President Obamas decision to seek congressional approval of military strikes against Syria threatens to make an already contentious fall agenda on Capitol Hill even more unstable, heightening the chance of political gridlock. Manufacturing a crisis for political purposes.
Congressional leaders, who will return Monday after a five-week break, had planned to use September to position their caucuses for a showdown over government funding levels and a bid to increase the federal debt limit, the third clash over the debt since 2011. The two sides are also jockeying over a proposed immigration overhaul and a continuing struggle over the farm bill, which was a victim of a conservative revolt over food stamps.
The graphic videos, obtained by The WaPo, were made public previously on YouTube and other Internet sites. They are among as many as 100 public videos that purport to document victims of the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus. At the request of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the images were shown to senators Thursday during a classified briefing on whether to authorize limited military strikes against Syrian government targets.
Senate GOP leaders have remained largely silent on the issue and an increasingly powerful bloc of libertarian Republicans is leading opposition to a Syria strike; Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is marshaling support among the more traditional hawkish Republicans.
With some Senate liberals opposed, fearing another quagmire like the Iraq war, Obama needs his 2008 presidential rival to bring along a sizable number of Republicans to win approval in the Senate. The Iraq war wasn't a quagmire, bailing out caused a quagmire.
Obama would then face the uphill challenge of trying to win approval in the House for attacking Syria. This has been complicated by his refusal to say whether he would abide by the vote if it were defeated, declining to answer the question twice at a news conference Friday closing out his G-20 trip.
White House legal advisers say that as commander in chief, Obama has the power to order strikes without congressional consent, but many lawmakers argue otherwise. It was only Bush that was not allowed to do that.
In the Syria votes wake will be an even more polarized Congress, a weakened White House, and a House of Representatives in near revolt with a seemingly endless horizon of self-created fiscal cliffs, a policy analyst for Guggenheim Securities, wrote last week. He said the best outcome for the fiscal fights would be to approve temporary extensions into December to buy time for protracted negotiations.
Whenever Congress finds itself on the edge of a cliff, it tends to build more land. Interesting observation.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/08/2013
12:36 ||
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#1
The comments section are a good read. Media war in action now. Whip up support for the one. What a team. McCain, Ed Asner, Hillary, Carville, Petraeus and Powell is a no show. Next Alec Baldwin and Fonda. Sounds like a Democrat wet dream or at least a TV series. Babs could do the intro music with Springsteen.
#4
Actually it's closer to a mirror image of the Spanish Civil War. Though the WWI-scarred US government officially stayed out of that war, there was private support given to both sides.
#9
I can name a few conflicts that have taken place in sub-Saharan Africa that are no longer discussed as well. Perhaps outcomes failed to meet expectations..... or did they ?
#10
It's almost as if a lot of parties on both sides are embarrassed
Well, Stalin backed the Communists 'Republicans' and Hitler backed the Nationalists. And the Euro democracies sat it out. Damn, there seems to be a theme here.
Russia's and Iran's interests explained, a bit of history, the rationale for punishing the use of poison gas, and a fair appraisal of why it's a no-win situation. And a nifty map. Concluding forecast:
The killing will continue, probably for years.
Syria as we know it, an ancient place with a rich and celebrated culture and history, will be a broken, failed society, probably for a generation or more.
Russia will continue to block international action, the window for which has maybe closed anyway.
At some point the conflict will cool, either from a partial victory or from exhaustion. Probably the best model is Lebanon, which fought a brutal civil war that lasted 15 years from 1975 to 1990 and has been slowly, slowly recovering ever since. So it's a $h1t sandwich.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/08/2013
11:27 ||
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#1
Posted elsewhere, but appropriate here as well:
The better to spy on bad guys who might be talking to American co-conspirators. But nobody else. The most open and transparent administration, eh?
The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency's use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans' communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.
Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA's authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration's assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term "target" that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government's approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans' privacy later. Depending on what sort of people they are and the kind of privacy they deserve.
The court's expansion of authority went largely unnoticed when the opinion was released, but it formed the basis for cryptic warnings last year by a pair of Democratic senators, Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Mark Udall (Colo.), that the administration had a "back-door search loophole" that enabled the NSA to scour intercepted communications for those of Americans. They introduced legislation to require a warrant, but they were barred by classification rules from disclosing the court's authorization or whether the NSA was already conducting such searches. Nobody else thought this was questionable? Nobody wanted to leak this little tidbit? Maybe the only way to be a whistle-blower is like Snowden?
"The [surveillance] Court documents declassified recently show that in late 2011 the court authorized the NSA to conduct warrant-less searches of individual Americans' communications using an authority intended to target only foreigners," Wyden said in a statement to The WaPo. "Our intelligence agencies need the authority to target the communications of foreigners, but for government agencies to deliberately read the e-mails or listen to the phone calls of individual Americans, the Constitution requires a warrant." Excuse me, the what requires a warrant?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/08/2013
11:01 ||
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#1
Now the truth comes out. All the Democratic spin that "Bush started it" is now blown to smithereens.
While Bush was president there were restrictions in place on domestic spying by the NSA. Obama is the one who transformed the NSA and retargeted it -in his first term.
Heaven help us between now and 2017.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/08/2013 13:04
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Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/08/2013 13:24
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#3
Strange Chrome browser behavior.
Chrome has been behaving badly for me on certain sites lately. In particular facebook, BBC News and Rantburg.
I tracked it down to various Akamai TCP connections hanging that cause the whole browser to hang...
So... I used the linux command "netstat -ptan" to see which sites were hanging and then "/sbin/route add -host {site-ip} reject" to reject making connections to these Akamai sites. Then restarted Chrome and it didn't hang on those particular sites. It later hung on others and they were all Akamai sites!
I then exited Chrome and visited the same sites with IceWeasel - a FireFox derivative browser. Wow! Chrome had about 20 TCP connections up all the time and IceWeasel had NONE!. IceWeasel didn't hang on anything! Why is Chrome keeping up all these connections? For the non-technical a TCP connection is like a phone call. The UDP that IceWeasel is using is like a text message.
Most of the Chrome TCP connections were going directly to Google. About 6 were going to various Akamai sites.
I am tempted to fire off Chrome with a packet sniffer in the background and see what it's really doing and what "conversations" are taking place on all those TCP connections to Google and Akamai.
#5
Being a techno-peasant, I didn't understand a bit of what 3dc said, but I did read it to mean that whatever is going on under the Chrome hood ain't good.
I do understand from the art. that Bambi is a lying crapweasel and we can next look for him to say that he didn't win that permission (to reverse NSA restrictions), the world did....
#6
It's most likely some of the built-in "features" of Chrome, made to be used with google products and sites. Just because you don't use them doesn't mean they're not active. Yes, it SHOULD mean that, but privacy is for the Elites.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/08/2013 18:03
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[WashingtonPost] They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama administration's attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense.
Is there a plan? A plan that doesn't have "... VICTORY!!" as the middle steps?
None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective.
They are repelled by the hypocrisy of a media blitz that warns against the return of Hitlerism but privately acknowledges that the motive for risking American lives is our "responsibility to protect" the world's innocents. Prospective U.S. action in Syria is not about threats to American security. The U.S. military's civilian masters privately are proud that they are motivated by guilt over slaughters in Rwanda, Sudan and Kosovo and not by any systemic threat to our country.
That kind of guilt feels good. It's how one knows oneself to be ever so superior to those oafs who don't feel it.
They are outraged by the fact that what may happen is an act of war and a willingness to risk American lives to make up for a slip of the tongue about "red lines." These acts would be for retribution and to restore the reputation of a president. Our serving professionals make the point that killing more Syrians won't deter Iranian resolve to confront us. The Iranians have already gotten the message.
They are tired of wannabe soldiers who remain enamored of the lure of bloodless machine warfare. "Look," one told me, "if you want to end this decisively, send in the troops and let them defeat the Syrian army. If the nation doesn't think Syria is worth serious commitment, then leave them alone." But they also warn that Syria is not Libya or Serbia. Perhaps the United States has become too used to fighting third-rate armies. As the Israelis learned in 1973, the Syrians are tough and mean-spirited killers with nothing to lose.
The Israelis still won. But for the Israelis, the power to unleash the hounds of war is not an aphrodisiac.
Robert H. Scales, a retired Army major general, is a former commandant of the U.S. Army War College.
#3
The Generals + Admirals know the score - Baby Assad is effective at suppressing Radical Islam + related Hard Boyz.
Once he's gone, SYRIA = LIBYA = post-2014 PAKISTAN = the various autonomous andor independent MilTerr Groups will have STRATEGIC ACCESS, IFF NOT OVERT POLITICAL-LEGAL CONTROL, OF NUKES + WMDS [NBC-CBRNE]. THEY WILL BE THE GOVT-STATE = NEW ESTABLISHMENT.
h/t Instapundit Moved to Opinion
At the same time the IRS harassed Republican nonprofit groups during the 2012 political campaign, it selectively advised black churches and other Democrat nonprofits on how far they can go in campaigning for President Obama and other Democrats.
This raw exercise in political favoritism has not been reported in the context of the still-smoldering IRS scandal, in which the agency in 2012 audited big GOP donors and blocked Tea Party groups trying to obtain tax-exempt status as part of what House investigators suspect was an effort to re-elect the president.
But that same year, top officials with both the IRS and Justice Department -- including the IRS commissioner and attorney general -- met in Washington with several dozen prominent black church ministers representing millions of voters to brief them on how to get their flocks out to vote without breaking federal tax laws.
#3
..either that or so compound the long lists of grievances that a heck of a lot of people will just sit on the sidelines when the real fight erupts once critical mass has been achieved.
#5
I have long wondered why it is that Democrat politicians can openly campaign at black churches, yet the Catholic Church has to be very careful about what it says, less it lose its tax exempt status.
For example, I remember reading an article where Mario Cuomo (ex governor of New York, father of the current governor) enthusiastically endorsed Bill Clinton at a black church.
Yet, the Catholic Church cannot tell people to vote for or against particular candidates due to the candidate's stand on abortion.
Well, I guess now I know.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/08/2013 12:00
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#6
I have long wondered why it is that Democrat politicians can openly campaign at black churches, yet the Catholic Church has to be very careful about what it says, less it lose its tax exempt status.
Because black churches are viewed as an aspect of 'black culture', an anthropological curiosity one might find in the pages of National Geographic. Rather patronizing on the part of the cultural and political elites, but quite effective.
#7
So, Pappy, you're saying that black churches are NOT religious organizations, but are, in fact, political?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/08/2013 14:02
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#8
No, they're religious organizations and quite influential that way, though less than they used to be. Black churches historically have been a strong force for black society and civil rights.
Society and the cultural elites view black churches, to put it bluntly, as curious 'native cultural ceremonies'. That's why black churches get treated in movies and television as "singing and dancing while in robes" and more for their contributions to music than in helping society.
The political elite, however, saw the power black churches had and still have, the cultural acceptance they enjoy, and have exploited it. And both sides now support that exploitation.
h/t Instapundit
In their latest report on the economic benefits of the shale revolution, the global research firm IHS makes a number of encouraging findings. IHS estimates that the unconventional oil and gas value chain already supports over two million jobs, is responsible for $1,200 in average additional net income per household and is contributing nearly $300 billion to GDP. The most promising finding for manufacturers is that the best is yet to come. Looking at just one manufacturing sector, the chemical manufacturing sector, capital investments in new plants and expansion at existing plants is expected to more than triple in just four years.
#3
Releasing the shale revolution is the only thing he can do to help the economy. I'm amazed he hasn't found a way to buy off/backstab the greens on this issue yet to save his Union buddies.
[Ynet] Iran's former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview with the IRNA news agency that Tehran informed the US of chemical weapons shipments to Syria nine months ago.
Salehi, head of Iran's nuclear program, said the message was conveyed in a letter to Washington via the Iranian embassy in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell....
#5
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels ..
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is cancelled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the last final escalation level.
Regards, John Cleese , British writer, actor and tall person
And as a final thought - Greece is collapsing, the Iranians are getting aggressive, and Rome is in disarray.
[An Nahar] Attacks north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , including a suicide kaboom at a government building and the detonation of a booby-trapped corpse, killed four people Saturday, part of a months-long surge in violence.
The unrest has left more than 3,900 people dead already this year, and sparked concerns Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian war that plagued it in 2006 and 2007 and left tens of thousands dead.
Shootings and bombings stuck the main northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, as well as Baquba, Taji and Tuz Khurmatu, all north of the capital, leaving four dead and nine others maimed overall, according to security and medical officials.
In Taji, a jacket wallah tried to enter the town mayoralty offices but went kaboom! at the gates to the building when police opened fire on him.
The blast killed a policeman and maimed four others.
In djinn-infested Mosul, meanwhile, a police major was killed when security forces approached a corpse that had been booby-trapped with explosives.
In Tuz Khurmatu and Baquba, gunnies assassinated a finance ministry official and a district chief respectively.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
00:00 ||
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#2
syria's air force is only barely functional now
you really don't need to do much more than knock out about 10 air fields and their control towers to degrade it almost nothing
this a
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/08/2013 5:01
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#3
Don't forget the Pony Barns and Bunny Farms.
The Unicorns and Glitter Factories are being readied for your arrival.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/08/2013 11:04
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#4
I say put JDAM kits on Tom Friedman and Nick Kristof, drop 'em over Damascus and call it a day. If Assad uses chem weapons again, repeat the process with so called "conservative" commentators like Bill Kristol et. al.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/08/2013 15:04
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#5
Must mean the USAF that says its not ready nor has enuff assets to support a Syria strike lest they leave significant or risque' "holes" in US Security somewhere around the world.
#6
See also DAILY STAR LEBANON > US PLANS FOR THREE DAYS [72 Hours] OF STRIKES ON SYRIA: REPORT.
versus
* WAFF > [Defence.pk/forums] SIX(6) BDKS [Russian = "Commie"] LOADED WID ARMS HEADING FOR SYRIA TO ARM ASSAD.
versus
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > US PRESIDENT OBAMA ADMITS POSSIBILITY OF GROUND TROOPS IN SYRIA AFTER ALL, to deter more Chemical attacks from any + all belligerents.
[An Nahar] The leadership of Syria's ruling Baath party will go into "permanent session" starting Saturday, Syria state news agency SANA said, as Washington weighs military action against Damascus.
"The national leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath party discussed with other Syrian parties the latest developments in light of threats to launch an attack against Syria," SANA reported.
The Baath party leadership decided to "go into permanent session starting from today and going forward indefinitely."
The decision appeared to be largely symbolic, and comes as U.S. 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... asks Congress to authorize military strikes on Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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[6 views]
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[Ynet] According to Paleostinian news agency Maan, Egyptian authorities close Rafah crossing Saturday due to security reaons.
The real question is, why do they keep re-opening it?
Maher Abu Sabha, chief of crossings authority in Gazoo, said that the Egyptian side has yet to determine when the crossing will reopen. "Only 50 passengers from Gazoo managed to get from the crossing to Egypt," he said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2013 9:38
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#2
The real question is, why do they keep re-opening it?
Why so they can close it again of course. Have you never had a kitteh? It's fun to stir 'em up. Of course on occasion (trust me) Baby Goes Batshit and you lose a little blood. Still, good clean fun mostly.
A local warlord believed to be involved with high-profile attacks in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has reportedly been killed in a security operation.
The Russian National Antiterrorist Commitee (NAC) said special forces began a search operation in a mountainous area of the republic's Urvan district after a group of armed men were seen in the area. A number of gunmen were killed in a subsequent firefight.
The NAC said one of those killed has been tentatively identified as Ruslan Makoyev. Makoyev's group has been blamed for a number of terrorist acts in Kabardino-Balkaria, including last year's murder of the rector of the Agrarian University, Boris Zherukov.
Zherukov was also a prominent legislator who led the ruling United Russia party's faction in the local assembly.
[Jpost] Police tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! more than 160 people in east London on Saturday during rival protests by hundreds of anti-Islamist activists and thousands of counter-demonstrators near an area home to one of Britannia's largest Moslem communities.
About 3,000 coppers were deployed to keep a group of 500 members of the right-wing English Defence League, or EDL, apart from a larger group of anti-racist protesters, including Unite Against Fascism.
Police formed lines across the streets to enforce a ban on the EDL marching to the borough of Tower Hamlets, which has a large Moslem community, and to keep the counter-demonstrators in their assigned area.
Police imposed the geographic restrictions on the EDL march as well as a time restriction, fearing a risk to public order. The EDL lost a court battle on Friday to overturn the ban.
A police front man said about 150 counter-protesters were arrested after a group broke away and headed towards Tower Bridge where the EDL march was to end.
He said 14 others, mainly from the EDL, were arrested during the day for violent disorder, possession of knives and fireworks, and one 30-year-old man for inciting others to break the conditions set for the protest.
The EDL said on its Twitter account that the group's leader, Tommy Robinson, was arrested "for incitement".
Mounting pressure for a Western strike on Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and hostile to Damascus build up off the embattled country's coastline. While the Western vessels have in many cases been deployed in the event a military strike against Syria gets a green light, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia's naval presence is needed to protect national security interests and is not a threat to any nation. Below is a brief summary of the naval hardware currently amassed off Syria's shores.
USA = The US Navy has five Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers off the coast of Syria, which its top admiral says is "fully ready" for a wide range of possible actions.
The USS Ramage, USS Mahan, USS Gravely and USS Barry are each armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles (1,151 miles) and are used for precise targeting. The ships are also equipped with surface-to-air missiles capable of defending the vessels from air attacks. On August 29, the USS Stout was sent to relieve the USS Mahan, but both ships might remain in the area for the time being.
In addition to the destroyers, the United States may well have one of its four guided missile submarines off the coast of Syria. At one time these subs were equipped with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Nowadays, they are capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. It was also announced on Monday that the US had deployed the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship, to the Eastern Mediterranean.
On Monday, it was also announced the USS Nimitz super carrier had moved into the Red Sea, though it had not been given orders to be part of the planning for a limited US military strike on Syria. The other ships in the strike group are the cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS William P. Lawrence, USS Stockdale and USS Shoup.
The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and strike group is also in the northern Arabian Sea.
RUSSIA = Russia, Syria's longtime ally and primary arms supplier, has its only overseas naval base located in the Syrian port of Tartus. However, Russia insists recent efforts to bolster its naval presence in the region are not in response to Western threats of a military strike. Reported movements of many Russian ships in the region are coming from anonymous Russian defense ministry sources and have not been confirmed.
On Friday, the large landing ship, Nikolai Filchenkov, was reportedly dispatched from the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, from where it is eventually expected to reach the Syrian coast.
RIA news agency quoted an unnamed senior naval source as saying on Friday that the frigate, Smetlivy, would leave for the Mediterranean on September 12-14, and the corvette Shtil and missile boat Ivanovets would approach Syria at the end of the month. The Russian destroyer Nastoichivy, which is the flagship of the Baltic fleet, is also expected to join the group in the region.
Also reportedly in place in the eastern Mediterranean are the frigate Neustrashimy, as well as the landing ships Alexander Shabalin, the Admiral Nevelsky and the Peresvet. They are expected to be joined by the guided-missile cruiser Moskva. The Moskva, set to arrive in a little over a week's time, will take over operations from a naval unit in the region.
The SSV-201 reconnaissance ship, Priazovye, is also reportedly on its way to join the group in the Eastern Mediterranean. Accompanied by the two landing ships, Minsk and Novocherkassk, the intelligence ship passed through the 'Istanbul Strait' on Thursday, which helps form the boundary between Europe and Asia.
FRANCE = On August 31, French military officials confirmed the frigate Chevalier Paul, which specializes in anti-missile capabilities, and the transport ship, Dixmude, were in the Mediterranean. French officials denied they are in the region to participate in military action against Syria, but were rather taking part in training and operation preparations. France currently has no ship-based missiles, so any offensive action would come from the air in the form of long-range Scalp missiles, similar to those the nation used in Kosovo in 1999 and in Libya in 2011.
ITALY = Two Italian warships set sail for Lebanon on Wednesday in a bid to protect 1,100 Italian soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The Italian ANSA news agency reported that a frigate and a torpedo destroyer boat departed from Italy's southeastern coast on Wednesday and would provide additional protection to the soldiers in the event the Syrian conflict further deteriorates.
UK = As of August 29, the Royal Navy's Response Force Task Group was deployed in the Mediterranean as part of long-planned exercise Cougar 13. The force includes helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious, type-23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Montrose, amphibious warship HMS Bulwark and six Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships. The Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine HMS Tireless was also believed to be in the area at the time, after it was detected in Gibraltar. In light of the shocking parliamentary defeat, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK would only be able to offer the US "diplomatic support."
#2
1. Bush 41, not taking out Saddam Hussein in Gulf War I.
(Not his worst indecision. That would be the failure to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to do the equivalent of Truman's denazification to the education industry and government funded foundations, but this time directed at economic/cultural marxists, in this country.)
2. Overall failure of both sides in the Civil War to not equip their soldiers with repeating firearms.
3. French at Crecy and Agincourt, not recognizing the failure of armed heavy cavalry against higher rate of fire English and Welsh longbows, not once but TWICE.
4. Failure of American general officers to counter the American media's, but especially Cronkite's, disinformation campaign regarding Tet.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/08/2013 5:47
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#3
I'd add that America messing around during Suez caused literally a world of problems.
#4
...All interesting and good choices except for:
#6 - The Army of the Potomac was badly disorganized in the wake of its victory at Gettysburg and simply could not be lined up and sent out again that quickly. Second, Meade had been in command for only a VERY short time - Lincoln had appointed him just before the battle, and he was literally still in OJT. If he'd been in command for a few months and still couldn't get it together, that would be a valid argument. And third, the Army of Northern Virginia was still a VERY dangerous opponent - it was not the bleeding, broken, and starving mob it would be two years later. Their morale was high, they were still in supply, and their leadership (though disappointed at the way things had turned out) was still intact and aggressive. Had Meade somehow overcome the first two problems, the result of an attack on the retreating ANV would almost certainly have been a genuine disaster.
#5- The Gatlings were genuinely wicked weapons for their day, but they had one severe drawback: once in battery they were tactically immobile. They could only fire in a straight line ahead of them and they couldn't fire at all while their bearing was being changed. On top of that, the crews had to stand erect while firing and reloading - they couldn't take cover at all. The Indians certainly weren't going to ride straight into a stream of bullets, and they were sufficiently good marksmen that they would have been able to pick off the crews, probably before they ever got off a single round. The one thing the Gatlings could have done that MIGHT have saved Custer was slowed down his march - had that happened, the other column that they were supposed to meet when they attacked the Indians might have been in place, and LBH would have looked more like Wounded Knee. (The other column was commanded by General Alfred Terry, who told LTC Custer to take his time - Custer instead drove his regiment hard and fast, most likely to get there first, defeat the Indians himself, and get all the glory. Didn't work out so well.)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/08/2013 7:34
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#5
Too many ethnocentric listings. If you have umbrage with the Western oriented world, the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks sent the European nations looking south then west to get to the East. The result was the age of Exploration and Colonization and the ascendency of the West. Maybe not the victory they thought it was.
Then there's the Chinese decision that their problems with the West stemmed from the failure to faithfully follow traditional Chinese institutions and culture unlike the Japanese who saw the West's advantage lay in technology and organizational institutions. The Sino-Japanese War demonstrated that error which they would still be learning a hundred years later.
Then there's the Aztec habit of taking prisoners for sacrifice rather than grasping the concept of utter destruction of an opponent. Not killing the entire entourage of Cortez and allowing him to escape to link up with new arrivals on the coast was ultimately fatal.
The Crusaders allowing the Mamelukes to peacefully transit their lands to confront the Mongols at Ain Jalut would mean the Mamelukes and Arabs would be back to end their presence in the Levant states. The Mongols would have tolerated 'dependent' Christian states as they did in Russia.
#7
THis guy puts the Afghan invasion in Andropov's hands when at this time it was Brejnew who was Secreatary of the Party. So nuff saisd about this list.
Hitler came very, very close of taking Mocow. Since Soviet Union's railway network was centered on Moscow its loss or mere encircming would have been a critaical blow to the Red Army and to Soviet industry. He came close to taking Soviet Union's oildfields and he came to a mre 200m of taking Stalingrad. Now you could think samml mater. Soviet Union is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge! Well no. Stalingrad was the on teh best path for transsporting oil from the Causacaus to where it was neede and more importantly Soviet Union was on the verge of dist=integration: its Army was deeply demoralized, hueg chinks of its industry were gone, so many peole had been left in German hands its population no longer exceeded Germany's and its most fertile lands had been lost so its population was surviving on 2000 calories day.. Most of this was told by Stalin in the famous "Ne shagu nazad" (no step back) directive: Soviet Union could no loneger afford to lose ground. In fact it had to recover some of the lost one in order to feed its population. Had the Germans crossed these last 200 meters they would have had time to cover theirr falnks Sovuiet Union wouldn'ty hace recovered its fertile la,nds and the German troops in the Caucasus wouldn't have been forced to retreat so the Spring of 1943 would have started with the Germans close to Soviet Union's main oild fields.
For Napoleon his main mistake was invading Russia with too large an Army. An Army so large the Russins didn't dare to oppose and withdrew instead of accepting battle like if they had faced a smaller army. An army so large it was difficult to feed. An Army who had been made so large by including hundreds of thousands of low quality troops and who had lost thirty thousand men to exhaustion and desertion beforehad iether to crush the Russian Army or not fight at all: evry Russian soldier fallen could be replaced by grabbing the nearest mujik, training him a bit and sending it to battle. Every soldier of Napoleon had to come from Germany or from France: weeks and weeks and weeks of marching before he reached the Army. And that if he wasn't killed by partisans or by the Cossacks. Technically Borodino was French victory but since the Russian Army was not anihilated it was as good as a defeat. Napoleon could have afforded a less than total victory for a battle close to the Russian border but not at Vorodino.
Napoleon's Army lost 30 thousand men before it had crushed the Russian border to desertion and soldier being physically unable to follow the Army. The Russian Army ended accepting battme at Borodino. That was a battle Napoleon had either to avoid or win by knockout not by referee decision: Paris at 1750 miles of Moscow. 20 miles a day: nearly three months that what was needed to replace French soldier lost.
#9
IMNSHO the greatest political/military decision (can't be sure whether or not it was a mistake) was the cancellation/destruction of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the mid-1400's. From here:
From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the Ming emperor that are unmatched in world history. These missions were astonishing as much for their distance as for their size: during the first ones, Zheng He traveled all the way from China to Southeast Asia and then on to India, all the way to major trading sites on India's southwest coast. In his fourth voyage, he traveled to the Persian Gulf. But for the three last voyages, Zheng He went even further, all the way to the east coast of Africa. This was impressive enough, but Chinese merchants had traveled this far before. What was even more impressive about these voyages was that they were done with hundreds of huge ships and tens of thousands of sailors and other passengers. Over sixty of the three hundred seventeen ships on the first voyage were enormous "Treasure Ships," sailing vessels over 400 hundred feet long, 160 feet wide, with several stories, nine masts and twelve sails, and luxurious staterooms complete with balconies. The likes of these ships had never before been seen in the world, and it would not be until World War I that such an armada would be assembled again. The story of how these flotillas came to be assembled, where they went, and what happened to them is one of the great sagas and puzzles in world history.
When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the Chinese Imperial court in 1477, the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the archives, damning them as "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people's eyes and ears." He argued that the expeditions of Zheng He "to the West Ocean wasted tens of myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was it to the state?"
With the destruction of the records the history of this fleet was nearly forgotten. This was just 15 years before Columbus 'discovered' America. It could have been so very different.
#11
I'm starting to think the Crimean War was a mistake. Instead of the British and French fighting for the Ottomans, why not let Russia bleed itself pacifying the Ottomans and the Balkins, perhaps no WWI and Constantinople back on the map?
Israeli officials arrested an employee of the French consulate in Jerusalem on Tuesday as he tried to cross from Jordan into the West Bank with some 152 kg in gold bars, nearly $2 million in checks and 500 kg of tobacco. Intrigued by the smell of tobacco, Israeli officials asked the man if they could search his car. He refused, explaining that his diplomatic plates were registered at the French consulate in Jerusalem and that he possessed a service passport -- an official document issued by the French authorities that indicates he is a member of the consular staff but which does not serve as a diplomatic passport.
Faced with more questions and increasing pressure, the man grew nervous and asked to be allowed to turn around and return to Jordan. The officials refused and called their superiors, who alerted the French consulate. The ambassador was away, so his deputy took the case.
While the diplomat told the young driver that he was probably right in refusing a search, he insisted it would be in his best interests to obey the custom officials' orders, whereupon the man informed the consular official that what he was carrying wasn't "insignificant". The diplomat, realising that the situation was becoming increasingly complicated, alerted the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Paris.
The ministry's advice was to allow the vehicle to be searched to avoid giving the impression that there was a coverup. The driver eventually complied, revealing 152 kg of gold, mostly in bars; 500 kg of tobacco; hundreds of new cell phones; and nearly $2 million in checks.
Not exactly what most would think matched the term goods...
The Israeli police arrested the man, who was in charge of the consulate's garage, questioned him and quickly deported him to France. Now back on French soil, it is still unclear whether or not the driver was arrested by French police.
The question does arise of where those particular goods came from, and for whom in the West Bank they were intended...
In an interview with FRANCE 24, Vincent Floriani, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, said the driver was travelling on his own account, privately, and not on behalf of the embassy. The case, however, could harm the reputation of the French consulate in Jerusalem, which some Israelis already call "the embassy of France in Palestine".
Indeed. That's a pretty valuable cargo for a garage manager to be giving to total strangers, even if there is a pretty girl involved.
#3
That had to be a hefty set of springs on that car. At 2.2 lbs per Kilogram that is about 330 lbs of gold and 1100 lbs of tobacco. Not counting the checks. Just the volume of the tobacco should have had it pushing out the window of the vehicle.
#4
500 kg of tobacco is about 1100 pounds US. At a price of about $10/lb, that's about $11,000. Depending on the type of tobacco and the black market price, it could be anywhere up to three or four times that amount.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2013 21:17
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[An Nahar] At least 18 people were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu Saturday when two blasts destroyed a busy parking lot next to a restaurant, police said, in attacks quickly claimed by Shabaab Islamists.
"There were two heavy kabooms at a parking lot near the National Theatre," police officer Mohamed Adan told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"At least 18 people were killed in the attack," said Mohamed Dahir, another police officer. An AFP news hound saw 12 bodies at the scene of the attack.
"Successful operations carried out in Hamarweyne," the Shabaab said on their Somali-language Twitter feed, referring to the Mogadishu district where the attacks occurred. The group's English-language account has been suspended.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists claimed to have killed "key officials", but witnesses said the casualties they had seen looked like ordinary civilians.
Police and witnesses said the first blast was a car laden with explosives that was parked by the Village, a restaurant close to the theatre that was targeted by jacket wallahs in September 2012.
"Minutes after the bomb went off, I saw severed flesh flying past," said Idris Yusuf, who was in the restaurant at the time of the attack and who sustained slight leg injuries.
Nearby buildings were destroyed, the witness said, and passers-by came running over to help the victims.
The second blast, which followed minutes later, was a "suicide bomber who went kaboom! in the crowd of civilians who rushed to the scene of the first blast," Ahmed Weli Said, a Somali government security official said.
The National Theatre re-opened in 2012 after two decades. Just weeks later, Shabaab hard boyz struck, with a suicide bomber blowing herself up and killing two of the country's top sporting officials who were attending an event there.
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[An Nahar] More than 1,000 Christians held a prayer vigil for peace in Damascus on Saturday, heeding a call from the Vatican, as the U.S. pressed for a military strike on Syria.
Men, women and kiddies thronged Our Lady of Dormition, the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarchal cathedral in the Old City of Damascus, for an emotionally charged plea for peace.
"God protect Syria," they chanted during prayers led by Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, whose church is an eastern rite that recognizes the authority of the Vatican.
"We thank all those who, at the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , are working for peace so that there would not be any strike on Syria," the patriarch told worshipers.
He prayed for a "peaceful solution" to the 30-month war in Syria, which has killed more than 110,00 people.
"I tell the young people, 'stay here'. We will stay in Syria. We will stay here, both Christians and Moslems," he added.
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[CBSNEWS] Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman ... an inspiration to millions, one of the towering intellects of our time...
left North Korea Saturday, professing his affection for autocratic leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... and angrily rejecting calls to lobby for the release of imprisoned American citizen Kenneth Bae.
Despite earlier calling on Kim to set Bae free, Rodman said the Christian missionary's fate was none of his business.
"Guess what? That's not my job to ask about Kenneth Bae," Rodman told reporters upon arrival at the airport in China's capital, Beijing. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
"Ask (President Barack) Obama about that. ... Ask Hillary Clinton. ... Ask those [expletive]." a visibly agitated Rodman shouted, referencing the former secretary of state.
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#1
Bet he shows up in Vegas next week. With a lotta cash...
[An Nahar] The Gulf Cooperation Council urged the international community Saturday to intervene immediately to "rescue" the Syrian people from their government's "oppression." "Let's you and him fight."
"The genocide, and grave human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations, faced by the Syrian people necessitate an immediate intervention by the international community," GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said. Don't the Gulf States have armies? I thought they did...
Those are just for impressing pretty girls, silly. If they were meant for fighting, the troops and officers would all be kaffirs, since the purpose of fighting Arab troops is to be defeated by the Joooooos.
The intervention would aim to "rescue the brotherly Syrian people from the oppression of its regime, and bring its suffering to an end," a statement added. Individually their armies likely aren't that big, but together they'd be more significant.
The call comes as U.S. President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... awaits a vote by the Congress over his request to back his plan to strike Syria over an alleged use of chemical weapons.
"The Syrian regime is fully responsible for what is happening in Syria, for rejecting all attempts to solve the crisis, and continuing to practice killing and destruction, including the use of chemical weapons," Zayani said.
Gulf nations support international measures to "deter the Syrian regime from committing its inhumane practices," he added.
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#1
How about immediate action by the regional community instead?
As most Arab nations, usually established to make sure the local inhabitants remain docile rather than fight Western style wars with neighbors. The confrontations with Israel really weren't what they were designed for. Even the big Iraq-Iran War showed the ability to get their skills up to WWI levels at best. They favored to be employed as a internal police force, though that appears a bit tough in Syria as well.
[BBC.CO.UK] Australia's opposition has crushed the governing Labor party in a general election that has returned the Liberal-National coalition to power for the first time in six years.
The coalition won 88 seats to Labor's 57 in the 150-seat parliament.
Liberal leader Tony Abbott, who will be prime minister, promised a competent and trustworthy government.
Outgoing PM Kevin Rudd earlier admitted defeat and said he would not stand again for the Labor leadership.
The main election issues were how to tackle an expected economic slowdown, whether to keep a tax on carbon emissions, and how to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat.
Mr Rudd called the election after defeating Julia Gillard in a leadership challenge in June, amid dismal polling figures that showed Labor on course for a wipe-out.
Under Mr Rudd, Labor initially saw its figures improve. But Mr Abbott, who enjoyed the strident support of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, then widened the gap again.
"From today I declare Australia is under new management and Australia is now open for business", Mr Abbott told a cheering crowd as he delivered a victory speech.
He said that he would put the budget back into surplus, and stop boats bringing migrants from Asia.
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A United Airlines plane en route to Brussels with more than 200 passengers returned to O'Hare International Airport Friday because of a "suspected security concern," according to the airline.
"United flight 972 from Chicago to Brussels returned Friday to Chicago due to a suspected security concern," the airline said in a statement.
United Flight 972 was scheduled to depart from O'Hare around 6p.m Friday and arrive in Brussels around 9 a.m.. The flight landed in Chicago at 10:07 pm, where it was met by law enforcement, the airline said. There were 228 passengers onboard, according to the airline.
"We are accommodating passengers on an alternate flight to Brussels," the airline said.
FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde said her agency responded to the diverted flight, but no arrests were made.
So it wasn't a tea party activist...
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[An Nahar] At least one person was killed and four maimed Saturday when angry demonstrators tried to storm the Iranian consulate in western Afghanistan during a protest over visas, officials said.
Around 200 protestors erupted into the streets of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... city and tried to attack the consulate with rocks and sticks, deputy provincial police chief Abdul Hamid Hamidi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"The police tried to stop them, but they attacked the police. One person was killed and several maimed in the clash," he said, adding that police were investigating.
An official at Herat central hospital told AFP that four maimed people had been admitted.
Abdul Rashid, a maimed demonstrator, told AFP that they were protesting because the Iranian consulate would not extend their Iranian visas nor return their cash deposit.
He said Afghans who applied for an Iranian visa had to deposit at least $400 with the consulate.
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#1
He said Afghans who applied for an Iranian visa had to deposit at least $400 with the consulate
Either the Iranians really don't like Afghans, or the sanctions are taking their toll.
[Dawn] A female Afghan parliamentarian was freed by the Taliban on Saturday in exchange for several bully boys, a provincial politician said. The Taliban said the freed prisoners were "four innocent women and two children."
Talibs often use kidnap victims as bargaining chips to gain the freedom of their fellow krazed killers, and the Afghan government is generally unwilling to discuss details of what such negotiations involve.
Fariba Ahmadi Kakar's abduction a month ago was also one of a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, where women's rights remain under attack more than a decade after the US ousted the Taliban government.
Kakar was kidnapped in Ghazni province while driving from Kabul to her constituency in the southern province of Kandahar. She is one of 69 female deputies in the 249-seat lower house of parliament.
Zholina Faizi, secretary of the Ghazni provincial council, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that Kakar was released Saturday at 5 pm and is doing fine. Faizi said Afghan intelligence officials told her that seven male hard boyz and one woman were freed in exchange for Kakar.
The Taliban, however, said in a statement that four women and two children imprisoned by the government were freed. The statement said the women and kiddies were being held merely because they were related to members of the Islamist militia, whose fighters "felt compelled to take action to help the persecuted and oppressed female relatives of its mujahedeen."
Faizi could not confirm the Taliban's claims. And other Afghan officials, including Ghazni province Gov. Mousa Khan Akbarzadeh, declined to comment on whether anyone was freed for Kakar's sake.
"Yes, she's been released by the effort and mediation of tribal elders and holy mans in Ghazni," Akbarzadeh said. "Her health is fine, and she is now with her family. I hope this kind of bad news never repeats itself in the history of Afghanistan."
Abdul Rahim Ayoubi, a member of parliament from Kandahar, said Kakar was in the southern province with her family but expected to go to Kabul in a couple of days. "It's good news for all of us," he said.
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MARKA, Somalia -- A prison fire in Bulo-Marer town of Lower Shabelle region left five Al Shabaab fighters, three inmates and two civilians dead according to witnesses, Garowe Online reports.
A Bulo-Marer resident who spoke to Garowe Online on condition of anonymity because of his security said, the blaze started late Friday night and finally was succeeded to fight it at 8:00 AM in the morning after other militants lingered around the prison.
We saw the charred remains of the corpses who were dragged out under heavy security by Al Shabaab, a nearby resident told GO. Some of the prisoners managed to force their way to safety through the windows and the fire caused extensive damage to the facility."
Sources confirmed to GO that the five Al Shabaab fighters died in the blaze were prison guards. It is yet unclear what caused the fire and Al Shabaab officials declined to comment on the first-ever prison incident to be reported.
Bulo-Marer town in southern Somalia still remains under the control of Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Shish Ka-Boob
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2013 8:16
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Indonesia announced the final of the Miss World pageant later this month would take place on the Hindu-majority island of Bali instead of near the capital, after days of Muslim hardline protests. The disclosure is the latest sign of fringe Muslim groups' growing influence on authorities in Indonesia and their power to obstruct events they consider un-Islamic.
Last year, a Lady Gaga concert was cancelled after a series of protests, where extremists called her "the devil", threatened to torch the venue and denounced her for wearing only "a bra and panties".
Though Miss World organisers had already promised to replace bikinis with Balinese sarongs for its swimwear segment, thousands have taken to the streets this week to condemn the decision to hold the contest in Indonesia. On Friday, radicals burned the organisers in effigy and branded them "infidels".
The government said all events would now be held on Bali, where hardline influence is almost non-existent and where the Balinese are used to crowds of foreign tourists sunbathing in revealing swimwear.
Coordinating minister for people's welfare, Agung Laksono, said on Saturday, "All the events will now be held at venues in Bali. It will all be concentrated in Bali, until the closing." The government had "listened to what the people wanted," he added.
His comments came after around 600 people joined protests Saturday on Java island, bringing along goats wearing Miss World sashes to mock the event, while students in Surabaya held banners reading: "We are ready to die for the Miss World contest to be scrapped".
They join a human rights commissioner, government minister and mainstream Muslim groups who have all expressed their opposition to the event, many saying it exploited women and was an export of Western hedonism.
[Al Ahram] The Islamist bully boy group the Nusra Front has grabbed credit for the liquidation of the governor of Syria's Hama province last month, according to the U.S.-based SITE intelligence monitoring group.
The Nusra Front, a Sunni Musselmen group linked to al Qaeda, has emerged as one of the most effective organizations fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr...
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
last month reported that "terrorists" had assassinated Dr. Anas Abdul Razak, the governor of Hama, with a boom-mobile.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, but the finger was pointed at Nusra which is active in the area.
The bully boy group, which in April pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, said it monitored Abdul Razak's movements for a month before it struck, SITE reported.
The group - which is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States - said it set a boom-mobile by the side of the road to detonate when Abdul Razak's convoy passed on August 25, according to an English translation provided by SITE.
"After, one of the heads of the criminal regime, the governor Anas (Abdul Razak) Na'em, would fall along with several of his colleagues, and all praise and gratitude are due to Allah," it added.
It said Abdul Razak had participated in what it said was Assad's crimes against Sunni Musselmens in Syria but gave no details.
Nusra leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani last month said it would target communities of Assad's Alawite minority with rockets in Dire Revenge for an alleged chemical attack near Damascus.
The United States is pushing for a mandate from Congress to launch military strikes against Assad's forces over the attack. Damascus had denied responsibility for the attack.
SITE also said in a separate email that more than eight anti-Assad bully boy groups, including the al-Ghoutah Martyrs Battalion, Mustafa Habib Brigades and 'Issa bin Maryam Battalion said they oppose Western military intervention in Syria calling such a move a "new aggression" against Musselmens.
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[Al Ahram] US 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... said Saturday that many countries were prepared to take part in US-led military strikes against the Syrian regime. "There are a number of countries, in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action," Kerry said at a presser with French counterpart Laurent Fabius. "We have more countries prepared to take military action than we actually could use in the kind of military action being contemplated."
Still not naming them, I notice.
"What countries?"
"Diff'rent countries!"
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#1
U.S. And 10 Others Issue G-20 Statement On Syria Supporting American Action
[An Nahar] Outgoing Pakistain President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... said in comments aired Saturday he will not seek to become prime minister and will instead focus on leading his party after stepping down.
Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistain's Peoples Party (PPP), vacates the presidency on Sunday and will be replaced the following day by Mamnoon Hussain, a businessman and close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
The center-left PPP ran a rudderless general election campaign earlier this year and was defeated by Sharif's Pakistain Musselmen League-N.
"I will not try to become the prime minister of Pakistain," Zardari, who defied expectations by holding onto power for a record five years, said in excerpts of an interview shown on Geo TV.
"In my view running the party is more important than becoming prime minister," he added.
Zardari, a controversial figure who was once sentenced to 11 years in prison for alleged corruption, said that as the presidency was the highest office in Pakistain it would not be appropriate for him to become prime minister.
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[REUTERS] The Nigerian army said on Saturday it had tracked down and killed 50 members of Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , days after the Islamist sect was blamed for killing 20 villagers in raids in its northeastern stronghold.
"Troops pursued the Death Eaters to their camps and with air support about 50 bad boyz were potted in a shoot-out," army front man Sagir Musa told news hounds in Borno state capital Maiduguri.
"The villages have been rescued from the fangs of the hard boys. Troops are pursuing the remnants of the fleeing Death Eaters by blocking all possible exit routes," Musa added.
Boko Haram, which wants to impose Islamic law in northern Nigeria, and other splinter Islamist groups, are considered the biggest security threat in Nigeria, Africa's top oil exporter.
The military sometimes exaggerates its successes and plays down its own casualties and the deaths of civilians, residents of Borno and rights groups have said. Musa said the number of civilian casualties in the latest offensive was not known.
More than 160 people were killed in violence linked to Boko Haram last month - one of the bloodiest since President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... declared a state of emergency and a military crackdown in three northeastern states in May. A new army division was sent to Borno last month.
A civilian militia - often armed with no more than clubs and knives - has been operating against the Islamists in recent weeks, leading to the arrest of hundreds of them, the military says.
The vigilantes and their families have become targets and scores have been killed in Dire Revenge™ attacks.
Jonathan is under intense political pressure due to a split in his party and from a recently formed opposition coalition. He has been criticized for not quelling Boko Haram's insurgency, which has intensified under his leadership.
A military offensive ended Boko Haram's initial uprising in 2009, when the group's leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed in police custody, but the sect regrouped and came back stronger, launching a more committed insurgency nearly three years ago.
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[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Britannia and the US have questioned the future worth of the UN Security Council, amid international condemnation of Russia's two-year veto of action against the Syrian regime.
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#3
"President Vladimir Putin's refusal to budge since last month's chemical-weapons massacre prompted a group of 11 countries, including Britain and the US, to issue a sharply critical statement yesterday."
They clearly understand the purpose of the UNSC. Sounds more as if they just realised sending strongly worded letters to oneself doesn't actually achieve much.
#5
Britain and US question purpose of United Nations security council
Cause it provides a fig leaf of legitimacy in the absence of Congressional Constitutional authorization to use military force in the absence of any immediate direct threat to the United States - ie Libya.
#7
Well UP, this is one time we really don't have to read it, to know what is in it. This entire exercise is a crock of shi* that could easily blow up in our face. Telegraphing your plan of attack, then awaiting the arrival of the opposition is sheer madness.
#9
Iff they US + UK so choose, they can call for the formal amendment of the original UN Treaty, IIRC aka the Treaty of San Francisco establishing the United Nations in 1944 under then-POTUS Harry Truman???
NOTHING IS STOPPING THE US, UK, OR ANY OTHER SIGNATORY WORLD NATIONS FROM DOING SO EXCEPT THEMSELVES.
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* ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Gateway Pundit] WHITE HOUSE ADMIST IT HAS NO ALLIES FOR SYRIA ATTACK - A COALITION OF ONE!?
RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Google News] TWO-THRIDS OF FRENCH OPPOSE SYRIA ACTION: POLL.
* WASHINGTON POST [WaPo] > WHITE HOUSE: IRREFUTABLE ASSAD LINK TO GAS ATTACK LACKING, BUT PASSES "COMMON SENSE" [litmus] TEST.
RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Reuters] DIRECT LINK BETWEEN ASSAD + GAS ATTACK ELUSIVE FOR US.
versus
* AFP > OBAMA SYRIA DIFFICULTIES CAUSES WORRIES IN ISRAEL.
* FREEREPUBLIC > [WND.com] OBAMA OFFERS ASSAD SECRET DEAL, SET FOUR (4) CONDITIONS TO AVERT US ATTACK ON SYRIA.
The Bammers' prob in this still remains the arrogance of the all-or-nothing Assad Govt, versus the all-or-nothing anti-Assad Syrian Rebels, now affected by the intrevention of foreign Hard Boyz.
[BBC.CO.UK] The Egyptian army has launched a major offensive against Death Eaters in Sinai.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that tanks, armoured vehicles and troops - backed by Apache helicopters - had attacked the Death Eaters in towns along the border with the Gazoo Strip.
The operation is said to be the biggest of its kind in recent years in Sinai.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown, the fiddler suddenly struck a sour note. The dancing stopped abruptly. Everyone looked at Bob... Egyptian soldiers have discovered mortars and other explosives on a railway line near the Suez Canal, the state news agency reports.
There have been frequent attacks on pipelines and security forces since the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in 2011.
On Thursday a powerful kaboom targeted Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim as he left his Cairo house for work. He survived unscathed, but officials say another person died.
Column of tanks
A military official, who spoke anonymously, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the army would "clean" the areas in Sinai where Islamic Death Eaters operated.
This included the towns of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweyid, as well as nearby villages, he said.
A witness told the news agency he had seen a column of tanks, trucks carrying infantry, rocket launchers and other military vehicles. Smoke was also seen rising from the area.
A security official said "dozens" of bad boy suspects had been killed and maimed.
"This is by far the largest operation we have seen and the one we have been waiting for,'' Sheikh Hassan Khalaf, a tribal leader from the targeted area, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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Elizabeth O'Bagy is an analyst for the Institute for the Study of War... and also a paid contractor working as the political director and aid coordinator of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a lobby group for the Syrian rebels in the U.S.
[Jpost] Expert says the number of German Islamists in Syria has increased from 60 to 150 in the last six months.
Radical German Islamists participated in the murders of Syrian Christians in an early August attack on the Turkish-Syrian border, according to a report in the German magazine FOCUS.
The magazine reported last week the involvement of nearly 100 "fanatical" German Mohammedans, including Germans who converted to Islam, in the Syrian civil war.
Two Western intelligence agencies provided the information to FOCUS about the role of German Islamists in the August massacre.
A German police official told the magazine that "the complicity of Germans in the extermination and ethnic cleansing in Syria is a sheer intolerable condition."
Prosecutors are examining whether the German Mohammedans can be charged with participation in a terrorist organization.
The growing presence of German Islamists in Syria prompted the Federal Republic's interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich to issue a warning in April about the "calls for those Europeans who have been trained in battle [in Syria] to return home and pursue jihad."
The Sunni Salafist movement in Germany has provided the main combatants for the conflict against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's regime. Dirk Baehr, a German political scientist who has written about European and German jihadi groups, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that six months ago there were 60 German Islamists in Syria and now the number has climbed to 150. Many of the jihadis fighting in Syria are from Belgium, Baehr added.
In a video cited in the FOCUS report, which appears in German and Arabic, German jihadists praise the expulsion of Christians from the Syrian villages. The video shows between nine and 10 jihadis walking by dead people. Baehr said it is difficult to ascertain if the dead individuals are Christians.
One Islamic combatant strikes the head of a dead Syrian soldier in the video.
Former gangster rapper from Berlin, Denis Cuspert (a.k.a Deso Dogg), is believed to be fighting with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. German counter-terrorism officials view Cuspert as a powerful recruitment tool. He made a video before his departure to Syria, urging Mohammedans to join the jihad in Syria.
[Ynet] Officials at Cairo's international airport say a flight to London was delayed after security services received a tip concerning a possible kaboom on the plane.
The officials said an anonymous caller told state security by telephone that two passengers on the EgyptAir flight were suicide-bombers who had planned an attack.
While many Western nations are evacuating their citizens from Syria and the neighbors countries ahead of a potential US strikes, human rights activists are planning to enter the war-torn country and act as "human shields" against a US assault, Britain's The Telegraph reported Saturday. Cindy? Medea? Get your plane tickets yet? Just hit up Casey's life insurance money again. Or maybe Sean Penn will bankroll yas...
The 'International Human Shields' movement, started by a group of activists in Britain and the US, plans to bring to Syria civilians from countries around the globe, who will try to deter US strikes on the country by staking out potential military targets. "C'mon, it's Obama. He wouldn't dare blow us all away just to make himself look presidential, would he? Would he? WOULD HE???"
"Sorry, Rainbeaux, but I think I'm gonna be doing...sumthin."
It is unclear whether the Syrian regime will allow the group to enter the country, but Franklin Lamb, a lawyer recently appointed as the legal adviser for the group said he had been "inundated" with requests from activists including from Canada, France, Italy, the US, and Britain. Oh, inundated, I tells ya!
Many of those volunteering to go to Syria also took part in the "Human Shields" movement that travelled to Baghdad in 2003, initially to protect hospitals and schools, and later, key government infrastructure sites. Yeah, and that worked out well. As I recall, they were loooong gone when the shooting started.
Except for the ones that were chained to actual military targets. As I recall, those special ones were not pleased about it...
"Hey, wait a danged minute. This ain't a baby milk factory!"
Meanwhile, it has been reported that loyal Assad supporters have bedded down in tents on Mount Qussioun overlooking Damascus where the main transmitter for Syrian TV is located. I guess it was too crowded over at the poison gas factory...
They are trying to protect the site from possible US attack, Sky News reported. They wear white T-shirts with the logo, "Over our dead bodies". Too bad for them that TLAMs can't read...
One of the organizers is 21-year-old law student Hussain Othman. He says he started the sleep in "to protect Syria".
He said: "We will continue until the end. We are civilians. We are against any military strikes."
#1
...I move that any Congresscritter or Senator who votes "Yes" for Pres. Obama's non-open ended non-boots on the ground military action be provided participation vouchers....
[TheNation] The dirty little not-so-secret behind President B.O.'s much-lobbied-for, illegal and strategically incompetent war against Syria is that it's not about Syria at all. It's about Iran--and Israel. And it has been from the start.
By "the start," I mean 2011, when the B.O. regime gradually became convinced that it could deal Iran a mortal blow by toppling Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... of Syria, a secular, Baathist strongman who is, despite all, an ally of Iran's. Since then, taking Iran down a peg has been the driving force behind Obama's Syria policy.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2013 9:24
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#6
Considering Obama ignored the Arab spring uprising in Iran and has done little to deter Iran or to protect Israel. I think this is reach for another excuse for support action in Syria.
Song of an Antisemite
Russian title: Antisemity
Just being a hoodlum appears so trite
I ought to convert to an anti-Semite
This cause might not yet have the law on its side
But millions of zealots support it worldwide
One would get a thrashing if I so decide
But I need to know who is a Semite
What if they are held in the highest regard
What if for the trouble I get myself barred
But my drunkard pal with a wider worldview
Said that a Semite is just a plain Jew
Well, I am in luck, as it would appear
I am reassured there is nothing to fear
I worked up resolve, cause Albert Einstein
Was once a respected icon of mine
The people, forgive me, but I have to ask
Should Abraham Lincoln be also unmasked?
Among them, are many who suffered from Stalin
And highly respected by me Charlie Chaplin
My dear friend Rubin and victims of Nazism
And even the founding father of Marxism
But my drunkard buddy said after a job
The blood of the infants they drink, every drop
And I over drinks in a bar overheard
That they long ago crucified our Lord
Without more blood they simply can't do
They tortured an elephant right in a zoo
Against our people committed high treason
And stole all the crops of the previous season
Along major highways they grabbed all the lots
Built luxury dachas and live there like gods
I'll maim and I'll burn, just to make them pay dues
To save our country, I club dirty Kikes!
#10
one of the problems with the opinion section is that it matters greatly whose opinion it is and for one thing you can't always tell from the title and second some people can't identify the who simply by the source
for example in this opinion it is The Nation; a hard lefty rag
so the title could have been
Hard Lefty Mag says Syrian war about Iran and Israel
of course this has the difficulty of making the titles long
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/08/2013 14:32
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#11
I took it that it was posted in the "know your enemy" sense, #8 grom.
But then I know the reputation of the rag that published this.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/08/2013 15:43
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#12
it is The Nation; a hard lefty rag
I'm afraid I had no idea. If someone would be so kind as to work up a list of such things, that would be terribly helpful.
On the other hand, after reading Frank G's link on the editor's connections, I have to assume the ideas there get a hearing at the highest levels, and therefore do matter, however utterly stupid they might be.
however they do use the magazine's own self identification thus Mother Jones and The Nation are called liberal instead of 'hard left' as I would call it or 'Stalinist' as others would call it
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/08/2013 21:04
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#16
Red-diaper baby-founded, Stalinist in their outlook, and Anti-American.
[TIMESUNION] The Kremlin's chief of staff says Russia has been sending warships to the Mediterranean Sea for possible evacuation of Russian citizens from Syria.
Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Sergei Ivanov as saying that Russia has been boosting its naval presence in the Mediterranean "primarily" in order to organize a possible evacuation of Russians from Syria.
Russia has been one of Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad's staunchest allies in the civil war that has been raging for more than two years.
Reports of increased Russian naval presence in the area have stoked fears about a larger international conflict if the United States orders Arclight airstrikes over a chemical weapons attack last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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#1
....I suspect they will have some off-loads first....
[Al Ahram] Syrian anti-regime activists say government shelling has killed 16 people, mostly rebels, near Damascus.
The attack near the Syrian capital comes as 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... lobbies European allies to back Washington's proposed military action against the Syrian regime.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's troops fired mortars and artillery early Saturday at opposition fighters' positions near Moldokhiya, an agricultural area south of Damascus, killing 14 rebels. Two civilians also died in the shelling, The Observatory said.
The groups also reported heavy fighting between rebels and Assad troops around the Christian village of Maaloula. The attack, which started Monday, was reportedly spearheaded by al-Qaeda-linked fighters and has added to fears of Syrian religious minorities over the role of Islamic hard boyz in the rebel ranks.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] Tens of thousands of Tunisians have marched on the seat of the elected assembly demanding the government resign in one of the largest opposition protests to date.
Saturday marked 40 days since the liquidation of opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi, whose killing has plunged the country into a political crisis.
Dozens of opposition members of the assembly withdrew from the body, paralyzing its work of writing the country's new constitution. Weeks of mediation between the government and the opposition by the main labor union have not borne fruit.
The opposition is demanding the Islamist-led government resign for what they say is its failure to ensure security or manage the economy in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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[Jpost] A suspected Islamist Death Eater was killed early on Saturday when a bomb he was trying to plant in the car of an intelligence officer in Sanaa went kaboom! in his hands, security sources said.
No one else was hurt by the blast, which jolted some residents out of bed shortly after midnight. Local news websites published photos of the bloodied body of a young man they said was behind the attack.
A government source said the target of the attack was stationed at the Ministry of Higher Education. His predecessor had been rubbed out in 2011.
Suspected al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons have killed scores of Yemeni intelligence, army and coppers in recent months, often by rigging their cars with explosives or in drive-by shootings using cycle of violences.
US-allied Yemen is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the most active Death Eater franchises of the network founded by the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... The government of the impoverished Arab country is struggling to assert its authority following more than two years of political turmoil which began with protests that ousted veteran president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it....
[Al Ahram] Nine forces of Evil have been killed and nine others nabbed Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! during a military operation in North Sinai on Saturday, Egypt's military front man Ahmed Ali announced via Facebook.
Ali stated that the military destroyed three arms storages, 107 huts, as well as several cars used by forces of Evil as a base for their attacks.
A security source told Rooters' Aswat Masriya earlier Saturday that ten forces of Evil were killed and 20 injured during Saturday's operation.
The source said that bully boy casualties are expected to increase as Egypt's security forces continue its crackdown against militancy in Sinai, where violent attacks on security checkpoints and facilities have become frequent since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The military campaign has largely targeted forces of Evil in North Sinai's towns of Sheikh Zwayed and Rafah, the source said, where daily attacks have killed dozens of army and police personnel since Morsi's ouster in July.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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[An Nahar] Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012... rejected Saturday remarks attributed to him in which he allegedly criticized Tehran's chief regional ally, Syria, for using chemical weapons against civilians.
The rejection appeared on Rafsanjani's personal website after ultra-conservatives demanded the 79-year-old former two-time president clarify his stance on Syria.
"Recent quotes (attributed) to me regarding Syria... are absolutely not true," Rafsanjani was quoted as telling a crowd of war veteran families.
He echoed Tehran's official opposition to moves by the United States to launch military strikes against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... 's government in response to its suspected chemical attacks near Damascus that are said to have killed hundreds of civilians on August 21.
"Unfortunately the people of Syria -- who have been for about two years struggling with civil war as well as different kinds of pain and have been unprecedentedly displaced -- are now the target of a foreign threat under the excuse of not yet confirmed use of chemical weapons," Rafsanjani said.
Tehran provides Damascus with material and intelligence support but denies accusations of arming the Assad regime to fight the uprising-turned-civil war since 2011 that has claimed more than 110,000 lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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The good news for President Barack Obama as he considers a military response against Syria for using chemical weapons against rebels is that he probably won't have to deal with [an] anti-war movement from Hollywood. But that's not because there isn't opposition. It's just not organized, and, as Ed Asner and Mike Farrell two of the industry's most vocal progressive activists -- told The Hollywood Reporter Friday, perhaps it never will be. Asner said the lack of an organized effort against war in Syria is a matter of timing. Bush took months to make the case for war in Iraq, giving the antiwar left plenty of time to prepare a response. "It will be a done deal before Hollywood is mobilized," Asner said. "This country will either bomb the hell out of Syria or not before Hollywood gets off its ass."
While some conservatives see hypocrisy, Farrell says that an all-out war in Iraq under Bush, a Republican who was very unpopular in Hollywood, was a much bigger deal than potential missile strikes against Syria under the direction of Obama, a Democrat who drew millions for his campaigns from showbiz industry donors. Asner, 83, and Farrell, 74, both expressed extreme disappointment in Obama for advocating military action.
"I have said it everywhere I can and I suspect a lot of others will do the same,"Farrell said. "but whether there will be an organized effort, I don't know. We're talking about the difference between an invasion in Iraq and a limited action in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria."
Another reason some Hollywood progressives have been reticent to speak out against war in Syria, according to Asner, is fear of being called racist. "A lot of people don't want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama," he said.
Ed's retired. He brags that he's safe; he has a pension. That's why the press talks to the old Marxists. The 'working' ones still have something to lose.
#4
Ed's retired. He brags that he's safe; he has a pension.
And so he does. As long as the youngsters are willing to continue paying it, at least. I imagine he has investments, too, as long as the government is willing to let him keep them.
The headline makes it read as if the stork murdered a spy...
[BREITBART] A stork once detained by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of being a winged spy has been found dead. "Zey call heem...Ze Schtork"!
Mahmoud Hassib, the head of Egypt's southern protected areas, said Saturday that local residents found the dead bird on an island in the Nile, south of the ancient city of Aswan. Dead storks tell no secrets. Then again, neither do live ones...
In August, a local resident found the stork in Egypt's Qena governorate, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Cairo. Both he and police were suspicious of the European wildlife tracker found on it. Authorities later let the bird go. "Okay.You can go."
"QUACK!"
"Hey, wait a minute..."
However, controversy trails the bird into death. An Egyptian wildlife organization claimed on its Facebook page the bird was "eaten by local villagers." Hassib denied that the bird had been eaten, though he didn't know an exact cause of death. Urp...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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#1
There's always a price to pay when technology intelligence assets are compromised. Wonder who gets this bill...
#5
Hassib denied that the bird had been eaten, though he didn't know an exact cause of death did mention his newly published cook book, featuring "Stork Stuffing".
Posted by: Au Auric ||
09/08/2013 9:51
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#6
I suspect the real stool pigeon is still on the loose.
#9
Krazy Kat, Officer Bull Pupp, Don Kiyote, Mrs. Kwakk Wakk, The Mock Duck, Walter Cephus Austridge, Krazy Katbird, Krazy Katfish, and Gooseberry Sprig are gathered today to mourn for Joe Stork.
#12
The other day, you may have heard,
The police released a wading bird
They found his carcass by the Nile
He must have met a crocodile
When I came home last night at three
The stork was waiting there for me
I shrieked aloud and grabbed my tummy
This spectral bird must be a mummy
Go away, go away, get back to your storkophagus, ghoul!
Go away, go away, from now on I'll eat nothing but ful... (fart!)
[Dawn] Pakistain freed a group of Afghan Taliban on Saturday in an attempt to improve its troubled ties with its South Asian neighbour, but risked angering Afghanistan further by not handing them over directly to the Kabul authorities.
The announcement followed last month's trip by Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to Pakistain, where he sought the handover of some Afghan bully boyz as part of the stalled grinding of the peace processor.
Karzai as well as the United States want Pakistain to hand the bully boyz directly to the Afghan authorities, but on Saturday, a group of seven Taliban was simply allowed to walk out of their cells into Pakistain.
"In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistain is releasing seven Taliban detainees," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
A foreign ministry front man separately said all seven, including a senior commander called Mansoor Dadullah, were freed on Saturday. The other prisoners are Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai.
Asked if they had been handed over to the Afghan authorities or were just released in Pakistain, the front man said: "Just released."
Pakistain is said to have backed the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and is seen as a crucial gatekeeper in attempts by the US and Afghan governments to contact myrmidon leaders who fled to Pakistain after the group's 2001 removal.
But Afghanistan has long accused Pakistain of playing a double game in its 12-year-old war against Taliban fighters. It says Pakistain, facing a Taliban insurgency of its own, makes pronouncements about peace, but allows elements of its military to play a spoiling role.
Release of a senior commander
Dadullah, who is among the seven released prisoners, is a senior Death Eater commander who was captured by Pak security forces in February 2008 in the southwestern Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province with at least five other Death Eaters.
Dadullah had been in charge of operations against NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... and US-led troops in the southern Afghan province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Dadullah had succeeded his elder brother -- the Taliban's overall military commander Mullah Dadullah -- who was killed in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in southern Afghanistan in May 2007.
The Taliban said in late December that they had sacked Mansoor Dadullah because he disobeyed orders. But a front man for the commander denied that he was fired, leading to speculation about infighting among the Death Eaters.
Dadullah was one of five Taliban who were freed in May 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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[An Nahar] Pope Francis called for reconciliation and dialogue in Syria on Saturday as he led a mass vigil for peace in the war-torn country. He's the Pope. What'd you think he was gonna say? "Have at it with cudgels and be damned to you?"
"In beloved Syria, in the Middle East, in all the world, let us pray for reconciliation and peace, let us work for reconciliation and peace," the pope said. "War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity." So's poison gas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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[Dawn] It was the usual India-US bashing at the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) rally held in the twin cities to mark Defence Day on Friday.
Chanting slogans and holding banners, the emotionally-charged JuD activists and madressah students blamed New Delhi and Washington DC for the woes of Pakistain.
"We came here to show the US that the people of Pakistain will stand up for the rights of the Mohammedans of Kashmire, Egypt and Syria," said Mohammad Akbar, a 29-year-old unemployed man from Gujranwala.
He said JuD wanted the supremacy of the Mohammedans and for this cause he had come to attend the rally.
"The people of Kashmire will not get their rights without the help of the Mohammedans of the world," he said.
Allah Ditta, 20, a madressah student from Okara, said he and his friends had come to attend the rally on the call of JuD to show their strength to the enemies.
"Defence Day ... I don't know, but I came here for the rights of the oppressed Mohammedans in Kashmire, Egypt and Syria. We want to send a message to the US that military action against any Mohammedan country is unacceptable," he said.
Almost all participants accused the US and India of collaborating to slow down the pace of economic progress in Pakistain.
"They joined hands in Afghanistan to topple the Mohammedan government of Taliban and get access to the natural resources of the country," said Mujahid Ali, a seminary student from Bhakkar.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people reached the twin cities from Punjab and Azad Kashmire to take part in the rally despite a ban imposed by the Rawalpindi city administration.
The city district government allowed JuD to organise the Friday congregation at Liaquat Bagh but it did not give them the permission to march towards the federal capital.
The outfit had also installed loudspeakers and banners on Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... Road and Liaquat Road despite the ban.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... on the request of Rawal Town administrator Mohammad Ali Randhawa, the organisers removed the banners.
"I showed them the orders of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar after which they removed the loudspeakers and the banners," Mr Randhawa said.
When asked about the ban on the rally, the administrator said it was the duty of the police to stop them.
On the other hand, a police official, requesting not to be named, said the government had not instructed them to stop the participants from holding the rally.
"Though there was no permission for the rally, we will not take any decision against the organisers without getting orders from the provincial government," he said.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... despite the ban on holding rallies, the JuD chief, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, led hundreds of his party activists and madressah students to D Chowk in Islamabad.
During the rally, traffic on the roads in Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained choked with the police seeming helpless to control the movement of vehicles on Islamabad Expressway, Blue Area, Kashmire Highway and Benazir Bhutto Road.
Addressing the rally at D Chowk, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... to take steps to stop Indian aggression in Kashmire.
"We expect a courageous step from Nawaz Sharif similar to the one he took during his first tenure and refused to bow to world pressure and went ahead with nuclear tests," he said.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed held India responsible for terrorist activities in Pakistain and said the government-proposed all parties' conference on terrorism would not achieve its objectives unless India was stopped from carrying out terror activities in the country.
"The holding of the all parties' conference is a good step but it is also necessary to identity the enemy to get rid of the menace of terrorism," he said.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said Nawaz Sharif wanted to improve the economic condition of Pakistain but it would not be possible without making the country's defence impregnable.
"If our borders are secured, people will invest on different projects," he said.
He also said Pakistain should not be afraid of the US as the latter had faced defeat in Afghanistan and wanted a safe passage from there. "Pakistain should help its Mohammedan neighbours flush out their enemies to ensure security of its borders," he added.
The JuD leader further said: "People expected that Nawaz Sharif will introduce Islamic economic laws and eliminate interest system as it was against Islam."
"If you take the first step, the people of the tribal areas and others will help impose Islamic laws in every field of the country. Islam is the solution to all the problems faced by the country," he said.
The JuD chief warned the US not to attack Syria, saying that Pakistain should help Syria by uniting all Mohammedan countries.
Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI) Secretary General Liaquat Baloch and Mian Aslam criticised India for violating human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... in Kashmire and the US for planning to attack Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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#1
OTOH DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [LeT Chief-Founder]HAFIZ SAEED THREATENS INDIA WID NEW "MUMBAI"-STYLE ATTACK AT ISLAMBAD RALLY - TIMES OF INDIA.
Where circa 10,000 Saeed supporters repor proclaimed to desire to wage Jihad agz India.
[Dawn] A senior activist of the Awami National Party was bumped off in Orangi on Friday apparently in a targeted attack, according to the Pirabad police.
The officials added that Syed Lal Darvesh, 45, was on his way to his warehouse situated in Frontier Colony when two gunnies riding a cycle of violence attacked him. He sustained three gunshot wounds in his head, chest and leg that proved fatal.
The victim was ANP president of Orangi Town's union council-6, said Pirabad SHO Abdul Moid. The officer said that the victim had recently received a extortion chit and had got an FIR lodged against unidentified suspects.
The police said that the body of Lal Darvesh was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Sindh ANP spokesperson Abdul Malik said that the dear departed was a cousin of Senator Shahi Syed. He said that the victim was associated with transport business and his office had been attacked with an improvised bomb twice in the recent past over non-payment of protection money. He left two widows and 18 children, according to the front man.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian... ANP chief Asfandyar Wali in a statement said that law-enforcement agencies were time and again informed about security threats to the victim but they did not provide security to him. Sen Syed said that under a well thought out plan, party leaders and activists were being targeted in the metropolis. He demanded immediate arrest of killers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2013
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