In Britain's worst political violence in years, furious student protesters rained sticks and rocks on riot police, vandalized government buildings and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, after lawmakers approved a controversial hike in university tuition fees.
Demonstrators set upon the heir to the throne's limousine as it drove through London's West End shopping and entertainment hub. Protesters who had been running amok and smashing shop windows kicked and threw paint at the car, which sped off.
Charles' office, Clarence House, confirmed the attack but said "their royal highnesses are unharmed." The problem with privileged youth thinking the government is the answer to everything.
#2
"The fee was not hiked, the subsidy was lowered."
BP, kinda like here when the Dems call not appropriating as much money as they want for a project (but as much or more than was appropriated last year) a "spending cut."
Looks like we've got innumerate idiots on both sides of the Pond. (But we knew that.)
Guess the thugs students think your gummint's got a Magic Money Tree™ out back too.... :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/09/2010 19:50
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#3
No they think they've got an entitlement to dip into other peoples wallets.
#5
"they think they've got an entitlement to dip into other peoples wallets"
Same here, BP. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/09/2010 21:19
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#6
I don't understand. Prince Charles is merely an assistant figurehead, one of many sharing figureheading duties with the queen. Nobody serious pays any attention to his opinions whatsoever, and he has no power outside of his assigned residences... and precious little within them.
#9
Tuition is going from around $5,000 per year to around $15,000 per year. Not an excuse for vandalism and violence. But if I were a British student I'd be pretty angry.
Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the US. They were found inside a house in the suburban Escondido neighborhood just north of San Diego, which is now being called "the bomb" house.
The man renting the home, 54 year old George Jakubec has pleaded not- guilty to a series of federal charges for possessing and manufacturing explosives as well as bank robbery. The indictment says investigators recovered nine detonators, 13 grenade hulls and unknown quantities of high explosives.
The high explosives include PETN -used by the military and by the failed shoe bomber-and HMTD, described as "exceedingly shock sensitive" and potentially ignited by merely opening the container in which it is stored.
They were found in large quantities in mason jars and containers filled with liquids and white powders packed from floor to ceiling in the home as well as strewn across the floor in clumps. Neal Langerman, a chemical expert for Advanced Chemical Safety, said that Jakubec could have taken out the entire neighborhood in one fail swoop with the amount of explosives he possessed
Authorities decided that the extreme danger these hazardous materials present, burning the house down is their only option. More than 50 agencies, including bomb squads and hazardous material experts have elaborately planned the burning taking place today and have taken strict measures to make it effective and safe.
The bomb squad and Fire Department will ignite remote control incendiary devices to set the fire, which is intended to reach upwards of 1800 degrees. If all goes as planned the fire will neutralize the toxic chemicals in the home in about 30 minutes and will simply look like a home fire.
A 16ft firewall made out of dry wall was erected and covered in fire gel to protect the surrounding homes. HAZMAT has put in place dozens of air monitors in the vicinity to determine if the weather conditions comply. Winds of less than 5 miles per hour are necessary to go forward with the burn to ensure that the smoke -expected to reach several thousand feet high--will travel upwards preventing any toxic chemicals it contains from affecting surrounding areas.
The main highway I-15 running just behind the neighborhood has been shut down since early this morning and will remain closed until it is deemed safe to reopen.
Evacuations began last night. Sheriff's deputies, Sheriff's Search and Rescue Volunteers and Escondido Police officers knocked on doors to urge residents in more than 60 homes to leave and seek shelter at designated evacuation sites.
Scores of ambulances, HAZMAT vehicles, bomb squads, local law enforcement and fire officials line the street on standby in the event of any problems.
This all began when authorities responded to a call on November 18th when a gardener working on the home ignited an explosive by simply stepping on it and suffered critical injuries.
Jakubec was an unemployed software engineer, living with his wife who described him as obsessed with his chemical "hobby."
In total, nine pounds worth of explosives were removed from the home by authorities. With the criminal investigation still underway, there is no telling what Jakubec intended to do with these hazardous materials.
#6
I watched on a live stream - there were pops and bangs, but none as much as I'd hoped. The guy was a paranoid fruitloop with three bank robberies under his belt
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 20:22
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Let us hope that our homegrown paranoid fruitloops don't form business relationships with jihadis.
House Democrats have voted to block President Obama's controversial tax cut plan from coming to the floor in its current form, a move one Democratic leadership aide said "shows how much the White House screwed this up."
Brilliant. The Democrats have screwed this epically. It reminds me of how John McCain torpedoed his campaign on a fateful day in September, 2008.
Look, Dhimmicrats: in less than one month you're going to be in the minority in the House. Remember those days? Don't worry, Eric Cantor will remind you. When January 3rd rolls around, you will have virtually no influence in the House. You won't set the agenda.
The Pubs will then pass their version of the tax bill. It will extend the 2002/3 tax cuts and won't include a single thing you want right now. Repeat that to yourselves: no estate tax. No extension of unemployment benefits. No sneaky-shit goodies slipped in at the last moment.
Obama is trying to help you get one last, long slurp at the trough, but you have to play ball with the man, and that means giving the Pubs some of what they want. They're the establishment Pubs, not the new-fangled Tea Party types who, when they get into the House, will do all sorts of strange things like read the bills and demand accountability. You think you're going to get your sneaky-shit done then? Dream on -- and that's dream, not D.R.E.A.M., which also isn't going anywhere in January.
If you insist on committing sepuku, however, at least allow us Tea Party Pubs to clean the knife afterwards. We're going to need it when we see you again in January.
#4
My guess is that they're trying to bluff for a better deal...armyguy has it right...tough to bluff when you're not holdin' trump and you're being dealt out for the next hand...or in this case the entire game next year
#5
Does present a problem for GOP tho. Assuming an honest GOPer who believes retaining the tax cuts are critical, does s/he let them die rather than give into Dem wishlist - Amnesty, etc. etc. Or stand on principle and refuse, costing the country another few hundred thousand jobs? Dems probably think this is clever politics, but they've cut their own throats. Regardless of outcome, the Dem Party has made itself anathema. Many moderates, myself included, will be working to guarantee that in 5 years, it'll be a fringe cult ala CPW (Communist Worker's Party).
#9
I've always seen socialism and Marxism as a form of feudalism, actually. You are chained to a country (piece of land) and so dependent on the government (lord) that you can never move and have to work that area for all generations.
#1
I'm sort of surprised that nobody faked some Russian documents and arranged for them to be picked up by Wikileaks. If the documents went unreleased it would provide some damned evidence of what Wikileaks is really up to despite claims, and if leaked the Russians might remove the Wikileaks people altogether.
Not saying I wish this sort of thing, but it surprises me. Seems the CIA assassins are busy chasing Bourne around rather than doing the normal things assassins do.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/09/2010
12:43 ||
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#1
Where the hell's that Gerbil Worming they promised us down here in Virginia, too?
It was down near 10F on my deck this morning; we're rejoicing because it's supposed to reach into the 40's tomorrow. And we're not in the mountains, either - this is flat land, before even the Piedmont.
Y'all Yankees can laugh all you like, but this is the Sunny South - it's not supposed to be this cold this soon (or basically at all) down here.
There goes my heating bill. I can't even set up the kerosene heater until I move all that fleece out of the living room. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/09/2010 16:14
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#2
On the (no doubt false) assumption that misery loves company - Florida has the coldest weather in nearly 150 years and England just broke a record going back to 1659.
#3
NY fossils proves NY used to be tropical and underwater! According to the USGS Fossils of ancient marine animals are found in Cambrian to Devonian rocks in New York. Layman's terms it was home to some really gnarly looking extinct sea creatures. I think from my point of view, humans need to come to grips with we're just tiny fractions of geologic time, so its not anything we control nor should worry about.
How about Virginia?
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 16:27
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In case iy can be a consolation for you in the plains of la Douce France we have had snow falls in November. First time in several decades snow falls so soon. It held for several days. Yesterday Paris was paralyzed by severe (by French standards) snow storm.
While we are at it the British didn't buy gas last spring when prices where at their lowest because the minister's experts told him that this winter would be mild and dry... Now they are short on heating fuels and pay them at premium prices.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/09/2010
12:29 ||
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#1
I believe I have a solution to this vexing problem the blue states are having. In my opinion the indigenous Indian tribes should be offered first choice should they wish to reclaim said areas. I understand reparations would be of interest to democrats.
#2
The Indians should get a new deal. Dump the Bureau of Indian affairs and create an non-congruous Indian state with Senators and all. The new state should also have the option to buy up lands neighboring reservations to increase the size of the new state.
#4
tribal politics in San Diego County range from very good (Viejas, Sycuan, Barona) to very bad (Jamul) with the upstart small bands looking at casino cash, usually the worst, IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 21:57
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My only experience is second hand from the San Diego Sheriff's who had to spend a lot of money to keep two biker gangs from killing each other after one was invited to one of the casinos. I'm still not entirely sure why it was anyone but the Indian's problem but there you have it.
Still, I'm sure there are states that are prone to bad governance and we haven't considered yanking their status.
#6
Anybody else here had much experience with Indian politicians & governance?
The Isleta and Sandia pueblos, respectively bordering Albuquerque on the south and north, have done a far better job of improving their lands in the last 12 years or so than they did in the prior 50 with the BIA. They've plowed casino money into housing, community facilities, new fire departments, etc. The Isletas provide housing based upon employment income. You 'earn' your keep.
On the other hand, the Navajo in the western part of the state which has until just recently avoided getting a casino has a long list of tribal governing members who've faced or have been convicted of various violations of handling resources and influence. Not much different than Detroit or other places.
As for land reparations, the Isletas are quietly buying up land from the area around the reservation. When they get a large enough contiguous track, they'll apply for incorporation into the reservation. The No Development/No Growth crowd in the county are going to be facing higher property taxes to cover just existing functions as more of such land is transferred off of the assessor's books.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 15:22
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'Be interesting to see what the official/gov''t/police/judicial response to this will be now that it''s the funeral of somebody "important" being trashed, not just some military type.
In some ways, the most surprising part of the Climategate files was how well they confirmed the dark suspicions of climate skeptics: there really were problems with replicating some of the most quoted results, there really had been some questionable manipulations made so the data would present the "right" picture, and there really was a somewhat covert group, composed of scientists on the "human agency" side of the argument and certain "reliable" environmental journalists, who were working together to suppress counter-evidence and assassinate the reputations of the skeptics.
Almost exactly a year later, Julius Assange and the WikiLeaks website revealed another collection of similarly purloined data. This time, the data was a collection of diplomatic cable traffic among American diplomats all over the world, some of it considered very sensitive -- classified SECRET. Again, the purloined messages proved very embarrassing to the authors, although in this case the damage wasn't just to egos and reputations; the cables did damage to American interests, even to national security.
On December 3rd, the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom published one of a series of stories based on the cables, this one titled "WikiLeaks cables reveal how U.S. manipulated climate accord." The United States really was applying considerable political and diplomatic pressure on other players; the scientific "consensus" had long since been subsumed by the pressure to score a political win. As the Guardian put it:
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.
The bribes -- sorry, I mean promised aid -- was no mean amount of money. The Guardian reports amounts in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. The government of the Maldives set their price at $30 million. With a population of roughly 300,000, that is $100 per person in a country where the average household gets by on $450 a year. More stomach turning crap at link.
The first item on this election campaign's Contract with America was that, if elected (as they have been), the House Republicans would require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress. We'll see if that and the other promised reforms materialize, but it does raise yet another issue in the context of Obamacare.
As my colleague Michael Cannon pointed out to me, the new health care law kicks congressmen out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (The current FEHB is no different from the health coverage provided by any private employer --- federal employees choose from a series of private plan options (none of which is run by the government), and receive a subsidy from the federal government acting in its role as an employer.)
My first reaction to hearing this was: Good -- if the rest of us lose our health care freedom, so should those who forced this new atrocity on us. But apparently this result was not intended, so the Obama administration has decided to ignore that part of the law.
No joke. Here is the Congressional Research Service report on the provisions that oust members of Congress from their health insurance. And here is the letter in which an Obama appointee announces that the administration will ignore the law. These two New York Times articles also provide important information. Hit the link for the rest of the info. Makes me want to reformat Washington and start over.
#1
Makes me want to reformat Washington and start over
Ummm, we just finished doing exactly that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/09/2010 18:07
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Ummm, we just finished doing exactly that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim
We just over-wrote a few operating system files with a newer version. I'm talking about a complete wipe and reinstall with just the Constitution OS and no added bloatware. No extra laws, no extra agencies, just start from scratch with new everything and everyone. Maybe it will take another 200 years to fuck up again.
#3
Yes Darth; I guess its alright to call you by your first name. Well anyway I suggested that we simply defund. Well maybe reduce funding to start. "bloatware" now thats a keeper. The repercussions could be staggering.
#1
In practical terms, wikileaks and their secret army of internet vandals represent nothing less than a global coup detat by the media-industrial complex and its adherents.
The objective is to remove the power of governments entirely, at least free or accountable governments, and substitute the media culture as the final arbiter of policy.
Wikileakss supporters and apologists are almost entirely associated with the media culture and its values, including its political arm (democratic socialists, left-leaning parties of all kinds); and its enforcers, (anarchists, NGOs, lefty agitators).
Their targets are non-media power centers of any kind. They have not targeted totalitarian governments for two reasons:
-The media culture's well-documented affinity for totalitarianism (think "Che t-shirt").
-It would not be cost-effective. Totalitarian governments are much less vulnerable to, and accountable for, security leaks; and they are more willing than the democracies to exact a very high price for those leaks.
#2
that "secret army of internet vandals" is nothing less than angry people who have nothing organisationally to do with Wikileaks at all, who lashed out at the interference of the State in civic society.
The Government rules at the will of the people.
The Government starts meddling in daily life, the people will remove the Government. We have a vote, remember. Government is answerable at the end of the day to the public.
I don't think Wikileaks' objective is to remove the power of governments entirely at all.
It is simply to hold them accountable so that their actions reflect the will of the people that voted them in.
And as they lie to us the public does not know if that is the case.
As evidence I point out to you the very clear video of US Forces gunning down two Reuters employees standing in a group of people.
You can clearly see the camera is not an AK-47.
Then shooting up as wounded survivors try to get away.
Then shooting up the van that comes to rescue them, which has two children in it.
Then showing the Department of Defence lying about it in statements.
Then a poor-res video was released around the time Reuters was issuing FOI requests... largely to whitewash the incident to make it look like you couldn't tell whether the camera was a weapon.
But the real official video shows everything.
Totalitarian Governments like executing journalists.
It seems our Governments are moving towards totalitarianism: interfering in civic life.
Pressuring companies to cut ties with a media outlet they don't like.
Perverting the organs of law and justice to political ends.
executing journalists
calling for Assange to be executed.
Go check out the video. It's on YouTube.
You've been lied to. See how the Government spins. It's not just the US Government, my Government is just as guilty.
We have an absolute right to be accurately informed about what our Governments are doing - because we are in a democracy.
So if you want to see the truth go to YouTube and look for that Wikileaks video of the Reuters assassinations. It says everything about Wikileaks and why it is important.
#3
Whether you acknowledge it or not, anon, the effect of wikileaks is to destroy the power of governments, for good or ill.
Whether the anonymous vandal gang has any formal contact with wikileaks is immaterial. They support it and seek to facilitate its objectives.
I don't think the effect of Wikileaks will destroy the power of Government.
Government has demonstrated quite well in the last week that it has the power to persecute any and each of us through civic life: the courts, our bank accounts.
The power of Government has grown very large, as has its power to control information through the old media outlets. They do this with secrecy and spin.
Wikileaks' big threat is not to destroy governments but to limit their power and make them more accountable to their people.
I think Government has diworsified into things force cannot do well, i.e. Education, Schools, Retirement, "welfare", "fairness". This has come at the cost of things State force can do well, as well as cost to wealth creation.
#6
every time i start to read one of anon1's fanboy screeds (yes, i know her gender) i get a little sick and have to scroll down to keep from puking on my keyboard.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 18:40
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#7
Posted by: abu do you love 2010-12-09 18:40
You too? I thought it was only me *wink*
Riddle me this Batman:
Obama = Anti American Anti War bring America to its knees. Supported by Soros. End
Wiki punks: same as above.
Wiki does not have any info on Obama. Snort.
When/if snicker Wiki comes up with :
A. College records.
B. Passport from Pakistan
C. Original Birth Certificate (yes I know I know, Birther).
D. ANY dirt on Obama.
Call me @ 1-800-FUOB
In the mean time it's all a dog and pony show.
#8
If you go to Julian's blog (since deleted by him, but can be accessed here) you find the following entry: Sat 09 Jun 2007 : The United what of America?
When you read that, what does it remind you of?
Maybe Julian fancies himself as being a reincarnation of Mr Beale(played by Peter Finch, another Australian)from Network?
Why a Pakistani passport, Phavirong Wittlesbach7769? I could understand a Malaysian passport, as his mother's second husband's stepson, or a visa to visit Pakistan, which he did with a Pakistani friend from university, over the Christmas holidays, I believe. What. of the infinite things that I don't know, would suggest President Obama was granted a Pakistani passport?
#10
WikiLeaks isnt out to destroy the government; in their statements, its to destroy some kind of 'accidental conspiracy' of undemocratic forces that they believe have been effectively driving policy for the past decade; by forcing them to either become more secretive or be revealed, WikiLeaks believes that their channels of communication will be degraded to the point that they will not be in charge of policy anymore.
Conspiracy theory stuff, I know, but they're not terrorists or anything, just nutballs inadvertantly doing a lot of damage.
Anon1 is right that the current fiasco shows that the government does have far too much power to persecute people in civic life, but the way to fix that is through the polls, not through vigilantiism.
#11
Just another in a list of non-state actors - terrorists, pirates, and now these clowns, demonstrating that the 'state' has wrapped itself up with legal rituals to the point of inaction. It is tightening itself into a Gordian knot. The non-state entities are acting outside the law - literally 'outlaws', and the priests of the law can't understand why just more laws aren't working.
Our regulars have had a spirited discussion recently about the Wikileaks cables. Fred and the mods have had a discussion as well behind the curtain.
We mods are concerned about one specific issue in handling anything that might appear on Wikileaks: the concern that classified information might appear on Rantburg. That then would cause the Burg to be banned from computers owned/operated by the federal government, and that is something that we don't want.
We note some of Rantburg's readers work for the U.S. government in various capacities. If they open a web page that contains a WikiLeaks cable, they are required at a minimum to scrub their computer completely. If they do this multiple times their employment could be at risk. Rantburg will not be party to that, given these are the people actually fighting the War on Terror.
We are also reminded that classified information remains classified even if stolen and disseminated on the web.
Therefore, the mods will not permit posts that quote Wikileaks cables, nor will we permit posts that link directly to them. We will permit posts of news items about Wikileaks as long as they don't quote directly classified information. Posts that contain banned information will be deleted.
Thanks for your understanding.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2010
09:22 ||
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#1
Thank YOU for the work to keep Rantburg clean. It's like a minefield some days. Even on the drive home I find I'm too-often forced to quickly change the station when Wikileaks is mentioned in a news broadcast. Thank you.
#2
Integrity, standards, operational security, consideration for others, patriotism....how refreshing! Would that our nation's leadership could do nearly as well.
#3
Those of us that had a security clearance are outraged at the process of leaking classified material. We took our responsibilities seriously then. There are problems with the process of classification, for sure. And Wikileaks has exposed bad policies and thought processes. However, there are unintended consequences of leaking classified information. I am appalled by the access of State Department cables. Who has set up the system of handling classified information there???
Even going back to Watergate. Those leaks started the open season on leaking anything to the media, regardless of content or consequences. And that is the crux of Wikileaks. There is no thought of consequences to nations or individuals. Pretty despicable and irresponsible.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 12:27
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Thanks Fred, Doc and the Mod Squad. It has been somewhat frustrating.
#6
As a suggestion, for those who work in a capacity where there is sensitivity to such information, it might be good to keep a look out for any ban lists, keywords, or "special sensitivities" of topics, that if possible, could be provided to the mods.
This would be for "derivative" information that is not Wikileaks, per se, but will create annoyance. There is at least a good chance that those lists themselves would not be under security, so could be handy trouble avoidance guides.
And it could likely be addressed as easily as substituting Burgspeak for keywords.
#7
smart policy, thinking about the welfare of the 'Burgers, and patriotic as well. Thank you
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 13:55
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#8
As someone with 3 USG email accounts (if you know what I mean), I applaud your efforts to keep this site clean.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/09/2010 15:06
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#9
"As a suggestion, for those who work in a capacity where there is sensitivity to such information, it might be good to keep a look out for any ban lists, keywords, or "special sensitivities" of topics, that if possible, could be provided to the mods."
Google chrome had an add-on for blocking the RTHVN sites....Just need the specific html's in a text list. Something similar to that for wikileaks and other sites to posted content may help.
Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources, according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.
At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence capability to protect NATO's populations and territories in Europe against ballistic missile attacks from the East (namely, Iran), Iran's counter-move consists in establishing a strategic base in the South American continent - in the United States's soft underbelly.
According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an "emergency". In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for "national needs" radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers.
Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions. Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran. These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti, it found one: Venezuela.
Novosti reports the words of Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think tank on international arms trade, saying that if the S-300 deal with Venezuela goes through, Caracas should pay cash for the missiles, rather than take another loan from Russia. "The S-300 is a very good product and Venezuela should pay the full amount in cash, as the country's budget has enough funds to cover the deal ," Korotchenko said. Moscow has already provided Caracas with several loans to buy Russian-made weaponry, including a recent $2.2-mln loan on the purchase of 92 T-72M1M tanks, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment.
If Iran, therefore, cannot get the S-300 missiles directly from Russia, it can still have them through its proxy, Venezuela, and deploy them against its staunchest enemy, the U.S.
But that is not all. According to Reuters, Iran has developed a version of the Russian S-300 missile and will test-fire it soon, as declared by the official news agency IRNA, two months after Moscow cancelled the delivery to comply with United Nations sanctions.
Just like Iran has copied everything else, and all of it works, too, you can ask them ...
Iran, in fact, has its own capabilities for constructing missiles that could carry atomic warheads. According to a study recently released by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Iran is presently aiming to perfect the already existing solid-fuel, medium-range missile that can carry a nuke to hit regional targets, such as Israel. If a missile base can be opened in Venezuela, many US cities will be able to be reached from there even with short-medium range missiles.
The situation that is unfolding in Venezuela has some resemblance to the Cuba crisis of 1962. At that time, Cuba was acting on behalf of the USSR; now Venezuela is acting on behalf of Iran. Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused. Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2010
09:04 ||
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#1
will we see a photoshopeed three-missile picture with a giant Chupacabra in place of Godzilla?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 9:56
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#2
Short round is desperate for a war to get the population behind him!
Posted by: Paul ||
12/09/2010 11:38
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#3
I have mixed feelings about the cyberstorm going on right now; I used to like wikileaks until they started posting US classified material, and still disagree with how the government is handling the problem, but don't feel that tangentially related companies should get DDoS'd over them.
The attacks branched from threads on 4chan's Anonymous, which is anything but monolithic. I suspect most of the attackers are easily-led teenagers; the rest of 4chan's denizens are mostly college students who would get in trouble with their school's IT department for DDoSing anything.
The program they're using, LOIC, is ridiculously easy to set up and use, and there are guides all over. It's basically like deliberately installing a virus, except they know what it does and who's controlling the botnet. Literally anyone who can read can join in the attacks, which is why they've been so successful so far.
I dont think there's much of an ideology behind most of the attackers beyond "lol we took down MasterCard, lets see if we can take down Visa and PayPal" and "Sarah Palin's mad lets get her too XD", though the actual directors of the attacks seem to be more libertarian than anything else from what I've read of their manifestos.
#4
Whoops, meant to say attacks branched from threads on 4chan's /b/ board. Anonymous is the loose coalition of script kiddies that reside there among other imageboards.
#5
this is just more proof that people are easily manipulated by high sounding words, when in reality all they are doing is feeding ammunition to the enemy who will use it indiscriminately to fire up thier mindless minions who will in turn kill, maim and destroy. Thanks wikileaks.
#6
Libertarian? Hardly. These are a bunch of little fascists that want to silence anyone that angers them. A gigantic tantrum. This isn't about liberty at all, its about emotionalism, rage, and leftists shutting up those who would disagree with them.
They should track the IP addresses and prosecute every single one of these they can get their hands on.
Umm... no. Have you ever been to the ocean of chaos of 4chan? Have you read any of their statements? They're about as radically anti-authority as it gets. Anonymous's major uniting factor (aside from the Internet Boss thing) is freedom of speech.
A lot of the Wikileaks outrage is over government interference on the internet; they're just as pissed over ACTA and the MPAA/RIAA's attempts to lock down computing as they are over this, it's just that the credit card companies provided a convenient target, and when they actually went down the entire thing snowballed.
They know that they dont have the ability to shut down any major websites for a prolonged period of time - this is just to make a political point that there are angry supporters of Assange out there.
Anonymous, by its very nature, prevents any kind of coherent organization. Go onto their IRC channel and you will see. The only reason they've done anything is because LOIC is so easy to use.
About prosecuting them; I estimate there are about 70,000 attackers, most of whom will claim they had a computer virus that did it. If there was a way to prosecute Anonymous over DDoS attacks, the RIAA and MPAA would be doing it now. They might get one or two of the exceptionally dumb ones, but that's about it. LOIC is in essence a voluntary botnet, so the 'I had a virus I didn't know' excuse should work. Also, I'm almost positive a large percentage are minors.
This group of people have been evading consequences for internet vandalism/vigilantiism for years.
The directors of the attacks have lofty ideals of an internet free of government oversight - but I think most of the actual grunts are just in it for the thrill of vandalism.
Ten years ago it took some kind of knowledge to pull off a DDoS so something like this couldn't have happened, but today any 15-year-old can download pre-configured software and DDoS through an open WiFi point to their heart's content.
We've never ended murder, rape, or robbery. However, we know we can abate the level of it by in fact making examples of others. How hard and how heavy really depends upon will and response.
If they realize they can't remain anonymous and can eventually be tracked down and hammered for their act, a good number will tread a little more lightly instead of acting like spoil bratty children.
#13
DDoS'ing isnt murder, rape or robbery; at best it's a minor crime akin to vandalism.
In the anonops IRC channel, attackers are being instructed to use someone else's wifi when conducting these attacks, and to delete LOIC and claim they had a virus if arrests start happening.
It's very hard to establish guilt over DDoS attacks in court if the attacker has even half a brain, and prosecuting a significant number of these people would end up dragging a large number of innocents into the equation (thus making the government look like authoritarian pricks in the media).
Even if you could prosecute very many of them, you'd be ending up following the MPAA and RIAA's strategy against torrenters, which has been wildly ineffective at curbing activity from the same type of community.
A few will get arrested and dragged through the coals, but the vast majority will not care, or worse, view them as martyrs.
My real question is this: how the heck did Wikileaks get such a trove of classified materials without anyone knowing, and why isnt there a witch hunt over the people actually leaking the intel TO WikiLeaks? It cant have all been Manning... Closing the flaws in our security systems will be easier than trying to take down a website (even if WikiLeaks does go down, there are enough likeminded people out there that the hydra will just grow another head)
#15
DDoS'ing isnt murder, rape or robbery; at best it's a minor crime akin to vandalism.
In your mind it is. However, when you shut down businesses' websites that do hundreds of thousands of dollars of transactions daily, it worse than simple robbery of a store, a home, or a citizen.
#16
I agree that the DDoS war is wrong, but at the same time, no single individual (outside of the directors) is contributing that much to the attacks - it's because there are so many attackers that the DDoS is doing anything. Just running LOIC because everyone else on a given imageboard was doing it isn't equivalent to a violent crime.
In an ideal world, I there would be some way to catch the people directing the attacks against specific targets. But if they aren't stupid, nobody will ever find out who they are.
This isnt related to the DDoS=riot topic, but I just read that EasyDNS has decided to host WikiLeaks after coming under attack from everyone who mistook them for EveryDNS
(by the way, thanks for the links, tipper - the PandaLabs one is a good timeline)
Also I have one of my own - it's a pretty good breakdown of where some of the more ideological attackers stand. (As one would expect, the viewpoint is kind of strange and the comments are full of idiocy)
A FLEET of suicide ships is being built by crackpot naval commanders in Iran.
More than 9,000 speedboats have been made with deadly explosives engineered into their hulls. The vessels - to patrol the Persian Gulf where UK forces operate - will be piloted by extremist "martyrs". They can be rammed into the side of "enemy" ships and each carries enough explosives to rip a seven-metre hole in a boat's keel.
Around 30,000 kamikaze captains are being trained to steer the ships, a source claimed. There are plans to build 15,000 of the six-metre vessels. Their C4 explosives go off when rammed into larger ships.
An Iranian defector asked to design the crafts revealed the secret plot after fleeing the country - led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The ex-military engineer, said: "They wanted me to help build a vast fleet of suicide boats. It's shocking. That amount of explosives is deadly. I love Iran and that's why I'm revealing this. No one in Iran wants a war."
A US vessel was attacked by a suicide boat in 2000, killing 17, in Yemen
#1
The USN Navy has had a big down on suicide attacks ever since WWII. And with even a suggestion that a potential enemy is scheming such a thing, the USN will burn a little midnight oil to develop "countermeasures".
And the US should be crystal clear and public with its maritime warnings: that an exclusion zone and blockade surround Iran, so that all military and commercial ships, boats and submarines not expressly identified in advance as being authorized in that zone may be seen as hostile and fired upon.
This is essential, as the number of military submarines in the world has proliferated much like battleships did prior to WWI, and it would prove very tempting for many nations to observe the US submarine fleet in combat operations. And other things.
Even the Israelis should be aware that unless they let us know ahead of time, there will be no involvement by them in our exclusion zone, without prior permission.
#2
Simple countermeasures, you sail within 100 Yards of our warship YOU WILL BE SUNK.
Followed by the Islamonuts simply swarming our ships with thousands of Dingys loaded with women, children, and Burkahed "Martyrs"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/09/2010 12:16
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#3
Slat armor for ships?
High pressure water jets?
Reactive armor?
Wires at neck height?
Daisy cutters?
Gobs of computer-controlled 50-cals along the edge of the deck?
EMPs?
Semi-autonomos kamikazi hover-bots that explode on impact.
Blow up the boats that are closest to other boats and start a chain reaction.
Mine their harbor.
Put a cable underwater across their harbor (but don't count on it working).
Q-carriers.
#4
gorb: When the USN means it, they don't pussyfoot around. And that can mean gruesome. I gather that airburst area shrapnel weapons are being considered.
My own personal fave would be to use propane bombs, which over water would be "special". Anybody in boats over a half kilometer or better diameter would have something like their lungs, eyes, and eardrums explode all at once.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/09/2010 13:40
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#6
how about all of the above?
Yep. And all of the stuff that shows up below, too!
And I also forgot to mention one of my favorites: Flamethrowers at the waterline.
I like the airburst idea.
I wonder how our weapons would hold out if they sent one boat at a time after a carrier.
And they could use the boats as a diversion while a sub sneaked in.
I'll bet they could sell slots of time at the 50-cals.
And how about the electromagnetically propelled stuff, eh? I believe I remember seeing something about the navy working on getting a 5" round to go a hundred miles or so.
#10
1. Carriers never travel alone
2. They are not on the outside of the protective circle(s)
3. They are VERY hard to sink
4. If it is suicide the Iranians want, it will be suicide they get. Unfortunately for them, they may accomplish nothing for their suicide.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/09/2010 22:27
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#3
I DO have a problem with being told to produce required documentation to get a drivers license by a government whose top official is un-willing to do the same. And is working to insure 20,000,000 illegals the chance to cancel my vote to get additional support for his leftest agenda.
I have seen an intersting theory: the document Obama does not want anyone to see is the one listing his race. Apparently in Kenya his fater is not registered as a Black but as three quarters Arab. Even if we forgat about WOT it wouldn't sit well with these 95% Blacks who voted for him because they thought he was one of them.
#7
I put a photo of Mr. Scott up in my carpet-covered pen today...not that I subscribe with his views as much as it drives my sports- oriented Libtard co-workers nutz....
#1
Tens of thousands of U.S. Special Operations and conventional forces, drone strikes and intelligence operatives. At least $25 billion per year, spent indefinitely. Plus the loss of a squad a month. Seems a good estimate. I doubt the electorate will endure it.
#2
It's been sixty-five years and some retired generals weren't even born when WW II ended, much less started. Ditto most of the population.
Nevertheless, the end state of WW II seems to be the model for "winning" a war. Smash the offenders flat, kill millions of their citizens, as well as their soldiers, occupy them, sit on them, remake their societies.
Last time that happened was probably when the Romans finally took Carthage.
After Napoleon was defeated, the Allies put a Bourbon back on the French throne and allowed the French to go their own way. After WW I, there were some short-term, limited occupations for reparations purposes of Germany.
After the US Civil War, Lincoln's advice to "let'em up easy" was more or less followed.
The idea that Afghanistan, given Pakistan's situation, the amorphous nature of Islamism, the funding from the Gulf States, is going to give us a peaceful and congenial end state is nonsense.
Thus, the question of what else is to be done must arise, and the answers are not going to be a peaceful and congenial end state as we got used to by thinking of WW II.
But the answers have to be...something.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/09/2010 8:47
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#3
At some point, there should be consideration by someone, not us, of smuggling in, and detonating, an extremely dirty nuclear device directly beneath the center of Mecca.
One that will annihilate all traces of the 1km diameter center of the city, its buildings and the Kaaba, and leave a large radioactive exclusion zone around it by adding a selection of very long half life isotopes. Ideally, the rest of the residents will have to leave the city.
1km of utter destruction would probably require 3-5mt.
Bryan Minkyu Martin, a low-level sailor stationed at Ft. Bragg, sold dozens of classified documents to an FBI agent posing undercover as a foreign intelligence officer, Navy investigators wrote in an unsealed warrant obtained by The Associated Press.
Martin, 22, a petty officer in the Navy, was taken into police custody on Dec. 5, though he has not yet been charged.
The warrant, filed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, reveals that Martin engaged in multiple transactions with undercover agents, collecting $3500 for the sale of 51 secret documents.
He was paid $500 for secret documents in one meeting, and later given two payments of $1500 for even more files, according to the warrant. Of the 51 documents, "48 pages...were marked SECRET and three pages were marked TOP SECRET," the affidavit states, according to ABC News.
Martin, who began his Naval career in 2006, was given top secret clearance, according to the AP.
In his meetings with the FBI agents, the warrant states that Martin bragged he "could be very valuable" as a source of information over his likely 20-year future in the Navy, and also offered his access to classified network systems.
Though Martin's security clearance was "significantly higher" than [Bradley] Manning's, according to ABC News, officials believe the "leak" never made it past the FBI.
"Investigators have a high level of confidence that no classified informaition was actually delivered to any unauthorized persons and Martin is currently being held in the naval brig in Norfolk pending command's review of the investigative material," said Paul O'Donnell, a spokesman for NCIS, in a statement to ABC News. More details from Military.com
According to a search warrant unsealed in federal court Friday, Martin sold secret and top secret documents in several staged buys of intelligence at two Spring Lake hotels.
According to the search warrant, Martin was assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg on Sept. 16. Two months later, on Nov. 15, Martin met an undercover FBI agent in the lobby of the Hampton Inn on Bragg Boulevard in Spring Lake, according to the warrant. The special agent, posing as a foreign intelligence officer, brought Martin to his room, where Martin discussed his access to military computer networks and classified networks, according to the warrant.
Martin also told the agent that he was seeking "longterm financial reimbursement," and that he could be very valuable over a 15- or 20-year career, which he expected would take him to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the warrant says.
Martin offered to bring the agent two documents at their next meeting and accepted $500 in cash from the agent, the warrant says.
At a meeting the next day at the same hotel, Martin produced two documents one labelled "secret" and the other "top secret" and accepted $1,500 in cash, the warrant says. He agreed to meet the agent again Nov. 19, when he produced 51 pages of secret and top secret documents, according to the warrant. He was paid another $1,500, according to the warrant.
Martin also failed to report the contacts to any member of his chain of command, the warrant says. The warrant authorized NCIS agents to search the room Martin was using at the Landmark Inn on Fort Bragg and his 2009 gold Nissan Altima. It does not address how Martin came under suspicion or how he came into contact with the undercover FBI agent.
Buice (Ed Buice, a public affairs specialist for the Naval Criminial Investigative Service) would not clarify the matter Friday night, but said, "We have a high level confidence that classified information was not delivered to any unauthorized person."
Martin enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 30, 2006, and completed basic training on July 20, 2007. He received a top secret clearance on Sept. 20, 2007, and was subsequently assigned to temporary duty with the Defense Intelligence Agency between May 9 and Aug. 22, according to the warrant.
A spokesman for the Army's Special Operations Command referred all questions to NCIS.
#5
Unfortunately, we have become very lax in enforcing the laws against treason and espionage. Started in the 70's when two punks, Boyce and Lee, sold several billion dollars with of satellite technology (Keyhole)to the Russians for $10,000 and wound up with wrist slaps and a book and movie deal instead of a firing squad.
#7
Both this latest POS and Manning need to be publicly hanged. That would be the best possible solution to both problems, and would send a clear message. The usual parties will get their panties in a wad, but that's just tough. Hang them, and let their bodies hang for three to five days before cutting them down. Of course, that would take someone with brass cojones, which leaves the current C-n-C totally out.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/09/2010 11:40
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#8
"Started in the 70's when two punks, Boyce and Lee, sold several billion dollars with of satellite technology (Keyhole)to the Russians for $10,000 and wound up with wrist slaps and a book and movie deal"
I guess that explains why Clinton felt he could get away with his shenanigans with Loral and the Chinese. I've never understood why he wasn't thrown out of office and imprisoned for that.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
12/09/2010 13:00
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#9
Let us not forget Sandy Berger and his classified storage container undershorts.
A repeat post from Fred yesterday.... --- I, too, wish there were a meter, to cheer Rantburgers on. But, he doesn't. So know this, he needs a thousand more than is currently in his account. And now, AP has gone the route of Rfhvn...... so if you can't do without Rantburg... well, you know what to do.
I reached agreement with Righthaven the beginning of October. I've been waiting for the paperwork since then. Squire Cingold called me to see how it was going and I told him, and he called them for me to see what was up. In the course of the resulting poopstorm they said they sent me the papers by email the day I talked to them, plus a followup. Never saw any of them -- presumably eaten by Gmail's spam filters, even though I got their latest holler.
Anyway, I'm not supposed to disclose the amount of the settlement by the terms of the agreement, but it's more than is currently in the Rantburg bank (or in my checkbook after paying for a new HVAC system in October...) So if you've got spare change, please kick in. By this point it's easier to spend four digits to make it go away than to spend five digits defending it, which is what they count on.
Posted by: MOD for Fred ||
12/09/2010
01:28 ||
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[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I have contributed.
Question: as I understand it, these scumbags are using a loophole. There was something about registering as a news organization and a small fee to some govt org. I remember no details.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/09/2010 6:58
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#3
I don't like it in principle either, but I'm in, Fred.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 8:59
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#4
I hit the tip jar, too. It may be extortion, but unless Fred has a d*mn good pro-bono lawyer and is willing to sit on his thumbs waiting for the wheels of justice (sometimes for years), I believe he did what he needed to do to get this behind him.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/09/2010 9:19
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#5
I'm hoping that at some point down the pike EFF or somebody like them will put together a class action and hit Rgthvn and the deep pockets behind them for large dollars, perhaps even a few bucks for those of us victimized.
Barratry & maintenance, yes.
RICO, yes (but doesn't fall a under tort law).
Extortion, yes.
Abuse of the legal system, yes.
A couple dozen things that don't spring to my aging mind immediately, yes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 10:30
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#6
Fred---I can contribute on the 15th. Will it help on that date?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 11:53
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#7
It always helps. Anything not made up here comes out of my pay check.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 13:40
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#8
http://is.gd/isbiU
They have just announced they are going to sue Matt Drudge.
#13
pitched a tad into the kitty... drudge will shine the light into the crevices where these roaches live
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 17:23
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#14
There was something about registering as a news organization and a small fee to some govt org. I remember no details.
Whiskey Mike, since this started Fred did register with the government and pay his $100+ fee (I don't remember exactly how much). Before, it had seemed an extravagance for a hobby site that costs him out of pocket rather than bringing in income.
For those of you who are hobby bloggers, contact Fred and he'll tell you what to do. Until Rthvn is vanquished, you all are at risk.
#1
Fascinating article, especially the bit about Obama and his grandfather.
"The young Obama was horrified: I had imagined him to be a man of his people, opposed to white rule, he wrote in Dreams from my Father. What Granny [Sarah Obama, one of Onyango's wives] had told me scrambled that image completely, causing ugly words to flash across my mind. Uncle Tom. Collaborator. House nigger.
It never occurs to him that his grandfather might have watched the British improve life in Kenya. After all the British only took Kenya on as a protectorate in 1890, even if his Grandfather wasn't around pre-British there certainly would be folks around who were and watching civilization spread. Certainly seems worth asking why, instead of the childish white bad, black good name calling that Obama writes about.
After all "apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
#2
It never occurs to him that his grandfather might have watched the British
.....reported their activities to Mau Mau insurgents, even though he wasn't Kikuyu, and was subsequently jailed for espionage.
Yes, people USED to be imprisoned or shot for passing classified information. Any other questions as to why Zero fails to make substantive comment on the WL event stream?
#3
For crying out loud, forget about some perceived wrong that you never really knew. I'm sure most of us could drag up something in some unknown relative's past that we could bitch and sulk about. Get over it.
#4
The entire moral posture of leftism is "righting" perceived wrongs. It doesn't matter if the wrongs are imagined or non-existent, as long as all good lefties believe the wrongs occurred. All the killing in USSR and Mao's China weren't wrong, you see, because they ameliorated larger wrongs, in the lefty mind. Get that and you GET IT...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/09/2010 14:49
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Another really interesting cable in the public domain that compromises nobody's safety but tells us details about our world.
In answer to Swamp Blondie (comments now closed): I would LOVE to see cables from my country. I was just complaining today that there are none yet. I think it would be brilliant to see what my Government is really up to.
-----
anon1, some of Rantburg's readers work for the U.S. government in various capacities. If they open a web page that contains a WikiLeaks cable, they are required at minimum to scrub their computer completely. If they do this multiple times their employment could be at risk. Rantburg will not be party to that, given these are the people actually fighting the War on Terror (or whatever we're calling it these days).
#1
I personally object to the posting of pilfered documents containing US Government (USG) classification markings on the blog. (C) Confidential, (U) Unclassified, etc. I believe we are operating in a dangerous area when this type activity begins to take place.
#2
it's public domain now - it's out there in the wild easily accessible to everyone.
It's now a news source. The information is really interesting and reveals the names of very corrupt politicians in Zimbabwe. This is a force for good - I am glad this one is out.
#5
anon1: Maybe not, but you might start checking out the reaction to your posts after the close of business the previous day before you start posting again the next.
Better park it and ask why they don't want you posting cables from WK. There is probably a good reason.
#7
Personally, I refuse to read any of the 'releases'.
I think Wikileaks is a transnational criminal organization and that JA is a transnational criminal. I refuse to support WL in any manner.
I will avoid all sites and organizations that support WL's brand of transnational espionage.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/09/2010 5:03
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#8
Righto TW, no problem I won't put any more up from Wikileaks.
I am sorry to hear that if an employee of the US Government opens a Wikileaks cable they could lose their jobs.
And of course they should not do anything of the sort if their jobs are on the line.
But I do think that is wrong of their employers.
And when they go home at night they should be doubly determined to go to the Wikileaks site and see what it is that the rest of the world is looking at.
#9
And of course they should not do anything of the sort if their jobs are on the line.
Bugger the bloody job! The phueching Chinese, Russians, and terrs are celebrating this Wikileaks fiasco. This should tell you something. This is not a game. Please come to your senses.
#11
There's been a lot of to & fro discussion here on the 'Burg about Wikileaks, but some consequences haven't gotten much coverage. Here's a random collection of what I got from hoovering up stuff with Google:
Classified information shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of identical or similar information Executive order signed by Obama 12/2009
Starting last week, Department of Energy installations began barring access to WikiLeaks and its myriad of mirror sites. Mark Leininger, Fermilab's computer security manager, wrote in an internal newsletter that WikiLeaks' Web site was being blocked. "There is some risk to you as an individual of being involved in an investigation if you view or possess classified information," he wrote.
We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.
The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.
#15
I would be remiss to not say this: I budgeting for charitable donations to give at Christmas and of course Rantburg and some veterans's groups like Paralyzed Veteran of America will be at the top of my list.
The infamous however, the voluminous postings of Anon1 and the mockery of American soldiers and their security detracts completely from the overall Rant at Rantburg. It is fine and dandy that Anon1 has opinions, but her vociferous and lenghty diatribes make the site practically intolerable. Mods I do not mean to order you on how you fo your jobs, but a suggestion would be to limit Anon1 in a meaningful way so Rantburg isn't debased. Just a suggestion.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
12/09/2010 11:13
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#16
That is "I am"
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
12/09/2010 11:14
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#17
That last comment was mine....don't know why it didn't say it was. My bad!
#19
Great post Swamp Blondie. :-) Very funny. I think I wasn't clear in my writing--- I am contributing to Rantburg, Paralyzed Veterans of America and a food bank no matter what! It's just Sooooo much of Rantburg seems given
over to Anon1 long long long big big big opinions. Not banning, but at least limiting the length of her postings would improve the overall experience of being at Rantburg and
perhaps she could find a way to do that herself. After all less is often more in things like writing. And I think Anon1 is a grown adult.
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
12/09/2010 12:11
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#20
Adult is a nebulous concept these days;-).
Posted by: Fire and ice ||
12/09/2010 12:14
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#21
"Adult is a nebulous concept these days;-)."
That's for sure.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
12/09/2010 13:05
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#22
limiting the length of her postings would improve the overall experience of being at Rantburg
You don't have to read every comment. I've been known to pass over some by Mr. Mendiola.
#25
I'm willing to concede a certain amount of "whose ox is being gored" here. I do think there is a case for espionage or, at the least, receiving stolen goods, and it wouldn't cause me the slightest loss of sleep if Manning were hung and Julie were to be shot while trying to escape. However, if the released documents were Russian or Chinese, I'd read them with glee and feel kindly about Romanov/Chang or whomever stole them and I'd wouldn't care one way or the other about Julie. Not rational, not fair, but that's the way it is.
#26
Hello all, I understand that you all think that Wikileaks is some kind of enemy saboteur trying to wreck your country in the name of terrorists.
But this isn't true.
And how will you know unless you look at what they do?
I had never even bothered to check out the Wikileaks site before they arrested Assange and the crap hit the fan last week.
Since viewing it I know better what it is now than I did before, and on that I base my views.
Since shutting off access to the website and censoring its documents is the cyber equivalent of book burning, don't you all think you had at least better know what it is you are burning before it is destroyed?
Then you can make up your own minds.
I will point you specifically to that video of Reuters journos being gunned down - not because they were killed.
That happens in war.
But because of the lying that occurred after it that is captured on that video.
That will show you how the messages you receive in the Old Media are spun, and how the truth never makes it out there.
That is why the Government hates wikileaks so much and is trying to cut it down every way it can.
Also on the Wikileaks site is much that has nothing at all to do with the US Government but to do with African nations, South American nations - they are into Government transparency all around the world.
The citizens of these countries have never had a chance to see just how corrupt their governments are or who is doing the thieving.
So I really urge you to at least see for yourselves.
Also I would say that if banning wikileaks cables, why stop there? Why not also ban all news reports that are written sourcing those cables?
#27
Banning copies of the documents is NOT the same as banning the articles about them. The documents are marked as U.S. Government property. News articles are clearly marked as something different.
Imagine the task of a security officer who finds a marked Government document on an employee's computer. The officer has no idea how it got where it shouldn't be. Perhaps the reason it is there is because this was the computer used to leak the files in the first place. Maybe not. Either way, an unpleasant investigation and cleanup is required by law.
Do not ever post a restricted or classified U.S. Government marked document to a public forum like this. It is almost certainly illegal for the poster and causes no end of annoyance to innocent people on the site.
#28
I think it would be just splendid if Anon started it's own website and posted all of the stuff there instead instead of constantly pissing in the pool over here hoping to slip one by the moderators.
#29
Posting classified material to a public forum is a violation of the Wiretap act. The law is written where there is little a defendant can do to mount an affirmative defense of his or her actions.
Telling a federal judge, "Well it was on Wiki-leaks!" will get you nowhere. Telling a judge the material was found on a foreign website will not be heard as a defense as well.
It is not legal for the US government to prevent publication of classified material; it is, however, legal for the government to sanction individuals and institutions for publishing classified material, and sanctions include civil as well as criminal penalties.
This ain't a game.
This isn't a case of "OMFG! Assange is teh roxrz."
Posting classified material not only places the forum in a legal jeopardy, but places the poster in it as well. Be aware of that should have have plans to travel to the US in the near future.
You can't do it and expect to have much in the way of a legal justification for doing it.
#30
I'm amazed, anon1, how you can type that voluminous drivel one-handed...bravo!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 21:25
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#31
Now that's just cold, Frank. (But too true. ;-p )
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/09/2010 21:29
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#32
hoping to slip one by the moderators.
rjschwarz, I don't think anon1 was trying to slip anything by the moderators, only to share what she thought were key revealing documents that she was sure would change our minds, not having picked up hints that this might be an issue to some of our readers. She wasn't openly warned until last night, and she wasn't aware of the warning until this morning. She accepted the ruling, and has not tried to buck it, although continuing to argue in defence of her position.
I find her distressingly obdurate on this issue, although she has been very sensible about some other things, and has provided useful comments about the situations and players in the countries near her Australian home.
badanov, thank you for clarifying the risk to those who wish to travel to the U.S., a real concern. Given anon1's fondness for Americans, she'll probably not want to start her own blog on the WikiLeaks cables, then.
#2
Our enemy and their supporters tend to make what is an islamic problem your psychological hangup. No matter that we are dealing with a bunch of 7th century psychopathic murderers with supremacist ambitions for the world.
#3
I think the bulk of America has a pretty good idea about Islam and knows a lot have chosen neutrality in the conflict of cultures waiting to see which side wins. Those ones are not all our enemy but they are also not our friends and we should not be bending over backwards for them unless they pick a side.
#4
So we are Islamophobic and so what? Islam is not something you are born with and can't do nothing about it. Islam is also an idea and the ideas of a person influence its actions.
I hate Nazism so according to the Islampohobic logic I am Naziphobic or more exacly an intolerant and eeeevil Naziphobic. Eisenhower was of German ascent but would have it been right to handle him the responsability of Overlord if he had kept a German heart or had he been a Nazi? If he had told, like many Muslims openly tell, his loyalty to Germany was stronger than his one to the United States?
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zimbabwe's legislators have threatened to block the passage of the country's 2011 budget if they are not given at least US$200 000 (Sh16m) each for their constituencies. $200K per year for a Zim legislator? We got lotsa unemployed legislators who can underprice that!
The Members of Parliament (MPs) are also demanding that Finance Minister Tendai Biti sets aside funds to pay them at least $3000 (Sh240,000) in salaries a month.
Currently, the legislators' earn an average of $400 a month and the latest demands come in the wake of threats by the MPs that they would demand compensation if their terms are cut short to pave way for elections expected next year.
President Bob Muggsy Mugabe is insisting on early elections two years after he formed a unity government with his former rivals, which means the legislators cannot serve their five year terms that end in 2012.
The legislators who early this year also demanded luxury vehicles every year for use in their constituencies claim that they are the lowest paid in the region.
"The budget has continued to show its ugly face by putting civil servants and MPs into abject poverty under the pretext that the country is poor," said Mr Paddy Zhanda who chairs the parliamentary portfolio committee on budget and finance.
"This attitude cannot be allowed to continue as it perpetuates corruption and has a negative impact on this country." Last month, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti proposed a $3,2 billion budget for 2011.
Out of that budget, $1, 4 billion was set aside for civil service remuneration which was almost twice the $773 million allocated in this year's budget.
But for the budget to be adopted it has to be first approved by the MPs before it is taken to the Senate.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the Senate has resumed sitting a month after it was forced to adjourn indefinitely following protests by members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party over the presence of provincial governors who were unilaterally appointed by President Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai has since challenged the appointments in court and South African President Jacob Zuma has also tried to help end the impasse.
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#1
Out of that budget, $1, 4 billion was set aside for civil service remuneration which was almost twice the $773 million allocated in this year's budget.
Anyone see a similar pattern here in the States? A tribalist, anti-colonial, entitlement attitude perhaps?
[Tolo News] Seventeen Taliban beturbanned goons including their commanders have layed down their arms surrendering to government in Northern Kunduz province, officials said See? The Chieu Hoi program's working!
Ten Talibs including their commander, named Mohammad Nabi, have surrendered to government forces in Imam Sahib District of Kunduz on Wednesday, said chief of the 303 Pamir zone, Gen. Dawood Dawood.
They have handed all their weapons over to the government forces, he added.
On Monday seven hard boyz including their commander Abdul Aziz laid down arms and resumed normal life, local officials said.
The Taliban have yet to comment on this.
According to reports nearly 500 hard boyz have laid down arms in the past one month and joined the grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan.
Kunduz is one of the volatile provinces of Afghanistan where Afghan and foreign forces have recently escalated counter-insurgency operations to improve security in the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
It's winter, and cold outside. Surrender, get housed and fed and 'rehabilitated', then get released for the spring fighting.
#2
It's winter, and cold outside. Surrender (sort of), receive amnesty, admit nothing, inform on no one, refuse biodata processing, get paid in USD, get pat on the back, get housed and fed and 'rehabilitated', then get released for the spring fighting.
[Straits Times] A MAN was trampled to death and four others escaped unhurt after a herd of wild elephants attacked them when they were searching for keranji (a wild fruit) in Hutan Bring near Pos Pasik here.
Muhamad Adnan Iberahim, 26, from Kampung Bertam Lama here was believed to have died of injuries to his head and body after being trampled by the elephants in the 4.50pm incident on Monday.
Gua Musang police chief Supt Saiful Bahri Abdullah said the five men had driven to the forest in a four-wheel drive and were searching for the fruit on foot when the elephants attacked.
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(KUNA) -- Military chiefs from South Korea and the US agreed Wednesday to continue joint drills to effectively deter North Korean aggression and refine Seoul's leading role in dealing with local provocations, giving the South more authority in the case of future attacks by the North, media reported.
In a joint statement issued after their talks in Seoul, Gen. Han Min-koo of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff and his US counterpart Adm. Mike Mullen said they "agreed to primarily refine the ROK-supported, US-supporting plans for local provocation in order for the alliance to resolutely respond to further North Korean aggression," according to Yonhap News Agency.
Han and Mullen also "agreed to continue combined exercises designed to effectively deter North Korean aggression and strengthen the joint capabilities to respond," the statement said.
As the talks between Han and Mullen were underway, distant sounds of artillery fire were heard from North Korea near the tense Yellow Sea border. Yonhap said the sounds appeared to be coming from the North's routine drills, citing the South's military officials. No shells fell south of Korea's maritime border, it said.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula spiked to one of their highest levels in decades following the North's artillery assault on Yeonpyeong Island on November 23 near the Yellow Sea border. The brazen assault marked the first time North Korea has targeted a civilian area on the South's territory since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The two sides "acknowledged that the artillery fire on Yeonpyeong was a deliberate and illegal armed attack which violates the UN charter and armistice agreement" that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the statement said.
Just days after the attack, South Korea and the US conducted four days of high-profile naval drills off the Yellow Sea with a US aircraft carrier participating. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War that ended with a cease-fire, leaving the peninsula technically still at war.
In his separate meeting on Wednesday with Seoul's military leaders and other brass hats, including Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, Mullen said the US wants China to play a "very important" role in trying to rein in North Korea and deterring the communist state from any future provocations.
China, about the only nation with any influence on North Korea, has been under increasing pressure to do more in curbing the North's military aggression.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Amnesia Amnesty International has released a hard-hitting report with stinging findings on the harassment of Somali refugees by Kenya's police and soldiers. Did they do a similar report about Somali refugees harassing Kenyan cops by throwing grenades at them?
The report also questions the sincerity of Cabinet Ministers Otieno Kajwang' (Immigration) and George Saitoti (Internal Security) over their commitment in handling Somali refugees within Kenya's borders.
The release of the report coincides with Kenya's crackdown on foreigners following last Friday's grenade attack on a police car in Nairobi's Eastleigh area. Many Somalis, both Kenyan Somalis and immigrants with refugee status, live in Eastleigh.
The report titled "From life without peace, to peace without life" makes a gory reading as it gives a detailed account of the suffering of the refugees fleeing the war-torn country and entering Kenya.
The report documents brutal police beatings, outright extortion, sexual abuses by hosts and other refugees in Kenya; overcrowding, poor health and sanitation in camps as among the vagaries of a Somali refugee's life in Kenya.
Mr Eric Kiraithe, the Kenya Police spokesperson, was contacted about the findings and he said that police do carry out investigations and act whenever culpability is uncovered.
He cited the suspension of senior coppers following June's release of a report by the Human Rights Watch, but maintained that the report also had many inaccuracies.
"Sometimes, those who compile these reports do very little fact-finding on the ground," said Mr Kiraithe.
"We had a joint team with UNHCR and carried out our own investigations. Where there are cases of corruption we acted on them and the officers are still serving their suspension.
"However, The infamous However... that's restricted to trafficking. But when it comes to refugees, they are usually in very bad shape because they have trekked for long distances. Our officers respect the rights of the refugees."
He said, the police will investigate the Amnesty International findings and act on them appropriately.
The global rights' body says that though the refugees decamped violence and the constant danger of death in Somalia, they just ended up in an "open prison" in the "severely overcrowded" camps in Daadab.
Refugees in the Daadab camps also revealed that members and sympathisers of al-Shabaab "were present in the camps or travelled through them and at times recruited refugees to fight in Somalia."
Aid workers and United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Refugees, the study notes "also report an increase in cases of sexual violence, including rape, early and forced marriages, and unwanted pregnancies in the camps."
"Amnesty International believes that, for the police to work better with the refugee communities, a strong signal must be sent to the refugees and the police alike that police abuses will not be tolerated, and that coppers are not above the law," the report notes.
The rights lobby notes that refugees in Daadab, Nairobi and Liboi are normally forced to give bribes or be sent back to Somalia, yet this is against the principle of "non-refoulment" under international law.
"Somali refugees are particularly vulnerable to abuse by the security forces in Kenya, given the ambiguity of government policy towards them and the real risk that they can be forcibly returned to Somalia," the study notes.
This "ambiguity of government policy" culminates into a veiled indictment of Mr Kajwang, for promising a delegation from Amnesty International that Kenya will set up a screening centre for refugees, yet "to date", the one in Liboi had not be reopened. Mr Kajwang' could not be reached because his phone was off.
Kenya's border with Somalia, the whole 682 kilometres, was officially closed in 2007, but refugees continue to stream in through the mostly non-existent border.
"Closing the border has not addressed the security concerns of the Kenyan authorities. In practice, it has proved impossible for the Kenyan authorities to effectively close and control the border. As of September 2010, 34,872 Somali nationals were registered in Kenya, demonstrating that the closure has not stopped asylum-seekers from entering the country," Amnesty International says in its report.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Straits Times] INDONESIA will boost security over Christmas and New Year to prevent violence against Christians in the Mohammedan-majority country, police said on Wednesday.
The alert came after a crude homemade bomb went kaboom! harmlessly at a church near Solo in central Java on Tuesday and another unwent kaboom! device was found at a church in the same area last week.
'Ahead of Christmas and New Year, we'll enhance security measures to anticipate bomb threats... and church burnings,' national police front man Iskandar Hasan told news hounds.
'The national police chief has ordered all police personnel across the country to coordinate with churches and local administrations to take preventive measures.' He said a 'terror group' was likely behind the bomb scares but he was reluctant to lay the blame at any particular organisation while investigations were ongoing.
Indonesia is home to a plethora of homegrown Islamist turban groups bent on waging jihad or 'holy war' against non-Mohammedans and the democratically elected government in a bid to impose Islamic law on the country.
The government has jugged and convicted hundreds of alleged bully boyz since the 2002 bombings of tourist areas on the resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, mainly Westerners.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Yemen Post] A worker was found dead inside a refrigerator of a Turkish restaurant in Yemen's capital Sana'a after a fire broke out inside the restaurant, the Civil Defense said on Monday.
Fadhil Al-Samawi, 23, hid inside the refrigerator when the fire started on Sunday to die from smoke inhalation inside it, the Civil Defense said.
The blaze ravaged the restaurant and two nearby stores in the district of Al-Wahda, it said, adding that an initial investigation revealed an electrical fault was to blame.
The investigation is continuing.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
...the provincial failed to grasp that too many American movies are for entertainment not fact.
#2
I theory, depending on the type of refrigerator and its airspace, that is not a bad idea, if the alternative is to be burnt up or suffocated. If it's a large, walk in freezer with lots of ice build up, that would be optimal.
#3
I've read that some people survived the Coconut Grove fire by getting into a walk in refrigerator.
It says he died of smoke inhalation. Refrigerators are usually sealed so he either didn't properly shut the door or had already sucked in so much smoke that it wouldn't have made a difference where he went.
(KUNA) -- The Israeli Air Force carried out two separate attacks in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip on Wednesday.
The warplanes targetted Khan Younis in the south, bombarding a chicken farm and resulted in the injury of a civilian, who was then transported to a near hospital, said the local radio.
Israeli forces also attacked the city of Rafah, targeting the tunnels on the borders with Egypt, it added.
There were no reports of human or material losses, Paleostinian medical source noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Food was flyin' everywhere, I left without my hat...
[Geo News] The students of Islami Jamiat Talaba staged a protest in front of Punjab Assembly premises which soon turned into a violent show, Geo News reported Wednesday. The students transgressed into the Assembly's premises however, they could not make into the main hall thanks to heavy contingents of police. At least two vehicles were torched on the violent spot.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
At least two vehicles were torched on the violent spot.
[Dawn] Students from various government educational institutions protested outside the Punjab Assembly against the privatisation of their colleges in Lahore on Wednesday.
The students had earlier blocked Mall Road and were later gathered outside the Punjab Assembly, trying to enter the premises.
When the police stopped the students from entering the assembly building, they started to force their way inside. The police used batons to disperse the students who then started throwing stones at the police.
The students also restored to vandalising the property and chanting slogans in favour of their demands.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Geo News] Chief of PML-N Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Wednesday said that the country was passing through a critical juncture and facing many economic problems.
Addressing a public gathering at Karman Wali Havaili near Sammundri on Wednesday, he said that corrupt elements have choked the entire development process. If the corruption is eliminated from government departments, the country would become self-reliant and no foreign aid would be required, he added.
He crtiticized the imposition of RGST saying the proposed tax would overburden the people, who were already facing financial constraints due to the inflationary trend in the country.
He said that PML-N would oppose the new tax in and outside the constitutional institutions and if the imposition of new taxes was imperative, corruption should be eliminated first of all.
He criticized corruption in Hajj affairs and said the responsible officers should be jugged.
He observed that dictators always jeopardized the pace of national progress and prosperity by usurping powers.
He said his party would pull the country out of crises and put it on the way to progress and prosperity.
He said that if his government had not been toppled, Pakistain would have been prosperous by now.
Earlier, Nawaz Sharif was accorded a reception and was brought to Karman Wali Havaili in a big rally from Sammundri Bypass.
A large number of PML-N activists, workers and leaders including Chaudhry Sher Ali and Rao Kashif Raheem were also present on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(KUNA) -- President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak cut short his tour of the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) region and is only to visit members Indonesia and Malaysia, as of Thursday, over tensions with North Korea.
An Indonesian Foreign Ministry statement said the leader is to attend the inauguration of the 3rd Bali Democracy Forum along with the Indonesian president.
Media meanwhile said officials from the two states are to discuss bilateral relations and military, defense, and economic cooperation.
The President is to visit Malaysia later in the day for a two-day visit, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the two nations. He is to attend a celebration on this occasion along with the King of Malaysia.
A Foreign Ministry statement reported that the meetings of the delegation with bigwigs and businessmen would cover regional issues as well as boosting cooperation and interaction.
The president is to meet the Malaysian Premier and sign a Memo of Understanding on cooperation in the fields of criminal law and the judiciary, it said.
Seoul assumed a state of alert since North Korea's attack on a South Korean island in November 23, which killed two navy officers and several civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Straits Times] MALAYSIA'S law minister on Wednesday shot down calls to ban junior nookie underage marriage, despite an uproar over the recent wedding of a 14-year-old Mohammedanmaiden.
Siti Maryam Mahmod wed 23-year-old teacher Abdul Manan Othman last weekend in a mass wedding at a major mosque, after being given permission in an Islamic Sharia court. "I wanna pack some pork to this maiden of tender years, but she needs a court order!"
"Okay. Next case!"
Malaysian Mohammedans below the age of 16 are allowed to marry as long as they obtain the permission of the religious courts. Sharia law runs in parallel with civil law in the multi-ethnic country.
Nazri Aziz, a minister in the premier's department in charge of legal affairs, said the government has no plan to review laws allowing for underage marriages because the practice is permitted under Islam.
'If the religion allows it, then we can't legislate against it,' he told a presser. Actually you could if you had a secular state. But your non-Moslem minority's being forced to live in an Islamic state.
'Islam allows it as long as the girl is considered to have reached her pubescent stage, once she has her menstruation,' he added. "And boobs! She's gotta have boobs! Big 'uns!"
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Have to start them early to outbreed the infidels and overthrow every other civilization through mass overpopulation and conquest.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
12/09/2010 11:41
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#2
Actually this hits kind of close to home. It was only in the last 5 years or so that Hawai'i raised the age of consent to 16... over heavy opposition from the local population, I might add. Child marriages seem to be the world norm, with Western mores in the minority.
#3
That's quite shocking Mercutio. I had no idea that was happening so close to home. At least I don't have to worry about any Hawaiian global conquest.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
12/09/2010 13:02
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[Dawn] Israel's security cabinet voted on Wednesday to partially lift a ban on exports from Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-controlled Gazoo that was first imposed four years ago, an official statement said.
"The security cabinet decided to implement new measures which will allow an increase in the export of goods from the Gazoo Strip," said the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
"The measures are designed to improve the lives of the population, who live under the repression and terror imposed by Hamas," it added, without giving details.
Israel relaxed restrictions on imports to Gazoo in the face of an international outcry over a deadly commando raid on a flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of the territory on May 31.
But it maintained its export ban and tight restrictions on the movement of people to and from the densely populated coastal strip.
An Israeli official said the decision would not totally lift all export restrictions.
"The exports will be to the West Bank and the international community at this stage, not to Israel," he said on condition of anonymity.
The official said it remained to be worked out how the goods would be inspected and that it would take several week to be fully implemented.
The decision covers four categories, agricultural items, furniture, textiles and "others," including goods such as ceramics.
The Quartet of major players in the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society and the United States, praised the decision but said there was a way to go in facilitating Gazoo trade.
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[Al Jazeera] A fire at a prison in southeast of the Chilean capital, Santiago de Chile, has killed at least 83 people. Some reports suggested the fire was deliberately started during a fight between inmates in one of the crowded San Miguel prison's five towers.
"It is a hugely painful tragedy," Sebastian Pinera, the president, said, as he confirmed the death toll.
"The situation in our prison system cannot hold out any longer," he added, citing chronic overcrowding in the country's jails.
Felipe Bulnes, the justice minister, said the prison housed 1,960 inmates, nearly twice the 1,100 capacity.
Police Colonel Jaime Concha said 14 inmates were also injured in the fire, which broke out before dawn on Wednesday. "We don't yet have the identities" of the deceased inmates, he said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Television footage showed flames engulfing the jail and black smoke billowing from the building.
Posted by: Fred ||
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from haaretz
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been at the center of a world-wide media storm over the massive leak of U.S. diplomatic cables last week, should received the Nobel Prize, a top Russian source told country's state news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday. and in related news, the Berkeley City Council will be considering a resolution to honor Bradley Manning
Posted by: lord garth ||
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#1
Yea, as long as he does not leak Russian material, all's peachy. And who in their right mind would? For a polonium tea?
Concerning Wikileaks, Governor Mike Huckabee said:
"If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET,' store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate!"
#3
well, he does have more accomplishment under his belt than one of the more recent recipients
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 1:05
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I agree. Julian Assange is a hero. At great personal cost he is making sure that whistleblowers have a safe way to get information out about Governments all around the world. Not just the US Government but my government, african governments... all governments.
It is a triumph for the people and the people love him for it.
#5
No, the 'people' don't love him everywhere. Do you have a direct line with "the people" in Russia? So, can I have your visa account number? No? Because cracking open the vaults is fine as long as it is not close to home. Pure hypocrisy, that. Free information provided it is the others information and not your own.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 1:17
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the people love him for it.
The emphasis on love, freeeee love sometimes with a condom malfunction tossed in. Careful all you groupies, wouldn't want to catch a wikileak mid coitus.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 1:25
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if you read the comments on news.com.au on every wikileaks story you will see that the people love him.
and this is why: "sam of perth" put it best when he said:
Sam of Perth Posted at 4:55 PM Today
"Why has Wikileaks got so much traction? Because the mainstream media has failed the public over and over. Remember when Latham ran for PM? The media here was hopeless at showing the public the true measure of the man. The GFC? Great coverage after the fact. The war in Iraq? They beat that fake drum as hard as the govt wanted them to. They also failed to fight the internet filter. That battle was fought by ordinary people. The last election campaign showed clearly the trend for governments to try to replace facts and policy with worthless spin. The mainstream media should have been heaping derision on both parties. Instead many articles sounded like party press releases. Democracy is meaningless when citizens do not have access to real information on which to judge the actions and character of their govt. It is the media's job to ensure that the public has that information. If they were doing their job then Julian Assange wouldn't have his. I salute the brave people at Wikileaks!"
#10
anon1 -- have you made a contribution to Fred's bank account for hosting Rantburg (in case you don't know, he needs money to settle a lawsuit against him for postings at Rantburg)... so you have the privilege to express all your accolades of glory, worship of a false god, bowing down before our enemies, and for your innocent view of Assange?
Too bad you can't go back and live in the past. You're ideas and thoughts belong in the 60's. And it's that generation (mine) that is now royally messing up our country with beliefs just like yours.
So ante up -- you owe him for your box to stand on at the corner of 5th and Main in Rantburg for you to express your "freedom of speech."
Put your money where your mouth is, and pay for your freedom of speech here since those who are and have been giving of their lives to give you this freedom doesn't seem to be the chosen route for you.
#11
Give Assange a Nobel Prize. After all he did something...... And I should get one for optimizing the dose of coagulant in the village I am in so they will get even better water. And everybody should get a Nobel Prize. Everybody's a winner.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 2:13
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Anon1 - With your attitude .. when the Chicoms take over OZ I will smile...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
12/09/2010 2:26
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#13
Yes Sherry, I have donated to Fred - and well worth it. Good on Fred for hosting a site.
I support Fred for the same reason: freedom of speech.
Fred had the courage to host this site at a time when PC McCarthyism was shutting up everyone who wanted to even mention the word "islam" in connection with "terrorism".
I think Wikileaks is also VERY IMPORTANT for the same reason.
It is a force for greater freedom in the world.
And for evidence of just how much we need it you can see a video right here,
Video link and subsequent description deleted, to protect those Rantburgers not allowed to see WikiLeaks information for security reasons.
Sorry about that, anon1, but at this site your freedom of speech ends when it causes problems for those fighting the War on Terror (or whatever we're calling it these days).
#16
Also - the Wikileaks cables could never have done as much damage to the standing of the US in the world as has been done by the reaction to it.
People are outraged not by what is in the cables but by how the US and other Governments have used their power to interfere politically in the workings of apolitical businesses like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
Worse was interference in the legal proceedings of Sweden and the obvious political hand being played out in Australia.
This is absolutely the opposite of what people want to see from their governments.
There is so much anger now about this that random groups launched hack attacks.
If the powers that be had simply allowed events to unfold and made their case that it was damaging relations then the public might have had sympathy for their position.
What is going on now is deeply divisive and it has nothing to do with the actual content of the cables, and everything to do with the political interference in civic life. It really is outrageous. And that is coming from a political conservative that holds no truck with the usual leftie whinging protesters.
#17
In other news Vladimir Putin suggested the Nobel Prize to be renamed the Anna Politkovskaya Prize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya
Caviar and polonium will be served
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/09/2010 5:55
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#18
But that video has been in the public domain for a long time in a degraded form -
Don't you think it is important for people to see?
No. Some of our readers are troops out there fighting. We at Rantburg will not do anything to endanger their ability to do their job, or that will cause them to be pulled from doing that job.
Reporters wandering onto the field of battle are at risk at being caught in the crossfire, and have no reason to complain when they intersect a hail of bullets or an IED. Reporters hanging out with the enemy have no business complaining when they end up in the same cross-hairs as those they are standing next to. Choices have consequences; sometimes those consequences involve Darwin.
#19
Political interference in civic life. It really is outrageous, says anon1.
And the release of classified material is what?
Assange stated goals, a few years back, were to damage US economy and political system. He decides how the political games to be played, not American people.
It's a dangerous slippery slope. And for me it is greased by the fact that partial funding of WL is coming from Tide Foundation. And if you do not know what TF is, let me just make it extra easy for you--Soros.
This fact is no longer advertised by WL, because people may get a "wrong, incorrect" idea that WL may be a tool of Soros' megalomaniacal goals and intents.
By a coincidence, the stated goal of Assange and Soros are uncannily nearly identical, with Soros being a bit more open about the OWG ideas. I see dots and they are connected.
The Aassange's application of declinations and tenses with the word freedom are utterly failing to convince me about his noble intentions. He has a decent salesman training selling secrets for profit, so I suppose that the concept of a sales pitch is quite familiar to him. He just finds a lot of fools that gobble it up hook, line and sinker.
He did not help anyone. Actually, not true, he did--the release of strategic US locations makes the job of Islamic radical elements even easier. And they do appreciate it. A friend of mine that monitors Islamist sites and forums (private intel op) noticed how giddy they are.
Radical lefties are pleased too.
What does it tell you anon1? It does seem that they do understand, on an analytical level, what is going on and who is being helped by this sordid affair.
#20
People are outraged not by what is in the cables but by how the US and other Governments have used their power to interfere politically in the workings of apolitical businesses like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
(facepalm) Oh, yeah, I forgot....if Visa, Mastercard and Paypal make a business decision that keeps ol' Jools from getting cash, it couldn't possibly be because they thought it may not be a good publicity move during the height of the Christmas shopping season to be associated with the little bugger. Oh no. It had to be because the CIA got to them like they got to the Swedes.....and the Swiss, too, who later closed out another one of his fundraising accounts due to his, ahem, difficulties with telling the truth about his legal residence as required by Swiss law.
I guess if you are all about FREEDOM! it's ok if you tell a few lies here and there.
Can't wait to see Australia's cables all over the internet. After all, I like freedom, too and I'm just sooo bored to death reading about Britney....if I say I'm all for freedom and not admit that I'm looking for "the good parts" that are trashalicious then I can pretend I'm all classy and stuff.
#22
twobyfour, only some of us. See: Congress while writing massive pieces of legislation, anything having to do with the Obamas, people with the "correct" political viewpoints. Campaign promises to the contrary be damned.
#24
"Why has Wikileaks got so much traction? Because the mainstream media has failed the public over and over."
THAT part is true. But while it may explain WL popularity and does to SOME extent justify WL, there is too much dangerous and potentially dangerous content for me to condone. If you're going to release classified material you'd better be d*mned sure you know what you are releasing and what the potential consequences are - and THAT'S impossible for JA or pretty much anyone else.
#25
The end result of total transparency as Anon and Asange want is a mafia-like verbal commands only, no paper trail to avoid embarrassment. Either that or everything is coded. I don't think that's particularly helpful to democracy.
#29
I am all for free speach, but unfortunately the Wikileaks information will be used out of context to influence a large portion of this world's uneducated masses, who have not been raised in an enviroment which questions their religious and political leaders. They hear and then do. They leave the thinking (right or wrong) up to those whose motives are myriad but not usually good. Information is ammunition for the enemy since they can spin it any way they want, only the naive will think what came out in Wikileaks could somehow be disseminated untainted by world and religious politics.
#30
The Russkies just might be floating this balloon to divert suspicion when they move against Assange. They might intend to award him the "Polonium Prize" instead (though probably not by putting it in a condom).
#33
"Reporters wandering into a field of battle are at risk of being caught in the crossfire"
Yes they are. Reporters are routinely executed, caught in crossfire, and worse. Does Daniel Pearl ring a bell? Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1964 February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who was kidnapped and beheaded on video by terrorists. Anyone who is a reporter or journalist who goes afield is at risk. Anon1, what do you do for a living that all this seems so surprising to you? Any reporter who goes to a war zone could be killed for a reason, or no reason at all.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 18:27
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#34
FaI: same true for any civi who does the same...
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 20:03
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#35
I'm convinced anon1 is a prankster. NOBODY could be that verbose, stupid, naive, and unaffected by everyone's obvious disagreement, yet still put out the same rote spew. Perhaps Army First guy, but that's it. Gotta be a fake...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 20:18
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#36
I am convinced that anon1 is no where nearly as innocent or unaffiliated as she likes to appear. It would be interesting to know how many other anon1's are making such regular and extensive appearances at similar sites and what their talking points are.
[Emirates 24/7] At least 17 people were killed in a suicide kaboom on a market in the northwestern Pakistain of Kohat on Wednesday, a senior police official said.
The kaboom took place at a busy bus terminal in the garrison town's main Tirah bazaar, Kohat police chief Dilawar Bangash told AFP.
"It was a suicide blast. The corpse count has risen to 17," he said, adding that 25 others were maimed, seven of them seriously.
It is the latest bombing in a long series of attacks in Pakistain blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Local police front man Fazal Naeem said the bomber approached the door of a bus carrying passengers to the nearby tribal district of Orakzai and detonated his explosives.
Television footage showed two damaged passenger vans parked at the terminal. A woman was crying while people tried to console her. Earlier it appeared the bomb was planted in a vehicle parked at the main bus stand, but Bangash said that "now we have found the head and legs of the jacket wallah".
Bangash said it was not immediately clear who was the target. The victims were both Sunni and Shiite Mohammedans, he said.
The blast, the third in as many days, is part of a new wave of bombing after a brief lull.
A double suicide kaboom in the tribal district of Mohmand near the Afghan border killed 43 people on Monday.
Police said two jacket wallahs dressed in police uniform attacked a meeting of anti-Taliban faceless myrmidons and pro-government elders in Ghalanai, about 175 kilometres northwest of Islamabad.
A purported front man for the Pak Taliban grabbed credit for that attack, threatening death to anyone who forms militias against the Islamists.
On Tuesday a jacket wallah tried to kill the chief minister of Pakistain's southwestern province of Baluchistan, damaging his motorcade but leaving the minister unhurt, officials said.
The blast maimed nine people near the convoy of Nawab Aslam Raisani in Quetta, the capital of a province where separatist, sectarian and Taliban violence has surged this year.
A purported front man for the banned bad boy group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... grabbed credit, saying Raisani had been targeted for efforts to provide security to Shiite Mohammedans, who are frequently attacked in Baluchistan.
Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistain since government forces raided an bad boy mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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Of course they'll consider it. They'll sponsor a liberation front named after the guy, name a street after the guy, smash the windows of a Marine Corps recruiting station in honor of the guy, and all the while consider themselves to be better than you and me.
[An Nahar] A quarrel between members of two gangs developed into a shootout in Beirut's Shiyah district, the state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday. It reported no casualties in the 30-minute shootout which broke out at 1:00 am. Security forces were unable to determine the reason behind the shooting with machinegun fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[El Universal] Expropriations threats are latent. This time, it was the turn of private banks. "Any bank that slips up, I am going to expropriate it," a defiant President Hugo Chavez boasted on Tuesday evening.
The message was specifically addressed to financial institutions that might block or delay the approval of mortgage loans to people affected by real state irregularities.
"Any bank that slips up, tell me, show me the evidence, and I am going to expropriate it, whether it is Banesco Provincial, Nacional de Crédito, whichever," Chavez told a group of families, who are living in a military shelter, in an event related to the delivery of 212 mortgage loans by the Bicentennial Fund. The ceremony took place in Fuerte Tiuna and was aired by state-run TV channel VTV.
After a beneficiary of a mortgage loan complained about a problem with a bank, Venezuela's President ordered the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) and the Office of Military Intelligence (DIM) to investigate Banco Nacional de Crédito.
"Please appoint some intelligence officials to investigate all these banks and their owners. In three days I want to have a map of these banks that try to complicate matters," Chavez ordered.
The Venezuelan Head of State also instructed a military official to request homeowners of expropriated houses to occupy them immediately.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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#1
If you have any dealings with Venezuela in any way and haven't seen the handwriting on the wall as of yet, maybe it's too late for you.
Get out now with what you can.
#4
You just gotta hope Christie gets elected prez in 2012.
Governor Christie won't be ready for 2012, Mercutio. I'd hope he wouldn't even think before 2016, or even for 2020, although by then I will be seriously tempted to give him my vote -- he gets good results. He, and the other wonderful new Republican politicians, should have at least a decade of service at the national level under their belts before being given what may well be the most difficult job in the world. If nothing else, they need time to figure out what they think about the issues and get to know the key players. I would prefer they also have enough experience to have figured out how to handle the various types of opponents they will meet, and discover how they will respond to the various types of challenges they are likely to meet.
The White House is not a good place to climb a very, very steep learning curve. Half the problems President Obama is dealing with are because he spent so little time at the national level. The other half are because he has never had real executive experience, either in the public or private sector. The other half, in my opinion, are his goals and principles, and the final half is his temperament.
Yes, I realize what that adds up to, thus demonstrating the extent of the problem the poor man faces each morning when he wakes up.
[Emirates 24/7] A quarter of the detainees released from Guantanamo prison have likely joined global insurgencies or terror groups, the US director of national intelligence said in a report Tuesday.
Of the 598 inmates released from the US facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where suspected faceless myrmidons were rounded up after the September 11, 2001 attacks, 150 have either taken up arms or become involved in financing or recruitment, it said.
"Eighty-one (13.5 percent) are confirmed and 69 (11.5 percent) are suspected of reengaging in terrorist or turban activities after transfer," the intelligence oversight agency said.
Of those, the intelligence community believes 13 are dead, 54 are in jug and 83 remain on the lam, the report said.
It added, however, that of the 66 detainees released since January 2009, when President Barack B.O. Obama ordered a wide-ranging review of inmates, just two are confirmed and three are suspected of returning to combat.
But it added that "the number of former detainees identified as reengaged in terrorist or turban activity will increase."
Obama ordered Guantanamo prison shut down within a year in his January 2009 Executive Order, but he missed his deadline because of knotty legal issues and difficulties in finding third countries to take detainees.
The controversial detention center has long been a rallying point for anti-American sentiment and has been criticized by human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... groups.
But Obama's Republican opponents seized on the latest report as proof that the administration was acting too hastily in trying to close the facility.
"Unfortunately, these latest numbers make clear that fulfilling a campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay is overriding what should be the administration's first priority - protecting Americans from terrorists," Kit Bond, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said.
"If one of these dangerous detainees attacks our troops or civilians, I don't know how the Administration will explain to the American people that we had him in jug, knew the risk he could return to the fight, and let him go anyway."
The prison, located on the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, currently holds around 170 detainees, including three who have been convicted and 58 who have been placed in indefinite detention without trial.
Scores of other inmates have been transferred to third countries, where they have been released.
Efforts to try some Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts were dealt a major blow last month when a jury cleared a former inmate of all but one of the 286 charges brought against him for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[Dawn] India said on Wednesday a home-grown Militant group with ties to Pak gun-hung tough guys was behind a bomb attack in one of its holiest cities, and local media reported two people were questioned over the attack.
Home Secretary Gopal Pillai said traces of explosives were found at the site of Tuesday evening's blast in the northern city of Varanasi that killed a two-year old girl and injured 37 Hindu worshippers and foreign tourists.
Pillai said the crude bomb was set off by the Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... (IM), a local group India says has been trained by gun-hung tough guys based in Pakistain, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The IM grabbed credit for the attack in an email to local media, police said. That email was traced to a Mumbai suburb and two people were questioned over it, local media said.
"The main players of Indian Mujahideen are based in Pakistain and they are definitely running the game from there," Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal told a presser.
Pillai has said it was "too premature" to say if individuals or groups operating from Pakistain were involved.
"The investigation is focusing on the clues we have, on suspicious characters who stayed in hotels there (Varanasi)," Pillai, the top bureaucrat in the interior ministry, told Rooters.
No one has been jugged or nabbed, said R.P. Singh, a police brass hat said in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state where Varanasi is located.
India remains jittery about the threat of snuffy strikes, especially since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 which killed 166 people and raised tensions with arch rival Pakistain.
New Delhi says Pakistain-based groups aid and train gun-hung tough guys to carry out attacks against India, a claim Islamabad rejects.
Investors closely monitor any signs of an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistain, two nuclear-armed rivals who have fought three wars.
MOSQUE ANNIVERSARY
With hundreds of temples and shrines, Varanasi, on the sacred Ganges river, is the centre of Hinduism. Pilgrims flock to the city for a dip in the river, which they believe will wash away their sins.
The Indian Mujahideen has in the past claimed several attacks, including the 2008 bombings in the tourist city of Jaipur that killed 63 people and a September 2010 attack on a tourist bus outside New Delhi's main mosque.
Local media said the Indian Mujahideen, in the email claiming the attack, said the blast was retaliation for a court verdict over a disputed mosque site that gave two-thirds of the land to Hindu groups. The blast came a day after the 18th anniversary of the razing of the mosque by Hindu zealots.
The demolition had led to some of the worst religious riots in India and remains a recruitment pitch for the snuffys.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[Mail and Globe] A Sudanese court on Wednesday convicted eight models who took part in a mixed-gender fashion show with "indecency" and ordered them to pay a fine but spared them a flogging sentence. Moslems don't feel stoopid like we do. It must be the in-breeding...
The ruling was handed down against seven men and a woman by Khartoum criminal court Judge Sadig Abakar Adam, who ordered them to pay a fine of £200.
Under Sudanese law, anyone found guilty of "indecency" or convicted of wearing clothes that are deemed indecent can be fined £200 and sentenced to 40 lashes.
The law forbidding "indecent clothing" was imposed in 1991, two years after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir seized power in a coup backed by Islamists.
It was brought under the spotlight last year when a court ordered a female journalist, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, to be flogged for wearing "indecent trousers". That sentence was commuted to a fine after a public outcry.
"The judge said that what happened is against the law and the traditions of the Sudanese people, so he made the punishment a fine," defence lawyer Adam Bakr Hassab told AFP after the verdict was issued.
"It is not correct. But now it is a reality, it became a decision. There is no way to avoid this punishment. We will pay the fine and do our appeal later," he said, speaking in English.
Those convicted on Wednesday had been among more than two dozen people jugged in Khartoum in June as as they emerged from the capital's first ever mixed-gender fashion show.
"Different things happened that night -- modelling, dancing, singing. Even having men and women at the same place is considered criminal," the lawyer said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[Bangla Daily Star] Three alleged robbers were killed in a mob beating at Jhenidabagia village in sadar upazila of Rajbari early yesterday.
The dead are Dabir Mandal, 35, of Mulghar village, Faruk, 35, of Alladipur village and Mahinur of Brahmandia village of the upazila.
A gang of nine to 10 robbers swooped on Kuddat Sheikh's house at the village around 3:00am, locals said. As the family members cried out for help, people from neighbourhood rushed to the spot and caught three of the robbers.
The mob beat them to death while the other gang members decamped the scene.
Officer-in-Charge Sarafat Ullah of Rajbari Sadar Police Station confirmed the incident.
Police recovered one knife and a machete from a nearby field after the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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#2
Interesting Tony Blair quote found in a left wing rag.
My informant recounted the one-time premier denouncing the current US president as dangerously left-wing. "The problem with Barack Obama," opined Blair, "is he's really a socialist."
[Dawn] Afghanistan, Pakistain and Tajikistan agreed with Russia on Wednesday to step up efforts in fighting the Afghan heroin trade which kills at least 30,000 Russians a year.
"We are neighbours linked by the same piece of land, and we have the potential to strengthen our work in fighting a global menace," Russia's anti-drugs tsar Viktor Ivanov told his Central Asian counterparts.
The quartet of heroin-inflicted countries signed an agreement to destroy opium crops and drug-making labs, as well as exchange information on drug trafficking and dealers.
Russia is struggling to contain a potentially crippling heroin crisis. The world's largest per capita heroin consumer, with at least 2 million addicts, Russia is now facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is spreading amongst drug users from dirty needles, Western health officials say.
Heroin from Afghanistan -- which produces around 90 percent of the world's total -- is smuggled through its mostly non-existent border with impoverished, ex-Soviet Tajikistan, then via Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and onto the Russian market, Ivanov said.
Through Pakistain, heroin passes through India and on to China and other Asian countries, he added.
Ivanov said that up to a quarter of Afghan heroin ended up in Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called the Afghan drug trade, estimated to be worth around $65 billion annually, a threat to national security.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai has sought to improve ties with Russia, and in August asked for Medvedev's help in security and battling the drug trade in his nation, site of a decade-long war that cost the lives of 15,000 Soviet troops.
"We alone cannot overcome the evil of drug production," said Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbel.
In June, Russia rolled out a global initiative to combat Afghan drug trafficking that included a crackdown on opium poppy growing, but it was met with a tepid response from the United States and Nato.
Moscow says it believes US-led Nato forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan are reluctant to uproot local drug output, which surged after the 2001 invasion.
"Nato has not found a way to get to the root of the problem, which is Afghanistan's drug production," Ivanov said.
The United States has said repeatedly that eradicating poppy plantations would push disgruntled Afghan farmers into the hands of the Islamic exemplars.
Ivanov praised an unprecedented joint Russian-US anti-narcotics operation in Afghanistan in October, in which four drug labs and nearly a tonne of heroin were destroyed in a raid, widely seen as a measure to improve ties between the Cold War foes.
"We really want to see more such operations. And hopefully very soon," Ivanov told Rooters, declining to give a time frame.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[El Universal] Venezuela's consumption rate was characterized by slowdown in 2010. After showing high levels of growth in previous years, it downsized for second year in a row.
Luis Vicente León, the director of polling firm Datanalisis reported that domestic consumption has fallen 3.3 percent this year, similar to the drop in 2009, when the economic downturn amounted to 3.2 percent.
This slowdown, which amounts to 7-8 percent in the past two years, has created pessimism in Venezuelan consumers who "consider they have lost their quality of life."
The pollster said that the fall is mainly due to falling purchasing power of salaries, which have averaged a 20-percent decline, in real terms, over the past three years.
All this has been compounded by a contraction of consumer credit, because the use of credit cards fell nearly 8 percent while auto loans slipped 30 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad on Wednesday said the Special Tribunal for Leb is a violation of the Lebanese Constitution and accused U.N. Sherlocks of procrastination.
He said some the concerns raised by Hizbullah to the U.N. Hariri investigation committee during a March 2010 meeting were not answered.
"We waited for a response and despite the promises, we have not seen a reply," Raad told a presser to address the legal aspect of the STL.
He said creation of the Tribunal violated both Lebanese and international law, adding that the International Community has "encouraged an illegitimate government to achieve de facto authority."
A weakened Lebanese government under PM Fouad Saniora approved in November 2006 a U.N. plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri -- despite the resignation of six ministers and the objections of the President.
Raad, who held the presser together with judicial expert Judge Salim Jraisati, said there are political motives behind the 'deliberate' Western and Arab media leaks.
"Why was Syria accused in the beginning and then the course of the investigation was changed? What is Israel's role in the investigation? Does the Court take Israel's statements?
Raad said these concerns were raised to U.N. Sherlocks.
He believed that pursuing the false witnesses' issue will give the probe credibility, "especially since it focuses only on phone calls as evidence."
"What justice is that where a false witness enjoys immunity? And Bellemare sought not to pursue those.
"Media leaks and statements which dealt with the investigation since the liquidation until now are not spontaneous. They violate the confidentiality of the investigation.
Judge Jraisati agreed with Raad that the STL was a violation of both Lebanese illusory sovereignty and Constitution.
He explained the violations of the STL work in seven points.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Soddy Arabia proposed an Arab-led military force to destroy Hezbullies in Leb two years ago, a US diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks suggests.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal presented a senior US diplomat with a plan for a force backed by US and Nato air and sea power.
The US responded by expressing scepticism about the military feasibility of the plan.
Hezbullies is a Shia paramilitary group and political movement.
While Syria and Iran are Hezbullies's main regional allies, Soddy Arabia has strong ties with the country's Sunni community and the current Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the murdered ex-prime minister.
The cable is describes a meeting in May 2008 between David Satterfield, a senior US State Department official, and Prince Saud al-Faisal.
At the meeting the prince "argued for an 'Arab force' to create and maintain order in and around Beirut. The US and Nato would need to provide transport and logistical support, as well as 'naval and air cover'. Saud said that a Hezbullies victory in Beirut would mean the end of the Siniora government and the 'Iranian takeover' of Leb".
The cable came days after armed Hezbullies members took over parts of central Beirut threatening to overthrow the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
According to the cable, the Saudi foreign minister argued that a Hezbullies victory against the Siniora government "combined with Iranian actions in Iraq and on the Paleostinian front would be a disaster for the US and the entire region".
He argued that the situation called for an "Arab force drawn from Arab 'periphery' states to deploy to Beirut under the 'cover of the UN'".
Saud al-Faisal said Mr Siniora strongly backed the idea.
Over the past two weeks, Wikileaks has released thousands of classified messages from US envoys around the world.
Washington has called their publication "irresponsible" and an "attack on the international community".
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[Emirates 24/7] Two passenger trains collided at a busy station just outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and injuring scores, local officials told AFP.
One train was stopped at the station when the second one ploughed into it from behind, leaving passenger carriages mangled and stacked on top of each other.
Television footage showed workers at the scene trying to rescue people from inside the coaches, as large crowds milled around the scene with some locals trying to drag victims from the wreckage.
Staff at local hospitals confirmed four passengers had died and at least 60 were being treated for injuries.
"The engine car of the moving train rammed into the stationary train, this caused the two back carriages on the stationary train to fly up into the air and crash back down on top of the engine car," Ruhul Amin Molla, head of the fire department in Narshingdi district, told AFP.
"There are still people trapped inside."
Molla said the complex emergency rescue operation was being hampered by the thousands of people who had gathered at the accident site.
Momena Khatun, Narshingdi deputy district chief, told AFP that victims with severe leg and head injuries were being treated at hospitals near the crash scene, 30 kilometres northeast of Dhaka.
"Both trains flew skywards. Firefighters and police are there cutting people out of the wreckage," she said.
"From the information I have now, it appears this was the result of a signal problem," she added. "Most of the injured are very serious and they will need to be sent to Dhaka to get more treatment."
Mohamad Shamin, a doctor at Narshingdi Central Hospital, said that staff there were treating 30 injured people.
"We have sent seven people to Dhaka as their condition is very serious. Many people have lost arms and legs.
"They may survive, but the people who have sustained head wounds, I fear many of them may die, and the traffic is so bad they are not getting to hospital quick enough for us to save them."
Abul Hasan, a nurse at Narshingdi District Hospital told AFP that four people had shuffled off the mortal coil at the hospital, and at least 27 were maimed.
Transport Minister Syed Abul Hosain said that an investigation into the causes of the crash had already been launched.
Posted by: Fred ||
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This year's omnibus spending bill refuses to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and would block the transfer of any suspected terrorist detainees to the United States in what appears to be the final blow for President Obama's campaign pledge to shutter the facility.
The massive spending bill Democrats released early Wednesday morning would prohibit the Obama administration from spending any money either to transfer detainees to the United States or to buy a replacement prison in the United States, as Mr. Obama had planned.
[Maghrebia] Algerian security services killed the two leaders of the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb brigade in corpse-littered Boumerdes, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Monday (December 6th). "El Arkam" brigade emir Habib Mourad, (aka Nouh), 25, and his communications chief, Abdeslam Samir, 33, were ambushed Sunday night in Bordj Menaiel. Mourad, who led the terror group's operations in corpse-littered Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou, was suspected of involvement in the May 2009 liquidations of Zemmouri judicial police mobile brigade (BMPG) commander Mohamed "Taha" Touati and local official Nordine Ghazi.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010
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(KUNA) -- The United States withdrew its demand that Israel extends the period of freezing settlement construction as a condition for resumption of direct talks with the Paleostinians, Israeli media said on Wednesday.
Radio Israel quoted "senior" US sources saying the administration is communicating with both parties, but separately, to decide the next step.
The Israeli premier's Special Envoy to the talks Yitzhak Molkho is to meet B.O. regime representatives within the next few days, it added.
This comes after a US official disclosed on Tuesday that representatives for both sides would head to Washington next week to attempt and resume the talks.
US officials had previously said the US was considering a return to the indirect talks, in view of failure to restore direct-negotiation mode due to dispute over the settlement freeze.
The Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had stated yesterday that talks with the US over extending the settlement freeze were put to an end, "because the latter is pre-occupied with the WikiLeaks and the North Korea dossiers at present." Haaretz newspaper meanwhile reported the same development on the settlement freeze, and said the "B.O. regime decided conditions weren't ripe for successful negotiations, even with new settlement freeze; instead, they will aim for proximity talks." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... is expected to outline Washington's strategy for Israeli-Paleostinian relations when she addresses the Saban Forum in the US capital on Friday.
The paper reported a political Israeli source saying, a new approach was selected instead of the three-month settlement construction freeze. The two parties are instead seeking a path that would lead to a whole year of negotiations that would in turn aim at reaching a framework agreement, the source said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas received a letter from the US while in Athens last night, concerning the talks.
Paleostinian Authority Spokesman Nabil abu Rudaynah said, "The Paleostinian reply to the letter would come only after deliberation with the leadership and with the Arab Group." "President Abbas had meanwhile phoned Arab League Secretary General Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the vaporous Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... upon receipt of the letter, to discuss the US stance and the probable next move by the league."
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[An Nahar] Iran claimed victory Wednesday in renewed talks with world powers over its controversial nuclear program and vowed to make no concessions in the face of international pressure.
Chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said the six world powers have accepted Tehran's conditions for the talks as Iran's conservative media praised Jalili for his "solid" stance.
"They joined the talks maintaining their own view, but Iran said the talks should continue based on Iran's conditions. So they have shown serious change," Jalili said of the talks that resumed this week.
"We frankly asked that talks should be for the sake of cooperation, and they accepted. If they remain committed to this agreement, then the talks have been successful," he said in an interview carried on state television's website.
After a 14-month break, the talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program resumed in Geneva this week, with an agreement to meet again in Istanbul at the end of January despite clear differences.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the two days of talks ended on Tuesday that it was agreed to hold the Istanbul talks to "discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating towards the resolution of our core concerns about the nuclear issue."
Barely an hour later, however, Jalili said both sides agreed only to further "talks based on cooperation" and that everything else was "not true."
Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad repeated Wednesday that the country would not back down on uranium enrichment, which is the key issue of international concern over Tehran's atomic program.
The hardliner however said "Iran is ready for nuclear cooperation and nuclear material production with the group of P5+1," the official IRNA news agency reported, referring to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, La Belle France and Germany.
"Under no circumstances Iran will back down on its rights in nuclear fuel cycle, the 20-percent enrichment of uranium and building (nuclear) plants," he told university students in the central city of Arak.
"The West had better cooperate with Iran in the nuclear field," he said, calling on global powers to lift sanctions against Tehran.
Iran is under four sets of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Tehran rejects suspicions by the West and Israel that its uranium enrichment program masks a covert bid to acquire nuclear weapons, maintaining it is developing nuclear technology for solely peaceful purposes.
Analysts said the Geneva talks have failed to dissipate deep distrust between world powers and Tehran, but that they marked the beginning of a new phase of dialogue.
Iran's conservative media Wednesday praised Jalili over his "solid" stance and hailed the talks as a good start.
"Jalili returned from Geneva with full hands," said a headline in Khabar, which is close to parliament speaker Ali Larijani.
Hardline newspaper Siasat Rouz, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards described the talks as a "first positive step."
"The 5+1 has to reach a great agreement with Iran," the pro-Ahmadinejad hardline newspaper Vatan Emrouz wrote in an editorial.
"They know well if there is another gap lasting a few months in talks with Iran there will be no issues left for an agreement as Iran might enrich 1,200 kilos of uranium to 20 percent and be self-sufficient in" nuclear fuel production, it said.
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[Chosun Ilbo] An Austrian businessman has been slapped with a 3.3 million euro fine and a nine-month suspended sentence for selling luxury goods to North Korea in contravention of UN sanctions. The goods purchased from the Austrian are thought to be birthday gifts for North Korean hereditary supremo Kim Jong-il.
The Criminal Court of Vienna found the entrepreneur guilty of violating the international trade embargo, the Kurier daily reported Tuesday. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1874 in 2009, imposing further economic and commercial sanctions on the communist state, including a ban on the sale of luxury goods to the regime. The name of the man was not disclosed.
Prosecutors initially indicted the entrepreneur for supplying two top-end Azimut Benetti yachts to North Korea. He also allegedly sold eight Mercedes S class cars and several Steinway grand pianos, dealing with a North Korean intermediary close to Kim Jong-il.
But the man was rumbled through monitoring of illegal dealings in Italy. Austrian Court official Christian Gneist said the entrepreneur was fined the exact amount he received as payment.
He said the man admitted the offense but pleaded mitigating circumstances saying he did not know he was part of the crime. "It doesn't have anything to do with atomic bombs. I am not interested in politics. I am a businessman," Rooters quoted him as saying. Shipwrights Azimut Benetti of Italy avoided punishment as they merely sold the yachts and cooperated with the investigation, according to Italian police.
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#1
This in a country where Kimmie turns around and gives blankets as gifts to top government officials.
Great read from the master, published in the latest issue of World Affairs. It's all about American broadcasting efforts around the world, starting with Radio Liberty, and it's a superb piece.
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12/09/2010
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(KUNA) -- The corpse count of a suicide kaboom earlier Wednesday in Pak northern Kohat town is now up to 15, with over 20 others maimed, many seriously.
District Coordinating Officer (DCO) Shahidullah Khan talking to newsmen at the scene said that this was a suicide kaboom and that the authorities have recovered the head and other parts of the suspected bombers body.
However, The infamous However... he said, the kaboomdestroyed a bus and not a barbers shop as being reported earlier. He said a jacket wallahwent kaboom!" near a bus at the Tirah Bazaar bus station in the town.
The DCO said the kaboom killed twelve people and maimed over twenty others. At least three more gave up the ghost in hospital.
The DCO feared further rise in the corpse count as several of the maimed were at death's door.
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[Tolo News] Iran supports a group of political and religious Afghan leaders within parliament in a bid to boost influence in the House of Representatives, the Guardian reports
The article published by the Guardian included names of three Afghan MPs including Ahmad Ali Jebrayili, Sayed Hossain Alami Balkhi and Mohammad Akbari, who have been accused of having close political ties with Iran.
But the MPs strongly rejected the allegations.
Iran has made efforts to convince members of Afghan House of Representatives to make policies against coalition forces in Afghanistan, an article in the Guardian said.
"This is a mere lie. We have stood against any country working against our national interest. And when Iran sentenced a number of our fellow citizens to death, I had the strongest stance against it," Sayed Hossain Alami Balkhi, an Afghan MP who has been accused of having ties with Iran, told TOLOnews.
Ahmad Ali Jebrayili, a former Afghan MP in reaction to the allegations said: "I want to proudly announce that I neither have ties with America, nor with Iran or Pakistain. If USA or any other countries have any evidence proving my ties, they can present it," "I am not backed by any foreign country and I do not like to be backed. I'm a brave, honorable and freedom loving Afghan," said another Afghan MP, Ustad Mohammad Akbari.
The article wrote according to the cables released by WikiLeaks that Mirwais Yasini, deputy for the Afghan House of Representatives, had told a US official that he was under pressure from an Iranian intelligence official to change an agenda in the House, and that Yasini had refused to do so.
Mr Yasini also dismissed the accusations.
"Not only Iranian intelligence hasn't contacted us about bringing any change in the Agenda, no other neighbouring countries' intelligence have done so. We haven't had any meeting with anybody. I dismiss the claim," said Mr Yasini.
Buying off some elements in Afghanistan's House of Representatives, Iran has developed the ability to turn Afghan parliament into an ineffective organisation, the leaks have claimed.
We tried to get comments from Iran's embassy in Kabul about the allegations, but without success.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
In Britain's worst political violence in years, furious student protesters rained sticks and rocks on riot police, vandalized government buildings and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, after lawmakers approved a controversial hike in university tuition fees.
Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the US. They were found inside a house in the suburban Escondido neighborhood just north of San Diego, which is now being called "the bomb" house.
In some ways, the most surprising part of the Climategate files was how well they confirmed the dark suspicions of climate skeptics: there really were problems with replicating some of the most quoted results, there really had been some questionable manipulations made so the data would present the "right" picture, and there really was a somewhat covert group, composed of scientists on the "human agency" side of the argument and certain "reliable" environmental journalists, who were working together to suppress counter-evidence and assassinate the reputations of the skeptics.
The first item on this election campaign's Contract with America was that, if elected (as they have been), the House Republicans would require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress. We'll see if that and the other promised reforms materialize, but it does raise yet another issue in the context of Obamacare.
Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on 
[Tolo News] Seventeen Taliban 
[Straits Times] A MAN was trampled to death and four others escaped unhurt after a herd of wild elephants attacked them when they were searching for keranji (a wild fruit) in Hutan Bring near Pos Pasik here.
(KUNA) -- Military chiefs from South Korea and the US agreed Wednesday to continue joint drills to effectively deter North Korean aggression and refine Seoul's leading role in dealing with local provocations, giving the South more authority in the case of future attacks by the North, media reported.
A worker was found dead inside a refrigerator of a Turkish restaurant in Yemen's capital Sana'a after a fire broke out inside the restaurant, the Civil Defense said on Monday.
(KUNA) -- The Israeli Air Force carried out two separate attacks in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern 
[Straits Times] MALAYSIA'S law minister on Wednesday shot down calls to ban 
A fire at a prison in southeast of the Chilean capital, Santiago de Chile, has killed at least 83 people. Some reports suggested the fire was deliberately started during a fight between inmates in one of the crowded San Miguel prison's five towers.
[Emirates 24/7] At least 17 people were killed in a 
Two passenger trains collided at a busy station just outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and injuring scores, local officials told AFP.
(KUNA) -- The United States withdrew its demand that Israel extends the period of freezing settlement construction as a condition for resumption of direct talks with the 
[Chosun Ilbo] An Austrian businessman has been slapped with a 3.3 million euro fine and a nine-month suspended sentence for selling luxury goods to North Korea in contravention of UN sanctions. The goods purchased from the Austrian are thought to be birthday gifts for 
