The empowerment of terror in Pakistan has not happened overnight. This is the logical culmination of the politics and policies pursued by Pakistan for years now.
By 'years' he means 'decades' ...
Terrorism in Pakistan has its roots in the culture of hate and the ethos of inequality on the ground of religious faith, leading to their being deeply ingrained in the Pakistani psyche and mindset.
One factor that has played a crucial role in creating this culture of hate is the educational policy of the government of Pakistan pursued since 1977. The officially prescribed textbooks, especially for school students, are full of references that promote hate against India in general, and Hindus in particular.
A cursory glance at Pakistani school textbooks - especially the compulsory subjects like Pakistan studies and social studies - gives an idea of how history has been distorted and a garbled version prescribed to build this mindset and attitude.
The objective of Pakistan's education policy has been defined thus in the preface to a Class 6 book: "Social studies have been given special importance in educational policy so that Pakistan's basic ideology assumes the shape of a way of life, its practical enforcement is assured, the concept of social uniformity adopts a practical form and the whole personality of the individual is developed." This statement leaves no doubt that "social uniformity", not national unity, is a part of Pakistan's basic ideology.
The Class 5 book has this original discovery about Hindu help to bring British rule to India: "The British had the objective to take over India and to achieve this, they made Hindus join them and Hindus were very glad to side with the British. After capturing the subcontinent, the British began on the one hand the loot of all things produced in this area, and on the other, in conjunction with Hindus, to greatly suppress the Muslims."
The Std VIII book says, "Their (Muslim saints) teachings dispelled many superstitions of the Hindus and reformed their bad practices. Thereby Hindu religion of the olden times came to an end."
On Indo-Pak wars, the books give detailed descriptions and openly eulogize 'jihad' and 'shahadat' and urge students to become 'mujahids' and martyrs and leave no room for future friendship and cordial relations with India.
According to a Class 5 book, "In 1965, the Pakistani army conquered several areas of India, and when India was on the point of being defeated, she requested the United Nations to arrange a ceasefire. After 1965, India, with the help of Hindus living in East Pakistan, instigated the people living there against the people of West Pakistan, and finally invaded East Pakistan in December 1971. The conspiracy resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from us. All of us should receive military training and be prepared to fight the enemy."
The book prescribed for higher secondary students makes no mention of the uprising in East Pakistan in 1971 or the surrender by more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers. Instead, it claims, "In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Pakistan armed forces created new records of bravery and the Indian forces were defeated everywhere."
The students of Class 3 are taught that "Muhammad Ali (Jinnah) felt that Hindus wanted to make Muslims their slaves and since he hated slavery, he left the Congress". At another place it says, "The Congress was actually a party of Hindus. Muslims felt that after getting freedom, Hindus would make them their slaves."
And this great historic discovery is taught to Std V students, "Previously, India was part of Pakistan."
Commenting on this literature that spreads hate, leading Pakistani educationist Tariq Rahman wrote, "It is a fact that the textbooks cannot mention Hindus without calling them cunning, scheming, deceptive or something equally insulting. Students are taught and made to believe that Pakistan needs strong and aggressive policies against India or else Pakistan will be annihilated by it."
The author is a former Indian Union minister
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
16:59 ||
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Lahore, Pakistan: Petrol was unavailable at majority of the pumps in the city on Thursday which created huge difficulties for the motorists. The petrol pumps owners said despite the indents sent to the companies the fresh supply had not arrived due to which the sale of petrol was suspended. In a survey conducted by The Newsfrom the different localities of the city, has found the petrol was notavailable while the petrol stations were selling diesel only. The owners and managers said they had sent the supply indents to their respective companies but not received, causing the shortage of petrol. It has found almost 70 per cent petrol pumps of the city had not received fresh supply of petrol. In Lahore, almost 220 petrol pumps are operating. Thus petrol was not available over 150 pumps of different localities.
The pump owners said due to distortions in supply line of petrol from companies, the people had been facing problems. They said storing petrol was not beneficial for the petrol pumps as the prices of it had registered a declining trend. They said the oil companies were not timely supplying petrol to them despite getting payments in advance. They said the oil companies were supplying half of the quantity against their total demand.
Meanwhile, in the wake of unavailability of petrol at pumps, the sale of it continued across the city openly through other channels. The unauthorised dealers have been selling adulterated petrol for Rs 70 to Rs 80 per liter. The motorcyclists were compelled to buy this adulterated petrol at higher prices.
Contrary to this, an official of a private oil marketing company on the condition of anonymity confirmed the shortage of petrol in the country. He said the petrol pumps dealers and owners themselves were sending less demand of petrol as compared to the past. He pointed out the pumps dealers and owners were keeping limited quantity with them in order to avoid loses when the price of petrol decreased. Current shortage was due to the Christmas holiday and the petrol was not supplied from the depot, he said adding that now the fresh supply would start from Friday (today). He added it would again stop on Saturday because of the national holiday. He said currently country had been facing petrol shortage due to the previous backlog which occurred after delay in the payments to the oil refineries.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
16:34 ||
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#1
Or is it being placed into strategic storage by the military?
#2
This may explain why oil has fallen so much and demand apparently contracted. The problem is shortages of credit in low creditworthy places like Pakland.
#5
Nimrods didn't order enough inventory to get them thru the holidays.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/26/2008 19:28
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#6
TW - how do they get there? And if there aren't armed convoys, Ima calling in Q-ships and Arclites, just so I can drink up and sleep in. Mazel Tov and Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2008 23:36
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Lebanese army sappers together with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon on Thursday defused eight Katyusha rockets set to be launched at Israel.
A Lebanese army communiqué said army troops found the Katyushas of various calibers in an area north of Naqoura. The missiles were positioned and set to be fired at Israel, it added. It said Lebanese troops launched a wide-scale search in and around Naqoura to make sure the area was free from further rockets.
The communiqué said the army together with UNIFIL planned to launch a similar military operation in search for the perpetrators.
UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane said late Thursday that the peacekeeping force worked together with the Lebanese army to defuse the Katyushas. She said UNIFIL commander Gen. Claudio Graziano was also in contact with both the Lebanese army and Israel regarding this issue.
A reliable source earlier told Naharnet that the 107-mm projectiles were fitted with timing devices and defused "a short while before the time set for their launching."
The Voice of Lebanon radio station said the rockets were set to be fired between 10:00 and 10:30 pm on Thursday.
The reliable source said the Katyushas were "discovered" in the area between the border towns of Naqoura and Teir Harfa. The region, which is within the area of operations of UNIFIL, abuts Israel and overlooks most of the Central and Western Galilee.
It could not be immediately determined whether the projectiles were traditional World War II Katyushas that have a range of 10-12 kilometers or a double-load Iranian-modified version better known by the code of RAAD that has a double range. Hizbullah used Iranian-modified RAAD Katyushas, each with a pay load of 100 kilograms of explosives, in its 2006 war with Israel, hitting as deep as the coastal town of Haifa. I look forward to the day, Iran is outed as THE only problem in the ME. And the world recognizes this fact. Yeah, call me crazy.
In yet another case of Indians being targeted in Afghanistan, suspected Taliban militants abducted a 38-year-old cook working for an Italian company. Vasu alias Simon was abducted along with his Afghan interpreter and driver on October 13, official sources said in Delhi. He was working food store 'Fiano', which serves Italian soldiers in Afghanistan. The trio were abducted while delivering food to the International Security Assistance Force camp in Bagram air base.
The Indian embassy in Kabul and consulate in Herat are in constant touch with top Afghan authorities who are trying to secure Simons release. The embassy is also in touch with his company. The sources said Simon is alive but did not give details fearing it could jeopardise his safety.
Unlike Indians who have gone to Afghanistan through the government, Simon did not have any security. "Since he had gone through a private contract with the Italian firm, his security was the responsibility of the company," the sources said.
The abductors are believed to demanded $50,000 for his release. They allowed him to talk to his brother Subbu who is in Kabul.
Simon is the third Indian to be abducted in Afghanistan in the last three years, after BRO driver M R Kutty and K Suryanarayanan who were killed by their abductors. The Taliban have often attacked BRO personnel engaged in construction of a key highway between Delaram and Zaranj.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
12:17 ||
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Disturbing photographs made available to this newspapers by police sources indicate that several of the guests at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the siege November 26 were sexually humiliated by the terrorists and then shot dead.
Police sources confirm that even as the terrorists were engaged in a fierce combat with NSG commandos, they were humiliating their hostages before ending their terrifying ordeal. Foreign guests were their particular target. Eight of the 31 killed at the Taj were foreign nationals.
Photographs taken by a police forensic team after the hotel was sanitised yield a gruesome picture of some of the guests in the nude. These bodies were found away from the hotel's swimming pool which makes it clear that they were not those guests who were taken hostage from the poolside.
"Even the Rabbi and his wife at Nariman House were sexually assaulted and their genitalia mutilated," said a senior officer of the investigating team, not wishing to be quoted. "We have CCTV footage which reveals how these terrorists forced some of the guests who were holed up in restuarants to strip, but there is not evidence of rape," he added.
These pictures, most of which we have refrained from printing, are in the records of the police and are now part of the investigation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
12:13 ||
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#1
Not a surprise. Sex has been a tool of domination ever since we gave up budding... and a favoured tool of the jihadis since they took up the business.
#2
I don't have words bad enough to say to people who take the most wonderful and beautiful experience two people can share and turn it into an extreme perversion. May they burn in hell for eternity.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/26/2008 16:41
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No surprises here.
There was little publicity that the terrorists in the Beslan massacre raped almost every female prisoner during the seige.
I personally believe we should never capture or arrest terrorists. They should be shot on sight as you would shoot a rabid dog.
Posted by: James Carville ||
12/26/2008 16:48
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James,
Initially I felt as you do. Then I realized that they must be thoroughly interrogated first. There will be plenty of time later to exact complete revenge.
#5
A little over seven years ago I watched as the world trade center towers came down. At the time I remember thinking "I want the MF'ers who did this, their supporters and allies DEAD!" Seven years and innumerable outrages later - if anything I feel even more strongly about it.
And like Beslan the MSM will give the terrorists all the cover possible. This will never be mentioned in the Media. They call the terrorists 'kidnappers' or 'hostage takers' - never terrorists and never, ever, ever, mention that they are all devout muslims.
Mention the rapes and bayonetted babies of Beslan to anyone here in the USA and you get a dumb confused look or flat out denial.
I would imagine the denial would be much like the denial of the german citizens who lived close to the concentration camps.
(via The Corner)
BBC Persian service has reported a speech by General Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari, chief of the Revolutionary Guards, who had a speech in the former U.S. embassy in Tehran spoke about how it might be necessary for paramilitary and revolutionary students to once again take foreign diplomats hostage. In such a situation, he said, the IRGC would support the hostage-takers. So send somebody you don't mind losing. How about Joey "The Brain" Biden?
#2
Talk about generals fighting the last war! It wasn't even a war, and it simply begs the question of whether the response will be any different the next time. Who knows?
#4
i will nominate Jesse Jackson, but leave Al sharpton at least he has entertainment value somtimes. How about we throw in a bfew of those human rights experst from the UN too
Nearly every observer of Afghanistan agrees that stability in that country demands a multipronged approach involving the military, diplomatic efforts and economic assistance. Having spent nearly the past five years as the senior career officer responsible for U.S. economic assistance to Afghanistan, I agree with those in the military who have said that 80 percent of the struggle for Afghanistan is about reconstruction and sustainable economic development and only 20 percent about military operations. In the face of a heightened Taliban insurgency, the U.S. military has changed its tactics. But if civilian U.S. agencies do not change the ways they deliver economic assistance, they jeopardize their chances for success and risk alienating the Afghan people.
The principal provider of U.S. economic assistance, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is severely constrained in Afghanistan by security rules that tolerate no risk for our Foreign Service officers. They are rarely allowed outside the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Kabul. When they get out, to attend a meeting or visit the site of a project financed by USAID, they are often surrounded by heavily armed security personnel who make it virtually impossible to interact with the Afghan people they are helping. The "no risk" approach is harming America's image.
After the 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan, the people in the affected region changed their attitude about America when they got to know the aid workers, who were there day after day. But when Afghans see civilian American aid workers coming, surrounded by security contractor "shooters," they stay away. The situation is no better with most of the provincial reconstruction teams, which depend on NATO forces for security. On a visit to Farah province in western Afghanistan earlier this year, the headmaster of an agriculture high school close to the U.S.-led provincial reconstruction team told an expert who had just arrived from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that he was not welcome if heavy military security had to accompany him.
No one wants greater access to the Afghan people and USAID projects more than the agency's dedicated Foreign Service officers do. The fact that they get out so rarely drives down morale inside the embassy and makes it harder to recruit aid workers. I am convinced that they would accept more (and reasonable) risk with better training and equipment. But regular requests to Washington to reassess the security rules that govern our economic assistance have fallen mostly on deaf ears. Meanwhile, USAID officers ask how they can connect with a country they mostly cannot see.
It's true, of course, that a more balanced approach to security, one that recognizes the importance of regularly interacting with Afghans, would also increase the risk that more U.S. Foreign Service officers would be injured or killed. And if we start losing Foreign Service officers, the argument goes, Congress will lose its resolve and reduce the economic assistance budget for Afghanistan or eliminate it. Or, as a military colleague expressed his worry to me, the few aid organizations working in the dangerous parts of the country could withdraw. But the number of U.S. soldiers being killed or wounded has again surged, and both our new president-elect and many in Congress are seeking even more soldiers for Afghanistan. Although aid workers across the country face almost daily attacks, their resolve is strong.
The new team at the State Department and USAID should engage a team of outside experts to conduct an objective assessment of the security rules and their impact on our economic assistance program in Afghanistan. The review should give due weight to the importance of interacting with the Afghan people to hear their ideas, get to know them and gain their trust. It should rigorously test the theories about what would happen if an increasing number of Foreign Service officers were killed and injured as a result. And it should look at other donor countries' approach to security in Afghanistan. Some have the balance between security and access about right, particularly in parts of the country where security is more permissive.
The U.S. military is changing its tactics in Afghanistan, focusing more on counterinsurgency and arguing for more troops on the ground. Civilian U.S. agencies must reassess their tactics, too, and accept the reasonable risks that go along with more effective economic assistance.
The writer was acting assistant administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2006 to 2008 and earlier served as a USAID mission director in Pakistan.
#1
Uh, um, dunno. As I regard the goal of "sustainable development" in most parts of A'stan chimerical ..... and completely reject the familiar 80%-fluffy bunnies + prosperity/20% killing bad guys formula relied upon here .... and still think that the challenge in A'stan is for us to identify and then secure the absolute minimum sort of security and political arrangements that prevent use of the territory as sanctuary or base by AQ ..... I'm extremely unexcited.
Also, there's no need for a group of outside experts to decide anything - geez, senior career people, and political appointees, are PAID FOR THAT. Base closure was outsourced to provide cover and smoke for cowards in Congress; the Iraq Study Group was an astonishingly stupid exercise by its very nature, and produced predictably worthless "results". Get a clue, get a backbone, and work things out between career gubmint folks and the geniuses just elected. But first, toss away 90% of the framework used here .....
#2
It confuses means and ends. It's not about Afghanistan. It's about denying Afghanistan to militant islam, as it was about denying Afghanistan to the Soviet Union.
Ironically, the only solution I can see to retaining a 'united' Afghanistan is a Saddam-style strongman. Otherwise partition into ethnic states is unavoidable.
#4
"If you give an asset $1,000, he'll go out and buy the shiniest junk he can find, and it will be apparent that he has suddenly come into a lot of money from someone,"
Just like after they robbed Air France in "Goodfellas".
As far as giving the chieftain little blue pills, I'm sure the local goats aren't too happy.
Caroline Kennedy's supporters say she could raise tons of money as a senator, but when it comes to writing checks to New York Democrats, she's been largely AWOL.
This decade, other than a $1,000 donation to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Camelot heiress has not financially supported any Democrat seeking city or state office in New York, records reveal.
Some say Kennedy, who is worth at least $100 million, missed an opportunity to curry favor among Democratic pols to establish herself as a serious political player as she lobbies Gov. Paterson for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.
Doesn't that sentence speak volumes as to what's wrong with our politics today?
She has already been asked to explain a spotty Election Day voting record over the past 20 years.
"Voting is the minimum thing that you can do, and she hasn't done that. The next thing you can do is you could donate money, and she hasn't done that," said Doug Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College. "It calls into question her commitment to politics and to government."
On the federal level, Kennedy doled out roughly $30,000 in the past decade, but Clinton was the only New Yorker to benefit. Kennedy gave to Clinton's Senate and presidential campaigns. The former First Lady returned $2,300 of Kennedy's cash after she endorsed Barack Obama.
Stefan Friedman, Kennedy's spokesman, said she is a "lifelong member of the Democratic Party" and "has always supported New York Democratic elected officials and Democrats seeking office."
She "has also given her time and energy to many causes that New York Democrats hold dear."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
10:44 ||
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#1
"On second thought, let's not go to 'Camelot.' It is a silly place."
Posted by: Mike ||
12/26/2008 12:30
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"she is a 'lifelong member of the Democratic Party' and 'has always supported New York Democratic elected officials and Democrats seeking office.' She 'has also given her time and energy to many causes that New York Democrats hold dear.'"
In other words, give it to her because she WANTS it, you ungrateful peons.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 12:43
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#3
The former First Lady returned $2,300 of Kennedy's cash after she endorsed Barack Obama.
Ouch. I don't know about the rest of New York State, but my darling in-laws seem to like her about as much as they do Mr. Wife's girlfriend before me, Mindy (Poor Mindy). I don't think my parents like her even as much as that.
#4
Ouch, TW, that's going to hurt, all I could add is that having consorted with Embassy off-spring early '80s, the more things change, the more they stay the same, spoilt ignorant brats, all of them in the wonder-land of arrogance and avarice of their parents.
If times do repeat themselves, I would invest in fantasy,
;-)
#7
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > US ARMY PREPARES FOR NATIONAL CIVILIAN UNREST, + PLANNED US SUPER-EMBASSY A COVER FOR MASSIVE PERMANENT MILITARY BASE IN IRAQ?
More like: "where the hell have you been during the last couple decades?"
She hasn't done squat for Dem candidates. Forget about donations from her extensive fortune. She hasn't campaigned for anyone or supported candidates in any other way either. Now she wants to bump Mario Cuomo's son out of the running for this seat. The senior Cuomo's well liked and respected still, one of the better governors the state has had. She's a socialite outsider with the Massachusetts name.
India warned its citizens on Friday it was unsafe to travel to Pakistan after the prime minister met military chiefs, and Pakistan canceled army leave and moved some troops from its western border.
The warning marked a dramatic rise in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors after last month's attack on Mumbai, in which 179 people were killed and which India has blamed on Islamist militants based in Pakistan. It followed media reports in Pakistan and India that "several" Indian nationals had been arrested in the last two days after bombings in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan.
"Indian citizens are therefore advised that it would be unsafe for them to travel (to) or be in Pakistan," India's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
Another Foreign Ministry official contacted by Reuters said the warning referred to all travel to Pakistan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office earlier said Singh had discussed tension with Pakistan during a scheduled meeting about military pay with the chiefs of the army, navy and air force. "The prime minister met the tri-services chiefs to discuss the pay commission issues but obviously the situation in the region was also discussed," said an official from Singh's office, who asked not to be identified. There were no other details.
Indian media said national security adviser M.K. Narayanan also attended the meeting.
Many analysts say it is very unlikely that the tension will descend into war. The uneasy neighbors have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth in 2002 after an attack on the Indian parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
10:43 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTAN SENATORS WARN INDIA: ANY SURGICAL/LIMITED STRIKES MEANS WAR; + PAKISTAN ARMY WARNS INDIA OF QUICK RESPONSE [PK will strike back back quickly "within minutes" to any Indian attack] + PAKISTAN AIR FORCE OFFICER: INDIA HAS MARKED OVER 5000 TARGETS INSIDE PAKISTAN + INDIANS ARE TALKING ABOUT NAVAL BLOCKADE OF KARACHI PORT [Mil Option].
There is a new Blago Sphere, at least in the short term. This scandal is so rich, not only in vocabulary, but in the ever widening ripples as each day passes. Initially, I thought he was a Republican. No! NO! NO! He's a Democrat. Maybe Obama is the rose that rose from the dung heap of Chicago politics, maybe. But if you are surrounded by manure how do you walk through the stockyards without getting any on your loafers? Gov. Blagojovich sounds like Jerry Lundergard from Fargo. "A finder's fee won't do it for me, Wade. No, no, I, I need, I need the prinicipal." In the middle of our financial crisis (real or manufactured) a public servant can only think of himself and his wife. In a recessional market Gov. Blagojovich is, apparently, selling a senate seat.
Ah, the industry of ink, or rather key strokes and blogs and articles and pundit punditry grind out the meat of, or more correctly, the sausage of political scandal. But we really want to see how it is made. Come on, let's go see what they put in the sausage and where did they get all of the stuff: meat, fat, spices, left overs, bits of bone, anything left over from the slaughter house floor. City of big muscles, er, make that muscle. Lean on folks to get what you want from them. Get what you can for your public service and put it on Ebay, finally.
But in this age of key strokes, where did the email trail go along with the phone taps? Who said what and when? Who wrote what and when? Delete. Delete! DELETE! Meanwhile, key strokes multiply as the story grows fatter than a sow on an Illinois farm. And the Blago sphere is a bubble growing like a tick filling with blood. And like Jerry Lundergard Blogojovich is probably having his fits of foul vocabulary at home because his plan has been undone and is now exposed to the acute slant of winter light.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/26/2008
10:33 ||
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GAZA (Reuters) -- A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck a house in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said. Hamas police said they were investigating the cause of the blast in Beit Lahiya village in northern Gaza, which medics said seemed to be due to a rocket aimed at Israel that had misfired.
Gaza militants frequently fire rockets at Israel from the same area.
The incident came amid rising tensions with Israel, with officials threatening stepped-up military action against Gaza militants to stop rocket shootings from the coastal territory.
#2
Saw a clip of some recent Ham firing this morning on Fox. Kicking the base of the tube to adjust fire is a bit primitive. (Achmed, was add 300m one boot stomp or two?) This might well have been operator error. In any event, Play it again Sam.
#6
FREE Streaming TV Shows, Movies, Music (over 6 million digital quality tracks), Unlimited Games, Money, and College Educations (Stanford, Oxford, Notre Dame and more) @ http://www.InternetSurfShack.com
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/26/2008 16:01
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AlanC, there's always the possibility that the busload of Lutherans in town for a Bethlehem sightseeing tour were responsible.....somehow.....(don't ask me for specifics, ok? I'm still working on it...)
#10
ION ISRAEL > WAFF - WILL ISRAEL SURVIVE BY 2050 [long]? Israel's greatest single problem, moreso than any Arab Terror or Nuclear Threat, is ala POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS [e.g. RUSSIA BY 2050] which in turn will likely have ripple effect = consequences for ISRAEL's ECONOMY + SOCIO-CULTURAL DYNAMIC, ETC.
* High Muslim Birth rate versus Israelis
* IMMIGRATION - Over 600,000 Israelis living abroad.
* JEWS comprise 60% of Israel's current popul, but by 2050 Muslims-Arabs 40% from 23 - 24% current.
* "ALIYAH" is about done in Israel.
Population demographics: I believe the non-European Jews have birthrates similar to the Arabs in the surrounding countries. The European Jews, on the other hand, tend to have only one or two children, like the European culture they came from.
Emigration: has been a concern since the founding of the country.
Aliyah, ie mass emigration to Israel: is indeed over. As far as I'm aware there aren't any large populations of beleaguered Jews left. There has been a steady trickle of individual aliyot from Western countries resulting from Zionist idealism; no doubt in future the Zionist trickle will come from the rest of the world as well.
Muslim population numbers in the US vs. Jewish numbers: The point is silly and, in my opinion, meaningless. Not to mention that, like Palestinian population numbers, the number of Muslims in the US as reported by organizations such as CAIR tend to be exaggerated by an order of magnitude, eg 6 million vs 600,000, making projections a bit non-reality based. However, so long as the Muslims were as well-integrated, conscientious citizens as the Jews, it would not be a problem. We shall wait and see -- 2020 isn't that far in the future. As a point of information, most of the Muslims in this country are Asians and African-American "Black Muslims", not Arabs... and many Arab-Americans are Christian, not Muslim.
#13
Pali rocket men need to be taught the Islamic way of launching. Allan looks on the Jihadi's rocket offering as sincere only when it is launched straight-up.
The parents of a rabbi and his wife killed in last month's terror attacks in Mumbai lit a 16-foot public menorah Thursday outside the building where their children lived in the Indian city.
Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among scores killed last month in a rampage by suspected Islamic militants. The couple ran a center in Mumbai for the Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement. The slain Holtzbergs, who moved to Mumbai in 2003, used to light a menorah every year outside the Jewish center also known as Nariman House. Thursday is the fifth night of Hanukkah.
Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and his wife, Frida, were accompanied by Rivka's parents, Yehudit and Shimon Rosenberg, and several friends and relatives at the lighting ceremony. The relatives went inside the building, badly damaged by the attackers and the Indian rescue operations that followed, and also visited the room where Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife were killed.
The Holtzbergs and Rosenbergs are also expected to light a menorah at the Gateway of India, a ceremonial archway on Mumbai's seafront, a short distance from the Chabad center.
The Holtzberg's 2-year-old son, Moshe, survived the attack on the building that killed his parents and four others - all Jewish foreigners.
Acting director Rabbi Dov Goldberg has vowed to restore the building and continue their work in Mumbai.
At least 164 people and nine gunmen were killed in the Nov. 26-29 attacks that targeted 10 sites in Mumbai, including two five-star hotels and the Jewish center.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
10:07 ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008 10:09
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Jews celebrate victory of good over evil at Gateway
MUMBAI: "Is it safe to be here, all of us together?'' asked a Jewish woman before seating herself on a chair facing the Gateway of India. A retired colonel reassured her.
Fighting back fears of congregating at a public place, a sizeable number of Jews-both Indians and foreigners-came forward to attend a prayer meeting organised by Chabad House on the occasion of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil.
While Moshe, the orphaned child of Rabbi Gavriel-who was claimed by the terror attack at Nariman House-was conspicuous by his absence, his grandparents-Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg-were among those present.
Several rabbis, members of the international Chabad Houses, descended from their cars to distribute black skull caps to the male Jewish members in the audience, which they also helped them wear. A round of potato latkes, a traditional jewish sweet, ensured hospitality for the guests, among whom was Ved Prakash, general manager of the company looking after the reconstruction of Chabad House.
In the symbolic backdrop of the Gateway, a giant menorah, a nine-branched candle stand (almost 20-ft tall) was set up and-as a man seated on a crane poured oil-Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky (from the Chabad headquarters in New York), took the podium.
In a speech rendered with ascending emotion that he addressed to the president and "peace-loving members of this country", Kotlarsky said, "We have assembled to light the menorah on the fifth day of the Hanukkah to celebrate the victory of the weak over the strong.''
Recalling the attacks that claimed the lives of the rabbi and his wife, who had moved to Mumbai to spread "goodness and kindness'', Kotlarsky said, "We mourn today the loss of these beacons of light.''
On the eve of the fifth day of Hanukkah, when majority of the menorah is lit up, Kotlarsky iterated, "We are committed to continuing the legacy of Rabbi Gavriel, and to fight terrorism not with AK-47s but by illuminating the darkness.''
He recalled seeing Moshe the previous night in Israel and said it as a pleasure watching him light the menorah. "We are not only committed to coming back but are also not leaving Mumbai,'' he announced, pumping his fist in the air and inviting Moshe's grandfather to light the menorah as a metaphor for overcoming the darkness.
When a crane lifted the elderly rabbi holding a candle, members of the audience stood in anticipation and clapped incessantly. As he lit the five wicks, Rosenberg recited Lighting the lights and Rock of ages-two Hanukkah prayers-while others joined in the chorus.
The rabbis then recited the evening sermon, swaying back and forth, holding the holy book as members of the audience, including Moshe's grandmother, held each other in a circle, and performed the traditional song-and-dance Hanukkah prayer.
Thanks to the vigorous smoke-spitting flames of the menorah, the Gateway shone in a new hue. The flames were extinguished after the prayer.
It was at this point that Rabbi Altel Kubchik of Pune's Chabad House, who had known Rabbi Gavriel to be an "iron man", lit up his cigarette. "We are going to build more Chabad Houses in India. "That is our answer,'' he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008 10:12
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#3
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008 10:16
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#4
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008 10:19
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#5
That sounds like the Lubavicher Chabadniks. Orthodox mystics, but eager to share the joys of Judaism with all comers, not judging the level of religious commitment... or even whether or not they are Jewish. That's their standard public Hanukkah menorah, by the way; they put up one just like it on Cincinnati's Fountain Square, across from the Christmas tree.
Thank you, john.
((More than you want to know about Ma'oz Tzur in Wikipedia and an instrumental rendition of the melody here.
#6
john frum---I really appreciate your coverage and the images you have posted with respect to the Mumbai tragedy. I wish that the MSM would do the same.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/26/2008 17:47
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#7
When it comes to covering India, Rantburgs India affiliate, John Frum, is Americas best news outlet.
Hit the Tipjar!
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/26/2008 19:22
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Amid heightened tensions between the neighbours in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, former President Pervez Musharraf on Friday said India "cannot dare cast an evil eye" on Pakistan as long as the armed forces are there to defend the country.
Musharraf, who resigned in August to avoid an impeachment, threw his weight behind the government, saying the country had a democratically elected president and prime minister who would take steps for its security.
Perv has to toe the party line right now or risk being whacked ...
As long as the Pakistani armed forces are there, the country is in safe hands, Musharraf told the media at a reception here to mark the wedding of the son of former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.
He said the armed forces are fully capable of defending the country against India. As long as the Pakistani military is there, India can not "cast an evil eye" on the country, he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
09:58 ||
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#1
That's not the party line, that's a big ol' shitburger flung in the current administration's face. Notice all the emphasis on "armed forces" defending the country? This is Perv's "told you so, you civilian weasels" war-dance.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 10:43
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The Hamas parliament in the Gaza Strip voted in favor of a law allowing courts to mete out sentences in the spirit of Islam, the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat reported Wednesday.
According to the bill, approved in its second reading and awaiting a third reading before the approval of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian constitution demands, courts will be able to condemn offenders to a plethora of violent punitive measures in line with Sharia Law.
Because that's what has held Gaza back, a lack of Sharia, by gum!
Such punishments include whipping, severing hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences to people who negotiate with a foreign government "against Palestinian interests" and engage in any activity that can "hurt Palestinian morale."
According to the report, any Palestinian caught drinking or selling wine would suffer 40 lashes at the whipping post if the bill passes. Thieves caught red-handed would lose their right hand.
(Arizona) - A veteran state lawmaker is hoping the threat of losing a driver's license gives teens a reason not to engage in the hazardous stunt of "vehicle surfing."
The proposal by Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, would make it illegal to stand on or hang onto a moving vehicle. Violators would be subject not only to a $500 fine but would automatically lose their license for two years. That same penalty would apply to the driver of the vehicle.
But HB1003 goes even a step beyond that: It also would make it a crime for anyone to photograph, videotape or digitally record the event.
He said these people are just as guilty of creating the hazard because they are part of a scheme to eventually upload the scene to YouTube, the popular site where people can post videos of their activities for all to see. Konopnicki said if no one were taping the "surfing," many teens would not try the stunt.
That also was the assessment of Mike Teleff, spokesman for the Peoria Police Department. His agency investigated an incident in September in which a 16-year-old girl was injured after she fell off the hood of a friend's moving car and ended up being run over. Firefighters had to use air bags to lift the Ford Taurus off the girl.
While no one was videotaping that incident, Teleff said that may be more the exception than the norm. "A lot of times that's why they're doing it, to put it up on YouTube," he said. Teleff said extending the liability to the photographer is "a perfect thing to do."
A search of YouTube on Wednesday found more than 100 videos from across the country of people trying to vehicle surf.
As worded, it also would make criminals out of news photographers, TV videographers and even anyone on the street who just happened to see and record the event. Konopnicki said that isn't what he intends. "Obviously, we're going to have to amend it and fix it," he said.
Teleff said the legislation "fills a gap" in the law. He said the police officer who investigated the September incident is preparing to cite the motorist for reckless driving. But Teleff said it's still unclear what laws, if any, the surfing teen broke. "It's kind of dicey how you handle the passenger," he said, as the reckless driving law specifically deals with how people operate a motor vehicle.
Konopnicki said this measure would not make it illegal for individuals to ride in the open bed of pickup trucks.
#3
Trying to outlaw human stupidity will only triple or quadruple the size of the law library. It won't stop it, but it'll make the lawyers happy. Sorta like wrestling with a pig.
#8
I got the "cure" while dove hunting on the hood of a 1957 chevy. A sudden stop captured my immediate attention.
You were not postioned correctly; that's what them two little hood ornament thingys were for; the ones that looked like swept back jet aircraft tails.....Called 'em hood ornamnets, in reality they were anti-skid devices.
#11
Maybe because the rest of us end up picking up the medical bills for failed attempts. And because sometimes the drivers swerve and innocent others get injured or killed.
Just a guess. It's a bit like the motorcycle helmet issue only these are teens. With adults, I'd be happy to have them sign a legally binding waiver of all medical care at my expense or that of my insurance company and then they can drive without helmets to their hearts' content. With teens it's a little more complicated ...
#16
Maybe because the rest of us end up picking up the medical bills for failed attempts.
Except we pay just as much in legal fees and processes that further bog down our DAs and other prosecutors who are already making plea bargains in dealing with rape, murder, and robbery because both their offices and the courts are stuffed to the gills. You make it a civil matter with the effected medical service provider [which in most cases will be the city/county/state] able to administratively collect on charges against the family or estate.
The rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to lodge a complaint against the "illegal" closure of its office, a founding member of the centre said on Friday. Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.
"We are lodging a complaint on Saturday. We are also going to write to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to protest this violation of the law," lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told AFP.
Sucks to live in a dictatorship, doesn't it ...
Iranian authorities said the office was shut down because the centre did not have an interior ministry permit to operate. An Iranian official said on a visit to Tokyo that the office had been reopened but this was denied by Dadkhah. "She (Ebadi) has all the freedom and liberty in Iran and outside Iran," Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, the deputy foreign minister for Asia, told reporters, describing her as a "big fighter."
"We have our rules and regulations. If somebody goes beyond those rules and regulations, they have to undergo the scrutiny of the concerned judicial process, and I believe that has been completed and her office is reopened."
Ebadi's group says it has sought to obtain authorisation to no avail while insisting that founding associations without an official permit is lawful as long as they are not against Islam. "We went to the ministry six years ago and submitted all the required documents," Dadkhah said, adding that a former deputy interior minister in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government "also said we were not illegal".
"This is an organisation that does not seek power but it has solely been targeted for defending human rights," he added.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003, was in the office during the raid, which came as the group was to hold a belated ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations declaration on human rights. She condemned the police action, which she said had taken place without a warrant, as "illegal" but vowed that her campaigning would continue.
Founded by five prominent lawyers, the group is a vocal critic of the human rights situation in Iran and has defended scores of prisoners of conscience, including high-profile dissidents and student activists.
A LOCAL al-Qaeda chief known as "Imad the killer" escaped in a pre-dawn breakout from an Iraqi police station on Friday, triggering a wild shootout that left 13 militants and Iraqi policemen dead. Imad Ahmed Farhan, who police say has admitted to murdering at least 100 people, is on the run with two other "emirs" or local leaders of al-Qaeda who broke out of their cells in a police station in the western city of Ramadi.
"During an exchange of fire between prisoners trying to escape and police officers in the station, six policemen and seven prisoners were killed," provincial police chief Tareq al-Dulaimi said.
The three prisoners managed to flee but one was recaptured, Dulaimi said, adding that another four policemen were wounded in the shootout that occurred at 2am (1000 AEDT Thursday) at Forsan police station in the centre of Ramadi.
Ramadi police have imposed a curfew in the city following the incident, an interior ministry source said.
The source said a prisoner wanting to go to the toilet was escorted from his cell by a policeman at 2am, kicking off what appeared to be a well-planned operation. "The policeman was overpowered by the inmate who seized his weapon and shot him," the source said.
Was he overpowered or was he 'overpowered'?
"He then opened up the other cells and and he and his fellow prisoners grabbed weapons from the police station's armoury, opening fire on the policemen."
The prisoners battled police for two hours before officers managed to regain control of the station, a local police official said. The recaptured prisoner suffered minor injuries.
Though he's about to fall down the stairs. Elebenteen flights of stairs.
Farhan is locally know as "Imad Omaya" which in Arabic means "Imad the Killer".
Today, the streets of Ramadi, a city of 540,000 people, were deserted and shops were shut as a heavy police presence fanned out in an urgent hunt for the al-Qaeda escapees, an AFP reporter said.
LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that defence of Pakistan is impregnable and no foreign power can look at our country with evil designs. India would have imposed a war on us in the wake of the Mumbai attacks had Pakistan not been a nuclear power, he said. He expressed these views here on Thursday while addressing a function organised to mark 133rd birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The function was held under the aegis of Nazria-e-Pakistan Trust.
The ceremony was also addressed by Editor Nawa-i-Waqt and Chairman Nazria-e-Pakistan Trust Majid Nizami, Mr Justice (Retd) Dr. Javed Iqbal, Vice Chairman NPT, Professor Dr. Rafique Ahmad, Patron NPT, Syed Fasih Iqbal, Journalist Nusrat Mirza, Professor Dr. Perveen Shaukat, Former Chief Minister NWFP, Pir Sabir Shah and others. He said late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the founder of Pakistans nuclear programme while Nawaz Sharif completed this programme and carried out the explosions. Shahbaz said that if India provided solid evidence of Pak involvement in the Mumbai carnage, Islamabad would be ready to extend its cooperation. The Chief Minister also gave away gold medals to the activists of Pakistan Movement. He said people like Majid Nizami had been confronting the dictators all along their life.
Such people are present in every province and that is the reason that Pakistan is secure so far, he added. He said that it was quite unfortunate that the former rulers compromised on the sovereignty of the country for getting few dollars from abroad. He said that India was involved in creating unrest in Balochistan and an Indian Army Colonel also masterminded Samjhota Express attack. 'These are proven facts but international community never raised its voice against India but on the fake incident of Mumbai international community has made hue and cry , he said.
He was of the view that Pakistan would be developed by Pakistani people and not by any foreign power. An embezzlement of Rs 150 billion was unearthed by audit department in the City District Govts and present govt wanted to take action they were given stay by our courts, he said. He said that the one who awarded stay to the corrupt people in fact is a bigger corrupt. He said that PML(N) would continue efforts for the independence of judiciary under the leadership of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and would not sit idle till this goal was achieved.
He appealed to the nation to be peaceful and united during the holy month of Muharram and warned that enemy was trying to create unrest in the country.
Earlier he granted Rs 75 lakh for the welfare and medical facility of activists of Pakistan Movement.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
07:50 ||
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#1
Yea, except Indians know that if they let you get away with Mumbai attack, then---eventually---there will be a suitcase nuke exploding in one of their cities.
Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said. The move represents a sharp escalation in the stand off between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stands to weaken Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban close to Afghanistan.
Two intelligence officials said the army's 14th Division was being redeployed to Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border. They said some 20,000 troops were on the move. Earlier Friday, a security official said that all troop leave had been canceled.
An Associated Press reporter in Dera Ismail Khan, a district that borders the Afghan-frontier province of South Waziristan, said he saw around 40 trucks loaded with soldiers heading away from the Afghan border.
Indian officials could not be immediately reached for comment. India is blaming Pakistan-based militants for last month's attacks on Mumbai. Islamabad has said it will cooperate in any probe, but says it has seen no evidence backing up India's claims.
Both countries have said they hope to avoid military conflict, but Pakistan has promised to respond aggressively if India uses force, an option the Indian government has not ruled out. Pakistan has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers in Waziristan and other northwestern regions to fight Islamic militants blamed for surging violence against Western troops in Afghanistan.
A senior security official refused to comment directly on Friday's troop movements, but said, "Necessary defensive measures have been taken, they are in place and Pakistan's armed forces are prepared to tackle any eventuality."
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. ... and Pakistain has lost each of them.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
07:46 ||
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#1
Gee, I guess there's no troopies available to protect Pakistan's vaunted sovereignty up Afstan way then, huh?
#3
I guess it's time for Pakistan's decadal a$$-kicking again. My, how time flies...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/26/2008 13:33
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#4
If the Pakistani army can't defeat a rag tag bunch of hillbillies in Toyotas carrying WWI armaments, what makes them think they can defeat a modern force?
#6
KeeerBuki Theatre
Perhaps the Indians zot a camp or 3 with the PureFolks fightin hard (hard fightin in they blood) to defend self-same. LOC unchanged. Situation normal. Bus runs again in 3 years. Muslims to bomb, Hindus kill a few back.
#7
WORLD MIL FORUM/TOPIX > ECONOMIC CRISIS MAY PREVENT BANKRUPT USA FROM MILITARILY INTERVENING IN REGIONAL CONFLICTS. USA will instead have to rely heavily on the mil forces of local ALLIES, + hi-tech US STRATEGIC MIL SYSTEMS ONLY FOR ANY MIL RESPONSE [B-52's, ICBMS, NATO].
FEW TO NO ARMY-MARINE GROUND TROOPS, with any of these postured mostly for DEFENSIVE = ACTIVE-DEFENSE SCOPES, NOT OFFENSIVE???
#8
PAKISTANI MIL FORUM [old] > lest we fergit, RUSSIAN ARMY WILL BE A MUSLIM-MAJORITY ARMY BY 2020 [Year 2015-2020]; + ETHNOGRAPHERS: RUSSIA WILL HAVE A MUSLIM MAJORITY WITHIN OUR LIFETIME.
* 2020-2050.
Muslims may comprise 40% of the RUSS ARMY + 1/5th OF RUSS TOTAL POPULATION.
* POSTERS [12/2008] > iff true, will be GREAT NEWS + GREAT/DECISIVE BOOST TO REGIONAL AND GLOBAL MUSLIM MILITARY POWER, ESPEC AS PER NUCLEAR-ADVANCED WEAPONS. Will allow ISLAM to ONCE AGAIN BECOME A WORLD/GLOBALLY DOMINANT MIL FORCES AS LIKE ISLAM'S GLORIOUS PAST.
This shows - AGAIN - why the ISLAMISTS, etc. are rampaging throughout ASIA + AFRICA, espec as per RUSSIA, CHINA, + INDIA = DESTABILIZ AND BREAKUP OF ASIA's MAJOR NUCLEAR STATES [whole or in part].
#1
And let's remember all the Euro banking and investment that vanished in this economic cycle as well that was invested in American paper - because they couldn't work the money in socialist regulated Europe too. American speculative markets filled while Euros emptied.
#2
The Chinese have yet to realize that Americans have a long and proud tradition of ripping off foreigners intent on making easy money in America.
The Scots thought they could make a fortune in Longhorn cattle drives from Texas to KC, only to find that the entire herd would vanish en route. Others bought Florida swampland and desert real estate. Oil wells, farm crops, you name it.
Now the Chinese have trillions of dollars in the US government bonds bubble. The Japanese, who have wised up, are selling US bonds as fast as they can, and the Chinese are buying those bonds as well.
Suckers from across the globe are getting in on the bubble, with the demand for T-bills now at four times the supply--four times what Washington and Obama can even promise. "Bond scalpers" are offering resales of US bonds.
And right now, they have already promised half the annual US GDP. $8.5T.
When the bubble bursts, China would have had enough US paper to make a national highway system--out of paper. If they actually had paper, instead of just electrons on a computer.
What they will probably get out of the deal is a lot of new and vulgar Chinese words and phrases that are synonyms for "Americans".
#3
"When the bubble bursts, China would have had enough US paper to make a national highway system--out of paper. If they actually had paper, instead of just electrons on a computer.
What they will probably get out of the deal is alot of new and vulgar Chinese words and phrases that are synonyms for "Americans"."
I can live with that.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 10:43
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#4
It's still not too late to panic, get in on the ground floor of the new PARNOIA, bones can still be made in the blog-world outta dis. Got screwed by Byrd Flew? Loose your street Credit in the Y2K deal? Need to change your rehab from your $500 a barrell oil-onism? It's not too late. Step right up, this is your new disaster, you can still be right! It's not too late.
#5
CHINESE MIL FORUM > ALIENS FROM CHINA SLIP OVER THE MEXICAN BORDER INTO THE USA + THOUSANDS OF CHINESE MOVING INTO LAOS, CAMBODIA, AND VIETNAM [seek new opportunities, life they can't find back home in China]; + WAFF > RUSSIA ERECTS NEW BASE ON THE CHINESE BORDER.
A roadside bomb went off in the southern province of Yala on Friday morning, critically wounding two soldiers. The blast took place in front of a PTT petrol station in Krong Pinang district at around 8.30am. Two motorcycles were found next to the wounded soldiers, who were rushed to Yala Centre Hospital.
The Christmas Eve party in a Los Angeles family home was in full swing when an eight year old girl opened the door to Santa. But instead of giving her the large gift-wrapped box he was holding he shot the child in the face, then burst through the house shooting indiscriminately at fleeing guests. As the 25 party goers tried desperately to escape, the gunman used his 'present' to spray inflammable liquid that quickly engulfed the house in flames. By the time he had finished his slaughter, at least eight of the party guests were dead and two children were seriously injured. It was Bruce Pardo's final revenge against his ex-wife, after a year of marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce.
The massacre took place at her parents' home in Covina, a quiet LA suburb during their annual Christmas party. Pardo's parents-in-law and his wife, who have been listed as missing , are thought to be among the victims. When the fire was extinguished early on Thursday, officers found three charred bodies in the living room area. Later in the day they discovered five more bodies in the ashes. "They were met with a scene that was just indescribable," Kim Raney, the police chief, said.
The Christmas Eve party was something of a family tradition for the family and usually lasted into the early hours of Christmas Day. "Christmases were that special time of the year. It meant so much to them," Rosa Ordaz, a family friend of the victims, told KCBS-TV. In past years, a neighbour dressed as Santa Claus had entertained the guests. The neighbour had moved away but when Pardo arrived just before midnight, the revellers thought he had come to entertain them. Instead, he slaughtered them.
David Salgado, a neighbour, said he saw the eight-year-old victim being escorted to an ambulance by four SWAT team members as flames up to twelve metres high consumed the house. "It was really ugly," Mr Salgado said. Another neighbour, Jan Gregory, said she saw a teenage boy flee the home, screaming: "They shot my family."
A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, and a 20-year-old woman broke her ankle when she escaped by jumping from a second-story window. The gunshot injuries of the 8-year old and the 16-year-old are not believed to be life threatening, police said.
Police said it was impossible to tell how many of the victims died of gunshot wounds or from the fire. "They are too badly burned and will have to be identified by dental records," Lieutenant Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police department said.
After his rampage Pardo, 45, threw off the Santa suit and fled down the street, guests later told police. He went to his brother's home about 25 miles away in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles. No one was home, so Pardo let himself in, police said. Police were called to the home early on Christmas Day, and officers found Pardo dead from a single bullet to the head. "He died of self-inflicted wounds. We believe it was a marital dispute," said Lt Buchanan.
Investigators seeking further information about Pardo's motives have begun searching his home in the suburban Los Angeles community of Montrose.
#1
I knew of a middle aged man with a midlife crisis, who took up with a much young woman. After a time, a female relative, who did not trust the younger woman further than she could have thrown her, suggested a prenuptial agreement.
The young woman freaked out and took off. Three days later she was arrested for trying to pass one of his credit card in Mexico. And in her haste to steal his money, she had already assumed several hundred thousand dollars in debts, that he would have been stuck with the minute they were married.
After which she was planning to take off, anyway.
The Mexicans do extradite, by the way, and once a year, he sends her a "Happy Anniversary" card in prison, where she will remain for a long time.
#3
Very, very sad. Appears he had $ 17K in USD taped to his legs and an airline ticket to.... Canada. Evidently the backblast of his house bomb caught him and melted his Santa suit to his worthless hide resulting in third degree burns. End of Canada trip. A real hero, gunning down children and the unarmed. Roast in hell you selfish, sicko bastard.
Take Michelle Obama's 300 thousand dollar PR (community organizing) job at a hospital that had received a ton of government hand outs due in part to efforts by Barack and his connections. Classic "pay to play" crony capitalism. While she was in that job, she managed to "create" 21 new organizing jobs at that same hospital. (and we thought health care money was supposed to be used to treat sick people - what dupes we are). That's 22 crony health care jobs and not one person was healthier as a result and not one job created by the market forces of supply and demand. The Obamas, however, were both richer and more powerful as were a handful of their friends. Not exacly how the Huxtables practiced medicine.
Governor Blago surely was aware of this arrangement and he obviously expected the power to appoint Barack's replacement to pay off big. While he was simply practicing pay for play, he was simply not as elegant in his plan as say, Chris Dodd. Dodd's pay for play example does show, however, how a senate seat can be a gold mine, not to mention how devastating the resulting policy tentacles can be.
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An attorney who won an award for representing Terri Schiavo's husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife is now an advisor to the transition team of incoming president Barack Obama.
Thomas Perrelli, who raised over $500,000 for the pro-abortion presidential candidate and is the managing partner of a Washington law firm, Jenner & Block LLP, is helping advise Obama on putting together a Justice Department team.
However, Perrelli provided Michael Schiavo with legal advice during his response to the Congressional bill that President Bush signed allowing the Schindler family to take their lawsuit seeking to prevent Terri's euthanasia death from state to federal courts. Perrelli led the Jenner & Block team that developed the legal briefs opposing appeals for Michael and he ultimately received the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Pro Bono Award in October 2006 for representing Terri's former husband at no cost.
On Michael's legal team, Perrelli worked with infamous pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos as well as lawyers from the Florida chapter of the ACLU.
Obama's selection of Perrelli to participate on his Justice Department transition team is no surprise given his comments on Terri's painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death during the presidential campaign.
During his debate with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, Obama said his biggest mistake was voting with a unanimous Senate to help save Terri.
In March 2005, just weeks before Terri died, Congress approved legislation allowing her family to take its case from state courts to federal courts in an effort to stop the euthanasia from proceeding. Terri was not on any artificial breathing apparatus and only required a feeding tube to eat and drink. Her family had filed a lawsuit against her former husband to allow them to care for her and give her proper medical and rehabilitative care.
The Senate unanimously approved a compromise bill, which the House eventually supported on a lopsided bipartisan vote and President Bush signed, to help the disabled woman.
Obama said he should have stood up against the life-saving legislation. "It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped," Obama said. "And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better," he added.
That wasn't the first time Obama said he regretted supporting the bill to protect the disabled woman. During an April 2007 debate, Obama said, "I think professionally the biggest mistake that I made was when I first arrived in the Senate. There was a debate about Terri Schiavo, and a lot of us, including me, left the Senate with a bill that allowed Congress to intrude where it shouldn't have."
"And I think I should have stayed in the Senate and fought more for making sure [Terri's parents couldn't take their case to federal court to save her life]," he explained.
Since Terri's death, the Schindler family has established a foundation to help disabled and elderly patients obtain proper medical care and legal and other assistance when they are denied it.
A senior military official says Pakistan has canceled leave for members of the armed forces because of tension with India following the deadly Mumbai attacks. Once the Brigade Commander's fallout shelter is completed, you may return home to work on yours.
India has said the gunmen who carried out last month's attacks were Pakistani and had connections to the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan has demanded India share evidence of its allegations..... which will allow them to round up the usual suspects.
Both countries have said they want to avoid conflict over the attacks, which killed more than 160 people. But India has not ruled out the use of force, and Pakistan has said it will respond to any attack and has placed its military on alert. Current map of the troubled region.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/26/2008
04:17 ||
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#2
So... what's the engagement radius of those modified-for-ABM AEGIS cruisers I've been hearing so much about? How fast could we deploy the ground-based stuff they've been testing in Alaska?
I have no fears for the Indian Army's ability to deal with the mustachio'd joke which is the Pakistani Armed Forces. But nobody can outrun a healthy salvo of nukes, no matter how ineptly operated or deployed.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 10:35
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#3
The Paki would be forced by straited circumstances to deliver the vast majority of their n00ks via F-16z or FreightLiner. So an ABM system isn't necessary at the moment. Still it would be a nice gesture.....
#5
Given how easily the ISI/L-e-T terrorists infiltrated Mumbai, I'm pretty sure the Paks could slip a nuke or two into India. Therein is the problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008 12:23
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#6
Are Pak nukes that portable? I got the impression that they barely fit on a big honking ballistic missile. So we're talking shipping containers here, right?
Once they start handing out shipping-container nukes to random six-degrees-of-Hamid-Gul yahoos, we're all fucked, though.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 12:40
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#7
Are the nuclear bombs produced by the Land of the Pure actually functioning? Or have they rusted through due to poor maintenance based on djinn-physics protocols? If so, slipping the things in anywhere becomes a different problem than that intended by the slippers.
#8
The creation of Pakistan as an independent nation is obviously, in retrospect, a major mistake. It's time to correct it. Let India do whatever it wishes up to the Indus River (Since the name "India" was derived by Alexander from the name of the river, it would only be just to use it as India's Western boundary). The US should land a couple of batallions of Marines and another couple of SeeBees at Karachi, and start working north. THe SeeBees would be tasked with developing a major road/rail network between Karachi and Kabul. The Marines would be there to see that nobody interferes. In the meantime, the US should ARCLIGHT the HE$$ out of the NWFP, and level Peshawar, giving the Pashtuns the lesson that you don't mess with the US if you want to live - something not brought home to them yet. All land not allocated to India would be given to Afghanistan, after we have a long, heart-to-heart with Karzai about inbred stupidity.
India has a very good, very accurate, and very functional air defense system. They may not have a working ICBM/IRBM/MRBM system yet, but they're working on it, and I think Israel has already shipped them a couple of "ARROW" systems. The average nuke is only functional for about five years, then needs some major overhaul. Whether Pakistan adheres to a regular maintenance cycle is something I wouldn't want to learn from experience.
The AEGIS/PAC-3 has a range of about 800 miles, IIRC, but I think that's based on ships at sea.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/26/2008 13:46
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#9
Drink up! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 13:52
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#10
crap. I wazza reading this at work and had to take the afternoon off due to drinking
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2008 18:29
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Pakistan troops were deployed on Thursday to protect vital points along the Line of Control in Kashmir and the international border with India, defence sources told Daily Times. Reports in Indian media said Pakistan moved its 10th Brigade to Lahore and ordered the 3rd Armoured Brigade to march towards Jhelum, following a heavy concentration of Indian troops on the borders. Pakistan's 10th and 11th divisions have been put on high alert, Indian media said, and troops had been stationed in Rajouri and Poonch sectors of Kashmir. Sources in the Defence Department declined to give details of any fresh movement but did not deny reports that Pakistan was moving certain brigades towards Lahore. Indian TV channels also reported that Pakistan Air Force continued its state of high alert and started aerial surveillance of the Chashma power plant and other sensitive sites on Thursday amid fears of a 'surgical strike' by India.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[22 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
fine with me: nobody will be there to stop the Merkins from crossing the border and whacking the talibs....
#2
Yeah... now's not a great time to be poking the fear-crazed armed lunatic with a sharp stick, even if he *is* concentrating on the neighbor holding a shotgun on him. Once the nukes start flying, there's no way of telling where they'll land. Unless somebody's smuggled advanced ABM tech into Kabul when I wasn't watching...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 10:40
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#3
two words: prevailing winds
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2008 18:31
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#4
WAFF.com > INDIA THREATENS PAKISTAN WITH DEADLINE FOR WAR, India has until 12/26 to prove it has begun crackdown on PK-based Terror Groups including those PERCEIVED AS TERROR FRONTS POSING AS PRO-HINDU + CHRISTIAN CHARITY GROUPS???
(Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is prepared to take actions to restore security to the southern land bordering the Gaza Strip, said IDF Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Thursday. "The current situation cannot continue and we will need to use all our might to hit the terror infrastructure and to create a new secure situation around the Gaza Strip," local daily The Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying at a graduation ceremony for military pilots, in reference to the continuing rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled enclave.
The IDF is "ready and prepared" to carry out any operation that will be required to defend Israel against terror, said the lieutenant-general, while stressing that "we will act with wisdom, the correct considerations and responsibility... until calm and quiet are restored."
The remarks came as Gazan militants fired at least four rockets and several mortar shells at Israel on Thursday, a day after the Jewish state was pummeled by more than 60 rockets and mortar shells.
Israeli officials have been ratcheting up their rhetoric against the Islamic movement since clashes resumed in early November after the two sides had generally honored an Egypt-brokered truce deal for five months.
Following an emergency meeting of the security cabinet, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that he had instructed the army to prepare itself to deliver a harsh response to the cross-border attacks, and warned that Gazan militants would pay a "heavy price" if they continue to barrage Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[11 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"troops ready to strike Gaza"
So quit jawing and start striking already.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:17
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#2
"When it's time to shoot, shoot! Don't talk!
--Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez
#6
JPOST > ANALYSTS: CAIRO FEARS LOCAL ISLAMIST FALLOUT [Muslim Brotherhood, Other Radicals] IFF ISRAEL HITS GAZA HARD; + ASSAD: HIZBOLLAH IS NOT MY PROBLEM!?
Police yesterday arrested eight operatives of outlawed Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including two madrasa teachers in Gaibandha and seized a big cache of explosives.
Madrasa teachers? I thought those who could, did, and those who couldn't ...
The latest arrest and recovery were made two days after two JMB men with five grenades were held in Comilla. The two have been placed on eight-day remand.
Both Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police suspect the militants are getting prepared for committing subversive attacks ahead of the national polls.
In Gaibandha, Special Branch in association with police seized 50 casings of grenade, grenade-making materials, huge explosives and jihad books from Chakshibpur and Parkachua villages in the first phase of drives. Col Gulzaruddin Ahmed, additional director general of Rab, told The Daily Star, "The collection of such explosives and ammunition proves their preparation to commit a serious crime."
Brilliant, Director-General, simply brilliant ...
Of the JMB operatives, Rejaul Karim Reji alias Hasan alias Shihab, 25, Manjurul Islam Manju, 20, and Al Amin, 27, were arrested in Gobindaganj upazila during the drive that continued till early hours yesterday. Following their painfully extracted statements, police arrested Mostafizur Rahman, 32, and Nannu Miah, 32, in Gobindaganj and Rowshan Ali, 30, Amzad, 35, and Mohammad Obaidur Rahman of Pashchim Komarnoi village in Sadar upazila.
SM Moniruzzaman, superintendent of Gaibandha police, said among the eight JMB men, Obaidur is a teacher of Chapadaha Dimukhi Dakhil Madrasa and Amzad Hossain of Afroza Khanam Dakhil Madrasa. Besides, Amzad is also the imam of Argishahpur Jam-e Mosque, he said. Rejaul Karim Reji is the JMB's regional commander. He is a student of Gobindaganj Shamim and Shakil Technical College and also the member of JMB's policymaking body Ehsar.
"All the eight militants are senior JMB leaders," the Gaibandha SP said. "Following their confessions, we believe there are many JMB men active in the country."
No kidding ...
He said all the JMB men were arrested in their own houses and the explosives were seized from Manju Al Amin.
Gaibandha police chief SM Moniruzzaman said the explosives might have been collected for any big attack ahead of the national election.
Lt Col Ahsan, commander of Gaibandha army camp, and Rab-5 Commander Major Shah Ali said the arrestees have given important information.
"Hey Major, I think we just solved the Limbergh baby kidnapping."
They said they are continuing their operations in line with the information extracted from the arrestees.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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[13 views]
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#1
Rab-5 Commander Major Shah Ali said the arrestees have given important information.
And to regular readers of the RAB Chronicles, we all know what means......
Islamabad police have claimed foiling terrorist attacks planned for Christmas, Benazir Bhutto's death anniversary and the New Year's Eve by seizing 650 kilogrammes of explosives and 520 detonators in Koral police station precincts on Thursday.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Saqib Sultan said Koral police were tipped-off by reliable sources that three suspicious men, had brought a large quantity of explosives to shops on the Bhimbar-Tirar Road. The sources said the men claimed the explosives were to be used for stone blasting in mining, he added.
On receiving the information, Rural Circle Deputy Superintendent of Police Muhammad Mumtaz formed a team headed by Koral Station House Officer Arshad Ali, which raided the shops and asked the men for the licence to use the explosives. Sultan said the men failed to produce the licence after which the police team took 12 men, including Fareed Khan, Musa Khan and Bacha Khan, into custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[16 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Ten people were killed when Muslim separatist guerrillas launched attacks and occupied a village in the southern Philippines, military and police officials said on Thursday.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked Midtungo village in the southern island of Mindanao with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on Tuesday, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando said. The militants killed nine residents and wounded another, he said, updating an earlier toll of six after three more deaths were discovered.
In a separate attack, a passenger of a motorboat passing near the town of Kalamansig was killed after suspected MILF fighters shot at the vessel on Wednesday, provincial police chief Ben-Hur Mongao said. As many as 400 families fled Midtungo after the attack there, town social welfare officer Edmund Corder said.
Mongao said the MILF fighters had occupied Midtungo until Christmas day on Thursday but that they had withdrawn by noon after the army, police and pro-government militiamen cordoned off the area. "The Philippine National Police is still at the site and we cannot say that it is totally clear," as policemen searched the village for stragglers and booby-traps, said Mongao. Evacuated residents had taken refuge in the town hall and were still being cared for by local officials, Mongao said, although he could not say how many had fled. MILF fighters also attacked other communities in the south, firing assault rifles and mortars on Tuesday and Wednesday, the military said. A home-made bomb, believed to have been planted by the MILF, was found on a highway in the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Mindanao on Thursday but it was defused by the military, local commander Colonel Marlou Salazar said."It's believed to be intended for a military convoy," Salazar added.
Attacks: MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied there had been an attack and accused the military of trying to provoke the separatist group. He said the soldiers had been building up forces in the area for no reason, leading to an exchange of gunfire. But he denied any attacks on civilians.
The government suspended peace talks with the MILF after the group launched attacks across Mindanao in August to protest a court order stopping a deal that would have given the rebels control over a Muslim autonomous region. More than 600,000 people were displaced in fighting that followed, while dozens of civilians, guerrillas and soldiers have been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[12 views]
Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
WASHINGTON (AP) - Until more testing can be done, Army medics are being told to stop using a new product just sent to the war front to help control bleeding among wounded troops. Officials were in the process of distributing some 17,000 packets of WoundStat, granules that are poured into wounds when special bandages, tourniquets or other efforts won't work. But a recent study showed that, if used directly on injured blood vessels, the granules may lead to harmful blood clots, officials said Tuesday.
The Army Medical Command will continue its research and work with the manufacturer in hopes of figuring out in the next few months whether to resume use of WoundStat, said Col. Paul Cordts, head of Army health policy and services.
WoundStat manufacturer TraumaCure Inc. of Bethesda, Md., said late Tuesday that "experts differ" on whether the Army's most recent testing, which put the granules into surgically-created injuries in swine, is relevant to a product used in a trauma setting. But the company said it would cooperate with the military on research to clear up any questions. The product had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It was one of the latest in a series of Army efforts to improve survival rates on the battlefield.
Today, 90 percent of injured troops survive their wounds, the highest rate of any war, Cordts said in an interview. He credited better training of combat medics, better body armor the troops wear and better tactics they use on the battlefield, as well improved bandages, tourniquets and so on. Excessive blood loss is the number one killer on the battlefield, and the Army announced in October that it was sending two potential lifesavers - the WoundStat packets and a bandage called Combat Gauze - to replace older other products that had been in use at the time.
A committee of Army medics, Navy corpsmen, surgeons and others recommended the Combat Gauze bandage - which has an agent that triggers blood clotting - should be the first-line treatment for life-threatening hemorrhaging in cases where a tourniquet could not be placed, such as the armpit or groin area. The WoundStat granules were to be used if the bandage failed to work.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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#1
If I have a 100% chance of dying from blood loss from a wound and a 50% chance of dying from blood clots caused by something that might give me a 50% chance of survival, please use it.
#4
I have already used this stuff to effect. The civilian version is called UrgentQR, by Biolife. It is brown powder in ampules. Still hard to find in drug stores. (They also make stuff specifically for nosebleeds, which is more common.)
A friend had a growth removed from his head, and it was not bleeding much, so they just used a bandaid. But the surgeon had nicked a capillary, so when he got home--woosh! I poured an ampule on and used a little direct pressure, and that did the trick.
Other than having to clean up blood for a half hour.
#7
Better stop issuing tourniquets. They can cut off the blood supply to the arm or leg leading to the loss of the said appendage.
We must be winning the war.
We only put up this BS during peacetime.
The future of around 40,000 girls in Swat is at stake following a Taliban ban on education for female students.
Shah Duran, the deputy of Swat-based Taliban cleric Fazlullah, has warned the administrations of government and private educational institutions to not enrol girls in schools.
The Taliban on Wednesday issued a deadline for January 15 for the ban to be implemented, following which they said they would bomb the buildings of schools allowing girls to study. The Taliban have blown up more than 100 girls' schools in Swat in the past 14 months.
Locals say they are helpless and have no other option but to accede to the Taliban's pressure as the government has failed to provide them with securuty.
"This is terrible," the principal of a private school in Mingora told Daily Times, requesting that the name of his school should not be mentioned as that would risk his life and property. He said the Taliban decision had proved that the government had lost its writ in the valley. "This is the question of the future of our children. The Taliban decision will throw more than 40,000 girls out of schools," he said.
He said the school owners in Swat district were planning to convene a meeting and form a committee with the help of elders to have dialogue with the Taliban.
The announcement has stamped the statement of Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel who had told a seminar in Peshawar a fortnight ago that the government had lost control over Swat.
A social worker said people had already started migrating from Swat following threats by the Taliban. "Things are changing dramatically. We cannot say anything because the people and the whole government is helpless before the armed people," he said.
The man said his three daughters were studying at an English medium school. He had no other option but to shift his family to some other area to educate his children, he added.
Schools are the most vulnerable target since the beginning of trouble in Swat. According to figures provided by a Swat-based non-government organisation, Pakistan Coalitions for Education (PCE), Taliban have destroyed over 100 of the 490 primary schools for girls in Swat so far. The destruction of schools and recent threats to teachers and students have forced over 50,000 girls out of schools, the PCE figures said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[14 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
A car bomb near a popular restaurant in northwestern Baghdad killed four people and wounded 25 on Thursday, police said. A few hours later, a suicide car bomber targeting a United States military patrol killed three people and wounded 14 in Muqdadiya, 80 km northeast of Baghdad, the police said. The US military said it was checking if there were any US casualties.
The explosion near the restaurant in Baghdad's Shia district of Shula occurred while policemen and labourers were eating breakfast. Casualties included police officers and civilians, police said. The Shia-led Iraqi government declared Thursday, Christmas Day, a national holiday to show what it said was its solidarity with minority non-Muslim religious groups in Iraq.
Meanwhile, a bomb blew up and set fire to a crude oil pipeline carrying oil from a town in northern Iraq to the city of Kirkuk, Iraqi and US military officials said. The explosion at around midnight set fire to one pipeline and damaged a second, said the joint US-Iraqi military co-ordination centre in Kirkuk. Exports were not affected. The fire occurred in the town of By Hassan, near the disputed city of Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[13 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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[9 views]
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#1
'Morning, Fred.
Hope your Christmas was glorious. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:16
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#2
[On this spot at 00:50, undonasewence had a vowel movement. Rantburg software has cleaned and disinfected the site of the accident. Have a nice day.]
#8
I'd like to make a suggestion, Fred. Instead of just saying "had a vowel movement", add "and has been consigned to the blogger's fourth ring of Hell."
Martha indeed does have a maidenly form...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/26/2008 13:06
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#9
hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
#11
I didn't know Ace had an archive format. He's a smarter horse than I thought. Hey! Were's all da money goin? He can buy hiz own grain an' hay!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/26/2008 16:34
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#12
[On this spot at 18:25, kalilignals had a vowel movement. Rantburg software has cleaned and disinfected the site of the accident. Have a nice day.]
CAIRO - The Egyptian president urged on Thursday visiting Israeli foreign minister for Israel's restraint in responding to renewed rocket and mortar barrages from the Gaza Strip and said he also wanted the militant Palestinian Hamas to halt its fire immediately. Hosni Mubarak said he expects Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers to immediately halt their fire on Israel, the Israeli official said.
Hosni called on Hamas for 'restraint'? Careful with that feather, you almost knocked me over!
Mubarak made the plea during talks in Cairo with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, according to an Israeli official and Livni's Egyptian counterpart. Livni's visit came after a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas expired last Friday. Egypt had brokered that truce, and Mubarak expressed hope that the agreement could be renewed, if only informally.
Livni's meeting in Cairo originally was designed to renew the Egyptian-mediated truce. But after militants pummeled Israel with more than 80 rockets and mortars on Monday, Livni dismissed that option.
In her meeting with Mubarak, she said Israel must and would respond to protects its citizens, the Israeli official said. Israel would not be deterred from acting because its Feb. 10 elections are approaching, she said. 'If Hamas thinks that because Israel is in election season, that it won't do what any democratic country would do to protect its citizens, then it's wrong,' she said later at a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. 'We want to negotiate with whoever we can, but we will fight whoever doesn't believe in it.'
Talk is cheap, Tzipi ...
Israel is running out of patience with Hamas, she added, calling the militant group an obstacle on the road to a Palestinian state.
Gheit expressed Egyptian concerns that without restraint, Egypt would no longer be able to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian militants. "We can't imagine that we will be able to convince the two parties to return to a truce, as long as the heightening confrontation continues," Aboul-Gheit said. "We hope for self-restraint and that the two parties apply what they have been implementing in the past six months."
"The Egyptian goal is to keep the truce and securing it. The real goal is to give a chance for a Palestinian-Palestinian reconciliation and for Palestinian-Israeli negotiations," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Have some fun with it Livni.
Start by bombing that sewage lagoon that is overflowing...
#2
FREE Streaming TV Shows, Movies, Music (over 6 million digital quality tracks), Unlimited Games, Money, and FREE College Educations (Stanford, Oxford, Notre Dame and more) @ InternetSurfShack.com
#4
FREE Streaming TV Shows, Movies, Music (over 6 million digital quality tracks), Unlimited Games, Money, and FREE College Educations (Stanford, Oxford, Notre Dame and more) @ InternetSurfShack.com
(Xinhua) -- A bomb exploded at a real estate agency and another device was defused at a European sports rehabilitation center in southwestern France on Thursday, local sources said.
The explosion occurred before dawn in a real estate agency's office in Anglet of France's Basque region, the local police said. No one was injured. A phrase "Basque is not for sale" was spray painted across the building.
In Carbreton, 20 kilometers from Anglet, another explosive device made of a water bottle of flammable liquid with a detonator was discovered around midday Thursday.
No one had claimed responsibility. An investigation was launched, but it remained unclear whether the incidents involved "terrorism" or not, according to the sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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Here's a story I'll bet you've never heard before ...
GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - A Mexican beauty queen arrested in a truck filled with weapons was dating a suspected leader in the powerful Juarez drug cartel, police said Wednesday.
The boyfriend of Miss Sinaloa Laura Zuniga is Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, a top operative in the Ciudad Juarez-based cartel, which at one point was considered Mexico's largest drug ring, said Jalisco Public Security Secretary Luis Carlos Najera. The couple was traveling with six alleged bodyguards in Zapopan, outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, when soldiers stopped their two trucks at a military checkpoint on Monday, police said. Inside, authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $53,300 in U.S. currency.
The alleged relationship between Garcia and Mexico's well-known reigning beauty queen shows how deep powerful drug gangs have penetrated society, stretching well beyond bribing police and officials. Mexican media report that traffickers with their visible wealth often have their pick of women in states like Sinaloa, where Zuniga is from and the home of the cartel of the same name.
Zuniga won the Miss Sinaloa pageant this year. She placed third in the Miss Mexico contest, whose winner competes for the Miss Universe title, and was crowned Miss HispanoAmericana, beating out contestants across Latin America. She was expected to represent Mexico in an international contest in January. Pageant organizers say they are awaiting the results of the investigation before deciding whether to strip her of her crowns.
Garcia's brother, Ricardo, was arrested in 2005 and police said he was responsible for 20 percent of Mexican narcotics sold on U.S. streets at the time. He reportedly earned nearly $1 billion a month smuggling Colombian cocaine and marijuana into the United states through corridors near Ciudad Juarez, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas.
After being arrested, Zuniga told police they were planning on traveling to Bolivia and Colombia to go shopping. Zuniga's father, Jesus Esteban Zuniga, said her daughter had told him she was going to a Christmas party in Guadalajara. He told The Associated Press that he does not believe his daughter is involved in drug trafficking. "She's a good daughter," he said. "She's always focused on her work and she's had a spotless reputation ... until now."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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[12 views]
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#1
Like she didn't know he was a drug trafficker.
Bet that was part of the thrill his charm....
Idiot.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:12
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#2
I want to talk to you. Sit down. I'm not gonna bite you.
Okay, here's the story. I come from the gutter. I know that. I got no education...
...but that's okay.
I know the street, and I'm making all the right connections. With the right woman, there's no stopping me.
#5
Urquiza was just a guy who lived in the neighborhood who she saw occasionally at PTA meetings. He was not a close acquaintance or a beauty contest consultant.
#6
Mexican Constitution of 1917:
Article 10. The inhabitants of the United Mexican States are entitled to have arms of any kind in their possession for their protection and legitimate defense, except such as are expressly forbidden by law, or which the nation may reserve for the exclusive use of the army, navy, or national guard; but they may not carry arms within inhabited places without complying with police regulations.
A junior army officer declared himself the new president of Guinea and ordered the government and top military brass to give themselves up by the end of Thursday.
Moussa Dadis Camara, an army captain in his forties, appeared to be tightening his grip on the mineral-rich west African nation following the death of Lansana Conte. In a show of force, Camara paraded through the capital on Wednesday with hundreds of soldiers before announcing he was the new "president of the republic".
A crowd of thousands of coup supporters thronged the streets of Conakry, surrounding the presidential palace and the government ministries, before dispersing peacefully. Among them were many young people from the suburbs of the capital, disaffected after years of dictatorial rule.
"We no longer want the Conte system in Guinea. And if you are cutting down a tree, you must tear out all its roots," said Edouard, a 22-year-old student.
Conte had ruled with an iron fist since 1984 and within hours of his passing late on Monday at the age of 74, a group of soldiers took control of the airwaves and claimed to have seized power.
"I am convinced, reassured that I am the president of the republic, the head of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD)," Camara said at his first press conference late on Wednesday.
Later, in a statement read on radio and state television the CNDD junta said, "All army officers and all former members of the government are asked to go to camp Alpha Yaya Diallo in the next 24 hours."
When the ultimatum had passed for all to go to the main military base near the international airport, "a sweep of the entire national territory will be organised," the new military leadership warned.
The clampdown came amid growing international condemnation of the coup with the African Union warning of "stern measures" if the military ignored calls to allow a democratic transition of power.
Boy howdy, that'll get Camara shaking in his army boots ...
The United States threatened to suspend its aid, some $15 million this year, if coup leaders did not take steps to return civilian rule. "One of the things we want to see immediately is a restoration of a civilian democratic rule," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
Camara plans to lead a 32-member interim administration, made up of 26 military officers and six civilians, and has ruled out any new elections until December 2010. There was no reaction so far from Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare -- who on Tuesday maintained his government was still in charge -- or from parliament speaker Aboubacar Sompare.
A curfew called by Guinea's new military leaders has been delayed until Friday "to allow Christians to celebrate a peaceful Christmas holiday", according to a statement read on national radio.
Friday is also the day when Conte's funeral is to be held in his home village, according to family sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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meet the new boss, same as the old boss...
until someone caps Camara and becomes the new new boss
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2008 19:14
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(Xinhua) -- The South Korean government was to be blamed for chilling the inter-Korean relations, the official KCNA news agency quoted a statement issued by a reunification organization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as saying on Thursday.
"The deteriorated inter-Korean relations are entirely attributable to the sycophancy and treachery and anti-DPRK confrontation pursued by the Lee Myung Bak group," the National Reunification Institute (NRI) said in an "indictment."
The South Korean government unilaterally stopped the tour of Mt. Kumgan, selectively restricted visits to the DPRK and imposed provocation against the system of the DPRK, all of which caused worsening relations between the two Koreas, the NRI said.
It warned that "extreme crisis will happen" if South Korea does not drop its hostile policy against the DPRK.
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have turned sour since February when conservative president Lee Myung Bak took office pledging to get tough with the DPRK. The DPRK has cut off all official contacts with South Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Bonus point for using the word treachery; other than that, I can't give this more than a 4.5 on the Spittle Scale.
#2
Unilaterally? Wasn't that tour suspension after the guards shot a tourist?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 10:46
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#3
Again, the UNO curr estimates that under-1/2 of North Korea's civilian/general population is de facto starving, and is in immediate need for massive international assistance agz famine, and will so every year afterwards until further notice.
* "US WORLD RECESSION/DEPRESSION" i.e. PROTRACTIVE ECONOMIC CHAOS AS A PRELIMIN BASIS FOR SETTING EXTRA-MATIONAL/REGIONAL REGULATORY GOVT [OWG-NWO] = MULTI-AREA "EMERGING GROWTH BLOCS" > the sanger is, iff pre-Chaos, already at-risk states believe they are getting the short end of the stick = not getting what they believe they deserve or a "fair deal", COULD BE A CATALYST FOR WAR.
PAN-KOREAN DILEMMA AS PER PROTO-OWG "GROWTH BLOCS" > NOKOR's Regime in Pyongyang historically usually demands to be treated as an EQUAL IFF NOT SUPERIOR REGARDLESS OF ITS INTERNAL DEFECTS OR NATIONAL WEAKNESSES [read, COMMIE-SOC PLANNED ECONOMY]. THE NOKORS WILL DEMAND POWER WITHOUT MAKING ANY UNILATERAL CONCESSIONS OR REFORMS - THE LATER IS FOR SOUTH KOREA AND WEST TO MAKE, NOT NORTH KOREA. I see little to nothing to indic that Kimme + regime may change that.
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's military beat back a Tamil Tiger counter-offensive in the island's north, killing at least 18 guerrillas, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mounted the offensive outside their besieged political capital of Kilinochchi on Wednesday, the ministry said. "Well prepared troops engaged the advancing terrorists with armour, tanks, artillery and infantry causing heavy damage," the ministry said in a statement. It said 18 rebels were killed and another 34 wounded, but did not give details of casualties on the government side.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said there was heavy fighting in the area, but give no further details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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GUANGZHOU, China (AP) - Chinese navy ships usually stick close to home guarding their own coasts. But on Friday, warships armed with special forces, missiles and helicopters will sail for anti-piracy duty off Somalia - the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.
The three vessels - two destroyers and a supply ship - may increase worries about growing Chinese military power. The mission will also challenge China's ability to cooperate with other naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. The Chinese ships will sail from a base in Sanya on the southern island province of Hainan. China announced it was joining the anti-piracy mission Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council authorized nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases.
Deploying ships to the Gulf of Aden marks a significant step in the evolution of China's navy, according to a report by Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence company. The mission will be complicated, offering vital on-the-job training in refueling, resupply and repairs far from home as well as patrolling for pirates, Stratfor said. "In the event of an accident or a run-in with pirates," Stratfor said, "would a Chinese vessel carry out repairs at sea, head to a nearby port, perhaps in Pakistan, or return to China?"
Stratfor also noted the waters will be awash with naval ships from around the world, making it essential for China to maintain effective communication with the vessels. The Chinese "will very likely monitor the way NATO and especially U.S. warships communicate with each other and with their shipborne helicopters," the report said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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Will the Chinese navy capture pirates, confiscate their weapons, and then release them, like the Germans?
#2
The three vessels - two destroyers and a supply ship - may increase worries about growing Chinese military power. The mission will also challenge China's ability to cooperate with other naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. The Chinese ships will sail from a base in Sanya on the southern island province of Hainan. China announced it was joining the anti-piracy mission Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council authorized nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases.
Not a terribly large sortie.
China has some skin in this game because of their trade relations with the Sudan and other African nations. The Indian Ocean is their petroleum supply route.
#4
WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph=GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > ANALYSIS: US HAS EFFECTIVELY COMPLETED ITS ENCIRCLEMENT/SIEGE OF CHINA [Central Asian Bases] - US CAN NOW STRIKE ANYPLACE IN CHINA WITHIN 15 MINUTES!?; + GLOBAL MARITIME PARTNERSHIPS: US NAVY IS STILL STEADILY SHRINKING DUE TO MAJOR ADVANCEMENTS IN NAVAL TECHNOLOGIES AND FIREPOWER. US ACCESSION TO PROPOSED "1000-SHIP" GLOBAL TASK FORCE PLAN COULD MEAN USA MAY ALLOW CHINA's PLA NAVY TO HAVE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCAL COMMAND IN AMERICA's PLACE???
Also from WMF > THE NEXT COMING MONTHS AFTER BUSH WILL MAKE US HISTORY - THE USA AS AN IDEA AND A WORKING ECONOMY, ETC. NEEDS TO UNIVERSALLY RE-BOOTED AND RE-DEFINED???
The military said it was highly probable that Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron and a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant were killed in recent encounters in Sulu.
Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga said there were indications that Sahiron was killed after he fell off his horse, which was shot by automatic gunfire from government troops during an encounter in Talipao last Dec. 7. "There is a very high probability that Radulan Sahiron was killed and one JI, but we can not confirm and validate it as of the moment," Allaga said.
Allaga added they were not able to retrieve the supposed body of Sahiron to confirm his death. "The reason we came up with that conclusion is because in the (Abu Sayyaf) camp that was attacked by the troops, we saw the horse of Radulan lying on the ground, and he usually rides on (that) horse," Allaga said. The attack in Talipao also killed nine soldiers, he added.
On the identity of the slain JI militant, Allaga said they are still verifying the reports.
The reports also indicated three JI militants were among the Abu Sayyaf when troops launched the attack. Allaga identified the high value targets as Umar Patek, Marwan and Zulkipli. He stressed intelligence reports kept pouring in pointing that Sahiron was killed during the encounter.
Sahiron is among the high-ranking leaders of Abu Sayyaf wanted by the US government for the kidnapping of 21 tourists in the island resort of Sipadan, among other high profile kidnapping of foreigners.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief, Gen. Alexander Yano earlier revealed intelligence efforts to validate reports of the killing of a JI operative in the encounter. Yano said there are reliable reports that "a high value" al-Qaeda-linked JI operative was among the five terrorists killed by government troops during the assault on the suspected hideout of Sahiron. Yano, however, did not elaborate on the identity of the so-called high value target killed by troops during the encounter since they have not retrieved any dead body at the site.
Anti-terror Task Force Comet chief Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban also did not substantiate reports that a JI militant was among those killed during the assault. Sabban said troops in the area failed to retrieve the bodies of the slain JI terrorist or any of the Abu Sayyaf bandits since they had been dragged away by their fleeing comrades.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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Federal prosecutors are urging an appeals court to get on with Rep. William Jefferson's corruption trial, saying his appeal to the Supreme Court does not have enough chance of success to justify further delays.
Jefferson. D-La., was indicted on bribery charges after agents found $90,000 in his freezer. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue that his trial should be delayed pending his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jefferson argues that the charges are invalid because a grand jury got access to information about his actions as a member of Congress. That, Jefferson claims, runs afoul of a constitutional clause that shields members of Congress from civil or criminal action stemming from the performance of their legislative duties.
But in a brief filed this week in Richmond, Va., with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutor Mark Lytle said delaying the trial would cause "further prejudice," or harm, to the government's case against the nine-term congressman. The government brought the charges 18 months ago.
Jefferson, Lytle wrote, has not shown the required "reasonable probability" of success with the high court on the merits of his case. "And, at trial, the District Court will scrupulously guard against any possible violations of the Speech or Debate Clause" that Jefferson cited, Lytle wrote.
The 2005 discovery of the money in Jefferson's freezer led to an indictment on charges that he took bribes, laundered money and misused his congressional office for business dealings in Africa. Jefferson has promised there is an "honorable explanation" for the money in the freezer, although he has yet to make it public.
He lost his bid for re-election in December to Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao, who will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.
Jefferson faces up to 235 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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The ulema (religious scholars) will set aside their internal difference and stand by Pakistan's armed forces if India imposes war on us, Mufti Muneebur Rehman said on Thursday. The Ruet-e-Hilal Committee chairman said India would get nothing out of an imposed war except blood and destruction. He urged the United Nations and the world community to advise India to be reasonable. Addressing a press conference after a meeting of ulema from different sects with Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, Mufti Muneeb said Pakistan had been the worst target of terrorism in the current decade and appealed to the ulema to promote sectarian harmony in their sermons in the coming days.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Since these jokers provided the verbal support that convinced the crazies to attack Mumbai in the first place it would totally discredit them if they didnt' stand by Pakistan when India finally counter-attacks.
(Xinhua) -- Somalia's presidential spokesman, Hussien Mohamed Hubsired, Thursday said President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is not planning to resign next Saturday as media reports has been indicating a day after his newly appointed Prime Minister stepped down.
"The president has no intention of resigning next Saturday or any other time as some media outlets have been speculating about lately," Hubsired told reporters in Mogadishu. "It is a media manipulation and a cheap propaganda by some rival politicians who want to create confusion in the country."
Hubsired has been responding to media reports about repeated suggestions that President Yusuf would resign next Saturday when he is expected to address the parliament.
Mohamed Mohamoud Guled, named by Yusuf last week as new Prime Minister to replace Nur Hassan Hussien whom he fell out with, on Wednesday has tended his resignation, saying he did not want to bean obstacle to peace.
The parliament and other countries around the world rejected to accept the Somali President's decision to sack Hussien whom the parliament overwhelmingly endorsed.
Kenyan and The East African regional body, the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) threatened to impose sanctions on Yusuf and his associates whom they deemed as an obstacle to peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Somalia has a president?
Is that what they're calling warlords these days?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:18
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POS = President of Somalia, and also, er...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2008 18:38
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BAGHDAD - A car bomb near a popular restaurant killed four people and wounded 25 in northwestern Baghdad on Christmas Day on Thursday, police said.
The explosion in the Shi'ite district of Shula occurred while policemen and labourers were eating breakfast. The casualties included both policemen and civilians, police said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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KABUL - A British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, while four road construction workers and two militants were killed elsewhere in the country, officials said Thursday. The British soldier was killed by insurgent fire in Nad Ali district in the southern province of Helmand on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said in a statement.
NATO-led forces in Kabul also confirmed the death of the soldier in a statement. "We are saddened by this brave serviceman's death, and our deepest condolences go to his family and loved ones, especially during this holiday season," Captain Mark Windsor, a NATO spokesman said.
The soldier was the seventh British serviceman to die in the province in the past two weeks. More than 130 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since their deployment following the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.
Elsewhere, four road construction workers were killed and two others were wounded in a rocket attack in Souki district of eastern Kunar province on Wednesday, Engineer Haseeb Karimzai, director of the Afghan Road Construction Company said. "They were working on the road when a rocket fired from an unknown place hit the road close to the work site, killing and wounding our workers" he said.
Abdul Jalal Jalal, provincial police chief, said the attack was "the work of enemies of Afghanistan," a term often used by Afghan officials to describe the Taliban militants. Coalition spokesmen were not available for comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Why are we not using napalm on these miscreants? Anyone firing at an allied military person should immediately be hit with 250Lb. of napalm. You know you hit your target when the ammo cooks off. Fighting a war with both feet in buckets and one arm tied behind you is stupid, not to mention dangerous. Political correctness and the "advice" of people who've never been shot at will kill a lot of allied troops. It shouldn't be allowed to happen.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/26/2008 13:10
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Aswat al-Iraq: Security forces on Thursday arrested in a village west of Mosul two members of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) who confessed to having committed crimes against civilians and security personnel, a source from Ninewa police said. "A Ninewa security force arrested two AQI members in al-Fadiliya village, western Talafar district, (60 km) west of Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The two men confessed to having murdered civilians and security personnel. Two Kalashnikov assault rifles were seized in the operation that was conducted without any resistance," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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(Xinhua) -- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) Societies, in conjunction with the Zimbabwean government, has embarked on a door-to-door cholera campaign disinfecting homes of patients or people at risk of contracting the disease, The Herald reported on Thursday.
This came at a time when plans to establish a Cholera Command Center to coordinate different activities on the cholera outbreak are at an advanced stage.
Red Cross teams will spray homes of infected persons, spray toilets, latrines, blankets and clothing with a chlorine-based disinfectant. A statement from the organization said the exercise, involving health workers from Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospitals and Budiriro Polyclinic, has been going on since mid-December.
Affected households, the statement said, were identified at health clinics by investigating the history of cholera patients. During the home visits, the ICRC would educate family members and other residents in the neighborhood on the epidemic. "The teams are using this outreach to identify cases of cholera and transport patients to treatment centers," the statement read.
The teams are also taking advantage of the door-to-door campaign to distribute water purification tablets, buckets and soap to promote sanitation in cholera-prone communities.
Speaking to the cholera response team within the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in Harare recently, Health Minister Dr. David Parirenyatwa said such campaigns were a major step towards creating awareness on the epidemic. He said the campaign was centered in Harare, but there was need to extend it to other areas where cholera cases have been recorded. Parirenyatwa said the campaign could cascade to communities through the assistance of chiefs and village health workers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#1
"New cholera campaign launched in Zimbabwe"
What, to give it to more people?
Just make sure Bob and his minions get a fatal case.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:07
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#3
Unfortunately, Hellfish, your 'so what' is the norm.
Word before Christmas was both my favorite countries, Zambia and Botswana were pissed off enough to look to doing a pincer movement, now Namibia finds for white farmers in Bobsville. Never mind the anthrax and cholera, still a great place for a punch-up.
Three people were kidnapped from Khyber Agency on Thursday, local sources said. Unidentified armed men kidnapped a driver and cleaner of a trailer that was on its way back from Afghanistan when they were abducted from the Saur Kamar area of Jamrud tehsil. In a separate incident, armed men kidnapped a local trader from his home in Landikotal and shifted him to an undisclosed location.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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LONDON - British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter has died aged 78, his wife Lady Antonia Fraser and his agent said on Thursday. Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, had been suffering from cancer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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#1
Mama said if I didn't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all.
So I'll shut up.
Buh-bye, you worthless useful idiot.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/26/2008 0:14
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#2
History's Scoreboard: Christmas-2008 Pinter-0
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/26/2008 7:35
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#6
...Definitely missing Miss Eartha already. Occasionally disagreed with her politics, but man, that voice....
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/26/2008 10:36
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#7
Antonia Fraser was married to that worthless shit of a human being? Some of her books were worth reading...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/26/2008 10:58
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#8
Thanks, Besoeker! The more people know about the Trilogy, the better! A friend who reviewed it said that it might do for the Hill Country what "Gone With the Wind" did for the Old South.
There's hardly anything out in fiction about the Civil War in Texas - and that's pretty much what "The Sowing" is about. Just as a side note, the villain of the book, J.P. Waldrip was eventually buried in an unmarked grave on private property in Fredericksburg! When I was there last week for a signing, a local historian took me to see the approximate place where they planted him, after being gunned down on a public street by an unknown assailant. Ostensibly, it was to prevent the grave being desecrated...
Say... where are they going to plant this Pinter chap? Will his marker be large... ostentatious? Easy to find?
Top lawyers for Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-Minn.) campaign said Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging the results of one of the closest Senate races in history is all but assured. The statement comes after the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously rejected a suit filed by Coleman's campaign. The lawsuit that sought to prevent a state board from certifying election results that Coleman had alleged includes errors.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#1
As a punishment for all involved, let's put this senate seat on ice while we do an in-depth study of how absolutely this f*cked up this election became. I think that there is enough criminality and idiocy around to make a movie about this.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/26/2008 0:44
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#2
I strongly recommend the Oklahoma elections model. Simple, stright forward, and nearly 100% bugger-free.
#3
You assume they don't want it buggered. There are 50 experiments going on out there. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that checking back to the one(s) that have the least amount of trouble would become the model for the others, but oh no. Now why would that be? /rhetorical question.
Sixty-eight of the 70 Taliban wanted by the Mohmand Agency political administration surrendered to the authorities on Thursday. Two Taliban commanders from Pandiali area were among the men who surrendered to the political administration. The Taliban belonged to Haleem Zai, Tarak Zai, Essa Khel and Burhan Khel tribes. The NWFP Frontier Corps (FC) said the political administration had demanded the 70 Taliban surrender by December 25. The FC said 310 Taliban had surrendered to the administration over the past two weeks. The FC officials said the Taliban also handed over a large number of weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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Deal where Taliban are released after promising to be good in 10..9..8..
The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.
According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls "Qassam", and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.
Al-Qassa Brigades threatened to enlarge the "Oil Stain" to get more thousands of Israelis "under fire". The group asserted that its fighters are "far greater than surrendering to Israeli threats and that they became much more prepared to counter Israeli aggression and to defend themselves than in the past."
In a different regard, Hamas announced death of six of its activists on Tuesday and Wednesday in Israeli airstrikes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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#2
Has anyone found out why there is no anti-mortar or missile systems in place there? Do we have a bad case of "Not Invented Here" syndrome in Israel?
#3
tip, I'm sure they have the stuff, but I suspect they don't return fire because the missiles are launched from places like school playgrounds and they are unwilling to generate that kind of collateral damage and the bad world publicity it would generate (for Israel, not for the paleos launching rockets at school recess.)
#4
Yes, the IDF attempts to avoid hitting School playgrounds and nesting sites residential areas but that does not stop the endless photography of "dead non-combatants" from hitting the news in the wake of each IDF attack.
#5
And they restrain themselves why? So as not to waste the great love and respect from the rest of the world? Please. Just announce that ALL attacks will be responded to. Collateral damage from (war crime) attacks from civilian areas are the responsibility of the attacker.
Our new president zero is gonna hang Israel out to dry anyway.
#6
Hell, Fish I think Zero is gonna hang everybody out to dry after taking them to the cleaners that is. Unless you can do Him some short term good, this its 'under da bus wit'cha.'
#9
First I read about a Hamas rocket killing two little Palestinian girls then I read Hamas has fired 87 mortar shells and/or rockets with no mention of any Israeli casualties whatsoever. Boy, that's some kinda shootin', huh?
So why does IDF need to return fire? Paleos are not only impotent, they are their own worst enemy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/26/2008 16:07
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Taliban abducted Awami National Party (ANP) Hangu Secretary General Malik Riaz Bangash along with his driver on Thursday. Bangash was on his way to Doaba, when he was abducted near Marofi village. Two police guards, Fazal Hakeem and Gul Badshah, were injured in the crossfire between the Taliban and the security guards. Fearing Taliban attacks, the ANP district president and parliamentarian Pir Haider Ali Shah have not visited the constituency in the past seven months.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2008
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Security forces killed four Taliban in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur Agency on Friday. According to a private TV channel, the security forces continued operation against the Taliban in different areas of the tehsil. The security forces also destroyed a number of Taliban hideouts. Locals have started moving to safer places following the raids, the channel added. Meanwhile, the channel reported a blast in Miranshah area of North Waziristan on Thursday. No casualty was reported, the channel said. Separately, five people, including two women, were killed as a mortar shell hit a house during the operation, another private channel reported.
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12/26/2008
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By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
Approximately 15,000 armed Palestinians. That's the size of the military force the Israel Defense Forces will face if a major operation in the Gaza Strip goes forward. These militants, from various Hamas factions, will presumably be aided by a few thousand militants from other Palestinian groups.
For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance, has been working hard on developing its military power, using Hezbollah as a model. Gaza Palestinians are preparing to step up their offensive, with rockets and mortar shells directed at Israel's civilian population in the south, as well as their defense, digging in to retard the IDF's progress and cause heavy Israeli casualties.
Nevertheless, military experts in Israel and the West believe the IDF is capable of retaking Gaza. Israeli reservations about a broad military operation, therefore, are mainly linked to the question of what happens afterward, when the IDF controls a large area that it doesn't want and is in constant friction with terrorists and the civilian population.
The main components of the "Hamas Army":
Order of battle: Hamas is transitioning from a terror group to a paramilitary guerrilla organization. The transition includes improvements to the command and control structure, the acquisition of better weapons and the creation of a training program.
The core of Hamas' "army" is its military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, which the organization sees as its best trained and most disciplined force. It was deployed against Fatah in June 2007 and it will bear the brunt of any engagement with the IDF. Iz al-Din does not generally perform unpopular policing operations (such as the daily suppression of Fatah), instead focusing on preparing for battle with Israel.
The estimated size of the force is about 1,000, divided into sectors and from brigades down to companies.
Training: Palestinian sources say Iz al-Din troops undergo rigorous military training as well as participating in ideological classes held in mosques. Hamas forces do six months of basic training that includes live-fire exercises in which they learn to fire rockets, antitank missiles and mortar shells. They undergo urban warfare training, including exercises simulating an assault on a settlement complete with covering machine-gun fire and antitank fire prior to the assault. Some of the instructors were trained in Iran and Lebanon. In recent years dozens of Gazans have traveled to training camps run by terror organizations and Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
IDF soldiers who have fought Hamas cells in the Gaza Strip in the past two years report an impressive improvement in their discipline and in their equipment.
Other factions: Hamas and smaller organizations, starting with Islamic Jihad, can be expected to cooperate in the event of an engagement with the IDF. Two Popular Resistance Committee factions maintain close contact with Hamas and are likely to subordinate themselves to the organization in a war with Israel.
Three military groupings identified with global jihad (that is, Al-Qaida and its offshoots), on the other hand, will not accept Hamas authority and will continue to operate independently.
Rocket attacks: The rockets and mortar shells were initially developed as a way of bypassing the border fence, which prevented militants from entering Israel to carry out attacks. Shin Bet security service head, Yuval Diskin, told the cabinet this week that Hamas already has rockets with a range of 40 kilometers, that are capable of reaching Ashdod and the outskirts of Be'er Sheva. These are advanced Katyusha that were smuggled into Gaza in pieces through the tunnels and assembled in Gaza. These rockets have not yet been fired at Israel but Hamas and Islamic Jihad already have dozens of 122 mm. Grad rockets with a range of about 20 km. Gaza militants recently began using another Iranian-supplied weapon, 120 mm. mortar shells with an 8-kilometer range.
Hamas has also made significant gains in manufacturing its own rockets. It has learned to create Ammonium Perchlorate Compound, an advanced rocket propellant that in addition to extending the Qassam's range beyond 20 kilometers also - and more importantly - increases the rocket's shelf life.
That means the organization can, for the first time, maintain a supply of rockets for months at a time. Analysts believe Hamas currently has over 1,000 rockets. Islamic Jihad maintains its own production and storage facilities, but both rely on Iranian experts for training. Sources in Gaza say that Hamas' "military industry" is working overtime to manufacture rockets, and that the organization can easily fire 80 rockets a day, as it did on Wednesday.
Defense: Hamas' defensive strategy includes an extensive underground network of bunkers, tunnels and booby-trapped structures. The Palestinians have proved their explosives capabilities, having destroyed three Israeli tanks and two armored personnel carriers using high-grade explosives.
Antitank missiles are an important component of Hamas' defensive strategy, which takes on board the lessons learned by Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War. Hamas has acquired antitank missiles from the Eastern bloc, although the exact models and capabilities are not known.
Militants can be expected to employ antitank missiles against Israel Air Force helicopters in the event of a confrontation, in the effort to delay and obstruct the entry of the IDF.
Offensive plans: Hamas' main weapon is its ability to launch dozens of rockets a day at Israel. In the event of an escalation the organization can be expected to try to prove that it can hit more distant targets, such as Be'er Sheva. Ashkelon is liable to suffer massive rockets attacks. In addition, Hamas is likely to target one kibbutz or moshav near the border in an attempt to cause large numbers of residents to leave and weaken Israeli morale. Israel must also be prepared for a surprise from Hamas, a la Hezbollah, ranging from additional tunnels to facilitate abductions to attacks on boats or aircraft and up to attacks on strategic targets in the south.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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#1
"Approximately 15,000 armed Palestinians. That's the size of the military force the Israel Defense Forces will face if a major operation in the Gaza Strip goes forward. "
There are 1.4 million people in Gaza and they can only muster 15K with 1K of that specially trained?
#4
FREE Streaming TV Shows, Movies, Music (over 6 million digital quality tracks), Unlimited Games, Money, and FREE College Educations (Stanford, Oxford, Notre Dame and more) @ InternetSurfShack.com
#5
mhw is exactly right. The Israelis cannot succeed unless they have a plan to deal with the press. Ideally, they should ban every traitorous news organization from Israel and Gaza and shoot a couple Reuters stringers to underline the point. No visuals = no news. The left can bitch but without the Gazan equivalent of Green Helmet Guy there is no story and nobody will care.
Unfortunately, I see no evidence Israel has figured this out.
#6
Just a question...who is the fool/troll/idiot who keeps posting that tiresome picture of the highway cop?(see #4) If it is a rregular Rantburger, could someone explain to the significance. I think I'm missing something.
#12
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BEIRUT - Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said his country has no interest in holding peace talks with neighbouring Israel at the moment.
I see no interest for us right now to discuss direct negotiations or indirect negotiations with Israel, Siniora said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation broadcast on Wednesday. No one has challenged our claim of authority and ownership of the land that Israel occupies. So we see it as premature to take a decision in this regard as yet, he added.
Israel withrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after more than two decades of occupation, but Lebanon claims it is still occupying land on the border, including Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources.
Which belonged to Syria before the games began. If Israel ever gave up Shebaa the Lebanese would just claim something else ...
On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country would eventually embark on direct peace talks with Israel, but that they must be based on UN Security Council resolutions.
We are closely following what the Syrian Arab Republic is undertaking, but that is the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic... we in Lebanon have to look at our situation very carefully, Siniora said. We always have said it is in Lebanon's interest to be the last country to enter into a peace process (with Israel), he added.
Siniora also welcomed the imminent opening of the first-ever Syrian embassy in Beirut after the two countries agreed to reestablish ties for the first time since independence 60 years ago. It is a very important and fundamental step that lays the groundwork for other steps, the Lebanese premier said as he was told to say.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008
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No point talking peace until the Lebanon elections are over.
Our enemies are trying to portray Pakistan as a failed state, whereas, politically Pakistan is stable and united as never before. 2008 elections provide political unity. No extremist elements were elected. The only secessionist movement in Balochistan is under control. The tribal conflict on the western borders is due to the Indo-US interference from Afghanistan which will fade-away with the defeat of the occupation forces in Afghanistan. The problem on our western borders is not worrisome, because the tribals of the area including FATA are fiercely loyal to Pakistan. In case of war/threat of war with India, the tribals will ensure security of the western borders and will directly confront the occupation forces in Afghanistan, blowing-up the ongoing conflict in the face of the occupation forces.
ISI helped defeat Soviet occupation during the period 1980-88. It is now helping to defeat Indo-US inroads in our tribal areas. The pressures and blames on ISI are meant to force Pakistan to curtail its sphere of responsibility. The ISI provides the first line of defence which must be strengthened to match Pakistan's military strength, which is much more balanced now than in the past. Added to Pakistan's offensive-defence capability is the support of the Islamic Resistance (IR) " with bases astride Pak-Afghan borders. IR has defeated Soviets during the 80s; defeated the Israelis in Lebanon in 2005; the Americans in Iraq and now the combined forces of America and EU are facing defeat in Afghanistan. M J Akbar, the Indian scholar, rightly said: "These are the shadow armies, led by committed believers", who have defeated the mightiest of the mighty, in the last twenty-five years. What will happen in Kashmir, when the occupation forces retreat from Afghanistan, should serve as a warning to Indian occupation forces there. Does India have the heart to win against them, as the civil society in Kashmir also has risen to claim the right of self-determination?
PAF high altitude limited interception capability will be compensated by other means and resources now available. Pakistan's nuclear capability maintains a credible deterrence with India. "It is not a weapon of war nor it compensates for Pakistan conventional military capability." Pakistan's military policy thus is based on its conventional military forces, to defeat Indian aggression. Pakistan, therefore, must maintain balance between defence and diplomatic policies to ward-off pressures from India and USA, while remaining prepared to fight a full fledged war and "carry the war into the Indian territory," implementing the offensive defence concept. Pakistan must continue to help defeat occupation of Afghanistan " 'The Mother of all Evils'. Peace will return to the entire region, with the defeat of occupation forces in Afghanistan.
Internally, "Pakistan's only weakness is its top political leadership and weak diplomacy." Our foreign office seems to be in a state of deep slumber. Externally, the "occupation of Afghanistan" is the main source of trouble, spurred by the Saffron Nexus, which has given India a false sense of hope and strength, and the resultant sabre rattling. India is enjoying the strategic partnership with USA as we enjoyed it in the past and suffered humiliations and betrayal. Indian quest for South Asian hegemony is a wild dream. Do they think that countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would accept their hegemony. If history is any guide, this will never happen. God bless India. India has limited options: "Do justice to the minorities and the Dalits or suffer social break-up, civil war and disintegration."
The writer is a former Chief of Pakistan Army Staff
Posted by: john frum ||
12/26/2008
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With retards like this as a former Chief of Pakistan Army Staff...
What can you say....
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 yet another case of Indians being targeted in Afghanistan, suspected Taliban militants abducted a 38-year-old cook working for an Italian company. Vasu alias Simon was abducted along with his Afghan interpreter and driver on October 13, official sources said in Delhi. He was working food store 'Fiano', which serves Italian soldiers in Afghanistan. The trio were abducted while delivering food to the International Security Assistance Force camp in Bagram air base.
Caroline Kennedy's supporters say she could raise tons of money as a senator, but when it comes to writing checks to New York Democrats, she's been largely AWOL.
The rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to lodge a complaint against the "illegal" closure of its office, a founding member of the centre said on Friday. Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.
A LOCAL al-Qaeda chief known as "Imad the killer" escaped in a pre-dawn breakout from an Iraqi police station on Friday, triggering a wild shootout that left 13 militants and Iraqi policemen dead. 
Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said. The move represents a sharp escalation in the stand off between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stands to weaken Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban close to Afghanistan.
The Christmas Eve party in a Los Angeles family home was in full swing when an eight year old girl opened the door to Santa. But instead of giving her the large gift-wrapped box he was holding he shot the child in the face, then burst through the house shooting indiscriminately at fleeing guests. As the 25 party goers tried desperately to escape, the gunman used his 'present' to spray inflammable liquid that quickly engulfed the house in flames. By the time he had finished his slaughter, at least eight of the party guests were dead and two children were seriously injured. It was Bruce Pardo's final revenge against his ex-wife, after a year of marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce. 
Police yesterday arrested eight operatives of outlawed Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including two madrasa teachers in Gaibandha and seized a big cache of explosives.
The military said it was highly probable that Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron and a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant were killed in recent encounters in Sulu.
BAGHDAD - A car bomb near a popular restaurant killed four people and wounded 25 in northwestern Baghdad on Christmas Day on Thursday, police said.
The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.
