#1
Me thinks he uses four of these which would be around 200 lbs of thrust see: http://www.jetcatusa.com/p200.html
When I saw the ohotos of this my first thought those are jet cat turbines.
#3
Enjoy it while we can - iff what NASA wants for US Transportation becomes manifest, by 2050 American teenagers will have to also get Aircraft Pilot-Mechanic, Space = Starship operat licenses WHEN THEY FIRST DEMAND TO LEARN HOW TO DRIVE A [JETSONIAN = FLYING] CAR.
D **** NG IT, FROM WHERE "BACK TO THE FUTURE'S DOC BROWN CAME FROM, THEY DON'T NEED "ROADS"!
Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004.
An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city.
According to reports, frightened residents called the fire department after the blast, forcing the city authorities to admit there had been an explosion.
Speaking with Fars news agency, Isfahans deputy mayor confirmed the reports and said the authorities are investigating the matter. However, after the incident was reported in Israel, the report was taken off the Fars website.
It seems that city authorities and the Iranian government were embarrassed by the reports of a blasts, releasing contradictory versions of the alleged events. One example is a statement given by the same deputy mayor to the Mehr news agency, saying he had no reports of an explosion.
A top Iranian Navy commander has announced that three domestically-built Ghadir submarines have joined Iran's naval fleet. Iran's Navy Deputy Commander Rear Admiral Gholam Reza Khadem-Bigham said that the submarines are capable of launching torpedoes and operate in shallow waters as well as precision targeting.
On Saturday, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari stated that the country's naval forces will stage a massive military exercise, code-named "Velayat 90," in the international waters in the near future.
Sayyari added that the drill will extend over a large area, from the Sea of Oman to the northern Indian Ocean. And every time an enemy power launches a submarine, another MK-48 torpedo is born. Or gets its wings. Something.
Allah was not pleased with this military base. The only logical recourse would be to rebuild it and try again, hoping that he will be pleased at the particular moment when they try again.
New satellite imagery shows the extent of damage to the Iranian military compound that blew up earlier this month, was extensively damaged, the Institute for Science and International Security said after an analysis of new satellite imagery.
ISIS compared a November 22 image from DigitalGlobe to one from September.
"Some buildings appear to have been completely destroyed. Some of the destruction seen in the image may have also resulted from subsequent controlled demolition of buildings and removal of debris. There do not appear to be many pieces of heavy equipment such as cranes or dump trucks on the site, and a considerable amount of debris is still present," according to the analysis posted on ISIS website.
Senior defense officials told Barbara Starr on November 17th that the U.S. believes the Iranians were mixing volatile fuel for a rocket motor for a large ballistic missile when the accident occurred.
ISIS concluded the same thing. "Iran was apparently performing a volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site when the blast occurred," the ISIS analysis noted.
At least 17 people, including a general, died as a result of an explosion on the military base near Tehran, Iranian state media reported at the time of the explosion.
Lawmaker Hossein Garousi told state media the blast happened when a munitions depot accidentally caught fire at the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) military base in Bidgeneh village, located on the outskirts of Shahriar city and about 35 kilometers (21 miles) west of Tehran.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that Maj. Gen. Hassan Tehrani-Moqadam, in charge of IRGC's Office of Self sufficiency, was killed as a result of the explosion.
#3
Allah does seem to be mighty crossed at Short Round and the Mad Mullahs. Perhaps if they were to leave the jinns inside yellowcake alone...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011 15:47
Comments ||
Top||
#4
We (and others) have speculated a fair bit these last few months about how one might go after the Iranian nuclear military-industrial complex. We've talked about whether it would be the U.S. or Israel, whether it would be airstrikes or cruise missiles, which facilities, the timing, etc, etc, etc.
The recent news, however, does seem to suggest that there's another way -- a small group of sneaky shits making things go kaboom under mysterious circumstances.
It does make the target list smaller in case someone has to call an airstrike.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011 16:03
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Some of the destruction seen in the image may have also resulted from subsequent controlled demolition of buildings and removal of debris.
There seems to be an absence of cranes and dump trucks on the site. There is not much of a debris field and the damage seems to be contained within the buildings. It almost looks more like the results of a fire that spread from building to building.
#7
As per the NEDELIN EVENT, IIRC from vintage film it appears that many of the Soviets = Russians in observance were too close to the rocket pads to begin with - presuming that the R-16 rocket didn't explode + worked as intended, MANY MAY HAD BEEN KILLED OR SERIOUSLY INJURED ANYWAY JUST FROM THE ROCKET'S NORMAL TAKE-OFF.
OOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPSSSSS ....
GOOD NEWS COMRADE, OUR ENGINEERS' DESIGN WAS ABSOLUTELY/GLORIOUSLY SUCCESSFUL - THE BAD NEWS IS THAT OUR CROWD CONTROL WAS NOT!
A explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city.
The Revolutionary Guard said the accidental explosion occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.
The deputy governor of Iran's Isfahan province on Monday said however he had no reports of an explosion in his region. "So far no report of a major explosion has been heard from any government body in Isfahan," he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
It should be noted that Iran operates a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, one with an important function in the chain of Iran's nuclear program.
Earlier Monday, a top Israeli security official said that the recent explosion that rocked an Iranian missile base near Tehran could delay or stop further Iranian surface-to-surface missile development.
#13
There are so many ways to foul up a supply chain without anyone knowing it. Just one little invisible daub of a catalyst in the right place. A flea sized detonator. Then add just a smooch of STUXNET and shake very, very vigorously.
Kuwait's cabinet has resigned after protesters and opposition deputies demanded that the prime minister step down over allegations of corruption, state-run television has reported.
"The prime minister [Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah] has submitted his resignation to the emir," Kuwait TV said, without specifying whether it had been accepted.
Earlier, opposition member Khaled al-Sultan said the cabinets's resignation was accepted amid a bitter political dispute between the prime minister and opposition MPs.
"We are waiting for the appointment of a new prime minister before parliament is dissolved in order to be assured of fair elections," the Sultan told reporters outside parliament.
Parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said he had not been informed about a dissolution of parliament.
If it is confirmed that Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, has accepted the resignations, he may then also dissolve parliament before setting a date for new elections.
Several opposition MPs welcomed the resignation.
"I hope that the emir will please the Kuwaiti people by dissolving parliament ... and forming a transitional cabinet to supervise the elections," opposition MP Falah al-Sawwagh told reporters.
The announcement of the resignations came after the emir chaired an emergency meeting of the cabinet headed by the prime minister to discuss the political crisis.
Sheikh Nasser, 71, had been due to be questioned in parliament by three opposition MPs on allegations of fraud, including charges that he transferred public funds into his overseas accounts. The government has denied the charges.
The move also came ahead of a planned mass rally later on Monday by the opposition to press demands for the premier's ousting.
Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the emir, was appointed to the post in February 2006 and has since now resigned seven times because of political turmoil.
Parliament has been dissolved three times over the same period.
The public prosecutor in September launched an unprecedented probe into the bank accounts of around 15 pro-government MPs who were accused of accepting bribes totalling $350m. Opposition MPs have claimed the deposits were bribes by the government to win votes on crucial issues. Some of the concerned MPs have denied any wrongdoing.
Nahaj, an alliance of opposition groups and youth organisations, insisted in a statement that the prime minister be replaced and parliament dissolved. They also called for opposition detainees to be released. Twenty-four opposition activists are serving a three-week detention pending trial after parliament was stormed on November 16.
Kuwait, which sits on about 10 percent of global crude oil, has amassed more than $300 billion in surpluses over the past decade, but projects and development have been stalled by political wrangling.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
12:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bwaney Fwank twowing in the twowl! Maybe he wants to spend more time with Chris Dodd?
What left wing degenerate will Massachusetts voters dig up now to replace him?
If he ever wants to return to Politics he could move to California where he could win easy election to any office. Or, he could be King of the Castro.
We'll probably see in the future the opening of hundreds of Bwaney Fwank Memorial Bath Houses financed by "Fanny May". Hell, maybe the Military will get Special Services to set them up on base.
#3
GolfBravo I suspect Barney will simply move down to K-Street like most of the crooks Congresscritters to be on the direct payroll instead of the retainer.
#13
Bielat pushed him to the wall last time. He actually had to go out and campaign and spend some serious cash. Rub elbows with the great unwashed and spend his own money? Ewww...didn't sign up for that. With the redistricting, he'd have to go out and do it again, and a lot of the cities and towns he picked up probably weren't too crazy about Barney representing them.
CHINA has not approached East Timor about establishing a military base in answer to the US troop build-up in Darwin, a Timorese member of parliament has said.
Speculation arose last week after the Jakarta Post reported China was said to have proposed establishing a military base in East Timor.
"While Timor Leste has yet to approve the proposal, China has continued to assist it by supporting the development of Timor Leste's state offices and public facilities," the Post said.
But Jose Teixeira, a member of East Timor's main parliamentary party, Fretilin, and a member of the Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, told the NT News that no such intent had been expressed.
"I am certain the Chinese did not and will not ask," he said. MOre at the NT News link -- Darwin, Australia is getting 2500 US Marines -- and its a HUGE deal for the city. The people are so excited. They went nuts for Obama's visit like a rock star. They love the US, and never forget many US armed forces died protecting them in WWII. BUT it is changing the regional balance of power. Indonesia and China do not like it one bit. Perhaps the U.S. should also have a facility in East Timor. It would help preserve their independence from Indonesia, provide needed income and work for the East Timorese, and cheese off the Chinese no end. Win-win-win.
#1
I worked with an Indonesian Chinese. He was bitter about the ethnic massacres of the mid sixties, which were carried out by Islamic militias (Chomskyites falsely blame off duty military). According to him, Indos settled debts with Chinos by labelling them "Communists," and bringing in the Islamos.
There is growing diaspora thinking in China under "Han power" lines. And they would be aware that the 6% of Indonesia that is ethnic Chinese, controls 60% of the economy, burdened by carpet-hitting primitives. China would like a presence in the area.
#2
GREAT Idea lets put a US base in Timor too!! You'd have to get them to agree though... might be easier to get a NATO base through, badged Portugal but driven by the US due to historic ties with Portugal.
SOrry for posting link twice i didn't see it so i posted again
#3
Base or no base, Beijing's + PLA's priority will remain JAPAN-OKINAWA-TAIWAN, i.e. NE Asia, espec TAIWAN since its right in the middle or near-middle of the "First Island Chain".
Second priority will likely be the NORTHERN PHILIPPINES, i.e. SUBIC + MANILA BAY + LARGE AIRPORTS.
FYI MVGUAM [Marianas Variety Guam] > POSSIBLE TEN-YEAR DELAY [2014 = now 2024?], per the reloc the US Marines from Okinawa to Guam in the view of Nippon Lady MP due to the current political situation in Asia, e.g. post-Fukeshima poor Japanese econ + Rising China, PLAN.
In case of de facto war agz the tech-superior US, China's strategy is to deter or defeat US Milfors long before the bulk of the latter arrive in-theater, which is why China has been sending its Subs far out to GUAM + HAWAII.
ht AOSHQ
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will announced Monday that he is not seeking re-election, CNN reported Monday morning.
Frank, the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee was the architect with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) of the sweeping financial reform bill that bears their names. And will always be remembered for ruining this country to the best of his abilities. FOAD
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2011
10:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He knows his connections with Fannie and Freddie will be all over the news during the election cycle and even he might have a real fight this go around. The nation is better without him and I simply wish there was a way to bill him for the damage he's done, even if its not complete sacrificing his generous congressional pension would be a start.
#2
...remember he gets to convert his 'reelection campaign' money to personal use after he leaves Congress. Why blow it on an iffy gamble at the polls?
#10
CrazyFool, while I agree with the sentiment I don't think any politician is going to follow through on that, otherwise we'd already have heard a lot more about his role in the collapse.
#12
With both of the most destructive democrats gone (dodd and frank) Obama can deflect the mess on them during the election.
I will give barney credit for one thing; he wanted to make housing affordable for everyone. Now that they are practically free in some areas (like Detroit) his work is done.
There was a shocking story on BBC Radio 4 this morning about Wikileaks and the last remaining Jews of Baghdad (you can listen to it here). Some more background here :
BAGHDAD -- An Anglican priest here says he's working with the U.S. Embassy to persuade the handful of Jews who still live in Baghdad to leave because their names have appeared in cables published last month by WikiLeaks. The Rev. Canon Andrew White said he first approached members of the Jewish community about what he felt was the danger they faced after a news story was published last month that made reference to the cables.
What has Wikileaks to say about it all ? Well according to this, one of the 215,287 unredacted cables published by WikiLeaks (The site says it only published the cables after an encryption code for the complete archive was leaked by a journalist from the Guardian) provides biographical sketches of the 9 remaining Jews in Baghdad. In total, only 35 Jews remain of a community that dates back to 721 B.C.
Yes its all the fault of the Guardian! That would be the same Guardian that was allegedly part of a "Jewish conspiracy" to discredit Wikileaks.
#3
Federal Marshals are patient men. And a half second after Assange trods on anything owned by the US:
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;
An' wunst, when they was "company," an' ole folks wuz there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'for she knowed what she's about!
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned.
The Harper government has tentatively planned an announcement for a few days before Christmas, CTV's Roger Smith reported Sunday evening.
The developments come as Environment Minister Peter Kent prepares for a climate conference in Durban, South Africa that opens on Monday, with delegates from 190 countries seeking a new international agreement for cutting emissions.
China has lent diplomatic support to Pakistan, saying it is "deeply shocked" over the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers bombarded by Nato helicopters.
I don't see what's so 'shocking' about it. The Taliban kills Pak soldiers all the time, and no one fusses about it other than the dead guys' mothers...
Beijing's support came as Afghan officials again claimed the air strikes were called in after they were first targeted from the Pakistani side of the border.
Warning of "serious consequences", the Pakistan military said the "unprovoked" attack on a border checkpoint in the Mohmand part of the tribal area on Saturday continued even after it contacted Nato to plead for the firing to stop. The military has not accepted Nato's explanation for what the coalition has called a "tragic incident". Afghan and Nato officials have insisted that they came under fire first.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [ABC = Australia] PAKISTAN THREATENS TO CUT US TIES.
* SAME > ZARDARI REJECTS UAE REQUEST TO LET US USE SHAMSI AIRBASE.
* SAME > ISRAEL DEMANDS ACTION AGZ 26/11 [Mumbai] PERPETRATORS.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTANI FM SAYS NATO STRIKE NEGATES PROGESS. Pak FM Rina Khar to US SecState Hillary.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > PAKISTAN HASN'T, CAN'T [won't?] DELIVER ON TERRORISM: CHIDAMBARAM.
Many Analysts are not worried somuch about a new US-PAK diplomatic row as an ANTI-US, THIRD-PARTY WAR OCCURRING BETWEEN DIVERSION-HAPPY, TROUBLED CHINA ALLY PAKISTAN VERSUS INDIA ALLY AFGHANISTAN WHICH WILL MAY DRAG CHINA, INDIA INTO OPPOSING CONFLICT, + ULTIMATELY THE US, NATO + OTHER MAJOR OR NUCLEAR POWERS.
In recent years, many top-selling brands including the 195-year-old Remington Arms, as well as Bushmaster Firearms and DPMS, leading makers of military-style semiautomatics have quietly passed into the hands of a single private company. It is called the Freedom Group and it is the most powerful and mysterious force in the American commercial gun industry today.
#1
It is owned by Cerberus Capital Management (that's a charming name, isn't it?) It's based in NYC and run by 51-year-old financier Steve Feinberg.
"His hobbies include game hunting, chess, skiing, and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Steve and Gisela Feinberg are prolific donors to the Republican Party and related organizations. Former Republican Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle works for Cerberus as Chairman of Global Investments, and former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was a client."
#1
Always wanting someone else to pay the bill. Perhaps they can find some of that oil for food graft money that flowed into Tota Fina Elf and others and help out with that.
A naked woman in a city's central square is bound to attract attention, which is exactly what Ukraines Femen group is hoping for with a series of high-profile demonstrations against the abuse of women's rights which has made the news across Europe.
And as RT found out, the Ukrainian feminists are ready to conquer new horizons.
#1
This will get lots of attentionbut in the end the folks in power are u likely to do much because so many of the women's rights violators. Sling to a protected class (by religion) and nobody wants to be seen as a hater. They say the right things and enjoy the boobies on display and go about their business
#3
This may have more of an impact, as when women start forming a consensus, the Lysistrata effect comes into play.
The truth is that if women as a group want something, they will probably get it. As someone observed, "When women stand up, men sit down. And shut up."
Muslim students, including trainee doctors on one of Britain's leading medical courses, are walking out of lectures on evolution claiming it conflicts with creationist ideas established in the Koran.
Professors at University College London have expressed concern over the increasing number of biology students boycotting lectures on Darwinist theory, which form an important part of the syllabus, citing their religion.
Similar to the beliefs expressed by fundamentalist Christians, Muslim opponents to Darwinism maintain that Allah created the world, mankind and all known species in a single act.
Steve Jones emeritus professor of human genetics at university college London has questioned why such students would want to study biology at all when it obviously conflicts with their beliefs.
For the money and prestige of being a doctor, silly.
I have news for them...
Earlier this year Usama Hasan, iman of the Masjid al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton, received death threats for suggesting that Darwinism and Islam might be compatible.
Sources within the group Muslims4UK partly blame the growing popularity of creationist beliefs within Islam on Turkish author Harun Yahya who, influenced by the success of Christian creationists in Ame
rica, has written several books denouncing Darwinist theory.
Yahya associates Dawinism with Nazism and his books are and videos are available at many Islamic bookshops in the UK and regularly feature on Islamic television channels.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011 9:26
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yahya associates Islamism Dawinism with Nazism and his books are and videos are available at many Islamic bookshops in the UK and regularly feature on Islamic television channels.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2011 9:33
Comments ||
Top||
#3
teaching Biology without Darwinism would be like teaching economics without Ricardo, Hayek and Smith.
#4
I can hardly wait for Yahya's next book:
"the earth is not round and it stands on the backs of four elephants who stand on a giant sea turtle who stand on giant serpent who......."
#5
Sounds like the Musicians of Bremen fairy tale, Fat Bob.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/28/2011 16:13
Comments ||
Top||
#6
My quran sez that Alexander the Great reached the place where the Sun sets, and found a tribe of swamp dwellers. But...if the Sun can be shown not to set on Earth, then maybe the quran would be better used for toilet paper.
Russia is said to have sent warships to deliver an advanced air defense system to Syria.
Arab diplomatic sources said the Russian Navy arrived in the Syrian port of Tartous in late November and brought weapons and supplies to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
"We see this as a demonstration of Russian support for Assad, but more important it is a signal that Moscow will never leave the area, even if Assad goes," a diplomat said.
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi daily reported that the Russian Navy vessels transported the S-300PMU1 air defense system to Syria. The newspaper said the S-300, ordered by Assad but whose delivery was delayed because of U.S. pressure, arrived with dozens of Russian military advisers.
In a report on Nov. 24, Al Quds said the S-300, designed to track up to 100 targets simultaneously, was meant to help Assad repel any attack on Syria amid the revolt against his regime. More than 3,700 people are said to have been killed in the revolt, which began in March and is supported by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The S-300 isn't going to put down a revolution, and it isn't going to stop the Israelis from bombing the Nork-built nuclear plant outside of Homs.
China and Russia have blocked United Nations Security Council
resolutions to stop the killing in Syria. Al Quds asserted that the Russian military has been installing advanced radar systems around all key Syrian military and industrial sites to prevent air strikes.
In September 2010, the Kremlin canceled a nearly $1 billion S-300 project with Iran. At the time, Moscow said the S-300 would violate Security Council sanctions on the Teheran regime, meant to hamper its uranium enrichment program.
Israeli sources reported that Israel received PAC-3 interceptors from the United States. They said a shipment of Patriot missiles arrived in the Ashdod port earlier this month.
#5
FYI GILANI > repor arguing that things will "NO LONGER BE BUSINESS AS USUAL" BETWEEN THE PAKISTAN + US.
As for Russia, it is mulling following Pakistan's lead in shutting down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan - presuming that neither it nor Pakistan relents + reopens the routes, IMO it means that POTUS Bammer may have to give serious consideration to launching unilateral war agz IRAN in order to ensure Afghanistan's security.
AND IRAN KNOWS IT.
> RUSSIA blocks China from the Kurils + Sea of Kamchatka, effectively forcing China + PLA to move southward agz US-ROK-JAPAN, + UNCOM + ASEAN.
> Ditto as per the US = US-NATO, Allied agz Iran, wid IRAN = also read, CHINA???
Portland's Lincoln High School welcomed an anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian rap group to perform at a school assembly on November 4th. The group DAM was brought to town by the Portland State University Middle Eastern Studies Department. DAM was scheduled to make a special appearance at the school and give a special concert/assembly during school hours.
Lincolns Arab Studies Program funded for the second year by Qatar Foundation International, sponsored the rap groups visit to the high school. The school promoted the assembly as an opportunity for students to hear another perspective on a controversial issue, in this case the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Buying access has its privileges. In fact, the students might actually understand the words of the Arabic language raps calling Jews killers and Nazis since the school now offers Arabic classes thanks to the same foundation.
The school's Arabic teacher, who offered extra credit for Lincoln students who attended and wrote about the group's evening concert at PSU, claimed the group didn't encourage terrorism.
Some Jewish students at Lincoln students learned of the planned assembly and called on the school to re-think the invitation. Instead the school held a 'listening session' on November 1st for parents, Rabbis and students to vent.
From the sidelines Peyton Chapman, Lincoln High School principal, jumped in with, If the word Nazi comes up at the assembly, were going to discuss it.
#1
Selected lyrics from "Who's A Terrorist", by DAM.
You're a Democracy?
Actually it's more like the Nazis!
Your countless raping of the Arabs soul
Finally impregnated it
Gave birth to your child
His name: Suicide Bomber
And then you call him a terrorist?
Who's a terrorist?
I'm a terrorist?
How I am a terrorist
When you've taken my land?!
Who's a terrorist?
You're the terrorist!
You've taken everything I own
While I'm living in my homeland
They shouldn't but they will.
The dam is breaking in Europe. Interbank lending has seized up. Much of the financial system is paralysed, setting off a credit crunch just as Euroland slides back into slump.
#5
Europe has a larger population and a larger economy than the U.S. Until recently the core EU had a per-capita GDP equal or slightly greater than per-capita GDP in the U.S.
Europe has plenty of resources. What they lack are leadership, will and understanding. Even if the U.S. had the resources to bail them out, and we don't, it would just kick the can down the road.
Europe -- and the U.S. -- has to face a fundamental rule in economics: what can't go up forever won't.
Let Europe bail itself out, and let the U.S. bail itself out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011 9:21
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Yah sure. The mighty American honest taxpayer...or at least the few that are left... will run to the rescue of the Europeans and their youthful retirements, free healthcare, and long, long vacations. When we have none of that ourselves. LOL!
Sorry Euope, but all our future taxes are already spoken for by our government employees.
#7
They mean round 2.
Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Secret Loans It wasnt just American finance. Almost half of the Feds top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, which took $84.5 billion, the most of any non-U.S. lender, and Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN), which got $77.2 billion. Germanys Hypo Real Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees.
The largest borrowers also included Dexia SA (DEXB), Belgiums biggest bank by assets, and Societe Generale SA, based in Paris, whose bond-insurance prices have surged in the past month as investors speculated that the spreading sovereign debt crisis in Europe might increase their chances of default.
The $1.2 trillion peak on Dec. 5, 2008 -- the combined outstanding balance under the seven programs tallied by Bloomberg -- was almost three times the size of the U.S. federal budget deficit that year and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in the U.S. for the decade through 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
#8
Any nation willing to become a territory of the US for a minimum of 50 years would merit the consideration of a loan. Otherwise let them fall and the pieces will come back stronger.
#9
They bought their ticket, time for them to take the ride....
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2011 15:51
Comments ||
Top||
#10
..you might even get Obama to bite on that one if you said that he'd get the power and glory to appoint the Proconsul Territorial Governor. Think of the bidding war. It's got to beat what his old Senate seat pulled.
I thought so. They will either be using taxpayer's money or they will be printing more money and thus devaluing the dollar.
The Fed's Board of Governors is appointed by the President somewhat like the members of SCOTUS. They do not answer to the President or to any legislative branch. Congress enacts laws that affect the economy but they are disconnected from the Fed.
#14
Stansberry and Associates September issue "[M]uch of the funding for Europe's banks comes from U.S. money-market funds and the interbank market. Only about 54% of their capital comes from their customers. A large amount of their capital 33% comes from sources that would transmit the crisis to America. The wholesale credit market in Europe comes from U.S. money-market funds. Europe's interbank market touches major U.S. money center banks. How will American creditors respond to the crisis? ". European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, and the world's other major central banks will provide funds. Then Citizen, please send us what you can to save our country. Hoarding will not be tolerated. Those overweight by 20 pounds are hoarding money and foodstuffs. Report, failure to do so will result in the harshest consequences. In "whose name that cannot be said aloud". Just saying. Just ignore me.I go away after awhile.
At least 11 people have died after an Indonesian bridge, built to resemble San Francisco's Golden Gate, collapsed, hurling dozens of vehicles into a river. More than 30 people are believed to be missing after the 720-metre-long bridge over the Mahakam river collapsed.
"The number of people killed were 11," East Kalimantan province's search and rescue agency head Harmoni Adi told reporters.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, who earlier put the toll at 10, said that bodies were washing up on the river banks.
"Thirty-nine people have been injured and based on reports by the community, at least 33 are missing," he told AFP.
"It's difficult to know exactly how many are missing because we don't know how many vehicles and people fell when the bridge collapsed," he said adding there was "zero visibility" in the river which is up to 40 metres (yards) deep.
In a darkened room on the second floor of a government building, 100 young Iraqis conspired to revolutionize their country. School curricula should employ interactive Internet games to stimulate learning, said a 28-year-old Web developer.
April 1 should be a cultural holiday to promote Iraq's bygone status as a cradle of intellectualism, said a 23-year-old government employee. Women should harness social media to bridge the gender gap, said a 22-year-old activist. Gender gap? In the Arab world? Maybe there is hope.
And on it went, a parade of young people auditioning for a prestigious conference. Each shared hopeful but vague ideas that envisioned a rosy future beyond Iraq's turbulent present. The unspoken challenge, though, was turning dreams into plans, and notions into demands.
"We are free, and this could not have happened without the U.S. But now we are fighting to grow," said civil engineer Abdul Ghany, 27, a volunteer organizer. "Not many young people know what they want, exactly." Civil engineers: trained to think logically!
They do know what they feel. Their country was turned upside down by the American-led invasion in 2003, and now Iraq's young -- their worldview indelibly shaped by a U.S. military presence that ends next month -- are preparing to inherit a nation that still struggles to right itself.
Some young Iraqis say they are glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but feel less safe -- and therefore less free -- than before 2003, a sentiment reflected in dozens of interviews in eight provinces. There are some positive views expressed, but this is the Washington Post.
They view their government as a pseudo-regime that deprives them of basic rights, and they worry that their peers are being lured into the ethnic, sectarian and partisan traps of their elders. They think the world is fixating on revolutions in other Arab countries while ignoring a rotting democracy in Baghdad and their generation's struggle to live the freedom that was promised to them 8-1/2 years ago. Not unlike the situation in many places, the U.S., for one.
About half of Iraq's 33 million people are 19 or younger, and no Iraqi born since Saddam came to power in 1979 has known the country to be without war or dictatorship. When Iraqis talk about the fate of the younger generation, they use expressions similar to "crossroads" and "tipping point."
"We are at a very critical period, with the deterioration of security and the elevation of corruption," activist Hanaa Edwar said at a September peace festival in Baghdad's Zawra Park. "Elections are not enough. We need active participation from young people. They are not yet polluted by politicians. They need more than hope. They need to be empowered." Polluted by politicians. Has a certain ring to it.
Related interesting sidebars of individual stories - activist, blogger, musician, day-laborer, Kurdish lawyer, uniter.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/28/2011
07:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
[Yemen Post] A republican decree was issued charging Mohammed Salem Basendowah with forming the national reconciliation council.
Yesterday, the opposition National Council officially handed over to Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi, their candidate, Basendowah, for the next government.
The implementation of the power transfer deal is moving slowly in Yemen while international powers are observing Yemen closely.
According to the power transfer deal, both the opposition and ruling party will each get 50 percent of cabinet seats in the new government.
Basendowah is a former Foreign Minister and served under President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... for more than 20 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
charging Mohammed Salem Basendowah with forming the national reconciliation council.
And I'm sure he'll be charged later by HRW for something
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/28/2011 16:09
Comments ||
Top||
[Al Ahram] Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh's Sunday remarks were the first official public confirmation that Jordan hosts Syrian defectors. In September, officials said privately that Jordan had received 60 Syrian army and police deserters, who ranged in rank from corporal to colonel.
Judeh told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the Syrian soldiers and coppers, whom he claimed were conscripts rather than officers, had arrived in batches over the last eight months.
Many Syrians fleeing Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike... 's crackdown have also sought refuge in neighboring Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
The Canada of the Middle East...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2011 0:14
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Canada of the Middle East...
Unfortunately without a good hockey team.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/28/2011 7:55
Comments ||
Top||
Occupy protesters in Los Angeles and Philadelphia faced eviction from their encampments Sunday as frustrated city officials complained that two months of squatting posed public-safety issues and interfered with city business.
Well, yes. That is the point, after all.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, they've been squatting in more ways than one and it's taken Tony Viagroso two months to figure it out. Genius. Pure genius.
#2
Democrats finally realized the OWS protesters would be toxic come election time. Time to ditch them and hope American forgets so the media can reconstruct the fable from whole cloth.
KUWAIT CITY, Nov. 26: The Public Prosecution is requesting the National Assembly to lift the parliamentary immunity of eight lawmakers charged with storming the parliament on Nov. 16.
The official request is expected to reach the Legal and Legislative Committee this week against MPs Jamaan Al-Harbash, Faisal Al-Muslim, Musallam Al-Barrak, Falah Al-Sawwagh, Mubarak Al-Walaan, Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Khaled Tahous and Mohammed Al-Mutair. The committee decision, however, must be approved by the assembly for it to pass.
Earlier last week, the legal committee approved the lifting of parliamentary immunity of MPs Al-Tabtabaei, Al-Harbash, Al-Muslim and Mohammed Hayef on charges of defamatory remarks against the prime minister.
The Opposition Bloc had warned "cabinet MPs" on Thursday against supporting the government to lift parliamentary immunity of a number of opposition MPs. The opposition claims the government plans to detain lawmakers before the no-confidence session against the HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and decrease the number of voters needed to remove him, which is 25.
The standoff between the government and the opposition resumes this week as opposition lawmakers and activists are staging a massive rally at Al-Erada Square on Monday to demand the release of activists and that the prime minister face his grilling on the multi-million deposit scandal.
Opposition MPs further claim that their lives are being threatened and have filed complaints requesting protection. MP Salem A-Namlaan filed a complaint at Al-Subahiya police station on Saturday as other opposition MPs announced the same.
The prosecution, meanwhile, continues to detain and interrogate 31 activists who are charged with 13 offenses, including breaking into the parliament on Nov. 16, assaulting security officers and theft of public funds. Supporters of the activists have stated that some of the detainees are on hunger-strike to protest the detention and alleged maltreatment.
Further arrests have been made in the case as around 47 suspects were on a warrant issued by the prosecution earlier last week. The detainees face prison sentences between 6 months to life, according to lawyers of the opposition defense team.
The Opposition Bloc insists that the parliament invaders were invited in to the premises by MPs to escape brutality by security forces and prevent further clashes. They claim that charges of damage to Abdullah Al-Salem Hall were fabricated by the National Assembly.
This Tuesday's parliament session is scheduled to discuss a grilling request by MPs Musallam Al-Barrak, Faisal Al-Muslim and Abdulrahman Al-Anjari against Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah. The grilling is on the multimillion deposit scandal and the money transfers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the premier's personal accounts.
The Opposition Bloc, of 20 lawmakers, accuses the PM of failing to take the appropriate measures to uncover the truth behind the multimillion deposit scam, in which 16 lawmakers - most of whom are supporters of the government, have been implicated. The MPs are alleged to have received $350 million in bribes to sell their votes on crucial issues.
The bloc further claims the prime minister has deliberately neglected calls for drafting a general policy on combating corruption, in addition to failure to personally monitor the activities of various ministries as stipulated in the Constitution.
The grilling also alleges that the PM ordered the transfer of millions of dollars from public funds into private accounts held by him abroad. The government adamantly denies all charges.
If the grilling is debated on Tuesday, the opposition seems to have the required votes (25) to oust the prime minister. Along with the 20-member Opposition Bloc, the 5-member National Action Bloc (NAB) has affirmed they will vote against Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah. It is within the government's rights, however, to request the postponement of the grilling, refer it to the Legal and Legislative Committee or Constitutional Court to assert its legality.
The parliament break-in on Nov. 16 followed the removal of a grilling request against the PM off the agenda. The grilling was submitted by MPs Ahmed Al-Saadoun and Al-Anjari in the previous legislative round but was referred to the Constitutional Court, which ruled in October that the PM should not be questioned on violations committed by the ministers as he is in charge of the general policy of the state.
Meanwhile, the NAB plans to submit another grilling request against Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah to question him on the government's refusal to form a committee comprised of MPs Hassan Jowhar and Adel Al-Sarawwy to investigate and examine the suspicious MPs' bank accounts and measures the Central Bank of Kuwait has taken in that regard. The request was rejected by the government and most of the pro-government MPs on Nov. 15.
Furthermore, the Opposition Bloc plans to grill the Minister of Interior, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, on the detention of activists and abuse by security forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Two young scouts were bumped off and three others injured in an attack by unidentified gunnies on a Muharam-ul-Haram procession at Numaish Chowrangi on Sunday evening, police said.
The incident took place when the procession was passing by a mosque in the limits of Soldier Bazaar Police Station.
An official Shoaib at the cop shoppe said the dear departed were identified as Zain and Ali, volunteers of Abu Turab Scouts. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... identity of the other three severely injured are yet to be ascertained.
The bodies and injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi.
The armed culprits opened the fire on the volunteers and mourners, when they were going to join the central congregation (majlis) of Imam Hussain (as) at Nishtar Park.
The participants of the procession staged demonstration at Numaish Chowrangi against the attack by beturbanned goons and blocked central M.A.Jinnah Road in protest against the incident. Police and Rangers cordoned the area after the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Syria built a secret missile assembly line with the help of North Korea and Iran, German daily Die Welt claimed last Friday. The daily said North Korea provided the technology to manufacture maraging steel, which is a restricted material under the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime. It can be used for missile skins and centrifuges critical in uranium enrichment.
Citing unspecified "Western security sources," the daily also claimed Syria is attempting to provide militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon with M-600 missiles with range of 250-300 km after reinforcing their warheads and combustion tubes with maraging steel. It said this would be in violation of UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874 banning the North from arms exports.
According to the Times of London, the plant is near the Syrian city of Homs
And dialed in by the Israeli Air Force...
under the supervision of the Syrian Scientific Research Center, and Iran bore some expenses for building it. In addition to the maraging steel technology, the North also provided construction equipment. Die Welt said North Korean engineers will also help the Syrians with production processes, wastes management and quality control.
Materials for the facilities were delivered in 2009, the sources said, and a significant portion has now been completed. The sources predicted that this plant will start operation within a year and a half.
The paper speculated that Israel will come within range of Scud-D missiles if maraging steel is used.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
little kimmy needs somehow to pay for all that Hennessy.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/28/2011 1:25
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] The leaders of various political parties on Saturday widely condemned the killing of Pak troops in an attack by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency and urged the government to dissociate itself from the US-led alliance at the earliest.
Pakistain Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... said, in a statement issued here, that the attack on checkpost by the NATO forces was not pardonable act. He termed it an insane and immoral brutality.
Mr Khan said that such attacks reflected the hollowness and counter-productivity of country's involvement in the aimless war against terrorism. "Already, Pakistain has sacrificed 40,000 people and an equal number of people have been maimed.
Pakistain has also incurred a loss of over $75 billion in the bargain, yet it is being incessantly targeted by the forces of its so-called ally," he said.
MNA Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti also condemned attack by NATO forces on the checkpost. "It is a direct attack on the illusory sovereignty and integrity of the country" he added.
Talking to political activists at his residence in Hayatabad, he said that government should not remain silent on this tragic incident. The US should not consider Pakistain as Afghanistan or Iraq, he said.
He said that parliament and all parities conference had unanimously passed resolutions against the war against terrorism but the government was yet to implement them.
He asked all political parties to take firm stance against US drone attacks inside Pakistain.
He called for immediate implementation of resolution unanimously adopted by the parliament.
Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... deputy chief Sirajul Haq also condemned the killing of troops by NATO forces and urged the government to take serious notice of the bloody incident.
Awami National Party provincial chief Senator Afrasiab Khattak termed the attack terrorism by NATO forces. He paid rich tributes to the troops, who sacrificed their lives for the protection of the country and condemned the US-led NATO forces for the attack.
Pakistain People's Party-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour also condemned the attack.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients of increasing volatility... Kohat chapter of ANP will stage a protest rally against the NATO attack on Sunday. ANP local leader Syed Saeed Shah Bokhari said that the violation of the illusory sovereignty of Pakistain had become habit of the NATO and Afghan forces that could not be tolerated.
He said that they would start from Martyrs Square at 11am and culminate at Shah Faisal Gate. He appealed to people to participate in the rally.
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl has also strongly condemned the attack.
JUI front man Abdul Jalil Jan said that his party, during a meeting, expressed grave concern over the frequent attacks by NATO forces. Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for... the rustics in North Wazoo Agency held a rally against the attack and strongly condemned the killing of Paks by NATO forces. They asked the government to stop NATO supplies to Afghanistan and take action against the drone attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
ANKARA: For a quarter century, defeating the Kurdish insurgency has been a pillar of Turkish state policy. Now, thats being called into question as the government takes stock of the fights cost and its role in hampering Turkeys ambitions for regional leadership.
The struggle against the Kurdish guerrilla organization, marking the 33rd anniversary of its foundation Sunday, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost Turkey hundreds of billions of dollars.
Turkey has superior firepower and now US-supplied drones to fight the rebels, but theres no clear path to victory. The government recently left the door open for future dialogue with the rebels while vowing to fight to maintain its military drive until they lay down arms.
We say it very clearly: We will struggle against terrorism until the end, but we will also negotiate with those who prefer politics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late September. Those who prefer politics can talk to us, others cant.
Analysts said the two-pronged message appeared aimed at keeping pressure on the Kurds while encouraging them to reach a political solution to the conflict.
In another gesture, Erdogan apologized Wednesday for the first time for the killings of nearly 14,000 people in a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the southeastern town of Dersim now known as Tunceli between 1936 and 1939. While the apology was less a policy shift than a political tactic to tarnish the reputation of the opposition party, which was in power at that time, it still signaled a softening of lines toward the Kurds.
Turkeys Islam-based government, praised for apparent economic stability since coming to power 2002, believes a solution to the Kurdish conflict would enable the country to transfer its energy and resources to development, and eventually make it a more powerful actor in the Middle East.
God willing, Turkey will fly when we solve this terrorism problem and traitors actions that we see as the biggest obstacle blocking Turkey path are ended, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Friday.
The government has recently admitted to holding secret talks with the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK last year but it was not clear whether the sides were again conferring amid an intensified fight that has killed dozens of rebels and Turkish soldiers since this summer.
Erdogan said this week that he fully supports the arrests of hundreds of alleged PKK supporters, including more than 40 Kurdish lawyers who are accused of relaying orders from imprisoned rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan and running their own courts in a separate power structure.
Kurdish lawmakers said the government was waging a campaign of intimidation.
The rebels and the countrys Kurdish political movement insist on autonomy and Kurdish education in schools, which Turkey fears could divide the country along ethnic lines.
The conflict has forced Turkey to acquire drones from Israel and the United States and develop armored personnel carriers that can withstand roadside bomb attacks by the rebels, who also resort to suicide and car bombings. The drones have enabled the military to stage pinpoint attacks against the elusive rebels, who often vanish into the mountains of the southeast or return to their bases across the border in Iraq.
Henri J. Barkey, a Turkey expert at Lehigh University in the United States, said that Erdogans political and military strategy was aimed at putting pressure on the PKK and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party to return to official talks.
This is possibly what he is trying to do in order to restart negotiations, Barkey said in an e-mail. Similarly, the PKK has been flexing its muscle to show that it can hurt the government.
The government has moved quite far by having secret talks with the PKK, there cannot be a return from this, he said.
But he cautioned that the current government strategy is a delicate one and can go awry.
A miscalculation could undermine everything because you are using violence and negotiations at the same time, said Barkey. Very tricky.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Egypt's military ruler on Saturday held separate talks with presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Mussa, the official MENA news agency said. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi met with both men, whose names had been touted by protesters camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding the end of military rule, as part of a national salvation government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
"I already said that if he wants to use a teleprompter, then it would be fine with me. It has to be fair. If you [were] to defend ObamaCare, wouldn't you want a teleprompter?" Gingrich asked.
"Now, just for a second I'm going to go in the detour and I'll try to explain why I've been and he'll say yes. There are two reasons. The first, is ego. Can you imagine him looking in the mirror? Graduate from Columbia, Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review journal. [Against] the greatest articulator in a Democratic book?"
"How is he going to say that he's afraid to be on the same podium as a West Georgia College student?"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As I said before, this would be a brilliant stunt. When Bammo declines, as he surely will, stage the debate with just the Teleprompter. Have it spew all of Bammo's tired lines. Newt will knock it out of the park.
#2
ION CHINA DAILY FORUM > PUTIN IN WARNING TO WEST.
Vlad warns the US-West not to interfere in Russian elections [where he is once again a candidate].
[EX-POTUS BILL "WHY-YES-THE-POTUS-ELECTIONS- WERE-STOLEN-FROM-BUSH-AND-DOLE" CLINTON here].
Because nothing proves righteous electoral legitimacy + corruptionism like formal Fed investigations into whether one had sex, or not, wid blue-dressed, "portly pepperpot" WH Babe interns.
[Yahoo News] Afghan troops who came under fire while operating near the Pakistain border called in the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Arclight airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pak soldiers at two posts along the frontier, Afghan officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it's unclear who attacked the Afghan troops before dawn Saturday, but that the soldiers were fired upon from the direction of the Pak border posts that were hit in the strikes. The border area where the soldiers were operating contains a mix of Pak forces and Islamist Death Eaters.
The incident has driven to new lows the United States' already tattered alliance with Pakistain, a relationship that is vital to winding down the 10-year-old Afghan war. The Pakistain army has said the alleged NATO attack was unprovoked and has insisted there wasn't Death Eater activity near the border posts in the Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... tribal area. Outraged by the strike, Islamabad closed its border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan and demanded the U.S. vacate a base used by American drones within 15 days.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[19 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I still believe that this attack was 'by design'. Even if the mighty Pak Army unit didn't fire on the Afghan forces (not saying they didn't, just theorizing), a few intelligently placed Talibunny snipers and/or 'rocket boys' could make it appear so. The inevitable 'counter-battery' aimed at the Pak posts was the desired result.
The bunnies (be they Haqqani or other) need the serious 'conflict' between the Paks and US. Even if this separation is short-lived, it buys them some time to resurrect their infrastructure and weapons/cash deliveries that have been 'stressed' of late.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/28/2011 7:54
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Pakistain army has said the alleged NATO attack was unprovoked and has insisted there wasn't Death Eater activity near the border posts in the Mohmand
shut your lying pie-holes
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/28/2011 7:55
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Actually, Frank, it's not impossible - the air stikes could have been called in by the Afghan troops who were themselves Taliban, intending to achieve exactly what happened. They could have faked the attack on themselves or had no actual attack underway at all.
#5
According to AP, it was Afghan troops who called in the strike because they were being fired upon:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) Afghan troops who came under fire while operating near the Pakistan border called in the NATO airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two posts along the frontier, Afghan officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it's unclear who attacked the Afghan troops before dawn Saturday, but that the soldiers were fired upon from the direction of the Pakistani border posts that were hit in the strikes. The border area where the soldiers were operating contains a mix of Pakistani forces and Islamist militants.
#8
Hopefully this is the trigger that sets our exit in motion. I don't care what the reason is, we need to get out of that hellhole, stop paying the Pakis for access to the hellhole and build our relationship with the Indians. Sooner the better.
âWe told them, hold your horses, these are ours,â the official said. While repeated urgent appeals went up the coalition chain of command, he said, the airstrike continued for an hour and a half against two Pakistani border positions and a contingent of troops.
[Yemen Post] Government attacks on pro opposition tribal areas continued Saturday morning in Bani Hushauish district, an outskirt of the capital 15 kilometers south.
Two non-combatants were killed in the government attacks.
Eyewitnesses said that strong air raids continued for more than two hours. At least six other civilians were maimed, one of them a child and is at death's door.
Raids against pro opposition tribes also took place in Nehm, Arhab, and Bani Hareth, all suburbs of the capital Sana'a.
Tribes in those areas have taken over the majority of the military bases claiming that government forces use them to bombard their houses and property.
The Yemen ruling family regime has been clashing with tribes loyal to the opposition for months now, resulting in casualties from both sides.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
[Emirates 24/7] Post-revolution Egypt, riven by political differences and violence, heads to the polls on Monday at the start of a chaotic election process to usher in democracy in the Arab world's most populous nation.
Ten months after the end of 30 years of autocratic rule by Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , ousted by popular protests in one of the seminal events of the Arab Spring, up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new parliament.
Voting will take place in three stages beginning on Monday in the main cities of Cairo, Alexandria and other areas in a drawn-out procedure that will finish in March and that has been criticised for its complexity.
The backdrop is ominous after a week of new protests calling for the resignation of the interim military rulers who stepped in after Mubarak's fall. Forty-two have been killed in the latest flare-up and more than 3,000 injured.
And in the early hours of Monday, saboteurs blew up a pipeline supplying gas to Israel, another reminder of the threat to the country's stability.
Masked gunnies planted explosives under the pipeline west of the town of El-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, witnesses told the official Mena news agency. It was the ninth such attack since this year.
On Sunday however, 18-year-old student Raghda was looking forward.
"It's our first chance to vote and the vote will have a value," Raghda told AFP in Tahrir Square, the cradle of Egypt's revolution where hundreds of thousands forced Mubarak's downfall.
The election itself looked in danger last week as unrest gripped the country, but military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi has stuck to the schedule and called for a large turnout.
Much remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year.
In the absence of polling data and a precedent for the vote, the results are difficult to call, but a party set up by the formerly banned Islamist Moslem Brüderbund is expected to emerge as the largest single grouping.
Hardline Islamists, secular parties and groups representing the interests of the former Mubarak regime are all expected to win seats, raising the prospect of a highly fragmented and ideologically split new parliament.
The stakes could not be higher for Egypt, the cultural leader of the Arab world, but the conduct and results of the election will also have repercussions for the entire Middle East at a time of wrenching change.
"For most Arabs, the primary examples of democratic processes in the Arab world are in Iraq and Leb," said Bruce Rutherford, a Middle East specialist and author on Egypt at the US-based Colgate University.
"In both cases, elections produced weak, fragmented, and largely ineffectual governments.
"If Egypt produces the same result, then the appeal of democracy in the region may be weakened. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... if the Egyptian experience is positive... the effect could be very powerful."
Egypt, with a fast-growing population of more than 80 million, is a former British protectorate ruled by military leaders for most of its history since independence in 1922.
The fresh protests last week stemmed from fears that Tantawi and his fellow generals, initially welcomed as a source of stability in the days after Mubarak's fall, were looking to consolidate their power.
They have pushed back the original timetable for handing over power to a civilian government and have demanded a final say on all legislation concerning the army in the future.
Critics say they have also been too quick to resort to the repressive techniques of the Mubarak regime, jailing dissidents and unleashing deadly violence on protesters, in a bid to maintain stability.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... the leading new civilian powers, the pro-democracy movement in Tahrir, the Moslem Brüderbund and future presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who took over as head of the Arab League about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... , have been caught in the uncertainty.
The Tahrir movement is deeply divided over whether to take part in the elections and lend legitimacy to the military rulers, while the Moslem Brüderbund has supported elections from which it expects to capitalise.
The ruling military council "must task the party which gains the biggest number of seats to form the next government," Brotherhood front man Mahmud Ghozlan told AFP on Sunday in a sign of their confidence.
After two days of voting in the first stage of the elections for the lower parliament, other cities and regions will follow on December 14 and January 3.
After these, another round of voting will take place from January 29 for the the upper house of parliament and presidential elections are to be held by no later than the end of June next year.
Mubarak, who is on trial for murder and corruption in Cairo along with his two sons, is expected to follow events on Monday from a military hospital in the capital where he is reportedly being treated for cancer.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Turkey will support a raft of sanctions on neighbor Syria agreed by the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... at a meeting in Cairo, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday.
"Turkey is supporting the decisions and measures taken by the vaporous Arab League against Syria," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency on the sidelines of the Cairo meeting, to which non-Arab Turkey was invited.
Davuoglu said the Arab League and Turkey were "in full agreement" concerning the Syrian crisis.
"Nobody can expect Turkey and the Arab League to remain silent on the killings of civilians and the Syrian regime's increasing oppression of innocent people," he said.
But the minister emphasized that the Syrian crisis should be handled in a way that would not lead to any outside intervention.
"I hope the Syrian administration will understand our message and the problem will be resolved within the family," he said.
On Sunday, Arab foreign ministers agreed a list of sweeping sanctions designed to cripple the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad, Lord of the Baath... which has defied international pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Turkey: Hey, look at us, we're important Muslims too. Acknowledge us!!
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/28/2011 8:37
Comments ||
Top||
[The Hill] Democrats in the Senate will push a plan this week to extend an expiring payroll tax cut, making up the lost revenue by imposing a surtax on Americans earning more than one million dollar, Sen. Chuck Schumer Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower. said on Sunday.
"The first thing we're going to do when we get back this week is put the payroll tax holiday on the floor in the Senate," said Schumer (N.Y.), the number three Democrat in the Senate on NBC's Meet the Press.
Republicans have expressed a willingness to extend the tax cut put in place under President B.O., but want other parts of the budget cut to offset the cost -- not a new tax imposed on the people they argue create the most jobs.
But forcing Republicans to vote against lower taxes for middle-class Americans in order to protect the tax rates for wealthier Americans allows Democrats to draw a clear line in the sand that they believe they can use to frame the argument against Republicans in 2012.
"If it doesn't pass once, we're going to put it on the floor again and again," Schumer said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
You are such infantile little rubes. And what the HELL is wrong with New York? Electing this pathetic dung assed creature to represent you to GOD and the World? Sad.
#3
"millionaire" tax = small to medium business tax. Won't bother the really big guys with their accountants and tax shelters, not one bit. But it will screw the people who create real jobs for working class.
#4
Of course, the additional funds collected from the millionaires will go into the general fund, not into the Social Security quote lockbox unquote.
"pay for". English is such a flexible language.
SS is in trouble - so what do they do, they decrease the revenues. Idiots.
And the average Joe will hardly notice the change in his take-home, so it's not much of a stimulus. Just the usual pander for votes. The people paying SS are the ones with jobs, by the way, not the ones who can't make ends meet because no one will hire them.
[An Nahar] Israeli warplanes watched two strikes on the Gazoo Strip overnight in response to rocket fire from the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-controlled Paleostinian territory, an army front man said in a statement Sunday.
"In response to rocket fire towards Israel this weekend, the airforce targeted sites of terrorist activity in the south and the center of the Gazoo strip during the night," said the front man.
Paleostinian in the Gazoo Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the Eshkol region of southern Israel on Saturday morning causing no casualties, Israeli police said.
Earlier this month, the Israeli chief of staff warned MPs that repeated rocket fire from Gazoo would push Israel into taking "aggressive" action in the Gazoo Strip.
Low-level unrest has rumbled in and around Gazoo this month but has not erupted into all-out fighting as it did on October 29-30 when tit-for-tat violence left 12 Paleostinian gunnies and an Israeli civilian dead.
Militant groups say they are observing an Egypt-brokered truce agreement but have reserved the right to reply to any Israeli fire. Israel has said it will target any gunnies poised to fire rockets across the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[Dawn] Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Sunday telephoned her US counterpart Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Charles Evans Hughes ... to convey Pakistain's "deep sense of rage" over cross-border NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air strikes, the foreign office said.
Khar said that attacks like Saturday's strike on military outposts that left at least 25 Pak soldiers dead were "totally unacceptable" as they contravened international law and violated Pak illusory sovereignty.
The Pak minister spoke to Clinton in the early hours of Sunday to inform her of decisions made by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet including blocking NATO supply routes, the foreign office said in a statement.
"The foreign minister conveyed to the secretary of state, the deep sense of rage felt across Pakistain at the senseless loss of 24 soldiers due to the NATO/ISAF attack on the Pak post," it said.
Khar said "such attacks are totally unacceptable. They demonstrate complete disregard for international law and human life, and are in stark violation of Pak illusory sovereignty".
"This negates the progress made by the two countries on improving relations and forces Pakistain to revisit the terms of engagement," Khar added.
The statement said that Clinton offered her condolences over the loss of life, said she was deeply saddened by the event, and conveyed the US government's intention to work with Pakistain to resolve the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Syrian forces killed at least 15 civilians on Sunday, six of them in the flashpoint region of Homs that has been under siege for several weeks in an operation to crush dissent, a rights group said.
The latest violence came as the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... voted to impose a raft of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow observers into the country.
Security forces killed one person during a raid in the Bayyada district of Homs city, and another civilian was rubbed out from the roof of a building in the town of Qusayr, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Four civilians were also killed in Al-Khalidiyeh when troops and security forces raided the neighborhood in Homs city, said the Britannia-based watchdog.
"Several people were maimed, some seriously, and the corpse count could rise," it added.
Near Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , six people were killed, including a 14-year-old boy, and 13 civilians were maimed as troops fired "indiscriminately" and made arrests in a raid on Rankuss district, said the Observatory.
Security forces killed at least two people and maimed eight others when they shot at mourners during the funeral of a man who had died in the eastern oil hub city of Deir al-Zour, it said.
Another person was killed in the Kafarnubol area of Idlib province in the northwest after being tossed in the calaboose by security forces "for selling fuel to cut-thoats," the group added.
Clashes also erupted between regular troops and deserters in the region of Talbisseh, another town in Homs province, said the watchdog in statements received in Nicosia. "Two troop transporters were destroyed."
In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of eight months of dissent against Assad's autocratic regime, mutinous soldiers attacked a military bus, wounding several troops, it said.
Security forces also tossed in the calaboose 17 people in raids on the village of Muhsen in Deir al-Zour province, it added.
Syrian authorities said security forces killed 12 gunnies during festivities with "terrorist groups" in Homs, state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA said, adding that similar festivities had occurred in Idlib and Daraa.
The Observatory's chief also reported that regime forces were carried out acts of vandalism in the Kafarnabuda region of Hama, further north of Homs province.
"Troops and security forces plundered shops, torched homes and cars owned by activists and tossed in the calaboose several cut-thoats," in Sunday morning raids, said Rami Abdul Rahman.
The Local Coordination Committees which organize anti-regime protest said several rallies were staged across the country, including four small ones in Damascus where demonstrators urged foreign intervention.
"He who says no to military intervention is a traitor," read one sign held by protesters, according to a YouTube video, in the restive Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun.
On Saturday, at least 23 civilians and 12 members of the security forces were killed in festivities across the country, activists said.
The 22-member Arab League agreed on Sunday to ban Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country, to freeze government assets, suspend flights and halt any transactions with the Syrian government and central bank.
State television said in a terse statement that the Arab decision to impose sanctions on a member state was "an unprecedented measure."
Several hundred Syrians gathered in a central Damascus square to denounce the move.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says he will be unable to pay the the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants, as Israeli economic sanctions start to bite.
Israel decided last month to suspend the monthly transfer of about $100 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of Fayyads Palestinian Authority. The transfers, along with foreign aid, are crucial for keeping Fayyads government afloat. Nearly one-third of the close to 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza depend on public sector salaries.
Fayyad told reporters Sunday that the sanctions have a devastating impact on the Palestinian economy.
Israel suspended the transfers in retaliation for Palestinian attempts to win international recognition for a state of Palestine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The arrogance of Fayyad:
We will seek statehood status & pose an existential threat to Israel, and expect Israel to keep paying us while we do it.
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/28/2011 8:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's what thet got used to in the last 17 years.
In her first interview on the subject with the Western press, Tatyana Limanova insisted that the middle finger had not been an insult but an indication to the television crew to raise the autocue.
Miss Limanova said she had not been brought up to make rude gestures and that most people had reacted to a simple misunderstanding with humour. She was horrified to discover that she had become known worldwide for the incident.
"The world is unfair," she told The Daily Telegraph. "I did not consider it necessary to justify myself (at the time) because it was so absurd. You can either take it seriously or view it as a curious incident. Most people in Russia reacted to it with humour.
"I really did not enjoy the celebrity. I am quite a private person and I was happy to remain famous in only narrow professional circles. It was unpleasant."
Speaking about her sacking by Russia's REN TV channel she added: "They summoned me on the day it happened for an explanatory chat and said they would be considering my future and then thought about it for a long time. After it went viral on the internet they fired me."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Raise the autocue" > Uh, uh, BECAUSE IT WAS TOO HARD TO USE THE [more approriate]FOREFINGER???
Or Other???
Not convinced - either someone in the crew asked her while on-air for a date, asked for sex, or else hated her or her writing/journalistic style.
Presuming, of course, that it wasn't a poke at Vlad + Dimitri.
* SPACEWAR > DID US CLIMATE WEAPON [Haarp = Alaska-based]KNOCK OUT RUSSIAN SPACE PROBE.
Iff youse are wondering why the Motherly Commie Airborne [North Koreans?] would invade ALCAN to arrest Siberia-watching, ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, well wonder no more!
* SAME > IRAN "BUILDS ITS OWN MISSLE DEFENSE SYSTEM".
Yokay, I'll bite, isn't taking over Russia's aersopace defense forces + missle sys part of COUNT DOOKU = DOKU UMAROV'S = ISLAMIC EMIRATE OF THE CAUCASUS' JOB DESCRIPTION ALA CHECHYA INSURGENCY???
[Telegraph UK] British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Shabaab Islamist myrmidon group warned Ethiopia Sunday that any military intervention in Somalia will result in "heavy" losses for its neighbour.
Ethiopian troops, who ended a three-year incursion in Somalia in 2009, were reported to have once again crossed the border last week as part of an offensive against the Shabaab, a claim denied by the government in Addis Ababa.
"This intervention will not be different than that of yesterday and will lead to heavy loss of your soldiers' lives, and be assured that ahead of you is painful death and ruthless imprisonment which will impact on the good living standards you wished for," the Shabaab statement said.
"We warn Ethiopia against another military intervention into Somalia," it said.
"The path you are taking today is the same that led you yesterday to taste death, the pain of bullets and the hardships of war," it read.
East African leaders urged Ethiopia Friday to support Kenyan, African Union and Somali troops battling Shabaab rebels in the war-torn Horn of Africa state.
Kenya deployed forces in October to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked beturbanned goons in southern Somalia, while the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is based in Mogadishu where it protects the weak Somali government from the rebels.
Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs front man Dina Mufti said his country's contribution "will be worked out soon."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Bangla Daily Star] Four suspected al-Qaeda jihad boys, one an Iraqi, have been killed in an ambush by tribal fighters allied to the military in south Yemen's Abyan province, a tribal source said yesterday.
The four were hit with rockets and artillery on Saturday "in a car belonging to Al-Qaeda" on the road from thriving provincial capital Zinjibar to Jaar, two towns held by snuffies linked to the Death Eater group, the source told AFP.
"The vehicle was burned to a cinder and the four people inside, including an Iraqi, were killed," added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Yahoo News] Hundreds of enraged Paks erupted into the streets across the country Sunday, burning an effigy of President Barack We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us Obama and setting fire to US flags after 24 soldiers died in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air strikes.
The rallies were organised by opposition and right-wing Islamist groups in major cities of the nuclear-armed country of 167 million people, where opposition to the government's US alliance is rampant.
In Bloody Karachi, the port city used by the United States to ship supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan, more than 700 people gathered outside the US consulate, an AFP photographer said.
They shouted: "down with America, stay away Americans, Pakistain is ours, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our army", while Pak riot police were deployed near the consulate.
Outside the press club in Bloody Karachi, dozens of political activists burnt an effigy of President B.O., an AFP photographer added.
In the central city of Multan, more than 300 activists loyal to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , as well as local traders erupted into the streets, burning US and NATO flags.
They carried placards and banners, and shouted: "down with America," "down with NATO," "Yankees go back", "vacate Afghanistan and Pakistain" and "stop drone attacks" -- a reference to a CIA drone war against Islamist beturbanned goons.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I hope whatever shenanigans the Pakistanis were up to that caused NATO to strike them was worth this response.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm sure both of his viewers agree.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
11/28/2011 7:40
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I don't think of the word uppity as being racist. Other people from a different time and place may have different connotations but to me it simply means that a person has aspirations. What's wrong with that?
Example: Having just defeated the San Diego Chargers and moved into second place in the NFL's AFC Western Division standings, the formerly last place Denver Broncos are beginning to get a little uppity.
[Jerusalem Post] Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that the Islamic Theocratic Republic has up to 150,000 missiles pointed at Israel, according to the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency.
According to the report, Vahidi questioned threats against the Islamic Theocratic Republic from Jerusalem, asking "How many missiles have they prepared themselves for? 10,000? 20,000? 50,000? 100,000, 150,000 or more?"
On Saturday, Tehran made a rare threat against Turkey, saying it could target the recently installed NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... anti-missile shield in any future conflict.
The chain of military warnings from the Islamic Theocratic Republic intensified after the release of a damning ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency report, which claimed that Iran has continued to covertly develop nuclear-weapons technology.
That report was followed by increased sanctions from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada on Iran's energy and financial sectors last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
if the Russians still have a TSAR bomb... that ought to be big enough for 1 to sink the mullahoracy.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/28/2011 1:24
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Or is it 150,000 mistletoes?
After all, 'tis the season!
Posted by: no mo uro ||
11/28/2011 7:56
Comments ||
Top||
#3
They may have 150,000 POINTED towards Israel - not saying any could actually go that far.
#7
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and anyone else in the area may not be so happy about having half of those rockets flying over their heads. I figure half of however many rockets there really are are probably based in Lebanon and Syria.
[An Nahar] Hizbullah, Israel, Iran, and Turkey are all gearing up for an escalation in the developments in the region over the crisis in Syria, a diplomat told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily in remarks published on Sunday.
He said Hizbullah is preparing for the confrontation by removing its rockets from its hideouts, noting that last week's Siddiqin kaboom took place when the party hastily set up the rockets.
In addition, he said that the Turkish army has prepared three brigades to take part in the logistical implementation of possible Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... sanctions on Syria.
He stated that La Belle France's suggestion to set up humanitarian corridors in Syria mat be a precursor to Turkish intervention that may pave way to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... 's interference.
Israel has also deployed regiments along its border with Leb and the Golan Heights, revealed the diplomat.
He spoke of European intelligence reports in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and Beirut on Wednesday that said 150 Iranian experts, who are part of the Revolutionary Guard, had arrived at a Syrian military airport south of the capital as a precursor to sending them to Hizbullah in Leb.
The diplomat interpreted the development as a sign that Tehran and Hizbullah are awaiting "dramatic" developments by Turkey and Israel against Syria, Hizbullah, and the Lebanese army and state in order to take the necessary retaliation.
He predicted that the Syrian regime and Hizbullah are nearing their end, as is Iran's role in the region.
This will consequently lead to the toppling of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government, which will fail to fund the Special Tribunal for Leb, he remarked.
An kaboom rocked the southern town of Siddiqin last week.
Media reports said that it took place at a Hizbullah arms depot.
The party denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! while the Lebanese army said that the kaboom may have been caused by a mine or cluster bomb left over from Israeli assaults against Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Latest ....
WORLD NEWS > [Top Iran Cleric warning]IRAN THREATENS TO DESTABILIZE SAUDI ARABIA:AL-SAUD [Ruling Dynasty] SHOULD GIVE UP POWER. or face fates vee Arab Spring uprisings similar to that of the now-former or dead leaders of Egypt, Libya, + Tunisia.
* SAME > IRGC: MILITARY ACTION AGZ IRAN LEAVES UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES.
* SAME > IRAN QUDS FORCE CHIEF DEFIES US, SAYS READY TO DIE [martrydom].
[Emirates 24/7] Witnesses and authorities say at least four people died in an apparent attack on a northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... city that saw churches and businesses burned to the ground.
The attack happened Saturday night in the city of Geidam in Nigeria's Yobe state, which sits near the country's arid border with Niger.
Witnesses say attackers blew up a local cop shoppe and attacked a bank, as well as set fire to businesses and at least eight churches.
Yobe state police commissioner Sulaiman Lawal declined to comment Sunday, referring calls to the national police headquarters, where no one answered calls. Emergency officials declined to immediately comment.
The attacks come after a Nov. 4 attack in the state capital claimed by the radical Mohammedan sect known as Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... that killed more than 100 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Dawn] Hussain Haqqani's was definitely last week's most watched media trial on prime time TV. Far from being done with him, this Thursday, the media found a new newsmaker in one Zainab Bibi. The woman 'confessed' to the police, under the camera glare, that she had indeed murdered her husband and then tried to cook his body parts just when the neighbours raised alarm and called in the cops. The reason for the brutal murder: he was a drunkard and used to beat up his wife and step daughter.
You might think that the most disgusting aspect of the uncanny show was the TV anchor interviewing her at the cop shoppe, and self-righteously grilling her to extract step-by-step gory details of the crime. But think again, for this is Pak media which does not know where to stop.
Cut to the studio, and the same anchor had on live calls a Mufti Sahab and a woman rights activist. The maulana hurriedly declared Zainab Bibi a liar and doubted her statement as to the motive of killing her husband; the rights activist condemned the murder and asked the maulana to also condemn in similar words the killer of Salmaan Taseer. This is where the anchor's wish was granted and all hell broke loose.
The maulana categorically stated that Qadri in his love for the Prophet of Islam was overwhelmed by the blasphemy committed by the former governor, Punjab and killed him. It was a crime of passion, committed in the heat of the moment, which did not allow the murderer the time to think clearly. In the normal course, Qadri should have brought a blasphemy case against the governor.
This was too much to fathom for the rights activist and a two-way shouting match ensued. The maulana accused the rights activist of being westernised in her thinking; she in turn accused the maulana of being ill-mannered because of his bad upbringing. The anchor took a commercial break after failing to silence either of them.
A few questions of media and police ethics arise here: Why was the anchor allowed to interview the accused at length at the cop shoppe to prove her culpability beyond a doubt to his audience, who sat in jury on her? Why did the anchor give ready credence to Zainab's confession? Why were a maulana and a rights activist selected to debate the issue? A murder had been committed, and neither the holy man nor the rights activist qualified as a criminologist or a sociologist.
Given the mudslinging that ensued between the two panelists who championed very different and unrelated causes to the crime that was committed, the show ratings must have gone through the roof, thus serving the cause of the channel and not of justice, much less of holding an intelligent debate.
The take-home for the audience: the self-confessed murderer wife shall burn in hell alongside the rights activist who, it seemed, was cornered into defending the 'murderer', citing high incidence of domestic violence in which mostly women are the victims. The maulana conveniently 'established' the non-credibility of the rights activist because most NGOs that play up violence against women in the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Pakistain are funded by anti-Islam donors and manned by westernised Paks who seek their guidance from the West and not the Koran and Sunnah. The maulana also ostensibly scored a high point by asking the rights activist to repent for what she had to say on Salmaan Taseer's murder.
The missing gap -- and a gaping hole it is -- lies in the fact that Pakistain has 21st century information technology to showcase only medieval mindsets. Religion remains the prism through which everything and every issue must be seen for any validation.
A sorry state to be in, indeed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Yemen Post] Local sources in Dammaj, Sa'ada told the Yemen Post that at least 24 non-combatants were killed in the ongoing Houthi attacks in Dammaj Sa'ada against Sunni Moslems.
The injury toll over the last 24 hours is more than 65.
Houthis, a pro Shia movement in Yemen that is expanding quickly with the use of arms, has been able to grow in territory during the 10 months struggle to oust President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... from power.
Residents in Sa'ada told the Yemen Post that Houthi snipers are placed on mountain tops shooting anything that moves.
Senior members in the movement said that more than 100,000 fighters listen to commands from their spiritual leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
Sectarian violence is at peak in northern Yemen where Houthis control majority lands that spread in five Yemeni provinces.
They myrmidon group now control strategic border areas with Soddy Arabia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
[Dawn] Pakistain's ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi joined forces with cricketer-politician Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... Sunday, becoming the most high-profile defector to his growing campaign to win the next general election.
Qureshi made the announcement at a rally led by Khan in the southern town of Ghotki, part of the broad hinterland in the southern province of Sindh and central province of Punjab where the former minister is considered powerful.
"I announce I am joining a movement, which is struggling to win justice for people," Qureshi said of Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) which is fast emerging as a powerful player in the run-up to elections due early 2013.
Qureshi lost his position as cabinet minister in a February reshuffle. He was offered another portfolio, which he refused, and this month resigned as politician representing the main ruling Pakistain People's Party (PPP).
"Winds of change have now begun," Qureshi told the rally attended by several thousand supporters 420 kilometres (260 miles) north of Bloody Karachi, Pakistain's port city used by the US to ship supplies to landlocked Afghanistan.
"I am embarking on a new journey and from today onwards, Shah Mehmood is part of your team," he told Khan to thunderous applause.
Qureshi fell out with President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... around the time of the reshuffle and says he withstood pressure to approve diplomatic immunity for a CIA contractor who killed two Paks in Lahore in January.
He used the rally to criticise Zardari, whose five-year mandate expires in 2013, a day after Pakistain was plunged into fresh crisis with the US over accusations that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers on the Afghan border.
"They have indulged in loot and plunder," he said. "The time has come to seek a fresh mandate from the people," Qureshi added.
Khan, a staunch critic of the US alliance, condemned the NATO strike and demanded that Pakistain order all CIA agents to leave in protest.
"We should raise the issue at the UN Security Council because it was an attack on our country and soldiers," he said.
"We need not bow before any one. The time has come to build a new Pakistain by introducing a new system reflecting will of the people."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Senior politicians suggested Sunday that the US take a harder line with Pakistain, after Islamabad retaliated for NATO's ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... deadly misfire by closing parts of its border with Afghanistan and demanding the US vacate a drone base.
The comments by Sens. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, and Dick Durbin, ...Senator-for-Life from Illinois and Democratic Party Whip. In April 2006, Time magazine identified Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators, so what's that tell you? He was the first United States Senator to support the presidential candidacy of Barack The campaign's over, John Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois.... an Illinois Democrat, show how strained Pakistain's relationship with the US, and Congress specifically, has become in recent months.
Lawmakers approve billions of dollars in military and civilian aid for Pakistain with the expectation that its government will help target al-Qaeda operatives and push Afghan gunnies toward peace talks
.
"There's a lot of diplomacy that has to occur and it has to be tough diplomacy in the sense that they need to understand that our support for them financially is dependent upon their cooperation with us," said Kyl, the Senate's No. 2 Republican.
Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said Pakistain's latest move is further evidence that the US must end its military involvement in the region and bring troops home.
"As difficult as it is to fight our way thru this diplomatic morass between the incompetence and maybe corruption of Afghanistan and the complicity in parts of Pakistain, our soldiers are caught right in the middle of this at a time they are trying to bring peace to the region," Durbin said.
NATO says it is investigating its likely involvement in Saturday's attack, which killed 24 Pak troops along the Afghan border. Afghan officials say their soldiers called for help after being fired upon from the direction of Pak border posts.
Outraged by the attacks and claiming they were unprovoked, Islamabad swiftly closed its border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan and demanded the US vacate within 15 days a base used by American drones.
The blockade is guaranteed to frustrate Congress, already incensed that Pakistain never tipped off the US to the late Osama bin Laden ... who has won the race to that place where we all eventually end up... 's hideout within its borders.
While calling for tougher diplomacy with Pakistain, Kyl said he would stop short of cutting off US aid entirely to Pakistain. He said that severing ties in the past has only led to an increased influence of Islamic gunnies among Pakistain's military ranks.
"It's very important to maintain the relationship for the long haul," he said, without offering more specifics on how that might be done.
Durbin suggested the U.S. back out from the region from a military standpoint.
"We've got to leave it to Afghan forces," he said. Kyl and Durbin spoke on "Fox News Sunday."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A rare sight in hard-luck Youngstown, a new industrial plant, has generated hope that a surge in oil and natural gas drilling across a multistate region might jump-start a revival in Rust Belt manufacturing.
The $650 million V&M Star mill, located along a desolate stretch that once was a showcase for American industry, is to open by year's end and produce seamless steel pipes for tapping shale formations.
It will mean 350 new jobs in Youngstown, a northeast Ohio city that is struggling with 11 percent unemployment.
V&M Star's parent company Vallourec, based in Boulogne-Billancourt, La Belle France, hopes increased interest in shale formations will produce a ready-made market.
Vast stores of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations have set off a rush to grab leases and secure permits to drill. Industry estimates show the Marcellus boom could offer robust job numbers for 50 years.
Similar hopes are alive in Lorain, Ohio, where U.S. Steel will add 100 jobs with a $100 million upgrade of a plant that makes seamless pipe for the construction, oil-gas exploration and production industries. Erin DiPietro, a company spokeswoman in Pittsburgh, said the expansion will make the Lorain operation more competitive and help it tap into expanding shale developments.
The mayors of both Ohio cities see a chance to revive manufacturing through shale drilling.
"For every manufacturing job there are between five and seven ancillary jobs created within the community that support those manufacturing jobs," said Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko. His city has a 10.6 percent unemployment rate.
Companies are trying to spin off more work from shale development, and every bit will be a plus, according to Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone. "I just know this: the money they will spend will help the economy," he said.
Those benefiting from shale development include American Railcar Industries of St. Charles, Mo., with an order backlog that is the largest since 2008. The company, with operations across the U.S, was helped by demand for freight cars used in the shale industry.
One of the biggest manufacturing projects on the shale developing horizon is the plan for a multibillion-dollar Shell Oil Co. petrochemical refinery. Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are competing for the plant, which would convert natural gas liquids to other chemicals that go into everything from plastics to tires to antifreeze.
"What they're talking about at this stage is, you're looking at the next gold rush," said Martin Abraham, science-engineering dean at Youngstown State University.
One study backed by the oil and gas industry predicted developing oil and gas reserves could create or support more than 200,000 jobs in the next four years just in Ohio, where Hess Corp. recently made a series of mineral-rights purchases worth $750 million.
But the project is not without controversy.
Susan Helper, a Case Western Reserve University professor who studies manufacturing issues, said such job projections are suspect, in part because the estimate of natural gas reserves may be inflated.
She said the industry and politicians have a self-interest in rosy projections. "It's a way of saying to environmentalists and others that say slow down, 'Gee, you're preventing all this potential great job growth here'," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"It's jus' like th' good ol' days, Clyde. I wants me some uniom..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2011 0:05
Comments ||
Top||
#2
>It will mean 350 new jobs in Youngstown, a northeast Ohio city that is struggling with 11 percent unemployment.
More than that! That's just the direct employment. Probably another 100 or so indirect jobs created.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/28/2011 1:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Obama has already put a stop to drilling in Wayne National Forest in SE Ohio to placate the eco-wackos in his base. The Obama EPA is also closing coal fired electric plants in Ohio.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
11/28/2011 7:29
Comments ||
Top||
#6
In August, the U.S. Geological Survey said the Marcellus Shale region from New York to Ohio contains some 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas, far more than thought nearly a decade ago. Some geologists have put the figure even higher, but those estimates are controversial.
The Utica formation covers much of eastern Ohio and crosses through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Permits allowing hydraulic fracturing in Ohio's portion of the Marcellus and the deeper Utica Shale have risen from one in 2006, to four in 2009, to at least 32 this year, state records show. Pennsylvania has nearly 3,500 Marcellus wells sunk, most since 2008, and more than 500 permits have been issued this year in West Virginia.
How did all those permits get past the tree-huggers? Were they all focused on the BP spill? Maybe that was the plan!
Environmentalists are critical of the process, which utilizes chemical-laced water and sand to blast deep into the ground and free the shale gas. Critics fear the process itself or the drilling liquid, which can contain carcinogens, could contaminate water supplies, either below ground, by spills, or in disposed wastewater.
I suspect all the fracking occurs well below the drinking water table, certainly so for the deeper Utica formation.
Mark Brownstein, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, said it's up to regulators and drillers to make sure shale industry jobs are created while protecting the environment.
That seems a particularly adult statement.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/28/2011 7:53
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Bobby Hello, and yes for your addition. A much larger seam is about 2000 feet down. Something like 8 feet thick. In the same areas. Technology I understand is not able just yet to tap this find.
#11
I posted two links related to this subject. The HufF and Puff and Ice age now. They didn't take so I guess it was considered spam. The November 7th quake was determined to be not related to fracking or oil wells. We are in a very active earthquake and volcanic period. Oklahoma city is on top of one shallow quake should we relocate it. The magnetic North Pole has been moving 40km/year towards Moscow. Titanic events are occurring 24/7 under our feet.
#12
I posted two links related to this subject. The HufF and Puff and Ice age now. They didn't take so I guess it was considered spam.
Dale, a great many more articles are submitted than the moderators publish. Rantburg focusses on the War on Terror, with a small admixture of other articles of interest. The articles you summarize are interesting, but not really appropriate for Rantburg, which is why they were not published.
#15
Voters are going to have to dump this current administration to get out of the dumper and for there to be any real (as opposed to sham green) energy- related jobs.
#16
I will say the oil shale boom has sent the price of recreational property through the roof here in Ohio and in parts of Kentucky. Doubled, in some cases. Some people are being paid as much for mineral rights as they paid for their land originally.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/28/2011 18:53
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Rob Crawford yes but also farmland. Good farmland is being purchased at record prices. I know the Japanese were purchasing among other things cemeteries. Food production looks to be the ticket for investment.
[Emirates 24/7] Colombian army Sergeant Luis Alberto Erazo returned to Bogota Sunday from 12 years of captivity by FARC rebels, a day after managing to escape during a battle as four other hostages were executed.
Erazo, 40, who had been held by the Marxist rebels since December 9, 1999, arrived in the capital by helicopter and was taken in an ambulance to a hospital for treatment, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The soldier, who suffered shrapnel wounds to the face as rebels in hot pursuit tossed a grenade at him, made no comment to the media. He was reunited with his girlfriend, his 16-year-old daughter and other family members.
Erazo beat feet from a rebel encampment in southern Colombia on Saturday where army forces were hunting for possible hostages. During the clash, FARC rebels executed four hostages but Erazo was later found alive.
President Juan Manual Santos visited Erazo on Sunday, saying it was "really moving to see this national hero" but also hailing the "heroism" of the four hostages killed "in cold blood."
Santos also said he had "mixed feelings, seeing the happiness of this sergeant and his family, while at the same time understanding the pain of the other four families."
The hostages had been held at a FARC encampment in the remote Solano region of southern Colombia.
Those who died were identified as Colonel Edgar Yesid Duarte, Lieutenants Elkin Hernandez and Alvaro Moreno, and Sergeant Jose Libio Martinez, the FARC's longest-held hostage who was kidnapped nearly 14 years ago in a rebel ambush.
After the latest executions, 14 police and soldiers remain in FARC hands. Some have spent more than a decade in captivity.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a narco mob based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC), believed to have 8,000 members, has been at war with the government since 1964. It began a campaign of kidnappings in the mid-1980s, seizing army hostages to serve as bargaining chips for FARC prisoners.
By the late 1990s, civilians and politicians were also being snatched, winning the group greater notoriety.
New FARC chief Timoleon Jimenez has taken a hard line since taking over from Alfonso Cano, bumped off in a November 4 firefight with Colombian government forces.
Several citizen groups meanwhile called for a march December 6 to protest the violence and call for the release of all FARC hostages.
Separately, a representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia denounced the killings of the hostages and said that the FARC could face charges of crimes against humanity for such offenses.
"These liquidations reflect a terrible lack of humanity and complete disregard for human life," the agency's representative Christian Salazar said.
"These irrational acts are not isolated or sporadic. They are war crimes which could be classified as crimes against humanity."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
[Dawn] Pakistain on Sunday buried 24 troops killed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... cross-border air raid that has pushed a crisis in relations with the United States towards rupture. NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two Pakistain military outposts on Saturday, killing the soldiers in what Pakistain said was an unprovoked assault.
Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. NATO and US officials expressed regret about the deaths of the Pak soldiers, but the exact circumstances of the attack were unclear.
So it was a provoked assault, after all.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Although America should not act alone against Syria, U.S. leadership is needed to galvanize a coalition for effective action. That means President Obama will need to put away any lingering illusions about the desirability of maintaining Assad in power and do whatever is needed to help topple him swiftly, thereby limiting the physical and psychological damage to the Syrian people and easing the work of rebuilding a free Syria.
#3
I should prefer the US not get involved in this situation until there are people with sanity at the helm of our nation. It's just not the time or place for the 8 year old's to get involved with.
#8
Max Boot, born in Moscow, urging Americans to fight war after war in the Middle East powder keg (and Yugoslavia). Hmmm...and we should listen to him why?
[An Nahar] Phalange Party The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology. leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday accused the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... of obstructing the functioning of state institutions, noting that the opposition March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... camp was only interested in seeing the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb being funded by Premier Najib Miqati's government.
In an interview with Al-Jadeed television, Gemayel warned that "we don't have time to enter a power impasse because the international community, the (U.N.) Security Council and the (Special) Tribunal (for Leb) will not wait for us."
"I don't believe that there is a tribunal as upright and credible as the STL, and it is highly unlikely that the court is politicized, as it comprises judges who hail from all the countries and the trials are being held in public," he added.
Separately, Gemayel also stressed that "the approach of resistance has fallen."
"The Resistance's weapons destroyed the country in 2006, so how can we describe that as a victory? We labeled everything that took place before 2000 as an occupation and appreciated Hizbullah's brave stance, but after that years several U.N. resolutions were issued, such as (Security Council Resolution) 1701, and the resistance became useless and approach of resistance ended."
"Resistance against whom? The UNIFIL (United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Interim Force in Leb)? We have transited from the approach of resistance to the approach of defense, and the approach of defense should be entrusted to the Lebanese army, not to Hizbullah," Gemayel added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the Syrian regime and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, under the slogan "The Fall of Weapons, The Spring of Independence."
The rally organized by the Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement, the main opposition party headed by ex-premier Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. , came amid mounting tension over the financing of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb and the revolt in neighboring Syria.
"We initially backed Sheikh Saad for the sake of Leb's freedom, but now we also support him for Syria's freedom and to rid the country of Hizbullah's weapons and the regime of (Syrian President) Bashir al-Assad," said Mohammed Alameddin, 27.
Mohammed Hamdash, a 40-year-old bank employee, said he was taking part in the demonstration in the northern port city to denounce the Hizbullah-led government.
"We are here to say that we are against this government imposed by Hizbullah," he said, as fellow demonstrators waved Lebanese and party flags as well as pictures of Saad Hariri and his father Rafik.
In the the first speech during the rally, Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Kabbara said "Assad's hegemony over Leb must be toppled and we should put an end to the criminal weapons that are accused of killing our deaders."
"This government will first fall in Tripoli before it falls in the rest of Leb and there is nothing called the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... , as those who send gunnies to Syria to attack its people are not a resistance movement," Kabbara said.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati has threatened to resign should his cabinet refuse to pay Leb's 49 percent share of funding to the STL. The ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... have also hinted that they might resign over dissatisfaction with the government's performance and Miqati's policies.
"Haven't they learned from the Beirut Spring that people are stronger than all tyrants and that police states would fall in the face of the people's resolve," Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr said in his speech at the rally.
"This government does not need to be toppled because it is already toppled in people's minds, as it rose to power through a coup perpetrated on a black day ... after the disavowal of the promises and the pledges," he added.
"What kind of a 'resistance act' was being plotted in Tripoli and why are the seized weapons being described as arms belonging to the Resistance?" Jisr wondered, accusing Hizbullah of arming groups in the northern city.
For his part, MP Marwan Hamade -- who had broken from the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc of Druze leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... over refusal to vote for Miqati for the premiership in the binding parliamentary consultations -- urged the premier "not to allow the killers to remain on the loose."
"I will not feel sorry for Hizbullah's falling and tumbling government and I will never forgive Assad's criminal regime," Hamade stressed.
"I call on him (Miqati), from here, not to let justice be defeated at the hands of his limping government and never to forgive those who had first slaughtered his friend, ex-PM martyr Rafik Hariri, before slaying the son of his city, the hero and young martyr (slain Intelligence Bureau officer) Wissam Eid," Hamade went on to say.
He urged President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... and Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... "not to let Leb be captivated by the grand prison."
"I will not urge the party which has described the accused as being sacred (Hizbullah) or the Aounist movement (of MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... ) ... because they are part of the grand prison of totalitarianism," Hamade charged.
"Who would fear the tribunal other than the accused, the criminals and the accomplices who are covering up for them."
Hamade called for returning to "the democratic roots."
"No to eliminating anyone in the name of fake proportional representation," the MP said of the proposed proportional representation electoral system, which has been slammed by Jumblat on fear it might slash his parliamentary bloc.
"No my brother, Najib, tomorrow will not be another day as you have claimed, as those present here are pursuing the path of freedom and justice," Hamade vowed.
He also called on the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... to launch "an initiative that would besiege the killer of Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... ," calling on the Lebanese authorities to "implement the Arab initiative in its entirety."
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... MP Boutros Harb said that Hizbullah's weapons have "impeded national dialogue and put us before two choices: compliance or civil war."
But he wondered "among whom would civil war erupt if all the Lebanese do not want that."
"Weapons would eventually kill those carrying them and we don't want to kill or be killed," Harb stressed.
The STL has indicted four Hizbullah operatives in connection with the murder. The party has refused to hand over the four members and has dismissed the court as an "American-Israeli plot."
Miqati was appointed premier after Hizbullah and its allies forced the collapse of Saad Hariri's government over its refusal to cut ties with the court based in The Netherlands.
Although Miqati pledged after taking office to uphold Leb's international commitments, Hizbullah and its allies in the cabinet are insisting that the country stop all cooperation with the tribunal.
The funding of the STL is due to be discussed at a crucial cabinet meeting next Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Iran's parliament voted Sunday to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that other countries could also be punished.
The bill they adopted, which now has to go to the Guardians Council for approval, demands Iran's ambassador to Britannia also be withdrawn as diplomatic relations are reduced to the level of charge d'affaires.
Economic and trade relations with Britannia, already meager, would be pared "to the minimum" under the text, which requires the measures be effected within two weeks.
The politicians also raised the possibility of punishing "other countries that behave in a manner similar to that of Britannia."
"This is only the beginning," parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani warned.
The session, carried live on state radio, saw 179 deputies vote in favor of the text, four against, and 11 abstain.
On Wednesday, when the bill was introduced, Britannia said "it would be regrettable" if its ambassador to Tehran, Dominick Chilcott, were to be expelled. Chilcott took up his post last month.
Britannia, whose City of London is the world's biggest financial center alongside New York, said on November 14 it was "ceasing all contact" between its financial system and that of Iran.
That measure, announced in coordination with similar sanctions by the United States and Canada, came a week after a report by the U.N. atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons.
Britannia and Canada have embassies in Tehran. The United States does not, having closed it after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Canada's mission is already headed only by a charge d'affaires.
Iran has dismissed the U.N. report as "baseless" and insists its nuclear program is for entirely peaceful purposes.
On Wednesday, Britannia called for senior levels of contact to be maintained despite the strains.
Prior to Chilcott taking up his post, the British mission in Tehran was run by the embassy's charge d'affaires.
"We believe that it is important to maintain senior channels of communication and especially at times like these. It is only through dialogue that we can solve the problems we face," a front man for Britannia's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.
But Larijani said Sunday that "the British government should be aware that the Majlis (Iran's parliament) is monitoring its actions carefully."
The bill's author, Allaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said: "Should Britannia cease its hostile approach to Iran, then we can upgrade ties once more."
Several politicians had wanted to take the bill further, by cutting off all diplomatic relations with Britannia.
"We must sever all ties with Britannia," said one, Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash. "We must place a lock on the British embassy and ignore them until they come begging like the Americans."
Another, Hossein Sobhaninia, said: "Lawmakers should give a crushing response to British threats."
And another, Zohreh Elahian, charged Britannia had an "agenda of sedition aimed at toppling the Islamic republic" following Iran's contested 2009 presidential election.
A protest against the new sanctions was planned for Tuesday in front of the British embassy, the Fars news agency reported.
EU nations were expected to unveil more sanctions against Iran at a foreign ministers meeting next Thursday. La Belle France has called for a freeze on Iranian central bank assets and an embargo on Iranian oil.
Iran is already subject to four sets of U.N. sanctions designed to pressure it to halt its uranium enrichment activities, as well as unilateral Western sanctions.
Russia and China have slammed the latest Western sanctions, calling them illegal and a barrier to resuming stalled negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Emirates 24/7] A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and maimed 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.
The kaboom, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday.
The blast was so powerful it caused much of the second floor to collapse, blew off the hotel roof and shattered glass panes and windows from nearby buildings, Zamboanga city Mayor Celso Lobregat said.
Two of the maimed were at death's door in a hospital, he said.
Zamboanga, a bustling city where U.S. counterterrorism troops are based, has been hit by deadly bombings blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... cut-throats in the past.
The blast occurred in room 226 on the second floor of the hotel, instantly killing two people staying in two adjacent rooms, which were devastated by the blast. A third body was found dead Monday on the ground floor, pinned by the cement slabs that collapsed from above.
Initial investigation pointed to a bomb, Lobregat said, adding that he has asked Zamboanga residents to stay calm.
"We should not show that we're panicking because that is what these troublemakers relish to see," Lobregat told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by telephone. "We have good leads; we will get all of them."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
[Dawn] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday he had written to Pakistain premier Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... to express regret over the "tragic, unintended" deaths of 24 Pak soldiers in an Arclight airstrike.
"I have written to the Prime Minister of Pakistain to make it clear that the deaths of Pak personnel are as unacceptable and deplorable as the deaths of Afghan and international personnel," he said in a statement. "This was a tragic unintended incident."
"I offer my deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the Pak officers and soldiers who bit the dust or were maimed, and to the government and people of Pakistain, following the regrettable incident along the Afghan-Pak border," Rasmussen added.
Pakistain says two border posts were fired upon "unprovoked" in the early hours of Saturday in Pakistain's tribal Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... district.
An investigation of the incident is likely to ask whether Afghan and American troops on the Afghan side of the border were fired upon first -- whether by Orcs and similar vermin or Pak military.
According to a report in the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , A NATO front man, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, offered details suggesting that allied and Afghan troops operating near the border came under fire from unknown enemies and summoned coalition warplanes for help.
The NY Times report stated that: "In the early night hours of this morning, a force consisting of Afghan forces and coalition forces, in the eastern border area where the Durand Line is not always 100 per cent clear, got involved in a firefight," General Jacobson said, according to a transcript of his statements on NATO TV that the alliance provided American officials on Saturday.
Pakistain on Sunday conveyed its "rage" to the United States over cross-border NATO air strikes and ordered a full-scale review of its frosty alliance with Washington and the military bloc.
Pakistain represents a vital life-line to supply 130,000 foreign troops fighting in landlocked Afghanistan, and Rasmussen joined US efforts in a scramble to salvage the alliance.
"I fully support the ISAF investigation which is currently underway," he said of the International Security Assistance Force fighting the war and which includes non-NATO allies.
"We will determine what happened, and draw the right lessons," Rasmussen added.
"NATO remains strongly committed to work with Pakistain to improve cooperation to avoid such tragedies in the future."
Earlier Sunday, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar telephoned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Timothy Pickering ... and conveyed a "deep sense of rage" as the military organised a joint funeral for the 24 troops who died.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Arab foreign ministers agreed a list of sweeping sanctions Sunday designed to cripple the Syrian regime which has defied pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests.
The 22-member Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... agreed to ban Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country, to freeze government assets, suspend flights and halt any transactions with the Syrian government and central bank.
The sanctions, announced by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani after a meeting in Cairo, are the first time the organization has taken such economic measures against another country in the region.
"We hope that (the Syrian regime) puts an end to the massacres so that this resolution (authorizing sanctions) is not put into force," said Sheikh Hamad, but he added that "the signs are not positive."
He also called for "an end to the massacres, the freeing of prisoners and the withdrawal of tanks" from Syrian cities.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said in a terse statement that the decision to impose sanctions on a member state was "an unprecedented measure" while several hundred Syrians gathered in a central Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... square to denounce the move.
Long seen as a weak institution dominated by the region's autocrats, the vaporous Arab League has taken on an increasingly activist role during the pro-democracy Arab Spring demonstrations of the past 12 months.
Nineteen of the Arab League's 22 members voted for the sanctions, but Iraq abstained and said it would refuse to implement them, while Leb "disassociated itself," Sheikh Hamad said.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose country has close economic ties with Syria and a large refugee community in its western neighbor, had said beforehand that it was "not possible" to impose sanctions on Assad's regime.
Even without Iraq's participation, the impact is expected to be crippling on a country already facing a raft of EU and U.S. sanctions, and which depends on its Arab neighbors for half of its exports and a quarter of its imports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has also said his government will harmonize measures with those of the Arab League, saying that Ankara's former ally had missed its "last chance" by failing to heed the Arab ultimatum.
Damascus has defied an ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan and put an end to the eight-month crackdown which the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... says has killed more than 3,500 people.
Syrian Economy Minister Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar told Agence La Belle France Presse before the decision that sanctions would be "very unfortunate because the damage will be to all sides."
In a letter to the Arab League on Saturday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the organization of seeking to "internationalize" the crisis in his country.
The violence showed no sign of abating, however, with Syrian security forces accused of killing at least 15 civilians on Sunday, six of them in the flashpoint region of Homs that has been under siege for several weeks.
Iraq also abstained from a vote earlier this month that saw the Arab League decide to suspend Syria's membership and threaten sanctions, while Leb joined Yemen and Syria itself in opposing the resolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenya has filed a case at the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council asking for investigations into Eritrea's links with Al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... terror group.
Kenya's Permanent Representative at the UN Macharia Kamau filed the case days after the Eritrean Foreign minister Osman Saleh wrote to the council, calling for independent investigations into Kenya's claims that his country was funding Islamic Death Eaters in Somalia.
Eritrea wants Kenya reprimanded for "serious and harmful accusations," including claims that Asmara recently supplied three planeloads of arms to Al-Shabaab through Baidoa airport.
"Our ambassador in New York has also filed a case before the Security Council's Sanctions Committee to undertake investigations on what we believe Eritrea is doing in Somalia," Foreign Affairs front man Lindsay Kiptines said on Sunday.
Kenya recently asked the council to support its operation in Somalia by deploying African Union troops to areas taken from Al-Shabaab.
Kenya is also seeking a naval blockade of Kismayu, the port Al-Shabaab derives much of its revenue from.
The British Government has officially endorsed Kenya's military operation in Somalia as have many other countries.
The Inter-governmental Authority on Development, the regional grouping, has made similar allegations against Eritrea.
In Somalia, two youths were on Sunday beheaded in Afmadow by militants for allegedly spying for the Transitional Federal Government and Kenya Defence Forces.
Residents said their heads were displayed in the streets in an attempt to frighten locals from cooperating with the transitional government or Kenyan troops.
In Laikipia, Internal Security minister George Saitoti said the Kenya Defence Forces would only quit Somalia after the militants were defeated.
"They made our lives miserable by their actions of kidnapping tourists and killing them. They even conducted terror attacks within our boundaries. That is unacceptable as the government has a duty to defend its people at whatever cost," he said.
On Friday, Ethiopia accused Eritrea of using the Security Council to deflect attention from its links to militants in Somalia.
East African leaders who met under the umbrella of IGAD in Addis Ababa to discuss the military operation in Somalia also called for sanctions against Eritrea.
"Eritrea must clearly and publicly commit herself to immediately stop all of these activities and present a credible plan and timeline to implement this change in policy. The aim [of taking Kenya to Security Council] appears to be dividing the supporters of sanctions and some possibility to avoid their tightening. Given the unanimity of the IGAD over the sanctions, it seems rather naive to think that any such strategy might work," Ethiopia's foreign ministry said on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
The UN monitoring committee on Somalia/Eritrea has provided ample evidence of Eritrean support for terrorism, so sanctions would be the next logical step.
Posted by: American Delight ||
11/28/2011 8:29
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Now, that's a very un-nuanced, one might even say "immature", response.
For a map, click here.
The Mexican Navy intercepted a cargo container with several hundred different firearms at a port in western Mexico Sunday evening.
The container was to be transferred at the Michoacan state port city of Lazaro Cardenas and delivered to Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua. Inside the container were 910 firearms including one 7.55mm pistol, 158 9mm pistols and 756 12 gage shotguns.
The container's country of origination was Turkey. The seizure is said to be Mexico's largest in modern history.
TEHRAN: Iranian state TV says the country has added three more domestically-built submarines to its naval fleet.
The Sunday report said the vessels were delivered to the Iranian navy in southern port of Bandar Abbas. It said the submarines were from the Ghadir class, of which Iran already has four. This class of submarine can fire missiles and torpedoes and operate in the Gulfs shallow waters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I really have to question going under the sea in a transport built by a 3rd world theocracy. It just doesn't sound safe.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/28/2011 1:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
But did they remember the screen doors to let the water out?
#5
Propaganda value only?. Gulfs shallow waters?. Could this be Latin America. They have pushed in this area of the world. Is there a market with the drug cartels. Perhaps a willing country to promote terrorism. They did threaten to put a few of their ships off our coast.
#6
Could this be Latin America. They have pushed in this area of the world. Is there a market with the drug cartels.
No. My semi-educated opinion is that they don't have enough of them for their assymetric warfare strategy and can't produce them fast enough, never mind building them for export.
Basically a North Korean design, possibly improved with Chinese assistance. Designed for littoral warfare and special ops. Meaning they can be used to lay mines, fire torpedoes (merchant s being the most likely target) or launching commandos. As I said, Iran wants them primarily to counter Western naval influence in the Gulf and its straits, with a secondary purpose of expanding a war to other Gulf states.
New convoys of heavily-armed Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia and are heading for central areas, residents said Sunday, days after Addis Ababa said it planned to send troops to help Somali and Kenya forces fighting Islamist insurgents.
Ethiopia, which intervened in Somalia between 2006 and 2009, said Friday that it would deploy troops inside Somalia again for a "brief period.
An Ethiopian government official also acknowledged Friday that a small force was already there on a reconnaissance mission. Ethiopia had previously denied scores of military trucks and armoured vehicles had entered Somalia on November 19 and 20.
Sunday, residents from towns in central Somalia said they had seen new, larger convoys.
"We have seen heavily armed Ethiopian troops with tanks heading to Guriel and Baladwayne. There are many more of them and (they are) more armed than last week," Ahmed Muhudin Ugas told Reuters from Balanbal town.
"Since yesterday afternoon I counted over 100 armed trucks with tanks; their convoy has not stopped yet."
A senior official with the pro-Mogadishu Sufi militia group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca also confirmed the deployment.
"Yes, Ethiopian troops are here and more have entered central Somalia," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by phone. "Al Shabaab will be ousted from central Somalia but when and how are political points we do not want to disclose now."
Kenya sent troops into Somalia last month to crush al Shabaab, accusing the militant network of frequent attacks on its security forces and tourists inside Kenya.
Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left the country in early 2009 after ousting the Islamist Islamic Courts Union (ICU) from de facto power in Mogadishu.
They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.
This time, Ethiopia insists the deployment will be brief, although it has not given details on the size of the contingent.
Another resident in Guriel, in the central Galgadud region, said he had seen two different convoys of Ethiopian forces.
"Last night there was a convoy of Ethiopian troops that reached the town," Abdinur Osman Moalim told Reuters. "I don't know their number, but early in the morning we saw more than 40 vehicles of armed Ethiopian troops."
#1
They were dogged by accusations that their intervention, hugely unpopular with Somalis, was a rallying call for militias such as al Shabaab, who were not as powerful at that time.
Who writes this crap and were they born last night?
[Yemen Post] President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... announced on Sunday a general amnesty against all those who committed errors during the crisis while meeting with loyalists.
In the meeting, Saleh condemned those who were involved in the presidential palace bombing and that the amnesty excludes those those who were involved in the presidential palace bombing last June, whether they be parties, groups or individuals.
"There must be dialogue sponsored by Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi, the vice president, and those who he seeks to stand next to him," Saleh said.
Saleh thanks all factions that worked for the sake of the country and did not follow personal agendas.
He also called on all factions to work together in making the recently signed power transfer proposal a success for the country.
In the proposal, Saleh was given complete immunity against prosecution.
It was the first official meeting Saleh had since arriving back from the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/28/2011
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
Kuwait's cabinet has resigned after protesters and opposition deputies demanded that the prime minister step down over allegations of corruption, state-run television has reported.
[Yemen Post] A republican decree was issued charging Mohammed Salem Basendowah with forming the national reconciliation council.
[Al Ahram] Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh's Sunday remarks were the first official public confirmation that Jordan hosts Syrian defectors. In September, officials said privately that Jordan had received 60 Syrian army and police deserters, who ranged in rank from corporal to colonel.
KUWAIT CITY, Nov. 26: The Public Prosecution is requesting the National Assembly to lift the parliamentary immunity of eight lawmakers charged with storming the parliament on Nov. 16.
Two young scouts were 
Mohmand
Pakistain People's Party-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour also condemned the attack.
Egypt's military ruler on Saturday held separate talks with presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Mussa, the official MENA news agency said. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi met with both men, whose names had been touted by protesters camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding the end of military rule, as part of a national salvation government.
"I already said that if he wants to use a teleprompter, then it would be fine with me. It has to be fair. If you [were] to defend ObamaCare, wouldn't you want a teleprompter?" Gingrich asked. 
[Yemen Post] Government attacks on pro opposition tribal areas continued Saturday morning in Bani Hushauish district, an outskirt of the capital 15 kilometers south.
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
"Nobody can expect Turkey and the Arab League to remain silent on the killings of civilians and the Syrian regime's increasing oppression of innocent people," he said.
[The Hill] Democrats in the Senate will push a plan this week to extend an expiring payroll tax cut, making up the lost revenue by imposing a surtax on Americans earning more than one million dollar, Sen. 
Israeli warplanes watched two strikes on the 
Hillary Clinton
Khar said that attacks like Saturday's strike on military outposts that left at least 25 Pak soldiers dead were "totally unacceptable" as they contravened international law and violated Pak 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Shabaab Islamist
[Bangla Daily Star] Four suspected al-Qaeda
Hundreds of enraged Paks 
Nawaz Sharif
[An Nahar] Hizbullah, Israel, Iran, and Turkey are all gearing up for an escalation in the developments in the region over the crisis in Syria, a diplomat told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily in remarks published on Sunday.
Najib Miqati
[Dawn] Hussain Haqqani's was definitely last week's most watched media trial on prime time TV. Far from being done with him, this Thursday, the media found a new newsmaker in one Zainab Bibi. The woman 'confessed' to the police, under the camera glare, that she had indeed murdered her husband and then tried to cook his body parts just when the neighbours raised alarm and called in the cops. The reason for the brutal murder: he was a drunkard and used to beat up his wife and step daughter.
Punjab
[Yemen Post] Local sources in Dammaj, Sa'ada told the Yemen Post that at least 24 
Mehmood 
Asif Ali 
The comments by Sens. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, and 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
[Dawn] Pakistain on Sunday buried 24 troops killed in a 
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the Syrian regime and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, under the slogan "The Fall of Weapons, The Spring of Independence."
Walid 
Michel Aoun
[Dawn] 
[An Nahar] Arab foreign ministers agreed a list of sweeping sanctions Sunday designed to cripple the Syrian regime which has defied pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on protests.
TEHRAN: Iranian state TV says the country has added three more domestically-built submarines to its naval fleet.
[Yemen Post] 
