The National Intelligence Council analysis Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World will serve as a sobering reminder to President-Elect Barack Obama of the challenges he faces leading a country that might no longer be able to "call the shots alone".
The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, the report found, forecasting a tense, unstable world shadowed by war.
"The world of the near future will be subject to an increased likelihood of conflict over scarce resources, including food and water, and will be haunted by the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons."
Mr Obama will assume power in January with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a resurgent Russia, an Iran determined to build a nuclear bomb and instability over the Palestinian territories.
The report also predicted that some African and South Asian states may wither away altogether, and organised crime could take over at least one state in central Europe.
Struggling to find a bright spot, researchers concluded that terrorism could decline if "economic growth continues in the Middle East and youth unemployment is reduced".
However, it concluded that "opportunities for mass-casualty terrorist attacks using chemical, biological, or less likely, nuclear weapons will increase as technology diffuses and nuclear power programmes expand".
Based on a survey of trends by analysts from all US intelligence agencies around the world, it was more pessimistic about status of the world's superpower than the four previous outlooks that have been made public.
"The international system, as constructed following the Second World War, will be almost unrecognizable by 2025, owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalising economy, an historic transfer of wealth from West to East, and the growing influence of non-state actors," the report said.
"Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor, the United States' relative strength even in the military realm, will decline and US leverage will become more strained."
The report's authors said "we do not believe that we are headed toward a complete breakdown of the international system", but gave warning that "the next 20 years of transition to a new system are fraught with risks".
Researchers predicted China and India were likely to join the United States atop a multi-polar world and compete for influence. Russia's potential was less certain, but Iran, Turkey and Indonesia were also seen gaining power.
The current financial crisis on Wall Street is the beginning of a global economic rebalancing, the report found, predicting that the dollar's role as the major world currency will weaken to the point where it becomes a "first among equals".
The growing relative power of "businesses, tribes, religious organisations and criminal networks" was likely to continue, it concluded.
The analysts predicted that better renewable technologies such as solar and wind power would provide opportunities for a quick and low-cost transition from dependence on oil.
Officials said the report was timed to be ready for Barack Obama when he takes office on Jan 20.
Planning is far advanced for the withdrawal of the 4,000 soldiers from the Basra area under a move called Operation Drayton, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. The operation will accelerate if the security situation remains stable following the key provincial elections on Jan 31.
Asked if the countdown had begun towards what Gordon Brown called "fundamental mission change" -- the code for withdrawal -- Major Gen Andy Salmon, the British divisional commander, said that the "clock is ticking nicely".
If the Iraqi 14th Division, which control Basra, manage the elections well, "we will be in a position after that to say that we are pretty much there," he said. "If we adapt to Iraqi needs then we will avoid outstaying our welcome. Then we will arrive at a mutually agreed position as to when we have met our conditions.
"If the election goes well then our job is heading towards being done. We would have completed our tasks -- that is a considerable part of the security issue down here resolved, sorted and completed."
Plans have been drawn up for the British force to be ready to move at 30 days notice when the signal comes from London. The signal date is likely to be beneficial to the Government. The first battalions could leave Iraq by as early as March, military sources have disclosed.
The United States hopes that a reduction in British troop numbers in Iraq will allow the Ministry of Defence to send more forces to Afghanistan, Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "Clearly we would welcome more British troops but we are not singling out the Brits more than anyone else. We are sending thousands and thousands more troops and we are always looking to see who can contribute more to the mission in Afghanistan," he said.
The British withdrawal from Iraq will come almost exactly six years after the first troops crossed over the Kuwait border in the 2003 invasion. Since then 176 servicemen have lost their lives and up to £10 billion has been spent on the operation and new equipment.
Soldiers fought in the toughest street battles since the Second World War as forces, which averaged 8,000 men post-invasion, struggled to hold the line against a Shia insurgency heavily armed by Iran. They provided a vital breathing space and were able to train the Iraqi army that helped defeat the insurgents in March following a power vacuum after the British withdrew from Basra to the airport five miles away.
Out of an estimated 2,500 insurgents only 250 remain active. The rest have either been killed, fled to Iran or given up the struggle.
The murder rate in Basra, a city of 2.4 million, has dropped to about 20 a month and there has not been an attack on British forces for 48 days -- the longest period since the invasion. British soldiers still operate in small groups in the city providing mentors for the Iraqi army.
Major Gen Salmon said the British forces would "be able stand with our heads held high and say we have done a bloody good job in difficult circumstances".
"We have gone through some tough times and lost good people. Our soldiers have made amazing sacrifices. They won't have been in vain."
A huge logistic operation will begin to withdraw the equipment and men after an agreement has been negotiated with the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Basra air station, which in the last year has seen millions of pounds spent on strengthening its defences, will be filled with a force of at least 2,000 Americans some of whom will train the Iraqi police from locations in Basra.
Major Gen Salmon said the withdrawal of 4,000 troops would "take the pressure off" the military and "ensure that we can make the commitment in Afghanistan".
#1
They did their best, considering their orders. Some of the stories I've read are astounding. Remember that Scottish unit that charged with fixed bayonets after they ran out of bullets? Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
A wealthy arms dealer long suspected of aiding militants in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts was convicted Thursday of conspiring to sell weapons to informants who posed as arms suppliers for terrorists willing to kill Americans.
Syrian-born Monzer al-Kassar, 62, and a co-defendant, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were convicted of conspiring over a four-month period last year to try to sell millions of dollars worth of heavy weaponry to Colombian militants.
During the verdict, al-Kassar blew kisses to several weeping courtroom supporters. The federal jury in Manhattan convicted the men of conspiring to provide aid and equipment to a terrorist organization, conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers, conspiring to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles and money laundering.
U.S. authorities said al-Kassar was willing to sell surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns and millions of rounds of ammunition to Colombian rebels.
Prosecutors said al-Kassar believed undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents were representing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel army known as FARC that is classified in the United States as a terrorist group. The evidence included recorded phone calls, e-mails and meetings.
The agents struck a fictitious $8 million deal for al-Kassar to supply weaponry obtained in Romania and Bulgaria. No weapons were ever exchanged.
The defense argued that the men were actually sleuthing on behalf of Spanish intelligence operators. Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd Johnson said greed was the chief motivation.
The men face up to life in prison when they are sentenced on Feb. 18. Lawyers for both men said they would appeal.
An indictment unsealed last year said al-Kassar had provided military equipment to violent factions in Nicaragua, Brazil, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, Iran and Iraq. It said his customers included known terrorist organizations determined to stage "attacks on United States interests and United States nationals."
Al-Kassar, long a target of U.S. investigators, was arrested on June 7, 2007 after arriving at an airport in Madrid, Spain. Al-Kassar was acquitted in Spain of supplying assault rifles used by Palestinian militants in the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. The hijackers killed 69-year-old New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer, dumping his body and wheelchair overboard.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008
17:25 ||
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A father whose Army reservist son was captured, held hostage and killed in Iraq said Thursday that he's glad to learn one of the men responsible for his son's death has been "held accountable."
Hajji Hammadi, the al-Qaida in Iraq leader blamed in the 2004 abduction and killing of Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin and other deadly attacks over several years, was killed in a Nov. 11 raid by U.S. forces in Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
"This guy was finally held accountable for what he's done, and I think I'm happy about that because we're all held accountable," Keith Maupin said. "They told me they killed him on Veterans Day. Ain't that appropriate."
Maupin's son was a 20-year-old private first class who was seized when his fuel convoy was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on April 19, 2004. Al-Jazeera aired a video later that month showing Maupin wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, sitting on a floor and surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
Keith Maupin said the Army told him that Hammadi was the tall man standing behind his son in the videotape. "It seems as though these bad guys over there think they can do whatever they want to do and they don't have to answer to nobody," Keith Maupin said. "We all have to answer to somebody sooner or later."
Maupin and his former wife, Carolyn, pressured the Pentagon for nearly four years to keep looking for their son. They met with President Bush on his trips to Cincinnati and received periodic briefings in Washington. "We told them we don't hold the Army responsible, but we're damn sure going to hold you accountable for getting Matt home," Maupin said.
His son's remains were found in March on the outskirts of Baghdad, about 12 miles from where the convoy was ambushed. While he was missing, the Maupins had distributed photos of Matt in thousands of boxes of snacks, games, magazines and toiletries sent to troops in Iraq by the Yellow Ribbon Support Center, which the Maupins ran in suburban Cincinnati. Matt Maupin was originally from Batavia, Ohio.
Two other Iraqi militants involved in the attack on Maupin's convoy were captured this year, tried and sentenced to death for terrorist acts, according to his father, who was informed by military officials. "They said absolutely, positively, these are two of those men," Maupin said.
The statement released by the military on Thursday said Hammadi, also known as Hammadi Awdah Abd Farhan and Abd-al-Salam Ahmad Abdallah al-Janabi, led a group of fighters against U.S. forces in the second battle of Fallujah in the fall of 2004.
Hammadi also was the mastermind of a June 26 suicide bombing against a meeting of pro-government Sunni sheiks in Karmah, west of Baghdad, the military said. The attacker was dressed as an Iraqi policeman and killed three U.S. Marines, two interpreters and more than 20 Iraqis. "Hammadi escorted the suicide bomber to the location and videotaped the attack," the military said.
Five other suspected insurgents were detained in the raid that killed Hammadi, it added. The military said it was announcing the death after Hammadi was positively identified.
It said the insurgent leader became al-Qaida's emir in a volatile area west of Baghdad in 2004 and had links to slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his successor Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.
"The removal of Hajji Hammadi from the AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq) network is yet another significant blow to the terrorist organization," Brig. Gen. David Perkins said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008
17:20 ||
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#1
have a blast in hell
Posted by: chris ||
11/20/2008 17:56
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Matt Maupin was captured during one of the worst incidents of the Iraq war, a week or so after the Blackwater atrocity in Fallujah.
An American contractor who was captured with Matt later escaped, but another soldier and several other contractors were killed during the ambush. The AQ devils posted pictures of the bodies lying on the ground, relatively intact, right afterward. By the time they were found in a common grave a week later, the recovery team could not even tell how many people were there. As with the Fallujah outrage, people who do this kind of thing to Americans need to understand that they will be hunted down and destroyed, no matter how far we have to go, how long it takes, or what it costs. I am glad to see that another devil has learned this the hard way.
A militant Taliban group warned Thursday of reprisals in Pakistan if there was another US drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike in its territory.
Top Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur warned he would mount revenge attacks if the US carried out further strikes in tribal territory after missiles fired from a drone Wednesday killed six people, including a major Al-Qaeda operative.
Bahadur's group has been accused by the United States of launching attacks across the border in Afghanistan, but it abstains from violence in Pakistani territory under an understanding with military authorities.
"We will start revenge attacks across other districts if the US drone attacks do not stop after November 20," Taliban spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi said in a statement. ... Dumbass threatens to pee on another section of the living room carpet.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008
17:15 ||
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Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.
About as I calculated yesterday: 630 kg of 5% enriched uranium works out to about 40 kg of 80% uranium, minus losses in refining and handling.
The figures detailing Iran's progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country's main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium.
Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design - a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.
"They clearly have enough material for a bomb," said Richard Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. "They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that's another matter."
Iran insists that it wants only to fuel reactors for nuclear power. But many western nations, led by the United States, suspect that its real goal is to gain the ability to make nuclear weapons.
While some Iranian officials have threatened to bar inspectors in the past, the country has made no such moves, and many experts inside the Bush administration and the IAEA believe it will avoid the risk of attempting "nuclear breakout" until it possessed a larger uranium supply. American intelligence agencies have said Iran could make a bomb between 2009 and 2015.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/20/2008
16:10 ||
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#1
Gee, think there are any other countries that might have that final puzzle piece for sale?
#2
Just their declared centrifuges have enough capacity for 1 bomb per year. The Iranians are idiots if they don't have several times more than that humming away in tunnels.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 16:48
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They don't need to design a thing.
The Chinese provided designs to Pakistan (for Uranium and Plutonium implosion type missile warheads). These designs were both fully tested.
The IAEA found a copy in Libya (apparently provided free by AQ Khan when his stolen centrifuge designs are purchased) still wrapped in the plastic bag from his dry cleaners in Karachi.
These included copious notes in Urdu, written by the Chinese, that describe fabrication of each component ("bombs for dummies").
The Pakistanis provided the Chinese with the Uranium enrichment centrifuge designs (stolen from URENCO in the Netherlands by AQ Khan) in exchange for this weapon.
They traded both with North Korea for ballistic missile designs and components.
Iran has bought both the North Korean missile plans and the Pakistani centrifuge plans. Why would they not have obtained the Chinese weapon designs from either?
Posted by: john frum ||
11/20/2008 17:07
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Iran claimed ages ago to have, if I recall correctly, 80,000 centrifuges spinning to refine uranium.
The election is over. Bomb everything related to Iran's nuclear effort. Bomb the mullahs' homes. Bomb the Revolutionary Guards barracks in the middle of the night. Then bounce the rubble. If this is unwise, then put the blue Star of David on everything; the Israelis are tough -- they'll handle the fall out as they've done when they were the ones who did it.
Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., has hired six students whose jobs as "dialogue facilitators" will involve intervening in conversations among students in dining halls and common rooms to encourage discussion of such social justice issues as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability and social class.
"If there's a teachable moment, we'll take it," said assistant dean of student affairs Arig Girgrah, who runs the program. "A lot of community building happens around food and dining."
She gave the example of a conversation about a gay character on television as a good example of such a moment. "It is all about creating opportunities to dialogue and reflect on issues of social identity," Ms. Girgrah said. "This is not about preaching. It's not about advice giving. It's about hearing where students are at."
Somebody is just begging for a cream pie in the face ...
Jason Laker, dean of student affairs, said their activities will also include formal discussion sessions, perhaps after controversial incidents in residence, and open discussions of topical books or movies. "They're not disciplinarians. They're called facilitators for a reason," he said, adding that such a program is of particular value now that so much communication by young people happens over the Internet.
They'll call the disciplinarians when the 'facilitators' are told to get stuffed ...
"It's not trying to stifle something. It's trying to foster something," he said. "We're not trying to be parental."
No, no, of course not, who'd ever think that ...
Like dons, who serve as student authorities in residence, the six facilitators will receive full room and board and a stipend for the full-year commitment, and will receive regular training.
Ms. Girgrah said they represent a broad spectrum of social identities and are all upper-year or graduate students who live in university residences - a small minority at a school where most students move into rental housing after their first year. Ms. Girgrah said this status will give the facilitators "a little bit of credibility and perhaps some respect."
Just some grad school mopes who aren't smart enough to get off campus. Sure, just who I want to be 'facilitating' me about gay and gender issues ...
Daniel Hayward, a 46-year-old Master's of Divinity student, applied to be a facilitator believing the role would offer him an opportunity to connect with many different students. "It's an opportunity to interact with lots of people, hear their stories, about the experiences they've had, hear the questions they're asking," he said in an interview yesterday. "It's not like we roam around the halls looking for people having conversations. If somebody is yelling something across the dining hall that's a racial slur, yes, we will intervene in that situation.
A 46 year old grad student. Living on campus. Taking room, board and a stipend in return for being a state-sponsored PC-nanny. Joy ...
"We are trained to interrupt behaviour in a non-blameful and non-judgmental manner, so it's not like we're pulling someone aside and reprimanding them about their behaviour. It is honestly trying to get to the root of what they're trying to say - seeing if that can be said in a different manner."
Touting the Intergroup Dialogue Program as "unique among Canadian universities," but modelled on programs in the United States, an administration newsletter says it will promote "a lasting experience of inclusive community and shared humanity."
Sort of like how the University of Delaware has been harassing students into proper thinking in the dorms.
It is just one of many recent efforts to promote diversity - such as gender-neutral washrooms, prayer space, and halal and kosher food service - at a school that is still smarting from a report on systemic racism two years ago that criticized its "culture of whiteness."
The editorial board of the student newspaper, the Queen's Journal, acknowledged the good intentions of this latest effort, but was skeptical of a program that "seems to be an inadequate, lack lustre attempt to deal with social inequalities."
"It's unlikely six facilitators in a crowd of thousands will have much impact on fostering dialogue in residences," they write, adding that the facilitators could face "hostility" from students who feel they have been "cornered" or had their privacy violated.
"Can't I just eat my waffle?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008
14:38 ||
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#1
Just wait until the Queens Engineering students get their hands on one of these drones and lashes him to the top of a flagpole on top of one of the university buildings in the middle of the night. He'll wave . . . . . . like a flag.
#2
"We are trained to interrupt behaviour in a non-blameful and non-judgmental manner, so it's not like we're pulling someone aside and reprimanding them about their behaviour. It is honestly trying to get to the root of what they're trying to say - seeing if that can be said in a different manner."
Really? And how would you apply this theory to someone screaming the N-word, or the F-word at a Pride Day parade, Mr Hayward? What words should they be screaming, and what is the root of what they are trying to say?
And the winner is ...
Saab was dealt a serious blow on Thursday as the Norwegian government announced its decision to purchase US-made Joint Strike Fighter/F-35 planes rather than Sweden's JAS Gripen. Of the two alternatives, only the JSF fulfilled the criteria laid down by the Norwegian government, according to the country's defence minister, Anne-Grete Ström-Erichsen.
Aeronautics groups Saab of Sweden and Lockheed Martin of the United States both submitted tenders in April this year for a planned order by the Norwegian Air Force for 48 combat aircraft.
Sweden's defence ministry backed the proposed deal as an important expression of Nordic defence coooperation.
Some observers felt at the outset that any choice other than the JSF would jeopardize the historic alliance between the United States and Norway, a NATO member loyal to Washington. But other experts said the Swedish aircraft, which is believed to be cheaper, corresponds better to the needs of the Norwegian Air Force.
Norway is primarily seen as needing fighters that can defend Norway's sovereignty in the Arctic against Russian planes. The JSF, which has suffered repeated delays and extra costs, is meanwhile specialized in bombing missions.
Piracy and maritime terrorism are forms of asymmetrical warfare that non-state actors use as instruments in disrupting the peace and security of states. It is therefore necessary for navies to revamp and find new definitions for their role in the modern security context.
#1
Why is this even considered a naval question? This is purely a political question and the navy as currently constituted is fully able to put a stop to this crap, or at least knock it back to negligible levels.
If we wanted this done we could do it. My issue is that these are not US ships that are being attacked so why the heck should I care? If the Saudis, SKors, Brits, French, etc. don't like it then let them deal with it.
Let's give sailing under the stars & stripes mean something....if you're sailing under US registry, the navy will be there. AND GIVE THE NAVY THE ROE necessary.
#2
I believe it is a mechanism to funnel cash into terrorist groups now that we have disrupted their traditional financial channels.
Notice that Iran says they are going to continue using those shipping routes. It gives them an opportunity to transfer large sums of cash to terrorist groups without the world community coming down on them. They can say "we were just paying ransom to get our ship back".
In my opinion any country paying a ransom should be listed as a terrorist facilitator.
#3
Somalia is on the brink of slipping back under the control of the Islamic Courts Union (or some such name), essentially a radical islamic group akin to the Taliban. And strategically located in the Horn of Africa, a redux of the A-Q homebase scenario would cause even more problems worldwide. Little known in the US, there are several significant concentrations of Somali "refugees", legally admitted under a foolish 80's statute that provides asylum. In San Diego there are over 70,000 concentrated in a very small area, creating the beginnings of tribal/clan criminal enterprises, and social no-go zones. Look for car-be-ques and Sharia behavior next, and connections to Somalia from a supportive ethnic enclave on the U.S. Mexico border. Sounds like a Clancy novel, only it's all true and exists right now, right here.
#1
The reason that this all happened was because of the fierce and brutal competition between video card manufacturers, all over computer gaming. Gamers were intensely interested on having the best system, and would pay the big bills for it.
#2
If this stuff gets exported to Iran it will make things all the harder. But Obama has a plan to fix all this. He will spread NVIDIAs wealth around to a bunch of clueless fuc&s who won't use the money productively.
Dilapidated buildings and piles of rubble greet participants on a recent media tour to Gunkanjima (battleship island), an abandoned former coal mining community in Nagasaki. The island has been included in a tentative list of candidates for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site by the Cultural Affairs Agency, along with other former industrial sites in surrounding prefectures. Officially known as Hashima island, it was a major source of coal until the mine closed in 1974. In its heyday, more than 5,000 people inhabited the island, whose contours resemble a battleship. While Hashima is currently off-limits, the city of Nagasaki plans to open it to the public next spring. Gunkanjima at one point had the highest population density in the world, but now it is a ghost town. Wikipedia article here; slideshow of very evocative photos taken just before abandonment here; another slideshow by the same photographer showing the island in recent years here.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/20/2008
12:39 ||
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Folks, i don't know who the 'Mike Kozlowski' listed in the posting info is, but it ain't me.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/20/2008 18:51
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Hey - how'd my name get in the bottom of the post there? :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/20/2008 19:02
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Don't know but the Pentagon is undergoing a huge cyber attack at the moment as well. Hope it is not a precurser to some other... even more serious situation.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/20/2008 14:23
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Razed to the ground by Isreali Aircraft....LMAO
Posted by: James Carville ||
11/20/2008 15:03
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Ignore the screaming Geiger counter in the corner.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 16:16
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ElBaradei complained that the IAEA's work had been "severely hampered ... by the unilateral use of force and by the late provision of information concerning the building at the Dair Alzour site."
All true statements if indeed the 'work' of the agency is to permit the development of an 'Islamic bomb'.
An extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one testicle. . . . The war tyrants medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.
The lyrics are: It's time for "Sing Along With Mitch Miller," folks. Follow the bouncing, uh ... ball! Hitler has only got one ball,
Göring has two but very small,
Himmler is somewhat sim'lar,
But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.
Hitler has only got one ball,
The other is on the kitchen wall,
His mother, the dirty br,
Chopped it off when he was small.
Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic the medical term for having one testicle. But the document tells how Jambor saw the proof with his own eyes. In the account, he relives the horror of serving as an army medic in World War I. . . .
For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler.
They called him the 'Screamer.' He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming help, help.' His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: Will I be able to have children?'"
Hitlers genitals have long caused controversy. Some historians dismissed the one ball song as propaganda. But an alleged Soviet autopsy on Hitler backed it up. Records show Hitler did suffer a groin injury in the Somme.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/20/2008
07:22 ||
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It's sung to the march from the "Bridge on the River Kwai" if you want to try it. The opening scene where they are all whistling, a great musical joke. We used to sing it at High School.
And that is my earworm for today.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 11:58
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According to my parents, there was another set of ribald lyrics for the same tune circulating at the Fort Knox armor school in the Korean War, which was supposed to have come from the cavalry originally:
Horse shit, it makes the grass grow green,
Horse shit, it makes the grass grow green . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
11/20/2008 12:12
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"...an alleged Soviet autopsy on Hitler backed it up"? That must have been interesting... I thought Hitler's body was so burned it was basically unrecognizable, and generally only bone fragments remained.
Posted by: Dar ||
11/20/2008 16:08
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#10
When was physical evidence a hurdle to Soviet propaganda?
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 16:19
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Change you can believe in!
The former prosecutor whom President-elect Barack Obama wants to run the Justice Department bypassed the agency's career lawyers during one of the most controversial final decisions made by President Clinton in January 2001 the pardon of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich, congressional records show.
Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general, worked with former White House Counsel Jack Quinn to ensure that department officials particularly federal prosecutors in New York who handled the Rich case "did not have the opportunity to express an opinion on the Rich pardon before it was granted," the Republican-led House Government Reform Committee concluded in a 467-page report in 2002.
The committee's evidence included an e-mail in which Mr. Holder told Mr. Quinn to "go straight" to the White House and that the "timing is good" for Mr. Rich's request for a pardon. Normally, pardon requests are reviewed by career prosecutors before a recommendation is forwarded to the White House.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2008
06:00 ||
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#2
The Pubs, if they're smart (hah) would make some nice TV by grilling this guy in the confirmation hearings. Start off with, "Mr. Holder, please explain to the committee your involvement in the Rich pardon", and go from there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008 9:36
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Holder working hand-in-hand with the ACLU and various Washington legal firms will secure the release the Bush administration political prisoners from GITMO. They will then turn their efforts toward the release the hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised who lanquish in Federal and State Penitentiary Systems. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank Obama we are free at last!"
#4
My most starling revelation (even beyond 9/11) was when my US Embassy colleague in Bern phoned me on New Years Day to advise that Marc Rich was pardoned.
Indefensible.
#6
He was also deeply involved in the legalized kidnapping of Elian Gonzales from his relatives' home. He told Tim Russert beforehand that they were not planning to use armed force in the middle of the night. When the agents broke into the house, armed to the teeth, he told Russert that they had showed up at 5 am, so it wasn't the middle of the night.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/20/2008 20:17
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The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is "extremely disappointed" with the Arab countries over their refusal to hold Hamas responsible for the failure of Egyptian efforts to end the Islamic movement's dispute with Fatah, PA officials said Wednesday. The officials said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas had decided to boycott the upcoming meeting of the Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo in protest against the Arab countries' position. Abbas was hoping that the Arab League would put pressure on Hamas to participate in an Egyptian-sponsored conference that was due to be held in Cairo last week to settle the Hamas-Fatah power struggle.
Abbas aides said that Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa had promised to publicly condemn Hamas for boycotting the gathering, but failed to keep his pledge. "The president has decided to boycott the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers because Amr Moussa did not keep his promise," said Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with Abbas. "For some reason, Moussa has been reluctant to openly blame Hamas for the fact that the Cairo conference never took place," he said.
The Fatah official said that Mouusa's failure to censure Hamas was a "negative sign." He added that the Arab League Foreign Ministers should not hesitate to announce their position regarding the Hamas-Fatah crisis. "Even if they think that Fatah is partially responsible for the collapse of the Egyptian mediation efforts, they should go public," he added.
Another top PA official told The Jerusalem Post that Abbas was also angry with the Arab League because some of its members have been exerting pressure on Moussa to invite Hamas to the meeting. "Instead of blaming Hamas for the crisis and the continued anarchy and lawlessness, some Arab countries are dealing with Hamas as if it was the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinians," he said. "Despite the decision to boycott the meeting, the Palestinian Authority has decided to send a low-level delegation headed by [PA negotiators] to Cairo to brief the Arab ministers on the power struggle with Hamas and the peace talks with Israel."
Abbas's decision to stay away from the Arab League meeting came amid reports suggesting that Egypt had decided to resume its mediation efforts between the two Palestinian parties. Sources close to Abbas said that the Egyptians were considering summoning representatives of all the Palestinian factions to Cairo later this month for talks aimed at paving the way for holding a "national reconciliation" conference in Cairo. The sources said that the Egyptians have asked Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab countries to use their good offices with Fatah and Hamas to force them to end their differences.
The Egyptians have also asked Abbas to consider the possibility of releasing hundreds of Hamas supporters who were arrested by his security forces in the West Bank in the past few weeks, the sources added. Hamas used the massive arrest campaign as an excuse to boycott the Cairo conference earlier this month.
Hamas plans to appoint a new Palestinian Authority president in January at the end of Mahmoud Abbas' four-year term, according to Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. Hindi said the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Sheikh Aziz al-Dweik, will probably be named to the post. Dweik is currently jailed in Israel.
A fierce disagreement erupted recently between Hamas and Fatah regarding when Abbas' term is to end. Hamas claims the president's tenure ends on January 9, 2009 while Fatah argues that it is supposed to continue until January 9, 2010. Fatah bases its claim on an amendment to the election law stipulating that the presidential and parliamentary elections are to be held together, and the parliamentary elections are scheduled for January 2010.
Hindi said that if the groups cannot reach an agreement by January, Hamas will declare Dweik, one of the organization's senior figures in the West Bank, to be president. As speaker of the parliament, Dweik is the president's successor in the event of the latter's death, illness or resignation. Since Dweik has been in detention in Israel since shortly after the abduction of Gilad Shalit in June 2006, however, his appointment is mainly seen as a statement aimed at goading Abbas.
In a related matter, Hamas recently announced new conditions for renewing its negotiations with Fatah. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said his organization is demanding that all of its prisoners being held in PA jails be released, that a delegation of West Bank-based Hamas leaders be allowed to travel to Cairo for the talks, that Hamas and Fatah be given equal weight at the Cairo summit, that Abbas attend the sessions and that the Egyptians accede to Hamas' demand to amend the reconciliation agreement they proposed to both organizations. By laying down these conditions, Hamas is in effect rejecting the renewal of the talks in the short run, in favor of waiting for anticipated changes in the region.
For 10 years, South Korea has pursued a "sunshine policy" as its master plan for transforming North Korea. Under that banner, South Korea funneled billions of dollars to the North for new factories, hotels and food, and millions of South Korean tourists poured across the border. But eight months after President Lee Myung-bak came to office here promising a harder approach, the once vaunted policy has unraveled. North Korea has cut off high-level dialogue with the South. It has severed Red Cross-managed telephone "hot lines" crossing the demilitarized zone. In July, a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist visiting its Diamond Mountain resort, leading to its closing.
The North is now threatening to shut down an industrial complex in the North Korean town of Kaesong, the best South Korea had to show for its 10 years of sunshine policy. During an inspection tour earlier this month, a high-ranking North Korean general turned to the South Korean factory owners and asked, "How soon do you think you can pack your gear and go home?" Last week, North Korea further confounded the rest of the world. It said it had never agreed to let American experts take samples from its main nuclear complex, contrary to Washington's announcement that it had.
All in all, the North's actions seemed to point not only to the end of the sunshine policy but also to a dangerous disintegration of relations. But longtime North Korea watchers see it much differently, saying that the moves fit a familiar and consistent pattern, and that they may even signal an upturn in relations with the United States. Over the years, they say, North Korea has divided its negotiations with the outside world into what analysts call "salami pieces," maximizing its gains at each stage. If the opponent balks, it uses brinkmanship. "North Korea got what it could from Bush. Now it is signaling to President-elect Barack Obama, 'O.K., let's negotiate again over nuclear sampling,' " said Lee Sang-hyun, an analyst at Sejong Institute, a research organization. "To Lee Myung-bak, its message is that it means action if he doesn't reconsider his policy."
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#2
The IGC is not unbiased of course. Brussels - EuroPeon view contained within.
Not smart taking advice from one of the bloodiest regions on the planet.
Ahyhoo.... IGC is king of like a cliffnotes to Intel Briefs with of course, the opposite than needed solution.
I do enjoy their monthly Crises Watch magizine and read it when it comes out. A good general overview.
There are many places to help determine foreign policy. Eggs in one basket are broken easily.
#5
If failed states turn to pirate states... It is time for me to invest in Viking Pirates from Iceland... (Likely Valkyries as the men leave the land of Ice and Snow.)
#7
Privateers broke up the Barbary pirates strangle hold on commerce....
Another thought: Long ago it was reported that Al Qaeda had at least six ships of their own, part of Bin Laden's investments to transport blood diamonds and other illicit cargo. He had brothers-in-law in the Philippines and on Madagascar, and little brother Khalil reportedly in the Tri-states area of South America overseeing drug trafficking. Maybe time to hunt down those mother ships with some mother-effing private contractors.
#10
You know, in a way I'm jealous of these guys. They are out there living life to the maximum - albeit it may be a shorted life if they tangle with India again - while I'm sitting on my ass in a cube eating leftover pizza from last night and reading about men having adventures.
I bet there are a few here on Rantburg that understand...
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/20/2008 10:47
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#11
I say a few of we Rantburgers set to sea and demand $25 million from these pirates to not kill them.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/20/2008 11:17
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Yosemite Sam,
To be a Wolf, in a world of sheep, I understand.
#16
#8 - I think there's a "mole" in the local shipping industry that knows where every ship will be at any given time, and passes the message to the pirates. I also wouldn't doubt that this outfit started out small, but with each success, grew. The fact that NO ONE has really fought back hard is a sad commentary on where we are in the world today. India killed one mother-ship. Great, and we welcome the action. But where are the NATO vessels? Where is the 5th Fleet? Where are the B-52s from Diego Garcia? Where are the AC-130s? Bomb Eyl off the map, and then stand ready to repeat the process the next time a ship is hijacked, and you'll cut the profit margin to nil, and put the fear of God into those that attempt any future pirating. Saying "Tut, tut", or "Naughty, naughty", isn't going to get us anywhere.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2008 14:38
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But OP, what about the innocent fishermen and the mothers and little chirrens who are loving their new flat screens bought with the pirate ransom money?????
Indian Navy could send more warships to counter Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden even as Somalia has permitted India to enter its territorial waters as part of an effort to check piracy.
Besides India, navies of US and France have also been permitted hot pursuit in Somalian territorial waters which extends upto 12 nautical miles from the coastline.
A Delhi class destroyer has already sailed from Mumbai to the Gulf of Aden to augment anti-piracy patrol off Somalia raising the number of Indian warships on patrol from Salalah to Aden to two.
The 6,900-tonne Delhi class destroyers are the largest indigenously built warships till date and pack more fire power in them than frigates.
They carry on board two Sea King helicopters, along with a Cheetah or a Chetak, and stock 16 Uran missiles, 100mm AK 100 gun, four multi-barrel 30mm AK 630 gun.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/20/2008 14:56
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#19
The Wahhabist 'royal' Saudi, OPEC oil barons have 'donated' multiple millions to the likes of the PLO and many other Arab & Muslim terrorist groups, coupled with paying for thousands of madrasas (Islamic training centers)worldwide.
For example. Saudi Sunni-Wahabbist cult based madrasas in Pakistan train future Sunni-related jihadists, which our troops are combating in Afghanistan & Iraq,
Over many years Saudi oil profits have financed Sunni-Arab killers, responsible for horrific murders of many numbers of Israelis, also Americans, British & other foreign nationals, coupled with scores of airline hijackings and the PLO's horrific dismemberment of Lebanon.
Saudi monetary contributions earned off of Western energy consumers also bought shipments of weapons, triggering the bloody 'Black September' civil war in Jordan, and more recent, 15 Wahhabist Saudi nationals out of the 19 September 11th, 2001 multi-terrorist attacks against America, resulting in over 3000 murdered innocent victims. A vile testament of a Saudi Wahhabist anti-Western 'education'.
Previously, oil-super-rich, despotic, Saudi rulers, who made billions in manipulated petroleum profits, while millions were stuck on long gas lines -- now those tyrannical ruling Saudi Wahhabists are on the receiving end of having some of their own oil supertankers being held hostage for ransom, by Somalian Muslim pirates, possibly trained or assisted directly, or indirectly, with Saudi oil profit 'donations'.
Reciprocity in motion!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/20/2008 15:26
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#20
Yosemite Sam
Yeah, but to be honest I'm starting to get to the point in life where the pizzia is starting to look pretty good.
I'm membered of the time a few years back when I mentioned to a younger guy that I was kind of sorry I missed the days when you really could run off the the South Seas and live the life.
He sort of looked at me and said you still could; he told me about how in the 90's he left hoime and went to to Hawaii to live for a few years.
He just did't get it when I started laughing liek the fool I most likely am.
Posted by: Kelly ||
11/20/2008 15:46
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#21
Since the tanker was headed to the US, who owns the oil?
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 16:20
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#22
If you are interested in escape to the South Seas and piracy read about the White Rajahs of Sarawak.
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
The military said they suspected the man of "involvement in facilitating Iranian weapons shipments into Iraq" under the cover of working for an organization involved in the restoration of Iraqi religious sites. The man is alleged to have used the organization as a front in order to bring weapons into Iraq concealed in shipments of building materials, the military said in a statement released late Tuesday.
The U.S. military has long accused Iran's Quds Force of arming, training, and funding Iraqi militiamen to stoke the sectarian violence that has convulsed the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, charges Tehran has denied.
The statement also said the man was carrying an "unspecified amount" of cocaine.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#3
Coming or going?
And what's with the cocaine? Iraqi security carrying drop bags so they can make the arrest stick? Or residual from his last trip to A'stan where he picked up a delivery for his boss?
The Syrian facility bombed by Israeli planes last year bore multiple hallmarks of a nuclear reactor, and the ruined site was contaminated with uranium, United Nations nuclear inspectors confirmed today in a report that largely backed Bush administration accounts of a secret atomic program...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
You're a bit late. That party finished about a year ago.
Oil prices have dropped with Brent crude falling to nearly $50 a barrel, the lowest since striking record highs of $147 in July. On Wednesday, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January was down seven cents at 51.77 dollars a barrel in late afternoon trade on London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE). Earlier it touched 50.61 dollars.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), light sweet crude for December delivery slipped 53 cents to 53.86 dollars a barrel. It earlier fell to 53.30 dollars, the lowest point since January 2007.
Crude oil prices have plunged almost two-thirds since striking record highs of above 147 dollars in July as a global economic slowdown dents world energy demand. On Monday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose members produce 40 percent of the world's oil, said it was ready to intervene on a regular basis to help prop up the prices.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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Good luck with that. I hope it goes back down to $20 a bbl.
#2
API:US Oct Oil Demand Down 4%, Production -5.1%, Imports +5.8% U.S. petroleum demand and production is on the wane while imports of crude oil and gasoline are on the rise, according to monthly statistics released Wednesday by the American Petroleum Institute.
U.S. petroleum deliveries dropped 4% in October, bringing the decline between January through October to 5%, a rate not seen since the 1980s, according to the the API, a trade group that represents big oil companies.
"Not only have higher prices for much of 2008 been altering consumers' behavior, but more recent economic uncertainties have increasingly been putting a damper on demand, as well," API statistics manager Ron Planting said in a news release.
Despite the increase in contributions from Alaska, U.S. crude oil production in October declined by 5.1% from a year earlier, the API said.
Although imports declined in September because of hurricane related port closures, imports in October rose 5.8% from a year earlier. The U.S. brought in 13.7 million barrels a day, the highest level since July 2007.
Gasoline imports are up 25% from a year ago, the second-highest level ever for the month, after October 2005's import surge following Hurricane's Katrina and Rita.
The upstream and downstream sectors have recovered well from this year's Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the API said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 9:30
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#3
Just saw $2.15 a gallon here in Nor Cal. Sure is a far way from the $4.95 we were seeing about 5 months ago. I can't imagine that actual supply and demand have changed that much. Yes, the dollar has strengthened, but it certainly points to the distortive effects the commodities trading market can have on the price of the good in question.
This price drop is a silver lining of the economic downturn and is helping keep some extra $$ in people's pockets. Hopefully heating oil prices will be lower too, another good thing for people at the margin.
#4
I paid $1.75 at Sam's Club just outside Richmond, VA, last weekend - it's undoubtedly gone down since then. (I saw a WAWA sign for $1.79 this morning, and they're always above Sam's and below just about everyone else.)
Guess I'll find out this weekend when I tank up again. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/20/2008 14:35
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#5
I can't imagine that actual supply and demand have changed that much.
One thing we do know is that major banks have stopped lending money to other corporations - even the paper fronts they set up to speculate in oil. If you can't borrow the money you can't bid up the price even with leverage.
Iran is forging ahead with its nuclear programme, the United Nations nuclear watchdog reported on Wednesday, deepening the dilemma facing US president-elect Barack Obama over his campaign promise to engage with Tehran.
The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium, which could be rendered into weapons-grade material should Tehran decide to develop a nuclear device. The agency says that, as of this month, Tehran had amassed 630kg of low enriched uranium hexafluoride, up from 480kg in late August. Analysts say Iran is enriching uranium at such a pace that, by early next year, it could reach break-out capacity one step away from producing enough fissile material for a crude nuclear bomb.
630 kg of low-enriched uranium (I think that's ~5% enriched) is enough for nuclear power stations. I see various numbers quoted for the highly enriched uranium required for a bomb: most say 80% but some say 20% if you don't mind a dirty, low-yield bomb. But to get to 80% enrichment that 630 kg becomes ~40 kg, minus any losses in additional centrifugation, and that ought to be enough to build a small bomb or two.
They are moving forward, they are not making diplomatic overtures, they are accumulating low enriched uranium, said Cliff Kupchan, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy in Washington. These guys are committed to their nuclear programme: if we didnt know that, they just told us again.
Bambi and the Dhimmicrats aren't listening. They think they can talk to Short Round and succeed where the Brits, Germans and French have failed. And Bambi could: all he has to do is sacrifice Israel. That might buy us a few years. Maybe.
The IAEA report also says there has been a breakdown of communication between the agency and Iran over alleged research on an atomic weapon. The Iranians are making good progress on enrichment but there is absolute stone-walling on past military activities, said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International institute for Strategic Studies. Its very disappointing.
Get thee to the hotel bar then and drown your disappointment ...
The progress chalked up by Iran increases the difficulties for Mr Obama, who campaigned on promises of talking to Americas enemies, although during the election he scaled down his initial vow to meet Irans leaders to a more general commitment to consider doing so if it advanced US interests.
And unfortunately McCain could never pin him to the wall on that, not that it would have mattered to the people who voted for Bambi. Bambi needs to learn: when you talk with thugs, you end up talking about what you're going to do for them and not vice-versa.
Obama faces a real dilemma, said the Eurasia Groups Mr Kupchan. He must decide whether to pursue diplomacy quickly in light of rapid Iranian progress or whether to wait in the hope of a more moderate Iranian leadership after Irans June presidential election.
There's a third option: what I've called Operation Lemony Snickett, which implements a whole series of unfortunate events in Iran, all designed to put the current regime of Mad Mullahs in disrepute. The fourth option is brute military force: not preferred but all we may be left with. The fifth option is to let the Israelis do the job, if they can. Mr. Kupchan didn't mention any of those.
European diplomats have responded favourably to Mr Obamas suggestion of US engagement with Iran, although they are keen to avoid unilateral US actions that would rip up the approach fashioned by the permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008
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#1
All for peaceful medicinal purposes, of course.
#2
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > [IIUC]BRAIN SCAN IMAGES AND ANALYSES INDCATES THAT NORTH KOREA'S KIM JONG-IL WILL PROBABLY NOT RULE/ALIVE AFTER ANOTHER FIVE YEARS [2012-13]???
Five suspected Taliban fighters were killed in artillery fire and shelling by gunship helicopters in various areas of Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, while five Taliban and four civilians were killed in the military operation in Swat. In Bajaur, officials and locals said the aerial strikes targetted Taliban positions in Mamoond and Charmang areas.
APP reported that Taliban fighters had also been killed in Nawagai tehsil. The political administration has tightened security in the agency by setting up checkposts in various areas and increasing the number of security personnel, continuing the search for Afghan refugees and arresting seven suspects.
In Swat, ISPR said five Taliban fighters were killed by security forces in Kabal tehsil. A spokesman for the military's media information centre in Swat told APP that gunship helicopters were called in after the Taliban attacked troops in Kabal. Civilian deaths: Also, four people -- two women in Khwazakhela and two men in Kabal -- were killed and seven injured as mortar shells hit civilian houses, according to locals. ISPR officials refused comment on the civilian deaths. NNI however reported that 10 civilians had been injured in the operation in Swat.
School blown up: Meanwhile, the Taliban blew up a boys' primary school in Bara Bandai area of Kabal tehsil. NNI however reported that a girls' school had been blown up. According to official figures, 123 schools have so far been destroyed by the Taliban in Swat.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
5 shot in Swat
is that near the groin?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2008 7:56
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SHANNON, Ireland, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A flight attendant aboard an Air Canada passenger jet helped land the aircraft in Ireland after its co-pilot suffered a mental breakdown, officials said. Irish aviation reports revealed the January incident, which necessitated an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, the British tabloid the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
Witnesses told investigators the co-pilot aboard the Toronto-to-London flight, which was carrying 146 passengers, began rambling incoherently and eventually became belligerent and uncooperative. His erratic behavior forced the pilot to enlist the help of the flight crew to remove him from the cockpit and restrain him in a passenger seat.
The pilot then asked those aboard the Boeing 767 if anyone had any piloting experience, and a flight attendant with a commercial pilot's license was tapped to help land the jetliner at Shannon, the newspaper said.
Irish officials praised the flight attendant and the rest of the crew for maintaining their calm. Officials indicated the co-pilot was admitted to the acute psychiatric unit of Ennis Regional Hospital in County Claire for 11 days, the Daily Mail said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008
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#1
If he gets some off campus privileges, he should go down to Miltown Malbay. Great pubs. Or maybe Doolin.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2008 1:12
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#2
I'm tempted to ask if they interrupted his prayer session, but I won't.
#6
While having a commercial pilot's license means the Flight Attendant wasn't quite so inexperienced as you'd think, it's still quite good for them to step up to the plate when needed.
#8
Probably wanted to be a pilot, and qualified as such, but with the cutbacks there were no positions available. So she gets to serve lunch (they still do that?) until things turn around for the industry. She may retire first.
#10
I could be wrong but commercial pilot license means you can fly 747s but only as long as they are loaded with cargo not passengers.
In oral circumsatnces you also need to be qualified for that specific plane.
Also notice that in this particular case there was a qualified pilot doing the landing so the attendant only needed to act like Pilot not in Function (ie communicate the radio, read the check list and similar tasks.
According to a contract announced by the Pentagon, the business Nammo Talley Defense will produce 7750 units of the light rocket launcher M72A7 bound for the US Marine Corp. The purchase is valued at 15 million dollars, and the deliveries will be completed in 2011.
The A7 version of this popular weapon has aroused the interest of the Armed Forces because it is very compact and light weight (some 3 kg). The new projectile designed for this version has much less back blast, which allows it to be fired from enclosed spaces this was a major flaw in earlier versions.
In addition, its new warhead is much more reliable. The A7 version can also fire a new projectile with a thermobaric warhead. I, for one, am very impressed they can make a thermobaric warhead this small. Translated from Spanish
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/20/2008
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#5
The rest of the story:
Nammo AS acquired Talley Defense Systems of Mesa AZ in early 2007.
From http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=3869
Nammo-Talley, Inc., Mesa, Ariz., is being awarded a maximum value $11,500,000 firm fixed-price, indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for the acquisition of shoulder-fired, Lightweight Assault Weapon (LAW) in two combat configurations, M72A7 and M72A9, along with training support items. Training items procured under this contract include the M72AS Training Launchers and the M72AS Training Rockets. The M72 LAW is a 66mm man-portable, lightweight, direct shoulder fired weapon that consists of an in-tube burning, free flight rocket prepackaged in a disposable launcher. The launcher is a lightweight, telescoping, single shot, throw away item consisting of an aluminum inner tube, an outer tube, a tube detonation device, a mechanical sight system, a firing mechanism, safety interlocks, an integral rear cover and shoulder rest and carry sling with front cover. The main difference between the two tactical configurations to be procured is the warhead. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by September 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N000164-08-D-JN03).
This contract was not competitively procured.
Is anyone asking why the original post was translated from Spanish?? Has ICE visited the NT plant in Mesa in recent years??? $2k a pop is CHEAP, not value. Something smells in the desert...
And a heck of lot more rounds for the same dollar.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 10:00
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#7
At $2K per pop, I wouldn't mind seeing them at Cabela's.
BTW, you can own your very own M203. Widipedia: In the United States, M203 grenade launcher attachments are classified as "Destructive Devices" under the National Firearms Act part 26 U.S.C. 5845, 27 CFR 479.11,[5] because they are a "non-sporting" firearm with a bore greater than one-half inch in diameter. M203s are relatively common on the civilian NFA market. New M203s sell for approximately $1,750 to $2,000 USD plus $200 transfer tax, and new manufacture 40mm training ammunition is available for $8 to $10 USD per cartridge, as of March 2008. High explosive 40mm grenades, however, are exceedingly rare on the civilian market, as each grenade must be individually registered with the Federal government with a $200 tax.
Several companies have also produced 37mm flare guns resembling the M203, which may be purchased without paperwork in most U.S. states. Legally, such devices are neither Destructive Devices nor even a firearms, but are signaling devices which may legally be used with 37mm flare and smoke munitions. If a 37mm flare gun were to be used with anti-personnel munitions, it would be illegal unless registered as a Destructive Device.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 10:02
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#8
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "layin' down the LAW."
Posted by: Mike ||
11/20/2008 10:21
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Is anyone asking why the original post was translated from Spanish??
The reason it is translated from Spanish is I read Spanish. A more interesting question is why the english language media had no mention of this.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/20/2008 11:54
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#10
Cause our media could care less about our troops or any improvement in their ability to fight!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/20/2008 18:45
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#11
Don't worry. The One will probably cancel the contract as soon as he takes office. After all, it wasn't bid competitively, so it must be bad. Besides, it is useful and helpful to our troops. That must be stopped!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/20/2008 20:06
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Chinese car makers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China's 21st Century Business Herald reports today. [A National Enquirer the paper is not. It is one of China's leading business newspapers, with a daily readership over three million.] The paper cites a senior official of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology-- the state regulator of China's auto industry-- who dropped the hint that "the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers." These hints are very often followed with quick action in the Middle Kingdom. The hints were dropped just a few days after the same Chinese government gave its auto makers the go-ahead to invest abroad. And why would they do that?
A take-over of a large overseas auto maker would fit perfectly into China's plans. As reported before, China has realized that its export chances are slim without unfettered access to foreign technology. The brand cachet of Chinese cars abroad is, shall we say, challenged. The Chinese could easily export Made-in-China VWs, Toyotas, Buicks. If their joint venture partner would let them. The solution: Buy the joint venture partner. Especially, when he's in deep trouble.
At current market valuations (GM is worth less than Mattel) the Chinese government can afford to buy GM with petty cash. Even a hundred billion $ would barely dent China's more than $2t in currency reserves. For nobody in the world would buying GM and (while they are at it) Chrysler make more sense than for the Chinese. Overlap? What overlap? They would gain instant access to the world's markets with accepted brands, and proven technology.
21st Century Business Herald, obviously with input from higher-up, writes that Chinese industry must change and upgrade. China wants their factories to change from low-value-added manufacturing to technically innovative and financially-sound high-value-add industries. Says the paper: "It would be much easier now for strong Chinese automakers to go global by acquiring some assets of their U.S. counterparts in times of crisis."
Deloitte & Touche sees a trend: "Chinese automakers can start with buying out the OEM projects and Chinese ventures of some global car makers such as GM and Chrysler."
The Chinese appear to have bigger plans than an accounting firm can imagine. 21st Century Business Herald acts and writes as if its already a done deal, and the beginning of more to come. "In the coming two years China is likely to see a few of its large Chinese automakers and other manufacturing enterprises set a precedent for achieving globalization by acquiring global companies, just like SAIC or Dongfeng's possible acquisition of troubled GM or Chrysler."
Just in case you missed it, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) is China's largest auto manufacturer. In 1984, the company entered a joint venture with Volkswagen. A decade later, SAIC entered a joint venture with General Motors. In 2007, SAIC bought the Nanjing Automobile Corporation, which had acquired British MG Rover in 2005.
Dongfeng Motor Corporation is a public company, although 70 percent of their shares are reported to be in government hands. They also are one of China's Big Three. The company has numerous joint venture partners, such as Nissan, Peugeot-Citroen, Honda, and Kia. Dongfeng (which means "East Wind") was founded at the behest of Mao Zedong himself in 1968.
#3
Expect major culture shock as Chinese managers and engineers crash headlong into American safety and quality regulations... which are actually and severely enforced.
#5
Well, it may be one approach to reducing long term Medicare and Social Security costs. Matched to an increase stimulation in the morturary business and employment.
#12
It might be good for the world if the Chinese got ahold of the flexifuel tech and started exporting it to the third world. Seems some of the folks in our own congress are a bit to oil centric in their thinking.
#14
Isn't there some sort of technology transfer restrictions in place that would ( should) prevent the Chicomms from actually acquiring these? i am under the impression that the DoS controls this via EAR processes.
#17
any export restrictions on the tech can easily be over come with the appropriate campaign contributions... just like in 94-96...
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/20/2008 15:33
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#18
As of January 20th, 2009 Obama's rehashing of the Clinton and Carter eras, will open the doors even wider to Red China's business agenda to dominate American industry.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/20/2008 15:49
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#19
The Chinese are awash in trade surplus American $ that are burning a hole in their pocket right now. It's not like they need them to buy oil any more. They might as well trade in all those S&H green stamps for a couple of run-down old-school companies. They'd get their foot in the door, AND as legitimate businessmen, could lobby Washington much easier. Hey, it beats sitting on a mattress stuffed with greenbacks.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/20/2008 18:01
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#20
This is just a scare tactic after Congress made the big three look bad. "Help us or we'll sell to the Chinese". Screw the big three and let them, their corperate jets, kickbacks, bonuses, and perks go. It will reset-read kill- the UAW and China will get screwed trying to make a car that meets our safety requirements. Bring popcorn, this will get fun!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/20/2008 18:37
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(SomaliNet) As part of a growing protest against state censorship ten Sudanese newspapers suspended publication on Tuesday, journalists said.
Sudanese reporters said it was the biggest voluntary shut down of the media since the days of British rule in the 1950s.
The protest came a day after 63 journalists and newspaper staff were detained for more than three hours by police after staging a rally outside Sudan's parliament. The arrests were condemned by the US government.
"This is a real step forward," said Faisal Mohamed Saleh, a columnist for Al-Akhbar newspaper. "In the past a few partisan newspapers have staged protests. But most of the people who are taking part today are journalists from independent newspapers."
The 10 papers were planning to shut-down again on Wednesday if other publications agreed to join in, said Saleh.
Reporters said the action had been driven by individual journalists who had approached their editors and management and persuaded them to pull their Tuesday editions. The reporters were members of a recently formed Sudan Journalists' Network which is also campaigning for a new press law to enshrine press freedoms promised under a 2005 peace deal that ended the country's north-south civil war.
Journalists complain of nightly visits from security officers who instruct editors to remove sensitive articles from the next day's edition.
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11/20/2008
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Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a retired major general of Pakistan Army and his driver in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday,
Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alvi from the Special Services Group (SSG) had retired more than two years ago. He was heading for his Islamabad office at 9:30am on Wednesday when the unidentified gunmen stopped his car on Islamabad Highway near the PWD Colony in Koral police precincts, a police official told Daily Times.
They shot at him and his driver Tanveer and fled, he added. Police cordoned off the area and began a search while the bodies were taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Hospital sources said eight bullets hit Gen Alvi -- three in the head, two in the neck and three in the chest. The driver had six bullet injuries including one in his head. Police told Online news agency one or more 8MM pistols had been used in the attack.
A first information report had not been registered by Wednesday evening.
Terrorist act: Police sources said the killing was being seen as a terrorist act by 'militants'. Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives have targeted top army leaders and security officials in the past.
One senior official said personal rivalry could not be ruled out. He said the murder could not be linked with the Lal Masjid operation because the general had retired long before the incident.
Violence began to escalate last July when army commandos stormed the Lal Masjid during the regime of General (r) Pervez Musharraf, himself an ex-SSG head. A wave of suicide bombings has since killed hundreds of people and Taliban have targeted security forces.
Violence subsided when the new government that came to power after the election in February opened talks with Taliban, but it picked up again after top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud suspended the talks in June.
President, PM condemn: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the killing in separate messages. Gilani deplored the tragic killing and expressed deep sorrow over the demise of the retired general.
President Zardari said he "prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed soul in peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear the loss with equanimity".
Security has deteriorated alarmingly in the country over recent months with the military attacking Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the northwest while they have responded with attacks on security forces. Two suicide bombers had killed at least 59 people in an attack on the country's main defence industry complex in August.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
First assumption - terrorists.
Alternative hypothesis - he knew where too many bodies were buried.
(SomaliNet) A day after hijacking it in the restive Niger Delta, gunmen in Nigeria have released a cargo ship and its crew, a senior Nigerian military official said on Tuesday.
According to reports, the attackers intercepted the MV Thou Galaxy on Sunday as it sailed for Warri in Delta state, seizing at least 10 people on board including the captain. "The vessel was released yesterday with its cargo and all the crew members," said Brigadier-General Wuyep Rimtip, head of the military taskforce in the western Niger Delta. "I'm not aware that any ransom was paid before their release and I don't expect the state government to pay any ransom for their release."
A military spokesman on Monday said he believed gunmen loyal to rebel leader Tom Polo were behind the attack. Insecurity in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's oil sector, has slashed a fifth of the OPEC member's oil production since early 2006.-
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11/20/2008
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The need for a common enemy to stay in the political arena will bring the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) closer once again.
The two religious parties, the former partners in the six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), parted ways after former president Pervez Musharraf's implementation of November 3, 2007 emergency and the February 18 general elections.
While JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad went several steps ahead with lawyers in their movement for the restoration of sacked chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other sacked judges, his JUI-F partner Fazlur Rehman kept his support limited to mere political statements and his party contested the elections to the dismay of its JI buddies.
The bitter pill of defeat swallowed by the JUI-F during the general elections at the hands of the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) expanded the rifts in the defunct religious alliance as some senior leaders of Fazl's party accused some of their JI mates of conspiring against them in the general elections by supporting their opponents.
The JI responded by saying that the defeat was the outcome of their 'wrong' policy of going for the elections.
However, with the wave of insurgency, ever-increasing incidents of kidnapping, influx of displaced people from Swat, Bajaur and Mohmand and the worst flour crisis in NWFP provided a chance to the JUI-F and the JI to settle old scores with the ANP by reprimanding the secular party over its anti-Taliban stance and the issue of Pakhtunistan.
It was JUI-F provincial president Gul Naseeb who raised the issue of Pakhtunistan and accused ANP of trying to divide the country by re-invigorating the defunct greater Pakhtunistan issue.
The charge was vehemently denied by the NWFP government, which ordered inquiry into the installations of greater Paktunistan signboards in some southern districts of NWFP, which are the stronghold of the JUI-F.
The ANP also said the Pakhtunistan issue was raised by the JUI-F to divert public attention from the land scam against its leadership.
The JI, cashing the opportunity, brought its white paper against the provincial government reckoning its failures during the previous 200 days.
Without condemning the burning of schools, slaughtering of innocent civilians and carrying out of suicide attacks on sport functions, the JI provincial chief Sirajul Haq demanded unilateral halt to operations against Taliban.
Meanwhile, the JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman said that the revival of the MMA was the need of the hour. He described the prevailing situation in the NWFP and the Tribal Areas as main reason for the revival of the religious alliance.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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The US Treasury has urged the United Arab Emirates to keep a close eye on Iranian banks operating in the Persian Gulf financial hub.
"There is a challenge in the (United Arab Emirates) especially because of deep commercial ties between the UAE and Iran," said Stuart Levey, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence on Wednesday. "These banks are an issue of concern and they are deserving of scrutiny because of their track record," Levey was quoted by Reuters as saying on Wednesday.
He noted that the US's policy of sanctions against Iran would continue during the term of Democratic president-elect Barack Obama. "There's one area in US continuity -- rigorous enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions and protection of the international financial system," he said.
The US official announced that Washington is discussing issues with the UAE which are important for Dubai if it is to become "a trusted financial center".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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Rajshahi University authorities yesterday banned a theatre group under pressure from Islami Chhatra Shibir for staging a drama that Shibir claimed to be blasphemous. RU Registrar Prof Muhammad Shafi issued a press release, banning Dhumketu Natya Sangsad and staging of its drama "Mandar" on the campus.
However, an RU committee formed to review the play did not find anything blasphemous in it.
Sources said although the authorities showed Dhumketu's being unregistered with the Teacher Student Culture Centre as the reason for the ban, it was banned for staging the play on November 3 in protest against removal of baul sculptures from the airport intersection in Dhaka.
Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, observed a strike on the campus demanding punishment to the Udichi activists who performed in the play and threatened to stop the ongoing admission tests if Udichi and Dhumketu were not banned.
Sources alleged that the RU authorities took the decision to ban Dhumketu bypassing the recommendations of the 11-member review committee headed by social science faculty Dean Prof Sadekul Islam.
Abu Sayem, general secretary of Udichi RU unit, criticised the university authorities saying the Jamaat-backed administration took the decision under threats from Shibir. He said they would take legal action against the authorities.
When contacted, RU Vice-Chancellor Prof Mamnunul Keramat said, "We took the decision on the basis of a review of the overall situation."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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An Egyptian preacher was accused of excessive indulgence in the supernatural when he called for carrying out an analysis of the holy stone in the Mecca shrine to prove it is not made of earthy material.
Islamic thinker and professor of geology Dr. Zaghloul al-Naggar called for taking samples from the Black Stone at the holy shrine of Mecca to prove the Prophet's hadith-saying-that it is made of heavenly substance and to respond to the West's deriding perception of Islam.
Naggar referred to the way the West ridicules Muslims for kissing the Black Stone during the pilgrimage ritual. "What I called for is not an exploration of the supernatural," he told AlArabiya.net. "It is scientific research."
According to a hadith (saying) by Prophet Mohamed, "The Black Stone descended from Paradise much whiter than milk, but it was turned black by the sins committed by mankind."
In a seminar hosted by the Egyptian Press Syndicate on Monday, Naggar stressed that taking a sample will not damage the holy stone and called for scholars to utilize science in the right way.
Professor of Hadith at al-Azhar University Dr. al Agami al Damanhouri said Naggar's call is not going to add to the stone's value and stressed that there is no point in trying to demonstrate this value to the West. "They made this analysis before and made sure its substance is not earthly," he told AlArabiya.net.
Damanhouri cited a saying by the Prophet's Companion and second Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab: "I know well that you are simply a stone, and have no power to confer a benefit or to do harm. Had I not seen the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) kissing you, I would not have kissed you."
According to Damanhouri, this saying proves that the Prophet's actions should be emulated by Muslims without the need to find a scientific proof that supports its validity.
On the other hand, Sheikh Abdullah Megawer, advisor of the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, supported Naggar's call while agreeing to the necessity of following the Prophet in whatever he said or did. "If Naggar's call is to discover the scientific formation of the stone, we welcome it. Other than that, we follow the text we have," he told AlArabiya.net.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
Yeh! Don't mess with the Prophet's rock.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:25
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#4
Of course it's made of heavenly material. It's a *FUCKING METEORITE*! Unless you think it's made of Platonic Godlike wonder-absorbant or something like that, you wouldn't accomplish much of anything, rant-boy.
I've never understood the whole Kaaba thing. Sure looks like shirk to me, you more-monotheistic-than-thou hypocritical jackasses, you.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/20/2008 10:06
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#5
typical rag-head science. The entire f****ing earth is "heavenly" you dweebs!
#8
Is it a meteorite? I recall reading that it is granite, and that the British Museum had a sample from it.
But the man has a valid point. Investigation of any rock starts with its hardness, so I propose every Haji bangs his head against the Black Stone three times, as hard as he can. This should generate some useful data in time.
#10
Some naughty Hindus claim that this is a meteorite fragment that was crafted into a Shiva Lingam and worshipped at the Kaaba before the arrival of Islam.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/20/2008 17:10
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#11
What cracks up is that muzzie pilgrims jostle each other in order to reach their hand into the silver vulva and rub the button meteor. The volumes any comedian Sigmund Freud could write about that.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 17:39
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#12
What cracks ME up
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 17:39
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Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 17:42
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#14
Silly me. I thought a holystone was something you used to scrub down the decks of sailing ships.
From Wiki:
Holystone is a soft and brittle sandstone that was formerly used for scouring and whitening the wooden decks of ships. It was used in the British and American Navy for scrubbing the decks of sailing ships.
The term may have come from the fact that 'holystoning the deck' was originally done on one's knees, as in prayer.[1] In realistic reference to their size, smaller holystones were called "prayer books" and larger ones "Bibles"; also, a widely quoted legend attributes the name "holystone" to the story that such pieces of stone were taken for use from St. Nicholas Church in Great Yarmouth.[2] More plausible is the use of stones taken from the ruined church of St Helens, Isle of Wight; tall ships would often anchor in St Helens Roads (the strip of water immediately adjacent to St Helens) and take provisions and fresh water from St Helens before setting off on their journeys.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2008 18:06
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A Barisal court yesterday sentenced absconding Awami League (AL) leader and former chief whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah to 14 years' rigorous imprisonment in two cases filed on charges of corruption and abuse of power.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorism police have carried out at least 135 raids and are investigating 11 foreigners in various Italian regions who are suspected of links to an alleged Morocco-based Islamist group. The organisation, called 'Al-Adl Wal Ihsan' or Justice and Charity, is being investigated for association to commit international terrorist acts.
Several apartments and cultural centres thought to be linked to the Moroccan movement are being investigated as well as 11 foreigners.
According to investigators, the 'Justice and Charity' movement is a front for a group seeking the restoration of an Islamic caliphate in Morocco and the abolition of the monarchy.
Justice and Charity is believed to be Morocco's largest opposition Islamist movement. However, the group claims it wants to transform Moroccan society through non-violent means and social work.
Justice and Charity is tolerated by the Moroccan government but reportedly has no legal status to organise meetings.
The group has repeatedly accused the government of imprisoning its members and limiting its funding resources.
The anti-terrorism investigations are taking place in the regions of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Lombardy, Veneto in northern Italy and in the central Emilia Romagna and Marche region.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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Rab recovered one US-made belt-fed M79 grenade launcher and five 40mm grenades at Rangamatia in Chittagong's Fatikchhari upazila early yesterday. The weapons were found abandoned near a graveyard during a raid on a hideout of criminal gang Daulat Bahini at Malikasha in North Rangamatia, Rab said.
Rab 7 commanding officer Zahidur Rahim said they believe the arms belong to Daulat, the gang's kingpin. "The M79 grenade launcher and its 40mm grenades were first widely used by the US troops during the Vietnam War," he told The Daily Star.
"The grenades can successfully hit their target within 150m (point target) and is effective within a range of 350m (area target)," he added. "The anti-personnel cartridges were used against people and light vehicles and had a devastating effect within a 5m radius of the target," said the Rab official.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
Why didn't they unload it on the RAB? What kind of lousy, half-assed criminal drops a fully loaded grenade launcher? Damned banglas, they can't even break the law right.
#2
Big-jim: If you're caught and you haven't killed anyone from the RAB, you're given a couple of swats of the baton and carted off to jail. If you DO manage to kill a RAB member, you're disassembled alive before a live RAB audience wearing earplugs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2008 15:05
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#3
Not to be picky but the M79 is a single shot launcher. Mark 19's are belt fed and there was an earlier vietnam era one, but I don't remember the designation off the top of my head.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Militants have over the last 10 days carried out a series of attacks in the northwest against a key airport and military supply route and have killed several tribal chiefs. The attacks may be seen as part of a deliberate bid to prevent the Pakistani military from taking part with NATO in a joint operation to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan's Kunar Valley and in the troubled Bajaur and Mohmand tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Militants have launched 17 rocket and missile attacks this month against the airport in Peshawar, the main town in North West Frontier Province.
The militants blockaded the key Khyber Pass route for fuel tankers and trucks supplying international forces in Afghanistan. The route re-opened on Monday after the government barred the movement of convoys on safety grounds following the hijacking and looting by militants of 12 trucks and two Humvee armoured vehicles last week.
Militants have in recent days killed several key tribal chiefs in Bajaur who were trying to form pro-government lashkars (militias) to fight against the Taliban, and have abducted several others.
On Tuesday a clash between Taliban militants and pro-government tribal elders left at least five people dead, according to official government sources in Bajaur.
The Pakistani government launched a major offensive against militants in Bajaur three months ago and Pakistani troops and tribal militias are continuing to battle Taliban guerrillas there.
Taliban gunmen exchanged fire with tribal leaders holed up in a fortress-like compound in Bajaur for several hours late on Monday. Suspected Taliban militants are also reported to have killed several tribal elders there the same day.
Taliban militants carried out attacks in the Orakzai tribal area a few weeks ago and forced local tribes to stay neutral and abandon all tribal militia activities against the Taliban instigated by the government.
The government's efforts to sow divisions within the militants' rank and file has also proved ineffective.
Taliban commander Abdul Wali chose to keep out of the conflict but refused to support the Pakistani army against the militants in Bajaur. The various small groups previously working under Wali's command however, backed the militants in Bajaur against the army.
A tribal warlord in the Khyber tribal area bordering Afghanistan, Mangal Bagh, has also made clear to the government that he would rather remain neutral and not take up arms against Taliban militants seeking to hijack NATO convoys in the region and cut off supply routes.
The overwhelming majority of supplies for international forces in Afghanistan are shipped into the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi and cross the border via Balochistan and the Khyber Pass. There are virtually no alternative routes available.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sounds like a match made in heaven. They could be called the Do Little Duo. The NATO Do Littles joining forces with the Pakistani Do Littles. The Taliban probably doesn't have much to worry about.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:31
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Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Wednesday. "The enemies seek to assault our religious identity by exploiting the Internet," Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, an advisor to Iran's prosecutor general, was quoted by Kargozaran newspaper as saying.
The Internet "inflicts social, political, economic and moral damage, which is worrying," he said, adding that "social vice caused by the Internet is more than that by the satellite network," Mehr news agency reported.
With about 21 million users, the Internet is widely popular in Iran, which information ministry officials say ranks among the top 20 user countries.
In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic.
The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.
Iran's reformist press was hit by a massive crackdown in 2000, and many journalists turned to blogging after their publications were shut down.
The closures have continued under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected in 2005, and have targeted newspapers and other media, including web sites and news agencies, of all political persuasions.
"Cyber imperialism"
Conservatives have also warned against "cyber imperialism" targeting developing countries.
In its latest edition, Sobh-e Sadegh, the publication of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said, "The Internet, satellite (channels) and text messages played an important role in color revolutions in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia."
The weekly said Internet search engines Yahoo and Google, BBC and CNN televisions and even international news agencies including "Reuters, Associated Press, UPI, AFP and DPA" operated as "tools of diplomacy conducted through media."
The magazine accused the European Union of seeking to "develop anti-Iranian cyber space" by supporting dissident bloggers.
Despite a strict ban on satellite television, dishes dot many Iranian rooftops and people have access to dozens of Persian-language channels, including the Voice of America, broadcasting a daily dose of politics and entertainment.
Islamic republic officials have been concerned about BBC Persian-language television which is yet to be launched and warned against interviewing or cooperating with such media.
The head of Iran's state-run television recently said that 30 percent of Iranians watch satellite channels, but observers say the figures are likely to be higher.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
So is Rantburg blocked in Iran? And what about the Daily Kos? What about Nick Scipio? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2008 1:08
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#2
Hey, if anyone wants to come over to my house today I'm going to be "assaulting their religious identity by exploiting the Internet" for most of the afternoon. Got nothin else to do, I already cleaned out the garage.
#4
Blogs won't have to be shut down. Obama FCC Commissioner appointee Henry Rivera will simply desigate Web sites and "bloggers" as media transmission venues and require that they fall under current regulations and licensing.
Thousands of Kosovo Albanians protested in Pristina against a United Nations plan, which, they say, would split the country along ethnic lines. Protesters Wednesday took to the streets of the Kosovo capital, backing the country's leadership in opposing the plan, which sets out conditions for the deployment of a new European Union peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
The plan, backed by Belgrade and the United Nations, would create separate chains of command for Serbian and Albanian police forces operating in Kosovo. Police forces in ethnic Albanian areas would report to the new EU mission, while police in Serb-majority areas would report to U.N. officials.
That's a particularly dumb idea, so it clearly came from the U.N. There can only be one police and one chain of command. If you have to split the country, split it cleanly along ethnic lines and be done with it.
Ethnic Albanians say the plan amounts to creating two, parallel chains of administration within Kosovo. They also worry it would give Serbia too much influence over Kosovo's internal affairs.
But Serbs say they will not accept the new EU force unless the six-point plan goes through.
Serbs got ejected so they don't really have much to say about the EU force, do they ...
Last week, EU officials agreed to Serbian demands that the mission remain neutral regarding Kosovo's status and have its personnel endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
Why should the EU be neutral? Kosovo is an independent country, recognized by the U.N. The Serbs don't like it, of course, but maybe next time they won't star a war and ethnic cleansing.
The mission is to replace U.N. security forces that have administered the former Serbian province since 1999.
The EU force can be a trip-wire, but if Kosovo is to be sovereign, it has to be responsible for its own security.
Kosovo's leaders are on their way to London, where they will meet Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February. Serbia, its ally Russia, and ethnic Serb leaders in Kosovo reject Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence as a violation of Serbian territorial integrity. More than 50 countries, including the United States and many EU states, have recognized Kosovo's independence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008
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If Kosovo splits along ethnic lines both sides will be gobbled up. The muslim part by Albania and the Non-Muslim part by Serbia. They probably should have done that to begin with but everyone is in love with the lines in the Atlas.
A senior Mexican police official who worked as the country's liaison with Interpol was arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into information leaks from top law enforcement authorities to the nation's notorious drug cartels.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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I suppose this will affect his police pension. Tough break. It is encouraging to see this kind of progress in the drug wars. Better than we seem to be doing at home, comparatively speaking.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:16
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OT: Reinhard Heydrich ran Interpol for a few years...
The single biggest opportunity -- and potential difficulty -- for the incoming administration's plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, comes from the same group of Yemeni prisoners, who make up fully 40 percent of the detainees still held there.
Despite intensive diplomatic discussions in recent months, and the Yemeni government's promise to put released prisoners through a rehabilitation program, the Bush administration remains unconvinced that the impoverished Arab nation is capable of absorbing a group of men that officials believe includes hardened extremists.
Administration officials said President-elect Barack Obama will face the same daunting array of concerns about Yemen, a country where the terrorist threat from al-Qaeda is escalating and where extremists already have escaped prison and returned to the fight. Some have strong ties to Guantanamo detainees.
"There are still, I think, significant concerns throughout the U.S. government, amongst all the agencies, about the Yemenis' capacity to absorb and process any significant number of returned detainees," said a senior administration official who, because of the sensitivity of the issue, spoke on the condition of anonymity. "And then there are simply logistical and financial issues involved in setting up a rehabilitation center, which could take quite a long period of time."
The Yemeni government rejects U.S. criticism of its record of combating terrorism and insists that it can successfully handle the Yemeni detainees, who make up the largest national contingent at Guantanamo Bay.
"We are ready to receive all of them, and we hope President-elect Obama and the next administration will send them to Yemen," said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. "It is not to our benefit to simply let these people go free. Anybody who we see as a threat to Yemen or its people, and our allies, will be dealt with in an appropriate way."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
Who gives a f*ck? Not the folks who will release them for sure. They have security.
#10
Somalia's just over the Gulf of Aden, right? What about using them as bait for the pirates? Slap some pretty paint on some boats, put on some empty cargo containers, and....surprise! It's Crazy Achmed!
Or is that too dangerous a move? (I only know enough to be dangerous in that area's history, not sure if they would kill each other or work together for the common bad, if ya know what I mean.)
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Tuesday condemned the hijacking of a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million in crude oil, calling piracy "a disease that has to be eradicated." The 1,080-foot Sirius Star was seized by Somali pirates Saturday off East Africa. Its owner, Vela International, said the tanker is thought to be anchored off the coast of Somalia.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said his country would join international efforts to battle piracy, which has surged to levels unseen in modern times. "This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy," Saud said during a visit to Athens, the Associated Press reported.
Vela International, a subsidiary of the Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco, said in a statement that the company was "awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel."
The crew is composed of two Britons, two Poles, one Croatian, one Saudi and 19 Filipinos.
The tanker, which had been heading toward the United States via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, held as much as 2 million barrels of oil, more than a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily exports. News of the hijacking helped briefly push global oil prices to more than $58 a barrel Monday, though they later lost some gains.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
Price didn't rise much because still have excess inventory. I would like to see the Saudis have the priviledge of administering justice to these pirates. Chop, chop, chop, ...
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:38
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My thoughts exactly, Richard. The crew is composed of two Britons, two Poles, one Croatian, one Saudi and 19 Filipinos.
Piloting a supertanker takes skill and communication. Just how do they all speak to one another, unless they all speak Arabic? And if the crew is Muslim, able to communicate with the pirates, are they part of the problem? The Sirius Star was so far out to sea, it doesn't seem to be a random snatch.
KABUL, Nov. 19 -- A suspected U.S. suspected airstrike deep inside suspected Pakistani territory Wednesday killed suspected six insurgent suspected fighters and wounded suspected several others, according to a suspected Pakistani security suspected official.
The airstrike in the district of Bannu in the North-West Frontier Province appears to be the first such attack outside Pakistan's tribal areas. It came as the country's top military officer met with NATO officials in Brussels to discuss the cross-border missile strikes, which have been increasingly frequent in recent months and which the United States considers necessary for combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The attacks have stoked tensions in Pakistan and drawn public rebukes from the government.
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone fired at least two missiles early Wednesday morning at a house near North Waziristan, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal territories that line Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani security official said the six who were killed were believed to be foreigners with suspected links to al-Qaeda.
So nobody will especially miss them ...
Details about those killed could not be confirmed. A Pakistani military spokesman declined to comment. The U.S. generally does not acknowledge such attacks and has so far not issued any public comments on the use of Predator airstrikes on Pakistani soil.
Shortly after Wednesday's strike, Quazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, vowed to block a vital NATO supply route if the U.S. attacks continue, the Associated Press reported.
Make .. our .. day ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2008
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#1
I suspect that WaPo at least suspects that nobody else in that part of the world uses these suspected missile-firing drones. They won't even admit to suspecting that the terrorists are in fact terrorists, and I find this policy suspicious.
In any case, there is more than a suspicion that these six will not be back in Afghanistan shooting, bombing, and beating up girls.
#3
The Islamic terrorist enemy sneaking into Afghanistan from Pakistan, due to the Paki government's inability, or refusal, to halt the continuous daily cross border jihadist intrusions, mandates our troops protect themselves to the fullest by taking this counter Islamic terrorism war to the radicalized Muslim enemy's home front and front door steps.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/20/2008 15:44
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Legislators loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr shouted down the Iraqi Parliament's second reading on Wednesday of a military pact allowing US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. The agreement, approved by the Cabinet on Sunday, has been fiercely criticized by the Sadrists, who oppose any deal with the US "occupier".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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[5 views]
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#1
He should issue the sergeant at arms a flamethrower to maintain order.
(SomaliNet) A regional maritime group said on Wednesday that Somali pirates have seized another ship, a Greek bulk carrier, despite a large international naval presence in the waters off their lawless country.
The vessel was they second they had taken since the weekend's spectacular capture of a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million of oil that was the largest hijack in history.
The incident was the latest espisode in a wave of Somali piracy this year that has driven up insurance costs, made some shipping companies change their routes and prompted an unprecedented military response from NATO and the European Union among others.
"The pirates are sending out a message to the world that 'we can do what we want, we can think the unthinkable, do the unexpected'," Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Reuters in Mombasa.
His group, which monitors attacks at sea, said the Greek ship was taken on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden with about 25 crew on board. He had no further details but it followed the hijacking of a Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying grain and bound for Iran.
No ransom has been demanded so far for the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which the pirates seized on Saturday after dodging international naval patrols in their boldest strike yet. A spokesman for the owners, Saudi Aramco, said the company hoped to hear from the hijackers later on Wednesday.
The hijacking took place 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, far beyond the gangs' usual area of operations. On Wednesday, it was believed to be anchored near Eyl, a former Somali fishing village now used as a well-defended pirate base. "Eyl residents told me they could see the lights of a big ship far out at sea that seems to be the tanker," Aweys Ali, chairman of Somalia's Galkayo region, told Reuters by telephone.
Somali gunmen were believed to be holding about a dozen ships in the area, and more than 200 hostages. Among the vessels is a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 tanks and other weapons that was captured in another high-profile strike earlier this year.
The seizure of the Sirius Star was carried out despite an international naval response, including from NATO, to guard one of the world's busiest shipping routes. Warships from the United States, France and Russia are also off Somalia.
Given that the pirates were well-armed with grenades, heavy machineguns and rocket-launchers, the foreign forces were steering clear of direct confrontation, and in most cases the owners of the hijacked ships were trying to negotiate ransoms.
British Royal Navy Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East, said coalition forces could not be everywhere. "The pirates will go somewhere we are not," he told Fairplay, part of defence analysts Jane's Information Group. "If we patrol the Gulf of Aden then they will go to Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden."
In a show of resolve, Kenyan police paraded eight suspected pirates in a Mombasa court on Wednesday. The Royal Navy captured them, and killed two others, in the Gulf of Aden last week.
Also on Wednesday, South Korea said it was planning to send navy ships to the waters off Somalia to protect commercial vessels from pirates, and Japan was considering a similar move.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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#1
So why the greatly increased pirate activity in that area? Could it be that jihad income from oil profits, and other sources are down? The AQ, Taliban, Hamas, et al, may be experiencing something more like a depression than a recession. I hope.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:51
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#2
Or they're simply doing it because they can. And they can because international order (political and economic) is breaking down.
Posted by: William Sutton ||
11/20/2008 7:00
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#4
If all the ships worth defending are in the port of Eyl, the Russian weapons, Iranian WMD's, $100 million Saudi crude, wouldn't it be easier to just J-Dam the cess pool called Somalia?
Pakistani aircraft dropped pamphlets in various areas of Safi tehsil in Mohmand Agency on Wednesday urging tribesmen to expel the Taliban from the area. The pamphlets added that if the tribesmen were unable to drive the Taliban out, they should themselves leave the area. The pamphlets asked people to co-operate with the government. Meanwhile, security forces are advancing towards Pindyali tehsil to set up three checkposts in Targhakhi area. This would prevent the Taliban from attacking the security forces from that side of the agency and would also make the Ghalanai-Yaka Ghund route safe.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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[9 views]
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#1
The choices given them sound good.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:41
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A senior U.N. official warned Tuesday of the prospect of social unrest as the export-driven economies of Asia start to slow in response to the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2008
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[9 views]
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#1
I assume export-driven economies of Asia is code for China.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM >CHINA RULES OUT TIBETAN INDEPENDENCE. Tibet exile leader proclaims that "THE MIDDLE WAY" [Compromise, Non-Violence] HAS ULTIMATELY FAILED FOR INDIGENS TIBETANS???; + FASCISTS ON THE RAMPAGE {Pakistan,India] + RISE OF HINDU MILITANT FUNDAMENTALISM/THE HINDU NATIONALIST CHALLENGE TO INDIA AND ASIA.
#3
WORLD MIL FORUM > INDIAN THINK TANK: FUTURE SINO-INDIAN ARMS RACE, CONFRONTATION AND CONFLICT CANNOT BE RULED OUT. India has begun deploying "AGNI" IRBMS vee CHINA in underground tunnel fortifications, wid more planned. PAKISTAN despite its nuke arsenal is NOT considered a REAL/TRUE THREAT TO INDIA as its economy is only 1/4 that of India's, as measured per India's pan-econ assets listed on its BOMBAY Stock Exchange. India's anti-China "AGNI" undergound missle deployment may induce China to dev a SECOND STRIKE MISSLE CAPABILITY TO PREVAIL AGZ INDIA'S MISSLES, WHICH IN TURN WILL INDUCE INDIA TO COUNTER.
#4
WORLD MIL FORUM > JAPANESE MEDIA: CHINA'S NALA THREAT TO JAPAN, for now mainly via its PLAN Submarines. NERPA fire + presence of 3 OSCAR Subs near Hokkaido.
* SAME > JAPAN DESIRES TO TAKE LEAD IN ASIA AND WORLD FINANCIAL REFORMATION [Japan versus China ala G-20 Summit].
#5
PAKSITANI DEFENCE EFORUM > INDIA AND MYANMAR'S GOVERBMENTS ARE NOW IN THE CONTROL OF THEIR ARMIES, + PASHTUNISTAN, + INDIA-BHUTAN SECRET ARMS LINKS EXPOSED.
#7
I would assume that means Malaysia, Vietnam, and maybe the functioning parts of Indonesia as well. South Korea strikes me as aging too fast to successfully indulge in large-scale unrest, and Taiwan will be too busy sweating their inevitable Obama-assisted digestion by the newly, rabidly nationalistic mainlanders to freak out in the streets.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/20/2008 10:02
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#8
Small scale riots have already broken out in several Chinese cities in the last few days.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 10:06
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#9
Guess nobody will have the money or energy to bail out North Korea when the time comes.
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course -- the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.
I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support -- banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around -- and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit's automakers.
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota's Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product -- it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries -- from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.
The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, "Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street."
You don't have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.
The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms -- all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.
Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies -- especially fuel-saving designs -- that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.
Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don't want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don't fire the best dealers, and don't crush them with new financial or performance demands they can't meet.
It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research -- on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like -- that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.
But don't ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass -- they bet on management and they lost.
The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.
In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year's Republican presidential nomination.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/20/2008
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#1
Who makes military vehicles, tanks and such now? We could be double screwed by bad management, bad unions, bad government. This situation affects our national defense.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2008 1:15
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#2
He was my choice for the Republican candidate. Wish we had him in there now.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/20/2008 4:21
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#3
A restructuring of the auto industry to make it excellent could be a new Manhattan-type project, if done correctly. Good for the defense industry, and good for domestic issues.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
11/20/2008 6:10
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#4
If I am not mistaken, General Dynamics is the primary manufacturer of the M1. Pretty sure the Big Three have little or no involvement in military assets these days.
And I concur 100% with Mitt. The only way to save them is to force them to restructure. New management and kill the UAW. Our only hope is that GM goes under before NObama takes office, cause in January they'll get their money.
#5
As a shareholder of GM, I say.....let 'em declare bankruptcy. Yes, I know what little I have in them will be declared worthless, but that's better than saddling my kid and other future generations with debt that cannot possibly be repaid under their current business model.
#6
GM stock is fast approaching $1 billion. It would be interesting if the UAW purchased majority ownership and then implemented needed reforms.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 12:02
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#7
Not today. CNBC: Key senators reached a compromise on a $25 billion bailout of the three big US auto makers, a Senate Democratic aide said. A draft of the compromise being worked on by Michigan Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., would use the $25 billion set aside by Congress in September for retooling auto plants over the next several years and lend it to auto makers immediately, the Detroit Free Press said.
Automakers would face strict conditions on using the money, similar to what financial firms faced under their bailout, and as they repaid the loans, the money would go back into the retooling fund, the paper said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2008 13:11
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#8
Oh my God!!!
"Automakers would face strict conditions on using the money, similar to what financial firms faced under their bailout,..."
ROFLMAO how stupid can these Bozos be??? They don't know that the financial firms used the money for executive bonuses??? I think that the entire Senate & House should be replaced by gold fish. They would make less noise, better decisions and be better looking.
#9
I've been trying to send that asshole Levin packing every election and the sonofabitch keeps getting re-elected - the people in my homestate who vote for this clown are morons. He's been in the senate way too long.
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.
Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., has hired six students whose jobs as "dialogue facilitators" will involve intervening in conversations among students in dining halls and common rooms to encourage discussion of such social justice issues as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability and social class.
For 10 years, South Korea has pursued a "sunshine policy" as its master plan for transforming North Korea. Under that banner, South Korea funneled billions of dollars to the North for new factories, hotels and food, and millions of South Korean tourists poured across the border. But eight months after President Lee Myung-bak came to office here promising a harder approach, the once vaunted policy has unraveled. North Korea has cut off high-level dialogue with the South. It has severed Red Cross-managed telephone "hot lines" crossing the demilitarized zone. In July, a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist visiting its Diamond Mountain resort, leading to its closing.
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday. 
Five suspected Taliban fighters were killed in artillery fire and shelling by gunship helicopters in various areas of Bajaur Agency on Wednesday, while five Taliban and four civilians were killed in the military operation in Swat. In Bajaur, officials and locals said the aerial strikes targetted Taliban positions in Mamoond and Charmang areas. 
(SomaliNet) As part of a growing protest against state censorship ten Sudanese newspapers suspended publication on Tuesday, journalists said. 
Gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead a retired major general of Pakistan Army and his driver in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday,
(SomaliNet) A day after hijacking it in the restive Niger Delta, gunmen in Nigeria have released a cargo ship and its crew, a senior Nigerian military official said on Tuesday. 
(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorism police have carried out at least 135 raids and are investigating 11 foreigners in various Italian regions who are suspected of links to an alleged Morocco-based Islamist group. The organisation, called 'Al-Adl Wal Ihsan' or Justice and Charity, is being investigated for association to commit international terrorist acts. 
KABUL, Nov. 19 -- A suspected U.S. 
(SomaliNet) A regional maritime group said on Wednesday that Somali pirates have seized another ship, a Greek bulk carrier, despite a large international naval presence in the waters off their lawless country. 
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
