Google Translate from a variety of web sources. Updated with a definitive count of the evacuees, the type of aircraft used and a confirmation of troop rotation
About 200 Mexican Federal Police were evacuated from Juarez early Sunday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.
News organizations in Juarez report that federal agents, many with backpacks and some in civilian clothes were seen loading aboard several official Federal Police transport aircraft Sunday morning.
A mutiny by several Mexican Federal agents Saturday ended when four top commanders of the Juarez detachment were relieved of command and ordered to Mexico City for investigation of alleged criminal conduct.
The Juarez detachment has been under tremendous strain because of a series of armed assaults against them starting with the July 16 Juarez car bomb which killed one agent and three others. The most recent attacks happened last Sunday through yesterday where a total of two agents were murdered and eight others were wounded in a series of ambushes.
The Mexican news daily La Polaka reports the agents were being rotated out and replaced with new agents.
#2
the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
I don't think you can put the Telegraph in the "Ogabe's overseas base" category - they're the relatively conservative counterpoint to the leftist Guardian, and IIRC have always been skeptical of The One's appeal.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/08/2010 16:39
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#5
The Obamas could care less about the public outcry. Their haughty excesses only solidify the notion of a one term presidency.
#7
They forgot the, "t," in Ancient. That aside, isn't this always the way liberals push? Create a welfare state, remove the military since it's, "bad," and kill the nation with over spending with all the social engineering programs, and make themselves the new elite aristocrasy. After all, every one else is too stupid and cowardly to run things not into the ground.
#9
You know I am kind of curious why the Presidency must be in crisis mode all the time. Yes we are fighting a war, but I guarantee that no one wants another President to micro manage a war. So yes he should go to Chicago for his Birthday and yes the First Lady should wine and dine with Kings. It's their job to do these things. I don't like the way the pres treated Bush whenever he would go take a leak and "take his eye off the ball". God forbid he go to Camp David for the weekend. It became a bunker presidency that was afraid of offending someone by taking the weekend off or campaigning.
#10
There's vacations, then there's this whole ostentatious wrong-headed trip to a place best known for Arab princes and playboy types, donning dresses that cost more than a weeks wages for those fortunate enough to have jobs -- instead of going to, say, the Gulf Coast. Then there are the large numbers of vacations and their frequency...
And sorry you "don't like the way the pres treated Bush whenever he would go take a leak and take his eye off the ball", but guess what -- its the standard when the nation is hurting. THese aren;t the days of Calvin Coolidge. We are at war, under threat and undergoing huge economic stresses. You take the job, you have to grind at it if that's what circumstances hand you. Neither Bush nor Obama deserve to gripe one bit more than I did when I ended up getting called back from the reserves and going to combat because of some dumbass in Iraq invading Kuwait, or getting stuck in shithole called Haiti due to Doc Duvalier.
This stuff comes with the job. If you don't like it, don't sign up for the duty. Hard times require hard work and for a real leader, they will draw even more scrutiny. I know I had lots more expected of me at wartime than in the late 70's thru late 80's. Too damned bad. Deal with it, stop whining.
#15
Thanks Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo), yet another of my fantasies dashed.....
The Telegraph question aside, you're actually pretty much on the mark, Phester...from what I understand, the European leaders - at least the tougher, more realistic ones, like Sarkozy and Merkel - regard Ogabe as at best a dangerous naif. Vladimir Corleone Putin already knows he can be easily rolled, and a whole cast of lovely lads like Chavez, Daniel Ortega and the Castro brothers think he's probably a kindred spirit.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/08/2010 23:32
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#1
In the minds of leftists, a "war crime" is anything they disagree with that involves military force.
As for Pvt Manning, I would love to sit on his court martial. "Bring the guilty little bastard in. We'll give him a fair trial before we hang is traitorous ass".
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/08/2010 16:07
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#2
Gimme a head count tomorrow. Let me know if you have to use both hands.
#3
What irks me is these complete, and utter morons wouldn't have any ability, let alone life, if th military didn't fight for their freedom. Do they honestly think they could have done this in Nazi Germany or Saddam's Iraq? They're like spoiled little brats that have no concept of their surroundings or reality.
#5
These people are remarkably consistent in that they don't understand that if the left took over, protestors and troublemakers like them would be the first ones put up against a wall and shot.
#6
Outside the Quantico gates, about 80 protesters chanted "Bradley Manning told their tale, war criminals off to jail" and held signs calling on the military to "Free Bradley Manning."
#8
Round their asses up and make them do KP in a military chow hall for a few months. I'm sure they'll have a much better understanding of what they're whining ab out then. Of course, shootin a half dozen of 'em would be quicker, and probably more effective. Start with that fat slob with the beard in the middle.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/08/2010 23:08
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#9
Nah - parachute them into the Socialist Paradise of North Korea.
NEW YORK Singers Dionne Warwick and Chuck Jackson will headline next week's birthday fundraising bash for embattled Democratic New York Rep. Charles Rangel. By next week, it'll be the guy from Milli Vanilli who's not dead...
First lady of soul Aretha Franklin was originally scheduled to perform at the event, which is set for Aug. 11 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. But Franklin canceled after being sidelined with an injury. Her excuse...
Franklin's cancellation is just one of a spate of problems that have plagued the fundraiser since a House ethics panel charged Rangel with 13 violations last month.
A number of high-profile New York Democrats have not confirmed they'll attend even though their names are on the invitation. They include Sen. Chuck Schumer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is running for governor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent, is expected to attend, as is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Ten members of a medical team, including six Americans, were shot and killed by militants as they were returning from providing eye treatment and other health care in remote villages in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the team said Saturday.
Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said one German, one Briton and two Afghans also were part of the team that made the three-week trip to Nuristan province. They drove to the province, left their vehicles and hiked for hours with pack horses over mountainous terrain to reach the Parun valley in the province's northwest.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity." IOW: They were foreigners, and of course all foreigners must be killed.
Frans said the International Assistance Mission, the longest serving nongovernmental organization operating in Afghanistan, is registered as a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize. Probably a good idea not to. Shouldn't carry bibles, either.
"This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," the charity said in a statement. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year." Maybe if you made that aid dependent on all Taliban being dead it would help. This way they can have their cake and eat it, too.
The team, made up of doctors, nurses and logistics personnel, was attacked as it was returning to Kabul after the two-week mission in Nuristan, Frans said. They had decided to travel through Badakhshan province to return to the capital because they thought it would be the safest route, Frans said. Yep, it was the safest alright. They are barely dead.
#2
"Frans said the International Assistance Mission, the longest serving nongovernmental organization operating in Afghanistan, is registered as a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize."
Carrying Bibles, let alone proselytizing would indeed be inadvisable in Afghanistan. But that's not because these actions would be morally wrong in any way.
Not discussing religion in Afghanistan is good pragmatical advice because Afghan/Islamic culture is intolerant, bigoted and murderous, and for no other reason.
In a sane world the Afghan people would have been forced, at gun point, to show some minimal tolerance and decency after 'liberation' from the Taliban, but, alas, this is not a sane world.
#3
A. Isn't it illegal to carry Bibles in some Islamic countries?
B. I am beginning to wonder if this wasn't a set up? They took a route more than likely based off, "local intelligence."
C. Due to the route they took, and the way some stories sound, it is like they were, "stalked."
D. They were foreigners, but more than any thing, they were Christian. One step below Jewish on the hate scale.
E. Based on the above, perfect, justifiable murder and theft for them.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer's mindset. Better arrest a lot of people. Me included. Of course, understanding doesn't mean agreement. Just understanding.
Fifty-eight-year-old Francis Laskowski of Derby was charged with breach of peace Wednesday after making the comments while working at Fusco Management Co. in New Haven. Now just try firing the guy. I dare you.
#2
"the Chinese are avid students of their own history"
Mao's version, or the actual one?
"[T]here is much corruption in the government, the military and even the universities. This has created a growing number of unhappy [citizens], and they have a lot of unemployed (often because of corruption) college graduates, and people who are cheated and exploited by corrupt officials on a regular basis, talking about change."
Well, I think the Chinese do drink a lot of tea....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2010 14:29
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#3
Right on Barb Skolaut. Saddam did the same and look how his military did. O is doing the same thing. They put people in place that can't make the whole system work. They hire or appoint those who may have no skill but have family, friend or payoff connection.I don't understand why the riots, real estate collapse and many other problems are not covered on China. Toxic asset problem is far worse than ours had been. Over built complexes that sit empty now. They print money as needed but that it will come home to roost. Now I'll read the news post.
#4
Spot on as HDYL said. This is good reporting of the truth. Russia is the real power. Only if they can hold it together but with all the different peoples and Islam moving in that will be difficult. I would not want Russia strong in this world as they will always be causing trouble.
#6
The only thing that keeps quality up among counterfeiters is the domestic market, which will stop buying if the fake is absolute crap.
Ridiculous. The only no no is making products that hurt people (quickly, as opposed to lead poisoning which is slow). That's bad for business, and as such it is quickly and reliably punished.
#7
ION CATHAY, CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA'S "BRAIN DRAIN" DILEMMA: ELITE EMIGRATION. Highly educated + trained Industry, Techs, + Business Chin desire to leave China for better international propsects, whilst only 25% of Chin students overseas choose to return back to China.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > CHINA OPPOSES VIETNAM'S ACCUSATIONS ON ISLANDS [South China Sea].
* SAME > CHINA BUILDS ITS FIRST ANTI-CARRIER ASBM BASE [Guandong Province in SE China for DF-21C ASBMS + possibly future new DF-21D's].
ARTIC = CHINA has declared the disputed SOUTH CHINA SEAS [SCS] to be in its "Core Interest", + Chin State Medias are proclaiming or describing the SCS to be sovereign CHINESE TERRITORY.
* WMF > CHINESE CPLA EXPERT DAI XU: DESPITE THE END OF THE US-SOVIET COLD WAR THE US ONLY INCREASED ITS EFFORTS TO ISOLATE, CONTAIN CHINA WITHIN THE NATURAL BARRIERS OF THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN". RISING CHINA IS GEOPOL UNEASY DESPITE RECOGNIZING ITS NEED TO RESTORE ITS ANCIENT OR HISTORICAL ACCESS INTO THE PACIFIC + INDIAN OCEANS. THE WESTERN PACIFIC/WESTPAC AS THE DECISIVE "PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMBOL" OF THE US-CHINA GLOBAL STRUGGLE. POST-COLD WAR RUSSIA AS ALLY OF THE US TO DEFEAT CHINA.
* WMF > CHINA'S DIPLOMATIC ACTIONS VEE THE "CHEONAN" AFFAIR/MIL INCIDENT SUGGESTS IT MAY BE WILLING TO ALLOW THE US TO TRY ITS HAND AT ENDING THE PERENNIAL IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT, ETC. BETWEEN NORTH + SOUTH KOREA.
* WMF > VIETNAM IS GOING THE WAY OF ISLAMIST IRAN: MIL-INFERIOR VIETNAM DESIRES TO SECRETLY DEV POTENT NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN ORDER TO CHALLENGE, RECOVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEAS ISLANDS FROM CHINA. US-Viet nuclear deal.
* YOUNG ACTIVE-DUTY VIETNAMESE MIL OFFICER: THE INTEGRATION OR UNIFICATION OF VIETNAM + CHINA INTO ONE COUNTRY MAY BE A GOOD THING FOR BOTH COUNTRIES. SINO-VIET RESOURCES + REFORMS-SHARING, + THE END TO THE SINO-VIET DISPUTE OER THE SOUTH CHINA SEAS.
Read, CHINA = BEIJING would control or dominate because Chin is larger + Nuclear.
* WMF > VIETNAMESE SOCIALISM, NATIONALISM + ECON SOVEREIGNTY CANNOT BE SEPARATE FROM THAT OF CHINA. THE SUCCESS OR FAILURES OF VIETNAM'S
"THREE PRIORITES" OF ECON DEV/MODERNIZATION, PEACEFUL EVOLUTION, + DEFENSE OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY + INTERESTS [South China Seas] IS CLOSELY LINKED TO CHINA'S SECURITY.
* WMF > THE US PLAN IS TO DESTABILIZE AND DISMEMBER CHINA + ASIA: THE DAY AFTER US MISSLE DEFENSE PROVES IT IS ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY BLOCK OR DESTROY AN ENEMY'S NUCLEAR ICBM ATTACK(S) WILL HERALD/MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE BREAKUP OF CHINA + ASIA.
#2
I'm surprised he's still alive after the article. I guess it takes time for the homemade bombs, in between shake downs, stealing, extortion, rocket making, etc.
A protester who threw his shoes at the Pakistan president as he gave a speech in Birmingham last night said he was proud of his actions. ardar Mohammed Shamim Khan, 57, said Asif Ali Zardari's speech had incensed him so much that he spontaneously decided to unlace his size 10 leather shoes and hurl them at the bewildered Pakistani leader.
Police quickly led father-of-four Mr Shamim away before cautioning and later releasing him. An unrepentant Mr Khan, from Coventry, West Midlands, last night said: 'I could feel the anger brewing up inside me as Zardari talked about the floods in Pakistan. I thought we have a crisis back at home and all he can do is take a trip around Europe while his own people are suffering.'
Mr Khan managed to sneak into the invite-only political rally organised by the UK branch of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party. More than 2,000 people attended the rally at Birmingham's International Convention Centre while hundreds more protested outside.
Mr Khan, who was sat about 20 metres away from the President, said: 'I thought his speech was insulting to my people who are dying because of Zardari's government. He is a disgrace and I had to let my feelings be known in a way he would remember.'
Mr Khan said he shouted: 'Allah is the only one who can give and take lives' as he threw the shoes which failed to hit the president. One shoe narrowly missed him while the other was deflected away by a security guard.
The drama was captured on Pakistani cable TV channel PTV which was live streaming the event. But the shoe-throwing incident was edited out and party officials tried to downplay the incident.
#2
'I could feel the anger brewing up inside me as Zardari talked about the floods in Pakistan. I thought we have a crisis back at home and all he can do is take a trip around Europe while his own people are suffering.'
So, Mo, when are you pulling up stakes in Coventry and heading back to help out "your people"?
#1
A careful read of the 14th Amendment states "all persons, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.
If Foreign visitors and diplomats are not..."subject to the jurisdiction thereof," how can it be said that those born of illegal aliens be considered "subject US jurisdiction" when their parents come and go at will, are released and returned (deported) to their home countries by our government without trial?
John Kass of the Chicago Tribune takes a sympathetic look at the First Lady's recently concluded vacation to Spain.
And if the first lady wants to take her daughter and her friends to Spain and spend her own money, how dare anyone rip her for it? Agreed. Unfair to criticize a wealthy woman for wanting to treat her daughter to a once in a lifetime vacation...
There are many legitimate issues for which the Obama White House can be criticized. But ripping on the first lady for taking a vacation to Spain is just plain wrong. Agreed.
Yes, the government picks up the tab for her security and the presidential jet. But we'd pay that tab if she returned to Chicago. So relax. The problem isn't the trip. It's the logistical tail she brought her and her husband's current policy ripping rich folks for their profligate ways. Turnabout is fair play.
Many of you know that I'm no fan of the Obama liberal big-government politics. I like President Barack Obama personally. It's his politics that drive me crazy. I got five bucks that sez you voted for him, John.
So every time the White House hints at more federal taxes and regulations -- policies that frighten business away from hiring unemployed workers who are desperate for jobs -- I've got to do something to calm my nerves. Try drinking heavily, John.
So I smoke a couple bowls of Hopium trimmed from the smiling Obama Chia Head sitting on my desk, and everything's all right. Very revealing, John.
But Michelle isn't going to raise the national debt by going to Spain. No one is going to lose their job. The Spaniards seem to like her. And what's wrong with Spain anyway? No, but Mrs. Obama is adding to it in her own little way..
Where do you want her to take a vacation, Wisconsin Dells like the rest of us? Grand Lake in Oklahoma is lovely this time of year. Great fishing, okay nightlife.
There's nothing wrong with the Dells. Some Chicago politicians go to Aruba for the casinos. Mayor Richard Daley might go on an exotic trip with his developer buddy, Michael Marchese. Wipe drool from your chin, John...
But working families vacation at the Dells. And I can't picture Michelle's wealthy entourage squeezing into a Paul Bunyan for the lumberjack breakfast before spending the day at a go-kart track. Aside from the nutbusting security, what would it hurt?
Some pundits shrieked that they should have gone to California, because it's just as nice as Spain. California as nice as Spain?
Oh, shut up.
In California, do they have free-range pigs that eat nothing but special golden acorns until their flesh gets buttery, forming the foundation of the exquisite ham known as jamon serrano?
In California do they serve earthenware bowls of tiny baby eels, called anguilas, delicately sauteed with virgin olive oil, garlic and a touch of red pepper flakes? You have a point, John, but California has several air hubs all that stuff can be flown in.
Has California ever won the World Cup? Of course not. No, but they recently acquired Hello Kiffin.
I wish I could afford Spain as well, but I'm not going to criticize our first lady because her husband made several million on his two autobiographies before he turned 47. Nice rhetorical juke, John. Irrelevant, but nice.
"The bottom line is that optics matter," sniffed a Republican political strategist on CBS. "⦠At a time when we're seeing 9.6 percent unemployment, 70,000 jobs lost this month, people losing their homes, and it doesn't convey that she senses the plight of working families."
Yes, optics do matter. It's not that Mrs. Obama didn't consider those optics. But the daughter wanted Spain. So vamanos, chiquita. Very impressive. Way to dismiss a legitimate criticism. By ignoring it. The same as with the rest of your media buddies.
If I were president and my boys wanted to go to Spain and watch soccer games, then on to England, France, Germany, Greece and Turkey, guess what?
I'd send them. And you'd send your kids where they wished, if you had the money. I'd tell them to bring back some nice photos. But that's just me, John.
A few years ago, every time President George W. Bush or first lady Laura Bush appeared to have even a smidgen of fun, the network news would juxtapose their smiles against some heartbreaking account of impoverished Americans eating road kill to survive another winter. Way to go. Very impressive. You suck as a polemicist, but you don't need that, do you? Just by ignoring the fact that during W's time we had a relatively tame US government in near full employment, you can actually make a point.
So I suppose much of this Marie Antoinette business is a reaction to all that liberal media bias against Republican presidents. The bias has been evident for decades, and it's one reason why networks and many newspapers have lost viewers and readers. Wrong John. TV networks and newspapers have lost customers because of the internet. And conservatism is an easier sell.
But Republican Party pundits are now acting exactly like the Democratic water carriers they once whined about. True. Except the republican have an actual point to make about oversized government spending, exemplified by the First Lady.
They want to paint a portrait of Michelle telling her peasants to eat cake if they can't find bread.
But the real picture is that it's none of our business that a mom with a lot of cash wanted to take her daughter to Spain. I don't mnow many moms with a multimillion dollar logistical tail, do you, John?
So let them eat ham. How about canned tuna? ( Sorry: O-club reference. )
#1
Now this is weird. Every time I think of Mrs. Obama I get the, "Let Them Eat Cake," saying running through my head. I didn't know some one else shared that thought.
#2
Here's a clue John, you poor sheltered upper-crust twit: Its called LEADERSHIP. Lead by example. Something innate to anyone that's held a military leadership position. "Follow Me" isn't a motto, its a way of life.
We call on our president to be a leader. And guess what? Family matters. The old saying goes "The hardest job in the Army is Army Wife". Like any military wife knows, the commander's wife is part of the team, like it or not. She has to help set the example in public.
And that is where the Obamas fail - basic leadership.
Its becoming mpore and more apparent that he's simply a glib pol from the Chicago machine who is far above his competence, and she's a power hungry social climber with all the grace of a Klingon.
She is the Marie Antoinette to his Jimmy Carter.
Side note: how can this guy be so blind to the obvious issue of personal leadership? Is the "upper crust" and press really that isolated from real life? If so, its time to tear them down, forcefully if needed. They are becoming a clear and present danger to the Republic and liberty.
#3
Side note: how can this guy be so blind to the obvious issue of personal leadership?
Because 'leadership' has been deconstructed into an evil artifact of 'false class consciousness?'
(Ask Lopt- she is way better at explaining how our socialist ruling-class looks at these things.)
Is the "upper crust" and press really that isolated from real life?
That would be 'yes.' Too many examples to mention...
#4
Um, guys? Read this again, remembering that he doesn't like Bambi or Bambi's policies much.
I think Mr. Kass is very imaginatively sticking it to Mrs. Bambi.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2010 14:10
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#5
At my last private-sector gig, the place was going slow spiral Tango-Uniform. Multiple layoffs (Gawd, I got tired of the "you are the best of the best" speaches the day after each one, but I digress.), pay cuts, etc. Yet the CFO had the Obamasense of arriving at work one day in a brand new Porche 911.
Imagine the surprise of us "best of the best" when the damn thing got keyed......
#7
Barb, I respectfully disagree - honestly it sounds like he is making excuses for them since they have money they can do as they wish -- he gets his digs in about HOW Obama made the money but does not attack the central "wrongness" of the action in the context of being the primary leader in the US Government. It smells of typical Country Club types defending their own against us rabble, the Sam's Club types.
Again, I think he misses the most salient point: a leaders family IS part and parcel of the team; and their behavior alters the effectiveness of the leadership.
Marie Antoinette was an enabler of Louis XVI, and she deserved the guillotine.
Michelle Antoinette, (knowingly or not) is setting herself and Obumble up the same way, except there is no guillotine waiting (at least not yet).
And if the first lady wants to take her daughter and her friends to Spain and spend her own money, how dare anyone rip her for it?
[Agreed. Unfair to criticize a wealthy woman for wanting to treat her daughter to a once in a lifetime vacation.]
Dead wrong. If you are Joe Stock holder, then yeah take a vacation, whatever. When you are the leader and your people are hurting, you have to do the right things, even if it means you have to tell the wife and kids "No". THAT is the part of leadership that the original author does not get. There are times when your position demands things that may have you sacrifice personal gratification for the greater good. And that's where it is NOT OK for a rich woman to take a "once in a lifetime vacation".
Just like a division commander's wife doesn't go on a Disneyland vacation when her husband's brigades are deployed in combat (and her husband usually doesn't spend time at the golf course if he is serious about his unit).
#11
I am constantly amazed that people assign a bad execution of good intentions - "obama really loves the US he just has a weird view of economics" or "he's a bad leader because he sends his family friends on this vacation" or "doesn't he realize he plays too much golf and takes too much time off?"
This is who he is. He does not love your America. He is doing all he can to push his agenda and reward his allies which he hopes him to push his anti-American agenda forward. He's not an idiot - he's against all this country stands for.
Once you look at it this way he makes a lot more sense.
#12
Compare the column Mr. Kass wrote with the one Joe Klein of Newsweek would have written had Laura Bush taken her daughters on the same exact trip in the summer of 2006.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2010 19:58
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#13
Let them eat cake. That is what Mrs. O told the advisors when she told them that she was going to Spain and leaving her husband behind on his birthday. Hey, she can do whatever she wants, including telling him, "Later!" on his birthday.
Posted by: Martini ||
08/08/2010 20:19
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#14
OldSpook, Fred, you need to read some of John Kass's previous columns, readily available on the Chicago Tribune web site. You really blew it in your fisking and comments. You are 180 degrees wrong on Kass.
#16
Like I said, its possible I missed the /irony tag someplace in there in the original piece. But honestly, there are tons better criticism that can be made, which was my point - its a far more fundamental defect in the Obamas and typical elites that the "elites" themselves seem unable to comprehend.
While debate rages over plans for an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, the imam behind this project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is not available to answer questions in New York. Since locating the absent Rauf last week in Malaysia, I have now discovered that he's about to embark on a nearly month-long swing through the Middle East, with plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar.
Not that I learned this from Rauf, whose Malaysian office staff told me by phone on Tuesday that "All media requests have to go through his office in New York." Nor did his New York colleagues simply volunteer information about his imminent trip to the Middle East. It took a series of phone calls and questions to eke it out of them, starting with a vague reply from a staffer who then tried to backtrack with a message that, retroactively, her remark was "completely off the record."
Ultimately, in response to repeated questions, a member of Rauf's New York Cordoba Initiative foundation e-mailed me Friday, saying that Rauf's trip to the Middle East, "in the near future," will be hosted by the U.S. government as part of an outreach program to "bring the message of moderation, peace and understanding."
At the State Department, which presumably will be spending taxpayer money on Rauf's tour, I have yet to receive confirmation or any other information about his program, despite three days of my repeated requests by phone and e-mail. Apparently it is taking a while for State's Bureau of Public Diplomacy to get "clearance" to release any details of this particular public outreach effort, though Rauf's wife says it has been in the works for months.
All this comes at a moment when Rauf and his partners in New York are preparing to raise $100 million to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. A Manhattan Landmarks committee gave the necessary approval on Aug. 3 to tear down the old Burlington Coat Factory building already purchased for $4.85 million by a real estate developer partnering with Rauf. That building is so close to Ground Zero that on the morning of the Sept. 11 attacks parts of one of the hijacked planes damaged its roof. On that lot, the Islamic center project is now cleared to roll forward, once the money rolls in.
Indigenous groups in Malaysia are accusing the government of using religion as a condition for development aid.
The ethnic tribes say infrastructure is offered to them if they abandon their animistic ways and embrace Islam - a claim the government rejects.
Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan spoke to tribes in the central peninsular Malaysian state of Pahang. Doesn't surprise me in the least. The Malay sultans used to hold Sakai hunts, rounding up and banging the forest-dwelling aborigines from elephant back.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/08/2010
10:54 ||
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#1
Mr. Abbot from AP is a tool. He knows and we know that these people effected by flooding will never see a cent of assistance. It will all be diverted into the pockets of others. Pak is a bottomless swamp of unchecked corruption.
#2
of course, what will most help those impacted will be glorious victories from Jihadis crossing the LOC. Therefore the transfer of any donated funds not pocketed by Zardari and Co. will be properly spent training killer fodder
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2010 12:15
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#3
i highly doubt the areas flooded with thre real estat value and everything on them is worth billions. maybe rupees but not euros dollars or hell yuan
Posted by: chris ||
08/08/2010 12:15
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The transmission of Geo News has been blocked overnight in various parts of country after it aired news regarding hurling of shoes at President Zardari during his party address in Birmingham, Geo News reported cable operators sources as saying.
Meanwhile, many offices of cable operators in Karachi have been set ablaze by angry activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Posted by: john frum ||
08/08/2010
10:47 ||
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#1
However, Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar rubbished the above report, saying there is no substance in it as he was himself present at the convention and no such incident took place during the Presidents speech.
I was sitting in the front row and I can confidently say that nobody threw anything, Farhatullah Babar said while talking to Geo News.
On the other hand, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira confirming the incident said that highlighting a wrong act of a person would not be a right thing to do and added that the incident will be investigated.
Poor stupid Babar. in the midst of videos, photos and live coverage, he sticks to his guns. it was all a mirage.
Back before I started working at Reason, when I was in graduate school and broker than Amtrak, my soon-to-be wife (and, alas, now ex) and I splurged for about 10 weeks of pre- and post-wedding travel, here and abroad. We financed the fun via credit cards and it took us, all told, five or more years to pay off the goddamned balance. (And don't even get me started on the cost of our wedding, which we paid for too.) The thought of not paying it off never crossed our minds, even though we literally had no disposable income once the trip ended. We kept switching the balance to new cards that offered free or low-interest transfers and carried the debt until we both started working full-time and threw that particular monkey off our backs.
I mention this because that's how credit is supposed to work: You buy something with somebody else's money and then you pay them back, typically with interest. The risk you take in borrowing helps you to make a wise decision (my elongated honeymoon might not qualify as such but fuck it, you're only young once and only horrifyingly in debt about six or 10 times in your life).
And chew on this: The more you borrow, the harder you work because suddenly you're on the hook for all sorts of shit that needs to be paid for or it will be taken away from you. I call that The Flintstone Model of Capitalism. Contra Max Weber, who thought capitalism was based in protestant thrift and accumulation of savings, Fred works hards because it's the easiest way for him to get a cave jam-packed with modern appliances, a pedal-powered automobile, and slabs of bronto ribs so freaking excessive they flip said car. He's not breaking rocks at the quarry every day for the fun of it. It pays the bills that keeps the lights on. Check it out: As soon as the whistle blows, he slides off the dinosaur's back and hustles home to take the family and friends out to the movies and a meal. I'm betting Fred and Wilma were up to their bearskins in debt and it clarified their priorities just fine. It's not complicated: If you don't pay your bills, the goods stop coming. That's pretty much the basis for vast amounts of economic activity and exchange.
Unless you're talking about the goddamned housing market, where for whatever reason, the government is absolutely convinced that every idiot who bought big just as the market tanked should be bailed out. And that everybody who rents really wants/needs to buy buy buy (it's always a good time to buy a house!). And that the answer to a government-enabled economic crash based on a bubblicious housing market propped up by free and reduced government mortgage subsidies is...more of the same. It's like economic homeopathy and about as effective as inoculating yourself from lead poisoning by...eating lead.
Reuters' James Pethokoukis yesterday reported on the glimmerings of a massive August surprise, in which the Obama administration would simply write off billions of dollars in underwater mortgages. Treasury spokesfolks have said that ain't gonna happen, which is good to hear. But Pethokoukis reports on another possible action: A Morgan Stanley economist has floated before a Senate committee the idea of creating a new "stimulus" by loosening refinance rules for the 37 million government-backed mortgages, which would allow underwater homeowners, unemployed homeowners, and credit-unworthy homeowners to lower their payments, thereby stimulatin' the economy by putting more moolah in the pockets of these dummies rather than the pockets of the banks and GSEs.
The logic is that with the government already on the hook for these loans, theres nothing to lose from dispensing with any creditworthiness criteria for refinancing. The median interest rate on the mortgages concerned is 5.75 percent. These loans, the thinking goes, could be refinanced to around 4.50 percent. The 125 basis-point reduction would leave a borrower with a typical $200,000 mortgage better off to the tune of $2,500 a year. If, as Morgan Stanley guesstimates, half the affected homeowners took advantage of this, they would collectively have an extra $46 billion a year burning a hole in their pockets.
As Pethokoukis notes, this is a foolish idea for at least a few reasons. Such as:
One problem is that the government has already tried to streamline the refinancing process with little success. Another is figuring out who would pay any associated fees. But most importantly, the whole idea seems like a deliberate re-creation of the super-cheap credit and lax lending standards that led to the financial crisis in the first place. Thats counter to the White House message that America needs a new foundation built on fiscal prudence.
He also cautions that as the Dems' prospects deteriorate even more before the midterms, anything is possible. Or even probable.
And let's face it, Obama was never credible, even when he first took office and started yammering on about how "Tomorrow We Scrimp, But Tonight We Spend Like There's No Tomorrow." Bonus memory from January 2009: The great Wash Post headline, "Stimulus aside, Obama vows future budget restraint."
If only. I like to look toward the future, but one thing that seems to have gone missing from even the recent past (much less prehistoric Bedrock) is the sense that, with apologies to Spider-man, with great debt comes great responsibility to pay it back. Or even any responsibility to pay it back. Jesus H. Christ, the whole point of flop sweat when you sign a housing contract or a car loan or a student loan is that you know you're signing on for a potential world of hurt. The minute you stop thinking about that is the minute you start making really goddamned stupid decisions.
You get one bailout too many - that includes car companies and Wall Street banktards along with home buyers who stretched like Plastic Man to move into that dream house on an ancient Indian burial ground - and suddenly you start feeling really pissed that you have to pay for anything.
A chilling development in Denmark illustrates just how hate speech laws, which were introduced by deluded western liberals, are being used to stifle and criminalise the expression of legitimate opinion and essential debate -- the prerequisite of a liberal society. Lars Hedegaard is president of Denmarks International Free Press Society, which is devoted to fighting to preserve freedom of expression -- particularly against the threat from radical Islam to shut it down on the spurious grounds of Islamophobia. The inevitable has now happened: as Nathaniel Sugarman writes at The Legal Project, Hedegaard finds himself facing prosecution for racism over remarks he has made about Islam.
There is however a ray of light for Denmark: it seems that the Justice Minister is now considering amending the hate speech laws on the grounds that they could be misused to restrict free speech. If so, this would underscore Denmark's general reputation for robustness in defence of its core civilisational values. It's a reputation which has nevertheless taken a knock from its adoption of these illiberal hate crime laws in the first place -- but remember the heroic Jyllands-Posten, whose staff found themselves under a death sentence for publishing the Mohammed cartoons.
However, the possible amendment of Denmark's hate laws is scant consolation for other western countries, with the UN having decided to criminalise all criticism of sharia law, as reported here. Until and unless western liberals finally understand that radical Islamists are not a minority whose human rights need to be defended but are instead a mortal threat to human rights which must be defeated -- and crucially, that the UN is the vehicle of Islamist oppression and must in turn be fought by all who care about human rights -- the light of freedom will continue to be extinguished in the West.
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha had lunch with Spain's king and queen on Sunday at the royal family's holiday retreat on the resort island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean.
Now, here's a story 'bout Minnie the Moocher,
She was a low-down hoochie-coocher,
She was the roughest, toughest frail,
But Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.
Mrs. Obama and her daughter arrived at Marivent palace shortly before 1 p.m. and were greeted at the front door of the residence by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Princess Letizia.
She messed around with a bloke named Smokey,
She loved him though he was cokey.
He took her down to Chinatown,
And showed her how to kick the gong around.
The king, a keen yachtsman, has for decades spent August vacations at the palace with its dramatic cliff-top views of the sea on the Balearic island's southwestern coast near Palma de Mallorca.
She had a dream about the king of Sweden,
He gave her things that she was needin',
He gave her a home built of gold and steel,
A diamond car with a platinum wheel.
Lunch was Andalusian-style chilled gazpacho soup, chargrilled turbot, veal escalopes with mustard, Oriental rice with sauteed mushrooms, a Mallorca-style vegetable ratatouille and sliced fruit with ice cream, accompanied by wines from the northern regions of Rueda and Rioja, the palace said.
He gave her his townhouse and his racing horses,
Each meal she ate was a dozen courses;
She had a million dollars worth of nickels and dimes,
She sat around and counted them all a million times.
The lunch meeting marked the end of a five-day private visit to Spain by Mrs. Obama, who toured beauty spots in the southern region of Andalusia including Marbella, Ronda and the Alhambra palace in Granada.
The king gave Mrs. Obama some seeds for the White House garden as a parting gift, while the queen made a present of handicrafts typical of Mallorca, the palace said.
After lunch the first lady's party was due to fly back to the United States aboard Air Force Two.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
There is a lot to like about the King of Spain. I have a fond memory of his run in with that blowhard Hugo Chavez. There are other interesting events in his life that will make a very readable biography some day.
#2
"The king gave Mrs. Obama some seeds for the White House garden as a parting gift, while the queen made a present of handicrafts typical of Mallorca, the palace said."
So, I wonder what tasteless and tacky gift that Michelle Antoinette presented in return? Anyone got any guesses, based on the shabby record of official gifting to date?
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2010 11:09
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#4
You think the lemonade police agriculture inspectors will actually get to check on the importation of the seeds? Doing something they're actually suppose to do. How about sending a SWAT team to deal with a guy whose paper work is off just a little on some orchids.
#6
Groucho Marx from 'A Night at the Opera' "You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of 'Minnie the Moocher' for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie."
Inflation has set in since 1935.
#11
Harry Belafonte is scratching out the screenplay as we speak (with Danny Glover's creative input) to support "Ron" Howard's coming Epic, "White Man's Wookie-Umm-Umm-Umm". Can you lefties lisp "BLOCK-BUSTER ALERT!!!"? This POS Will be HUGE!
WyckL(Sp?)Jean provided (sigh) Slat with this exclusive soundtrack teaser..."I saw our Wookie Euro-kissing with a Queen. Its blouse was perfect!
The dark guns of Chi-Town, "Ah-OOOO"-Draw BLOOD...
South Africa's refusal to side with the US in the conflict in Afghanistan came close to setting the country on a diplomatic collision course with the super-power. A terse communique among the nearly 80,000 secret documents posted on the internet whistleblower website WikiLeaks records the threat of severe diplomatic sanctions against South Africa for being allegedly remiss in supporting the US in its wars against international jihadists.
Dated May 3, 2007, the communique, posted by the American embassy in Ottawa, details an approach made by the US government to Canada to force South Africa to clamp downon fundraising inside the country for Aghanistan's Taliban. What the US proposes, as recorded in the communique, is nothing less than a joint demarche - a strong rebuke - to force the South Africans to get into line, and it seeks Canadian backup.
No follow-up is recorded in the massive bundle of documents and it remains unclear whether the threat went any further. Indeed, a source close to the Canadian diplomatic corps contacted by Weekend Argus said it appeared unlikely any action resulted. The source pointed out that the Canadian response to the grandstanding request was guarded, to say the least.
My response to the journalistic grandstanding involved in the last sentence will be guarded as well, to say the least.
With what appears to be consummate diplomacy, the Canadians indicated they would be happy to consider lending support to the US initiative but would need more information. Once in possession of the details of how the SA government was aiding the Taliban, they could decide. "The US tends to be very reluctant to part with information of this kind, so chances are the whole thing stalemated right there," the source said.
The narrative that clever Canadians successfully foiled arrogant Yankee grandstanding is certainly putting a thrill up someone's leg.
Nor were sources in the SA Department of Foreign Affairs able to confirm that the US threat was ever delivered. Sources in the government at the time however, noted there was indeed diplomatic strain over the post 9/11 US "war on terror". As a country with a significant Muslim minority, South Africa was desperate to appease reluctant to adopt such a gung-ho anti-terror stance.
Usually fronted by then deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad and pro-Palestinian intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, the South Africans had, since 1994, nurtured a neutral stance on US foreign policy wars in the Middle East and south Asia. Co-operative structures between the US and their European allies on one side and the SA National Intelligence Agency had fallen into disuse - despite mounting evidence that South Africa was being used as a safe haven by allies and possibly operatives of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbollah and other organisations internationally proscribed by the US-led alliance.
In particular the SA government had declined to act against organisations styling themselves as charitable and relief NGOs, which US intelligence claimed served as covert funding agencies and support networks for terror groups. One of the most prominent of these was the Fordsburg-based Al Aqsa Foundation, led by cousins Junaid and Moulana Farhad Docrat. Though the Docrats and the Al Aqsa Foundation were included in the US Specially Designated Nationals blacklist by 2007, the foundation continued to be registered as a legitimate charity with the SA Department of Social Development - and was thus in a position to move foreign exchange via the Reserve Bank.
While the major accusation against the foundation was over support for Hamas, it also hosted a series of religious speakers linked to the Taliban on international fundraising missions. Among these was Mufti Mizamuddin Shamzai, a proponent of international jihad and one of the godfathers of Afghanistan's Taliban. Shamzai was also associated with what amounted to the spiritual hijacking of the venerable Deobandi movement from its opposition to violent jihad, to becoming one of the key allies on the global stage of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda. When Shamzai was assassinated in 2004, SA sympathisers reportedly donated R500,000 to his heirs.
#2
Geen Boer, got terrorists. Wat 'n phueching surprise! Fund raising is probably only the sharks fin above the water line. They'll really get twisted when Jacob Zuma leases the Vastrap weapons test range to the Talibunnies.
#1
Well too bad that those who should fear radical Islam most will remain silent until it's too late; e.g. NOW is good at hammering corporate America for wages parity and gays for marriage rights, but neither dare utter criticism of that will eventually bury them.
#2
Well too bad that those who should fear radical Islam most will remain silent until it's too late
You mean like that NYC idiot Mayor Bloomberg who thinks we have to be kind and gentle towards those who want to build a monument of conquest and dominance on the 911 site; the one who tears up at the mention of islamics to whom he wants to give away the keys of the city. Those who think that islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and not one of murder, lying, and terror? You mean the PC crowd who are far left loons and useful tools of our own homegrown terrorists like Ayers and friends.
#4
John QC: Yeah, Bloomberg makes Neville Chamberlain look like Errol Flynn. Schwarzenegger too who has never utter a cautionary word about radical Islam either...maybe too busy lamenting he ever came up with the girlie-man coinage.
#1
Regulatory capture and rent-seeking are a couple of phenomena we will never be rid of as long as governments are instituted among human beings. Get used to it. The best antidotes are a vigorous press and an educated and involved electorate. I know, I'm a dreamer.
#1
Amazing is it not? Presence patrols with visible air cover seldom come under small arms fire. Of course the IED's, planted in advance of our well published arrival still remain. This is a sad, sad, failed strategy. I hope and pray it ends soon.
The National Police has confiscated at least three VCDs on jihad from a terror suspect arrested in the West Java regency of Subang on Saturday. Local neighborhood chief Yayat told kompas.com the VCDs were titled Al Aqsha liberation series-solution to Palestinian crisis, Afghanistan jihad-The journey of the oppressed, and Tears shed from Chechnya. Subang police arrested AG, his wife and a relative on Saturday. The police also seized a motorcycle.
West Java police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said a total of five people were arrested in Bandung city, Subang regency, Padalarang in West Bandung regency and Cileunyi in Bandung regency on Saturday. Sutarman said the five people were allegedly involved in acts of terrorism in the country in the last few years. He added the arrests proved terror cells formed by Jamaah Islamiyah operators Noordin M. Top and Azahari bin Husin had remained alive.
Suspected Muslim terrorists insurgents shot dead three people in Thailand's restive south on Saturday in two separate incidents, police said, the latest violence in the troubled region bordering Malaysia.
A soldier was gunned down in an ambush while riding a motorbike to a military base in Yala province. In neighbouring Pattani, a Buddhist couple was killed and their four-year-old nephew wounded inside a motorbike repair shop, police said.
[Arab News] The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) is currently preparing regulations and guidelines governing the practice of ruqya (the process in which verses of the Holy Qur'an are recited to treat diseases) in an effort to stop the unlawful forms of the treatment often used by sorcerers.
"Some people earn money by practicing unlawful incantations besides resorting to immoral acts such as stripping women patients. Such sorcerers have given the ruqya a bad reputation. Regulations have been put in place to permit only lawful forms of ruqya," said Adil Al-Muqbil, supervisor of the Haia's department that is in charge of tackling sorcery, in a speech on Saturday at a weeklong seminar on the subject in Hail.
Al-Muqbil underscored the Haia's stance, which distinguishes between charlatans and sorcerers.
"Sorcerers slaughter animals without invoking the name of Allah and utter unintelligible words besides claiming knowledge of the future. They use fingernails, hair and inner clothes for their black arts," he said.
He added that charlatans, on the other hand, do not perform black magic but rather engage in confidence rackets to fool their subjects into thinking they have special powers.
The seminar -- entitled "The Best People" -- will also stage several cultural and religious events, contests and an exhibition in which government departments and private agencies will participate, said Mutlaq Al-Thabit, spokesman for the Haia in the Hail province.
Eminent religious scholars will deliver lectures during the seminar after Maghreb prayer ever day, he added.
Lectures given during the seminar include topics such as "The ills of drug addiction" by Muhammad Al-Eidi and "Family upbringing as taught by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)" by Prince Naif bin Mamduh.
Hail Gov. Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen will attend the final function of the seminar on Thursday.
Haia chief Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Humain is also expected to participate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Faith healing?
Hmmm when the patient dies is the Imam stoned or the victim declared "Unholy?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:27
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[Bangla Daily Star] Ten Ahmadiyyas were injured yesterday when a group of enraged villagers attacked them at Chandtara village of Ghatail upazila yesterday afternoon.
The followers of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Bangladesh came under attack at 2:00pm after inaugurating the construction works of a mosque at Akandapara, local sources said.
The injured were Jafarullah, Mozibor, Halim, Saidur, Arif, Motaher, Abdul Hai and Ibrahim Hossain. Identities of the two other victims could not be ascertained. The injured were sent to Tangail and Dhaka for treatment.
Angered at the Ahmadiyaa move to raise a mosque, the mob attacked them with brick chips and bamboo sticks. They also vandalised several houses and two poultry firms owned by the Ahmadiyya community, police sources said.
A police team from Ghatail Police Station rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mominur Rahman confirmed the incident. "No one was arrested and no case was filed in this regard till 5:15pm," added the OC.
The villagers of the same locality in an attack on June 17 foiled another move to construct the mosque.
Local Muslims under the banner of 'Imam Parishad' held procession and rally in the village against 40 Ahmadiyya families and also declared to resist the construction of the mosque at any cost.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (community) on March 23, 1889, envisioning it to be a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadiyyas consider themselves Muslims and claim to practice Islam in its pristine form.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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[Tolo News] At least, four Afghan coppers and one civilian were killed and 12 others were injured on Saturday in a kaboom in southern Helmand province, MoI says "Go ahead, Mahmoud! Get in the wheelbarrow!"
"A wheelbarrow? What kinda operation is this? Why can't I have a car to explode in?"
"Because you don't know how to drive!"
"How about a donkey?"
The Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) said the bomb was attached to a wheel barrow, and hit a police vehicle in Nahr-e-Seraj, a district in Helmand province, consequently killing one innocent bystander and four coppers, and injuring twelve others.
Meanwhile, no hard boy groups including the Taliban have taken credit for the blast.
The incident took place as a suicide kaboom in the northern Kunduz province hit provincial police forces on Thursday and nearly 7 police officers were left dead while four others were injured in the incident.
The number of Afghan coppers killed during the last month by bad boys hits 125 while 291 others were injured, according to a round-up by the MoI.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Immigrants who practice polygamy or female genital mutilation should have their citizenship revoked, France's France's interior minister said Saturday, going beyond President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to strip the French nationality of foreign-born people who endanger police. Good luck with that. We have a spare Prop. 8 you can use ...
Brice Hortefeux spoke as a Muslim Frenchman at the center of a firestorm over polygamy was detained for questioning by police. The concept isn't really complicated. The last time the Frenchies practiced polygamy they were divided into Salians and Riparians. You can't be a polygamist and still be a Frenchy.
Preliminary fraud charges were filed in June against Algerian-born Lies Hebbadj for allegedly collecting too much state aid for up to 15 children he reportedly had with four different women. The case became public last April when his veiled wife was issued a traffic citation for driving with apparel that hinders vision. You'll notice that it's not the really bright women who opt for polygamous relationships. I've been to France. It takes some really bad driving to make a cop notice you. Putting a pillowcase over your head will usually make for noticeable driving.
Hebbadj was being questioned Saturday over a former companion's claims of alleged acts of rape and violence from 2003-2007, prosecutor Xavier Ronsin said.
Polygamy charges were never filed against Hebbadj, who lives in the Nantes region in western France. Because the women and children live under separate roofs, investigators could not prove polygamy as defined by law. Hortefeux said at the time that, regretfully, "no one or almost no one is judicially speaking polygamous in France" under the penal code as it stands.
On Saturday, the minister, speaking on RTL radio, reiterated his wish to see Hebbadj's nationality revoked if found guilty.
Later, speaking to reporters in Perpignan, he said that he also wanted "the possibility of revoking nationality in cases of polygamy, female circumcision." The president has said the move to revoke citizenship, denounced by immigrants' and human rights' groups, was part of a "national war on delinquency."
Prosecutor Ronsin said Saturday that Hebbadj was detained for questioning Friday evening. His detention period was extended until Sunday, according to his lawyer, Cecile de Oliveira.
The lawyer said her client was being "tracked by unrelenting police."
"This comes at a good time," she said, referring to Hebbadj's detention just as the minister spoke out again against polygamy. "It comes at even too good a time."
Hortefeux said he would submit his proposal to the government by the end of the month. However, Immigration Minister Eric Besson raised questions about the legal possibility of including polygamy among reasons to revoke nationality, saying the subject is particularly "complex."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Tolo News] Afghanistan Hezb-e-Islami party That'd be Hekmatyar's band of bandidos...
has claimed the killing of 8 foreigners and 2 of their Afghan interpreters in the north-eastern Badakhshan province "Dat's right. We kilt 'em."
These foreign citizens who had introduced themselves as health workers, were killed with their interpreters, said Hezb-e-Islami in a phone contact with TOLOnews. "Aaaar! They claimed they wuz health workers! We knew better! Infidels, the lot of 'em!"
Hezb-e-Islami called these men spies and added that they had gone to the province for espionage. "We could see, they wuz lookin' around..."
"These ten persons came to Badakhshan through Panjshir, and introduced themselves as doctors, and returned to Nuristan after a few days," the Provincial Police Chief of Badakhshan, Aqa Noor Kintoz, told TOLOnews. "While returning from Nuristan province to Keran district of Badakhshan, ten hard boys followed them on the way, killing them after they beat feet to the jungles, and they took their money as well," he added.
Six of these foreign citizens were Germans, three of them men and three women, and two others were Americans.
The dead bodies of these foreigners are being carried to Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Is this the same incident as yesterday, or a different one? If it's the same one, none of Hekmatyar's boys should ever get so much as a hangnail taken care of by any doctor in Afghanistan. There HAVE to be consequences for bad behavior for that behavior to change. Since the US won't ARCLIGHT the sh$$ out of their safe areas for fear of killing "civilians", then let the consequences be more direct.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/08/2010 13:13
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Now, now Patriot. This is the Obama administration. I'm sure they are just misunderstood, repressed terrorists. If they would just convert to Islam, they wouldn't have needed killing.
Google Translate
Mexican Federal agents suffered three more armed attacks in the form of ambushes against patrols killing one agent and wounding four others in Juarez Saturday, say Mexican news reports.
The attacks total nine attacks and ambushes directed against federal armed patrols in Juarez since last Sunday night.
The first attack took place near the intersection of calles Lopez Mateos and La Raza where one agent was killed and a civilian wounded nearby when his Toyota Tacoma crashed.
The second attack took place a short distance away near the intersection of calles Plan de Guadalupe and Danubio in the Los Nogales district where agents killed one armed suspect driving a Ford Lobo pickup truck after the agents were fired on.
The last attack took place at about 1400 hrs near the intersection of calles Paseo de la Victoria and Morelia where an unknown number of armed suspects or agents were wounded.
[Maghrebia] The emergence of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa raised questions about the effectiveness of ideological revisions announced by many armed Islamist groups that have renounced violence in recent years.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are two new organizations that have drawn new young recruits into their ranks in recent years, despite revisions by groups such as the Islamic Group in Egypt and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) that prohibited the use of violence.
Dr. Nageh Ibrahim, the ideological theorist of the Islamic Group in Egypt and a member of its Shura Council, said the revisions have been slow to reach the new generation of al-Qaeda recruits.
Continued on Page 49
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[Dawn] Despite pledges and efforts made by the ineffectual central government to restore peace in the city, four people were rubbed out in Karachi.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Federal interior minister Rehman Malik and others dithered rather than address the situation the city which remains tense.
Two persons, Sardar Khan and Zakarya were killed while one was injured in gunplay on Saturday in Manghopir police station area. Ah, Saturday night in Olde Maghopir!
Two other persons were potted in separate incidents in Orangi Town and Pirabad areas. Qasba colony, Qasba Morh, Bukhari colony and areas within the vicinity experienced frequent firing incidents in which 14 people were injured.
Peoples in affected areas are facing a food shortage because they trapped in their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ma'an] President Mahmoud Abbas is ready to give the okay for the deployment of international troops along the borders of a Palestinian state regardless of their religious affiliation, his political adviser told the government news agency WAFA on Saturday.
Nimir Hammad said reports, which he said surfaced in American media on the religion of the forces "were completely false, and president Abbas spoke more than once, during his meeting with leaders of the [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] AIPAC and in interviews with Israeli journalists confirming that he agrees on international forces regardless of the soldiers' religion."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"I mean, they can be Shiite or Sunni or Sufi, or any other denomination of Islam"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/08/2010 0:16
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As long as they know that Jews is a source of all evil?
The FBI says Adnan Shukrijumah is a dangerous al Qaeda operative, but his mom, who lives in Miramar, Fla., says he is kind, loving, and caring boy, the Florida Sun Sentinel reported late Friday.
Federal officials in the United States say the former Broward Community College student who spent 15 years in South Florida with his mother and five siblings is now head of global operations for al Qaeda.
In that capacity, Shukrijumah is allegedly in charge of planning attacks on the U.S. and other western countries, a position once held by Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003.
"It's not true," his mother, Zurah Adbu Ahmed, told the Sun Sentinel on Friday when told of the FBI's latest findings. "I don't know. But I don't think it's true. He's a kind, loving, caring boy."
She has not heard from her son, now 35, in many years, Adbu Ahmed said.
According to his mom, Shukrijumah does have very strong feelings about American policy as it pertains to the Mohammedan world. But that "doesn't make him a terrorist," she noted. She added that he would never kill anyone because she taught him not to.
"If you kill one person it's like you kill a whole nation," she said. "He knows that well. He will not kill people. He is gentle and kind."
The FBI tells a different story. It named Shukrijumah as an al Qaeda conspirator in 2003, adding that he became convinced that he needed to join the jihad following conflicts in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s. That led him to training camps in Afghanistan where he learned battle tactics and surveillance techniques.
The FBI says he is the only high ranking al Qaeda official with intimate knowledge of the United States and a U.S. green card. They are offering $5 million for information leading to his capture.
He is accused, and has been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, of being the person who recruiting and training three New Yorkers to plan a series of attacks on the New York City subway system.
Shukrijumah, who was born in Saudi Arabia and was raised in the United States, had a job assembling telephone components for Motorola. His mother said he was seeking new opportunity and flew to Trinidad a week before Sept. 11 to look into a new business venture.
He called a few days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and his mother told him not to come home because Mohammedans were going to become targets.
She said she does not know where he is and is worried the United States will try to assassinate him.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
I guess that proves Moms are blind to their children's wrongdoing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:42
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#2
This just in: Hitler's mom remembers happy family at home...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 1:05
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#3
Is it complicity, or just stupidity? In any case is she a citizen or on a green card? She should be deported on general principle.
#4
The FBI says he is the only high ranking al Qaeda official with intimate knowledge of the United States and a U.S. green card.
Yep he's the only one. We've been watching him for over ten years.... whilst he was a low ranker, he and MAJ Hasan out in Texas. None of 'em left after we catch and release him, none, nada, zip.
#9
Also from RENSE > [US] HAARP USED IN PAKISTAN FLOODS?
and
WMF > RUSSIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY WARNS OF RETALIATION IFF PROOF FOUND THAT THE THE US USED ADVANCED SPACE/LASER WEAPONS TO INTENTIONALLY AND MALICIOUSLY IGNITE NATIONWIDE FIRES IN HEAT-WAVE STRICKEN RUSSIA.
OTHER > FIRES > Russia allegedly may had lost up to US$30.0BILYUHN worth of its domestic wheat crop due to on-going heat wave [fires] + other factors. ONE OF RUSSIA'S MAJOR RESEARCH NUCFACS IS UNDER FIRE THREAT.
[Ennahar] Four policemen were killed and eight others including two civilians were wounded in clashes lasting several hours with insurgents in the night from Friday to Saturday in Baghdad, said an official of the Ministry of Interior.
"Saturday around 0:00 (21:00 GMT Friday), unknown persons stole a car and its owner has followed them to their home before alerting police that intervened in the district of Saidiya, in southern Baghdad, the source said.
"An exchange of fire began around 2:00 (Friday 23:00 GMT) between security forces and insurgents holed up in their house. The shooting lasted until dawn and four policemen were killed, eight others have been wounded including two civilians," the source said.
One of the insurgents who had fled in a terraced house, taking hostage the family was killed, told AFP officers injured in the Yarmouk hospital. The other insurgents have managed to escape.
In the house, police found a car bomb, explosive devices, pistols with silencers, grenades and antitank rockets, according to the Ministry of Interior.
Saidiya is a Sunni neighborhood that was a stronghold of insurgency and is still considered dangerous.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
Google Translate. For a map, click here
More than 300 municipal police officers have been removed from duty following an investigation which included the use of wiretaps, say Mexican news reports.
The Secretario de Seguridad Publica (SSP), General de Brigada Urbano Papyrez Banuelos, who ran the investigation, said that 169 officers were dismissed for lack of confidence and misdemeanors while another 138 voluntarily submitted resignations.
The dismissals were for various reasons including loss of confidence, drunkedness, involvement in kidnapping and abandonment of employment. A total of 59 were dismissed for mutiny.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A controversial close aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has incurred the wrath of Iranian conservatives who accused him of making "pagan" remarks about religion, media reported on Saturday.
"There are different interpretations of Islam, but our understanding of the real nature of Iran and of Islam is the Iranian school. From now on, we must present to the world the school of Iran," the president's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie said at a conference for Iranians living abroad.
His comments provoked a backlash from conservative politicians and clerics.
"Equating the school of Iran and the school of Islam amounts to pagan nationalism, which the people of Iran have never accepted," said Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, normally a close ally of the president.
Another hardline cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, condemned Mashaie for having "once again made erroneous and inappropriate statements."
Mashaie, a close relative of Ahmadinejad, has provoked similar controversy in the past.
He was forced to step down as first vice president in July last year after a row over his remark that Iran was a friend of the Israeli people. He was subsequently made the president's chief of staff.
Several conservative MPs called on Ahmadinejad to account for Mashaie's remarks on "Iranian" Islam.
"It's a betrayal of Islam and of Iran. The president must clarify his position on this individual who uses official forums to express views that are against the constitution, Islam and Iran," conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli was reported as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Arab News] The group behind a convoy to Gaza that ended when Israeli forces stormed the ships and killed nine activists said on Saturday it may use the vessels for another run on the blockade.
Israel released the three ships this week after sending the Turkish Foreign Ministry a message that said it expected Turkey to prevent the vessels, which arrived in the east Mediterranean port of Iskenderun earlier on Saturday, from attempting to reach Hamas-run Gaza again.
Huseyin Oruc, a board member at the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (IHH), which owns the ships, told Reuters TV that if the blockade on Gaza continued, the boats may take part in another mission.
"If the problem is not solved, many flotillas ... will sail to Gaza. If necessary, these boats can also be used for this," Oruc said.
"We have purchased these three boats for Palestinian needs. If it is necessary, we can use easily use them. These boats are humanitarian boats."
Before releasing the ships, Israel, which had impounded the vessels after the May 31 raid, had unsuccessfully sought a promise that they would not be sent to Gaza again.
The raid caused a deep rift in relations between Israel and Turkey, once its closest Muslim ally. Turkey demanded an apology, withdrew its ambassador and canceled joint military exercises with Israel.
Turkey also listed the return of the vessels as one of several conditions for normalising relations.
The converted cruise liner Mavi Marmara, on which the pro-Palestinian activists were shot, and two cargo ships were accompanied by Turkish tugboats from Israel because their motors were not functioning.
The Mavi Marmara appeared to be freshly painted, though signs in Hebrew and Arabic script were still visible. Clothing and personal effects could be seen through the ship's windows, and what appeared to be a bullet hole near the captain's cabin was seen from the nearby shore.
Oruc said the boats had been painted to cover bullet holes and other evidence.
"Thousands of bullets hit the boat, and it was damaged everywhere. When they captured the boats, the Israelis hid all of this proof on the outside of the boat. They have been repaired and were painted," he said.
Local officials told reporters prosecutors would board the ships on Monday to investigate for evidence of what happened during the raid.
Israel has admitted to mistakes, but said its marines were justified in using lethal force because the Marmara's activists had attacked them with clubs, knives and guns.
It also has taken fence-mending measures, such as easing overland trade to Gaza and lifting a travel advisory to Turkey for Israeli tourists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Wasn't it Einstein who said,
"The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:34
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#2
"...Huseyin Oruc, a board member at the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (IHH)..."
JRR Tolkien would have been surprised at the fact that Orcs were board members - but not that they would be used against Israel.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/08/2010 0:45
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#3
a couple radio-controlled mines in the bilge and driveline area should do wonders
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2010 12:57
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#4
Wasn't it Einstein who said,
"The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results"?
#5
Jim, the first blockade runners already got the Israelis to lighten the blockade. So, why not try again? All they have to do is find more as...I mean martyrs. Then they can really throw their bombs at Israel. They already have the support of Britain and Iran and various parts of Europe. They could make this one even look more nice and actually fill it up with goodies for Hamas to confiscate. Then they can really point the finger at the supposed, "Evil Empire."
[Ennahar] The mayor of the town of Baghlia near Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers) was killed Friday night outside his home by an armed gang, said Saturday officials from his party, the Front de liberation National (FLN in power). "The mayor of Baghlia was killed outside his home yesterday evening. He returned from Mostaganem (350 km west of Algiers) where he had attended the summer university", said an official of the FLN party.
The FLN did not name the mayor, nor given any indication on the perpetrators of the attack. "He was killed by gunmen outside his house, this is all I can say for the moment," said the official.
The town of Baghlia is located east of the province of Boumerdes, a region known for being one of the strongholds of terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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The line of credit also marked the single largest loan Bangladesh has received from any nation, development bank or donor agency, Dhaka's Economic Relations Division secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Considering the number of scams traced back to India, they're flush with OUR money.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:29
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A total of 28 individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence in northern Mexican states and in Durango, which included two Chihuahua, Chihuahua police rookies killed in the line of duty, four inmates at a Juarez prison and an auto parts dealer shot to death in Nuevo Leon. For a map, click here
A woman and an unidentified man were shot to death in separate crimes in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. The male victim was found near the intersection of Camino Viejo San Jose and Paseo de la Victoria shirtless with his head wrapped in duct tape with a gunshot wound to the head. Sonia Montes Carrola, 37, was found near the intersection of calles Porvenir and Sauzal in the Crucero district in her Hyundai sedan.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Wednesday evening, according to Mexican press reports. The victim was found on calle Valladolid near an abandoned house bound by his hands with a single gunshot wound to the head. A sign was left on the body which read: "For Rat".
An unidentified man in his 30s was found shot to death on a highway north of Chihuahua, Chihuahua Thursday, say Mexican press accounts. The discovery was made at Km Marker 136 on the road to Juarez where the victim was found with a gunshot wound to the head. He had been bound by his hands and gagged with duct tape. Investigators found 9mm spent cartridges casing at the scene.
A total of four unidentified inmates were killed in a prison riot in the Juarez state Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) Friday, say Mexican press reports. The riot is the second is less than a week in which two inmates were killed and four were wounded.
Three unidentified men were found hands bound, gagged and shot to death near Delicias, Chihuahua, according to Mexican press reports. The find was made on Highway 3 south of Juarez near the Estacion Horcasitas. The victims' hands were bound with plastic ties. Investigators think the bodies were dumped at the location for more than 24 hours.
Two Chihuahua, Chihuahua municipal police officers were ambushed and killed Thursday, say Mexican news reports. Alexis Romo Marquez and Daniel Lopez Hernandez was found shot to death near the intersection of calles Caudillos del Norte and Frente in the Populares district. Both men had been with the Chihuahua police corporation less than two years.
A Mexican Federal tax office was evacuated after being notified of a possible bomb Friday in Juarez, say Mexican press reports. Workers in the office on calle Simona Barba received the call at about 1530 hrs about a bomb in the office. The office was evacuated until at least 1800 hrs.
Two unidentified men, one of which was a municipal police agent, were shot two death and two more wounded in two separate crimes Saturday, according to the Mexican daily La Polaka. The officer was shot to death while trying to take refuge in the Bar Yankees on Avenida Ju"rez. Two other unidentified individuals were wounded in that attack. Elsewhere, a man was found shot to death near the intersection of calles Vicente Guerrero and Peru.
A Chihuahua, Chihuahua tortilleria was firebombed Friday night, say Mexican press reports. El Maizal on the intersection of calles Paseos del Real and Eduardo I in the Villas del Rey district was destroyed by the fire. A message left at the site of the business said that failure to pay protection money was the reason the business was destroyed.
Hermosillo, Sonora police officers were attacked by two unidentified youths who has taken refuge on the roof of a car wash Friday, say Mexican press reports. The officers were investigating a theft, and when they attempted to apprehend the two, they were attack with an iron bar 200mm long and with pepper spray.
A Nuevo Leon auto parts dealer was shot to death near his home in Montemorelos early Saturday morning, say Mexican press reports. VÃctor Hugo Chapa Aguirre, 43, was killed at his residence on Chapa Aguirre where he arrived after work after midnight. Ten spent shotgun shells were found at the scene.
Two unidentified individuals were shot to death in a firefight reported as a between two rival drug gangs in Durango. The firefight took place in Poanas, Durango early Saturday morning. Reports say one of the dead came from the state of Zacatecas, south of Durango.
A shootout at a Parral, Chihuahua hotel has left one dead and four woudned according to Mexican press accounts. The attack took place at the Howard Johnson hotel where a number of law students from Universidad Regional del Norte were staying for academic instruction. At least five armed suspects entered the hotel about 1300 hrs, shooting and killing one of the owners and throwing two hand grenades neither of which detonated. Reports were the shooting lasted several minutes, although reports did not say who else was involved. Reports say several others were wounded.
From the Don't-Forget-to-Tip-Your-Cabbie Department
Two unidentified suspected robbers of local cab drivers were saved from lynching by local authorities, according to Mexican press reports.
Cab drivers in the village of San Pablo Oztotepec in central Mexico intercepted two recently released robbers and moved to them to village square to turn them over to residents. Police aboard helicopters and vehicles attempted to prevent the movement but were met with an angry crowd throwing rocks. Eventually, residents agreed to release the suspects to the police if local media were present.
This is the second attempted lynching of robbery suspects in two days in the same area.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based arm said it was behind two attacks that killed at least 11 soldiers in an oil province last month, and threatened more strikes on government targets.
The attacks in the southern Shabwa province on July 22 and 25 were among five raids on state targets since June which have been blamed on the resurgent militant group.
Officials have said al-Qaeda may have been also behind an attack that killed three soldiers on Thursday.
"Anyone who stands with (Yemeni President) Ali Saleh and his government, and with the Crusader (Western) campaign is against our Muslim people is our enemy and a legitimate target for us," Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Saturday.
Another statement claimed responsibility for the attack on a military convoy in Shabwa on July 22 in which militants killed at least five soldiers and seized their vehicle and weapons.
The group previously focused its high-impact strikes on foreign targets but has started to aim at the state in response to enhanced U.S.-Yemeni cooperation in a crackdown that has included air strikes and raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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[Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped President, Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai, on Saturday in his speech at the institute of civil services, accused foreigners of not respecting Afghan national sovereignty Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like if it wasn't for us foreigners Afghanistan would have no sovereignty. Seems like the last government was split between catspaws of the Pak religious parties and murderous Arabians, with a tiny handful of native Tadjiks actually forming the "sovereign state" of Pandjir. Afghanistan's Caped President said private security firms are the cause of insecurity in the country and besides urging the foreign forces to ban these firms, called that details of contracts among Afghan firms and foreign forces should be unveiled. Silly us, we thought that the cause of insecurity in Afghanistain was the Taliban, Hekmatyar's Hizbies, the Pak Taliban, al-Qaeda, its imported Chechens, and let us not forget the Uzbeks. Without them there'd be no need for private security forces.
While emphasising on the Afghanisation of the domestic institutions, President Karzai warned foreigners to respect Afghanistan's national sovereignty. "Afghanization," is it? If I was Ismail Khan I'd be opening "Ismail's Security Co., Inc.," and hiring some fellows who'd worked for me in the past. And I'd be cackling in my beard as I discovered that my chief business rival was "Dostum's Security for All Occasions." Hamid should lay off the opium for awhile.
"Private security firms daily bring misfortune to our country. They step over the rights of our people, they deteriorate our security," he said. "God knows they may commit robbery and block ways during the day and turn into bad boys at night. Until the contracts are not disclosed, corruption sources cannot be fought properly." "How's anybody gonna get a piece of the action if we don't know where the action is?"
President Karzai sees the presence of Afghan advisors rather than foreign consultants in the Afghan organisations as a need. "Any Afghan organisation that decreases the number of foreign advisors and add to Afghans, can be successful," he said. Dostum should be jumping on that statement.
Meanwhile, President Karzai criticised the comments made by foreigners about Afghan government's inability doing work and fulfilling its duties. "Statements like 'Afghanistan does not have the ability to this or that, should not be interpreted that we are not able to do anything and that they should be with us doing everything," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
if it wasn't for us foreigners Afghanistan would have no sovereignty.
I think Afghan sovereignty consists of this: killing every foreigner who is not a jihadi. This definition comports with the evidence.
[Tolo News] At least 8 Taliban hard boys were killed in Afghan and foreign forces' joint operations against Taliban hard boys on Friday in separate incidents
In clashes between police forces and the coalition with Taliban bad boys in the southern Paktika province, four bad boys were killed, said a front man for Spinghar 505 Zone.
The incident occurred on Friday morning in the province's Khoshamand district after a convoy of foreign forces came under Taliban attacks, he said.
Police has captured some ammunition in the incident and no foreign or Afghan soldier is killed or wounded in the attacks, he added.
Meanwhile, four Taliban hard boys were killed and two others were wounded in a joint operation conducted by Afghan and foreign forces in Imam Sahib district of the north-eastern Kunduz province on Friday afternoon.
No Afghan and foreign soldiers have been killed or wounded in these operations, the sub-governor of Imam Sahib, Muhammad Ayub Haqyar told TOLOnews.
Afghan and foreign forces have escalated their counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan's volatile regions in an effort to wipe out Taliban bad boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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A politically connected Bogota lawyer said he has filed an international suit charging Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with 'crimes against humanity' for alleged support of Colombian guerrillas. This will go precisely nowhere, at at dead slow speed...
Jaime Granados, personal attorney for outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, filed the claim with the International Criminal Court at The Hague, alleging evidence of guerrilla camps in Venezuelan territory. Such evidence when the perp is a commie is ignored, obfuscated, or reinterpreted -- usually to be the fault of the U.S.
Granados claimed that Uribe, an arch-foe of Chavez, was not behind the lawsuit, but would be called as a witness. Doesn't matter. I heard a lefty talk show guy just a month or two ago telling his audience about Uribe's "human rights violations." It doesn't matter what you do, it's which side you're on.
He said he filed the case on behalf of victims of guerrilla attacks near the common border. Granados said he had also denounced Venezuela to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. That showed him, by Gum!
The lawyer announced the moves just before Uribe's successor, president-elect Juan Manuel Santos, was to assume office Saturday.
Colombia had denounced Venezuela before the Organization of American States on July 22, presenting alleged photographic evidence in Venezuela of 1,500 combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, including a senior commander called Ivan Marquez.
Uribe's administration called for an international investigation, prompting Chavez to break off all diplomatic relations. Uribe then ordered Colombian Attorney General Guillermo Mendoza to prepare a case to be filed in the International Criminal Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
tHugo doth protest too much.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/08/2010 4:38
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon said on Saturday it was committed to building up its armed forces after complaints by Israel about Western assistance to the military following a deadly border clash between the two countries.
Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer were killed in a rare cross-border skirmish on Tuesday, the worst such violence since a 2006 war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.
The clash -- in which Lebanon and Israel gave different accounts of what happened -- raised fears of wider conflict. Both countries have since worked to calm tension at the border.Lebanon said on Saturday it was committed to building up its armed forces after complaints by Israel about Western assistance to the military following a deadly border clash between the two countries.
Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer were killed in a rare cross-border skirmish on Tuesday, the worst such violence since a 2006 war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.
The clash -- in which Lebanon and Israel gave different accounts of what happened -- raised fears of wider conflict. Both countries have since worked to calm tension at the border.
Speaking in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh where the clash occurred, President Michel Suleiman said the cabinet would meet to ratify a three- or five-year plan to arm the military "so that it can protect the nation's dignity".
"The government will put forth a plan to arm the army regardless of the position of some countries," Suleiman was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. He did not say when the plan would be approved.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had spoken to France and the United States about the Jewish state's worries.
"We think it is a mistake to arm the Lebanese army with weapons, with advanced systems," Barak said in an interview with Israel Radio earlier this week.
"Because these things are liable to be -- we used to describe the danger that these things would end up in Hezbollah hands, but before our eyes something more troubling is happening, and they are being used directly by the Lebanese army against us."
Asked whether Paris or Washington had paid attention to Israel's complaint, Barak said: "Not really. Not really.
Hezbollah did not take part in the clash, although its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said his powerful Shiite guerrillas would intervene if Israel attacked the army again.
By Israel's account of Tuesday's events, a Lebanese army sniper hit two Israeli officers as they watched a tree-pruning operation on the security fence below the U.N. "Blue Line". The Lebanese army said it first fired warning shots, then Israelis fired at their soldiers. Israeli artillery and tank fire followed.
The United States has provided more than $720 million in assistance to the Lebanese army since 2006, according to the U.S. embassy website.
In Washington, asked whether the United States was confident the Lebanese army was not being "manipulated by any particular political group", State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said:
"We are, as we've said many times, we're in support of the civilian government in Lebanon," he said according to a transcript of an Aug. 5 daily press briefing.
"And we think improving the capability and performance of the Lebanese government, both across the government, but including in the security sector, contributes to stability in the region and is in our interest."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
"And we think improving the capability and performance of the Lebanese government, both across the government, but including in the security sector, contributes to stability in the region and is in our interest."
#2
President Michel Suleiman said the cabinet would meet to ratify a three- or five-year plan to arm the military "so that it can protect the nation's dignity"
These bozos will be lucky if they are still alive in three to five months. As for the "nation's dignity", that died sometime around 1958.
[Al Arabiya Latest] This week's arrest of a well-respected retired general and politician allied with Hezbollah on suspicion of spying for Israel has sent shock waves through Lebanon and left many wondering how deep the Jewish state has infiltrated the country.
Fayez Karam, a member of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), is the first political figure to be arrested in Lebanon as part of a wide-ranging probe launched in 2009 into Israeli spy networks.
A well-informed source close to the investigation said that after his detention last Monday on the orders of the prosecutor general, Karam confessed to spying for Israel.
"You don't arrest someone like him without rock-solid proof and there was enough evidence against him," the source, who requested anonymity, said.
"He may not have given the Israelis much technical information, but his arrest has a huge political impact because of his position and rank," he added.
He said Karam, 62, who stood in parliamentary elections last year, allegedly used cell phones with roaming numbers from European countries to contact his Israeli handlers.
He reportedly met them in Paris, where he travelled regularly, and was nabbed because of an unspecified mistake.
Ironically, in the 1980s Karam headed the Lebanese army's anti-terrorism and counter-espionage unit where he worked closely with FPM leader Michel Aoun, who was army chief at the time and who also served as interim prime minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Hezbollah doesn't need Christian allies anymore?
#2
What _can_ the Christians do about it? Nothing. What are the Christians sure the Israelis are gonna do about it? Nothing; Israel thought in the interests of Piece that they'd let Syria have their country and have all the people who sided with Israel in the '80's war eaten by the Syrians for lunch.
So given the choice between having their families killed by Syria _today_ and having their families killed by Israeli return fire _tomorrow_, well, they pick being killed _tomorrow_ and tell themselves between now and then maybe the Horse will learn to sing.
Hezbullies has suggested Israel could have used telecom agents to manipulate evidence such as phone records to implicate the group in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. ... or it could be tentacled sentient cephalapods from Arcturus acting through telepathically controlled proxies... Or maybe they're from Uranus. Or maybe Hezbullies dunnit and now they're shifting the blame onto the usual prayer-shawled shoulders...
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has called for severe punishment for spies and said if a death sentence is submitted to him for approval, he will sign it. Two other Lebanese have been sentenced to death for spying for the Jewish state.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The el warren report...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 1:07
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#2
tell you the truth ,it's been 5 years. shut the fuck up.
Posted by: chris ||
08/08/2010 12:08
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Iranian President says no Zionists were killed in the World Trade Center because 'one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace.'
Iranian President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were exaggerated in a fresh broadside at the United States just days after U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama voiced willingness to talk to Iran.
Well-known for his loose grasp of reality, the hardline populist Ahmadinejad also repeated his denial of the Holocaust, on which the consensus of historians is that six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany. "Nope. Nope. Never happened. I asked around to make sure."
Ahmadinejad said the Sept. 11 attacks with hijacked airliners on New York and Washington D.C. had been trumped up as an excuse for the United States to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. "They wuz just lookin' for a reason!"
Speaking at a Tehran conference, Ahmadinejad said there was no evidence that the number of dead at New York's World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks, was as high as reported and said "Zionists" had been tipped off in advance. We saw that report. It came from al-Manar, in Beirut, a day or two after the attack.
"What was the story of Sept. 11? During five to six days, and with the aid of the media, they created and prepared public opinion so that everyone considered an attack on Afghanistan and Iraq as (their) right," he said in a televised speech.
No "Zionists" were killed in the World Trade Center, according to Ahmadinejad, because "one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace".
"They announced that 3,000 people were killed in this incident, but there were no reports that reveal their names. Maybe you saw that, but I did not," he told a gathering of the Iranian news media. I believe they're read out every year in a ceremony on September 11th.
There is a published list of Sept. 11 dead from more than 90 countries available online. But what's that count for?
A total of 2,995 people were killed in the attacks, including 19 hijackers and all passengers and crew aboard four commandeered airliners, according to official U.S. figures. The United States blamed the assaults on al Qaida, led by Saudi-born Sunni Mohammedan fundamentalist Osama Bin Laden.
Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. government of exercising more media censorship than anywhere in the world.
He had previously said the "9-11" attacks were a "big fabrication" and has rejected the historical record of the Holocaust. On Saturday, Ahmadinejad repeated his belief that the
Holocaust had been invented to justify the creation of Israel. "They made up an event, the so-called Holocaust which was later laid as the basis for the innocence of a group," he said.
Ahmadinejad last week challenged Obama to a televised debate on global issues during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
Two years ago he asked to visit the site of the World Trade Center "to pay his respects" but New York police refused.
Washington succeeded in June in getting a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran to pressure it to suspend its disputed nuclear program. Tougher U.S. and European measures have further tightened restrictions on doing business with the major OPEC country.
Obama signaled on Thursday he was open to talks with the Islamic Republic and was seeking "a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons".
Ahmadinejad has said he is prepared to return to international talks, which were last held in October, but insists that Iran has the sovereign right to enrich uranium.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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Dinnerjacket just keeps rolling out this nonsense. What a moron. The Adolph Hitler of the Mideast. Maybe more like Joseph Goebbels.
Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State. Goebbels.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Authorities shot three people dead as a mob threatened to burn down a police station in an area of northern Nigeria that has been a hotbed of political and religious violence, police said today. It's known as "Islam's bloody border."
Police opened fire after hundreds of protesters threatened to burn down the station late Thursday in the town of Tafawa Balewa while demanding the release of five people detained there, state police commissioner Danlami Yar'adua said. "Having been overwhelmingly outnumbered, the policemen had to shoot into the crowd to save their lives and safeguard the buildings, which resulted in the unfortunate death of three people and the wounding of five others," Yar'adua said.
The five detained were among 10 arrested over alleged involvement in vandalizing equipment for a new community radio station in the town, he said. Opposition to the radio project stemmed from the fear that it would be used for political campaigning by the state government ahead of next year's general elections, said local resident Adamu Hamza.
Tafawa Balewa is a mainly Christian town, while the surrounding Bauchi state is predominately Muslim. The state government is also Muslim-dominated. Yar'adua said anti-riot police had been deployed to the town to prevent further unrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Following the US president's proposal to hold talks with Iran about Afghanistan, an Iranian lawmaker says Barack Obama wants to drag the Islamic Republic into the Afghan war.
On Thursday, Obama proposed to hold talks with Iran on Afghanistan since the two countries have "mutual interest" in fighting the Taliban and said, "Iran should be a part of that and could be a constructive partner."
"Obama's recent remarks about only holding talks with Iran on issues involving Afghanistan show that the US wants to use Iran's historical influence in Afghanistan to remedy its problems," member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Saturday.
"Americans who are moving targets themselves want to place Iran in front of Taliban forces like a fixed target," ILNA quoted Falahatpisheh as saying.
Falahatpisheh went on to say that most of Washington's problems with the Taliban do not concern Iran and added, "The US takes advantage of Iran's friendly and peace-seeking policy to solve its problems."
The Iranian lawmaker proposed Tehran present the issues it wants in the form of a package that could include the problems of Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran's nuclear issue and the 30-year dispute between the two countries.
The proposal for negotiation with Iran about Afghanistan comes as the White House earlier rejected a call from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for face-to-face talks with his American counterpart.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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At first I thought the theory presented in the headline sounded silly.
But after reading this piece, I think he's half right...
Pres. Obama would apparently prefer that Afghanistan fall under Pakistan and Iran influence rather than Russian or Indian influence.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/08/2010 7:57
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@#1, don't even say that. That's scares me more than Iran getting nukes. Is this report accurate? He is aware Iran loves funding terrorism?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Engineers shut down Gaza City's sole power plant on Saturday because of a lack of fuel, switching off electricity to some half a million people in the midst of a heat wave. The fuel for the plant is supplied by the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank, which says it has reduced shipments because the Gaza's Hamas terrorist government is behind on payments.
"The electricity was cut in Gaza City because of there wasn't enough fuel for the station," said power station official Suheil Skeik.
The plant serves Gaza City and its surroundings, while the remaining million people in the rest of the tiny coastal territory rely on neighboring Egypt and Israel for their power needs.
An engineer at the plant said an emergency fuel shipment was expected on Sunday, which would allow them to restart one of the plant's four turbines and supply a few hours of power.
For the past few months the plant has supplied just six to 10 hours of power a day because of the ongoing problems with getting enough fuel from the West Bank government.
Gazans who can afford to buy generators use them to supplement the shortage. The noisy machines crowd the sidewalk and fill the air with gasoline fumes in Gaza City's commercial district.
But a complete power cut is expected to deepen the misery in Gaza, where residents have suffered through a sweltering heat wave - severe even by the standards of this hot, dry seaside enclave. Temperatures have soared well over 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) for the past few weeks. Wonder if the seaside resort has AC?
Gaza's rulers, the terrorist militant Islamic group Hamas, are meant to collect utility bills and send the cash to their rivals, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which use it to buy the fuel.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib says terrorist Hamas isn't sending enough money, and on average, they were receiving only $1.3 million a month from the distribution company, while they were paying $9 million for the fuel.
"We need some transparency here. There has to be some kind of audit," Khatib said.
Skeik, the power station official, said the plant sent about $1 million last week, and expected to send another million in coming days.
Although the Palestinian Authority hasn't had a presence in Gaza since terrorist Hamas seized power over the territory in June 2007, it receives aid from the international community to pay for part of Gaza's bills.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Gaza's rulers, the terrorist militant Islamic group Hamas, are meant to collect utility bills and send the cash to their rivals, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which use it to buy the fuel.
Hmmm, "Supposed to" betcha the Widows and Orphans Ammunition fund is full, as well as the "Pipe for rocket bodies", and "Explosives for Warheads" funds are also full.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:50
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A Lebanese prosecutor on Saturday charged a third state telecommunications employee with spying for Israel in a widening scandal rattling the country.
Judge Sakr Sakr accused Milad Eid of "dealing with the Israeli enemy..., giving them technical information in his position as head of international communications at the Telecommunications Ministry", according to judicial sources.
Eid was also charged with meeting Israeli officers in several places outside Lebanon. If convicted, Eid, who was employed at the state-owned fixed-line operator Ogero, would face the death penalty.
Two employees working for state-owned mobile telecom firm Alfa were earlier charged with espionage for Israel, in arrests that have sparked debate on how deeply Israel had infiltrated Lebanon's telecom and security sectors.
Lebanon is in an official state of war with neighboring Israel. The powerful Lebanese Shi'ite militant group, Hezbollah, fought the Jewish state to a stalemate in a 2006 war.
Last Tuesday, Lebanese and Israeli forces clashed along the border, leaving four dead in the worst such flare-up since 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, accused Israel Saturday of launching the rockets that struck near Eilat and Jordan last week, as a pretext for further attacks against the Paleostinians. The six rockets killed one and wounded three more at the Intercontinental Hotel in Aqaba.
The terrorist group denied being behind the attacks, saying it had "no interest" in launching the rockets, also denying they were fired from the Sinai in Egypt.
Both Israel and Egypt blamed the attacks on Hamas, who denied any involvement. "Tut tut and tut. Certainly not."
"We investigated these two incidents. It is clear to us beyond any doubt that in both incidents a cell of Hamas's military wing in Gazoo surreptitiously fired the missiles," Netanyahu said. "I want to be clear: Using the territory of a third country -- a peaceful one -- in order to launch missiles against Israel won't help Hamas escape responsibility."
Though Egypt initially denied the rockets were launched from the Sinai, it later changed its tune and affirmed that they had, blaming hard boy groups in the Gazoo Strip for the action, which they said had infiltrated via smuggling tunnels between Gazoo and Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
(Maxwell Smart) Chief, its the over under sideways down behind the back false flag operation.
Why didn't I see it before?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/08/2010 4:42
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I'm surprised the liberals haven't cried foul yet. They would support a road apple if a terrorist gave it to them. At least the some of the world knows manure when they smell it.
A top Iranian commander has warned that in the event of a US-led military attack on Iran, the Islamic Republic will go after the United States until its "annihilation."
"If Americans attempt to launch an attack against the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic, they will encounter our firm and decisive defense and we will not let them off," commander of the anti-aircraft post of the Khatamolanbia Headquarters Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani said Saturday.
He went on to add that the US had been issuing threats against Iran for the past 31 years and "such threats are propaganda and psychological warfare."
"Over the past decade the US has militarily attacked Iraq and Afghanistan and killed hundreds of thousands of people but in the end it suffered defeat," Brig. Gen. Miqani was quoted by IRNA as saying.
The remarks come after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said on Sunday the US military is prepared to risk a potentially devastating war in order to stop Iran from building nuclear "weapons."
The US, which possesses and has used nuclear weapons in the past, accuses Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program. Tehran rejects the charges, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to use nuclear technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The only reason the US ever pursued Nukes was because the NAZIS were - like you.
The only reason they were used is because they would not stop.
#6
"Potentially devastating war to stop Iran frm dev Nuclear Weapons" > IOW, ADM. MULLEN is trying HARD NOT TO SAY "NUCLEAR TERROR" [Nukulaar Militancy-Insurgency-Terrorism].
IRAN ISLAMIST NUC STATE > SYMBOL + "DOOR/GATEWAY"
for the NUKES-WMDS MILTERR that will Regionally, Globally occur after.
* OTOH WMF > THE US PLANS WAR ON IRAN TO INDIRECTLY NULL OR DESTROY RISING CHINA'S US$30.0BILYUHN OF ECON + ENERGY INVESTMENTS IN IRAN.
* WMF > TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: CHINA AT PRESENT CANNOT MILPOL CHALLENGE THE US, NOR FIGHT A PROTRACTIVE OR DECADES(S)-LONG, GLOBAL CONVENTIONAL WAR AGZ THE US DUE DEFECTS IN ITS MODERN ECONOMY. CPLA CAN CURR WAGE ONLY ASYMMETRIC MILITANT WAR OR CONVENTIONAL, LIMITED NUCLEAR DEFENSIVE REGIONAL/LOCAL WAR.
Ah, brings back fond memories of the Metro system. lotp and I have never actually met in the flesh, but we were supposed to once. I took the Metro to D.C. to meet her and Seafarious. Whist waiting to change trains, a young fellow walked up to me and poked me in the mush for no obvious reason. By the time I'd done the polic report and they'd retrieved my glasses off the tracks I was late for our dinner and we never caught up. She returned to her usual abode and I to my trivial pursuits. I sit by the phone waiting, waiting, and Seafarious never calls. Despite the fact that lotp's moved to my neck of the woods we still haven't gotten together.
#1
How long 'til ehese Distrik youfs graduate to parisienne style carbecues?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 0:47
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I'm predicting 1969.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010 8:04
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Gonna be time for a Beltway-Balmore Rantapalooza one of these days, Fred.
Re: this incident, it started at the Gallery Place station, continued on the train and spilled out onto the platforms at L'Enfant. Bystanders report being pushed, shoved, threatened etc. along the way as 6+ dozen teens bashed each other and anyone in the vicinity. DC cops and a council member pushed for earlier curfew for those under 16 in order to give the cops another tool to keep order. However, some other council members refuse, saying it might lead to profiling.
#4
I camped a couple of nights at the NPS campground in Greenbelt just 12 miles from town. This was for Veteran's Day 2004. I had thought of taking the nearby Metro to downtown, but drove instead. There was plenty of parking that day. I was talking to a DC vet at the Wall, told him where I had stayed & he told me he wouldn't camp at that place unless he had a .45 under his pillow. At least that's legal now, although I don't know about MD law once you leave federal land.
#7
"Gonna be time for a Beltway-Balmore Rantapalooza one of these days, Fred."
I'm in, as long as it's before the first of October or after Christmas.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2010 14:34
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Me three, Fred. Anytime is fine with me. I live a lot closer than I did for the one I went to when tw was the guest of honor.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/08/2010 16:13
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Greenbelt was built for WW11 vets after the war. Looking at the homes you will see how similar they are. It has all changed now so yes a 45 would be something to have but you will have lots of trouble should anyone be aware of it. Camera checks at lights $400. Mail in ticket. Parking violations are a big revenue for DC. Just a reminder you had a good time visiting DC.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] TWO more suspects have been jugged in connection with last month's Kampala bombing which killed over 70 football fans as they watched World Cup finals.
This came as the US State Department praised Kenya for cracking down on suspected Orcs and similar vermin in its annual report on terrorism.
Detectives from the Anti-Terrorism Unit in Mombasa raided Kongowea Kwa Karama Village on Friday morning and jugged two people.
"Yes, we have two people in our custody helping us with investigation," Coast provincial police officer Leo Nyongesa said.
A witness from one of the families raided, Ms Mariam Hussein, said police forced their way into her house.
"When the police started banging the door and threatening to break in, we decided to open the door," she said. The officers jugged her husband, Mr Abdulkadir Mohamed Hamis, thinking he was Mr Salmin Mohamed Hamisi.
"They handcuffed my husband before frog-marching him to one of the six vehicles outside the residence," she said.
Her pleas that he was not Salmin fell on deaf ears as the officers ransacked the premises for evidence.
Salmin, who was in another room, surrendered and asked the police to release his brother, Abdulkadir.
He was jugged and taken into custody and Abdulkadir released. The second suspect was jugged in another house.
The raid drew protests from residents, with Mohammedans for Human Rights director Hussein Khalid terming the raid illegal.
In Washington, the State Department said Kenya had developed a "heightened recognition" of its vulnerability to terrorist attacks and is taking some steps to prevent them, the US State Department said on Thursday.
"Whereas Kenyans have traditionally perceived terrorism as primarily a 'foreign' problem, [they] came to recognise that their own country and society were threatened by violent krazed killers," the State Department says in its new annual report on international terrorism.
"Kenya did demonstrate increased political will to prevent infiltration into the country and apprehend suspected Orcs and similar vermin, although porous borders make that task extremely difficult," the report adds.
The report details assistance that US counter-terrorism officials have provided to the Kenyan police and armed forces.
It adds, however, that despite these initiatives, "the lack of counterterrorism and anti-money laundering legislation during most of 2009 hindered Kenya's efforts to combat violent extremism."
Posted by: Fred ||
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A woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery accused authorities of lying about the charges against her so they could execute her in secret, in an interview published Saturday.
Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, 43, spoke through an intermediary for the interview with the Guardian newspaper and also put her treatment down to gender, adding "they think they can do anything to women in this country".
The case of the mother of two has sparked an international outcry, with Brazilian President President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week offering her asylum in his country.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani, whose sentence has been temporarily put on ice, accused Iranian officials of lying by saying she had been found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband as well as adultery.
On Thursday, Mossadegh Kahnemoui, a senior Iranian judicial official, gave that information to the U.N.'s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and said that "nothing is final" in the case.
Of these comments, Mohammadi-Ashtiani said: "They're lying. They are embarrassed by the international attention on my case and they are desperately trying to distract attention and confuse the media so that they can kill me in secret."
She added: "I was found guilty of adultery and was acquitted of murder, but the man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned but he is not sentenced to death."
Explaining what had happened, she went on: "It's because I'm a woman, it's because they think they can do anything to women in this country."
Mohammadi-Ashtiani also revealed that when she was first sentenced, she did not realize she was facing being stoned because she did not understand the Arabic word used.
"They asked me to sign my sentence, which I did, then I went back to the prison and my cellmates told me that I was going to be stoned to death and I instantly fainted," she said.
Her lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaie, has fled to Turkey where he requested asylum, and she said she feared she was more vulnerable without him.
"They wanted to get rid of my lawyer so that they can easily accuse me of whatever they want without having him to speak out," she told the Guardian.
Meanwhile, Mostafaie told the Times of his fears for his wife, Fereshteh Halimi, who he believes is being held in harsh conditions in Tehran's Evin prison.
The paper reported that he was set to go into exile in Norway Saturday after being released from detention in Turkey following an alleged problem with his passport when he entered the country.
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[Arab News] Two Saudi border guards were killed on Friday during a clash with drug smugglers at the restive border with Yemen.
The clash took place at Dhahran Al-Janoub, Asir, when 15 traffickers tried to smuggle 500 kilograms of hashish into the Kingdom, police said.
Lt. Col. Abdullah Al-Hamrani, spokesman of the border guards, told Arab News that security officers were able to arrest some of the traffickers, who belong to different nationalities. "There were no Saudis among them," he said. He pointed out that the arrested included several intruders.
Al-Hamrani said his department prevents at least three attempts of drug smuggling through the southern border every week.
Speaking about the incident that took place on Friday, he said police were successful in driving the smugglers back. "Border patrols on a routine reconnaissance operation spotted a group of 15 smugglers who were trying to cross the border for the purpose of trafficking," the spokesman said.
"When they were warned to retreat to where they came from, they started shooting from several locations. But we don't know how many of them were killed in the operation," he said. He identified the slain policemen as Muhammad Saeed Al-Qahtani and Hussein Ali Hassan.
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[Tolo News] During his visit to London, Pakistan's President said his country's security forces are not able to find the insurgents' havens in Pakistan
In an interview with the Associated Press, Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, underscored that in case the foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan share information about insurgent's sanctuaries in Pakistan, Pakistan will take action.
Previously top US officials in particular the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen had highlighted that Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders are in safe hideouts in Pakistan's soil.
A lack in the information and equipment are the pivotal challenges facing Pakistan government tracking militant's leaders, Mr Zardari said.
"I think if we need access to more information, we need more equipment; the drones for example should be under our position and should be given to us," he said.
Mr Zardari said the foreign forces fighting insurgency in Afghanistan have better facilities and arms and they should boost helping Pakistan in the fight against terrorism and insurgency.
"My army should have use of the drones, so that I don't lose thirty soldiers taking one stronghold with five Taliban in it because the terrain is very difficult," he said.
The remarks come some weeks after the WikiLeaks website unveiled more than 90,000 US military secret files on the Afghan war in which Pakistan intelligence's cooperation with the Taliban is vividly noted. The leaked documents have repeatedly been dismissed by the Pakistani military officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Those drones must be really pissing the terrorists off. All they do is complain.
Even the ACLU is all over it, so it must be working.
In my view: Increase drone attacks 24/7/365.4 X 10
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/08/2010 4:48
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A lack in the information and equipmentUS paid baksheesh are the pivotal challenges facing Pakistan government tracking militant's leaders, Mr Zardari said.
#3
"I think if we need access to more information, we need more equipment; the drones for example should be under our position and should be given to us," he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/08/2010 13:49
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"Pakistan Cannot Will Not Track Insurgents"
FTFY
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2010 14:20
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"My army should have use of the drones, so that I don't lose thirty soldiers taking one stronghold with five Taliban in it because the terrain is very difficult," he said.
With first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha in Spain and Malia away at camp, President Obama will have a few friends over at the White House Sunday to help him continue his birthday celebration. There will be a barbecue at the White House on Sunday for the president and his friends. Today, Obama is out playing golf with a few buddies in town from Hawaii and Chicago.
Let me guess: Vera Baker pops out of the cake?
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Gee, I wish I were President so that all I had to do was party, golf, and ruin the country.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/08/2010 0:07
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I don't begrudge anyone a vacation, but Bambi and his people are remarkably tone-deaf on the vacation in Spain and the golfing. Even getting the American papers to avoid the vacations, which they're doing, isn't helping, since the Brit papers are more than happy to report everything Michelle does.
Remember all the Camp Casey stories? Bush would go to Crawford for a vacation and the American media camped at the front gate. We had wall-to-wall Cindy Sheehan. Remember that?
Now look at the reporting.
And even with the MSM in full cooperation mode, the American people are unhappy with the Obama vacations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2010 0:23
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I wonder how many of tiger woods' dates made the scene...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 0:50
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#11
DC loves this guy. The night life thrives on this.
Anyone who is anyone will be part of this party train. Inside deals and who you know mean something now in DC. Just the way it has always been in DC. Carter- no, Bush 1 & 2- no, Kennedy- yes, Ford- no, Nixon- no but Tip Oneal I bet yes.
The Washington Post Co. released its second-quarter results this morning, and overall, the group is healthy: Revenue in Q2 was up 11 percent to $1,201.8 million, on the same quarter last year.
That growth was led by the group's education division, which is going gangbusters with 15 percent revenue growth last quarter over the same quarter last year,
Wait until the new regulations on student loans made at for-profit universities bite ...
as well as the group's television and cable broadcasting divisions.
But the newspaper that gives the group its name is a different story. The newspaper division saw revenues up just 2 percent for the second quarter, year-on-year, but down slightly when comparing the first six months of this year to the same period last year. Print advertising is down 6 percent in Q2, year-on-year, and -- probably the grimmest number of all -- daily circulation in the first six months of the year is down more than 10 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Oh BOO HOO HOO, I'll bet they have NO idea why.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2010 0:30
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#2
The threat to the WaPo's Kaplan Education Testing company is profiled here.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/08/2010 0:41
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This flies in the face of the dictum that a lie travels around the world before the truth can get its boots on...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 1:00
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#4
This is why the media wants Obama Subsidies(tm), like the rest of the party's loyal factions. It's not about the quality of work, just as the teachers unions. Its about being kept in a manner they want to be accustomed to at the expense of everyone else not by market forces of supply and demand but of social position and political influence.
Google Translate. Earlier reports put the number of demonstrators at 400, while later reports place the number at 100.
Four top Mexican Federal police commanders of the Juarez detachment were relieved of duty following a boisterous protest by agents at their Juarez detachment headquarters Saturday morning.
While later reports do not specifically name the commanders relieved, earlier reports say Alarcon Salomon Olvera, AKA "The Shaman", Joel Ortega and Ricardo Duque were three of the top commanders cited by protesters for abuse of their authority.
The chief of the Division de Fuerzas Federales, Rafael Aviles, was present at the protest and took testimony from those who were affected by the allegations.
The Mexican national SecretarÃa de Seguridad Pública (SSP) announced later in the day the four relieved commanders would be sent to Mexico City to be investigated concerning the allegations.
The Juarez detachment of the Mexican Federal police had been under some pressure due to several armed attacks directed against forces in Juarez, the most spectacular being the July 16th car bomb which killed one agent and three others. In just the last week at least eight attacks mostly in the form of ambushes have been made against federal patrols in Juarez, the most recent at 1400 hrs. Saturday.
The protests Saturday morning took place at the Juarez hotel La Playa on Avenida Lopez Mateos. Several protesting agents ransacked the hotel rooms of police commanders seizing guns and drugs they say were used against innocents, including a federal agent.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia said Westerners face possible attack from unidentified krazed killers in the central province of al-Qassim, in the first warning of its kind this year. Whoa! That's never happened before, has it?
"We have received credible information that an unidentified extremist(s) in Saudi Arabia may be planning to attack Westerners working and living in al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia," the embassy said in a statement posted on its website. "The timing and method of potential attacks are currently unknown," said the statement dated August 4, urging U.S. citizens to "exercise prudence and enhanced security awareness at all times".
Al-Qassim is among the most conservative regions in the kingdom. The key U.S. ally is ruled by the Al Saud family in alliance with clerics from the austere Wahhabi school of Islam.
Mansour al-Turki, spokesman for security affairs at the Interior Ministry, said he could not immediately comment.
Militants carried out attacks against Western targets, government symbols and oil facilities between 2003 and 2006. The attacks included suicide bombs at Western housing compounds, the interior ministry's headquarters in Riyadh and oil and petrochemical companies, plus an attempt to storm the world's biggest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in 2006.
A large-scale security crackdown and a rehabilitation program of militants sponsored by pro-government clerics have helped Saudi security services to stay ahead of plots to destabilize the country's absolute monarchy in recent years.
But concerns over the security situation in the kingdom resurfaced after its top anti-terrorism official, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, was slightly hurt in a suicide attack in his house in September by a Saudi posing as a repentant militant returning from Yemen.
Saudi Arabia arrested 113 mainly Saudi and Yemeni al Qaeda-linked militants in March, including two suicide bomb teams.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
...first warning of the year?
...unidentified extremist(s)
...timing and method of potential attacks are currently unknown
Doesn't sound like our intelligence and security agencies are on top of this. And besides aren't our embassies in the Mideast under threat all the time?
Mayor Bloomberg won't stop talking about the mosque near Ground Zero, harshly attacking opponents yesterday who "ought to be ashamed of themselves."
Sounding more supportive of freedom of religion than freedom of speech, Bloomberg said, "I just don't think the government should tell people where they can pray and where they can build houses of worship.
"It is a shame that we even have to talk about this," the mayor added on his WOR radio broadcast.
The mayor ratcheted up his rhetoric against critics just days after defending the mosque in an impassioned speech on Governors Island, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.
Yesterday, Bloomberg said cops and firefighters who died on 9/11 didn't ask people in the World Trade Center, "Where do you pray?" as they tried to save their lives.
"Most of the [9/11 rescuers'] families that I've talked to, they say, 'Of course our loved ones gave their lives to protect the very freedoms that we're talking about here -- people being able to practice religion and say what they want to say and be in control of their own destiny,' " the mayor said.
Bloomberg also blasted demands for a probe of the mosque builders' finances.
"Every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, [do you want someone to] run over and say, 'OK, now where do you come from, who are your parents, where'd you get this money?' . . . A handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves."
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's decision Tuesday to let the 152-year-old former Burlington Coat Factory building on Park Place be torn down was based solely on the building's lack of "redeeming historic value," Bloomberg said.
The building is owned by SoHo Properties. Its CEO, Sharif El-Gamal, hopes to raise $100 million for a 13-story mosque and cultural center.
Opponents pressed their case yesterday, filing a federal lawsuit against the MTA for refusing to allow anti-mosque ads on its buses. The ads show a jet about to slam into one of the Twin Towers and depict what they call the "WTC Mega Mosque." The headline: "Why There?"
The lawsuit, filed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, says the MTA displayed its ads before -- but without reason rejected this one.
"No decision has been made," an MTA spokesman said.
Separately, CNN host Fareed Zakaria returned a $10,000 First Amendment award to the Anti-Defamation League to protest its opposition to the mosque.
We wouldn't allow a Wal-Mart next door to Gettysburg. We wouldn't allow a Pentecostal Church on the grounds at Manassas. We wouldn't allow a Shinto shrine next to the Arizona Memorial. This isn't about the mosque, this is about what is civil, hallowed ground, and how close we allow the ordinary world to be to that ground. We're talking lower Manhattan and I get that we can't clear cut a mile around the WTC site, but a mosque -- or a church, or a shrine, or a Wal-Mart -- next door is inappropriate. The Muslim community in lower Manhattan can have their 13 story mosque. Just not there.
#3
Bloomberg is proof that money cannot buy happieness...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 1:03
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#4
Yesterday, Bloomberg said cops and firefighters who died on 9/11 didn't ask people in the World Trade Center, "Where do you pray?" as they tried to save their lives.
Might be a while before we can actually follow-up on this one Mr. Mayor. Can you provide us some opinions from the LIVING please?
#5
The man is truly an idiot. He must have little or no knowledge of how Islam works. To compare it to other religions or to equate terrorist funding actions as equivalent to a charity basket is pure BS.
No he's not, Redneck Jim. He's a fairly secularized, left wing Jew. And like many people in this country and in Europe he's drunk the KoolAid of an intentional disinformation campaign being waged against the West by Islamicists.
The Adams County commissioners voted 2-1 Wednesday to support the proposed Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino.
Commissioners Lisa Moreno and Glenn Snyder voted to approve a Memorandum of Understanding that guarantees Adams County $1 million annually. In exchange, the commissioners are required to testify in support of the proposal during a public hearing held later this month by the state Gaming Control Board.
Gettysburg businessman David LeVan and former Penn National Gaming executive Joseph Lashinger Jr. have proposed converting the Eisenhower Inn & Conference Center on Emmitsburg Road, about 0.8 miles south of the Gettysburg National Military Park, into a gaming resort with 600 slot machines and 50 table games.
#10
George Stephanopoulas sides with Mayor Bloomberg on this issue, all the while knowing St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed on 9-11-01, has yet to get a go ahead to rebuild from the City of New York. (Link) Islam has a history of building mosques at sites of Islamic Victories - Neil Boortz
#11
Onward to funding! GRRRRRRR
Next stops for Feisal Abdul Rauf, imam of the plan for a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero: Courtesy of the U.S. State Department, Rauf a.k.a. Imam Feisal is scheduled to spend the rest of the summer on a swing through the petro-dollar palaces of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, and Qatar.
http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/news-flash-ground-zero-imam-heading-to-saudi-arabia-uae/
#12
NImble: thanks for that. Aaargh. Is nothing sacred anymore?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2010 10:36
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#13
Qibla Locator Please press the Satellite view when at the site.
The direction in which Muslims should pray is called Qibla. Five times a day, Muslims face Makkah and pray. Using the correct Qibla as shown via the link above, the congregation will have their backsides to Ground Zero.
Oh, and Mr. Bloomberg, I will not shut-up. You Sir, need an education in 1st Amendment Rights.
#14
I love the inversion in this Bloomie statement: "our loved ones gave their lives to protect the very freedoms that we're talking about here -- people being able to practice religion and say what they want to say and be in control of their own destiny."
So in Bloomie's bizarre equation, by (supposedly) attacking "freedom of religion," the anti-mosque crowd are attacking those who on 9/11 "gave their lives to protect" freedom of religion.
In other words, those who consider it inappropriate to build a mosque next to the most horrific scene of islamist terror are the equivalent of ... islamist terrorists.
Hey, you stupid f***, here's a clue for you: the reason the Poles refused to allow a carmelite convent next to Auschwitz wasn't because they're anti-Catholic or against freedom of religion. It's because history matters, and requires tact and judgment.
I assume everything posted here is permitted/encouraged to be copied for education purposes?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2010 12:24
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#17
Interesting Qibla Locator. Suppose you were at -21.425, 39.8255. I believe you could see it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2010 12:26
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#18
not -21, but at: 21.425, 39.8255.
Sometimes I forget PIMF.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2010 12:32
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#19
But natch.
Bloomberg's yapping is just another way of saying that if the mosque doesn't get built the terrorists will have won.
If he wasn't the mayor of New York he'd be boring. As it is he's not very interesting.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010 12:33
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#20
'Of course our loved ones gave their lives to protect the very freedoms that we're talking about here -- people being able to practice religion and say what they want to say and be in control of their own destiny,' " the mayor said.
The practice of islam includes slaughtering infidels, forbiding the constructiton of places of worship of others, teaching hatred towards all non-muslims, clearly explaining their vision of a global caliphate, murdering anyone who speaks out against islamic practices or wishes to leave the faith - even their own children and the list goes on and on and on. This death cult practices a religion that is intolerant (to the nth degree) of anything and anyone. There is no freedom in islam Bloomy. Nlone. So it stands at odds with all the freedoms on which the US is founded.
"freedom to say what they want to say" Have you been listening to what muslims say, Bloomy? Most of it is hate speech, which is not a freedom. Kill the jews, kill all infidels, kill all apostates, kill all americans, we won't top til the world is islam, our jihad is to destroy the world to eliminate anyone who is not the exact same kind of muslim I am. many, many different schools of islam each trying to slaughter the others - infidels need not be even involved for muslims who embrace violence and ignorance - each other will suffice. There is no freedom to say what one wishes about islam. There is no freedom to draw a cartoon. Why your insistance, Bloomy, on letting only muslims "say what they want to say"?
"Be in control of their own destiny..." Muslims destiny is a global caliphate. Muslims are very clear about this. Very, very clear, What part of this have you missed, Bloomy? it is not their own destiny which they seek to control, but your destiny and mine and that of every infidel in the world. That's the message of the minaret.
it is insane to expect infidels to tolerate a "religion" that demands their own death. it is death to tolerate the intolerable.
#23
Wow, right on ground zero... humm... isn't there another building going up there? Or did the 13 floor mosk get the land... difficult to tell. Ground zero needs to be defined.
And yeah, I'm all about building a Big Box over Little Round Top, it would smell like victory.
And put a Popeyes on Seminiary Ridge to under_score the point.
#24
And soon after the Mega-ArmoryMosque goes up they will start demanding that all images of pigs and dogs be removed from view from the mosque and all women be 'decently' bagged and tagged.
And of course there's the call to prayer five times a day.
#25
Much like the previous controversy, Grrrrr.
Flight 93 Memorial, the Crescent of Embrace.
http://michellemalkin.com/2005/09/10/flight-93-memorial-seeing-is-believing/
[Iran Press TV Latest] At least 60 people have been killed and 70 others injured by a triple bombing that ripped through the center of Iraq's southern port city of Basra.
Three explosives-laden cars were detonated within minutes of each other at the al-Ashaar market on Saturday evening, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Security forces cordoned off the area after the terrorist attacks and immediately launched an investigation into the incident.
The people injured in the bombings were transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
In another incident, unidentified assailants gunned down four police officers and injured 10 people when a gunfight broke out on Saturday at about 2:00 a.m. local time (2300 GMT) in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah.
The police, who had been tipped off by a carjacking, trailed the suspects to a nearby house. They then engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with an unknown number of gunmen. The shootout lasted until dawn.
The Iraqi police recovered a car bomb, a home-made bomb, a grenade, a pistol with a silencer, and a rocket-propelled grenade at the site of the shootout.
Also on Saturday, a bomber attacked an emergency police patrol in Mosul, killing a policeman and injuring seven others, three of whom were civilians.
A volatile ethnic mix of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and Christians, Mosul has been the scene of frequent shootings and bombings. The capital city of Iraq's Nineveh province is situated some 396 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
In addition, one policeman was shot dead and two others were injured after they came under attack in Fallujah on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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[14 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Dozens of convicted and condemned terrorists who should have been hanged are alive and well because the federal government and the Presidency are sitting over their mercy petitions, in some cases for over five years.
While the federal and provincial ministers are constantly and continuously accusing the judiciary of releasing the accused terrorists, official record shows that the execution of dozens of convicts, sentenced to death under the Anti Terrorism Act for killing innocent people, is pending because the Presidency is sitting on the convicts' mercy petitions.
From amongst the mercy petitions of the terrorists, convicted under ATA, there are some whose execution has been blocked by the Presidency since 2005. Under the Constitution, it is the prime minister on whose advice the President rejects or accepts such mercy petitions.
Amid mounting incidents of terrorism, ineffective intelligence, hopeless policing, poor prosecution and lack of useful counter-terror strategy, the government is trying to shift the blame on courts but its own lethargy in punishing terrorists has been quietly ignored.
According to official sources, in the case of Punjab alone, a total of 24 mercy petitions of condemned prisoners, sentenced to death under ATA, filed to the president are pending. There are almost 295 convicts, waiting on the death row but convicted in acts other than ATA, including Indian spy Manjeet Singh alias Sarbajeet Singh, are not being executed because of their pending mercy petitions.
In yet another category of such condemned prisoners, almost 49 convicts sentenced by the anti-terrorist courts in the Punjab but not under Section 7 of ATA, are also amongst those saved from execution because of their pending mercy petitions.
Because of poor police investigations and ineffective prosecution, a large number of accused terrorists are released by the courts for want of evidence. A recent report of the Rawalpindi district prosecutor, reported by The News, showed the pathetic performance of police, intelligence agencies, indifference of the concerned military officials and public prosecutors, which led to the release of the suspects involved in the otherwise high profile murder of a serving Surgeon General Lt General Mushtaq Beg in a Rawalpindi terrorist attack.
For similar reasons, the accused involved in certain other high profile cases, including Marriott Hotel attack, failed attempt on the life of ousted dictator Musharraf, too, have been released by the courts. Without keeping their own house in order, some of the provincial ministers and federal authorities have been trying to pass the buck to the judiciary.
However, the report of the Rawalpindi district prosecutor in the case of Lt Gen Mushtaq Beg's murder on the Mall Road, Rawalpindi terrorist attack and the decision of Tariq Pervez, head of the National Counter Terrorism Authority, to step down exposed the executive's seriousness to checking terrorism.
However, despite the poor conviction rate, it is believed the pronounced execution of the convicted terrorist and those involved in heinous crime help create much-needed deterrence against crime. Generally, the people believe that the terrorists and criminals are having a field day in today's Pakistan as they freely choose their target, hit and kill innumerable innocents and never caught. And those caught, the general belief is, are released by the courts for want of evidence.
Contrary to these general perceptions, the number of pending mercy petitions do suggest that despite all odds, terrorist and criminals are convicted here. However, their execution has been delayed because of the federal government and the Presidency's inability to immediately take a decision on their mercy petitions.
Some of the mercy petitions in cases where the condemned prisoners were given death sentences under ATA, are pending since 2005. In other cases, such mercy petitions are pending for many years, in cases even more than a decade.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2010
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#1
Fine. As soon as they get their next military dictatorship, we can make a Fort Smith style gallows part of the military aid so they can catch up om the backlog. Hang 'em high...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2010 0:56
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#2
Gives them more time to fully rehabilitate, learn a skill, grow in their faith....etc. Oh wait.
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.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer's mindset.
By Melanie Phillips
South Africa's refusal to side with the US in the conflict in Afghanistan came close to setting the country on a diplomatic collision course with the super-power. A terse communique among the nearly 80,000 secret documents posted on the internet whistleblower website WikiLeaks records the threat of severe diplomatic sanctions against South Africa for being allegedly remiss in supporting the US in its wars against international jihadists.
[Dawn] Despite pledges and efforts made by the 
[Tolo News] At least 8 Taliban 
The Washington Post Co. released its second-quarter results this morning, and overall, the group is healthy: Revenue in Q2 was up 11 percent to $1,201.8 million, on the same quarter last year.
