The Bulgarian Interior Ministry on Thursday released images of a second man linked to a July 18 suicide bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver. The images were accompanied by a request to the general public for information on the suspected terrorist.
The Bulgarian ministry said that there was evidence the man, who may have used a number of aliases during the planning of the attack, was using a false driving license from Michigan, US. The ministry provided front and back photos of the license, which was registered to "Ralph William Rico" from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The ministry also released a computer-generated portrait of the man.
[AFP] A NATO Black Hawk helicopter came down in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing seven American soldiers and four Afghans, the military said, as Taliban insurgents claimed to have shot it down.
The four Afghans included three members of the Afghan security forces and a civilian interpreter, NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
"The cause of the crash is under investigation," it said, adding that the helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk. The statement gave no further details.
#2
Now if this real because they came out and said they would intentionally lie and mislead through media outlets it's horrible! On the other hand perhaps the pentagon can get the people who have blown smoke up their asses from studying flat land and pentagons to bullshit algorithms that have phucked up everytrhing the military does to the cost of a 24 ounce jar to go over and clean up the mess if real! Wonder if some piece of crap pentagon top brass slash wall street Hollywood computer phucko can come up with an algorithm to down size caskets for the blown up and mutilated dead US Soldiers(saving MONEY) perhaps a digital recording instead of a real grave side trumpet from the ass wipes of the square camo pattern! Ever see anyone during hunting season wearing that bullshit! They got screwed! Is not that Pink Floyd song about the voice that lied coming to mind and smashing it all down! Housing and war how's that money doing housing the people in Haiti today anyways? PHUCKING WAKE UP PEOPLE!
A growing number of South Korea Army officers are denouncing the smart phone as the most powerful weapon the North Koreans have. The problem is that nearly all South Korean soldiers own smart phones and will go to great lengths to hang on to them, even when forbidden to carry them while on duty. In many cases, smart phones are not allowed on military bases. All this because smart phones distract soldiers from their work, especially boring chores like guard duty.
This was discovered, with increasing frequency over the last few years as NCOs and officers out, especially at night, checking up on the guards, found the troops engrossed in some smart phone game, or texting or reading an e-book. Despite a growing number of soldiers being punished for having, and misusing, smart phones on duty, troops continue to risk using the devices.
Some military psychologists are describing this attachment to their cell phones as an addiction. South Korea already recognizes addiction to the Internet or computer games as something worthy of serious medical care. All this is compounded by the fact that most South Korean soldiers are conscripts, who don't want to be in the military anyway. During my brief visit to Korea last month, I was surprised to see soldiers with earrings and non-buzzcut hair and such.
Another problem with cell phones in the hands of soldiers is the amount of secret military information that gets leaked via Facebook pages and the Internet in general. South Korean intelligence experts know that North Korea has security analysts who do nothing but monitor the Internet for stuff South Korean soldiers have posted on line. This adds up to a lot of very detailed information (including lots of pictures and videos) on the South Korean military, what it is up to and what it is planning.
#1
Please also note it is pretty easy to fly a intercept orbit and map the handshake of the phones to local towers for geolocation purposes. Don't know if NK has the resources, some do.
#3
The Shiites in Pakland are murdered regularly by Sunni terrorists. The Shiites haven't been able to organize a fight back there. The revenge comes from Shiite terrorists killing Sunnis in Iraq and from persecution of Sunnis in Iran (e.g., no Sunni Mosques are allowed in Tehran).
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/16/2012 10:52
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#4
So many things in the news these days remind me of this.
#6
Alan, you didn't highlight his name first, in order to attach the link to it. It looks like this in the moderator's view (angle brackets replaced by square ones so it will show up):
Will it go round in circles? --- Billy Preston
[a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghj5V5cUo1s"] [/a]
#2
Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/16/2012 19:39
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#11
Wikipedia says about Hinay Ma Tov:
Its lyrics are the first verse of Psalm 133, which reads, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"
I would have gone with the less elevated, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers to sit together," but I haven't the language chops of King James's translators.
#1
Not too fond of the President and C-I-C? The Swift Boat operators were not too fond of JF Kerry (Who reminded everyone that he served in Vietnam) either.
#4
"I serve quietly, not seeking recognition or accolades..."
Good luck trying to demonize a bunch of SEALs and such. Sure the Left hates 'em, but America loves her heroes.
I've always thought of John Kerry as a tragic figure. Besides being a wanker, I mean. If only he had found Marlon Brando up near the Cambodian border, he might have been President.
Bnai Brith Canada has condemned recommendations passed by the United Church of Canada today that lay the groundwork for the boycott of products from Jewish communities in Biblical Israel. The final vote to approve and actualize this boycott is expected on Friday.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/16/2012 9:51
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#4
Good call Ricky. If I were Bnai Brith Canada I wouldn't get too upset with this. The United Church is a vestigial circle-jerk. Nobody listens to them.
#7
I've read that the United Church of Canada has lost half its membership in the last 15 years and will loose pass away half of what is left in the next 10 years. It is very easy for any special interest groups to hijackwhat is left. While they fret about kosher pickles, the rest of the time is consumed on outreach to the trangendered community.
Army of Islam, the Salafi terrorist organization suspected of being behind the terror attack in the Sinai last week, threatened on Wednesday that it would carry out mass suicide bombings in the heart of Cairo, in response to the Egyptian militarys operation against Islamic organizations in the Sinai.
No one will condemn the people of Sinai if they react with a car bomb in the heart of Cairo, the group, which advocates for running Gaza according to Islamic law, said in a statement posted on a Facebook page affiliated with it.
The Muslim Brotherhood has begun persecutions, led by the agent (Egyptian President Mohammed) Morsi, said the statement. Things are moving rapidly. Washington tells Morsi it will help him defend Sinai ... The United States is entering Sinai on the back of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The organization attacked the Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, accusing it of heresy and non-implementation of Sharia (Islamic law). It also accused the Brotherhood for persecuting of the Mujahideen, as evidenced this week when a death sentence was imposed on 14 terrorists who carried out a string of terror attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.
QUETTA: Two people, including a woman, were killed and another wounded in two separate incidents of firing in Hub and Mashkel parts of Balochistan, on Wednesday.
In the first incident, unidentified armed men riding a motorbike opened fire in Jam Colony in Hub. Resultantly a man identified as Ramzan suffered bullet wounds and died on the spot. Police moved his body to a nearby hospital for autopsy. The motive behind his killing could not be ascertained, the police officials said.
No motive whatsoever other than the desire to instill abject terror into the population...
In another incident, armed men sprayed a vehicle with bullets in Mashkel, a bordering town near Iran. Resultantly, one woman, identified as the wife of local resident Muhammad Iqbal, was killed and another passenger sustained injuries. The dead and the injured were shifted to a local hospital. Local administration handed over the body to their heirs after completing legal formalities and registered a case.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2012
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A Democratic Party caucus chairman who has speculated about Jewish involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks has launched a new political action committee dedicated to supporting "anti-Zionist" Moslem candidates who believe "the 'war on terror' is a hoax and that the official story of 9/11 is not true," according to the group's website.
MD
The standard abbreviation for Mohammed in the Pak and Bangladeshi newspapers
Rabbi Alam is an Obama campaign ally and Missouri-based Democratic activist who came under fire in July after he told the Free Beacon that "not a single Jew" was killed during the 9/11 attacks. (Alam is not a rabbi.)
A veteran Democrat, Alam lost a bid last week to become his party's nominee for Missouri's next secretary of state. However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... his conspiratorial views about 9/11 and the Jewish people continue to garner the most attention.
Called the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), the group aims to get "Moslems elected to office" and become more active in the American political system. Alam is listed at the website's owner.
QUETTA: A special anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Sibbi on Wednesday once again issued arrest warrants for former president Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former Balochistan chief minister Mir Jam Muhammad Yousaf, former Balochistan governor Awais Ahmed Ghani and others nominated in the Akbar Bugti murder case.
The arrest warrants were issued by ATC judge Nawaz Khan Barakzai in Sibbi while hearing the murder case of Akbar Bugti, which was registered at the Kohlu Police Station. The sessions court in Kohlu had sent the case to the ATC in Sibbi on July 4.
Jam Muhammad Youaf and Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, who are among those nominated in the case, have been granted bail. The court ordered arrest of all those nominated in the case and their production before the court during the next hearing.
The court said it was the last chance for Musharraf, Aziz, Yousaf, Sherpao, former Balochistan home minister Shoaib Nosherwani and former Dera Bugti DCO Abdul Samad Lasi. Later, the hearing was adjourned until September. It may be recalled that earlier a Quetta judicial magistrate had also issued arrest warrants for all the accused nominated in the case. The ATC in Sibbi has also earlier issued warrants for the accused. Yousaf was issued protective bail by the Sindh High Court, while some of the accused have not got bail.
Bugti was murdered during a military operation on August 26, 2006.
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[Tolo News] A bomb said to be placed in a bicycle went kaboom! at approximately 3 p.m. in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... city in a crowded bazaar, authorities said.
Local hospital officials told TOLOnews that at least one person was killed and 18 others were maimed.
No group has claimed the responsibility for the blast.
Isaf has recently said that Death Eater attacks during the month of Ramadan were increased due to lack of poppy cultivation
Yesterday, three suicide kabooms targeted a civilian hospital and a crowded bazaar in southwestern Nimroz province killing as many as 29 people and injuring 110 others. The Nimroz blast is the deadliest this year.
Another suicide attack in Kunduz killed 18 civilians, the majority including women and kiddies. The incident occurred in the Archi district of northern Kunduz province as the explosives packed inside a cycle of violence blew up.
No group, including the Taliban, has claimed the responsibility for these attacks.
The deadly incident on civilians comes a week after the United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... released a report showing a 15 per cent decrease in the number of civilian casualties in the first half of 2012.
Isaf has recently said that Death Eater attacks during the month of Ramadan were increased due to lack of poppy cultivation.
As it is said, idle hands are the Devil's playground.
[Tolo News] Lawmakers condemned the deadly Nimroz attacks, alleging that the bombers who targetted a civilian hospital in Zaranj city and a crowded Bazaar in the same area killing 29 were Iranian Balochs.
According to Nimroz MP Freshta Amini, the "three jacket wallahs jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! yesterday were Iranian Balochs and the matter will be discussed with the Iranian embassy."
The MPs also said that if Iran, like Pakistain, starts sending Islamic fascistito Afghanistan, it will create major issues for Afghanistan and Afghan cops should prevent these infiltrations.
Five other would-be suicide bombers were killed by Police and three others placed in long-term storage Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! . The nationalities of the dead and placed in long-term storage Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! attackers have yet to be confirmed.
The convicted criminal mastermind of a jihadist terror plot to blow up fuel pipelines at JFK Airport schemed from behind bars to murder key witnesses against him, newly unsealed documents reveal.
Russell Defreitas, 68, a retired airport baggage handler who last year was sentenced to life in prison for the foiled kaboom plot, enlisted the aid of several fellow prisoners to eliminate witnesses before the beginning of his 2010 terrorism trial in Brooklyn federal court, officials said.
Defreitas also wanted to kill one of his own attorneys, Mildred Whalen, whom he believed to be Jewish, officials said.
Additionally, Defreitas hoped to target an unnamed federal prosecutor for liquidation, officials said.
"Defreitas said that [co-defendant Abdel] Nur insisted that the prosecutor 'had to go,'" an informant related, according to the government's March 2010 letter.
Defreitas, an immigrant from Guyana, was convicted of the JFK terror attack scheme along with fellow plotters Nur, Abdel Kadir, an engineer and former member of Guyana's parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim.
A South Yemen secessionist leader was detained by security forces when he flew into the city of Aden after years in self-imposed exile, activists say. A group of armed men boarded the plane carrying Ahmed Abdullah al-Hassani, a former navy commander and ambassador, and took him to an unknown destination.
I'm mildly surprised they didn't just shoot Ahmed right there on the tarmac...
Yemen is civilized nowadays, donchaknow. They have elections and stuff all the time.
He is the secretary general of the Democratic Forum for South Yemen (TAJ). The UK-based group actively advocates immediate independence for the South, which united with the North in 1990.
Dozens of people
All of whom are now at the very least photographed and ID'd...
were waiting to greet Mr Hassani at Aden's international airport when his plane flew in from Beirut on Wednesday, but he was seized before he reached them.
"I was among the people waiting for Hassani," Nasser al-Khabji - a leader of Hiraak al-Janoubi (Southern Movement), a popular protest movement that champions southern independence - told the AFP news agency. "Suddenly, we found the security men handcuffing Hassani and leading him away in an unmarked car through a back gate."
Yemeni media reported earlier this week that Mr Hassani, who had been living in the UK since 2006, planned to meet other secessionist leaders. He was a staunch opponent of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who led the North before unification and crushed a revolt in the south in 1994.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2012
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[Tolo News] United States Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... announced that the US is expanding the number of counterintelligence staff in Afghanistan after the recent sharp rise in insider attacks by Afghan troops.
Panetta said he was deeply concerned by the killings "because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage to our partnership efforts."
This year, more than 37 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -led troops have been killed by Afghan allies.
Last Friday, six US troops were killed in two separate incidents.
At the same presser, General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Military Joint Chief of Staff, said that the military was bolstering counterintelligence expertise at the battalion level and above in Afghanistan.
On Monday, Isaf front man Gunter Katz said that the attacks from Afghan soldiers on their foreign counterparts, known as 'Green on Blue' attacks, have risen this year.
He said more than 26 were out by Afghan soldiers and one was carried out by a civilian.
There are currently 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Of those, 90,000 are from the US.
#1
Infiltrators "Insider Attacks" come in many forms and are not limited to Afghanistan. Assigning more Counterintelligence (CI) personnel will do little if anything. Taking their cellies and dagga away, might prove useful but it will never happen.
#2
Enigma Machine- Turing Broke It
Turing blew his brains out
Turing was a fag
Forced to take estrogen and grew tits
General USA today my men are girls etc.
Enigma machine Nazis
Paper Clip CIA Nazis and Tech
Figure it out yet smart people
Turing believed machines could think
Did they win by bringing the Faggot Nazis Here?
AMIENS, FRANCE: The French city of Amiens yesterday began a costly cleanup after two nights of rioting that left France again asking itself what to do about marginalized urban neighbourhoods that have regularly erupted into violence in the past decade.
The city's northern quarter was calm overnight, 24 hours after rampaging youts youths torched cars and public buildings, hurled explosives improvised from fireworks and fired buckshot at police.
Still nothing in the press on the specific identity of the youts...
France's Interior Ministry announced yesterday that a heavy police presence would be maintained in the neighbourhood for several days to ensure there was no repeat. Around 250 officers were deployed overnight following clashes in which 16 officers were injured, one of them seriously.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls promised a crackdown on "troublemakers" would be balanced by attempts to foster a partnership between police and the local community in order to avoid further conflict.
Gilles Demailly, the mayor of the city some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Paris, said the cost of repairing or rebuilding public buildings that were damaged or destroyed could run to six million euros (about $7.4 million). The scale of the damage -- a sports centre and a primary school suffered extensive fire damage -- made the Amiens riot the most serious incident of its kind since the Villeneuve suburb of Grenoble exploded two years ago.
France's Socialist government has promised a tough response with Valls warning that no amount of social deprivation could excuse firing at police or burning public buildings.
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#1
In this case it's quite likely that the youths in question are, at least in part, ethnically French. Amiens was a manufacturing town that went into major decline in the 70s-80s and never quite recovered. Unemployment is quite high due to simple lack of jobs.
#2
The comments from those in France at this blog indicate that the youts are the usual suspects.
Plenty of rust belt towns also went into decline in the US. That did not lead to riots by ethnic Americans. Riots are the result of those who believe they are entitled, powerless victims. Certain ideologies foster the development of such beliefs.
Brilliant move, O Democrats, to remind Jewish voters exactly why they deserted your party for Ronald Reagan last time.
Former president Jimmy Carter ... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet... , who has garnered much criticism in recent years for his harsh words about Israel, will address the Democratic National Convention in prime time.
The Democratic National Convention Committee and Obama for America announced that Carter will speak Sept. 4 via video on the second day of the convention in Charlotte, N.C.
"President Carter is one of the greatest humanitarian leaders of our time and a champion of democracy around the globe," said convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa, who also called the former president "a lifelong champion of human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... and investments in education and energy."
He said that Carter "will provide unique insight" for economic recovery.
Abraham Foxman, national director of Anti-Defamation League, sharply criticized the invitation.
"I wish he wouldn't [speak]," Foxman said. "I don't think the convention should provide a platform for someone with such a biased obsession with Israel that borders on anti-Semitism."
"I know it's very difficult for any political party to deny a platform" to living former presidents, Foxman said, adding he hoped Carter's speech would not be aired during any discussion about the Middle East or foreign policy.
David Harris, the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, which in the past has been critical of Carter's Middle East pronouncements, told JTA he was "confident" Carter would not speak about the region at the convention.
"Whether it's Israel in particular or the Middle East in general, President Carter's analysis has been consistently wrong, and harmful to the grinding of the peace processor to boot," Harris said. "I'm confident that he won't be speaking about Middle East policy at the Democratic Convention; today's Democratic Party leaders -- including one of the most pro-Israel presidents in U.S. history, President B.O. -- are best suited to that task."
Republican Jewish Coalition director Matt Brooks said the decision showed how "out of touch" the Democrats had become. "Giving a platform to someone who has been openly hostile to Israel and equated the country to the South African apartheid regime is offensive," Brooks said in an email.
Prime-time speakers at the convention include first lady Michelle Obama and keynote speaker San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who will also speak on Sept. 4 at Time Warner ...contributed $624,618 to the 2008 Obama campaign... Cable Arena. Former president Bill Clinton and U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren will deliver their remarks on Sept. 5 at the arena. Both President B.O. and Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... will deliver their acceptance speeches on the final night of the convention, Sept. 6, at Bank of America Stadium.
#1
Good. I'm glad. The first and last Democrat I ever voted for.
The best lessons are the ones learned hard and early. And I learned 'em. Jimmy will remind a lotta people of that.
#2
Carter "will provide unique insight" for economic recovery.
LOL! If I may: Brilliant move, O Democrats, to remind [anyone who works for a living] why they deserted your party for [anyone who isn't you] last time.
#5
The Dems are having the same problem as the Islamists.
Every so often they show their true colors.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/16/2012 8:10
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#6
"Former President Carter harkened back to his successful turnaround of the economy three years into his successor's first term. The air of high expectations stink of fail permeated the convention air"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2012 8:16
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#7
... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet...
who has garnered much criticism in recent years for his harsh words about Israel,
Who many would say displays considerable anti-semitism.
"President Carter is one of the greatest humanitarian leaders of our time and a champion of democracy around the globe,"
I didn't vote for; most people I know didn't vote. Democracy wasn't so important to this author or it took a holiday?
I can't remember Carter lying like the current guy so maybe he is a bit ahead in this contest.
Do you remember Zero Based Budgeting? Wonder if it would have worked if he actually tried it. Didn't love Carter but thought he'd be better than Ford.
Never voted for Dems cause they were always, at best, the lesser of two poor options. Voted 4 RR and GWB. Little disappointed in the latter but never for the former.
#9
The 1976 election. Couldn't stand Ford or Carter. Then heard Roger MacBride in an infomercial for the Libertarian party and thought to my self, "I can't believe how much sense this guy is making." There was no going back.
#12
Think R&R can revamp some old RR commercials from '80 to play around the DNC?
NS, I've always been sorta Libertarian so voted that way in '92 as a protest against Lips, Slick Willie and the Texas Troll. That was a helluva a herd to have to pick from.
#18
In 76 I was tempted to vote Libertarian. But I was registered in a state where it may have been close, so I didn't want to throw away my vote. Libertarians should consider that they can provide a margin of victory or defeat for a non-leftist majore party candidate in states where the race is close. In essence a vote for a Libertarian or or third party in a "close" state is effectively a vote against Romney/Ryan (and thus a vot for 4 more years of Obama). Same goes for not voting if you were otherwise inclined to vote against Obama.
#19
But I guess Clinton would remind them how far left they've actually gone under Obama.
Umm, you're sure you want to remind them?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/16/2012 16:54
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#20
They did not pick Carter because he was such a great choice. They picked him because no one else would stand up there with a straight face and endorse zero. Besides, its a win win for carter, he will be voted second worse prez and fade into history....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/16/2012 17:18
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#21
Let your opponent score when shooting at their own goal. Thats my motto.
#24
I hope we can drop all this Hildebeast for VP speculation. As much as I dislike Obama, an Obama/Clinton ticket would remind me way too much of the 1960 Kennedy/Johnson ticket with the young charismatic president and his treacherous old vice-president. I remember those days and I don't want to relive them. FWIW, I still think LBJ was the worst president ever. jimmuh might have been the biggest fool to ever occupy the White House but LBJ was far, far and away more destructive. When he took office this country went into a downward spiral that was interrupted by Ronald Reagan but was never completely stopped and has in the past few years accelerated. Biden as the court jester is highly entertaining so let them run with him. Carter will bore even the most radical Dims to tears so that is a good thing too. It's all shaping up nicely.
#25
I used to think Carter was the worst prez. Then I remembered that it was FDR who ushered in the era of big government. FDR was the worst, by far. Wilson started the tradition of fighting other people's wars, so he might be considered a close second. LBJ's Great Society doubled down on FDR's mistakes. Nixon created a Hispanic category that is now a rallying point for a community that wants its legally-mandated ethnic preferences and freebies enshrined for posterity, and added to Great Society. Carter was a bum, but he was a distant fifth at the time he took office. He stood on the shoulders of midgets.
#26
I think it is now too late for Clinton. I could be wrong, but I don't believe she'd go for it at this point. R&R are beginning to gain more and more momentum.
#27
Some of us here are of a similar age- 1976 was my first vote and for the life of me I can't recall who I wasted my vote on- It wasn't Ford who was being savaged on SNL. It wasn't Carter because as "board up their rear end" republican chicks at PSU were, the Carter chicks were just down right weird.
I never covered the winner until GWB and both of those years I was in Illinois so I don't think I have covered an electoral vote for a winner yet!
War with Iran would probably turn into a month-long conflict on various fronts with missile strikes on Israeli cities and some 500 dead, Israel's civil defence minister said in an interview published on Wednesday.
"There is no room for hysteria. Israel's home front is prepared as never before," Matan Vilnai, a former general who is about to leave his cabinet post to become ambassador to China, told the Maariv daily.
The interview coincided with Israeli media reports over the past week suggesting that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the U.S. presidential election in November.
U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said on Tuesday that Washington does not believe Israel has made a decision on whether to strike.
"I don't want to be dragged into the debate," Vilnai said, when asked if Israel should go to war against Iran. "But the United States is our greatest friend and we will always have to coordinate such moves with it."
Echoing an assessment already voiced by Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Vilnai was quoted as saying hundreds of missiles could hit Israeli cities daily and kill some 500 people in a war with Iran, which has promised strong retaliation if attacked.
"There might be fewer dead, or more, perhaps ... but this is the scenario for which we are preparing, in accordance with the best expert advice," Vilnai said.
"The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on several fronts," he said, alluding to the possibility Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Leb and Paleostinian faceless myrmidons in Gazoo would also launch rockets at Israel.
Israel has built a sophisticated missile shield likely to stop some of the salvoes and regularly holds civil defence drills to prepare for rocket strikes.
Vilnai made no mention in the interview of the impact a month of conflict would have on Israel's economy should Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, be hit by long-range missiles.
Tel Aviv was not struck by missiles during Israel's three-week war in the Gazoo Strip in late 2008 and early 2009 and in a 34-day conflict with Hezbollah in 2006. But it came under Scud rocket fire from Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war.
War jitters with Iran, which denies accusations that it is striving to develop nuclear weapons, caused steep declines in Israeli financial markets on Monday although some of those losses were recovered on Tuesday.
"Just as the citizens of Japan have to understand they are likely to be hit by an earthquake, Israelis must realise that anyone who lives here has to be prepared for missiles striking the home front," Vilnai said.
Vilnai is set to leave office by the end of August. Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he will be replaced by Avraham Dichter, a previous head of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
A federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government and the FBI over the agency's spying on Orange County Mohammedans, ruling that allowing the suit to go forward would risk divulging sensitive state secrets.
Carney allowed the suit to stand against individual FBI agents and supervisors on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-related claims.
The class-action lawsuit was brought by a group of Orange County Mohammedans who contended that their constitutional rights were trampled when the FBI sent an undercover informant into their midst to illegally spy on them.
#1
The practice of well-intentioned religious practice has to be separated from the virulent, violence-directed and subversive jihad that has come out of some of these mosques and that is practiced by some of the imams. The line between religious freedom and religion-inspired violence and terror has to be established. Perhaps, this case illustrates how this is done--case by case in the courts or in the Legislature.
I don't particularly like the loss of religious freedom that is under assault. This is happening for Christians in this country in the name of universal healthcare. I do not like the lost of Constitutional freedoms in the name of security. Franklin hits the nail on the head: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." But then he was just an old, dead, white guy. I don't like the selectivity of laws which administrations choose to enforce based mostly on some wacky ideology of social justice or in some cases race (which is racism). An example of this is the failure of the DOJ to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation. We have to have the Rule of Law for everyone--not one for law enforcement and another for citizens--not a different one for the President and Congress. No one above or below the law should be the goal.
QUETTA: One man was killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast on Joint Road late on Wednesday.
Police sources told APP that unidentified men had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) beneath a bench outside a restaurant on Joint Road near the railway station. The device exploded and killed one person on the spot and left eight others injured.
The police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the dead and injured to the Civil Hospital. According to hospital sources, two of the injured were in serious condition.
The blast badly damaged the restaurant building while windowpanes of nearby buildings were also broken. The police have cordoned off the area to track down possible suspects. Police have also registered a case and started investigation.
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WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Tuesday voiced concern about the Haqqani network and said it was studying whether to designate the group as terrorists after strong appeals by Congress.
I don't know exactly what it is that Hillary is considering, but then again, I'm also not the next coming of John Foster Dulles...
US President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan rein in the terrorist group active in Afghanistan and has targeted its members, but has stopped short of putting the network on the terror blacklist. Obama on Friday signed a law -- approved with overwhelming support of both parties in Congress -- that gave 30 days to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to determine if the Haqqani network meets the criteria of a terrorist group.
"We share the grave concern of the Congress with regard to the activities of the Haqqani network," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
As for whether Clinton will designate the Haqqani network as terrorists, Nuland said without elaborating, "She's considering right now and reviewing the issue."
US officials have linked the Haqqani network to some of the most sensational attacks in Afghanistan, including a June assault on a hotel near Kabul.
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[Tolo News] Three Death Eaters attempting to assassinate a provincial Ulema Council member by placing explosives in the scholar's car were jugged Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! by the National Directorate of Security personnel, according to the provincial front man Mahiuddin Noori.
"These individuals confessed that they were planning to kill religious scholars in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province," Noori said.
Noori also added that a prominent Taliban capo was killed in an Afghan-led operation in Kuzra district of Herat.
Afghan National Army Special Forces conducted the operation in the Haft Darband areas of the Kuzra district to eradicate a Taliban's hideout. Three Taliban fighters, including their commander Faiz Mohammad, were killed and 8 other Taliban fighters were maimed.
Multiple explosives devices were seized at the time of operation.
BAGHDAD -- Three bomb blasts shortly before sunset Wednesday killed 10 people north of Baghdad in the latest spasm of violence to grip Iraq.
The first bomb went off Wednesday in Baqouba, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the Iraqi capital. Police said two civilians and one police officer were killed, and five people were wounded.
Minutes later, authorities said, a car bomb exploded at the entrance of the main market in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. A second blast struck as police arrived on the scene. Police said the toll for both bombings in the town was seven killed and 26 wounded.
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Gunmen have attacked a Pakistani military air base and are engaged in a fierce fire-fight with security forces, officials say.
Militants attacked the Minhas air base at Kamra, about 60km (35 miles) north-west of the capital Islamabad, in the early hours of Thursday.
The Pakistani air force said troops had cordoned off the area and that the "terrorists" had been surrounded.
It is not known if there are any casualties.
All Pakistan's air bases have been placed on high alert following the attack.
A police officer outside the air base, Hafeez Aulakh, said he could hear intense gunfire and see flames leaping up from inside, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Reports said the gunmen had been wearing military uniforms.
No group has said it carried out the attack but Islamist militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban have previously targeted military bases.
Syrian warplanes have attacked the northern town of Azaz near Aleppo, killing 30 people and wounding many more, activists say. Rescuers scoured the rubble in search of survivors and casualties were taken to a nearby field hospital as well as to the Turkish border for treatment.
A Shia Muslim clan said on Wednesday that it had kidnapped 20 Syrians in Lebanon in retaliation for the abduction of a Lebanese kidnapped by rebels in Damascus on Monday. The rebels claimed Hassan al-Meqdad was a member of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an allegation denied by Hezbollah.
A group of 11 Lebanese hostages was among those caught up in Wednesday's air strike on Azaz. Four of the group were reported missing after the attack, while the others were said to be wounded.
"The building they were in was hit," a rebel commander told a Lebanese TV channel.
That's not how I'd do a 'hostage rescue'...
A journalist working for AFP news agency spoke of a large area involving around 10 homes being flattened. Dozens of people screamed and wailed as they searched for survivors in the rubble.
"All the houses were full of women and children who were asleep because of the Ramadan fast," a 50-year-old man told AFP.
Azaz is a few miles south of the Turkish border and some 30 miles (48km) north of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city where the army is trying to claw back areas of the city taken over by rebels. It was unclear whether opposition forces were in Azaz, although an Associated Press reporter said the rebels had offices not far away.
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JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military says explosions have been heard in the southern city of Eilat, and it's suspected that rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The military said soldiers searched the area for several hours after the blasts were heard late Wednesday, but no exploded rockets were found. No injuries or damage were reported. There was no immediate comment from Egypt.
Eilat is next to the Sinai, scene of militant attacks in recent weeks. Eilat has been the target of previous rocket attacks, apparently from Sinai. Israel has expressed concern about extremist Islamists and Palestinian militants from Gaza operating there.
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President Barack Obama's campaign has gone to the far reaches of Sderot to get people to articulate their support for the president.
With the US presidential election neck-and-neck, President Barack Obama's campaign has gone to the far reaches of Sderot to get people to articulate their support for the president.
"Thank you, Mr. Obama, about everything," Pinchas Amar, identified as a Sderot resident, said in English in a heavy Israeli accent with unique Israeli syntax in a video entitled What do Israelis think of Obama?.
See video at link and decide for yourself, dear Reader. There is nothing I could say about it that would be suitable for a family website.
China said it would lodge a complaint with Japan after it detained Chinese activists who landed on a disputed island and raised a flag on Wednesday, as tension between Japan and its neighbors escalated on the anniversary of the end of World War Two.
The landing by the activists on an island chain in the East China Sea and their detention by Japan's coastguard came on a day of regional diplomatic jousting, underscoring how history haunts Japan's ties with China and South Korea.
Earlier, South Korea prompted an official protest from Japan after comments by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak which some saw as going too far by insulting Japanese Emperor Akihito.
And in a move likely to add to the anger of Japan's neighbors, two Japanese cabinet ministers paid homage at a controversial Tokyo shrine for the war dead. Chicoms throwing their weight around...again. Videos at link. If you don't want China to claim it, call it something other than the East China Sea...
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Xinhua]JAPANESE EMPEROR SHOULD APOLOGIZE BEFORE [scheduling or making any] VISIT: LEE MYUNG-BAK, for Japan's alleged abuses + atrocities during its 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.
Two villagers were killed and one injured in two separate incidents in Yala province late on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
A man identified later as Marayeng Kute, 52, was found dead in a rubber plantation this morning. He had died from a gunshot wound. Witnesses said Marayeng left his house after midnight to go rubber tapping.
Earlier, at 3:10 a.m., while Abdulnaser Hama, 47, was returning home on a motorcycle from a tea shop some men opened fire at him with handguns. He was hit in the head and body and died on the spot. A stray bullet also injured a woman, Patima Cheyo, 37, who was walking in front of her house.
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar warn their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, following a spate of kidnappings by gunmen belonging to a Lebanese Shi'ite clan.
[Tolo News] A Taliban weapons dealer was captured in a joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... operation in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province on Wednesday, Isaf said in a statement.
"An Afghan and coalition security force jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a Taliban weapons dealer during an operation in Sangin district inHelmand province today," Isaf said.
The weapons dealer provided homemade explosives and other improvised bomb (IEDs) material to Taliban fighters.
At the time of his arrest, he was involved in plans to smuggle a large quantity of homemade explosives into the region for use in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
The security force also jugged Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! two suspected bully boyz during the operation.
Another Taliban leader was captured in joint forces operation in Nahr-e-Saraj district of the province today. The Taliban leader recruited fighters and provided them with weapons and explosives.
Battles between a terrorist rebel group and the Philippine army have forced nearly 2,200 people to flee their homes on the island of Mindanao, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Philippines.
The clashes began on August 5 between the army and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
More than 450 families have taken refuge in four evacuation centers in Ampatuan municipality in Mindanao, said the ICRC in a statement.
Christoph Polajner, head of ICRC's office in Cotabato City, said in a statement. "Although these families were in evacuation centres, they still faced difficulties to cover themselves from the rainy weather. When they fled, these families left behind most of their possessions and are still unable to return home, fearful of the insecurity."
Parti Quebecois candidate Djemila Benhabib drew an outraged response from a local mayor Wednesday for saying the crucifix should be taken down from the Quebec legislature chamber.
Jean Tremblay, mayor of Saguenay, Que., and a professed Catholic, told a Montreal radio program that voters should be wary of Benhabib because she "comes from Algeria."
Tremblay said, "Our Quebec culture ... our Quebec flag -- does she know that it's the Christian cross on there?
"What shocks me ... is to see that we ... soft French Canadians, are being told how to behave, how to respect our culture by a person who comes from Algeria, and we can't even pronounce her name."
Benhabib had broken with the PQ party line in calling for the removal of the cross from the legislature. PQ Leader Pauline Marois says that while she wouldn't ban the crucifix, she would introduce a "secularism charter" that would restrict religious symbolism in the public sector.
Marois also called for an apology from the mayor. He said, "He is completely ignorant about Djemila Benhabib. (She's) been exemplary in her integration into Quebec society."
Benhabib has been Quebec's most outspoken critic of religion in general and Islam in particular. Her book "My life against the Koran" and her frequent criticism of Islamic fundamentalism has made her the target of death threats.
"I do not wish to respond to Mayor Tremblay and I do not want the debate to become focused on me," she said Wednesday in Trois-Rivieres, where she's trying to unseat the incumbent for the governing Liberals.
The district encompasses the town of Herouxville, which made headlines in 2007 when town council passed an "immigrant code of conduct."
That document included a ban on stoning women and the ensuing controversy led to a commission on the integration of immigrants into Quebec society. In an ironic twist, the commission's final report included a recommendation that the crucifix be removed from the Quebec legislature.
[Dawn] ATTOCK: Heavily armed faceless myrmidons stormed the Pakistain Air Force's (PAF) Minhas airbase at Kamra located in Attock, Punjab during the early hours of Thursday, DawnNews reported.
The faceless myrmidons were said to be armed with automatic weapons, grenades and boom jackets. Intense exchange of fire between faceless myrmidons and security forces ensued after the attackers infiltrated the base.
The PAF's front man Tahir Rafiq Butt confirmed that all six attackers have been killed. Two soldiers were alsokilled in the attack. Officials confirmed that an Air Commodore was also injured. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... there was no loss to any of the aircraft at the base, which had over 30 planes parked, including JF-17 Thunder fighter jets.
Three to four of the faceless myrmidons wore military uniforms, officials said, adding that the attackers were between 19 to 33 years of age. It was also reported earlier that some of the faceless myrmidons wore boom jackets.
A joint search operation of security forces and police inside and outside the base was launched. PAC Hospital Kamra was also put on high alert following the attack.
The faceless myrmidons were reported to have attacked the base from Pind Salman Makhan village at around 2:30 am, sources said. When security officials at the check-post attempted to halt them, the faceless myrmidons opened fire. An intense shootout lasting hours followed. Commandos of the Army and PAF were engaged in the operation against the attackers.
Kamra is located about 70 kms from the Pak capital Islamabad. The Minhas airbase is a heavily guarded compound with the Pakistain Air Force's Kamra Aeronautical Complex in its vicinity, where Pakistain assembles and overhauls JF-17 Thunder fighter jets in collaboration with China. According to reports, at least 11 Chinese engineers were working at the Kamra Aeronautical Complex.
All Chinese and others foreign engineers and technicians involved in co-production of Chinese and Pakistain JF-17 Thunder aircraft project were shifted to a high profile secure location, sources told Dawn.com, adding that the engineers were not present near the attack area. Sources confirmed that at least 30 aircraft were on the base.
The government and military's top leadership, including President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... , Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaque Pervez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf were notified of the attack, and the operation was being closely monitored by the army chief.
In recent weeks, military intelligence had warned of the possibility of such an attack on military installations. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... there was no specific information about an attack being targeted at the Kamra base.
This is not the first time that Kamra has been the target of a terrorist attack. On Oct 23, 2009, a jacket wallahwent kaboom!" at the entrance of the Pakistain Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. Two security officers and six other people were killed in the attack.
Two police officers were killed on late Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, local officials said on Wednesday. One of the gunmen was gunned down by one of the officers.
The attack happened at 7:45 p.m. local time when three unidentified gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at a traffic police car in Khasavyurt. "Police opened fire in response," said a spokesperson for the Dagestan Interior Ministry.
Officials said the two police officers gunned down one of the attackers before they were both shot themselves. "As a result of the shooting, one of the criminals was killed," said the spokesperson. The Interior Ministry said that one of the officers died at the scene while the second officer later died at a local hospital without regaining consciousness.
RAFAH: Egypt yesterday opened its border with Hamas-ruled Gaza for a three-day period ahead of a major Muslim holiday this weekend, but imposed tight restrictions on who can travel and did not say whether it would resume normal border operations.
The government in Cairo closed the border Aug. 5, shutting down the Rafah passenger terminal and according to Egyptian security officials sealing more than 100 cross-border smuggling tunnels. The move came after militants in Egypt's Sinai desert near Gaza killed 16 Egyptian troops at a border post.
Did the Gazooks learn anything from that? I know, I know, rhetorical question...
Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi's government suggested the assailants had help from Gaza, a claim Hamas denies. The Egyptian restrictions raised tensions between Mursi and Hamas, both members of the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood and presumably sympathetic to each other.
They are, but they are Egyptians and Paleos first, "blood brothers" second. It's a tribal thing...
The Hamas interior minister, Fathi Hamad, has demanded that Mursi reopen the Rafah crossing. Addressing Egyptian leaders, Hamad called for a different policy. Palestine should be considered a priority, he wrote.
Since, after all, he's a Paleo...
Last week, Egypt began allowing stranded travelers to return to Gaza, and some 4,500 have so far made the trip, according to Gaza border officials. Egypt, yesterday, for the first time allowed some border traffic from Gaza.
Gaza border official Maher Abu Sabha said two-way traffic will continue for three days, in the run-up to the weekend's Eid el-Fitr holiday, which caps the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The limited opening is meant to relieve some of the pressure on Gaza, but also suggested there is no imminent decision by Egypt to resume normal border traffic. Gaza officials say thousands of travelers are on a waiting list, hoping to leave the territory.
Since Mursi became president earlier this summer, Hamas has high hopes that the new Egyptian leader will significantly ease the Gaza border blockade, imposed by Israel and Mubarak after Hamas seized the coastal area by force in 2007.
Rafah is key for Gaza, providing the only gate to the outside world for the territory's 1.7 million people. Israel controls the other land crossings, allowing movement for only small numbers of humanitarian cases, as well as access by air and sea.
For now, Gaza imports most ammunition consumer goods through an Israeli crossing and through hundreds of smuggling tunnels that are also used as a conduit for rockets people and weapons.
Yesterday, the area where the tunnels emerge on the Gaza side was uncharacteristically quiet. Normally, it is abuzz with activity, including the honking of trucks picking up merchandise and the humming of generators powering machinery to pull up the contraband from below.
Cheez, all that activity and no sudden, unexplained kabooms?
Hamas security officials were sitting in tents near makeshift gates to the tunnel area. Just a few hundred meters (yards) away, Egyptian soldiers guarded their side of the frontier, some sitting in watchtowers.
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PARACHINAR: At least one security official was killed and three others sustained injuries in a landmine explosion in Kurram Agency. According to political administration officer Amin Khan, security personnel fell prey to a planted landmine while on a regular patrol in Saragarhi area of Kurram Agency. One of the personnel was killed while three others were injured, the official added. The injured were shifted to CMH, where sources said one of them was in critical condition.
Meanwhile, a remote-controlled bomb exploded near a passenger vehicle in Lower Kurram Agencys Bugzai area. The blast injured three people, who were shifted to Alizai Tehsil Hospital.
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An Islamic version of the social networking site Facebook is set to debut in Indonesia in November. 'Salamworld', as it is called, will also have an option that allows users to ensure the content they view is 'Halal' and filter out indecent subject matter, such as pornography or drugs.
Salamworld chairman Abdul-Vakhed Niyazov said, "By filtering out harmful content and ensuring that its pages uphold and respect family values, Salamworld can be described as 'Halal Facebook', the new social networking phenomenon."
Salamworld, currently being tested by about one thousand users worldwide, would be available in eight languages, including English, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and Russian.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is also the second-largest market in the world for Facebook and the third-largest for Twitter.
Egypt will discuss the possibility of a bigger-than-expected $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund when a delegation from the Washington-based body visits Cairo this month, its finance minister said.
[Tolo News] WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday accused Iran of setting up a pro-regime militia in Syria as Washington increasingly ties the crisis there to interference by its long-time foe Tehran.
Western powers are already locked in a diplomatic stand-off with Iran over what they say is its plan to develop nuclear weapons, and tensions are high between US and Iranian patrols in the oil shipping lanes of the Gulf.
Iran and Syria are long-standing allies and joint sponsors of the Lebanese gang Hezbollah, but the formation of an Iranian-backed force inside Syria would mark a new and dangerous chapter in an already bloody conflict.
Rights groups say more than 23,000 people have been killed in 17 months of fighting between troops loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... and rebel forces, including civilians killed in the regime's brutal crackdown.
"It is obvious that Iran has been playing a larger role in Syria in many ways," US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said at a joint presser with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey.
Panetta said the United States has evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guards are "trying to develop, trying to train a militia within Syria to be able to fight on behalf of the regime."
"We are seeing a growing presence by Iran and that is of deep concern to us. We do not think that Iran ought to play that role at this moment in time, that's dangerous... It's adding to the killing that's going on in Syria."
Panetta urged Tehran to stay out of the conflict, saying: "Our hope is that Iran thinks better about how much they do want to get involved.
The Syrian people ought to determine their future, not Iran."
Last week, Syrian rebels captured 48 Iranians they accused of supporting the regime. Tehran admitted that some of the men were "retired"
Revolutionary Guards, but insisted they were on a religious pilgrimage.
The Revolutionary Guards, an elite military organization, has a history of sponsoring gangs abroad in order to further Iran's interests.
Apart from Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite armed faction in Leb, Iran has also been accused of supporting various Shiite militias in Iraq, such as elements of the Mahdi Army of firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... Hezbollah has proved one of Israel's deadliest foes in festivities in southern Leb and stands accused of carrying out kabooms around the world. The Mahdi Army at times bitterly resisted the former US occupation of Iraq.
The US administration had already accused Hezbollah of lending aid to Assad's embattled regime, and Dempsey said the new militia is based on the model of the Mahdi Army and has Shiite and Alawite recruits.
Assad's regime is dominated by figures from his Alawite minority, a sub-branch of Shiite Islam, and the defections of several senior Sunni Mohammedan officials in recent weeks has sharpened the country's sectarian divide.
The bulk of the rebels are from Syria's Sunni majority, and both sides have been accused of attacks on members of rival communities.
The US officials said Syria's army has been weakened by desertions and defections within its top hierarchy.
"The Syrian army has been fighting now for about 18 months or so. And any army would be taxed with that kind of pace," Dempsey said, adding he expected that the Syrian military was experiencing resupply and morale problems.
"That's why Iran is stepping in to form this militia, to take some of the pressure off of the Syrian military."
Panetta said that Washington would continue to provide humanitarian aid to Syria refugees, to monitor the regime's chemical weapons stockpile and to send "non-lethal" supplies to the rebels.
He added that some of the United States' regional allies would provide "more aggressive assistance to the opposition as well" -- an apparent reference to reported arms shipments from Turkey, Qatar and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... .
A statement by Islamic gunnies in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula warned the military against waging a security crackdown and manhunt of jihadis, asserting that they have not targeted Egyptians soldiers.
Wednesday's statement posted on a website which usually carries al-Qaeda and similar groups' statements said the jihadis' primary target is Israel. It denied responsibility for the killing of soldiers two weeks ago and urged the army to "prevent bloodshed."
LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has no way of leaving his refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London without being arrested, even if Quito grants him asylum shortly, lawyers say. The Australian has been in the embassy for eight weeks since losing a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted to stand trial for rape.
I am truly enjoying watching Mr. Assange struggle with the decisions he has made...
Assange denies the accusations made by two female WikiLeaks supporters. He fears Sweden could send him on to the United States, where he believes authorities want to punish him for publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks in 2010 in a major embarrassment for Washington.
We wouldn't mind...
President Rafael Correa, who is openly sympathetic to Assange, is expected to decide on his asylum request this week. However, approval would offer no legal protection in Britain where police will arrest him once they get a chance.
The question of asylum is arguably a red herring, said former British government lawyer Carl Gardner.
Assange, who is also liable to arrest for skipping bail, would still have to find a way of getting from central London to South America without passing through British territory.
I cant see the UK backing down and just allowing him safe passage out of the country, said Rebecca Niblock, an extradition specialist at London law firm Kingsley Napley. I think the UK will see their obligations under the European extradition system as overriding any diplomatic relations with Ecuador, who havent really been considering their diplomatic relations with the UK, apparently.
Assange would be protected from arrest if travelling in a diplomatic car, but the embassy is on the first floor of a building that is being watched by police day and night.
The tall red-brick block just behind the Harrods department store also houses the Colombian embassy and private apartments. A police van was parked outside the main entrance on Wednesday and police officers were patrolling the area in pairs.
The property has several gated entrances and a private car park, but the Ecuadorean embassy is not linked internally with any of them, making the front entrance its only point of exit, a security manager at the building told Reuters.
So long as the Bobbies' don't have the place surrounded 'Saudi style'...
There is no other exit. He is going to have to come out of the main entrance, said the manager, who asked not to be named. There is no way to bring a vehicle in because the car park is private and it is not connected in any way to their premises.
He added: He can climb out of a window, of course, but there are CCTV cameras everywhere.
Even if he somehow managed to get out of the building and into a waiting car unnoticed by police, he would have to leave the vehicle at some point to board a flight out of Britain, offering more opportunities for his arrest.
Other scenarios lawyers are discussing on the Internet include smuggling him out in a diplomatic bag, which would be illegal, or appointing him as an Ecuadorean diplomat to give him immunity. But lawyers and diplomats said neither was realistic.
Even if Assange were willing to try his luck packed in a crate all the way to Quito, a risky plan by any measure, it seems unlikely Ecuador would attempt such a scheme.
Nigeria tried it in 1984, when it had a former minister accused of corruption kidnapped in London and shipped out in a crate, but the plan was foiled and ridicule ensued.
A diplomatic appointment by Ecuador in London would not help either because Britain would have to approve that, and it has no incentive to do so.
The possibility of appointing Assange as an Ecuadorean envoy to the United Nations has been raised, but that would be open to legal challenge.
Assange has not said publicly why he chose to seek refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy. Whatever his motivations, lawyers said his supporters warnings that he could face the death penalty if sent to the United States were unfounded.
There may be people in the USA who think he should be tried for capital crimes, convicted, and executed, wrote lawyer Francis FitzGibbon on his blog. But while he remains in the jurisdiction of the UK or Sweden, thats not going to happen.
Both countries are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prevents them from extraditing anybody to a country where they would risk the death penalty. The United States would have to give assurances that Assange would not face ill treatment or death in order to obtain his extradition from either London or Stockholm.
If Assanges main motivation is fear of a transfer to the United States, his determination to remain in Britain rather than going to Sweden to defend himself is puzzling.
Why would the U.S. not just request his extradition from here where its pretty easy? Its not easier from Sweden, said Niblock.
The British government has said it was determined to fulfil its legal obligation to extradite Assange to Sweden. Britains Supreme Court has ruled the Swedish arrest warrant was valid and Assange should be sent to Stockholm. Before he went to the embassy, Assange was free on bail pending the outcome of Swedens extradition request. By holing up in the embassy, he has breached his bail conditions.
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PESHAWAR: Police seized large quantity of explosives from a car and arrested three people in Shabqadar area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwas Charsadda District on Wednesday. Police said that the raid was carried out on a checkpost in the Shabqadar area. A car was searched and police found explosives in large amounts from the vehicles secret compartments. The explosives included 683 dynamites and 780 safety fuses.
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Thirteen bully boyz were killed when one of the mines they were planting went kaboom!, killing all of them in eastern Laghman province on Wednesday.
The incident occurred in the Alingar district and the mines were meant to target local troops in the area, Mohammad Noman Hatifi, the Media Officer of the 201 Selab military corps said.
Insurgents use Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to target Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... troops, but most of the victims are civilians.
According to a United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... report that was released recently, anti-government elements continue to target community leaders, governmental authorities and civilians that they suspect of supporting the government or military forces.
. PESHAWAR: Unidentified miscreants blew up the building of a government school at Katbano village in Mardan District. According to the local police, some miscreants had attached explosives to the building of the school and detonated it with a remote control. The structure and outer wall of the building were damaged, however, no causality was reported.
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[Tolo News] India's low fare airline Spicejet has announced expansion of its activities by offering flights from its capital city, Delhi, to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
SpiceJet is one of the largest Indian private airline companies to offer flights three times a week to Afghanistan.
A number of private airline company officials in Afghanistan have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s over the low fare competition that foreign airlines offer and the effect the competition has on national airlines.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Afghanistan's Transport and Aviation Ministry is optimistic about SpiceJet's new venture into Afghanistan.
,
The Afghan Minister of Transport and Aviation Daoud Ali Najafi has said that "this is a free market and national airlines should improve services if they would like to compete with international companies."
Other than SpiceJet, there are seven other foreign airline companies that offer flights to Afghanistan.
Four men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of illegally supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor.
Only four?
The suspects were held following searches of homes and business in Hamburg, Oldenburg and Weimar. They are accused of using front companies in Turkey and Azerbaijan to supply the parts in deals worth millions of euros. Germany has an embargo on nuclear-related trade with Iran.
German prosecutors said the arrested men - one German citizen and three Iranian-German dual nationals, were supplying special valves to be used in heavy water reactors. They are accused of breaking the arms embargo, as well as export restrictions on goods that could be used for military purposes. Prosecutors say the men, known as
Dieter, Hans, Wolfgang and Klaus...
Rudolf M, Kianzad Ka, Gholamali Ka, and Hamid Kh, knew what the parts would be used for. Germany privacy laws prevent their full names being released.
A fifth suspect has not been named.
Helmut?
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08/16/2012
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Attention : Interpol Jason Holland : Jamaica At Times : Aruba : Also
Saudi Arabia has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon "immediately" after a string of kidnappings in the country. The Saudi embassy in Beirut cited the "reported threats to kidnap Saudi citizens" in Lebanon, which borders Syria, state-run Spa news agency said.
Earlier, a clan in Lebanon said it had abducted a number of Syrians who belonged to the rebel Free Syrian Army. It said this was in retaliation for the kidnapping of a clan member in conflict-wracked Syria.
A foreign ministry official was also quoted by Spa as saying Saudi citizens should avoid "travelling to Lebanon for their own safety".
This comes after the powerful Mekdad clan in Lebanon said it had abducted a number of Syrians who it said were connected to Syrian rebels. A Turkish national is also reported to be among those seized. The Shia Muslim clan said it had acted to force the release of one of its members captured in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The rebels said the seized man was connected to the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah and was fighting for the Syrian government - a claim denied by the Mekdad clan.
The clan has also threatened nationals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey - all Sunni Muslim countries that support the Syrian rebels fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Lebanon is a popular tourist destination for Saudis and citizens of other Gulf states.
The flesh-pots of Beirut are starting to look less appealing...
Like Syria's other neighbours - Turkey, Iraq and Jordan - Lebanon has absorbed thousands of refugees fleeing from the conflict. But unlike the other countries,
Hah...
Lebanon risks being plunged into sectarian strife, possibly even civil war, by the strains inflicted on its own delicate internal situation by the Syrian crisis, correspondents say.
Tripoli - Lebanon's second city - has recently witnessed street gun sex battles between supporters and opponents of President Assad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2012
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AFP] A NATO Black Hawk helicopter came down in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing seven American soldiers and four Afghans, the military said, as Taliban insurgents claimed to have shot it down.
A Democratic Party caucus chairman who has speculated about Jewish involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks has launched a new political action committee dedicated to supporting "anti-Zionist" 
cycle of violence
[Tolo News] United States Secretary of Defence 
AMIENS, FRANCE: The French city of Amiens yesterday began a costly cleanup after two nights of rioting that left France again asking itself what to do about marginalized urban neighbourhoods that have regularly erupted into violence in the past decade.
Jimmy Carter
Joe 
WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Tuesday voiced concern about the Haqqani network and said it was studying whether to designate the group as terrorists after strong appeals by Congress. 
[Tolo News] Three 
BAGHDAD -- Three bomb blasts shortly before sunset Wednesday killed 10 people north of Baghdad in the latest spasm of violence to grip Iraq.
[Tolo News] A Taliban weapons dealer was captured in a joint Afghan and 
Battles between a 
President Asif Ali 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Moqtada 
Thirteen 
Four men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of illegally supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor.
