Two people were killed in Monday's crash of a military jet into a neighborhood in San Diego, California, Fire Department officials said. Two homes were destroyed, said Maurice Luque of the San Diego Fire Department, according to CNN affiliate KGTV.
The crash happened as the jet was returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after performing landing training on a Navy aircraft carrier, the Marine Corps said in a news release. The cause of the crash is under investigation, it said.
The crash site is about two miles from the airfield, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. Firefighters aimed jets of water from high-pressure hoses at the smoldering rubble of what appeared to be at least one house. Smoke continued to rise in clouds from the site nearly an hour after the crash.
Authorities cordoned off the area. Residents told reporters they had been informed by police that chemicals were in the air and they should stay away.
One resident interviewed by CNN affiliate KFMB said he saw a fighter jet at a very low altitude, and "it just spiraled, right out of 'Top Gun.'"The resident said he saw a flier from the aircraft on the ground after parachuting from the plane. He said the pilot was dazed but able to move on his own.
Bank worker Scott Bloom told KGTV he was on his way to visit clients when he saw someone eject from the plane. He said the plane was silent in the moments before it went down. "I thought I was dreaming," Bloom told KGTV. "It was so surreal."
The principal of a high school about three blocks from the crash site said students had just finished lunch when staffers heard "two large pops or two large booms." The school and its students were not directly affected by the crash, but the school was put into lock-down mode for students' safety, Principal Mike Price said.
The pilot was in communication with military air traffic controllers before the jet crashed, the FAA said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented an ambitious European plan Monday to the United Nations to revive global nuclear disarmament efforts.
Sarkozy, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the EU wants a global ban on nuclear tests, a moratorium on production of fissile material and a treaty banning on ground-to-ground short- and medium-range missiles. "We are convinced of the necessity to work for general disarmament," said Sarkozy, whose country is one of the few world nuclear powers and currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
"Europe has already done a lot for disarmament," Sarkozy said. "Europe is ready to do more."
How about Iran?
The EU measure is aimed at reviving nuclear disarmament efforts that have lagged since the end of the Cold War, even as new nuclear powers have emerged.
There are an estimated 20,000 or more nuclear weapons around the world. The nuclear-armed nations are the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear arms, but neither confirms nor denies it.
The EU measure comes after U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said during his campaign that he would "make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element in our nuclear policy."
Among other measures, the EU plan calls for "the opening of consultations on a treaty banning ground-to-ground short- and medium-range missiles."
It also urges progress in talks between the United States and Russia on a follow-up to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which significantly cut American and Russian nuclear arsenals.
Sarkozy's letter came the day before an international group of former world dignitaries is scheduled to launch a campaign in Paris to eliminate nuclear weapons. Delegates from the group, called Global Zero, will go to Moscow for talks with Russian officials on Wednesday and to Washington to see Bush administration officials on Thursday. Listed supporters include former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former officials from India and Pakistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/08/2008
17:33 ||
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#1
The EU needs to completely destroy their stock of nuclear weapons prior to implementing sharia law.
#3
OTOH, WORLD MIL FORUM > LU-HUA JIANG RESEARCHER: CHINA SHOULD DEVELOP, SEIZE THE STRATOSPHERIC AIR-SHIP HIGH GROUND!? Photo-electric, other advanced design DIRIGIBLES-SUPER-BALLONS for Defense, Reswearch, Consumer = Travel, and POWER/ENERGY GENERATION-RECYCLING [read, TESLA].
#1
WAFF.com > GLOBAL CONDITIONS TEST GREECE's SEARCH FOR 40.0BILYUHN EUROS, to pay for earlier soon-to-mature/pay Bonds + desired new Bonds for new ventures.; + TURKEY IS HIT HARD BY THE US-GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS.
Pittsburgh City Council gave its first approval today to legislation requiring that anyone report a lost or stolen firearm report that within 24 hours or potentially face a $500 fine. The 6-1 vote, with two abstentions, sets up a final vote likely next week, which would send the legislation to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for his signature or veto, and then potentially to the courts, where similar measures have been challenged.
"Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?" said Councilwoman Tonya Payne, a supporter. "This is what's right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that's fine ... We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable." So she gets to decide on what is and isn't the right thing to do? Based on what? Who the hell needs a Constitution, anyway?
The lone no vote was by Councilman Ricky Burgess, who argued that it would be a "false cure" that would be "particularly cruel" to his violence-plagued northeastern Pittsburgh district. Sounds like a smart man to me.
"This legislation will not strike a blow to straw purchasers," he said. "This ordinance will not be enforced, no loopholes will be closed and no lives will be saved, because no municipality can legally regulate firearms of any kind, at any time, for any reason." Wanna bet?
Council's vote is a win for groups engaged in a statewide push to get local rules for reporting lost and stolen guns. The state House rejected a statewide bill in April.
Advocates appearing before council today argued that people called straw purchasers frequently buy guns, then sell them to criminals who could not pass the required background checks. When the guns are used in crimes and traced back to the straw purchaser, he or she just claims the weapon was lost or stolen. Unless that can be disproved, the straw purchaser is off the hook. "It's a loophole that allows illegal gun traffickers to simply state that a weapon was stolen," said Councilman William Peduto, one of three authors of the bill along with Council President Doug Shields and Councilman Bruce Kraus.
Councilmen Dan Deasy and Patrick Dowd abstained. Weiners!
Mr. Dowd said that in passing the measure council is "not really effectively changing the situation on the ground," and is inviting a lawsuit.
Philadelphia has sought to enforce similar legislation, but the effort has been tied up in litigation. Legally, the question is whether the state ban on local laws on "the transfer, ownership, transportation or possession" of guns extends to the reporting of lost or stolen firearms. The Commonwealth Court threw out Philadelphia's measure, and other gun control rules there. The matter is heading for the state Supreme Court.
"To me the question is wide open" on whether such rules are allowed, said Mr. Shields. "This is where you go in [to court] and you make your arguments."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/08/2008
15:13 ||
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Let's hope Tonya Payne is one of the next victims. She's too damned stupid to live, as are those who elected her. Hopefully the Mayor has better sense although the fact that he still lives in Pennsylvania tends to make that unlikely.
Expatriates who share homes in the booming emirate of Dubai to split soaring rental costs face eviction amid a crackdown by the municipality which deems the practice of house-sharing a health hazard.
Tenants will face fines of up to 50,000 dirhams (13,600 dollars) and owners of shared villas can be charged twice as much if they ignore the municipality's view that house-sharing is a "security and health hazard," he added. More like a necessity for people not plugged into crass wealth of oil ticks and has-beens stars like Michael Jackson [bad example, oops].
To enforce its decision, the municipality of Dubai, one of the seven components of the United Arab Emirates, has begun to hand out fines and to cut water and power supplies to villas.
"More severe measures will be taken," Omar Abdel Rahman, housing chief inspector at the Dubai Municipality, told AFP agency.
"Those violating the law have been given a deadline and we have started cutting water and electricity supplies and slapping fines" on those sharing houses, he said.
The official denied any link with analysts' predictions of a tailing off in demand for property in Dubai because of a scarcity of loans as a consequence of the global credit crunch.
"That is nothing to do with it," Abdel Rahman insisted. No, no, certainly not that. It is, ummmm, something else.
For the past 10 years, Dubai has implemented the biggest and most ambitious building programme ever undertaken in the world. Critics of the crackdown say the authorities want to transform the emirate into a city-state for the rich only. That IS the business model, after all. But what are you going to do with housing the service people who are needed to keep the rich parasites in world class comfort?
In recent weeks the cracks in Dubai's economy have become undeniable. Property prices have slumped, demand has dried up and, for the first time, the emirate is being forced to consider calling a halt to its expansion. Some analysts are claiming that Dubai could implode, weighed down under a pile of raw sewage debt and, given that it has relatively small oil reserves, no obvious way of paying for it. Ah, the Fatal Flaw! But don't despair. Look to the US Treasury and Zimbob for your answers.
So far it is not known how many people face eviction as part of the crackdown which was launched earlier this year, but it is clear that expatriates are nervous.
"Rents are unreasonably high," said Sahar Allam, a German-Syrian citizen who shares a villa with eight other women in the upscale Jumeirah district, in order to cope with the cost of living. She spends 2,175 dollars - more than half of her monthly wages - to rent a room and bath in the luxurious village.
"I will be forced to leave Dubai if I cannot share," she said.
"All my house-mates are European and Arab women and some of them are also seriously thinking about leaving Dubai," she added. Better git while the gittin's good.
Over the past few years the once-dormant harbour of Dubai has been transformed into a vibrant city buzzing with construction and tourism projects that have attracted a massive influx of foreign expertise. Who aren't doing this thing pro bono, ya know.
Foreigners represent more than 80 percent of the population of Dubai, which is estimated to comprise 1.5 million inhabitants despite a spiraling cost of living and steep rental prices. And a sewage problem, don't forget the sewage problem, raw sewage on the beaches and all.
In Dubai, the average annual rent for a one bedroom apartment is around 27,000 dollars.
Rent hikes were capped to a maximum of 15 percent in November 2005 and again last year by Dubai in an attempt to put a lid on soaring prices seen as threatening its competitiveness in attracting foreign businesses.
Iqbal Nair of India, his wife and the couple's two children are all crammed in one room in an old house which they share with other tenants in the popular neighbourhood of Satwa. They pay 500 dollars monthly for their modest lodgings.
"If the municipality imposes its decision I will not think twice: I will have to send back to India my wife and my two children," he said.
In fact, Nair will have to move out sooner or later because the Satwa neighbourhood is due to be razed down to the ground to give way to a mega development project projected to cost nearly 100 billion dollars. Gotta move, redevelopment train a comin'.
But Abdel Rahman is adamant that the municipality has taken a sound decision aimed "above all at protecting the safety of the people".
"Imagine a 10-room house, where each room is occupied by five people all using the same sanitary equipment, the same kitchen, and who sometimes set up their own kitchens (in their rooms) in violation of security norms," he said. Well, that is a valid consideration. But what about two to 4 expats sharing a 2 BR apt? Is that extreme?
"Imagine the pressure this places on the water and power network and even the parking areas," he added. And the Post Offices boxes, don't forget them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2008
14:59 ||
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Does this mean they'll be paying all their guest workers enough money that they'll all be able to afford apartments of their own?
KENDRAPARA (Orissa): Intensifying an anti-liquor campaign, a group of agitated women ransacked a foreign liquor shop in Mahalahat village under Patkura police station on Monday, policed said.
The women of the village were registering their protest against the opening of the liquor shop since last six months.
Earlier, they had picketed in front of the liquor shop and petitioned the block and district level officials. The grouse of village women was that alocoholism had become rampant breaking up families in the village.
The all-women-mob, mobilised under self-help-groups, broke opened the shop and later destroyed the liquor bottles.
A case has been registered but no arrest made in this connection so far.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/08/2008
14:42 ||
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Jeeze, we TOLD YOU the Bailey's wouldn't get here until Tuesday.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 15:01
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#2
how many village women are in grouse? or is it a gaggle, a swarm, a?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/08/2008 16:31
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#4
Ah, heck. I read that and thought it might have been a bunch of "Girls Gone Wild"-type thirsty women looking to get likkered up and have a good time. Instead, it's Carrie Nation, Indian style.
Rats. My idea would have made a MUCH better story.
#5
In honor with the fine ladies of Kendrapara, as well as our solidary with their cause, I present to the Rantburg listening audience their hymn:
Away With Rum
We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band
On the right side of temperance we do take our stand
We don't use tobacco, because we do think
The people who use it are likely to drink
CHORUS
Away, away with rum by gum,
with rum by gum,
with rum by gum
Away, away with rum by gum,
the song of the temperance union
We never eat fruit cake because it has rum
And one little taste turns a man to a bum
Oh, can you imagine a sorrier sight
Than a man eating fruit cake until he gets tight
We never eat cookies because they have yeast
And one little bite turns a man to a beast
Oh, can you imagine a sadder disgrace
Than a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face
If you wash your hair, never rinse it with beer
Because if you do, you'll get foam in your ear
And if there's one thing a young man must dread
It's dating a girl with a head on her head
If you pick your navel, don't do it with a knife
Because if you do you'll get the shock of your life
Oh, can you imagine a site quite a horrid
As a man pulling out his umbilical cord
We never eat peaches, because peaches ferment
And peaches ferment at the least little dent
Oh can you imagine a sorrier sight
Than a man drunk on peaches he thought were alright
We never eat oatmeal, because oatmeal is mush
And one little bite turns a man to a lush
Oh can you imagine the pain of a ma
To watch little junior act just like his pa
We never chew toothpicks because we recall
That wood ferments into wood alcohol
Oh can you imagine a sorrier sight
Than a man chewing toothpicks until he gets tight
We never drink water, they put it in gin
One little sip and a man starts to grin
Oh can you imagine the horrible sight
Of a man drinking water and singing all night
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2008 18:35
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#6
i kind of like the idea of a liquor store under the cop shop; it makes it easier to write the DWI tickets. right in the comfort of your own office.
At the exact moment Jon Favreau is receiving high praise in pre-inaugural media puff pieces, the 27-year-old chief speechwriter for President-elect Barack Obama . . . finds himself in a minor mess over a photo from a recent private party showing him groping the breast of a cardboard cutout of Hillary Rodham Clinton as an unnamed pal wearing an "Obama staff" T-shirt kisses and feeds her beer.
. . . Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson danced to a similar tune at the 2004 Super Bowl. Fraternities have been closed for less.
The provocative party pic uploaded to Facebook for a very short time was soon discovered and printed in The Washington Post then disseminated across the Internet and featured prominently on Politico, Gawker and the Drudge Report.
If the photo had exposed a Republican offender, there'd already be a full-bore media scandal and cascading resignations. . . . Yet so far there is no groundswell of feminist rage in the District of Columbia. The unnamed co-conspirator thrusting the beer bottle into the mouth of the designated secretary of state isn't yet a household slur. Instead, with the accused being a member of the protected Democratic class, we only have a quick peripheral debate. The mainstream media headlines soften the story's implications: "Obama speechwriter Favreau learns the perils of Facebook" (CNN). Next time, don't share your coarseness with the world. It's the technology's fault.
The aggressive iconography of two young drunk men taking advantage of a life-size cutout of a woman - especially a powerful one - would bring an elite college campus to a standstill, force a housecleaning of a Fortune 500 company, ground the Air Force Academy and would, in most cases, ruin the career of a Republican staffer or elected official. Every sexual harassment training manual makes exceedingly clear that this type of behavior is intolerable. If only former President Bill Clinton could offer his sage advice on sexual harassment and put this conundrum to rest. . . .
The National Organization for Women, which last struck issuing news releases on why Sarah Palin isn't a real woman, refused to comment on the Obama speechwriter incident.
When NOW's press secretary Mai Shiozaki was reached Friday, she first claimed not to have seen the Favreau photograph. But when called later, she offered two reasons for not weighing in: "I haven't looked into it" and "I have a 5 p.m. deadline. ... I am already late." . . .
If this is supposed to be excused as a youthful indiscretion because Favreau is so young then I think Obamas judgment in continuing to rely professionally on someone so young and irresponsible and offensively sexist can reasonably be questioned.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/08/2008
14:27 ||
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Was the Hillary blow up doll in the repair shop?
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 15:04
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#2
Please don't use "Hillary" and "Blow" in the same sentance.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/08/2008 16:28
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#3
who cares...these guys are morons on general principle, working for obama equates moronic status in my book...and as if NOW was going to comment on this...they lost any credibility left after letting slick willie get away w/victimizing womenz for yrs and not saying a peep...
#4
NOW is a bunch of lefty dyke bitches, with the leftism predominant. As they showed under BJ, they wouldn't care if a male politician was forcibly raping 14-year old girls every damned day as long as his "heart was in the right place." They'd just figure he's a person of taste because he likes the same things they do.
#6
Gentlemen commenting above, remember Captain Fluellen: "If the enemy be an as(s), a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that you too should be an as(s), a fool, and a prating coxcomb?"
(Shakespeare, Henry V)
At least 26 people were killed in Mexico over the weekend in separate incidents, including 10 who died in a shootout between soldiers and gunmen in Guerrero state and five murdered at a bar in Ciudad Juarez. Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, is considered the country's most violent city, with more than 1,400 murders reported this year.
Gunmen burst into Alamo's bar in Juarez early Sunday and opened fire, killing five people and wounding four others. This was the second attack of this type in less than two weeks. On Nov. 28, gunmen murdered eight men at a seafood restaurant in the border city, which is in Chihuahua state. A couple and a man were shot to death in separate incidents while driving in Ciudad Juarez.
Three bodies were also found in Juarez, including one dumped in a soccer field and two others in the city's southeast section. The victims, who were between 25 and 30, were wrapped in blankets and their hands and feet had been tied, a trademark of the gunmen who work for Mexico's drug cartels.
In Tecate, a city in the northwestern state of Baja California, two people were gunned down and a third wounded in a shooting on Saturday night.
Army troops, meanwhile, battled gunmen in a series of clashes in Palos Blancos, a town in the southern state of Guerrero. A soldier and nine gunmen were killed in the running gunbattles, which lasted about half a day and also involved police. Soldiers, along with federal, state and municipal police officers, responded when a shootout started between rival gangs, the Public Safety Secretariat said. When they arrived at the scene, the security forces were greeted by gunfire and engaged the gunmen in the series of shootouts, which also left two police officers wounded.
The gunbattles started at around 3:00 a.m. Sunday and did not end until about 2:00 p.m.
After the shooting ended, police conducted a search and found a body in an abandoned vehicle, and seized 10 other automobiles, 14 rifles, five pistols and two hand grenades. The crime scene in Palos Altos has been cordoned off by some 400 soldiers and police officers.
In Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, two heads and a threatening message were found in a bucket near the Technical Institute.
Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces, as rival gangs vie for control of lucrative smuggling and distribution routes into the United States. Armed groups linked to Mexico's drug cartels murdered around 2,700 people in 2007 and 1,500 in 2006, with the death toll this year already at more than 5,000, according to press tallies.
The majority of the killings have occurred in the states of Chihuahua, Baja California and Sinaloa.
Experts say that Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organizations are the Tijuana cartel, the Gulf cartel and the Sinaloa cartel. Two other large drug trafficking organizations, the Juarez and Milenio cartels, also operate in the country. Tackling the problem of drug-related violence, according to experts, is a major challenge both because of Mexico's notoriously corrupt security forces and because honest police officers are fearful of taking on the heavily armed drug mobs.
Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 30,000 soldiers and federal police to nearly a dozen of Mexico's 31 states in a bid to stem the wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers. The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels' ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking prosecutors. The Attorney General's Office recently began investigating its own staff, particularly the SIEDO organized crime unit's members and the Federal Investigations Agency, Mexico's equivalent of the FBI.
As part of the probe, begun after a protected informant revealed links between drug cartel kingpins and police, a dozen high-ranking officials, including erstwhile drug czar Noe Ramirez, have been arrested. The initial investigation concluded that Ramirez received $500,000 a month for sharing intelligence with drug lords.
So far this year, Mexico has easily beaten 5,000 drug war related homicides.
#7
Border tourism has been dropping for 10 years. It's next to nothing now because of the crime. Even the State Dept has issued warnings.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 15:16
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Here's an interesting stat: A U.S State Department report on non-natural deaths of U.S. citizens abroad says that 128 Americans were victims of homicides or executions in Mexico between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2007, and that a majority of these murders took place in Mexican cities located on the southern border of the United States.
All told, during the period in question, 667 Americans were killed in Mexico by non-natural causes, including by drowning, auto accidents, and suicides, according to the report. It is unclear how accurate these numbers are, however, because the State Department says the report is based solely on cases reported by American citizens to our posts abroad.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 15:25
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#9
In 1971 I was stationed at Beumont and we went to Juarez frequently. It was surreal how similar it was to stepping outside of 3rd. field in Saigon. Drugs girls and even the language.
I believe the army put Juarez off limits several years ago.
#10
Nobody on this board has enough money to get ME south of the border, much less with my family. I'd like to break relations with Mex and seal the damned border. Nothing coming, nothing going except their invading nationals getting their asses literally kicked back into Mex.
Screw Mex. I wish the Rio Grande was 500 miles wide. The more of them that kill each other in drug fights, the better. It's that many fewer of them to come up here and cause trouble.
#11
Meanwhile, from community organizers: "Building a border fence, tougher immigration laws and resources that could allow local law enforcement agencies to target immigrants are all symptoms of a bias against Hispanics that must change, Rosa Rosales" president of LULAC said in El Paso this weekend.
#12
From the Juarez section of the El Paso Times: Juárez city officials, who earlier this year launched billboards in El Paso and other U.S. cities in an effort to lure visitors, insist that tourists are not targeted in the slayings.
"It's not Iraq," said Esquivel, the mercado vendor.
#15
Pappy - well, up in Kurdistan, being a tourist has been non-insane (definitely on the aggressive adventuresome edge, but non-insane) for a few years, believe it or not. Some day .... north-central Iraq and the Shi'a holy cities will be very nice tourist spots, actually (along with Ur and Babylon, notwithstanding the Ba'ath-era "restorations" there).
Judging by radio ads and offers from a San Diego perspective, tourism in northern Baja is dying. It's really sad, actually - obviously the folks working at resorts and restaurants in TJ and Rosarito Beach are not part of the drug wars, but regular folks working hard in a sector that has boomed in the last 15 years or so.
I recall when Nuevo Laredo was going down the drain (not sure if that was the low-point, but it got pretty dramatic) in '05 or '06, and the reports and State travel warnings read a lot like Diyala or parts of Anbar. We laughed about it, and then spit in anger when we next read a story about a border barrier STILL being haggled over or compared to the Berlin Wall.
#16
Verlaine's on the money - we get a a lot of ads now, telling us of the "bargains" and "friendly hosts" in Baja. Quite a shame actually. It is a beautiful country in Baja, once you get past the border, with great seaports, good food, nice people, and absolutely no f'n way that I would go there right now
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2008 22:01
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#17
This article reminds me of the first verse of the Bob Dylan song:
When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
And it's Easter-time too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs
When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outa you
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2008 22:07
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#18
There's seems to be no end to the K street thieves and their Congressional buddies who are ripping off our soventry....
Mexican Mayhem Continues Unabated thanks in part To the rotten Congressmen and women who think they can endlessly rip off America!
They are Traitors and Paracites and they countinue to excersize their in order to destroy the USA.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- Five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge Monday that they want to immediately confess at their war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, setting up likely guilty pleas and their possible executions.
The five said they decided to abandon all efforts to defend themselves against the capital charges on Nov. 4, the day Barack Obama was elected to the White House. It was as if they wanted to rush toward convictions before Obama -- who has vowed to end the war-crimes trials and close Guantanamo -- takes office. The hamster wheels in this guy's brain are overheating -- "But you'll be safe with Obama! Hope! Chaaaange!"
Right out of the al-Qaeda playbook, designed to use our justice system against us ...
Abruptly reversing course on previous attempts to defend themselves in the death-penalty case, the five announced they wanted to drop all motions presented on their behalf. The judge said competency hearings were pending for two of the detainees, precluding them from immediately filing pleas.
In a letter the judge read aloud in court, the five defendants said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions."
The letter implies they want to plead guilty, but does not specify whether they will admit to any specific charges.
The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, asked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants if they were prepared to enter a plea. So far, Mohammed and three others said they agreed with the letter; the fifth remained to be questioned by the judge.
Mohammed, who has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also told the judge Monday that he had no faith in him, his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or President George W. Bush. Sporting a chest-length gray beard, Mohammed said in English: "I don't trust you." "The feeling is mutual."
The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II are teetering on the edge of extinction. The Great and Wonderful Oz Obama opposes the military commissions -- as the Guantanamo trials are called -- and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month. "I pledged to close the Guantanamo prison and I have done so. They've all been moved to McMurdo Sound."
Nine relatives of victims of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were on hand to observe the hearings at this Navy base in southeastern Cuba, but were not visible in video images relayed to a press room nearby. Five were chosen by military lottery like civilian lottery, but with guns
and they brought four other relatives with them.
Henley was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, were also expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case.
No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on Jan. 20. Still, the U.S. military is pressing forward with the case until it receives orders to the contrary.
"We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. Interesting phrasing...
Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch, who is also an observer at this week's hearings, urged Obama to stand up for the Human Right of protecting American civilianstry terror suspects in federal court "where attention will focus on the defendants' alleged crimes rather than the unfairness of the commissions." I hope someone remembered to file littering charges for all those aircraft parts in lower Manhattan.
The military commissions have netted three convictions, but have been widely criticized by busybodies like Jennifer for allowing statements obtained through harsh truncheons interrogations and hearsay to be admitted as evidence.
The victims' family members were expected to watch from a gallery at the rear of the cavernous, high-security courtroom and will not be allowed to address the defendants. Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son Christopher was killed at the World Trade Center, says she wants to lock eyes with those accused of killing her son and 2,972 others in the bloodiest terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil.
Relatives of about 30 more victims, mainly firefighters, have given Santora memorial cards that she planned to bring into court "to know their spirit is with us."
#3
"They wanted to RUSH towards convictions before Obama ....takes office" > OKAY MADONNA, I'LL BITE, IS PENN STATE PROFESSOR = AL QAEDA #3 KHALID TRYING HARD NOT TO SAY HE, etc. DESIRES TO STAY IN THE US = US FACILITY EVEN IFF IT MEANS BEING IMPRISONED IN CONUS, i.e. a dedicated Enemy of the USA prefersto stay wid his Enemy, NOT HIS OWN CAMP OR OTHER [handover]???
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.
The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth -- his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject -- he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit.
#6
Look at the bright side. At least the Donks don't have to commit the US to engage in Anschluss annexation of Kenya to make it part of American territory to fit the bill. That and the Atlantic will keep the uncontrolled immigration issue tied to the south.
#7
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
Did he contend this in his suit? Or was this just a gratuitous mention in the article?
HT: HotAir
Scientists have discovered a lotion that can save the lives of U.S. soldiers exposed to chemical weapons -- a product vastly superior to the standard-issue decontamination powder.
Naturally, the Defense Department wants to scrap the powder and switch to the more-effective lotion.
But there's a problem: After being lobbied by the companies making the powder, several members of Congress pushed through two earmarks worth $7.6 million that forced the military for the past two years to keep buying the inferior product.
The product, known as M291, is made from a resin sold exclusively by a Pennsylvania chemical company, which is then processed into powder by a New York company, then assembled into individual kits at a facility in Arkansas.
Among the lawmakers who championed the earmarks are Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The M291 earmarks reveal how lawmakers can micromanage military purchases to suit the needs of companies, constituents or campaign donors -- instead of the needs of the soldiers.
Scientists conducted more tests, comparing the effectiveness of the lotion with the M291 kit. They found the lotion to be as much as seven times more effective at protecting soldiers
The Pentagon told Congress in 2005 that it expected to replace the M291 kit with the RSDL. At the same time, Rohm and Haas, the Philadelphia company making the M291 resin, turned to Congress to keep its product alive through an earmark. The company spent $830,000 lobbying Congress and the military on the decontamination kits and other issues in 2005, public records show. Since then, the company has spent another $2.3 million lobbying Congress.
The Defense Department bought huge stockpiles of Rohm and Haas' resin in 2005 and 2006, enough to last through 2012, said Douglas Bryce, second in command of the DOD's joint chemical- and biological-defense office. After the large purchases of resin, the military didn't include funding for M291 kits in its budget because the product was being phased out, Bryce said.
10 sponsors [of the newest millions in earmarks] included Sen. Specter of Pennsylvania, who has received $38,000 in campaign donations from Rohm and Haas' employees and its political-action committee since 2004.
Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., offered a different rationale for the favor. The earmark "was never intended to pick a winner" but to support both products, Schwartz said. Schwartz received $8,000 in donations from executives and the political action committee at Rohm and Haas, a leading employer in her district. Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, whose district has R&H's facility, got $2,000 in this cycle and $1,000 in 2006, while Jack Murtha got a combined $2,000. They gave $5,000 each to the DNC and the DSCC in 2008.
#1
This is where military bureaucrats shine. Since the military has no choice but to accept the powder, the questions become, "How can we get the superior product as well?", and "What do we do with the other crap?"
Of course the priority is to get a product that works. But after that is done, ship out vast quantities of the crap as "military aid", that congress also dictates the military pay for.
Say Obambi decides to give military aid to Mugabe, to help him support his regime? Maybe his army can make soup out of for what would be for them a 50 year supply of resin? Utterly useless "military aid."
At the same time, pass around the message to other armies in the world, that the profiteer company's products are crap, and to not buy them. Suddenly the schemers find out that they can't give their crap away.
#2
No surprise to me at all, and I wasn't even a supply and procurement troop, or a high-ranking one at that; this sort of ear-marking even made itself felt at the commissary and PX. Our fearless solons seemed to view those places as a means to dispose of agricultural surplus - and to keep the PX from competing with local retail outlets. Remember when a powerful senator from a dairy products state did a tour of European base commissaries and found (gasp!) French and German cheeses in the delis? Obviously, Kraft ought to be good enough for us. Or how Ron Dellums forced the AAFES package stores in Europe to stock California wines, never mind how perfectly good European stuff was available, without the cost of shipping it? How about how the BX at Mather AFB couldn't stock major appliances like refrigerators and microwaves in the early 1980s, because the local merchants would squawk to their pet local politicians? Oh, the nerve of those enlisted peons, wanting to avoid paying through the nose on the local economy.
OTO - nothing beat Department of Ag surplus cheddar for making mac and cheese. Great stuff - the commissary used to have it for 50 cents a pound.
#1
"Equal Opportunity [sic] Commission CEO Dr Helen Szoke said males had "been the big success story in business and goods and services".
"Clearly, they will have their position changed because they will be competing in a different way with these people who have been traditionally marginalised," she said.
"Let's open it up so everyone can have a fair go.""
...and all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
#2
"Let's open it up so everyone can have a fair go."
Uh, if white men are discriminated against, how can you say "everyone can have a fair go"?
If you're going to discriminate, at least be honest about it: "fair" outcomes, not fair opportunities. Though guaranteed outcomes is a mighty slippery slope.
#7
Victoria's peak business body expressed concern yesterday about the need for the proposed laws, and questioned if they would undermine the right of companies to make legitimate business decisions
Didn't stop lawmakers in the States. But then again, look where many of the businesses are today.
#11
Why agree use a phrase like 'affirmative action'? To do so is to give tacit approval to the Orwellian Newspeak. 'State sanctioned discrimination' is better.
#16
Right, Bulldog. But it gets seriously Orwellian when employers say they are "Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action" employers. They say it with a straight face too. Boggles my poor, old, feeble, white mind.
Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei, says five years of US and international efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions are a failure. He told the Los Angeles Times Sat. Dec. 6: "We haven't moved one inch toward addressing the issues."
DEBKAfile's political sources: ElBaradei's words are the answer to president George W. Bush's reiteration Friday in a summing-up of his foreign policy record that the US would not allow Iran to develop an atomic weapon.
The UN official bluntly marked the sanctions-incentives policy "a failure."
The same mark automatically applies to Israel's leaders and their dogged reliance on the international community to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons -- a line favored by president Shimon Peres, ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon, incumbent Ehud Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and defense minister Ehud Barak.
The IAEA director stressed: "Tehran continues to acquire nuclear technology and stockpiling sensitive material" after three sets of international sanctions and the US-European offer of economic and security incentives.
In retrospect, the sanctions may have led to "more hardening of the position of Iran," ElBaradei said. "Many Iranians who even dislike the regime [are] gathering around the regime because they feel that their country is under siege."
Nonetheless, Israel's government leaders stick to the demand for more sanctions in the face of the IAEA director's confirmation that this course has got exactly nowhere (as argued for years in DEBKAfile analyses).
CHICAGO (Dec. 8) - President-elect Barack Obama is weighing in on behalf of workers staging a sit-in on the factory floor of their former Chicago employer to protest abruptly losing their jobs last week. They had no WARNING I tell you, clueless! The death of the housing boom and downturn in orders and production, empty shipping dock, etc, totally escaped the window and door people did it?
Obama told a news conference Sunday that Republic Windows and Doors should follow through on its commitments to the 200 workers, who say they won't leave the plant until they are assured they'll receive their severance and vacation pay.
"The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they're absolutely right and understand that what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy," Obama said. And when one of terminated employees is injured in the plant and the insurance company says, NO CAN DO to medical coverage and damages, what then Messiah?
He's gonna be a busy young man getting in the middle of all of these closings, very, very busy young man.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also said her office was investigating the evil, evil, spit, spit, evil company, which has not commented on the sit-in. To their amazement, the workers have become a national symbol of stupidity for thousands of employees laid off nationwide as the economy continues to sour.
"We never expected this," said Melvin Maclin, a factory employee and vice president of the local union that represents the workers. "We expected to go to jail." No sir'ee, didn't see it a comin. Just been enjoying the hell out of these 8 hour coffee breaks.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered turkeys, pledging the support of his Chicago-based civil rights group, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. "These workers deserve their wages, deserve fair notice, deserve health security," Jackson said. "This may be the beginning of long struggle of worker resistance finally." A workers revolution? How very communist.
Leah Fried, an organizer for the United Electrical Workers union that represents the workers, said the company told the union that Bank of America has canceled its financing. The bank had said in a statement that it wasn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees. Remember donks, trickle-down bailouts economics, it just don't work! Big Amish bank owners, presidents and board members took their share of the bailout money first did they? Sorry, must have slipped by the gummit oversight police.
One of the factory's workers, Silvia Mazon, said in Spanish that she needs the money owed to her for an $1,800 monthly house payment. The 40-year-old from Cicero said she has enough money saved to survive for one month. "We're making history," she said. Better be 'making' tracks to a new job or a warmer climate.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, called it the start of a movement. "This story has resonated around the world," she said. "Movement" as in industry continuing to move OUT OF ILLINOIS as it has been for the past 45 years.
#1
The company is caught between laws which require it give notice and pay severence and its available funds. As I understand it, Republic had a line of credit with its bank, which would have normally allowed it to continue operations, but that bank was taken over by Bank of America, who found that Republic did not meet its (new?) credit-worthiness requirements, so it rescinded the line of credit. And may have even put a hold on existing cash balance of Republic, to protect its (Bank of America) other loans out to Republic. What that tells me is that in reality Republic is bankrupt and this sit-in cannot accomplish anything. On the other hand, the feds may require that Bank of America pass along some of that magic bailout money to Republic to pay its former employees, regardless of whether such a loan makes business sense. Where have we seen that kind of banking practice before?
#2
"...and understand that what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy," Obama said."
If Obama is making a comparison to the Detroit-Three Auto Makers he has a valid point. As a company, Republic Windows has been poorly run, went through bankruptcy and restructuring, and still couldnt get its shit together. They were unable to fulfill their Dealer obligations and unwilling to honor their warranties. When manufactured correctly their products are average at best. However, they have a high rate of defective products coming right out of the chute. Oddly, Republic is marketed as a Premium product line and therefore overpriced. Oh yeah, their customer service sucks too. Soooo a Union shop that is poorly managed, produces a substandard product, and has over-priced itself out of market share hmmm yep its reflective of this economy all right. But somehow I dont think thats what he meant.
#3
"One of the factory's workers, Silvia Mazon, said in Spanish"
Yeah, DepotGuy, think there's any correlation? Another ripoff, slipshod operation that should have been gone long ago.
Let's quit being such assholes. Put American workers to work. If you pay more, so be it. Maybe it will actually work. You just buy less. Purchase only what you need, not so much junk that you have to get a rental unit to store the excess. By deporting these illegals, state and local governments could easily reduce outlays by 40% over night. Maybe they could even run balanced budgets. There's a LOT of reality checks needed to get back on an even keel. Until that happens, going to be some tough times ahead.
#5
The economy won't get better until the US reestablishes a sane trade and tariff policy. Until then, the US will keep merging our economy with the poorest economies of the world that money men can outsource to.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 13:17
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#6
US will keep merging our economy with the poorest economies of the world that money men can outsource to.
You mean like Hank "Goldman Sachs" Paulson, clients of Kissinger and Associates, Tim "Yes I also speak Chinese" Ginther, and the like?
#1
Correctly me if I'm wrong, but the Swiss are required to maintain their 'militia' issued weapon [modern semi-automatic] and a basic load of ammunition in their abode.
#2
Actually, for males between 18-45 I think, they're weapon is fully automatic. Women get the choice on keeping a semi-auto or automatic if they choose.
#3
I personaly think every able bodied person should be REQUIRED to carry, perhaps we could get the Army to issue a .45 and two loaded clips and require weapons training.
(Best at a military base nearby)
Shortly the thugs and dopers will all be dead, killed by their fellow thugs and dopers.
Mind you this is a minimum, you can buy whatever you can handle. 12 gage pump comes to mind.
Require records kept on who got what (Numbered) gun, with very severe penalties for having someone's issued gun but yours.
Run out of ammo or your gun is stolen, report to your nearest Mil Base or police dept at once. they'll take your report, issue another and ammo. and woe be the person who commits a robbery with his or your gun, his gun, shoot on sight, your gun, hunt down and shoot on sight.
The first few weks will be lively, especially in places like Chicago and DC, but it should die down (Pun intended) and the whole country will be safer.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/08/2008 12:10
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#4
Spend a week in Hawaii, Jim, and you might change your mind about arming everyone. Just check out the way they drive and extrapolate to handling firearms.
"Wa' fo "safety", Bro?"
#5
Rednek Jim: The Kennesaw model is a good one, but especially because there are no penalties for not carrying.
The rationale is simple: while society should desire an armed citizenry, a goodly percentage of the citizenry know that they are unable to be armed, without being a danger to those around them. Call it an "incompetence exemption".
This can be anything from arthritis to being a stumble bum, and knowing it. Then, of course, the odd exception, such as one guy I knew who abhorred guns because he was a master knife fighter. For him, guns were just a hunk of metal that got in the way.
As far as England goes, they need a well funded and persistent pro-gun lobbying organization with a 20 year plan to restore gun rights incrementally.
#6
Y'all seem to have missed the part about getting training at the closest Mil Base.
I'm not forcing folks to use only a gun, the Knife expert can be issued a "Permit" to be "Unarmed" (So to speak)or just let him throw it in a drawer.
I for one would rather whoever be armed with whatever they can use best Whatever it is, the pistol is meant as a minimum., you want to use a UZI? Qualify and all OK, no "Spray and Pray".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/08/2008 15:34
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#7
Only 99 years ago in Merrie Old England: "n January 1909 two anarchists, lately come from an attempt to blow up the president of France, tried to commit a robbery in north London, armed with automatic pistols. Edwardian Londoners, however, shot back and the anarchists were pursued through the streets by a spontaneous hue-and-cry. The police, who could not find the key to their own gun cupboard, borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by, while other citizens armed with revolvers and shotguns preferred to use their weapons themselves to bring the assailants down."
The iconic black and white keffiyeh, or Arab headdress, famously donned by late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat has hit the streets of Beirut in a rainbow of colours -- much to the chagrin of older Palestinians. Stylish youngsters, both men and women, can be seen in the city's chic cafes and restaurants sporting red, blue, pink, brown and purple versions of the keffiyeh. Western and Arab tourists are also snapping up the hip item.
The trend, however, is seen by many here as an insult to a symbol traditionally linked to the Palestinian cause. "These colours aren't for us... it's nonsense, it's a fashion show," said Salim Ali Kayd, 74, who has been a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon since 1948, when Israel was created. "The keffiyeh stands for a person's honour and manhood. It was a rite of passage to wear one upon reaching the age of 18," he added explaining the customs of his generation.
Others like him living in the narrow alleyways of the Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut are also upset that their national symbol has become a fad. "Yasser Arafat used to wear it for a reason. It means something," said Kalthoum Ghandour, a 45-year-old Palestinian doctor living in Lebanon. "It was what the revolutionaries wore to conceal their identity," she added. "This is our revolution, our symbol. This trend distorts our heritage." "A noble heritage such as ours must never be distorted!"
Shops in Beirut's diverse Christian and Muslim neighbourhoods are selling the bright-coloured items imported from Syria, Thailand and China. A backlash against the trend has spread to college campuses in Lebanon, where Facebook groups have sprung up called "Palestinian scarf: Understand it or don't bother wearing it!" and "I refuse to let the keffiyeh become a high fashion statement".
This is not the first time the keffiyeh has been co-opted by others. The garment has come in and out of fashion, with youths in the 1960s and 1970s wearing it as a sign of revolt or sympathy with the Palestinian cause. The scarf has also become a signature item for anti-Western anti-war activists. While the latest trend may be more accessory and less ideology -- the keffiyeh's powerful symbolism continues to resonate, and not only among Palestinians.
The issue grabbed headlines in recent months when the Dunkin' Donuts chain came under fire for an online ad that featured an American celebrity chef wearing a paisley patterned scarf that some mistook for a keffiyeh. The ad was pulled after a conservative US commentator complained that it promoted jihad.
The US clothing store Urban Outfitters this year also stopped selling coloured versions of the keffiyeh because of controversy. "They used to wear it around their necks and now they are wearing it around their waists. What's next?," said Haitham, 28, a Palestinian refugee who did not reveal his last name. "Snot rags? Baby wipes??"
Dana, 25, said she recently purchased a blue version of the keffiyeh and maintains that the garment carries no political symbolism. "I used to wear the white one when I would go to protests in college," she said. "These ones are a pure fashion statement. "I got the blue colour because my eyes are blue," added Dana, who did not want her last named used. "Nonetheless people who hate Palestinians shouldn't wear them."
Some young Palestinians, however, are proud to see the craze gather steam. "I have about 10 of them... The keffiyeh belongs to us no matter its colour. I am happy they have become popular," said Ahmed el-Hassan, 22.
Keffiyehs are hard to come by in Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps that house an estimated 400,000 refugees. They cost on average five dollars but some high-end designers in Lebanon are selling them for over 100 dollars. "The original one was white and black," el-Hassan said. "These might be copies but they're still called keffiyeh which represents Palestine's heritage."
#1
The military are afraid to use 'death ray' devices because of the potential negative press. But nobody is standing up for the Somali pirates, so why not try it out on them?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/08/2008 8:02
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#2
Because they deserve nothing better than cold steel with a whiff of high explosives.
#4
Yes, use a $50 million on a $5000 dinghy. That is cost effective. And that little little treaty banning blinding lasers.
I also have an idea with directed energy weapons. I call it the lead laser. Comes in all calibers and reasonable prices.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 12:43
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#5
I call it the lead laser
Quantum mechanically speaking, this is simply a particle beam with *extremely* short wavelength. Hard to beat lead and powder when it comes to bang-for-the-buck.
As for blinding lasers, I don't think it counts as blinding if the target is totally vaporized.
#6
A human target cannot be "vaporized" ala STAR TREK, etc. unless his local/area EM fields are first contained and isolated for him to "cook" at the molecular=and-lower level - widout it, at best you're just burning a nasty scraggly hole thru the body, a kindler gentler linear glorified flamethrower.
#7
Does this guy kill spiders with a sledge hammer? The Somali pirates are a bunch of guys with AK-47's and RPG's in a speed boat. A few rounds from a deck machine gun or a couple of shots from a small caliber deck cannon and they're toast.
#8
A-10s on the high seas. I'm sure there are plenty of A-10 jockeys that have the capability of throttling back and sawing even a rubber dinghy in half. Personally, I'm still in favor of an AC-130 using the four miniguns in close alignment. Neither choice is particularly cost-effective, but seeing the aftermath (if there's anything left afterwards) might convince a few people that raising cobras would be a more profitable and safe occupation.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/08/2008 23:28
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POLLUTION is damaging the "basic male tool kit", threatening the future of the male gender, according to new research.
A report released today by the charity CHEM Trust shows that male fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have been harmed by man-made chemicals in the environment.
"These findings add to mounting worries about the role of hormone-disrupting or so-called gender-bending' chemicals in the environment and the implications for human health," said charity CHEM Trust.
In mammals, genital disruption in males had been widely reported including: intersex features, small penis and testes, undescended testes; abnormal testes; or ambiguous genitals.
The report, which draws on more than 250 scientific studies from around the world, concentrates mainly on wildlife, identifying effects in a range of species.
"Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment.
"Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans," the report concludes.
#2
Or it could be the result of policies that enact practices that undermine natural selection. The cultural push for a static environment which does not press upon its inhabitants, regardless of species, to adapt to change will result in a flatting of variation and subsequently the many allied 'aspects' that separate successful progenitors.
That explains a lot about Western politics in the last generation.
So, you think there's a possible corollary with the ratification of the 19th Amendment and this? [duck and cover] :)
#5
Oh Boo Hoo Hoo, Gimme a Billion Bucks and I'll see if anything can be done.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/08/2008 12:17
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#6
Hermaphroditic freaks have been a part of nature for as long as anyone's been paying attention. A brief perusal of Roman portent records will show you *that*. This 'report'? Chowderheaded grant-mongering FUD.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/08/2008 12:40
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#7
Mitch, it's not that hermaphrodites and sexual abnormalities exist, but what is their frequency distribution over time? The data doesn't exist until, maybe, recently.
It is known that exposure to sex hormones and analogues can even change the sex in some test species. It is not a stretch, otherwise animal modeling of human diseases has been a terrible mistake, to think that human fetuses are also affected. What is known is that post WW2, industrialized nations' male sperm counts have been halved and synthetic female hormones and analogues (e.g. plasticizers) have seen widespread entry into our environment. To think that it only affects sperm counts and not other physical parameters and especially behaviors, I think is a bit of a stretch.
In the mean time, it is prudent to avoid plastic containers. Especially the soft ones that get heated (e.g. frozen food trays, drink bottles, cheap food containers, plastic baby bottles) and more easily release additives.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 13:00
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#8
Scientific proof of scripture? This Bible passage from Isaiah came to mind:
"Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every mans heart will melt.
Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the LORD is cominga cruel day, with wrath and fierce angerto make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir."
The Hebrew word translated 'man' means specifically 'young men' and their judgment seems to be directed at their manhood, but the pollution from burning Kuwaiti oil wells and terror regional young males inspire also seems to fit the prophecy. In other words, women may very well rule the world some day.
#10
Although the Telegraph story didn't say it, many researchers in this field believe that the principle source of this gender impact pollution is birth control pills.
Taking these pills makes women's wastes contain a realtively high amount of estrogen and progesterone. Current sewage treatment does not destroy these hormones and the solids from sewage treatment plants are used as soil enrichment for agriculture in many countries.
#11
And then, as I have said many times from the pulpit....there is the dreaded run-off which is
injested by Green Monkeys and creates HIV. It's a Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline plot I tell you, a genocidal plot!
Posted by: J. Wright ||
12/08/2008 16:07
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#12
Pollution by hormones (such as oral contraceptives --> urine --> water supply) and by artificial chemicals that mimic hormones (such as some plastics) really are a serious issue with unprecedented impacts.
I have a relative who's a developmental geneticist. She's been tracking this for a while now and is deeply concerned.
#14
I think any resin-activated carbon filter would work ($20). At home, my drinking water uses a 3 stage reverse osmosis filter (sediment, RO, activated carbon, $300).
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 18:41
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#15
Guys - remember to wear your hazmat suit next time you visit San Francisco.
Posted by: Herb Glock6932 ||
12/08/2008 21:29
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#16
SO-o-o IOW, when those RAMPAGING ASIAN GIRL GANGS RANTED THAT POST 9-11 OWG-NWO = GLOBAL SOCIALISM-WELFARISM WAS FOR THEM, i.e. "NO MEN ALLOWED", SCIENCE HAS DISCOVERED THE MATH/
PROOFS!?
* JURASSIC PARK > the alleged TIGHTLY CONTROLLED AND MONITORED, GENETIC ENGINEERED, ALL-FEMALE DINOS are not only having [lesbo?]sex, but getting preggers and having kiddies.
You can just feel the "FASCISTS = LIMITED COMMUNISM, ETC. BUT ONLY COMMUNISTS ARE TRUE COMMUNISTS, ETC." BON-FIDE UNITARIANISM + EQUALISM, CAN'T YE!?
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, "FASCIST ARROGANT MALE BRUTES" = LIMITED MOTHERLINESS!
CARTOON characters are people too, a judge has ruled in the case of a man convicted over sexually explicit cartoons based on The Simpsons.
In the New South Wales Supreme Court today, Justice Michael Adams ruled that a fictional cartoon character was a "person" within the meaning of the relevant state and commonwealth laws. Alan John McEwan was appealing his February conviction for possessing child pornography and using his computer to access child pornography.
"The alleged pornography comprised a series of cartoons depicting figures modelled on members of the television animated series The Simpsons," the judge said.
The cartoons showed characters such as Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson having sex. McEwan was convicted and fined $3000 and placed on a good behaviour bond.
"In my view, the magistrate was correct in determining that, in respect of both the commonwealth and the NSW offences, the word 'person' included fictional or imaginary characters ...," the judge said. "... The mere fact that the figure depicted departed from a realistic representation in some respects of a human being did not mean that such a figure was not a 'person'."
In dismissing the appeal, the judge ordered each party to pay its own legal costs in the first case dealing with the "difficult" issue
#1
The SCOTUS had the right idea in punting on this one, and declaring that cartoons were not people, despite Jessica Rabbit. It was made clear to them from the start that "When stick figure p*rn is outlawed, only obtuse angles will have s*x."
#2
How do you 'card' a cartoon?
What about a cartoon that is 17? Would that be statutory cartoon rape? Sexual misconduct with a cartoon?
Silly-ass judges.
#8
I jes' KNEW that Popeye and Olive Oyl were gettin it on behind Wimpy's back ( "Is that Really a can of spinach in your pocket or are you glad to see me?")
#3
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/08/2008 8:33
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#6
The Oxford English Dictionary is a pile of crap anyway - relying on publicity stunts like this one to raise the series' profile a couple of times every year. Chambers Dictionary is far better.
#7
They dropped words like 'fern' and 'moss'? In favor of bullshyte like 'chronological' and 'interdependence'? Screw the political crap, this is grounds for mass firings. Sack them en masse!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/08/2008 12:22
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New figures show that the economic crisis has pushed Britain well down the international league table. The UK is now the sixth largest economy in the world, behind America, Japan, China, Germany and France.
Economists said the fall reflected the pound's slump to record lows against the euro.
A year ago the UK economy was 8 per cent bigger than that of France, measured by gross domestic product (GDP). Now it is 14 per cent smaller, according to figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
"An overvalued sterling has inflated the UK's claims to be among the top five world economies," said Ben Read, an economist with the CEBR. "The drastic reduction in sterling's value has accelerated the inevitable process of the UK falling down the league table of world economies, as India and Brazil catch up and overtake the UK's national output.
"Where the UK's comparative output 'benefited' from sterling's rapid rise up to 2007, we now see the UK overtaken by France, despite both countries seeing a fairly similar economic performance over the past year."
At present Britain's GDP is 6 per cent bigger than that of Italy. But according to CEBR, it will drop below Italy's next year.
Britain became a bigger economy than Italy in the final months of John Major's government in 1997 and two years later became a bigger economy than France, thanks to strong British growth and a high pound. For most of Tony Blair's time as prime minister, Britain's was the fourth largest economy in the world, before China overtook it in 2006.
#1
And exchange fluctuations mean little. The CIA factbook has had the UK and France equal in total purchasing power parity for the last several years w/ the British 7% ahead in per capita PPP. Either way, they are so overtaxed, whatever money left over buys little.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 12:20
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#2
Okay, I'll bite, when is the New York Mafia Commission going to take over BELDERLAND [Belgium-Netherlands], etc. in righteous Mariah Carey indignation???
Aswat al-Iraq: A wife of an al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader, along with two of her sisters, was killed in an explosion that tore through a house in Diala's Balad Rouz district, according to a local security source. "An improvised explosive device (IED) detonated inside a house of an al-Qaeda leader in Balad Rouz district (45 km east of Diala), killing his wife and two of her sisters," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. The AQI leader was not inside the house at the time of the blast, the source added, providing no further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
A sign from God, perhaps? Probably not if you're a terrorist.
President-elect Barack Obama has warned that "things are going to get worse before they get better" as he outlined details of an economic stimulus package that could reach $1 trillion and is designed to lift the United States out of recession.
On Friday the US announced a net loss of more than half a million jobs in November, the largest drop in a single month for 34 years and bringing unemployment to 6.7 per cent. The following day, Mr Obama announced the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight Eisenhower created the US highway system in the 1950s. He proposed government programmes for bridges, roads, ...
... so that gas-guzzling Detroit dinosaurs can drive through minority neighborhoods more quickly ...
... broadband internet ...
... because we don't yet have that in our country ...
... and schools ...
...because it's all about the children ...
... as well as plans for greater energy efficiency and health spending.
Here comes ObamaCare ...
Although he played down expectation for a quick economic recovery, Mr Obama said his plan was "equal to the task" that the US faced. "The key is making sure we jump-start the economy in a way that doesn't just deal with the short term, doesn't just create jobs immediately, but also puts us on a glide path for long-term sustainable economic growth," he said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press".
Stronger financial regulations would make banks, credit ratings agencies, mortgage brokers and others "much more accountable and behave much more responsibly".
Oh, so he's going to rein in Fannie and Freddie? Wonder if Barney Franks knows ...
He emphasised that the survival of the domestic car industry was crucial but any bailout must be "conditioned on an auto industry emerging at the end of the process that actually works".
Whatever that means, and I don't think even he knows ...
The president-elect criticized Detroit's Big Three car manufacturers for "repeated strategic mistakes" and a "failure to adapt to changing times -- building small cars and energy-efficient cars".
Did he say anything about the labor contracts?
He added, however: "The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing. It is a huge employer across many states. Millions of people, directly or indirectly, are reliant on that industry, and so I don't think it's an option to simply allow it to collapse."
Noting the US budget deficit might exceed $1,000bn (785bn) even before his campaign promises and new spending plans were taken into account, factored in, Mr Obama said: "We understand that we've got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilised. And that means that we can't worry short term about the deficit. We've got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving."
Mr Obama has not to put a full cost on his plan but his advisers estimate it will be more than $700 billion and could even top to $1 trillion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2008
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#1
So how much of OUR money is he giving ME?
Why do I suspect NONE?
#2
Yep, the highway bills in the last few cycles were infamously niggardly. (take note, DC "government" employees, you can't use this word)
And schools have been practically starved for funding, except that they've sorta been buried in gigantic oceans of money for years now.
And surely we can get our % of GDP spent on "health care" up to 50%, just to see what happens. What the hell.
Oh, and we're gonna put the economy on a "glide path" for sustainable growth. Uh huh. Like he would have the slightest idea what that might mean - sound currency and monetary policy, lowest taxation possible, minimal regulation possible, free trade, capital markets where risk is real, and not just present if you can't shake down Washington for a bail-out, and companies freed of absurd and unsustainable pension and medical obligations to unions.
Nope. This genius has an alternative. Electric cars and ditch-digging for Uncle Sam.
Would a Buggy-Whip maker would be considerd one of the thousands of "Green-Collar" jobs "created" by the Federal Goverment according to the Pelosi/Obama regime?
#9
Let's cut out the middle man and start importing ZimBob dollars wholesale. What? The whole purpose of government is the middleman?
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 13:13
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#10
Message for The One:
Once upon a time, a young lad was born without a belly button. In its place was a silver screw.
All the doctors told his mother that there was nothing they could do.Like it or not, he was stuck with it ..... He was screwed.
All the years of growing up were real tough on him, as all who saw the screw made fun of him. He avoided ever leaving his house.... And thus,never made any friends.
One day,a mysterious stranger saw his belly and told him of a swami in Tibet who could get rid of the screw for him. He was thrilled. The next day, he took all of his life's savings and bought a ticket to Nepal.
After several days of climbing up steep cliffs, he came upon a giant monastery. The swami knew exactly why he had come. The screwy guy was told to sleep in the highest tower of the monastery and the following day when he awoke, the screw would have been removed. The man immediately went to the room and fell asleep.
During the night while he slept, a purple fog floated in an open window. In the mist floated a solid silver screwdriver. In just moments, the screwdriver removed the screw and disappeared out the window.
The next morning when the man awoke, he saw the silver screw laying on the pillow next to him. Reaching down, he felt his navel, and there was no screw there! Jubilant,he leaped out of bed ....... And his butt fell off.
The moral to this is: 'Don't screw around with things you don't understand --You could lose your ass.'
Aswat al-Iraq: More than 34,000 security personnel will participate in a security plan in Najaf city during the Eidul-Adha, or the Greater Bairam. "The plan aims to protect visitors to Najaf on the occasion of Eidul-Adha," Najaf's police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdelkareem al-Ameri, said during a press conference today. "A large number of visitors, which may reach one million, will arrive in the city during the Eid holiday," the police chief added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#13
There once was a man from Boston,
Who bought hinself an Austin,
He had room for his ass,
And a gallon of gas,
But his balls hung out,
And he lost'em
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/08/2008 15:07
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#14
Dorothea Wieck to start off Dorothy Week! Ima lovin' it. Will we get to see her little dog Toto too?
#15
Swiss actress Dorothea Wieck (1908-1986) became a major star and a le$bian idol with her role as the adored teacher Fräulein von Bernburg in the German classic Mädchen in Uniform. She made more than fifty films, but she was also a prominent stage actress of the Deutsche Theater, the Schillertheater and other main theatres in Berlin.
International Success
Her breakthrough followed with the talkies where she had an international success with Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan). First the le$bian themed film was banned when released in the United States, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the importance of the movie and the ban was lifted. Later in Germany the Nazi regime tried to burn all the copies of the film, but they couldn't.
Eleanor Roosevelt, championing le$bian films?
Calm down guys, Dorothea left Hollywood and returned to Germany where she married into a noble family.
Taliban militants launched a pre-dawn raid on NATO terminals in Pakistan Sunday, torching nearly 160 supply trucks and other vehicles destined for troops in Afghanistan, police said.
About 250 heavily armed militants attacked two major terminals in the northwestern city of Peshawar, disarming security guards before dousing the trucks in petrol and setting them alight.
One guard was killed in the audacious attack, which also destroyed two armored vehicles, two fire engines, ammunition containers and 89 jeeps meant for international troops in Afghanistan.
Police described the attack, on three different locations in the city, as the biggest of its kind so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#3
Police officer Qamar said the number of guards at the terminal had been increased in the wake of the earlier attack, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of militants.
#6
Pakistan has reportedly warning that, iff India unilater attacks and sends troops into Pakistani territory in response to MUMBAI, it will give arms to local Taliban and other Islamist Militant Groups to fight agz the Indian invader???
Voter turnout in Ghana's presidential polls has been high as Ghanaians voted for a successor to the incumbent President John Kufuor.
"Voter turnout is going to be very high. I should expect a higher number than we saw in the last elections because I could see this one is very competitive," Electoral Commission Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said. Turnout in the last 2004 election was a record 85%.
An estimated 12.4 million registered voters - roughly half the country's whole population - are voting for a candidate to succeed President John Kufuor, who is stepping down after two terms as required by law, The Associated Press reported.
Although eight names are on the ballot, the race is really between Kufuor's chosen successor, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and opposition leader John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Iranian students held a protest Sunday at Tehran University calling for freedom and denouncing the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a pro-reform student group said. The protest amid heavy security was organized by the radical pro-reform Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) student group to mark National Student Day.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Yawn. Notify me when they have his head on a pike.
Defeated US Presidential Candidate John McCain says India will attack Pakistan if it fails to act against those involved in the Mumbai raids. McCain, who is on a two-day visit to Pakistan, outspokenly told a group of reporters in Pakistan's Lahore that Indian Premier Manmohan Singh was visibly angry about the killings and damage to property in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
"The democratic government of India is under pressure and it will be a matter of days after they have given the evidence to Pakistan to use the option of force if Islamabad fails to act against the terrorists," Pakistan's Daily Times quoted him, as saying on Sunday.
The Arizona Senator stressed that if Pakistan does not do anything to find and arrest the 'bad guys', India will have no option but to use force.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
She warned that the "US will act if Pakistan did not".
I'ma wondering what, exactly, Condie meant by that.
#3
Not too long ago, I was told by an Indian military type that India regards Pakistan as an "annoying gnat". This is actually a good thing, because India has no designs at all on capturing anything Pakistani. Any war will be up to Pakistan to start, and India to finish.
The US then becomes the critical player, because it makes it abundantly clear to both sides that nuclear weapons will not be used.
This sets the stage for them both to have a little blow off, with their warmongers having at each other for a while.
#4
The problem with the US threatening retaliation for the launch of nukes is that, hey, you have to actually back it up with action when the Pakis launch (or attempt to) anyway. Which makes you the "bad guy" somehow, trust me. I'm not really clear on the thought processes of suicidal Islamic idiots, sorry.
#5
Restrain assumes control. I don't have confidence in the Pakistani ability to control all of its forces given a legitimate threat to their heartland. I don't have confidence in their ability to keep a full-scale conventional war, well, conventional.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/08/2008 12:14
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#6
From Fox:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan DEVELOPING: Pakistan's military says operations against militants are under way following the Mumbai attacks.
A military statement released late Monday says the operations are "intelligence-led" and target banned militant organizations.
It says arrests have been made, but gives no more details.
It is not clear whether the operations detailed in the statement include a raid on Sunday that targeted a camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for plotting and carrying out last month's attacks on Mumbai.
#8
Pragmatically, wid RUSSIA realigning and deploying new milfors to its own CAUCASIA-SOUTH, + CHINA doing same to its West and South vee the UIGHURS, TIBET, MYANMAR, TRI-NATION LOC,etc, basically it leaves attacking INDIA + SOUTHEAST ASIA as Radical Islam's singular "best option/choice" amongst RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA in the near term. NUCLEAR INDIA > viewed as the weakest of "ASIA'S BIG 3" wid a host of differentiated Militant-Terror-Anarchist Groups already well-established domestically.
ISLAMIST IRAN > essens a strategic, PCorrect
"BLOCK/ANCHOR" on one end, wid Radical Islam counting on normal "GREAT POWER" GEOPOLITICS = MILPOL CONFRONTATIONISM on the other end, to keep the US-Allies at bay.
The United States will deploy the first of its new forces arriving in Afghanistan next year around Kabul, a US general said Sunday, reflecting fears the Afghan capital is increasingly under threat. About 4,000 of the additional troops the US is expected to send to Afghanistan will be deployed around the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
No surprise here. There have been several threats especially since several places have been attacked on the Pakistan border recently.
Posted by: Oscar Thineter5429 ||
12/08/2008 15:49
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Complete peace would be restored in Bajaur and Mohmand by the end of the month and foreign militants would be flushed out of the areas, said Frontier Constabulary (FC) Inspector General Tariq Khan on Sunday. The FC official told a private TV channel that there were more than 300 foreign militants in the two tribal agencies. "The military operation would continue till the total ouster of the foreign militants," he said, adding that foreign militants were involved in most of the terrorist attacks across the country. He, however, said that military operations alone were not a solution to terrorism and extremism, and called for a 'social, economic solution' to the problems. He also appealed to tribal elders not to shelter foreign militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Pakistan suspends a supply line to NATO forces in Afghanistan after the Taliban burned into ashes about 150 NATO trucks in north-west Pakistan.
The decision came just hours after a logistics terminal in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, where dozens of trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked, was attacked by insurgents on Sunday. More than 300 Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles burned down the logitics terminal.
Earlier in November Pakistan suspended traffic through the Khyber road -connecting Pakistan to Afghanistan- for several days after Taliban-linked militants hijacked more than a dozen trucks on the their way to Afghanistan.
The Khyber road from Pakistan's Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces fighting against the Taliban insurgents. There have been a series of attacks on US and NATO convoys recently - although not on this scale.
Sunday's raid is being described by many security experts in the region as the most serious of such recent attacks. It has fueled concerns that Taliban insurgents are tightening their hold in Pakistan's tribal belt and could choke the supply route.
The al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants holed up in the volatile north-west Pakistan have threatened to cut the supply line if US forces in Afghanistan continue strikes on their hideouts.
The move would greatly hamper the operations of the US-led forces against the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, experts say. More than 70,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the US military are stationed in Afghanistan where the Taliban has made a come back since 2005.
Pakistan's tribal areas are seen as a safe haven for Taliban militants, after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
This could get very interesting, methinks.
Anyone here an off-the-shelf expert on our LOC into Afghanistan, and what interruption or complication of the Pakistan route in question might mean?
Alternative route? How much comes straight up through Baluchistan, if any? In extremis, might we "secure" an alternate route, and what sort of fun might that imply?
#5
I think about 80% of US/NATO supplies come through the Khyber Pass, 10% through Russian railroads, through the Stans and in through the North, and 10% Gwadar-Quetta-Kandahar.
This Strategy Page piece says it's 75% through Khyber, and that negotiations are underway to move large tonnages on the Trans-Siberian RR. From the looks of it, the Strategy Page bot harvested that info from this WaPo article.
#6
#4 So, how many Indian divisions would it take to maintain the LOC? Posted by: Procopius2k
Before or after the US puts a major hurt on the Pakistanis, P2K? The US should take out the Pak nukes, break a LOT of heads in Islamabad, and totally crush any large gatherings of Pakistani troops (more than six people in one place). Then Pakistan could be divided into two parts - India to the east, and Afghanistan to the west. That would unify the Pashtuns, which should please that group. It would give the Baluchis a bit of breathing room, which should please them. India would have all of Jammu & Kashmir, which should please them. Most of the madrassas would be either blasted to bits or quietly disbanded, which should allow the rest of the world to breathe a little easier. The market for fake Pakistani passports would dry up, which should help put a stop to a LOT of sh$$. ISI would disappear, which should bring the threat levels in about 20 countries down to acceptable levels. A lot of British indigents would have to make a major decision - accept British, Indian, or Afghanistani citizenship, or find themselves people wihtout a country. A group of people who have no idea how to run a modern government no longer have to worry about it. I see no drawbacks, personally.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/08/2008 12:58
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#7
Its coming down to Pakistan being dismembered. Its about as integral a nation as Yugoslavia was.
#8
But give the Paki govt one last shot: either they exert sovereignty in those tribal areas, or we will consider them to be unruled and lawless -- and therefore open to any measures we deem fit.
#9
It's the Russians who may tip the scales here, particularly if they get ham handed in squeezing supply lines through the former SSRs.
Old Spook, I wonder if Pakistan is even less coherent that Yugoslavia. Sure, the slavs were split three ways, or more, in confession, dialects, and ethnicity, but Marxism, under whatever variant, imposed a levelling misery across the board. The advantage of lifting that burden generally outweighed the return to more local prejudices - at least the rest of eastern europe indicates as much, while the yugo breakup ran the spectrum from relatively cordial to bad/near Rwandan.
I wonder how a Pak breakup would play out, beyond OP's outline - it seems India would reconstitute the Raj, which I suspect would be fine with many from the Punjabi and Sindh.
But the die hard leftovers really would be just that.
1. So far, no heavy duty response from the Mumbai attacks. So ISI elements and the other terrorists think that India is weak.
2. So some ISI geniuses think that since it is the end of the Bush presidency, that it would be an opportune time to disrupt the logistical flow of materiel to Afghanistan, as they figure that the President is not going to make waves this late in his term of office.
3. Despite big talk from the Big O, they figure that he will also do nothing or the minimum.
4. The Pak army will not go seriously into the tribal regions and deal with the terrorists.
5. The Pak army will not seriously challenge the ISI and clean it up.
So they figure that this is a perfect time to create mayhem and try to run us out of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2008 20:40
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#13
Another terminal attacked!
Suspected militants in the Pakistani city of Peshawar have attacked another terminal holding Nato-bound equipment, the second such attack in two days.
The attackers struck the terminal on the outskirts of the city, torching up to 50 vehicles.
On Sunday a guard was killed and more than 90 lorries were set on fire when 300 gunmen attacked the first terminal.
The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling the Taleban.
Lightly armed
Monday's attack took place just 2km from the scene of the first raid in the early hours of Sunday.
A security guard, Mohammad Zaman, told Reuters news agency that Monday's attackers "came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire".
"They told us they would not harm us, but they asked us not to work for the Americans," he said.
Terminals in Peshawar have only lightly armed guards who are deployed to tackle theft rather than insurgent raids.
But raids on terminals supplying US and Nato forces in Afghanistan are increasing.
The US played down Sunday's attack, saying the incident was "militarily insignificant".
But the BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says that with 300 lorries crossing the border each day, military officials will be deeply concerned that their supply line can be disrupted in this manner.
Witnesses said Sunday's attackers destroyed 96 flat trucks and six containers.
The manager of the depot, Kifyatullah Khan, told Associated Press: "They were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great) and Down With America."
Security along the road leading to the border has deteriorated this year with soldiers recently carrying out an offensive in the Khyber region to drive militants away from the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the north-west.
Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, which recently announced that it would pull its troops out of Somalia by the end of the year, said Saturday it could extend its deployment by "a few days." Ethiopia's hasty withdrawal plan had sowed panic among the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), whose peacekeepers are to take over security duties but need more preparation time.
"Ethiopia accepted it had a moral obligation to AMISOM and it would do whatever necessary to see that its withdrawal did not harm AMISOM," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "This did not imply any delay in withdrawal but might allow for some flexibility in terms of a few days, if necessary, but this would be for AMISOM to assess."
Ethiopia announced a week ago that it had deemed it "inappropriate" for its troops to remain in Somalia, citing notably a lack of progress in peace efforts and deep rifts within the interim government it came to prop up two years earlier.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union, a hard-line group which controled most of the country and was imposing a strict form of Sharia law. -
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
Is this a coincidence?
Or are the Ethiopians getting the heck outa Dodge before Bush leaves office?
Saudi Arabia's grand cleric on Sunday indicated that militants do not have any connection with Islam and called for the Muslim world to unite in the face of terrorism to preserve stability.
"Islam does not support terrorism in any form and strictly prohibits shedding blood of innocents," Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh said in his haj sermon at Nimra Mosque addressed to about three million pilgrims in Arafat.
"The world must criminalise terrorism... we must be cautious of terrorism and fight hostile criminal gangs that destroy countries and people," the grand mufti said, adding the family of Islam must "form a barrier in front of anyone who threatens its security and stability."
Sheikh said the global financial crisis stemmed from ignoring God's rules and allowing 'riba' or usury, prohibited in Islam.
"Today we watch as this financial crisis enfolds and some companies and banks go bankrupt. This is the result of ignoring God's rules," he said, adding, "Muslims must abide by God's rules, and build their economies accordingly."
Banks operating under Islamic rules avoid charging interest on loans and instead prefer shared ownership and splitting of profits.
Urging Muslim youth to strengthen their relationship with Islam, the grand mufti warned that 'some forces' were trying to change their thoughts.
"These forces are trying their best to unveil Muslim women, promote drugs in Muslim societies and misinterpret Islam's teachings to distance Muslims from their religion," he said, adding that practicing Islamic teachings was the only way for Muslims to succeed in this world and the hereafter.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
"Islam does not support terrorism in any form and strictly prohibits shedding blood of innocents," Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh..."
The problem is that Islam doesn't look at the infidel as "innocent."
On the other hand if the grand cleric had said that terrorists were infidels, or apostates, or perhaps guilty of shirk for elevating themselves to be partners with Allen... then it might have a bit of bite.
Sri Lankan troops have killed scores of Tamil Tiger rebels in the past few days and are within "kissing distance" of their political capital, the defence ministry said Sunday. Forces were moving towards the key town of Kilinochchi and inflicting high casualties on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the ministry said. "Troops are now positioned in kissing distances to the outer defence lines of the LTTE's administrative heartland and main garrison township," it said. The military "have caused great damages to LTTE leaving scores killed and as many injured during the past few days," the defence ministry said. It said troops found 11 bodies of Tiger cadres on Saturday. The ministry did not give details of its casualties, while there was no comment from the guerrillas. The LTTE has admitted losing ground to government troops but their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has vowed to fight on. The battle zone is inaccessible to journalists and aid workers, meaning claims and counter-claims about the fighting are impossible to verify. The guerrillas, who began their struggle for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972, are facing the Sri Lankan army's biggest-ever push to defeat the rebels militarily.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Zimbabwe's government has accused former colonial ruler Britain of using a cholera epidemic to rally Western support for an invasion of the collapsing southern African nation, a state-run newspaper said on Sunday.
The Brits can't defend the Falklands. How are they going to invade Zimbabwe?
President Robert Mugabe is under mounting pressure from the international community, especially Western nations which accuse him of ruining the once prosperous country and exposing its people to famine and disease. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has branded Mugabe's government a "blood-stained regime" and said it was responsible for the cholera epidemic that has killed at least 575 people. The world must tell Mugabe "enough is enough", he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday the veteran leader's departure from office was long overdue. "I don't know what this mad prime minister (Brown) is talking about. He is asking for an invasion of Zimbabwe ... but he will come unstuck," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told the state-controlled Sunday Mail. The growing Western criticism signalled a plot to oust Mugabe's government militarily, Charamba said.
The government often blames Britain and other Western nations for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, saying that targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle have sabotaged the economy. African nations are also growing more uncomfortable with Mugabe, though they still view the 84-year-old as a hero of Africa's liberation era. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Botswanan Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani have called for his removal, as has South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate.
Archbishop of York John Sentanu agreed but went further, writing in the Observer weekly that "Mugabe and his henchmen" should face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. "The time to remove them from power has come." Douglas Alexander, Britain's international development secretary, said on Sunday it was important that Africans led the opposition to Mugabe's government. "Now is the time for Africa to stand up and be counted. The old bonds of the liberation struggle must give way to the common bond of humanity," he said in a statement.
Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse. Food stocks are running out, unemployment is above 80 percent and prices double every 24 hours. The health system is in tatters, unable to treat many of those infected with cholera. The epidemic has forced Zimbabwe to declare a national emergency and appeal for foreign help. Britain is among European nations that have promised aid.
South Africa, Zimbabwe's richest neighbour, has also pledged aid and officials will assess the scale of the crisis on Monday. The European Union is considering imposing new sanctions against Zimbabwe next week unless progress is made in breaking the deadlock between Mugabe and the opposition MDC over how to implement a power-sharing deal.
Sanctions: Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed on September 15 to form a unity government, but are in dispute over control of key ministries. Charamba said Western sanctions, which Harare says are punishment for its seizure of white-owned farms, have made it harder to deal with health crises like the cholera outbreak.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
South Africa, Zimbabwe's richest neighbour, has also pledged aid ...propping up Mugabe's dictatorship for decades, but the tide of Zimbabweans crossing the border into SA has begun to impact the it's fragile economy and politics.
MUZAFFARABAD: An operation was launched by army personnel on the outskirts of the Azad Kashmir (AK) capital on Sunday, on a site housing some infrastructure currently used by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Jud), an organisation headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.
Sources said over 20 members of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), including its AK chief were arrested. The wanted LeT commander, Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi was also reportedly amongst those arrested.
But will they hand him over to India or will the ISI hide him?
More likely the ISI will have a feast in his honor ...
There were reports that such action has also been planned in major cities in the Punjab Province.
However, there was no official confirmation from the Interior Ministry or the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) on the crackdown, despite frequent requests by the media. Local police and civil administration officials were completely in the dark about the operation and did not hide their ignorance in this regard.
"We know nothing! Nothing! Tell them, Hogan!"
However, residents said that they saw army personnel taking control of the area along Shawai Nullah, some 5 kilometres northwest of Muzaffarabad, where JuD owns a sizeable piece of land and several buildings.
Earlier, before being the ban was imposed, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), founded by Hafiz Saeed, occupied this area.
'I saw an army helicopter hovering over the area and later at around 5 pm I heard two to three loud bangs,' a housewife told Dawn from the area by telephone.
Another witness said: 'The helicopter landed at one spot and may have airlifted the people detained or injured during the operation.' There were unconfirmed reports of an exchange of fire between the two sides.
The army personnel had also called ambulances from the city hospitals to the area, but witnesses said they returned without any casualties. According to witnesses, army personnel were also intercepting and checking public transport vehicles at Chehla Bandi, bound for the Neelum valley.
A JuD official denied any knowledge of an operation against the organisation.
This article starring:
Hafiz Saeed
Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi
Posted by: john frum ||
12/08/2008
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Indian police said Saturday that they are questioning two suspects accused of illegally purchasing cellphone cards that might have been used by the gunmen who carried out the attacks in Mumbai last month. The suspects, Tausif Rehman, 28, and Mukhtar Ahmed Sheik, 35, were arrested Friday night on allegations that they used forged documents to buy the cards, police said.
"We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai," Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of police in Kolkata, where the arrests were announced, told the Reuters news agency. SIM, or subscriber identity module, cards allow the transfer of data from one phone to another.
Mumbai police officials earlier traced some of the SIM cards used in the Mumbai attacks to West Bengal state, whose capital is Kolkata.
Police initially dismissed the notion that any domestic support network had been involved in the operation, which the Indian government says was carried out by a militant group based in Pakistan. But in the past three days, Indian officials have been trying to determine whether some Indians provided logistical help to the gunmen.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the attacks, which left more than 170 people dead and more than 230 injured.
Police said Rehman, who was arrested in Kolkata, allegedly supplied at least 22 cellphone cards to Sheik, who was arrested in New Delhi and is of Kashmiri origin. The two were remanded until Dec. 19.
"Thirteen such SIM cards were bought by Tausif, which were passed on to Sheik. Some of these cards were used by terrorists involved in the attack in Mumbai," the public prosecutor in Kolkata, S. Pathak, told the Press Trust of India.
However, a senior police official told the Associated Press that Sheik was part of a semiofficial counterinsurgency network and may have been on an undercover mission.
In Mumbai, Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said a diary found aboard a fishing trawler hijacked by the attackers provided proof "that there were only 10 gunmen on the boat." The diary named the 10 people and described each person's task -- some would watch out for the coast guard, others would cook, and others would steer the boat.
Maria said authorities were searching "for anyone here or elsewhere in India who might have aided the attackers."
This article starring:
Mukhtar Ahmed Sheik
Tausif Rehman
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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At least 13 people have been killed and many others injured as the rebel al-Shabaab fighters seized a central Somali trading town.
Al-Shabaab fighters took control of Gurael - 370 km (230 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu - following three days of bitter battles with a government-allied group in the area, locals said. The fighting broke out after al-Shabaab fighters arrested a local religious teacher of that group.
"Hey! Gitcher mitts off our holy man!"
"I have counted 10 dead men myself. Six died yesterday and four were lying in the paths of the deserted town this morning. It is now under control of al-Shabaab," one local resident, Ali Aden, told Reuters by telephone from the area.
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Gurael residents fled to the protection of nearby woods.
The capture of Gurael adds to the growing hold that al-Shabaab fighters have gained across south and central Somalia in a two-year insurgency against government and rebel forces. This is while al-Shabaab forces also took over the two central Somali towns of Mataban and Dhusamareeb on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Shoulda just shot the god-botherer. It'd cause less trouble in the end.
PESHAWAR: Four years ago, journalists used to go to Waziristan for the story. Today, the story itself reached Peshawar. In October 2003, a team of journalists reached Baghar in South Waziristan, to file follow-up stories of the maiden airstrike on a suspected Al Qaeda or Taliban hideout. A local journalist planned an early morning departure for the site of the strike without official permission. Four years on, a look at the damage caused by Friday evenings car bomb blast near the historic Qisakhawani bazaar and an attack on parked trucks carrying NATO supplies testifies the danger has arrived as close as possible.
The government itself is a hostage. An Iraq-like green zone was established in Peshawar with checkposts on the roads leading to important offices and residences. High profile kidnapping and murders have added to the fears of Peshawar residents. Security analysts forecast that Peshawar might face an even worse scenario if over 500 hardened militants camping in Khyber Agency storm the provincial capital and the army is called upon to reclaim the city. The ever increasing pressure on Peshawar from militants will make things more difficult for the ANP government which is facing an internal debate on whether to abandon governance or to take the fight to its logical end.The symptoms of a Beirut-like situation are emerging. Living in Peshawar is like dancing to the tune of death.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/08/2008
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#1
Are problems building in Peshawar because the Tali-Quada are getting stronger, or because the are finding it necessary to move further from the A'stan border? Or some of each?
#3
That's our line of communications getting sown there, bigjim-ky. Unless y'all have made progress with that matter teleporter or feel like relying on supplies through Putinland, we're in a bit of a pinch with Peshawar coming to pieces.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/08/2008 12:17
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#4
(I was....)
Slippin' into chaos
Take my mind beyond the dreams
(Well...)
I was slippin' into chaos
Take my mind beyond the dreams
Leading Sunni Muslim cleric Muhammad Tantawi has branded the editors of an Israeli newspaper "liars" for reporting what he insists was an inadvertent handshake with Israeli President Shimon Peres, media outlets reported Sunday.
Tantawi, who heads Cairo's al-Azhar University, said last week that he did not recognize the octogenarian Peres when he "passingly" shook his hand at a U.N.-sponsored religious dialogue last month. Tantawi also said he had no idea that Gaza was under a seige.
" I do not know whether there is a siege of Gaza. What siege? What rubbish? The siege has been there for months, "
Al-Azhar University Chief Muhammad Tantawi
"I do not know whether there is a siege of Gaza," he said. "What siege? What rubbish? The siege has been there for months."
The Israeli newspaper Maariv ran details of the encounter, reporting that Tantawi had approached the Israeli Nobel Peace laureate and conversed with him.
Tantawi responded furiously to the report, telling an Egyptian television anchor that the Maariv editors were "liars and sons of 60...", an abbreviation of an Arabic insult that often ends by calling a parent a dog or a prostitute, according to a transcript obtained by Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom.
A senior journalist at Maariv told AFP that the report, by veteran correspondent Jackie Hugi, was carefully sourced. "The newspaper stands by the report, and I stand by what Jackie published because of his history," he said, requesting anonymity.
Another Israeli daily, Haaretz, had also published a report last week saying Tantawi was the one who approached Peres, and that he clasped Peres's hand for several minutes while talking to him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
Does Islamic law demand that his hand be cut off and burned? If not, then why not?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/08/2008 8:13
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Israel can no longer expect "blank checks" from Washington once President-elect Barack Obama's administration takes over in January, a former US ambassador to the Jewish state said on Sunday. "The era of the blank check is over," said Martin Indyk, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Think of it as small change you can believe in.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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WTF is he talking about? The blank check that permitted Israel to return to the Litani line, and keep it, in summer '06? Or the re-occupation of Gaza? Or the dismantling of the sham of the PA in the west bank?
Just wondering which blank check he's referring to.
#3
That "blank check" was for years a loan, that was dutifully repaid by Israel every year. Otherwise, about the only things "given" to Israel were intangibles, such as the right to buy specialized US weaponry, and intelligence information about those that menaced Israel.
Israeli's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday slammed Jewish settlers in Hebron even as he ordered security chiefs to draw up contingency plans for military action against resistance groups in Gaza although there have been no deaths as a result of the rocket and mortar fire of the past week.
Olmert called the settler rampages against Palestinians a 'pogrom'--a Yiddish term for anti-Jewish massacres--in Sunday's cabinet meeting.
" As a Jew I am ashamed of the sights of Jews firing at Arabs in Hebron. I have no other definition for what we saw but a pogrom "
Ehud Olmert, Israel's outgoing PM
"As a Jew, I am ashamed of the sights of Jews firing at Arabs in Hebron. I have no other definition for what we saw but a pogrom," he was quoted as saying by Ynet news, the Israeli daily Yediot's website.
Olmert added that the defense minister will take action to curb the "phenomenon" of settler rioters. Jewish settler attacked Palestinians in Hebron last Thursday after an Israeli court ruled they were to evacuate a disputed building.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni echoed Omert's call for a harsher Israeli response to rocket attacks directed at Israel from Gaza Strip. "The truce has not been respected by the other side. They are firing on our citizens," Livni said Sunday, adding that Israel's response should be "militarily, economically and politically" inclusive.
Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Bahum accused "the Zionist enemy of continuing its aggression against Gaza by systematically violating terms of the truce."
The six-month-long Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is due to end Dec. 19 without extensions.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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The author is trying to convince us that things could get worse in Pakistain. I suppose that's possible ...
Pakistan's 2008 election marked a historic turnaround after years of military rule but the fledgling democracy is mired in record violence and accusations it is a breeding ground for terrorism.
The "fledgling democracy" is the same old oligarchy of kleptocrats that the military threw out. It's not a change, it's a pendulum swing. They've "Mr. Ten Percent" as president in preference to having Uncle Fester, who's on the side of the Islamists.
Pakistan entered 2008 on a wave of international sympathy following the December 27 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Benazir was tossed for Gomez' financial depredations as much as for anything else. And they couldn't come up with an alternative to her when it was election time. Politix is dynastic everywhere -- witness our own Kennedies and Bushes and Daleys -- but some dynasties are better than others.
Twelve months on, the country is battling a huge increase in violence and is once again accused of being a haven for terrorists in the wake of the devastating Mumbai siege.
That'll happen with a "government of national unity" like Zardari started out with. Having to accomodate Nawaz, there was a push to declare peace in the tribal lands, whether the tribals stopped shooting our not. Recent events show that the accomodation with the military and with ISI is back in place, with another coup probably five years in the future when the next falling out occurs.
Analysts say Pakistan's new democratic government under President Asif Ali Zardari has failed to capitalise on international support to tackle the insurgency plaguing the country.
Pakistain has a democratic government? Since when?
They still haven't stopped trying to use their Frankenstein's monster as a tool. The oligarchy, the monster, and the military all have different ideas about who's really in charge.
"There was international sympathy when the year ended last year but now we seem to have been isolated again," political scientist Rasul Baksh Rais told AFP. "(Instead) the same extremist forces are so much emboldened that they have the capacity to a cause a conflict between India and Pakistan," Rais said.
So emboldened, in fact, they had the ISI and the navy provide training to the krazed killers.
Rais said the ousting of former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf in August marked a 'momentous turning point' for Pakistan. Instead, 2008 saw a rise in suicide attacks, widely seen as retaliation for army operations against Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the Tribal Areas.
Yes, it was a turning point all right ...
A fresh standoff with nuclear-powered neighbour India over the Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi blames on Pakistani elements, poses a further threat to a nation already reeling from record violence.
Analysts warn that if the Pak-India tensions descend into outright hostility, democracy could collapse. "The whole thing might collapse and in that case anything can happen," political analyst Shafqat Mahmood said. "And the army has always been a contender in politics."
If Pakistaini democracy collapsed would anyone notice?
Pakistan has also been hit by rising inflation and a sharp decline in its international reserves over the past year as terror attacks, the insurgency in the northwest and the global financial turmoil took their toll.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Does the military want democracy is the question that should be asked!!!!!
As many as a million American jobs could be lost every month by next spring as businesses struggle to raise capital in financial markets consumed by fear, according to a new analysis.
November was the worst month in the US labour market since the oil crisis of 1974, as more than 500,000 US workers were laid off, according to official figures released on Friday.
But Graham Turner, of consultancy GFC Economics, says the rising cost of corporate debt is now flashing a red warning signal that far worse is to come over the next few months and job losses are heading for levels last seen in the 1930s Great Depression.
Corporate bond yields have rocketed since the credit crisis began as investors flee risky assets in search of safe havens such as US Treasuries. That effectively means many firms are being forced to pay eye-watering interest rates to borrow funds.
Turner says when the gap between the yield on high-risk company bonds and US Treasuries widens sharply, unemployment tends to shoot up - and current credit conditions are pointing to a doubling in the pace of layoffs, to more than a million workers a month, by spring.
'The correlation is holding up all too well,' he said. 'It's very disconcerting.' He added that the pace of layoffs already happening in the US 'is indicative of panic'. During the 1970s oil crisis the panic was relatively short-lived, he says. 'But the worry now is that this will just roll on and on.'
#1
Why is this article comparing to 1974, anyways?
The thing that caused the crisis then was oil prices skyrocketing, the opposite of what is occuring now. If energy prices stabilize or continue to fall, that could evaporate a lot of the added interest expense for companies, making things a wash.
I do think there'll be more layoffs, but to predict these numbers right now doesn't make any sense.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/08/2008 8:59
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#2
If you look around, there's a lot of readjustments going on. Some areas of the economy are not going to recover, particularly in areas like MSM [to paraphrase Seinfeld - not that there's anything wrong with that]. Some businesses operations that work at the edge or upon unique aspects of the economy are also going to suffer as currancy flows contract to what people believe and pay for as essentials. Some geographical areas will also be hit hard and take a long time to recover, if they do at all, because of embedded policies and laws that those in power are reluctant or unwilling to change. Adapt or perish.
#4
Note to Congress: as long as these layoff fears continue, i do not really expect a lot of people to be in a new car buying mood. It might not be a bad idea to think about that before you agree to hand that big ol' check to the Big 3.
i know i have shoved my car buying thoughts back about 18 months or so. and fuggitabout the new RV.
The Falkland Islands are to be left without the protection of a British warship for the first time since the war with Argentina because the Royal Navy no longer has enough ships to meet all its commitments. The frigate HMS Northumberland, which is armed with guided missiles, torpedoes and a Lynx helicopter, was due to be sent on patrol to the islands this month. But it will now be replaced by a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) vessel not equipped for offensive combat operations.
The controversial decision was forced on senior naval commanders by the increasing problem of overstretch facing the Royal Navy. Cuts to the size of the fleet over the last 10-years the Royal Navy has just 22 frigates and destroyers compared to 65 in 1982 has left the service with too few ships to meet its responsibilities.
The Telegraph also understands that the Royal Navy is likely to face more cuts in the near future while major projects such as the £3.9bn new carrier programme could be delayed. Ageing vessels such as Type 23 frigates, which were commissioned in the late 1980s, will have their service life extended by up to 20-years.
The last time the British government reduced its naval presence in the South Atlantic was in 1982 when the ice patrol vessel HMS Endurance was withdrawn from patrolling the area around the Falkland Islands. The move prompted an invasion by the Argentine military and led to the Falklands War.
HMS Northumberland was due to begin a six-month voyage in the South Atlantic but has been diverted to take part in the European Union counter-piracy mission off the coast of east Africa.
A mission the French, Italians and Spanish could be doing, freeing up the Brits.
In its place, RFA Largs Bay, a landing ship which is crewed by civilian sailors, will arrive in the South Atlantic this week to begin its mission of protecting the islands from the potential threat posed by Argentina, which still claims sovereignty of the islands. The vessel will be equipped with a Lynx Mark 8 helicopter and Sea Skua anti ship missiles for self-defence. The landing ship has a small number of Royal Navy sailors who are responsible for manning a helicopter flight deck as well as a boarding party made up of lightly-armed Royal Marines but Royal Navy sources have said that the ship would be able to do little more than protect itself in the event of an emergency.
The size of the military force on the Falklands has been dramatically reduced since the end of the war in 1982. The islands are garrisoned by just 50 soldiers, composed of infantry, engineers and signallers. The RAF has four Tornado F3 air defence aircraft and crews to maintain them while the naval component consists of just one ship.
As I recall, at the time of the Falklands War the military presence there was a platoon of Royal Marines. The Argentine government attacked in part to divert the attention of its people from a failing economy and government corruption. The more things change ...
The Royal Navy has some 22 frigates and destroyers in the fleet, however only a third are available for operations at any one time and the seven currently available for operational service are already taking part in deployments.
One senior naval source said that successive cuts by the government had left the Royal Navy vulnerable and unable to properly defend its interests overseas. He said: "The Royal Navy has been pared to the bone. The fleet is now so small that the Royal Navy can't even send a proper warship to guard the Falklands. By the time the Royal Navy has met all of its operational obligations there is nothing left and that is why a civilian-crewed Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship has been sent to the Falklands.
"In any shooting war with a serious enemy the Royal Navy would cease to exist within a few weeks. Rock bottom is an appropriate description of where the Royal Navy now is."
A Ministry of Defence document leaked to The Telegraph last year revealed that the Royal Navy would struggle to fight a war against a "technologically capable adversary". The report also stated that the Royal Navy was an "under-resourced" fleet composed of "ageing and operationally defective ships".
Admiral Sir Alan West, a former Chief of the Naval Staff, and who is a security minister in the Lords, has previously warned that the reduction in the fighting capability of the Royal navy could cost lives and gave warning that Britain would end up with a "tinpot" Navy if more money were not spent on defence.
Liam Fox, the shadow Tory defence spokesman, said: "The Government needs to explain how this wont impact on the security of the Falklands. What on earth are we doing putting EU flag waving ahead of our own security priorities? It is outrageous that the British Government would ever diminish the protection of our strategic interests in order to pay homage to the politics of the EU."
A spokesman for the MoD, said: "The government is fully committed to the defence of the Falkland Islands. There is a whole package of assets air, sea and land assigned to the region, not simply one ship. The Royal Navy maintains the flexibility to redeploy its ships to where they will have maximum effect."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2008
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#4
One of the most depressing things in Baghdad was the unbroken string of British officers in our office (they'd generally cycle through every 6-8 months) who were completely demoralized by their nation's abandonment of the military enterpise in general. These folks were terrifically impressive and fantastic to be around, in all the ways one would associate with a British officer - yet to varying but mostly significant degrees they had given up, several were looking for early exits. They came from every branch and had interesting and varied backgrounds including procurement and training as well as operations. Even the least pessimistic ones wouldn't argue the case that there was much hope, they just had an irrepressibly positive approach to life.
America alone is becoming much more than an apt and catchy book title.
#6
To bad those Brits weren't aware of this little piece of law about Reserve Officer Appointments -
(b) Except as otherwise provided by law, the Secretary concerned shall prescribe physical, mental, moral, professional, and age qualifications for the appointment of persons as Reserves of the armed forces under his jurisdiction. However, no person may be appointed as a Reserve unless he is at least 18 years of age and -
(1) he is a citizen of the United States or has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.);
I recall a former Royal Artillery officer going through my commissioning program doing just that. Those who want 'amnesty' for a million plus illegals, I'd certainly demand an opportunity for those qualified and speak [literally] the mother tongue, to have a shot at continuing their calling.
#7
I don't think the US gov would have the tolerance for the Argies today that we had in 1982. So wait until Jan 20 before making any move.
Besides, the real striking power comes from aircraft. A frigate would not last long. Might as well have a cost guard cutter or two and chase of illegal fisherman.
Posted by: ed ||
12/08/2008 13:09
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#8
Seems to me that starting a shipbuilding project would boost England's economy
Wot? And divert funds from Her Majesty's Dole Queue?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
12/08/2008 14:28
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#9
The Falk's might be without a warship, but it's far worse than that.
The UK is without the WILL to survive as a contributing memeber of Western Civilization.
#10
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > INTERFAX - RUSSIA MAY ABOLISH MOST OF ITS GROUND FORCES ARMY DIVISIONS OVER NEXT THREE YEARS [ = 2012?], LEAVING ONLY 270,000 REGULAR/PROFESSIONAL TROOPS [not counting Milyuhns of Reservists] TO DEFEND ITS NATIONAL TERRITORIES.
People's Republic of BOULDER, Colo. Authorities say a man's scheme to breeze through traffic by mounting flashing red and blue lights on his truck could put him on a fast track to prison. The Boulder County Sheriff's office says 21-year-old Justin Davis was jailed this week after a slow-moving tow truck pulled over when the driver saw him using the lights. Sheriff's Cmdr. Phil West says the tow-truck driver became suspicious and followed Davis. West says Davis left his Nissan truck at a shopping center when he saw he was being followed and called police from a gas station to report his vehicle stolen.
West says Davis told police he recently bought the lights to get through traffic. Davis is free on $1,500 bail but faces a charge of impersonating a police officer, punishable by up to three years in prison. It's fun until you get caught.
#4
when he saw he was being followed and called police from a gas station to report his vehicle stolen.
Not only was he impersonating a police officer, but he then made a false police report. Great way to double down, Justin!
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/08/2008 12:23
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#5
Under "Lacy's Law"--HB 1003, signed May 25, 2004, allegedly, Davis committed a Class 1 misdemeanor.
HB 1003 was prompted by the 2003 abduction and murder of Lacy Miller, a 20-year-old student at the University of Northern Colorado, by a man impersonating a police officer. The man used flashing red and blue lights to pull Miller over. A 2003 law passed after the murder made police impersonation a class 1 misdemeanor. The law signed today makes impersonating a police officer a class 6 felony, resulting in higher fines and increased jail time for habitual offenders. Also included in the bill is a ban on the possession and use of red or blue police lights by persons not involved in law enforcement. Illegal possession or use of blue or red lights is a class 1 misdemeanor. Source:
http://www.2hearts4lacy.org/page/page/3127081.htm
The penalty in Colorado for Class 1 Misdemeanor
is:
Minimum: 6 months / 500 dollar fine or both
Maximum: 18 months / 5,000 dollar fine or both
Davis' problem is that any jury hearing this case will remember Lacy's fate in the next county north of Boulder county and will probably
not view his idiotic act with kindness.
Israel threatened tougher action against rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the territory's sole power plant again shut down in the face of a crippling blockade. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he has told security chiefs to draw up contingency plans for military action against militant groups in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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#1
So, what has restraint gotten Israel so far?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/08/2008 8:23
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Security forces gained control of Bara Bandai and Ningolai areas of Swat on Sunday, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
A spokesman for the ISPR said the troops completed a military operation around 4pm, establishing the writ of the government in the areas with the support of the locals. The conclusion of the operation was followed by the distribution of sweets and essentials among residents, said the spokesman.
In Bajaur Agency, unidentified assailants targetted the house of a tribal laskher's chief with rockets late on Saturday, but Malak Mansab Khan and his family escaped unhurt. The assailants fled after the tribesmen retaliated.
Meanwhile on Sunday, security forces targeted suspected Taliban positions with artillery and mortars in Nawagai and Mamoond tehsils, but there was no report of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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While the North Pole's landscape may evoke images of igloos and barren snow fields, the crescent moon and minaret will soon vie for their place in Norway's Arctic thanks to a Saudi businessman's donation to build the region's first mosque.
A Saudi businessman has donated 20 million Krone ($2.78 million) to build the first mosque in the Arctic region, near the northern part of Norway, according to a news report published by a local Saudi newspaper.
In April the Muslim association in the Arctic town of Inuvik, Canada raised $40,000 to purchase land for a mosque two degrees above the Arctic Circle that it hopes will serve the Northwest Territories' 175 or so Muslims (according to a 2001 census).
Shams newspaper reported that the Saudi businessmen, who was not identified, donated the money to the Islamic Council of Norway, which represents about 70,000 of Norway's estimated 130,000 Muslims, during a meeting in London with Sandra Mary Moo, a member of the Norwegian Muslim community.
Islam is the largest minority religion in Norway with more than two percent of Norway's 4.7 million residents identifying as Muslims, according to a 2007 Statistics Norway report. The government report registered 79,068 members of Islamic groups in Norway, mostly from immigrant backgrounds.
Talks between the Muslim community and the Northern Municipality of Norway are underway to secure land for the construction of the mosque in an area of 1000 square meters (about 11,000 square feet). The mosque is expected to be the largest in the northern parts of Norway.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
I wait impatiently for Ramadan falling in summer. Muslims aren't allowed to eat as long as they can distinguish a black thread from a white one and as far south as Tallinn (Estonia) you can for weeks not merely distinguish a white thread from black one but even read the newspaper.
#6
Well look at the bright side; The History Channel could do a reality show about the zany mooks. they could call it "Ice Road Carpet Forehead Thumpers" (or something.....)
(how come when i pass the cursor over the stuff at the bottom it dances around? )
#2
Comparing the infringement on civil rights that gays are experiencing to that suffered by black Americans is to begin a game of âtop my oppressionâ that youâre not going to win.
Wait till the 'Black Church' finally wakes up to the Donks other client's [aka the Teachers Union] job on them on their children's children. Time to be pointing out not the hypocrisy of the Obamas sending their darlings to private school [or the Kennedys], but the realization that as parents, its their responsibility to make sure their children get a quality education vice the dumb downed indoctrination from the 'professionals' that own and operate the public system.
#3
"Apparently the religion espoused by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is now the enemy, at least among the smart set..."
It's taken the NYT until nearly 2009 to figure this out?
The truth about the 2008 election is this: the one thing that is shared by white Obama voters, more than anything else, is contempt/condescension/bigotry towards all but the most emasculated and exsanguinated forms of Christianity. No other issue is as universally present among them, or likely to be in the near future.
The attitude towards even moderately devout Christians possessed by most white Obama voters is not a whole lot different than that of racist rednecks towards black folks. This is particularly true in those employed in the information/entertainment industry, and the education industry, but not limited to these.
If W had been an agnostic or atheist and done everything exactly as he had the last eight years, BDS would have been about half of what it was. Everything we saw in the area of BDS was written onto a palette of existing antipathy towards Christianity. A lot of these folks were just looking for any excuse to smash Christians and Christianity.
Obama's "faith", such as it is, is tolerated by white elitist anti-Christian bigots only because his church was one which espoused Black Liberation Theology. If Obama had gone to a conservative chuch instead of Rev. Wright's, he would not be president elect - it's that simple.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/08/2008 8:53
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#4
Great comments.
No mo, you're exactly right. Just yesterday I heard a white Obama voter effortlessly express the proper sort of bemused derision for Christianity, in this case a very rich and tempting target - a neighborhood church-in-a-garage group (ewwwwww! in a nice neighborhood, too!)
The four pillars of "liberal" Democratic politics: anti-religious bigotry, class warfare/envy politics, race-hustling/race-baiting, and befuddled/dishonest pacifism.
Each of these pillars aren't present in the world-views of every lib Dem, of course, but one or more, in some form, are part of the outlook of the vast majority. Do the test yourself - apply this screen to lib Dems you know, or to MSM expressions of their views (i.e., most MSM emanations, whether labeled "news" or "analysis").
#5
The other revelation in the Prop. 8 saga was that Hispanics were all for it as well. Catholics, you know. It's actually kinda changed my attitude toward immigration. This, of course, was a pretty hard core attitude until the numbers from the election came out. But now I'm afraid that liberalism as practiced by the white people in this state is a move toward self extinction. They do not reproduce, they despise traditional morality, they just don't seem to have any of the basic survival instincts that keep people and societies going. Enter the Hispanics with their old fashioned Catholicism, their strong family ties and solid work ethic. We're gonna be replaced by these people because we're just too decadent.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/08/2008 13:14
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#6
But now I'm afraid that liberalism as practiced by the white people in this state is a move toward self extinction.
All liberalism is a move toward self extinction. The only variable is father time.
#7
Basically, nobody from the pro-Prop * crowd is going to go to Watts, Compton, or South L.A. and protest. Much easier to play 'activist' with the Mormons or Catholics.
Aswat al-Iraq: A key leader in al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was arrested during a security operation in downtown Baaquba city, a local police chief said on Sunday. "On Sunday, police forces carried out a military operation that targeted an al-Qaeda hideout in Old Baaquba area, (downtown Baaquba), and arrested Mohammed Alwan Mareed, nicknamed 'Emir of al-Muqdadiya'," Staff Maj. Gen. Abdelhussein al-Shamri said in statements to Aswat al-Iraq. Earlier today, 19 al-Qaeda gunmen were arrested during operations in different parts of Diala province.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
The mayor of the Iraqi city of Baquba was among 35 people wounded in a roadside bombing in the restive provincial capital northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, medical and security sources said.
General Raghem al-Omairi, head of military operations in the city, was injured along with Mayor Abdullah al-Khayali by the bomb, Baquba General Hospital medic Ahmed Alwan told AFP. Two journalists from local television channel Dijla, eight policemen, six anti-Qaeda militiamen and 17 civilians were also among the wounded, the doctor said.
The blast happened when Khayali and Omairi and a heavy escort were visiting the town's old market on the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, the sources said.
The police officers and officials had been removing concrete barriers placed across downtown streets in Baquba two years ago, when ethnic and sectarian bloodshed raged across Iraq and Baquba, a volatile and religiously mixed city, was a war zone.
"They were just walking along in a group when they reached an electrical appliance store. Suddenly a powerful blast happened. The front of the store was totally destroyed," said Ali Abu Shahad, a Sunni Arab patrolman who witnessed the blast.
Violence has fallen significantly in Iraq this year but insurgents are still capable of carrying out bloody attacks.
Tensions remain high in Diyala between majority Shiites and Sunni Arabs, some of whom initially sided with al-Qaeda, ahead of provincial elections next year and the withdrawal by mid-2009 of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities and towns.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Tehrik Nifaz Fiqah-e-Jafria (TNFJ) chief Allama Sajid Naqvi on Sunday said that Peshawar terrorist incident killing over 35 people was a conspiracy to fan sectarianism in the country.
Talking to media persons here after attending a meeting of ulema belonging to various schools of thought at Madrassa Allama Arif Hussain Al-Hussaini, Naqvi said that foreign hands could be involved in terrorism in different parts of the country calling for joint efforts to thwart this conspiracy.
Naqvi said the whole country was a victim of terrorism and even mosques and imambargahs were not safe. He did not rule out the possibility of involvement of foreign hands in terrorist activities taking place across the country.
Naqvi said that both federal and provincial governments were carrying out their duties in an effective manner to check terrorism. However, he underlined the need for unity among the people to banish terrorism from the country.
Efforts needed for Chitral's development: Chitral District Nazim Haji Maghfirat Shah urged all stakeholders, including heads of departments and representatives of civil society, to make coordinated efforts for sustainable development of Chitral.
He was addressing a meeting held at a local hotel. The meeting was organised by the Tehsil Municipal Administration in collaboration with the Regional Women Empowerment Project.
Speaking on the occasion, the district nazim said that although many non-government organisations were working for raising life standards of women folk and development of the entire district, there was a need of more coordination for sustainable development of the area.
He said that the Women Development Forum must be established to improve the skills of women by different ways.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: TTP
#2
WAFF > GLOBAL RESEARCH > CREATING AN ARC OF CRISIS: THE REDISTRIBUTION [redrawing]OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA, wid IRAN as ARC CENTER-Of-GRAVITY/GRAVITAS. NEW WORLD ORDER and related is THREATENING EVERY COUNTRY IN ASIA from TURKEY, SYRIA, and IRAN to PAKISTAN AND INDIA.
Also from SAME > IRAN TEST-FIRED A SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSLE [NASR-2 SSM]FROM A WARSHIP.
* OTHER > FREEREPUBLIC - seems ISRAEL is fretting over news that IRAN HAD TRIPLED ITS ARSENAL???
India's foreign minister accused Pakistan on Sunday of trying to deflect attention from the role of its citizens in last month's terror attack in Mumbai by leaking word of a hoax phone call to the Pakistani president's office that forced its air force to go on high alert.
The episode underscored the high level of tension that remains between the two nuclear-armed nations nearly two weeks after the attack, as India continues to charge that a Pakistani terror group with past ties to the government was responsible and Pakistan insists that it was not involved.
During the call, which came on Nov. 28 as the attack was still unfolding, the caller allegedly identified himself as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and threatened that India would mount military action unless Pakistan took action against the attackers. Pakistani information minister Sherry Rehman said in a statement that the call came from "a verified official phone number of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs." The call prompted President Asif Ali Zardari to put the air force on high alert.
News of the call was first reported in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn over the weekend, and was subsequently picked up by other Pakistani media. But on Sunday, Mukherjee released a statement saying he had first learned of the call from "third countries," and that the call was a hoax.
"We immediately clarified to those friends, and we also made it clear to the Pakistan authorities, that I had made no such telephone call," Mukherjee said. He added that it is "worrying that a neighboring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call, try to give it credibility with other states, and confuse the public by releasing the story in part."
Ten gunmen attacked Mumbai on Nov. 26, killing 174 people and wounding 230 in strikes on luxury hotels, a Jewish prayer center a restaurant and a train station. Indian officials have said that the gunmen were of Pakistani origin, that they came by boat from Karachi and that they belonged to the Pakistan-based outlawed militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba. Members of the group were earlier blamed for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that brought the two longtime foes to the brink of a fourth war.
Pakistan has demanded evidence of the Pakistani link, but has also promised to assist New Delhi in the investigation.
The attacks have given rise to a new war of words between the two neighbors, straining an ongoing peace process.
The controversy over the hoax call has led to questions over how the prank caller managed to bypass the official protocol that governs telephone calls between world leaders and top diplomats.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > MUMBAI: INTELLIGENCE FAILURE OR STATE-MANAGED "SHOW"; + WASHINGTON ARROGANCE HAS FOMENTED A MUSLIM REVOLUTION.
* WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = GOOGLE Chinglish translation] SOUTH ASIA IN A HAIR-TRIGGER SITUATION. BEIJING[China] WILL NOT SIT IDLY BY DURING INDIA-PAKISTAN MILITARY CONFLICT; + ONLY CHINA CAN STOP A SERIOUS INDO-PAKISTAN WAR?
Also from WMF > IIUC RUSSIAN MEDIAS: RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES BELIEVE CHINA HAS COVERTLY MOBILIZED AND DEPLOYED TWO ELITE RAPID RESPONSE PLA DIVISIONS TO MILITARY REGIONS TO OVERWATCH RISING POST-MUMBAI INDO-PAKISTANI TENSIONS AND LINE-OF-CONTROL!? + INDIA'S RULING PARTIES-GOVT MAY NOT RULE OUT WAR WITH PAKISTAN IN 2009 AS IT WILL BE AN ELECTION YEAR FOR INDIAN VOTERS.
The Basra province's electoral commission is to begin collecting signatures to transform the oil rich hub into an autonomous region. Collecting signatures in the predominantly Shia province will be held for one month beginning December 15 to January 14, the province's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said in a statement on Sunday.
Visioning the Kurdistan region's economic and political opportunities in light of its autonomous stance, Basra is also demanding the establishment of a federal region of its own.
IHEC says there are 1,409,393 eligible voters in the oil-rich Basra province.
Basra produces 70 percent of Iraq's oil and 80 percent of the country's crude is exported from Basra port the capital city of the province.
"If after the certification of the signature collection process, the signature list reaches the required 10 percent of the 'Final Voters List', a referendum will be held within three months," AFP quoted the statement as saying.
The statement further said that if the referendum is organized and accepted, it will transform Basra into an autonomous region with the same rights as Kurdistan in northern Iraq, which also enjoys considerable oil wealth.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
What will Iran's role be in an autonomous Basra? Would this autonomy split the national Shia and damage the national governing coalition?
#2
Ordinarily, I'd be in favor of Federalism, but this is probably the first step in Iran "accepting the automomous region of Basra" into Iranian hegemony.
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.
KENDRAPARA (Orissa): Intensifying an anti-liquor campaign, a group of agitated women ransacked a foreign liquor shop in Mahalahat village under Patkura police station on Monday, policed said.
If the photo had exposed a Republican offender, there'd already be a full-bore media scandal and cascading resignations. . . . Yet so far there is no groundswell of feminist rage in the District of Columbia. The unnamed co-conspirator thrusting the beer bottle into the mouth of the designated secretary of state isn't yet a household slur. Instead, with the accused being a member of the protected Democratic class, we only have a quick peripheral debate. The mainstream media headlines soften the story's implications: "Obama speechwriter Favreau learns the perils of Facebook" (CNN). Next time, don't share your coarseness with the world. It's the technology's fault.
The iconic black and white keffiyeh, or Arab headdress, famously donned by late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat has hit the streets of Beirut in a rainbow of colours -- much to the chagrin of older Palestinians. Stylish youngsters, both men and women, can be seen in the city's chic cafes and restaurants sporting red, blue, pink, brown and purple versions of the keffiyeh. Western and Arab tourists are also snapping up the hip item.
CARTOON characters are people too, a judge has ruled in the case of a man convicted over sexually explicit cartoons based on The Simpsons.
President-elect Barack Obama has warned that "things are going to get worse before they get better" as he outlined details of an economic stimulus package that could reach $1 trillion and is designed to lift the United States out of recession.
Saudi Arabia's grand cleric on Sunday indicated that militants do not have any connection with Islam and called for the Muslim world to unite in the face of terrorism to preserve stability.
Zimbabwe's government has accused former colonial ruler Britain of using a cholera epidemic to rally Western support for an invasion of the collapsing southern African nation, a state-run newspaper said on Sunday. 
