SIX AMERICANS LIVE IN POVERTY, e.g. at or below the Fed-mandated $23,050 poverty line for a family of four.
* SAME > AMERICA'S LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED:"FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR WORK, ITS VERY BLEAK".
* SAME > MASS PROTESTS, DEMONSTRATIONS, DISSENT, + VIOLENCE BEGINNING TO OCCUR IN US.
* IIRC FOXNEWS AM > THROW THEM ALL OUT: GROWING ANTI-INCUMBENT/POLITICIAN SENTIMENT IN US.
As Ive said or inferred times before, 9-11 + GWOT = WAR FOR PRO-US-VS-ANTI-US OWG-NWO/GLOBAL GOVT. = WAR FOR ANTI-STATUS-QUO = KKEP YOUR PROMISES, OR ELSE/PUT UP, OR SHUT UP = IFF YOU DON'T GET OUT THE WAY VOLUNTARILY, YOU WILL BE PUSHED/SHOVED OUT THE WAY FORCIBLY, EVEN VIOLENTLY OR MORTALLY.
E.g. not unlike China in the SCS vee on-going Scarborough Shoal wid Philippines, CORNELL UNIVERSITY EXPERT ALAN CARLSON > CHINA'S TOLERANCE HAS REACHED ITS UPPER LIMITS, i.e. is not en perpetuam.
CHINA DAILY FORUM > CHINA'S [self] RESTRAINT IS CLEAR TO ALL. The only real thing preventing war from breaking out in the SCS is China itself, because China does not fear US military intervention vee the weak Philippines.
TOPIX > CHINA NOW HAS [effective] CONTROL OF SOUTH CHINA SEA WATERS.
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Fourth Media] THE SOROS-MADE "NEW WORLD ORDER": THE DIVISION OF INDIA, RUSSIA, INDONESIA, + CHINA [ + Nepal, Myanmar]INTO SMALLER, WEAK NATIONS, espec vee "identity federalism".
* SAME > THE COMING GLOBAL RECESSION | [BRIC-led]GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS:CHINA, INDIA, BRAZIL ARE SLOWING DOWN, PLUNGING WORLD INTO POSSIBLE RECESSION.
* SAME > CHINA FACES GROWING HEADWINDS, SAYS VICE-PREMIER, vee downward/regressive econ pressures.
"GROWING HEADWINDS" = OOOOOOOO, you gotta love how the Chinese describe things.
#4
Growing headwinds... what a charming phrase. I would have said 'coming meltdown', but then I'm just a boorish American.
From a distance, it looks the the combination of China's corruption, along with the not-surprising difficulties of moving from a communist planned economy to a more market-oriented mixed one is going to require an internal rule-set reset - or what you and I would call sh*t hitting the fan.
#5
Calling anything Caleb Maupin says "analytic" is like calling Obama "the smartest president ever!"
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/01/2012 12:18
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#6
From one of the links...
Maupin and Gluntz admit their group is small fewer than ten active members but the two aren't afraid to dive headfirst into the class and race issues still brewing in Cleveland. At times it seems they might be the only ones paying attention.
Wow. I'm impressed.
I'd still love to see Iran Press TV's "American Losers" rolodex.
[Tolo News] Two coppers were killed in a kaboom in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province Thursday, a local official said.
The incident occurred at around 10:30 am local time as a massive kaboom shook a police checkpoint near 201 Silab Army Corps in the province's capital, Jalalabad, provincial front man Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told TOLOnews.
He could not provide further details about the incident.
No groups, including the Taliban, have grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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BAGHDAD Bombs exploded at a crowded Baghdad restaurant and a near police patrol on Thursday, among attacks that killed at least 18 people and wounded 53 in Iraqs bloodiest day in more than a month, police and hospital medics said.
Five blasts hit the capital, and the northern city of Mosul was the scene of a fatal shooting attack.
In northwest Baghdad, a parked car exploded outside a busy restaurant in the neighborhood of Shula, killing 13 people and wounding 37, police officials said.
Naseer Ali, owner of a grocery shop in Shula, said he was about 150 meters (yards) from the restaurant when the blast went off. Ali said he and others rushed to help the victims before the ambulances arrived. Ali said he is worried the level of violence in Baghdad will return to what it was several years ago, in part because of the growing sectarian divide underlying a months-long paralysis of Iraqs government.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a parked car blew up near the home of Jamal-Din Mohammed, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, killing a civilian and wounding four people, including two guards protecting Mohammeds house.
Earlier Thursday, explosions hit two adjacent homes of Baghdad policemen in the neighborhood of Amariyah, killing two people and wounding nine, among them three children. One of the policemen was killed and the other was wounded.
A fifth attack targeted a police patrol in Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three officers.
In Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a police major was killed when gunmen sprayed his car with bullets in a drive-by-shooting, police said. Medics at nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2012
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[An Nahar] Two American tourists kidnapped in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula by Bedouin primitive were released on Thursday after less than 24 hours in captivity, security and government officials told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The two men were in good health and police were escorting them to a safe place, where they were due to meet the South Sinai governor, the officials said.
They had been kidnapped near the Red Sea resort of Dahab late on Wednesday by Bedouin demanding the release of a primitivenabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! for drugs possession, the officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
Send in a drone. Time to show these jerks that kidnapping Americans, for ANY reason, is a really bad idea that will likely get you killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
That fur coat will be organic compost in a century or two. The polyester one the PETA nuts wear will still be around in 25,000 years as a pollution hazard.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/01/2012 12:41
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[Iran Press TV] Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee at a fundraiser in California Wednesday night, saying he understands the nation's special place in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
How does a very talented;self made, musician, Honors Grad, Full Family, and respectful woman continue to maintain Grace? She never lost it.
It is just not popular today for some reason.
It is with me.
#2
Hat tip to the brave Ms. Rice. She has long stood in the company of Allan West, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Herman Cain, Ward Connerly, Stanley Crouch. She too will suffer the undifferentiated contempt which is the lot of today's black conservatives.
#3
I would like to see Miss Rice as Romney's VP candidate just to watch the left's collective heads explode. Not to mention the prospect of watching her debate Biden is intriguing.
[Yemen Post] The Saada-based Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is "God is Great, Death to America", Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews" ... group declared on Thursday that it will participate in the inclusive dialogue conference on the basis of "healthy foundations that could end the state's stalemates." The participation declaration came after the Dialogue Liaison Committee met on Thursday with the Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi in Saada. According to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba), the committee affirmed that an appropriate ground will be prepared for the success of the national dialogue.
The Dialogue Liaison Committee held on Thursday morning a meeting presided over by Abdul-Karim Al-Iriani, chairman of the committee, with the attendance of a representative of a UN reprehensive, Abdul-Raheem Sabir.
The eight-member liaison committee to started a planned national reconciliation dialogue as part of a UN-backed power transfer deal.
Yemen's inclusive national dialogue is designed to settle down disputes between Yemeni political factions under the supervision of Hadi in accordance with the GCC power transfer deal deal that eased 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... out of power.
UN Envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar had appreciated effort exerted by Yemen's president to advance the country's transition to democracy, pointing out that security forces are having some success against al-Qaeda.
Hadi inherited a state that is mired in crises as it is engaged in conflicts in the South and rebellions in the north. The Yemeni army has been conducting an offensive against al-Qaeda in some towns of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... Though the army achieved progress in fighting Al-Qaeda, as reports affirm, Al-Qaeda seeks to shift its war across other Yemeni cities.
On May 21, about 100 soldiers were killed and hundreds others were maimed in a suicide kaboom in which al-Qaeda grabbed credit for.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A new poll by the Mexican Reforma news daily puts the gap between Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto in a virtual dead heat versus the Mexican left's candidate Andres Manual Lopz Orbador, according to data supplied by Animal Politico website.
Nearly every other poll in the republic has Pena Nieto between 15 and 20 percentage points above his rivals, including Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, depending on how the undecided voters are thinking. The huge gap has remained virtually unchanged since the very first week of the campaign in the beginning of April.
According to the Reforma data, Pena Nieto claims 38 percent versus 34 percent enjoyed by Lopez Obrador, while PAN's Vazquez Mota has slipped to third place with 23 percent.
The most recent polling data, supplied by Milenio news daily, has Pena Nieto at an even more commanding 21 percentage points above Vazquez Mota with Lopez Obrador in a very close third place.
Since the start of the campaign, Vazquez Mota has consistently trailed Pena Nieto by between 15 and 20 points, trading for second place with Lopez Obrador several times.
Vazquez Mota herself claimed a few weeks back that her internal polling had her campaign within 10 percentage points of Pena Nieto, however none of the other polling organizations has released data that would confirm any kind of movement undermining Pena Nieto's commanding lead.
Vazquez Mota's campaign has suffered mightily since the very start with several very public gaffes and missteps, tempered by a generally good performance in the first Mexican presidential debates earlier this month.
Despite that, none of the candidates, not even Pena Nieto, has shown any kind of bounce in the polls since the debate.
If Reforma's numbers are accurate, two events can be credited to moving the polls numbers away from Pena Nieto.
The first was the US Federal investigation of former Tamaulipas state governor Tomas Yarrington for links to Mexican organized crime. Yarrington is facing federal forfeiture proceedings for real properties in south Texas allegedly purchased with drug money. That event impelled PRI president Pedro Coldwell to suspend Yarrington's membership in the PRI, a move generally ridiculed by PRI opponents as window dressing.
As one Mexican writer put it: "This is actually so funny to me, getting kicked out of PRI for corruption..."
The second event, less than two weeks ago, was the arrest of two Mexican Army commanders, General Tomas Angeles Dauahare and General Brigadier Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, the first of whom was on a slate of at-large candidates for the national Chamber of Deputies. That detention probably proved the most embarrassing for Pena Nieto and PRI, made clear by their cancellation of a campaign in Chiapas state to huddle to make plans.
The large winning percentages displayed by PRI are not the first time Mexican preference polls have fallen short of the data.
The Michoacan gubernatorial election last November showed the PRI candidate ahead, and claims were being made at the time and echoed by Mexican and international press, that a 60,000 vote margin in the three way race would be considered a huge win for the PRI in a state dominated by the Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD).
PRI won by less than 42,000 votes and failed to get a governing majority in the state chamber of deputies. Just a week before the elections, PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz had made claims his internal polling showed the race much closer than polls were running. In fact, PAN came within a cat's hair of overturning the gubernatorial election because of PRI antics during the campaign period.
The Michoacan elections were one of many factors in then-PRI president Humberto Moreira's decision to resign his position the following month.
One problem for PRI that has plagued the thus far wildly successful campaign of Pena Nieto has been the rather large number of undecided voters, as many as 29 percent at one point. That block of potential voters is an apparent indication that the Mexican public has yet to close the deal on Pena Nieto. As unlikely as it may be that all undecided voters break for one candidate, undecided voters overshadowed the PRI campaign. PRI members have to be worried about the potential of all decided voters breaking for everyone but Pena Nieto.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Two California based security academics analyze seizures in the aftermath of a March, 2012 gunfight between a los Zetas crimnal cell in Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Mexican security forces.
An excerpt:
[Police] Commander Heal's concerns are being echoed by many law enforcement officers along the U.S. Border. Increasingly, we are witnessing the emergence of zones of "dual-sovereignty" being established by the cartels on U.S. soil. The potential for the loss of de facto political control in rural areas of Southern Texas across from Piedras Negras and other borderland towns controlled by the Mexican cartels is becoming a U.S. national security concern.
#1
Some tidbits from the article: Elements of GATE (special weapons and tactics group) and the narco group engaged in battle on Highway 75 and various parts of Piedras Negras. Using combat weapons and granadazos (grenades) the attacks lasted for hours.
One thing that occurred to me in retrospect is the long understood principle that the weaker adversary always seeks refuge. The nearest and safest refuge is a short distance to the north.
According to Commander Heal Clearly, the confrontations between the authorities and criminals have escalated to war in all but name only.
#5
Drug-runner corpses is just a cost of doing business. Dual sovereignty means there is a de-facto local government, kitted out like an infantry platoon, with a demonstrated will to engage in wholesale violence. It is going to take more than a few drug-runner corpses to uproot them in Mexico and/or keep them from spreading across the border.
#6
Does the fact that I just posted three times in the same thread mean I am turning into JoeM of the North? DANG IT! This is serious stuff. And would someone pass me a coconut fritter?
When [the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] was being considered, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would increase budget deficits by $787 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2019. CBO now estimates that the total impact over the 2009--2019 period will amount to about $831 billion.
By CBO's estimate, close to half of that impact occurred in fiscal year 2010, and more than 90 percent of ARRA's budgetary impact was realized by the end of March 2012. CBO has estimated the law's impact on employment and economic output using evidence about the effects of previous similar policies and drawing on various mathematical models that represent the workings of the economy. ...
On that basis CBO estimates that ARRA's policies had the following effects in the first quarter of calendar year 2012 compared with what would have occurred otherwise:
-- They raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 0.1 percent and 1.0 percent,
-- They lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.1 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points,
-- They increased the number of people employed by between 0.2 million and 1.5 million,
-- They increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 0.3 million to 1.9 million. (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers.)
OK, so without the stimulus, there would be anywhere from 200,000 to 1.5 million fewer people employed right now? That means the current cost-per-job created is somewhere between $4.1 million and $540,000.
#1
unfortunately there is a major terminology problem
the ave employment is .2M to 1.5M per year
that is .6M to 4.5M job/years
so that's between $170k and $1.3M per job/year
but that is just in the late 2009 to late 2011 period
in the out years the impact depends on the B/C of the projects funded and we don't have any good information on this although given the political nature of the projects, the ARRA will probably a net loss of job/years beginning late this year
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/01/2012 0:36
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#2
I just wanted Infrastructure fixed and that was a $6 Bill at the time. Only .03% of this stimuli from leviathan octopi went to "fixin the bridges".
Temporary union status and voting front groups.
The American Dream - yay.
Of the $900B, about $100B went to public sector infrastructure. Of the $100B, about $80B went for transportation. The amount spent on structures (including both highway and transit) was about $20B (a bit over 2% of the ARRA). However some of that went to correcting safety problems, enhancing pedestrian access over bridges, removing asbestos paint, etc. so the amount of 'fixing' depends on what you think 'fixing' is.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/01/2012 7:50
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#6
@4% bond yield to pay the debt each job costing 540,000 would need to pay 21600 EXTRA tax to break even with the debt funding costs...
but the pathetic recovery has held the G bond rate way down; the 10 year has averaged under 3% (its been under 2% the past month or so) and the 30 yr G bond has averaged about 3.5% during the Obama presidency and
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/01/2012 11:38
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#8
I'm thinking the much of the stimulus went to Obumble's re-election campaign in one way or another--to the unions, to bundlers who supported him, to the solar companies, various pro-Democrat groups and organizations.
[Iran Press TV] A Syrian government investigation into the massacre that recently killed more than 100 people in the western Syria village of Houla has blamed anti-Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... gangs for the killings.
The head of the inquiry, Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman said during a news conference in the Syrian capital on Thursday that between 600 and 800 armed faceless myrmidons used heavy machinery to carry out the attacks on the village on May 25.
The fatalities included dozens of women and kiddies.
"It appears that all the victims came from peaceful families who refused to rise up against the government or take up arms, but had rows with gangs," Jamaleddine stated, adding that facts and evidence showed the victims had been killed at close range.
There were no traces of burns or other evidence that could indicate that artillery bombing by Syrian forces had led to the massive loss of life, he further noted.
The general went on to say that the grizzly massacre had been carried out in an attempt to "eliminate the presence of the government [in the area] totally and turn it into a region out of government control."
"Killing children does not meet any goal of the government but those of the gangs," he pointed out, insisting that Syrian troops did not enter the area before or after the incident.
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood said in a briefing via video from Damascus to an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on May 27 that the UN observers in Houla had estimated the fatalities at 108, including 49 children and 34 women.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the Security Council condemned the violence at the meeting, saying it "involved a series of government artillery and tank shelling on a residential neighborhood."
Damascus has strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! any involvement in the bloodshed and blamed armed terrorist groups for violence across the country as part of a plan to ignite a civil war.
Syrian authorities continue their investigation into the massacre.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[An Nahar] U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... warned Thursday of a "catastrophic civil war" in Syria after the massacre of more than 100 civilians in the town of Houla that sparked global horror and outrage.
"The massacres of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war, a civil war from which the country would never recover," he told an Istanbul forum of the U.N.-led Alliance of Civilizations initiative.
Ban's remarks came amid mounting international outrage over the massacre in the central town of Houla, in which at least 108 people, including 49 children, were killed, according to U.N. figures.
The assault prompted Western countries, including the United States, Britannia, La Belle France, Australia to expel the senior Syrian diplomats in their countries.
The bodies from the Houla massacre were counted by U.N. observers whom Ban described as "our eyes and ears of the international community."
The observers were in Syria "so that perpetrators of crimes may be held accountable," he said.
"We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities."
The U.N. chief demanded that the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... regime honor its commitment to a peace plan drawn up by international mediator 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... "I demand that the government of Syria act on its commitment to the Annan peace plan," he said.
He also demanded that "the Syrian government act on its responsibilities to its people."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
On a side note, there was a Latvian that could have been "U.N." Chief. What ever became of him?
#5
We need a "Captain Obvious" icon for every post about this guy.
Diplomacy has gone from working toward a goal to endless exchanges of tedious indirect language and polite chit chat with no results.
If diplomats would ever ACCOMPLISH anything we might have fewer armed conflicts. But as it is, the two sides bristle their mustaches, clinch their teeth and say "I can't take this shit anymore" grab their weapons and start shooting while the diplomats puzzle over a sharply worded memo while eating their crepes and champaign.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/01/2012 13:46
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#6
If it's "Uncatastrophic Civil War", would that be okay?
"We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities."
US envoy Susan Rice on Thursday condemned reprehensible Russian arms deliveries to Syria as she stepped up US calls for increased international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. The US ambassador to the United Nations also accused the Damascus government of stating a blatant lie by denying it was involved in a massacre in which 108 people were killed.
With respect to the reported docking of a ship carrying Russian arms, this is obviously of the utmost concern given that the Syrian government continues to use deadly force against civilians, Rice told reporters at UN headquarters.
It is not technically, obviously, a violation of international law since there is not an arms embargo, but it is reprehensible that arms would continue to flow to a regime that is using such horrific and disproportionate force against its own people, Rice said.
A Russian ship carrying arms reportedly arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend. Russia is Syrias last main international ally and has defended Assad in UN Security Council debates on the uprising against him.
Russias UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has rejected criticism of the arms sales insisting that they are legal and have no influence on the Syria conflict.
The former is technically true, the latter is, well, as Russian a statement as you could ask...
Rice also condemned the Syrian governments denials of involvement in a massacre in the town of Houla last week in which at least 108 people died. The ambassador dismissed the Syrian governments statement that the massacre was carried out by armed groups.
I think quite simply its another blatant lie, she said. There is no factual evidence, including that provided by the UN observers that would substantiate that rendition of events.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[Dawn] A man bumped off three brothers over a dispute in Badra area early on Wednesday before being killed by locals.
SHO of city cop shoppe Khursheed Tanoli identified the attacker as a Death Eater, Mohammad Arshad alias Taliban, saying he was wanted for attacks on the offices of two NGOs, Plan International and World Vision.
The FIR registered by police said the Death Eater and his two accomplices stormed Mohammad Jamshed's house and opened fire on Jamshed and his brothers Mohammad Mushtaq and Mohammad Ishtiaq.
The three brothers was struck down in his prime.
Hearing the gunfire, people of the area showed up and rubbed out the attacker.
One of the Death Eater's accomplices, Mohammad Naseer, and an unidentified man also suffered injured in the clash. They were taken to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, where their condition was stated to be out of danger.
Police found four hand grenades and a kalashnikov near the Death Eater's body and seized them.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV] US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... forces claim they have killed 32 bully boy members of Taliban in a joint operation with Afghan cops in the southern Zabul province.
According to NATO's statement, six Afghan soldiers have been also killed and six others injured during the one-month-long operation which ended on Wednesday.
NATO added that 16 Talibs have been also jugged You have the right to remain silent... and six cut-throats have been maimed in the operation.
The Western military alliance stated that a remarkable amount of weapons and vehicles belonging to the Taliban have been also seized in the said period.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... Taliban front man Qari Yusef Ahmadi claimed that NATO troops have been forced to retreat after suffering heavy losses during the festivities.
The Taliban have already announced the beginning of their "spring offensive" across Afghanistan, targeting the US-led NATO troops and Afghan cops.
Code-named Al-Farouq, the primary targets of the offensive are "foreign invaders, their advisors, their contractors, all those who help them militarily and in intelligence," the cut-throats said on their website.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Eight people of a nomad family, including five women and two boys, were bumped off and two others sustained injuries when some gunnies attacked their huts in Green Town and Shadman Town here on Wednesday in the limits of Millat Town police.
SSP (operations) Saeed Ali Dogar told Dawn the gunnies first attacked a hut in Shadman Town where they bumped off Arshad of Chak 84-JB. Then they headed towards Green Town where they opened fire on the family of Sharif who were asleep. Resultantly, Sharif's two daughters Ramzana Bibi and Farzana, his wife Sharifan Bibi, Fatima Bibi, Hajiran Bibi and two boys Ali Ahmed and Jameel, aged between seven and 11, were killed.
Ayesha and Shazia were brought to Allied Hospital where their condition was said to be stable.
Dogar said Millat Town police had registered two cases with no arrest.
Speaking about the motive behind the killings, he said a couple of weeks ago one Saboor was killed by Yasir and a few of his accomplices over the drainage of house water that had been flowing to the huts of Saboor's family. "This incident seems to be an outcome of the earlier murder."
A number of relatives of the dear departed gathered outside the hospital and protested against the incident. They demanded immediate arrest of the killers and action against the coppers who failed to protect the family. Police rushed to the spot and collected evidence.
Talking to Dawn, some of the relatives of the dear departed said the assailants were wearing police uniform and assisted by the local police.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... the SSP (operations) denied the charges and said initially the name of a policeman had been pointed out becauseof some misunderstanding. Later, the situation was cleared and the applicant did not nominate any policeman in the FIRs.
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[Iran Press TV] The US Commerce Department has announced that the country's economic growth slowed to 1.9 percent in the first three months of 2012.
The US Commerce Department statement said on Thursday that it lowered its gross domestic product (GDP) estimate for the first quarter of the year to 1.9 percent from an initial estimate of 2.2 percent.
The downward revision has reportedly been largely due to a sharp increase in US trade deficit, decline in private investment and consumer spending, as well as strong rise in imports.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Soon to be revised downward due to overwhelming inflation.
You MUST have 5.5% economic growth for three quarters or more to pull out of a Recession. This is 3% or less growth every quarter for the last 3 years, and we have not even gotten to tax day JAN 2013 yet. This is a depression with a bomb tied at the end.
An armed attack on a troop convoy with food has been committed in the evening May 30 on the highway "Agwali - Botlikh" in Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan. The attackers injured a policeman who accompanied the army outfit. The employees of Tsumadinsky police department arrived to the scene to render assistance and to continue the column marching. In the mountains the assailants are being sought.
[Dawn] The violent incidents of assassinations continued in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... as five more people, including a Rangers officer, were killed on Thursday, DawnNews reported.
A Rangers officer, Abdul Hameed Chachar, was rubbed out in the area of Medina colony in Korangi, the police sources said. The dear departed officer was a sub-inspector in Pakistain's paramilitary force.
A man was rubbed out at Maripur road near a hotel. According to MLO of the Civil Hospital, the man was shot in the head.
A man was rubbed out and the other received injuries in the area of Lee market near an eye clinic.
A dead body was found from Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... River.
The funeral prayers of Mehdi Raza and Fakhar Abbas were rubbed out by the criminals in Orangi town, have been offered.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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North Korea identifies itself as a nuclear power in its revised constitution, according to a copy displayed on the country's official web portal.
They can identify as anything they want...
The constitution was revised at last month's meeting of the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly, and the preface details the accomplishments of former leader Kim Jong-il, claiming he changed the North into a "nuclear power and invincible military superpower."
The Supreme People's Assembly named Kim Jong-il "eternal chairman" of the National Defense Commission while appointing his son Fat Boy Kim Jong-un to the newly-created post of first secretary.
North Korea has claimed it is a nuclear power since its second nuclear test in May of 2009 and used the expression to identify itself in various announcements. The expression was used in a statement announcing Kim Jong-il's death on Dec. 19 last year and has appeared in the North's media on a daily basis since then.
More than 100 articles, editorials or statements referring to the country as a nuclear power have appeared in North Koreas official Rodong Shinmun daily since Kim's death.
"The revision was the first change to the constitution since the second nuclear test in 2009 and Kim Jong-il's death late last year, and it must have been natural for the regime to use the expression 'nuclear power,'" said an intelligence official here. The inclusion of the phrase shows that Kim Jong-un wants to publicize the fact that North Korea has nuclear weapons and use them as a bargaining tool just as his father did, according to a source.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2012
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#6
SOKOR is now denying the North's new Nuke Mil State status, arguing that NOKOR is not an official signatory to the NPT.
Meanwhile, JAPAN = JMSDF on its part has deployed more AEGIS BMD-capable Destroyers to the West Sea to deal wid the strategic or LT threat from NOKOR's alleged nuclear, Missle arsenal, + IMO to also SSSSSSSHHHHHHHH counter China's own naval buildup in same.
versus
* TOPIX > WEST SEA BECOMES NEW ARENA FOR BIG POWER RIVALRY [US-China-Japan].
ARTIC = denotes that CHINA plans to expand PLAN naval operations to GUAM, SAIPAN [CNMI], + INDONESIA ARC ["Second Island Chain"] by 2020
* SAME > PANETTA: PENTAGON TO SHIFT WARSHIPS TO PACIFIC. Up to 60% of entire USN Fleet could be assigned to the Pacific by 2020.
* SAME > CANADA EYES/SEEKS SINGAPORE HUB TO SUPPORT US MILITARY'S ASIA "PIVOT" TOWARD CHINA, i.e. counter Rising China.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > PANETTA: US TO RENEW NAVAL POWER IN ASIA-PACIFIC [ + stay vigilant agz Rising China].
* SAME > TIMES OF INDIA: [new]US SEVENTH FLEET BASE IN BANGLADESH? | EXCLSUIVE: AMERICA EYES BANGLADESH [Chittagong].
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > PANETTA: US WILL LEAN ON TECHNOLOGY [+ State-vs-State Regional Partnerships] FOR ASIA-PACIFIC PIVOT COUNTER.
> US to raise troop levels in Asia-Pacific above current 330,0000.
> Pacific needs to be a RULES-BASED REGION AS RELIANT ON THE RULES OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER.
* SAME > BANGLADESH: AMERICA'S NEW STRATEGIC CYNOSURE IN SOUTH ASIA.
* SAME > HILLARY IN DHAKA: WHY? + WHY NOW?
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > GWADAR PORT STALEMATE:IS CHINA'S "STRING OF PEARLS" STRATEGY A FAILURE?
* TOPIX, CHINA DAILY FORUM > BIDEN VOWS TO CONFRONT RISING POWER OF CHINA | BIDEN: WAHSINGTON NOW HAS NEW STRATEGY TO COUNTER [defeat] CHINA'S RISE.
* RIAN.RU > RUSSIA TO REOPEN ARCTIC AIRBASES.
* SAME > RUSSIA TO BUILD UP SUBMARINE TASK FORCE ALONG NORTHERN SEA ROUTE.
* SAME > PUTIN ORDERS NAVAL DEVELOPMENT [+ more MilWeaps] IN ARCTIC, FAR EAST.
And once again again, Virgina, we relearn why Russia's formal annexation of the Japanese Kuriles is actually aimed more at China + [strategic Pacific access] than dissing Nippon.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zambian Sherlocks on Thursday placed in long-term storage Book 'im, Mahmoud! a son of former president Rupiah Banda for corruption and possessing assets bought with dirty money, a police spokeswoman said.
"Andrew Banda has been formally tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and charged for corrupt practices and being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime," Namukolo Kasumpa, spokeswoman for the criminal investigations department told news hounds.
Banda, currently his country's deputy high commissioner to India, was jugged barely 24 hours after police took a statement from him. I said nuttin' incriminating! Git yer hands off'n me!
Andrew is the eldest son of former president Banda, who lost to opposition leader Michael Sata in September.
He is accused of charging Italian construction company Fratelli Locci two percent of all its earnings for building roads.
Authorities also say Banda couldn't explain the origin of 360 million kwacha ($67,000, 54,000 euro) in his bank account, money suspected to come from criminal activity.
He was released on bail, his lawyer Sakwiba Sikota told news hounds.
Rupiah Banda had little comment on his son's arrest, saying he had not been in touch with him for "a long time now so I am not really following what is happening."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Iran Press TV] BBC-Persian along with a few other western media outlets , have launched a new media campaign to ignite terrorism in southwestern Iran.
As recently as a few days ago, BBC-Persian and Voice of America as well as the Saudi funded Al-Arabiyeh network embarked on broadcasting especial programmes, in which the UK-based anti-Iranian terrorist group known as al-Ahwazi was the main theme of propagation.
The anti-Iranian terrorist group al-Ahwazi has launched fresh operations with the help of some western governments including Britannia to destabilize southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan.
The al-Ahwazi group, whose remnants had to escape Iran after their main supporter Saddam Hussain was toppled in neighboring Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of the country in March 2003, is comprised of communist, nationalist, socialist and Salafi groups, whom despite ideological and nominal differences are united around one goal and one strategy; which is to topple the government and separate Khuzestan from the rest of the country through armed conflict.
Khuzestan is the petroleum rich and ethnically diverse province of southwestern Iran and for three decades it has experienced bloody attacks carried out by armed krazed killer groups known collectively as the al-Ahwazis.
Al-Ahwazi members were born in 1980, soon after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. They were inspired by the ruling Ba'ath regime in neighboring Iraq at the time, and they had already carried out a series of attacks in the province even before Saddam unleashed his military on Iran and imposed an 8-year war on the country.
Soon after the war broke out on September 1980, the Iraqi army occupied parts of Khuzestan and advanced to an area 15 kilometers from the capital city of Ahwaz.
The al-Ahwazis, known in Iran as the "Khalqe Arab" launched bomb and short-range mortar attacks inside the city of Ahwaz to facilitate a takeover by the invading Iraqi army. 16000 residents of Khuzestan died during the war, 12000 of them ethnic Arabs.
After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saddam founded "Arab Front for the Liberation of Ahwaz in Iraq", whose main concern was to separate the Iranian province of Khuzestan.
After their god-father Saddam was tossed, the al-Ahwazis faced a serious predicament. Desperate for support, they now had to look beyond the borders of Iraq, and in the distance they saw two allies, the deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in Egypt and the executed dictator Muammar al-Qadaffy in Libya. And the Khalq-e Arab gunnies turned to Egypt for support.
The al-Ahwazi groups have committed numerous crimes against the Iranian targets in the past 30 years, among them kabooms in public places, abductions that led to murder, liquidations, kidnapping for ransom, shooting at tourist and blowing up oil pipelines. Thousands of people have been killed or injured, as a result of their actions.
News channels like the BBC, VOA and some Arab funded channels including Al Arabiyeh are among several other networks tasked with portraying terrorist groups like the al Ahwazi as freedom fighters, and this is while that the same networks are largely turning a blind eye on several freedom-seeking movements like in Bahrain, Yemen, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
and Egypt, where people are increasingly mobilized against the countries' despotic regimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) says it's putting an end to the state of emergency in the country after it has been in force for 31 years.
SCAF said the state of emergency, which has been in place without interruption since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, is due to expire at midnight on Thursday.
The state of emergency has been enforced under the country's emergency law which has governed Egypt since 1967.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
Just in time for the next state of emergency! The old one was getting stale anyway.
[Tolo News] Four Taliban leaders were captured during joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... troops operations in Afghanistan, Isaf said on Thursday.
The leaders were captured in different operations in Kandahar, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Ghazni provinces, the Isaf statement said.
"[One] leader recently returned to Panjwai district of Kandahar province with numerous Death Eater fighters for the Taliban spring offensive," according to Isaf.
He was also the senior Taliban Death Eater operating in the district and directed roadside kaboomings, suicide kabooms and other operations against Afghan and coalition security forces, the statement said.
The security force tossed in the clink Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! multiple additional gun-hung tough guys and seized more than 700 rounds of ammunition as a result of this operation, it added.
The second Taliban leader was captured in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province.
Isaf said this leader directed attacks against Afghan and coalition bases throughout Marjeh and coordinated his operations directly with the senior Taliban gun-hung tough guys in the district.
Another Taliban leader was captured in eastern Ghazni province. The leader conducted roadside kaboomings, indirect fire attacks and other operations against Afghan and coalition troops throughout the district. He is also suspected in ordering the kidnapping of Afghan troops earlier this month, Isaf said.
A fourth leader was captured in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, but no details were given in the Isaf statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
no!no!no!!
the proper wording is: "captured but injured and after intensive extreme interrogation and once emptied of all useful intel later succumbed to their injuries"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2012 9:45
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#2
To be released in a fortnight, to a grid location of his choice, with a shower, new pakool (pancake) hat, our profound apologies, and some spending money.
#6
As per childhood dreams/visions since the late 1960's, or the Vatican's "Riderless Winged Horse" ala Third Secret of Fatima artwork, CALL ME WHEN WE CRASH INTO THE HORSE/PEGASUS NEBULA.
D *** NG IT, MADONNA, ARE YOU + GOD SURE ITS A HOSS - THE HEAD LOOKS MORE LIKE A SNAKE OR DRAGON, NOR A HORSEY [Horses, etal = Dragons during Middle Ages]???
#7
It's Bush's fault. Obama said so, and our God King Dear Leader Messiah Savior couldn't possibly be wrong now, could he?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/01/2012 1:57
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#8
Nearterm downside:
After a US government satellite crashes near the town of Piedmont, New Mexico, a microbe attached to the satellite kills all but two of the town's inhabitants a sixty-two-year-old man and an infant. Some of those who died show signs of having first gone mad. The mechanism of death is massive clotting and granulation of every drop of blood in their bodies. An elite scientific team takes the satellite into a secret underground laboratory in the Nevada desert, known as the Wildfire Complex, in order to study it. The new life form is assigned the code name Andromeda Strain. Within a couple of days the microbe mutates into a form that degrades synthetic rubber gaskets and thus escapes containment. This triggers an automatic self-destruct mechanism designed to set off a nuclear explosion beneath the complex, eradicating all germs before they can reach the surface. However, the scientists learn that the alien microbes, having evolved in the harsh environment of outer space, would thrive on the radiation of a nuclear explosion and would consequently be able to mutate into a supercolony of an untold number of forms. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered how to really defeat the microbes. To stop the explosion and save the world, one scientist races to shut down the bomb before it can detonate.
#9
ION DAILY MAIL.UK > "BEAMS" FROM SPACE THAT COULD POWER CITIES: FIRST TEST OF SOLAR SATELLITES OFFER HOPE OF GREEN ENERGY THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY WORK.
SPACESTRIKE/ORBITAL STRIKE = "DUAL-USE" URBAN, "CONTINENTAL" [Regional, Trans-, Global Unions] EXTERNAL MAJOR ENERGY SOURCE???
Ditto for HAARP + GROUND-BASED LASERS, as Deflectors + Transmitters ala Tesla???
NASA-JPL = Its official - we can finally stop targeting That-Guy-from-Guam + refocus on real Cities. CIVILAN ENERGY = NICE "IMMEDIATE/REAL-TIME/NEAR-TERM MILITARY ZAP [ZZZZZZZZZTTTTT].
[An Nahar] A previously unknown gang calling itself "Syrian Revolutionaries - 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... Countryside" on Thursday claimed that 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria on May 22 are in the group's custody and that they are in good health.
A statement carrying the group's signature and sent to Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... said negotiations to release the abductees "would only be possible after (Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah apologizes for his latest speech."
The TV network also aired images of the abductees' passports, saying they were sent by the group.
"We have decided to keep the Lebanese abductees after we learned that some of them are involved in the crimes and massacres committed by the regime and they are currently under interrogation," a man who identified himself as Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, the group's front man, told Al-Jazeera.
"Our message to Nasrallah is that it is prohibited to enter Syria and shed the blood of Syrians," al-Halabi added.
"Our problem is not with any particular community but with those who assist in the suppression of the uprising," the statement said, in allusion to the 15-month revolt against the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... .
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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Minister of Foreign Affairs Abu Bakar Al-Qirbi has accused Iran of interfering in Yemen's affairs, stressing that any Iranian cooperation with Yemeni political sides is unacceptable. An Emirati Newspaper, Al-Khaleej, said on Wednesday that some factions in Iran and other countries blatantly intervene in Yemen's affairs.
"We along with all regional states are keen to have relations with Iran, but we refuse any intervention in internal affairs" he said.
The US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein had frequently cautioned against Iranian intervention in Yemen, indicating that Iran seeks to spark troubles in Yemen through supporting the Saada-based Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is "God is Great, Death to America™", Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews" ... group.
According to the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , Iran operates increase its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen as part of what American military and intelligence officials say is a widening Iranian effort to extend its influence across the greater Middle East.The Yemeni authorities have seized a weapon-loaded Iranian ship while it was en route to the Houthi fighters nearby the Hodeidah port early of 2012.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... Al-Qirbi denied any direct military intervention in fight launched by the Yemeni army against Ansar Al-Sharia, an al-Qaeda-linked group in the South.
He emphasized that the Yemeni army fights al-Qaeda alone and that the United States provides logistic supports to Yemeni anti-terror forces, denying any US pressures on the Yemeni government to create a US base in Socotra island.
"Creation of military bases in Socotra Island contradicts the Yemen constitution that bans any foreign existence on Yemen's lands" he added, pointing out that allegations of US pressures on the Yemeni government is baseless.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[An Nahar] Syrian troops resumed their shelling of the Houla region on Thursday, killing at least one person at the site of a massacre of 108 people last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"A boy was rubbed out today by a sniper," Britannia-based Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Three others died Wednesday during shelling by the regime forces."
The army shelled three areas of Taldu overnight, where the majority of the Houla massacre victims were killed on May 25, the Observatory said.
Regime forces deployed in large numbers in the area, the monitor added.
On Wednesday, the army used heavy artillery to pound the area, according to the opposition Syrian National Council.
The Observatory said "people are fleeing the peripheries of Houla for the town itself, for fear that a new massacre may be committed."
Of those killed at the weekend, 49 children and 34 women died, many of them summarily executed.
The SNC called on Wednesday on the U.N. observers, deployed in Syria to monitor a truce that has failed to take hold, to go to Houla to protect civilians.
In all, at least 73 people were killed in violence across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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[Yemen Post] Clashes renewed on Tuesday between the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is "God is Great, Death to America™", Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews" ... group and the tribes of Hajja after Houthi snipers killed a child in Kushar district of Hajja.
Local sources said that dozens from both sides were killed and maimed, affirming that crossfire that erupted on Tuesday night lasted to Wednesday.
A tribal leader of Kushar district, Yahya Al-Saeedi told Marib Press that Houthi fighters centered on mountains snipe children and passers-by, stressing that they violate any truces.
He said the tribes managed on Tuesday to recapture a village that was controlled by Houthi fighters, pointing out that the population depend on this village to have drinking water.
He further said that rustics could take out a number of landmines implanted by Houthis in their villages, anticipating that festivities will last.
Al-Saeedi demanded President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... to intervene and put an end to bloodshed in Kushar, indicating that the local residents suffer of hunger, poverty and siege imposed by the Houthi fighters on their villages.
According to Yemeni activists, landmines and explosive devises implanted by Houthi fighters in some areas of Hajja led to the killing and wounding of dozens during the past few months in Hajja governorate.
Deputy governor of Hajja, Esmaeel Al-Muhim, said children are more most vulnerable to landmines, many displaced persons of Hajja governorate have failed to return their houses.
Media sources cited that at least 3,000 landmines have been planted in Kusher and Mestaba since sectarian festivities first broke out in November 2011.
Violent festivities broke out between the Houthi Group and the tribes leaving hundreds of persons killed and maimed from both sides, and hundreds of families were displaced before reaching a truce in March.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2012
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#1
And over the "holiday week end" in Chicago.....
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.
The Justice Department ordered Florida's elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state's voter rolls of noncitizen voters.
US and European regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up their own government's debta move that could end up making the debt crisis even worse, a Citigroup analysis says.
Anti-government 
...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...
[Bangla Daily Star] The 
President 
Asif Ali 
Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindwa has called the global world and Secretary-General of the Untied Nations to put extra pressures on impeders of change in Yemen. 
EVEN as Pakistain and the US try to negotiate their way into a workable relationship, American drone strikes continue. The last few days have seen a flurry of attacks, with five strikes following the 
IN a fit of pique, our security establishment decided to punish Dr Shakil Afridi to make Pakistain look strong after the 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
The people in the United States will eventually launch a civil war against the minority capitalist cartels who are making enormous profits at the cost of the people's sufferings, a political analyst tells Press TV.
BAGHDAD Bombs exploded at a crowded Baghdad restaurant and a near police patrol on Thursday, among attacks that killed at least 18 people and wounded 53 in Iraqs bloodiest day in more than a month, police and hospital medics said.
[Iran Press TV] A Syrian government investigation into the massacre that recently killed more than 100 people in the western Syria village of Houla has blamed anti-
U.N. chief 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Iran Press TV] US-led 
Eight people of a nomad family, including five women and two boys, were 
An armed attack on a troop convoy with food has been committed in the evening May 30 on the highway "Agwali - Botlikh" in Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan. The attackers injured a policeman who accompanied the army outfit. The employees of Tsumadinsky police department arrived to the scene to render assistance and to continue the column marching. In the mountains the assailants are being sought.
The violent incidents of 
North Korea identifies itself as a nuclear power in its revised constitution, according to a copy displayed on the country's official web portal.
[Iran Press TV] BBC-Persian along with a few other western media outlets , have launched a new media campaign to ignite terrorism in southwestern Iran.
Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) says it's putting an end to the state of emergency in the country after it has been in force for 31 years.
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
[An Nahar] Syrian troops resumed their shelling of the Houla region on Thursday, killing at least one person at the site of a massacre of 108 people last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
[Yemen Post] Clashes renewed on Tuesday between the 
