Barack Obamas national security adviser, Gen James Jones, has indicated the President may be prepared to meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if the regime resumed negotiations over its nuclear programme.
The Iraqi army will not be ready to take control of the country for another decade and the US must stop its pull out of troops, which is due to begin at the end of this month, Iraq's top army officer has warned.
#2
There used to be a link from the Jewish Daily News - but they stopped when the publisher fell ill. This is the only link I found; try to think of it as a TeaParty commercial on MSNBC. Worth watching/reading just to see the fulminations in the comments.
This morning at DFW Airport, George and Laura Bush greeted 150 (very surprised) troops as they arrived home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their expressions were so priceless!
Former House Ways and Means chairman passes away at 82.
During his early years in congress, Rostenkowskis record was typical of a northern Democrat with close ties to a powerful big city political organization. He made sure that Chicago received its full share of federal funds. He advocated for various social welfare programs that made up President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty.
Chicago Mayor Daley often looked to Rostenkowski as Chicagos chief liaison in Washington, and counted on him to deliver federal funds to grease" the machine with special projects. Rostenkowski got the job done and kept the Chicago machine alive at a time when other big city machines were nearing extinction. He supported the American effort in Vietnam until 1971, when he joined anti-war Congressmen in an attempt to force a quick withdrawal of American troops by voting against certain military appropriation bills.
Eventually liberal Democrats stripped Rostenkowski of his position as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, because of his ties to Mayor Daley, who was a pariah because of the 1968 convention.
Rostenkowski's political career ended in 1994 after a two year investigation by the Justice Department. In a case led by future U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Rostenkowski was indicted on corruption charges for his role in the House post office scandal.
In 1996, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of mail fraud. He was fined and was sentenced to 17 months in prison, of which he served 15 at the federal prison in Oxford, Wisconsin, and the remaining 2 months at a half way house in Chicago. Rostenkowski was pardoned in December 2000 by President Clinton, who said "Rostenkowski had done a lot for his country and had more than paid for his mistakes."
On Monday, The One refused a meeting with Gov Perry about the border situation, and after meeting him at the airport and giving him a letter about the situration, Perry met with Texas border sheriffs in San Antonio.
After 16 days of denials by Laredo law enforcement and local officials regarding a Mexican drug cartel takeover of a Laredo area ranch, a Texas police blotter proves the alleged incident did in fact happen and that multiple agencies responded to the scene of a seized U.S. ranch.
Think about it for a moment. One of the most brutal drug cartels operating in Mexico crossed the U.S. border and took a ranch from its lawful owner. Intimidation has arrived along the southern border. The police blotter tells the story of the events that unfolded on July 23rd;
"On Friday 7-23-10 Laredo Webb informed that their county SWAT Team is conducting an operation in the Mines Rd. area. According to LT. Garcia with LSO (Laredo Sheriff Office) received a call from a ranch owner stating that the Zetas had taken over his ranch. As per the 17 (reporting person) he informed them that they stated La Compania (area name for Zetas) was taking the ranch and no one was permitted on the ranch without permission. SO (Sheriff Office) will have an unmarked green Ford Taurus with two officers stationed at Los Compadres and a white Chevy Tahoe with two officers stationed at Mineral Rd. The LSO (Laredo Sheriff Office) will maintain surveillance in the area and advise if action is taken. Susp (suspect) Veh (vehicle) are described as a gray or silver Audi, a BLK (black) Escalade or Navigator and a van truck with a logo of a car wash spot free on the side. Border Patrol also has their response team on scene. Also known info of BMW's and Corvettes entering and leaving the area. Auth LT Lichtenberger if assistance is requested LPD (Laredo Police Department) will secure the outer perimeter. (07/24/10 07:42:10 NR1873)"
Cartels have crossed the sovereign borders of the United States causing multiple agencies to respond and the end result was a media blackout. It's well documented that media blackouts in Mexico are happening because the cartels are threatening reporters and news outlets with bodily harm. The question is why American law enforcement agencies are giving reporters the "We can neither confirm nor deny the incident happened line?"
It was a law enforcement officer on the scene that also confirmed the incident in fact happened and officers on the ground said they "considered this an act of war."
The cover-up surrounding this story has reverberated throughout other federal law enforcement agencies. A recently retired ICE veteran, John Sakelarides had plenty to say about the latest U.S. incursion.
"What do you call an invasion by foreign nationals who are armed and occupy territory belonging to a sovereign nation? An act of war. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Anyone who is denying this is what has occurred and that it constitutes an act of war is either an idiot or is somehow involved in this act of war."
He continues to say, "If they (those covering-up the story) are elected representatives or government officials and they are aware that an act of war has been perpetrated against the United States, and refuse to admit it has occurred, much less do anything about it, is violating their oath of office."
The approximate location of the U.S. ranch taken by the Zetas was 10 miles northwest of I-35 off Mines Road and Minerales Annex Road.
The Los Zetas drug cartel is an offshoot of the elite Mexican military trained in special ops, many of whom were trained by the U.S. military. The mercenary organization is said to include members of corrupt Mexican Federales, politicians as well as drug traffickers. The group was once part of the Gulf cartel, but has splintered and now directly competes with the Gulf cartel for premium drug smuggling routes in the Texas region.
The leader of Los Zetas cartel is Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano and the Zetas are considered the most violent paramilitary group in Mexico by the DEA. These drug cartels routinely kidnap tourists, infiltrate local municipalities and smuggle large quantities of narcotics into the U.S. marketplace.
A media firestorm ensued after this reporter posted a story on Saturday July 24, 2010. Now that the story is corroborated, it will be up to local media to track down what events took place after the Zetas seized a U.S ranch.
#1
So Texas has the drug cartells crossing borders and the president will not meet the gov. hmmmm, The gov needs to go to FOX and get on TV. Zero takes note of FOX. Use the tools you have.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/11/2010 13:54
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Nothing forbids the governor of Texas putting a butt load of military weapons armed Texas Rangers down there, with orders to kill any armed Zeta they meet.
#4
Goc Perry and the texas Rangers are not shrinking wallflowers, so my gut says there is more to the story, not so much about the event having taken place, but who the actors in the drama really are, Zetas or repo agents, drug cartel or local gangs, feuding family members, etc?
If the story is as described, then I cannot believe that the Gov or the Texas DPS or local Sheriff or property owner would not already be on Fox. Something doesn't feel right, and Zero is not that powerful.....yet.
#6
Why the NG? The cops these days are as well armed as any NG. They just don't have the armor. Shoot, some SWAT teams are better armed than some NG units.
PayPal has frozen the account of the Flux Foundation a large crew of Bay Area artists and burners that is headed to the Black Rock Desert this week to build the most ambitious Temple in Burning Man's 25-year history claiming the right to profit from the money until the group formally attains its nonprofit status from a backlogged federal government.
I blame George Bush!!!
All that money is just sitting there and we can't touch it, says artist Jess Hobbs, referring to the tens of thousands of dollars that the crew has raised this summer through events and other fundraising drives to supplement an art grant from Black Rock City LLC that didn't come close to meeting the project's $180,000 budget.
Check out the pic at the link of the deluxe "Temple". See what 180 large can get you from the world's finest stoner artists. All 100% flammable, too!
PayPal -- which has been criticized for its secrecy, financial manipulation, and other corporate misbehavior -- was founded in San Jose in 1998 to facilitate online financial transactions and in 2002 was taken over by eBay, the company from which billionaire California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman acquired her wealth.
The company has not returned inquires from the Guardian made this morning. Hobbs and a crew that includes more than 200 other artists and burners have voluntarily worked almost every day this summer to build the Temple of Flux, a series of massive dunes that replicate peaks, canyons, caves, and other natural land forms a project that I've been embedded with for a Guardian cover story that comes out Sept. 1.
They will take the donations and their fees, but they won't give us our money until we get our nonprofit status, Hobbs told a meeting of the crew last night at the American Steel warehouse in West Oakland, where they've been working on the project since early June, before she and other principle artists PK Kimelman and Rebecca Anders left for the playa today. And the IRS is so backed up they're taking at least six months to give out nonprofit status.
Hobbs and other Temple crew members are now scrambling for ways to support a difficult on-site build that will take more than two weeks to complete, including asking crew members for loans and encouraging everyone to put the word out to the community, hoping to find generous benefactors who can at least extend a bridge loan.
"For the cost of two really good hits of X from Velvet Jones, you too can help pollute the desert build an ideal society for independent thinkers who all look exactly alike and say the exact same things!
Burning Man crews and camps are traditionally informal groups, but given the scale of this project, the Temple of Flux crew this year tried to create a new model for fundraising and sustaining the organization beyond this year's Burning Man event by filing the voluminous paperwork required to create the nonprofit Flux Foundation.
But now, PayPal has thrown the effort into a real state of financial flux, taking its cut of nearly 3 percent but refusing to even explain why the corporation has deemed it necessary to freeze the group's finances.
So, let me see if I got this correct. You open an account as a nonprofit before you got the paperwork blessed by the proper authorities. Some other company holding the cash is not sure how much to hold onto for the IRS until this all settles out, so they freeze the account. And it's their fault because you can't get your crap together like an adult? Put down the bong, Princess....you've had enough for today.....
#1
So a simple white cross in the desert needs supreme court approval, and yet torn down by leftie vandals. Still unable to put a new one up because the old one was the only thing protected and this guy is building a burning temple???? WTF!
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08/11/2010 15:30
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But you don't understand, this is really, like, a total bummer, dudes and dudettes!
#8
I don't get what you mean by "Burning Man is trial by fire for ad talent". No advertising is allowed there, neither is any vending. It is actually a pretty cool event. There isn't a single trashcan there and when people leave, it is as clean as when they found it. If you hauled it in, you haul it out. There are two things you can buy there: ice and coffee. The proceeds go to the local schools (not for salaries, but for "stuff" they need) if there is any left after expenses.
You want to take a shower out there? Fine, bring your own, and bring your own water for it. Oh, and you will need to haul the dirty water out. You can't dump it on the ground there because it is a dry lake bed and it turns to muck if you put water on it.
Hippies actually don't fare well out there and it is an engineer's dream.
The thing about Burning Man is like a lot of other things, most media tends to pick out the most extreme examples and portray them as typical. There is a US Marine Corps camp out there, there is bluegrass music. It is probably one of the harshest environments in which to camp in the US. It can be 100 degrees by day and 35 at night with winds howling for days at a time that can rip a tent to shreds.
That temple is an important part of the experience. It is a place where you can place a burden, a loved one's ashes, a painful memory ... and then burn it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXNNWK_G4XU
Some years the rendition of Ave Maria will send chills up your spine depending on who is performing it.
A narrated photo essay (2:33 long) of a recent trip to the region by James Kirchick
Two months after ethnic riots rocked southern Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation that hosts an important U.S. air base, tensions between minority Uzbeks and Kyrgyz remain tense. Arriving in the 3,000-year-old city of Osh late last month, I found the international distress signal ''SOS'' scrawled in chalk on the streets of Uzbek neighborhoods, an eerie remnant of the deadly violence that took the lives of over 300 people last month and led to the displacement of some 400,000.
#1
PRAVDA.RU > USA'S ASIAN AIR BRIDGE MAY COLLAPSE. US desires to set up "land-only", problematic new MILOG in "POLYGON OSH", KYRGYZSTAN where clashes between Krygyzs + Uzbeks had occurred, + nearby Russ base at Kant.
A bomb hidden inside a sedan parked in from of the Ruesoh branch of Kasikorn Bank in Pattani's Ruesoh district exploded about 8.05am on Wednesday, no one was hurt, deputy police chief of Ruesoh Pol Col Somchai Nopsri said. The car was totally wrecked by the explosion and subsequent fire. The Bank's entrance door and a nearby commercial building were also damaged, he said.
No one was injured by the car bomb because Pol Sgt Maj Surin Siang-on of Ruesoh police station received a tip from villagers that a man had parked the vehicle in front of the bank and then rapidly fled the scene on a waiting motorcycle. Pol Sgt Maj Surin set a security cordon around the sedan and then carefully inspected it. He saw a mobile phone, linked to an electrical circuit on driver's seat. He believed it to be a homemade bomb and immediately called for a bomb clearance team. The team arrived too late as the time bomb was set to explode at 8.05am.
Veteran actor James Caan let people in on a little secret last week. After 46 successful years among Hollywoods most outspoken liberal stars, hes speaking up about breaking the mold.
I'm an ultra conservative, he said at Moet & Chandons 6th Annual Hollyshorts Film Festival Opening Night Celebration in Los Angeles.
I'm not a G** damn Hollywood liberal, I'm not, he said, adding he only watches Fox News.
Caan, who was at the event promoting his involvement with the online platform Openfilm.com, also added that he doesnt think Hollywood actors need to comment on every single political issue. When Pop Tarts questioned him on California courts deeming Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage, unconstitutional, he preferred to keep his lips sealed.
"I don't want to comment on that. I'll let those other geniuses do that all those actors who like to find a stage to push their agendas, he said. They don't have political science degrees... I certainly don't. I'll leave it to Sean Penn or Barbara Streisand to comment on that."
#1
Caan had a very frustrating career. Rollerball was way ahead of its time, based on some sound science fiction, but suffered from the same problem as The Running Man.
That is, both movies showed society crumbling, but with just the most peripheral signs, yet tried to convey that an athletic event will somehow be the final trigger. That is too much of a stretch.
But Caan should have stayed with science fiction. It worked wonders for Charlton Heston. By the time he did a remake of The Lathe of Heaven, it was too late.
Other than that, he did a bunch of one-shots and forgettables.
#6
Ah yes, the Man whom made all the Girls wanna watch, + cry, ala RYAN'S SONG back in PRE = FUTURE BRADGELINA "SHE SAYS CHINA RULES THE WORLD" JOLIE 1970's Guam.
The Hindu community has called for deployment of Army in the flood-affected areas of Sindh to safeguard the lives of thousands of Hindus allegedly being looted by the locals.Our families are being targeted at gun-point by the locals of their localities. About 95 shops and 50 houses have been ransacked and looted by the miscreants,
Posted by: john frum ||
08/11/2010
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One of the victims in the recent plane crash near Islamabad had his coffin stamped 'kafir'.
I rather doubt the Pak Army is in the business of protecting Hindus from Muslim mobs
Posted by: john frum ||
08/11/2010 10:59
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Does rather seem to be a call to have the fox guard the henhouse ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2010 11:37
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I'm torn. I have direct experience working with Pakistani troops in Pakistan (way back when) and I found them hard working and professional, and all in all pretty decent people. I can think of worse troops to depend upon. That said, I don't know how the situation would play out in the here and now.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/11/2010 12:16
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IIRC DAILY TIMES.PK > UN: PAKISTAN FLOODS WORSE THAN TSUNAMI, HAITI CRISES.
versus
* RENSE > WASHINTON TIMES > HOTTER BURNING SUN WARMING THE PLANET.
UK Royal Meteriological SOciety Pert BILL BURROWS > argues there are "ENOUGH HAPPENING ON THE SOLAR FRONT TO MERIT FURTHER RESEARCH. PERHAPS WE ARE DEVOTING TOO MANY RESOURCES TO [forcibly?]CONTROLLING/CHANGING HUMAN EFFECTS WIDOUT BEING SURE THAT WE ARE THE MAIN CONTRIBUTOR [CAUSE, as per Earth-specific Global Warming = Climate Change]".
Again, STEPHEN HAWKING + claims that Humanity faces GW = CLIMATE CHANGE-induced THREAT OF EXTINCTION widin 200 Years = come Year 2200, which in turn infers that Humanity has broadly until Year 2100 plus-minus to dev RELIABLE + CHEAP SPACE TRAVEL TECHNOLOGIES FOR PURPOSES OF MASS COLONIZATION, TRAVEL, + EVEN SURVIVAL = ESCAPE FROM A HOTTER SUN???
NOT counting KAMALEN + COMET APOPHIS + now ANTI-BP/GULF OF MEXICO "2182" Space Rocks.
Government statistics in Afghanistan have raised concerns that a growing number of Afghan women are attempting suicide.
The government says every year about 2,300 women or girls attempt to kill themselves, mainly due to mental illness, domestic violence and poverty.
Especially the domestic violence. Notice how HRW just buries that one in the sentence.
Rachel Reid, Afghan analyst from Human Rights Watch, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program there are a range of issues facing women in Afghanistan.
"There are extraordinarily high levels of child-enforced marriage, domestic violence, violence against women generally and huge cultural, social taboos on women seeking help when they've got problems," she said.
"So I have interviewed women in burns hospitals in Kabul who have tried to kill themselves and failed and talked to them about what drove them to it and there will be a litany of awful stories of generally domestic abuse and a feeling of complete helplessness."
Ah, progressive ideology: all cultures are relative and equally worthy. Except when they aren't. But when they aren't you can't do anything about it except study the problem. Fortunately the plight of these women will serve as material for Rachel's dissertation for her PhD in Gender Studies, so at least something good comes out of it ...
The report shows a several-fold increase in suicide attempt compared to 30 years ago, including more than 100 cases of self-immolation at Herat City Hospital in the past year, and an increase in the number of women using pharmaceuticals to kill themselves.
Ms Reid says despite this the report actually shows some promise.
"I was actually really encouraged the government was actually drawing attention to this and the government was being actually quite spot-on in terms of what was driving women to this," she said. "That in itself is quite a seachange over the past 10 years; that a government in Afghanistan would come out and say 'this is happening on a huge scale and we understand that what drives this' are quite difficult things to talk about."
Or that Karzai and his minions have found another way to milk the cow ...
The rights of Afghan women have been highlighted in the wake of a recent Time magazine cover in the US that featured the photo of an 18-year-old woman whose face had been mutilated by the Taliban.
Ms Reid says women's rights in Afghanistan are not just about the attitudes of the Taliban, but governments need to be aware of the attitudes of the Taliban towards women if they are looking towards a political settlement.
Need to be aware? Any intelligent person who's looked at Afghanistan already knows the attitude the Taliban takes towards women. I think the execution ceremonies in the soccer stadiums just a decade ago were all the education I needed about the Taliban's "attitude towards women". But perhaps Rachel is a little slow on the uptake.
"In terms of Afghan women's prospects they are pretty dismal at the moment," she said.
"They are already facing huge problems within their society and many of them pay a very heavy price in the conflict and desperately want it to end, but they also say that their rights might be sold out in hasty deals with the Taliban."
Their rights have been sold out anyways. It's been that way in Afghanistan for the last, oh, three or four millennia. Thanks for noticing, Rachel. By the way, what are you going to do about it? Besides write a thesis?
#1
Ah, progressive ideology: all cultures are relative and equally worthy. Except when they aren't. But when they aren't you can't do anything about it except study the problem. Fortunately the plight of these women will serve as material for Rachel's dissertation for her PhD in Gender Studies, so at least something good comes out of it ...
No kidding.
Some things just need to be torn down and reworked. I'm invading Afghanistan and starting an independent country. First, make it only available to women or the non-cultural specific people that don't lead to this situation. Oh, and no liberals.
#2
actually women had quite a lot of rights comparably in Afghanistan way back a few decades ago before the recent crazy backwardised Sunni Qutb-followers from Saudi started spreading their ideology all over the planet with all that oil money. They were lawyers and doctors, they worked and didn't always wear headscarfs.
but now the taliban, the new dark ages.... make that time look like renaissance lost.
who could forget the Bamiyyan buddhas being blasted away... thousand year testimony to the peaceful Buddhist culture that once was the norm
The news of Custer's foo-paw hit the East Coast just before the 7/4/1876 Centennial celebration. Pretty much mandated that the tribes would not get off lightly.
...Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff sold his house in Denver in order to finance a late round of ads in his Senate primary only to finish with 46 percent. Hes single, so theres no awkward breakfast conversation with a Mrs. Romanoff this morning....
Posted by: Mike ||
08/11/2010
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Nothing at all rough about selling your house, paying off your mortgage, and having a bit of money left over.
#7
It's a bit unseemly to pick on a man who's committed all he has to something he believes in just because you don't believe in it
Abraham Lincoln lost 8 elections. He did win the last 2 he ran in, which were by far the most important. Even politicians have to start somewhere.
#8
Give him his due, he put up when others would have shut up or mooched at the feeding trough.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/11/2010 12:19
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And just noticed, it's sandwich, not sandwitch. Heh. How many times did I look at that before?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/11/2010 12:21
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#10
I'm glad Ken Buck defeated Jane Norton - another "Country-club Republican". We don't need any more of those in Washington. I certainly appreciate Mr. Romanoff's attitude toward the campaign - IIRC, he was bucking the big money from Washington. Washington doesn't want any principled Democrats - the few there are causing them enough trouble.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 13:24
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#5
Ironic that the Chinese communist state run media is doing a better job covering Bammo than our putative "free press."
The Chinese Communist Press is more free than our Communist MSM? Who'd have thought? You'd almost think they had something like the First Amendment. We have one, it's just that not much attention is paid to it by the press. Meeting a deadline has been replaced by meeting an agenda.
A Tulsa homeowner shot a man who attempted to break into his house early Monday after the homeowner called police and told the man to leave. The suspected burglar, Michael Brian Crawford, 36, was hit once in the left shoulder. He was treated and released from a hospital before being arrested on one count of first-degree burglary.
The homeowner, who works out of his home in the 2300 block of South 121st East Avenue, said the man rang his doorbell about 3:30 a.m., which woke him up, and asked for help. He called 911 and told the man the police were coming but didnt open the door, the homeowner said.
I dont open the door that time of morning, said the homeowner, 51, who asked not to be identified by name.
The man waited several minutes by the mailbox before he returned to the front window and yelled, Youre the man of the house. You come talk to me, at the homeowner who was staying awake watching TV.
The homeowner said he told the man that he already called 911 and he should go back and wait on the sidewalk. A few moments later the light on the front porch went out, and he went and got his pistol, the homeowner said. Unscrewed the bulb or broke it would be my guess.
As he secured his house, he saw a shadowy figure against his back porch blinds and the back door began to jiggle. Get away from my house, he said he yelled at the person on his porch. Thats when the back porch light went out, he said. Note to self: Buy porch light you need screwdriver to open.
The homeowner then let out a shot and the man fled. "Apparently, I hit him, he said Monday afternoon.
Crawfords bond is set at $20,000, jail records show.
Neighbors talked Monday afternoon about buffing up their neighborhood watch, which they said already works pretty well. Several neighbors said crime is low in their neighborhood, because they keep an eye out for problems. A burglar that determined isn't a burglar. Only the devil himself knows what he actually is.
#2
"I dont open the door that time of morning," said the homeowner, 51
I quit opening my door to anyone years ago. 99%+ of everyone who knocked turned out to be some kind of door to door solicitor wanting to convert me to something or trying to get money (honestly, by asking, not taking). Time taken to answer the door was consistently wasted, besides there was the obvious security risk.
My town is a fairly safe one, excluding the double murder a block away followed by a 45-second shootout between the perp & the police while I was working on my pickup in the drive. (I do pay more attention to popping sounds I hear in the neighborhood since then.)
The incident looks like one of those failed attempts by a lost soul prowling the world seeking the ruin of souls. $20,000 bond is far too little. The suspect will be back on the prowl as soon as he ingests or manufactures his next supply of mind-altering substances. Perhaps he, or some of his entourage, will visit the very same man for a little payback. The news article almost gave the address away.
#5
Ever hear of home invasion, anon1? He had something to knock lights out. The same thing he thought he could hold against the home owner, most likely a large knife. Thieves seem to know most people these days don't pack heat at home.
Muslims around the world could be setting their watches to a new time soon when the world's largest clock begins ticking atop a soaring skyscraper in Islam's holiest city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia hopes the four faces of the new clock, which will loom over Mecca's Grand Mosque from what is expected to be the world's second tallest building, will establish Mecca as an alternate time standard to the Greenwich median. Ummm, no
The clock is targeted to enter service with a three-month trial period in the first week of the holy month of Ramadan on or about August 12, according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.
It boasts four glimmering 46 metre-across (151 feet) faces of high-tech composite tiles, some laced with gold, sitting more than 400 metres (1,320 feet) over the Holy Haram compound. The tower's height will reach 601 metres (1,983 feet), SPA said. On its website, Premiere Composite, which is responsible for cladding the top section — including a shimmering spire topped by a golden crescent moon — puts the planned height at 590 metres (1,947 feet).
That would make it the world's second tallest building — ahead of Taiwan's 509 metre (1,670 feet) Taipei 101, but well behind the Burj Khalifa, the 828 metre (2,717 feet) skyscraper inaugurated in Dubai in January.
Some 250 "highly qualified Muslim workers" were completing welding work on the clock's frame, SPA said.
More than six times larger in diameter than London's famed Big Ben, the clock faces, with the Arabic words "In the Name of Allah" in huge lettering underneath, will be lit with two million LED lights. Some 21,000 white and green coloured lights, fitted at the top of the clock, will flash to as far as 30 kilometres (18.7 miles) to signal Islam's mandatory five-times daily prayers. On special Muslim occasions, 16 bands of vertical lights will shoot some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) up into the sky.
"Everyone is interested to see the clock, despite the lack of sufficient information about it, and its mechanism," said Mecca resident Hani al-Wajeeh. "We in Mecca hope to be the world's central time zone, and not just have a clock to look at, to show off," he said. He means when the Caliphate is reestablished.
The developer of the massive seven-tower Abraj al-Bait complex had kept the details of the clock a secret, but it is visibly in place now, adorned with the green crossed sword and palm symbol of the Saudi state.
Mohammed al-Arkubi, the manager of the Royal Mecca Clock Tower Hotel in the building below, said the installation of the clock, its faces made by the German-owned Dubai company, Premiere Composite Technologies, has been "a huge operation."
The clock reflects a goal by some Muslims to replace the 126-year-old Universal Time standard — originally called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) — with Mecca mean time. "One clock to rule them all and in the darkness bind them"
At a conference in Doha in 2008, Muslim clerics and scholars presented "scientific" arguments that Mecca time is the true global meridian. They said that Mecca is the centre of the world and that the Greenwich standard was imposed by the west in 1884. Like I just said...
Big does not begin to describe the Abraj al-Bait complex just across the street from the south gate of the Grand Mosque, the Muslim world's most sacred site. Built by a government-controlled fund, the complex sits seven huge towers atop a massive podium. Six are between 42 and 48 stories, and in the middle is the clock tower, appearing nearly twice as tall as the others.
Moreover, the entire complex, with 3,000 hotel rooms and apartments, a five-story shopping centre and gigantic prayer and conference halls, will give it 1.5 million square metres (16.1 million square feet) of floor space, according to architects and construction industry reports. At that it will tie Dubai International Airport's newest terminal three for the world's largest building by floor space. The complex will sport three top-class hotels, the Fairmont, Raffles and Swiss Hotel. It will also have hundreds of luxury apartments, most of them designed to have a direct view of the Grand Mosque.
The project is part of the Saudi government's plan to develop Mecca to be able to receive as many as 10 million hajj pilgrims every year, up from the current three million capacity. That is necessary to accommodate a rapidly growing global population of Muslims, who have a duty to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes, if possible. At the peak of the hajj, according to architect Dar al-Handasah, the complex should accommodate 65,000 people.
The clock will be the focus. Elevators will take visitors up to a huge viewing balcony just underneath the faces, and also a four-story astronomical observatory and Islamic museum.
"The construction of the biggest clock in the world in the purest spot on the earth is a dream-come-true for Muslims," said Atif Felmban, who lives in the city. "Before, we heard and saw famous clocks in the West. But today we can as Muslims be proud of this giant project," said Ahmed Haleem, an Egyptian living in the Muslim holy city.
"I might leave Mecca before the opening ceremony for the clock. But I will be keen to follow it and set my watch to it as soon as it is working," Haleem said. "It means an honour for a place, and time for me," he said
#1
They said that Mecca is the centre of the world and that the Greenwich standard was imposed by the west in 1884.
They've all got it wrong. The centre of the world is wherever I'm at, and high noon is always marked by my shadow pointing north. Ignorant barbarian infidels, all of them.
#2
Why stop there? If Mecca time was good enough for Muhammad, shouldn't all faithful Muslims reject time zones? So what if it's high noon & pitch black?
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/11/2010 10:42
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#3
If Mecca time was good enough for Muhammad, shouldn't all faithful Muslims reject time zones? I really doubt Mohammed used clocks to tell time, either.
#8
This hotel complex actually looks pretty nice per the architectural model.
An interesting thing here is the finances. This hotel may be 90-95% vacant except for the greater hajj. I doubt the Saudis truly realize all the O&M costs for a unique structure like this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/11/2010 13:19
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#9
I notice the contractor is, Saudi Binladin Group. Nope, to ties or simpathies there. Will there be a casino? Only way to fill those rooms in the desert, just like Vegas.
Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 ||
08/11/2010 16:21
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#10
What the article fails to make clear is that the standard it sets is not the hour, but the year - 570. So if we all just set the calendar and thinking back 1440 years we'll be in synch with our muslim brothers.
#13
"Nice aiming point" indeed! One very large nuke (50MT or so - may have to borrow it from the Russians) would put an end to a LOT of nonsense. Unfortunately, no one on Earth is going to do that. Maybe God can smack this pack of illiterate fools down with a small asteroid.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 20:24
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#14
See also RENSE > HUGE MECCA CLOCK TO USURP GREENWICH TIME? | [Telegraph.UK] GIANT MECCA CLOCK SEEKS TO CALL TIME ON GREENWICH.
ARTIC = Muslim Perts argue that Mecca is a natural "LOW/ZERO MAGNETISM ZONE" ideal both for PERSONAL HEALTH + KEEPING ACCURATE TIME in comparison to Greenwich.
In todays Press conference Lebanaons Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, displayed a video of an Israeli drone video transmission Hezbollah managed to hack in 1996. Before 1997, the Resistance managed to capture the transmission of an MK drone and we managed to access this transmission which enabled us of capturing the images transmitted by the drone as the enemys operation room was receiving them. Nasrallah said. According to him a drone video feed Hezbollah hacked in 1997 has helped Hezbollah fighters to set up an ambush for Israeli commandos team who where in their way to conduct military operations in southern Lebanon.
In the press conference Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafiq Al Hariri. He was assassinated in Lebanon in February, 14, 2005. In his speech Nasrallah said that a lebanese Israeli spay has been blackmailing Hariri to think that Hezbollah was plotting to kill him.
#1
Because we know we can trust Hezbollah's claims implicitly.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/11/2010 10:16
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#2
The Russians were behind this. A few years ago, they sent some ELINT experts to Syria and Lebanon to help them intercept Israeli data streams with advanced equipment.
At first, it allowed them to wipe out hundreds of Israeli collaborators and spy networks, resulting in the death of dozens of agents.
A flight attendant whose profanity-laced tirade has turned him into a folk hero of sorts was released on bail Tuesday night from a Bronx detention center.
Authorities say Steven Slater grabbed some beer and triggered an inflatable emergency chute for a dramatic exit from a plane at a JFK Airport terminal in New York.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it "appears" that Slater was quitting during his intercom flameout Monday. It might seem that way. Unless you're a liberal.
"It's a strange way to quit, let's put it that way," he said. "I don't think he'll be able to come back." Maybe not in the airline industry. But he seems like just the kind of guy we need in charge of Afghanistan right about now.
Slater said as he left the facility that he appreciated the groundswell of support that has grown since the Monday incident, but declined to comment further. Why should he? He's already said what he had to say.
#1
The original article had some great literary tap dancing, to describe how when the police picked him up at his apartment, he was amorously engaged with his "partner".
#2
Reminds me of a short conversation I had with a state trooper on his last day at work before he was to retire. I asked him if there was anything he thought he would miss in retirement. He said, "I'll miss that feeling I kept getting, that if I heard ONE MORE LIE, I was going to start shooting."
Warning: Big time-waster at the link, but here are a couple of interesting words. Maybe for communication's sake we should just stick to using the common term, though.
Obviously, government employees can no longer use the word "goodbye" since they are so dead set on removing any perception of religion from government.
#1
I like Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of a telephone greeting: Ahoy!
Arrrrrr......better than hullo.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, Alaska ||
08/11/2010 2:49
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#2
My daughter's standard greeting on the phone: "Hey"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2010 8:51
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#3
My standard greeting on my landline phone is "You have reached XXX-XXXX. Please leave a message after the tone." and then I push any button on the dial pad. This is the same message my answering machine gives off, only the tone is different. People who know me, know what to do. Time-wasting callers hang up. People who are calling by mistake ignore the phone ID & leave a message for whomever they imagine they are calling. People who try to leave a legitimate message hear from me on the spot.
#4
Hello came into existence in the mid-1800s. It is an alteration of hallo, which was an alteration of holla or hollo. These words were used to attract immediate attention and demand that the listener come to a stop or cease what he or she was doing. Hallo was used to incite hunting dogs.
One of the problems with the internet is that the same thing gets repeated a million times often based on a single source, in this case the OED.
The OED is probably wrong and hello is likely a contraction of 'hail fellow'. Semantically it fits and many english people pronounce hello more like 'haillow'.
The Obama administration's most public face, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, has tried to climb down from angry remarks he aimed at leftwing critics, calling them "crazy".
In an interview with The Hill newspaper in Washington DC, Gibbs revealed frustration at attacks on the administration from liberal Democrats and others on the left, in terms likely to make relations even worse:
"I hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested," Gibbs said. "I mean, it's crazy." Right. They could only wish for such a comparison at this point.
The press secretary dismissed the "professional left" in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality." But isn't that just exactly what you are pushing for? I'm so confused ....
Within hours of the interview being published, Gibbs tried to walk back his remarks, calling them "inartful". He told the Huffington Post:
I watch too much cable, I admit. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout - but I know that's not a view held by many, nor were the views I was frustrated about. IOW: The Devil made me do it. [Reference The Good Liberal's Handbook chapter on "Never ever having to say you're sorry!"]
Gibbs went on to say: "So we should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies". Great! We'll put this new policy into effect and we'll also start taking bipartisan Pilates classes tomorrow at 07:00!
His remarks reflect the White House's sensitivity at criticism from the left of the Democratic party, who are unhappy that Obama has too often appeared to compromise on domestic policy while continuing Bush administration policies on Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a continued failure to close Guantanamo prison. If his pure policies weren't contaminated by reality, we'd all be living in a Liberal Utopia right now!
Gibbs's remarks were quickly taken up and dissected on liberal blogs. Conservative blogs, too!
Glenn Greenwald at Salon described Gibbs's remarks as "one of the most petulant, self-pitying outbursts seen from a top political official in recent memory, half derived from a paranoid Richard Nixon rant and the other half from a Sean Hannity/Sarah Palin caricature of The Far Left". Chris Bowers of the OpenLeft blog responded in a post headlined "Dear swing voters, you suck. Love, The White House": My, looks like that "The Far Left" caricature might not be so far left after all ....
If the White House really doesn't think it has any problems among self-identified liberals or progressives, and that all the complaints are coming from a grasstop elite, it needs to look at the data again. They might collect data, but all they seem to know how to do with it is to twist it until it lends "agreement". One good way to do this is to say that "Right-wing extremists hate it, so it must be good". Of course, who right-wing extremists are is anything to their right ....
#2
It is what happens when they know their ideas and goals will fail in open debate and all they know to do is to attack critics. Now they are starting to eat their own.
#4
The systemic problem in the ranks of "Those Who Know Best" is that they somehow don't agree on what's best. Ergo- the far-left hand is always trying to arm-wrestle the left hand farther left.
Why don't they just sell it themselves and use it to pay their debts?
Pyongyangs cash-strapped totalitarian regime has offered to settle part of its debt to the Czech Republic with a large consignment of ginseng rather than eat into its limited funds.
With the domestic economy crumbling, North Korea is also feeling the pinch of tighter international sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programmes and the sinking of a South Korean warship. Its access to global markets is further hindered by outstanding international debts of about $12bn, two-thirds to former communist states.
Czech officials confirmed that Pyongyang had offered to settle 5 per cent of its Kc186m ($10m) in accumulated debt in ginseng, an invigorating root used in dietary supplements and teas that are supposed to improve memory, stamina and libido. Communist Czechoslovakia was a leading supplier of heavy machinery, trucks and trams to North Korea.
Non-cash trade and settlement of debt has been common among socialist countries. Cuba compensates Venezuela for discounted oil by sending doctors to work in deprived areas.
However, the now-capitalist Czechs are unconvinced they need an injection of vigour.
We have been trying to convince them to send, for instance, a shipment of zinc, which is mined there. We would sell it ourselves, Tomas Zidek, deputy finance minister, told the Czech Republics MF Dnes newspaper.
Radek Lezatka, finance ministry spokesman, said Prague was still discussing whether North Korea would ultimately pay in cash or a commodity.
MF Dnes calculated that 5 per cent of the North Korean debt would amount to 20 tonnes of the curly white root. Retail prices of North Korean ginseng in Taiwan suggest a figure closer to 12 tonnes. Both sums massively outstrip the Czech Republics annual consumption of about 1.4 tonnes year, though North Korean ginseng is popular in east Asia.
International security services last year seized large illegal consignments of smuggled arms, which are a key source of hard cash revenue for Pyongyang, probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
After the US and its allies blamed North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship in March, Washington again vowed to crack down on Pyongyangs international financing, money laundering and narcotics operations, though the scale of these is unclear.
A US court last week ruled that the Foreign Trade Bank of Korea, a North Korean state bank, owed a Taiwanese counterpart $6.77m over an unpaid loan.
North Koreas military runs the export companies that ship speciality foodstuffs, such as shellfish, ginseng and mushrooms, to gain hard currency. Intelligence agencies say the ginseng trade is controlled by Pyongyangs shadowy Bureau 39, which runs the countrys foreign funds.
#1
I once got a candied Skor ginseng root, its box covered with export and tax stamps. In SE Asia, it has almost mythical medicinal properties, and families would impoverish themselves to buy one for a sick family member.
In an odd twist, its medicinal properties, while always strong, are just the opposite in SE Asia than they are for American grown ginseng. That is, theirs, like their environment, is extremely Yin in character. The North American environment is extremely Yang in character, so our ginseng is as well.
This means that every year, there is about a $250m trade between us. We send them our ginseng, and they send theirs here.
I'd enjoyed Korean ginseng for some years before trying that candied root. It about knocked my socks off.
How's that false ideology working out for you, Obankrupt? You're a smart guy, is it time to pull the plug on all that crap you learned when you were younger, or is it still W's fault
With the disappointingly soft jobs report for July, and a faltering recovery overall, is Team Obama getting ready for some sort of new, liberal-left, Keynesian, big-bang stimulus package? Will they be desperate to "do something"? Oh, they will do something alright. I just want to know how much good money will be thrown after bad. Which constituency are you planning on propping up next? How do you plan on paying for all this debt when we have no room left in the GDP? An actual link input...
The only way to generate economic demand is to let people have and keep more of their money, so they will invest and spend it, and to get government out of the way and stop burdening the job creators with regulations and taxes like Obamacare.
#3
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > JAPAN'S SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORDER IS COLLAPSING | JAPAN'S ECONOMIC STAGNATION IS CREATING A NATION OF LOST YOUTHS.
espec Age 20-34.
* Few jobs.
* Job = likley only PT or Contract Temporary.
* Tendency to quit after short time of few months.
* Earn roughly 1/3 of what their Fathers did in salary.
* DECADE(S)-LONG PERIOD OF NATIONAL ECON STAGNATION WHIHC IS NOT LIKLEY TO END ANYTIME SOON.
AH, OS, but that would entail, ultimately , a leftist admitting that they were wrong about something, and what are the odds of that happening?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/11/2010 5:48
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#6
I fear we are on the brink of an economic calamity the likes of which none of us has ever seen.
We went over the brink about 3 years ago. We are now sliding down into the economic calamity. Smells like 1931-1932 all over again, from my reading of history & economics. The bailouts, stimulus and jive talk from financiers & politicians have slowed and obscured the slide downhill a little bit.
Give it another six months and the money markets cannot hold the excess dollars without a drop in exchange rates. The only thing saving us from hyperinflation is the fact the banks that received the TARP money are not putting it out in the money supply. They are reinvesting it overseas with zero risk.
Too busy funneling money to union bosses in the guise of "stimulus funds", I guess.
Al-Qaida is attempting to make a comeback in Iraq by enticing scores of former Sunni allies to rejoin the terrorist group by paying them more than the monthly salary they currently receive from the government, two key US-backed militia leaders have told the Guardian.
They said al-Qaida leaders were exploiting the imminent departure of US fighting troops to ramp up a membership drive, in an attempt to show that they are still a powerful force in the country after seven years of war.
Al-Qaida is also thought to be moving to take advantage of a power vacuum created by continuing political instability in Iraq, which remains without a functional government more than five months after a general election.
Sheikh Sabah al-Janabi, a leader of the Awakening Council -- also known as the Sons of Iraq -- based in Hila, 60 miles south of Baghdad, told the Guardian that 100 out of 1,800 rank-and-file members had not collected their salaries for the last two months: a clear sign, he believes, that they are now taking money from their former enemies.
"Al-Qaida has made a big comeback here," he said. "This is my neighbourhood and I know every single person living here. And I know where their allegiances lie now."
The Sons of Iraq grew out of a series of mini-rebellions against militants associated with al-Qaida that started in late 2006. They soon grew into a success story in Iraq, which was capitalised on by the then commanding US general, David Petraeus, who agreed to pay each member a $300 monthly salary and used the rebels as a tool to quell the boiling insurgency.
The US handed over control of the Sons of Iraq to the Iraqi government in late-2008. The programme since has been plagued by complaints about distrust and delays in paying salaries, as well as almost daily bombings or shootings targeting Awakening Council leaders and members across Iraq this year, which have troubled US commanders as their combat troops steadily leave the country.
Sheikh al-Janabi's cousin, Malik Yassin al-Janabi, a joint leader in Hila, became the latest victim today when he was killed by gunmen who shot him dead while he was driving, also wounding two of his guards.
A second Awakening Council leader, Sheikh Moustafa al-Jabouri, said disaffection among his ranks had reached breaking point as US combat forces increasingly depart, with most of his men not having been paid for up to three months and now facing a relentless recruitment drive by local al-Qaida members.
"My people are being offered more money. It has happened throughout Arabi Jabour and Dora," he said of the two south Baghdad suburbs that he controls.
"I warned the Americans and the Iraqi government that if they continue neglecting us, the Awakening Council will become even more desperate and will look for other ways to make money.
"So it is an easy market for al-Qaida now. The Iraqi government has disappointed them and it is an easy choice to rejoin the terrorists."
He said approaches to his rank-and-file membership had become commonplace over the last month.
"They are trying every means they know, by threatening or offering money. Many members have no money or salaries and are living in difficult circumstances."
The director of the Awakening Council project inside the national Reconciliation Commission, Zuheir Chalabi, today dismissed claims that members were defecting in large numbers.
"I think this issue is fabricated and politicised by people who are against the government and are pro-Ba'athist," he said. "We have no indications that large numbers of Sons of Iraq have left their jobs. We are seeing [defections] of around four in 1,000."
However, Sheikh al-Janabi said he would give a list of names of the alleged defectors to both American and Iraqi officials. "He needs to accept the facts," he said.
Two long-term members of the Sons of Iraq revealed to the Guardian that they had been approached in recent weeks by local men whom they knew to be al-Qaida leaders and told they would be paid more to defect.
Both admitted to be entertaining the notion, largely because they feared what would happen if they did not.
Mohammed Hussein al-Jumaili, 25, from Dora, said: "My salary is very low -- it is about $300 per month and sometimes they delay paying me for two months or more.
"Ten days ago, I was in a cafe with another person from my neighbourhood. He was working with us also. Two people came to me. I knew them. They were from my area. They said: 'You know the Sons of Iraq experiment has failed and they will be slaughtered one after the other.
'If you work with us, we will support you. We will give you a good salary and you can do whatever operation you want to do. You will get extra money for anything that you do that hits the Americans, or the Iraqi forces.' "
The second member, Sabah al-Nouri, 32, from west Baghdad, said he too had been approached by Sons of Iraq members who were acting as double agents.
"I am responsible for leading a group in al-Haswa district in Abu Ghraib," he said. "Two months ago, al-Qaida contacted me through people who worked with me. They gave me a good offer, a reward for each operation and a pledge to support me and protect me.
"They said they would give me a weapon, a licence to carry one. There were a lot of promises. They said I would have more authority than I have now. They said: 'We have not hurt you, why are you working against us?' "
Major Mudher al-Mowla, who is in charge of the Sons of Iraq inside the Iraqi reconciliation ministry, said the government had recently learned of the cash offers and coercion. "We have learned about this, especially in Adhamiyeh [in West Baghdad] and we have started investigating. We are waiting for the results."
The US government has granted visas to many Sons of Iraq members and claims that future applications to emigrate to the US from Sons of Iraq leaders would be well received. Both the Pentagon and White House have hailed the Sons of Iraq experience as a triumph during seven difficult years of war.
Some commanders believe Sons of Iraq leaders are overstating an al-Qaida putsch because they fear the unknown once the Americans leave. But they remain warm in their praise of the people they claim helped pave a way for their exit.
"The Sons of Iraq have displayed personal and physical courage on behalf of their country," said Lieutenant Colonel Bob Owen, chief of the media operations centre at the US embassy in Baghdad. "When they partnered with the government of Iraq to counter the insurgency, they played a pivotal role in disrupting al-Qaida and reducing Iraqi civilian deaths.
"The people of Iraq and Iraqi leaders at every level of government are grateful for the courage and personal sacrifices the Sons of Iraq have made and continue to make for the safety, security and future success and prosperity of the country."
#6
too many damn tribes . to many sets of islam. no wonder they have too have a dictator or "king in every country in the middle east
Posted by: chris ||
08/11/2010 15:24
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#7
And David Cohen from Treasury was telling us that the pressure they had put on Al Qaeda's finances had driven them almost to bankruptcy. Judging from this, "almost" hasn't cut it.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/11/2010 16:46
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#8
IRNA > [Iran Armed Forces] MILITARY OFFCIAL: ATTACK ON IRAN WILL BE THE END OF THE US [Iran has been ready for 10 Years = 1990 to defeat US strike, + claims US is not strong enough to defeat Iran's BASIJ forces].
[Straits Times] THOUSANDS have fled a troubled Muslim town in southern Philippines after violence between separatists erupted days ahead of Islam's holy month of Ramadan, rebel and army officials said on Tuesday.
The army fired artillery rounds and rockets on Monday to separate warring rebel factions fighting for control of a river delta in Datu Piang town, prompting a rebuke from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that it had breached a ceasefire.
A truce has been holding for about a year on Mindanao island. The rebels have said they are concerned about the the new government's plan to overhaul talks to end the long-running insurgency.
'We filed a protest,' Mohagher Iqbal, the rebels' chief peace negotiator, told reporters from the guerrillas' main base. 'It's a violation of our ceasefire. Even if our men were fighting each other, it does not justify the military's involvement.'
The army said more than 5,000 people had fled their homes and farms since the violence first erupted on Saturday. Major-General Anthony Alcantara, the most senior army commander in central Mindanao region, dismissed accusations that the army had violated the truce.
Philippine governments and the MILF have been in stop-start negotiations since 1997, but an acceptable political deal remain elusive.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Bangla Daily Star] Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam'aat Bangladesh yesterday urged the government to take active steps to rehabilitate the ousted Ahmadiyyas in Tangail, guarantee their security so that they can perform daily activities safely.
Ten Ahmadiyyas were injured on Sunday when a group of enraged villagers attacked them at Chandtara village of Ghatail upazila when they were raising a mosque.
A section of religious extremists led by a local Jamaat-e-Islami leader are behind the assault, claimed the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam'aat leaders at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity. They also demanded exemplary punishment for the miscreants.
"Several incidents of harassment and assaults on Ahmadiyyas during the past three years are the sign of cruelty and brutality which is unprecedented," said Meer Mobasher Ali, Naib National Ameer of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam'aat Bangladesh.
The Ameer said Tangail District Commissioner assured the community that action will be taken against the miscreants.
"But nothing was done and the miscreants returned at night and looted construction materials, food items and personal belongings of the Ahmadiyyas. Now the victims are starving," he said.
Meer Mobasher Ali also requested the government to ensure their full citizen rights and remove the obstacles in erecting the mosque at Chandtara of Tangail.
According to the local police, on Sunday the mob also vandalised several houses and two poultry firms owned by the Ahmadiyya community.
The villagers earlier foiled another move to construct the mosque on June 17.
Local Muslims under the banner of 'Imam Parishad' also held procession and rally in the village against 40 Ahmadiyya families and also declared to resist the construction of the mosque at any cost.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced the wife of executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and two JMB men to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment each for possessing explosive substances.
The convicts are Fahima alias Farzana, Salahuddin alias Saleheen and Asaduzzaman Chowdhury alias Panir.
Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 handed down the sentence in presence of the convicts at a packed courtroom.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 16 prosecution witnesses.
According to the prosecution, a team of Rapid Action Battalion on December 18, 2005 raided a residence at Aqua Morolpara under Kotwali Police Station in Mymensingh district.
The elite force recovered 57 items of explosives and arrested Saleheen and Panir from the scene. Farzana was later shown arrested in the case.
The Mymensingh haul includes four grenades, 12 bombs of different sizes including a light-sensitive one, a sub-machine gun, 80 electric detonators, 20kg ammonium nitrate, gun powder, GI wire, lead azide, lead nitrate, electric circuits, batteries, fuses, snail shells and iron balls used in fishing nets.
Two cases -- one under the Arms Act and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- were filed with Kotwali Police Station of Mymensingh.
JMB chief Shaek Abdur Rahman, its second-in-command Bangla Bhai and its military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny were also accused in the cases, but their names were dropped from the charge sheet as they were earlier executed for killing two judges in Jhalakathi district on November 14, 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ADN Kronos] Terrorism suspects arrested in West Java province were brought overnight to police headquarters in Bandung following police raids in the Indonesian province, an official said. It was not immediately clear if the arrests were linked to that of firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir on Monday in West Java together with five of his bodyguards.
"They (the suspects) were brought last night to be temporarily detained here...the ongoing investigation process is beung conducted conducted by national police," Bandung police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told reporters on Tuesday.
He did not state the number of people detained, but reports said that eight suspects were arrested after police raids a number of location in West Java on Monday.
Police said that the suspects were planning to carry out car-bomb attacks.
In August last year, a similar car-bomb attack plan was uncovered when an anti-terror squad raided a house in Jatiasih, Bekasi, West Java. Two suspects were shot dead and several others were arrested during the operation.
Baasyir is suspected of setting up an Islamist militant training camp in Aceh. Police claim the camp, uncovered in February, was Al-Qaeda's regional base.
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#1
I need to have my eyes checked. I kept reading this headline as "FRENCH" anti-terror arrests, and I couldn't figure out what the devil the French had to do with Indonesian terror arrests.
Mystery (of my own creation) solved!
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/11/2010 15:11
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[Straits Times] INDONESIA'S President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday asked police and the military to beef up security following the detention of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir this week and capture of several Islamic militants.
Detachment 88, the police anti-terror unit, has captured more than 100 suspects and confiscated ammunition, weapons, and explosives following the discovery in February of a militants' training camp in the jungle in Aceh province.
Police said in May they had uncovered a plot by militants to assassinate the president and other government officials at the August 17 independence day ceremony. The militants had planned a series of attacks on government officials and foreigners as part of a coup to turn Indonesia into a syariah state.
On Monday, police detained firebrand Islamic cleric Bashir, saying he had links to the Aceh militants group. Several other men were detained at the weekend in western Java, and police found explosives at a house used by some of them.
'I heard that this is not the first time that there is a threat (to attack) when we are celebrating our independence, Mr Yudhoyono told his ministers.
'I hope the threat will not discourage us from celebrating...but the police, with the help of the military, must increase security because our principle is we must not be defeated by crime.'
Posted by: Fred ||
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Uh-huh...
[Straits Times] INDONESIAN police said on Tuesday top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakar Bashir could face the death penalty over his alleged role in terror plots with Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Bashir, who was arrested on Monday, is accused of funding and training extremists who were planning a wave of attacks in Jakarta.
'Our investigators found evidence that Abu Bakar Bashir had been actively involved in terror plots and activities including the training,' National police spokesman Edward Aritonang said.
Police have arrested 102 terror suspects, of whom 66 were detained, in a series of raids nationwide since discovering the training facility in Aceh, northern Sumatra island.
Mr Aritonang said they found that several Islamic groups from regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) had also chosen Bashir as the leader for a new terror cell dubbed 'Al-Qaeda in Aceh'.
The cell had planned a series of attacks, including using car bombs, on at least two embassies, several international hotels and the police headquarters in the capital. And there lies the reason for his arrest. If he had stuck to training terrorist for the export market, they'd have ignored him. When it looks like he's going to boom the homeland, that's when he becomes expendable.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Sheikh Mekhlef bin Dahham al-Shammari, a writer/blogger, human rights activist and social reformer, is in jail. Why? For "annoying others." He has not yet been formally charged.
Al-Shammari has often written about poverty and unemployment in the kingdom, accusing the government of ignoring these problems because it is obsessed with public morality and keeping men and women apart. He has also highlighted the government's failure to promote tourism, and its discrimination against the Shiite minority. Although a Sunni, he was critical of the influential Saudi preacher Mohammed al-Arifi for referring to one of Iran's most respected Shiite clerics, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, as an "obscene atheist."
In an article published in April of last year, "My Dear Christian", al-Shammari contrasted the work of an American Christian who was killed while helping to protect Palestinian Muslim children with the conditions imposed by Saudi Muslim charities that require its recipients exhibit proper Islamic conduct.
Al-Shammari has been arrested several times in recent years, in part because of his defense of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority. He told Human Rights Watch that prosecutors used his articles to accuse him of spreading discord among Muslims. His articles criticizing the conservative interpretations of Islam promoted by Saudi officials led to his arrest on May 15, after which he was released on bail. His latest arrest took place on June 15 in Jubail. He was transferred to Damman prison at the start of this month.
Al-Shammari is not the first blogger jailed for seemingly arbitrary reasons in Saudi Arabia. For example, Fouad al Farhan, a blogger known for advocating political reforms, was arrested in 2007 in Jeddah. His arrest was reported by other Arab bloggers, and the Saudi authorities also confirmed he was being held in solitary confinement for "interrogation." No official charges were ever cited or laid. He was released from prison on April 26, 2008. Al Farhan, who is in this thirties, was one of the first Saudi bloggers to dispense with a pseudonym on his site. He was also the first cyber-dissident to be jailed in the country -- but he's far from the last.
#2
Anyone else miss the Religious-Policeman? http://muttawa.blogspot.com/
I often wonder what happened to him. He stopped blogging about four years ago supposedly to write a book on the magic in the kingdom, but I sometimes think he has met the same fate, or worse, as al-Shammari.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Somali accused of piracy on Tuesday told the court that he was grateful to the Spanish navy for rescuing him when his boat capsized at sea.
But Mr Jama Abdikadir said he was, however, surprised when these "good people" handed him over to the Kenyan authorities for prosecution.
Mr Abdikadir told the court that he was a human trafficker not a pirate. Awww, well, why didn't ya say so?
When asked by state counsel Mr Jacob Ondari if he knew trafficking was an international crime, he said he was not aware. I...did not know that.
"I am not a criminal nor a pirate," said Mr Abdikadir, who with Awil Mohamed, Abdiweli Bare, Shariff Osman, Abdirahman Ahmed, Mohamed Hersi and Noor Hussein are alleged to have attacked the MV Nepheli on May 6 last year. Next time, let the sharks "rescue" him.
Senior resident magistrate Mr James Omburah adjourned the case to September 21.
In another court, the defence hearing for seven suspected pirates had to be adjourned as their lawyer was not feeling well.
Mombasa chief magistrate Ms Rosemelle Mutoka heard that lawyer Mr Donald Muyundo had fallen sick and could not attend the hearing of the case.
Ms Mutoka fixed the case for hearing on September 1 and 2.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
Once the Somalis go into the Kenyan prison system the door slams shut on them and god knows what happens to them in there.
the international community has spent millions upon millions sending warships to guard the Gulf of Aden, and trucking captured alleged pirates to Mombassa for trial.
In the courts the EU have paid for water coolers and donated money as the pirate trials are clogging up the justice system with about 100 suspects standing trial at one point last year.
Some fear magistrates will feel pressure to convict out of a sense of obligation to the EU Naval Force who are the prosecutors as a result of the donations.
It is a complete farce.
If even half the money spent on sending warships to the region were diverted instead to the Government of Puntland under Dr Farole, the piracy issue would vanish.
He has a functioning justice system and has locked up hundreds of pirates from his territory - but he lacks funds.
His entire state budget was $15 million last year. All the UN Aid money goes to the largely useless Somali federal government known as the Transitional Federal Government, whose 500+ members sit in Nairobi sipping lattes and organising their passports to places like Australia where they will claim asylum status for themselves and their families.
Dr Farole seems to have done an amazing job with the very scant resources he has. Why not divert a bit of that wasted aid money from the TFG direct to Puntland and see what happens.
It will save millions of dollars, and hundreds of Somalis from clogging up the Kenyan justice system.
Where, incidentally, once they hit the candy-coloured jails in Kenya, they are beaten up, often sick, are far from home. Some of them may not be guilty and some may be underage. Sometimes dentists are called to try to work out whether they are children or not.
And Kenyan prison guards .... corrupt. Rumours abound that they run crime rings using prisoners to steal then locking them back up in jail. If they are caught they are then said to have been 'dangerous escapees'.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Council of Ministers agreed on Tuesday on the recommendation of the Foreign Ministry to open two U.S. consulates in Arbil and Basra, according to spokesman of the Iraqi government.
The council decided to approve the recommendation of the Foreign Ministry to open two U.S. consulates in Arbil and Basra, Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Did Foggy Bottom find some 'volunteers' finally to staff them?
The cabinet approved also the central plan of the electronic governing to contribute in the establishment of the material and human capabilities to benefit from the Information Technology and communications in Iraq, the statement added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2010
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A total of eleven individuals lost their lives in ongoing drug and gang related violence in northern Mexico, which included five individuals shot at a wake in Juarez, Chihuahua. For a map, click here.
A young man was shot to death Monday evening in northern Juarez, according to Mexican press reports. Ricardo MartÃnez Duran, 21, was shot by individuals firing from a moving car in the 16 de Septiembre district. He died before he arrived at the hospital.
Five men were shot to death, including a state police agent, in Juarez Tuesday afternoon, according to Mexican press accounts. A wake was being held at the Satellite Funeraria near the intersection of calles Neptuno and Fidel Avila in the Satellite district when armed suspects burst inside and shot the five to death. Gutierrez Nicolas Quintana, owner, and his sons Ivan Quintana and Ramon Quintana Alejandro Gutierrez, as well as ministerial agent Octavio Aragon, and an unidentified employee all died in the assault. National reports say more than 100 rounds were fired. Those same reports also say the attack took place because the owner reported an extortion attempt by criminal gangs.
An unidentified man in his 20s was shot to death Tuesday in Juarez, say Mexican new reports. The attack took place at a rented residence near the intersection of calles Ixcateopan and Tixtla in the Galeana district where armed suspects shot the victim six times. Reports indicate a Ford Explorer stationed outside the residence had discharged armed suspects prior to the murder.
Two unidentified men were shot to death at a residence in Juarez, say Mexican press reports. An unidentified six year old child told authorities that about ten armed suspects riding aboard a couple of vehicles shot the pair with AK-47 assault rifles. The assault took place at the end of Calle ZuvirÃa Facundo in the Villas del Sur district.
#1
Of course, almost none of those bloggers actually speak Arabic or know much of the intricacies of Islam and sharia law, all of which Robert does. Nor are they particularly interested in the ideas involved. Sharia may be one of the most misogynistic and homophobic legal systems ever invented, it may be at its essence antithetical to the separation of church and state and to everything we stand for, proselytizing the world while specifically subjugating all other religious groups and individuals who do not convert
The writer says Spencer speaks Arabic and many who support the mosque probably do not. He says people like Bloomberg most likely do not understand sharia law. Our State Department has people who speak Arabic and support the building of the mosque.
Our State Department seems to support the idea of building this mosque; otherwise why would they be footing the bill to send the iman throughout the mideast? These people must understand the insidious and destructive nature of sharia law. Is this just naive stupidity or part of the left's agenda? Both?
On August 10, 2010, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a 15-minute audio recording from Sa'id Al-Shihri, aka Abu Sufyan Al-Azdi, the Saudi deputy commander of AQAP, who is also a former Guantanamo detainee. In the recording, Al-Shihri says that the organization has received communications from supporters of Al-Qaeda in the Saudi armed forces, who asked whether they should remain in their positions, or whether they should leave to join up with AQAP in Yemen. Al-Shihri tells them that they should remain in the Saudi armed forces and take advantage of their positions to further infiltrate the armed forces, carry out assassinations against the government, the royal family, and Westerners living in the country, and to provide logistical assistance to the mujahideen.
Al-Shihri told the Saudi servicemen that a great responsibility was on their shoulders, since they had the obligation to depose the apostate rule of the Saud family in the heartland of Islam. He also placed his instructions in the context of regional developments, saying that a war was expected between the U.S., Israel, and their apostate Arab allies on the one hand, and Iran on the other, with the goal of the former being the building of the Temple in Jerusalem and the establishment of Greater Israel, and the goal of the latter being to take over the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Shihri said that the mujahideen's stance on this coming war was clear, and that they would absolutely not be the lackeys of the apostate rulers in the face of the external threat.
#2
AQ seems to be running their usual playbook- escalating too far and too fast.
I have no doubts that the Saudi Royals are capable of a huge amount of blowback against this nonsense. The question is- will they realize that AQ is the symptom of the real problem?
Bonus Question: has AQAP absorbed the earlier incarnation of Al Quaeda In The Land Of The Two Mosques? Granted that some of these groupings are more imaginary than real...
#3
RELATED > DAILY TIMES.PK = [AQAP aka AQIY] SAUDI AL QAEDA LEADER URGES KILLING OF CHRISTIANS, + "Un-Islamic/Un-believer" Muslim Saudi Royals + KSA Govt-Critters whose local efforts help the Crusader-Zionist US-Allies.
* SAME > NEWS KERALA = [AQIY]AL QAEDA THREATENS TO TOPPLE SAUDI GOVT.
Google Translate. For a map click here.
Elements of the Mexican Army operating in Monterrey in the Guadalupe municipality of Nuevo Leon Tuesday morning seized more than $1.3 million USD in cash, quantities of drugs, munitions and other contraband and arrested eight suspects, say Mexican press reports.
Mexican Army personnel observed an armed suspect carrying a firearm in the Riveras de Linda Vista district, who then fled inside a residence on Calle Santa Catarina. Inside the home, soldiers found a large amount of contraband.
[Maghrebia] Somalia is heading toward another confrontation on its soil following the African Union's decision to send an additional 4,000 troops to bolster the force of 6,000 already stationed there.
Makes me wonder if the smarter thing to do is to build a fence around lower Somalia, between it, Puntland to the north, Kenya to the south and Ethiopia to the west. Moats, crocodiles, sharks with frikin' lasers on their heads, etc., and let al-Shabab have their playpen.
The latest decision is likely to spark a confrontation with Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahidin, a militant group that declared loyalty to al-Qaeda and seeks to topple President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's transitional government.
The Somali government carries limited authority over a country that has been divided by competing political factions since 1991.
But what are the possible consequences of a confrontation between the African Union forces known as AMISOM and al-Shabab?
The more realistic possibility is that AU troops will enter as a direct party in the battle against the al-Shabab fighters, who control the majority of southern and central Somalia, in addition to areas in the capital city of Mogadishu.
Until now, the AU troops, deployed in Mogadishu since spring 2007, could only respond to attacks. Their mission consisted of providing support to the Somali transitional government forces in fighting off attacks against their positions in the capital.
Although the Kampala summit did not significantly alter the AMISOM mandate, it gave troops more freedom to launch pre-emptive strikes against the rebels before they launch their attacks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
If I were the Commander in Chief, I'd be "suggesting" that 200-300 former Rangers, Green Berets, Seals, and other SOF troops "volunteer" (at high pay) to go teach in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Chad, southern Sudan, and northern Somalia (Puntland, Somaliland), possibly in other places in central/southern Africa. Teach a little military discipline, small-unit tactics, basic skills, and self-defense. Maybe provide "village defense forces" training to Ugandans Kenyans, Tanzanians, and others that may face Somali-style terrorists. Train Somalis from the refugee camps, and send them back into Somalia to train and support others. Two can play this game, but we're not playing. If we don't want Al-Shabaab to win by default, we need to get our butts in gear.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 13:19
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#2
Actually, the Ugandans are looking forward to an engagement with Al-Shabab; hopefully one that will involve extended combat with all of Al-S's troops. The Ugandans are looking for some payback for the terrorist bombing during the World Cup.
"I do not think that word means what you think it means..."
[Associated Press of Pakistan] Police and Rangers can pursue their actions fearlessly and without discrimination against criminals and killers as no political pressure will be allowed to effect their professions. This directive was issued at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and co-chaired by the Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza at Chief Minister House here Tuesday.
The meeting also decided to immediately move an amendment in the law to raise maximum punishment for possessing illegal arms from three to 10 years.
Babar Khattak, IG Sindh, Arif Ahmad Khan, Home Secretary, Sindh Akhtar Memon, A.I.G. Special Branch, Waseem Ahmed, CCPO, Karachi, Ch.
Ejaz Ahmed, DG Rangers Sindh and representatives of intelligence agencies also attended the meeting.
It was decided that each SHO of the troubled area will activate "Aman Committee" and hold regular meetings. He will list out the name of known criminals, gangsters and land grabbers etc and send the same to the IG Office.
The meeting decided that Intelligence Bureau and ISI will create a special cell with dedicated officers to coordinate with the local police.
Rangers will enhance its intelligence capability within the area of their jurisdiction and after coordination with the fellow agencies and take targeted actions in consultation with the Home Minister.
The meeting issued instructions for initiating strict action against those who display arms and it was decided that criminals and gangsters be identified and action to be taken without any discrimination.
The Minister appreciated the role of police and rangers and action taken against criminals and gangsters in Dalmia and announced awards for police.
The meeting decided to establish a "complaint cell" in the National Crisis Management Cell, Karachi. People were requested to inform the NCMC and Home Secretary, Sindh on telephone Number 021-99203355 and email address ( ncmc_sindhflood2010@hotmail.com) about any information in their neighbourhood about any criminal or gangster or target killer or any suspect.
The people are assured that their names will be disclosed on provision of information.
The meeting resolved that if needed only then the Frontier Constabulary shall be placed at the disposal of the Home Department, Sindh to assist the police.
Rehman Malik also appreciated the role of police and Rangers and Home Minister Sindh for getting the situation normalized. he also appreciated the role of MQM and ANP chiefs for keeping the people silent in these difficult moments.
He also expressed highest thanks to Asfrasiab Khattak and Raza Haroon for their cooperation.
He said that criminals and gangsters have been warned to either
give up their criminal activities to destabilize Karachi by targeting innocent citizens or face strict legal action.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
I,
Uh,
Is this good or bad?
How will they function without a parliament?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel's defense minister on Tuesday said a Gaza-bound aid flotilla seized in a bloody commando raid was a "planned provocation" and that Israel had expected violence weeks before the operation.
"The flotilla of May 31 was a planned provocation," Ehud Barak said in sworn testimony before an Israeli commission established to examine the legality of the raid and Israel's four-year blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Barak said that during discussions going back to April "the image that emerged... was that the organizations (behind the flotilla) were preparing for armed conflict to embarrass Israel."
Clashes erupted on board one of the ships when naval commandos rappelled onto the deck, with activists attacking the soldiers with knives and clubs and the soldiers opening fire, killing nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists.
The incident sparked an international outcry and severely strained relations with Israel's once-close Muslim ally Turkey. It also led Israel to ease its four-year closure of the territory, allowing in all purely civilian goods.
Barak said various alternatives were discussed in the weeks leading up to the raid and that he and other senior officials had considered the possibility that the activists would attack the troops when they landed.
"We regret any loss of life," the minister said. "But we would have lost more lives if we had behaved differently."
He also defended Israel's naval blockade and border restrictions on Gaza, which in the years leading up to the raid sealed the territory off from all but basic goods and humanitarian aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
"We regret any loss of life," the minister said. "But we would have lost more Israeli lives if we had behaved differently."
next time, come in hard and knock some heads if anybody moves. Disable the ship, tow it to Egypt and let them smack the 'tards around a little
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/11/2010 11:30
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[Geo News] Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif demanded the federal government to hand the foreign aid to the flood-affected provinces, so that rehabilitation work for the affectees could be successfully carried out, Geo News reported Tuesday. Addressing a press conference at Rahim Yar Khan Airport, he said the flash floods wrought indescribable havoc in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, urging the federal government to dole out the aid proportionately. Shahbaz said over 20 million people are hit by the flash floods and for their rehabilitation, work should be kick-started on emergency basis. The Chief Minister said Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is soon establishing a Fund for the flood-affected people. He said the construction of new dams is indispensable to avoid the potential devastations by the floods in future. He also thanked Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for extending assistance in relief efforts for the affectees.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
Gotta spread the graft around.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
08/11/2010 9:34
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#1
"give us money, or we might get worse. We're nuts, you know?"
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/11/2010 12:18
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#2
Give 'em money. Drop it in pennies from the bomb bay of US bombers over their major cities. Send 'em a billion or two. Drop another billion over the NWFP. Call the operation "pennies from heaven". They'll be so busy either trying to pry the pennies out of the ground or burying their dead and rebuilding their homes they won't have time or energy for jihad.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 13:04
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#1
The current Consumer Price Index or CPI is a LIE. Take a look at food prices here at home and worldwide. Hyperinflation is just around the corner. The wheels are getting ready to come off.
#2
I spent my whole adult life hoarding ammo and waiting for the wheels to come off.
If y'all need me, I'm laid off, layin on the beach in Alameda awaiting instructions.
Yup, Civil Engineer, Commercial diver, pile driver, welder , deckhand, riverman, cappenter of 15 years, unemployed. Gumption busted-I'm out. See you in the soup line.
#3
Hyperinflation is bad, and deflation is bad. The zinger is that they are not mutually exclusive.
Even the last great sanctuary, municipal bonds, has been polluted by Variable Rate Demand Obligations (VRDOs) sometimes called Variable Rate Demand Notes (VRDNs), which are already a significant portion of the $1.9 trillion in municipal securities held by households and entities such as property-casualty companies.
A VRDN holder has the right to sell the security to the issuer at a predetermined price (generally par) on specified dates (generally daily or weekly).
In other words, the bond may technically mature in 20 years, but the interest rate resets weekly and the buyer can put it back to the issuer at any time.
"Regulations generally limit money market funds to high-rated securities, so one might think VRDNs are safe. But the ratings agencies are subject to the same pressures from originators as in the subprime glory days: if the rating isnt high enough to do the deal, the ratings agency doesnt get paid.
"The agencies typically dont re-rate securities for financial strength after origination unless they receive information on a change in condition. The result, as in the infamous Enron case, is that downgrades usually follow rather than lead the markets valuation, and troubled securities can retain high ratings until just before default.
"In rating individual securities at origination, the agencies gave little weight to liquidity risk: whether the VRDN market has the capacity to handle a wave of redemptions.
"Of the two major pre-bust municipal bond insurers, AMBAC is gradually liquidating under state supervision after functional insolvency, while MBIA is still in financial difficulty and is writing only limited new municipal bond insurance. Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., a new entrant, was rapidly downgraded by the ratings agencies.
"VRDNs are often backstopped by bank letters of creditoften required in case the bond insurers are downgraded, and requiring municipal securities issuers to pay a high interest rate if drawn onbut this merely transfers the risk of nonpayment from municipal bondholders to the banking system."
On a personal note, I found out that USAA was carrying VRDNs on some percentage of its long term bonds, so I asked them what percentage?, a figure that should have been easy to obtain.
No response.
It is usually not a good thing when a broker does not return your calls.
#7
Bigjim Hello,
For what its worth yesterday I was told John Deere is having a hard time finding welders. It may have been OHIO. During the past depression many traveled to OHIO for work. Richmond Virginia is a stronger area than most right now. DC is strong with all the government work but they got the benefits.
A fleet of disused tanks and trucks have been dumped into the sea off the coast of Thailand in a bid to form an artificial coral reef. The unusual move is designed to boost the ecosystem in the Gulf of Thailand.
The rusting collection of trucks and 25 disused Army tanks are intended to form an artificial underwater structure to provide shelter for marine life and boost local fish stocks. The vehicles were lowered into the sea off the Narathiwat coast by crane on Monday.
A wide-ranging marine conservation policy is being enacted in Thailand to preserve fish stocks and keep the seafood industry afloat. The Government announced a three-month ban on fishing in parts of the Gulf of Thailand last year in an attempt to improve breeding and replenish fish stocks.
The tanks are Chinese-made T-69s, according to this photo gallery
Under heavy guard of Israeli soldiers, about 1,000 Israeli settlers entered a village in the northern West Bank in order to pray on Monday night, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Israeli forces imposed curfew on the village in order to allow the settlers to conduct religious services, the report said. Nearly 1,000 Israeli citizens entered the village at 2:30 a.m., according to the report.
The settlers not only prayed in the village, but they also stood in front of the local mosque and insulted the Muslim prophet Muhammad saying "Muhammad is not a prophet; he's just an Arab," according to the report.
The Israeli military said in response that such visits are conducted with coordination between Palestinian residents and the Civil Administration, which handles non-military matters in the occupied territories.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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#1
"Muhammad is not a prophet; he's just an Arab,"
Well, at least they didn't call him a pedophile. On the plus side, no mosques/weapons depots exploded and no Korans were desecrated by the secondaries.
#2
If they think thats bad...
I think he's a goat rapping pedophile with delusions of grandeur.
Drag me into the ICC dickwads, I should have it so good.
#4
I think he's a goat rapping pedophile with delusions of grandeur. Drag me into the ICC dickwads, I should have it so good. Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-08-11 02:47
Actually, he's the tool of Satan and the instrument by which at least several hundred million "muslims" have been sentenced to HELL during the past 14 centuries, and another 1.6 billion will enter HELL in the next century. Jesus said he would raise up "brother against brother", but Mohamhead has topped him. Jesus did it through peace, Mohamhead through war.
We (the entire world) are bound into a war that will decide whether Good (God, as evidenced through Jesus Christ) or Evil (through the Satanic "religion" Islam) will prevail. Thanks to "progressives", most of the West is abstaining, which is the same as losing. I for one will NEVER live under Islam. I may go down, but I'm da$$$$ determined to go down FIGHTING.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 15:20
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#5
Please read all about Mohammad and his exploits. Knowledge is power.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/11/2010 19:45
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As a Vietnam Era Vet (Era, not In- Country) Veteran with Mil active duty and DC Region DOD Civil Service time exceeding 35 years; I will say this: I've been a daily listener of Rush for over 20 years and have never disagreed with anything, or any position that Rush has espoused. The US Govt civil service workforce (Ex: GS5-GS15)is an awesome bunch of highly-capable, patriotic and well-educated pros. The "recent" fed/private sector misunderstanding/disconnect stems from the ELITE sub-group of Fed workers who are "appointees" by previous administrations, that are above the GS- ratings, that burrow into the workforce and politisize the real estate. They inject EXTREEMLY toxic and disfunctional effects on the existing non-political workforce...These interupters of Federal gency progress and National Defense are Demons. They are Anti-American! They are Anti-Christian! They are satan's spawn.
[Ma'an] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that Israel attempted to convince the late Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri that the Shiite movement was plotting his assassination.
Nasrallah said Israel began the scheme on 13 September 1993, adding that Hezbollah had located a Lebanese spy for Israel in 1996 who compiled information on the Shiite movement, and had access to Hariri's convoy.
"We now discover that Israel has a large number of spies working in several institutions in Lebanon," Nasrallah said, referring to recent wave of arrests of suspected collaborators, largely in Lebanon's telecommunications industry.
He added that Israel sought "any opportunity" to attack Lebanon.
On Sunday, Hezobllah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi told Ma'an that Nasrallah would evidence implicating Israel in Hariri's assassination, which he described as "comprehensive, revealing conclusive information."
The news conference follows mounting political tension in Lebanon after reports suggesting that the UN tribunal set-up to investigate the 2005 car bombing which killed Hariri, would implicate Hezbollah in the hit.
As a result, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Saudi Arabian King Abdullah met in July with Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman in an effort to diffuse the mounting political tension over possible indictments over the assassination.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Dawn] Two key Pakistani television channels were shut in southern Pakistan on Tuesday amid protests by ruling party workers over reports against the country's embattled president, the channels said. "Geo television remains off the air in Karachi and other parts of Sindh province," its managing director, Azhar Abbas, said.
Workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) staged a protest outside its office in Karachi, he said.
A graffiti campaign has also been launched against Geo in Karachi while bundles of the Jang daily and English language The News owned by the same group were snatched and burnt in other cities and towns, he added.
"The cable operators have been threatened, their offices have been attacked, while hawkers have been warned that copies would be torched if they sell our newspapers," he said.
"It is all being done by PPP activists and I am 100 per cent sure the government is behind this campaign," Abbas said. It happened only in Sindh, President Asif Ali Zardari's home province.
The government denied involvement, saying it opposed such attacks.
"This is a conspiracy against our government, this is a media campaign against us," provincial information minister Jamil Soomro told AFP.
"We will offer protection if cable operators asked," he said.
Abbas said he believed the action followed a report Geo broadcast about a protestor who threw a shoe at Zardari during his just ended tour of Britain.
His trip despite devastating floods at home came under intense criticism from the media and opposition leaders.
Abbas said he believed the government was using the shoe-throwing incident as a pretext.
"In fact, it was planning a crackdown since long. They are unhappy because we have been highlighting corruption cases against government leaders," he said.
Mohsin Raza, news director at ARY channel, said cable operators had blacked out his channel because it also reported the incident.
"The cable operators have told us they cannot broadcast our service because of threats from PPP workers," he said. "They are using their party activists against us," he said.
"We are consulting our lawyers to take up the matter to the Supreme Court."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Tolo News] At least, two guards of a private company were killed and one other was wounded on Tuesday in a suicide attack in Kabul, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior Affairs
No Civilians were killed or wounded in the attack, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Zemarai Bashari.
Two suicide attackers rushed into a private company and consequently one of them blew himself up and the second suicide attacker was shot dead in the firefight by the company guards, security officials said.
"In the firefight, the suicide bombers were killed, and regretfully two drivers of the company who were civilians and unarmed were killed in the attack too," said Chief of criminal investigation for Kabul police, Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada.
The Afghan security forces urgently brought the incident area under control and cordoned it off.
A resident in the incident site remarked that private security firms among residential houses form a serious threat to the lives of innocent civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Taliban
[Bangla Daily Star] A district judge yesterday gave life sentence to five operatives of outlawed militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the 2005 Bogra serial blasts.
Bogra Additional District and Sessions Judge Nitai Chandra Saha also fined the Islamist militants Tk 20,000 each in default of which they will have to spend two more years behind bars.
The convicts are Mamun, 28, Sirajul, 27, Abdur Razzak, 25, Golam Kibria, 25, and Waliullah, 22.
According to the case history, the convicts exploded bombs at five different places, including the court premises and Bir Shreshtha Square, Bogra town during the countrywide serial blasts on August 17, 2005.
JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Bangla Bhai were dropped from the charge sheet of the case as they had been executed earlier in another serial blast case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
#1
I'll bet that they'll only stay in prison until the next change in government. After that, they'll be quietly released. Corruption = Bangladesh = Corruption.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 12:48
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I'll bet that they'll only stay in prison until the next change in government. Yup, they'll probably BE the next government.
[Mail and Globe] A Somali militant group with links to al-Qaeda on Monday announced it had banned three Christian aid agencies from its territory, and one aid group said militants had occupied its offices in southern Somalia.
World Vision, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and Diakonia must immediately leave Somalia because the groups were actively propagating Christianity, the militant group al-Shabaab said in a statement. Somalia is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, and al-Shabaab promotes a particularly hard-line and conservative reading of Islam.
"Acting as missionaries under the guise of humanitarian work, the organisations have been spreading their corrupted ideologies in order to taint the pure creed of the Muslims in Somalia," al-Shabaab said.
World Vision Somalia's spokesperson, Amanda Koech, said that her organisation was surprised to receive al-Shabaab's order to close down. Al-Shabaab militants occupied the group's offices in the southern Somali towns of Duale, Baidoa and Wajid, she said. World Vision has asked its staff to remain at home for now.
"World Vision is a Christian organisation motivated by Christian values to help the needy in the society. While World Vision recognises the need to remain impartial in responding to the needy, by policy World Vision is prohibited to proselytise in its work," Koech said in a statement.
Koech said World Vision does not have any international staff in southern Somalia. All World Vision staff in that part of the Horn of Africa nation are Somalis and primarily Muslim, she said.
Al-Shabaab has also warned other aid agencies against taking up the work of the banned organisations, saying they will face "appropriate disciplinary measures".
The group, which claimed responsibility for twin blasts in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed 76 people, has already banned several UN agencies and aid groups. Together with allied groups, al-Shabaab controls most of southern Somalia, including a large part of Mogadishu.
The ultra-conservative and militant al-Shabaab draws comparisons to Afghanistan's Taliban. Al-Shabaab's accusations that the three groups were proselytising come only days after the killings last Thursday of 10 members of a medical mission in Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed the group were spies and tried to convert Muslims.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Al Arabiya Latest] The alleged confessions of the last Westerner held at Guantanamo, who was arrested in Afghanistan at age 15, can be heard at trial, a military judge said late Monday, as the trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday with selection of a jury of at least five military officers out of a pool of 15.
Canadian Omar Khadr's lawyer had argued that his statements were made under duress at Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, as U.S. President Barack Obama's revamped military commissions opened here to consider two terror cases.
Khadr, now 23, appeared in the base's $12-million complex known as "Camp Justice" in the final preliminary hearing before his trial.
Military Judge Patrick Parrish, who decided to allow Khadr's alleged confessions to feature in the trial, had in April heard testimony from federal agents and military interrogators who acknowledged using techniques such as stress positions and sleep deprivation during Khadr's questioning.
One admitted to threatening a rape scenario in order to influence the detainee.
"Judge Parrish should go back to school and learn some of the basic principles of law and some humanity," said Khadr's lawyer Denis Edney after the proceedings. "I guess what he said is that it's okay... to threaten him with sexual abuse. That's disgraceful."
Also appearing in a separate hearing was Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, 50, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to provide material support to terrorism. The former bodyguard of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was expecting to hear his sentence.
The cases are the first to be heard since the tribunals, created by former president George W. Bush, were revamped last year by the Obama administration and Congress to give greater rights to defendants.
Khadr, captured at age 15 by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a July 2002 battle. He also is alleged to have been trained by al-Qaeda and joined a network organized by bin Laden to make bombs.
He appeared in the courtroom in a white detainee uniform, his head lowered, and did not address the judge, instead having his newly appointed U.S. military lawyer speak for him.
As recently as last month Khadr, an al-Qaeda operative's son who has denied throwing the grenade that killed an American, said he wanted to represent himself, even expressing his intent to boycott the trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I pray they return him to Afghanistan - from 15,000 feet off the back ramp of a C-130, without a parachute, over the most God-forsaken piece of real estate they can find. They need to do the same with any taliban they catch, also. Ending up as buzzard food would be a great deterrent, I believe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/11/2010 13:32
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There will be no "Welcome Back, Khadr" for him in Canuckistan.
An eighteen-year old girl named Aisha escaped from her marital home, only for her husband to force her back, and for the Taliban to punish her by cutting off her nose and ears. This, in short, was what Time magazine reported in last week's issue, together with a picture of the beautiful girl, with her nose removed, spread across the entire cover. This is considered to be the most interesting cover photo this year, and has received over 500 comments posted by readers on the 'Time' website, whilst the 'Arabiya' satellite channel website has had a similar number of comments in Arabic.
Yet there is another woman who also had a genuine experience with the Taliban, no less interesting than that of the Afghan girl, whose nose was chopped off, though differing in events, details and coverage. The hero of the story is British hack journalist Yvonne Ridley, who was captured by Taliban. Contrary to what she expected, according to her account of events after being released, she was treated well by the Taliban, despite insulting them during interrogations, and even spitting in the face of one her captors. This British woman was imprisoned by the Taliban, yet after her release, her appreciation for the group and its honourable treatment remained, and she subsequently converted to Islam. But, she was less fortunate than the Afghan girl, as her image did not adorn the cover of any western magazine, despite the fact that her story could form the basis of an exciting Hollywood movie, and not just a magazine cover. She "more fortunate" than the Afghan girl because they didn't chop Yvonne's nose and ears off.
The selective media chooses [to print] only what suits its ideas, and conveys its message. This fault could apply to everyone on our planet without exception, but in the Western world it is even more dangerous, because the Western media, namely newspapers and established satellite channels, enjoy a great deal of credibility. In fact, there is nothing worse than packaging a bad idea to make it appear credible. In my own view, the photo of the miserable Afghani girl does not break from this tradition. This photo was not selected on innocent humanitarian grounds, as the cover page of 'Time' was accompanied with the following question: "What Will Happen if We Withdraw From Afghanistan?" If even Time realizes that the Talibs will go back to chopping people's appendage off there might still be hope.
The question reveals the lack of innocence. The cover image served as a means to shock American society, at a time when it was venting frustration and impatience due to a series of failures of the part of the US army and its ally troops on Afghan soil. These grievances come in addition to the rising injuries and death toll as a result of the guerrilla wars, where regular armies are struggling to achieve a clear victory.
What Time magazine accuses the Taliban of doing to the Afghan girl is very likely true, but their admirable treatment of the British female journalist is also true. This is in no way a contradiction, because the Taliban, unlike al-Qaeda, have grown into a wide ranging umbrella organisation, under which significant cross sections of Afghan society lie. This includes remnants of the Afghan Jihadists from the old days of the Soviet occupation, and followers of Hekmatyar, Younis Khales, Rabani, Haqqani and Sayyaf. The Taliban movement has been accepted by traditionalists, activists and technocrats, attracting both the radical and the tolerant, the extremists and moderates, because in Afghanistan there is no rival to the Taliban, it is the people's only option. Such a multi-faceted organisation can include honourable and moderate members, such as those who captured the heart of the British lady, yet also include the savage barbarians who cut off the nose of poor Aisha. For those Islamic countries that have influence in the Afghan arena, like Saudi Arabia and other moderate Islamic movements, a vital role remains in strengthening the moderate trend within Taliban movement. This is because Taliban has become a difficult factor, but the only factor in the Afghani equation, as evidenced by the recent U.S. efforts to court the organisation.
This article starring:
Yvonne Ridley
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Article is deconstruction at its finest, should get an "A" as a Harvard student paper.
Aisha's story crystallizes what we are up against. Yvonne's story, also, but in a different way. The stories are not comparable.
#2
What Time magazine accuses the Taliban of doing to the Afghan girl is very likely true, but their admirable treatment of the British female journalist is also true.
What the author so easily dismisses is Ridleys so-called admirable treatment occurred during ten days of forced captivity and interrogation. Apparently according to the Multi-Cults random abductions against ones wishes should sometimes be overlooked. You know, perhaps just consider it one of those quaint little cultural practices. And if you promise to convert to their religion your captors may not even kill you. Whats not to admire?
#3
G#@ D@&! F&*#*!s. And people want to make nice with these entities or portray them as misunderstood or that their ideology as any worth what so ever? We should hunt any apologists for these scum to for that are just as much terrorists.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in two explosions in southwestern Baghdad, a security source said on Tuesday.
Two bombs went off simultaneously near al-Bayaa-Sidiya intersection, southwestern Baghdad, on Tuesday (Aug. 10) , killing two civilians and injuring eight, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The blasts damaged a number of nearby civilian vehicles and buildings, the source added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
[Dawn] Explosions and gunmen in Iraq killed six people Tuesday, including two members of an anti-al-Qaida group and two policemen, officials said.
The attacks, which also injured 15 people, reflect the persistent violence directed at people responsible for protecting Iraq as American forces leave. Violence across the country has spiked in the past month as the US moves ahead with a major drawdown of its troops set to be completed by the end of the month.
The most deadly incident happened in the Baghdad neighborhood of Baiyaa in the southwestern part of the city, which was wracked by a series of blasts.
Police and hospital officials said first a pair of bombs exploded on a main street in Baiyaa, without causing any injury. When a police patrol arrived minutes later, a third bomb exploded, killing three people and wounding eleven others. A policeman was among the dead and four were injured.
Staggered explosions to inflict maximum casualties, especially on police and medical personnel, has been a hallmark of insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.
In a separate incident Baiyaa, a policeman was killed and four others wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol, police and medical officials said.
In the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, 40 miles (70 kilometers) south of Baghdad, gunmen at a checkpoint shot dead the local leader of an Awakening Council, one of the anti-al-Qaida groups that helped stabilize Iraq over the past two years.
A roadside bomb killed the bodyguard of another Awakening Council leader, this time in the western Anbar province.
The councils, also known by their Arabic name Sahwa, have been instrumental in fighting insurgents, making them a target of choice for groups such as al-Qaida who want to reverse Iraq's security improvements.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
[Maghrebia] A Mauritanian appellate court on Tuesday (August 10th) will hear the case of a Malian sentenced last month to 12 years in prison for kidnapping 3 Spanish aid workers. Omar Sid'Ahmed Ould Hamma (aka Omar Sahraoui) was the ringleader of the armed group responsible for ambushing a humanitarian convoy on the Nouakchott-Nouadhibou road last November. One man received a 1-year suspended sentence and four defendants were acquitted in the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
It sounds like Spain will pay to ransom its citizens, but it won't pay to keep the legal screws tightened against the kidnappers.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/11/2010 16:42
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[Dawn] Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Taliban faction on Tuesday urged the government to reject American aid for people affected by the nation's worst floods in 80 years.
"The government should not accept American aid and if it happens, we can give 20 million dollars to them as aid for the flood victims," Azam Tariq, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told AFP by telephone.
The most devastating floods in Pakistan's living memory have affected up to 13.8 million people and killed an estimated 1,600 prompting the UN to prepare an appeal for several hundred million dollars for immediate relief.
"We will ourselves distribute relief under leadership of our chief Hakimullah Mehsud among the people if the government assures us that none of our members will be arrested," Tariq said.
"We condemn American and other foreign aid and believe that it will lead to subjugation. Our jihad against America will continue."
Washington has provided 35 million dollars in aid, including 436,000 halal meals and 12 pre-fabricated bridges.The White House said that US helicopters have helped to save more than 1,000 lives in Pakistan.
Critics say the relief effort was slow to get into gear and have heaped scorn on the unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari for pressing ahead with a visit to Europe at the height of the disaster.
Islamic charities, some with suspected links to extremist militants, are believed to have stepped into the breach on the ground, as international relief efforts mobilised.
The TTP, a key architect of a bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,570 people across Pakistan in three years, grabbed the global spotlight after the United States accused the group over a failed car bomb plot in New York in May.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Will they also turn their noses up to Western zakat aid from:
[Dawn] Iran is to stop all trade and oil exports in dollars and euros in retaliation against Western sanctions over its nuclear programme, a top official was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"We are going to remove dollar and euro from our foreign currency basket and replace them with (Iranian) rial and all other currencies of the countries which accept to cooperate with us," leading economic daily Doniye e-Ektesad quoted First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying.
"These currencies are filthy and we will no longer sell our oil in dollar and euro," Rahimi told a meeting of education officials.
He did not say when that would go into effect, or how Iran was going to implement that decision as the second largest exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in an energy market dominated by the dollar.
Rahimi also said that Iran would limit its purchases from the European Union, which amounted to 11.4 billion euros or 27 per cent of the Iranian imports in 2009, according to official EU statistics.
He said this would mainly affect Iran's food imports such as wheat and soybeans from Europe.
Rahimi said that "sophisticated equipment," currently imported, will also be manufactured locally "by the Iranian youths, but it needs time."Following a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against, the United States and the European Union expanded their own punitive measures against Iran in July over suspicions that Tehran's nuclear programme is masking a weapons drive. Iran denies these charges.
Canada and Australia followed suit after the US and EU sanctions, which target Iran's economy and banking system, banning investment and transfer of technology to its vital oil and gas sectors.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
You fudgesticks can do all your business in ZimBoBwe dollars from now on.
[Arutz Sheva] A senior Hizbullah terrorist organization member and member of the Lebanese parliament called on the Beirut government to forget about obtaining "conditional" American military aid instead turn to Iran, Syria, Russia and China.
Nawwaf Moussawi, a senior Hizbullah leader and member of the Lebanese parliament, suggested the LAF look to Syria, Iran and countries like Russia and China for weapons and training. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to make his first official visit to Lebanon, at the end of the Ramadan month of daily fasting, his foreign minister announced Sunday.
The U.S. Congress has blocked the previously authorized $100 million in military aid for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) following last week's attack on the IDF in Israeli territory. One senior reserve officer was killed by a Lebanese soldier, and one junior officer was seriously wounded. Three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed in return fire by the IDF.
The political arm of Hizbullah has been accusing Israel of looking for an excuse to attack Lebanon, and it has used the alleged threat as an excuse to beef up its own military forces. The main reason behind the American holdup of aid to Lebanon is increasing evidence that Hizbullah and the Lebanese Army are working hand-in-hand.
"All calculations from now on will be built upon the notion that the Lebanese Army is ready to engage in confrontation, backed by the embrace of the Lebanese people and the support of the Resistance [Hizbullah]," legislator Mohammed Raad said on Sunday.
Hizbullah has increased its power in the Lebanese government and now holds the ability in the Cabinet to veto major legislation. Its alliance with pro-Syrian parties has allowed Syria to exercise more influence over Lebanon without the presence of more than 15,000 soldiers that Syrian President Bashar Assad withdrew five years ago.
Assad needs closer ties with Hizbullah to re-impose tighter control over Lebanon, Beirut Daily Star opinion editor Michael Young wrote in the Wall Street Journal Monday. He said that Assad has to "show that Damascus, not Tehran, rules again in Beirut" and that the Syrian president needs Hizbullah to replace the Syrian intelligence agents and Syrian soldiers that had been deployed in Lebanon.
Young also explained that Assad is trying to sell his return to Lebanon by casting the "illusion" that he will reduce Hizbullah's power. However, Young added, "The Syrian leader will not disarm Hezbollah, nor will he break with Iran, because that would deny him the ability to exploit regional rivalries."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Iran Press TV Latest] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi says the United States is keeping the "war option" open to justify its huge military budget.
Maj. Gen. Firouzabadi on Tuesday downplayed remarks made by his American counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen last month, claiming he was prepared to give the green light for an attack on Iran if he was convinced it would keep Tehran from building "bombs."
"If American politicians do not keep the war option on the table, how will they be able to garner the 1,000-billion-dollar budget that Mr. Mullen is seeking to spend for military operations?" the Iranian General asked.
He went on to say that Mullen needed to use such an excuse in order to "ustify Congress and the American nation" to fund a massive military budget at a time when the "inancial crisis has broken the backs of Americans."
Maj. Gen. Firouzabadi said Iran's Armed Forces are capable of countering any attack, warning that another war, particularly one with Iran, would "completely finish off" Washington.
"However, the US is not in a position [to launch a fresh war]. It can neither spare heavy expenses nor can it tolerate a war with heroic Iranian Basijis."
The remarks came hours after Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) equipped its naval fleet with 12 Zolfaghar class torpedo-launcher speedboats.
Over the weekend, the Iranian Navy also increased the number of its stealth mini submarines to 11.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
TOPIX > WAR AGZ IRAN A METHOD OF PROMOTING GLOBALISM. "Economic" Globalism to PCorrectly evol or turn into Political Globalism + OWG-NWO???
* ALso on TOPIX > RUSSIA WILL NOT FULFILL ITS CSTO ALLIED OBLIGATIONS IN CASE OF WAR IN KARABAKH [Armenia-Azerbaijan oer Nagorno-Karabakh]. Pert believes Moscow's desire to inetrprete any Clash or War as being between AZERBAIJAN + KARABAKH, NOT AZERBAIJAN VERSUS ARMENIA, IS MOSCOW'S WAY OF INDIR OR PDENIABLY SAYING IT WILL MIL DEFEND ARMENIA FROM AZERBAIJAN???
* WMF > THE "CHEONAN" IS THE USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" AIRCRAFT CARRIER? SCENARIO: USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON" SUNK IN MISTAKEN CPLA BOMBING/ATTACK DURNG US-ROK YELLOW SEA DRILL. BEIJING EXPRESSES DEEP REGRET OER INCIDENT + "ERROR" BUT CLAIMS THE "GW" WAS SPECIFICALLY SUNK NOT BY ITS ERRANT MISSLE OR MIL STRIKE BUT BY A MYSTERIOUS INTERNAL EXPLOSION ABOARD THE "GW" AS DETERMINED BY DAMAGED SHIP PARTS RETRIEVED FROM THE SEA BOTTOM. NO NEED FOR BEIJING + CPLA TO OFFICIALLY APOLOGIZE FOR THE LOSS OF THE CARRIER???
[Geo News] The activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that claims to spearhead the truthfulness, surrounded the offices of Geo News TV Network and Daily Jang situated at II Chundrigar Road, Geo News reported Tuesday. And they called Perv a dictator...
The brownshirts that continued pouring in at the scene since noon today, sustained the siege of the offices and pelted them with stones. The PPP operatives showed shoes to the Geo News workers ... which is even worse than cursing their mustaches...
and uttered abusive words "Sumonarhubarb!"
and set on fire the copies of Daily Jang. Jang has a big-assed Koranic verse on its masthead. Setting fire to it's a no-no...
The PPP workers wielding flags of the party were raising the full-throated slogans in favour of President Asif Ali Zardari. The party workers went on wall chalking spree under police cover writing bad meaning sentences and graffiti against Geo and Jang; however, police and administration kept standing as silent spectators. Allergic to mobs, are they?
The Jialas set on fire the copies of Jang newspaper on the main road. The armed people tortured Geo News' driver and snatched papers from the news stalls with police standing nearby mum on the incident. The PPP's jialas spawned a mess on II Chuandrigar Road, which triggered massive gridlock on the adjacent roads including MA Jinnah Road and Shara-e-Faisal, posing huge hardships for the people.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Bangla Daily Star] A robber was beaten to death by a mob after a gang of robber shot a villager dead and injured 10 others at Deputy Ghona village in Banskhali upazila of Chittagong early yesterday.
Local people chased a gang of 10 to 15 armed bandits, when they were passing through the village at about 1:30am, police said.
Sensing danger, the robbers opened fire on the villagers, leaving Abul Hossain, 70, critically injured. He died on the way to the local upazila health complex.
During chase and counter-chase, locals managed to catch Abu Sayed, 45, one of the bandits, and severely beat him to death.
At least 10 people were injured when the gang opened fire and threw brick chips at the villagers.
Abu Taher, 35, one of the injured villagers, was admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital with bullet injuries.
SM Ataur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Banskhali Police Station, said the gang might have planned to commit robbery in the adjoining areas.
Police were conducting raids in the area to nab other members of the gang, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan should face prosecution for war crimes, human rights group Amnesty International said yesterday.
Better late to the party than never, I suppose ...
It accused the Taliban of the "systematic" killing of Afghan civilians, adding that they were becoming "far bolder" in doing so.
Let me guess: it was the photo, spread 'round the world, of the young woman with her nose hacked off that did it ...
The comments came after a United Nations report said the number of civilian casualties in the Afghanistan war rose by a third in the first half of 2010, accusing insurgents of killing seven times more civilians than international troops.
The report attributed the rising number of deaths in part to more frequent and sophisticated homemade bomb attacks and to a 95 percent increase in the number of civilians assassinated by insurgents.
"The Taliban and other insurgents are becoming far bolder in their systematic killing of civilians. Targeting of civilians is a war crime, plain and simple," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director. "The Afghan people are crying out for justice and have a right to accountability and compensation."
Meanwhile, Amnesty welcomed a reported 30 percent drop in the number of deaths caused by international forces but called for greater accountability.
"Pro-government forces were responsible for at least 223 deaths in six months and NATO still has no coherent way of accounting for casualties," Zarifi said. "Special forces in Afghanistan are still failing to be open about their actions when being called to account over civilian casualties."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Whatever happened to summary execution for irregulars? Obviously no longer policy, even during vietnam. What is the official word on dealing with 'irregulars', spies, saboteurs, or what have you?
#3
I thought the objective was peace and reconciliation with the Taliban, and subsequent power sharing.
Right now Mullah Omar is far more likely to become a cabinet minister in Kabul (maybe, as foreign minister he could pay a visit to the Ground Zero mosque next year) than to be convicted and executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
There's just no will in the US or NATO to defeat and punish the Taliban for 9/11 or any other crime.
The official designation may be "ISAF" or "Enduring Freedom", the real mission is surrender.
Posted by: Bill Photle7787 ||
08/11/2010 12:06
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[Tolo News] The Afghan Ministry of Education is planning to renovate old schools and construct about 22,000 new schools in the country within ten years.
How many for girls?
Officials in the Ministry of Education said more than 4,000 schools were renovated and constructed during the last few years and the fund was paid from the development budget of the ministry, some organisations, provincial reconstruction teams and donor countries.
In 2002, there were 3,000 schools all over the country, and some 20,000 teachers were busy instructing students, but now the figure has increased to 12,000 schools and we have more than 175,000 teachers too, said education officials.
Some six thousand of these 12,000 schools have no buildings, said officials.
"Today we have more than 7 million students in the country, they are taught in 12,600 schools by 175,000 teachers," said the spokesperson for the ministry.
The reports on the renovation and construction of schools come as there are growing complaints about the way the already-built schools are constructed.
Based on the statistics by the Education Ministry, the number of students will be doubled from 7 million to 14 million in the next ten years, and providing more education facilities requires more space.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior Iranian official, Ali Akbar Velayati, has rejected a media report in which he is quoted as welcoming nuclear talks with the US, his office says.
Velayati, the foreign policy advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, criticized AFP for "altering" remarks made at a press briefing at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on Monday, IRNA reported on Tuesday.
"While we do not have any faith in the American government... Iran is ready for talks on its nuclear program," the French agency quoted Velayati as saying.
Velayati's office criticized the French news agency in a Tuesday statement, saying, "The report stating that we are ready for talks with the US over (Iran's) nuclear program is hereby rejected."
The statement added that a complete transcript of Velayti's remarks would be made available.
"We do not trust in the American government since its has behaved in a contradictory manner, making anti-Iran decisions in the US Security Council and passing national laws against Iran."
"Despite all of this, Iran has never rejected talks, and this is not limited to America and Iran's decision to hold any negotiations with other country's such as P5+1 member states -- the US, Russia, France, Britain, China, plus Germany -- and the Vienna group -- the US, Russia, France, and the IAEA -- will be carried out while considering the Islamic Republic's rights."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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[Associated Press of Pakistan] Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Syed Sumsam Ali Bukhari on Tuesday said the present democratic government believes in free media, freedom of expression, and the reports alleging government had blocked transmission of some television channels are unfounded and baseless.
Addressing a press conference here at Press Information Department (PID) he said that transmission of some channels might have been blocked due to confrontation between the two cable operators. The Minister said both the cable operators were issued notices to resolve the issue within no time.
"The government does not believe on imposing curbs on media," he added. However, he urged the media to report the events with responsibility and report both sides of the story.
He said the government and Ministry of Information strongly condemn the incident in which bundles of newspapers were burnt.
The government will take action elements involved in the burning of newspapers copies, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2010
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A bomb hidden inside a sedan parked in from of the Ruesoh branch of Kasikorn Bank in Pattani's Ruesoh district exploded about 8.05am on Wednesday, no one was hurt, deputy police chief of Ruesoh Pol Col Somchai Nopsri said. The car was totally wrecked by the explosion and subsequent fire. The Bank's entrance door and a nearby commercial building were also damaged, he said.
The Obama administration's most public face, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, has tried to climb down from angry remarks he aimed at leftwing critics, calling them "crazy".
[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced the wife of executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leader Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and two JMB men to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment each for possessing explosive substances.
Sheikh Mekhlef bin Dahham al-Shammari, a writer/blogger, human rights activist and social reformer, is in jail. Why? For "annoying others." He has not yet been formally charged.
On August 10, 2010, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a 15-minute audio recording from Sa'id Al-Shihri, aka Abu Sufyan Al-Azdi, the Saudi deputy commander of AQAP, who is also a former Guantanamo detainee. In the recording, Al-Shihri says that the organization has received communications from supporters of Al-Qaeda in the Saudi armed forces, who asked whether they should remain in their positions, or whether they should leave to join up with AQAP in Yemen. Al-Shihri tells them that they should remain in the Saudi armed forces and take advantage of their positions to further infiltrate the armed forces, carry out assassinations against the government, the royal family, and Westerners living in the country, and to provide logistical assistance to the mujahideen.
A fleet of disused tanks and trucks have been dumped into the sea off the coast of Thailand in a bid to form an artificial coral reef. The unusual move is designed to boost the ecosystem in the Gulf of Thailand. 
Under heavy guard of Israeli soldiers, about 1,000 Israeli settlers entered a village in the northern West Bank in order to pray on Monday night, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
[Dawn] Two key Pakistani television channels were shut in southern Pakistan on Tuesday amid protests by ruling party workers over reports against the country's embattled president, the channels said. "Geo television remains off the air in Karachi and other parts of Sindh province," its managing director, Azhar Abbas, said.
An eighteen-year old girl named Aisha escaped from her marital home, only for her husband to force her back, and for the Taliban to punish her by cutting off her nose and ears. This, in short, was what Time magazine reported in last week's issue, together with a picture of the beautiful girl, with her nose removed, spread across the entire cover. This is considered to be the most interesting cover photo this year, and has received over 500 comments posted by readers on the 'Time' website, whilst the 'Arabiya' satellite channel website has had a similar number of comments in Arabic.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in two explosions in southwestern Baghdad, a security source said on Tuesday.
[Geo News] The activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that claims to spearhead the truthfulness, surrounded the offices of Geo News TV Network and Daily Jang situated at II Chundrigar Road, Geo News reported Tuesday. 
