Should some of the same people who helped get us into this Wall Street meltdown mess be relied upon to get us out? And is it OK if the colleagues and mentors of the new Obama economic team make millions and maybe billions along the way? President-elect Obama seems to think that the answers to those two questions are "yes," and "yes"--and his appointments today proved it.
Tim Geithner, the pick to be the next Treasury Secretary, is the current president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he was intimately involved in all the bailout decisions of the past year, including the decision to bailout AIG, the insurance giant.
Back in October, right here on FOX News, I noted that the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, was in the room when the bailout decision was made--a decision which, according to The New York Times, protected a $20 billion Goldman Sachs position with AIG. And, of course, Goldman Sachs is the Wall Street firm once headed by the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. I compared that incestuous financial relationship to the Teapot Dome scandal of the 20s, but the Obamans don't seem to agree.
Meanwhile, in the words of the Competitive Enterprise Institute economist Jon Berlau, Geithner means "More of the same... more bailouts, more lack of transparency in the bailouts, and more corporate welfare. ... In choosing Geither, Obama might as well have nominated Hank Paulson to another term!"
So when Obama said today of the man he's nominated to lead the Treasury Department, "He will start his first day on the job with a unique insight into the failure of today's markets," the President-elect was more right than he knew.
But there is one figure that looms above them all, a man who was once the boss to both Geithner and to Larry Summers (who was named today to chair the National Economic Council inside the White House) and is the leader of the dominant political-economic school of thought in the Democratic Party today. And that man is Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary for Bill Clinton and currently the Chairman of the Executive Committee at Citigroup.
As The New York Times puts it this morning, "It is testament to former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin's star power among many Democrats that as President-elect Barack Obama fills out his economic team, a virtual Rubin constellation is taking shape." A "Rubin constellation"--how 'bout that?
But wait just a second here. Democrats might think that Rubin is some sort of financial rock star, but he also helped lead a deeply troubled financial giant, which bet heavily--and badly--on the subprime mortgage market; Citi's stock has plummeted 90 percent over the last year.
Here's a sobering assessment from an article in Sunday's New York Times, "As chairman of Citigroup's executive committee, Mr. Rubin was the bank's resident sage, advising top executives and serving on the board while, he insisted repeatedly, steering clear of daily management issues."
But as the Times noted:
"While Mr. Rubin certainly did not have direct responsibility for a Citigroup unit, he was an architect of the bank's strategy. In 2005, as Citigroup began its effort to expand from within, Mr. Rubin peppered his colleagues with questions as they formulated the plan. According to current and former colleagues, he believed that Citigroup was falling behind rivals like Morgan Stanley and Goldman, and he pushed to bulk up the bank's high-growth fixed-income trading, including the C.D.O. business. ... Once the strategy was outlined, Mr. Rubin helped [former CEO Charles] Prince gain the board's confidence that it would work.
And then, asked if he had made any mistakes at Citigroup, he answered, "I've thought a lot about that. I honestly don't know. In hindsight, there are a lot of things we'd do differently. But in the context of the facts as I knew them and my role, I'm inclined to think probably not."
But now, of course, Citi is a big winner; just last night it received a $300 billion or so (nobody really knows) financial guarantee from Uncle Sam. And the stock, which was below $4 a share on Friday, is now up to around $6. That's a 50 percent increase.
Not bad one for one day's worth of politicking in Washington. And of course, there's much more of that, where that came from.
Afghans are bracing for another harsh winter made worse by food shortages and ongoing violence. This year, United Nations officials say attacks on their food convoys are creating an even more difficult situation than in years past. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Kabul.
During this winter the United Nations estimates nearly one million Afghans will depend on U.N. food aid to survive until spring.
The food is transported by U.N. convoys that brave Taliban ambushes and looting by criminal gangs. So far this year there have been 26 attacks on the convoys. Last year there were more than 30. Officials say the attacks this year have been more significant partly because the convoys themselves have grown bigger.
After last summer's drought and this year's global spike in food prices, the World Food Program is providing food aid to more Afghans than it has in the past, and the larger food convoys are increasingly attractive targets.
Daud Sultanzoi is an Afghan lawmaker who heads a committee that oversees rural development. He says the Afghan government should have done more to prepare for winter food shortages to reduce the risk to convoys. "If you prepare in advance, gradual supply to every part of the country would not cause the kind of security problem of large things being moved," said Daud. "So when you're ill-prepared and you need to supply things at the last minute, that causes more problems and this would be one of those situations."
But the worsening security is also affecting aid groups that work with a much lower profile. The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross and Red Moon-Shaped Thingy Crescent says despite having a network of some 20,000 local Afghan volunteers, its activities have become more restricted in the last 18 months. "We nowadays have less access to some of the remote areas where a few years ago we were able to reach without high security concerns," said Graziella Piccolo, a spokeswoman for the group in Kabul.
U.N. World Food Program officials say the attacks inside Afghanistan are only part of their new challenges. About 90 percent of Afghanistan's food aid is trucked through Pakistan, and World Food Program regional director Anthony Banbury says the convoys are also being targeted before reaching Afghanistan. "For the convoys headed to Afghanistan, the attacks have been very well organized, large numbers of attackers. And I do not believe it is common criminality - it is much too organized and significant," said Banbury. "It's an organized militant group."
Most of the attacks occur between the northwestern Pakistani city Peshawar and the Afghan border. Each day trucks transport about 600 tons of food aid along the mountainous road that is a key conduit between Pakistan's southern port Karachi and Kabul.
Banbury says officials are now considering alternate, longer routes: a western one that would go though Iran and northern routes through Tajikistan or Uzbekistan.
Despite this year's difficulties, Banbury says workers have already staged about 80 percent of the anticipated food aid near those people who will need it. "While security is definitely becoming a growing challenge, at the same time, the government and the WFP are successfully meeting that challenge and responding to the needs of more people than we have in the past," added Banbury.
He says the most vulnerable Afghans are not expected to face a food shortage crisis this winter.
Probe Sought Against Judge Who Allegedly Used Racial Epithet
The co-chairman of the state legislature's judiciary committee wants a full review of allegations that a judge charged with drunken driving last month angrily hurled epithets at police officers during her arrest, called a black state police sergeant nigger and told officers she was a state judge.
Judge E. Curtissa R. Cofield, 59, who is black, also referred to state police Sgt. Dwight Washington as "Negro Washington" during her Oct. 9 arrest -- which was captured by police video recorders -- Courant columnist Kevin Rennie, a lawyer and former state legislator, wrote in his column in Sunday's Courant.
"Assuming it's true that she made those extremely racist comments, that can't be tolerated -- from a judge, of all people," state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said Monday.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Much of the giant square where followers of Moqtada al-Sadr gather in their thousands on Fridays to pray is now taken up by an Iraqi army base, surrounded by concrete blast walls and watchtowers.
For perhaps the first time since the fiery cleric burst onto the political scene by leading two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, it is now possible to imagine a future for Iraq in which he plays only a limited political role.
On a weekday, the square in Baghdad's Sadr City slum is empty. An Iraqi soldier peers from a spot next to an armored vehicle, parked beneath the gun turrets of the new base, just opposite the headquarters of the young cleric's movement.
Inside the building from which they once wielded unrivalled sway over the slum's 2 million people, Sadr's followers gripe about the government troops who arrived six months ago. "They lied to us," bemoans Abu Ammar al-Saadi, a tribal leader whose family holds senior positions in the movement. "The government said 'We just want to enter to arrest some wanted people.' Not to establish bases. And after that they came and built bases in Sadr City."
Six months after U.S. and Iraqi government forces drove Sadr's once-feared Mehdi Army militia fighters off the streets in Sadr City and south Iraq, the cleric's movement is hemmed in.
Sadr himself has not appeared in public for months and is widely believed to have decamped to Iran. Last year he pulled his cabinet members from the ruling coalition. This year he largely disbanded his Mehdi Army. Together, the two developments mean he now wields neither a share of national political power nor might on the streets.
With the signing last week of a pact requiring U.S. forces to leave within three years, the government is now claiming to have achieved Sadr's signature political objective without him. "There is certainly less room" in Iraqi politics for Sadr, said Reidar Visser, a Norwegian historian and expert on southern Iraq's Shi'ite communities. "It does seem as if Sadr is struggling in keeping control of his movement right now."
#1
"It does seem as if Sadr is struggling in keeping control of his movement right now."
practice your sphincter control, Tater
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2008 17:59
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#2
Perhaps we can make a deal with Iran. Since Sadr is a deteriating commodity for them, maybe they would agree to swap him for something they could use, like gasoline?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/25/2008 19:19
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#3
As before, IMO ISRAEL knows that any attack agx Iran's NucFacs invites not only World + "Moderate" Muslim condemnation, but more impor likely IRAN-SPONSORED PROXY TERROR + GENERAL WAR? AGZ ISRAEL, AS WELL AS AGZ US WORLD INTERESTS, whereas IRAN for its part will likely prefer to keep a MEDIA/DIPLOM-CORRECT LOW PROFILE AMAP while it quietly/covertly nuclearizes, AT LEAST UNTIL IT IS READY TO CONDUCT ITS OWN INDIGENOUS NUCWEAPS TESTS, IMO ideally before 2010 NLT 2012 [absolut maxima]. IRAN > knows the more it DELAYS NUCLEARIZATION, THE MORE THE US-ALLIES WILL MILPOL ENTRENCH + HARDER IT WILL BE TO GET RID OF THEM - GEOPOL DIVERSION, NOT TIME FACTORS, IS BEST FOR IRAN AS PER IRANIAN + PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION = WEAPONIZATION.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > THE WORLD OBAMA INHERITS: IRAN'S NUCLEAR CHALLENGE; + ECONOMIC WOES OR NOT, THE US AND WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO STOP A NUCLEAR IRAN!
* Iran's Radical Mullahcracy are not afraid to use any Nucweapons = WMDS they develop or procure.
* Iran will likely use any newfound NUCLEAR POWER STATE STATUS TO PROMTE, EXPAND ITS AGENDUMS.
* IRAN'S SUCCESSFUL NUCLEARIZATION WILL REALISTICALLY SPELL THE END OF GLOBAL NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION EFFORTS [NPT/NNPTreaty], AND USHER IN UNKNOWN GLOBAL GEOPOL UNCERTAINTIES.
IOW, THE WORLD WILL NEED GMD-TMD WHETHER IT LIKES IT OR NOT.
#4
WORLD MIL FORUM > PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA'S NUCLEAR PEACE WILL DECIDE THE TRUE FATE OF IRAN AND ISLAMIST WAR. Be it JIMMY CARTER II, STATUS QUO in Iraq, Afghanistan, + Pakland, OR GEOPOL INSTABILITIES AND CONFLICT IN ASIA, IRAN HAS A GOOD CHANCE OF GETTING ITS NUCLEAR BOMBS.
Four major banks, including one that collapsed, two that received federal bailout money and one that filed for bankruptcy this past September, paid former President Clinton $2.1 million for 13 speeches he delivered on their behalf between 2004-2007, according to Senate financial disclosure statements filed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Citigroup paid Bill Clinton $700,000; Goldman Sachs paid $950,000; Lehman Brothers paid $300,000 and Merrill Lynch paid $175,000 to the former president for speeches during that time period. Sen. Clinton's 2008 financial disclosure reports are not yet available. Though some of the investment banks were able to entertain the former president more than once, each was eventually affected by the credit crunch.
Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. The bank's stock had been slipping as it looked for a buyer, while the federal government promised no aid. Merrill Lynch was purchased by Bank of America in mid-September for $50 billion. The bank's share price and liquidity had been falling as it looked to sell, just days before the federal bailout of Wall Street.
The highly-regarded investment firm Goldman Sachs had reportedly possessed some of the largest private equity and hedge funds in the market. But after its largest trading partner, AIG, received an $85 billion emergency government loan, Goldman Sachs shares fell. One week after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs asked the Federal Reserve to modify its status to that of bank holding company -- a move that brought tough regulations and close government supervision. In addition, Goldman Sachs became a recipient of $10 billion of the federal bailout money.
Citigroup recently received $25 billion of the federal bailout and is now expected to receive a $20 billion cash injection from the Treasury Department. In addition, the Treasury and the FDIC have promised to back most of the losses the bank might suffer, from its $306 billion pool of risky loans and mortgages. The bank's shares dropped 60 percent last week.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes narcissism as a personality disorder that "revolve around a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and sense of entitlement. Often individuals feel overly important and will exaggerate achievements and will accept, and often demand, praise and admiration despite worthy achievements."
President-elect Barack Obama is looking very presidential these days. When he makes an announcement, he is ringed by American flags and stands behind a lectern that has a very presidential-looking placard announcing "The Office of the President-Elect."
But the props are merely that. Under the Constitution, there is no such thing as the Office of the President-elect. Technically, Obama will not even become the president-elect until the Electoral College convenes after the second Wednesday in December and elects him based on the results of the Nov. 4 general election, as stated in the Constitution.
#3
"The amended bill...calls for... among other things, ... more efficient background checks to ensure individuals are properly vetted and confirmed for office."
PRAGUE: In the 1980s, a Communist secret police agent infiltrated clandestine economics seminars hosted by Vaclav Klaus, a fiery future leader of the Czech Republic, who had come under suspicion for extolling free market virtues. Rather than reporting on Marxist heresy, the agent was most struck by Klaus's now famous arrogance.
"His behavior and attitudes reveal that he feels like a rejected genius," the agent noted in his report, which has since been made public. "He shows that whomever does not agree with his views is stupid and incompetent."
Decades later, Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an "apostle of arrogance" for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.
Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Klaus will embarrass the world's biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.
"Oh God, Vaclav Klaus will come next," read a recent headline in the Austrian daily Die Presse, in an article anticipating the havoc he could wreak in a union of 470 million people already divided over its future direction.
An economist by training and a free marketeer by ideology, Klaus has criticized the course set by the union's departing leader, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The ambitious Sarkozy has used France's European Union presidency to push an agenda that includes broader and more coordinated regulation by the largest economies to tame the worst of the market's excesses.
Even those who worry about Klaus's potential role as a spoiler concede that his influence over policy in the European Union will be circumscribed, given his largely symbolic functions as president in the Czech Republic.
But Klaus's sheer will and inflammatory talk — the eminent British historian Timothy Garton Ash once called him "one of the rudest men I have ever met" — are likely to have some impact.
"Klaus is a provocateur who will twist his arguments to get attention," said Jiri Pehe, a former adviser to Vaclav Havel, Klaus's rival and predecessor as president.
To supporters, Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher. (Aides say Klaus has a photo of the former British prime minister in his office near his desk.)
To his many critics, he is a cynical populist, a hardheaded pragmatist long known as a foil to Havel, the philosopher-dreamer, and a troublemaker.
Klaus declined to be interviewed for this article. His office called a list of proposed questions "peculiar."
As a former finance minister and prime minister, he is credited with presiding over the peaceful 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into two states and helping to transform the Czech Republic into one of the former Soviet bloc's most successful economies.
But his ideas about governance are out of step with many of the European Union nations that his country will lead starting Jan. 1.
While even many of the world's most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.
A fervent critic of the environmental movement, he has called global warming a dangerous "myth," arguing that the fight against climate change threatens economic growth.
Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the European Union. In 2005, he called for it to be "scrapped." Now, he is a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to help Europe become more of an international player, but which he argues will strip countries of sovereignty.
On a state visit to Ireland this month, Klaus incensed the government and annoyed many in his own country by publicly praising Declan Ganley, a businessman and political activist who was influential in persuading a majority of Irish voters in June to reject the treaty.
And while other European leaders have criticized a newly assertive Russia, Klaus has forged close ties with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and recently distanced himself from the Czech government's criticism of Russia over the war with Georgia in August.
#2
Had the pleasure of seeing him speak here in Phoenix back in October. Among other things, he pointed out that NATO was the military embodiement of the spirit of Western civilization. It made me realize the whole Old Europe/New Europe thing was real. Having him become the EU president (whatever that means) is encouraging. Good to know somebody in the West still believes it is worth defending.
A top UN official has called for "concrete action" against Israel over the country's treatment of Palestinians in the territories.
General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann suggested Monday that the international community should consider sanctions against Israel including "boycott, divestment and sanctions" similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago.
"Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society who are calling for a similar nonviolent campaign," said D'Escoto, a Nicaraguan diplomat who currently holds the one-year presidency.
The Airports of Thailand has decided to close the Suvarnabhumi airport after PAD protesters entered passenger terminals. Now, there will not be out-bound flights. In-bound planes are being allowed to land for now, but can be diverted to key provincial airports if situations deteriorated.
The order was issued by AOT chief Serirat Prasutanont. He made the decision out of safety concern after PAD protesters penetrated some passenger areas. How long the closure will last is not known.
The People's Alliance for Democracy threatened earlier Tuesday night to close down the Suvanabhumi Airport completely after several thousand PAD protesteers blocked an entrance earlier in the day and caused turmoil for numerous passengers.
As PAD protesters moved to surround Suvarnabhumi Airport where the plane carrying Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was scheduled to land, the arrival of his plane from Peru was reportedly delayed due to technical problems. The estimated time of arrival has not been confirmed. Some sources said he could be arriving Wednesday evening.
"We have tried to pressure the government for more than 50 hours but nothing has happened, so we need to step up our campaign by closing the airport to tell the world problems Thailand is facing," said PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul at Government House Tuesday night. The political opposition in Thailand has been exercising the concept of mob rule for several months, to little effect. They have occupied "Government House" for more than a month, causing the Cabinet to displace to the largely unused former International airport facility. This past weekend, they decided to "march on Parliament" - which they effectively shut down on Monday. Today, they first massed, perhaps 30,000 strong, in front of the Military Supreme Command Headquarters - and then decided to close down the main Thai airport - which is a VERY busy airport. The Government has been incredibly tolerant of the disruptive behavior - but the Government's patience must be wearing thin. I suspect that some serious violence may be just days - or even hours - away. I've lived in Bangkok for eight years - and I've never seen anything like this.
#4
Basically they have Thaksin derangement syndrome. Thaksin was kinda like Thailand's Clinton, but he loved money instead of plump chicks. The PAD-ites see the current PM as Thaksin's disciple, and it makes them fightin' MAD! I will add that if they want to get shot by the authorities, closing the intl airport is a good way to do it....
The Kuwaiti government has submitted its resignation to the emir. However, the official news agency said Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah would not decide immediately whether to accept it.
The move follows demands by some MPs to question the prime minister over the recent visit of an Iranian Shia cleric accused of insulting Sunni Muslims. Touchy... good thing a Christian didn't do it- he'd have his head sawed off.
Three Islamist MPs took offence to remarks the cleric made about some companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The resignations are the latest in a series of political crises in Kuwait.
Ministers led by the Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Sabah, walked out of parliament as it was about to set a date for the questioning session. Without the government in attendance, parliament is not able to proceed with any business.
In the past, Sheikh Sabah has reshuffled governments or dissolved parliament to head off questioning sessions and the votes of confidence that often follow. MPs are unable to question the same minister for the same reason following a ministerial reshuffle. The current cabinet is the third formed since March 2007.
The walkout of the government was a surprise to everyone. It's an indication that parliament might get dissolved.
The Kuwaiti parliament has a reputation for being one of the most independent of any in the Gulf states. That's a pretty low hurdle to get over
But the willingness by some MPs to question the prime minister, a member of the royal family, is still controversial.
The three Islamist lawmakers have not confined their criticism of the prime minister to theological matters. They have also accused him of corruption and allowing public services to deteriorate.
There are fears that another political crisis in this oil-producing state could further delay key economic reforms intended to respond to the global economic slowdown. The government had hoped to pump extra cash into the Arab world's second largest stock exchange and to set up a new financial regulatory system.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, a pro-Muslim lobby named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror-funding cases ever brought by the U.S. government, continues to operate even though it no longer exists as a corporate entity, according to a lawyer suing the organization.
As WND reported last night, CAIR officials were surprised at their 14th annual banquet in Washington when lawyer David Yerushalmi arranged for them publicly to be served with legal notice of a new lawsuit over a staff member accused of representing himself as a lawyer and improperly taking clients' money...."We have CAIR documents which demonstrate there are at least 30 other victim-clients who paid money and were victimized by CAIR," Yerushalmi said, "And hundreds of other victims who don't even know they were victims."
The lawyer suggested allegations of that kind could spell the beginning of the end for CAIR's operations. "If we have our way it certainly is," Yerushalmi told Farah. He said organizations that are proven to have a record of criminal activities should not exist...."The District of Columbia delisted it on Sept. 8, 2008."
He said the organization failed to file its paperwork to continue to exist....A spokesman for CAIR, contacted by WND for a comment, said, "Thank you and have a nice day," and hung up on the reporter....
I think I speak for a good chunk of Chicagoland's large Muslim community when I applaud Rahm Emanuel for doing the right thing by apologizing for his father's disparaging comments about Arabs. I think most of us could not care less what views his father holds but wondered how much of those views his son shared, especially now that he is going to be in a pivotal position as a gatekeeper to the next president. Emanuel laid much of our concerns to rest when he went beyond a formal apology and actually reaffirmed his own values of inclusiveness and equal opportunity. Our hope in change is rekindled.
#3
So, like who is the MSM going to call to be their prop for their street theater [aka 24 hour news cycle] on Muslim issues? [You know like how NOW is the only available talking head on women's issues for them.]
#9
"distance yourself from... their Rantburger type-fascist sympathizers"
"I hope you will listen to me."
Face it, JUSTICE, he's not listening to Rantburgers or you. You have the better chance, though. It's quite possible that Obama is occasionally fed an "idiot of the day" story for his amusement.
#10
He is merely Ibn JUSTICE, Unaise Ghibelline5398. One of these days Umm JUSTICE will notice what he is doing, and turn him to endeavors that might enable him to marry a defective from a poor family in only a few decades. Six months ago she might have been a defective from a middle class family, but poor Ibn was too busy playing on the computer, and now times have changed.
#11
fwiw, The Saudis have invested many millions of dollars indirectly subsidizing CAIR (basically, the Saudis give the money to another institution which then gives money to CAIR). If CAIR goes under, this investment is gone.
Of course you could argue that CAIR has negative "goodwill" anyway and thus there would be a net benefit to the Saudis but I'm pretty sure they won't see it this way
#12
I love it when JUSTICE shows up. Theater of the insane. CAIR doesn't promote 'understanding' between Muslims and Infidels. CAIR only exists to silence any view point they don't agree with through lawsuits and intimidation.
#13
. Mr. Barrack Hussein, please understand that Jews have been the primary cause for the downfall of EVERY great empire in the history of civilization. No wonder they are known by a word: "the diaspora".
Posted by: JUSTICE yesssss... 2008-11-25 10:32
Poor Muslim Justice, Can not get over the fact that Ismael was kicked out of the Abraham family. Can not accept that the Jewish people are Gods people. Tsk Tsk.
Posted by: Marilyn Unerenter3469 ||
11/25/2008 17:03
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#14
Since when do muslims want to understand infidels? I thought all they wanted to do was convert us to Islam or kill us. Isn't that what it says in the Koran? Answer me, JUSTICE. If you're gonna play with the grown ups you need to grow up yourself. The mods here have been known to pooplist idiots like you before, not because they disagreed with you but because you are so devoid of intellect and integrity.
Here is what I most dislike about JUSTICE: He sneaks in here, drops a turd, and then leaves without sticking around to defend it. When I make a comment here I think about it first in an effort to make sure I'm not saying something stupid. (OK, I don't always succeed in that, but I try.) Then I check back to see if anyone takes issue with it. Sometimes I'm delivered a stinging rebuke and I either disagree and argue or I learn something I didn't know before. But I don't just run and hide behind my mother's burqa.
#15
FYI "Justice" -
Obama is not yet president of the US. In fact, he's not even president-elect until the electoral college officially votes in mid-December.
Lubbock police arrested two people suspected of leaving a burning bag of trash on the doorstep of a local residence.
Officers said the suspects also kicked a hole in the front door shortly before 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1900 block of 61st Street. Police arrested Brian Dale Bayliss, 29, and Bronson Randd Arington, 19, on charges of arson, criminal mischief and attempted burglary, according to a police report. Note that Idiot #1, (Bayliss) is 29 years old, about twice the average age for perps of this kind of dipshittery. I suspect that Idiot #2's name is misspelled, possibly because he does not know how to spell it himself.
Officers located Bayliss and Arington driving down the alley behind the residence shortly after the incident. They said they found physical evidence linking the suspects to the crime. Physical evidence? The brains they left behind when they got out of the car? Trash parceled out in neat arson-sized packets? Kitchen matches?
Before there was The Onion, before there was Scrappleface, there was the most respected name in major media: WEEKLY WORLD NEWS!
DJIBOUTI - The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup. The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today.
The negotiations have entered the final stage. Ali stated, "You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything at all."
The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS's are backed by future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's.
Head pirate Ubu Kalid Shandu said, "We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets have allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster."
Shandu added, "We don't call ourselves pirates. We're coast guards. This will just allow us to guard our coasts better."
Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, a regional maritime group said on Tuesday, a day after sources said the gang holding a Saudi Arabian supertanker were demanding a $15 million ransom.
Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, identified the Yemeni vessel as the MV Amani. Few other details were immediately available.
"We were just informed the Amani had been taken," Mwangura told Reuters from Mombasa. "But it had been out of contact for about four days, so it is not known exactly when it was seized."
Continued on Page 49
#1
And the pirate's business model continues to perform rather well. Better than our stock market, heh. However, there are so many golden eggs in the goose you can get out before you squeeze it to death.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/25/2008 11:14
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#2
Ya know, we have a pretty nice navy. Maybe we should get into this pirate thing. Good money and it's not like the rest of the world will like us any less.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/25/2008 13:32
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#4
Actually, Yemen has been cleaning up its act for the past several years - LOTS of dead Islamofascists in the past 5 years. I really do not understand why the West is tolerating this pissant rerun of the Berber Pirates - last time, it took a junior lt and some Marines to clean it up.
#2
If all this stuff and all these companies go bust, who 'wins'? Somebody gets to scoop up the real assets underneath it all, and leave the taxpayers and bondholders holding the bag. Inquiring minds want to - follow the money.
#3
There is an group which has even more assets than the US gov IMHO and that is the American Consumer. GM stock drops for a year straight maybe there is a reason. Retail businesses need to start voicing their opinion to stop bailing out crap businesses and turn in bad practicioners else they will be the ones who get screwed..I don't care how much Christmas scent Wal-Mart pumps into the HVAC people know they will be taxed at a greater % of total income so why purchase anything? You businesses like the free market? - then defend it.
#4
The home builders are hurting? I never woulda figured that. They may have had to cut back operations but when the boom was going they had to be making HUGE profits. When they sold those homes at vastly inflated prices they weren't making loans. It was the banks that made the loans and the builders were getting the money. That money has to be stashed away safely somewhere. Somebody's got that money somewhere. It couldn't have just disappeared.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/25/2008 12:00
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#5
Every business has a certain amount of risk. When things were booming some forgot that and left themselves way overextended. The builders are a good example of that. The Big 3 have a similar problem although slightly different. When things are boom all the employees want more money, but when things go bad nobody is willing to give it up. Ratchet effect eventually makes you uncompetitive.
#5
All the more reasons for them to not get (see:steal) my children's money.
That president elect better get ahold of his contemporaries in congress else he will go down in history but not for the reasons he wants. Hey BO, congress is shitting in your trophey cup - they are acting like toddlers without a baby sitter and know cookies are in the jars.
#7
I don't get it. Why does Citigroup get bailed out and the auto makers don't? Somebody must have the right connections in Washington is the only answer I can come up with. This stinks. Citigroup should FOAD.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/25/2008 11:38
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#8
Of COURSE there were no red flags as long as interest rates were declining or stable and housing values were continuing to rise. Every $5 bill they bought was turning into a $20 bill. But when interest rates went up and the first person whose adjustable mortgage needed to be refinanced defaulted, they all had to "mark to market" and their $20 bills turned into $2 overnight.
This wiped out all the equity in all the homes in the entire neighborhood because of "mark to market" requirements. This resulted in all the subsequent mortgages that needed to be refinanced being "under water" (home worth less than the mortgage value) forcing people to either come up with a huge down payment for the refinance or default ... which made things even WORSE.
When interest rates are at historic lows, you do NOT put people who can barely afford the payment into an adjustable rate mortgage. This is because when rates are at historic lows, there is a better chance they will rise in the future than fall ... which they did ... and mortgages adjusted up and out of the affordability range of the people holding them.
#9
Repealing that assinine mark to market rule will do a lot to healing all of the bank balance sheets.
I bought my home for $675,000, at a time when it was appraised at $865,000. Now the repo down the street, just like mine sold for $366,000. There goes my equity.
I would personally skin and cut into small pieces the moron that came up with the mark to market rule. It is the single biggest creator of this mess.
Posted by: James Carville ||
11/25/2008 15:04
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#10
JamesC,
Is your bank going to come demand that you immediately make up the difference in your required down payment between what you bought yours for and what the repo down the street just sold for? Or will they just let you keep making your payments? Kind of depends on laws and the terms of your specific contract, though logic says everyone is better off if they don't make 'margin calls' on every upside down borrower in today's market.
The mark to market rule makes sense for many things and if it had been phased in slowly it would have improved a bad picture as all those worthless derivitives would have been weaned from the mark to model rule.
The move to mark to market was the catalyst that blew apart all the phony leverage that had been building up with all those phony baloney mortgage scams like variable rates, balloon notes, etc.
C-patch has it right. This was set up to fail from day 1. Somehow "people" managed to bundle a s**t load of dicey mortgages together chop them up and sell the resulting tranches off as AAA worthy debt.
Investors thought they were so cool buying $10 Rollexes from the street vendor and then using them as collateral (at Rolex prices) to borrow more money to invest in Kartier jewels from the same guy to sell for Cartier prices.
This whole fiasco is a classic example of a scam and remember, you can't con an honest man. As a Ponzi scheme I think they ran up against an honest man.
#1
See RIAN > RUSSIAN ANALYST PREDICTS THE DECLINE AND BREAKUP OF THE USA/US ALREADY IN THROES OF COLLAPSE [Prof.Igor Penarin]. May destabilize and break up into SIX SECTIONS.
#2
With this blatant and apparently unstoppable raid of our Federal treasury, perhaps we are in collapse. Six sections sounds about right: East Coast, West Coast, Chicago Lake area, Old South, Northern Midwest, Southern Midwest ???
The experiment probably lasted longer than they expected. Let us just hope that somehow, someway, it lives on.
#3
Joe, you are pissing me off. Why can't you post the damn link? I can't find the article there (highlight, press ctrl+c and then ctrl+v. Copy and paste, that is all to it. Please.
#5
This is fairly ominous. Japan has already stopped buying Treasuries. If China does so, the House of Cards may collapse. In order to obtain capital, interest rates on T-Bills will mandatorily rise. This scheme may work for a while...10-20 years. When debt service rises beyond 1/3 of GDP, look for US to stop servicing debt payments. Then, all hell will break loose. Or, alternatively, taxes on US citizens will rise to prohibitive levels...maybe 60% total, including, federal, state taxes, fees, fees, and more fees...of annual earnings. This madness is not sustainable. The only way to grow beyond it is to impose substanial tariffs on imported goods, returning most jobs to US domain. This, too, would create havoc in the rest of the world, and no doubt, lead to serious conflicts. Probably the best path for US citizens.
#7
No no no. There is NOT 700 billion or 7 trillion of bad mortgage loans out there. There IS some multiple of 100 billion of BAD PAPER out there. Some people bought the wrong paper. It's the government working now to make those people whole on the backs of the American taxpayer. That's the crisis.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/25/2008 11:09
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#8
The only way to grow beyond it is to impose substanial tariffs on imported goods, returning most jobs to US domain.
That worked well with Smoot-Hawley. /sarcasm off
Anyone else notice that the unemployment has also moved with the jobs. The economy has been and is cyclic and a significant down turn has been due. Usually assisted by stupid leverage tricks and both government interference in the basic market and failure to enforce regulations established from lessons learned from previous experience. The low level jobs may have been contracted out [either across borders or illegally imported] but the unemployment that hits with the vagaries of the economy go with it.
#10
Issuing bonds in a foreign currency is a stupid idea. Every banana republic out there has issued foreign currency bonds. The result has always been a major boom followed by the complete collapse of the currency and economy - defined here as a 50% contraction - accompanied by widespread social unrest. If we can't finance out debt, the right way to fix this is to cut expenditures and raise yields. We don't need a penny of foreign financing. Americans will rush in to buy Treasuries with 5% yields. The problem is that the Treasury department won't issue them - they are putting out debt without compensating for the risk of future hikes in rates.
#12
Assuming there isn't a total collapse of confidence in the dollar, can't anyone see that the unleashing of all this cash (albeit really just paper) will result in massive inflation as trillions of TARP/bailout funds work into the econmy? I was in the market in the 80's when we had money market rates of 18+ %, and remember selling a guy US Treasury Bonds for Puerto Rico at 13%. Those numbers will be chickenfeed in this next go round.
You can only shake the confidence of the public so long, and DIRE things start to happen.
And into this massive mess, domestically and abroad, steps ZERO, with manical, calculating and adroitly sly Marxist plans.....
sounds like a Clancy novel, or more likely Cussler....
My grandparents are spinning in their graves in anger at how we have screwed up the grandest experiment in the history of mankind!
#13
This scheme may work for a while...10-20 years
Try 10-20 months. I've concluded that this is a attempt to jump start the economy before the effects of paying the government debts are felt.
Read the UK Times and Telegraph where there are discussions of the impact of the debt resulting from the current bailouts and stimuluses. If economies are not back to something like normal in 18 months or less then the gamble will have failed and government debt will drag us into something worse.
BTW, the USA was hit worst in the Great Depression because it had most of the world's excess manufacturing capacity. This time around, it will be China.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/25/2008 19:42
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#18
Methinks the Russian was just reflecting on his own experience of an empire collapsing . Euros have been betting on an American breakup since the Treaty of Paris.
Han Solo: You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well, this could be it, sweetheart.
Princess Leia: I take it back.
A senior security official has contradicted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's statement that the political wing of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been closed, BBC reported on Monday.
Qureshi had told reporters in Multan on Sunday that the ISI political wing had been disbanded. "The ISI is a precious national institution and wants to focus on counterterrorism activities," APP quoted him as saying.
Without identifying the senior official, BBC said the ISI political wing exists, but has been made 'inactive'. The official said the staff of the department had not been given new assignments.
ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had focused on counterterrorism during his previous assignment as the director general of Military Operations, the BBC said, and is expected to keep terrorism his top priority in his new office.
The ISI has been accused of several questionable political activities in the past, including the creation of an anti-Pakistan People's Party alliance in the 1988 general elections and uniting several factions of the Pakistan Muslim League to form a pro-Pervez Musharraf party in 2002. BBC said ISI officials admit that interfering with the political process had cost the agency the trust of the people.
Transformation: The security official said the ISI was going through a transformation. "The agency wants to stay away from political issues," he said. "It wants to quit its past activities such as keeping an eye on politicians."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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At least nine worshippers including a woman were injured when a bomb went off in an imambargah in Peshawar's Hussainia Street on Monday.
The bomb was planted on the first floor of the two-storey building, where the caretaker of the imambargah lived. Superintendent of Police Chaudry Ashraf told Daily Times it was low-intensity device weighing three to four kilogrammes and had been placed in a water-cooler in a washroom.
The injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital. Doctors said that the victims were in a stable condition. Seven of them had been discharged after first aid and two, including the caretaker Syed Kamal Shah, had been admitted.
Police cordoned off the site after the explosion. Relief work was hampered because the alley was crowded. Windows of nearby houses had been reported damaged.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Interior Adviser Rehman Malik condemned the bombing and ordered a probe.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Jesus H. Christ, don't scare me like that! I thought they blew up a Lamborghini for an instant there!
Pirates who seized a chemical tanker in the treacherous waters off Somalia were gun-toting drug addicts whose only goal was money, freed members of the ship's crew said on Monday after they returned home. Three of the 18 Indian sailors who were on the MV Stolt Valor when it was hijacked two months ago said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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VIENNA, Austria - The chief U.N. nuclear inspector said that Syria had a right to his agencyÂ’s help in planning a power-producing atomic reactor, in what diplomats described as a rejection of U.S.-led efforts to block the aid. The clash reflected tensions between Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency, and key Western nations over whether Syria should be given potentially sensitive nuclear guidance at a time when it is being investigated.
Russia, China and developing nations also back the aid project, said diplomats.
No surprise ...
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it was “totally inappropriate, we believe, given the fact that Syria is under investigation by the IAEA for building a nuclear reactor outside the bounds of its international legal commitments. “And then for the IAEA to be involved in providing technical information concerning nuclear activities would seem to be contradictory, if not ironic,” McCormack said.
A report circulated last week by ElBaradei confirmed that soil samples taken at the site of a building in Syria bombed last year by Israel revealed “a significant number” of uranium particles. The report also said that satellite imagery and other information appeared to bear out U.S. intelligence that the building was a nuclear reactor _ one Washington said was nearly completed and almost ready to produce plutonium, a fissile warhead component.
Syria denies hiding nuclear activities. But the report strengthened both concerns that it might have something to conceal and arguments from the U.S. and its allies that Damascus should not be offered agency help in planning its civilian reactor.
No one at the IAEA understands cause-and-effect ...
Beyond helping the Syrians develop expertise, the $350,000 aid project would send the wrong signal about a country under investigation by the IAEA, critics like the Americans argued.
Those concerns were voiced again Monday, according to diplomats inside the closed meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board. U.S. delegate Geoff Pyatt was outspoken in opposition to the planned project and received backing from the European Union, France, Britain, Australia and Canada, the diplomats said. Some of the strongest objections came from Australia, said one the diplomats, citing that nation’s statement. “We find it difficult to accept the agency embarking on such an all-encompassing and ill-defined nuclear power project at a time when Syria is evidently withholding cooperation from the agency ... a serious concern,” said the statement.
But ElBaradei disagreed, saying there was no legal basis to cancel or postpone the program.
El-Baradei understands which side he's on ...
Two years ago, Iran was stripped of IAEA technical aid meant to help it build a heavy water reactor that also will produce plutonium when completed. However, the country was already under U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze both construction of that reactor and its program of uranium enrichment _ both pathways that could yield to nuclear arms.
ElBaradei cited TehranÂ’s case to emphasize the difference between the two situations and to argue in favor of the Damascus project, diplomats said.
Iran and other nonaligned nations also warned against withdrawing the project. “Syria or any member state of the IAEA should benefit (from) technical cooperation without any discrimination,” Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, told The Associated Press. Separately, he accused those nations opposed to the Syrian project of “poisoning” the meeting’s atmosphere.
And speaking for the nonaligned countries, Norma M. Goichochea, the chief Cuban delegate said technical aid to members “should not be blocked, delayed or otherwise hindered for mere suspicion or unproven allegations.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2008
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#1
I understand that this is expected and that ElBaradei is nothing but an Arab nuclear proliferator, but it does unhinge the boggle somewhat.
I mean they don't even try and hide the fact that they don't do anything to limit proliferation. How do these a-holes justify their existence. (I know, I know...they don't need to)
Fifteen suspected Taliban were killed as troops backed by helicopter gunships targeted hideouts in the Swat valley on Monday.
The regional military spokesman said 11 Taliban were killed in the Mangaltan area of Charbagh tehsil.
Two suspects were killed in the Gashkor area of Khwazakhela. Another two were shot dead in the Chapparyal area in Matta tehsil. Local PPP leader Sirajuddin and a woman councillor were shot dead separately in the troubled valley on Monday, NNI reported.
Five Taliban were killed when troops retaliated to raids on several checkposts in the Pindyali tehsil of Mohmand Agency early on Monday.
Suspected Taliban blew up the Leera Pul checkpost on the Bannu-Mirian road. The post was not manned at the time of the attack. A Halimzai jirga handed over to the political administration 17 of the 30 wanted suspects that the government had asked for on Saturday. They were released on bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Suspected no more.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/25/2008 10:58
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(SomaliNet) South Africa's ANC leader Jacob Zuma said on Monday that prominent figures, including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, believe Zimbabwe could soon collapse due to a political and economic crisis. "They believe the situation is very bad. They believe things could collapse in a few months time in Zimbabwe," Zuma told reporters after meeting Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter and other prominent figures.
Annan, Carter and Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, are among a group of prominent figures and former statesmen called The Elders. They were barred by Zimbabwe from visiting to assess a humanitarian crisis there this weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#2
If Annan and Carter turned up at my door , i'd probably turn them away too ..
On the subject of Zimbabwe , the sooner it collapses the sooner it can get better .
Posted by: Unavigum the Rasher of Bacon1103 ||
11/25/2008 5:22
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#3
Thanks to their contacts in Antwerp and the ME, Zimbob and Grace are still doing a lucrative diamond business. Their gold portfolio is managing to keep up as well. His plundering continues unabated. Unless his health fails I doubt he'll be leaving the field soon.
US authorities are seeking the extradition of a Tunisian, already convicted in Belgium for planning attacks, over suspected links to the al-Qaeda network, prosecutors here said.
Nizar Trabelsi has already lodged an appeal to a decision by a Belgian court to approve his extradition, which means a final decision is unlikely for some time. "The Americans think that Nizar Trabelsi is an active al-Qaeda member who was developing activities beyond those he was convicted of in Belgium," Lieve Pellens, the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, told a news conference.
Trabelsi was arrested two days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in Washington and New York. He was sentenced in June 2004 to 10 years in jail for plotting to drive a car bomb into Kleine Brogel, a NATO airbase in northern Belgium where American military personnel work.
Trabelsi, who spent time in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, was also suspected of planning an attack against the US embassy in Paris, although the charges were not pursued during his trial. He openly pledged his allegiance to the al-Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden during the trial.
Pellens said that a grand jury in Washington DC had indicted him on November 16, 2007 for belonging to a criminal organisation with intent to murder US citizens abroad, a crime which carries a life sentence. He is also accused in the United States of having tried to use weapons of mass destruction as well as having provided material and financial support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
A court in the central Belgian city of Nivelles, where Trabelsi is being held, had "for the most part" approved the extradition request on condition that he not be rejudged for acts committed in Belgium, said Pellens.
Trabelsi's appeal the decision would be heard in Brussels in "two to three weeks" and could go all the way to the country's top court, she said. After the courts decide on the legality of Trabelsi's extradition, it is up to Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen to take the political decision as to whether or not to go ahead.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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U.S. President George W. Bush will host Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday for farewell talks where the outgoing leaders will take stock of their achievements marked by the failure to clinch a Mideast peace deal.
A senior Israeli official said Olmert, on a visit to Washington to bid farewell to Bush, delivered that message at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "The prime minister stressed the importance that the Annapolis process be continued by the next U.S. administration and Israeli government," the official said.
Olmert, who leaving office not nearly soon enough after a Feb. 10 parliamentary election and formation of a new government, was due to see Bush at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) for talks Israeli officials said would focus on the peace process and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The United States, Israel and the Palestinians have all acknowledged they will not have a peace accord in place before Bush vacates the White House in January, missing a target date set at the Annapolis peace conference a year ago this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
...take stock of their achievements...
Other than being an almost incomparable screw-up, what, exactly, has Olmert "achieved"?
Michael Jackson has reached an out-of-court settlement with Bahrain's Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who was suing him for $7 million (5.6 million Euros), his spokeswoman said Sunday.
The reclusive 50-year-old had agreed last week to testify at the High Court.
"As Mr. Jackson was about to board his plane to London, he was advised by his legal team to postpone his travels since the parties had concluded a settlement in principle," a London spokeswoman for Jackson said on Sunday. "Therefore, he will not be attending court on Monday," said the spokeswoman from PR company Outside Organization.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Khalifa, second son of the king of Bahrain, said Jackson failed to honor a contract to record a new album, write an autobiography and produce a stage play. He also told the court last week that Jackson owed him $7 million after the prince paid for legal costs, travel and other expenses in 2005 and 2006.
Jackson and his children spent time in Bahrain as a guest of the royal family following a 2005 trial on child molestation charges, but he backed down from plans to work with Sheikh Abdullah in 2006.
He was acquitted of the charges in 2005, but the trial left Jackson's career, reputation and financial status in tatters and he has been a virtual recluse since.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Have to wonder if the news of Michaels conversion had anything to do with this.
(SomaliNet) The crowd had been sweltering for three hours in an overgrown stadium on Saturday before Laurent Nkunda arrived and launched a harangue against the government and the UN peppered with dancing, singing and biblical references.
"They are sending in another 3 000 peacekeepers and you are applauding. You are mistaken!" thundered the rebel leader to a mostly male audience of some 1 500 people, in his first public address in this eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town since capturing it last month.
"We cannot accept there are (outsiders) to provide our security," he argued during a rowdy "popular meeting" in Rutshuru, located about 80 kilometres north of Goma, the main city in war-torn Nord-Kivu province.
Elegantly clad in khakis and walking boots and carrying his trademark cane topped with an eagle's head, the rangy ex-general denounced those "aimed to fight Nkunda" and called for coexistence in a region torn by ethnic differences.
"There is only one solution, we must live together. There is enough space for foreigners," said Nkunda, who claims he is defending the region's Tutsi minority.
Nkunda's arrival here - in a white 4x4 vehicle with tinted windows, preceded by a jeep packed with rebels bristling with machine guns and rocket launchers - came just two days after the United Nations Security Council approved sending 3 000 additional peacekeepers to this troubled central African country, bringing the total UN operation to 20 000.
"We will not accept outsiders coming in to provide security to us here," Nkunda boomed, arguing the extra UN forces were incapable of securing peace and separately slamming the government of Congolese President Joseph Kabila for "bad management."
Earlier in the week, Nkunda's men withdrew from two key frontlines in this eastern province of Nord-Kivu, ostensibly to boost a mission by UN special envoy Olesegun Obasanjo to end months of fighting between Nkunda's rebels and government troops that has displaced a quarter of a million people.
But the rebels remain posted outside Goma, where the conflict is centred.
At Rutshuru, Nkunda appeared to be launching another offensive - aimed to charm or at least sway the local population - complete with rappers sporting military headbands, and dancing by a group of local pygmies and little girls, in which the rebel leader joined in.
Many Rutshuru citizens were afraid to attend the event, members of the audience said, blaming Nkunda's men for pillaging and rape.
But even under the watchful eyes of police and rebels, the crowd gradually appeared to unwind, applauding Nkunda's calls for peace and for a new local administration.
Leaving the stadium, 32-year-old farmer Jules Jean de Dieu said he was "reassured" by Nkunda's announcement that schools would reopen Monday.
For his part, a young student who gave his name only as Innocent, praised the Tutsi leader's call for harmony in the country's east, where the fighting is rooted in ethnic divisions.
But he also noted that Nkunda had not tackled security problems or the difficult coexistence between the rebels and the local population. "He said we could circulate freely, but we don't circulate freely in Kiwanja," a town next to Rutshuru, Innocent said. "There is sexual violence and extortion at night. He did not let us speak about these problems."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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COLOMBO - The reclusive leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers is to deliver his annual policy address this week from a besieged jungle hideout that could soon be totally overrun by government troops. With his northern fiefdom shrinking fast in the face of a massive onslaught, Velupillai Prabhakaran is expected to use Thursday's address to rally his forces for a do-or-die battle for survival.
Reminds me of the old 'Far Side' cartoon: a dinosaur is giving a lecture to his peers, and is saying, "my fellow dinosaurs, we face tough times: the climate is changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have brains the size of walnuts."
The last 18 months have been disastrous for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who want to carve out an ethnic homeland in the north and east of the Sinhalese-majority island. The rebels were ejected from the east in July 2007 and lost their political chief in a government air raid, while much of their flotilla of ships used to smuggle in black market weapons has been reported sunk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2008
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I've never really understood exactly what the differences (or distinctions) are between the Tamils and the other Sri Lankans. Is this like North side vs. South side in Chicago?
#2
AlanC - the Tamils are actually native of central India, brought to Ceylon to work the tea plantations and other menial labor. They have no history of living in the area until then. Sri Lankas are willing to let them live among them peacefully as a minority, but they want to carve out their own "state" where they would be a majority. There are some religious differences, they speak a different language, and other minor differences between the two. I have no sympathy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/25/2008 15:43
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British-Pakistani terror suspect Rashid Rauf is still alive, his lawyer told the BBC on Monday, insisting reports that he had died in a US missile attack in Pakistan were "fake."
The alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic jet bombing conspiracy was reportedly killed over the weekend in a US raid in a northwestern border district that is regarded as a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. "We don't believe that this story is true ... It is a fake story," lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib told BBC radio, adding: "We still believe that my client, Rashid, is alive."
We'll need to see him holding up tomorrow's New York Times, and his GPS coordinates ...
He also noted that requests for Rauf's remains to be returned to his family had not been answered. "This is a new technique of the government to dispose of the cases like Rashid or other missing people," the lawyer told the BBC.
Rauf died Saturday when a missile hit a tribesman's house in the village of Ali Khel, a Pakistani security official told AFP. The strike site is in a lawless tribal territory and according to government officials, militants there usually surround the place after such attacks, preventing access of government representatives or the army, before burying the bodies themselves.
The Foreign Office said Saturday it was probing reports that Rauf had been killed. "We are currently investigating this at the moment, but we do not have any information," a spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's allies won a hefty majority of state governorships in Sunday's elections, but the opposition secured important victories by winning the mayor's seat in greater Caracas and two economically vital states.
"Today, the people of Venezuela have spoken," Chavez said early Monday. "Today's victory is Venezuela's. The democratic path has been ratified."
Alberto Muller Rojas, vice president of Chavez's United Socialist Party, characterized the day's vote as a triumph for the government. "We have won in the majority of cases with a substantial difference," Muller Rojas said at a news conference after the election.
But the National Electoral Council said it was still too close to call the winner in the border state of Tachira and in the northern industrial state of Carabobo. It was also unclear who had won in big cities like Maracaibo or Valencia. The president's allies won two states, Yaracuy and Anzoategui, after the government disqualified two promising opposition candidates vying for governorships in those states.
The election was seen as a test of Chavez's dominance in the oil-rich nation, which has been tested in recent months as rising crime, high inflation and food shortages have shaken faith in the man known to his followers as El Comandante. The president had vigorously campaigned for his candidates, knowing a big win would give him the political leverage to reform the constitution and stay in office past 2013, when his six-year term ends.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Some Venezuelan sites have pointed out that quite a few of the winning governors are only nominally in Chavez's party and opposed the Constitution amendment that would have allowed Chavez to run again in 2012.
Around 68 fishermen kidnapped by pirates from different canals of the Sundarbans were released Sunday night in the wake of a combing operation launched by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
BDR sources quoting locals said some 70 fishermen were taken hostage allegedly by Indian pirates from Kachhikata, Kalirchar and Dobeki canals of the forest on November 18 night while they were asleep in their boats.
The pirates later took them to the deep forest and demanded Tk 10 lakh as ransom for their release. They also set a 7-day deadline for payment of the ransom.
Following the kidnap, BDR seven battalion personnel started the combing operation against the pirates to rescue the fishermen. The operation forced the pirates to release the fishermen, BDR sources said.
But the pirates have still kept two fishermen as hostage to realise the ransom demanded by them, locals said.
Major Alamgir, acting commanding officer of the rifles battalion, confirmed the incident and said the drive is going on to rescue other fishermen.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Can we borrow some of these guys and send them to Somalia? Maybe bring along some of their RAB buddies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/25/2008 12:06
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NATO is not considering any naval blockade as a way to combat piracy off Somalia, the alliance's secretary general said on Monday, after maritime groups urged international action."Blocking ports is not contemplated by NATO," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters, adding that such action has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Maybe someone wants us to move critical naval resources into that area so that other areas go without "coverage". This might be a matter of priorities.
#2
Reasonable thought, crosspatch. But as long as no US NATO assets were redeployed I don't think it would matter, given that non-US assets tend to have more restrictive Rules of (non)Engagement.
#3
...adding that such action has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council.
Why does the image come to mind of the last [sort of] Roman Emperor ensconced in Ravenna playing court intrigues and issuing unenforceable decrees while the Vandals are sacking Rome.
#4
They're not sacking Rome yet, just cutting off the Suez Canal. But with the bankers absconding with all of the empire's money there is nothing left to finance a war with pirates.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/25/2008 11:54
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#5
Considering how many world states are sending modern naval combatants and other to the region, these should be more than a match for any Pir-i-i-t-e flotilla > THE REAL/GREATEST PROB IS GETTING THESE SAME TO COORDINATE AND WORK TOGETHER WIDOUT SHOOTING AT EACH OTHER.
E.g. IIRC RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR > PRE-TSUSHIMA TSARIST RUSSIAN NAVAL FLEET VERSUS DUTCH? FISHING BOATS [Arms = Nets + Fish], WID THE TSAR'S FLEET BARELY ESCAPING AND BEING FORCED TO RETURN HOME.
#6
"given that non-US assets tend to have more restrictive Rules of (non)Engagement."
Which is why I believe that private security is going to get a boost. Blackwater could have a gold mine here but they need some serious backup. If they resist a boarding and get in a pinch, they are also going to need to call in private reinforcement that can get there in a hurry else they are going to risk getting the entire crew of the ship killed.
But thankfully people are sheep and if there are a handful of Blackwater types fighting back, about half the crew would probably pick up a weapon and join in while the other half cowers below.
(SomaliNet) North Korea is to close its border with South Korea. On 1 December it will suspend the train travel possible between the two countries since the end of 2007.
North Korea will also expel a number of South Koreans working at two joint projects developed as symbols of reconciliation: the Kaesong industrial estate and the Mount Kumgang tourist resort.
North Korea says it is taking the measures in protest against what it calls South Korea's policy of confrontation.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Its gonna be a long, cold, hungry winter up there.
#2
Hang on, Norks, until the end of January. Help in the form of appeasement is on its way.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/25/2008 11:25
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#3
So how has that self sufficiency program with cutting trade and maintaining old industries working out for you Nork? We have a number of people here who advocate following the same concept.
US says sampling from North Korean nuclear facilities is part of a nuclear agreement it reached with Pyongyang, as the North rejects the claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC, NORTH KOREA has steadfastly refuted CHINA's WARNING TO KIM DYNASTY = PYONGYANG TO REFORM AND LIBERALIZE, as within Socialism???
#2
SAME > JAPANESE MEDIAS: "PRO-JAPAN" FORCES [regional rapprochement] IN TAIWAN ARE DISAPPEARING; + INDIA GREATLY FEARS A CHINESE PLA STRATEGIC ATTACK FROM THE QINGHAI-TIBET PLATEAU
[CHIN-built Railroad] DOWN INTO NORTH, NORTHEAST INDIA ["Three-Nations" Corridor].
ALso, VISITING JAPANESE SCHOLAR YUHI: IN 1990'S IT WOULD ONLY HAD TAKEN JAPAN 30 MINUTES TO ELIMINATE/DESTROY THE CHINESE PLAN IN A SERIOUS SINO-JAPAN NAVAL WAR. SINCE THEN, CHINA'S PLA HAS MADE GREAT IMPROVEMENTS BUT REMAINS RELATIVELY WEAK VEE JAPAN AND MUST CONTINUE TO DILIGENTLY IMPROVE - GOOD CHINA-JAPAN RELATIONS-TRADE CAN HELP ACHIEVE CHINA'S GOALS.
A counsel of former BNP lawmaker Mosaddek Ali Falu yesterday told the court he "mistakenly" attached the controversial medical report on his client's health to his bail petition in a relief scam case.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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(AKI) - Syria and Iran are happy about the existence of Al-Qaeda because its members attack their enemies for them, according to the leader of Islamic jihad in Egypt, Sayed Abdel Qader ibn Abdelaziz. Abdelaziz, also known as Doctor Fazel, makes his claims in a new book, excerpts of which are published in the Arab daily, Al-Sharq al-Awsat. "There is no doubt that Syria and Iran are among the happiest about the existence of the Al-Qaeda organisation,
"They gave the Americans false information about their relations with Iraq and the presence of weapons of mass destruction to give them the excuse to invade the country. They did that only to exhaust the Americans on the battlefield even if those from Al-Qaeda have killed double the number of Iraqis than the United States."
because if it was not for them (Al-Qaeda), they would have to recruit people willing to blow up those who strike their interests," he said.
The book entitled, 'Memo on Exoneration', has reportedly been written in response to several attacks launched against him by Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, several months ago. In this way, the Egyptian leader intends to refute the affirmations of Al-Zawahiri. "The contrary is true. They are responsible for allowing the United States to enter Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent occupation," Fazel said. "They gave the Americans false information about their relations with Iraq and the presence of weapons of mass destruction to give them the excuse to invade the country. They did that only to exhaust the Americans on the battlefield even if those from Al-Qaeda have killed double the number of Iraqis than the United States."
The Islamic jihadi leader condemned the sectarian clashes in Iraq and said they had played a "destructive" impact on Muslims. "We see how that is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and in Waziristan in Pakistan. Iran and Syria are now taking advantage of all these deaths to pave the way for whoever wants to conduct jihad in Iraq. Do they do it perhaps for love of the Iraqi people or their interests? Don't the top leaders of Al-Qaeda live in Iran, like the son of Bin Laden, who incite young people to fight in Iraq? Wasn't Al-Zawahiri the one who sent his brothers to fight in Egypt, paid by the Sudanese secret service?"
Elsewhere in the book Doctor Fazel said there were only three others, apart from Osama Bin Laden, who knew about preparations for the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US. He said Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Hafs al-Masri and a third man, who was not al-Zawahiri, knew about the attacks.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is considered one of the masterminds of the attacks on the World Trade Center, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is imprisoned in the US. Abu Hafs al-Masri was responsible for deadly attacks in Luxor, Egypt in 1997 and was killed in a US raid in Afghanistan in 2001. Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban, opposed the attacks, Fazel said.
This article starring:
ABU HAFS AL MASRI
al-Qaeda
DOCTOR FAZEL
Islamic jihad in Egypt
KHALED SHEIKH MOHAMED
al-Qaeda
SAIED ABDEL QADER IBN ABDELAZIZ
Islamic jihad in Egypt
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > OSAMA BIN LADEN ASKS AL-QAEDA FOR A BIGGER-THAN-9-11 ATTACK AGZ THE USA; + PAKISTAN SEEKS MORE NUCLEAR PLANTS FROM CHINESE, + PAKISTAN PUSHES TO IMPOROVE ITS MISSLE STRIKE CAPABILITY [better RANGE, ACCURACY, GUIDANCE, MRVS = MULTI-WARHEADS, etc.], espec as per the INDIAN THREAT. Succesful Pakis deployment of 2000-2500-km SHAHEEN II IRBM => new shift in dev focii to 3500-4000-km GHAURA BM => ultimately, to dev of 4000-4500-km SHAHEEN III.
* CHINESE MIL FORUM > CHINESE WOMEN BIRTHED ISLAMISTS [ + Mixed-color/race JEWS] WHOM WOULD LATER FIGHT JAPAN/CHINESE MEN FATHERED JEWS WHOM DEFENDED THE MING DYNASTY FROM INVADERS...TANG DYNASTY INTERMARRIAGE AND ASSIMILIATION [new Ethnic Groups-Faiths].
A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks yesterday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said. A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.
In the first attack, a bomb attached to a bus used by the Trade Ministry to ferry employees to work exploded shortly before 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Thirteen ministry employees were killed and three wounded, according to an official with the state-owned Iraqi shopping centres company who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The company is part of the Trade Ministry.
The rush-hour attack happened in a Shia area and the injured were taken to Kindi hospital in Baghdad. The US military said 14 people were killed and four were injured in the 7:20 a.m. blast on the minibus. It said American soldiers assisted Iraqi police in securing the area and treating casualties.
About 45 minutes later, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she stood in line to be searched at a checkpoint near the Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 13, according to an Interior Ministry official who declined to give his name. The US military said the bombing near the Green Zone occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and killed two Iraqi army members and three civilians. One civilian was injured, it said.
The Green Zone houses the US Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.
In a third attack, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol around 10:30 am near Technology University in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four other people, an Iraqi police officer and an official at Ibin al-Nafis hospital said on condition of anonymity. Two police officers were among the injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Sounds like a lot of people have let down their guard, thinking the war's over. As long as Sadr draws breath and the Iranians can smuggle in weapons and users, the war will continue. Sounds like Baghdad needs another city-wide "cordon and search".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/25/2008 12:38
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The booming city of Dubai showed signs its economy was starting to crack Monday as it began cutting state spending, capping its building spree and merging its lenders in the face of the global financial crisis.
World business leaders met Monday for a four-day conference at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) where financers were set to discuss Middle East coping strategies as well as how to help sinking western economies.
Dubai officials remained optimistic at the annual meet but seemed to cave under world pressure as they revealed for the first time the level of debt the emirate has accumulated during one of the world's biggest building sprees.
"Dubai is not immune to the problems caused by the global financial crisis, but the region is better placed than most to deal with the issues arising," Mohammed al-Abbar, a member of the Dubai Executive Council and chairman of government-owned Emaar Properties said. He added that total company assets were more than $350 billion while total debts were just $80 billion.
Dubai's sovereign debt stands at $10 billion while the debts of state-affiliated firms amount to $70 billion, he said, broadly in line with external estimates.
In response to ongoing speculation that Dubai may not be able to meet its debt obligations Abbar said: "Let us put an end to this speculation ... and let me state categorically, that the government can, and will, meet all its obligations going forward; so please have no doubt about this fact."
He noted that Dubai had been growing at a rate of 13 percent to 14 percent a year and that a slowdown would be welcome. "If this comes down to six percent or seven percent or eight percent then fine. We've been running a long time and could probably do with a breather. We will use this time to learn lessons and become a stronger city," he said, seeking to put a positive spin on the crisis.
Dubai is famous for manmade islands in the shape of palm trees and the world map, an indoor ski slope in the desert and a reputation as a shopping haven.
The emirate recently staged an extravagant $20 million party complete with a massive fireworks display and a star-studded guest list to launch the opening of luxury resort Atlantis, the move was criticized as over-the-top considering the current global turmoil.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
I wonder if they also cutting down on terrorism financing Islamic charity.
At least 27 soldiers and 120 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as government forces battled their way to the outskirts of the rebels' political headquarters, the defence ministry said yesterday. Heavy fighting raged along three fronts as troops closed in on the town of Kilinochchi, the ministry said.
But it added that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were putting up stiff resistance. "Twenty-seven soldiers have made their ultimate sacrifice for the motherland while 70 others suffered injuries during the battle. A few other soldiers have not been able to join with their units so far," a ministry statement said.
It said intercepted radio transmissions of the Tigers indicated that they had also suffered heavy casualties. "Over 120 LTTE cadres have been killed and 80 others injured in the Kilinochchi area since Sunday morning," the ministry said.
The ministry statement came as the Tigers announced through the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website that 43 government troops had been killed and 70 more were wounded in a confrontation northwest of Kilinochchi. Another 35 soldiers were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday along the southern defences of Kilinochchi, Tamilnet said.
Sri Lanka's government, which pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce in January, has vowed to take the Tiger political capital and dismantle the LTTE's mini-state. Last week, the military captured the strategically important town of Pooneryn on the northern edge of the mainland and opened a new front to advance on Kilinochchi from the north.
The Tigers tacitly admitted that they had lost vast areas to advancing government forces, and said the current fighting was at a location just eight kilometres (five miles) west of Kilinochchi. "The main battle front was between Uruththirapuram and Kugnchup-paranthan," Tamilnet said. "A pitched battle was fought near the Siva temple at Uruththirapuram."
The Tigers said they had recovered the bodies of eight government troops following heavy fighting on Sunday, but did not give their own casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday nominated Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council.
Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve Bank president, and former Treasury Secretary Summers will be at the center of the Obama administration's efforts to fight the worst financial crisis to hit the United States since the Great Depression.
In a statement Obama also named University of California at Berkeley economist Christina Romer as the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Obama said that he wanted to see a massive stimulus package enacted "right away" as it was desperately needed to jolt the economy back into shape. Asked at a press conference after formally unveiling his economic team, when he hoped to see a new stimulus package passed, Obama replied: "I want to see it enacted right away.
"It is going to be of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track. I don't want to get into numbers now.
"I think the most important thing to recognize is that we have a consensus, which is rare, between conservative economists and liberal economists, that we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape."
There was no mention Monday of Obama's pick for commerce secretary, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson reportedly in line for the job of promoting domestic U.S. industry.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
More un-change. The New York Fed gave AIG something like $25 billion on top of what the Fed gave them.
Liberal and conservative economists? This ass-hat won't even pretend that he doesn't view economics as politics.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/25/2008 0:47
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#2
Tim Geithner speaks fluent Chinese. He received his economics training and experience at Kissenger and Associates. Next question please.
#3
The donks are evidently calling for "W" to resign so The One can jump into action. Here's an idea....
Democracy in Action: "W" resigns and Dick Cheney becomes President (that would really tick off the libs)!!! Then he appoints Condoleeza Rice as VP. Then Cheney resigns two weeks later and Condoleeza Rice, A Republican,
becomes... the first "BLACK - WOMAN" President!!! ***Check Mate.
#8
With the Treasury Secretary on his spending spree he surely isn’t trying to get a good return on the tax payers’ investment. The bailout was to buy up bad mortgage debt but it never did. What is the purpose of the fund? Paulson’s has warrants on many banks and they average 1 – 3 percent when enacted. Yet the cash investment is about 20 percent of the market cap. Maybe the next Treasury Secretary will be less erratic.
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
Posted by: Jason ||
11/25/2008 13:55
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#9
Has there been any comment in RB about the fact that appointing Hillary SoS is probably unconstitutional?
Seems that there is this little clause about congress critters not being allowed to take a position whose salary has been increased while said critter was in congress. This fits Her Thighness.
Isn't Zero supposed to be some sort of Constitutional Scholar?
Intelligence agencies have warned of a suicide attack at the Karachi airport as well as ministries in Islamabad during the current month, Daily Times learnt on Monday.
The Interior Ministry, after receiving information from intelligence agencies, has informed law enforcement agencies that the month of November would be crucial and terrorists have planned to carry out suicide attacks at Jinnah International Airport Karachi, and also at the offices of various ministries in Islamabad.
No further detail about the modus operandi of the terrorists was disclosed in the intelligence information conveyed to the Interior Ministry. The authorities have directed law enforcement agencies to take immediate action to ensure security at the airport and the ministries' offices. A source privy to the matter, seeking anonymity, told Daily Times that terrorists have planned to strike in prominent cities of the country in retaliation to the ongoing operation in the Tribal Areas and have dispatched suicide bombers to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The source added that intelligence agencies have also sent complete details of two would-be suicide bombers recently dispatched by the leader of defunct TTP, after which law enforcement agencies and the intelligence network have been put on high alert.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards arrested a spy network linked to Israeli intelligence who tried to gather information on Iranian nuclear and military programs, the guard's chief said on Monday.
"The intelligence bureau of the Revolutionary Guards Corps has recently discovered a spy network linked with the Israeli Mossad," Mohammad Ali Jafari said on state radio. "This network sought to gather important information from the Guards' military section, the country's nuclear centers and some security officials," he said.
"Very good information as well as equipment that this network were supplied with have been discovered and people will be informed of the evidence in the near future," he said. Jafari did not specify how many people were detained or where and when the group was arrested.
A semi-official news agency, Mehr, said those arrested had confessed that they had received training in Israel for carrying out assassinations and bombings.
Iran's official news agency IRNA also reported on Saturday that a group of four "terrorists" with "Zionist equipment and methods" had been arrested in western Iran and said they were planning to carry out assassinations. It did not say when they were detained.
Iran said on Saturday it had hanged an Iranian telecoms salesman convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel and warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
I find it hard to believe. If I were going to train Iranians in assassinations and bombings, I would do it in Iraq or Dubai or Djibouti or almost anyplace but Israel proper.
A Sylhet court yesterday placed Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and his three accomplices on a 7-day remand in connection with the Shah AMS Kibria murder case.
Habiganj Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Md Helal Uddin granted their 7-day remand after ASP of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Rafiqul Islam, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, prayed for their 10-day remand.
Mufti Hannan along with his brother Muhib Ullah alias Mofizur Rahman alias Ovi, 30, Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul, 38, and Hafez Syed Nayeem Ahmed alias Arif, 32, were produced before the court amid tight security.
The CID has been conducting a supplementary investigation into the killing of SAMS Kibria.
Sylhet district Awami League (AL) leader Advocate Abdul Mazid Khan filed a murder case and another under the explosives act after former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four others were killed in a grenade attack on an AL rally at Boidder Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.
Senior ASP of CID Munshi Atique, the then IO of the cases, submitted charge sheets of the cases to the court on March 20 the same year against 10 people including vice president of Habiganj district BNP Abdul Quaiyum.
Later, Atique sought permission for conducting further investigation before the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal on March 7 this year.
ASP Rafiqul took charge of investigation after Atique went on retirement four months back.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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FOX News Channel's (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.
In announcing his decision, Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."
Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.
Shine said, "We're very sorry to see Alan reach this decision but we understand his desire to seek other creative challenges in his career. We value his incredible hard work in making Hannity & Colmes the most successful debate program on cable news and we're going to miss him on the show. Thankfully, he will begin developing a weekend pilot for us."
FOX News Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Roger Ailes added, "Alan is one of the key reasons why FOX News has been such a remarkable success. We're sad to see him leave the program but we look forward to his ongoing contributions to the network."
Hannity & Colmes is the only FNC program which has remained in the same timeslot for 12 years, catapulting to number one in 2003 and never relinquishing the top spot. The second highest-rated program in cable news behind only The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month of October and is poised to mark 60 consecutive months at number one at the end of November.
Hannity added, "Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he's been a great friend which is rare in this industry -- I'll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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#1
Great! Now can we look forward to "Hannity and Coulter"?
Maybe Alan found he can make more money getting folks all riled up about global warming. ;-)
#2
Story line is Colmes "asked" to go. I doubt it. Hannity found out he was better received on his own with his radio show. Time to let ole Colmes join the looney left group.
#3
Love listening to the leftist's positions but Colmes' were rather rote-ish and DNC talking-point-esque. Little objective thought there and to be fair Hannity had about the same approach from the conservate side but he at least criticised Repulicans when warranted.
#4
I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did on that show. I don't particularly like the yell at each 'cross-fire' style shows and think they should just end the show rather than rename it with a new cohost.
#6
I can't watch that show for more than about 30 seconds. It gives me a headache. Everyone is yelling at one another, nothing more than a sound bite is said...just utter bs. They can both go AFAIC.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on patrol in violence-wracked southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense says.
The British Ministry said in a statement said that the soldier from the 45 Commando Royal Marines was injured Monday morning on patrol in the Kajaki area of Helmand Province. The statement added that the soldier received medical treatment at the scene but died of his wounds while being taken to a military hospital.
He was the 126th British army soldier to die in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion to oust the Taliban.
Britain has about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, the second-largest contributor of foreign forces in the country after the United States. Many British soldiers are based in Helmand where they are engaged in fierce fighting with resurgent Taliban fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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(AKI) - A Somali Islamist leader said the ransom for the hijacked supertanker Sirius Star has been reduced from 25 to 15 million dollars. "Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now," said Abdurrahim Isse Adou, the spokesman of the Islamic Courts Union quoted by various media reports.
Saudi oil giant Aramco's subsidiary Vela International owns the hijacked supertanker Sirus Star, which has a 25-member crew on board from Poland, Britain, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. The tanker is fully loaded with two million barrels of oil worth over 100 million dollars.
Last week, pirates 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.
A number of the pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden are belived to be former members of the Somali navy, reports have said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
How much are the pirates' lives worth? How about their families'?
Deep question: If the pirates can manage to keep the entire world at bay when they board a ship, why can't the entire world figure out how to keep a pirate ship at bay? Just askin'.
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) executive board has formally approved a $7.6 billion bailout package for Pakistan, a private TV channel reported on Monday. A Finance Ministry official said that the first instalment of $3.2 billion would reach the State Bank of Pakistan in seven to 14 days, the channel added. However, the channel said that the IMF had asked Pakistan to reduce its non-development expenditures.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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A Justice Department lawyer today urged an appeals court to overturn a judge's order to release a group of Chinese Muslims at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison into the United States.
Solicitor General Gregory G. Garre said U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina overstepped his authority in ordering the release of the 17 men, all Chinese Uighurs, a group that is seeking a homeland in western China. Garre argued that only the president has such authority. "We have the authority to hold these men pending resettlement efforts," he told the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. "Neither our Constitution nor our laws entitle them to come to the United States and to be released here."
The government is appealing Urbina's October decision to release the Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years.
The United States no longer considers the men enemy combatants and would like to release them. But it cannot send them home to China, where they are considered terrorists by the government and may be tortured or killed, and has been unable to find another country willing to take them. Albania accepted five Uighurs in 2006, but other countries have refused for fear of offending China.
However, in their filings to the appeals court, Justice Department lawyers wrote that the men may be dangerous because they had military training at camps in Afghanistan. Releasing them into the Washington region "threatens serious harm to the United States and its citizens," the lawyers wrote.
When the government provided no evidence to justify their continued detention, Urbina ordered their transfer to the Washington area, where they would have been resettled temporarily with Uighur families.
The appeals court stayed Urbina's ruling by a 2-1 vote, and it appeared from questioning of the attorneys this morning that the judges might be inclined to overturn Urbina's ruling. Judges A. Raymond Randolph and Karen LeCraft Henderson, both appointees of Republican presidents, seemed sympathetic to the government's arguments. Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee, dissented when the stay was issued and seemed more skeptical of the government's legal arguments.
The Uighurs' lead attorney, P. Sabin Willett, argued that Urbina was well within his authority to grant the Uighurs' release. He said judges have the power to order such relief under a Supreme Court decision in June that gave the detainees the right to challenge their detentions in federal court under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus.
Willett argued that the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurz) should not continue to be held at the military prison while the government tries to find them new homes. "The fact is, they have nowhere else to go," Willett said, in urging the judges to uphold Urbina's ruling and lift the stay that prevents them from being brought to Washington.
The judges did not indicate when they expect to rule in the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
HT to AOSHQ - I don't remember seeing this here, but if it was, please delete and my apologies. A taste:
In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2008
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#1
The insurgents were dug-in around Sewan.
A shout rang out," One Marine is worth 10 insurgents!"
Ten insurgents were sent over the hill; gunfire; no one returned.
A second shout, "One Marine is worth 100 insurgents!"
One hundred insurgents went over the hill; gunfire; no one returned.
A third shout, "One Marine is worth 1000 insurgents!"
A thousand insurgents went over the hill; gunfire, mortars, etc..
One wounded man crawled back to the insurgent leader, "ItÂ’s a trap! There are two Marines!"
#3
Simply amazing.
Stories like this should end any doubt about US forces hiding behind technology to win. Bad Ass.
BP, friend of mine plays those type of games; I don't think I am a slouch at it but it makes me glad I'm in his living room rather than the other end of the line :)
#4
During WWII, on Guadalcanal, a force estimated at 1500 Japanese attacked a machine gun nest manned by five Marines. The Japanese pulled back after a three-hour gun battle, leaving over 500 of their company behind. One Marine survived the attack. Don't mess with Marines!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/25/2008 12:28
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#5
A quick search of Google News shows that the story made a few conservative blogs and a few foreign news publications, but does not appear anywhere in the US mainstream press.
#6
It didn't make the US mainstream press because there was no way to spin this story to make the Marines look like cold blooded killers. The US press has no understanding of true heroes and they certainly don't want to learn. Perhaps when the big O becomes president they will pick up on these stories, since he will be CINC. spit.
#7
It didn't make the mainstream press because this is not news, this is expected behaviour based on what they've seen in Hollywood films. Entirely too many journalists cannot differentiate between such fantasy and reality. Additionally, the story was reported within the military, rather than by trained journalists employed by "respected"* news organizations; as far as they are concerned, there is no way to know that it actually happened... the It only happened if it was reported in the New York Times view of the universe.
A 12-year-old Florida student was arrested earlier this month after he "deliberately passed gas to disrupt the class," according to police. The child, who was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Stuart's Spectrum Jr./Sr. High School, was busted November 4 for disruption of a school function.
A Martin County Sheriff's Office report notes that the 4' 11" offender admitted that he "continually disrupted his classroom environment by breaking wind and shutting off several computers." The boy, whose name was redacted from the police report released today, was turned over to his mother following the arrest. The young perp turned 13 on November 15.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
he "continually disrupted his classroom environment by breaking wind and shutting off several computers."
Wow! I can understand annoying everyone with the foul odor, but if he is capable of disrupting computers with a strong fart, he's discovered a new military weapon. I wonder what Momma is feeding the dear child ?
#3
Hey teacher - you don't have kids arrested for farting. Okay? Take control of the classroom and quit being such a wuss. By calling in the police for something so petty, not to mention human, you've completely lost the respect of the rest of the students. Who else needs to grow up here?
Posted by: toughen up ||
11/25/2008 11:40
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#4
probably have too call police on students now that the schools can't do anything with the kids these days without fear of a lawsuit
Political authorities of Jamrud teshil, Khyber Agency, on Monday found body of a Sikh hakeem (herbal doctor), who was kidnapped two days ago from Peshawar. Haji Gul Jan, Political Administration line officer in Jamrud tehsil, told Daily Times body of the Sikh hakeem named Balwang Singh had been found in Khawar area of the agency. He said the Sikh was kidnapped from Peshawar two days ago. The political authorities said they had handed over body of to the bereaved family. Singh's killers have not yet been identified. Separately, unidentified armed men kidnapped Muhammad Shoaib, 20, from Safirabad, political administration officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008
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Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
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.
Should some of the same people who helped get us into this Wall Street meltdown mess be relied upon to get us out? And is it OK if the colleagues and mentors of the new Obama economic team make millions and maybe billions along the way? President-elect Obama seems to think that the answers to those two questions are "yes," and "yes"--and his appointments today proved it.
But there is one figure that looms above them all, a man who was once the boss to both Geithner and to Larry Summers (who was named today to chair the National Economic Council inside the White House) and is the leader of the dominant political-economic school of thought in the Democratic Party today. And that man is Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary for Bill Clinton and currently the Chairman of the Executive Committee at Citigroup.
Afghans are bracing for another harsh winter made worse by food shortages and ongoing violence. This year, United Nations officials say attacks on their food convoys are creating an even more difficult situation than in years past. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Kabul. 
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Much of the giant square where followers of Moqtada al-Sadr gather in their thousands on Fridays to pray is now taken up by an Iraqi army base, surrounded by concrete blast walls and watchtowers.
Four major banks, including one that collapsed, two that received federal bailout money and one that filed for bankruptcy this past September, paid former President Clinton $2.1 million for 13 speeches he delivered on their behalf between 2004-2007, according to Senate financial disclosure statements filed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Decades later, Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an "apostle of arrogance" for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.
Men dump burning bag of trash at local home
Pirates who seized a chemical tanker in the treacherous waters off Somalia were gun-toting drug addicts whose only goal was money, freed members of the ship's crew said on Monday after they returned home. Three of the 18 Indian sailors who were on the MV Stolt Valor when it was hijacked two months ago said.
VIENNA, Austria - The chief U.N. nuclear inspector said that Syria had a right to his agencyÂ’s help in planning a power-producing atomic reactor, in what diplomats described as a rejection of U.S.-led efforts to block the aid. The clash reflected tensions between Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency, and key Western nations over whether Syria should be given potentially sensitive nuclear guidance at a time when it is being investigated.
Fifteen suspected Taliban were killed as troops backed by helicopter gunships targeted hideouts in the Swat valley on Monday.
(SomaliNet) South Africa's ANC leader Jacob Zuma said on Monday that prominent figures, including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, believe Zimbabwe could soon collapse due to a political and economic crisis. "They believe the situation is very bad. They believe things could collapse in a few months time in Zimbabwe," Zuma told reporters after meeting Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter and other prominent figures. 
US authorities are seeking the extradition of a Tunisian, already convicted in Belgium for planning attacks, over suspected links to the al-Qaeda network, prosecutors here said.
Michael Jackson has reached an out-of-court settlement with Bahrain's Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who was suing him for $7 million (5.6 million Euros), his spokeswoman said Sunday.
COLOMBO - The reclusive leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers is to deliver his annual policy address this week from a besieged jungle hideout that could soon be totally overrun by government troops. With his northern fiefdom shrinking fast in the face of a massive onslaught, 
British-Pakistani terror suspect Rashid Rauf is still alive, his lawyer told the BBC on Monday, insisting reports that he had died in a US missile attack in Pakistan were "fake." 
Around 68 fishermen kidnapped by pirates from different canals of the Sundarbans were released Sunday night in the wake of a combing operation launched by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
(SomaliNet) North Korea is to close its border with South Korea. On 1 December it will suspend the train travel possible between the two countries since the end of 2007. 
Landslides and floods in Brazil have destroyed many buildings, killing at least 50 people and forcing over 23,000 to leave their homes.
A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks yesterday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said. A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.
The booming city of Dubai showed signs its economy was starting to crack Monday as it began cutting state spending, capping its building spree and merging its lenders in the face of the global financial crisis.
At least 27 soldiers and 120 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as government forces battled their way to the outskirts of the rebels' political headquarters, the defence ministry said yesterday. Heavy fighting raged along three fronts as troops closed in on the town of Kilinochchi, the ministry said.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday nominated Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. 
A Sylhet court yesterday placed Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and his three accomplices on a 7-day remand in connection with the Shah AMS Kibria murder case.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on patrol in violence-wracked southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense says. 
(AKI) - A Somali Islamist leader said the ransom for the hijacked supertanker Sirius Star has been reduced from 25 to 15 million dollars. "Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now," said Abdurrahim Isse Adou, the spokesman of the Islamic Courts Union quoted by various media reports.
A Justice Department lawyer today urged an appeals court to overturn a judge's order to release a group of Chinese Muslims at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison into the United States. 
A 12-year-old Florida student was arrested earlier this month after he "deliberately passed gas to disrupt the class," according to police. The child, who was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Stuart's Spectrum Jr./Sr. High School, was busted November 4 for disruption of a school function. 
