TEL AVIV -- As tensions escalate along Israel's northern border, a senior military official warned that the next war with Hezbollah would be far more painful for Israeli citizens than any previous experience.
This is why Bibi and the Israeli armed forces will work hard to ensure that the civilians don't suffer.
"What we witnessed in 2006 is the very tip of the iceberg," said the official, referring to the 33-day war between Israel and the Lebanese-based Shiite militia Hezbollah. In that case, a third of the country was forced into bomb shelters for a month while rockets rained down on northern Israel.
In the 2006 Second Lebanon War, nearly 4,000 rockets were fired into Israel, killing more than 40 civilians and causing widespread devastation to property and the economy.
Hezbollah is now believed to have 60,000 to 100,000 rockets that boast longer ranges, improved accuracy and larger warheads.
"This will be a whole new ballgame," the official said.
Israeli officials fear that as many as 2,000 rockets a day could be released against all parts of Israel. Most of the launching sites are in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants use private homes and farms in about 100 villages.
Hezbollah's rocket capacity has turned Israeli civilians into the preferred front in the next conflict so public fear will put pressure on the Israeli military, the official said.
Though Israel does not have enough Iron Dome missile-interception systems to prevent a barrage of rockets from Hezbollah or others, it has focused on improving civilian defense through mock drills and emergency planning. Nevertheless, only 60% of Israelis have chemical-weapons protection kits, in part due an inter-governmental squabble over funding. Nearly one-third of Israelis don't have quick access to bomb shelters.
100K rockets at 2K a day: that's almost a couple months of continuous bombardment. Even if every Israeli has a gas mask and a shelter, the country grinds to a halt. We should instead expect a thorough and enthusiastic response by the Israeli armed forces to wipe out Hezbollah should a new war start. No Israeli leader can restrain the military if the only other option is to cower in the subway stations.
#1
Make sure it's the Lebanese Shia villagers that suffer rather than the Israeli civvies. The Shia are the sea that Hezbullies swim among commit war crimes by hiding among. You let them set up rocket launch pads in your village, you suffer the consequences
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2013 20:16
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#2
Only nukes can defend from that...high time
these sewer rats be exterminated...Kill them all, let God sort the manure...
Posted by: Bob Snore6814 ||
08/08/2013 23:08
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#3
"Far more painful/... hit harder" > Obvious thingys are obvious.
* IIRC DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS, TOPIX > NASRALLAH: GALILEE TO BE HIT BEFORE BEIRUT, iff military conflict breaks out again between Israel + Lebanon ala 2006, or iff Israel attacks Syria = Baby Assad.
#3
Webb Hubbell's ghost will be so proud of Chelsea
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2013 13:29
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#4
I don't see it. The Dems never nominate the guy (gal) who is next in line. They nominate "someone else." There are exceptions of course (Gore - 2000) but most of the supposed heirs appearant (remember Howard Dean?) get tossed.
Hillary was the heir appearant in 2008. Champ came from nowhere and beat her. How many Dems get 2 bites at the presidential apple?
#1
Maybe because there won't be a Fed after a massive EMP hit?
Everything will become local real quick. Too many things for central management to even come close to coordinating, controlling. There is not enough resources to bring it all back anytime soon enough to 'impose' order. Order will be rebuilt from the local up. The tribes the Donks have been basing power upon for generations will find themselves sorely lacking in the basics of food, energy, clean water, etc. With the largest armed body in the world being the American public and particularly not heavily Donk, the ability to maraude and loot for their constituencies is going to be cut rather short quickly. They will simply wither on the vine. They don't want to even think about it.
However, there are some smart things we could do to mitigate the damage and allow for some faster recovery (months instead of years, years instead of decades). Government officials who were actually looking after the country (not just out for themselves and their pals) could do a fair bit of good for not a lot of spending.
Oh heck what's the fun of THAT?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2013 9:00
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#3
Plane crash fallacy: everybody (who matters) is going to die anyway, so why bother?
Also-- less opportunity for kickbacks and graft, so less interest. Which just shows a total lack of imagination W.R.T. kickbacks and graft.
#5
Since an EMP can happen from the sun it is inexcusable that the government didn't put regulations on the power and communications industry to harden against it long ago. Also a hardened facility that had the chips and tubes as well as the equipment to rapidly make new chips and tubes and whatever would have been fairly common sense.
I'm pretty libertarian about spending but this falls well within what should be expected of the Federal Government in my opinion. I do not think history will look kindly on the current batch of politicial leaders.
#6
...too many jobs for burly men in such a program. Not the right tribe.
We'll discover the serious 'transformer gap' (and not the movie types). You can get the generators back up in a relative short time, but to reconnect the lines out through the country is going to take years of production.
#8
Is the 'Burg prepared? I'm thinking a snail-mail newsletter once a week...
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2013 11:32
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#9
Since an EMP can happen from the sun it is inexcusable that the government didn't put regulations forbidding solar storms. No different than requiring gasoline companies use x% of non-existent cellulosic ethanol in their blends.
#16
I'm in the process of going solar, no worries for me (And NO rebates, that'd give them a "Hold" Over MY solar.
nonoyerbizness.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2013 18:46
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#17
EMP protection is a really good excuse to buy a 1968 or older any muscle car; no computers or electronic ignition. just points, plugs, condenser. and nothing is cooler than a hood full of (insert make here) big-block.
#19
Essentially the making of an EMP pulse is so Insignifigant, you need a nuke, and the EMP is a very small portion, it's not worth serious consideration. (Except for Science Fiction)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/08/2013 19:37
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#20
One of those special high-voltage transformers that the US is unable to manufacture can probably be taken out with a 50-cal slug from a muzzle loader at the right spot. That gets no serious consideration either.
#21
I have an old 72 beetle that has absolutely no electronics in it - condenser, point, plugs are all sold school. Plus you can fix almost anything with duct tape, JBWeld, a soup can and a coat hanger. Of course you can see the road thru parts of the floorboard, but thats if you pull up the snow shovel blade that's in there as a floorboard substitute. Its actually back at my brothers place in the barn - probably full of mice. I think I may have just gotten myself a project to do... I also have 2 HP48+ calculators, in a lined box, which will do more than most pre-1980 computers. Figure if it does come down to that, it would come in handy, and I still ahve a ton of programs for them, as well as all the manuals, etc (also at my desk, my relic - a HP15c, probably the best calculator I have ever owned).
Plus it would be part of my evil plan to rebuild the world where RPN was the standard way to operate a calculator. Muahahah!
Expanding urban America and dissolving suburban bedroom communities of conservative Republican voters has long been a goal of the Democrats. Demographics do matter.
#2
The life chances of a child are determined by her zip code?
Really?
Not having (both)a mom and dad who care? No matter how hard she works? No matter how hard mom and dad work? Being dependent on the government is not a factor?
Really?
The ZIP code?
Who knew, when the postal service instituted the ZIP code so many years ago, that it would turn out to be the basis for discrimination!
[sarc off] A bureaucratic rule, not a law passed by Congress. Social engineering by fiat. Executive fiat. I dont care for it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2013 6:43
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#3
Where's that in the Constitution? Citation please.
#5
Have noticed that the, er, "blend" of both my job and home communities seems to be changing. Doing absolute wonders for property values and home sales..../sarc
#8
Would that it were Nimble. This involves low income types ... the little people, primarily black and Latino, and leading to those Trayvon/Zimmerman type encounters.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/08/2013 13:37
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#9
whites and asians won't be able to get Fed-backed mortgage loans in areas that don't have enough of "our people"
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2013 13:59
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#10
Why waste a chance to turn the whole nation into Detroit.
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian state television broadcast footage on Thursday of President Bashar al-Assad attending prayers at a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr after opposition reports of an attack of his motorcade.
Islam Alloush of the rebel Liwa al-Islam Brigade told Reuters earlier on Thursday that rebels fired rockets which hit Assad's motorcade as he was heading to attend the prayers at Anas bin Malek Mosque in the Malki district, where his residence is located.
Other activists also reported rockets were fired into the Malki area. Assad appeared unharmed in the footage.
[Ynet] The United States is providing $195 million more in food and humanitarian aid to Syria to mark the end of Ramadan for Mohammedans, President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... said on Wednesday. Washington has been slow to provide weapons for Syrian rebels struggling to toppled Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... , but has provided a sizeable amount of humanitarian aid.
A statement from Obama marking Eid al-Fitr, said the $195 million in additional aid would bring the US humanitarian contribution to more than $1 billion since the Syrian crisis began.
#3
Paying the jizya good and hard. Like the old saying about hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, it will feel so good when it stops...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2013 7:21
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#4
fwiw, eid al fitr ends in a few hours
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/08/2013 8:29
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#5
Half time ends.......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2013 11:11
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#6
Sequestration is hard on the little people - the workers. Can't let a little thing like that interfere with The One Grand Plan!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2013 12:16
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#7
Humanitarian aid is a farce. Money is fungible. The $195m we give them for food just frees up money they would have spent on food for other purposes - like waging war.
Seriously, how much of the $195m has been directly earmarked by Syria to pay Russia for recent arms deliveries?
[Ynet] A US-based institute tracking North Korea's nuclear weapons program says recent satellite photos show the country is doubling the size of its uranium enrichment plant.
The Institute for Science and International Security says the photos show construction under way to "effectively double" the size of the enrichment hall, which would allow North Korea to double the number of centrifuges now enriching uranium.
#1
IMO this an indirect but clear sign of Beijing's escalating control over the DPRK, as it is actually China + PLA whom controls the DPRK Army + Missle, NucProgs.
* FYI see also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [AFP Seoul]NORTH KOREA SAYS JAPAN HAS CROSSED MILITARY
"DANGER LINE", espec wid its launching of its new "IZUMO" class "flat-top destroyer" = aircraft carrier.
* SAME > [Daily Mail Online] JAPAN'S WAR THREAT TO NORTH KOREA, iff the DPRK e-v-a-r! embarks on its own indigenous Nuke Weapons Program.
* TOPIX > [WaPo] NEW JAPANESE HELICOPTER CARRIER DRAWS CHINA WARNING TO ASIA.
Beijing again urges Regional + International vigilance over China-alleged Japan's militarist ambitions to return to being a major world power.
----------------
More ...
* BIG NEWS NETWORK > [Global Times] JAPAN TO BUILD ANOTHER ["IZUMO"-class] CARRIER.
* Also from GLOBAL TIMES > JAPAN SHOULD NEVER FORGET THE FATE OF PREVIOUS "IZUMO" IN WAR OF [East Asia] AGGRESSION, i.e. fate that befell Militarist Japan after its war-obsessed Govt. adopted policies which built the aggressive + powerful Imperial Japanese Navy only to see it destroyed during WW2, + resulted in Japan suffering two atomic bombings + incurring the long-lasting hatred + mistrust of those Asian nations it attacked or conquered.
* SAME > JAPAN BECOMING TOO AMBITIOUS FOR ITS GOALS.
* BIG NEWS NETWORK > SON OF CHINESE TYCOON PLACES DIAOYU AD IN NEW YORK TIMES, affirming + proclaiming Chinese history + sovereignty over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands using the same public relations method before America that his father did a couple of years before.
* SAME > [Asia News Network] PHILIPPINES REJECTS ANEW CHINA'S "INDISPUTABLE" CLAIMS OVER SEAS [South China Seas = Spratlys].
RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS = PHILIPPINES IGNORES CHINA'S "THREE-WAY" PROPOSAL TO ADDRESS SEA DISPUTE.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MNLF CHAIRMAN NUR MISUARI THREATENS TO DECLARE MORO INDEPENDENCE - PHILIPPI | [PHIL Star] NUR SAYS GOVT. ACTIONS PUSHING MNLF TO DECLARE INDEPENDENCE.
The PHIL may lose Mindanao + other one day, which in turn may get the Commie NPA riled up as well as other types of local insurgent groups.
* SAME > KIRAM: [Sulu] SULTANATE NOT PART OF [MILF-led] BANGSAMORO - MANILA STANDARD.
Beijing would like to take this opportunity to once again KINDLY/POLITELY remind Japan, ROK, Taiwan, PHIL, Vietnam, ASEAN, + even Radical Islam that IT HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS, + THEY DON'T.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi announced on Wednesday that the decision to disperse sit-ins held by supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi is final, calling on protesters to leave the sit-ins as quickly as possible during an Egypt cabinet presser.
El-Beblawi added that the government will provide free transportation for those leaving the two pro-Morsi sit-ins at Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque and Gazoo's Nahda square.
He also stated that the sit-ins had not been dispersed earlier out of respect for the holy month of Ramadan, which ends Wednesday.
El-Beblawi warned Morsi supporters against the use of violence towards security forces, saying such actions will be immediately met with force.
He also emphasised that only those who have committed crimes will be nabbed Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! The Egyptian government, with the help of foreign mediators, has been engaged in reconciliation talks with the Moslem Brüderbund. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... they have failed to reach a solution to the current political deadlock.
The Moslem Brüderbund and its allies have insisted on Morsi's reinstatement since he was deposed by the army on 3 July following mass protests against him.
Egypt's presidency has described the pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza as "non-peaceful" and said they will be dispersed if negotiation attempts fail.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[Ynet] Malaysia police said Wednesday that they have locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! an Iranian man accused of running a passport forging syndicate and believed to have ties with terrorist and human trafficking groups. Fuzi Harun, who heads the federal police anti-terrorism taskforce, said police jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! Seyed Ramin Miraziz Paknejad and his wife on Saturday.
Fuzi said Paknejad, 45, was first detained in Thailand last year on suspicion of providing fake passports to human trafficking and drug rings, as well as Death Eaters who plotted bombings in Bangkok, Harun said.
Those Iranians sure are busy. What on earth does that corner of the world have that's so interesting to them?
[An Nahar] Four Israeli soldiers were maimed in a landmine blast along the northern border with Leb, media reports said on Wednesday.
A Lebanese army communique said that the "Israeli patrol violated Leb's illusory sovereignty."
"An infantry patrol of the Israeli army penetrated 400 meters inside Leb in the Labbouneh area at 00:24 local time," the statement said.
"An kaboom took place and the soldiers were maimed, with blood found at the scene. A military committee has opened an investigation in coordination with UNIFIL," the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... Interim Force in Leb, it said.
An Israeli military spokesperson said Wednesday that the soldiers were hurt during "overnight activity adjacent to the northern border." It did not say if they were maimed in training or in combat, and refused to elaborate further.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Shabelle] Fighting's occurred at different regions in Somalia between AMISOM troops,Æthiopian troops and SNA troops against Alshabab fighters .
In Baidoa, Alshabab troops attacked government troops which forced the SNA troops to retaliate.
Heavy artillery was used against each other; residents were terrified by the deafening blasts as the battle continued for hours.
Government troops finally took full control of the strategic city as the Shabaab fighters withdrew back
On the other hand, fighting also broke up in some parts of the lower Shabelle region of Somalia.
The fighting occurred at Shalanbod and Janale towns controlled by the Somali government.
Omar Arabey, the deputy governor of the region told Shabelle radio station that they (government) retaliated and forced back Alshabab fighters who launched a surprise assault in the towns.
Casualties caused by the fighting's have not been released for now
Alshabab fighters have called for increased attacks on government bases as Mohammedans observe the holy month of Ramadan
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#1
Please delete thie previous comment.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/08/2013 12:55
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... noted on Wednesday the Syrian rebels' breakthrough in taking over the strategic Minnigh airport in Aleppo, saying that changes on the ground are beginning to take place in the conflict, reported Egypt's Asharq al-Awsat news agency.
He told the agency: "I advise Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... to withdraw from Syria because the countdown for the demise of the regime has begun."
"The countdown has started because it is impossible for the regime to continue on oppressing the Syrian people," he remarked.
On Tuesday, rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... captured Minnigh key air base in the northern province of Aleppo after a months-long battle.
They have been fighting loyalists for the air base for some eight months, as part of a battle in Aleppo province to stop the regime from using warplanes to strike areas in opposition hands.
Commenting on efforts to form a new government in Leb, Jumblat said: "I will study the available options, including a neutral de facto cabinet, should a neutral technocratic one be rejected."
"I do not want to take the risk in advocating a de facto government as I was among the first to demand the establishment of a national unity cabinet that Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam had described as one of national reconciliation," added the MP.
He also voiced his support for the establishment of a government that does not include party figures.
On disarming Hizbullah, he said: "Nasrallah could not lay down the party's weapons even if he wanted to because this decision is in the hands of Iran."
"The Lebanese people however want stability ... so let the national dialogue address disputes and let a technocratic cabinet resolve them," Jumblat declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#1
Wally keeps his ear pretty close to the turf, I wonder what in the world he's hearing that makes him think there's been another change in the big Mo?
[An Nahar] By Giza's Great Pyramids, souvenir vendors wait restlessly in the shade, watching for the handful of tourists who still make their way down the empty street to the once-bustling landmark.
The 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... dealt a severe blow to the country's tourist industry, once a mainstay of Egypt's economy.
And things have gone from bad to worse since June, when violent protests broke out against president Mohamed Morsi. On July 3, the army ousted the Islamist leader, leading to further deadly violence and an ongoing standoff between the two sides.
The tour buses that lined the streets around the pyramids have disappeared.
"We hope to the Lord that he will bring back those busy days, because all of us rely on tourism alone," said Gameel Hassan, who has run a shop near the pyramids selling papyrus prints for nearly 20 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... has said that the army-people-resistance formula can no longer be used for the new cabinet's policy statement over Hizbullah's involvement in the war in Syria, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The daily quoted Suleiman as telling a delegation from the Beirut National Gathering that the resistance took a unilateral decision to fight in Syria without consulting with the army and the people.
Such a decision took the resistance out of its commitments to the people-army-resistance formula, he reportedly said.
According to al-Liwaa, the president hinted that he would sign a decree for the formation of a neutral cabinet if Premier-designate Tammam Salam comes up with such a lineup over the failure of the political parties to limit their conditions.
Salam has so far been unable to form his government over conditions and counter-conditions set by the March 8 and March 14 alliances.
But an official close to Suleiman told As Safir daily that the president continues to insist on Hizbullah's participation in the cabinet despite calls by March 14 officials to put the party aside over its fighting alongside troops loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... "There is no hostility between the president and Hizbullah ... nor between him and any other Lebanese party," the official said.
He defended Suleiman's Army Day speech, saying the president differentiated between the resistance and terrorism.
"The speech did not target Hizbullah. All arms used in the fighting in Syria are illegitimate and all weapons used locally are also illegal," the official said.
He stressed that only weapons targeted at Israel are considered legitimate as part of a national defense strategy.
Suleiman said in his Army Day speech last Thursday that "it has become urgent to approve a defense strategy after the resistance's arms went beyond Leb's borders."
"Out of our differentiation between the resistance and terrorism, it is time for the state and the army to be the sole decision-makers on the use of force," said Suleiman.
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[Al Ahram] Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party said Wednesday it accepted the suspension of the North African country's National Constituent Assembly and urged talks with its rivals on a national unity government.
"Despite our formal and legal reservations about this initiative, we hope it will serve as a catalyst for political adversaries to sit down at the negotiating table," a party statement said.
Ennahda said it hoped the assembly's suspension would lead to "the formation of a government of national unity".
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[Ynet] Northern Command's chief artillery officer tells Ynet despite heavy losses in Syria, Lebanese terror group closely monitoring IDF activity along border 'in preparation for war'
"Hezbollah's involvement in the war in Syria has not disrupted its preparedness for a war with Israel -- the opposite is true," the chief artillery officer of the IDF's Northern Command said Wednesday.
Speaking to Ynet, Colonel Yaron Formosa said Hezbollah gunnies have become proficient in the use of advanced weapons due to the fighting in Syria. "They are continuing to prepare for a war against us, and an isolated incident on the border can lead to deterioration. We are prepared to go to war even tomorrow morning," said the officer.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... the IDF is continuing to investigate the kaboom early Wednesday near an IDF force, which was reportedly operating some 400 meters (1,300 feet) within Lebanese territory, near Rosh Hanikra. Four IDF soldiers sustained light to moderate wounds in the blast.
Colonel Formosa stressed that despite Hezbollah's heavy losses in Syria, the Shiite group's lookouts are constantly monitoring IDF activity along the border. "We saw them marking the positions of our artillery guns so they can target them in a war. As a counter measure we are building embankments to protect the weapons and ammunition."
The chief artillery officer said most of the rocket-launching pads the IDF would attack in case a war breaks out have been moved from open areas to villages. "It is difficult to operate in an urban setting. For many Lebanese it will be intolerable. Hezbollah may purposely prevent the civilians from fleeing to the north," he said. "But Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets that are aimed at Israel, and we will not be able to operate against them only with artillery fire or the air force. We will need a ground maneuver as well."
Colonel (res.) Yaakov Zigdon, who served as chief artillery officer during Operation Accountability, said "Hezbollah will determine when the next war erupts. We fired 23,100 shells a week during Operation Accountability. They made the difference and gave the north two years of calm. We decided to damage villages after the residents left for Beirut due to our warnings, and they returned to destroyed homes.
"Israeli civilians from the north to the center may be 'held hostage,' and no government will agree to this," he added. "Every war is measured by the period of calm it provides until the next war breaks out."
#1
The chief artillery officer said most of the rocket-launching pads the IDF would attack in case a war breaks out have been moved from open areas to villages.
Excellent! They now have names and can easily be found on a map. Makes building targeting packages much easier.
[Dawn] Not satisfied with the view from the ground, 17-year-old Abdul Basit ran towards the roof of a shop to get a good look at the football match taking place in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... Town.
The match was part of a series of games in the Youth Football Tournament which began with the month of Ramzan in Lyari's Chakiwara No. 2.
As it always happens, the area where the match was organised was decked up with lights.
One man was assigned the task of asking people in Balochi vernacular to either settle down to watch the game or leave the street that served as the match's venue.
Newly-elected Pakistain People's Party (PPP) MPA Jawed Nagori was one of the chief guests at Wednesday's match in the tournament, which neighbourhood elders said was organised to motivate the children.
Playing right next in a street at Bizenjo Chowk, children, most of them in their teens, had been preparing for over a month for the tournament to take place. As soon as the prizes were distributed by MPA Nagori, a loud kaboom occurred just a few feet away from the politician's parked vehicle. Though the MPA was quickly escorted out of the area, the children were caught in the blast, with some of them dying on the spot.
Wednesday's game turned out to be the tournament's last and final one and Abdul Basit who until the end of the match stayed on the roof became the first one to take the fall on the ground. His brothers Yasir and Saddam who were close by said it took them 20 minutes just to find him.
"By the time we reached him, he had already bled profusely. And although we were hopeful that he would live, doctors at the hospital pronounce him dead..."
At Basit's home, his mother cries uncontrollably as women from the neighbourhood sit around her at a loss for words. "What can I possibly tell her? How can we pacify a mother who has just lost her son?" says one neighbour, Zarnaz Bibi.
Who is behind the attack?
Hours after the blast and a few minutes before the call for Zuhr prayers, shopkeepers try to fix the bent shutters outside their shops. Men, women and kiddies gather at the site of the kaboom, wondering who could have carried out the attack which claimed at least seven lives.
A shopkeeper named Inayat Ali said some people saw a man park his cycle of violence near the shops lined a few feet away from the street where the match took place.
"Nobody knows exactly what he looked like, but I'll speak for myself, I just saw the cycle of violence and no owner," Ali said.
Moreover, Akram Baloch who heads the media cell of the proscribed Lyari-based Peoples Amn Committee (PAC), an organization rumoured to be enjoying the support of PPP, said Nagori had been receiving threats from Death Eater groups for sometime.
"During the past few months, a number of Death Eaters were tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! from Lyari and they blame the PAC for providing the intelligence etc. The attack is similar to the one carried out during an election meeting in Kumharwara three months ago," Baloch said.
'I lost my friend'
The attack has left a terrifying impression on the children of the neighbourhood for whom football enjoys as sacred a status as cricket does in much of Pakistain.
Near the street where the kaboom occurred, twelve-year-old Deedak stands huddled in a corner with his friends. "I lost my friend; he played in the match. I was here to see him."
Deedak adds that this was one of the tournaments for Ramzan before which "we keep a cricket match in which children from Singhu Lane, Aath Chowk and Chakiwara come to participate".
Following the blast, the ambulances took most children to nearby hospitals to swiftly provide them with medical treatment. A number of children were taken to the city's Civil Hospital and Lyari General Hospital.
Dr Tariq Ayubi, head of the emergency department at Civil, said the facility had received three bodies and 18 injured. "Some of the people were taken to LGH who later gave up the ghost. They have not yet been registered with us," he explained.
Inside Civil Hospital's Surgical Ward, 15-year-old Sahad Ashraf is in a deep sleep while his family members sit anxiously beside him. With injuries on his chest, pelvis and thighs, the family says it is a miracle young Ashraf survived.
Ashraf's grandmother who is seated right next to him says: "He had gone to watch the match. This is the only thing our children know and care for. What can you possibly say to those who attack children?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#1
"What can you possibly say to those who attack children?"
They are doing the will of Allah...that moonstone dildo idol all the monkeys idolize...
Posted by: Bob Snore6814 ||
08/08/2013 22:59
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[Ynet] State news agency says rebels killed by Assad forces near Damascus suburb were members of al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra
Syrian government forces killed more than 60 rebels Wednesday in an ambush near Damascus, a blow to opposition fighters confronting a regime offensive in the capital, activists said.
The state news agency SANA confirmed the ambush near the Damascus suburb of Adra at dawn, saying "dozens" were killed. The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 62 rebels died. It did not report any government casualties.
SANA said the rebels were members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front. It added that they included imported muscle.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive in the past few months in an attempt to clear out Damascus suburbs used by opposition fighters to threaten Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's seat of power.
State-run television broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya aired footage of bloodied corpses, some in camouflage. It said they were killed in an ambush as they were on their way to attack an army post near Damascus.
The bodies were gathered in what appeared to be a desert area.
Al-Ikhbariya also showed a Tunisian passport of a man who was born in 1978. The picture on the passport was of a bearded man. It also showed Islamic headbands and automatic rifles that were apparently carried by the rebels.
Mohammed Saeed, an activist who is based near Damascus, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that 65 rebels were on their way from the eastern suburbs of the capital to the nearby area of Qalamoun. He added that the rebels were walking the 30-kilometer (19-mile) route because it is dangerous to drive in the area as it is watched by regime forces.
"The regime forces riddled them with heavy machine gun fire," Saeed said via Skype. He added that 62 were killed and three escaped and reached Qalamoun.
"It seems that the regime discovered the secret road that the rebels were using," Saeed said.
In the north, a missile struck the rebel-held city of Raqqa, killing three people and wounding dozens including children, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said. The Observatory said that two children were among the three killed.
Amateur videos showed at least three children who suffered wounds and were rushed away in a pickup truck.
A boy, with minor wounds to his mouth, knees and feet, screamed as he was held by a man in the pickup truck and shouted "Dad!" The man holding him tried to calm him down, saying: "Dad will come soon."
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.
Wednesday's missile attack came after Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said missiles fired by the Syrian army into populated areas have killed hundreds of civilians in recent months.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... the Observatory said that Kurdish gunnies captured about 70 government troops Wednesday who fled the air base of Mannagh in the northern province of Aleppo. The base was captured by rebels Tuesday after months of fighting.
The Observatory also reported fighting and shelling in the mountains of the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. Rebels captured 11 Alawite villages in an offensive earlier this week and troops launched a counterattack to retake it.
Syria's conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in the last year, pitting predominantly Sunni Mohammedan rebels against members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Syria's crisis started as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad's rule in March 2011. It turned into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the violence.
[Al Ahram] Yemeni security forces have foiled a plot by Al-Qaeda to take over oil and gas export facilities and a lovely provincial capital in the eastern part of the country, a government official said on Wednesday.
Rajeh Badi, press advisor to Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa, said the plot involved using dozens of Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons dressed in Yemeni army uniforms to storm the facilities on the night of the 27th of Ramadan, which was on Sunday, and hold them.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[Al Ahram] Gunmen have killed three coppers in an ambush in the eastern Algerian region of Kabylie and lost one of their own, daily newspaper El-Watan reported on Wednesday.
"A police patrol was attacked by a group of faceless myrmidons on the road to the new hospital in Azeffoun" on Tuesday afternoon, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of the city of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou, the paper said.
A major manhunt was launched for the assailants, who fled into a nearby forest.
Last week four soldiers were killed in Kabylie and in the Biskra region, in the south of the country.
Violence attributed to Islamists has declined considerably in recent years, but groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb frequently attack security forces in Kabylie, in areas around the capital and in the south.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[Al Ahram] Two soldiers were maimed in an attack by unknown assailants on a security checkpoint in Arish in North Sinai on Wednesday, state news agency MENA reported.
One of the soldiers, Mohamed Gamal Mohamed, 22, was shot in his knee and the other, Islam Abdel-Moneim Mohamed, 22, suffered from a gunshot wound to his arm.
The armed assailants shot at a security checkpoint located at the ring road out of Arish. Security forces shot back but the assailants managed to escape.
Earlier on Wednesday, army front man Ahmed Ali released a statement with the results of the police and army's crackdown on "terrorism and jihadists" in Sinai from 5 July to 4 August.
The crackdown resulted in apprehending 227 individuals -- 103 of which were tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and 124 are either of dead or injured, Ali said in a statement released via Facebook.
The army statement comes hours after the murder of a Mubarak-era parliamentarian by unknown assailants in Egypt's Sinai Penninsula. Attackers fired from four bullets a moving vehicle at Abdel Hamid Silmi, 58, as he left a mosque early on Wednesday after dawn prayers.
Critics of the Moslem Brüderbund accuse the group of instigating violence in Sinai -- charges much repeated after senior Brotherhood figure Mohamed El-Beltagi stated last month that violence in Sinai would immediately end should Morsi be reinstated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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"Its long been known that Hollywood stars only give access to those media outlets that report favorably about them, with the result that there is no honest reporting coming out of Hollywood. It turns out that President Barack Obama has learned a thing or two from his Hollywood buddies and is working hard to stifle a press that already is in the bag for him."
#1
So you are getting fed pablum now anyway, so everyone ask questions about Benghazi and all get thrown out. Be a man or be a woman, as the case may be. Just quit being eunuchs. Grow a spine. There are a million high protein stories out there.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2013 1:03
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#4
AP - make "getting kicked out for asking questions about Benghazi" the story. Thats what an honest press would do. Invoke the "Striesand effect", and have each other's backs. Too concerned with having Obama's back is the problem, harming the nation by giving this thug and his Tammany crew free rides.
#5
He's the American Putin. Little wonder Vlad and Champ no longer get along, they're too much alike! This spiteful little prick attempts to leave nearly everyone in fear for some aspect of their lives.
I was perplexed yesterday at his statements regarding Fannie and Freddie. This morning I see he's empowering HUD to investigate the integration of neighborhoods and sees same house renting-back as a solution for foreclosures. No mystery meat in where this is going.
This isn't about Obama, it's about Hillary. The other scandals all harm the person who isn't running in 2016, Benghazi husrts the one who is.
The woman who will continue the poltics that 95% of the reporters want. The woman that the education industry and the NPR-listening pseudointellectual class want so that their crappy little narrative can remain intact. The one who will continue the gravy train for welfare recipients, public employees, grant recipients, and rent seekers.
"Anything but Benghazi" is about getting the next defender of the dilapidated Blue State model and its clerisy and its legions of dependents into the White House in 2016. Obama isn't behind this, the Clintons and the rest of the big government/big business Blue model axis are.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/08/2013 5:19
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#7
My assessment as well no mo uro. I hope this Daily Beast article is posted today reader for comment.
She makes some good points, but I can't help thinking that despite her protestations about wanting a conservative to win, she's secretly wishing that someone with two X chromosomes gets in to represent her gender, in much the same way that legions of black conservatives went for Obama out of tribal loyalty.
If so, that colors her thoughts.
Wll the Repubs show the brains and stones to make Benghazi stick? Who knows. Recent history suggests not. The Repubs need a modern day Coolidge. Where is that person?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/08/2013 13:55
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#9
Draggin Ben Ghazi
Twenty-five or six to four.
Whence Hillary?
Kissing the floor.
Five unheard messages on the phone.
So alone. So alone.
Twenty-five or six to four.
Knocking, incessant knocking.
On her chamber door.
Huma, will you get that?
Got no time for their chit chat.
Twenty-five or six to four.
It was my turn, you damned.
Community organ eyesore.
The commercial, that shouda dunnit.
Now I done stepped in my own sh*t.
[Ynet] At least one person was killed in Egypt's Alexandria overnight in festivities between supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and his opponents. A security source said 35 were maimed.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/08/2013
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[Ynet] La Belle France supports the resumption of international talks with Iran if Iran puts into motion some "concrete gestures" to allay international concerns regarding its nuclear program, KUNA news agency reported, quoting official French sources Wednesday.
"That'll do it. Can I offer you some tea?"
The French Foreign Ministry said that La Belle France's Chief Diplomat Laurent Fabius "noted the affirmation of willingness for dialogue on the part of President (Hassan) Rohani." But noted that "It is up to Iran to show its seriousness (by) concrete gestures of a kind that will answer international concerns about its nuclear program."
Playing at being important, like they were in the old days.
[Al Ahram] President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... says security threats will never lead the US to retreat from the world. He says Americans don't get terrorized.
Obama was responding Wednesday to new threats from al-Qaeda that led the US to close 19 diplomatic outposts and evacuate the US Embassy in Yemen.
Obama said it's a complicated time for the US military. He said there have been big changes, especially in the Middle East and in North Africa.
Obama said the US will remain, in his words, "the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known." He said the military is an integral part of that mission. But he said the US must also lead with its ideals and values.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#7
TSA Sswat teams? That is kind of a keystone cops visual. I think they would be a bigger danger to themselves than anyone else. Okay, I am for it - let there be more TSA Swat teams.
[Al Ahram] Jordanian police are questioning two Syrians who allegedly tried to smuggle a large cache of arms including surface-to-air missiles into the kingdom, a security official said Wednesday.
The official said earlier that preliminary reports indicated that five had been arrested near the northern Syrian border early Tuesday. He said the reason for discrepancy in the number was not immediately clear and declined to elaborate further.
He said anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles and assault rifles were seized with the two men.
He declined to say if the alleged smugglers were affiliated with any side in Syria's civil war.
"There is an investigation now to determine if the two men were rebels seeking to hide weapons in Jordan, or that they smuggled them in with the malicious intention of staging attacks here," he said.
His account was confirmed by another security official. Both insisted on anonymity because they are not allowed to publically comment on a security matter under investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#1
"There is an investigation now to determine if the two men were rebels seeking to hide weapons in Jordan, or that they smuggled them in with the malicious intention of staging attacks here"
They left out transit to the West Bank, Sinai, and Lebanon.
[Bangla Daily Star] Mired in controversy, the government-appointed Chairman of Grameen Bank, Khondaker Muzammel Huq, has resigned, a finance ministry official confirmed.
Huq submitted his resignation to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Monday and cited personal reasons for his resignation, the source informed with The Daily Star.
Under media focus since his appointment following the government's removal of Dr Muhammad Yunus as the managing director of the Nobel Prize winning microlender, Huq hit newspaper headlines many times for controversial moves that many experts deemed unwarranted and harmful to GB.
In September last year, he formed a five-member committee without consulting the bank's nine borrower-directors, to appoint a managing director for the GB.
A recent move to advise the government to restructure the most successful microcredit organization of the country also earned the authorities strong flak.
Huq recently kicked up controversy again by saying that an amount of Tk 10,000 crore was supposed to be transferred from Grameenphone to Grameen Bank but the money never came.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[BREITBART] The standby attorney for the soldier charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage accused Maj. Nidal Hasan on Wednesday of deliberately charting a course toward a conviction and death sentence, abruptly halting the trial after only one day.
Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, Hasan's lead court-appointed standby attorney, said he is willing to step in and be Hasan's defense lawyer. But he asked that his responsibilities as co-counsel be minimized if Hasan, who is representing himself at trial, continues to work toward being executed.
It is "clear his goal is to remove impediments or obstacles to the death penalty and is working toward a death penalty," Poppe told the judge overseeing the case at the Texas military base.
Hasan responded: "I object. That's a twist of the facts."
The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, then cleared the courtroom.
Hasan has chosen to act as his own attorney during the military trial at Fort Hood, though he has defense attorneys on standby if he needs them.
On Tuesday, he told jurors during a less than 2-minute opening statement that the evidence would "clearly show" he was the shooter, but that it would "only show one side." He also questioned only two of the first dozen witnesses, who included one soldier who was shot seven times during the November 2009 attack on the sprawling Army post.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#3
Sometimes the guilt of the accused is clear as daylight. The rest of the clap trap is all ritual to satisfy the legal caste but does nothing but hinder the very reason of their existence - justice. Form over substance.
#4
This trial should be over. Guilty. Death sentence. The only issue that should be under discussion is the manner of death - hanging quickly, hanging slowly, lethal injection, transfusion of pig blood. (Not firing squad - too good for him.)
#5
Glenmore,
I think that this should be used as a history lesson. The 14th - 17th centuries (heck go BC) are replete with innovative, long lasting and painful ways to get rid of vermin like this.
I believe Vlad had one he was fond of using on Muslim invaders.
#6
Yes, the main column of an invading Turkish army
found their vanguard impaled on the fence posts bordering the main road, all 20,000 of them, mostly still alive...when they reached the last of them, the whole army turned to a man and returned to Istamboul! Thanks, Vlad Dracula!
When asked by the Russian ambassador where he had acquired his "peculiar" tastes, Vlad answered that in his youth, as a slave/hostage in Istambul, he saw a christian slave eviscerated in the street at every couple of feet...an impaled one every street corners..etc...
Posted by: Bob Snore6814 ||
08/08/2013 23:29
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[An Nahar] A man and a woman were nabbed ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... on Wednesday evening in Beirut's southern suburbs on charges of plotting an act of sabotage, according to media reports.
"A man and a woman, both Syrian nationals, were arrested in Dahieh after the interception of their phone conversations with a group in Majdal Anjar revealed that they were plotting a security operation against Dahieh," a Hizbullah stronghold, al-Jadeed television quoted a security source as saying.
MTV said the duo were apprehended by agents from the army's Intelligence Directorate.
Hizbullah sources told al-Jadeed that "Dahieh's security is a priority and the army is handling the matter."
"Investigations are underway in a normal manner to know more details about the arrested group which was plotting attacks," the sources added.
An Egyptian national was killed and two other people were maimed on Sunday when they were setting up bombs in Mount Leb's Iqlim al-Kharroub's region.
Several other bombs were found at their house in addition to a map containing three target places for kabooms -- al-Saadiyat, Wadi al-Zeina and Hadath.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#1
I remember when MTV did music videos
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2013 12:29
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#2
Something, Something, Dance Like An EgyptianShe Finded Me With Science a Kittuah Lament, I remember those.
Newspapers around the world are quoting this report. Here are the key paragraphs from the original.
[DailyBeast] It wasn't just any terrorist message that triggered U.S. terror alerts and embassy closures--but a conference call of more than 20 far-flung al Qaeda operatives, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin report.
Al Qaeda members included representatives or leaders from Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , the Pak Taliban, al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and more obscure al Qaeda affiliates such as the Uzbekistan branch. Also on the call were representatives of aspiring al Qaeda affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The presence of aspiring al Qaeda affiliates operating in the Sinai was one reason the State Department closed the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to one U.S. intelligence official. "These guys already proved they could hit Eilat. It's not out of the range of possibilities that they could hit us in Tel Aviv," the official said.
"This was like a meeting of the Legion of Doom," one U.S. intelligence officer told The Daily Beast. The official said Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... announced to the broader organization during the meeting that Wuhayshi had been promoted to "Ma'sul al-Amm," an Arabic term that roughly translates as "general manager." The promotion effectively gave the leader of al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen operational control of al Qaeda's many affiliates throughout the Mohammedan world, the official said. "All you need to do is look at that list of places we shut down to get a sense of who was on the phone call," the official said.
Also during the meeting, the various al Qaeda leaders discussed in vague terms plans for a pending attack and mentioned that a team or teams were already in place for such an attack.
#1
Interesting. So now we have a great example of how the NSA covert surveillance of every phone call has - actually - helped each and every one of us.
Very convenient for the gubbamint.
Scripted, almost.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2013 6:29
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#2
This is why you should never let Lync update your calendar or something like that.
[Ynet] A suspected US drone strike killed seven alleged al-Qaeda Death Eaters Wednesday in southern Yemen, security officials and residents said, as the Arab nation remained on high alert following threats of a terror attack targeting Western of government interests.
It was the fifth strike in less than two weeks in Yemen.
The US has dramatically stepped up its use of drone strikes in Yemen in its covert fight against al-Qaeda's branch there, which is considered one of the most active of the terror network. Washington also has been backing a Yemeni military campaign to uproot al-Qaeda Death Eaters and their radical allies who had taken over a string of southern cities and towns. The Death Eaters have largely been driven into the mountains and countryside, and Yemeni intelligence officials say the current threat may be retaliation for that offensive.
The drone strike killed the Death Eaters in Shabwa province, setting two vehicles on fire, security officials said. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Residents in the province's Markha area, who also declined to be identified, fearing retaliation, said they saw several bodies on fire in two burning cars.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... an News Agency that Dare Not be Namednews hound in Sanaa said a drone has been buzzing overhead for most of the day. Authorities have set up checkpoints across Sanaa, searching cars and individuals. Top government officials, along with military and security commanders, were told to stay vigilant and limit their movements.
While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not confirm individual strikes or release information on how many have been carried out.
The terror network's Yemeni offshoot, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has been bolstering its operations in Yemen over the past few years after key Saudi operatives fled there following a major crackdown in their homeland.
The group overran entire towns and villages in 2011, taking advantage of a security lapse during nationwide protests that eventually ousted Yemen's longtime ruler, President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... . Backed by the US military, Yemen's army was able to regain control of the southern region, but al-Qaeda Death Eaters continue to launch deadly attacks on security forces.
[Al Ahram] Army front man Ahmed Ali released a statement Wednesday with the results of the police and army's crackdown on "terrorism and jihadists" in Sinai from the period 5 July to 4 August.
The statement, released on Ali's official Facebook page, says that the crackdown resulted in apprehending 227 individuals -- 103 of which were placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! and 124 are either dead or injured.
The 103 individuals arrested, from across Sinai, are currently being interrogated. From among the 124, 60 were killed in festivities between security forces, while 64 were maimed.
Sinai has suffered a security vacuum since the January 2011 uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's regime. The situation escalated with the ouster of Moslem Brüderbund-backed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi 3 July. Militants have attacked police and security forces on a daily basis in response to Morsi's overthrow.
Ali also announced that 102 tunnels between Egypt and the Gazoo Strip have been destroyed. The tunnels, according to the statement, were used as an entry point by terrorists, as well as for smuggling weapons, drugs and cars, among others things.
The UN released a statement late July claiming that the army's crackdown closed 80 percent of Gazoo's tunnels, many of which have been used to smuggle basic necessities into Gazoo, leaving the UN concerned "that already difficult economic and humanitarian conditions in Gazoo will further deteriorate."
Ali also stated that 40 petroleum tanks containing 2.7 million litres of gas and diesel, intended to be smuggled into Gazoo, have been destroyed.
The armed forces have also destroyed four houses that reportedly sheltered terrorists. The Death Eaters allegedly used the houses to initiate attacks on security forces.
Some 38 cars reportedly used by Death Eaters to carry weapons have been seized by authorities.
The army statement comes hours after the murder of a Mubarak-era parliamentarian by unknown assailants in Sinai. Attackers fired from a moving vehicle four bullets at Abdel Hamid Silmi, 58, as he left a mosque early Wednesday after dawn prayers.
Members of Silmi's prominent Fawakhreya tribe gathered amid a charged atmosphere at Al-Arish General Hospital, where Silmi was moved following the shooting outside Abu-Bakr Al-Seddiq Mosque.
According to Rooters, 40 people have been killed by forces of Evil attacking security checkpoints since Morsi's ouster.
Critics of the Moslem Brüderbund accuse the group of instigating violence in Sinai -- charges much repeated after senior Brotherhood figure Mohamed El-Beltagy stated last month that violence in Sinai would immediately end should Morsi be reinstated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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#2
Alright, he's a walking, talking, disgusting weirdo piece of kak. But what about the people who he victimized, assaulted, insulted, groped, fondled, slobbered upon, attempted to sexually extort, etc, etc, etc. Where have their civil, criminal complaints and charges been all these years ?
Now that he's on the bottom and losing power and influence [ie, of no use to us any longer], we'll all bravely exit the closet and pile on the ole sick bastid. Nice, very, very nice.
#3
However, Akin antics, which consisted of a few weapons grade stupid statements, cost the GOP and easy seat pickup in the Senate.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2013 7:36
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#4
Now that he's on the bottom and losing power and influence [ie, of no use to us any longer], we'll all bravely exit the closet and pile on the ole sick bastid. Nice, very, very nice.
#5
It is kinda odd the way all these women have suddenly come out of the woodwork. And there can be no doubt that the San Diego media types have been all it over like the pack of hounds they are. After all, it's a whole lot easier to get a few sound bites from Gloria Allred than it is to actually investigate what's happening in city hall.
#6
It is kinda odd the way all these women have suddenly come out of the woodwork
Not really. It's just that it's safe to do so (See: Juanita Broderick, et al,) now that the former progressive Member of Congress is merely a mayor, and the dam-of-acquiescence finally broke.
[Dawn] Yemen said Wednesday it had foiled an al Qaeda plot to storm a Western-run oil terminal and seize a lovely provincial capital, as a terror alert kept US Middle East missions closed.
The jihadist network's feared Yemeni affiliate planned to assault the Canadian-run Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal on the Arabian Sea coast and take staff hostage, including Western expatriates, government front man Rajeh Badi told AFP.
A nearby export facility for oil derivatives was targeted too, Badi said.
The terrorist organization also plotted to seize the nearby Hadramawt lovely provincial capital Al-Mukalla, a port city of some 100,000 people, and the Ghayl Bawazeer area to its north, where they briefly declared an Islamic emirate earlier this year, Badi said.
"If they were to fail in seizing control of the facilities, the plan was to take foreign experts away as hostages," he said.
The attack was planned for Monday, which coincided with the 27th day of the Musselmen fasting month of Ramadan and was the second day of a mass closure of US missions across the Middle East and North Africa.
The plot was foiled around two days before it was due to be launched, Badi said.
Both Washington and London pulled diplomatic personnel out of Sanaa on Tuesday citing intelligence reports of an imminent attack by the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The United States took the unusual step of closing some 25 diplomatic missions in the Musselmen world on Sunday, and then extending the closure for a week at 19 of them, in response to what it said was a credible and imminent threat of a major al Qaeda attack.
An intercepted conference call between al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... and top operatives was the trigger for the closures, online journal The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday, citing US intelligence sources.
It said more than 20 al Qaeda operatives from across the globe were on the call, including representatives of Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , the Pak Taliban and al Qaeda in Iraq as well as AQAP.
In the call, Zawahiri reportedly named AQAP chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi, as the operational controller of the group's affiliates throughout the Musselmen world.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] Three suspected robbers were beaten to death at Raonaut village under Kapasia upazila in Gazipur in the early hours of yesterday.
The dear departed are Ramjan, 25, son of Nayamat Ali of Kamalpur village in Mymensingh district; Masum, 22, of Palan area under Haridebpur in the district's Kaligonj upazila; and Babul, 24, of Raynanda village in the upazila.
Quoting the locals, Md Delowar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kapasia Police Station, said a group of robbers numbering 12 had stormed into the house of Niranjan Das at Mirar Tek in the village around 4:30am.
The robbers chopped the house owner and his mother as they tried to resist the robbery attempt, the OC added.
Hearing the hue and cry, locals rushed to the house. Announcement was also made using the loudspeaker of a local mosque.
The robbers also chopped one Russel when they were fleeing.
Locals, however, managed to catch a member of the gang named Ramjan. They beat and stabbed him, leaving him dead on the spot.
Later, in the morning, the locals found another two dacoits named Babul and Masum on the rooftop of a house in the village, and gave them a sound beating before informing the police.
On information, police rushed to the spot around 10:30am, recovered the dead, and rescued the injured.
The rescued were taken to Kapasia Upazila Health Complex. But the on-duty doctors declared them dead.
Police also seized choppers, knives, and sticks from the spot that were used by the robbers.
The bodies were sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsies.
Murder cases accusing unnamed villagers will be filed, OC Delowar said at 5:45pm.
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[Bangla Daily Star] India's government yesterday faced mounting pressure to put proposed peace talks with Pakistain back in the deep freeze after a deadly cross-border attack on its troops in disputed Kashmire.
The opposition accused the government of letting Pakistain off the hook over the killing of five soldiers in Kashmire, as the attack overnight Monday triggered uproar in parliament.
Defence Minister AK Antony told parliament Tuesday that "20 heavily armed bully boyz along with persons dressed in Pak Army uniforms" had staged the ambush.
India's army had initially blamed the attack on regular Pakistain troops but later withdrew the statement.
"Our defence minister has given a clean chit to Pakistain," Sushma Swaraj, lower house leader of the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, told parliament.
The defence minister "has let the country down. He must apologise to the nation," she said as the uproar forced parliament's adjournment.
Analysts said the killings had jeopardised efforts to arrange a meeting between India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his new Pak counterpart Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... in New York in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani told politicians "this is no time for talks" between the nuclear-armed rivals as news channels ran footage of the arrival of the soldiers' flag-draped coffins in New Delhi.
With elections due by May 2014, analysts said the government cannot afford to look soft on Pakistain -- with which India has fought three wars, two over the Moslem-majority region of Kashmire.
The Congress-led government has been keen to engage with Pakistain.
Pakistain has denied involvement in the attack and Indian and Pak commanders spoke by hotline and discussed the incident yesterday, a Pak military source told AFP.
Singh called an all-party meeting for Wednesday night to seek the opposition's support for the meeting with Sharif, who made rapprochement a key theme of his election campaign.
Former Indian foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said "a high-level dialogue between two prime ministers right now is unlikely to yield any breakthrough".
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Chuttiana police placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! four passengers of blast-hit Shalimar Express for interrogation on Monday.
Sources said the detained belonged to Sindh and were returning to their hometowns after a visit to Raiwind Tableeghi centre. Six of their fellows were among the injured.
A police official said the four were tossed into the calaboose for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Eid holidaymakers suffered a lot stranding on a 50-kilometer long tailback as the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... , blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong Wednesday night.
The party men staged the rowdy demonstration and resorted to arson and vandalism protesting the killing of a Jamaat men, reported our Chittagong correspondent quoting witnesses.
When police tried to clear the highway to minimise the sufferings of homebound people, the Jamaat-Shibir men engaged in a chase and counter-chase with the law enforcers.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... no injury was reported when this report was filed around 11:00pm.
The incident erupted around 7:15pm when Abdullahel Russell alias Babu was stabbed dead in Baradargah area of the upazila, locals said.
As soon as the news spread, nearly one hundred Jamaat and Shibir men put barricade in Sitakunda bazaar area on the highway protesting the killing, resulting the 50-km traffic congestion ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, the largest festival of Mohammedans.
Protesting the killing, the party men torched three CNG-run three-wheelers and vandalised several vehicles on the highway.
Some activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... (BCL), the student wing of ruling Awami League, stabbed dead the 28-year-old Babu, an activist of Jamaat, claimed Mahmudullah, publication secretary of Chittagong city unit of the party.
No comment of BCL was available immediately.
Contacted, Zahirul Islam, a sub-inspector and also the in-charge of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital police outpost, told The Daily Star that Babu was declared dead after being taken to the hospital.
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08/08/2013
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[BloombergBusinessweek] Today The Hill reports that Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who head the Senate Finance Committee and are working on a complete rewrite of the U.S. tax code,
...which won't be any more comprehensible than the current tax code...
have assured their colleagues that any of their requests to preserve a loophole will be kept secret by the National Archives for 50 years. The details of the story, all true, read as if they were dreamed up by a 10-year-old after watching Thunderball: "Each submission will also be given its own ID number and be kept on password-protected servers, with printed versions kept in locked safes," The Hill writes. Until 2064.
SELECT * FROM TABLE exemptions_requests | mail -s 'Good stuff' grurkka@gmail.com; All it takes. Good luck with your secret servers when the tables get accessed. Information wants to be free, baby!
"Hey, Joe! Ya got that yet? The safe's been locked for at least five minutes, ya slowpoke!"
"Yeah, yeah. They changed their passwords again, so I had to play with it instead of just using the backdoor. So does the AG want us to release Senator Cotton's notes or what?"
It isn't clear who holds the key to the safes, or whether, as in a nuclear silo, there are two key-holders to prevent actions of conscience. Or whether the server will be protected with a password that must contain at least one number and one capital letter.
And a hieroglyph, and a haiku, and a dollop of McDonald's secret sauce...
Or whether that password will be written down, and if so, if that paper will be troweled into the repairs underway on the Washington Monument.
Doesn't matter. One improperly groped female federal employee, or not groped enough, and he/she gets access to the server, pissed enough to screw over as many people as possible. See Manning, Bradley and Snowden, Edward, et seq. Let the good times roll. Obama showed us there's no law and there's no secrets, so good luck with this one.
This is something I'd actually like to see Wikileaks get hold off...
An aide explained to The Hill that Baucus and Hatch's promise of 50 years of secrecy is "standard operating procedure for sensitive materials including investigation materials." Tax negotiations, then--Congress's basic constitutional responsibility--are to be held to the same standard of secrecy as the investigation of the Warren Commission.
Tax negotiations have the same security level as investigating the assassination of a President? Okay, it was the Cold War and he was a telegenic Democrat with a telegenic family. Camelot, and all that. But still...
Promise good until the next election. About the same promise of, "Of course I'll tell my wife, and then we'll divorce. Have I ever lied to you, darling?" As for standards, with the Obama regime, standards went down the crapper with the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, and now with Obamacare.
Secrecy is a feature of our democracy. Sausage is gross, and backroom deals are necessary.
That's why Democrats and the rest of the liberals shed tears about the good old days when Republicans were moderate and "bipartisanship" reigned supreme. The backroom deals were hidden away like (and barely outnumbered) JFK's sexual antics. Deals were made and the boodle flowed at all levels of politics. Now? You get Detroit.
But these secrets, the scraps of paper on which Senators write their wishes, vouchsafed in a hope chest at the National Archives, are so precious that they can't even be trusted to a back room.
Put them into an envelope marked "Benghazi secrets" and the press will never touch them...
Senators are scared. Some tax loopholes are just indefensible to voters. There is no way to pretend that they help our kids, or jobs. They just go to people and companies that donate money. That's what this secrecy is for. The only possible reason for it to exist is to prevent senators from having to defend their choices to the public.
Helluva lot more reasons than a public relations problem. No congressman whose name gets plastered on a federal building somewhere wants it out that he/she took millions in exchange for favorable treatment in the tax code. Let the diminishing of criminal liability begin after the lawmakers are dead. Bad news: Congress has passed ex post facto laws before so in 60 years clawback from relatives can begin. Bills of attainder? That's law and there is no more law, thanks to Obama and his congressional allies.
So here's what we know about Baucus and Hatch's "blank slate" process, which wipes the tax code clean, forcing senators to justify every loophole they ask to have written back in.
Justify and then keep secret forever...
We know that some of the loopholes just aren't defensible, so toxic to voters that not only can we not know them, we may not ever know them. I will probably not live to 2064; the genes aren't as good on my father's side. I would, however, like to be able to decide how to vote in 2014. Senators have to please both constituents and donors. I get it. Money is speech. But any senator with a tax plea so secret it has to be physically locked away is definitely, absolutely not requesting it for the voters.
Here's an idea, although a quixotic one: Vote out the incumbents next year. Rinse and repeat in 2016 and 2018.
#1
After Champ put a mint in their collectives mouths and exempted the congress and their odious little bootlicking staffers from the Unaffordable Care Act, nothing surprises me.
They're all crooks, just like the old man said in 1957.
#7
Only an idiot would trust that their corrupt little loophole requests would remain hidden. I also don't think such a thing could be hidden legally from a freedom of information act request, it's not national security.
#8
"I also don't think such a thing could be hidden legally"
What makes you think that matters with this bunch, rj?
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/08/2013 11:14
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Hey, Congress dudes! The whole point of redoing the tax code is to GET RID OF THE LOOPHOLES. They are the reason the stinkin' thing is so complicated in the first place.
[Al Ahram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... , Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday.
The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria's devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... in Moscow last week, they said.
Russia has supported Assad with arms and diplomatic cover throughout the war and any change in Moscow's stance would remove a major obstacle to action on Syria by the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council.
Syrian opposition sources close to Saudi Arabia said Prince Bandar offered to buy up to $15 billion of Russian weapons as well as ensuring that Gulf gas would not threaten Russia's position as a main gas supplier to Europe.
In return, Saudi Arabia wanted Moscow to ease its strong support of Assad and agree not to block any future Security Council Resolution on Syria, they said.
A Gulf source familiar with the matter confirmed that Prince Bandar offered to buy large quantities of arms from Russia, but that no cash amount was specified in the talks.
One Lebanese politician close to Saudi Arabia said the meeting between Bandar and Putin lasted four hours. "The Saudis were elated about the outcome of the meeting," said the source, without elaborating.
Putin's front man, Dmitry Peskov, could not immediately be reached on Wednesday for comment about the meeting. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official was also not immediately available to respond.
Putin's initial response to Bandar's offer was inconclusive, diplomats say. One Western diplomat in the Middle East said the Russian leader was unlikely to trade Moscow's recent high profile in the region for an arms deal, however substantial.
He said Russian officials also appeared sceptical that Saudi Arabia had a clear plan for stability in Syria if Assad fell.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Aw, now there is the rub, "clear plan for stability" Obamaer would take that but Putin has his eyes on the future. Assad grows stronger every day now. Bandar thinks he can buy off Putin. Thats a fools bargain. Russia appears stronger in the world as we appear weaker. Any appearance of weakness will be avoided. O has played his hand poorly. O will offer reset number twelve perhaps. Just so he looks like he cares or is trying.
"As was reported earlier by Conservative Report, Cross Border Authority was denied." ....don't know anything about this blog, but it seems interesting....
#1
Well, only the President can issue the Cross Border Authority. However, anyone in the chain of command can deny it. So, all Valerie did was decide that the issue wasn't worth forwarding to the President. After all, he had a very important fund raiser the next day and he needed his beauty sleep.
Spit.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/08/2013 0:30
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#3
Jarret is one of the reasons Obama is so hateful and dishonest - she is gasoline to his fire.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln
You already know my opinion of Jarret and the consideration due. Didn't realize it got my post deleted the other day, but so what - I stand by it. Its an opinion, rhetoric, not a call for action. Argue as you wish... may have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
#5
You already know my opinion of Jarret and the consideration due. Didn't realize it got my post deleted the other day, but so what - I stand by it. Its an opinion, rhetoric, not a call for action. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
Your opinion - true. But it's not your name on the domain registry. You're a tenant at Rantburg, just like me. Except I get to clean up the messes. You also offering to foot the legal bills if there's a backlash?
Threatening a U.S. citizen with harm is a no-no at the Burg. That's been a standing policy.
Just to make it clear: Do not use words that can be interpreted to advocate, make the case for, or promote violence against a U.S. citizen.
Is that understood?
Will a "safety brief" have to be permanently displayed when the comments section comes up?
#6
Please, please be a gentleman about this, OldSpook. You were otherwise occupied during the R1ghth4aven nonsense, but at the time Fred's outcome was less certain than yours.
[Dawn] Police in Bannu defused three low-intensity bombs planted in different areas in the limits of the city's Miryan cop shoppe on Wednesday foiling a terrorist attack.
On a tip off that faceless myrmidons had planted bombs at three locations in the city, police rushed to the sites along with a bomb disposal squad and defused all three bombs.
The bombs had been planted at a school, at the Hujra of Sardar Yusuf Khan and by a roadside.
Had the bombs gone off, they would have brought massive loss of life and property, police said.
Moreover, an investigation was initiated into the matter.
The northwestern town of Bannu, which stands at the gateway to Wazoo, is 150 kilometres southwest of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The music Ive been hearing lately from Washington says If this is truly an overriding Israeli security interest, and you think you want to strike, then the light hasnt changed to green, I think, but its definitely yellow.
[Dawn] An kaboom occurred near a shopping centre in Mastung area of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... killing two persons, including a child, and injured 15 persons on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.
The bomb was planted near a shopping centre and targeted eid shoppers.
The victims were shifted to a nearby hospitals for treatment whereas three people, who were reportedly at death's door, were shifted to Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ...
4th amendment, heard of it? Used to be the law of the land.
#2
Hey OLD SPOOK, as one old retired Cold War warrior to another, Sta ats si cherheit STASI techniques are the "in thing" unter der Big O's Verwaltung (administration) don't you know !
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] The 15-year-old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker has resigned from his position on the advisory board of Cory Booker's start-up after it was revealed that the teenager had a leadership role in the company and receiving stock options for his work.
Hours after the news broke that Zucker's teenage son Andrew was listed as a member of the video aggregation start-up, a CNN front man said that he resigned from the company.
The spokesperson also made a concerted effort to distance Booker, the current Newark mayor who is running for the open New Jersey Senate seat, from the decision to bring the younger Zucker on board.
They said instead that it was Sarah Ross, a tech executive with close ties to Silicon Valley, who approached Andrew and asked him to provide some analysis for the Booker's start-up Waywire because the teenager is apparently known for his insight into popular trends among teens.
CNN Money reported on Wednesday that Andrew's name was suggested to Ms Ross by another Waywire board member after they heard that the teen had been helping his dad when it came to tech branding issues for the cable news giant.
Ms Ross then had a conversation with both Jeff and Andrew Zucker and they agreed to have the now-15-year-old sign on to Waywire's advisory board and receive a 'de minimus' amount of stock options in return.
An unidentified source told CNN Money that Booker himself was 'not involved at all' with the decision, and Ms Ross herself admitted at an early stage that the politician would not be a part of the day-to-day operations of the start up.
The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reports that even in the nascent phase, it was clear among the founders that Booker would be a more public role.
When the launched the company, Ms Ross reportedly said to Booker: 'You know what? You should do it, found the company. Obviously you don't have to be involved -- you've got a full-time job. But found the company.'
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#1
Dynastic efforts and nepotism. The hallmark of the leftist elites.
#2
Pretty much the exact sort of thing that made the Founding Fathers want to puke...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2013 7:33
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#3
Unless they're paying the kid with my money I don't see the problem here. It's none of my business how they wanna run their company as long as Obama isn't subsidizing them.
[Washington Post] The overwhelming sentiment coming out of President Obama's interview with "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno can be summed up like this: "Wow, Jay really asked serious questions."
Russia, Edward Snowden and the NSA were part of the conversation. So too was the increased terror alert. And Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects. There was relatively little "Hey how are the wife and kids" chatter that many people expected. (Leno did ask Obama how he spent his birthday; it wasn't a totally dry interview.)
No one who has watched the transformation of media -- and how politicians have learned to take advantage of those changes -- should be surprised, however.
Here's the reality: As the definition of who is a journalist has continued to expand, the line between "serious" and "fun" has blurred. There are examples of this phenomenon everywhere: the success of BuzzFeed and the rise of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" as a primary news source for many people being the two most obvious.
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#1
Seven trips now to California to visit and appear with Leno, a man who uses him as the butt of humour? I have a question. Whom or what is he really visiting in California ?
Back in the 60s, television 'allowed' sci-fi programs, like Twilight Zone and Star Trek, to address serious issues of the day, but would never allow those issues to be directly addressed in their other programming. Today, those serious issues are off the table for the Party Media, aka MinTruth, and its apparatchiks, but allowed in other venues. News is Entertainment, Entertainment is News.
#6
"Wow, Jay really asked serious questions."
Seriously? I am fairly convinced that this was a mostly scripted encounter for which our CIC (Comic in Chief) was completely briefed in advance. Oh and BTW his answers all fairly long winded as usual were the usual generalities that could have been stated by anybody and the usual sprinkling of flat out lies, e.g. "we cut the deficity in half" - LOL. I agree with Rush, everytime he speaks in an unserious venue or an unserious way he diminishes the American Presidency an additional notch and I'm sure this does not go unnoticed on the world stage, only by the blind liberals here at home.
#7
The interview worked very well for Obama, IMO. He came across much less arrogant and condescending than usual, and the questions were not that hard.
#4
Yemen should have been a target after the Cole bombing. Hotbed of crazies and better situated to act as flypaper than Iraq. Of course I'm talking pre-911 when the smart folks thought all that Islamic threat stuff was all about trying to create a new Soviet threat out of nothing to justify defense spending. Gotta love the smart folk who are never really taken to task when they blow it big time.
[An Nahar] Violence killed seven people on Wednesday, including three coppers and a young girl, officials said, as authorities struggle to contain the worst violence to hit Iraq since 2008.
The attacks are the latest in a wave of unrest that has made the holy Mohammedan fasting month of Ramadan the bloodiest in years, with more than 800 people killed nationwide.
Militants have struck targets ranging from cafes where Iraqis gather after breaking their daily Ramadan fast to mosques where extended evening prayers are held during Ramadan.
In Wednesday's deadliest attack, a bomb killed three coppers and maimed a fourth near Dhuluiyah, north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... Another bomb went kaboom! near a police patrol in the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, killing a young girl, while police potted two snuffies attempting to plant a bomb.
And in the Mussayib area, south of Storied Baghdad, a magnetic "sticky bomb" on a bus killed one person and maimed two.
Other attacks, including a boom-mobile that went kaboom! near a Kurdish political party office in the northern city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... maimed dozens more.
Violence has markedly increased this year, especially since an April 23 security operation at a Sunni Arab anti-government protest site that sparked festivities in which dozens died.
Protests erupted in Sunni-majority areas in late 2012, amid widespread discontent among Sunnis, who accuse the Shiite-led government of marginalizing and targeting them.
Analysts say Sunni anger is the main cause of the spike in violence this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Happy Ramadan!"
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/08/2013 12:25
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#2
Actually Iraq seems like an oasis of calm compared to Syria, Egypt, Yemen etc.
I guess we can compare Bush's diplomatic skills with Obama's "leading with his behind."
Posted by: frozen al ||
08/08/2013 13:13
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Al Qaeda forces of Evil could try to bring down planes using an undetectable explosive soaked into their clothes, officials fear. The organization's bomb-makers are reportedly developing an 'ingenious' system whereby shirts and trousers drenched in the explosive could be ignited when dry.
It would be undetectable under current security measures and remove the need for forces of Evil to mix liquid explosives on board, security sources told the American TV network ABC News.
The latest threat to air passengers is one of the reasons behind the current global terror alert, according to two senior US government officials.
Possibly it's time to revive the idea of flying naked...
British bomb expert Sidney Alford confirmed that the new method was possible using easily available chemicals, but pulling it off would be tricky as the soaking process would dilute the explosive.
He said: 'The clothes act as a diluent and reduce the power of the explosives.'
However, ars longa, vita brevis... igniting treated clothes could be done simply with a match. Passengers are allowed to carry a single box of safety matches or a cigarette lighter on flights.
Why? Haven't all airlines forbidden smoking on airplanes, or is that an American thin?
The new explosive has reportedly been developed by the notorious bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who made the device used by convicted 'underwear bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas Day in 2009.
Al-Asiri, 31, is the one who recruited his own brother Abdullah al-Asiri as a suicide bomber in a failed 2009 attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of the Interior.
Other reports have suggested that Al-Asiri is developing bombs that could be sewn under the skin of terrorists.
Dozens of Al Qaeda operatives are said to have streamed into Sana'a in the past few days, forcing the country's military to use 'extraordinary and unprecedented' security measures to protect official buildings.
At the same time, at least four suspected forces of Evil have been killed in an American drone strike in the eastern Marib region of Yemen.
The drone fired a missile at a car carrying the four men, setting it on fire and killing all of them, the officials said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the media, the officials said they believe one of the dead is Saleh Jouti, a senior Al Qaeda member.
It's the fourth drone attack in the past week to hit a car believed to be carrying Al Qaeda members.
The BBC reports that Yemeni intelligence services discovered al-Qaeda members had arrived in the Yemeni capital Sanaa over the past few days ready to implement a large plot.
It is said that that plot would include kabooms and suicide kabooms aimed at Western ambassadors and embassies.
Yemen's interior ministry has sent armoured military vehicles to surround the presidential palace, and other important buildings. Western embassies in the capital of Sanaa are also being protected.
#2
We did that in college inorganic chem lab with a nitrogen triiodide (and ammonia) compound (polyhalides are fun due to bond angles and "crowding" of the bonds, making them highly unstable out of solution, and exothermic).
Put it on window sills, scared the crap out of the pigeons. Painted the underside of a toilet seat in the "redneck" frat (Kappa Sigma) and the "pressure points" set it off after drying and someone sat on it - I understand that it Left a nice purple stain on the skin in a "ring" shape.
Lets just say back in those days, social probation was worth it. Especially since I only made the stuff (its one of the ways I learned plausible deniability), and someones else did the "painting" - except the windowsill. THe pigeons were an accident and there was no long term damage to them. More than we can say for my attempts (successful) at thermite [magnesium is a great ignition source). There was some rather unfortunate damage from that.
Fulminate of mercury too - fun stuff. ANFO of course (but we knew that because its what people used to use to blow up tree stumps when I was a kid). ANd of course chunks of sodium in the fountain - and even better was the potassium I managed to get hold of. Potassium metal is some seriously energetic stuff in a larger body of water.
I think any college sophomores doing what we did would get locked up for suspicion of terrorism these days.
#5
think any college sophomores doing what we did would get locked up for suspicion of terrorism these days.
Yes, they would. Things are different nowadays, and a certain not at all innocent innocence has been thrown away. As seen above, real terrorists aren't at all nice.
#6
The organization's bomb-makers are reportedly developing an 'ingenious' system whereby shirts and trousers drenched in the explosive could be ignited when dry.
Back in '91 part of my newhire safety briefing was to lightly dampen a sample Tshirt in a clear solution then let it dry on a rack as the instructor went thru his pitch. At the end of the briefing, the guy bent down, picked up a stone and tossed it at the Tshirt. WHUMP! the thing went up in flames.
#8
Idiot jihadis can get inside this injit's OODA loop. Not hard when you are standing still and always on the defensive (a stretch).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2013 11:10
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#9
We painted the hinges on the door to the physics lab that remained open during the day, all day. That evening when the janitor slammed the door shut . . .
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.
TEL AVIV -- As tensions escalate along Israel's northern border, a senior military official warned that the next war with Hezbollah would be far more painful for Israeli citizens than any previous experience.
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Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
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Nawaz Sharif
[Bangla Daily Star] The Eid holidaymakers suffered a lot stranding on a 50-kilometer long tailback as the activists of 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Wazoo
