Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents have stormed a port while hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.
Looking for their cut of the boodle, are they ...
More likely hunting down the boyz tugging at their masters' beards...
Separately, police in the capital Mogadishu said they had ambushed and shot dead 17 Islamist militants, in the latest illustration of the chaos in the Horn of Africa country that has fueled a dramatic surge in piracy.
The Sirius Star - a Saudi vessel with a $100 million oil cargo and 25-man crew from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Poland and Britain - is believed anchored offshore near Haradheere, about half-way up Somalia's long coastline. "Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, said. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."
Both the US Navy and Dubai-based ship operator Vela International said they could not confirm a media report the hijackers were demanding a $25 million ransom. That would be the biggest demand to date by pirates who prey on boats in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia.
A pirate identifying himself as Jamii Adam told the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that negotiations were taking place with the ship's owners, saying the ransom demanded was not excessive but declining to give a figure. He said it had cost the pirates $500,000 to seize the vessel. "We bore many costs to hijack it," he said.
Iran's biggest shipping firm said gunmen holding a Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying wheat and 25 crew members had set demands for its release, but it did not reveal what they were.
Pirates released a commercial vessel with 19 crew on board which had been hijacked in September, Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Association said on Friday. Mwangura said the crew were Romanians, but the Romanian authorities denied this. Interfax news agency said the crew included six Georgian citizens.
In Mogadishu, police said they laid in wait and shot dead 17 fighters from the militant al Shabaab insurgent group during an attempted attack on a senior official.
Islamist leaders deny allegations they collude with pirates and insist they will stamp down on them if they win power, citing a crackdown when they ruled the south briefly in 2006. Some analysts, however, say Islamist militants are benefiting from the spoils of piracy and arms shipments facilitated by the sea gangs. Analysts also accuse government figures of collaboration with pirates.
The elder in Haradheere port told Reuters the Islamists arrived wanting to find out immediately about the Sirius Star, which was captured on Saturday about 450 nautical miles off Kenya in the pirates' furthest strike to date. "The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said the elder, who declined to be named. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."
In Mogadishu, al Shabaab gunmen drove to the home of the local Madina district chairman early in the morning, but found police officers lying in wait, witnesses said. "We got information before they left their hideouts and we were able to surround them," said a police spokesman. "Thirteen of the dead bodies lie in the street near the chairman's house."
Residents said the al Shabaab fighters wore black scarves round their heads with Arabic script reading "God is great".
Somalis are traditionally moderate Muslims, and analysts say al Shabaab - which Washington has listed as a foreign terrorist organisation with close links to al Qaeda - does not have deep popular support, despite having the upper hand militarily.
The capture of the Sirius Star has caused panic around the world, with the rampant piracy threatening to become a further drag on trade at a time of global economic downturn. Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula summoned foreign ambassadors in Nairobi to appeal for their countries to make all efforts to end the menace. "Act now and not tomorrow," he said.
There is big money involved in pirating. If my retirement nest egg goes to hell anymore, I might consider pirating. So there's risk to investing; there's risk to pirating. Salt spray in my beard, flying the Jolly Roger, treasure, women, adventure.
Wall off the entire country; airdrop captured terrorists in (parachutes optional); free weapons and ammo for everyone; allow no one out. Sort of the same way I'd run prisons ....
Zia Ul Haq, who was involved in the 'Gas Limos Project' to bomb London, was reportedly enrolled on an eight-day comedy workshop at HMP Whitemoor. He was among 18 prisoners, including murderers, who were given lessons in stand-up, comic drama, improvisation and scriptwriting.
Having completed the £8,000 course they were to have received a certificate and staged a performance for fellow inmates and guards at the Category A prison in Cambridgeshire.
However, justice secretary Jack Straw stepped in and closed the course after three days, The Sun reported. "As soon as I heard about it, I instructed it must be immediately cancelled," he said. "It is totally unacceptable. Senior managers in the Prison Service, who were also unaware of it, take the same view.
"Prisons should be places of punishment and reform. Providing educational and constructive pursuits is essential but the types of courses and the manner in which they are delivered must be appropriate."
Ul Haq, 29, of Paddington, in west London, was jailed for 18 years last year for his part in a plot led by Dhiren Barot, who planned to set off a dirty bomb using limousines packed with explosives. Ul Haq's role was use his background in architecture to advise on where bombs should be placed to cause buildings to collapse.
An inquiry has now been launched by the director of high security prisons to consider whether further action was needed, the Ministry of Justice said. A spokeswoman added: "The director general of the National Offender Management Service is personally briefing governors from all prisons on the need to take account of the public acceptability test [in relation to prison classes]."
#2
I have difficulty imagining an AQ terrorist being funny despite any amount of training as a stand up comic. "Clap and laugh or I will cut off your head.?"
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 20:07
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Lemme guess - courses in Koranic interpretation are fine, but comedy classes are out. It seems to me that these terrorists need to work on their under-developed sense of humor. Trust Jack Straw to put the kibosh on something that might be genuinely therapeutic.
Vowing to protect French industry from foreign predators and a worsening economic slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced a â¬20 billion strategic investment fund on Thursday and announced its first investment.
The idea for a fund, worth $25 billion, which Sarkozy floated a month ago without providing details, is the latest in a string of government measures to help the economy, but clearly not the last. Also on Thursday, the president promised a stimulus package in coming weeks with the aim of investing "massively" in infrastructure, education and research, and hinted that the car industry might get a helping hand.
The European Commission will likely be scrutinizing the fund's investments to ensure they do not restrict the free flow of capital, which could lead to legal action by the commission.
"I won't let foreign funds get bargains thanks to the current levels of the stock market," Sarkozy said in the speech Thursday. "I won't let French industry move out."
He added: "The day we don't build trains, airplanes, cars and ships, what is left of the French economy? Memories. I will not make France a tourist reserve."
President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen private Sidwell Friends School in Washington for their two daughters.
A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, says the Obamas considered several schools for 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha but decided Sidwell Friends was the best fit.
Sidwell Friends is a private Quaker school in northwest Washington that Chelsea Clinton attended.
The family also looked at Georgetown Day, which was founded in 1945 and was an early pioneer in integration.
Southern Yemenis just elected their own representative body, the Southern Arabian Liberation Council (SALC), which has called for an electoral boycott claiming the central government, not just the election, is illegitimate in the south. Note, article is from a leftist publication.
Yemenâs government deploys the institutions, processes and rhetoric of democracy to legitimize its rule and gain western support. In reality, the consolidation of democracy has made little progress since 1994 when Salehâs forces re-imposed a unified state on southern Yemen by force. At the center of the national dynamic is greed. Salehâs regime loots the state treasury at every step of administration. Brutal security forces, secret police, corrupt courts and systematic torture are the systems in place for those who do not succumb to bribery, blackmail and threats. While the forms of democracy have spread, the practice has not.
The good news yesterday was the conviction on all counts of Monzar al Kassar,the international weapons trafficker and friend of numerous terrorist organizations.
Al Kassar and his accomplice, Luis Moreno Godoy were convicted in New York of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; conspiracy to murder U.S. officers and employees; conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles; conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign terrorist organization; and money laundering. The convictions represent the first time anyone has been charged with and convicted of the anti-aircraft missile statute.
Al Kassar, like Viktor Bout and others, are part of the shadowy world of facilitators that work across criminal and terrorist organizations, supplying them with what they need-from weapons to passports to money laundering services.
Successfully targeting these shadow facilitators hurts both groups and is one of the more effective ways of crippling the terrorist/criminal enterprises they empower.
Dozens of Islamic militants stormed the Somali port of Haradheere on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker on Saturday, a local elder said...."The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said the elder, who declined to be identified. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."...Sheik Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, said: "Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships. Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."
Posted by: john frum ||
11/21/2008
16:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like their bankers put the word out.
Make sure they get the message, boys. Stick to the Infidels. Or else...
Police arrested an 18-year-old man who was posing as a U.S. Army sergeant while attempting to cash a check for $40,000 at a bank on South Main Street Thursday afternoon.
Orlando Ramos-Cabrera, of Hartford, was wearing a uniform he bought online, police said. He had also just purchased a 2008 Dodge Charger from a dealership in East Hartford with a phony check.
He is charged with first-degree larceny and illegal use of a uniform.
Police were dispatched at 4:06 p.m. to TD Bank North on a report of fraud in progress. Ramos-Cabrera was there in full uniform with "Special Forces" and "Cavalry" patches.
He identified himself as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. But police officers who are military veterans quickly recognized Ramos-Cabrera was a fake, police said. The Dodge, parked in front of the bank, was seized as evidence.
#4
I'm not a military guy, and certainly not a tactician, but is the even an enemy to engage?
We kinda suck at nation building, we excel at fighting. Shouldn't we stick to what we are good at?
bigjim-ky, why do you say we suck at nation building? Those countries where we've done it seriously -- Germany, Japan, South Korea come immediately to mind -- have turned out pretty well, I think. The thing is, nation building takes a generation or so. We've only been in Iraq for five years, in Afghanistan to make the country work for perhaps the last year. It isn't realistic, in my opinion, to expect a culture based on mistrust and violent disorder to become peaceful, law abiding and productive that quickly.
#7
Speaking comparatively, of course TW.
It is a slow cumbersome, expensive task that gets a lot of political drag back home. We are much better at the fighting part.
As a matter of argument: Should we rebuild A-stan?
Do we owe them that? Would it give us any net benefit? Is it even possible? Or would they prefer to live under a tyrants boot? Cause if they do, there isn't a thing in heaven or earth that could make a nation out of them.
#8
Conclusion
As the situation in Iraq continues to improve and indigenous forces assume greater responsibility for providing security in that country, the U.S. must redirect its attention and resources toward addressing the crisis that continues to build in Afghanistan. The rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan can be attributed directly to the lack of persistent presence amongst the rural Pashtun population, the failure to prevent Taliban freedom of movement along the border, and the inability to train sufficient numbers of capable ANA and ANP personnel. By surging an additional eight brigades into Afghanistan, however, U.S. and NATO forces can quickly regain the initiative from the Taliban and improve the security situation dramatically. A surge would establish and maintain a continuous presence in areas currently dominated by the Taliban, allow security forces to relentlessly pursue the enemy, and support the training of additional Afghan army and police units to augment, and eventually replace, the surge forces. If the U.S. does not surge these additional forces into Afghanistan, security will continue to deteriorate, the Taliban will assume control over much of the country, political instability will follow, and the U.S. will face strategic failure.
sounds like good advice - especially the "securing the border" and "denying safe haven" points raised in the article. The Pak political gaming, ISI connivance with the Taliban, logistical delivery nightmare make me want to declare victory, declare Pakistan a failed terrorist state and cut our losses
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2008 17:48
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Sounds like the Vietnam strategy.
Or am I wrong?
#11
We didn't cut out their supply, a donk congress overrode a presidential veto and did it. We are close to being in that situation again. But no one can question their patriotism, no sir.
#12
how about stopping nation buiding afghanistan in particular their main crop is opium. And there is no other crop that would meetnthe prcies that it brings. i say surge the troops and let the talibunnies and al q too keep coming i and getting killed because the kill ratio has been a pretty good on. Also pakiland can bitch all they want too about us striking inside their borders but i bet they still want their AID when it comes around again. I think India is getting tired of the militants too and are a strong enough military force too take on pakiland and the militants and pakistan doesn't want another clash with them.
Posted by: chris ||
11/21/2008 18:24
Comments ||
Top||
#13
The thing is, TW, we are still in Germany, Japan and South Korea some sixty years after hostilities ended. There is justified fear that if we left those countries they would deteriorate again into chaos, dictatorship or war. Do we really want our people to be in Afghanistan for the next 100 years? I can see the case in Iraq but not in Afghanistan. The logistics are untenable, the people are uncivilized and it doesn't seem like there will ever be any ROI. The ideal, wishful thinking kinda thing would be if we could locate Binny, Blinky and Knothead in their little hidey holes and kill 'em. Then leave. If a surge can accomplish that then maybe we should surge but no nation building for Afghanistan. If we wanna spend our blood and treasure suppressing ungrateful, uncivilized jihadis then we could go after the pirates in Somalia which at least has a strategic location and maybe even some decent surf. Let the Chicoms have Afghansistan. They deserve it.
#15
EU: So you're saying that if we left Okinawa and Ramstein Air Base, Japan and Germany would descend into chaos? Isn't that overstating the case just ever so slightly?
Posted by: abu Chuck al Ameriki ||
11/21/2008 18:50
Comments ||
Top||
#16
No closing of Ramstein until after I'm gone please.
#3
I strongly agree not only with the idea of being liquid right now, but not just relying on having your money in the bank, but in "mattress cash" as well. Income is not the issue, wealth preservation is. But it has to be where you can get to it, and nobody else can get to it.
Very quickly, a cash run on banks could deplete their currency stores, and virtual money in the bank could be frozen or nontransferable. Does anyone out there think in their wildest fantasies that if CITI folded, the FDIC could cover its collapse? If its share price drops below $5/share, a lot of pension funds and institutional investors are required to dump their shares. Aftermarket today, it closed at $4. Monday the hammer comes down.
(I just looked) Since late 2006, 304 major lending institutions have failed. The money in them either ceased to exist or was covered by the USG or other companies that took them over. With the folding of major corporations like GM, there is no way even the USG can cover those losses.
The risk of keeping a few thousand dollars at home in a safe place is very low, theft or fire. If inflation hits, you can spend it quickly. But if things hit the fan, you are covered.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.
#3
Maybe she thinks a wren in the fist is better a pidgeon on the roof... but Obamarx is radioactive and when time comes that Obamarx is cooked, she'd be thrown in the pot too.
g(r)om, it is not her intelligence but a politician's integrity. Oxymoron? Yewbetcha! ;-)
An Australian mayor who invited ugly women to move to his outback mining town, saying even they would find a man there, has won the top "award" for the most sexist public comment of the year.
Mayor John Moloney of remote Mount Isa was chosen by the volume of boos, jeers and stamping of feet that greeted his nomination at the annual women-only Ernie Awards in the New South Wales parliament on Thursday night. In his defense, he did invite the entire Victoria's Secret model lineup to town first.
Moloney won the Golden Ernie for telling a newspaper that his town, where men vastly outnumber women, was a place for "ugly ducklings to flourish into beautiful swans."
He called on "beauty-disadvantaged" women to flock there, saying he often saw unattractive women in Mount Isa who looked like they were enjoying life in the northwestern Queensland town.
"Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face," he said. "Whether it is recollection of something previous or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness."
He later told national radio that obese women could even lose weight under the gaze of Mount Isa males. "There's a great incentive because there's that much attention focused on them and they become interested in looking better -- and in no time they just shed it."
Confronted by a protest by scores of insulted Mount Isa women, he said: "The protesters are blaming me for their looks." ...
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008
13:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Some videos you just have to see to believe. On Thursday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes.
#4
Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes.
Oh my! Killing animals for food and she's not freaked out? Geez, ya think the Hindenberg was blowing up behind her.
And I'm sure none of our Huffy folks are having turkey next Thursday, right? Where do they think it comes from? A can?
That giant sucking sound that Pinchie hears is the drain ...
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The New York Times Co slashed its dividend by almost three-quarters and said it would cut spending and reevaluate its assets to cope with a slump in advertising revenue that is gouging U.S. newspaper publishers. The Times cut its dividend to 6 cents a share from 23 cents a share, or 74 percent, and said in a statement that it would reduce capital spending and lower its operating costs.
The trustees of the Ochs-Sulzberger family's shares in the Times said they support the move, but called it difficult.
Makes it tougher to keep the house in the Hamptons ...
The family's statement amounts to a vote of confidence in the Times as buzz builds among industry watchers over whether the family would sell the company and The New York Times newspaper, ending more than a century of family ownership. The Ochs-Sulzberger family controls a special class of shares that give it more control over the company than non-family shareholders. The Times board also cut the dividend on the family's shares.
The company did not say whether it would cut jobs or whether it could sell newspapers or other properties. The company is under increasing pressure from declining advertising revenue and circulation as more people get their news online.
Cutting the dividend is important for the Times in a financial sense. It has about $1.1 billion of debt on its books as of its quarterly financial results in October, and a declining income stream to pay it off. It has $46 million in cash and cash equivalents.
"This was a difficult but necessary decision that will provide us with greater financial flexibility in these uncertain economic times," said Times Chairman and New York Times newspaper publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Sulzberger said the company has weathered difficult periods by maintaining its promise to provide high-quality journalism, and would take these actions to keep doing that.
Speculation in the media world is rampant that the Times must sell off some of its properties. Two years ago, General Electric Co's former chief executive Jack Welch was part of a group that bid for The Boston Globe. The company has resisted efforts from several dissident shareholders to get rid of some of its properties.
And now it's too late. Who'd want the Globe now? At any price? Who'd want the other newspapers? They're dying. The time to sell was five years ago. Now they're stuck trying to move the papers to the internet. It's not going to work because there is too much competition for them on the net, both in terms of news aggregation and in terms of advertising revenue. Why pony up for a Times electronic subscription when you can surf something like Google News and find the news for free?
The Times, which also owns other U.S. daily papers around the country, also reported a 9.4 percent drop in revenue from continuing operations. Ad revenue fell 16.2 percent, while circulation revenue climbed 3.9 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2008
11:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
I think the NYT still has some very good reporters - but they hamper them with a lot of PC BS, plus horrible editorial oversight. There is a market in this country for a conventional - but national - newspaper, unfortunately the NYPravda is not that paper anymore.
#6
This dividend cut is actually a good (and long overdue) move. It means they no longer have to borrow money just to pay it. NYT has a great franchise, but has been so badly run, from a financial perspective, that their results stink to high heaven.
#9
Pinchy: Johnson, you're fired! I want your desk and office cleaned out and be out of here in an hour.
Johnson: Can do, Boss!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 16:48
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Actually the New York Times (paper) is horribly run and has squandered its reputation for quality. The NYT (company) did better financially by purchasing smaller and local papers (My mom's paper in Sarasota is owned by the NYT).
These smaller papers were more concerned with local news and better plugged in with local advertizers. In effect the smaller papers were subsidizing the "mother ship".
Unfortunately, Pinch has managed to screw up his flagship paper so badly that even his smaller papers can't save him. He's going to have to sell off his profitable papers to raise cash to keep the New York Fishwrap going. Watch him go the way of GM (only without the bailout).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/21/2008 16:48
Comments ||
Top||
#11
I read recent numbers that said they have $450 M in short term debt they can't pay back. If so, bankruptcy within a few months.
#14
put their staff out for hires as prostitutes. It's no worse than they've done for the DNC and Obama, they'll meet a better clientele, and they'll actually bring in some coin. Except for Mo Dowd, no John would want that bitter skank
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2008 19:45
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Steve, I think you're wrong. General Electric could run the Globe as a loss leader propaganda outlet, just like they do PMSNBC and NBC (and all of their other channels.)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Discussions so far have been internal, and some options --such as entering into a merger where other executives end up running the company -- are unpalatable to managers at Citigroup, the person said. The bank's board of directors is set to meet on Friday, and Morgan Stanley is not considering a possible bid, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citigroup did not comment on the report, repeating that it has a "very strong capital and liquidity position" and is focused on a strategy that will generate benefits "over time." Morgan Stanley did not immediately return a call for comment.
Earlier Thursday, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said he plans to increase his stake in Citigroup to 5 percent from less than 4 percent, calling its shares "dramatically undervalued." Alwaleed expressed "full and complete support" for management, including Pandit, who said this week the bank will slash 52,000 jobs and 20 percent of expenses.
Investors were unimpressed, and drove the bank's shares below $5, a level not seen since 1994. The market value of Citigroup has fallen $48.7 billion this month alone.
Citigroup is not seeking any government financial aid, and is not seeing any unusual business activity, a person close to the bank said. But government aid may have to be part of any deal for Citigroup, investors said. Raising capital, whether through a share sale or selling businesses, would be difficult in the current environment.
Citigroup "will get bailed out, and that's another unfortunate strain on the U.S. government," said Saj Karim, an investment adviser at Cannacord Capital in Waterloo, Ontario. The government may look to augment the $25 billion it injected last month from a $700 billion industry rescue package. The bank has raised another $50 billion since the middle of 2007.
Analysts said the bank could face more than $20 billion in losses in 2009 on commercial real estate, credit cards and emerging markets, as the world economy sinks into recession.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2008
11:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does this mean I can stop paying my credit card off? Because I'd hate for all that money go to waste.
Somali pirates have collected more than $150 million in ransoms over the past year, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said Friday, calling on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.
In the past two weeks Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.
"We are advised that in the last 12 months, ransom to the excess of $150 million has been paid to these criminals and that is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Friday that the Saudi government was not and would not negotiate with pirates, but what the ship's owners did was up to them.
Meanwhile, the world's largest oil tanker company warned that it may divert cargo shipments, which would boost costs up to 40 percent. Frontline Ltd., which ferries five to 10 tankers of crude a month through the treacherous Gulf of Aden, said it was negotiating a change of shipping routes with some of its customers, including oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron.
Martin Jensen, Frontline's acting chief executive, said that sending tankers around South Africa instead would extend the trip by 40 percent. Bermuda-based Frontline plans to make a decision whether to change shipping routes within a week, Jensen said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008
10:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ya know.. the market has been bad lately...
What's their stock symbol?
YAR?
Tanker lease rates had plunged up until a few weeks ago. They are doubtless soaring again on the prospect of routing them around the Cape. It's an ill wind that doesn't blow well for someone.
You have to get that up there a bit higher to afford the lobbyists and the lawyers to get a Federal Judge to issue a restraining order on anything less than full Maranda, probable cause requirements, and complete due process that any American would be entitled to. You might be able to get a injunction against using helicopters and craft moving more than 10 knots because of the hypothetical detrimental effect upon some rare and unusual Red Sea critter. Check the Washington yellow pages or Google on line for lobbyist/lawyer near you.
Somali security forces and Islamic insurgents engaged in one of the fiercest gunbattles in recent weeks in the capital Friday, killing at least 17 people and wounding six, police and witnesses said.
The two-hour clash erupted when insurgents attacked the house of a local government official, residents in Mogadishu said. One of them, Dahir Mohamed, said he counted 15 bodies of young men on the street after the skirmish was over. It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or insurgents.
Police officer Abdinur Salad said two soldiers were killed in the clash and another six soldiers were wounded.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008
10:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp said on Friday it will return two leased corporate jets.
* Says already returned two leased corporate jets in September
* Says started year with seven leased jets
* Says leases all its corporate jets
* Says has not decided how CEO would travel to Washington if necessary next time, but sensitive to issue-spokesman
* Says returning leased corporate jets due to travel cutbacks
* Not said, GM exec buttocks still smarting from public spanking.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008
10:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The returning of leased jets is just a bone for public consumption. What is needed is to get rid of dinosaur management and the interlocking boards of directors and make the tough decisioins that will be needed to save the patient.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 11:04
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Says has not decided how CEO would travel to Washington if necessary next time
I hear Northwest Airlines has frequent service from Detroit to Reagan. Just saying ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2008 11:14
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Unless your firm does a virtual boatload of business flying, as in daily, Columbus, OH based NETJETS is the probably the least cost method of getting there and returning via air. They don't advertise and are very discreet. Limo and advance team service team service is also available.
#7
Says has not decided how CEO would travel to Washington if necessary next time, but sensitive to issue-spokesman
Hey, dingleberry.....Northwest flies a bunch of times every day to Washington/Baltimore out of Wayne County Municipal.....depending on what date you choose, it could be as low as $197 round trip. Sure, it's coach, but maybe you could pick up some tips about how to run a company while in bankruptcy from the inflight magazine just in case Congress tells you to go stuff it.
*Yeah, I know, they'll roll over for them, but I can dream....*
In an attempt to dial down expectations for his administration, President-elect Barack Obama's supporters have dropped much of the "messiah" talk.
No more talk of him being The One (Oprah), or a Jedi Knight (George Lucas), or a "Lightworker" (the San Francisco Chronicle), or a "quantum leap in American consciousness" (Deepak Chopra). Instead we have more humble and circumspect conversation about the man. Now he's merely Abraham Lincoln and FDR and Martin Luther King, combined.
It's a step down from divine redeemer, but you have to start somewhere. . . .
What I find fascinating, however, is not so much the Obama hagiography, but the burning desire for another FDR or Lincoln that underlies it. . . .
I think Lincoln was just about the greatest president in American history, but I sure don't want to need another Lincoln. Six hundred thousand Americans died at the hands of other Americans during Lincoln's presidency. Lincoln unified the country at gunpoint and curtailed civil liberties in a way that makes President Bush look like an ACLU zealot. The partisan success of the GOP in the aftermath of the war Obama thinks so highly of was forged in blood.
Likewise with FDR. Listening to liberals gush over a "new New Deal" and Obama's call for us to emulate the "Greatest Generation," you'd think they want another Great Depression and World War.
Indeed, liberals have long idolized the 1930s as a decade of great unity. It wasn't. The 1930s was a miserable decade of poverty, domestic unrest, labor strife, violations of civil liberties and widespread fear. If liberals really loved peace, prosperity and national cohesion, they'd remember the 1920s or 1950s more fondly. And yet they don't. Why? Because liberals didn't get to impose their schemes and dreams on the country in those decades. Behind all the talk of unity and bipartisanship and shared sacrifice lies an uglier ambition: power. The audacity of hope behind all this Lincoln-FDR-Obama blather is the dream of riding roughshod over the opposition, of having their way, of total victory.
The Chinese curse and cliche "may you live in interesting times" is on point. Liberals (and a few conservatives as well, alas) seem desperate to live in interesting times. Not me. You know what I hope? I hope Obama is another Coolidge or Eisenhower. But I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/21/2008
09:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The One will shoot lightning bolts from his arse and stike-down this Jonah Goldberg person.
Hope, change and whining. The election is over 16 days now and all the promises of a shiny new progressive world haven't yet materialized. It's one thing to pander to the far left, but when it comes time to actually be president, Barack Obama at least realizes stocking his cabinet with nutroots darlings isn't the way to go.
Look, there are a lot of talented progressives who could be in an Obama cabinet. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winner in economics and a critic of corporate globalization. He should be Treasury Secretary. Senator Russ Feingold is a champion of civil liberties. He should be Attorney General. . . .
And if Obama really wanted change, if he really wanted to honor progressives who backed him early on and then did the grunt work against McCain, hed nominate Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of State.
That sure would indicate a welcome departure from empire as usual.
But at this point, progressives are getting absolutely nothing from Obama.
No wonder all he's taking from these idiots is their money. Seriously, Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of State? Good grief.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/21/2008
08:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Denny wouldn't be a bad choice for Secretary of Unicorns and Rainbows, though.
#9
Obama is only doing to limosine liberals what they have been doing to Blacks for many decades: ignore them until election time; then tell them how much you love them.
P.S. I nominate Dennis as Ambassador to Another Planet.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/21/2008 17:25
Comments ||
Top||
D*mn, it's hard to edit Roggio for length.
The Taliban continue to ruthlessly attack the Bajaur tribes that are organizing against the extremists as Pakistan's practice of compelling the tribes to fight the Taliban may destabilize the region further.
The Salarzai tribal in Bajaur has been hit hard over the past several months. Tribal leaders claim to have raised more than 10,000 fighters to form a lashkar, or tribal militia. The Salarzai have been burning the homes of Taliban members and providing security for the region.
The Pakistani military has been battling the Taliban in Bajaur since August. The tribal area is a known command and control hub for al Qaeda's operations in northeastern Afghanistan. The military has relied on airstrikes and artillery barrages to dislodge the Taliban from fortified positions.
Pakistan's strategy to counter the Taliban with tribal fighters is flawed in several ways, several US military and intelligence official who wish to remain anonymous told The Long War Journal. The tribal groups are disorganized and often do not want to work in conjunction with the military. But even more troubling, the Pakistani military has forced many the tribes in Bajaur and elsewhere to turn on the Taliban. Bush seems to be telling the Pakistanis the same thing he told the world in 2001 - pick a side, if you are not my ally then you are my enemy. If your enemy is ruthless you cannot sit by and allow the bulk of the population to ride the fence; whether you use force or bribery you have to get their cooperation.
Ultimatums to the tribes have occurred beyond Bajaur. In Khyber, the military "sent a notice to local tribal elders in Jamrud warning that in case of a failure to expel Taliban from their areas, they would have to face the consequences under the FCR [Frontier Crimes Regulations]," Daily Times reported. The Frontier Crimes Regulations is a set of antiquated laws dating back to 1848 that govern Pakistan's tribal areas. The law allows the military to practice collective punishment on the tribes if they fail to live up to agreements.
US officials interviewed by The Long War Journal say that Pakistan's counterinsurgency strategy is a recipe for disaster. "Pakistan's practice of compelling the tribes is counter to the successful Awakening movement in Iraq which rose up to fight al Qaeda in Anbar province on their own accord," a senior US military officer said. "An "awakening" ultimately has to originate with the people, the tribes. In Pakistan, most of the tribes are ambivalent or supportive to the Taliban, and are hostile to the government."
Compelling the tribes to fight may actually sabotage Pakistan's attempts to defeat the Taliban. "Tribal leaders are furious at having their homes leveled in airstrike and massive artillery barrages," a senior US official said. But not furious enough to fight the Talib, nor even to cooperate with the government so less Draconian tactics could be used effectively.
"In the long run, Pakistan is alienating the people they are supposed to be protecting. Unless Pakistan is willing to conduct a ruthless, protracted campaign against its own people, like the Russians did in Chechnya, destroying everything and everyone in its path, this will fail," the official said. "And I see no indication Pakistan has the political will to go the way of the Russians in Chechnya." These are not "its own people;" Pakistan cannot survive as a country with such active enemies within its borders. Either it subdues them, whatever it takes, or it carves them off into an independent country - sort of like fighting cancer with chemo or surgery (the soft approach of bribery is more like hospice care - easing the path for the terminal.) The problem for Pakistan with the 'carve off the bad parts' approach is that it won't stop with the NWFP. Of course, that may be inevitable, as Pakistan is a concocted country much like Yugoslavia was.
US military officers are stunned at the lack of understanding of counterinsurgency in the Pakistani military after seven years of fighting in the tribal areas. "[The Pakistanis] have learned nothing. They need to turn this around, and fast," a US military officer who was involved with the formation of the Iraqi Awakening said. The officer was concerned these actions would cause the tribes to turn on the government in the long run. The Awakenings worked because the tribes became more disgusted with AQ, less fearful of the Shia central government, AND convinced the central government and the US had the will and means to prevail. These tribes don't even have a past veneer of civilization like the Iraqi tribes did, so Tali/AQ may not seem as offensive. Also unlike Iraq, the tribes aren't afraid of the US leaving and removing restraints on the Pakistan central government. And so far (as was the case for years in Iraq) the tribes are not convinced the government has stronger WILL than the Tali/AQ.
"The potential for blowback in the tribal areas and beyond is enormous," said the officer. "We could never have made the Anbar tribes to fight al Qaeda. It was never about guns, money, or power. The Anbar tribes fought for survival. The Pakistani tribes will fight for survival too, but in this case, they likely will see the government as the oppressor."
#1
Seems to me that the "pick a side" approach works when you can offer the tribes greater security than the other side. If you can't, it's likely to hasten your own demise. Where does that leave Pakistan's military?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 10:15
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Awakenings worked because
...the awakeners [in Iraq] are light years less primitive than the troglodytes in the pak tribal areas.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/21/2008 11:39
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Summary: Afghanistan is not Iraq. The "Awakening" may not occur in Afghanistan as most of the tribes are relatively comfortable having the Taliban and AQ around. Some of our military are thinking "inside the box" since they seem to think the "Awakening" of Iraq is directly applicable to the new situation. I hope Petraeus is not one of them.
#4
"Pakistan's practice of compelling the tribes is counter to the successful Awakening movement in Iraq which rose up to fight al Qaeda in Anbar province on their own accord," a senior US military officer said. "An "awakening" ultimately has to originate with the people, the tribes. In Pakistan, most of the tribes are ambivalent or supportive to the Taliban, and are hostile to the government."
"Of their own accord"? What planet is this guy on? We paid the Iraqi Sunnis to help us fight al Qaeda. Pakistan doesn't have billions of dollars a year to spend paying the tribes to fight al Qaeda. We went the Mr. Nice Guy route because we had to, for PR reasons, and because we were able to afford it, financially. Most countries go the Pakistani route because they're not made of money, and more importantly, because it has worked for thousands of years, way before the expression "counter-insurgency" became a part of the English language (and indeed, way before there was an English language). Getting friendly border tribes to fight unfriendly border tribes isn't some kind of innovation - it's a time-tested tradition.
#5
In fact, from the government's standpoint, the main problem with bribing one border tribe to fight another is that the bribed border tribe gets stronger, while your coffers are emptied, and the state gets weaker.
#6
Who know what the people in the NWFP think. If this is good intel coming from people who know the 'lay of the land' then I guess it's good. If it's brainstorming from idiots at the pentagon who are trying to duplicate the awakening movement, I think it's screwed....inherently.
A de facto curfew is in place in the city of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, ahead of the second phase of elections for a new state government. Police are restricting people's movements to prevent anti-election protests by separatists seeking an end to Indian rule.
Police opened fire in the Ganderbal constituency in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. Polling is due on Sunday in Ganderbal and five other constituencies.
Although pro-Indian political groups are feeling upbeat following a huge turnout of voters in the first phase of polling last Monday, the authorities are not taking any chances. Earlier a police official who did not want to be named said any casualties caused by police or paramilitary forces dealing with anti-election protests might prove disastrous for the electoral process.
However, trouble developed in Ganderbal when a group boycotting the poll pelted the motorcade of a candidate with stones, damaging several motorbikes and at least one car, eyewitnesses say. The police opened fire injuring one person. Later anti-election protests were held in the town and police used tear gas to break them up. Police have also used force against protesters in the town of Sopore.
The unusually strong turnout in the first phase of elections for a new state government in Indian-administered Kashmir took everyone by surprise. Queues of hundreds of voters formed from early morning, defying a boycott called by separatist groups. The turnout in Muslim-majority constituencies was just over 50%, with many Muslims voting despite not accepting Indian rule in their troubled state.
In recent months, there have been a series of pro-independence demonstrations in Kashmir. These have frequently been met with force by the security services, resulting in several deaths. Dozens of separatist leaders have also been detained to prevent them leading demonstrations against the election.
Voting in the state is being held in seven phrases, lasting until 24 December. The counting of ballots will begin on 28 December.
Mahmoud Omar had endured 14 days on the witness stand at the trial of an alleged South Jersey terror cell -- explaining, defending or evading questions about his life and work as a wire-wearing, jihad-supporting informant. As his testimony came to an end today in Camden, the attorneys scrambled to leave jurors with lasting but overriding impressions:
One portrayed Omar as a lying con man, milking his assignment to get a steady FBI paycheck. The other suggested he was simply a human recorder, the tool that helped agents record incriminating conversations with five Muslim immigrants and disrupt a potentially deadly attack against Fort Dix. The prosecutors and defense attorneys didn't do this by asking Omar any new or substantive questions. Because this is what both sides call a "tapes case" -- one that will succeed or fail depending on how much the jurors absorb and believe the recordings -- they just zeroed in on the choicest cuts.
During two weeks of cross-examination, Omar repeatedly admitted he never discussed details of the alleged attack with any of the defendants other than Mohamad Shnewer, a cab driver from Cherry Hill. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer pointed to conversations in which Shnewer said he preferred one-on-one discussions to group meetings. Hammer then highlighted transcripts that suggested each of the others independently knew about and supported the plot.
The prosecutor noted Elvjir "Sulayman" Duka, a youth leader at a Palmyra mosque and one of three Cherry Hill brothers charged, told Omar he would try to find a trustworthy imam who would issue a fatwa, the Islamic approval needed before an attack on enemies. Hammer showed jurors another transcript in which Dritan Duka told Omar he played paintball almost every day because it he considered it military-like training that was "necessary" for a jihad. And one in which Shain Duka congratulated Omar after one paintball session by saying: "Good training." Then the prosecutor showed jurors conversations in which the fifth defendant, Serdar Tatar, told Omar he would need help fleeing the country after any attack. In the same conversation, Tatar told the informant: "I'm in, honestly, I'm in."
The defense attorneys have argued that much of the inflammatory talk was bluster or "fantasy" from Shnewer, 23, who they say was the butt of jokes and easily manipulated by the 39-year-old informant. Shnewer's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, pointed out that Shnewer told Omar the others were his "lifetime companions" but that he really only met them a year or two before the alleged plot began.
Michael Huff, the attorney for Dritan Duka, noted that more than once his client told Omar that he wanted the weapons so his brothers and other friends had enough guns for their group vacations to a firing range in the Pocono Mountains. And Troy Archie, the attorney for Eljvir "Sulayman" Duka, showed Omar a conversation from March 2007, about six weeks before the arrests, in which the informant acknowledged he was unsure how much, if anything, Eljvir Duka knew about the plot. "At that late date, you were still unsure whether or not Sulayman was involved, is that correct?" Archie asked. Omar said Shnewer had insisted the Dukas were involved, but that they were cautious. "Duka's family never trust me about something like that," he testified.
Hammer, the prosecutor, ended his questioning by reinforcing the heart of the government case. He said that defense attorneys had spent hours dissecting Omar's criminal history, his conviction for bank fraud, his auto parts business, his use of marijuana and other spotty chapters in his life. "With all that, Mr. Omar," the prosecutor asked, "has a single word in these transcripts changed? "No, sir," the witness replied
#3
I read the comments on that article. It's clear how those idiots in Mass keep voting in bastards like Kennedy, Kerry and Barney Fag. They're just all complete cowards looking for someone to protect them from everything on Earth. What a bunch of losers!
#6
Send them to my neighborhood. We'll have them off the streets by Thanksgiving.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 9:48
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Mr. Mussolini is unfortunately correct.
There are a few conservatives left in Mass but we could all leave on the same plane.
We have several flocks near us in suburbs west of Boston.
There is ONE VERY BIG PROBLEM with wild turkeys where I live. Turkey sh** is very attractive to dogs and the dogs love to roll in it to make themselves more attractive.
The only thing worse than your dog coming home smelling like turkey s**t is smelling like skunk.
#9
My father lived in Monterey Bay for a while and the turkeys there move around in a big pack terrorizing and scratching all the soil out of peoples flower beds and gardens. They actually attack some people that they perceive to be vulnerable, like turkey street gang or something. A good boot in the arse sends them on their way though. Or a stick, golf club, tennis racket, whatever you got.
#10
They're just all complete cowards looking for someone to protect them from everything on Earth.
There is someone (don't know if man or woman) who complains because he/she was chased all around the campus and students did nothing but laugh. He/She complains about the lack of ethics of students. He/she isn't ashamed to have been chased away by a an animal who is at best, (in case it is a very small woman) a quarter of his/her weight.
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:13
Comments ||
Top||
#12
I forget which college, but there was a wild turkey which found its way onto campus. No big deal till people started feeding it then it became needy. When people stopped feeding it the turkey threw fits and chased people until fed.
Slighty off topic, when bowling with my friends anytime someone got 3 strikes in a row a shot of Wild Turkey was ordered. Sometimes I wondered if I/we were missing our 3rd strike subconsciencely.
Maybe they should try the Leonard Part 6 technique and start saying, "Cranberry Sauce" when confronted by these delicous brigands.
#2
Believing everything a computer spits out is a recipe for disaster - witness gerbil worming and it's apostles...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/21/2008 11:44
Comments ||
Top||
#3
GIGO - garbage in, garbage out
So, those garbage global warming models didn't give you pause or were you just using them to push your little scheme to extort fleece the gullible as well?
#7
Humans choose to use 'blackboxes' over common sense. If the 'blackboxes' didn't exist, they would find another excuse, but they would seek one out none the less.
#8
This is a copout. Computers don't generate models. Humans do. Computers don't make decisions. Humans do.
Nobody can generate valid (reality describing/predicting) numerical models in economics. That Zhang, because parameters of such a model are continuous random variables rather than constants.
#1
Yo ho ho and a chaw full of khat
Fifteen men on a jihadi's skiff
Yo ho ho and a chaw full of khat
Koran and a djinn had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a chaw full of khat
The mate was fixed by the Taber's brass
The bosun brained with the 630's flash
And Khaleem's throat was marked belike
It had been groped by fingers ten
And there they lay all jihadi men
Like break of day at Mikeeal's den
Yo ho ho and a chaw full of khat
Troubled U.S. star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, press reports said Friday.
A conversion ceremony was held at a Los Angeles mansion where Jackson was seen wearing 'Islamic garb', British tabloid The Sun reported quoting an unnamed source.
Jackson reportedly took the shahadathe Islamic declaration of beliefand became a Muslim, just days before he was due in a London court where he is being sued by a Bahraini prince.
The paper reported that British singer Yousef Islampreviously known as Cat Stevens before he famously became a Muslimwas also at the ceremony held at the Hollywood Hills home of Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro, 51, who composed music on Jackson's Thriller album.
Jackson's new name is reportedly Mikaeel after he rejected the name Mustafa, the paper said, adding the decision to convert came about as Jackson was recording a new album.
The former 'King of Pop'who has been accused and acquitted of child molestation several timesis back in court after Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, filed a claim against Jackson for breaching an agreement to record a new album and says the star owes him $7 million.
#1
A desperate tactic to limit the prince's options in collecting the debt ... he will now plead for mercy and generosity from the prince, one muslim to another.
Jackson is one screwed up person. If he actually keeps up the prayers, fasting etc. it might be an improvement in his life.
#5
The sooner this sad piece of idiocy departs the gene pool, the better. He's just the most notorious of what is one completely messed-up family. There's not a one of them that turned out well.
#6
Idi Amin converted to Islam and moved to one of the little Arab countries to escape his fate. Worked for him. Islam, the religion of refuge for really, really bad people.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 9:03
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Yousef Islam--previously known as Cat Stevens before he famously became a Muslim--was also at the ceremony held at the Hollywood Hills home
I thought this deluded idiot wasn't permitted in the US
#8
yep, he will argue to the IRS that the accrued interest is not recognized by Islam. Robert Spencer's new book Stealth Jihad cites that there is precedent for his.
#9
Iraqis are obsessed with Michael Jackson and Pamela Anderson. They are our most famous export to the region. I can't tell you how many times I was asked, "Does Michael Jackson fiki-fiki little boys?" Believe me, he will fit right in there with the Muslims.
On a side note, I always told them that Pamela Anderson was Canadian, not American.
America can only claim the freak child molester.
Posted by: Boss Cravilet8390 ||
11/21/2008 10:18
Comments ||
Top||
#1
According to the article, Japan's long working hours are exceeded only by South Korea and the U.S. Yet here in the U.S. we don't have a birthrate problem. This suggests the companies haven't quite got the formula quite right; it isn't enough just to leave the office at something remotely resembling a reasonable time, the husbands must go straight home instead of hanging out in the bars until midnight, then stumbling off the train barely able to see the difference between floor and ceiling. Contrary to popular belief, dead drunk is not in the least sexy, however wonderful the person might be when sober. ;-)
#3
Actually, we do have the same birthrate problem in America - if you only count 'salarymen'. The overall birthrate is supported by higher numbers among the unemployed and underemployed, and the lower income levels where work is work and your real life is elsewhere.
#4
Actually, the reports from last year said that more Japanese men are using those life-like dolls rather than real women. If true, shows a bigger social problem than just being tired.
In this image provided by the Kronenberg Foundation in Warsaw on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, a computer-generated reconstruction of what astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus may have looked like on the basis of a skull discovered in the cathedral in Frombork, northern Poland, is seen. Polish and Swedish researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton they have found with that taken from hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books.
WARSAW, Poland -- Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.
Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, missing the lower jaw, his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.
The reconstruction shows a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus, and the skull bears a cut mark above the left eye that corresponds with a scar shown in the painting. Moreover, the skull belonged to a man aged around 70 -- Copernicus's age when he died in 1543.
"In our opinion, our work led us to the discovery of Copernicus's remains but a grain of doubt remained," Gassowski said.
So, in the next stage, Swedish genetics expert Marie Allen analyzed DNA from a vertebrae, a tooth and femur bone and matched and compared it to that taken from two hairs retrieved from a book that the 16th-century Polish astronomer owned, which is kept at a library of Sweden's Uppsala University where Allen works. "We collected four hairs and two of them are from the same individual as the bones," Allen said.
Gassowski is head of the Archaeology and Anthropology Institute in Pultusk, in central Poland, and Allen works at the Rudbeck Laboratory of the Genetics and Pathology Department of Uppsala University.
Copernicus was known to have been buried in the 14th-century Frombork Cathedral where he served as a canon, but his grave was not marked. The bones found by Gassowski were located under floor tiles near one of the side altars.
Gassowski's team started his search in 2004, on request from regional Catholic bishop, Jacek Jezierski. "In the two years of work, under extremely difficult conditions -- amid thousands of visitors, with earth shifting under the heavy pounding of the organ music -- we managed to locate the grave, which was badly damaged," Gassowski said.
Copernicus is believed to have come up with his main idea of the Sun at the center of the universe between 1508 and 1514, and during those years wrote a manuscript commonly known as Commentariolus (Little Commentary). His final thesis was only published, however, in the year of his death. His ideas challenged the Bible, the church and past theories, and they had important consequences for future thinkers, including Galileo, Descartes and Newton.
Now that we've succeeded in royally messing this one up, I suspect the question that needs a bit of resolution is...what about the next conflict? Large or small, short-term or long, what are we planning do with the 'opposition forces' that are captured or simply surrender?
#4
Congress and a Plan?????!!! Surely one jests. The last plan Congress made cost the US almost $1 tril with money we did not have. Congress could not come up with a workable plan to get our of a wet paper bag.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 18:35
Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - Saudi oil giant Aramco, whose subsidiary Vela International owns the hijacked supertanker Sirus Star said on Wednesday it would make contact with the Somali pirates who seized the ship on Saturday. The pirates have demanded a ransom for the release of the tanker, the largest one ever hijacked, which has a 25-member crew on board and is fully loaded with two million barrels of oil worth over 100 million dollars. The vessel is now anchored off the Somali coast.
"During the course of the day we will make contact with the Somalis and negotiate the release of our oil tanker," Aramco said in a statement quoted by Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya.
The pirates in an audio tape released on Wednesday demanded a ransom in exchange for the release of the Sirius Star and its crew, an unspecified and negotiable sum that could reportedly reach four million dollars.
In the tape, the pirates have warned that they have a machine that can detect false banknotes, said Bili Mahmoud Qabusad, spokesman for the Somali region of Puntland's president. According to Qabusad, the pirates probably come from the Somali capital, Mogadishu and set sail ten days ago on their mission to hijack the Sirius Star.
Also on Wednesday, the Indian navy said one of its warships in the Gulf of Aden opened fire on a ship belonging to pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, sinking the vessel. The Indian navy said the pirates on board were armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and threatened to blow up the warship and then opened fire on it.
More than 92 ships have been attacked his year, more than three times the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. At least 14 of these vessels, carrying over 250 crew members, are still in the control of hijackers.
An estimated 25-30 million dollars has been paid in ransom to Somali pirates this year, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.
Multinational naval vessels began patrolling the Gulf of Aden in August and have reportedly thwarted two dozen attacks. Private US security firm Blackwater has announced it is launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by the shipping companies crossing the Gulf of Aden's 2.5 million square miles of sea.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Private US security firm Blackwater has announced it is launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by the shipping companies crossing the Gulf of Aden's 2.5 million square miles of sea.
Oops! Things may get very ROUGH for the pirates, very soon.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/21/2008 10:51
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The price is under 50 a barrel. Maybe if they wait long enough the pirates will pay Aramco to take it back
#3
That last graphic is hard to read. I reloaded the graphic. Mods---please delete above graphic. Thanks!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 15:27
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Alaska Paul,
From your map, it appears that all of the ships being held are being kept in Puntland. This suggests active collaberation by the Puntland government.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/21/2008 17:04
Comments ||
Top||
#5
S.Arabia has elite commando units don't they? They certainly have a marginal regard for human life. Why wouldn't they try to retake the vessel? Are Aramco employees among the crew? Cause if they aren't, I don't see why they don't go 'all in' on this.
#7
Frozen Al---speaking of frozen,it is 11F in anchorage and -7F in Fairbanks.
Puntland will tell you, dinars to donuts, that they don't have the power or resources to deal with the pirates. Maybe they don't. I just have a hard time believing them.
From Wiki:
Politics
President Mohamed Musa Hersi dismissed the parliament of Puntland on December 9, 2007, and effectively rules by decree.[6] This follows a year of defections and secessions from Puntland over the increasingly autocratic governing style of the president sparked initially by a demand earlier in 2007 for an audit of the budget. Fallout from this political crisis include the defection of Ahmed Abdi Xabsade to Somaliland and the invasion of Sool by Somaliland and his supporters, the secession of Puntland-controlled Sanaag and subsequent creation of the state of Maakhir, and recently the defection of the commander of Puntland military forces in Sool to Somaliland.
Economy
Bosaso is the largest city of Puntland
Puntland has 1600km of coastline, which is abundant with fish and other natural marine resources. However, after the collapse of the Somali central government in 1991, the coast was left unguarded against foreign intruders. As a result, many ships equipped with heavy trawls and other unlawful fishing equipment have worked in Puntland's territorial waters. These ships violate catch regulations, including some which keep their catch alive and stock them in waters where fishing has been depleted. Puntland's coastal authorities continue to receive complaints from local fishermen about the damage being done by these outsiders.
Puntland exports great quantities of seafood such as lobsters, dried fish, shark vines, and tuna. Sea salt is also produced.
Other economic products and activities of Puntland include livestock, frankincense, gum arabic, manufacturing and agriculture.
In Lasqorey district there is a medium size fish processing plant that produces and processes great quantities of tuna fish. The products of Lasqorey fish factory reach commercial level, and its tuna are found throughout Puntland and also outside the region. A fish processing plant is also being constructed in Habo, which locals hope will reduce poverty and unemployment and improve the economy of the area.
Piracy threatens shipping near the Puntland coast, with pirate crews operating out of ports on the coastline.[7] The pirates actually have an income of $30m per year [now $150 mil per year per Rantburg article], $10m greater than that of Puntland as a whole.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 18:27
Comments ||
Top||
#8
You're gonna have to get down to the Bush Co. for some warm chili and crackers Pual...ehhehehe.
(AKI) - A mass grave from the era of former dictator Saddam Hussein containing the remains of 150 people has been discovered in an area south of the capital Baghdad, the Iraqi government said on Wednesday. The victims are believed to have been executed in a crackdown against the Kurdish minority by Saddam.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the victims were from the area of Kalar, located in the northeastern province of Suleimaniyah. Suleimaniyah province, known as Zamwa prior to its founding, is the cultural base of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic centre for the Kurdish semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
A memorial ceremony was also held on Wednesday in the holy Shia city of Najaf as the victims' remains were transferred to the northern Kurdish city of Erbil.
Saddam's former regime is believed to have used chemical weapons in his Anfal campaign against the Kurds, causing the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Kurds.
An Iraqi court last year sentenced to death Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed on genocide charges for his role in the Anfal campaign. Al-Majeed, once one of the most feared figures in Iraq, was nicknamed Chemical Ali because of the poison gas that was used during the Anfal campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
#1
One day Iraq will dedicate a statue in honor of Bush the Liberator.
#4
"Saddam's former regime is believed to have used chemical weapons in his Anfal campaign"
What the hell is with that qualifier? They've hung men, including Hussein himself, based on court fucking convictions. What will it take for some asshole writers to drop the allegedlies and "is believed to have"s?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:12
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Not much detail here but it's a little odd that an Anfal site was anywhere near Najaf, as seems indicated. There were Anfal mass graves down near the Kuwaiti border (evidence from one was used in the Anfal case), but in central-southern the only sites I'm aware of were, logically enough, graves from the 1991 Shi'a rebellion.
Don't hold your breath for any statues. Privately, regard for Bush and Americans among many Iraqis has and will remain very high. Toxic, stupid public culture in the Arab world ensures that that regard remains a discreet open secret. Meanwhile, here in the US, the insane demonization and public trashing of Bush has made the Arab world look less nutty by comparison. Quite an accomplishment.
#6
Make sure you're right, they go ahead.
-Davey Crocket
History will be the ultimate judge of President G.W. Bush, I have had my doubts about some of his decisions, but Iraq isn't one of them. Ask any Kurd, or Chaldean, or Maronite, or Amahdi, or Yazidi.
Egyptian police announced Wedneday they had arrested more than 550 teenagers suspected of sexually harassing girls outside schools in several Cairo districts in a single day. The culprits were awaiting interrogation and trial Thursday.
The police launched an extensive clampdown targeting stores and internet cafes near schools. Security forces raided six internet cafes that did not have permits, and another five that played pornographic videos for truants, according to a statement issued by the Cairo Security Department on the day of the crackdown.
After many families complained about girls being targeted outside schools in several neighborhods the head of the Cairo Investigations Bureau, General Farouk Lashin, launched a campaign against sexual harassment, an interior Ministry source told AlArabiya.net. The source added that most of the harassers were between 16 and 18 years old.
According to the source police launched an earlier campaign that resulted in the arrest of almost 300 people for harassment in Cairo streets.
"Sexual harassment is the scare of parents now and this was very obvious in the complaints we get," he said. "That is why security forces are posted all over Cairo streets and around schools and universities."
An increasingly common problem in Egyptian society, sexual harassment extends to females from all walks of life. A recent survey by the BBC found that more than four out of five women reported being sexually harassed. The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR) in Egypt described it as a "social cancer," according to the BBC.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Unidentified men beheaded two people in Shakar Tangi area of Orakzai Agency's Upper tehsil on Thursday. The two were residents of Kohat and Bannu. A source said the political authorities were reluctant to retrieve the bodies, dumped on a road along with a letter, because of the tense situation in the area. Separately, a public call office was damaged by unidentified people near the Fidiya Chowk of Orakzai Agency's Lower tehsil. Also on Thursday, transporters observed a strike in the agency against the arrest of Rabiakhel and Akehl tribesmen. The protesters alleged that the political authorities had arrested the tribesmen under the collective punishment clause of Frontier Crime Regulation and impounded their vehicles, adding the authorities had also not visited the agency for the last two years, leaving the tribesmen at the mercy of Taliban. The protesters said Levies forces were also stationed in Hangu and the political authorities were arresting the tribesmen on the pretext of militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Taking a head count there means something different there than it does here.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 10:01
Comments ||
Top||
The Pentagon said Wednesday a military approach was not the answer to a surge of piracy off the Horn of Africa and suggested that shipping companies do more on their own to protect their vessels. "You could have all the navies in the world having all their ships out there, you know, it's not going to ever solve this problem," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. "It requires a holistic approach from the international community at sea, ashore, with governance, with economic development," he told reporters. This isn't the first time something like this has ever happened. We've got virtually all the navies in the world on the scene, and their actions are apparently absolutely uncoordinated. We've got a restricted area for ship movements, which is why the pirates are having a heyday. I'm not a navy guy, know nothing about sea tactics, but I suspect the "Pentagon" spokesman who put this out is an Army guy, too. This seems like an occasion for forming convoys at either end of the Gulf and escorting them with warships. The pirates show up, they become a hole in the water.
Morrell said at least 18 ships are currently being held for ransom by Somali pirates, along with 330 mariners taken hostage. This year there have been 95 attempted ship seizures by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 39 of them successful, he said.
Not only has the incidence of piracy increased, but pirates are going farther out in the high seas. A US-bound Saudi supertanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil worth 100 million dollars was captured Sunday by pirates some 450 miles off the Kenyan coast. "Trust me, this subject is being dealt with at the highest levels of this government," Morrell said. "It is a real concern. And we are constantly evaluating what the best approach is." The live fire exercise! Put to sea and go KILL THEM!
"I'm just trying to get you to think beyond the notion of, 'The answer is strictly kinetics. We've got to board more ships. We've got to fire on more pirates.'"
The White House said President George W. Bush had been briefed about the seizure of the Saudi supertanker. "Ensuring the safety and well being of the crew is of paramount importance in preventing or dealing with issues of piracy," said spokeswoman Dana Perino. "And the goal would be to try to help get this ship to safety, secure the crew, and then work with our international partners to try to alleviate the piracy problem, full stop," she told reporters.
Perino said Washington was "working with other members of the Security Council right now" to work out how "to more effectively fight against piracy." Double Yawn, no, triple yawn.
"It's a very complicated issue. There's a lot of international laws that factor into these efforts," she said. Very much the lawyer answer.
Morrell urged that the UN Security Council extend a resolution that authorizes anti-piracy activities. But he said commercial shipping companies also should stick to safer sea lanes away from shore and invest in protective measures, including technical devices and armed guards. You mean like hire their own navies.
"The shipping companies, also have an obligation to secure their ships to prevent incidents such that we've been seeing at alarming rates over the past several months," he said.
The State Department convened a high level group of officials to examine the issue, but spokesman Sean McCormack called it "an international problem" that the United States was not going to solve alone. Of course the Department of State would want to study it at length, consult with the UN, visit other countries, and shy away from a military role at all costs.
#1
So its been what? 24+ hours since the Indian Navy put a pirate ship on the bottom and there have been exactly how many protests? None that i have seen or read about. Seems like some nations that have navies could read something in those tea leaves and get a clue; like maybe the whole civilized world thinks its really OK to splash the bastards! and since India went first, the next guy to do so wouldn't even be getting a cherry.....
a whole bunchaballessphucks...
#3
"commercial shipping companies also should stick to safer sea lanes away from shore and invest in protective measures, including technical devices and armed guards."
I can agree with that. Shipping companies want to externalize their costs as much as they can. Hiring Blackwater to guard their ships would be expensive. Why do that when you can just pick up the phone and whine to the US Navy ("somebody should DO something!"). They should bear some responsibility for their own security.
Sure, it would cost them money. And they would need to decide which is more expensive: taking risky routes with a hired security force or taking a less risky route that burns more fuel and takes more time. But the bottom line is that these people *do* need to take bear more responsibility for their own security.
#4
The Liberians(don't they flag most commercial ships?) need to go shopping at the great American arms manufacturer Dillion Aero. Very little training needed to get off a few hundred thousand rounds from one of their recoilless Gatling guns. Low maintenance too.
#5
Mr. Morrell graduated with a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University in 1991. The following year he received a M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. While in graduate school, he worked as a desk assistant, production assistant, and researcher for ABC News in New York. He began his journalism career with ABC News as an intern in the Washington bureau in 1990.
#9
Piracy is not covered (and privateering is outlawed) by international law. That is to say that pirates can be killed, their boats destroyed without fear of legal reprisal == unless American progressives have something to say about it.
#11
Why does this remind me of the late 60s and the touchy feely law enforcement approach by the pseudo intellectuals that rationalized increases in crime by blaming society and poverty for sociopathic behaviors? It only resulted in an even greater spread of crime. The same intellectually bankrupt people are obviously in charge again. Call me when they implement 'Operation Harry Callahan'.
#14
the feel goods control the pentagon now. what kind of drivel is this? Of course military action is the answer, it has always been the answer for piracy.
#16
The somali pirates and their handlers got quite a business plan going. They are dealing with a bunch of wimpy dumsh*ts who are willing to pay large ransoms. So far only a few pirates killed. What a business model. To save time, how about hiring a shipping agent and prepaying a ransom/transit fee through the area, and the ships will not have to stop. After all, time is money.
I think that the world will have to go through this piracy madness in order to straighten itself out. Just like this country will have to have this leftist virus run its course to straighten out, if the host isn't killed in the meantime.
Man! Ima sure glad that bureaucrats don't run doctors, or we would be in trouble. OOPS! Bad example.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 10:53
Comments ||
Top||
#17
So we've gone from Jefferson's age of Wooden Ships and Iron Men to the UN age of Iron Laws and Wouldn't Men. Disgusting.
If they built modernized Butler Class DE named the William Eaton I would join to fight pirates, f'nA.
Couldn't they just build a machine to run across the deck railing like an Roomba and fire a blunderbuss downward, all controlled by camera from the bridge?
#18
I thought the Israelis had developed a non-lethal repellant horn, sound that made pirates violently ill? It would disable them long enough to get a clean shot off. The insurance companies should require some sort of preventative measures. I know many aren't insured and take their chances, but surely they have the right to self-defense. And if the Saudi supertanker was heading to the US, it is a national security issue to protect oil shipments and trade. The Europeans have to decide if commerce is vital enough to protect and take care of their own interests or they can cave to Islamists and pay the price. Giving the UN control over the seas is certainly not the answer, either. The "holistic approach of the international community" hasn't achieved diddly squat with the Iranians, or anyone else for that matter. If they had been effective in Somalia years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess. I still say J-DAMing the entire mess is the most cost-effective solution in the long run.
#20
The sooner the world starts paying more attention to derelict states like Somalia the sooner problems like these will abate. This will actually cost a lot less than increasing the military presence to guard ships.
...trinbagonian2dbone@live.com
#21
Originally The Marines were created specifically to deal with Pirates
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:51
Comments ||
Top||
#22
Somalia is a failed state. Err.. no longer a state.
The people have been lawless for 30+ years...
Sounds like a good testing ground for BZ gas...
Can we turn pirates into flower children with just some gas?
National Enquirying minds want to know. Description of BZ
#23
I am actually starting to admire the pirates. They are the only ones with the bravado to do something while the rest of the world wrings their hands. Shit... if they get away with it for much longer, I might be tempted to sell my house, go to the region, live life like a man should - women, drink, booty (of both kinds). They are living life by quality, not quantity - which has a lot of merit behind it. I'm sitting here on my ass in a cube. My biggest worry is what I'm having for dinner and paying off my credit card bill. These dumb bastards honestly have more of a real life then any of us reading about them now. They are living life while we are reading about it and playing armchair general.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/21/2008 12:25
Comments ||
Top||
#24
What about sending bounty hunters after them for big rewards financed by the companies who are getting hit? Then you have a whole counter industry springing up around killing off the pirates for profit.
Posted by: Dave ||
11/21/2008 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
#25
What, no one can find where they are storing 17 SHIPS?
Everyone coordinate and pay ransoms for hostages at once, then go in there and clean house.
#26
If Blackwater or Aegis wins a security contract there will be very significant decline in this buggery. As it should be I suppose, but unfortunately none of their successes will be made public. Floating headless torso's of murdering pirates, poor, economically disenfranchized Somalia, Yemeni, or Kenyan nationals is currently a very weak sell in the west.
#27
"Originally The Marines were created specifically to deal with Pirates"
And I thought one of the original missions of SEAL teams were to gain control of hijacked shipping. But anyway, check this out:
BLACKWATER - the US governments prefered private military contractor in Iraq - is considering ambitious plans for a small fleet of two or three anti-piracy vessels, each able to carry several dozen armed security personnel ready to undertake any legal operation.
#32
I think the evil Bushitler is staying away from this one because if he jumped in, it would be yet another case of (the evil white imperialist) Man's inhumanity to the black man. Better for the Indians to get involved. Maybe the Saudis will jump in, since it's one of their ships that got taken, and it's in their neck of the woods. Heck - the Gyppo's should be all over this one.
#34
Back in the days of the pirates of the Caribbean, crewmen had an average lifespan of one year after turning pirate, I've read. Officers tended to last a bit longer, but still.
#37
Pompeius Magnus cleared the med with wooden ships...
Posted by: Snavirt Scourge of the Weak6536 ||
11/21/2008 18:09
Comments ||
Top||
#38
Pompeius Magnus cleared the med with wooden ships...
Posted by: Snavirt Scourge of the Weak6536 ||
11/21/2008 18:16
Comments ||
Top||
#39
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent USS CONSTITUTION to the Mediterranean Sea as flagship of the third Mediterranean squadron. The mission was to attempt to force the Barbary pirates from their renewed policies of aggression against U.S. merchant shipping. With Commodore Edward Preble initially in command, USS CONSTITUTION and other ships of the squadron mounted five attacks against Tripoli.
While she's still a commissioned naval ship I don't think she's up to the task anymore - and who in today's navy could sail her or fire her guns?
#40
"It requires a holistic approach ......... wid economic development" > TRUE ENUFF. THese Pyra-a-ates exists mainly due to the absence of any efective andor trustworthy public authority + lack of econ prosperity. Unless the UNO, AFRICAN UNION, + OTHER REGIONAL ORGS CAN GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER AND CHANGE THINGS FOR THE BETTER, INSTEAD OF MORE PDENIABLE FAILURE, THE BOYZ WILL JUST CONTIN TO MOUNT WHAT CAN ASCRIBED AS A "MARITIME JIHAD" + RAMPAGE FROM REGION TO REGION, ETC. UNLESS SOMEBODY STOPS THEM.
Not unlike Radical Islam, we should not be surprised iff they desire to one day "go Nukular" = procure WMDS/CBRNS.
Shippers controlling almost a quarter the global fleet of crude-oil supertankers may avoid Egypt's Suez Canal after an increase in piracy off east Africa, potentially raising the cost of delivering the commodity.
A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S, Europe's biggest shipping line, today became the first company to say it will divert oil tankers to sail around South Africa, following the lead of Norwegian chemicals shipping line Odfjell SE. Euronav NV, TMT Co. Ltd., BW Shipping Managers Pte, and Frontline Ltd. say they are reviewing whether to reroute their oil tankers.
"We've always told our captains to stay far from the coast in that region, but that may not be enough now," Euronav's Chief Financial Officer Hugo De Stoop said by phone from Antwerp, Belgium, yesterday. "Terrorists or pirates, I don't really see the difference."
Maersk, Frontline, Euronav, TMT and BW control 117 supertankers, enough to carry 2.7 days of global demand, according to Athens-based Optima Shipbrokers and data from the companies. Avoiding the Suez Canal, Egypt's third-biggest foreign-currency earner, will delay oil deliveries and reduce the supply of available vessels.
Not to mention it will whack the Gyptos with a loss in revenues for the Canal. You'd think they would be interested in fixing the problem ...
Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of Hamilton, Bermuda-based Frontline's management unit, said Nov. 18 he may divert ships. TMT CEO Nobu Su, in an e-mail to Bloomberg yesterday, "urged" other owners to take the same action to secure trade routes.
Three supertankers are currently navigating the canal and two more are scheduled to, according to ship-tracking data. The vessels have to offload part of their cargoes into an adjacent pipeline for collection on the other side to avoiding scraping the floor of the canal.
Maersk owns 10 such ships, known as very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, as well as 60 refined oil tankers and 10 vessels designed to haul gas, spokesman Michael Storgaard said by phone from Copenhagen today. Most of its tanker fleet will be affected by the decision, along with three container ships.
Somali pirates on Nov. 15 seized their largest ever prize, a Saudi Arabian supertanker laden with 2 million barrels of crude, worth about $104 million at current prices. The ship itself is worth about $148 million. The Sirius Star is now anchored in Somalia's northern Eyl coastal region with the hijackers negotiating a ransom payment with Vela International Marine Ltd., a Saudi Arabian state- backed oil-tanker company.
There have been at least 88 attacks against ships in the area since January and Somalian pirates are holding 250 crew hostage on board 14 merchant vessels.
Shippers sailing to the U.S. and Europe from the Middle East would instead have to take vessels around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope rather than the Suez Canal. The waterway links the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
Bergen, Norway-based Odfjell SE, the world's largest owner of chemical transporters, already said it won't sail past Somalia while BW Gas Ltd., the biggest liquefied-gas shipper, may do the same. Customers have been given "the option to safeguard their cargo," BW Gas CEO Jan Hakon Pettersen said from Oslo yesterday. "For us, we would prefer them to use the cape route."
BW Shipping, operator of 17 supertankers, may soon direct ships under its control away from Suez, CEO Andreas Sohmen-Pao said by phone from Singapore today.
The Joint Hull Committee, representing ship insurers, is advising shipowners to "seriously consider" avoiding Somalian waters, Chairman Simon Stonehouse said Nov. 18.
Insurance premiums will rise and unless the Egyptian government becomes "more actively interested" in combating piracy in the region they risk damaging the business of the Suez Canal, Stonehouse said. "If they stop shipping through the Suez, going round Africa instead, that's going to reduce supply," said Glenn Lodden, an analyst at DnB NOR Markets in Oslo. "There's a clear incentive for owners to go around Africa."
Other shipowners are likely to follow should Frontline, Euronav and TMT choose to divert vessels and after the Joint Hull Committee urged companies to do so, Lodden said. Tanker owners may elect to charge more for sailing through Somalia's waters rather than rerouting, Per Mansson, managing director of shipbroker Nor Ocean Stockholm AB, said in an e- mailed note yesterday. "Maybe one or two will avoid, but most will go there against a premium to start with," Mansson said. Still, "one more hijacking of a tanker and the situation is in a different light."
The fact owners say they are considering rerouting is buoying demand for derivatives used to bet on the future cost of shipping, said Ben Goggin, a broker at SSY Futures Ltd., a unit of the world's second-biggest shipbroker.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Oh for heaven's sake - what is civilization or colonization good for anymore.
How about convoys, escorts, raiding parties, shore bombardments, reflagging, utimata, and so on and so on.
You'd think they'd learn even as we unleash the really big weapons - global recession and/or depression - if that doesn't teach them, I'm afraid we're off to Coulterville - invade, kill and convert.
#6
I must be missing something. If companies are willing to spend so much money on ships, instead of paying the flipping ransom, how about some escort ships (mercenary type)? How about a couple of helicopters on a super tanker? I must be missing something. How about a Trojan horse?
Posted by: Art ||
11/21/2008 9:24
Comments ||
Top||
#7
The fact that we let pirates dictate terms to us shows that our will to protect our civilization is once again in the toilet.
#9
Egypt's second industry might be tunnel exports on their eastern border.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 10:07
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Ignorance of Journalist have no cure i guess.
210000t is the maximum that Canal can take and that is very recent. Supertanker is an informal term used to describe the largest tankers.
From Wikipedia:
Today it is applied to very-large crude carriers (VLCC) and ULCCs with capacity over 250,000 DWT.
Supertankers were made because small tankers were blocked by war in Suez canal.
#11
The fact owners say they are considering rerouting is buoying demand for derivatives used to bet on the future cost of shipping, said Ben Goggin, a broker at SSY Futures Ltd.
Derivatives were part of the cause of the financial meltdown. I smell Soros and company in the middle of this.
#12
IIRC, Suez Canal fees under Nassar rose so high that going the long way around the Cape became more economical for a while. So everyone is a pirate: the Somalis, the Egyptians. They all want a piece of the action.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2008 10:44
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Um, the Saudi ST was taken off the coast of Kenya. Ain't no Persian Gulf-Suez Canal route I can think of which features a Kenyan pit-stop. The fact that the *ONLY* major oil tanker taken so far was clearly on a Cape-of-Good-Hope route is almost suggestive that the pirates might not have been wanting to shit where they eat.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:00
Comments ||
Top||
#14
i agree with penguin , and the saudis sending in the shabaab this could just too save face and make it look like they really aren't behind it
Posted by: chris ||
11/21/2008 18:29
Comments ||
Top||
At least three people have been killed after an explosive-laden truck targeted a compound of district government in eastern Afghanistan. The powerful blast took place on Thursday at around 3:30 p.m. (1100 GMT) in the Dowmand district of the eastern province of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan.
District Chief Lutfullah Babakar Khil confirmed the two policemen guarding the gate of the district government compound were killed in the blast and several others wounded. Later, one of the six wounded civilians died in hospital where eight policemen were being treated, according to the health department.
Some media reports said two foreign troops were also among those seriously injured in the blast.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack while the district chief maintained that Taliban militants were behind the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
At least 24 Taliban fighters -- including 11 foreigners and one local commander -- were killed in the military operation in Bajaur on Thursday as warplanes pounded Taliban positions in Swat, killing 20 fighters using a school building in Matta area, according to official sources, local residents and AFP.
Also, a private TV channel reported on Thursday that security forces have completed the deployment of Frontier Corps (FC) contingents in Mohmand, and a full-scale military operation in the agency is likely after the federal government's approval.
The foreign fighters killed in Bajaur were suspected to be Uzbek nationals, FC sources told Daily Times. They said the Taliban casualties came when security forces targeted fighters in the Darbari, Saparai, Gatki, Bagori and Zorbandar areas of Mamoond and Nawagai tehsils of Bajaur. "We making significant progress against the militants who are on the run," said the FC sources -- with troops headed towards Nawagai. The movement towards Nawagai and Mamoond comes after troops gained control of Loyesam. "Taliban strongholds have been destroyed," an ISPR spokesman said in a press release in Rawalpindi, but went on to mention that "a few pockets of resistance remained". The spokesman also said that 'Operation Sher Dil' was separate from ISAF's 'Operation Lionheart' in Afghanistan.
NATO spokesman: NATO's spokesman in Kabul, Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, said co-ordination with Pakistan had been improving, and the Pakistani military was routinely helping NATO forces direct fire in retaliation to attacks from inside Pakistan, Reuters reported. 'Operation Lionheart' was aimed at co-ordinating operations with Pakistani forces, he added.
Separately, the private TV channel quoted a top security official as saying that the situation in Mohmand Agency was alarming with Taliban holed up in the area. He claimed that the Taliban in Bajaur were getting support from Mohmand Agency. He warned that if the Mohmand-based Taliban were not reined in, "Peshawar and Charsadda would be in grave danger". The channel also quoted military sources as saying that locals in Mohmand Agency were ready to form lashkars against the Taliban.
In Swat, fighter jets pounded Taliban hideouts in Ghat Piocher area of Matta tehsil on Thursday, and ISPR confirmed the bombing. AFP quoted security officials as saying that 20 Taliban fighters were killed in the bombing.
Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan, however, said that five houses and a local school were destroyed in the bombing, but there were no casualties. Meanwhile in Khwazakhel tehsil, at least eight civilians -- including six women -- were killed and 33 injured as security forces tried to target Taliban positions in Alam Ganj area, local sources told Daily Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Oil sank below $50 a barrel, reaching its lowest point since May 2005 amid fears over the outlook for demand in the face of a global recession. The drop in oil prices led a broader retreat in raw materials, with the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index, a global benchmark, falling to a five-year low. December West Texas Intermediate fell $4 to $49.62 a barrel.
January WTI traded $4.68 lower at $49.42 a barrel. ICE January Brent dropped $3.64 to $48.08. "Oil prices are searching for an elusive bottom," said Antoine Halff of Newedge brokerage in New York. "Demand destruction today rivals that caused by the oil shocks of the 1970s."
The options market is pricing in a growing likelihood that oil prices could sink as low as $40-$45 a barrel before the end of the year, with the cost of insuring against such an event jumping more than 90 per cent overnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From what I hear, the only thing selling in the U.S. right now is guns and ammo. Those items the gun shops have lines out the door to sell.
#2
No shit. I went into my local gunshop to pick up some shells and a cleaning kit and that tiny little basement shop was crowded wall-to-wall. The shells were insanely overpriced, but I still got 'em.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:41
Comments ||
Top||
#3
"The best time to shop for December gifts was in August. Remember: shop smart, shop S-Mart."
More than three decades after he first appeared before the panel as a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran-turned-antiwar protester, Senator John F. Kerry will be named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving him enormous influence over President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy, according to congressional officials. He will be handed the gavel when the new Congress convenes in January, replacing Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
....giving him enormous influence over President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy.
#2
The adults have abandoned the field. On the other hand, we can expect State Dept SOP to include "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, cut off limbs, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan ... ." It may be an improvement.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 7:38
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Senator John F. Kerry will be named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
Note to Liveshot - this means you'll actually have to show up to your job now.
A senior Somali opposition leader has promised to sustain the 'holy war' on the country's government while refusing to compromise with rivals. "We stick to holy war, we stick to liberation," said the head of the Somali opposition group, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)'s offshoot in Asmara, Eritrea, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Thursday.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys made the remarks taking to task UIC's Djibouti wing, lead by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, over their recent conclusion of a peace agreement with the country's transitional government. The settlement, aimed at relieving the differences between the government and the oppositionist, accounted for the bipolar division within the group.
Dahir Aweys dissociated his devotees from those of the rivaling camp's saying "these men (Sheikh Sharif's faction) have joined the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) who were fighting us. They signed an agreement with them. We still stick to our position, we stick to fighting."
He also delivered a strong warning to Kenya amid news that the country was to deploy peacekeeping forces to the Horn of Africa nation. "I understand that Kenya is planning to deploy up to Kismayu town (in southern Somalia). Kenya should not burn the thatched house that it is living in."
The shortage of a viable central administration since 1991 has contributed to unceasing confrontation between the government and the oppositionists who have recently stretched their domain in the violence-scarred country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Sounds like time for another AC-130 run from the Horn to the Kenyan border.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 8:06
Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - Pakistani security forces killed at least 33 militants on Thursday, among them foreigners in the restive Swat valley in North West Frontier Province and the Bajaur tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan's Geo News says that security forces used fighter jets and artillery to pound militants' hideouts in the area of Tehsil Matta, killing 16.
In a separate incident, eight others were killed when mortar shells landed on houses in the Alam Ganj area of Tehsil Khawazakhela.
Earlier on Thursday, nine militants, among them seven Uzbek nationals were killed by Pakistani security forces 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.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
When I read about all the Taliban casualties, I wonder when they are going to be protected by the endangered species act. It makes the Pakistani military sound a lot more functional than they possibly could be. Then I remember, This is feel good news generated by a very shakey government. More pop corn, please.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 9:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
In combination with that Roggio article about blundering Pakistani pressure on the tribes, I can't help but wondering if we oughtn't be upping the terrorist-to-fluffy-bunny ratio on Pakistani propaganda these days. Like, maybe inverting the ratio compared to expected values in similar reports on the other side of the border.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:03
Comments ||
Top||
#3
their body counts sound kinda like the Sri lankan body counts too me. hyped up a little and prob hitting th low man on the totem pole if you know what i mean
Posted by: chris ||
11/21/2008 18:31
Comments ||
Top||
Security forces arrested four Taliban and recovered 12 suicide vests from them in Charsadda's Shabqadar tehsil on Thursday, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, the Taliban were arrested during a search operation in Shana Ghondai area, adding handcuffs and weapons had also been seized from them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
four Taliban and recovered 12 suicide vests
If that isn't the definition of optimism then I don't know what is.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 7:51
Comments ||
Top||
#2
So that means you strap 3 onto each of them, take them out in front of nearby tali-symps and detonate them as a demonstration of what will happen to anyone thinking of joining them.
As Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, Arab Red Sea states were holding an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss the threat, with Egypt saying all options were on the table to deal with the growing crisis.
Senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen met for the talks amid growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau as "out of control."
The hijackers are demanding $25 million in ransom for the largest ship yet taken and its cargo of $100 million of oil, one of the pirates told AFP on Thursday. They have set a 10-day deadline. With three more ships captured since the Sirius Star was taken, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt would consider all possibilities in dealing with the crisis.
"The Egyptian national security establishment works intensively on all options, examines what measures could be taken in this regard, and decides whether a diplomatic and political solution will be preferred."
"All options are open," Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
If this gets the Saudis and Egyptians and Yemenis to invade and occupy Somalia's Aden coast... well, I don't know.
It might be a disaster. But it sure sounds entertaining.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:22
Comments ||
Top||
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday approved filing of separate cases against three people including Awami League (AL) presidium member Kazi Zafarullah's wife Nilufa Zafarullah and their son Kazi Omar Zafar in connection with concealing wealth information from the commission and amassing wealth illegally.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
(AKI/DAWN) - Four militants and two women were killed and several others sustained injuries while a girls' school was destroyed in Pakistan. The school was located in the area of Bar Bandai in the volatile Swat valley.
Military sources said the security forces pounded militant hideouts killing four and injuring several others on Wednesday in the ongoing search operation in the restive Swat region. Curfew was imposed in the troubled areas of Kabal tehsil.
Two women were killed and four combatants were injured as some misfired shells fell on their houses in Khwazahkela tehsil.
The government girls' primary school was destroyed by unknown miscreants by planting explosives in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. The four-room school building was completely destroyed and its furniture and records were damaged in the explosion.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
A suicide bomber killed at least nine people and injured four others on Thursday at a mosque in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur Agency, APP reported. Officials told Daily Times that a pro-government tribal lashkar head, Malik Rehmatullah, was among the dead. The tribal elder had received threats for his pro-peace attitude. The suicide attack occurred at a mosque in the Badan village area of Mamoond tehsil when people were offering evening prayers, the officials said. A wounded worshipper told reporters at a hospital in Khar, headquarters of Bajaur Agency, that "we were offering evening prayers when a man blew himself up in the middle of us killing six instantly and leaving four others seriously injured". No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but tribal elders and political administration have accused the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Iranian top judge, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Shahroudi, says judicial security is a precondition for a sound legal system in the country.
Iran's judiciary chief said on Thursday that popular participation, promotion of culture, and creating the superstructure of a modern judicial system are all vital in helping to attain an improved judicial system.
The three major legal systems of the world consist of civil law, common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system. The pivot of Iran's judicial system is Islamic law he said.
Shahroudi also called on 'all organizations' to work together to provide security for the society and put a damper on criminal activities. "People should be informed about their civil and economic rights by the mass media and the judicial system," underscored the judiciary chief.
In a comment in June, Shahroudi said that many countries are 'envious' of Iran's progress in the judicial arena, especially the attention it pays to finding justice. He said certain characteristics of the Islamic Republic's judicial system make Iran's judicial policies 'exemplary' throughout the world.
Addressing a group of judicial officials in Tehran, Shahroudi added that the Islamic Republic's judicial system is so comprehensive that some nations have sought Iran's assistance in establishing a judicial system of their own along similar lines.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
The death penalty for parking tickets I presume.
The first round of a rare committee chairmanship fight in the U.S. House is over, with Henry Waxman, who is seeking to grab the powerful Energy and Commerce gavel from John Dingell, winning a vote of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, 25-22. The outcome is hardly final, and Dingell will now appeal the matter to the full Democratic caucus, which will probably vote tomorrow.
Waxman's initial victory, however, is noteworthy because the Steering and Policy Committee, which makes formal recommendations to the whole caucus on committee assignments, is packed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's loyalists. Pelosi has been publicly neutral in the Waxman-Dingell contest, but there are plenty of reasons to suspect she's with Waxman -- and may have even encouraged him to run. His win in what is essentially her committee will only fuel these suspicions.
Still, it's entirely possible that the whole caucus will reverse the Steering and Policy verdict tomorrow. Chairmanship fights are rare, particularly on the Democratic side, because of the primacy of the seniority system. The last successful challenge on the Democratic side (until now, perhaps) came in 1985, when Illinois' Mel Price, well into his 80's and suffering from Parkinson's Disease, was pushed aside as Armed Services chairman by party leaders and replaced by Les Aspin, who won a narrow vote of the full caucus to leapfrog a more senior member.
With the full caucus vote nearing, Dingell's side has been aggressively portraying Waxman's challenge as a threat to the seniority system, calculating that Democrats with multiple terms under their belts will think twice before ousting a committee chairman if it could lead to their own seniority being ignored down the road. There are indications that this strategy has worked particularly well with the Congressional Black Caucus, which includes many long-tenured House members from safe districts whose main avenue to power within the House is the seniority system.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Didn't the Dems run on a platform of bipartisan inclusion in 06'?
I'm still waiting for them to do something bipartisan. Oh, wait, they did vote on their salary increase didn't they? That was prolly pretty bipartisan.
#3
First, a the democratic congress punts on providing support for automakers, presumeably going on vacation. Then they yank Dingell's commerce committee chair.
#6
I'm sure Beverly Hills knows a lot more than the rest of us about how to make an energy industry, after all, their great-grandparents made fortunes in it.
The PLO took the unprecedented step of placing advertisements in Israeli newspapers on Thursday to promote a six-year-old Arab peace plan for the region.
Yediot Aharonot, Maariv and Haaretz, the three leading Israeli dailies, printed the advertisement, which is headed by the Palestinian and Israeli flags. "Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation," the text of the add read, under Palestinian and Israel flags set side by side.
According to Haaretz, the direct appeal by the Palestinian Authority to the Israeli public, over the heads of the Israeli leadership, is being seen by observers as an extraordinary event.
Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said the campaign was meant to inform Israelis about the peace initiative, which until now has been "misinterpreted by the extreme Israeli right wing as an Arab conspiracy against Israel and its future".
The advertisement, bordered by the flags of dozens of Arab and other Muslim states, also ran in Arabic in three Palestinian papers. Similar ads were published in Palestinian media and, according to Rabbo, in some European newspapers.
The Arab League proposal offers Israel peace and normal relations with all Arab countries in return for its withdrawal from all territory the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war -- the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The Saudi-inspired peace plan was presented at an Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 and re-launched at a Riyadh summit in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: PLO
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday condemned US airstrikes inside Pakistan as 'intolerable', and hoped the incursions would stop with the change in command at the White House.
It's 'intolerable' but he'll tolerate it until at least January 20th ...
Following the opposition's criticism of the government over a suspected US drone attack in Bannu, Gilani said in his policy statement that his government had no tacit understanding with the US on such strikes. He said even if "former president Pervez Musharraf had reached such an understanding", there were no Foreign Ministry records showing that. He claimed that unlike the past, "Pakistan is no longer an isolated nation, as it has the support of the entire world over violations of its sovereignty". He said a number of Western leaders he had met supported the government's stance that the US should change its policy towards Pakistan.
"Once the transition period in the US comes to an end and Barack Obama's government is in place, these attacks will come to an end," he added. Gilani also hoped the issue could be tackled through diplomatic efforts and international lobbying. The national security adviser was in constant touch with his US counterpart, and Pakistani concerns were being conveyed to the Americans, he added.
"You should not doubt that the army would not support the government or its policies ... the army will take steps with the consent of the administration," he said.
Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) asked the government to take up its concerns over the drone attacks with the United Nations. Opposition Leader in the House Nisar Ali Khan said the US incursions were not coming to an end despite Pakistan's stance that there would be no compromise on the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The opposition leader said the government should adopt "a graceful way of protesting and convey to the US ambassador that Pakistan would raise the issue at the UN". Online quoted Nisar as saying that the parliamentary resolution on national security had become a 'joke'.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the continuing US attacks "apparently confirm a Washington Post report on a tacit understanding between the two sides". However, Raza Rabbani defended the government and categorically rejected the Washington Post report.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Pakistan is crumbling to the ground, the stock market is broken, their bond rating is BBB, they are surrounded by militants and Islamists. Don't they have anything better to worry about than the U.S. bombing a couple of their worst barbarians?
(SomaliNet) In an interview published on Wednesday in Germany, Laurent Nkunda, the rebel chief whose armies have swept aside Congolese government forces, aims to take over the whole of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC rebel chief told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that under his leadership, the DR Congo would take over a seat representing Africa in the United Nations Security Council within five years.
Nunda's forces have won control in tracts of the east of the DR Congo. Nkunda, a Tutsi general, accused the government of failing the nation, "selling out the country to the Chinese" and co-operating with criminals.
He rebuffed criticism of atrocities by his forces, including one attack in January when 30 people were murdered, some of them with hammers, in a single village. "I cannot rule out that civilians sometimes get killed. Perhaps they get caught in the crossfire," he said.
Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has routed the Congolese army and seized control of territory in North Kivu province in recent weeks. Nkunda has previously warned that unless the government talks to him, his forces - believed to number between 4 000 and 6 000 - will brush aside the Congolese army and march on the capital Kinshasa.
The DR Congo accuses Rwanda of backing Nkunda, who says he is fighting to protect Tutsis from Hutu militia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A Jordanian was sentenced on Wednesday to 13 years in prison with hard labor for sexually assaulting his 20-year-old daughter more than 200 times since she was 11, a judicial official said.
"The father, 46, used to sexually abuse his daughter when her mother and brother were out of the house."
"The father, 46, used to sexually abuse his daughter when her mother and brother were out of the house, and he threatened her not to tell anybody" in Marka, near Amman, the official told AFP. "Last year, the girl's aunt wanted to find her a husband, but the girl refused and started to cry. Her aunt insisted to know the reason, so the girl told her about everything."
Rape of a female under 15 is punishable by death in Jordan. "The girl lost her virginity when she was over 15 years old after her father raped her," another judicial source said.
A 40-year-old man was sentenced to death this month for raping a 14-year-old girl nine times in January.
Israa Tawalbeh, Jordan's first female coroner told AFP that between 1,300 and 1,400 cases of sexual assault against children are reported in the kingdom every year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Prison? Death penalty? Quantum physics IS compatible with Relativity - this appears to be a Bizzaro World Times, parallel universe story.
It turns out Islamophobia is no myth. Researchers in psychology and medicine have found that anti-Muslim sentiment is a very real phenomenon with potentially dire effects on safety and medical care.
During last week's United Nations interfaith dialogue, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon singled out Islamophobia as "a new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice."
Simply appearing Muslim can increase aggressive tendencies towards Muslims a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found. They termed this bias the "Turban Effect."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
You think maybe that business about ramming airliners into tall buildings and having suicide bombers target pizza parlors and shopping malls might have something to do with it?
Nah, couldn't be. It's just whitey being racist again. That's it, yeah.
#3
It goes without saying that Muslims are devoid of anti-anything "sentiment", lack any "form of prejudice", and have no "aggressive tendencies" whatsoever.
#10
Islanophobia implies that bias against islam and muslims is a psychological impairment. Call anti-muslim bias what it is. A rational objection to an objectionable religious/political worldview and group.
#11
The man makes the suit. The suit is a way to make a first impression without saying anything and is based on a stereotype which of course is a generic set of values (right or wrong) based on experience with people who wear that suit. For example, every Bond has been sharped dressed - people have favorite Bond characters despite the suit yet the suit makes an actor automatically looked Bond-ish (also Jackie Chan in The Tuxedo). Suit = uniform style of dress whether military, gangster, yuppie, pizza delivery so forth.
Therefore if wearing a Turban makes a person look and therefore treated as a violent instead of a peacemaker (Buddhist, Nun garbs for example) or otherwise then you know what maybe there is a reason for that; that is the bias didn't come from a random dice roll. Maybe if the first turban wearers were handing out bags of mustard seed instead of tools of violence...wanna change that perception start with yourselves and it will take time - for a people who measure wars in generations it should be not problem to be peaceful for a single generation if the will is there.
Saudi Arabia is likely to use military force to rescue a giant oil tanker recently seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The country might attempt at a 'military-style rescue operation' to salvage the Saudi-owned vessel, Sirius Star and its 25 crewmembers, the Saudi daily Okaz quoted an official enlisted with the country's Border Guards as saying on Thursday.
On November 15, the US Navy reported the capture of the tanker and its reportedly Saudi, Filippino, Polish, Croatian and British crew by the bandits southeast of the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The 330-meter long tanker was sailing under a Liberian flag while possessed by the Saudi oil firm Aramco. It was heading for the United States through the Cape of Good Hope.
Alarmed by the incident, the country has begun a security study of its tankers and cargo vessels which happen to cross the trouble-ridden Gulf of Aden. No immediate plans had been devised, the official however, added.
The pirates, with their increased firepower, have become the shipping companies' nemesis prompting the international community to subject the trouble-ridden waters to strict naval surveillance. Somalia's territorial waters, posing the utmost threat, have witnessed more than 80 cases of piracy this year alone.
Protraction of the standoff would prompt the vessels crossing the area to seek protection from regional watchdogs which could "cause a large rise in transport expenses for importers," said the Transport and Marine Services Committee member Yousuf Al-Turki.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Force against a ship where one is not even allowed to smoke a cigarette on?
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 8:07
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Correction:
'S Arabia may use OPF against pirates'
An explosion at an anti-government protest site in central Bangkok early Thursday killed one person and wounded 23 others, prompting a leader of the demonstration to call for a mass rally against the government on Sunday.
Police said they believe the explosion was caused by a grenade. It exploded about 3:30 a.m. at Government House, the prime minister's office complex that demonstrators have occupied since late August. The explosive landed on the canvas of a large marquee, showering those who were sleeping below with shrapnel. "It landed on the roof, otherwise many more people would have been injured," said Kamron Trongma, who was nearby when the explosion happened.
Police told news services that a 48-year-old man received shrapnel wounds to the chest and neck area and was killed. Some of the others who were injured were taken to hospitals.
The demonstrators, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, have vowed to bring down the government, which they accuse of being a proxy for controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The current prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, is Thaksin's brother-in-law.
The dispute between the predominantly urban, middle-class demonstrators and the government, which was voted into power last year with the backing of millions of Thailand's rural poor, has paralyzed the country's political process and gouged deep political divisions between the rural and urban populations.
The demonstrators have ruled out any compromise, vowing to maintain their protest until the government is forced out of office.
In the wake of the attack, media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul, the protesters' most influential leader, called on supporters to gather Sunday for a major rally against the "killer government."
He accused the police of cooperating with whomever attacked the protesters Thursday. "Without police cooperation, they could not have access to such weapons," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
"Uncle Ted" Stevens, an old-style Senate giant and the chamber's longest-serving Republican, delivered his swansong address and yielded the floor for the final time Thursday. He was saluted by his colleagues as a staunch friend and teacher.
Family members and aides wept openly in the gallery as Stevens, who turned 85 this week, spoke of having "no rearview mirror" and looking forward to a time when he might be vindicated. He lost his bid for a seventh term this week after his convictions in federal court on charges of lying about gifts on Senate financial disclosure forms.
"I only look forward and I still see the day when I can remove the cloud that currently surrounds me," Stevens said.
The speech was a poignant coda to a four-decade Senate career that began not 10 years after his home state, Alaska, achieved statehood. It came as the 110th Congress finished business with a sizable caucus of senators over age 80 whose regard for each other transcended their party affiliation.
Perhaps a quarter of the Senate filed into the chamber to hear the speech, with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell turning his chair all the way around to face Stevens. Those gathered in the galleries and on the Senate floor gave the outgoing senator a standing ovation, a violation of Senate custom. But no one objected.
"More than anyone else, you have taught me the meaning of representing my state," said another retiring senior senator, Pete Domenici, R-N.M., 76.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He was saluted by his colleagues as a staunch stench.
Why the hell do we even bother? For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government had provided insufficient evidence to continue their detentions.
The decision came in the case of six Algerians who were detained in Bosnia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and have been held at the military prison in Cuba for nearly seven years. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a Bush appointee, ruled that five of the men must be released "forthwith" and ordered the government to engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes.
In an unusual move, Leon also urged the government not to appeal his ruling, saying "seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer" was long enough.
In the case of the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, Leon found that the government had met its evidentiary burden and could continue to hold him. Bensayah's lawyers said he would appeal.
The landmark ruling is the first by a federal judge who has weighed the government's evidence in lawsuits brought by scores of detainees who are challenging their detentions. In June, the Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by the Algerians, that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detentions in federal court under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus.
In October, a federal judge ordered the release into the United States of a small band of Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, but in that case the government presented no evidence to justify their continued detention and no longer considers them enemy combatants. The government has been unable to find another country willing to take them in.
In the case of the Algerians, the government presented mostly classified evidence in closed hearings that its attorneys asserted proved the men planned to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The government dropped earlier allegations, mentioned by President Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address, that they had plotted to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.
Leon said the government did not provide enough credible and reliable evidence during a series of closed hearings to justify the detentions of the five Algerians: Lakhdar Boumediene, Mohamed Nechla, Mustafa Ait Idir, Hadj Boudella and Saber Lahmar. He said the allegations were provided by a single source in an intelligence document. The government did not provide enough information about the source to determine whether he or she was credible or reliable, Leon ruled.
Leon made the ruling in the U.S. District Court's large ceremonial courtroom, which was filled with lawyers and law clerks hoping to witness a historic ruling. As he read his ruling, Leon had to wait for an Arabic interpreter to translate his words for the detainees, who listened via audio-link to the military prison.
The detainees' lawyers hugged each other. "I have the feeling of relief for the five" who were ordered released, said Robert Kirsch, one of the Algerians' lawyers.
The "judge did what he thought he had to do," Kirsch said. "I just hope the government listens."
Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman who attended the hearing, said the department's attorneys were reviewing the ruling and would issue a statement later. It is not known whether the government will appeal.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, but the Bush Administration has aggressively fought the release of detainees by the courts.
On Monday, an appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case of the Chinese Muslims. The government was granted a stay to appeal the October ruling by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina that the men, all Uighurs, should be freed into the United States. The government has argued the judge does not have the authority to order the release of detainees into the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Good. Take them out to the middle of the Atlantic and release them. Good riddance.
#7
Catch and release could work here, if release was into the shark infested waters around Cuba.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 9:49
Comments ||
Top||
#8
First, I would pay no attention to this idiot's braying. But, if a release would come forth, I'd bring these five "cuties" right to the judge's doorstep, knock on the door, unshackle them, and tell them to make themselves at home. Tell them the judge welcomes them entirely and said that his home is their home. Could make the slate on America's Funniest Home Videos.
#9
I hope all Rantburgers have a working knowledge of biofeedback. I'd hate any of us to have a heart attack because of the stupidity of our government. That second part of the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence is beginning to look better and better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/21/2008 11:41
Comments ||
Top||
#10
They're in your garage judge, please take care of the feedings.
Now there's a Fox sitcom waiting to happen. Judgey and the Jihadis. I'll bet it would be...zany.
#12
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted three months' ad interim bail to former BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu and former Jamaat-e Islami lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
HIS friends won't tell him this, so maybe the one guy in West Virginia who is not a fan of Robert C. Byrd should tell him: It is time to retire from the Senate.
Fifty years is enough.
His is a remarkable story. Byrd's rise from the hardscrabble of Sophia in Raleigh County to being a couple of heartbeats from the presidency is a story that should live on at least in West Virginia lore.
After a nice run as Senate Democratic leader, Byrd became the chairman of the appropriations committee. It requires a nimble brain to select exactly where in the $3.2 trillion budget to park the Robert C. Byrd this and the Robert C. Byrd that.
The billion-dollar Byrd brain still works with Swiss-watch precision. He counted noses last week and realized he lacks the votes to remain as chairman.
They told him: It's time.
If I am following the law correctly, a retirement in February, so Byrd can bear witness to the inauguration of the new president on Jan. 20, would allow Gov. Joe Manchin to appoint a Democrat who would then have ample time to establish prowess as an earmarker and be rewarded with an election to a two-year term in 2010.
And the state can rename the state holiday on the day after Thanksgiving "Robert C. Byrd Day" in honor of his birthday.
Whatever it takes.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wait! Put the taxidermist on hold, AIG is hiring lobbyists.
#3
I can see it now. The band playing, the crowd on it's feet, as the old man rises from his wheelchair to wave to his fans as they raise his Exalted Cyclops sheet to the rafters at the Klan Hall of Fame...
The U.S. Embassy has been accused of counterrevolutionary subversion. A nervous Catholic Church is appealing for calm. The opposition party is crying electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking marchers. The mayor here has called it anarchy. And everyone is asking: What is President Daniel Ortega after?
This sounds more like the Central America of the 1980s. But Ortega, the former Marxist revolutionary comandante who returned to the president's office in 2006, is at the center of a chaotic new struggle. Critics charge that he and Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America, are marching backward, away from relatively peaceful, transparent, democratic elections to ones that are violent, shady and stolen.
The Nov. 9 elections and their disputed results -- for 146 mayoralties, including that of Managua, the capital -- have become a crucial test for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Ortega, its leader, who seeks to consolidate his power in Nicaragua and enhance his standing as a founder of the "pink tide" of left-leaning governments flowing across Latin America. In the months leading to the vote, Ortega and the Sandinistas cracked down on their critics and revived old antagonisms between the United States and the former revolutionaries.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The Fat One," also wants to return to power, though Aleman is a convicted money launderer and embezzler.
#2
I love how communist groups always have names with words like 'liberation', 'people's' or 'Free' in them.
Skimming over Daily Kos, those burnt out bunnies think their way will 'set our country free', even if they have to create a police state to do it.
#3
bigjim, nah....they don't believe it either. They just think that they are gonna be the ones on top when the revolution comes, never the ones up against the wall.
#4
"...electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking..."
Community organizers, no doubt.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/21/2008 13:22
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Meanwhile our president-elect and and his fellow democrats ignore event in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador and spend their time attacking Columbia, a functioning democracy.
#6
The Nov. 9 elections and their disputed results -- for 146 mayoralties, including that of Managua, the capital -- have become a crucial test for the Sandinista National Liberation Front and Ortega, its leader, who seeks to consolidate his power in Nicaragua and enhance his standing as a founder of the "pink tide" of left-leaning governments flowing across Latin America.
Looks like it might be time for Jimmy Carter to fly on down for a whitewash job. Call him, Danny. He's probably still in your Rolodex.
TADJOURA, Djibouti -- In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa's ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won't have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy -- not always admiringly -- "America's African Rifles" after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
The 'experts' are the same ones wringing their hands over the piracy problem in Somalia.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent. Green Berets have taught troops from impoverished Niger how to parachute from planes. Ugandans have been shown how to patrol their lakes in speedboats. And some 39,000 African troops have cycled through U.S. peacekeeping courses.
So that perhaps they'll be a little better, when called to duty, than the mighty Uruguayans ...
Soldiers in the Djibouti branch of this vast effort speak spare, unplaceable English. They are U.S. military trainers from Guam -- Bravo Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion. "We've worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians," said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. "Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don't even have ammo to shoot. We bring it."
In fact, the Pentagon has been bringing ammo and expertise to its African allies with a single-minded purpose since 9/11. Maintaining such programs will be one of the goals of AFRICOM. Yet in the Horn of Africa, the use of such proxy forces has had alarming results.
Critics say the administration's decision to back the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006 has backfired, strengthening Somali extremist groups and damaging counterterrorism efforts.
It backfired because the usual handwringers forced the Aethiops to stop before they'd finished the job, all in the name of 'peace' ...
Today a deadly Islamist insurgency threatens to overrun the capital, Mogadishu, and topple a frail, U.S.-supported government. Inviting comparisons with Iraq, the violence has displaced roughly a million civilians.
All of whom were doing so darned well before being displaced, weren't they ...
Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa. "We're back in Cold War mode," he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan's shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. "When will we be done here? Not for a long time."
#4
a good book that talks some about this is , Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts by Alan Kaplan
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:48
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I am not sure if "Cold War Mode" is the correct way to describe this. We tend to put everything in terms of the last big war we fought and not address the fact that this is an entirely new form.
I have some friends who have been through these programs. One had been in the US for training for several months and all he ever would tell me about was how the Americans really really know how to do breakfast right.
So they are learning something, even if it is to love pancakes with all their heart. :)
#6
How could taking down the Islamic Courts operation, or weakening it, "backfire"? Don't get it.
Somalia is the All-Time Galactic Class S**thole, so even doing nothing more than roughing up our enemies, grabbing intel and people there, and using it as a training ground for us and others seems like a sure-win to me.
Alaska Paul, I'm fairly sure our guys, and some of our true allies' best guys, have been doing all sorts of very interesting things out of Djibouti for several years now. More than a hunch, and of course not hard to guess.
#7
Decades now Verlaine and more of late, in the region at least. But like the French, Belgi's, Portugese, and Brits before us it's been little more than pissing in a gale. Difficult to bridge a thousand years of advanced civilization with a people and culture in denial. All should be very concerned about this AFRICOM experiment I assure you. Bloody Zulu Isihlangu heraldic symbol be damned. Bring an entirely new meaning and definition to the word quagmire.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to reinforce a beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, temporarily approving the deployment of more than 3,100 additional peacekeepers to help protect hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
More child molesting rapists brought to bear, beautiful.
Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Thursday. As the Somali pirates, who hijacked Saudi oil super-tanker Sirius Star, demanded $25 million in ransom and have set a 10-day deadline,
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
and what's wrong with afixing each transport vessel with pigs?
#4
What is that thing she is sitting in? Looks like an oversized ash tray from the '55 Pontiac I used to have. Probably not. Help me out guys.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/21/2008 8:53
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Even the names say, Hi! I'll be your troll for today! Although not so much as to add, Would you like some rolls with that? One would think they'd be clever enough to come up with, eg. George or ItalianStallion. Nobody would ever suspect ItalianStallion of being a Russian/Chinese/Nigerian spammer, or perhaps a Saudi/Pakistani idiot freshly come from the mosque to taunt the kufr.
(SomaliNet) Somali businessmen are sending food, cigarettes and drinks to a hijacked Saudi supertanker anchored off the coast of Somalia, a local elder says.
Dahir Mohamud Abdulle says businessmen in the central Somalia coastal town of Haradhere took supplies to the shore Wednesday for collection by pirates holding the MV Sirius Star. Somali pirates seized the Saudi supertanker with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members on Saturday in their most audacious hijacking to date.
Fisherman Abdullahi Hussein Hurdaye says the supertanker could still be seen Wednesday anchored about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the coast. Fisherman Hassan Jimale says he saw three boats make return trips to the supertanker overnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Pirate Nation
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:54
Comments ||
Top||
#2
ARCLIGHT the crap out of the shore billits of the pirates, and the piracy would totally disappear from the Gulf of Aden. It might take more than one strike, but the message would eventually seep through the four inches of solid bone that is a Somali skull and link cause (piracy) with effect (ARCLIGHT strike). Who knows, it might even have SOME effect on the terrorists residing in Somalia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/21/2008 14:32
Comments ||
Top||
#11
To ask them to do again (quantity) what they did 40 years ago might be too much - and there are a lot fewer of them - no matter how many knee replacements and facelifts they've had. But it paints quite a mind picture.
(AKI) - A militant belonging to the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement, the al-Qassam Brigades was killed on Thursday after a tank fired a missile towards him. Mohammed Abed Al Shakour Al Arer was killed as he went on 'a mission' east of Gaza City, said the official website of the Brigades. The 19 year-old youth came from the al-Shojaeya neighbourhood.
"Al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahedeen, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces," said a statement on the website.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli forces to keep Gaza's border crossings shut on Thursday, ignoring pleas by the United Nations to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
This article starring:
MOHAMED ABED AL SHAKUR AL ARER
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#3
how about we deport all our gangbangers with their weapons and send then too pakistan or afghanistan, it would make a real good reality show and would get rid of 2 parasites for the price of one. and for those of you who say they would make allegiances gangs in LA who live a block away kill each other just about everyday over opetty shit INCLYUDING drug turf
Posted by: chris ||
11/21/2008 18:53
Comments ||
Top||
#4
sorry wrong regiong of the world but i b et it would work no less
Posted by: chris ||
11/21/2008 18:54
Comments ||
Top||
China is now officially the US government's largest foreign creditor after overtaking Japan, in a development that signals Washington's increasing reliance on Beijing to save its economy. China became the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, owning 585 billion dollars worth as of September, according to US Treasury Department figures.
But, analysts warned Wednesday, neither country should be celebrating the development, which underlines serious imbalances in the global economy.
"China's GDP per capita ranks around 100th in the world but it is actually subsidising the world's richest country," said Zhang Ming, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank in Beijing. Zhang argued that becoming the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries is only an illustration of how serious the imbalances are in China's overly export-driven economy, rather than an indicator of its strength.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Yes, and the American consumer is the only thing standing between Beijing and its first major social experiment in a massive economic downturn. After you entice literally millions off the farms and into urban dwelling, what's going to happen when the jobs start to evaporate? Been there, seen it, done it. May you live in interesting times if you want to play this game.
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.
Huffasnuffaluffagus Post
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor. The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
In an attempt to dial down expectations for his administration, President-elect Barack Obama's supporters have dropped much of the "messiah" talk.
(AKI) - Saudi oil giant Aramco, whose subsidiary Vela International owns the hijacked supertanker Sirus Star said on Wednesday it would make contact with the Somali pirates who seized the ship on Saturday. The pirates have demanded a ransom for the release of the tanker, the largest one ever hijacked, which has a 25-member crew on board and is fully loaded with two million barrels of oil worth over 100 million dollars. The vessel is now anchored off the Somali coast.
Unidentified men beheaded two people in Shakar Tangi area of Orakzai Agency's Upper tehsil on Thursday. The two were residents of Kohat and Bannu. A source said the political authorities were reluctant to retrieve the bodies, dumped on a road along with a letter, because of the tense situation in the area. Separately, a public call office was damaged by unidentified people near the Fidiya Chowk of Orakzai Agency's Lower tehsil. Also on Thursday, transporters observed a strike in the agency against the arrest of Rabiakhel and Akehl tribesmen. The protesters alleged that the political authorities had arrested the tribesmen under the collective punishment clause of Frontier Crime Regulation and impounded their vehicles, adding the authorities had also not visited the agency for the last two years, leaving the tribesmen at the mercy of Taliban. The protesters said Levies forces were also stationed in Hangu and the political authorities were arresting the tribesmen on the pretext of militancy.
At least 24 Taliban fighters -- including 11 foreigners and one local commander -- were killed in the military operation in Bajaur on Thursday as warplanes pounded Taliban positions in Swat, killing 20 fighters using a school building in Matta area, according to official sources, local residents and AFP. 
Oil sank below $50 a barrel, reaching its lowest point since May 2005 amid fears over the outlook for demand in the face of a global recession. The drop in oil prices led a broader retreat in raw materials, with the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index, a global benchmark, falling to a five-year low. December West Texas Intermediate fell $4 to $49.62 a barrel.
Islamic Courts (UIC)'s offshoot in Asmara, Eritrea, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Thursday. 
(AKI) - Pakistani security forces killed at least 33 militants on Thursday, among them foreigners in the restive Swat valley in North West Frontier Province and the Bajaur tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan's Geo News says that security forces used fighter jets and artillery to pound militants' hideouts in the area of Tehsil Matta, killing 16.
As Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, Arab Red Sea states were holding an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss the threat, with Egypt saying all options were on the table to deal with the growing crisis. 
A suicide bomber killed at least nine people and injured four others on Thursday at a mosque in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur Agency, APP reported. Officials told Daily Times that a pro-government tribal lashkar head, Malik Rehmatullah, was among the dead. The tribal elder had received threats for his pro-peace attitude. The suicide attack occurred at a mosque in the Badan village area of Mamoond tehsil when people were offering evening prayers, the officials said. A wounded worshipper told reporters at a hospital in Khar, headquarters of Bajaur Agency, that "we were offering evening prayers when a man blew himself up in the middle of us killing six instantly and leaving four others seriously injured". No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but tribal elders and political administration have accused the Taliban.
Russian leader obligates the energy giant Gazprom to collect the USD 2.4 billion debt it is owed by Ukraine even if done in a 'compulsory manner'.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday condemned US airstrikes inside Pakistan as 'intolerable', and hoped the incursions would stop with the change in command at the White House. 
(SomaliNet) In an interview published on Wednesday in Germany, Laurent Nkunda, the rebel chief whose armies have swept aside Congolese government forces, aims to take over the whole of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC rebel chief told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that under his leadership, the DR Congo would take over a seat representing Africa in the United Nations Security Council within five years. 
Saudi Arabia is likely to use military force to rescue a giant oil tanker recently seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The country might attempt at a 'military-style rescue operation' to salvage the Saudi-owned vessel, Sirius Star and its 25 crewmembers, the Saudi daily Okaz quoted an official enlisted with the country's Border Guards as saying on Thursday. 
For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government had provided insufficient evidence to continue their detentions.
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted three months' ad interim bail to former BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu and former Jamaat-e Islami lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury.
The U.S. Embassy has been accused of counterrevolutionary subversion. A nervous Catholic Church is appealing for calm. The opposition party is crying electoral fraud, while roaming gangs armed with clubs are attacking marchers. The mayor here has called it anarchy. And everyone is asking: What is President Daniel Ortega after?
(SomaliNet) Somali businessmen are sending food, cigarettes and drinks to a hijacked Saudi supertanker anchored off the coast of Somalia, a local elder says. 
(AKI) - A militant belonging to the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement, the al-Qassam Brigades was killed on Thursday after a tank fired a missile towards him. 
%3A%20Dramatic%20presentation%20in%20Eye%20St.%20courtyard%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%20%2F%3E%3Cstrong%3EPhotographer%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%20%2F%3E%3Cstrong%3EDimension%3A%207%203%2F4%20x%209%201%2F2%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%20%2F%3E%3Cstrong%3EDigital%20ID%3A%20%20201%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EPeople%3A%20Janet%20Brown%2C%20Unidentified%20female%20students%3C%2Fp%3E){kind=link}
