Actor and musician Gary A. Sinise was named an honorary U.S. Marine during a ceremony at the Home of the Commandants, Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., Aug. 29.
Sinise shares this title with other notable people including actor Chuck Norris and Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Joe Rosenthal.
This was one of the most extraordinary nights. I was totally surprised by what the general gave me tonight. Im humbled, shocked, moved and motivated to keep standing up for our men and women and giving back to them, said Sinise.
Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, hosted the ceremony at his home at the Barracks.
"There is little I can say to enhance the rich reputation Gary Sinise has earned, both in the spotlight as an immensely talented actor, and less conspicuously as a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. What I can do, what I am privileged and proud to do, is to recognize this humble patriot's selfless service by making him an Honorary Marine," said Amos.
Sinise, 58, has acted in movies and TV shows including Forrest Gump and CSI: New York and performs in his own band, The Lt. Dan Band.
Sinise is also the founder of the Gary Sinise Foundation which supports veterans and their families through programs meant to entertain, strengthen and educate.
#2
Seems a genuinely good guy that does a lot of unpaid work on behalf of vets, their causes, and America in general. Sorry to see his CSI - NY get canceled
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2013 14:26
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h/t Gates of Vienna
...is there not an established tendency for blacks to be victims of interracial violence in the United States? Hasn't that been the recent media message? Message, yes; truth, no. Here are the suppressed and inconvenient facts: can't fix a problem without first admitting it's existence
#5
Brave man but his academic career is about to end. Sadly, it will not be noted since our nation and media are in the grip of rigid orthodoxies on matters of race, environment and gender. Burning and the inquisition have given way to lesser perils for being an apostate democrat, but they are still very painful. Best of luck professor, but sadly I fear your chair will have a lesser scholar soon.
h/t Instapundit
...It's impossible for our elected representatives to "represent" us properly if they are living a life that's insulated from many of the onerous laws or regulations they inflict on the rest of us -- or, more generally, if they're a special "protected class." Why am I thinking Lone Star Planet?
#3
You will not have change until a supermajority of congress critters are elected who are not incumbents who can vote out special privileges. The old members corrupt the new on the installment plan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/30/2013 11:13
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#5
I think there should be a law that if an elected or appointed official is found to have told a lie while in office, they be burned at the stake in the town square. It'll work even faster than term limits.
#6
...but the EPA would intervene to shut it all down due to the incredible amount of CO2 release caused by the massive conflagration that would result with such a penalty.
#6
Don't under estimate the French...they had sort of have a victory in military relative to Google...now a search for "French Military Victories" it no long return with the question "Do you mean French military Defeats".
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/30/2013 10:10
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#10
Hey if Saudi wants this so bad... they got a lot of weapons.. including planes... they can get some military experience. After all it is a Sunni Shia proxy war.
#12
The Brits exercised a bit of common sense yesterday. I suspect that even most donks in our Congress would have better sense if Obama allowed them to vote on it which is most likely why he won't. That's really stupid because it would give him a face saving way out of the corner into which he's painted himself. But we can always count on the Champ to do the dumbest thing possible.
#13
And that corner is getting very tight. If he orders a strike without Congressional approval, is the order legal? If the order is refused, what action would be taken? If a court martial, could the defendant ask for removal to civilian court because of undue command influence? How would SCOTUS deal with that? Lots of bad things can happen and not all in the Middle East.
#17
I noticed is Kerry's news conference today he mentioned the "mistake of Iraq" in ref to WMD. Perhaps someone should introduce him to the work of Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi.
#18
The way I understand it the President has all the lee-way in the world to take military action for something like 90 days after which he must request Congress approval. If he can be done before then he can ignore Congress.
#21
Paul, both are equally bad. That is why I am in favor of sitting back, watching both sides bleed each other white, and waiting until they are both gone.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/30/2013 17:34
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#22
Totally agree with you Rambler so why do Obama and France want to get involved?
Posted by: Paul D ||
08/30/2013 17:44
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#23
Crazy how Barry has spent the last 5 years snubbing the British, then get pissy when they are not interested in Valerie and BO's Excellent Adventure.
I don't get France's interest. Libya, yes. Syria, why?
#25
The French must be watching out for their trade interest, I guess.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/30/2013 19:37
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#26
Lucy and the football come to mind
Posted by: Kelly ||
08/30/2013 19:40
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#27
Don't fergit the Crusades, espec the France-based Knights Templars + other.
IMO the greater worry is alleged Marxist-Anarchist-Globalist Obama's support or adherence to a OWG-NWO where so-called OWG Global Federal Unions are dominated or controlled by one or more US-style "Co-Superpowers" - by this scope, iff one believes that the post-9-11 USA is the "tip of the spear" in setting up OWG = Space Govt-Order, then its possible that it is the Bammer's = USA's interests to ENSURE THAT SHIA IRAN BECOMES THE WORLD'S FIRST DE FACTO ISLAMIC SUPERPOWER, + THAT CHINA DE FACTO GETS 1/2 OR MORE OF THE PACIFIC INCLUD INDIAN OCEAN REGIONS.
The above in turn infers that for other World States or Great Powers to become a Globalist "Co-Superpower" in the US mode, THE SUPERPOWER USA PER SE MUST UNILATERALLY GIVE UP POWER-N-INFLUENCE/AUTHORITY IN SELECT OR RELEVANT REGIONS.
OBAMA'S JOB THEN BECOMES MAKING THE LOSS OF US POWER-N-INFLUENCE/AUTHORITY ACCEPTABLE OR REASONABLE TO THE US MAINSTREAM = VOTERS.
E.G. ...
> THE US CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO GO TO WAR = ENGAGE IN ANY SORT OF PROTRACTIVE OR LIMITED MILITARY ACTION.
> THE SEQUESTER = ONGOING DEBT, BUDGET CRISES.
> THE AMERICAN = AMERIKAN PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF WAR = WAGING THE GWOT, + "ITS TIME TO END IT".
SEVEN [or More?] OWG GLOBAL NUCLEAR "CO-SUPERPOWERS" FOR SEVEN CONTINENTS = SEVEN OWG GLOBAL FEDERAL UNIONS.
OBAMA IS NOT GOING TO SYRIA OR IRAN OR AGZ CHINA TO KILL, HE'S GOING THERE TO INTENTIONALLY BE KILLED = UNILATERALLY BUT PCORRECTLY-DENIABLY SACRIFICE US POWER + CREDIBILITY, IN THE NAME OF THE MARXIST-ANARCHIST-GLOBALIST AGENDA.
Lest we fergit, "STAR WARS" PREQUEL BABE PADME AMYGDALA = "SO THIS IS HOW FREEDOM/DEMOCRACY ENDS - WID APPLAUSE" = ys-yes-Yes-YES-YYYESSS ........@ETC. WILD MASS PUBLIC/VOTER APPROVAL!
#29
* See also MIDDLE EAST ONLINE > HOLLANDE: SYRIA STRIKE COULD COME BY WEDNESDAY, when the French Parliament formally meets in emergency Syria session.
* RELATED JAPAN TIMES > OBAMA PREPARES TO GO IT ALONE ON SYRIA IFF NECESSARY, after the UK opts out of participation in any MilAction agz Baby Assad.
* DAILY STAR LEBANON > NATO WILL NOT TAKE PART IN SYRIA STRIKE.
Again, iff the Bammer is covertly supporting or adhering to the Globalist agenda of a OWG + "Multipolar World" dominated by MULTIPLE GLOBAL "CO-SUPERPOWERS", THEN THE BRITS, GERMANY, + NATO MAY ACTUALLY BE MAKING THE "SMART MOVE" BY NOT JOINING THE US IN COALITION SINCE THE OBAMA-LED US WILL BE ATTACKING SYRIA [Iran = NucProg?] TO BE DEFEATED OR DETRIMENTALLY STALEMATED, HUMILIATED IN SUPPORT OF EMPOWERING + PROMOTING FUTURE OWG "CO-SUPERPOWERS" IRAN + CHINA, ETAL???
Posted on P.2 because so many people have already been arrested that it only rates if it's is someone high up in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy. When it's become relatives, they merely add to the crowded cells.
No doubt at some point in the near future a cadre of do-gooders will point out that the jail cells of Cairo have become as impossibly crowded as the ones in California, and that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, to which the response shall be: of course. This is Egypt. Then the do-gooders shall be thumped and added to the prison population...
[Ynet] Egyptian authorities tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! more than 60 people associated with the Moslem Brüderbund in less than 24 hours, including relatives of the group's leaders, officials said Wednesday.
The crackdown on the group, from which ousted President Mohammed Morsi hails, started shortly after the July 3 coup. It intensified this month after security forces cleared out two of the group's sit-ins, killing hundreds and sparking unrest that killed more than 1,000 people in a few days. The Interior Ministry says more than 100 coppers and soldiers have also been killed since mid-August.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/30/2013
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#1
Then the do-gooders shall be thumped and added to the prison population...
Could this same course of action be applied to the California go-gooders as well????
[Ynet] Rebels see dozens of missiles pulling out north of capital. Move part of limited redeployment in central Syria, diplomats say, note rebel raids block wider evacuation
The Syrian army isn't completely stupid. Give them a month's warning and prolonged nattering debate at the U.N. and they too shall get the message, and move their stuff...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's forces have removed several Scud missiles and dozens of launchers from a base north of Damascus, possibly to protect the weapons from a Western attack, opposition sources said on Thursday.
The move from the position in the foothills of the Qalamoun mountains, one of Syria's most heavily militarized districts, appears part of a precautionary but limited redeployment of armaments in areas of central Syria still held by Assad's forces, diplomats based in the Middle East told Rooters.
They said rebel raids and fighting near key roads had blocked a wider evacuation of the hundreds of security and army bases that dot the country of 22 million, where Assad's late father imposed his autocratic dynasty four decades ago.
At the headquarters of the army's 155th Brigade, a missile unit whose base sprawls along the western edge of Syria's main highway running north from the capital to Homs, rebel scouts saw dozens mobile Scud launchers pulling out early on Thursday.
Rebel military sources said spotters saw missiles draped in tarpaulins on the launchers, as well as trailer trucks carrying other rockets and equipment. More than two dozen Scuds - 11-metre (35-foot) long ballistic missiles with ranges of 300 km (200 miles) and more - were fired from the base in the Qalamoun area this year, some of which hit even Aleppo in the far north.
The base was among a list of suggested targets presented by the rebel Syrian National Coalition to Western envoys in Istanbul earlier this week, opposition sources said. Scud units, of Soviet or North Korean manufacture, are designed to be mobile and so could still be set up quickly to fire from new positions.
Assad's forces appeared already by Wednesday to have evacuated most personnel from army and security command headquarters in central Damascus, residents and opposition sources in the capital said.
#2
I was thinking that this morning on the way to work -- by the time President Present sends forth his Tomahawks, there will be nothing left at the target locations.
Talk about telegraphing your punches!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/30/2013 6:47
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#4
Wasteful expenditures are not limited to the USD. With a broken economy and over 90,000,000 out of work, the replenishment of expended ordinance and war stocks may not enjoy much priority. But of course that fits the desired narrative of a diminished America.
#5
the only good thing Obama's bluster/missile threats (to avoid mockery) may have brought about is busying the syrians with relocating important stuff. Makes them more vulnerable to attack in transit and without established base security.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2013 10:38
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#6
It can also ID the preferred operational sites where they were and sets baselines for trigger event monitoring of where they are.
#7
baselines for trigger event monitoring
Yeah, like who is gonna do anything with THAT? Not like the Dreaded Red Line caused a lot of concern......
You are mistaking Bambi for a sentient life form.
[Ynet] The US Navy has deployed a fifth destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean, a defense official told AFP on Thursday, as expectations grow of an imminent strike on Syria.
The USS Stout, a guided missile destroyer, is "in the Mediterranean, heading and moving east" to relieve the USS Mahan, said the official, who said both ships might remain in place for the time being.
#2
The USN has repor canceled the departure of one CVN CBG from the Persian Gulf, + deployed a second same.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US STRIKES WOULD AIM TO TARGET BASHIR AL-ASSAD, IRAN | GULF NEWS.
But-t-t, besides Assad's defiant rants IRAN has times past said any major attack by the US or Israel, etal. agz its NucProgs andor Invasion, etc. would be interpreted as an attack by the other, + would justify any + all Iranian counter-responses. TO INCLUDE VIA THIRD-PARTY/SURROGATE TERROR + AGZ ANY US-ISRAELI INTERESTS ANYWHERE IN ME + AROUND THE WORLD.
WHAT MORE IFF THE UNO FORMALLY DETERMINES THAT BABY ASSAD DIDN'T DO THE DEED???
* TOPIX > KRAUTHAMMER: IS OBAMA BEING "SHAMED" INTO WAR?
--------------
Lest we fergit,
* WASHINGTON POST > US MILITARY OFFICERS HAVE DEEP DOUBTS ABOUT IMPACT, WISDOM OF A US STRIKE ON SYRIA.
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Investors.com] ATTACK ON SYRIA ABOUT SAVING FACE, NOT US.
* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > EXPERTS: NO GUARANTEE US STRIKE ON SYRIA WILL [locate or] DESTROY ASSAD'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS.
ALL of such???
* SAME > [Various] HAGEL: LACK OF SETTLEMENT IN ASIAN TERRITORIAL DISPUTES INCREASES RISK OF [Regional, International = Great Power] CONFRONTATION.
RELATED SAME > HAGEL REPEATS WARNING ON ASIAN DISPUTES.
* E.G. BIG NEWS NETWORK [old] > CHINESE MEDIAS [Global Times] USES TRAGIC KILO-CLASS SUBMARINE ACCIDENT TO MOCK "PAPER TIGER" INDIA.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > AFTER CHINA, MYANMAR'S ARMY ENTERS MANIPUR, INDIA FOR [India- humiliating Border ...] "CAMPING" - THE TIMES OF INDIA.
No word iff the Myanmar Boyz brought Beer + Hotdogs wid them to share wid Indjuh.
* TOPIX > BEIJING: CHINA-JAPAN MEETING AT G-20 RULED OUT.
CHINA = criticizing JAPAN for CONDUCTING OR ENGAGING IN "EMPTY TALK" ON DISPUTED ISLANDS.
* SAME > CHINA SEA RIGHTS DISPUTES UNLIKELY TO BE SETTLED.
To paraph "STAR WARS" PREQUEL EVIL CHARACTER "EMPEROR PALPATINE" = "WAR [Treason] IT IS, THEN"!
[An Nahar] The quiet hospital ward in northern Israel is a world away from the ravages of Syria's civil war but scores of maimed Syrians, ignoring long-standing taboos concerning relations with the Jewish state, are receiving treatment here.
Fatima, a Syrian woman who ended up in Ziv hospital with her daughter after a blast shattered their legs in their hometown of Daraa, was full of praise for the medical staff.
"They care about us and have shown us a lot of respect," she said.
But mindful that Syria and Israel are technically still at war following their 1967 and 1973 conflicts, she was reluctant to be identified, asking that pseudonyms be used both for herself and for her daughter.
"Please do not show our faces," she asked Agence La Belle France Presse photographers.
The 41-year-old mother of nine, who lost contact with her family after the blast more than a month ago, is one of 73 Syrians who have been treated for their wounds in Israel since early this year.
"I was deafened by the kaboom," Fatima told AFP from her bed in the hospital, which perches on a rocky hilltop in the upper Galilee town of Safed.
"I was in a daze, and don't know how I got here or who brought me. I remember people picking me up and helping me, and the next thing I knew, I was in an Israeli hospital."
Fatima was carrying out routine chores when a mortar shell hit her house, wounding her and her daughter "Zahra".
Doctors described Fatima's injury as "severe blast trauma, with loss of tissue and bone from her ankle", while Zahra suffered fractures to both legs.
A 15-year-old Syrian girl in the next bed along, also from Daraa, was less fortunate, losing both her legs from wounds sustained in a blast.
Tensions have been running high in Israel, with the Jewish state fearing the fallout from a possible U.S. strike on Syria in response to alleged chemical weapons use could spill across its northern border.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
Mind you, nobody but the usual idiots expects gratitude.
[An Nahar] Kuwait called Thursday for international "deterrent" action against Syria following an alleged chemical attack near Damascus last week.
A government statement urged the international community "to assume its moral responsibility towards the crimes committed in Syria and take practical deterrent measures to prevent" new attacks.
The statement comes as the United States and Britannia laid out their case for punitive military strikes against Damascus over the alleged August 21 chemical attack.
U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... has appealed for the West to give peace a chance, saying arms inspectors on the ground in Syria would report back to him by Saturday on their probe into the alleged attack.
Rights groups say hundreds of people were killed, including children, when poisonous gas was unleashed on suburbs of Damascus last week.
The Syrian opposition has blamed regime forces for the attack but the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... blamed rebels.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
And Kuwait will do what? Oh that's right. The U.S. is supposed to do it. What was I thinking?
#3
This $hit really disgusts me. These Muzzie Bastdards have plenty of military of their own. You want a "deterrent" effect get your buddies in SA and the Emirates and Turkey and Jorday and deter away.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Ronald Reagan's family has hit out at the producers of a new Hollywood film for allegedly portraying the former President as a racist. Ummm... It's a propaganda movie. What'd you expect? I think they've got some sort of Leftie Board of Censors that approves this sort of thing.
The Republican icon is played by British actor Alan Rickman in The Butler, which tells the story of a black man who served in the White House for 34 years.
However, his son claims that the portrayal implies that Reagan was prejudiced against black people, when in fact he helped the cause of African-Americans and showed friendship to the real White House butler.
Jane Fonda and Alan Rickman playing Nancy and Ronald Reagan in The Butler, which allegedly portrays the former President as a racist
Mr Rickman, known for his roles in Die Hard and the Harry Potter series, He played Snape.
plays Reagan, while anti-war activist Jane Fonda was controversially cast as his wife Nancy. You know all about Hanoi Jane.
In the film - as in real life - Reagan invites the butler to attend a state dinner as a guest instead of an employee.
But Gaines is uncomfortable with the experience, and turns against the President over Reagan's move to lift sanctions against South Africa over the apartheid regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
The rewriting of the Reagan era by Hollywood and through extension, the current regime, is essential. He was after all, he was a staunch an anti-communist.
#2
Anti-Communism is NOT "Racist", nor is, was or will be Reagan.
(Too bad he's still alive, It kills all the Movies, and Movie makers ugly plots.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2013 10:30
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#3
Future generations will know Reagan based a lot upon this movie. The left does this a lot. The right needs to make a better movie that more people will see if they want the truth told.
Drip, drip, drip. So much for Prince Bandar's reported promise to Vladimir Putin to control the price of oil at an acceptable level.
[La Belle France24] Shale gas extraction has begun at a test well in northern Poland, a first for the EU member, a minister said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. The firm Lane Energy Poland, controlled by US energy giant ConocoPhilips, has been extracting about 8,000 cubic metres of gas per day since July 21, deputy environment minister Piotr Wozniak said.
"It's good news for Poland, and also for Europe," Wozniak, who is also the country's chief geologist, told the Rzeczpospolita daily about the test production near the town of Lebork.
He said that although the yield was lower than at sites in Canada and the United States, it was the best such result in Europe to date.
Poland uses about 14 billion cubic metres (500 billion cubic feet) of natural gas a year, of which 60 percent is imported from Russia. The country of 38 million people plans to invest 12.5 billion euros ($17.0 billion) in exploration and development of its shale gas sector by 2020.
Poland could have between 800 billion and two trillion cubic metres of exploitable shale gas deposits, according to the Polish Geological Institute.
[An Nahar] Thousands of people have fled violence in the Central African Republic in recent days, with as many as 6,000 temporarily taking refuge at the Bangui airport, the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said Thursday.
"Over the past 10 days arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, extortion, armed robberies, physical violence, restriction of movement, lootings and attacks on civilians have displaced thousands of people," the U.N.'s refugee agency said in a statement.
The abuses in parts of the capital have been carried out by "gangs," Babar Baloch, a U.N. refugee agency front man in Geneva told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that a lack of security on the ground in Bangui had prevented his colleagues there from determining which forces specifically were responsible.
The exact number of people fleeing the violence in the capital was also unclear, he said, stressing though that "it's a big number, in the thousands."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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Syria and its ally Iran have been building cyberattack capabilities for years and soon might have a chance to use their skills in a hot war for the first time.
This is exactly the sort of asymmetric warfare that our country should be prepping for. I hope we are.
Former U.S. officials and cybersecurity scholars say Syria has a demonstrated cyberattack capability and could retaliate against anticipated Western military strikes against Syria for its suspected chemical weapons attack against civilians in the countrys 2-year-old civil war.
Its foreseeable that [Syrian] state-sponsored or state-sympathetic hackers could seek to retaliate against U.S., Israeli or Western interests, Michael Chertoff, a former secretary of Homeland Security, told The Washington Times on Wednesday.
We have already seen regional cyberactors, such as the Syrian Electronic Army, conduct attacks on U.S. targets, added Rep. James R. Langevin, Rhode Island Democrat and a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The Syrian Electronic Army has successfully attacked computer networks used by U.S. media outlets hacking the Twitter account of The Associated Press this year and mostly knocking The New York Times website offline for 20 hours Tuesday and Wednesday.
Attackers penetrated the company that manages the papers Internet domain, NYTimes.com, according to reports in the computer security trade press.
Hackers can relatively easily hide their tracks from all but the most extensive and time-consuming forensic efforts, but the Syrian Electronic Army has publicly claimed these attacks. In online postings, the group of hacker activists, or hacktivists, claim to be motivated by Syrian patriotism and to act independently of the regime in Damascus.
It can be difficult to distinguish between hackers who are sympathetic to a regime and those directly [state] sponsored or controlled, said Mr. Chertoff, co-founder and chairman of the Chertoff Group, a global security advisory firm.
Islamic hackers whom U.S. officials have linked to Iran have launched a series of increasingly powerful cyberattacks against the websites of major U.S. banks for almost a year. Large U.S. financial institutions probably have the best cybersecurity of any nongovernmental entity, yet their websites have been driven offline by repeated attacks.
A self-described hacktivist group called Izad din al Qassam has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which they announce in advance. The group says the attacks are designed to punish the United States for an Internet video, Innocence of Muslims, made by an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian, which portrays Islams Prophet Muhammad as a killer and pedophile. The Obama administration tried to blame the video for the terrorist attack last year at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
But the kind of cyberattack that most alarms national security specialists took place a year ago and was aimed at the Saudi Arabian state oil company, Aramco. A virus called Shamoon infected the companys computer network and wiped data from more than 30,000 computers, effectively destroying all the information on the system.
A similar attack on a bank could destroy digital records of customer accounts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2013
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[An Nahar] President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... said Wednesday he had not yet signed off on a plan to strike Syria, but action appeared likely after Washington abandoned the hunt for a last-minute U.N. mandate.
Political uproar in London, meanwhile, cast doubt on whether Britannia will join American military action to punish Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... regime for a chemical weapons attack, should the response take place before next week.
And a team of U.N. inspectors pressed on with its hazardous work in Damascus, testing victims of the alleged poison gas attack, which killed hundreds of people last week and threatens to draw reluctant Western states into a vicious civil war.
Obama, who has warned that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a U.S. "red line," said Washington had definitively concluded that the Assad regime was to blame for last week's attack.
A senior White House official told Agence La Belle France Presse that the administration will brief senior U.S. politicians on Thursday about classified intelligence about the chemical attack.
Asked how close he was to ordering a U.S. strike, expected to start with cruise missile raids, Obama told PBS NewsHour: "I have not made a decision."
But he warned that U.S. action would be designed to send a "shot across the bow" to convince Syria it had "better not do it again."
He admitted that the limited strikes envisioned by the White House would not stop the killing of civilians in Syria but said he had decided that getting involved in a civil war that has already killed 100,000 people would not help the situation.
The U.S. leader, who wants to seal a legacy of ending foreign wars, not getting into new ones, argued that it was vital to send a clear message not just to Syria, but around the world. "Hans?"
"Ja, Jean-Pierre?"
"Does this message make any sense to you?"
"Well, every single word means something."
"Do the sentences mean anything?"
"I think that one, does. And that one. What do you think, Nigel?"
"Ummm... That one does, up to the colon, anyway. None of the paragraphs do."
"Maybe it makes more sense in the original Remulakian?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
If Obama had anticipated that the UN would come through, we are really in worse shape with this guy than we imagined. Gee, I'm gonna go to Planned Parenthood for a donation to "Right to Life".
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/30/2013 10:13
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#4
I seem to recall that the entire EU community and the Democrats screamed bloody murder because Bush only got 17(?) UN resolutions against Saddam and that wasn't good enough.
Boy what a hypocritical buch of back-stabbing double standard bearers they are.
#6
..but, but, the Man has been dissed. I tell you publicly dissed. And in Chicago, that means getting the posse together to do a drive by to show you can't get away with that. He don't care about weapons gun control. It's about pride.
#7
"Thank you, my posse, I won't be joining you on this mission. I'm too holy important here to actually defend and address my honor. Godspeed. Go with Allah!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2013 20:25
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#8
but he has an "obligation"!
Posted by: Jan ||
08/30/2013 21:58
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#9
ION TOPIX > [JPost] UN ANALYSIS OF SYRIA SAMPLES COULD TAKE UP TO TWO WEEKS.
Coincidentally, two weeks is also the MINIMA LEAD TIME time for any high-profile, US Congressional Personage(s), [joint?] Delegation, or Other? to go on a FACT-FINDING VISIT to Syria.
I agree wid Pert + MSM-Net Artics which argue that both the Bammer's credibility + legacy, as well as US credibility, is at stake in this crisis - MORESO IFF THE BAMMER = USA PREMATURELY ATTACKS SYRIA BASED ON THE WRONG PERPETRATOR(S).
[WAPO] U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the governments top-secret budget.
The $52.6 billion black budget for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowdenski, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses the money or how it performs against the goals set by the president and Congress.
The 178-page budget summary for the National Intelligence Program details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees.
The summary describes cutting-edge technologies, agent recruiting and ongoing operations. The Post is withholding some information after consultation with U.S. officials who expressed concerns about the risk to intelligence sources and methods. Sensitive details are so pervasive in the documents that The Post is publishing only summary tables and charts online.
The United States has made a considerable investment in the Intelligence Community since the terror attacks of 9/11, a time which includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction technology, and asymmetric threats in such areas as cyber-warfare, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. wrote in response to inquiries from The Post.
Our budgets are classified as they could provide insight for foreign intelligence services to discern our top national priorities, capabilities and sources and methods that allow us to obtain information to counter threats, he said. Very, very damaging. Time to clean houses and call for resignations, starting with the DNI.
#2
And I've been calling for a dismantling of the IC here for years. It needs to be severed and reassembled, more tightly organized for ops, and better integrated for analysts
#3
When long-term trend analysis, indications & warning, and critical thinking were pushed aside, and analysts become PPT daily briefing slaves in support of our politically motivated seniors, we knew there would be a downside.
Whoa! That is not good!
[An Nahar] Liberia's main public university said on Wednesday all 25,000 applicants for the new academic year had failed its entrance exam, prompting the president to describe poor education standards in the impoverished nation as a "national emergency".
The University of Liberia, which educates more than half of the country's students in the capital Monrovia, said it had been forced to admit 1,600 failed candidates for the new term which begins next month.
"None of the 25,000 students who sat the test (obtained) the required points," said university vice-president Ansu Sonii.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made an impromptu call at the university to discuss the failure, her office said in a statement, which described the situation as "alarming" and confirmation of a recent statement by the president that "the educational system is a mess".
"Why are the students of the system not performing to the standards expected? Why are they not comparative with those in other countries?" Sirleaf demanded as she met university authorities on Tuesday, according to the statement.
The president urged the country to see the poor performance of the candidates as a "national emergency", the statement added, and called on "all Liberians, irrespective of political background" to tackle the issue of dire standards in schools.
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#1
Should have applied to the UC system. At least the top 10 percent of the failures would have gotten in.
#5
"The Liberian educational system has a twenty-million dollar budget. The education minister first skims off ten percent. Various education officials and bureaucrats later take another thirty percent.
"How much of the budget remains for appropriation by local officials?"
[Bangla Daily Star] UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... yesterday said his investigating team would report back this week on suspected chemical weapons attacks in Syria as the US and its allies held back from immediate military action.
US President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... said he has yet to sign off on a plan to strike Syria over the horrific attacks last week that activists say killed hundreds of people and threatened to draw the West into the brutal 29-month conflict.
A Western bombing blitz had appeared imminent earlier this week, but US allies were increasingly reluctant to act before hearing the results of a UN probe into the alleged poisonous gas attacks.
Ban said the UN chemical weapons experts -- who headed out to one of the attack sites near Damascus for the third day of inspections -- would leave Syria by Saturday and report to him immediately.
He appealed to divided international powers to work together to head off military action in Syria, where the UN says 100,000 people have been killed and several million made homeless since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
"Diplomacy should be given a chance ... peace (should) be given a chance," Ban said, adding that he had spoken to Obama about the situation.
With any US-led missile strike unlikely to have UN Security Council backing, key Damascus allies Russia and Iran again warned against any Western intervention, saying it could set off a wider regional conflict.
Chinese media also warned the West against attacking.
In an editorial headed "No excuse for strikes", the state-run China Daily said the US and its Western allies were "acting as judge, jury and executioner".
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[An Nahar] A boom-mobiledestroyed a popular fruit and vegetable market north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Thursday, killing at least 16 people as Iraqis searched for cut-price groceries.
The blast, which also maimed 25 people, struck in the predominantly Sunni Arab city of Samarra at about 6:45 pm (1545 GMT).
It came a day after a wave of nationwide violence -- including a spate of bombings in the Iraqi capital -- killed at least 75 people.
The attack was the latest in a surge of unrest, with more than 3,700 people killed so far this year, that has sparked concerns Iraq is headed back to the all-out bloodshed that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.
It follows security operations targeting snuffies in Storied Baghdad and to the north and west, though the government has faced charges of not dealing with the root causes of the country's worst violence since 2008.
Thursday evening's attack struck the Samarra market, locally known as the Mraydi, at a time when struggling Iraqis typically frequent it in order to take advantage of reduced prices as surplus stock is sold before closing.
In all, 16 people were killed, including three women and two children, and 25 people were maimed, a police officer and a doctor said.
The market, the city's biggest grocery shopping area, lies in the Jiberia neighborhood of eastern Samarra.
Attacks elsewhere in Iraq left three others dead -- a soldier, a civilian and a bad boy who was rubbed out as he was trying to plant a roadside kaboom.
On Wednesday, at least 75 people were killed and more than 200 maimed in a wave of shootings and bombings across Iraq, with the violence mostly targeting the country's Shiite Moslem majority.
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[Bangla Daily Star] The UN's landmark new offensive intervention brigade suffered its first fatality Wednesday when a Tanzanian soldier was killed by rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , a front man said.
UN front man Farhan Haq told news hounds the peacekeeper was killed and three others were maimed in a battle with M23 rebels near the key eastern city of Goma.
The peacekeeper was a Tanzanian member of the Force Intervention Brigade, a kind of UN special forces set up this year to counter gangs in DR Congo, a UN peacekeeping front man said.
The brigade, which will eventually have 3,000 troops, is the first to be given an offensive peacekeeping mandate by the UN Security Council.
The DR Congo army and UN troops launched an operation on Wednesday against the M23, who have been battling government forces around
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[An Nahar] A Chinese government news portal has claimed that a woman in China's remote far west is 127 years old, making her the oldest person ever to have lived -- but experts raised questions over the supposed record Wednesday. She's a young chick. I'll be 166, come next month.
Alimihan Seyiti from Kashgar, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, was born on June 25, 1886, said ts.cn, a government website in Xinjiang -- when Grover Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then when back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... was president of the United States and William Gladstone the British prime minister.
Chinese longevity records are not generally recognised internationally, as there was no reliable system for certifying most births until after the Communist Party took power in 1949.
At the time of Seyiti's supposed birth much of Xinjiang was ruled by Yakub Beg, a Tajik warlord, while Russia held other parts of the region.
Ts.cn, which cited the little-known Carrying the Flag World Records as its source for her age, said that Seyiti had 56 descendants.
"She likes love songs and can pick up them from TV after hearing them just once," it said.
"She drinks cold water whether in summer or winter and has a big appetite: she can finish a dozen meat buns in one meal or 500g of meat, and sometimes a whole big watermelon.
"She's in good health and can still do housework like making dumplings, looking after children and weaving grass mattress. She likes shopping and going to bazaars."
But Charles Wharton, records manager for the widely respected Guinness World Records organization in greater China, told Agence La Belle France Presse: "Currently, we are yet to receive a claim from Alimihan Seyiti."
According to Guinness, he said, the oldest person ever was Jeanne Calment of La Belle France, who lived to 122, while the oldest person currently alive was Japan's Misao Okawa, "who is 115 years and 176 days old as of today".
"As we have yet to receive a claim from Mrs Seyiti, we are unable to establish the credibility of her claim," he added. "We do look forward to hopefully receiving a claim from her soon."
On its website, Carrying the Flag World Records showed Seyiti's Chinese identity card, issued in 2009, as purported evidence for her age, and her residency permit, issued earlier this month.
The firm claims to be based in London but the written English on its website is barely comprehensible.
"Carrying the flag World Records is the world's first and only one to the 2012 London Olympics world record world record certificate issued athletes the world record certification organization," it reads in part.
In what appears to be a description of its verification process, it says: "World Records certified organic 999 of its subsequent expansion of the real experts all walks of life."
It adds: "Carrying the flag is the first! Carrying the flag is the only!"
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#1
She likes shopping and going to bazaars.
Realistically speaking then, there is no known cure ?
#2
"She drinks cold water whether in summer or winter and has a big appetite: she can finish a dozen meat buns in one meal or 500g of meat, and sometimes a whole big watermelon"
#3
The oldest man to ever live was Matthews Coon-Côme
a Cree indian of the Mistassini reserve in Quebec...
He passed away three years ago...he, as his baptism certificate said had been born 115 years before but the Anglican sect there never baptized before they were 25 years old, making him about 140 years old...the strange thing is he walked and talked like a fifty years old man.
Raping the cradle, his wife is 75 years younger than him, at 75!
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[FreeBeacon] Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... running training camps in Benghazi and Darnah
U.S. intelligence agencies earlier this month uncovered new evidence that al Qaeda-linked bully boyz in Benghazi are training foreign jihadists to fight with Syria's Salafist tough guys, according to U.S. officials.
Ansar al-Sharia, the al Qaeda-affiliated militia that U.S. officials say orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound and a CIA facility in Benghazi, is running several training camps for jihadists in Benghazi and nearby Darnah, another port city further east, said officials who discussed some details of the camps on condition of anonymity.
The officials said the terror training camps have been in operation since at least May and are part of a network that funnels imported muscle to Syrian rebel groups, including the Al-Nusra Front, the most organized of the Islamist rebel groups fighting the Bashir al-Assad regime in Damascus.
Disclosure of the terror training camps also bolsters earlier intelligence assessments that Libya, following the death of Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... , is now a focal point for al Qaeda terrorist activity in North Africa.
Information about the terrorist training camps in northeastern Libya was uncovered after the arrest of several jihadists near the port city of Darnah in early August.
Other information about the camps appeared online at jihadist social media outlets around the same time.
Two men identified as Tunisians disclosed the existence of the training camps in Benghazi after they were interrogated by a local militia group in northern Libya.
At the time of their arrest, the Tunisians stated that they were trained in small arms use and were on their way to join Syria rebels by traveling first to Benghazi, then Istanbul, and over land across Turkey and into northern Syria.
According to the officials, the Tunisians were locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! Aug. 3. Inside their car, the militia found six passports, an AK-47 assault rifle, and foreign currency. A total of four people traveling in the car, including two Libyans, clashed with guards at a security checkpoint at the time of the arrest.
One of the men said he was an associate of Ansar al-Sharia's leader Sufian Ben Qumu, an al Qaeda terrorist released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007.
Details of the number of jihadist training camps and jihadists was not disclosed, but the officials said there are several training camps.
The Ansar al-Sharia Brigade in Benghazi was formed in early 2012 from several Islamist militias that fought during the 2011 revolution that ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy. The group was forced to relocate its operating bases based on local opposition to the group's role in attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound.
Ansar al-Sharia is engaged in overt charitable activities and armed patrols in Benghazi, in addition to the covert terrorist training. The group has sought to play down its role in jihadist activities to avoid both the Libyan government and international scrutiny.
Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah was founded by former members of the terrorist Salim Martyrs Brigade and operates a base west of Darnah.
Libyan officials told Britannia's Arabic language newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat earlier this month that some type of covert U.S. military action was taken against al Qaeda bases in Darnah. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... Pentagon spokesmen said they had no information about such attack that reportedly took place Aug. 11.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Libya has produced more jihadist rebels for the Syrian conflict than any other outside nation. Some 20 percent of foreign jihadists in Syria came from Libya and that several hundred are currently in the country.
Over 100 Libyans were reported killed in Syrian fighting for such rebel groups as Al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Umma Brigade, Muhajirin Brigade, and Ahrar al-Sham, an Al-Nusra offshoot.
The Ansar al-Sharia Brigade was blamed by U.S. officials for carrying out the deadly Benghazi terrorist attack Sept. 11.
#2
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Libya has produced more jihadist rebels for the Syrian conflict than any other outside nation.
To condemn the jihadist rebels from Libya would be to condemn the administration's actions which led to the overthrow of Omar Kadafi and the [no longer discussed in polite conversation] Arab Spring.
To condemn the actions of former GITMO inmate and Ansar al-Sharia's leader Sufian Ben Qumu, would be to admit that the administration's GITMO release program is a total cock-up.
To link any of these people to what took place in Benghazi, well I need not go on.
[Bangla Daily Star] Officials in Pakistain have overturned the jail sentence and ordered a retrial of a doctor who helped the CIA in their search for the late Osama bin Laden. ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... Shakil Afridi was charged with treason and tried under the tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information. If I was a highly paid CIA agent, I'd have run a legit vaccination program to gather the information. Maybe they didn't pay him enough?
He was locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! for 33 years in May 2012 and has been held since then at Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. Central Jail.
Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... in May 2011.
His killing created a crisis in relations between the US and Pakistain, which felt the covert operation was a violation of its illusory sovereignty.
The sentence was quashed and a retrial ordered because the previous judge had exceeded his authority in handing down the sentence, a judicial official at Pakistain's Frontier Crimes Regulation ruled.
The order issued by the commission says Dr Afridi will stay in prison until the retrial is concluded. No date has been set for the trial.
Shortly after the raid on Bin Laden's house, Dr Afridi was tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! for conspiring against the state of Pakistain.
Although he was accused of working with the CIA he was eventually locked away Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! for collaborating with a hard boy group. Correspondents say that the group named had actually kidnapped him on one occasion.
Dr Afridi was not present at his trial. His swift conviction came in a court outside Pakistain's normal jurisdiction in the semi-autonomous tribal areas, which do not necessarily follow standard judicial procedures.
He has consistently maintained that he did not know the target of the CIA operation was Osama bin Laden.
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Two detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been transferred to Algeria, the U.S. Defense Department said Thursday.
They're gonna wish they were back in Cuba...
"The United States is grateful to the government of Algeria for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility" by accepting Nabil Said Hadjarab and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab, the Pentagon said in a release.
"The United States coordinated with the government of Algeria to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures," the Pentagon said.
The six-department interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review then determined Hadjarab and Sayyab met the criteria and approved their transfer by consensus, the Defense Department said.
The Defense Department said 164 detainees remain at the Guantanamo Bay facility.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#3
I didn't get the impression the Algerian government is gonna turn these guys loose. They might be in for some of the old panties and pliers treatment. Do gooders might complain about it if it was Bush doing it.
[An Nahar] Taliban gunnies killed 15 police on the main highway in western Afghanistan, officials said Thursday, in the latest attack to highlight an escalation in rebel strikes as 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... -led troops withdraw.
"Highway One" is a 2,200 kilometer (1,400 mile) circular road connecting the key cities of Kabul, Kandahar, 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... and Mazar-e-Sharif, but it has been a constant target for krazed killer attacks, kidnappings and looting.
"A convoy of police who went to inspect a highway patrol unit were caught in a Taliban ambush on Wednesday," Farah province front man Abdul Rahman Zhuwandi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"There was fighting between them in which 15 national police were killed and 10 maimed, while several Taliban were also killed."
The attack occurred shortly before dusk on Wednesday in Bakwa district of Farah province, which borders Iran.
The ambush raised the corpse count in Taliban attacks on Wednesday to more than 30, including an American soldier, four coppers and three civilians who died when gunnies tried to storm a joint NATO-Afghan military base in the east.
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[An Nahar] Syria on Wednesday said it wants Leb "to stay out" of its ongoing war, amid reports about an anticipated western strike on the neighboring country.
"We want Leb to stay away from the negative repercussions that are affecting the region," Syria's ambassador to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Bashar al-Jaafari stated in a speech he gave at the headquarters of the U.N. in New York.
Al-Jaafari elaborated: "The results of regional turmoil can include terrorist operations launched by Salafist groups just like those that targeted (the southern city of) Sidon and (the northern city of) Tripoli." ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
Syria does not want Leb to be a side in this war, he stressed.
Regarding Hizbullah's possible participation in the war, the Syrian envoy said: "If Israel launched an attack on Syria, we all know what would be the repercussions of such a step."
Momentum has been building for international action against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's regime after the suspected chemical strikes on August 21 which are said to have killed hundreds on the outskirts of Damascus.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... Syria's deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said the West had pushed anti-regime rebels to use poison gas, while blaming it on the government, as a pretext for a U.S.-led military intervention.
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[MAGHAREBIA] Libyan troops moved to put an end to renewed tribal festivities between Zawia and Warshefana on Monday (August 26th).
Libya's Shield forces took up positions between the warring parties after a meeting between congressmen, ministers and military leaders that was chaired by Nouri Abu Sahmein, president of the General National Congress (GNC).
Thirty-one people in the Warshefana area were jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! at the time. They were charged with theft and banditry along the coastal road.
The latest fighting originally broke out last Thursday between the areas of Abu Isa in Zawia and Maamoura in the region of the Warshefana tribe. The skirmishes killed five and maimed twenty-five.
"We couldn't sleep. There were Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... ," said Leila Zawi, a mother of two children who lives in the region. "The children were crying and electricity was cut off. Everyone is waiting for the army's intervention, which is long overdue."
The chairman of the Zawia local council, Mohamed Khadrawi, said on Sunday that "order was restored and the cease-fire is in effect." He added that if there was a breach, Libya's Shield forces would deal with it.
Khadrawi explained that order was restored after mediation efforts by elders from the cities of Misrata, Zintan and other western regions. He said the festivities were due to theft, banditry and looting, particularly on the coastal road.
"Things are quiet now and the road between the two regions is open," said Mohamed Sayeh, a member of a civil society institution in Warshefana. He pointed out that by handing over the wanted criminals, security would be restored and people would relax.
Prime Minister Ali Zidan said late Saturday that forces from the chief of staff and the defence ministry were sent to the location of the fighting. He called on both groups to stop shooting in order for the troops to position themselves between the two sides.
"It is very unfortunate that the use of weapons has become an easy matter. Shooting in order to kill other citizens, no matter what causes and reasons are advanced by the warring parties, is distasteful; it should not happen," Zidan said.
Zidan added, "No doubt, this is due to the proliferation of weapons among citizens. These arms should be held by the legitimate authorities that are the army and police. Instead they are now in the hands of citizens and not governed by any discipline or army law. Hence, unless we succeed in collecting these arms and returning them to the storehouses of the army, we will have many challenges."
The Warshefana tribes issued a statement welcoming the entry of Libyan forces to separate the two warring regions.
"The need is for these forces to work under the legitimate command of the GNC, the Ministry of Defence and the Presidency of the General Staff in order to resolve the dispute according to approved administrative regulations," the Warshefana said.
A statement from Zawia blamed the interim government, security and judicial institutions for the events. "Behind these events are criminal outlaws causing problems and committing robberies, kidnapping, murders and criminality in all its forms and using the areas of Maamoura, al-Hachan, Kerkoz, District 27 as bases for their activities," it said.
"These locations have witnessed instability for over two years since the liberation," the statement added.
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#1
Thirty-one people in the Washerwomen area were jugged at the time. They were charged with theft and banditry along the coastal road.
But, but what about Allah's 20% cut, what about the orphans?
"The need is for these forces to work under the legitimate command of the GNC, the Ministry of Defence and the Presidency of the General Staff in order to resolve the dispute according to approved administrative regulations," the Washerwomen said.
Boy, forget about the GNC. Just order online from Puritan's Pride.
#2
Zidan added, "No doubt, this is due to the proliferation of weapons among citizens. These arms should be held by the legitimate authorities that are the army and police. Instead they are now in the hands of citizens and not governed by any discipline or army law. Hence, unless we succeed in collecting these arms and returning them to the storehouses of the army, we will have many challenges."
Taking lessons from Obama?
THE GUN'S THE PROBLEM.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2013 10:53
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[USATODAY] The Justice Department will not attempt to challenge state laws that allow for the medical and recreational use of marijuana as long as the drug sales do not conflict with eight new federal enforcement priorities.
Those include the distribution of marijuana to minors and sales that assist or act as cover for trafficking operations, according to a directive being issued Thursday to federal prosecutors across the country.
Although the directive issued by Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder ... aka Mister Fast and Furious... will apply nationwide, it will largely affect the 20 states and the District of Columbia that allow for medical marijuana use, and Colorado and Washington where state laws allow medical and recreational use by adults.
A Justice official, who was briefed on the directive but not authorized to comment publicly, said Holder briefed the governors of Colorado and Washington earlier Thursday on the new prosecutorial directive in a conference call. Federal prosecutors were expected to begin briefing authorities in other states later Thursday.
The new guidelines do not change marijuana's classification as an illegal drug, the official said. But the document effectively discourages the pursuit of individual non-violent marijuana users who have no links to criminal gangs or cartel operations.
The document contains a list of eight new federal enforcement priorities, which is expected to guide federal authorities when weighing decisions on marijuana prosecutions. It also notified state authorities that the federal government will intervene if the states violate those priorities, including the distribution of marijuana to minors.
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#8
I suppose illegal drug user's votes matter as much as illegal immigrants, maybe more so, since they generally need ID to get pot so easier for them to get to the polls.
[An Nahar] Egyptian police tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! senior Moslem Brüderbund politician Mohamed al-Beltagi and a former Islamist government minister on Thursday, the interior ministry said.
The firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... politician was arrested in a village outside Cairo with former labor minister Khaled al-Azhari, who served in ousted president Mohammed Morsi's government, the ministry said.
Beltagi, who had issued defiant video recordings in hiding, was the latest Brotherhood leader tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in a wide-ranging crackdown on the Islamist movement.
A former member of parliament, he became one of the most vociferous opponents of the popularly backed military coup that toppled the Islamist Morsi on July 3.
Police had already arrested the Brotherhood's supreme guide Mohamed Badie and much of the big shotship.
Badie and his deputies are standing trial on charges of involvement in the murder of protesters who stormed the Brotherhood's headquarters on June 30.
Prosecutors had issued a warrant for Beltagi on charges of inciting violence.
Although respected by many Islamist youths, Beltagi was not seen as possessing much influence in the top ranks of the Brotherhood.
He became one of the movement's chief spokesmen after Morsi's ouster, and outraged the former president's opponents when he said hard boy attacks on security forces in Sinai would end only with Morsi's restoration.
His daughter, Asmaa, was killed on August 14 in a deadly police operation that broke up two Islamist protest camps in Cairo.
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[An Nahar] U.N. inspectors have collected "considerable" evidence on a suspected chemical weapon attack in Syria and will brief U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... soon after they leave on Saturday, a front man said.
While the major powers wrangle over a possible military strike on Syria, samples collected in the country will be sent to laboratories across Europe and the analyzes could take more than a week, U.N. front man Farhan Haq told news hounds on Thursday.
Ban cut short a trip to Europe to return to New York on Thursday because of the growing Syria crisis.
Ban has already spoken this week to U.S. President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... and Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... about the worsening tensions.
"Starting tomorrow he will try to reach out to member states and take discussions forward on the question of what is happening in Syria," the front man said.
Ban has appealed for the inspectors to be allowed to complete their work before the major powers decide any follow-up action.
The United States, Britannia and La Belle France are pressing for a military strike against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... , blaming him for the attack near Damascus on August 21 in which hundreds of people died.
The U.N. team have been in Syria since August 18 but have not yet given a formal verdict about whether banned chemical arms were used.
The inspectors "will have a large number of facts at their disposal," said Haq.
"They have collected a considerable amount of evidence -- evidence through samples, evidence through witness interviews -- and they can construct through that a fact-based narrative that can get at the key facts of what happened on August 21," he added.
The inspectors will give Ban an "oral briefing" as soon as they leave Syria, Haq said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
Must mean the ChemWar attacks which the UNO = Hague, + Russia, have already blamed the anti-Assad Rebels for, thus the US = POTUS Bammer may end up attacking the wrong Perpetrator???
GOOD FOR ANTI-US GLOBALISM + OWG-NWO + 2015, BAD FOR STILL-NATIONALIST AMERICA = AMERIKA.
E.G. SALON > HANS BLIX: US HAS "POOR EXCUSE" FDOR SYRIA INCURSION NOW.
* RELATED GUARDIAN.UK > FORMER UN OFFICIAL HANS BLIX: EVEN IFF ASSAD USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS, THE WEST [read, USA] HAS NO AUTHORITY TO [unilaterally = solely] ACT AS "GLOBAL POLICEMAN".
versus
* FREEREPUBLIC > OBAMA: WILL ACT IN US' "BEST INTERESTS" ON SYRIA DESPITE BRITISH VOTE.
* PRESS TV > THREAT OF WAR AGZ SYRIA SHOWS WEST'S FAILURES: IRANIAN LAWMAKER.
* RAW STORY > RAND PAUL OPPOSES US ATTACK IFF IT COULD "KILL CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA", i.e. lead to possible deadly Muslim attacks or genocide agz Syria's 2.0Milyuhn Christian population aka largest Christian community in ME.
PARIS - French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that Syria needed a political solution, but that could only happen if the international community could halt killings like last week's chemical attack and better support the opposition.
Hollande sounded a more cautious note than earlier in the week, when he said France stood ready to have the United States punish those behind the apparent poison gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians in Damascus.
"You'd better do as we say or our big brother will pop you!"
He indicated that France was looking to Gulf Arab countries to step up their military support to the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, after Paris said this week it would do so.
"Everything must be done for a political solution but it will only happen if the coalition is able to appear as an alternative with the necessary force, notably from its army," Hollande told reporters after meeting the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed Jarba.
"We will only manage this if the international community can put a temporary stop to this escalation in violence, of which the chemical attack is just one example," Hollande said.
France took no part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which it strongly opposed, but joined Britain, the United States and others in military intervention that helped oust Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Hollande sent troops to the west African nation of Mali this year to drive out Islamist rebels.
So it's okay to intervene around the world with military force if France says it's okay...
French diplomatic sources said Hollande spoke with Jarba about providing more military means, after Jarba told the daily Le Parisien the opposition needed much more help from outside. Jarba also urged Western powers to carry out a swift retaliatory strike against Assad, whom they hold responsible for the use of chemical weapons. The Syrian government denies it.
"France will give all its aid - political, but also humanitarian and material, and we will use all the influence we have in the Gulf Arab countries so that this can be organized," Hollande told reporters.
President Barack Obama has made a case
...no, he really hasn't, in fact he hasn't said much of anything...
for a limited military strike against Syria in response to the alleged chemical attack, but any action could be slowed by the presence of U.N. weapons inspectors near Damascus and the need to ease divisions in Britain and among U.S. lawmakers.
There's also the War Powers Resolution but that's just American law...
Britain wants the U.N. Security Council to see the weapons inspectors' findings before any strike is launched, and its parliament is to hold two votes before any such action is taken.
"Assad's regime has complete support from Russia, Hezbollah and Iran. We have nothing. Our allies have given us none of what we have asked for. We need real support," Jarba told Le Parisien. "If Western states, which profess democratic and humanist values, stay quiet, Assad will deduce that there is no obstacle to him carrying out crimes. Our people risk being exterminated."
A French warship, the Chevalier Paul, has left its dock at the Mediterranean port of Toulon, shipping authorities told Reuters, though they declined to confirm a media report that the frigate was headed to Syria. Military sources said France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was still docked in Toulon.
You can't expect the Chicken of the Sea to leave Toulon...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2013
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[WashingtonPost] Before American runawayEdward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June -- an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise -- he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, a Moscow newspaper reported Monday.
The article in Kommersant, based on accounts from several unnamed sources, did not state clearly when Snowden decided to seek Russian help in leaving Hong Kong, where he was in hiding to evade arrest by U.S. authorities on charges that he leaked top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance programs.
The article implies that Snowden's decision to seek Russian help came after he was joined in Hong Kong by Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks staff member who became his adviser and later flew to Moscow with him.
Harrison, the article suggests, had a role in making the plans. The article noted a statement released by WikiLeaks on June 23, shortly after the Aeroflot flight left Chinese airspace, which said Snowden was heading to a destination where his safety could be guaranteed.
[An Nahar] A top Russian weapons maker said Thursday that the S-300 air defense missile systems made for Iran had been dismantled and disposed of following Western pressure to shelf the contract.
"The hardware that was destined for Iran no longer exists," general director of Russian weapons manufacturer Almaz-Antey Vladislav Menshchikov told news hounds.
"We have dismantled it completely. Separate elements, what could be used have been used," he said, adding that some other parts have been destroyed. "This is absolutely reliable information," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Russia's contract to sell its ally Iran the sophisticated ground-to-air-missiles was estimated to be worth some $800 million (600 million euros).
In 2010, Russia canceled the contract after coming under strong U.S. and Israeli pressure not to go ahead with the sale of the weapons system, drawing vehement protests from Tehran.
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[An Nahar] Ghana's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld President John Dramani Mahama's win in elections last year, dismissing the opposition's case alleging voter fraud in a test for one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The decision ended a months-long saga that had riveted the west African nation of 25 million people seen as a rare beacon of democracy in the turbulent region.
Shortly after the ruling was announced, opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo conceded defeat and said he would not seek further review of the decision.
Mahama was due to address the nation on Thursday evening, but a statement on his Twitter account said "this is a victory for Ghana's democracy."
In the December polls, Ghana's electoral commission said Mahama took 50.7 percent of the vote over ex-foreign minister Akufo-Addo's 47.7 percent.
"The first respondent (Mahama) was validly elected and the petition is therefore dismissed," presiding judge William Atuguba said, reading from the verdict issued by the nine-justice panel.
The sometimes tense proceedings were broadcast live on radio and television and were followed closely across the nation.
A heavy police presence deployed around the court ahead of the ruling, with access to the chamber tightly restricted.
After the decision was announced, opposition NPP supporters quickly filed out, while the president's loyalists waved party flags and cheered. There were no immediate reports of trouble.
While observers had broadly declared the vote fair, the NPP leveled an array of allegations, including that tally sheets had been doctored and ballot boxes stuffed.
Some of the judges found merit in certain NPP allegations, but as a group they declared Mahama's win legitimate.
"Whilst I do not agree with the court's decision, I accept it," Akufo-Addo told journalists at his home in the capital Accra as dozens of supporters gathered outside.
"We shall not be asking for a review," he said, adding that he had spoken to Mahama and congratulated him.
Hundreds gathered to celebrate outside the headquarters of Mahama's NDC party.
Both parties had said beforehand that they would accept the court's ruling.
The 2012 elections were generally unmarred by violence and many in Ghana are wary of the type of bloody unrest seen after recent elections in Nigeria or neighboring Ivory Coast.
There had been widespread calls for restraint ahead of the court's decision.
Everything from the conduct of the lawyers and witnesses to the quality of the evidence had been debated on the airwaves and written about in Ghana's feisty press.
In June, irate judges declared that anyone making disparaging public statements about the court could be held in contempt.
Those who ran afoul of the order were kicked out of the courtroom, fined, or, in a few cases, tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
Editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper Ken Kuranchie was tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for 10 days in July for contempt after publicly criticizing the judges.
The jailing sparked debate over Ghana's contempt laws, many of which date back to British colonial rule.
Before the ruling, Franklin Cudjoe, director of the IMANI think-tank in the capital Accra said "Ghana's elections will never be the same again."
He also praised the court's willingness to spend months hearing the case.
Ghana is west Africa's second-largest economy, thanks to exports of gold and cocoa along with a nascent oil industry, which began production in 2010.
Since 1992, the country has held six multi-party elections in a region where democracy remains fleeting for many.
Mahama's successful campaign was built around his promise to continue the work of President John Atta Mills, his predecessor, who died in office in July 2012. Mahama, who was vice president at the time, took over after Mills's death.
Akufo-Addo campaigned on a platform that centered on a promise of free high school for all, which critics said the country could not afford.
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[An Nahar] Fresh fighting flared in the resource-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... Thursday, with government forces backed by U.N. troops shelling rebels near Goma and tensions spilling over into neighboring Rwanda.
Artillery fire could be heard around Kibati north of Goma, the capital of the turbulent North Kivu province, where the DR Congo army and a newly-formed U.N. intervention brigade have been battling M23 rebels for a week.
A Rwandan woman was also killed and her baby injured in what an official alleged was "deliberate" cross-border shelling. The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... and Kinshasa accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, a charge that Kigali denies.
Western military sources who asked not to be named said that the clash could be a prelude to a full-on assault by the army and U.N. troops, who have an unprecedented mandate to take the offensive against the armed movements long active in the mineral-rich but impoverished Kivu region.
The two eastern Kivu provinces, North and South, have been chronically unstable since two wars wracked the vast country between 1996 and 2003, drawing in armies from neighboring and southern African countries, who fought in part over access to vast mineral wealth.
All flights to Goma, a city of a million people that was occupied by M23 for 10 days last November, have been suspended since the outlying airport is vulnerable, said a source in MONUSCO, the U.N. mission in the country.
On Wednesday a U.N. soldier from Tanzania was killed and three others maimed in the fighting, U.N. and military sources said.
The U.N. intervention force is using attack helicopters and mortars in the Kibati hills, while firing on other rebel positions with heavy artillery, according to MONUSCO front man Madnodje Mounoubai.
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In which His Excellency tries to have it both ways, and maybe two or three others. [DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Christians should be 'repentant' about the Church's past treatment of gay and lesbian people, the Archbishop of Canterbury said last night.
The Most Rev. Justin Welby told a group of traditional evangelical Christians that the Church's historic support of homophobia was 'utterly and totally wrong'.
He also acknowledged that many young people considered the Church's views on same-sex marriage as 'wicked' and 'plain wrong'.
The Archbishop insisted he did not regret voting against gay mawwiage marriage legislation, but acknowledged that such views were seen by many as akin 'to racism and other forms of gross and atrocious injustice'.
The Mawwiage Marriage Act received royal assent in July and gay couples in England and Wales will be able to wed from next year.
Yesterday, the Archbishop, speaking in London, said he stood by his decision to vote against gay mawwiage marriage, which he believed was 'rewriting the nature of mawwiage marriage'.
But he said the Church must respond to changing cultural attitudes. 'If the same thing happened again I would vote the same way as I did then, but I am continuing to think and listen very carefully as to how in our society today we respond to what is the most rapid cultural change in this area than there has been for a very long time. We have seen changes in the idea about sexuality, sexual behaviour.
'We have to face the fact that the vast majority of people under 35 not only think that what we're saying is incomprehensible but also think that we're plain wrong and wicked and equate it to racism and other forms of gross and atrocious injustice. We have to be real about that.'
The former oil executive said the Government's Bill in favour of gay marriage was 'clearly, quite rightly, trying to deal with issues of homophobia in our society'.
He added: 'The Church has not been good at dealing with homophobia. It has at times, as god's people, either implicitly or explicitly supported it and we have to be really, really repentant about that because it is utterly and totally wrong.
'That doesn't mean that redefining marriage is the right way forward.That discussion is continuing and the Church is deeply and profoundly divided over the way forward on it.'
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Oh the Archbdruid of Canterbury. I thought you meant a REAL archbishop, like a Catholic one,
FYI, there is no such thing as "church's traditional support fo homophobia", mainly because the term homophobia does not apply - they are not irrationally afraid of homosexuals, they simply disagree with the morality of homosexual conduct. No phobia at all.
#2
but I am continuing to think and listen very carefully as to how in our society today we respond to what is the most rapid cultural change in this area than there has been for a very long time. We have seen changes in the idea about sexuality, sexual behaviour.
.....because the modern day winds of change always trump scriptural mandates. Besides, heterosexual activity oftentimes creates people, and people are the problem. Fossil records indicate that 99% of all the species which have ever lived are now extinct. Why should evil man not join their ranks ?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/30/2013 10:33
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#8
Just sayin', if Henry had been straight, he'd have been able to find a chick he liked and stayed married to her instead of chopping her head off.
And you know what? Nothing screams "Issues!" like being the head of your own religion, who can make up whatever rules about what's honorable and what's not and deciding that you have to decapitate all your ex-wives.
#9
...it was an 'honor' thingy. That's it. It was an honor chopping. It appears to be back in vogue in certain neighborhoods in Britain, just not reserved for royalty anymore.
#10
2000+ years of a way for different and varied tribes and locals to find a common way to communicate and be successful but the good Welby has it all figured out. I'm getting tired of the bully, I've met gays who were good people and I've met the jersey shore of gays who were just as obnoxious as the versa.
That this guy can even talk about it without fear of reprisal is the repentant. In defense of the Bible, and in a way which would have gotten me in trouble back in the day, I'm going to set the stories as a social contract. God's judgement was absolute, but always after a series of bad moves by the characters, that is not a rush of judgement
To me, Detroit Soddom is not a story about an almighty God destroying boys who kiss boys. Its a story about a city which becomes wealthy enough to have the celebration of excessiveness outweigh its productive class. It reached a point where the productive class could not sustain the excessive class and had to leave or become part of the problem. Those who left were participants in the excessiveness, which is why they had to leave it all behind without looking back, and absolute dismissal of the celebration of lavishness. To me its a warning about decadence and the celebration of the trivial, much like football announces saying tight end as a sexual metephor instead of a location and duty. I know they lost me when I wish an SAP selection is just sounds on the field, where I'd rather hear a player shout the right words for a blown play than a group of guys fawn over a particular popular player of the moment.
To leave Detroit Soddom yet still live as if in Detroint Soddom will earn you the same fate.
To me, seen only as an object lesson, its not about reasons for yahoos tying up gays to their chariots, or what happens to a society which can no longer sustain itself. Its about what happens when a society chooses to not sustain itself, and its then when things fall apart rather quickly.
#11
Stories like this always remind me of a cartoon I saw in Playboy in 1968: a man is exponding: "At one time homosexuality was a capital offense. Then it became a felony, and later a misdemeanor. Now it's been decriminalized. I for one won't be satisfied until it's mandatory.!"
It seems we are heading that way.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/30/2013 13:29
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#12
The Catholic Church has been at the forefront of this issue for a long, long time -- in its own special way.
[MAGHAREBIA] Algeria is offering pardons to thousands of armed myrmidons, provided their hands are unstained with citizens' blood.
The Algerian army recently launched an initiative to convince the fighters to renounce armed action. The ANP urged those it called "deceived people" to return to society and their families, confirming that "those who repent from their guilt are like those who committed no guilt".
Army units are distributing leaflets and flyers in Tlemcen, Sidi Bel Abbes and Ain Témouchent, urging Death Eaters to lay down arms and benefit from the 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, Ennahar daily reported this week.
"Algeria is waiting for your repentance and return to your senses and reason," the leaflets said. The leaflets posed questions: "Why are you still lost in mountains and caves and living under terrible conditions marred by fear, panic and apprehension? Why deprive yourselves of the warmth of your families and society and tolerance of the state? Why do you bring sadness and misfortune to your families and children?"
The call comes at a time when Algeria is witnessing terrorist operations targeting security agencies, On Tuesday (August 27th), four soldiers died at the hands of al-Qaeda gunnies in western Tipasa and Ain Defla.
Last year, Algerian authorities beefed up security along the border with Mali. They also stepped up checkpoints along the borders with Libya, and more recently, with Tunisia, following deadly attacks on Tunisian troops in Jebel Chaambi.
The initiative to persuade gunnies to repent is showing success, according to judicial official Merouane Azzi.
"Thirty active AQIM fighters turned themselves in between January and July," he said.
The files of repentant jihadists are under examination by judicial and security authorities to verify their right to benefit from national reconciliation measures," Azzi added.
Since the charter took effect in 2006, some 8,500 gunnies had repented and renounced armed action, he told Magharebia. During the same time, security forces had also killed 1,600 terrorists, including several prominent members of AQIM precursor Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... (GSPC).
Security analyst Mohammed Adnan noted that the ANP's elimination of AQIM leaders "made many group leaders and forces of Evil abandon armed action".
"The Algerian army's shift to targeting the grey matter of AQIM made the elements that refused to turn themselves in and preferred armed action face the duality of army professionalism and major intelligence work. This enabled the army to locate and neutralise myrmidons," he added.
He confirmed that the outreach initiative launched by the army did not mean that the military approach to security would end.
"Such calls are usually followed by strong security operations targeting the elements that refuse to take part in peace and reconciliation," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
From a cartoonist point of view, muslim Algeria
is freer than America...Dilem is from Algier...
Posted by: Bob Snore6814 ||
08/30/2013 23:03
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Job possibilities for Rantburg programmers with a little extra time on their hands...
[WashingtonExaminer] The Republican Party aims to build a digital operation that surpasses the one President B.O. built for the 2012 campaign. Time, and two upcoming elections, will show whether the GOP succeeds.
The effort, begun this summer, is largely the responsibility of 33-year-old former Facebook engineer Andy Barkett, the Republican National Committee's chief technology officer. Barkett's plan is to refine and advance the innovative technology harnessed by Obama's campaign organization to identify and turn out voters.
But instead of reserving this digital network for a single presidential candidate, the RNC plans to share it with any Republican running for any office anywhere in the country.
"We're going to do something even harder than what [Obama] did. Replicating what they did isn't that hard," Barkett told the Washington Examiner.
Barkett previewed his strategy for news hounds in Boston during the GOP's summer meeting and in a more in-depth interview with the Examiner in Washington. He said he wants to have the technology ready for testing in the 2014 mid-term elections and fully operational by 2016 for the party's presidential nominee, down-ticket candidates and GOP-affiliated groups.
Barkett's hiring, and mission, are part of the RNC's efforts to upgrade its voter targeting and mobilization operations, an overhaul ordered by GOP Chairman Reince Priebus after the party's disastrous showing in the 2012 elections. There are a number of reasons Obama beat Republican Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... , but there is broad agreement that Obama's superior digital operation -- and Romney's inability to match it -- gave Obama a substantial edge.
Taking a page from Obama's playbook, the GOP will abandon a voter targeting operation that relies on files that simply identify individual voters and their voting history. The new system will focus more broadly on people, even those who never voted, to identify likely voters, expand the universe of potential voters and provide a more accurate measure of the Republican Party's strength.
But hurdles abound for Barkett, who must build a digital data infrastructure virtually from scratch. Among them is that an outside group, Data Trust, and not the party will manage what Barkett considers to be one of the RNC's key improvements over Obama's 2012 operation: The ability to securely share data with GOP allies, who in turn will share information they've gathered with the RNC to further strengthen the network.
The system Barkett's building is expected to mine relevant information about potential voters through publicly available social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and then weave that data into an accurate, accessible and regularly updated file that can be shared. Some of the data collected will be very basic, like whether the potential voters prefers to communicate by smartphone or laptop email.
Barkett's system will include two innovations. One would collect information from television set-top boxes and show a campaign not only individual viewing habits but also whether the voter saw a specific political ad.
The second innovation would collect data from social networks about targeted demographic groups and allow a campaign to deliver customized digital ads to as few as a dozen or so voters.
Barkett will hire a few dozen "data scientists" and digital advertising experts -- from college Republican groups, Wall Street and other GOP-friendly venues -- to build the system. He expects the RNC to train thousands of others from across the country to use the technology.
"I'm worried, I'll be honest with you, that we're a little further behind on the data science part. It's going to take us longer to catch up there," Barkett said. "We're going to have to find, and in some cases train, a whole generation of those data science guys. There are some in the Republican ecosystem, but there aren't enough."'
Barkett expects to complete several "voter relationship management tools" by year's end. The system will be upgraded regularly just like any social network or smart phone app.
Barkett's goal is to hand off to the GOP's 2016 presidential candidate a digital operation that surpasses the one that helped re-elect Obama in 2012.
"We're going to have enough done, so that it's better than any of the other tools that are available to them, by the end of this year," Barkett said. "By 2016 we'll probably be ahead of where the Democrats are."
#3
Let's hope that this time they a) test it and b) have some failover capabilities. Last time was a total clusterf*ck. A little training for the troops wouldn't hurt either.
#4
What good does it do when they basically propose the same crap the demonrats do. Currently the Republical party is essentially demonrat wannabes. Until that changes, it honestly doesn't matter what they do.
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the situation in Syria, the White House said, as the West weighs military action against Damascus. "The president today conducted a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is part of the series of communications that the president has initiated around the situation in Syria," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
NO! I am Chancellor of Germany, you are not. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are NOT going to be sent to the Med. Now, get out of my office.
#5
On #3. Yes, I admire the German, Swiss, Austrian view. Having seen enough conflict, mind your own business and quietly prosper. One must wonder if anyone in Washington is watching.
For more than a generation, Iranian papers have regularly posted the announcements: Another veteran from the 1980s war with Iraq has died of complications blamed on exposure to chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein's arsenal. Each one is buried with a hero's honors.
The claims now that Iran's Syrian allies used similar tactics, including possibly unleashing sarin gas, has forced Tehran's leaders into perhaps their most difficult juncture of the nearly 30-month civil war. Iran's rulers could face an uncomfortable backlash at home - and possibly stir upheavals inside its powerful Revolutionary Guard - if they're seen as ignoring allegations and U.N. investigations into possible chemical attacks by Bashar Assad's regime.
Posted by: lord garth ||
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[SUNTIMES] You might expect the leader of the Catholic Church in Chicago to explain his opposition to same-sex marriage on the basis of his religious tenets, but Cardinal Francis George says that's secondary.
"This is first of all a rational issue before it's a faith issue," the cardinal told me in an interview this week. "That is, it's nature that tells us what marriage is, that in marriage, men and women aren't interchangeable."
"We didn't invent marriage. The church didn't invent marriage. The state didn't invent marriage. Nature gives us marriage. The Chinese are not Americans, and they're not Catholic. They know what marriage is. Where did that come from?" George asked rhetorically.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Natural Law. Go back and read Teh Theology of the Body, by Blessed Pop John Paul II. Its quite a scholarly exposition on Catholic theology and natural law as it applies to sexuality - as well as the usual euthanasiam abortion and other topics people usually haer about from the Church.
FYI, the doctrine is that Homosexuals can be good Christians, same as any other unmarried person. Just be chaste within your station.
But homosexual acts? Those are disordered acts, and not part of natural law. Or at least that's the argument basis that Cardinal George is attempting to draw upon.
Also, Marriage is a sacrament - not something we invented, by definition "The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions." For instance, the Sacraments of Vocation are Holy Orders, and Marriage. In the Catholic viewpoint, these are given by God, not made by man.
Pretty simple at its base: biologically speaking a male is a male, and a female is a female, and they each have their role in continuing the species. But it gets complex in a hurry. And Cardinal George is in over his head, I think
#6
Nature gives us marriage? You know what buddy, there is plenty I have given up to honor my half of the agreement - you know how long its been since hot wings at noon on Sunday?
Marriage is a level of accomplishment met by both sides according to a set of rules based upon the values of, in this case, the Bible.
No problem with gays (where I grew up, that was the self-identified word so deal with it, its not a slog) - friends and associates were like everyone else, young dumb and some even looking for long term love. The purpose of marriage is a long term contract between a man and a woman in order to raise a family. Find love and be productive, but giving yourself the title of married, or worse forcing others to grant that title under penalty of law, is no more appropriate than myself granting me the title of Chef or Soldier. Be a couple, be happy, quit being vain and coveting titles not earned. I understand Partnership or Union is not very sexy, find a title and go with it, so long as its not somebody else's, tax deals are with the government not the church, and you sure would not like it if by driving to New York I would call myself a taxi driver.
#13
So Cardinal George doesn't even know his own religion's dogma? Small wonder the catholic church has had so many problems under his generation's leadership.
[An Nahar] Tunisia will set up buffer zones in the south of the country, along the borders with Libya and Algeria, to fight against "terrorism," Defense Minister Rachid Sabbagh said Thursday.
"Setting up these zones is necessary because of the current situation and to fight against the threats that hang over Tunisia," including "terrorism and arms trafficking," Sabbagh said.
He did not give specific details of where the zones will be set up, but stressed that travelers to those areas will need special permits from the authorities.
Rashed also said the measures will last a year, without elaborating.
The Tunisian army launched an offensive on August 1 against snuffies suspected of ties with al-Qaeda in the remote Mount Chaambi mountain range near the Algerian border.
The operation was launched after eight soldiers were found with their throats slit after being ambushed by krazed killers, and as the country is locked in a political crisis over the murders of two opposition politicians.
Islamist krazed killer groups in Algeria remain active decades after a bloody civil war in the 1990s that killed some 200,000 people.
Libya is also struggling to re-establish order and form a professional army and police force since the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... in 2011.
Islamists suppressed under Qadaffy, and in Tunisia during the rule Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was also ousted in a popular uprising in 2011, have become more influential over the past two years.
In Libya and in Tunisia Islamists have been blamed for deadly attacks, including on Western targets.
On Tuesday, Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh accused the main Salafist movement, Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Tunisia and Yemen, with the Tunisian version currently most active... , of liasing with Al-Qaeda and carrying out the murders of politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi this year.
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08/30/2013
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[An Nahar] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... vowed Thursday to defend Syria from attack as Washington and London laid out their case for punitive military strikes against Damascus over suspected poisonous gas attacks.
"Syria will defend itself in the face of any aggression," state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
quoted Assad as saying.
The United States said it deployed a fifth destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean while Russia was reportedly sending in two warships and Britannia dispatched fighter jets to Cyprus.
The mood among Damascus residents was fearful, while security forces prepared for possible air attacks by pulling back troops from potential targets and imposing tougher security controls.
Southeast of the capital, a boom-mobile killed nine soldiers in the town of Nabak, sparking festivities between troops and rebels, a watchdog reported.
Syria's nervous neighbors stepped up preparations for conflict, with Israel authorizing a partial call-up of army reservists while Turkey put its forces on heightened vigilance.
U.S. President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... , who a year ago warned the use of chemical arms would cross a "red line," on Wednesday said Washington had definitively concluded Assad's regime was to blame for the August 21 attacks.
Asked how close he was to ordering a U.S. strike, Obama said: "I have not made a decision."
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[An Nahar] Israel warned on Thursday Syria of any attack carried out by Hizbullah against the Jewish state in the coming days to respond to an expected Western attack, saying that is Damascus will be held responsible.
"They cannot play the game that Hizbullah is somehow an independent actor," the Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli official as saying.
The official said that Hizbullah is coordinating very closely with the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... and "it is the Iranians that have orchestrated that close cooperation."
"We will respond forcefully, and we won't hold by artificial differentiations," the official stressed.
Momentum has been building for international action against Syrian President Assad's regime after the suspected chemical strikes on August 21, which are said to have killed hundreds on the outskirts of Damascus.
The five permanent members of the Security Council failed on Wednesday to reach an agreement on a U.N. Security Council resolution proposed by Britannia that could have given a legal basis for an assault, owing it to Russian opposition.
But the Syrian government, which is backed by Hizbullah members in its fight against the armed opposition, accused rebels of using the chemical weapons.
"Hizbullah works hand-in-glove with the Assad regime," the official told the newspaper.
He pointed out that Hizbullah "is fully coordinated with the Syrian regime and with the Iranians, and they cannot pretend to be acting in a vacuum. They cannot pretend that they are not part of an alliance. And they cannot claim that others in the alliance are not responsible."
Assad regime has warned Washington not to launch any military action, saying such a move would set the Middle East ablaze.
Syria is intertwined in alliances with Iran, Hizbullah and Paleostinian hard boy groups. The country also borders its longtime foe and U.S. ally Israel, making the fallout from military action unpredictable.
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[BELLINGHAMHERALD] The Moslem Brüderbund ramped up its calls Thursday for nationwide protests against Egypt's military-backed government, while an Islamist ally of the ousted president spoke of an attempt to broker a deal before the "ship of the nation sinks."
The Brotherhood's call for mass protests and sit-ins Friday will test how much the fierce security crackdown has crippled the group and if they can still mobilize their base in the face of widespread public anger against them.
Egypt's security forces have increased their presence in the streets ahead of the planned demonstrations and accused the Islamist group on Thursday of using rallies to create chaos. Authorities continued to hunt down wanted leaders, arresting two top Brotherhood figures.
Some fear Friday's protests could tailspin into another bout of violence.
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Coincidentally, the Hindu goddess of luck is Lakshmi. It sounds like she was really cheezed at these guys. [Bangla Daily Star] Two robbers were beaten to death and 15 people, including a policeman, injured as a mob attacked a gang of robbers around 2:00am in Kazirchar village of Raipur upazila in Lakshmipur. Where do you find a mob at two in the morning? Try Lakshmipur!
The armed gang of 15 to 20 robbers forcibly entered brothers Mizanur Rahman and Shariful Islam's house. "Arrr! Lemme in there! [CRASH!]"
Mizanur, the elder brother, at that point managed to inform the police "HELP! Police!"
and some of his neighbouring relatives using his mobile phone of the incident, said Raipur Police Station Officer-in-charge Monirul Islam Majumder. "Yup. That's whut he done."
Neighbours surrounded the house hearing the noise made by all the family members before police came to the spot. "It's Mizanul and Shariful! They're infested by gangsters!"
"Where's my torch?"
"Here, use one o' mine!"
"Watch it with that pitchfork!"
On sensing police presence, "My spider sense! It's tingling!"
"It's da cops!"
the gang started shooting at the people and police. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
The law enforcers returned fire, said OC Monirul. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Maw! Hit the floor!"
The robbers attempted to escape, "Lemme outta here!"
and two of them were chased down and beaten to death by the mob on the spot. [THUMP! THUMP! THUMPETY THUMP!]
"Aaaiiieee! I am undone!"
"Rosebud!"
The rest of the gang managed to flee. "Outta my way, Mom!"
"Curly-toes slippers, don't fail me now!"
"Comin' through!"
The dead robbers could not be identified immediately, reported our ace Noakhali correspondent. "You recognize any of them, sir?"
"I've seen that elbow before, I'm sure of it!"
The bodies were sent to the Laximipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsies "Doctor Quincy! To the white courtesy phone!"
and police recovered a gun and two bullets from the scene, said the OC. "Put these with the others, Sergeant Shafiq! You never know when we might need them!"
Mizanur, Shariful, the Raipur Police Station Assistant Sub-inspector Abdur Rahim, Kabir Khan, Alauddin, Saddam Hossain, Kamrul Hossain, Omar Farooq, Azad Hossain and Kamal Hossain five others sustained injuries. "Oh, man! That hadda hurt!"
Sources confirmed that 10 of the victims were admitted to the Raipur Upazila Health Complex, while the other five were taken to different private clinics.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2013
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#1
Good Riddance.
MOPRE, MORE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2013 10:31
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[An Nahar] Head of the pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council The Tawhid party is divided into two parts, one led by Sheikh Bilal Shaaban, a close ally of Hezbollah who is said to be financed by Iran, while the other is headed by Sheikh Hashem Minkara, a staunch Syria supporter
Sheikh Hashem Minkara was jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on Thursday over "withholding information" related to the deadly bombings that rocked the northern city of Tripoli, ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... reported the National News Agency.
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered his detention for investigation in the case.
Minkara was summoned by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau earlier on Thursday in order to give his testimony.
He was later ordered to be detained on charges of withholding information.
He joins the suspect Sheikh Ahmed al-Gharib and the informant Mustafa Houri, who are both detained in connection with the blasts that took place last Friday.
Later on Thursday, Future TV quoted judicial sources as saying that "Syrian regime officers are behind the Tripoli bombings."
Sources informed on the investigations told MTV that "Minkara's situation is difficult and he was aware that the bombings will take place."
"His ties to Ahmed al-Gharib are being investigated, especially that he had tasked the latter to follow up several dossiers with the Syrian regime," the sources said.
MTV said Houri, Minkara and al-Gharib will be referred to the military judiciary and that Judge Saqr would charge them Friday with "belonging to a terrorist group."
Gharib and Houri both failed a lie detection test they had to take over their alleged links to that blasts.
The test revealed contradictions in Gharib's testimony in the case, reported An Nahar daily on Thursday.
Forty-five people were killed and at least 800 maimed in the Tripoli bombings that targeted the Taqwa and al-Salam mosques as worshipers were performing weekly prayers.
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[MAGHAREBIA] After designating Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Tunisia and Yemen, with the Tunisian version currently most active... a terrorist organization, the Tunisian interior ministry divulged on Wednesday (August 28th) more details about the group's link to al-Qaeda.
Authorities also revealed that the radical salafist group was plotting liquidations against 19 high profile figures, ranging from artists to politicians.
The alleged hit list included National Constituent Assembly Speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar and Republican Party Secretary-General Maya Jribi, according to TAP.
Tunisia's Director General of the National Security Mustapha Ben Amor said that most of the snuffies involved in liquidations, such as Kamel Gadhgadhi and Aboubaker el-Hakim, were leaders of Ansar al-Sharia who frequented Jebel Chaambi to train in fighting and co-ordinate between terrorist elements.
"Security investigations have confirmed that the financing of Ansar al-Sharia, which was designated a terrorist organization, comes from external and internal sources," Ben Amor said, adding, "The group is a member of the parent terrorist al-Qaeda, and those snuffies receive training first in Libya and then in Syria where they go to train on the ground."
"We ascertained that the sources of financing for Ansar al-Sharia come from certain Arab countries, such as Yemen, Libya and Mali," Ben Amor confirmed.
Kamel Gadhgadhi "consulted with Abou Iyadh about speeding up the liquidation of martyr Chokri Belaid," Ben Amor added. "He asked for modifying the list of liquidations after watching a TV interview in which Belaid talked about visits by preachers from the east to Tunisia. He received approval from Abou Ayadh, who leads Ansar al-Sharia."
Ben Amor said that one of the snuffies involved in assassinating Mohamed Brahmi was known as "al-Somali", a neighbour of the slain politician living in al-Ghazaleh district in Ariana province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... Interior Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ali Aroui confirmed in the same presser that security units have uncovered links between the liquidations, arms smuggling and the terrorist group holed up in Jebel Chaambi.
"Ansar al-Sharia has a security and military wing aimed at seizing power by force," he added, noting that the "interior ministry was able to thwart terrorist plots in several areas as a result of pre-emptive operations".
"The interior ministry is now completely sure that the group has a criminal and terrorist plan to destabilise the country and seize power by force," Aroui said.
Aroui also confirmed that "most Ansar al-Sharia members, including Abou Iyadh, were among those released from prison under the general legislative pardon following the revolution."
Journalist Nebil Zaghdoud said, "Banning the activities of Ansar al-Sharia is done by prohibiting the activities of charities that raise financial and in-kind donations for it and also forbidding Qur'anic associations that have spread like bubbles in more than one city to recruit young people to provide human support for that group."
"Ansar al-Sharia has shown its true face after attacking the US Embassy and assassinating Belaid; before that, it seemed to be engaged in preaching only," Kamel Lamine told Magharebia.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... TAP Gafsa correspondent Ferida Mabrouki said that throughout last year she witnessed salafist groups setting up preaching tents at schools to draw in new male and female recruits.
"Each time, there was a certain topic in those tents," she said. "I remember very well that at one of the tents, the emphasis was on how to support the so-called revolution in Syria. Today, in Gafsa, [authorities] locked away You have the right to remain silent... a man suspected of involvement in arranging the travel of young people from the area and other areas to Syria."
She wondered, "How many students and young people travelled to Syria for jihad because of the effect of those tents and other preaching activities before that person was arrested?"
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MOGADISHU -- Somali National Intelligence and National Security official was killed in an ambush on Wednesday evening in Mogadishu, Garowe Online reports. Khalif Mohamud Ali, who had been serving as the Intelligence head of Mogadishus Kahda district died in a shootout between his security guards and terrorists men armed with AK-47 rifles near his home in Kahda, according to witnesses.
The terrorists militiamen beat feet escaped from the scene of crime after shootings, local sources added.
The commissioner of Mogadishus Kahda district Abdiweli Yusuf Omar who spoke to the media in Mogadishu confirmed the officials death.
Unidentified terrorists militiamen ambushed late Ali but his security guards responded with gunfire. One of his body guards sustains injuries and security forces are carrying out investigations to find the perpetrators of this crime, said Omar.
The incident is the second to take place in Mogadishu within six days; two masked terrorists gunmen shot dead Amin Ali Mumin, the Chairman of Dharkeynley Olympic board in front of his home last Friday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] Investigations are ongoing in the twin bombings that targeted the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... as the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau is analyzing the telecom data within a limited timeframe.
According to An Nahar newspaper published on Thursday, Sheikh Ahmed al-Gharib, the main suspect in the case, denied at the beginning of the investigations his prior knowledge about the bombings that targeted two mosques in Tripoli.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Gharib, who has taken a lie-detector test, confessed that he previously knew about the attacks, that were planned in the neighboring country Syria, but denied that he took part in carrying them out.
Later on, Gharib confessed that he participated in scheming the bombings.
The daily said that the intelligence bureau is working on analyzing all phone calls that took place within the timeframe of preparing the attacks.
On Wednesday, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered the extension of the detention of Gharib and Moustapha Houri.
Houri is the police informer who contacted Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau claiming that he has important information over a Sheikh from Tripoli who is planning to target al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... MP Khaled al-Daher, former ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and Salafist holy man Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi.
Saqr had visited the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau to inquire about the investigations and to listen to al-Gharib's testimony.
On August 23, Forty-five people were killed and at least 500 maimed in bombings that targeted al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques in the northern city as worshipers were still performing weekly prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
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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.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Rebel military sources said spotters saw missiles draped in tarpaulins on the launchers, as well as trailer trucks carrying other rockets and equipment. More than two dozen Scuds - 11-metre (35-foot) long ballistic missiles with ranges of 300 km (200 miles) and more - were fired from the base in the Qalamoun area this year, some of which hit even Aleppo in the far north.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Obama, who has warned that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a U.S. "red line," said Washington had definitively concluded that the Assad regime was to blame for last week's attack.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
PARIS - French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that Syria needed a political solution, but that could only happen if the international community could halt killings like last week's chemical attack and better support the opposition.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Christians should be 'repentant' about the Church's past treatment of gay and lesbian people, the Archbishop of Canterbury said last night.
[SUNTIMES] You might expect the leader of the Catholic Church in Chicago to explain his opposition to same-sex marriage on the basis of his religious tenets, but Cardinal Francis George says that's secondary.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Bangla Daily Star] Two robbers were beaten to death and 15 people, including a policeman, injured as a mob attacked a gang of robbers around 2:00am in Kazirchar village of Raipur upazila in Lakshmipur.
[An Nahar] Head of the pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council 
