I bet I'm a heck of a lot faster and more accurate when it comes to combat shooting than they are, so if they want to start assaulting me or any other innocent in my view, I guess we'll find out. I'm kinda looking forward to getting it over with. Then maybe we can go back to an America where everyone is AMERICAN and we drop the hyphens.
#6
...I noticed that even during the most expansive urban rioting, those doing the dirty work seem to avoid going into neighborhoods outside of their normal habitats. They posture a lot, but seem to go for the easy targets immediately in or on the edges of their 'territory'. Note well at 1:12.
#2
The problem was caused by the housing, education, and healthcare bubbles brought on by politicians of all stripes trying to push the economy in unnatural directions, and it has been exacerbated by those same politicians having denial about what it will take to fix it. Of course, most of the politicians were put there by voters who are the product of an overly liberal and politically correct education.
President Barack Obama's impact on what is arguably the Iowa State Fair's most storied watering hole has become a morning-after mini-debate over the breakfast bacon thanks to a tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley, as well as fairgrounds chatter.
Obama's fair stop Monday evening required shutdown of the popular Bud Tent, the heart of fairgrounds nightlife at the intersection of E. 33rd Street and Grand Avenue. Fairgoers eager to greet the president were ushered inside, screened and scanned by the Secret Service and penned in by yellow caution tape. The entire production required at least two hours, and the president's sleek black coach bus pulled away from the Bud Tent by 8:30 p.m.
There are "two sides to this story," said Mike Cunningham II, the third generation owner of the 65-year-old Bud Tent.
On one hand, Cunningham, 39, appreciated the historical significance of Obama's visit: His great-grandfather, Lloyd Cunningham, was secretary of the fair board from 1942 to 1962 and was on hand to greet then-President Dwight Eisenhower when Ike visited the centennial fair in 1954 with Iowa's own President Herbert Hoover in tow. (That was the first of four visits by sitting presidents, followed by Gerald Ford in 1975, George W. Bush in 2002 and Obama on Monday.)
On the other hand, the small business owner side of Cunningham fumes that the president "put a damper on what I'm trying to do here." His Bud Tent was shut down at the most lucrative time of day, with a popular rock cover band, Hairball, about to perform at the Susan B. Knapp Amphitheater next door with legions of thirsty fans.
"I was in a position to make a campaign donation against my will," said Cunningham, a Republican.
Cunningham played the gracious host during the president's visit -- smiled, posed for photos, raised a beer with Obama, gifted him a "Save Water; Drink Beer" T-shirt.
A tweet from Grassley Monday evening, in the senator's trademark abbreviated social media lingo, was one of the first signs of disgruntlement: "How does PresO justify havin secret service shut down the bud tent @ the state fair nd the owner told me he loses 50,000 n 1 nite."
Cunningham said that the more accurate figure for what he likely lost in sales Monday night is $25,000. He appreciated that fellow fair vendor Barksdale allowed him to set up a Bud beer station near the amphitheater stage and recoup some dollars from those Hairball fans.
To be clear, Obama did fork over cash to buy his own beer as he also offered to buy a round for 10 or so fairgoers in the vicinity.
Other vendors along the Grand Concourse seemed to enjoy business as usual.
Gary Kirke, owner of the nearby Jalapeño Pete's said the presidential visit had no effect on his sales.
The Bud Tent owner added that he hasn't yet replied to a phone message from Obama's staff asking him to respond publicly to Grassley's tweet.
"I wouldn't have voted for (Obama) before," Cunningham said. "I won't again." At least the owner was polite, but there isn't one thing Obama touches that doesn't cost the taxpayers money.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is considering amending the Camp David Accords to give Egypt full control over the Sinai, his legal adviser told a national newspaper.
Mohamed Gadallah told the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm that Morsi is "studying" whether to amend the basis for the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
Under the accords, Israel agreed to withdraw its troops and citizens from the Sinai and return it to Egypt in return for normalized relations and a restriction on the number of Egyptian troops allowed to enter the Sinai, particularly near the border with Israel.
Morsi has said several times since taking office that he would respect all international treaties signed by Egypt.
Calls for amending the treaty have increased since last week's terrorist attack on Egyptian security officers in the Sinai, according to the newspaper. never let a crisis go to waste.
Israel in recent weeks had tacitly agreed to increased numbers of Egyptian troops in the Sinai.
#5
"Give Egypt full control over the Sinai" > yeah right-t-t, Israel may as well renounce its sovereign statehood + formally surrender to the ARab Leagur, besides also formally announcing national conversion from Hebraism/Judaism to Islam.
#2
For when "climate change deniers" get to kneel at the edge of a ditch...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/14/2012 16:32
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#3
ESSA... was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on 1 October 1970, with the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act. Wikipedia
#10
Depends on how much many round and how often is the handgun qualification is held. Supposedly there are "111 special agents and 23 enforcement officers...the total number of OLE agents to 134."
FNOAA Fisheries sez: Agents and officers are required to have 200 rounds in his or her duty bag, and twice-a-year firearm qualification and training calls for agents to use another 500-600 rounds. In addition, firearms instructors with more than one pistol may need more rounds in a year. In 2011, the guidance was that each agent and officer would need 700 rounds per year to meet these requirements.
I leave it to the more astute and less fatigued to do the numbers.
#13
Another site I trust came up with 365 each, which some around here would just call a Saturday morning; neither figure is high for a person required to know how to use firearm.
#14
From the National Rifle Association website for Law Enforcement Instructor Development Schools
The following are school-specific requirements in addition to the above.
Handgun Instructor
...
the following are ALSO necessary for this school:
Back-up or off-duty firearm and equipment. May be a duty pistol or revolver. Holster may be IWB, ankle, paddle, fanny-pack, or other suitable concealed carry holster. At least one magazine pouch and 3 magazines or speedloaders are required.
Cover garment for concealed carry range exercises.
800 rounds of duty or training handgun ammunition.
400 rounds of duty or training handgun ammunition (for off-duty pistol).
ROP MA
Forty-two people have been killed and more than 130 others wounded in a series of bombings in the south-west and north of Afghanistan, reports say.
At least 11 bombers targeted the city of Zaranj, police said, but not all had been able to blow themselves up.
Shortly afterwards, police in the northern province of Kunduz said 12 people were killed and 36 others were hurt by another bomb.
The bombers had reportedly attacked crowded markets. So the goal is to make everybody go without food or other stuff? Out of jealousy or just because they like chaos? This makes about as much sense as the Colorado Batman killer, but it's a whole group of nut-cases, not just one, and they call themselves a religion.
#1
Yeah the math and computer people that are mapping stocks, banking and selling their crap to the Pentagon will be cleaning it all up in the new 24 ounce quart jars that cost 3 or 4 times as much now! Mapping terrorism and the housing algorithm all the same who cares right the Pentagon bought why can't all of you people!
WASHINGTON -- The number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers who claimed they faced retaliation from superiors has more than doubled since Janet Napolitano took over, according to data obtained by The Post.
The stats -- which also show an increase in sexual-harassment claims -- come as James Hayes, a senior law-enforcement official, moves ahead with a lawsuit charging he faced a "hostile work environment" in which male employees face discrimination under Napolitano, who oversees ICE as head of Homeland Security.
Hayes, who also said higher-ups created a "frat-house" atmosphere, claims agency bosses tried to intimidate him by opening several investigations of his own conduct after he filed a complaint.
Agency-wide, the number of "reprisal" claims jumped from 43 in 2009 to 63 in 2010 and then hit 103 in 2011, as reported under the "No Fear Act," which offers anti-discrimination and whistle-blower protections to federal workers.
The number of sexual-harassment claims jumped from two in 2009 to 10 in 2011, and the number of "nonsexual"-harassment claims rose from 37 in 2009 to 81 in 2011.
"Instead of investigating terrorists, look at the time and resources they spent to quell some discrimination complaint. Why in the world would they do that?" Hayes' attorney, Morris Fischer, asked during a Post interview yesterday.
Genetic mutations have been found in three generations of butterflies from near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, scientists said Tuesday, raising fears radiation could affect other species.
Around 12 percent of pale grass blue butterflies that were exposed to nuclear fallout as larvae immediately after the tsunami-sparked disaster had abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes, researchers said.
The insects were mated in a laboratory well outside the fallout zone and 18 percent of their offspring displayed similar problems, said Joji Otaki, associate professor at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, southwestern Japan.
That figure rose to 34 percent in the third generation of butterflies, he said, even though one parent from each coupling was from an unaffected population.
The researchers also collected another 240 butterflies in Fukushima in September last year, six months after the disaster. Abnormalities were recorded in 52 percent of their offspring, which was "a dominantly high ratio", Otaki told AFP.
Otaki said the high ratio could result from both external and internal exposure to radiation, from the atmosphere and in contaminated foodstuffs.
The results of the study were published in Scientific Reports, an online research journal from the publishers of Nature.
Otaki later carried out a comparison test in Okinawa exposing unaffected butterflies to low levels of radiation, with the results showing similar rates of abnormality, he said.
"We have reached the firm conclusion that radiation released from the Fukushima Daiichi plant damaged the genes of the butterflies," Otaki said.
The quake-sparked tsunami of March 2011 knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing three reactors to go into meltdown in the world's worst atomic disaster for 25 years.
The findings will raise fears over the long-term effects of the leaks on people who were exposed in the days and weeks after the accident, as radiation spread over a large area and forced thousands to evacuate.
There are claims that the effects of nuclear exposure have been observed on successive generations of descendants of people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the US dropped atomic bombs in the final days of World War II.
But Otaki warned it was too soon to jump to conclusions, saying his team's results on the Fukushima butterflies could not be directly applied to other species, including humans.
He added he and his colleagues would conduct follow-up studies including similar tests on other animals.
Kunikazu Noguchi, associate professor in radiological protection at Nihon University School of Dentistry, also said more data was needed to determine the impact of the Fukushima accident on animals in general.
"This is just one study," Noguchi said. "We need more studies to verify the entire picture of the impact on animals."
Researchers and medical doctors have so far denied that the accident at Fukushima would cause an elevated incidence of cancer or leukaemia, diseases that are often associated with radiation exposure.
But they also noted that long-term medical examination is needed especially due to concerns over thyroid cancer among young people -- a particular problem for people following the Chernobyl catastrophe.
"There are a number of unknown factors surrounding the genetic impact of radiation," said Makoto Yamada, a medical doctor who examines Fukushima residents. "We still cannot 100 percent deny that the impact may come out in the future."
Associate professor Noguchi said: "The case of Fukushima plant workers is a different story. Some of them have already topped exposure limits. It is necessary to strictly monitor them to see if there is any impact."
No one is officially recorded as having died as a direct result of the Fukushima disaster, but many who fled the area and those who remain, including workers decommissioning the crippled plant, worry about the long-term effects.
Scientists have warned it could be decades before it is safe for some people to return to their homes.
"Even if there is no impact now, we have to live with fear," said Sachiko Sato, a mother of two, who temporarily fled from Fukushima. "And concerns will be handed down to my children and grandchildren."
TAIPEI Taiwan plans to slash the number of advanced fighter jets it has been seeking from the U.S. from 66 to 24, apparently due to budget constraints, reports said Aug. 13.
Taipei applied in 2007 to buy 66 F-16 C/D fighters, which have better radar and more powerful weapons systems than its current F-16 A/Bs, in response to Chinas perceived military threat. Washington in September last year said it had agreed to upgrade Taiwans F-16 A/B fleet in a $5.85 billion deal, but it held off on the sale of new jets.
President Ma Ying-jeou has repeatedly urged Washington to reconsider selling new jets to Taiwan.
Local media reported Aug. 13 that Taiwan had renewed the call during the just-concluded Monterey talks in the U.S., the highest-level annual meeting between U.S. and Taiwanese military officers.
But the number of desired F-16 C/Ds has fallen to 24, down from 66 when the Taiwanese delegates put forth the proposal, the Taipei-based China Times quoted an authoritative military source as saying.
The defense ministry dismissed the report. The Liberty Times, another Chinese-language broadsheet, ran a similar story.
The Liberty Times quoted its source as saying the military could hardly afford another fleet of 66 F-16 C/Ds following the costly F-16 A/B upgrade plan.
But legislator Lin Yu-fang from the ruling Kuomintang party told the China Times that military authorities might have cut their demands to leave the door open to buying more advanced F-35s in the future.
Although the upgrade package was less than Taiwan had hoped for, it triggered an angry response from China, which warned that Sino-U.S. military ties would be hurt as a result.
Let the Chinese respond to our initiatives for a while. Perhaps they could curb their dog in North Korea...
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08/14/2012
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NEW DELHI India said its first home-built nuclear submarine was set for sea trials as it detailed billion-dollar projects to arm its navy with warships, aircraft and modern weaponry.
Hey Zardari, hear this? And you didn't even get ten percent!
The indigenous 6,000-ton INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) was unveiled in 2009 as part of a project to construct five such vessels that would be armed with nuclear-tipped missiles and torpedoes.
Arihant is steadily progressing towards operationalization, and we hope to commence sea trials in the coming months, Indian navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told reporters. Our maritime and nuclear doctrine will then be aligned to ensure that our nuclear insurance comes from the sea."
Arihant is powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor and can reach 44 kilometers an hour (24 knots), according to defense officials. It will carry a 95-member crew.
The Indian navy inducted a Russian-leased nuclear submarine into service in April this year, joining China, France, the United States, Britain and Russia in the elite club of countries with nuclear-powered vessels.
Verma said 43 warships were currently under construction at local shipyards while the first of six Franco-Spanish Scorpene submarines under contract would join the Indian navy in 2015 and the sixth by 2018.
Those are advanced diesel-electric boats.
The admiral said the navy was also poised to induct eight Boeing long-range maritime reconnaissance P-8I aircraft next year.
The U.S. Navy has just been deploying the P-8 itself.
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Abdallah al-Khalidi, the deputy consul at the Saudi consulate in the Yemeni port city of Aden, who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on March 28, was scheduled to be released to local tribal mediators on Saturday (August 11), but on Sunday (August 12), the deal apparently fell through. Thus the release never occurred.
Shortly after the diplomat was kidnapped, an al-Qaeda affiliate demanded an undisclosed ransom payment and the release of several members of al-Qaeda, all women, who were being held in the Kingdom.
In two videos that were sent to the Saudis during al-Khalidi's captivity to prove that he was alive, he is depicted as urging King Abdullah to release women detainees from Saudi jails if he wanted safe release of the diplomat.
A militant who claimed responsibility for the abduction had threatened to kill al-Khalidi unless a ransom was paid and al-Qaeda prisoners were freed from Saudi jails.
COMMENT: Coincidentally, last month [July] five al-Qaeda-linked women prisoners were freed by the Saudi government.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turkis stressed at the time that the move was not connected to the demands made by al-Khalidis captors. Yet, for what other reason would the women have been released?
As for the ransom demand, it is unknown as to whether the payment was ever made to al-Qaeda.
With the jailed women released, the only loose end would have been the ransom demand. Thus, it seems plausible that the ransom demand fell through, which may caused al-Qaeda to renege on al-Khalidi's release.
#3
I can see this being teh 0ne's wet dream for setting up the US as a communist state... but even the dhimocrat donks in the senate wouldn't allow this.
#10
Everything he couldn't do and still get re-elected?
I used to say that even if Romney is exactly like Obama, except with better hair, he will at least have to behave himself for re-election.
Now there is something different. Obama picked Sheriff Joe of the Red Rider Train Show to make himself look competent. Ryan as a pick also makes Romney look competent, but in a very obvious and different way.
Outside Beautiful Downtown Peshawars mosques, after Friday prayers, magazines with articles and pictures of attacks by the Afghan Taliban and violence carried out by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces are distributed, most of the time for free. The magazines are usually accompanied by guidance on Shariah law.
These magazines are available in a number of languages including Urdu, English, Farsi and Dari, reaching out to a wide-ranging audience. One such magazine in Urdu, called Nawaa-e-Afghan Jihad, published last month, has pictures of an attack in June on a hotel in Kabul.
Part of the caption below it reads:
The Islamic Emirates Fidayeen attacked a hotel on 22nd June, 2012 in the Green Zone of Kabul killing 25 crusaders and 9 Afghan officials. Along with this, dozens of security personnel were also doomed to hell.
Although in Pakistain such literature has gone under the radar due to a crackdown by law enforcement agencies, in Afghanistan, this material continues to flourish in provinces along the border including Kunar and Khost, according to locals from these areas.
Near the historic Qissa Khwaani Bazaar in Peshawar is a printing press market aptly called Mohalla Jangi, which means the Neighbourhood of War. A narrow lane leads inside to around 2,000 printing presses, busy churning out paper printed with whatever has been ordered by the customer.
Ostensibly, the shops here print school books, government publications and promotion material for the development sector, the majority of which is distributed in Afghanistan. But behind closed doors, the industry here also caters to Afghan jihad literature.
Umer, who has run a business here for the last 15 years, says Taliban literature gets printed regularly from his market. For those who take such orders, its just business. Times are bad and some printers need the money, Umer adds.
Most of his clients are also from Afghanistan, but Umer claims he only takes orders from the development sector. Those two buildings over there, they have printing presses in them, says Umer, pointing to a building nearby that looks like a residential complex. They have tried to hide what they are printing by not having the machines out in the open. But here at the market we all know some of the jihadi magazines originate from here, he claims.
Just last month, one of the printers from this market was picked up by law enforcers on suspicion of printing Pro-Taliban material. Although he has returned, he refuses to meet with the press and has not come to the market since he was freed.
Another printer, Murad, says around four to five of the businessmen here take orders from the Afghan Taliban. Peshawar is the first choice for anyone coming from Afghanistan. But now with police harassment of Afghans increasing in Peshawar, most head to Lahore, where the local police cannot distinguish between them and Pashtuns from Pakistain, Murad adds.
France's President Francois Hollande said his government would do all that was needed to make sure law and order prevailed after rioting overnight in the northern city of Amiens.
Hollande said, "Interior Minister Manuel Valls will go to Amiens immediately ... to say there once again that the state will mobilise all its resources to combat this violence. Our priority is security which means that the next budget will include additional resources for the gendarmerie and the police."
Violent clashes between youths and riot police in the northern French city of Amiens have left 16 officers injured and several public buildings torched in some of the worst rioting in the area for years reopening the fraught political debate about France's troubled housing estates.
Rioting broke out on deprived estates in the north of the city at 9pm on Monday and raged until 4am. Around 100 youths set fire to cars, a nursery school and a youth centre as well as firing buckshot and projectiles at police officers, who saturated the streets with teargas as reinforcements arrived from neighbouring areas.
Amiens was a manufacturing city, lost many jobs in the 70s and 80s, got a lot of central govt money in the 90s for the university etc. but still has no real economic prospects for the working class majority population.
A police officer in Russias North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan died in hospital on Tuesday after he was seriously wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of Buinaksk.
First reports indicate that an bomb was rigged underneath police captain Ibragim Mamayev's Nissan car. The device blew up as the vehicle reached Said Gabiyev Street.
A search for the attackers is underway, with police investigating the scene of the attack.
One villager was killed and another seriously wounded in an ambush in Narathiwat province early Tuesday morning.
At about 1.30 a.m., police received a report that a man was killed and another injured in a shooting on the rural road. Police who went to investigate found the dead body of Matohe E-tae, 33, lying near his motorcycle. He was shot several times in his head and body. They were told that another victim, Adinand Yusoh, 19, was also shot in his torso and arms and was taken to the hospital.
Witnesses told police that the two victims were going by motorcycle along the road when gunmen hiding in roadside trees fired on them with M16 assault rifles. The attackers then fled.
h/t Instapundit
Banks, companies and investors are preparing themselves for a collapse of the euro. Cross-border bank lending is falling, asset managers are shunning Europe and money is flowing into German real estate and bonds. The euro remains stable against the dollar because America has debt problems too. But unlike the euro, the dollar's structure isn't in doubt. Unless O & Co get reelected
#5
You'd never know it to look at the financial stocks. They seem to think the free buffet will never end. Seriously, take a look at some of the stocks and ETF's. FAS is a good financial ETF to watch. FAZ to short em.
h/t Instapundit
Will they (the Israelis) or wont they? And if so, when? I know the answers, but youre not going to like them.
The answers are all the same: we dont know. And were not going to know. So when you read, watch, or listen to somebody who tells you he knows, stop reading or turn off the radio, TV, smart phone, iPad, or other device I dont know about. Cause they dont know. The one exception is if you get a direct line to Bibis brain, but thats unlikely.
Yes, theyre planning it. Theyre running all kinds of drills, some involving the armed forces, some involving the civilian population. Thats prudent; they need to be prepared in the event they decide to do it. And maybe theyve actually decided, in which case the drills are necessary to prepare for possible consequences (which nobody really knows about either).
Whatever the actual state of affairs, theyre not gonna tell us, and its quite farfetched to imagine that somebodys gonna put the whole country at risk by leaking it.
Witnesses at the Abbottabad Commission have come forward to say that the ISI would has been picking them up while traveling to and leaving the probe, often "briefing" them on what to say and grilling them afterwards on the proceedings.
Abbottabad Commission Head Justice Javed Iqbal has expressed anger at the alleged interference, describing it as meddling and establishing a committee of military officials to investigate the apparent harassment.
The matter first came to light when a witness from the neighborhood of Bin Laden's complex in Abbottabad was late for giving testimony. When the court demanded an explanation, he said that on his way to Islamabad, some ISI personnel stopped him and told him what to tell the commission.
Several other witnesses have now also alleged they were harassed by the ISI, both before and after recording their statements. The witnesses say while they wished to remain impartial in their statements, they also feared ISI reprisals.
A broader question raised by the ISI's alleged grilling of witnesses, is why the intelligence agency was seemingly so concerned with influencing its outcome.
There have been numerous reports since 9/11 claiming that the ISI helped hide Bin Laden, who was for over a decade the world's most wanted man. This was why the US special forces raid was launched without consulting Islamabad.
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#1
When the court demanded an explanation, he said that on his way to Islamabad, some ISI personnel stopped him and told him what to tell the commission.
Might be a bit more conclusive if we knew WHAT they were "told to tell the commission". Racing to the bottom line......"without consulting Islamabad" is the desired, nonfactual narrative.
#2
There'a evidence that one of the 9-11 planes fired a Missile at the tower, (No, I'm Not a kook), I'd sure like to know where did they outfitted the plane with a launcher?
There's several inconsistencies here, Puzzling, at best.
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08/14/2012 11:16
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#3
RJ, don't you know Bush/Cheney equipped the plane with rocket launcher - to cover the pre-set demolition charges? (sarc/)
An Afghan official says Taliban insurgents have killed a district mayor and a member of the provincial peace council in two attacks in northern Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Takhar province says a remote-controlled roadside bomb exploded Monday morning. Five people died in the blast, including provincial peace councilor Mohammad Hashim and Abdul Aziz, the mayor of Ishkamesh district. Both were on their way to the provincial capital of Talagan when the bomb detonated as their vehicle passed. Three other people were killed in the explosion.
Spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhedi says insurgent gunmen also attacked the convoy of the same districts police chief and chief administrator, sparking a battle on the road. He says two Taliban gunmen were killed in the fighting and another was captured. Both officials escaped harm.
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#1
The computer people will be cleaning them up in 24 ounce quart jars it will be alright! The revolution really starts when beer starts coming in 8 ounce cans there is still time!
DAMASCUS - A Syrian warplane crashed in the east of the country on Monday after suffering technical problems, state media reported, quoting a military source.
The technical problem just might have been a rebel-fired SAM obtained from the Libyan stash...
A military plane encountered technical problems during a routine training mission in the east. The pilot ejected and searches are now under way to find him, the official SANA news agency said.
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#1
"Technical problem"? I suppose this could cause "technical problems"...
An opposition source working with rebels in the area told Reuters the insurgents used anti-aircraft guns to down the jet."It was a MiG-21 brought down by a 14.5 anti-aircraft gun, the biggest in the rebel arsenal. The plane was flying too low and was within range. We have no information whether the pilot survived," the source said.
They've supposedly got the pilot.
Activists released a video on YouTube which they said showed the pilot, named in the footage as Colonel Mufeed Mohammed Suleiman. Rebels who say they shot down the jet and captured Suleiman are shown questioning a graying, balding man. He is seated at a table in a black shirt next to several rebels in green camouflage uniforms and holding assault rifles.
Making sure his power base is secure, that the Chinese will tell Pudgy to listen to uncle, and to check on the proper storage of his Krugerrands...
North Korea's eminence grise Jang Song-taek made a sudden visit to Beijing on Monday afternoon, the highest-ranking North Korean official to go to China since former leader Kim Jong-il's death in December last year. Jang is the husband of new leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un's aunt, the former leader's younger sister.
Jang is expected to stay in China for six days and will meet top Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. He will also likely meet Vice President Xi Jinping, tipped to become president at the upcoming Communist Party Congress in October.
"A delegation led by Jang left Pyongyang to attend the third session of the joint [North] Korea-China guidance committee on the development of special economic zones in Rajin-Sonbong and Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa Islands to be held in Beijing," the official KCNA news agency reported earlier that day.
A diplomatic source in Beijing said the North Korean delegation consists of some 50 members. Jang and Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming meet on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, Jang is expected to visit economic zones in the booming southern Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, suggesting there is a heavy economic focus to the visit. He goes back to Beijing on Friday and returns to Pyongyang the following day.
Jang is in China for the first time since he accompanied Kim Jong-il on his last visit to China in May last year.
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[Dawn] IN the matter of Pakistain's treatment of its religious minorities, each week brings new shame.
The latest is Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. 's reaction on hearing a media report that several Hindu families from Jacobabad had chosen to emigrate to India to escape persecution: he termed the migration a "conspiracy" to defame Pakistain, ordered the FIA to investigate the situation before the travellers could be allowed to cross the border, and asked the Indian High Commission to explain why it issued visas to 250 Hindu citizens of Pakistain.
This reaction was disgusting, to say the least. Pakistain has sunk so low that it can cast itself as the victim when members of one of its minority communities potentially feel so persecuted that they take the harrowing decision to leave their homeland. This 'conspiracy' may be the most perverse incarnation of Pakistain's persecution mania yet.
As it turned out, the families were only travelling to India to perform a pilgrimage and plan to return to Pakistain. But it is telling enough that the rumours of mass exodus -- duly amplified by irresponsible media reporting -- were sparked by the kidnapping earlier this month of a teenage Hindu girl, a resident of Jacobabad. Read between the lines of last week's (incorrect) coverage of Hindu emigration, and a narrative emerges: of course they're leaving; why wouldn't they?
The treatment meted out to minorities, including Hindus, has been poor since Partition and has become progressively worse in recent years (and before I'm inundated with reminders of the maltreatment of Moslems in India or elsewhere, let me just say that one injustice does not justify another). In present-day Pakistain, Hindus find that their faith earns no respect, their businesses are looted or boycotted and many have complained that their daughters are kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam through marriage.
Just earlier this year, we witnessed the dramatics surrounding Rinkle Kumari's 'marriage'. The Supreme Court intervened to determine whether or not she had been kidnapped and forcibly converted, but could reach no clear conclusions and left it up to Kumari to decide her own fate. Kumari chose to stay with her Moslem husband, but we will never know whether hers was actually a love marriage or a forced conversion -- our society and justice system offer no opportunity for the truth of her circumstances to emerge and be upheld. Kumari's family and civil rights activists maintain that she received threats from a local parliamentarian that prevented her from leaving her husband. While the mystery around Kumari's circumstances endures, human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... groups report up to 25 instances of forced conversions each month.
Also earlier this year, controversy erupted around the historic Gorakhnath Temple in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, which was vandalised three times within two months. On the third attempt, the vandals were able to remove idols and burn pictures, leaving the Hindu community to wonder how hard it was for the authorities to provide security for their temple. The incident was a tragic case of one step forward, two steps back: the attacks occurred barely months after the Peshawar High Court ordered that the 160-year-old temple, which had been closed since Partition, be reopened.
In addition to such incidents, hatred against Hindus is enshrined in our public school curriculum. Government-issued textbooks repeatedly describe Hindus as intrinsically cruel and unjust, the eternal enemies of Islam.
To add injury to insult, our proliferating private media has decided that nothing can be more entertaining than the live, on-air conversion of a young Hindu man to Islam (or an inaccurately reported story about Hindus migrating, when they were only travelling to India for a pilgrimage -- no doubt, this uproar will make life even more difficult for the Sindhi and Baloch Hindus on their return).
It probably doesn't help matters that the mere possibility that Hindus might travel to India and complain about Pakistain -- or, horror of horrors, deliver the ultimate snub by choosing to emigrate -- can provoke a high-level FIA investigation and lead to the seven-hour-long detention at Wagah border of more than 250 Hindus, all equipped with required travel documentation.
Need I go on? In this context, how could Malik possibly suggest that an 'external' factor may have prompted a decision by Pakistain's Hindus to leave the country? How far can we push our state of denial? This incident has made Pakistain seem simultaneously ridiculous and brutal in the eyes of the world. It has also reminded those who favour closer India-Pakistain ties just how tentative recent gains in the bilateral relationship are given the chronic paranoia that afflicts the powers that be.
Confronted with the possibility of a mass exodus by one of Pakistain's religious minorities, the best President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... could do was constitute a three-member parliamentary committee to visit Hindus across Sindh to express solidarity and order local authorities to submit a report on the grievances of the Hindu community (as if these need any further documentation). Rather than waste time and energy on barely cosmetic measures, why not form a committee to revise all anti-minority sections of the public school curriculum? Or arrest some leaders of beturbanned goon organizations who routinely incite hatred and violence against all Pakistain's religious minorities? Or deploy some enlightened holy mans to preach tolerance and genuine Islamic values of acceptance and coexistence in multi-faith communities?
The only conspiracy against Pakistain is the one being hatched by politicians who lack the strength, vision and credibility to bring about genuine social and economic reform in this country.
QUETTA: Two Pakistani nationals were killed in a bomb attack by NATO helicopters near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Naushki district on Sunday night.
According to Levies Force sources, two people identified as Abdul Rashid and Ghulam Farooq, both residents of Naushki, were on their way home when NATO helicopters fired shells on their vehicle, killing them on the spot.
The incident occurred near the Chaghai district. However, a Levies official said, The incident occurred in Safaar, inside the Afghan territory.
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BAGHDAD - Al Qaedas front group in Iraq has claimed 28 attacks between mid-June and the end of July, including a coordinated assault on an anti-terror department in central Baghdad two weeks ago.
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said it killed 70 people in the July 31 attack.
A group ... launched an operation targeting one of the corners of the Safavid project in the country, the anti-terrorism directorate in Karrada, said a statement posted on forums on Sunday.
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The worst of the anti-Israel claptrap removed, for the sake of the Reader's blood pressure.
AFP - Umm Abdullah sits beneath a cross-stitched portrait of a keffiyeh-clad Paleostinian youth holding a stone high in the air. Her sunny, crumbling apartment in Dheishe refugee camp in the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem is filled with the laughter of children and grandchildren -- but two of her sons are missing.
"The Israeli soldiers come in the night," she says, staring at a faded photograph of a teenage boy. "They take our children."
Three of her seven children spent time in Israeli prisons on stone-throwing charges when they were minors. Two of them, now adults, are still behind bars.
Such good boys...
Her youngest, 20-year-old Abdullah, has been tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! three times -- the first when he was 16.
In Dheishe, Umm Abdullah's story is often the norm. According to Defence for Children International (DCI), around 700 West Bank children are tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! every year, most accused of stoning Israeli soldiers and military vehicles.
Other charges include making petrol bombs and involvement in "terrorist groups".
Just youts gone wild, nothing you wouldn't see in certain suburbs of Paris these days...
At the end of June, DCI figures showed that 221 Paleostinian children were in detention. Of that number, 35 were aged between 12 and 15.
Stone throwing, a symbol of Paleostinian resistance to the Israeli occupation, began among the youth of Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gazoo Strip during the first Paleostinian uprising (1987-1993). And 25 years on, with those children now adults, their own children continue do the same.
Under Israeli military order 1651, throwing stones is an offence which can see a child as young as 14 sentenced to 10 years behind bars if it is directed at a person with the intent to harm, or up to 20 years if thrown at a vehicle. DCI says children as young as 12 can be tried in Israeli military courts and imprisoned without charge for up to 188 days, although most are jugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for between two weeks and 10 months.
In a 2012 report on stone throwing, Israeli rights group B'Tselem found that between 2005 and 2010, the military prosecuted 835 minors on stone-throwing charges.
"The IDF (Israel Defence Force) does not take lightly such serious incidents which endanger the safety of residents," the army said in a written response.
Of the 30 children in his class, Dheishe resident Mohammed al-Jareishi says that 24 ended up in Israeli jails on charges of stone throwing and political involvement. And the remaining six who weren't tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! that year were all later sent to prison, he adds.
At 17, he himself was charged with throwing rocks and belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s... (PFLP) -- which Israel and the United States see as a terrorist group.
Jareishi described how children as young as 12 were made to choose a "political affiliation" -- either Fatah, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, or PFLP -- by which they were grouped in prison.
Although some children are actively involved in political groups and even smuggle weapons into refugee camps, others insist they are falsely accused.
Jamal Fraj was 14 when he was tossed in the slammer Drop the rock and step away witcher hands up! for throwing petrol bombs at soldiers who raided Dheisheh. Now, more than 20 years later, his son Khaled is in Ofer prison near Ramallah on similar charges. When he was small, Jamal threw stones at soldiers who entered the camp at night because he thought it was a game of cops and robbers. He says it was an attempt to normalise the abnormal.
#1
When assimilation is handed over to acculturation, and people are encouraged to identify with social justice, victimization, and politics aimed at doing away with merit, the rule of law and the greater sense of community and belonging is lost. West Bank "rock throwing" like Chicago, South Side drug dealing and gang affiliation is simply accepted and ignored. The community then begins to dissolve and another, more primal and violent, takes it's place.
KHARTOUM: A Sudanese court dropped charges of forming a terrorist organization and released two men, one a US resident, yesterday, in one the first trials of people arrested during a spate of anti-government protests that broke out in June.
Security forces arrested Radwan Daoud, whose origins are in Sudan's western Darfur region, and Ahmed Ali Mahjoub last month at a house in a Khartoum suburb. Daoud has legal permanent resident status in the United States, according to the US embassy in Sudan.
Radwan, Radwan .. is that a nickname for 'Randall'? 'Rupert'? 'Roderick'?
The court dropped charges, filed by state prosecutors, against the two men of forming a terrorist organization and ordered their release, judge Abbas Halifax told the court session. He ordered Daoud to pay 500 Sudanese pounds ($90) for planning to burn tyres during a protest. Authorities had earlier said they found political materials calling for demonstrations and regime change in the house.
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North Korea is now firmly under the control of Jang Song-taek, the eminence grise behind 20-something leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un, following the purge of a rival group led by army chief Ri Yong-ho. Analysts say Jang has emerged as the sole power behind the throne, systematically dismantling a power structure put in place by former leader Kim Jong-il before his death in 2011.
You didn't think Pudgy was running the country himself, did you...
In January 2009, when Kim Jong-il handpicked his son Suet Face Jong-un to succeed him, he handed control of the military to Ri, of the State Security Department to its first deputy director U Dong-chuk, and of the Workers Party's Organization and Guidance Department to some officials close to Jang, according to an informed source. But no sooner was Kim dead than Jang set about eliminating Ri, U and other key officials.
"There'd be no reason for Kim Jong-un himself to dismantle after just seven months in office the support structure his father built for him," said Baek Seung-joo at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "The shadow of Jang Song-taek looms large" over the young leader.
Jang, who is Kim Jong-un's uncle, seems to have been intent on getting rid of his rivals since 2010. His greatest rival Ri Je-gang, a one-time first deputy director of the Workers Party's powerful Organization and Guidance Department, died in a mysterious car accident in May 2010, just a few days before Jang was to be promoted. And early last year, spy chief Ryu Kyong, another apparent rival, was accused of treason following a visit to Seoul and was purged.
Instead, figures considered loyal to Jang now occupy key posts in the regime. New army chief Choe Ryong-hae, Mun Kyong-dok, the head of the party's Pyongyang chapter, Ri Yong-su, the head of the party's labor groups, Ambassador to China Ji Jae-ryong, and Sports Minister Pak Myong-chol -- all have been close to Jang for decades.
Does Jang have any kids?
Officials who have sided with Jang are generally doing fine. A key example is Kim Jong-ils last wife Kim Ok, who served as de facto leader when Kim suffered a massive stroke in August 2008. "At that time, Kim Ok deferred to the opinions of Jang and his wife Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister," an informed source said. "That appears to have guaranteed her status following Kim's death."
But some experts say there are natural limits to Jang's power. "In North Korea, only the Kim family is allowed to reign," said on intelligence source. "Jang's power will last only as long as his wife is alive."
Or until Pudgy eats one too many snails...
Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un appears besotted with a new amusement park in Pyongyang and has conducted four on-site visits so far this year, with pictures from the latest beamed around the world. "Kim has no major accomplishments under his belt
He's a no-account party boy who flunked out of a Swiss boarding school; why would anyone expect him to have any accomplishments?
and seems to be touting the amusement park to highlight how much attention he is paying to the people," a government official here said.
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#1
no-account party boy who (maybe) flunked out of a California Swiss boarding school; why would anyone expect him to have any accomplishments?
#2
You didn't think Pudgy was running the country himself, did you...
Winning? Not hardly, taking Yes,Terrorizing certainly, and ending Probably.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:26
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China seems to be "content" about the situation ...
* TOPIX > CHINA, DPRK MEET FOR DEVELOPING [two]ECONOMIC ZONES, in the DPRK i.e. the Rason ETZ, + Hwanuggumphyong + Wihwa Islands EZ near Yalu River estuary.
China vows to do what it can to promote + help major firms invest in North Korea.
RELATED SAME > CHINA SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR DECAYING NORTH KOREAN ECONOMY.
versus
* SAME > US: NORTH KOREA MAY COMPLETE NUCLEAR REACTOR NEXT YEAR.
* TOPIX > [Real Clear Politics = Gordan Chang] CHINA IS RUNNING OUT OF MONEY.
* SINA FORUM > CHINA PROBABALY NEEDS TO ADVANCE ITS MILITARY TO BRING [raise] ITS ECONOMY TO NEW LEVEL.
* SAME > JAPAN APPROVES DAOYU ISLAND [military] OPERATIONAL PLAN, i.e. Govt. option to send JSDFS to protect or defend disputed islands + Nippon sovereignty oer same in case of failure by other methods.
* SAME > HONG KONG ACTIVISTS TO SAIL ALONE TOWARDS DAOYUS ISLANDS. Mainland + Taiwanese activists appear to had cancelled out.
STOCKHOLM: Sweden announced yesterday that it was provisionally suspending aid to Rwanda pending clarification of reports that the central African nation has backed rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo.
We have chosen to hold off with aid to shed light on what is going on Congo and how they (the Rwandan authorities) are involved, Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson told public radio SR.
We have not stopped, we have chosen to freeze a part of the aid budget, said Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman Eva Sundquist, adding that Rwanda should take up its responsibilities for the development of the region.
Sweden has not given direct budgetary support to Rwanda since 2008, but instead finances development projects in areas such as human rights, the environment and free trade initiatives, added Sundquist. The United States, the Netherlands and Germany have already suspended all or part of their aid to Rwanda since a UN report in June accused high-ranking Rwandan officials of backing army mutineers in eastern DR Congo, who have formed a rebel group called M23.
Rwanda strongly denies the allegation and has in turn accused the Kinshasa government of backing Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who also operate in eastern DR Congo and are opposed to the Rwandan regime of President Paul Kagame.
Asked by AFP what a partial freeze of Swedish aid would entail, the Swedish foreign ministry gave no details. In 2011, Sweden gave Rwanda aid worth 215 million kronor (26.1 million euros, $32.2 million).
A summit of the African Great Lakes nations, which include Rwanda and DR Congo, was held last week to open the way for a neutral force to eradicate the armed groups operating in eastern DR Congo, but it ended Wednesday with no significant outcome.
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That's telling them, Sweden!
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/14/2012 7:04
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"Over the years, develpment assistance institutions have promoted an assortment of solutions. Billons of dollars later rapid growth, democracy and social justice remain rare in Africa."
Former USAID official Lawrence E. Harrison, author of Undevelopment is a State of Mind.
[AFP] Nigerian troops killed 20 suspected 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... Islamists in the restive northeastern city of Maiduguri, a senior officer said, an account quickly denied by the beturbanned goon group.
Military commander Victor Ebhaleme said one soldier had been killed and two others injured in the raid.
"We got a report that some suspected members of Boko Haram were meeting at a particular location in Maiduguri. Our men mobilised, leading to a shootout. Twenty suspected bad boyz were potted," Ebhaleme told AFP.
He said no arrests were made during the raid on the hideout in the Gwaidamgari area of Maiduguri, a hotbed of Boko Haram activity.
Boko Haram said Sunday that none of its members had been killed, accusing the military of killing innocent people in an attempt to dislodge the group.
A purported sect front man by the name Abul Qaqa who has spoken to news hounds on several occasions said in a conference call that the claim by the military was false.
"They only succeeded in killing innocent civilians. It is not possible for 20 of our members to sit in a volatile place and hold (a) meeting," he said.
He vowed that the sect would continue with its insurgency in the oil-rich west African country of some 150 million people.
"We will not relent in our offensive until an Islamic state is established throughout Nigeria," he said.
Nigerian authorities have recently launched a military assault on suspected Boko Haram operational bases.
Maiduguri has been one of the the targets of the sect's deadly assaults, with scores of people killed in recent months.
Last week, kabooms rocked parts of the city as troops engaged suspected members of the group in a shootout.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Mohammedan north and predominantly Christian south. Boko Haram has said it wants to create an Islamic state in the north.
The group has killed more than 1,400 people since 2010 in attacks across northern and central Nigeria, according to a new toll released this week by Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... Boko Haram has different factions and its demands vary. It has increasingly attacked Christians but Mohammedans have also often been among its victims.
President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... said in June that Boko Haram was seeking to incite a religious crisis by attacking churches in an attempt to destabilise the government.
The US State Department last month designated three of the group's leaders as global terrorists.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
Let's see now, Boko Haram, that means dead, right.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:49
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Or does it mean "Idiot", "Whiney little Girls" or "Looser".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:52
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An extraordinary interview with an anonymous subject has appeared in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper. In over 3,200 words of prose, the man answering the questions is referred to only as "the decision-maker". But the piece is filled with hints about his identity, to the point where anyone with the slightest grasp of Israeli politics can work out that the anonymous interviewee must be Ehud Barak, the defence minister. (To take one example, the "decision-maker" is interviewed in a room that boasts a "black grand piano". Barak is a concert pianist -- there cannot be many others in the Israeli hierarchy).
The significance of the interview is that the "decision-maker" says quite plainly that Israel cannot rely on America to take whatever action is necessary to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. And Israel's own window for launching a preventive strike is closing more rapidly than Washington's.
"The gap between the two countries derives from the fact that the US and Israel have different abilities," says the interviewee.
"As the Iranians continue to fortify their nuclear sites and disperse them and accumulate uranium, the moment is approaching when Israel will not be able to do anything. For the Americans, the Iranians are not yet approaching the immunity zone − because the Americans have much larger bombers and bombs, and the ability to repeat the operation a whole number of times. But for us, Iran could soon enter the immunity zone."
Then the "decision-maker" (or Barak) reaches the crux of his argument: "And when that happens, it means putting a matter that is vital to our survival in the hands of the United States. Israel cannot allow this to happen. It cannot place the responsibility for its security and future in the hands of even its best and most loyal friend."
Israel was founded to protect the Jewish people from existential threats. In the final analysis, the country's leadership will trust no one else with this supreme responsibility. But Israel faces the danger of allowing the power to prevent Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold to slip from its hands, leaving the country with no option but to trust the US. And the interviewee is adamant that Israel would prefer to go to war rather than allow that moment to arrive.
In fact, he gives the impression that the crucial decision has already been taken: unless American goes to war within Israel's own time-frame for taking action (he lets slip that another year cannot be allowed to go by), then Israel will do the job itself.
"If Israel forgoes the chance to act and it becomes clear that it no longer has the power to act, the likelihood of an American action will decrease. So we cannot wait a year to find out who was right: the one who said that the likelihood of an American action is high or the one who said the likelihood of an American action is low. We can't wait to find out one morning that we relied on the Americans but were fooled because the Americans didn't act in the end. We need to look at the reality right now with total clarity. Even a cruel reality must be looked at with total clarity. Israel is strong and Israel is responsible, and Israel will do what it has to do."
The logic of these words is that Israel will act soon. Given the imminence of the US election, that probably means before November.
Let me emphasise a few notes of caution. First, I've written in the past about the possibility that Israel lacks the military capability to strike decisively against Iran's nuclear plants. Israel may simply be unable to do the job, however much its decision-makers might be convinced of the need for action.
Second, whenever Israel talks up the possibility of war, America toughens its own rhetoric against Iran and more sanctions are imposed. This gives Israeli "decision-makers" a direct interest in upping the ante and making verbal threats.
Finally, if the Israelis really were about to go into action -- assuming they have the capability -- they would not tell us beforehand. No tub-thumping belligerence would precede a war; on the contrary, it would come as a bolt from the blue.
Nonetheless, this interview provides an extraordinary insight into Israeli thinking. Here's what I find most striking: the whole tenor of the subject's comments suggests that the key decision has already been taken: Israel will go to war if America does not take action itself. All that remains to be settled is the timing. If that's a bluff, it is an extremely dangerous one.
[AFP] Scientists in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... said on Friday they had devised software that can swiftly trace terror suspects, computer viruses, rumour-mongering and even infectious diseases back to their source.
"Using our method, we can find the source of all kinds of things circulating in a network just by 'listening' to a limited number of members of that network," said researcher Pedro Pinto of Lausanne's Federal Polytechnic (EPFL).
The programme, known as an algorithm, works by fast-tracking the route taken by the information to arrive back at its original source.
A key factor is using the time at which the data is passed from sender to recipient, to help Sherlocks follow as the path as directly as possible and eliminate false trails.
Publishing in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters, Pinto's team tested the algorithm on a known data maze to see if the tool could pinpoint the individuals behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.
"By reconstructing the message exchange inside the 9/11 terrorist network extracted from publicly released news, our system spit out the names of three potential suspects -- one of whom was found to be the criminal mastermind of the attacks, according to the official enquiry," he said.
Taking social networking sites as another example, Pinto said individuals could use the algorithm to find out who had started a rumour posted to 500 contacts by looking at posts received by just 15 to 20 of them.
The same algorithm could be used to identify the origin of unwanted online messages (spam) or a computer virus, said Pinto, post-doctorate researcher at EPFL's Laboratory for Audiovisual Communications.
The innovation can also be used to help epidemiologists, he said. Pinto traced the source of a cholera outbreak in South Africa after applying the formula to water and transport networks.
The maths could also be harnessed by advertisers specialising in so-called viral online marketing campaigns, while also making it easier to spot them in advance, Pinto said.
#1
Halls Heelers are very good at watching the herd as well. Of course we accept the fact that cattle are genetically predisposed to grazing and wandering off. While a Zugspitze of evidence points to the contrary, discussion of genetic predispositions among upright primates is generally deemed as profiling and racist.
[AFP] A mayor-elect from the Institutional Revolutionary Party that scored a comeback in recent elections was found rubbed out in the town of Matehuala in San Luis Potosi on Sunday with an aide, officials said.
"The lifeless body of mayor-elect Edgar Morales was found in a van this morning" in the town of Matehuala in San Luis Potosi state, a spokeswoman for the local prosecutor's office told AFP by telephone. The second body was identified as Juan Francisco Hernandez, Morales's campaign manager.
A man who survived the attack with no injuries told police that person or persons unknown attacked the three men as they left a party.
San Luis Potosi has been rocked in recent days by a wave of violence attributed to narco mobs, including the discovery of 14 bodies inside a van on Thursday.
The Zetas cartel, founded in the mid-1990s by military deserters, is active in San Luis Potosi and surrounding states. It is considered one of Mexico's most powerful and violent narco gangs.
Morales had been elected in the July 1 elections that also earned Enrique Pena Nieto the presidency. Both hail from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico under an authoritarian regime for more than seven decades, until it was voted out in 2000.
Morales joins a string of other mayors targeted by narco gangs seeking to dominate local affairs. At least six were killed across Mexico in 2011, and 15 the year before.
More than 50,000 people have been murdered since December 2006, when outgoing President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against narco mobs -- whose failure analysts link to Calderon's defeat in the July polls.
Pena Nieto has promised a "new strategy" and also pledged to wage his battle "without pacts or truces" -- a nod to the tactic his party was previously known for, of looking the other way while drugs were sent north of the border as long as the cartels did not commit violence within Mexico.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the incoming president has yet to offer much detail of his plans.
#1
A "new strategy" and battle "without pacts or truces". Translation - the new President will be seeking a Munich-like "peace in our time" agreement with the bad guys.
(Rooters) - A television drama about the life of a seventh century Moslem ruler, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, is polarizing opinion across the Arab world by challenging a widespread belief that actors should not depict Islam's central figures.
The times, they are a-changing, and some insist on catching up.
OSLO: Norwegian police and security services could have prevented all or part of an attack by far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and gun massacre last year, a government commission said on Monday.
Intelligence services could have learned about Breiviks plans months before the attack made him the worst mass killer in Norways peacetime history, the commissions report said. The government building he bombed should have been better protected and he should have been stopped before he gunned down dozens of victims, mostly teenagers, on an island as police struggled to find a working helicopter and a suitable boat.
All in all, July 22 revealed serious shortfalls in societys emergency preparedness and ability to avert threats, the commission said. The challenges turned out to be ascribable to leadership and communication to a far greater extent than to the lack of response personnel."
The government also could have allowed personal rights to own firearms. And concealed carry...
Breivik first detonated a fertilizer car bomb outside government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people, then traveled to the ruling Labour Partys summer camp on Utoeya island where he gunned down 69 victims unimpeded.
Authorities had become aware of his suspicious activities months before when he purchased items that could be used to make bombs but intelligence service failures meant he was not put on a watch list, the commission said in the 482-page report.
The government building should have been much better protected as it had been identified as a security risk years before. But government squabbling over minor details of the security measures needed meant little was done.
Once the bombing took place, a witnesss description of Breivik, which was phoned into police, was not passed on to officers in the field for 20 minutes. Police should have automatically activated drills meant to guard against multiple attacks but weak leadership and disorganization led to delays, the report said.
The military was not immediately informed, police could not find the helicopter, and its boat, intended to transport special forces to the island, could not carry the necessary load.
The authorities ability to protect the people on Utoeya island failed. A more rapid police operation was a realistic possibility. The perpetrator could have been stopped earlier on 22 July, the commission said.
The commissions finding are a major embarrassment for security forces but the justice minister and security chief at the time have both resigned since the attack while many of the senior police personnel involved have also been replaced.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday he took ultimate responsibility for the intelligence and police failures, after the publication of the report. It took too long to apprehend the perpetrator and the police should have been on Utoeya earlier. This is something I regret, he said.
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Intelligence services could have learned about Breiviks plans months before the attack
#2
Always some asshole who pope up and says "You could have stopped this".
OK asshole, if it COULD be stopped, WHY WASN'T IT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:36
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#3
Simple. Nothing like that had ever happened in Norway. Makes it tough to get a 'crat to put some of his budget into preventing that which has never happened and therefore never will. You can't even get somebody to alternate pilot vacations, or keep an eye on the keys to the boat, or even where it is, or supposed to be, if they haven't been doing it already, to prevent that which has never happened and therefore never will.
You can't even get a procedure changed for intel to call the cops or vice versa. Not even a little not taped to the phone.
Never happened, not gonna happen, what's the big dea.?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/14/2012 14:39
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#1
perhaps because Iran would be like the knight without arms or legs in Monty Python & the Holy Grail.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
08/14/2012 0:30
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#2
By most accounts Iran is not militarily ready for any war agz Israel, let alone the USA, hence will most likely remain on the national defensive while using its international terror proxies + aligned to strike back.
IOW, Iran will demand its right to be invaded.
Methinks ISRAEL recognizes this as per its new warning that it may be willing to destroy PARTS of Lebanon, + not necessarily via ground invasion, iff it means stopping Leb-based rocket attacks agz their country.
IMO, vee the premise of Global Jihad whatever timeline the MilTerrs have for waging violent jihad agz the US will be escalated in the aftermath of an Israeli strike agz Iran's NucProgs.
#5
As you say Besoeker, it would not likely be a long war. It would be good if we had leadership whereas Israel felt like we had their backs or supported them.
#6
In every war Israel has fought winning or losing was a political, not military issue. So the question isn't about troops or tanks. It's about how many friends do they have in the media and the UN Security Council. My guess is not enough.
[Dawn] DESPITE the blanket coverage the London Olympics has been receiving, the British media devoted considerable time and space to the tragic story of Shafilea Ahmed. When the 17-year old girl's parents were sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder nine years ago, there was a degree of satisfaction that the killers had finally been brought to justice.
Over the years, there has been much soul-searching over the entirely alien concept of 'honour-killing' brought here by certain groups of migrants. Although political correctness still blocks a full and open debate, a few high profile cases have forced this barbaric practice out into the open.
The police in the UK are now more receptive to calls for help, and more cases of 'honour'-related violence are being prosecuted. Last year, 234 cases were taken to court, and half of them resulted in a 'guilty' verdict. In this period, all 39 police forces in the country reported nearly 3,000 cases. Clearly, these numbers do not represent the full extent of these vicious crimes as many children remain silent in the face of abuse from parents and other older relatives.
Sara Khan, the director of Inspire, a women's human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organization, writes in the Guardian:
"Over the past two decades I have heard countless stories from women who were ostracised by their communities and let down by the agencies who should have helped them. One young woman, Laila, had been emotionally blackmailed into a marriage at the age of 18. Forced to live with her in-laws in a house with seven others, she spent her life cooking and cleaning. They didn't even allow her access to the toilet and she was forced to use a jug in her bedroom, even during labour. 'I was treated like a slave to the rest of the family', she told me..."
While sentencing Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, the judge said: "Although you lived in Warrington, your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistain and it was those you imposed on your children."
Unfortunately, these attitudes are not just rural. Time after time, supposedly educated Pak parents living in cities have reacted in exactly the same way the Ahmeds did. Just because a daughter refuses to marry whoever they have picked for her, she is bullied, brutalised and often killed. Just the other day, a man shot his own sister dead in a Hyderabad court because she dared make her own choice about who she married.
Mercifully, forced marriage is now a crime in the UK. But domestic abuse and violence continue as migrant communities insist on trying to impose backward social customs on children born and brought up in Britannia. They forget that unlike the countries they migrated from, children have rights here.
Even liberal Britons have a hard time understanding the psychology behind 'honour' killing: parents would simply not dream of interfering with their children's choice of life partners. Thus, they cannot comprehend how a couple like the Ahmeds could bring themselves to murder their 17-year old daughter simply because she refused to agree to marry a man they had chosen for her. She was also too Westernised for her parents.
One friend hesitantly opened a discussion about the case by saying although she was naturally appalled by the killing, she could understand that the parents were motivated by their religious beliefs. I immediately told her there was no compulsion about marriage in Islam. Sadly, many Mohammedan societies, being violent and paternalistic, condone the whole wretched concept of "honour" killing. In fact, how can there be any honour in killing maidens of tender years for wanting to share their lives with men they care for?
According to Anup Manota, a front man for Karma Nirvana, a charity set up to help victims of so-called honour-related domestic violence and abuse, around half the calls they receive are from Mohammedans. Out of the 550 calls they get on average every month, around 70 per cent are from people of South Asian origin, while the rest are from migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
The charity was established by Jasvinder Sanghera, and has a helpline where victims of abuse can call. Karma Nirvana then contacts social service staff, or if somebody is in danger, the police. Ms Sanghera's own sister was forced into a marriage in which she suffered terrible violence. To escape, she took her own life. For further information about the organization, the website is: www.karmanirvana.org.uk
The man who brought the Shafilea Ahmed case to a successful conclusion is Nazir Afzal, the chief prosecutor who also pursued the Rochdale sex exploitation ring, and obtained a conviction. Readers will recall that in this unsavoury case, a gang of Mohammedans of mostly Pak origin were convicted of raping and sexually exploiting girls as young as 13.
Both cases have sent a wave of revulsion and anger across Britannia. All decent Paks living in the UK have been deeply embarrassed. Violence against women is so widespread in Pakistain that some migrants from our part of the world assume they can go unpunished for similar crimes here. Thankfully, officialdom is finally discarding its attitude of allowing migrants to do whatever they liked within their own families on the grounds of political correctness.
A recent Guardian editorial on the Shaifilea Ahmed tragedy had it just right:
"The police wisely refused to call Shafilea's murder an 'honour' killing. There can be no exonerating circumstance, no licence granted to those who claim cultural protection for brutality. Domestic violence and child sex abuse (a reference to the Rochdale case) happen across cultures and ethnicities. But that only makes it all the more important that those charged with spotting it, supporting its victims and tackling its perpetrators, have the ability to understand what they are seeing and how to respond to it, wherever it is found."
At least they have identified the problem in the UK, and are moving to minimise its impact on families. In Pakistain, the authorities refuse to acknowledge that a problem even exists.
#1
Over the years, there has been much soul-searching over the entirely alien concept of honour-killing brought here by certain groups of migrants. Although political correctness still blocks a full and open debate, a few high profile cases have forced this barbaric practice out into the open.
"PC" is little more than a catch phrase that masks the greater pathogen of cultural modification and change. After a while, we simply forget about ordering ham and eggs altogether.
DIYARBAKIR: Turkish security forces launched yesterday an operation seeking to free an ethnic Kurdish lawmaker kidnapped by Kurdish rebels in the east of the country.
Huseyin Aygun from the Republican People's Party (CHP) in the southeastern city of Tunceli was abducted Sunday after his car was stopped by the rebels on the highway, security sources told AFP. The captors let Aygun's assistant and a journalist accompanying them leave as they took Aygun and disappeared into the woods nearby, Tunceli governor Mustafa Taskesen told reporters, citing witnesses.
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels confirmed in a statement they were holding the lawmaker and warned Turkey to abandon its rescue operation. The lawmaker Huseyin Aygun has been detained by our fighters, rebels said in a statement given to the pro-Kurd news agency Firatnews.
An operation has been launched which puts the life of the lawmaker in danger, the PKK said.
It marked the first time since PKK rebels began their battle for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984 that they have abducted a member of the Turkish Parliament.
According to Aygun's aides, the PKK have promised to free the lawmaker in a few days without threatening his life, apparently seeing the abduction as a way of attracting public opinion to the Kurdish cause.
Turkey's Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the PKK wanted to create a sensation in capturing the lawmaker before the anniversary on Aug. 15 of the rebels' first armed operations 28 years ago, the Anatolia news agency reported. We are following this affair very closely, he added.
Augun, 42, has in the past called on the PKK to abandon their violent campaign.
His kidnapping follows the abduction of three soldiers last week, and the search continues to find the troops.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2012
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[AFP] Iraq's oil output now stands at 3.2 million barrels per day, outpacing neighbouring Iran to become the second-biggest producer in OPEC, Iraq's top energy official said on Sunday.
Which is why we're not missing Iranian production from the sanctions too much on the world market...
"Oil production is now at 3.2 (million bpd), higher than other countries like Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait," Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister responsible for energy affairs, told journalists.
Iraq has sought to dramatically increase its oil output and exports, the latter of which account for the vast majority of government income, while world powers have imposed ever-tightening economic sanctions on Iran's oil export sector.
Oil cartel OPEC's August market report, citing secondary sources, put Iraqi production at 3.079 million bpd in July, compared to 2.817 million bpd for Iran. The former represents a 400,000 bpd increase since the end of 2011, while the latter marks a 700,000 bpd decline.
The gap is likely to widen further as Iraq looks to ramp up production in coming years, and as several contracts with foreign energy firms to extract crude begin resulting in increased output.
Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi has said Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... plans to increase production and exports this year to 3.4 million bpd and 2.6 million bpd respectively.
Iraq has proven reserves of 143.1 billion barrels of oil and 3.2 trillion cubic metres (111.9 trillion cubic feet) of gas, both of which are among the highest such deposits in the world.
Mostly a 'day in the life' type story of the rebel fighters in Aleppo.
ALEPPO, Syria: Four men from the rebel Free Syrian Army check their assault rifles and sling them over their shoulders. Their commander, Abu Thabet, calls them over to give final instructions before they head through the deadly, sniper-ridden neighborhood of Salaheddine in Aleppo.
Keep your heads down, stick close to the sides of the buildings and walk fast, he tells them.
A Reuters crew joined the group from the Seyoof Al-Shahbaa brigade on its way to reinforce 20 of their men.
Did they help carry ammo?
Rebels took control of Salaheddine early this month but last week troops backed by tanks, warplanes and helicopter gunships launched a fierce offensive to drive them out. Army snipers are now posted in the area, a southern gateway to Aleppo, after tanks and jets battered rebels for days.
Rebels short of ammunition are up against Assads superior firepower, even if tanks are hard to maneuver through narrow residential streets in this city of 2.5 million.
Abu Thabets men walk into the edge of Salaheddine in single file, hugging the buildings and tightly clutching their rifles. In fatigues and a sleeveless T-shirt, their leaders left arm lies in a sling after a piece of shrapnel broke his shoulder a few days ago. In his good hand he holds a pistol.
On either side of the ghostly empty streets, flies buzz over huge piles of rotting garbage.
High in a building, a rebel sits on a windowsill, barefoot and holding a rifle ready to return fire on any army snipers.
Clambering up the fallen concrete using a makeshift wooden ladder, the group enters a bombed-out building. Abu Thabets men have broken holes in the walls to create safe passages for them to move around in Salaheddine, out of the snipers sights.
Now we are on a street parallel to Al-Albesa Street, Abu Thabet explained. On our right are snipers and on our left snipers. So we will go through these buildings to get to the Salaheddine roundabout.
This building takes them into a maze of holes through deserted homes and apartment hallways back to back until they reach the roundabout that for now marks the frontline. The holes in the walls are tight and their edges jagged with broken brick. Rebels squeeze through, legs first, then arms, scratching their skin and turning their hair white with dust.
In one apartment, rebels use the master bedroom as a weapons depot, placing ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) on top of the red blanket covering a bed.
The hallways are dim and the zig-zag route, up stairs, through bedrooms, from apartment to apartment, makes it hard to keep track of how many buildings have been traversed. The last hole is through a large wooden closet, its back smashed through and behind it a gap two meters (six feet) wide, opening into an apartment filled with water bottles and bread.
About five rebels are crammed in a hallway waiting for orders. In a small living room a candle lights up a sofa set and family pictures sitting on a small television.
We are now at the Salaheddine roundabout. The new frontline of the battle of Aleppo, announced Abu Thabet, walking out into the bright street. The army is just behind this building.
At the edge of the small street facing the roundabout, a group of five rebels take cover behind a broken wall.
The army is advancing into the Salaheddine roundabout and bringing more reinforcements, said Abu Yazen, 29, an army defector who was in charge of the fighters at the roundabout. Their strategy now is to try to break the walls of the buildings around us so that they can advance and take our positions."
Sniper fire starts up, the bullets snapping through the air overhead. Suddenly, the slow rumble of a tank could be heard from one street over. Tank, tank, tank, yelled one man.
Quickly, a rebel shifted an RPG over his shoulder and skipped down to squat on the rubble-filled ground.
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar (God is greatest), shouted one man, raising his arms over his head encouraging the men to join him. All 20 men screamed: Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar.
Good boys, let the soldiers know where you are...
Seconds later, the RPG goes off with a swoosh and boom.
I got it, I got it, cried the man who fired it, as his comrade prepared a new grenade, twisting its cone-shaped head onto the launcher.
Then the mundane bleep of a text message, a government announcement claiming its forces control Salaheddine and have cleansed it of rebels. The men laugh.
But minutes later, a tank shell flies overhead and explodes on a building nearby, deafening ears. Then another tank shell booms, and the rebels fire another RPG, only to be met with a rain of mortar bombs filling the sky with smoke and shrapnel.
Guess they didn't get it...
Theyre going to send more mortars. Hide in the doorway, Abu Yazen screams.
Panicked rebels told journalists to leave for their own safety.
Theyre taking revenge, theyre going to mortar this place to bits, shouts one rebel waving his automatic rifle.
On the way back, more mortar rounds land and a nearby building is shelled, sending an electricity pole crashing down, cables swinging wildly to the ground. Five tank shells explode. The air is thick with hissing, burning, black smoke. Warplanes rumble overhead, firing downwards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Egypt has been experiencing a state of complete shock since the attack on its border crossing in northern Sinai during which 16 Egyptian officers and soldiers were killed and many others injured, whilst breaking their Ramadan fast. This treacherous operation, not to mention the fact that it occurred whilst the Egyptian soldiers were breaking their fast, has inflicted a deep wound on all of Egypt, which further intensified the sense that Egypt is now completely exposed, whether to armed militias moving freely across the Sinai Peninsula or external forces seeking to carry out their own plots. This is all happening at a time when Egypt's political elite are preoccupied with the manoeuvring that has dominated the scene since the eruption of the revolution, the success and joy of which has turned into frustration as a result of the deteriorating living conditions and services in the country. This is not to mention the continuous accusations that the Moslem Brüderbund is attempting to dominate the political scene and implement a secret agenda.
Amidst comprehensive condemnation of the operation, the question that is being asked across the country is: who is trying to set Egypt ablaze?
The analyses and statements are being issued in different directions; from focusing accusations against turban jihadist groups in Sinai that are overtly calling for the establishment of an Islamic emirate there to accusing armed Paleostinian groups in Gazoo of taking action to establish jihadist organizations in Sinai with the aim of turning the region into a scene of confrontation with Israel, with the objective of pulling Egypt into the battle. In addition to this, we have heard accusations that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, was involved in the operation, providing facilities and assistance to the attackers, or at least turning a blind eye to their movements. We have even heard accusations that Israel infiltrated jihadist groups and prompted them to carry out this attack to provoke riots and instability in Egypt. Israel, of course, rushed to announce that Iran and Hezbollah cannot be ruled out, for they could be seeking to open a new front to reduce the pressure on the ailing al-Assad regime, which is beginning to disintegrate in the face of the rebels' operations. In this regard, it was striking that Sheikh Nabil Naeem, a leading figure in Egypt's Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... organization, told Asharq Al-Awsat that a number of regional states, including Iran, are benefiting from this operation that is certainly drawing attention away from what is happening in Syria. However he played down Tehran having any direct influence on turban Jihadist operations in Sinai. However there are others who have adopted a different view and who are seriously considering the recent Iranian warnings that the fire blazing in Syria will also burn Israel. They are viewing this statement as evidence that Iran is seeking to move the battle to Israel, particularly as Iran is convinced that what is happening in Syria is also targeting it as well.
This broadening and escalation in the accusations regarding who is responsible for this attack means that numerous parties are benefitting from the combustible situation in Egypt. However this does not necessarily mean that any of these parties are directly responsible for carrying out this particular operation. This only adds to the complexity of the situation and makes the Egyptian security apparatus's job even more difficult. The Egyptian people must focus their attention and realize they are facing a problem in two parts, namely a political problem and a security problem. Politically, Egypt seems to be in a state of disorder and instability, with all parties experiencing a tug-of-war over power, not to mention the general concerns regarding the Moslem Brüderbund and the unclear nature of the military's role in the political sphere. Some people are championing the military as a balancing power that can frustrate the Brotherhood's hegemony, whilst others are calling for its withdrawal from the political scene. Such political disorder reflects negatively on Egypt and demonstrates that the country is vulnerable to infiltration from all directions. This situation gives prominence to the security questions and draws attention to the problems in the Sinai Peninsula, in light of the escalating activities of the turban jihadist groups there and the danger they pose to the country as a whole. Sinai has been the home of a number of such operations, and these have only increased following the revolution and the rise of the Islamists to the point that the gas pipeline that runs to Israel and Jordan has been attacked 15 times since the 25 January Revolution. In addition to this, rockets have been launched from Sinai into Israel, whilst Egyptian soldiers have been targeted by turban groups in this region, with two Egyptian soldiers were killed at the hands of such groups in the weeks leading up to Ramadan.
The people of Sinai previously complained about the lack of security in view of the presence of armed Jihadist groups who were moving freely into and out of Gazoo via tunnels, in coordination with turban Paleostinian groups that also sought to extend their presence onto Sinai. Of course, this is given the fact that some of these groups have been overtly calling for overthrowing the regime and distributing leaflets calling for the establishment of an Islamic state in Sinai, as well as calling for the evacuation of the police and army troops from there. Yet, the Egyptian authorities have been slow to confront such groups, which some people have attributed to the Egyptian authorities' preoccupation with the political tug-of-war that is raging in Cairo. Others are of the view that it is the restrictions present in the Camp David Accords, regarding the presence of Egyptian troops, arms and ordinance in Sinai, which has led to the significant lack of security in the region. Thus, following the recent operation there, numerous loud voices have called for reconsidering and amending the articles of the peace accord in order to ensure that Egyptian illusory sovereignty in Sinai is no longer incomplete, whilst also providing adequate security.
The Egyptian forces reaction to the killing of the soldiers, attacking the tunnels at the Egyptian-Paleostinian border and closing the Rafah Border Crossing, reflects the country's shock and anger. This also reflects the Egyptian people's suspicions that Hamas provided the attackers with support; or at the very least turned a blind eye to them and allowed them freedom of movement. However the results and impact of this reaction will remain limited unless Egypt takes serious action to eradicate turbangangs that are being allowed to move freely across the Sinai Peninsula, and who are gradually transforming the region into a centre for struggle, outside the control of the central government. This is also conditional upon ending the internal political struggle that is making Egypt vulnerable to infiltration and unrest. Perhaps, the Moslem Brüderbund will also get the message that what Egypt requires today is consensus and stability, rather than attempts to gain political hegemony or talk about moving towards the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate!
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Following Sunday's bloody attack on the Egyptian-Israeli border which resulted in the death of 16 border guards, Egyptian aircraft and troops carried out reciprocal strikes on Wednesday morning in an effort to rid the area of Islamic hard boyz who aim to destroy the State of Israel.
The Sinai Peninsula is currently home to a number of armed Jihadi organizations, the most prominent of which is the "Al-Tawhid Wa Al-Jihad" group, which has called for the establishment of an Islamic Emirate in Sinai.
Since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's regime at the beginning of last year, groups of hard-line Islamists have attacked cop shoppes and the pipeline via which Egypt exports gas to Israel. On a number of occasions, Tel Aviv has accused Cairo of having lost control over Sinai in the wake of the revolution of 25 January, 2011 and insists that Paleostinian militias across the border in Gazoo are engaging in armed activity with the intention of establishing further Jihadi organizations in the peninsula.
One of the most prominent groups in Sinai is "Al-Tawhid Wa Al-Jihad," a Salafi group linked to Al-Qaeda which communicates with the Paleostinian "Jaysh Al-Islam" in Gazoo. Former Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Al-Adli accused "Jaysh Al-Islam" of being behind the kaboom at al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria which took place on New Year's Eve, 2010.
The group, which was discovered in 2004, is often blamed for terrorist kabooms on Egyptian soil. These include Taba (2004), Sharm al-Sheikh (2005), Dahab (2006) and Al-Husayn (2009). Egyptian security forces have set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! dozens of the organization's members, with a number of them receiving the death sentence.
Since 25 January 2011 many elements of the organization have returned in the form of terrorist operations. Last January they kidnapped 25 Chinese workers in the middle of Sinai, demanding the release of five of their members who had been tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! and sentenced. Currently, 25 members of the organization are on trial on charges of establishing and administering the group, which considers the country's leader an infidel and encourages dissent from him; as well as on charges of attacking the Armed Forces and killing seven people in armed attacks at Al-Arish last summer.
In August 2011, the group pledged to turn Sinai into an "arena fit for conflict with Israel." In a statement released on the Internet, the group claimed: "The land of Egypt and Mount Sinai have entered a new stage in which they will be - God willing - the centre point of conflict with God's enemies: the Jews and their lackeys."
On 16 September 2011, Egyptian security forces discovered leaflets entitled "First and final warning" being distributed in the Sinai towns of Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayd by so-called "jihadi groups." The leaflet says that the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... and Jihadi groups in Sinai "declare Sinai an Islamist Emirate embracing customs and traditions derived from Islamic Sharia, and that there is no need for the presence of army and police forces in Sinai."
Another organization which bases itself in Sinai is "Mujahidin Shura Council under the Auspices of Jerusalem," which announced its presence in Sinai last July in a recording relayed on YouTube, with the aim of engaging in "a war of martyrdom against the Zionist enemy," and "opening new jihadi fronts against it from Sinai."
Days before the apparition of this particular organization, another group called "Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis [Supporters of Jerusalem]" grabbed credit for one of the attacks which struck the Egyptian-Israeli pipeline. A video released by the organization detailed the different stages of planning which the group undertook in preparation for the attack.
Last June, another Islamist group in Sinai released a film to the internet in which it admitted its responsibility for a cross-border attack which resulted in the death of an Israeli citizen at a construction area dedicated to the new border barrier. In the film members of a new group called "Mujahidin Shura Council" appeared wearing military uniforms and could be seen selecting what seemed to be an Israeli security patrol and a town on the border as their target.
#2
We used to--presume it was the same for several wars before and after us--throw excess 81mm propellant charges into a pit and burn them. They flashed, rather than burned. Looked something like this.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/14/2012 9:59
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The Turkish media naturally highlighted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Livingstone ... 's flattering remarks concerning Turkey's role in Syria and her promise of support against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after her recent visit to Turkey. But in fact she used very cautious language, and also emphasized the U.S.'s concern about post-al-Assad Syria and "extremists" such as al-Qaeda, as well as the PKK.
In Turkey, there has not been a debate over or even recognition of the existence of al-Qaeda in Syria. Even the killing of a Turkish Islamist lawyer (by al-Qaeda krazed killers) on the Syrian battlefield is not being talked about. Turkey is known to support Syria's Islamist opposition, while Clinton emphasized the importance of different groups being represented in a post-al-Assad regime, and brough up the gender issue. She clearly supported Turkey in its struggle with PKK, but did not mention Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria. It seems as though the U.S. and Turkey, as allies, chose to talk about their common points and avoided those on which they have differences of opinion.
Turkey is firmly in the Western camp now, but its Syrian policy is in tune with U.S. policy only to the extent that the two will work together for the fall of al-Assad. Since this is the most urgent task, at the moment the rest does not seem to matter much. Nevertheless, unless Turkey considers the importance of the post-al-Assad scenarios the U.S. and its other Western allies consider desirable, Turks may find themselves with a lesser say in Syria's future, or worse may find themselves an antagonistic position toward their allies.
Post-Saddam Iraq has lessons to offer concerning the complications of regime change, and post-Mubarak Egypt has become another lesson. Although that was a rather different case of a popular uprising, not a military intervention, and the transition was much milder, no one wanted to encounter unintended consequences. That is why the power of the army has not been challenged, even though it goes against the principles of an uprising in the name of democracy. The case of Syria may be similar, but Turkey has not prepared itself for any negotiated transition, other than by hosting the last-minute opponents of al-Assad, such as Manaf Thalas, who were been among the darkest personalities of the regime until very recently. Besides, Turkey's Syrian policy takes a Sunni line, and that is that!
As such, it will not be surprising if Syria's Christians, Alawis, Kurds and other minorities, as well as secular Syrians, do not trust Turkey in the future power-sharing conditions. It seems that the greatest potential for tension in the region and disagreement among allies may arise around the prospect of Kurdish autonomy. The U.S. and Turkey's Western allies know this, and it seems as though they think of Turkey mostly as a liaison with the armed fighters, who happen to be Islamists at the same time. It is rather risky policy for a neighboring country to be in this position. On top of everything, relations with Iran are also deteriorating.
In fact, the main problem is the paradox that Turkey does not want to face up to: On one hand, Turkey is in the Western camp and a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... country, and as such it should accommodate itself to the new global order and global perspective of the Western world. On the other hand, the present government has regressed to classical nationalist politics. Under the circumstances it has created an awkward position for Turkey, because the natural allies of its nationalist politics are Iran and Syria (since all three agree on centralized, unified nation-state politics), yet they are now "enemies."
#2
The Paradox ot Turkish American Foreign Policy.
The U.S. has designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997, but Turkeys Islamist-leaning government disagrees with that assessment.
Let me give you a very clear message, I dont see Hamas as a terror organization, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel, told U.S. interviewer Charlie Rose in May 2011. It is a resistance movement trying to protect its country under occupation.
Klik
#4
Turkey is a write-off. They tried to be part of the West for decades and the Europeans gave them more and more impossible demands to meet. They chose to side against the west but are currently hoping to have it both ways diplomatically. Screw 'em. The US and Israel should mention Constantinople from time to time just to get under their skin.
GENEVA, Switzerland: In another blow to the Assad regime, Syrias top representative at the UN Human Rights Council said Monday he had defected because he no longer felt able in that position to do anything for the Syrian people.
Basically, when I felt I could not help my people any more I had to move on, Danny Al-Baaj, the first Syrian diplomat in Switzerland to abandon Bashar Assads regime, told AFP. When I was involved in any negotiations (on Syria) my concern was to protect the country not the government."
Al-Baaj's move comes a week after Syria's Prime Minister Riyad Hijab defected along with other top officials and military commanders. Thousands of military officers have also switched sides over the past months, many of them fleeing to Turkey before returning to Syria to join rebel forces.
Baaj said he took his decision a long time ago and had been in contact with Syrian opposition group the Democratic Forum based in Paris. He had been in Geneva for two years and met the opposition group some time ago, before announcing his resignation last Friday, he said.
I met the charge daffaires (of Syria in Geneva) and I told him I had made my decision that I was going to the opposition... He said it was my choice and he wished me luck.
Speaking from Geneva where he is considering his next move, Baaj described the Democratic Forum as one of the main opposition groups. It is headed by Michel Kilo, a long-time opponent of the regime.
The development comes ahead of the release on Wednesday of an official UNHRC independent commission of inquiry report into Syria. Baaj said he hoped the Geneva-based body would make progress toward consensus on the situation in Syria despite many countries letting their own agendas interfere with finding a solution.
At the last session the HRC was very close to reaching consensus ... I hope different countries put aside their agendas to help the Syrian people, he said.
Baaj also stressed his opposition to outside military intervention in the conflict but supported the role of the UNs Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), calling it a good thing.
I hope it stays there. Its very important to document abuses by both sides, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2012
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#1
Let's see...would I rather live in Switzerland or Syria...hmmmm.
Russia will manufacture large quantities of its T-50 stealth combat aircraft as of 2015, with the intent of exporting it in substantial quantities. Russia sees the new aircraft as a chief measure towards increasing its export of military systems. In 2010, Russia exported such systems at a total value of $9 billion, and it intends to increase the defense export.
The T-50 is intended to replace Russia's old Mig-28 and Sukhoi-27 for the next 30 years. The T-50's initial flight was carried out in 2010, and now its development is being completed, with preparations underway in the Russian Sukhoi plants towards the start of production.
The T-50 is a twin-engine aircraft with a design reminiscent of the US F-22 produced by Lockheed Martin. It also possesses stealth and supersonic capabilities and will be equipped with the latest missile system generation.
Stealth aircraft is built in a special geometric form which prevents radar waves from returning to the antenna of the transmitting station, preventing against detection. The body of the aircraft is generally covered with special "radar absorbing" materials who are also meant to ensure that it will not be seen on radar screens.
Such an aircraft in the hands of states hostile to Israel, such as Iran, would result in a drastic disruption of the balance of power, if the aircraft proves to possess clear stealth qualities.
#1
People are constantly talkign about this kind of stuff. The promises of one countries future armaments against the reality. As if the US isn't working on things as well. As if this T-50 is going to ship on time and be everything as claimed. As if the world in general can afford a big purchasing binge.
#2
If even one of these things is photographed being escorted away from Alaskan air space by an F15, then I will actually think about considering the potential of this aircraft. Until then, it is just another good idea waiting to prove its utility.
KABUL: US Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham on Monday urged Pakistan to play a "positive, cooperative" role in nurturing a reconciliation that Taliban suspended in March after accusing US officials of failing to honour confidence-building promises.
He also encouraged Pak citizens to play the Powerball, pointing out similar odds of success...
Pakistan had a role to play in the peace process, he said. "We want to see Pakistan play a positive, cooperative role on this across the board. Pakistan obviously has a role to play here and we are encouraging them to play that role."
There are signs that Taliban are considering peace talks with the Afghan government and "contacts" are taking place, the ambassador said. His comments came as Afghan officials said government representatives had held secret talks with a key member of Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is being held in a Pakistani jail. Baradar, whose 2010 arrest in Pakistan was blamed by Kabul for sabotaging peace initiatives, is the most important Taliban leader held in prison and was known as a trusted aide to the terrorists' elusive leader Mullah Muhammad Omar.
The ambassador, who formally took up the post on Monday, did not refer directly to those talks, but told a news conference in answer to a question, There are contacts taking place, mostly at this point among Afghans Taliban and Afghans.
Cunningham said the United States had made no decision on the transfer of Taliban prisoners held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay an issue which led the terrorists to break off tentative contact with Washington earlier this year.
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ABoard Air Force One: The United States on Monday urged Egypt's military and government to work together, a day after President Muhammad Mursi forced out the country's longtime defense minister.
Sure Hillary, that'll happen. Lions lie down with hyenas all the time...
Although it's my understanding that generally only the lions get up on their own afterward.
"It is important for the Egyptian military and civilian leadership to work closely together to address the economic and security challenges facing Egypt," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters. "We hope that President Mursi's announcement will serve the interests of the Egyptian people."
The US reaction came a day after Mursi forced Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi to retire and scrapped a recent constitutional document that gave the military legislative and other powers. Tantawi was replaced by Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, whom Carney said was known to the United States from his previous position and whose appointment it welcomed.
"We had expected President Mursi to coordinate with the military to name a new defense team and we will continue to work with Egypt's civilian and military leaders to advance our many shared interests," he said.
Carney reiterated that the United States was prepared to help Mursi and the military as they work to prevent future attacks.
How, exactly?
Using borrowed Chinese money, based on current indications.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2012
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Should have a HUMOR tag.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:37
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Follow the money.
The Egyptian military is the largest in the Arab world. It is mainly funded by the US. The military/industrial complex is owned by the military. I can't see them sharing the dosh with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Unless they are forced to by the US.
Damascus -- The head of the United Nations monitors in Syria said violence was intensifying across the country, blaming both Assad's forces and rebel fighters for ignoring the plight of civilians.
"It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria," Gen. Babacar Gaye, head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, told journalists in Damascus. "The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the government and targeted attacks by the opposition in urban centers are inflicting a heavy toll on innocent civilians.
"I deeply regret that none of the parties has prioritised the needs of civilians."
Activists say more than 18,000 people, including soldiers, rebels and civilians, have been killed since the start of the Syrian uprising against Assad in March last year.
The mandate for the UN monitors, whose original mission was to observe an April cease-fire that never took hold, expires on Aug. 19. Their numbers have already been cut to a third because violence has made it impossible for them to move around.
"But the remaining 100 observers, along with our civilian colleagues, will operate till the last minute," Gaye said.
"I call on the parties to cease military operations and come to the (negotiating) table," he said, adding that he and his colleagues had delivered the same appeal in person to the government and the Syrian opposition abroad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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So youre the attractive young wife of a much older high-profile politician, youre reportedly injured during a fracas with a younger ex-boyfriend in the wee hours of the morning and you also happen to be an elected official whos now entering rehab. Stuff like this is tabloid manna from heaven. Well, it would be if the parties involved were Republicans. The fact theyre prominent Democrats in the Bay Area?
Nah, not worth mentioning.
Just days after a mysterious incident in which she was reportedly attacked at a Newark motel by an ex-boyfriend, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer said Tuesday that she has enrolled in a program to be treated for chemical dependency.
Lockyer, 40, the wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said in a statement that she entered a wellness and recovery center last week for treatment of the unspecified chemical dependency and my injuries from the assault.
She also said she was being treated for chronic pain from a past debilitating car accident, without giving specifics.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/14/2012
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#1
For the ultimate in both privacy and security, I recommend the 'Jackson Wing' at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/14/2012 8:53
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You know, I'm no fan of Michelle Obama. But really, guys, you're reduced to making fun of her basic physical structure? The woman's by no means fat or out of shape - what you see there is the bones she got in the genetic lottery.
The more I see this sort of thing the less I am impressed by the commentary. Go after her poisonous ideology, not her bone structure.
#5
I doubt people would care about her weight if a) we weren't continually being told how stylish she is, or b) if she weren't such a scold about other peoples' diets (to give but one recent example).
#11
Well, another perspective is that the Euros are still into that power and class game with trophy wife and the alpha males thingy. I believe Jackie was the last fashion maven to be in the White House and Nancy the only cinema personality [which by today's low standards would qualify as a 'Star']. Of course the unknown factor is the stable of trophies Bill accumulated, off line so to speak.
#13
There's also that giant bow in the back of michelle's blouse that makes her look even less fashionable than she already is.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/14/2012 11:23
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#14
The more I see this sort of thing the less I am impressed by the commentary. Go after her poisonous ideology, not her bone structure.
I don't think that BIG caboose she's hauling around has anything to do with "bone structure"!
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
08/14/2012 11:35
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#15
I'll stop laughing at her physically big butt when she stops lecturing us on our health and how we are horrible people that can't be trusted with our own bodies.
#22
I agree with lotp. She didn't try to create an image of Fashion Queen, the MSM did. Leave her alone about her looks. It's her ideology that should be the focus.
I'm not a great beauty or star.
There are others more lovely bay far.
My face? I don't mind it.
It's the people in front that I jar.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/14/2012 18:59
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While every time I see a photo of her or hear her voice I can taste a little vomit comming up, I do have to agree with LOTP. While the DEMs love to ridicule others for looks and beliefs, the right has traditionally taken the high ground. We should always take the high ground, talk issues, not underware size, and get these socialist, marxist leaders in our government out of office!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/14/2012 20:19
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#24
That nice little girl busts her ass all her short life, counting steps and nutrition down to the pat, medals at the Olympics, and gets talked down to for trying a breakfast sandwich, perhaps for the first time in four years, but Mrs. Don't You Know You Didn't Think of Me can stop the world for pie and milkshake fries?
She needs to be called out for being a bully, stick to food channel judging, and just enjoy the warm apple cider while watching the help tend her garden.
#25
sorry Deacon and LOTP. I do not subscribe that this women's appearance is out of bounds. Her arrogance, critique of others diets, attempts to be the national Bloomberg on foods and constant use of boob-belts while being touted as our symbol of all that is healthy and holy makes her fair game. She should have done something better fit for her....like "how to get paid really well for a no-show job", or "why I gave up my law license 101".
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/14/2012 21:13
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#26
Love "dem" Sz.12 silver flats Moochele is sporting, her big old misshapen butt and "dem" gangly arms 'bout long as "dem" FLOTUS legs. Prolly just didn't want to make them Cracker 'Ho's feel inadequate or insecure in the midst of Chi-Town royalty...
[AFP] The battle for Syria is raging on the ground but also on social media, where people on both sides of the conflict are hacking, posting and spamming in a frenzied propaganda war.
The Twitter feeds of news organizations have been hacked by pro-regime elements, videos purporting to show atrocities in Syria are regularly posted to YouTube and pro- or anti-government messages often flood Facebook pages.
"People are using all these social media platforms to influence audiences outside their country to support them; they're getting quite aggressive with it," said David Bailey, an expert on social media and the military.
"The so-called Arab Spring was very softly-softly. Nobody was being too harsh on the web against the regime... Now it's 'look at this, look at that, and I'll drag up as much nastiness as possible in the hope that you're going to support me.'"
Social media are widely credited for having helped mobilise and coordinate protesters during the Arab Spring, which kicked off in Tunisia at the end of 2010 and spread to Egypt, Libya and other countries.
In Syria, they are being used as a platform to galvanise public opinion as the nearly 17-month-long uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's rule rages on.
"It's not at all surprising that all the different elements in this conflict are making use of social media," said John Bassett, a cyber security expert at the Royal United Services Institute and a former British intelligence officer.
"It's the great arena where information struggles of whatever kind happen these days."
Pro-regime supporters, for instance, have spammed Facebook accounts deemed anti-Assad with thousands of vitriolic messages.
They are also posting pro-regime comments and "liking" them thousands of times -- a move that brings visibility to the statements.
In addition, the Syrian government is using social media to track activists, says Okhin, a Gay Paree-based hacker who has worked remotely with people in the country to educate them on cyber-security.
"By infiltrating social networks using traditional techniques -- pretending to be another person, putting people at ease -- they gain access to (the activist's) list of friends, and can see who they're speaking to," he said.
The hacker, who refuses to reveal his real name, adds that the government has reportedly tortured some activists to gain access to their social media accounts.
The regime also use techniques such as phishing, he said.
"They put in place a fake Facebook page, and people log on via the Syrian Internet with their user names and passwords, which the government then recover and use."
The Twitter accounts of news organizations have also been hacked. Last weekend, for instance, people gained access to one of Rooters' feeds and posted tweets -- some of which carried false reports about rebel casualties.
But Bassett said these methods were still relatively crude.
"They're able to use many of these fora only because the people they are hijacking have poor IT security... And there's not a great deal of understanding in human psychology and human behaviour in what's being done."
Opposition activists, meanwhile, are also making use of social networks to raise awareness of the situation, mainly by posting grisly videos purporting to show people killed or maimed by regime forces, including kids.
But the videos are hard to authenticate, and this method has sometimes backfired, with other footage posted online allegedly showing rebels themselves committing atrocities.
"Neither side has ultimate control on the message going out," said Bailey.
In some instances, social media have allowed outsiders to get wind of significant developments on the ground.
One man claiming to be a rebel, for instance, on Tuesday posted a photo on Facebook of himself posing with a weapon identified by one intelligence expert as a portable surface-to-air missile launcher with infrared guidance.
If the account and photo are genuine, it would be one of the first indications that Syrian rebels have acquired anti-aircraft missiles.
But aside from those fighting each other in and out of Syria, other activists are also using social media to collate information about casualties and victims of sexual violence in the uprising.
A group of US-based activists has created Syria Tracker, a crowd-sourced effort where people on the ground can report crimes via direct web entry, email or by tweeting with the hashtag #basharcrimes.
By also tracking news stories, blogs, Facebook posts, and cross-checking the information with trusted sources and other reporting outlets, the activists have created a map charting deaths across Syria.
Women Under Siege Syria is another similar, crowd-sourced map that charts rapes during the conflict.
Ultimately, though, experts say there is little evidence the war of words on social media is having a measurable impact on the ground.
"It's not at all clear whether information operations on any side -- and certainly on the regime side -- are being that productive," said Bassett.
CANBERRA: Australia's prime minister announced a sharp reversal in her government's policy on asylum seekers yesterday, saying it will introduce legislation allowing their deportation to the poor Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru to face lengthy stays in detention camps.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's center-left Labor Party had long argued against the concept of Australian-funded detention camps on the island nations as an expensive waste of money that would fail to deter new arrivals. But she said her government has accepted the recommendation of an expert panel yesterday to reopen camps established a decade ago by a conservative administration, and that legislation to enable the deportation of asylum seekers will be introduced to Parliament when it resumes today after a six-week break.
Like any good politician, she can count to 50% plus one...
The decision was a spectacular back down in the divisive political debate about how to stop the growing number of asylum seekers reaching Australia in rickety fishing boats.
When our nation looks at what is happening at sea as people attempt dangerous journeys to Australia, too many lives have been lost and I'm not going to play politics or look at political scoreboards when too many lives have been lost, Gillard told reporters after her Cabinet gave its support in principle for all the recommendations in the expert panel's report.
The report aims to curb boat arrivals by removing any advantages that asylum seekers might gain in their refugee claims by reaching Australia. It was drawn up by a panel headed by former Australian Defense Force Chief Angus Houston and combines policy proposals by the major political parties, who have been bitterly divided on the issue.
Human rights group Amnesty International described the report's recommendations as a major setback for Australian refugee policy.
Of course, AI isn't responsible for feeding and housing the refugees...
Gillard commissioned the report six weeks ago after two people-smuggling boats capsized between Indonesia and Australia within a week, with more than 90 asylum seekers believed to have drowned. She said she hoped the report's findings would break the political deadlock on the issue.
More than 7,000 asylum seekers many from war-torn countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka have reached the Australian Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island in more than 100 boats so far this year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#4
Australia is a victim of it's "caring and humanitarian" BS.
They extended the Refugee convention (along with Canada) to include a resettlement component. What that means is that any "asylum seeker" can claim resettlement in Australia once they reach any part of it. The scheme is extremely expensive and it is reckoned the each "refugee" cost the country many millions EACH.
Its been worked out that it would be cheaper to offer each seeker a million bucks, fingerprint and DNA them and give them the option of going back from whence they came.
It's basically bringing the country to its knees, proof positive that each good deed will be severely punished.
Jump in asylum seekers could cause budget blowout
#5
Talking about asylum: Assange granted asylum: report
ECUADOR has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a newspaper report.
President Rafael Correa granted asylum on humanitarian grounds, The Guardian reported on its website, citing "officials within Ecuador's government".
"We see Assange's request as a humanitarian issue," an unnamed official told the daily.
"It is clear that when Julian entered the embassy there was already some sort of deal," the official said.
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed yesterday as senior adviser Abdul Rahim Wardak, the defense minister thrown out of Parliament for alleged security failures, in a move likely to be welcomed by Kabul's Western allies.
Wardak and interior minister Besmillah Muhammadi were dismissed by Parliament earlier this month for what MPs said was their failure to stop a resurgence in the 10-year Taleban insurgency and cross-border shelling from Pakistan. Karzai had allowed the pair to continue serving in an acting capacity, but Wardak resigned a few days later.
He has now been appointed senior presidential adviser on army reform, development and armaments, Karzai said in a decree, calling him a knowledgeable and experienced general.
The appointment will meet with the approval of the US-led international coalition helping Kabul fight the insurgency by Taleban militants who were ousted from power in a 2001 invasion. Coalition commander US General John Allen said in an effusive statement earlier yesterday that: in my mind, he will always be the father of the modern Afghan army.
Wardens extraordinary drive, competence and vision propelled him to leadership positions of the greatest importance, Allen said.
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RAWALPINDI: Three more bodies of soldiers were recovered from Gayari Sector of Siachen on Monday. The total number of recovered bodies has reached 78. According to an ISPR spokesman, the rescue teams have recovered three more bodies and the process for their identification had started.
Around 139 soldiers from the Northern Light Infantry Battalion along with six civilians were buried under an avalanche on April 7 in Gayari Sector near Skardu.
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[Jerusalem Post] Former Mossad chief Yatom says rockets from Leb, Gazoo Strip "can cover all of Israel and that is the main problem."
The increasingly public discussion over a possible attack on Iran shifted slightly on Monday from reports of rifts within Israel's leadership, and deep divisions with the US, to how Israel might destroy parts of Leb and Gazoo if faced with a barrage of rockets from Hezbollah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.
One of the most oft-mentioned scenarios is that if Israel were to attack Iran, Tehran would respond not only by sending long-range missiles toward the Jewish state, but also by directing Hezbollah and Hamas to rain tens of thousands of missiles down on the country.
Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, speaking to Israel Radio, said that Iran did not have an "unlimited number of missiles," and that it was not as if Israel could not stop massive rocket fire within 24 hours by attacking the infrastructure in Leb and Gazoo and paralyzing daily life there. He mentioned targets such as power plants, oil refineries and airports.
Former Mossad head Danny Yatom echoed the idea, saying Israel may need to destroy parts of Leb and Gazoo if Hezbollah and Hamas acted at Iran's behest and launched a massive rocket attack.
Yatom warned against presenting an apocalyptic picture of how the Islamic Theocratic Republic would respond if Israel took military action against its nuclear program.
While acknowledging that Iran had a few hundred missiles that could reach Israel, and that the price would be horrible if those missiles were equipped with either nuclear or chemical warheads, Yatom said the central concern was the tens of thousands of rockets in Hezbollah and Hamas storehouses in Leb and Gazoo.
Those rockets, he said, could "cover all of Israel, and that is the main problem."
Yatom said that the lesson Israel learned from the 2006 Second Leb War, when Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets on the North, was that "we will have to stop the firing of missiles, both from the North and the South, as quickly as possible."
To do this, he said, Israel would have to "act with great force against infrastructure in Leb and Gazoo, and it is possible that the price that Leb and Gazoo will pay will be horrible. We are liable to destroy, or likely to destroy, parts of Leb and parts of Gazoo, so that our citizens will not suffer and be killed."
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman picked up and amplified a theme first introduced last month by Defense Minister Ehud Barak: that the lesson Israel is taking away from the blood-letting in Syria is that the international community cannot be relied upon to intervene when needed.
"What is happening in Syria, unfortunately, is the failure of the international community to stop violence, the spilling of blood and the killing of civilians," he said.
Clearly hinting at the situation in Iran, Liberman said Syria was a test-case for the reliability of the international community.
"There is a basic question here. Can we, as people, as different, small countries, depend on the international community, with all the promises of security and guarantees?" he asked.
Liberman said that there was much talk about the situation in Syria in the UN Security Council, the EU and other forums. "What we did not see is any real ability to stop the mass slaughter of human beings," he said, adding that this raises "many difficult questions."
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/14/2012 8:44
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#3
Which one of the above depends on which side of the border I be is standing at the moment that Israeli missiles become more effective than Hizb'allah/Iranian ones,
#5
'We Could Destroy Parts Of Lebanon To Stop Rockets'
Sounds good to me, when will you start?
In fact level the place, there's been far more than "ENOUGH" from these Noisy little girls.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/14/2012 11:41
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#6
I would quietly tell the Hezbullies that the first rocket fired at my country would result in a nuclear holocaust that would totally devastate Lebanon for all time. I would also tell the UN "peacekeepers" that if they're there when the shooting starts, "so sorry, GI". As for Gaza, I'd tell Hama$$ that it's time to either act peacefully, or be destroyed, along with every structure in the Gaza strip. I'd tell them that we'd first bomb them to rubble, then bulldoze the rubble into the ocean. I'd also explain to Egypt that Cairo was in range of my nuclear missiles. As for the West Bank, I wouldn't issue a warning, I'd just start bulldozing it flat. I definitely wouldn't have the patience to put up with this crap for twenty years, like Israel has.
The number of Israeli citizens that have emigrated to the country is decreasing, while the number of native-born is constantly increasing. That's going to change how many of them think. I'm sure most of them already have a severe dislike for the Arabs trying to kill them. Turning the tables won't bother them much. The Arabs should begin to realize this, and act accordingly, but they won't. It takes 500 years for ANYTHING to penetrate their thick heads.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/14/2012 12:58
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QUETTA: The Balochistan Levies on Monday recovered two bullet-riddled bodies in the Margat area of Hana Urak. According to Balochistan Levies, some passers-by spotted the bodies and informed the Levies Force. Levies personnel rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The bodies were taken to the Bolan Medical College (BMC) Teaching Hospital for autopsy.
They received bullets in their heads, which caused their death, hospital sources said.
One of the deceased was identified as Dr Hyder Ali. The other body could not be identified. A case was registered against the unidentified assailants and investigation was underway.
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08/14/2012
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[Dawn] THE rumour mill has been in overdrive since ISI chief Gen Zahirul Islam's recent visit to the US: will there or won't there be some kind of military action taken in North Wazoo by the Pakistain Army? Predictably, the Pak side first outright denied the leaks in the American media from US officials presumably in the know, and then introduced shades of grey. Some kind of coordination across the Pak-Afghan border against beturbanned goon sanctuaries in North Waziristan is not the same as 'joint operations', army officials first insisted. Now, as reported yesterday, the script has moved forward some more: if any action is to be taken in North Waziristan, Pakistain will expect US and Afghan forces on the other side of the border to prevent targets in North Waziristan from fleeing into Afghanistan. The unnamed official spoke of 'sealing the border', though more likely it would be a variant of the hammer-and-anvil strategy that has over the years been touted as the only credible model for ensuring that Orcs and similar vermin squeezed on this side of the border don't flee into Afghanistan and vice versa.
Is the drip-drip of leaks meant to prepare the country for a U-turn in policy on North Waziristan or is this just another game of cat and mouse with the US? On the ground, in North Waziristan itself, there is no sign of an imminent military operation. While the security forces in the agency number over 40,000 -- two army divisions, a Frontier Corps force and sundry local security personnel -- and the national and Fata disaster management agencies have long been told to prepare contingency plans for an outflow of IDPs, at the moment the reports from the area do not indicate any signs of a military operation about to be launched. Similarly, on the Afghan side, where Khost, Paktia and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... are the obvious destinations for Orcs and similar vermin fleeing from North Waziristan, there is no sign yet that American or Afghan forces are gearing up for a battle with Orcs and similar vermin who may soon arrive.
In trying to determine the likelihood of a military operation in North Waziristan at the moment, it may help to recall what the Americans have pushed Pakistain to do: one, squeeze the flow of money to the Haqqanis; two, sever the information links that keep the Haqqanis one step ahead of the Americans; and three, dismantle the Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... hub that the Americans are convinced exists. So perhaps if not a major military operation, some other measures are being contemplated on the Pak side. But then, are half-measures in North Waziristan really in the interest of Pakistain?
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.
President Barack Obama's impact on what is arguably the Iowa State Fair's most storied watering hole has become a morning-after mini-debate over the breakfast bacon thanks to a tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley, as well as fairgrounds chatter.
Outside 
France's President Francois Hollande said his government would do all that was needed to make sure law and order prevailed after rioting overnight in the northern city of Amiens.
President Asif Ali 
QUETTA: Two Pakistani nationals were killed in a bomb attack by NATO helicopters near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Naushki district on Sunday night.
BAGHDAD - Al Qaedas front group in Iraq has claimed 28 attacks between mid-June and the end of July, including a coordinated assault on an anti-terror department in central Baghdad two weeks ago.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
Goodluck Jonathan
[AFP] A mayor-elect from the Institutional Revolutionary Party that scored a comeback in recent elections was found 
DIYARBAKIR: Turkish security forces launched yesterday an operation seeking to free an ethnic Kurdish lawmaker kidnapped by Kurdish rebels in the east of the country.
[AFP] Iraq's oil output now stands at 3.2 million barrels per day, outpacing neighbouring Iran to become the second-biggest producer in OPEC, Iraq's top energy official said on Sunday.
Hillary Clinton
Russia will manufacture large quantities of its T-50 stealth combat aircraft as of 2015, with the intent of exporting it in substantial quantities. Russia sees the new aircraft as a chief measure towards increasing its export of military systems. In 2010, Russia exported such systems at a total value of $9 billion, and it intends to increase the defense export.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Wazoo
