Andy McCarthy is in top form today. He's zigging when everyone else is zagging.
Orwell must be having a good laugh today. Nancy Pelosi yesterday released a summary of the bailout. Under the heading of "Protection for Taxpayers ..." Madame Speaker includes this whopper (my italics): The scheme "[a]llows the government to purchase troubled assets from pension plans, local governments, and small banks that serve low- and middle-income families."
So in addition to rewarding irresponsible lenders and borrowers, we taxpayers are now to be "protected" by buying the toxic debt of states, cities and municipalities. It's one thing to throw a life-line to the credit industry; local governments, by contrast, have the ability to cut spending drastically or raise taxes if their inhabitants want government services. Elected politicians are then accountable for runaway spending and mismanagement. If Detroit or Chicago is sinking because of big-government policies, that's what the citizens of those cities asked for by voting for Democrats year in and year out. Why should the rest of us be on the hook for that?
Basically, the agreement struck over the weekend with key participation from many of the guiltiest politicos provides no mechanism for valuing the debt that Americans are being asked to assume; places few meaningful limits on the public/private recklessness we will be forced to underwrite; would go into effect right before an election which, if Obama wins, would turn management of the bailout over to a new, big-government administration; and protects not the taxpayers but the defaulters to whom Democrats compelled the banks to extend credit beginning in the nineties (lighting the fuse for today's big bang), while responsible borrowers are denied what would otherwise be available credit and a more honest housing market.
#1
If Detroit or Chicago is sinking because of big-government policies, that's what the citizens of those cities asked for by voting for Democrats year in and year out. Why should the rest of us be on the hook for that?
Add Atlanta, Philly, Houston, Dallas. Rural banks in fly-over are generally strong due to the fact they did NOT invest in the Federally sanctioned give-away programs.
Markets didn't cause the Great Depression - the government did. Roosevelt is now venerated only partly because he won WWII. But the main reason he is such a widely-admired figure is the same reason that Obama is viewed as some kind of conquering hero - good publicity from a left-wing media and intelligentsia.
Financial downturns are unpleasant, but they do not need to turn into the Great Depression, which historians now agree was the product primarily of a number of egregious policy mistakes. For almost 80 years, we have thus felt safe from a recurrence of the "Great Depression" phenomenon, primarily on the basis of "we have learned from those mistakes -- nobody would today be so stupid." Sadly recent events suggest that this optimism may have been misplaced and that politicians, never the most economically intelligent of mankind, may be working towards the considerable feat of constructing a Great Depression -- Mark II.
The bull market before 1929 was sold for a generation as unprecedented in size, representing an apogee of speculation that had never been seen before and would never be seen again. We now know that to be rubbish. Radio Corporation of America, the Google or Microsoft of the period, never sold for more than 28 times earnings, a generous valuation to be sure but nothing compared to the stratospheric prices reached by the more fashionable dot-coms in 1999-2000. The stock market capitalization to Gross Domestic Product ratio peaked in 1929 at 75%, above the long-term average of 58%, equal to the 1966 peak, but less than half of the 185% it reached in 1999 and still substantially less than the 105% of GDP at the end of 2007. Then there was housing, which in the 1920s enjoyed no great boom outside Florida (partly because mortgage finance was then very conservative) and so did not represent a giant overhang of overpriced assets ready to crush the economy when markets turned.
#1
I believe that the left has discovered that in the absence of perception of a depression, nobody except kooks and morons want their agenda. After all, the last time they had massive free reign to push America towards socialism was the 1930's.
Unable to get their agenda through under any other circumstances, they have decided to return to those times by doing all they can to enhance the perception of depression.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/29/2008 20:11
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#2
The Creditanstalt collapse can directly be attributed to the French. The US had set up a system by which the Creditanstalt would loan money at low interest to Germany, which would use it to pay war reparations to France and England. France and England would then repay the "loan lease" repayment to the US.
But the French, determined to punish the Germans (and who had hoped to reduce Germany to an agrarian state earlier), declared the Germans in default over a late delivery of a ship full of telephone poles.
So the French Army occupied the Ruhr, which was Germany's industrial heartland. This suddenly pulled the rug out from German debt to the Creditanstalt, which threw it into bankruptcy.
#5
I think he misses the boat, because we are starting from the opposite side of the field. In the GD, the government didn't interfere for a long time, and did too little. The solution was government intervention and explosive growth via deficit spending and credit.
But now we are up to our ears in government intervention and credit. They will no longer work because they have become vitiated through over use. That is, neither economic growth or inflation will allow us to continue with ever growing spending.
So all we can do is cut spending. And not just cut the rate of spending. Next year, tax revenues are going to be in the basement. But there will be no more credit for the government to borrow money from.
They will still want to spend money like a drunken sailor, but the Treasury will be bare. At that point, what they want doesn't matter. They can no more buy a hamburger than can an ordinary person if he can't pay for it.
#6
"They can no more buy a hamburger than can an ordinary person if he can't pay for it."
'Moose, the Dems will steal the hamburger from the ordinary person and then scream that the Republicans did it. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 20:32
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#7
They had the advantage of master saleman/propagandist Roosevelt the last time around. I don't think Obama will prove to be as persuasive. Roosevelt could have sold sand to the Saudis.
#10
But now we are up to our ears in government intervention and credit. They will no longer work because they have become vitiated through over use. That is, neither economic growth or inflation will allow us to continue with ever growing spending.
So all we can do is cut spending. And not just cut the rate of spending. Next year, tax revenues are going to be in the basement. But there will be no more credit for the government to borrow money from.
They will still want to spend money like a drunken sailor, but the Treasury will be bare. At that point, what they want doesn't matter. They can no more buy a hamburger than can an ordinary person if he can't pay for it.
I completely agree with these points. Our problem isn't insufficient government - it's too much government, to the point that, in an economic slump, we can't even pay for ordinary expenditures (entitlements, defense, et al), let alone extraordinary ones. Even as our deficits skyrocket, I expect defense to be substantially cut in the years ahead, whether under McCain or Obama.
#11
The big five parts of government are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Defense and Discretionary, which really just means "everything else". And of course, not counting the interest on the national debt.
The logical way to cut Social Security without shafting anybody, is with the idea of returning it to what it was supposed to be: a *full* retirement for minimum wage workers with no other retirement.
Those "advanced in the system" or receiving benefits should have the option of still getting their stipend, or getting a little *more* than their stipend in an income tax deduction.
Those who are "intermediate in the system" but still have income just get the tax deduction to the amount they have paid in to the system. And those just starting have their total FICA payments converted to an IRA.
This again omits the minimum wage earners who continue through the system as is, except facing a real retirement income that is enough to live on, not just a couple hundred bucks a month.
Medicaid should be controlled and paid for by the States with a lump sum. The States figure out how to use or not use the money. The system should be designed for multi-State pools of health care resources, eventually eliminating the need for federal involvement at all.
Medicare has to be means tested, and prioritized so that less expensive, more effective treatments are fully covered, and very expensive yet ineffective treatments are not. Not that radical, really. If you are 90 years old and need a heart lung xplant, you might as well forget it.
Defense is going to be the trickiest to cut. Instead, the president should authorize some ways in which the DoD can make money, and there are some legitimate ways, to augment their budgets.
The Chinese have had involvement of their military in private enterprise for years, and with some constraints, it's not such a bad idea.
#12
Social Security? My prediction is that we will all continue to pay in, but those of us with more than minimum income will end up getting nothing at all back, ie in the end just another progressive tax. In the meantime, I read the other day that 30% of those aged 65-69 are working at least part-time, and 10% of those 70-75... which means they are still paying into the SS fund, when they were expected only to be receiving. I don't know if that will change things significantly, or whether it will balance out people living longer and getting more at the far end.
#13
TW - the lady who handles my IRA recently called and asked if I intended to start taking Social Security since I just turned 62. I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I told her I intend to work at least until I'm 70, and maybe longer depending on my health, and will start taking SS only when I have to and won't be penalized for it.
As long as my health is good, why would I try to live on SS at 62? IIUC, SS receipients who work are penalized, so why start so soon if you don't have to? And what would I do all day? Oh, I've got plenty I could do, but if I started taking SS at 62 I'd have no money to do it. For decades.
SS & Medicare are a pharking mess. Thanks, government. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 23:32
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#14
Happy belated birthday, Barbara dear. I hope it was even more enjoyable than you deserve!
. . . it's likely to be a bad thing for us all. But then again, Jim Geraghty at National Review proposes a more favorable scenario:
Just about very vulnerable House member voted no today.
If House Democrats want to pass a left-wing, ACORN-heavy, union-proxies, salary-setting bill, fine. Let Senate Democrats pass that one, too. Let Barack Obama go on record in favor of it.
At the heart, the rescue plan is a phenomenally unpopular proposal that is necessary to avert disaster that, for some reason, the public doesn't quite think is real yet.
Let the Democrats pass the bill and let the unpopular Bush sign it. The Republicans running for House and Senate — and McCain, for that matter — can denounce it until their throats are hoarse every day from now until Election Day. Every voter will no that at a moment when most Americans were struggling, the Democrats voted along party lines to "bail out Wall Street."
The bailout might save Wall Street, and ensure a Republican tsunami on Election Day to strip out the worst parts of the bill in 2009...
Posted by: Mike ||
09/29/2008
16:30 ||
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#1
This will be absolute politcal suicide for the democrats. I doubt they have the courage to undertake such a move. What we are witnessing is econ-class warfare, ie, the working man, earner and American taxpayer vs the entitlement class, non-earner and greedy carpetbaggers led by the democrats.
#2
Timing is everything. If Obama wins, with a rubber stamp congress and a big media tailwind he can do anything he wants next year. Hillary to SC, reinstate the "fairness doctrine", ANYTHING.
And the democrats are stretching this crisis out because they figure it's to their benefit, and increases the chances of the above happening.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/29/2008 18:29
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#3
If House Democrats want to pass a left-wing, ACORN-heavy, union-proxies, salary-setting bill, fine. Let Senate Democrats pass that one, too. Let Barack Obama go on record in favor of it.
Obama doesn't have an opinion on the bailout package until he gets elected and then he will follow the dictates of the left-wing donk ideologs in his party and Congress. He is not the messiah of change.
#6
The real problem is the fact that people believe in that mindset that this is Grandpa's Democratic party. Suprise! It is not.
It takes Americans a long time to look at what is really happening. They study it eventually (I Believe), and they are studious of some very diverse history.
Give them time to do their homework. Assign it often.
They are bored with keeping up and resigned their fate to anyone they see everyday. Also understand that the VP pick is just an average American Housewife who happened to join the pta that led to state government. They can relate to that. I can in a way find it comforting.
#4
The public is not amused that the pockets of the many are being picked for the few -- especially since the few include mostly the rich and the uncreditworthy. And by "uncreditworthy" I mean both the stupid (Golden West, Wachovia, etc.) and the poor who can't make their payments. It doesn't help that the bail out designers are some of the same idiot politicians who precipitated this and/or failed to address it three years ago. Perhaps the bail out is going to have to be smaller, a bit more phased, and a bit more supervised.
#7
This socialistic bailout bill failed. It could not fail without the votes many Democrats going against their party and "real" conservative Republicans. It is also a rebuke of a bill that would create a Treasury Czar--which is very anti-democracy.
The Congressmen and women must have heard the sound of their constituents throwing them out. Now if the real culprits such as Dodd and Frank, etc. could be prosecuted for malfeasance and impersonating a Congressman we would do well.
The bill failed in the House 228-205. Yes, the stock market was falling already. Per AP: Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. It will be interesting when names can be attached to those numbers. Tomorrow is the Jewish New Year, so if they don't put something to a vote before about 5pm today, there won't be another vote until tomorrow at 10 pm or so, more probably Wednesday.
#11
How could Pelosi bring it to a vote without knowing it would fail? Why not wait a day or two and let the Dow drift down to scare people and give more time to craft a bill enough could support? What a dolt!
#12
Now if there is a depression -- or even merely another couple of bank failures -- the honourable Representative Pelosi can blame the Republicans, no matter how untrue.
#13
I don't think so. There were enough donk votes to put it through if she wanted to crack the whip.
She needs to worry about holding her majority. Remember, every rep is up for re-election in 5 weeks and 205 of them voted to do something the majority of the people thinks is very stupid. They have to defend that vote starting now.
Even if the market had collapsed in the manner of 1987 - 20+% in one day, followed by another 10% the next - we need to remember that it ultimately recovered. Without us having to ban short-selling. Or mount a $700b handout plan. Paulson and Bernanke thought they could pull the wool over our eyes. As it turns out, we - liberals and conservatives alike - understood fully the nature of this handout, and made this known to our representatives in Congress, who quailed in fear.
#15
NS, I think we've pretty well established that Pelosi is a fundamentally incompetent parliamentary manager. I thought that was why they brought in her arch-enemy, Hoyer, as her second - to provide someone who could organize a caucus.
Apparently I gave the pair of them too much credit. Wow, what a mess. Don't bet on the market not dying just yet.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/29/2008 14:47
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#16
This is unfortunate. We could have used some aggressive deficit spending.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/29/2008 14:49
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#17
Are there names attached yet? Anyone got an official link site to the house that can go through right now? I keep getting redirected to a stupid ask.com spider. I beginning to loathe ask.com.
#20
Tell us your killing CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) and we will support your stupid bill.
OregonGuy, I agree 100%, but why stop there?
Throw in GSE's and mark-market rules and you have the foundation for a much more efficient capital market.
Boehner speaking (saw on MSNBC). Pelosi apparently gave such a vile, hate-spewing attack of Bush and the Republicans on the House floor, blaming the current financial problems on "Eight years of this administration and its allies in Congress" that, according to one report, the heads of some Repubs who heard it 'exploded' and they 'went berserk.' The attack was so ugly that several dozen Dems bolted, too. That smarmy, bug-eyed old Stalinist ("Riches for me; misery for you") just couldn't keep her bile bottled-up long enough for the vote. All bets are off now.
The whole point of mark to market rules is to make the company's solvency transparent on a regular basis. Which is then used as an excuse for levering up (i.e. borrowing more money). Banks that don't hold mortgages as securities don't mark to market. But then again, they also don't lever up 30 to 1.
#30
Not Keynesian. I think the government should always deficit spend.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/29/2008 15:32
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#31
Pelosi is spinning this on blaming the R's.
(95) Dems voted against it -
(12) Reps were going to vote Yea, but her
five minute speech before the vote must have ticked them off and they voted Nae.
Only 60% Dems voted for the bill.
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
09/29/2008 15:43
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#32
Pelosi's speech was 16 minutes -- I just watched it over at MSNBC (sorry, the only place I found it)
They woman was over the brink... Hands waving, hands punching -- hateful speech... she wasn't selling the bail-out package -- she kept repeating the 700 ---- HUNDRED-----BILLION.... and of course, who wants to say, I voted for 700 Billion.
Oh, and thanked Barney Franks for his leadership, knowledge, prudence and judgement!
#33
Problem -- now folks are saying she will bring back the bill, with all the hands-out ACRON, etc... and ram it through, on a majority rule by Dems ---
From Kudlow: As this scenario goes, the House Democrats need 218 votes, and they have to pick up a number of black and Hispanic House members who jumped ship because the Wall Street provisions, in their view, were too benign. So things like the bankruptcy judges setting mortgage terms and rates, the ACORN slush-fund spending, the union proxy for corporate boards, stricter limits on executive compensation, and much larger equity ownership of selling banks through warrants will all find itself back in the new bill. Of course, this scenario will lose more Republican votes. But insiders tell me President Bush will take Secretary PaulsonÂ’s advice and sign that kind of legislation.
#34
Right, which means 40% of the Dems voted against the bill! How is it possible that Pelosi did not know that she didn't have 40% of her own party onboard here?
It's simply not possible - Pelosi planned this one so she could blame the whole thing on the Republicans. Her level of hate is so extreme she's willing to dump the whole country into depression, socialize the economy, nationalize the banking system, and take the first steps towards Obamessiah's and the Speaker's socialist dictatorship.
#35
I seems that the SEC mark-to-mark accounting has resulted in companies being overvalued and consequently enabled these firms to borrow more money, i.e. leveraged their funds up.
It also seems like this rule is also undervaluing some companies and driving them into bankruptcy and a firesale. They can't attract investors because they are shaky about in investing in something on the way down and out. They either get sucked up by some other firm for nothing like what they are really worth or go out of business. Should make for some good investments if they don't go out of business. This rule doesn't seem to do anything right. If an investor buys today, you don't know what the heck you are getting for your money.
#36
Sherry, That assumes Pelosi can turn the 95 donks who voted against the measure to vote for a new pork laden version. I suspect these 95 voted against it because they know how much their constituents are against it and they don't want to have to justify a vote for it for the next five weeks of campaigning. These are conservative districts the donks took in 2006 by acting middle of the road to conservative. Getting them to change their votes isn't going to get any easier, especially if the way it is done is pork. I'm not sure San Fran Nan gets another vote, espcially as the market did not tank. Down 700 isn't great, but it's not tanking.
#37
Her level of hate is so extreme she's willing to dump the whole country into depression
I think we need to get a grip here. The failure of this handout bill isn't going to dump the country into depression. Bush is letting Paulson and Bernanke talk him into a hysterical frenzy. This is a new and different kind of financial panic that is similar to every other previous financial panic in one way - when those other panics occurred, they were new and different, too*.
* If they weren't new and different, the ingredients for those panics wouldn't have materialized. If there's one things humans do well, it's learn from history. This is why we're no longer subsisting on raw berries and roots and dressed mainly in animal skins like our ancestors. So why do we have financial panics? The difficulty with learning from financial history is that every panic is qualitatively different from the last. But they do have one other thing in common - none of them required $700b in taxpayer-funded handouts, and none of them led to the collapse of the republic.
#38
Her level of hate is so extreme she's willing to dump the whole country into depression
Just to be clear on the historical context, we have had financial panics every few decades since the founding of the republic. Like other financial panics, this panic is merely another instance of the unwinding of an asset bubble.
Good observation. But there are still a bunch of blue dog donks and dems with tight races that will not be swayed by the left-wing add ons. What also got the gall was the Senate playing scaredy cat and waiting until Wednesday to see how the chips fell in the House. Chicken shits all of them.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 16:17
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#40
Bush is letting Paulson and Bernanke talk him into a hysterical frenzy.
"W" needs to FIRE these two clowns today. Oil is GOING DOWN! Which means economic CORRECTION! It means the wealth transfer to foreigners is slowing! Let the market and the economy fix itself. Keep the government OUT OF IT!
#41
Those of you crowing that the bailout failed . . . what likely happens next is that Pelosi and company come back with a more left-wing version--the slush fund for ACORN, bankruptcy judges givenb the power to rewrite mortgage contracts, more government intrusion in the financial system--and it passes on a party line vote. You think the bill that failed was socialism? Wait'll you see this one!
If it gets through, the MSM then eagerly picks up on the meme that Bush got us into this mess and only the Dems are getting us out. Obama wins the election, has two Dem houses of congress to work with . . . well, do I need to keep going?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/29/2008 16:25
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#42
The market tanked (only)777 because the other World markets are closed(??). GWB wanted this passed today because tomorrow is the end of the quarter/month and tied to the Hedgefunds. I think the numbers might be worse tomorrow??
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
09/29/2008 16:25
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#43
hello!
zhang fei taught that whore a lesson by cutting off his dick.
That doesn't make any sense
So the theory is that she turns around, re-injects the ACORN and other pork into it and all the Dems pass it without the Republican votes???
WeÂ’re back where we were last week, when it wouldnÂ’t get passed because the Dems didnÂ’t want to take ownership of the bill.
So, the Dems will take ownership of a pork-laden bill that may or may not help "Save America"?
#45
Respectfully disagree Mike. When Paloosi and Franks get wrangled and nervous, we should all celebrate. Watch the price of crude oil. The stock market did not die today, it may well be stabilizing. Look at the bank ratings, Bank Implodeo-Meter, Bank Rate, etc. Bad banks (big city loaners) are tanking, as they should. Rural fly-over banks remain STRONG! The American people have spoken. They don't want any part of a bail out.
#46
McCain or Bush or any other prominent Republican could have tied this bail out around the Democrat's necks like an anchor and thrown them overboard. Plenty of prominent Democrats played a major part in precipitating this mess and in not cleaning it up three years ago. Instead the Republicans were mum. Pelosi and Franks and Obama et al could have kept their mouths shut and gotten a pass, but they didn't. Big mistake. The longer this goes on, the more people are going to find out who started this mess. And that is good.
#48
I seems that the SEC mark-to-mark accounting has resulted in companies being overvalued and consequently enabled these firms to borrow more money, i.e. leveraged their funds up.
It also seems like this rule is also undervaluing some companies and driving them into bankruptcy and a firesale. They can't attract investors because they are shaky about in investing in something on the way down and out. They either get sucked up by some other firm for nothing like what they are really worth or go out of business. Should make for some good investments if they don't go out of business. This rule doesn't seem to do anything right. If an investor buys today, you don't know what the heck you are getting for your money.
Actually this rule is fine. The whole point of the mark-to-market rule is to allow companies to lever up, via making bondholders (who lend them money) comfortable with the value of the assets on the companies' books.
What has happened is that the assets on those books - in many cases, mortgage-backed securities and other bonds or bond-like instruments guaranteed by bond insurance companies like Ambac, AIG, et al - have started having problems with coupon and principal repayments. These companies have started marking to fantasy in order to avoid financial collapse. Short sellers have driven the stocks of these companies down after pointing out that the so-called AAA-rated (i.e. highly-rated) assets on their books are really junk assets that may only be worth ten cents per dollar of face value. Bondholders (i.e. the creditors) in these financial institutions are taking note of the fact that short-sellers don't think everything is on the up-and-up. They are taking a closer look at the marked-to-fantasy portfolios and don't like what they see. Bond ratings companies like Moody's, Fitch and Standard and Poor's are starting to fess up that they had no idea what they were doing in providing AAA ratings to the assets on these financial institutions' books. The ratings companies are starting to change their ratings on those assets from AAA to junk in one leap. This is spooking the bondholders of those financial companies, and anyone who might be in line to buy those bonds. The upshot? These financial companies are having serious problems borrowing money for anything less than interest rates in the teens, which would put them out of business. And they're not able to raise significant sums of money via stock sales, because the market correctly values shares in those companies as worth nothing.
The moral of this isn't that mark-to-market is bad. In fact, without mark-to-market, bondholders at these financial institutions would probably get nothing back in a liquidation, as financial institutions continued losing money while reporting that they were making money. (The current situation is that they are getting something less than $1 back for every dollar of face value, but that's still better than nothing).
It's that financial institutions should know what they're buying before they buy them, and not merely rely on the crutch of the ratings agencies. Because of their huge leverage compared to non-finance companies, financial institutions need especially strong internal controls to make sure that the revenue generators are actually generating profitable revenues, rather than accounting entries that will have to be reversed in the future because of actual economic losses.
There's a whole laundry list of items (that I'm too tired to think up and enumerate) that companies need to do in order to avoid getting themselves into these fixes. The major problems with Paulson's handout program is that (a) it primes the surviving financial institutions to think that Joe Taxpayer will always come to the rescue and (b) it transfers cash from innocent taxpayers to the financial institutions that incautiously made these losing bets. Companies need to be careful with their investors' money. A financial panic is the market's way of teaching financial companies prudence. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the market. The fact is that markets go up AND down.
#49
The Congress has a lower approval rating than George Bush - by 11 points in the latest polling. It ain't getting higher because of this mess.
There's more than four weeks left in the election season, and yes, there's early voting, too.
If the Dems want to play political games by allowing this vote to be defeated so that they can lard up the "rescue" bill with ultra-lib pork, then they'll have run on their record. I such a bill is presented in the House, not a single Republican should vote for it. Let the Dems win on a party-line vote. Nancy and Steny WILL have to whip and win that one at any cost.
Take a deep breath. The sky is not falling, gas prices are.
#51
The longer this goes on, the more people are going to find out who started this mess. And that is good.
Amen and AMEN! And, the longer it goes on...tomorrow and the next, the more the American people are going to see market CORRECTION... without government (taxpayer) intevention! This thing is bigger than the United States, it is global. The OIL component is the key.
"APPRECIATE*AMERICA! The enemy from within is TWICE as dangerous as the one from without. REPORT ALL Un-American activities to your superior officer or director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. DO YOUR SHARE"
The bailout failed because of pure political cowardice. I used the Rothenberg Political Report to find the House incumbents who are in tough races (i.e. ones they could lose). There were 44 House members listed — 20 Democrats and 24 Republicans. Of those 44, only eight voted for the bill.
#53
It drives me nuts that Dems like Frank and Dodd are not being run out of town on a rail covered in tar and feathers. I was listening to the 2004 hearings with the head of the group responsible for oversight of fannie/ freddie. It was all dem cover. Maxine Water (spit) was lauding Frank Raines, and saying everything was on track with new desktop loans and 100% loans. They should all go to jail.
Rich Lowry had dictated the party line at the National Review on this handout. The fact is that no porked up handout bill could pass over Bush's veto. As he did with the amnesty bill, though, Bush will support this misbegotten handout bill over conservative resistance. But that's good - Democrats in conservative districts are going to have serious problems. A smaller Democratic majority in Congress combined with an Obama presidency might actually be superior to having a bigger Democratic majority and McCain as president.
#59
you know, it seems to me that there's a hole in our constitutional balance of powers that needs addressing...oversight of Congress. The evil deeds of the executive branch are grist for congressional hearings but what venue keeps the legislative branch in line? Federal/Supreme courts rule on the constiutionality of laws but not Congress's actual behavior. Perhaps a standing independent counsel (consul?, tribune?) appointed by the Supreme Court with powers to investigate Congressional activity with Supreme court approved recommendations going to Justice Dept for any criminal charges that need to be laid.
Start with the history and genesis of the meltdown. Include as appetizers the the quid pro quos that Stevens, Young and Murtha have been getting for ear marks. Willy "the Fridge" Jefferson, next. OK, so maybe we'll need a few extra tribunes to start.........
#62
I'm against the bailout. Yes, lots of people are going to be hurt by not doing it. That has to be counterbalanced against the tremendous number who will be hurt by the debasing of the U.S. currency. It sucks that we're here, but we are. Now we have to deal with the way things are, not how we wish they were. No bailout, pay the piper for the excesses, and keep the currency sound.
#64
How will this play out? The dems, and in particular Pelosi, will be seen as the cause. John McCain will, in a day or so, come up with an alternative bill that will pass.
He will be seen as the candidate that solved this mess, and will win the election as a result.
And historians will scratch their heads in the future, wondering if George Bush had planned it all, to ensure a Republican returned to the White House.
And the left will say "Nah. Bush is stupid.... isn't he?"
#66
If you print additional money to replace money that's been destroyed, is it really more money?
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/29/2008 18:32
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#67
A smaller Democratic majority in Congress combined with an Obama presidency might actually be superior to having a bigger Democratic majority and McCain as president.
That is, until Iranian nukes start wiping out american cities.
#68
That is, until Iranian nukes start wiping out american cities.
The bozos on the other side talk a good game. But the fact is that the Ayatollah Khomeini ended a war with Iraq that Iran did not start because he was afraid of mere defeat, never mind nuclear incineration (which is what we would deliver upon them if they actually tried to nuke American cities). These people are using a facade of religious faith to amass power by fooling the credulous into supporting them. Uncle Sam went into Iraq on the mere suspicion that they were connected with 9/11 in some way. They *know* that we will kill them dead if they mess around with nukes on American soil.
Note that they have had decades to conduct terrorist attacks against Americans on US soil. Timothy McVeigh showed it just isn't such a big deal to organize a terrorist attack that kills hundreds of people. But since we shot down their passenger airliner in the Persian Gulf in the 80's, Iranian proxies have conducted a single attack - on Dhahran in Saudi Arabia against an American military target. Iran's leaders have geopolitical ambitions, rather than religious ones - watch what they do, not what they say.
#69
Should this economic "crisis" push the price of oil downward significantly, then perhaps we will see the Iranians pulls some shenanigans that give the impression they are less than stable. Think of a tanker hitting a mine or some Iranian speedboats making more threatening moves at a US Navy vessel.
#71
Doesn't low oil prices hurt the Russian economy, too?? If ME goes unstable, disrupt production/ world deliveries raise them again?? Didn't Chavez just visit Russia??
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
09/29/2008 19:38
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#72
at loudobbs.com
Do you believe today's Congressional vote against the Wall Street bailout is a victory for the American people and a rejection of the attempted extortion by corporate and political elites?
Yes 75% 5177
No 25% 1689
#73
These guys can milk self-generated crises all they want. The fact is that when the oil price hit the unsustainable level of $38 in 1981, the world economy came to a shuddering halt. That price level in today's dollars is about $65. Even without the financial crisis we face, oil was set for a crash. When you factor in the financial crisis, I think the Iranians are due for some lean years ahead, exacerbated by the artificial crises they generated to push up oil prices.
#74
Zhang Fei, Don't get me wrong. I think the bailout bill is a terrible idea. My surprise and disgust is that Pelosi and company didn't know that 40% of their membership wasn't going to vote with them so it's all the Republicans fault.
They're going to come back with something that will be far, far worse IMO.
I just can't believe they didn't take a poll of their own membership and knew what was going to happen beforehand so they could blame it all on the Republicans.
#76
FOTSGreg---Pelosi and Co did not do their homework. They suffered from hubris, big time. She, in her isolated position, assumed that the Dem rank and file would line up like good little ants. What she did not count on was the absolute outrage of the district constituents, emailing and ringing the phones off the hook of their representatives. She has lost a lot of value in her holdings, esp with AIG, and that contributed to the wigging out at the end for 16 minutes. As the Russians say, tough schitskis.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/29/2008 20:17
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#77
Like her pension won't be enough to live on...
#79
Alaska Paul, Pelosi and Co did not do their homework
Or maybe they did. They may well come back with the old larded-up version next time. Today's vote may have merely been a political maneuver. The liberal bill would not have passed today - but Thursday it probably would, and Bush would have to sign it.
#80
The whole point of mark to market rules is to make the company's solvency
Agree Zhang Fei... up to a point, but it can clog up the system , due to different business cycles.
I see Newt has come out with a plan for ridding the market of this accounting rule.
THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland is to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the planned $700 billion bail-out that comes courtesy of the American tax-payer if the US Congress gives the financial rescue package the go-ahead this weekend.
The bank's share of the bail-out will enable RBS to offload billions of dollars of questionable assets.
The bank's shares closed last Friday at 205p, a 71% fall from their pre-credit-crunch peak. However, analysts and investors predict that the shares will rebound sharply when markets open on Monday morning if the bail-out is approved over the weekend.
The Edinburgh-based bank will be able to write off a significant portion of its dodgy assets thanks to the bail-out, also known as into Tarp, the Troubled Asset Relief Programme as a result of the bank's significant presence in the US. Tarp was the brainchild of US treasury secretary Hank Paulson, who earlier this week got down on his knees and begged Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, to rescue his plan to save Wall Street.
The Royal Bank, led by chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, has had operations in the United States since 1988, when it bought the Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank. It has since bulked up its presence there with a string of acquisitions including those of Connecticut based Greenwich NatWest and Ohio-based Charter One. This entitles the Scottish bank to entrust billions of dollars of non-performing loans and sub-prime tainted assets to US taxpayers, according to Colin McLean, chief executive of Edinburgh-based SVM Asset Management.
He could not quantify the exact amount of dodgy assets that RBS can offload but said it could amount to "billions". In total, RBS has outstanding loans of $1.5 trillion.
#1
Banking is the most global of all financial sector businesses. A lot of the mortgage backed securities that are illiquid (now) are owned by foreign banks who believe the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac fairy tale. Plus RBS put Jack Nicklaus on a 5# note - that's pretty damn red white and blue for me.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:36
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#2
Is there a reason why the Bank of England can't bail them out?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/29/2008 13:41
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#3
England needs to save all its money to pass out as welfare payments to its Fifth Columnists, Steve.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:46
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#4
Not to mention the monthly payments when they finally outsource the Royal Navy.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:15
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#2
She is a huge Bing Crosby-look alike dyke with 3 children. No wonder she hates someone like Palin who looks good in swim suit, Barbour or snowmobile suit.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:24
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#3
Hey, Jack - no dissin' der Bingle! >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:44
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#5
Reading stuff like that makes me wonder how co-existence with such people is possible within the same country. Makes me think there will be civil war some day. OK forget I said that. I need to chill.
#7
"Reading stuff like that makes me wonder how co-existence with such people is possible within the same country. Makes me think there will be civil war some day. OK forget I said that. I need to chill."
-On second thought, I don't think that's as absurd as you might think.
The very thing that appalls us about Sarah Palin -- her discomfort in the realm of reason
The Girondists took that tack to the extreme with a ferocious persecution of the Catholic Church. The cathedral of Notre Dame was gutted and converted into the "Temple of Reason". And the guillotines were kept very, very busy.
She has not learned to imagine how profoundly ludicrous it seems to the rest of us that physical proximity would constitute intellectual understanding.
This video on youtube pretty much sums up the Democrats part in the mess - including Barney Frank, Chris Dodd (receiver of the most contributions from Freddie and Frannie Mac), and Barak Obama (who sued citybank to _FORCE_ them to make subprime mortgages). As well as Bush'es and McCain's attempts to regulate it (blocked by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd).
Fred, have Ethel ready with your pills before you watch it. Spread it far and wide.
Russia is outraged that Poland and the Czech Republic request reciprocal inspections of defense installations.
Moscow is proposing a European summit to discuss a collective security system. It is also accusing Prague and Warsaw of 'lack of fundamental logic', as Czech Republic and Poland don't want Russian officers in the planned US missile defence bases in their territory.
According to Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, speaking at the UN session Saturday, the 'existing architecture of security in Europe did not pass the strength test in recent events", that is, during the Georgian crisis. Mr Lavrov thus repeated the words of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said the same following the Georgian war.
Mr Medvedev said then that in dialoguing with Moscow, its Western partners should take into account that Russia has its 'zone of privileged interests', including, his wording suggested, the former Soviet republics.
One of the key themes of the Moscow-proposed security summit would be the US missile defence installations in Europe.
Meanwhile, the Russian foreign Ministry sharply criticised Prague and Warsaw yesterday for their position on Russian officers' proposed presence in the missile and radar bases the US wants to site in Poland and the Czech Republic. The statement was issued in response to a recent Associated Press report from Prague, according to which Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Pojar and Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Przemysław Grudziński said their countries could agree to Russian inspections at the bases only on a reciprocal basis.
Then the idea, because of the West, started changing and, as the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement reads, 'evolved into degenerate forms'. The most recent development in this evolution are, according to Moscow, Poland and Czech Republic's demands for their officers to be allowed to inspect Russian missile launch sites or military bases in the Kaliningrad enclave. Such demands, the statement says, reflect a 'lack of fundamental logic' and show that Poland and Czech Republic 'do not need' any dialogue with Russia.
#2
TOPIX > RUSSIA: US-DOMINATED UNIPOLAR WORLD IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE; + MEDVEDEV: RUSSIAN NAVY WILL GET NEW SUBS WITH CRUISE MISSLES.
As argued or inferred times before, iff the RUSS = RUSS NAVY, + VLADVEDEV, wish to offset US GMD, one way is to employ VARIOUSLY ARMED ARSENAL/FIRE SHIPS [Mother Ships] among other in select areas off the US Coasts, AS PART OF BATTLESPACE TASK GROUPS-FORCES. These vessels could be armed wid TLCMS, MRV Ballistic Missles, Armed UVS, even Armed DIRIGIBLES.
RUSS ANNEXATION OF ITS ARCTIC CLAIMS > Russ can build both LAND MISSLE BASES + OFFSHORE MISSLE/ARSENAL STATIONS [Oil platform = WW2 SEA FORTS]. GOOD FOR SCARING THE CANUCKS = MACKENZIE BROTHERS, + INDUCING ALLEGED FINANCIALLY TRUBLED WASHINGTON DC TO SPEND $$$ IT DOESN'T HAVE???
September 29, 2008: The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have been fighting a large, and losing, battle against the army in the Pakistani region of Bajaur (right on the Afghan border). The fighting has been going on for a month now, and the terrorists have lost about a thousand dead, while the army has lost only 27 dead. The large disparity in losses is largely due to the Pakistani use of air power (bombers and helicopters) and artillery. The army controls the roads, forcing the Taliban to concentrate their forces, to avoid getting taken apart by road (and helicopter) mobile Pakistani infantry.
The fighting began when the Taliban, who had always been dominant in Bajaur, sought to take over completely and drive government officials out. The army responded with over 10,000 troops, and more following, and went after the towns, villages and walled compounds known to be bases for the enemy. The Taliban did not expect the army to respond so energetically. But the Taliban had prepared ambushes along the roads (by renting houses, and digging tunnels and bunkers next to them for shelter from artillery and bombs). In response, the army detected these preparations (with air reconnaissance, patrols and local informants), and avoided, or destroyed, these positions.
The situation has become so dire that the Bajaur Taliban has called for reinforcements from other Taliban groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since most of the Pakistani Taliban are tribe based, not a lot of Taliban tribesmen have been showing up. But the al Qaeda forces (which are mostly Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and other foreigners) did arrive in large numbers. Al Qaeda gunmen were not immune to the army firepower, and four of the five known leaders killed, and identified, were foreign al Qaeda men.
The army believes that it will have destroyed the Taliban in Bajaur by the end of the year. The army has openly vowed to win in Bajaur, and keep their own casualties down while doing it. Pakistani soldiers have noted the ability of foreign and Afghan troops to do the same in Afghanistan, and wanted to operate the same way. This is in contrast to the way things usually work. For centuries, the Pushtun tribes have had the edge in their own mountains and valleys, and soldiers from the outside had a hard time of it. The Pakistani army is determined to show that times have changed, and that the tribes are no longer supreme in their own territory. In the past, the one tactic that worked against the Pushtun tribes was mass murder. That's how the Mongols pacified the region, but such wholesale destruction of villages and civilians is no longer acceptable. However, the U.S. tactics of scouting and long range fire power does work, even when the armed tribesmen take cover among civilians (who now do all they can to flee when they see the fighting headed their way.)
#2
I like seeing the phase "dire for the Taliban" - more, more, more, please.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:17
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#3
If the lowlanders finally figure out that they can win (and are tired of the a##hole highlanders) perhaps they can use this to get their own country under control.
#4
Everything is interconnected. Musharaff had to leave office for this to happen. NATO had to push as many Taliban and al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan into this region as they could, then form an anvil for the Pak army to be the hammer.
The real story was the combined OPSEC and PSYOPS. I imagine that a lot of less trusted Pak army leaders are in the rear area, counting and sorting 55 gallon drums full of buttons.
#6
In addition to the bailout news, I needed some additional good news today. Maybe Pakis will save their country from being taken over by militants and terrorists.
#7
It is starting to look like there was coordination between us in Afghan territory and the Pak army coming from the south for a delicious Talibani squeeze. Put a little gin in it or bourbon and lean back and enjoy.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/29/2008 16:33
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#8
Contrary to clear evidence this Revolting but much loved MEME is an MSM's Fav!
Back not to long after 9/11 we evicted the Talibs from most of Northern A-stan in a few days..
Now it's a FACT that the Pashtun tribals switch sides twice a day depending on the weather and the latest rumours, that said since 9/11 everything and everybody they have thrown at the Coalition has been turned into recycled waste for compost piles..
BUT, The MSM will never let loose of this MEME ever..
*****
Approved MSM Slime-Bag Journalists VOICES.
Two Leftest Gurus:
1) Code Pink Shrew:
Preachy hysterical high pitched voice..
MEME:
"Historically No Western Army has ever defeated the tribals in A-stan. George Bush is Doomed in Afghanistan and so is his SS ARMY!"
2) Leftest Hermaphrodite:
A self appointed know it all who speaks in a contemptuous Super Snotty Nasal Tone.
MEME:
"American Troop Can't win because No one has ever defeated the best irregular Pashtun Armies EVER in Afghanistan!"
/Hey I will never let loose of the treasonous MSM.
#9
But the Taliban had prepared ambushes along the roads (by renting houses, and digging tunnels and bunkers next to them for shelter from artillery and bombs).
In response, the [PAK] Army detected these preparations (with air reconnaissance, patrols and local informants), and avoided, or destroyed, these positions.
*************
similar to MacArthur's Pacific Island Campaign...
#11
...even when the armed tribesmen take cover among civilians (who now do all they can to flee when they see the fighting headed their way.)
looks like the pak army doesn't care about collateral damage, and in the end it is reducing both the number of civilians involved and the length of the fight.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
09/29/2008 21:40
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Ramadan Tales of Woe, live from the Gaza Strip...
Gaza -- Ma'an report - As Ramadan comes to a close and the final celebration of Eid Al-Fitr approaches, Muslims in Gaza are flooding into markets to buy what food and small gifts they can find and afford. They should go to the place where Blair's sister in law did her shopping. Looks like they had tons of shit. Snickers anyways...
The goods they find, however, have mostly been smuggled in through the network of tunnels that run beneath the Egypt-Gaza border. The events of Ramadan and of Eid in particular reflect the crisis brought on by the underground market and the tunnels that fuel them. So how come you waited to the last minute, Abu?
Awwww, you know...since the truce, we've been really busy at the metal shop...
The goods, however, have so far this year cost 45 Palestinians their lives, having been crushed or suffocated by the debris and gas in the underground tunnels. Families of these victims have called for the opening of the Rafah crossing so goods do not have to cost lives. Despite the high wages tunnel workers can bring home, families of the dead tunnel workers say that it is better to get the goods legitimately, and put an end to the underground trade. He told me, "Ma, don't kill the job". Shows what he knew, wise guy.
Informed sources in Gaza's security services have told Ma'an that the government plans to charge tunnel operators 40 thousand Jordanian dinars per worker that they send through the tunnels. This amount is in case of death, and will be handed over to the family of the deceased as a sort of social security. Suuuure. It's...ummmmmmmmm...for the guys. Yessirree...
That operators are willing to pay this "tax" on the life of their laborers indicates how lucrative the business is, especially given the high price of goods on the black market. Moreover, since shop owners can claim anything as smuggled in, prices can go up on any goods at any time, with the justification that they were smuggled in. So look for the smugglers label. It tells you this is an official product of the Gaza Tunnel Authority. You'll feel better paying through the nose for it.
A spokesperson for the families of tunnel victims said that Gazan youth go looking for jobs in the tunnels, since there are no other opportunities available in Gaza. "Thousands of youth," he said "have daily shifts in the tunnels" and added that 90% of those who died perished in accidents caused by Egyptian authorities trying to put a stop to the tunnel industry. Anybody in there?
Nope.
Okay. BOOM...
"Recently," he added, "Egyptian police have even entered the tunnels to arrest people." You're under arrest, tunnel boy.
Come and get me coppers!
Nah. BOOM...
All along the Gaza-Rafah border hundreds of tunnels, some barely a hundred meters apart, stretch beneath the "no man's land" separating Gaza from Egypt. The employees take home upwards of 300 US dollars per month, though the merchants are the real benefactors. Nooooo I ain't gonna work in Mahmoud's tunnel no more...
The black market industry fueled by goods arriving through illegal tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border has been working overtime to fill markets with hard to find goods. Since goods have been brought in by smugglers and taxed to boot, prices are high and unemployed and poor Gazans cannot afford the goods. Hey, Mo didn't have no cheap Egyptian motorcycle, so suck it up.
Gazan mothers traditionally head to markets and shop for new clothing for children before the Eid celebrations, this year they have come home empty handed. Umm Ramez commented, "people have paid their lives for bringing goods in through the tunnels, and the cost goes right to the citizens." Hamas becomes the middleman and passes the graft onto you...
Abu Jamal, who is the bread winner of a family of five said "what drives my wife crazy is the high price of children's clothing these days. Every day she tries to buy what she needs but returns empty handed because of the high prices." He suggested that the government should begin monitoring prices, saying that local traders and merchants were gouging the people because they had no other options or places to purchase their holiday goods. So then we go to the UNRWA and get it for nothing.
Some Gazans say prices have changed from one day to the next. One woman related her experience of shopping for a winter jacket for her children. She had a little money to spend and so visited one of the "elegant" Gaza shops and asked about the price of a jacket she had her eyes on. She found the price too much, but went back the next day to ask again and perhaps bargain with the owner. When she asked the price it had doubled, and again she walked out empty handed. She also suggested that prices be monitored. They are monitoring them. How else would they know how much they can shake them down for?
#1
"A spokesperson for the families of tunnel victims said that Gazan youth go looking for jobs in the tunnels, since there are no other opportunities available in Gaza."
There used to be greenhouses there that folks could work in if i remember correctly, but they got kinda, sorta, broken-like....
TFB, idiots.
Citigroup has agreed to buy Wachovia bank in a deal backstopped by taxpayers and brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to avoid another major corporate failure in the midst of the ongoing financial crisis.
Citigroup will pay the Charlotte-based Wachovia about $2.16 billion, or $1 per share, for its banking operations. Wachovia will retain its wealth management and brokerage operations.
Hey! Thay can't do that!! RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants battling Pakistani forces are getting weapons and reinforcements from Afghanistan, security officials said on Monday, vowing no let-up in their offensive in the northwest.
Government forces launched an offensive in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border in August after years of complaints from U.S. and Afghan officials that Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan were getting help from Pakistani border areas such as Bajaur.
Now the tables have turned and the militants locked in heavy fighting with Pakistani forces are getting help from the Afghan side of the border, officials said. "The Pakistan-Afghan border is porous and is now causing trouble for us in Bajaur," a senior security source in the military told a news briefing."Now movement is taking place to Pakistan from Afghanistan," said the official, who along with a colleague at the briefing, declined to be identified.
The officials did not blame the Afghan government for sending militants across the border but called on Kabul and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan forces to stop the flow.
Bajaur is the smallest of Pakistan's seven so-called tribal agencies, semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions.
U.S. officials say Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters, financed by drug money, use the tribal regions as an operating base to launch attacks into Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been under pressure from the United States to block cross-border militant incursions into Afghanistan.
But in a sign of growing frustration with Pakistan's efforts to stem the flow, U.S. forces have carried out six cross-border missile strikes by pilotless drones and a commando raid on a border village this month.
The Pakistani offensive had made Bajaur a "center of gravity" and "magnet," and even though up to 1,000 had been killed, the region was drawing militants from as far as Central Asia via Afghanistan, the officials said. "Stop the reverse flow in Bajaur. It's coming. Heavy weapons are coming. The militants are coming ... they are crossing into our territory," a second Pakistani official said. Sucks, don't it?
#2
Gee, that porous border is now a liability to the governments on both sides. What will they do? Or not do?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2008 10:37
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#3
The Pakistani claims are doubtful and just self serving. After downplaying the militant threat and ignoring (supporting?) it for years now they have to explain the militants strength and armnament.
Rather than admit that the militants were there all along, and growing stronger, they claim that it is from Afghanistan.
#4
I thought that it was just the terrorists demonstrating osmosis, flow from the higher concentration to the lower concentration.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/29/2008 11:01
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#5
I think they are running home to mama. There were always large bases of support and men in Pakistan, but the fighters are getting their butts kicked in Afghanistan and are coming home.
#10
Do NOT confuse the US State Department in any way with "courage" or "strength". State has been a bad dream ever since the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/29/2008 13:42
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#11
DOS has been a hot bed of lefties and Trotskyites for as long as Karl Marx's rags have been in print....maybe even back to Hegel.
They really need to just fire everyone down in Foggy Bottom and start over.
Actually I think there are more moles at DOS than there are at the CIA.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/29/2008 13:46
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#12
NATO and the Pak army have probably gone to great lengths to make this happen. Having your enemy reinforcing a bad defeat is an optimal situation for you. It won't turn the situation around for the enemy, but will make them expend resources at a huge rate.
It turns losing a battle into losing a war. The Pak army gets to slaughter them, then the losers run headlong into NATO in a disarrayed retreat.
#13
If Taliban are coming over from Afghanistan, they are merely protecting their ammo dumps and supply lines, which are in Pakistan. Can't fight without weapons or bullets, which don't grow on trees, and certainly originate in Pakistan.
#14
BO in all his naivete said he will go into Pakistan in one of his speeches. Does he realize that Pakistan is a country of 180,000 people? The population of Nazi Germany was about 80 million in 1939. The last thing we want to do is get bogged down in a land war in Pakistan. There are better ways to address the problems in Pakiland. McCain needs to lay this out.
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has claimed responsibility in a video message for an August ambush that killed 10 French soldiers, an Afghan news agency reported Monday, saying it had seen the footage. In the video statement, Hekmatyar also said he lost 10 men in the battle in Sarobi, the independent Pajhwok Afghan News agency reported.
The insurgent Taliban movement, which has unclear links with Hekmatyar's faction, has also claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest for the French military in 25 years. Pajhwok told AFP the video was delivered to its office in Peshawar in Pakistan on Sunday.
In it, the leader of the Hezb-i-Islami faction names nine of his party members killed in the fighting and expresses condolences to their families, the news agency said. He warns of "more guerrilla assaults on US forces besides the French soldiers," the agency said in a report on its website.
The mountain ambush in Sarobi, east of Kabul, was the deadliest ground attack on international troops since they were sent to Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the hardline Taliban regime. The attack, in which 21 troops were also wounded, shocked France and sparked debate about the country's involvement in war-torn Afghanistan. But France announced last week it would beef up its mission in Afghanistan with helicopters, drones and other military means.
French officers have said the ambushed soldiers were confronted by about 170 heavily armed rebels who were better organised than usual. They said they killed between 40 and 70 enemy fighters, but acknowledged they only recovered one body from the battlefield as they withdrew under the cover of darkness.
The Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001, had immediately claimed the attack. However, the extremists generally operate in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, while the areas around Kabul and in northeastern Afghanistan are said to be the domain of Hekmatyar. The Taliban had previously rejected working with Hekmatyar's faction, but analysts have suggested they could be involved in some joint activities.
Hekmatyar, who served as prime minister briefly during the 1996 to 2001 civil war, is known as one of the most radical warlords in Afghanistan. The United States has offered a multi-million-dollar reward for his capture.
#1
Ah, the old "good, good" concession. He lost 10 the frogs lost ten. Even steven. Next hole.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:19
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#2
Hek looks as dorky as ever, claiming credit for something he may or may not have been involved into, and letting slip that his side lost 10 (or only so he admits) fighters... in a pre-planned ambush involving a big number superiority, while the ambushees lost 9 (remember, the 10th was killed when a wheeled APC overturned on the way back, long after combat ended).
Belgium may be best known for fine shotguns, rich chocolate and tasty waffles, but for you and me, this quaint little country is the home of the world's finest major-caliber battle rifle, the FN-FAL. Renowned throughout the world for its rugged reliability, the FAL was manufactured in 10 countries in its heyday and issued to over 70 armies, not to mention various irregulars and mercenaries.
In fact it was the FAL's calling card as the weapon of mercs that gained it the most notoriety.
Col. "Mad" Mike Hoare, an Irish-born World War II veteran who immigrated to South Africa and went on to become one of the Dark Continent's most celebrated mercenaries, unwittingly did more to promote the legend of the FAL as the merc's gun-of-choice when he led a daring hostage rescue mission into the Belgian Congo in 1964 and freed a group of Americans and Belgians. In the days following the raid, Mad Mike's men held off the rebels long enough to evacuate over 1,800 European and American civilians.
If the FAL, the "Fusil Automatique Legere," was not famous before, it would be now.
The FAL is a .308 Win. (7.62 x 51mm) gas-operated, short-stroke piston system available in semiautomatic and automatic versions. The FAL's standard payload is a 20-round detachable box magazine; 30-round magazines were also made for a squad automatic version of the FAL, but they're not desirable due to their length and "spring issues" with the elongated box. Balance at the link. As an aside. Original testing for the replacement of the M14 was conducted by the Special Forces weapons committee at Fort Bragg in the late 1950's, early 60's. The FN and the 7.62mm round won the competition. Colt AR-15/M-16 was howevere selected ultimated selected by DoD and the US Army.
#1
Sorry about the shoddy grammar. Should read "AR-15/M-16 was ultimately selected." Of everything I have lost over the years, I do miss my mind the most.
#2
Its a smooth shooting gun, never jams, with a handy fold down carry handle, but its heavy, real heavy compared to an AR-15. I'd say it would get real heavy with 6 or 8, 30-round mags added to it.
#5
My big gripe with the M-16 was that it often took more than one hit to knock down a bad guy. Now, in Iraq, it seems to take a bunch of hits to knock down a guy in a flak vest (and the bad guys have them).
The M-14 and other NATO .308 weapons hit hard enough that even if it doesn't kill the guy, it knocks them down. And knocking them down is the key, once a guy is down he can't shoot while he is trying to get up.
In places like Iraq and Western Asia, the FAL or M-14 make more sense than the M-16. This stuff about the weight of ammo is bunch because you are more often in a mech unit and have a Bradley or LAV full of ammo to back you up. In a jungle TO, with reduced ability to resupply and you have to carry everything you shoot, a lighter weapon makes sense.
Also the .308 is an accuracy weapon that places more emphasis on marksmanship while the AK-47 short and the M-16 are more "spray and pray" weapons.
I originally qualified on the M-1 and we were expected to hit targets at 300m with iron sights, when I was training kids on the M-16, we never popped up a silouette at distances beyond 100m. I have always been a fan of weapons that have some punch, especially after shooting my way out of a sapper attack with a M1911 colt.
If you read enough anecdotal info on the .50 sniper rifle in Iraq, you realize that being able to reach out and touch someone at distance can reduce casualties. If you can whack a guy at 250m when he can't hit you back, it gives you a tactical and psychological advantage.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/29/2008 13:40
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#6
"Shortly after the Second Boer War (1899–1902)(*), a discussion was begun in an unnamed officer's club about the best infantry weapon. Within the week, the discussion had grown to include the nearby NCO club. The discussion has spread to encompass virtually every military forum since, unabated and unresolved.
(*) Some believe the discussion began shortly after the battle of Actium, (September 2nd, 31 BC)."
-- Anonymous
A group of European tourists and their Egyptian guides who were kidnapped by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago have been freed unharmed and half the kidnappers killed, officials said on Monday. "The hostages have been freed and are in good health. They are being brought to Cairo airport," Egyptian state television quoted an official as saying. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. The kidnappers -- whose identities remain unknown -- had demanded a ransom but the television quoted an official as saying no money had been paid. Egypt's Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said that "half of the kidnappers were eliminated," the official MENA news agency reported.
The 19 hostages -- five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian drivers and tour guides -- were snatched while on a safari in a lawless area of Egypt's southwestern desert on September 19. Their release came after an Egyptian security official said kidnappers had agreed to let their captives go in return for a ransom, in a deal hammered out before Sudanese troops killed six hostage-takers in a shootout on Sunday. "The problem was solved. They had agreed to the ransom. It was merely a matter of receiving the hostages, but then this surprise happened," the official told AFP, referring to the shooting.
Sudanese forces killed six of the bandits and arrested two after spotting them in the Sudan-Egypt-Libya border area. A Sudanese official told AFP the bandits had moved the hostages to a hideout in Chad. A Sudan army spokesman said his forces were not involved in the release. "We had nothing to do with the hostages, we were only dealing with the kidnappers who have been killed," Al-Sawarmi al-Islam Khaled told AFP.
The kidnappers had demanded that Germany take charge of payment of a six-million-euro (8.8-million-dollar) ransom to be handed over to the German wife of the tour organiser, one of those snatched. Egypt's independent Al-Masry Al-Yom newspaper had quoted a German negotiator as saying the release had been delayed because the kidnappers were seeking assurances they would not be arrested. The negotiator added that the bandits had said they would release five women after payment of the ransom and hold on to the rest until they secured an escape route, the paper said.
After their kidnap, the group was first moved across the border to Sudan to the remote mountain region of Jebel Uweinat, a plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan, before the bandits took them into Chad, according to Sudanese officials. Sudan says the kidnappers belong to a splinter Darfur rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity). An SLA-Unity spokesman denied his group's involvement, but warned that the hostages might be harmed if force were used against the bandits.
#1
Hostages freed unharmed, no ransom paid, and half the kidnappers killed....while I would like to believe this story, I have my doubts. Seems more likely that if there were kidnappers killed it was over how the ransom was to be split up.
I have been saying for several days the bailout was the worst of bad ideas and now we know Treasury won't even abide by taxpayer concerns.
We are sooo screwed.
1. The tranching is a mere formality, and the Treasury boys as much as said so. They could take the $700 billion max as soon as the bill has passed,
2. However, they do not plan any action immediately, will wait a couple of weeks. They want to focus their efforts on stronger companies but also made noise about protecting the financial system. This, by the way, is the Japanese convoy system all over.
#1
Like I said, there is a reason Paulson is trying to ram this handout bill through in the shortest time possible - once this monstrous turd has been sitting awhile, and its implications sliced and diced, its stink will be so pervasive that no Congresscritter will own up to having supported it verbally, let alone vote for it.
Iran is a problem from hell. The next US president, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, is going to have plenty to worry about: the Wall Street financial crisis, the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan's internal crisis, the relentless military build-up of China and the temptation it will soon have of trying to retake Taiwan militarily. But you can be sure of this. At some stage during the next presidency, Iran will blow up into a full-scale crisis that will dominate global politics and that may indeed be more important even than the other problems listed above.
The new president will have one modestly useful extra resource, a bipartisan report commissioned by two former US senators and written primarily by Middle East expert Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. The Weekend Australian has obtained a copy of the report, to be released later this week. Before I got the report, I had a long discussion with Rubin. Rubin is a Republican, but the report he wrote was the consensus work of a bipartisan taskforce that includes Dennis Ross, Obama's key Middle East adviser.
The report is sobering and in some ways shocking reading. It begins baldly: "A nuclear weapons capable Islamic Republic of Iran is strategically untenable." It points to the disastrous consequences of an Iran with nuclear weapons: "Iran's nuclear development may pose the most significant strategic threat to the US during the next administration.
Continued on Page 49
#1
I disagree. Because of the preparedness of George W. Bush, much of the worst of the Iranian threat has been, if not neutralized, then strongly ameliorated.
He has done everything within his power to insure that our allies and our military have the best available defenses against Iranian missiles, and that the next Republican president will be fully able to decisively crush Iranian militarism and nuclear weapons/offensive missile capability with an unmatched ferocity.
The creation of any number of innovative technologies to create a layered missile defense was an extraordinary achievement, and only with unwavering white house support were operational systems able to be developed, tested and deployed in time to achieve this.
In the face, I will add, of persistent Democrat attempts to stop it at several levels.
#3
See also FREEREPUBLIC > IRAN'S NEW SPACE BOOSTER MAY HAVE ICBM CAPABILITY; + WND > NEW AL QAEDA THREAT: THERMOBARIC BOMBS [Crude, Off-the-Shelf, + has power of a small Nuke], + SAME > OP-ED > BIBLE PROPHECIES = ISRAEL ATTACKS DAMASCUS, RUSSIA INVADES. ME Events predicted or inferred by various differens Biblical Prophets appear to be occurring/manifesting, and in quick real-time "Ripple/Domino" fashion???
#4
NOT JUST NUCLEAR IRAN,ALBEIT 'TIS A BIGGIE/BENCHMARK, BUT ALSO NUCLEAR ISLAMISM-RADICALISM-MILITANCY-ANARCHISM-TERRORISM ......@!
STATES + GROUPS-NETWORKS.
As the broad "Third Arm/Branch" of GLOBAL MONOTHEISM, the Islamist Jihad will fail to validate nor stop the natural implosion of ISLAM = ISLAMISM [anti-Reform]WIDOUT NUCLEAR PARITY-SUPERIORITY VV NON-ISLAMIC WORLD + MIL POWERS.
* "ATTACKING WHERE THE US = US-ALLIES/NATO-EU ARE NOT" > AS LONG AS THE POST-DUBYA USA LIMITS ITSELF = BULK OF INTERNATIONAL MILOPS + COMMITMENTS TO IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN, IRAN + ISLAMIST MILITANTS-TERRS + ALIGNED BELIEVE THEY WILL GET THEIR NUKES = SAVE + REJUVENATE THEIR JIHAD.
E.g. POTUS OBAMA > WILL PAKISTAN ALLY + HISTORICALLY ANTI-WESTERN CHINA TOLERATE A US-ALLIED/NATO MILFOR PRESENCE IN PAKISTAN OR EVEN INDIA, ETC.???
MANY CHIN NETTERS > SUPPOR UNILATER CHIN MIL INTERVENTION IN PAKISTAN, ETC IFF THE US ATTACKS AND INVADES SAME!
AT least six people were killed today in a blast targeting a military bus on the outskirts of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, a security official said. "We have at least six people killed, three of them soldiers," the official said. "We have about 12 other people injured."
He said the bomb went off in the Bahsas region as the mini-bus heading towards the capital Beirut drove by. There were about 24 passengers on board. Police and the army immediately cordoned off the area as forensic experts began gathering evidence.
#1
America waits with bated breath while Washington struggles to bring the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster. But many of those same politicians caused the crisis, and if left to their own devices will do so again.
Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others. David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.
Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.
But even this doesn't fully describe the extreme nature of this candidate. He can be tied directly to a malevolent overarching strategy that has motivated many, if not all, of the most destructive radical leftist organizations in the United States since the 1960s.
#2
First we had Hurricane Katrina and Nagin's total inability to respond to the aftermath and now we have a financial Katrina according to the donks. As far as I'm concerned, the donks invented and caused this problem. The mess all started in Washington and now we are being asked as taxpayers to bailout D.C. There will be no end to it. There will be further requests for bailouts. And then more. I'm afraid, that in the absence of good American jobs, industry, and no energy policy, there will not be the economic foundation for further bailouts or for people to take care of their families. The Nanny state takes a step further towards socialism.
#3
These people are crazy to think that the other 50% of the country other than Democrats would stand still for a totalitarian socialist government. Heck, I doubt 50% of Democrats would stand still for such a thing.
There are a lot of guns in this country and a lot of good people in both parties who know how to use them.
Let 'em try to shove this down our throats. Just let 'em try.
Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in the case of five men accused of plotting an armed attack on Fort Dix. Once the trial starts, the key question will center on whether the men would have actually committed the attack on the Army installation in New Jersey. The federal government argues that the May 2007 arrests of of Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer and the brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka saved lives. But defense lawyers contend there was no plot and that the government paid an informant to get them to discuss one. The trial will be watched closely because it represents a type of pre-emptive prosecution that's grown more common in U.S. terrorism cases since the 9/11 attacks.
Prosecutors have begun walking jurors through what they consider some of the most provocative and damaging documents that the government has amassed against the five accused Holy Land Foundation charity organizers. FBI Special Agent Lara Burns continues her testimony today on the web of connections she says the agency found between the former Richardson-based foundation – once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. – and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian-based Islamist group that the government says is the parent organization of Hamas.
Last year, the government failed to secure any convictions against the defendants on charges that they funneled more than $12 million to Hamas after the U.S. declared it a terrorist group in 1995. Last year's three-month trial ended in a hung jury after 19 days of deliberations on what was widely considered a mountain of disjointed evidence. During the first week of the retrial, for which the government has pared the number of charges against the defendants, prosecutors appeared to be taking more time to surround the testimony with context, even asking Ms. Burns to spell difficult Arabic names for jurors, most of whom are taking notes.
Last week, Ms. Burns told jurors that Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook – whom the U.S. has designated a terrorist – lived in this country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She said he led a committee of Palestinians that answered to the Muslim Brotherhood. The group was tasked with marshaling "media, money and men" to support the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation, according to prosecution court documents.
Prosecutors reopened what they characterize as a trove of Muslim Brotherhood archival material seized primarily from the home of unindicted co-conspirator Ismail Elbarasse. The government says those documents prove that Holy Land was founded to be the primary fundraising arm of Hamas. Among the documents prosecutors showed jurors last week was what they said was a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood strategy paper describing its plans for the U.S. The Brotherhood sought "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," the document states.
Mr. Elbarasse allegedly was a confidant of Mr. Marzook. Prosecutors last week showed jurors a $100,000 check they said was signed by Mr. Marzook, written out of the joint account he shared with Mr. Elbarasse to the fledgling Holy Land Foundation about two months after it relocated from California to Richardson in 1992. Mr. Marzook is related by marriage to defendant and Holy Land co-founder Ghassan Elashi, already serving prison time for business-related crime in connection with Mr. Marzook. Mr. Marzook is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case but faces other federal charges in Dallas and Chicago. He is believed to be living in Syria, where he is Hamas' No. 2 political leader.
The government says some of its evidence came from a covert search the FBI performed at the Virginia home of unindicted co-conspirator Abdelhaleem Ashqar. Documents obtained from his home were not acquired with a traditional search warrant, but were secretly photographed, with permission from then-U.S. Attorney Janet Reno, by agents gathering intelligence on Hamas activities. Mr. Ashqar, formerly an assistant business professor at Howard University in Washington, was acquitted in early 2007 on charges of supporting Hamas. But he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for refusing to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged Hamas ties.
Jurors last week also saw a video of a fiery speech from defendant Mohammad El-Mezain, advocating violent jihad by Palestinians against Israelis. Some of the tapes in the government's possession had to be refurbished after they were dug up from the back yard of a Virginia home once lived in by another unindicted co-conspirator, Fawaz Mushtaha. Prosecutors say a man who bought the home after Mr. Mushtaha left found a cache of tapes when he dug up the yard for a home improvement project. When neighbors told the homeowner that immigration officials had previously raided the house, he contacted federal authorities and turned over the videos. Mr. Mushtaha was a member of the same Palestinian folk band Al Sakhra, or "the rock," as defendant Mufid Abdulqader. The band played at several Holy Land fundraisers, some of which allegedly included fiery speeches by Islamic clerics.
Could Signal a New Phase of Iran's Relationship With Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda is consolidating its leadership in the territory under its control in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden's son and heir apparent, Sa'ad bin Laden, has returned to Pakistan from his safe haven in Iran, according to messages posted on a Qaeda jihad Web forum known as al-Hesbah. An organization that tracks and translates discussions on such forums, the SITE Institute, provided its subscribers with a summary of messages describing what it said was an escape by Sa'ad bin Laden from an Iranian prison. American counterterrorism officials, however, have considered him to be under a permissive version of house arrest since the American invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001.
The move of Sa'ad bin Laden to Pakistan tracks with the movements of other senior jihadists to the country since Al Qaeda re-established a safe haven in the 10,500-square-mile area that comprises the provinces along the border with Afghanistan. It also could signal a new phase of Iran's relationship with Al Qaeda. For the last year, public messages from the terrorist organization's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, have accused Iran of collaborating with America in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. Leaders of the Iraqi tribal uprising against Al Qaeda, however, have said Iran has collaborated with their foes.
While Al Qaeda, a Sunni Salafist organization, regards the Shiite theocracy of Iran as an apostate form of Islam, the two sides in the past have worked together through Iran's Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian army. In 2001, following the American invasion of Afghanistan, most of Al Qaeda's leadership fled to Pakistan. But others, including Sa'ad bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, fled to eastern Iran. In 2003, before and after the initial invasion of Iraq, Iranian and American negotiators in Geneva discussed a possible swap of the senior Al Qaeda leaders in Iran for members of an Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedin, who were captured in Iraq.
The American government considers the People's Mujahedin, or MEK, a foreign terrorist organization because of attacks it has carried out inside Iran. Nonetheless, the organization was the first publicly to disclose the existence of the Natanz nuclear facility in 2002, kick-starting the current nuclear standoff between Iran and the international community. Negotiations over a MEK-Qaeda prisoner swap broke off after American intelligence agencies intercepted a message from Mr. Adel, a senior Qaeda member indicted for taking part in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, to the plotters of the May 2003 terrorist attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
An American counterterrorism official told The New York Sun that America and allied intelligence services had been aware of negotiations to return senior Qaeda leaders to the group's safe haven in Pakistan from Iran for nearly a year. But the recent messages on al-Hesbah provided the final confirmation that Sa'ad bin Laden has returned to Pakistan. The SITE Institute translation of an exchange on the forum between "Asad al-Jihad 2" and "al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" suggests that the news was meant to be hidden at first from even fellow believers.
"Asad al-Jihad 2" writes: "Dear brother, we know a lot of matters, including what concerns Sa'ad, the son of Sheikh Osama, but we do not write. Did the brothers permit you to post them?!! Or is it just an effort on your part?!!" "Al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" responds: "Brother, Asad al-Jihad 2, it is not an effort. I only wrote what I was permitted to post without any details." In the next post, "al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" writes that his initial message about Sa'ad bin Laden was mistaken, but another jihadist later posted that the original information was correct. The messages contain a mention of at least four Al Qaeda leaders who have returned from Iran.
The intelligence community has suspected since June, according to ABC News, that Sa'ad bin Laden has returned to Pakistan to be with his father, who is believed to be hiding out along the Afghan-Pakistani border. A counterterrorism official told the Sun that hosting Sa'ad bin Laden was "an insurance policy for Iran," which the official said gave Iran leverage with Al Qaeda because the state was responsible for the well-being of the leader's son.
Suspected terrorists separatists on Sunday shot dead two Muslim village chiefs in the restive Thai south, police said. A 61-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province early on Sunday afternoon, local police said, while a 47-year-old man was shot dead in nearby Pattani province. Both were elected community heads of their respective villages, a frequent target for southern insurgents battling the Thai state.
A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates. Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill "within days" of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.
Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: "We don't know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship."
The vessel's declared cargo consists of "minerals" and "industrial products".
The Iran Deyanat was sailing in those waters on August 21, past the Horn of Africa and about 80 nautical miles southeast of Yemen, when it was boarded by about 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. They were alleged members of a crime syndicate said to be based at Eyl, a small fishing village in northern Somalia.
The ship is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, a state-owned company run by the Iranian military. According to the US Treasury Department, the IRISL regularly falsifies shipping documents to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments and operates under various covers to circumvent United Nations sanctions.
At Eyl, the ship was secured by more pirates -- about 50 on board, and another 50 on shore. But within days those who had boarded the ship developed mysterious health trouble.
This was also confirmed by Hassan Allore Osman, minister of minerals and oil in Puntland, an autonomous region of Somalia. He headed a delegation sent to Eyl when news of the toxic cargo and illnesses surfaced.
He told one news publication, The Long War Journal, that during the six days he had negotiated with the pirates, a number of them had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he was quoted as saying. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."
The pirates did reveal that they had tried to inspect the ship's cargo containers when some of them fell sick You do the chemistry and nuclear physics math
#1
Whether it is radiation, chemicals or just bad juju, something is double plus ungood here. I'm sure you are just as surprised as I am, what with this being an Iranian ship and all.
#2
Am I stretching things a bit by imagining that the Iranians might preposition 'Toxic Trash' thru-out the Middle East, Europe and North America?
A barrel full of some of this shit is enough to do some severe disruption of our Nations economy right now.
Hoof and Mouth, Anthrax, and some stragically placed Toxins/Poisons.
Just about anything large would tip this Nation's economy into the dumpster right now.
Yes it would be a stop-gap measure for the Iranians, but it would give them some time until they developed their G'Damn NUKES with accurate delivery systems.
Carthage Must Be Destroyed.
The longer we wait the Nastier the consequences for Israel, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the GOD DAMN Europeans will be.
ps: For the most part I recognize that Ima preaching to the choir..
I also don't think it's a stretch for Iran to have pre-position WMDs & have Al-Quds-Cells waiting for orders to GO!
#4
The trouble is the pirates need to have "A Right To Know" law. Their employer needs to give them MSDS to avoid these accidents. I'm sure an Obama adminstration will do something about this problem.
Posted by: bruce ||
09/29/2008 7:31
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#5
I am sure there must be some old mines drifting around out there that this ship and the one with the Ukrainian tanks on it might accidentally run into. Maybe even some that might look kind of like a US torpedo (but aren't, of course.)
#7
This could be a Bush plot to hijack food for Darfur!!!! I recommend the Obamessiah, Paloosi, Frnaks and a large delegation from the majority party immediately fly to Somalia and inspect this shipment.
#8
Somali pirates: doing jobs the US Navy won't do.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/29/2008 9:40
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#9
To start with, this almost has to be chemical, because while the right kind of radioactive material can do this, the timing is wrong.
Unfortunately, this doesn't mean much of anything until a sample can be obtained, because there are likely several thousand chemicals, legitimate and illegitimate, that could do this.
#10
I agree that it has to be some kind of chemical weaponry because to get that kind of immediate effects from radiation, the ship would have to glow in the dark.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/29/2008 10:37
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#11
No job security in piratingg. Could do better coming to US and getting a job on Wall Street or in the Govmint. Oh, too late there is not much profit there anymore--maybe pirating is the better alternative.
#13
Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark/Curse of the Black Pearl?
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/29/2008 10:42
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#14
Imran Jones and the 30 Pirates of Green Slime
Posted by: Imran Jones ||
09/29/2008 10:48
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#15
I agree that it is something chemically toxic. Something that radioactive would have to be really strong to do it. Unless it was some kind of chemical warfare agent, and those are often binary.
One side of me snickers justice to the pirates, and the other side of me is very concerned with toxic sh*t like this being carried around by old rusty tubs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/29/2008 11:11
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#16
ok, here's my question. Did they open a barrel of the shit and taste it ? I fnot then how was there a crew alive without wearing haz mat suits runnings this ship if the agent acted this fast?
#17
Somalian piracy has been ongoing for a while. I wonder if Russia's newfound interest in freedom of navigation in this area is more about damage control IRT this death cargo.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
09/29/2008 11:26
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#19
The story mentions the pirates were down in the cargo hold. If the crew was avoiding it, then it's likely they weren't getting sick. Something in the hold could be leaking something highly toxic that requires pretty close proximity.
I would agree though that whatever it is, is something chemically killing the pirates, as opposed to radiation. Will send the article to my dad and see what he says.
#20
It stll could be nuclear. The timing is not off if the material has high neutron and gamma outout. Neutron flux will dissociate water, leaving a high OH- concentration (from HOH minus an H+, HOH = H2O). Full body cramps, bends-like symptoms, massive hemoglobin lycing, hurts like a bastard for days. I don't think a neutron flux causes prompt hair loss, but I don't know one way or another. Gamma might. No chem agents cause prompt hair loss as far as I know.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/29/2008 12:33
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#21
Too good to be real.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/29/2008 12:45
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#22
From the link
But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to SomaliaÂ’s Islamist rebels.
#25
No chem agents cause prompt hair loss as far as I know.
WM, some cyclo-sarins do, and some very toxic amounts of phosphenes. There are also a couple of really nasty degreasing compounds that can only be used wearing a full hazmat suit. Exposure symptoms are somewhat similar, but not a close enough match to say that's the cause. No telling what the Iranians are doing, and I wouldn't trust the Eritreans with anything.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/29/2008 13:15
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#26
Why aren't we paying the ransom to take control of this ship and its cargo?
Deduct it from the CIA's budget. To get the type of intelligence gleaned from the cargo would be cheaper than a large number of CIA Ops.
We should hire the pirates as our HumInt. Better return on investment
Um yellow cake .. probably not - if I'm not wrong in proper concentrations radiation can have the effects stated in 24 - 36 hours... the crew would not be affected if they did not open the containers.. the --- Arr matey __! Pirates did open the shipment an hence,...
They would not have to ship bombs to use as a WMD but simply dirty rads to F### with our costal waters .. Fisheries., etc..
Since we know they have the reactors , and we know they do not like us we should assume they will try to bring us down .. .
Homeland Security has talked about using medical radio waste for dirty bombs .. this would seem more likely .. but if our enemy can produce there own low level waste .. it may be easier for them to use that instead of bombs. This needs further disclosure.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/29/2008
01:11 ||
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#1
This is getting allot of air time here in STL. It really is upsetting. Little if nothing is being done about it except radio show hosts complaining about it. Wish us luck here in the Show-Me state.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
09/29/2008 10:44
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#2
Next thing you know they'll be raiding Lawrence Kansas.
#4
But wait, there's more! see this link about PA and the NRA:
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Obama_Wants_NRA_Ads_Ban/2008/09/27/135118.html?utm_medium=RSS
#2
It would be amusing if it comes out that Obama is seriously "dirty". And ironic if it comes after the election, leaving us with President Joe Biden.
#6
It depends on what Fitzgerald wants. We know he's going after Gov. Blago.. We know he wants Daley but Daley has been in power so long that he knows enough to let only his top aides leave their fingerprints.
With Barack, we have the real estate deal, the hospital board vote fix, and money legislated for Rezko's slumlord housing developments.
The question is what will Rezko offer up. Obama's current status makes him a big fish. We need some leaks.
As though the media would circulate them. We'd get coverage of the smear campaign without identifying the specific allegations. Were did we see that before? [rhetorical question]
Now we know why he picked Biden. Who'd want a President Biden? That sort of likable accountant uncle who just drones on and on, but who'd you never really trust with the family finances. So they'll just treat it like they did Bill's perjury before a Federal Grand Jury. tsk-tsk.
'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."
That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "
In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.
Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.
The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.
The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.
All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.
As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"
Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.
Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he'll find one suspect in the nearest mirror.
#2
Has anyone reported what fraction of the high-risk mortgages went to people with low incomes who could not legitimately afford 'starter' homes and what fraction went to middle class people who could not legitimately afford the McMansions or second (investment) home mortgages they got? One high-end Las Vegas investment McMansion could cost us the same as five or ten ACORN defaults. And at least with the little houses we can still find a rental market for them after foreclosure.
#5
This video on youtube pretty much sums up the Democrats part in the mess - including Barney Frank, Chris Dodd (receiver of the most contributions from Freddie and Frannie Mac), and Barak Obama (who sued citybank to _FORCE_ them to make subprime mortgages). As well as Bush'es and McCain's attempts to regulate it (blocked by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd).
Fred, have Ethel ready with your pills before you watch it. Spread it far and wide.
#6
I don't know why McCain doesn't go for broke and shine the light on Frank and other vermin that got us into this mess. Name names; show linkages of BO to this financial debacle.
As looney as Ron Paul is, he is starting to somehow make sense. We are really in trouble when that occurs.
#7
At least we're getting down to the nuts and who caused this. I was shaking my head in disbelief at the b.s. that was going on.
"A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense".
They did, mission accomplished.
#8
It behooves us to make sure every living voter (the dead ones vote for the Dems) sees the video to know who built the bomb and refused to regulate it before it blew up.
#9
I would love to see this thing fail in the House - just to put a hurtin' on Pelosi and Frank. Look, the market is down severely today because they think this thing will not help - not since the people who created the mess are the ones who are blaming everyone but themselves and acting like they are the ones to come to again to save the bacon. Frank, Pelosi, Dodd and Schumer need to summarily investigated by the FBI for the crime of sedition for what they have done.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/29/2008 13:30
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#10
F**king idiot McPain, instead of going to DC and wasting time doing nothing, should have been cramming facts about this debacle into his senile head. There was a golden opportunity to directly confront and drive a giant wooden stake thru Hussein over this. He could have taken the whole Dummo machine down. What did he do ? Stumbled and mumbled and lost ground. Why in hell can't we have an actual Republican as a candidate? One who can formulate actual ideas and respond when required. Why are we constantly suffering dead dogs ? Dole, Bushie II, now this poor guy. We ought to be pulling away. We are not. I'm getting really worried.
#11
Barney Frank makes my skin crawl every time I hear him talk--and whenever he talks you feel like he is lying and deflecting blame for his own monumental stupidity. How this total pedophiliac loser page molester keeps getting elected in Massachusetts baffles me.
#12
WE #10. I was disappointed in that McCain didn't go for the messiah man's jugular in the debates. He had a lot of material he could have used--Bill Ayers, Fannie and Freddie, Franklin Raines, Barney Frank, the campaign kickbacks from Fannie and Freddie, the pressure on banks by Fannie and Freddie to make these worthless loans, the unwillingness of some of the donks to have any regulation in the banking industry, Rezko, re-distributing everyone's wealth, big spender, big government, taxes, no energy bill that makes any sense, wanting to go into Pakistan, etc. He needs to tap into the anger of Americans over this mess created by very liberal unprincipled obstructionists in Congress--no gas or long gas lines, the increased cost of everything, few good jobs, etc. He needs to hang these things on BO and his party of obstructionists. He has to show BO is a glib, slippery empty suit not ready for primetime. He needs to show that BO is not an agent of change but just big government Democrat of old. Same old, same old. These debates are tools of the main street media for the most part where they want to be the one's that pick the candidate of their choice--not the best venue for McCain. He'd better be prepared the next two debates or he's in trouble--and so are we. He was, I think, trying to show that he alone can reach across the aisle and get something done. He should have learned after his support of the immigration bill.
#14
No more "reaching across the aisle". Give 'em hell.
The other day TW corrected me for being furious at George Bush. Well, I still am. Maybe he was just trying to "work with the Democrats" but he should have been screaming bloody murder...not just about the mortgage meltdown but about everything...the war, the energy crisis, global warming...everything. Everything they say or do has one purpose and one purpose only which is to get Republicans out of the White House and a donk into it. They have absolutely no scruples whatsoever how they do it. The gloves need to come off and they need to come off quick or else we are gonna get a donk in the White House.
#15
Chided, perhaps, dear Ebbang Uluque6305. ;-) I'm not such an expert that I'm entitled to correct anyone on matters political. I do understand your anger, but the president can only work with the Congress he's given, and this one was definitely not full of statesmen who differed only on approach but not objectives. President Bush and Senator McCain have been trying to fix the subprime loan thingy since 2003 and 2005 respectively, and McCain tried to put through another bill in 2007. Pelosi, Reid & Co. shut down all those efforts. Would you rather Bush had fought for that -- and lost -- or to get funding to continue the war in Iraq? At least Bush finally pushed the war funding through, which may well be why we're able to argue blame for the financial mess now.
#16
Yes, TW, but how do we continue to fund the war when we've just gone $700 billion deeper into debt than we already were? As commander in chief, Bush needed to factor this into the equation. Sigh. Maybe he did and this was the best he could do.
#17
And what's more, the donks are being allowed to blame Bush for this mess. He let them sucker him into this position where it's being perceived as all his fault due to the "last eight years of the Republican administration's failed economic policies." Then they point to McCain and tell us he'll do the same as Bush. Well, some of us understand that it's not entirely Republican economic policies. But the donks and the MSM are gonna keep repeating their mantra until everybody believes it is. Bush let them sucker him into this. He's been out maneuvered. If I was really paranoid I'd point out how peculiar it is that all this came to a head just before the election. But what I am saying is that the gloves need to come off now. Blame needs to be assigned in a very loud, clear voice because the trouble we're in now is bigger than Iraq. Bush can't go on TV anymore with a generic, watered down history of this problem. He needs to get detailed and specific about why lending policies were loosened and who warned about it and who tried to reform it and when and why they were not successful. He needs to name names and give them hell in a very public manner. Otherwise it's 1932 and Barack Hussein Roosevelt is about to take office.
#19
Think of it this way, if someone is trying to kill you, your bank is on fire, and your home just fell in, what do you do first.
FIRST kill the bastard shooting at you
SECOND put out the bank fire
and THIRD rebuild your home.
Do it any other way and you either lose your life, or you get killed, KILL THE BASTARD TRYING TO KILL YOU, all other is a very far second.
In other words, first win the war, second fix the financial crisis, and third, "Fix" your home (Get it out of hock)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 19:48
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#20
This whole thing reminds me of the end of the CAINE MUTINY. After Queeg's (BUSH) trial the lawyer gives the officers (DEMS) the riot act because there disloyalty again and again more or less pushed Queeg into some of his questionable decisions. A little support early on and things might have been different.
That's not to say Queeg is innocent or anything, but that nobody is and everyone remembers that Queeg was nuts and not the officers culpability.
#21
I hope McCain can lay out his case for being President. He said he was going to put off the debate and went to Washington. He went to New York first to show up at a photo op session with Bill Clinton where they lavished praise all over each other.
All I can figure is that the Clinton's aren't too enamored with the Democratic Party's Presidential choice. Can't have two messiahs in the party can we? I think McCain was trying to bring in the undecided Democratics and the Hilliary followers. He seemed to be trying to communicate that he really could reach across the aisle and get things done. He needs to hammer Obama in the upcoming debates. It would be good if Palin could put Biden down for the count. Obama and Biden are going to keep up the mantra that McCain was part of failed policies of Bush. They will continue to try to link McCain/Palin to Bush.
Congress is going home. They will continue to dither around hoping things will get worse in the economy--after all they are the party of doom, gloom, despair and quagmire. They will try to railroad through the Freddie Krueger bailout plan at that time.
Fox cable news is all over this but the other stations are the "Usual Suspects" and are reporting some celebrity crap or bashing Bush and the trunks.
Covert negotiations have begun with the Taliban in Afghanistan through a back channel Saudi-sponsored initiative, on the request of the Karzai government, a report by Jason Burke in The Observer said on Sunday.
For the past few months an incongruous figure has passed through the airports of the Middle East and Europe - a senior Afghan cleric who defected from the Taliban, the paper said. Bearded and in traditional dress, he has unsurprisingly needed the help of the Saudi Arabian and British intelligence services, among others, to pass unhindered between capitals. His mission - to talk to the Taliban leadership about a possible peace deal.
The backing given by the West to these talks is a measure of how badly things have gone wrong in Afghanistan, and how far Western governments are prepared to go to stabilise a deteriorating situation which is costing more in men, money and political capital than they ever imagined.
Invitation: The newspaper said that the Saudis accepting the invitation of the Afghan government to sponsor the initiative this summer is a measure of how concerned those who govern the traditionally leading nation of the Sunni Muslim world are about Afghanistan and Al Qaeda and the consequences they might have for the rest of the Islamic world and beyond.
This is not the first time the Saudi Arabians have brokered talks with the Taliban, and Western powers have been keen to get Riyadh more involved in Afghanistan for some time, it said. In 1998, they nearly concluded a deal with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, to hand over Osama Bin Laden, The Observer said.
For the West, the sponsorship of Riyadh is essential. Western efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have rarely brought any durable positive results. But these most recent talks also show that, at the very least, some in the Taliban senior command are getting tired. "They've been fighting for nearly seven years, living undercover, moving regularly, unable to go back to Afghanistan without risking a violent death. Despite the bellicose rhetoric and the successes of recent months, they have lost a lot of people and there is a certain degree of fatigue," the newspaper quoted an experienced Pakistan-based observer.
The Saudi initiative has resulted in the submission of a list of demands by the Taliban to Kabul. One problem was that those demands keep changing, said one Afghan source. A second is the question of whether any potential agreement could be made to stick.
The Taliban demands are also unlikely to be acceptable to the Western powers, especially the US. Another problem would be convincing other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, who suffered heavily under the Taliban regime, to accept any deal. The Taliban published a statement on their website saying they would "fight until the withdrawal of the last crusading invader", but added that "the door for talks, understanding and negotiations will always be open" to 'mujahideen'.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Time for a graphic of James T. West...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2008 11:25
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#2
seems too me it has went alot worse for the Taliban in afghanistan.
U.S. special operations forces have paused ground operations in PakistanÂ’s tribal areas, but military and civilian government officials differ over why the cross-border raids have been halted.
The issue of U.S. raids into the tribal areas was thrust into the international spotlight by a Sept. 3 raid in Angor Adda, in the South Waziristan tribal agency, by Navy SEALs working for a Joint Special Operations Command task force.
“We have shown a willingness starting this year to pursue those kinds of missions,” said a Pentagon official. However, he said, after temporarily granting JSOC greater latitude to conduct cross-border missions, U.S. leaders had decided to again restrain the command, at least as far as raids using ground troops are concerned, to allow Pakistani forces to press home their attacks on militants in the tribal areas.
“We are now working with the Pakistanis to make sure that those type of ground-type insertions do not happen, at least for a period of time to give them an opportunity to do what they claim they are desiring to do,” the Pentagon official said, adding that this did not apply to air strikes launched from unmanned aerial vehicles at targets inside the tribal areas.
But a U.S. government official closely involved with policy in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region said the military had underestimated the Pakistani response and was reconsidering its options.
The official’s comments were echoed by a field grade special operations officer with Afghanistan experience. The Sept. 3 raid “was an opportunity to see how the new Pakistani government reacted,” the officer said. “If they didn’t do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like [former Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf was … then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe.”
The raid represented “a strategic miscalculation,” the U.S. government official said. “We did not fully appreciate the vehemence of the Pakistani response,” which included the Pakistan government’s implication that it was willing to cut the coalition’s supply lines through Pakistan. “I don’t think we really believed it was going to go to that level,” the government official said.
The military’s comments about the Sept. 3 raid sending a message represented a smokescreen, said the government official, who added that the mission “was meant to be the beginning of a campaign.” “We miscalculated, and now we’re trying to figure out how to walk the dog back. One way to do that is to say, ‘Oh well, we wanted to send a message; we’ve now sent that message, and so we’re going to not send it as much in the future, yet we’re still sort of leaving it on the table, because as we all know, we never admit to a mistake.’
“Once the Pakistanis started talking about closing down our supply routes, and actually demonstrated they could do it, once they started talking about shooting American helicopters, we obviously had to take seriously that maybe this [approach] was not going to be good enough,” the government official said. “We can’t sustain ourselves in Afghanistan without the Pakistani supply routes. At the end of the day, we had to not let our tactics get in the way of our strategy. … As much as it may be good to get some of these bad guys, we can’t do it at the expense of being able to sustain ourselves in Afghanistan, obviously.
#2
the officer said. "If they didn't do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like [former Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf was ... then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe."
Doesn't sound like an officer to me. Maybe a petty officer or an ensign. Seeing how well sourced this was, maybe it was officer Rita the Meter Maid.
#7
It's a strategic pause because the NY Times reported that Bush officially OK'd attacks and raids into Pakistan and thereby got the Pakistani sovereignty feathers in a ruffle.
"If they cross our border, we'll shoot them down."
President Asif Ali Zardari has said Pakistan will initiate a trial against Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden or his second-in-command Aiman Al-Zawahiri, if it captures them, Geo News reported on Sunday. The channel quoted the president as telling CNN that the two Al Qaeda leaders could also be handed over to the US to face trail if 'friends advise' Pakistan to do so. Zardari said those who killed his wife former premier Benazir Bhutto could also target him. "Those who killed my wife are also after me," he said. Zardari said US incursions into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas would be counterproductive. The president ruled out the possibility of a war between the two countries. "Friendly fire is a normal thing even among US soldiers," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
1) They won't be captured by the paks, though they may eventually be captured in pakistain.
2) Revolving door graphic alert if they are "captured" by the paks...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2008 11:20
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#2
i think they would be stepping into one hell of a pile of shit if they didn't turn them over too the US
(Orissa): At least 20 persons, including six policemen, were injured when two groups clashed and attacked a police station prompting the police to fire in the air in Orissa's Nayagarh district on Sunday.
Trouble had erupted over a trivial issue relating to a marriage in the area and after clashing with each other the two groups attacked the police station.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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It was meant as a sign of respect, but now conservatives are saying Sen. Barack Obama's invocation of his "hero bracelet" bearing the name of a fallen soldier is being done against the family's wishes.
Is it true? What's the reality here?
Some background, first. During Friday night's presidential debate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., mentioned the moment when the mother of a fallen soldier gave him a hero bracelet bearing her son's name, Matthew Stanley.
"I had a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and a woman stood up and she said, 'Senator McCain, I want you to do me the honor of wearing a bracelet with my son's name on it.'" McCain recalled. "He was 22 years old and he was killed in combat outside of Baghdad, Matthew Stanley, before Christmas last year. This was last August, a year ago. And I said, 'I will -- I will wear his bracelet with honor.'...And then she said, 'But, Senator McCain, I want you to do everything -- promise me one thing, that you'll do everything in your power to make sure that my son's death was not in vain.' That means that that mission succeeds, just like those young people who re-enlisted in Baghdad, just like the mother I met at the airport the other day whose son was killed. And they all say to me that we don't want defeat."
But a month later, Ryan's father Brian -- who is no longer married to Tracy -- told Wisconsin Public Radio that his ex-wife had misgivings about Obama wearing the bracelet and mentioning their son on the campaign trail. It seems as though just as Tracy Jopek supports Obama and wants to end the war, Brian Jopek has a different take on what should happen in Iraq and may be more inclined to support McCain.
(You can listen to Brian Jopek about 10 minutes into THIS CLIP.)
After pointing out that he and Tracy are not married anymore, Brian says that "from what I understood from email exchanges with TracyÂ….she wanted to put a name, she wanted Sen. Obama to know Ryan's name...She wasn't looking to turn it into a big media event...She just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself."
Bryan Jopek went on to say that "because of some of the negative feedback sheÂ’s gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her ofÂ… or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing itÂ… and that sort of thing, she has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didnÂ’t, she just didn't want it to get turned into something that it wasnÂ’t. She had told me that in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet anymore at any of his public appearances."
Conservatives are now criticizing Obama for exploiting a fallen soldier whose mother has asked him to stop wearing the bracelet or mentioning her son's name. I'm not sure what the reality is behind this story -- I have a call into the Obama campaign and Tracy Jopek to find out more about this story, and will let you know what they say.
I feel like McCain has earned the right to wear a fallen soldiers bracelet to honor that individual if he is asked. However, I don't think either candidate should inject this into politics. It seems to tarnish the fallen soldier a little
#3
I read my comment again. Hope ya all know what I meant. The soldier is not tarnished but the political process that would exploit wearing a bracelet with his/her name for political gain.
Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan as she left her home to go to work on Sunday, officials and the militia said.
The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's Department of Crimes Against Women, and opened fire on her car, Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi told AFP.
"Malalai Kakar died in front of her house," he said. "Her son was wounded."
A doctor at the city's main hospital said Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head. "She died on the spot and her son was badly injured and is in a coma," said the doctor, who refused to let his name be used.
A spokesman for the Taliban, which targets government officials as part of an growing insurgency, said the assassins were from his group. "We killed Malalai Kakar," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."
Kakar, a mother of six, was regularly profiled in international media and was known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative provinces. A captain in the police force and the most senior policewoman in Kandahar, she headed a team of about 10 women police officers and had reportedly received numerous death threats.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, which is mounting a growing insurgency that targets officials working with the government. During their 1996-2001 hold on power, the Taliban stopped women from working outside the home and stopped them from leaving home without a male relative and an all-covering burqa.
Kakar was the first woman to join the Kandahar police force after the US-led 2001 ouster of the Taliban and had been involved in investigating crimes against women and children, and conducting house searches.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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#2
I've had an odd thought, go through the Mideast and kill all the men with beards, should eliminate Islam totally.
Don't miss any Mosque, however small, or any madrases, either.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 16:42
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#3
The "Lions of Islam" are at it again.
Posted by: Steven ||
09/29/2008 23:10
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Fresh fighting around Sri Lanka's embattled northern region left 17 combatants dead on both sides, the defence ministry said yesterday. Troops killed 12 Tamil Tiger rebels during clashes on Saturday, while five soldiers also died in combat, the statement said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made no comment on the fighting.
Sri Lankan troops are advancing to wrestle the rebels' political capital of Kilinochchi and are now within four kilometres (2.5 miles) of the town, army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said last week.
The United Nations on Sunday said it would begin sending food convoys to Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu, after Sri Lanka ordered aid workers out of the region in the face of the heavy fighting. Mohamed Saleheen, head of the UN's World Food Programme in Sri Lanka, said 60 trucks would enter the rebel-held areas next week, to deliver badly needed supplies to some 230,000 displaced civilians.
Colombo relaxed its stand after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about civilians during talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in New York last week.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's military says a suicide bomber has blown himself up near a vehicle carrying policemen in a northern town, killing himself and a civilian and wounding eight others. Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara says separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were responsible for the attack Sunday in the town of Vavuniya. He says four police in the vehicle, three nearby soldiers and a civilian bystander were wounded.
Rebel officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Islamist extremists prepared last night to unload rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns from a Ukrainian freighter seized by Somali pirates even as foreign warships surrounded the vessel.
A US destroyer and submarine from an international taskforce set up to patrol the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and two European-flagged ships were reported to be tracking the freighter that had anchored off the southern Somali coast.
The ship's captain contacted media outlets by satellite phone to say that one of his crew had died during the hostage drama.
The pirates were demanding a $20 million (£10.8 million) ransom for the release of the MV Faina, its 20 surviving crew and cargo of weapons, which include 33 Russian tanks. It was seized on Thursday as it neared the Kenyan port of Mombasa. "The Islamists have sent pick-ups from Mogadishu to go and collect the gear," said an analyst with a network of Somali informers. "There's not much they can do with the tanks -- they can't get them off -- but the rest of the weapons they are trying to move ashore."
Somalia's insurgents have made a series of impressive gains in recent weeks. They now control the port city of Kismayo and have armed and equipped pirate gangs as part of a campaign to control the seas.
Kenya's Government said that it was awaiting the weaponry aboard the ship, but similar shipments in the past have been sent on to southern Sudan.
Witnesses on the Somali coast said that the navy ships were using loudspeakers warning the pirates not to attempt to unload the cargo. A tribal chief and local fishermen about 250 miles north of Mogadishu said that they had seen the MV Faina near at least two ships. "The pirates are now surrounded near the village of Hinbarwaqo by Western ships. They asked individuals in charge of the hijacking of the Ukrainian ship to come aboard the navy ship for talks," said a local clan elder.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Where's our new Commodore Decatur when we need him?
#2
Reds aiding and abetting red on red tribal wars. I simply cannot see a downside. US Navy, please do not interfere. Senator Obama's pal President Mwai "2 Wives" Kibaki and his customers must have his Russian tanks.....and magic glowing minerals.
#3
Where's our new Commodore Decatur when we need him?
Given the way things go today, he's waiting for the JAGs to review his request otherwise he's busy finding a good defense lawyer after the JAGs go after him for various imagined violations of the Geneva Convention et al.
Police backed by the Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary personnel arrested at least 18 Taliban from the outskirts of Peshawar in an operation on Sunday, police said.
A senior police official told Daily Times that the search operation in Adezai and Mattani areas of the city was launched in the morning and continued until afternoon. The 18 Taliban arrested included two commanders from Darra Adam Khel, the official said.
He said the two commanders, Jangrez and Alamzeb, were responsible for terrorist activities in the semi-tribal Darra Adam Khel region. He said that among the arrested Taliban two were from Waziristan. Seven Taliban hideouts were also destroyed in the operation, he added. The police official said that the operation is likely to continue on Monday and the area would soon be cleared of Taliban.
The police on Saturday imposed a curfew in the Mattani and Badabher areas. Mattani, bordering with Darra Adam Khel, had seen large-scale Taliban incursions.
Separately, villagers in Ghari Qamardin detained six Taliban and handed them over the police late on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Syria's security forces were hunting Sunday for the culprits behind a car bombing that killed 17 people in an attack analysts said could have been aimed at splitting the country's alliance with Iran or deterring it from becoming too friendly with the West.
Saturday's bombing near a Shiite shrine in Damascus, one of the deadliest attacks in the country in two decades, drew worldwide condemnation, including from the United States which has repeatedly accused Syria of fueling unrest in Iraq and Lebanon.
A car packed with 200 kilograms of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel-Majid called "a terrorist act." All the casualties were civilians, Abdel-Majid told state television, adding: "A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators."
Saturday's blast was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood left nearly 150 dead. It came at a time that Syria has launched indirect peace talks with arch-foe Israel, moved to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon and opened the door to improved relations with the West.
But Syria has also witnessed the assassinations of a top Hizbullah commander and a senior general this year.
The Arab League condemned the bombing as a "a criminal operation that terrorised those who felt secure, but it won't achieve its criminal goal."
Ryad Kahwaji, a Dubai-based analyst, said no group could be above suspicion because of Syria's "contradictory regional position."
"An ally of Iran, at the same time it is holding indirect peace talks with Israel on condition - according to Israel - that it distances itself from Tehran," Kahwaji told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Afghan and NATO-led coalition forces have killed at least 10 Taliban militants in clashes in western Afghanistan, security officials say. The clashes took place overnight in Farah Province, an army commander said Sunday.
Col. Ghulam Farooq Naimi, 1st Brigade, 207th ANA Corps commander, said militants on Saturday ambushed a convoy of Afghan and coalition troops patrolling Bakwa city. He said 10 followers of Mullah Rahman, a regional Taliban leader, were killed in the clashes, adding that no Afghan or foreign troops had been hurt. He added that the number of militant casualties could have been greater, while the Taliban have not commented on the incident so far.
In another clash on Saturday unidentified gunmen killed a tribal elder, Abdul Majid Mojjir in the Tajarmin village, located in the Chishti Sharif district of Herat Province. Chishti Sharif governor, Seyyed Gol Chishti, confirmed the news saying the gunmen had fled the region and their identities remained unknown.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Iraqi security forces will take control of the central Shiite province of Babil within a month, the provincial governor told AFP on Sunday, but warned that armed groups still roam the region. Salem al-Saleh Meslmawe said security control of Babil, south of Baghdad, would be transferred some time after mid-October, making it the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by the US-led forces.
"We have discussed with the government and the coalition forces and there is an agreement to transfer security. This will be done within a month," Meslmawe said. "Security [in Babil] is very good and Iraqi security forces can control it."
The US military had a sprawling base in the historic town of Babylon, just north of Hilla. According to UNESCO, archaeological treasures there suffered serious damage when US forces established the base in 2003.
The decision to transfer security responsibility from the Americans was also confirmed by provincial police chief Fadhel Radad. But he also said local forces still needed logistical support.
The former US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told AFP earlier this month that the Americans planned to transfer security in Babil and the nearby province of Wasit to the Iraqis before the end of the year.
On September 10, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed said Baghdad would soon assume security control of two more provinces. "Iraq will take over security files of two provinces, Babylon and Wasit. The handover will be very soon," he said.
Following the transfer in Babil, American troops would withdraw to their bases and join military operations only if asked by the governor.
On September 1, the Iraqis took control of the western Sunni province of Anbar, once the deadliest region in the violence-wracked country. Apart from Babil and Wasit, the other five provinces still under the control of US forces are Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Saleheddin.
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09/29/2008
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(PTI) Nepal's ultra-leftist Maoists have become the new moral policeman, who have targeted restaurants, bars and massage parlours seen as the hub of crime in the capital. Bam Dev Gautam, Nepal's Communist Home Minister, has targeted the 'night life' in Kathmandu, particularly in Thamel which is a popular destination for the tourists.
He has vowed to "regulate the night business", and end the "sex business flourishing at Thamel" and other parts of Kathmandu that the minister believes has led to surge in crime.
We want to regulate night business as there are reports of teenage boys and girls being involved in sex trade in the name of cabin restaurants and dance bars in Kathmandu, said Gautam.
We may consider a proposal, if the restaurant operators come with clear suggestions, to open even red light area or night life centres but these should be regulated, he stressed.
However, bar and restaurant owners fear the crackdown by the police is discouraging tourism, which is a key income-earner for the impoverished nation.
These dance bars operating in Kathmandu's tourist hub Thamel mainly caters the needs of Indian tourists, though locals and other visitors are equally lured to these entertainment centres.
"The government should allow business up to 2 am as the decision has also hampered the tourism business," says Gopi Lamichhane, owner of 'Water Town Dance Bar' of Jyatha, which employees 50 staff, including 35 girls.
It is difficult to run business these days as customers have considerably declined over the past two days, he said. We never show naked dance as alleged by the police, Lamichhane stressed, adding we mainly perform Nepali folk and modern dance.
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09/29/2008
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At least eleven people were injured in two blasts in the city's main commercial area on Sunday afternoon.
Police said a homemade explosive device went off in a CD shop in Nitha Singh Street, injuring several people. According to the shopkeepers, Lashkar-e-Islam had warned owners of music shops to close their businesses. The president and prime minister, in their separate messages, condemned the blast. The second blast occurred in Dawood Shopping Plaza where a gas cylinder exploded, police said.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in a shopping centre in Kalat, damaging the doors and windowpanes of the building.
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09/29/2008
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Tribal representatives from different walks of life on Sunday launched a FATA-based think tank -- Qabaily Pohan -- for realization of peace, better governance and development of the Tribal Areas. The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people. The FATA steering council would also maintain policy advocacy for devising favorable policies at government and community levels for FATA development at large. The board of governors would initially comprise 10 members representing the core FATA sectors. The think tank's strength would be increased later on. Naveed Ahmad Shinwari, Chief Executive Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), is the pioneering chairman of the think tank.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people.
There is a mission statement worthy of ACORN and The One.
Indian forces killed 11 suspected militants, including seven in a prolonged high-altitude battle in Indian-held Kashmir, the army and police said on Sunday. One Indian soldier also was killed in the fighting that started three days ago near Kangan, a village 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of Srinagar, said Lieutenant Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur, adding that the battle ended on Sunday.
With winter about to set in, suspected militants are trying to enter Indian-held Kashmir from Pakistani territory in a major thrust before snow-covered mountain passes become inaccessible, he said. Four other suspected insurgents were killed in three separate clashes with Indian forces on Saturday in the Himalayan region, Mathur said.
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09/29/2008
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A Palestinian man infiltrated Israel by swimming from the Gaza Strip some two weeks ago, the Israel Defense Forces revealed Sunday, and proceeded to break into several homes in the Israeli town of Netiv Ha'asara. The man was caught trying to steal food and supplies. He was transferred to security services for interrogation.
The story was exposed after Netiv Ha'asara residents distributed a letter last week that mentioned details of the security breach. "The incident is a huge embarrassment for the security establishment," said local residents on Sunday.
The event occurred two weeks ago, when the Palestinian infiltrated the town at around 3 A.M. He succeeded in wandering for four hours between several homes before being caught by security personnel. During his interrogation, the Palestinian claimed he was a Tul Karm resident who was trying to reach Gaza. Later it became clear that the man was a Palestinian illegally in Israel who was looking for work.
In the wake of the investigation, Netiv Ha'asara residents have been asked to take extra precautions and keep their homes locked at all times.
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09/29/2008
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There are signs that the sagging fortunes of the Wall Street titans are already being felt in myriad ways in the city.
Renowned defense lawyer Edward W. Hayes, a self-described night owl, long ago developed two measurements for gauging the ups and downs of Wall Street: the HEGI and the HESI, which stand for High End Girlfriend Index and High End Stripper Index. When the financial sector's business is good, he said, the traders and bankers spend huge sums on high-end girlfriends and in the VIP rooms of Manhattan's pricey strip joints.
Now, said Hayes, who represents many of the woman in the business, he is seeing evidence of the downturn.
"The strippers are getting killed -- it's terrible," he said. "It really started in the last month. What they really need are the guys who go in and spend $500."
The Far Right has made a grand return in Austria, emerging from yesterday's elections as the second biggest parliamentary block, according to preliminary results.
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09/29/2008
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#1
Jörg Haider, won 11 per cent of the vote with his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria.
Two funny (in a way) tidbits about mr. haider :
- he's a very close friend of saif islam, one of the sons of good old ka-daffy, who even offered him his pet panther I think, and who said a while back in a mag interview (couple years ago?) that jörg... had converted to islam, and that he, saif, had been his witness.
- haider is a big proponent of the entry of turkey into the UE IIRC.
Even as Delhi Police has not found Indian Mujahideen's signature in Saturday's Mehrauli blast, intelligence agencies are looking for possible SIMI (IM's parent body) footprints in the incident taking cues from what the outfit's leaders -- including its general secretary Safdar Nagori -- claimed before Madhya Pradesh cops five months back. Nagori had told police during his interrogation in April that SIMI had 125 hardcore cadre who were trained in its camps at Dharwad in Karnataka during 2005-07 and subsequently fanned out to run independent sleeper cells across the country.
"Even though 25-odd SIMI activists have been arrested since then, over 100 of its men must be prowling in different cities with their modules remaining intact in Delhi as well where they have some illegal Bangladeshi nationals on their rolls as foot soldiers," said a senior official referring to Nagori's 50-page interrogation report.
Sleuths also observed that Nagori's disclosure about the outfit's camps in Dharwad not taking up explosive training in detail may explain why the Mehrauli bomb appeared to be a crude one -- a handiwork of someone not well trained. Nagori had mentioned that the training for bomb-making remained exclusive for a select group of persons (who might have been arrested) and some others who had gone to Pakistan to learn the art. He told his interrogators that there were 30-40 trainees in Karachi during 2006-07. Similarly, Nagori and others had mentioned during their interrogation that special training in "bike riding" had been given to SIMI activists.
Taking cue from such disclosures in April, IB sleuths now wonder whether the same bikers who got training in Dharwad camp had carried out the blast in Mehrauli -- a possibility which is being looked into now, particularly when Delhi Police continues to grope in the dark for leads.
The home ministry has, meanwhile, postponed a northern zonal council meeting which was scheduled to be held in Shimla on Monday and instead called senior cops of anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of different states to discuss the terror issue here in the wake of Saturday's blast.
CMs of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and HP and representatives of Delhi, Chandigarh and J&K were supposed to attend the gathering in Shimla. Sources in the ministry said the meeting of ATS cops would mainly be with the IB sleuths who have been coordinating with the state police in conducting operations in the wake of serial blasts here on September 13.
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One in ten Australians believe some races are superior to others and Muslims are the most unpopular group in the country, the lead author of a new study said Sunday.
Professor Kevin Dunn from the University of Western Sydney said a 10-year study of 12,500 people found that Australians were generally tolerant, with more than 80 percent viewing cultural diversity as beneficial. But about 10 percent of the population was racial supremacists.
"Only about one in ten people across the various states would hold those views nowadays," Dunn told AFP. "It's better than in many other parts of the world, certainly in parts of western Europe where three in ten people would hold those views," he said. "But one in ten is a lot. It means one person in every lunch room, one person in every locker room, five or ten people on a train," Dunn added.
Dunn, a professor of human geography and urban studies, said Muslims were most often seen as the group that did not "fit in" to Australian life. "They stand out at the moment as the group that people would be most concerned about," Dunn said. "There's stronger levels of social distance or fear of Islam or concern about Islam than of any other group at the moment."
Dunn said indigenous Australians were the second strongest "out" group while there was evidence of an emerging antipathy towards black Africans after greater immigration from countries such as Sudan and Somalia.
Despite being the focus for international migration, New South Wales -- with a population of 6.5 million people and home to the country's largest city of Sydney -- was found to be the least tolerant state or territory. Dunn said while in some states as many as 90 percent of people saw cultural diversity as a good thing, this percentage was only in the mid-80s in New South Wales, possibly because Sydney accommodated higher numbers of migrants.
Asked how they would feel if a close relative was to marry a Muslim, 54 percent of people in New South Wales would be concerned, he said. And some 47 percent of people from the state indicated at least one group that didn't fit in Australia -- the highest percentage in the country. "It means that in New South Wales there is more of a narrow idea of what constitutes Australian," Dunn said.
The study's results come as migrants account for a record high proportion of Australia's population of 21 million people, with 430,000 migrants arriving Down Under in the 12 months to March.
Dunn's group, which is yet to fully analyze all the figures from the study, hopes to use the information to develop anti-racism guidelines. He said feeling about Muslims was strong across all of Australia, where Christianity is the most common faith, and that Muslims, who make up about 1.7 percent of the population, were the most unpopular group. "I don't think there's any doubt about that and that tells something about what needs to be done in terms of reconstructing images of some groups," Dunn said.
Anti-Muslim sentiment flared on Sydney's southern Cronulla Beach in December 2005 when mobs of whites attacked Lebanese Australians there in a bid to "reclaim the beach." The race riots, the country's worst of modern times, sparked a series of retaliatory attacks in which churches, shops and cars were attacked.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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#1
Anti-Muslim sentiment flared on Sydney's southern Cronulla Beach in December 2005 when mobs of whites attacked Lebanese Australians there in a bid to "reclaim the beach."
Am I to assume that the "youths" who threatened the Australian girls with rape were the tolerant ones?
#4
When my nieces in Sydney started dating I made them both promise me they would never go out with Muslim boys. They just smiled and said, " Don't worry about it. We know."
#6
Asked how they would feel if a close relative was to marry a Muslim, 54 percent of people in New South Wales would be concerned
And that is how to do with race because? You can be color blind but ides determine behavior. Too many French girls found to their sorrow that the attractive Mulim man they had married treated them like sh.t, and once they got divorced, kidnapped their children and brought them to Algeria or Morocco because in his Muslim supremacist views, his children had to become Muslims even if at gunpoint.
And BTW, I don't see why you have to be ideas blind in matter of religion and not in matter of, say politics. Tell them one of those nice liberals if tehy would be so tolerant if their daughter were to marry a KKK man (that is one of is not a Democratic senator)? I for one, would be.
#7
The thing is some cultures are inferior to others and sometimes race can be closely tied with culture (especially in the super-PC era) so its easy to see how someone could mix the two concepts*.
It's even easier to see when the media only gives half the story and intelligent folks know they aren't getting it all but might not be able to accurate figure out what is missing from the picture.
* the example for this (beyond immigrants to the US who often succeed no matter what failures their home county was) is the Koreans. Same ethnic group in North and south but the North has developed a totalitarian Communist culture that has made them poorer than the lowliest dogs. It would be unfair to make up decisions on South Koreans based on there example.
#9
with more than 80 percent viewing cultural diversity as beneficial.
But about 10 percent of the population was racial supremacists.
One of those two groups need to be re-educated, to get back in touch with Reality™ and basic common sense, as experienced in any human population group, regardless of time and location up to a very recent time (and thus even only in the West), and which is even most probably engrained in our genes.
#2
I'm not so quick to bust their chops. At least they are out there doing it. What has NASA done lately? How are those beans sprouts and fruit fly experiments paying off on the ISS?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
09/29/2008 10:42
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#3
What do you mean? They are all Important Scientific steps to finding out the Origins of Our Universe. They say so for every mission.
They wouldn't be... inflating the importance of each girder to the ISS? Would they?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
09/29/2008 11:50
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#4
It is an impressive technical achievement. I was mocking the hyper-efficient ChiCom Official Party Spin Machine(tm). At least NASA only lies to itself (see the Challenger disaster and Feynman's "Nature cannot be fooled").
#5
How are those beans sprouts and fruit fly experiments paying off on the ISS?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam
YS: "Soylent Orange is fruit flies!!1!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/29/2008 21:46
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#6
ION CHINA > REDDIT - WHAT CHINA DESCRIBED [Pre-Olympics] AS A SEPARATIST ATTACK [Uighur Militants] MAY HAD BEEN SONETHING DIFFERENT [Paramilitary Police attack agz Same].
Also, TOPIX > SOUTH KOREA WANTS TO SET UP REFUGE CENTRES [Thailand, Mongolia, Russia] FOR NORTH KOREANS IN CASE OF POST-KIM COLLAPSE.
#7
ION TOPIX > RAND STUDY: CHINESE FIGHTERS CAN OUTGUN US F-22's OVER TAIWAN [72+ Chin:6 US F22 Numbers [12:1 Odds] + anti-US Area/Base Denial = Surviv US F22's cannot land after dogfight].
#2
Space stations have turned out to be nothing more than very expensive technical Antarctic research stations. There's been no demonstrated practical reason to sustain them beyond nationalistic chauvinism and academic curiosity. Until practical and useful returns can be found or developed, its a resource sink with missions that can be completed by either satellite or short duration orbital missions. Find that necessary function, then justify its existence.
In recent weeks, senior defense officials have been singing the praises of their Palestinian colleagues. After years of suspicion about the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials are now convinced that the PA is resolved to deal with Hamas, which is threatening to take over the West Bank as it did the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials admit to receiving assistance from Israel and the United States and have arrested hundreds of Hamas activists and closed down dozens of its charity organizations.
But the picture is more complicated than that. While Fatah's security professionals seek conflict with Hamas, the movement's political faction wishes to reconcile with Hamas and redirect the anger at Israel.
Eight years after the second intifada's eruption, the controversy in the PA could lead to a renewed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. The recent incidents between extremist settlers and Palestinians could contribute to the conflagration.
Many Palestinians describe June 14, 2007 - the day Hamas forcibly ousted the last Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip - as the day the second intifada died. The Hamas takeover of Gaza jump-started several processes, mainly the dismantling of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank, once the backbone of the violent struggle against Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas has agreed to a temporary cease-fire with Israel and stopped the rocket fire from Gaza. But Fatah activists say that they see the lack of progress in the peace talks, coupled with continued construction in the settlements and increased settler violence, as a recipe for renewed conflagration. This is exacerbated by their growing dissatisfaction with the PA's functioning and its helplessness in the face of Israel's infringements on Palestinian interests, whereas Hamas maintains complete control of Gaza.
Last week, Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian "peace coalition," called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the talks with Israel immediately. Fares, a key Fatah leader from the generation below Abbas, made this statement at a conference on the Geneva Initiative in Tel Aviv. He said it was inconceivable for Abbas to keep talking with Israel while construction in the settlements continued.
Fares' statement reflects the dissatisfaction felt by many Fatah members of his generation in the West Bank, such as Hussam Khader of the Balata refugee camp, a key figure in both intifadas. Younger Fatah members - people once active in the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who are in Palestinian custody because they have not yet received amnesty from Israel - also warn of an approaching confrontation with Israel.
Israeli intelligence officials do not believe the West Bank is ripe for a third intifada, because the Palestinian public is still weary of the suffering caused by the last round. It is doubtful that Fatah could sweep the masses into another violent struggle against Israel, they say.
But the continued friction with the settlers - and certainly a Jewish terror attack against Arabs in the West Bank - could provide the spark, just as opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount did eight years ago. That could be pretext enough for Fatah militants, who have been hiding their weapons under their mattresses, to aim them at Israelis once again.
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Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a bomb attack on a pro-Palestinian historian appeared to have been carried out by a right-wing group and warned of a "bad wind" of extremism in some parts of the country. "A new ultranationalist underground is apparently active in Israel and responsible for a bombing that wounded an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.
The attack on Thursday at the home of political scientist Zeev Sternhell rekindled fears that ideological friction in Israel could explode into internal violence as its leaders pursue a land-for-peace deal with Palestinians.
After the explosion outside Sternhell's home, police found posters in his neighborhood offering a one million shekel (294,000 dollars) reward to anyone killing a member of Israel's Peace Now movement, which opposes Jewish settlement on land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The security agencies have been ordered to deal with this case, investigate it and act with the utmost speed to bring to justice what appears to be another underground," Olmert told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.
Olmert compared the bombing with the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist and a hand grenade attack that killed a Peace Now activist in 1983.
Sternhell, a leading opponent of settlement building in the Palestinian territories, was slightly wounded by the pipe bomb that blew up at the gate to his home in Jerusalem.
A week ago, Olmert used the evocative imagery of violence against Jews in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in condemning as a "pogrom" a Jewish settler rampage in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. Settlers shot and wounded three people in Asira al-Kabaliya on Sept. 13 after a Palestinian stabbed a Jewish boy in the nearby settlement. "A bad wind of extremism, hate, evil, violence and contempt for state authorities is blowing through certain sectors of the Israeli public and threatening Israeli democracy," said Olmert, who is engaged in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
In the 1980s, a Jewish underground group, acting after six Jewish seminary students were killed in a Palestinian attack, carried out bombings that maimed several West Bank mayors and a shooting in an Islamic college that killed three students. Members of the group were jailed but the sentences were later commuted by then-President Chaim Herzog.
Commenting at Sunday's cabinet session on more recent events, Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed human rights groups in saying that settlers who take the law into their own hands in the West Bank rarely face trial and those who are prosecuted receive light penalties.
Near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, a Palestinian shepherd, 18-year-old Yahya Atta Bani Menna, was found shot dead and Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing him. Israeli police said they were investigating.
Although Olmert supports trading territory for peace, he has insisted that Israel will hang on to major settlement enclaves in the West Bank in any final peace deal and that it is entitled to continue to build homes there. Palestinians say settlements are an obstacle to peace and could deny them a viable and contiguous state in the West Bank.
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#1
Given the man's complete lack of credibility due to police investigation after police investigation - followed (most belatedly by his resignation)- I am appalled at his chutzpah.
#4
Aw, come on, give the land-for-peace thing a chance. Just because it has failed miserably every time in the past and has arguably made the situation worse does not mean it will do so again. Like they say, Nth times the charm!
#6
And, if those jewish underground people ever get caught (and they will, as I'm sure the State will put much pressure on it)... no prisoners swap for you! And no early release!
Sucks to be on the wrong side of the Leviathan.
The United States congressional leaders on Sunday said they had reached the broad outline of a deal to put in place a $700 billion financial system bailout but were awaiting details on paper before declaring it final. "We've made great progress," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters after a night of marathon talks. "We have to get it committed to paper so we can formally agree."
Leading lawmakers had huddled with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson through the night on Saturday to nail down an agreement to create a massive government fund to buy up distressed debt from financial institutions staggered by failed mortgages.
Fear-wracked financial markets had lent the talks urgency and lawmakers were striving to reach a deal by Sunday before Asian markets open. It was unclear when the House and Senate might vote on the legislation or whether any last-minute hitches might arise. Lawmakers, however, have been hoping to vote within days. "We think we should have an announcement sometime (Sunday) but you know we're committing it to paper tonight and our people will work all night long," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said.
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#1
Whatever your position on the 'bailout', the events these past two week pretty much kills any practical approach to 'privatization' of even a part of Social Security. In the end the government has failed to demonstrate the restraint in bailing out bad decisions. Allowing people to take part of SS and placing it into the market only will result in the government being panicked into insuring results with even more intervention into the market. So the demographic time bomb will remain ticking for another decade or so awaiting its own crisis that will dwarf this one.
#3
It may be a done deal unless some of the donks get fiscally conservative and move away from taking this country into socialism all of a sudden.
There don't seem to be other plans entertained or if they were, they were dismissed for political power and potential votes. However,I do hear a large number of people, both donks and trunks calling into CSPAN and mad as hell.
I saw an interesting letter and plan posted at Rep. Virginia Foxx website that was put forth by the CEO of BB & T, John Allison. I don't think we have had an adequate transparency on the bailout or debate. There ought to be criminal investigations and going on at the same time.
#7
It's interesting that Speaker of the House Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Paulson keep trying to stampede those who reject the plan. They've repeatedly announced a done deal when it was still in the the early stages of discussion... the first time before the House Republicans had even been briefed on the situation, let alone the details of the proposed bill.
The investigators tracing the financiers of terror modules in Uttar Pradesh appear to have stumbled upon a complex jigsaw related to the funding of terror groups. They have found that apart from Hawala networks, funds were also being routed through bank accounts in the form of drafts, making it all the more difficult for IB sleuths to trace the real source of such finances.
ATS sources said that one of the suspected financiers, an Azamgarh-based businessman, is learned to have provided Rs 1 lakh to the terror module busted in Delhi. These funds were used by the module to coordinate their terror plans.
"Apart from Hawala, it seems these people have used their business bank accounts to forward the cash," said a senior ATS officer. The modus-operandi could be similar to the one exposed by Central probe agencies in Kashmir with the arrest of one Shahabuddin of Rampur, UP, a few years ago.
Shahabuddin was found with 22 bank drafts valued at Rs 15.5 lakh. It was later revealed that these drafts were issued by an ISI-controlled business firm in the Middle East and were meant for some wholesalers in Delhi and Mumbai. These wholesalers used to supply goods worth the amount received through draft to retailers in the Valley. Once the goods were sold by the retailers, the sales proceeds were passed on to terror groups.
"Suppose an establishment selling Banarasi sarees in Varanasi receives a draft worth Rs 70,000 from a firm in Middle East," explained a source. "The Varanasi businessman would then hand over sarees worth the draft amount to a retailer from, say, Azamgarh. This Azamgarh retailer will sell the sarees and hand over the sales proceeds to the terror group," the officer said.
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Top|| File under: Indian Mujahideen
Britain is to spend £500 million on hundreds of heavily armoured vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan.
The decision to acquire 600 vehicles that can withstand landmines and roadside bombs comes after criticism of the Ministry of Defence from the families of servicemen killed while on patrol in lightly armoured "Snatch" Land Rovers.
Susan Smith, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, whose 21-year-old son Private Phillip Hewett died in Iraq in 2005, is suing the MoD for providing vehicles that "gave little or no protection against improvised explosive devices".
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has been negotiating with the Treasury over the plan to buy the 600 vehicles, which will partly replace the Land Rovers but also add to the stock of heavier troop-carrying systems in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is hoped that the new vehicles will be in place by next spring, in time for an expected resurgence of Taleban fighting.
The sense of urgency surrounding the provision of better protection for troops was underlined yesterday when it was confirmed that 100 of the 600 vehicles would replace the Viking armoured vehicles, which came into service with the Royal Marines in 2006 and have been deployed across Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The Viking has proved to be vulnerable to landmines. About a dozen Viking drivers from the Royal Marines and the Queen's Royal Lancers have been killed or seriously wounded by mine strikes, and steps were taken to thicken the armour under the driver's seat.
Under the new proposal, the Vikings will be replaced by 100 better-protected "high-mobility tracked patrol vehicles". The 500 other new vehicles will consist of 100 Mastiffs, a huge British-modified version of the American Cougar troop-carrier, 100 Jackals, a mine-resistant open-top vehicle, and 300 light-support mine-protected vehicles, which have not yet been identified.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Taliban
(PTI) A Senior Conservative Party leader today said the party, if voted to power, would force Muslims to assimilate into the British society and would ban groups of the community even if they solely engage in political activities.
Speaking at the start of Party Conference in Birmingham, David Cameron's security adviser Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said her party has "plans to force Muslims to integrate into British Society." In a deliberately populist tone, she said her party would ban Muslim groups even if they are not involved in violence or promoting violence and solely engage in political activities which are widely accepted from other communities.
She also made threats against Islamic charities and announced that her party would ban sharia courts from operating in the UK, though earlier this year the Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips has welcomed some sort of sharia based arbitration for settling disputes.
Meanwhile, party leader David Cameron announced that his party has a "clear plan" to get Britain through this time of economic instability.
At the conference, Cameron said that his government would legislate to protect savers' deposits up to 50,000 pounds and, in the event of a bank collapsing, get them their money back within seven days.
He also disclosed his plans of giving more powers to Bank of England so that it could take over, reconstruct and administrate banks which get into difficulty.
Cameron said his party would set up an "Office for Budget Responsibility" which would monitor public finances and hold the Government to account.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#2
This article puts it a bit more strongly than the Conservatives did. link
Unacceptable cultural practices will be challenged by a Tory government, and everyone will be expected to speak English as part of measures to "fix society", a shadow minister said today.
Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, attacked the "decade of state-driven multiculturalism" under Labour, which she said had played on people's differences and sown cultural divisions at the expense of shared British values. Warsi, a Muslim, said Labour had sought "selfish political advantage" by presiding over a decade of state-driven multiculturalism, which has played on differences. She said: "It has sent out the message that we're not sharing a society, we're just cohabiting a space. It has led people to retreat into separate cultures rather than reach for a shared community... and their obsession with self-appointed community leaders and crude use of patronage politics has led to communities divided against each other, with people losing that inner instinct of what it is to be British."
A Conservative government would ensure British history was taught properly "so young people know who we are as a nation", and everyone living in Britain would have to speak English, she said. Support for community groups would be given on the basis of their effectiveness, not just their faith or ethnicity. She added:" Good neighbours look out for each other. That's why we will tackle unacceptable cultural practices, not turn our backs and say it's sensitive and none of our business."
A big difference from forcefully assimilating Muslims in the UK, I think.
#4
The most important thing the English government could do to restore national pride is to get rid of the archaic "Britain" or downright silly "United Kingdom", and properly call their country "England".
If they mean "England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland", then they should say so in those terms.
Their flag is not the Union Flag, it is the St. George's Cross. Their language is English. Their currency is the English Pound.
#9
That's a laugher. You'll never get it done. Get some rusty barges to dock. Herd their stupid asses on board and tell them they're floating back to Pakland. Yeh, and good luck, mateys, cause you assdraggers might need it.
#10
There is precedent, once criminals were sent to Austrailia, why not some forgotten island that England owns, but is nowhere near "Civilization(Translation, no industry, no ships or boats they can seal, only hand tools,) they'd NEVER get a seaworthy ship built for all the infighting.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 17:17
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#11
seal/steal fat fingers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 17:19
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Probably won't do so well with the Finsbury Park mosque crowd, but the rest of the Brits will love it. Fins Park folks vote Labour anyway, so no loss there.
(PTI) New Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is keen in trying to improve Indo-Pak relations and it came through clearly during his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to implement anti-terror measures, official sources said today.
The sources said the joint statement after Zardari-Singh talks was a great step where Zardari was willing to say something in public to take on terrorism.
With Zardari making it known that he is only a 14-day president, India was not anxious to put him on the dock on terrorism issues, the sources said.
The President is committed but it remains to be seen whether he will implement the anti-terror measures, the sources said. Pakistan's resolve to jointly fight terrorism along with India was music to India's ears, the sources said.
The sources said both Bush and Singh were not sure if Zardari will be able to deliver on his promises.
Giving some more inputs on the talks between the Prime Minister and US President George W Bush, the sources said Iran did not figure and the Indian delegation was surprised when it did not come up. The sources said there was no attempt to impose ideas on India and there was no pressure on what positions it should take on international issues.
With Bush in the midst of strategies to deal with financial meltdown, sources said National Security Adviser M K Narayanan was asked by the Prime Minister to get in touch with his US counterpart Stephen Hadley and explore the option of shortening the meeting of the two leaders and cancelling the dinner if required to enable the President to be focussed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
(Xinhua) -- A string of bomb attacks on Sunday killed 31 people and wounded more than 100 at two Baghdad markets, interior ministry officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the first attack took place just before dusk in southwestern Baghdad's 4th Shura neighborhood.
A parked minibus with explosives went off in the busy market, where residents were picking food for the meal that breaks the daily fast in the Muslim fasting holy month of Ramadan, they said.
The explosion killed 12 people and left 35 wounded. All the victims were civilians, and several shops also were destroyed in the blast, according to the officials.
The assault was followed by a twin blast which also targeted a market in the Karada district in central Baghdad. A car bombing and a suicide explosion in immediate succession killed 19 people and injured up to 72.
Violence still haunts Iraq though the U.S. military said the level of violence was at a four-year low. Militant groups still seem to be capable of stepping up large scale attacks.@
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Afghanistan's foreign minister on Sunday denied reports that the government was in contact with Taliban insurgents to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday said the "unprecedented talks" involved a senior ex-Taliban member travelling between Kabul, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. "I cannot say anything about the matter that talks between the Taliban and Afghans ... are going on," Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told a news conference when asked to comment about the report. "I deny there is any contact between the Foreign Ministry and the Taliban about the negotiations," he said when asked for elaboration. "I do not confirm such contacts," he said when pressed if any other government organ was involved in any such process. After the news conference he said with a smile he would have news on this in coming days. The report came as the Taliban have extended the scope and size of their insurgency this year, the bloodiest period since US-led and Afghan forces invaded in 2001.
Western leaders and diplomats stress the war in Afghanistan, where more than 71,000 foreign troops are based, cannot be won militarily. But talks with the Taliban had proven problematic.
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Kuwait's interior minister urged Iran in remarks published on Saturday not to provide a safe haven for "terrorists" but said there was no proof of claims that Tehran has sleeper cells in his country. "Iran should not serve as a haven for, or bankroller of, terror," Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah was quoted as telling the Saudi daily Okaz.
It said Sheikh Jaber called on Iran "not to harbor terrorists from al-Qaeda and not to serve as a launch pad or safe passage for terrorists."
Despite the implicit accusation that Iran harbors terror suspects, Sheikh Jaber dismissed claims by two Kuwaiti MPs that sleeper cells attached to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were operating in the oil-rich Gulf state. "I wish the two MPs had shown the evidence they have. Intelligence (services) are present everywhere" but it is up to a country's security services to deal with them, Sheikh Jaber said. "So far we did not uncover any such" Iran-linked cells, he said.
Kuwait's defense minister on Monday dismissed as "mere rumors" a claim that spy rings from neighboring countries were in the emirate. He did not specifically name Iran, but was apparently referring to a claim by an Iranian defector that the Revolutionary Guards run sleeper cells in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf.
Iran's Defense Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar has denied the allegation.
In the remarks reported by Okaz, the Kuwaiti interior minister did not rule out that al-Qaeda may have sleeper cells in Kuwait. "We do not deny this, and we do not deny that we are always on the alert, as our security forces have shown... I do not rule out the presence of (al-Qaeda-linked) groups whether in Kuwait or in the Gulf," he said.
Kuwaiti security forces fought deadly gun battles with a group linked to al-Qaeda in January 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iran urges Kuwait to STFU..... Russia urges Iran to purchase more weapons..... O'bla, bla, blama urges US citizens not to worry about Iran because it is a "...tiny country..." that doesn't "...pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us."
The global financial crisis took a toll on Europe Sunday, with top officials scrambling to save Fortis bank and Britain reportedly planning to nationalize mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. As US lawmakers hailed a breakthrough in talks on a $700 billion bailout, high-ranking European officials raced to hammer out a plan aimed at keeping Fortis from becoming another victim of the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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#1
Oh, dear! What happened to all that euro-gloating?
The government is set to launch a major crackdown on Taliban in the Tribal Areas depending on the 'availability of men and material', an official said on Sunday. "The government understands that it is time to launch a crackdown against the Taliban before it is too late," a senior official told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. He refused to give the exact date for launching the operation. "Troops are presently engaged at several fronts like Bajaur, Waziristan, Swat, Darra Adam Khel and most recently in Shabqadar area of Charsadda," he said, adding that it did not mean that the government was not planning action against Taliban in other areas.
"Decisive action would be taken to curb terrorists activities in Mohmand, Jamrud, Landi Kotal and other areas," he added.
Delay: He said the government had been told that any delay at this juncture would amount to inviting bigger trouble in the future. "Therefore, we have to go all-out against those disturbing peace in any area," he said. "Action must be taken before it's too late," he said, adding, "It's now or never."
The official said the recent operation in Shabqadar was part of the government's resolve to the purge all areas of Taliban.
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
"depending on the availabilty of men and weapons" guess that says it all right there
Any of you ferocious Afghans tired of the Paki Talibunnies comin' to your house and causing trouble? Here, have some guns and ammo. The Talibunnies live over there. We'll supply all the intel you need. Might even arrange some air support, depending.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is likely to announce in the next 48 hours the names of fact finding commission members who will investigate the assassination of the late Benazir Bhutto, according to Arab television ARY One World report on Sunday. According to the channel, the commission will be sent to Islamabad after the members are formally announced. It also reported that President Asif Ali Zardari and Ban Ki Moon had earlier agreed on the formation of an international autonomous commission to investigate Benazir's death, at a meeting at the UN General Assembly on September 26.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
10 months after the assassination, they're getting a commission ready "in 48 hours."
Brewster Rockit demonstrates the UN at work:
http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/2008/09/28/?campid=0&ssns=9&
Beirutis breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as political party flags, banners and pictures that once festooned the Lebanese capital's streets came down following their prohibition in support of reconciliation efforts between rival factions.
"It will calm down the youth in Lebanon," Maha Chehadeh, 31, told AlArabiya.net. "First of all it cleans our streets, also it's better because you know how emotional we are."
In a country that has seen deep political divisions played out in street clashes, political posters can often be the spark of a violent incident. Sectarian fighting spread throughout Lebanon leaving 65 killed in May after the Syria- and Iran- backed Shiite Hezbollah movement led an armed takeover of large swathes of predominantly Sunni west Beirut. A peace accord sealed later that month led to the election of President Michel Suleiman, filling a six-month void, and the formation of a national unity cabinet.
However, political tensions continue to spill over into the streets. Two weeks ago, two people were killed in fighting that broke out over the hanging of a political banner in the north of the country, leading many to see the new ban as a safety measure.
"It is a good idea because it might stop people from hurting each other, but at the same time isn't it against the notion of the freedom of expression?" said Halim Hanna, 37.
Until Friday night, Beirut's streets and buildings were plastered with posters, party flags and portraits of political leaders both dead and alive, emblematic of the intense divide among feuding clans. The political leanings and often sectarian identity of a neighborhood was immediately apparent from the party paraphernalia that decorated its streets.
The latest move, announced by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri Thursday, has everybody talking, filling the airwaves and the press. Everybody in Lebanon is talking about it on television and in the press, said Chehadeh. "Hopefully everybody will stick to it."
An agreement between Hezbollah and its rival Future Movement saw the posters start to come down in Beirut and with a vow to continue throughout the rest of Lebanon, in the wake of Thursday's announcement by Saad Hariri, who heads the Future Movement and the parliamentary majority.
Internal Security Forces stood by on Friday night as party members carried away billboard-size pictures of Hariri and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Posters were ripped off walls and party flags disappeared from most of the city's streets, but some were skeptical if the move was enough.
"In principle, it's a good step. But it doesn't solve anything. You're curing the side effects and not the core of the problem," said Suha Menessa, 26. "The pictures aren't the problem, the political discourse and bickering is the problem."
Lebanon's rival political leaders have been working toward reconciling their differences ahead of a national dialogue which will set the tone for parliamentary elections due next year.
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Two of the three suspected would-be bombers killed in the Baldia Town police encounter have been identified by their families. The suspected bombers, who were believed to be linked to the banned religious organisation Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, were identified as 17-year-old Noor Muhammad and 24-year-old Syed Masroor Shah. Noor was a resident of Ashraf Nagar, Nazimabad, whereas Shah lived in Qasba Colony, Orangi Town.
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi
A senior Lebanese cleric has accused CIA and Mossad of masterminding a bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed 17 people. Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Amir Kabalan, the deputy head of Lebanon's High Shia Council, also said that it was possible some Arab countries collaborated with the US and Israel in the plot.
The bombing that took place in a southern suburb of Damascus on Saturday left at least 17 people dead and 14 others wounded. Kabalan said the terrorist attack was part of a bigger scheme to destabilize Syria and the entire Middle East region. He did not rule out the possibility that certain Arab countries which see the recent developments in the Middle East against their interests, had a hand in the blast.
The bombing was the deadliest terror attack in Syria in nearly three decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
I'm shocked it took them 48 hours or so to blame the Jews...
#2
Ummm, I assume that you mean
"You're shocked the accusation wasn't in miliseconds?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 9:45
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#3
Maybe this delay in accusations is a sign of more tolerance in the ME?
I would think the debris would still be in the air and they would be calling out the CIA on this one.
I think Syria is getting their just due dancing with the AQ devil...and maybe those smoke signals that they want to hold talks with the US are a sign they are up to their swiss bank accounts in islamonutjobs.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/29/2008 10:51
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Mostly Soviet-Afghan War veterans, they claim they formed a 15-member convening committee in May as the caretaker administration gave them the go-ahead after a probe found nothing that could link them to any subversive campaign.
Kazi Azizul Huq, an adviser of the newborn organisation, told The Daily Star, "The intelligence agencies gathered that we have no relations to any terrorist networks.
"The government however set some conditions. Those include ones that say the party must run as per the country's constitution, and not resort to violence to implement Shariah law."
Last Friday, IDP held an Iftar party at the city's Diploma Engineers Institution. It was attended by party leaders and guests including Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of weekly Blitz and a campaigner for Israel, Amar Desh Assistant Editor and Human Rights Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Choudhury, PK Barua of Bouddha Kristi Prochar Sangha and Chitta Francis, a representative of Christian community.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed told The Daily Star that they allowed IDP to arrange the function as it was a religious one. Replying to a query, he said they will definitely go for a closer examination before giving the organisation permission to arrange any political programme.
Sheikh Abdus Salam heads the convening committee. It was under his leadership that a group of Afghan War veterans launched HuJi at a press conference at the National Press Club on April 30, 1992.
Sources close to IDP said the outfit's ultimate objective is to establish Shariah law in the country. Azizul Huq, on the other hand, said, "Our goal is to run the country as per the Charter of Medina that gives equal rights to all citizens irrespective of religion and ethnicity."
He said they want to introduce Shariah (the body of Islamic religious law) only for the Muslims. Other religious and ethnic minorities may follow the existing law of the land and norms of their communities. "We don't want to impose anything on anyone. We'll put the Islamic laws into practice only if the people grant us an electoral mandate to amend the constitution," Azizul continued. "Even those of Muslims who won't want to follow Shariah will have the freedom to follow the existing law."
He said the government had suggested they [IDP] take measures to convince the international community that their move to launch the outfit had no relations with extremism. The suggestion came in view of the fact persons behind the new party had involvement with HuJi, an outfit that was banned by the government for terrorism in October 2005.
Azizul said Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and Dr Richard L Benkin, an American citizen, helped in efforts to portray IDP in a positive light across the globe especially in the developed countries. In an e-mail to this correspondent, Dr Benkin confirmed the statement. He said, "Mr. Huq is correct. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and I continuously try to bridge the gulf between religious communities throughout the world and always look for opportunities to promote a positive image of Bangladesh worldwide.
"Mr. Huq and I met for hours one day in Dhaka many months ago and recognised our common belief in God and faith. We also..... 'agreed to disagree' in the spirit of interfaith understanding and democracy.
"The newly formed Islamic Democratic Party opens the door for Muslims to separate themselves before the entire world from radicals and terrorists while at the same time affirming their strength in the Muslim [Islam] faith."
Shoaib, who was arrested at Zia International Airport in November, 2003 and charged with sedition in January, 2004, told The Daily Star, "The government gave permission to launch Islamic Democratic Party and host the Iftar party under the state of emergency. It's a green signal, and it allowed IDP to shed the names of HuJi and Islamic Gono Andolon."
This article starring:
Sheikh Abdus Salam
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: HUJI
Bhubaneswar: "Simply out of control," is how Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, described the situation in Kandhamal, the district in central Orissa that has seen sustained violence against Christians by Sangh Parivar groups since December 2007.
"I see an attempt to appease the majority, because of the coming elections, in the statement given by the Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, when he went to Phulbani [the district headquarters of Kandhamal] yesterday [on Saturday]," he told The Hindu in an interview in Bhubaneswar at the Archbishop's House. "There was not one word in his statement about the 40,000 persons displaced and in relief camps, not one word about the 4,200 homes destroyed, and not one word about the 45 persons -- including a pastor who was cut to pieces just a few days ago in front of his wife -- who have been murdered. Why did he go?"
A tired and anguished Archbishop severely indicted the State and Central governments of insensitivity and inaction in respect of the violence and injustice perpetrated against the Dalit Christians of Kandhamal.
"My impression is that the State government is trying its best to cover up the violence by giving the impression that the normalcy has been restored, and that there is no need for further action." The Supreme Court, he said, in response to a petition filed before it on September 8 seeking protection from the relentless violence against Christians, had given the State government four weeks to respond. The Archbishop said the Sangh Parivar had used this period to "systematically destroy one village after another."
"Excuse unacceptable"
The excuse of the State government that marauding mobs often outnumbered the police force present at the spot, he said, was unacceptable. "Why did they allow the numbers to swell in the first place?" "We know that in cases of attack and even rape the police just stood by and took no action. What is left to destroy now?"
The Archbishop said he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh three times, President Pratibha Patel twice, Home Minister Shivraj Patil twice and Congress president Sonia Gandhi once over the situation in Kandhamal. The Prime Minister, he said, called it a "national shame" and promised help, but there had not been any real change in the situation as Dalits continue to live in relief camps and were too frightened to return to their villages.
According to the Archbishop, the Sangh Parivar has "issued a fatwa" that by September 30, residents must return to their villages to be re-converted to Hinduism. "I am issuing a letter that will be distributed to Christians telling them not to worry and to be firm. No conversion is valid unless it is free. A document signed under duress is not valid under law."
He is also planning to call a meeting of Bishops and heads of religious groups to organise a rally in Bhubaneswar protesting the grave violence and injustice against Christians in Kandhamal.
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Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh will have to bring fundamental changes to its constitution to get registered with the Election Commission (EC) so that it qualifies for participating in parliamentary polls. If the party changes its constitution to conform to the registration criteria, it will definitely lose its characteristics as an Islamic political party.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Suspected militants have abducted a Polish engineer in Pakistan's volatile northwest, shooting dead three Pakistanis accompanying him.
Armed men in a car ambushed a vehicle carrying a Polish engineer, his assistant, driver, and security guard, near the village of Pind Sultani in Attock district, officials said Sunday. They kidnapped the Pole and killed the other three. Police said according to witnesses the attackers fled toward Kohat, a town on the edge of the volatile tribal belt that borders Afghanistan.
Poland's Foreign Ministry confirmed the kidnapping, adding the kidnappers had made no contact or demands so far.
The Pole and his colleagues were traveling to oil plants northeast of the Pakistani capital to carry out some tests, the engineer's company said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The latest attack comes a week after a suicide blast targeting the five-star Marriot Hotel in central Islamabad killed 60 people, including several foreigners, raising concerns over security and the safety of foreigners in Pakistan.
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Top|| File under: TTP
Security forces killed at least 16 Taliban after coming under attack in Bajaur Agency, a security official said on Sunday. Taliban attacked three military posts near Khar late on Saturday, but soldiers repulsed them with artillery and mortar fire, the official said. Early on Sunday, helicopter gunships and fighter jets bombed Taliban positions in three villages in the district, he said.
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Top|| File under: TTP
Scotland Yard is pursuing two British businessmen after US authorities accused the Britons of smuggling military equipments to Iran.
The two are at large after allegedly supplying batteries for surface-to-air missiles and aircraft parts to Iran, the Guardian reported.
Farshi Gillardian, another British executive, was detained by British police last week after being accused of attempting to circumvent US trade sanctions with Iran.
Under US laws, American companies are prohibited from conducting transactions with Tehran or Iranian firms.
The FBI has reportedly linked Gillardian with a number of businessman, also being investigated by the American authorities for dealing with Iran.
The US and its allies have imposed sanctions on Iran, banning companies or people of providing the country with "dual use technologies and hardware". The ban is part of the West's strategy to exert pressure on Iran to change its policies.
The sanctions, however, have deprived the country of many civilian technologies. For example, the country has been denied access to civilian airplanes' spare parts.
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09/29/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
"The sanctions, however, have deprived the country of many civilian technologies. For example, the country has been denied access to civilian airplanes' spare parts."
Two observations about this paragraph:
(1) Opinion, not fact, in a supposed factual news piece.
(2) Tough titties.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2008 13:41
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(Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on Saturday approved to lift a quarter-century ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the measure.
Senators approved a 630 billion dollars spending bill by the 78-12 vote. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the same bill which dropped the offshore drilling bans.
In the past 27 years, Congress has passed drilling bans on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts each year because of environmental concerns and pressure from some coastal states worried that drilling might hurt the tourism industry.
However, President George W. Bush has repeatedly urged Congress to lift legislative restrictions on offshore oil drilling to help address rising fuel costs.
Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling in July. There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by former President George H. W. Bush in 1990.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008
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#1
Are there other obstacles?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/29/2008 7:18
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I don't think it applies in this case - unless this measure explicitly opens off-shore drilling then state law would be in force in the absence of Federal law.
OTOH I can imagine states having their eyes on the tax revenue possibilities.
#7
There's a 12-mile territorial limit and then there's a 200-mile maritime limit (which I understand is mainly for security and inspection interests). After that it's international waters.
The limits get sticky in places like Cuba and Key West, for example, and the US's failure to enforce its own maritime limits is one of the reasons why China is drilling in what could, technically, be called US waters under Cuban auspices.
I don't think the states have any authority outside of 12-miles, however, but the limit has previously extended out to the maritime areas due to Congressional and Presidential edict. The lifting of the ban probably means it's open season on drilling 12 miles or more away from a coastline.
#8
While the oil industry has done a lot to clean up their operations over the last thirty years all it will take is one significant spill that washes ashore to get the ban put back in place. Lets hope nobody gets sloppy.
#9
Cheader: Santa Barbara, among other sites, have natural oil seeps, sending oil globs to the beaches now....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/29/2008 21:52
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#10
In Santa Barbara, the Chumash natives used to caulk they boats with the oily stuff they found. They talked about it in a display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/29/2008 22:00
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The coup leader who seized power in Mauritania last month rejected Saturday an ultimatum set by the African Union to reinstate President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi by October 6. "The position of the African Union is neither constructive, nor positive. It does not serve the greater interests of the Mauritanian people," General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz told reporters in Nouakchott.
Earlier this week, the 53-member AU bloc gave Mauritania the October 6 deadline to "restore constitutional order" to the West African country.
A military junta removed Abdallahi, the country's first democratically-elected president, from power on August 6. The junta has since been under pressure from the A.U., the United Nations and the international community to reinstate him.
The deposed president has been under house arrest since the coup. His prime minister, Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, was re-arrested on August 22 and also placed under house arrest. A statement issued by the presidency of the state council September 1 said a 22-minister government had been formed with effect from the previous day.
A number of Western powers including the U.S. and France have refused to recognize the military government, denouncing it as "illegitimate."
This article starring:
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
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09/29/2008
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The spokesman of National Security Commission of Iran's parliament said Sunday that Iran does not accept any United Nations Security Council resolution aiming at sanctions, the official IRNA news agency reported.
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(Xinhua) -- One person was killed and nine others were injured in a suicide attack lunched by a Tamil Tiger rebel in northern Sri Lanka, the military said on Sunday.
Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said that the suicide bomber on a push cycle rammed into a three-wheeler carrying police in the Vavuniya town at around 03:15 p.m. local time (0945 GMT).
The driver of the three-wheeler was killed and nine others including four police, three soldiers and two civilians were injured in the blast.
The suicide bomber was also killed in the explosion.
Vavuniya is the gateway to the north where government troops are currently engaged in a battle to evict Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels from their last strongholds.
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At least 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday. Engine failure on the errant boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days.
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09/29/2008
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants battling Pakistani forces are getting weapons and reinforcements from Afghanistan, security officials said on Monday, vowing no let-up in their offensive in the northwest.
A group of European tourists and their Egyptian guides who were kidnapped by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago have been freed unharmed and half the kidnappers killed, officials said on Monday. "The hostages have been freed and are in good health. They are being brought to Cairo airport," Egyptian state television quoted an official as saying. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. The kidnappers -- whose identities remain unknown -- had demanded a ransom but the television quoted an official as saying no money had been paid. Egypt's Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said that "half of the kidnappers were eliminated," the official MENA news agency reported.
Could Signal a New Phase of Iran's Relationship With Al Qaeda
Covert negotiations have begun with the Taliban in Afghanistan through a back channel Saudi-sponsored initiative, on the request of the Karzai government, a report by Jason Burke in The Observer said on Sunday.
(Orissa): At least 20 persons, including six policemen, were injured when two groups clashed and attacked a police station prompting the police to fire in the air in Orissa's Nayagarh district on Sunday. 
Islamist extremists prepared last night to unload rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns from a Ukrainian freighter seized by Somali pirates even as foreign warships surrounded the vessel. 
Afghan and NATO-led coalition forces have killed at least 10 Taliban militants in clashes in western Afghanistan, security officials say. The clashes took place overnight in Farah Province, an army commander said Sunday. 
At least eleven people were injured in two blasts in the city's main commercial area on Sunday afternoon. 
Tribal representatives from different walks of life on Sunday launched a FATA-based think tank -- Qabaily Pohan -- for realization of peace, better governance and development of the Tribal Areas. The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people. The FATA steering council would also maintain policy advocacy for devising favorable policies at government and community levels for FATA development at large. The board of governors would initially comprise 10 members representing the core FATA sectors. The think tank's strength would be increased later on. Naveed Ahmad Shinwari, Chief Executive Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), is the pioneering chairman of the think tank.
Indian forces killed 11 suspected militants, including seven in a prolonged high-altitude battle in Indian-held Kashmir, the army and police said on Sunday. One Indian soldier also was killed in the fighting that started three days ago near Kangan, a village 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of Srinagar, said Lieutenant Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur, adding that the battle ended on Sunday. 
The United States congressional leaders on Sunday said they had reached the broad outline of a deal to put in place a $700 billion financial system bailout but were awaiting details on paper before declaring it final. "We've made great progress," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters after a night of marathon talks. "We have to get it committed to paper so we can formally agree." 
The investigators tracing the financiers of terror modules in Uttar Pradesh appear to have stumbled upon a complex jigsaw related to the funding of terror groups. They have found that apart from Hawala networks, funds were also being routed through bank accounts in the form of drafts, making it all the more difficult for IB sleuths to trace the real source of such finances. 
Afghanistan's foreign minister on Sunday denied reports that the government was in contact with Taliban insurgents to negotiate an end to the conflict. 
Two of the three suspected would-be bombers killed in the Baldia Town police encounter have been identified by their families. The suspected bombers, who were believed to be linked to the banned religious organisation Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, were identified as 17-year-old Noor Muhammad and 24-year-old Syed Masroor Shah. Noor was a resident of Ashraf Nagar, Nazimabad, whereas Shah lived in Qasba Colony, Orangi Town.
Security forces killed at least 16 Taliban after coming under attack in Bajaur Agency, a security official said on Sunday. Taliban attacked three military posts near Khar late on Saturday, but soldiers repulsed them with artillery and mortar fire, the official said. Early on Sunday, helicopter gunships and fighter jets bombed Taliban positions in three villages in the district, he said.
(Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on Saturday approved to lift a quarter-century ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the measure. 
At least 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday. Engine failure on the errant boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days.
