#1
So, what are they gonna do if some "pagan" says that his/her festivals aren't listed (as in, for example, they worship Norse or Egyptian deities, which AFAIK don't have lactating sheep)?
Someone, somewhere, is having his little joke. Bot to mention, ick. Beyond eating Greek salads, my imagination fails about how to celebrate such a holiday.
Not such wicked leaks
02 December 2010 LIBÉRATION PARIS
For the celebrated novelist and intellectual Umberto Eco, the Wikileaks affair or "Cablegate" not only shows up the hypocrisy that governs relations between states, citizens and the press, but also presages a return to more archaic forms of communication.
Secondly, the very notion that any old hacker can delve into the most secret secrets of the most powerful country in the world has dealt a hefty blow to the State Department's prestige. So the scandal actually hurts the "perpetrators" more than the "victims". This is what really hurt, and is why they are trying to destroy Assange. Nothing to do with 'lives in danger' or trumped up rape charges.
But let's turn to the more profound significance of what has occurred. Formerly, back in the days of Orwell, every power could be conceived of as a Big Brother watching over its subjects' every move. The Orwellian prophecy came completely true once the powers that be could monitor every phone call made by the citizen, every hotel he stayed in, every toll road he took and so on and so forth. Yes even your Government and my Government. That is the US, UK and Australia. The weapons they turn against your 'enemy' they turn against you, also.
The citizen became the total victim of the watchful eye of the state. But when it transpires, as it has now, that even the crypts of state secrets are not beyond the hacker's grasp, the surveillance ceases to work only one-way and becomes circular. The state has its eye on every citizen, but every citizen, or at least every hacker -- the citizens' self-appointed avenger -- can pry into the state's every secret.
How can a power hold up if it can't even keep its own secrets anymore? That last I disagree with. I think the power will not only hold up but be more robust than before. A Government open to criticism, scrutiny and change will evolve to be way stronger and more advanced than its competitors who allow incompetence to breed in the dark corrupt corners awau from public scrutiny, eg China.
#1
its competitors who allow incompetence to breed in the dark corrupt corners awau from public scrutiny The US parades its incompetence and corruption up front & in your face while its public is distracted or asleep. I guess that's an improvement.
They have the brightest and best. And many of the things they do that people criticise, they do so out of necessity.
The best thing that would come from Wikileaks is if some of those real reasons become public. People might then understand why it was that they had to at least *try* to remake the Middle East for example.
If you want to see corruption try Indonesia.
China is also corrupt but on a State-wide scale so it's no longer called corrupt just an autocratic new brand of mercantalism where they lock up foreign directors of companies they don't like in trade negotiations.
#4
On an absolute scale the U.S. government is corrupt, Bright Pebbles. On a relative scale most other governments are more corrupt. The absolute scale thingy is the same mistake the supporters of Mr. Assange make: they crow over the release of secrets that possibly should not have been kept, while not noticing that there are other countries whose secrets are considerably worse, and considerably more in need of being even partially revealed. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Belgian Congo (or whatever we're calling it these days)... the list goes on and on. Hacking into those secrets and revealing them to the world would actually do some good, which is why Mr. Assange and others of his ilk will never even think of trying.
* Tourism minister insists diving will continue because 'sharks will not attack divers' ...unless they get hungy again.
* Foreign Office warns Britons to avoid cheap dive tour operators Yeah, they're real sharks
* Thomson and First Choice warn holidaymakers to stay out of the water WE aren't going to jump the shark.
* Just days earlier officials claimed they had caught two deadly predators The Amity police are on the job, thanks to mayor Larry.
* Four holidaymakers injured in shark attacks last week So? There must be thousands of tourists who haven't been attacked...yet.
* Killer shark may have been attracted to waters by dead cattle and sheep thrown overboard before Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha Ahh, the plot thickens. I knew Muslim customs would figure in this somehow. Hey, lefties blamed Bush for the Nigerian e-mail scams, so there!
Egyptian officials have insisted it is safe for tourists to go back into the water despite a 70-year-old German woman being killed in Sharm el-Sheikh after another shark attack. "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
While many holidaymakers have steered clear of the water and British travel companies halted all boat trips and diving excursions, others were pictured swimming and snorkelling in the Red Sea despite the killer fish still being on the loose.
The German pensioner died after her arm was torn off by the shark. Four other tourists suffered horrific injuries in similar incidents.
Just days before authorities had reassured tourists that they had captured two sharks - an oceanic whitetip and a mako - and the water were safe again for swimming.
Witnesses told how the woman screamed for help after a whitetip tore off her arm and part of her thigh. She is said to have died within minutes.
But officials again played down the danger and said they had called in experts to help determine what type of shark they were looking for.
Tourism minister Zuhair Garana said: 'We are not allowing people to swim in deeper water and we are flying in a marine biologist from Florida to identify exactly what kind of shark we are dealing with. [Spit!]
[Pushes sailor hat back on his head, leans bronzed forearms on rail]
"I'd say it's a big 'un."
[Spit!]
We have had attacks before but we have never had this number of attacks over just a few days. [Spit!]
[Gazes absently into sun going down over bounding main]
"I'd say it's a hungry big 'un."
[Spit!]
'Diving is being allowed. We are advised that sharks will not attack divers. ....unless they go in the water. Divers are completely safe in the bars.
'I cannot say that deep waters are completely secure but shallow waters are 100 per cent secure.' And the Americans are nowhere close to the Baghdad airport....
#5
In general, sharks go after swimmers and snorklers, not divers. Or so scuba divers are taught. On the other hand, Mr. Wife was head-butted by a seriously annoyed barracuda while diving in the Florida Keys...
Two volunteer security rangers were gunned down Monday afternoon in a food market in Narathiwat province, and a market woman was also wounded by gunfire in the incident. All three were rushed to a local hospital.
The rangers were shopping at the market and were shot in the head by two men. The gunmen took a 9mm pistol from one of the Rangers. The incident is believed to be part of the continuing jihad insurgency.
#5
lotp
I hopeit was the article that left out "thousand" and not the programmers.
I do recall a US effort to Mars that went astray by forgetting to convert metric to English units.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/06/2010 17:13
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#6
#5 - and before that there was the US rocket launch that went awry because the mission software had a ";" where there should have been a ":" in a line of Fortran which went undetected until too late to matter.
#8
AH hello! I was hoping you would turn up today.
First I wouldn't like to be the programmer on that one. I wanted you to review this as it seems related to the politics of today;
#9 AH I hope you are still on. Please visit;
http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/15235.html
Thing from snowy mountain posted this today;
" We entirely forgot God and placed our faith in men, and the more we turn this over in our minds, the madder we become". Olivares
The last depression we were a different people. Posted by Dale 2010-12-05 19:18|| 2010-12-05 19:18|| Front Page Top
Breaking news from the AP:
In a long overdue move, based in no small part on the current episode of Wikileaks, the U.S. Government has finally settled on a secure location for ALL Top Secret US Government documents. A place so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access.
All classified documents will now be stored at the same location of Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Sortero's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN application and off-shore campaign contributors list.
That should finally solve the problem of any more classified documents ever seeing the light of day!
#6
Jim's been drinking too much moonshine.
Or not enough.
Sorry guys I've seen too much Government stupidity to think it was any kind of a joke, Seems stupid enough to be reality.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2010 20:45
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The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has completed training for 2,200 Transportation Safety Officers (TSOs) at the Los Angeles International Airport according to a press release found on the MPAC website.
The MPAC release notes that the two-month training course informed officers of "the diversity of Muslims around the world from cultural dress to language to tenets. The four trainers taught the TSOs how to properly handle a Quran and discussed the different ways Muslim women and men choose to cover or dress. For example, the TSOs learned if a woman wears hijab and needs a secondary screening she should be screened in a private area by a female TSO officer."
In 1986, MPAC was formed as a political action arm of one of the largest Wahhabi mosques in America, the Islamic Center for Southern California.
As the Center for Security Policy's Team B II report entitled "Sharia: The Threat to America" notes, "The founders of the Islamic Center for Southern California are Hassan Hathout and his brother Maher Hathout. The late Hassan Hathout was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement. The two brothers Maher spent time in an Egyptian prison during the early days of the Muslim Brotherhoods activities there, led by the Brotherhoods founder Hassan Al Banna. MPACs own publication, The Minaret, has proudly called Hassan a 'companion of' and Maher 'a close disciple of' Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna."
Hathout was also on the board of directors and a member of the American Muslim Council (AMC) from 1993 to 1997. AMC was founded by the al Qaeda financier and Hamas operative Abdurahman Alamoudi who is currently serving 23 years in prison for funding terrorist groups including al Qaeda. Maher Hathout served on the AMC Board of Directors at the same time Alamoudi was serving as its Executive Director.
Probably just BS, but could motivate future attacks.
The terrorist organization Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the fire that has devastated the forests of Mount Caramel, the most serious environmental disaster in the history of Israel. Although the local police authorities attribute the blaze to negligence and the prolonged drought that is affecting the region.
Today, a new terrorist group, which claims links to Al Qaeda, posted a video message on jihadist forums, the same used by Osama Bin Laden, declaring to be behind the fire. The group, which calls itself Lions of the mujahideen in Palestine" claims to have set fire to the trees of Mount Carmel, triggering the inferno which is still raging. "The lions of the mujahideen in Palestine" say they carried out the arson attack on the night between Thursday and Friday - "performing a holy and heroic expedition within the territory of the usurpers on occupied Mount Caramel setting fire to its trees, causing the deaths of more than 40 people and wounding dozens, as recognized by the enemy itself".
The terrorist group, whose credibility has not yet been independently confirmed, also thanked "the wind, which was one of the soldiers of Allah, for his help, by expanding the flames to where we never thought, so that the enemy was not able to subdue it and was forced to seek help from foreign forces."
#2
Some of us have worried about this type of eco-terrorism for years. It doesn't take much for a home-grown jihadi with a can of gas and a match to start conflagrations.
Look out Southern California you are probably the most vulnerable.
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
12/06/2010 14:51
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#3
Southern Californians are well aware of how vulnerable we are. That's why I made reference to it being a capital offense. An arsonist never knows, has no way of knowing, if the fire he starts might kill someone. They should be treated just like murderers.
#4
The state of California defines arson as willfully and maliciously setting fire, burning, or causing to burn any structure, land, or property. If the arson:
* Causes an inhabited property to burn: 3-8 years in prison
* Causes great bodily injury to someone: 5-9 years
* Committed on a structure or forest land: 2-6 years
* Committed on uninhabited property: 16 months-3 years
Certain conditions in the arson can add an increase to the amount of time. Multiple burn victims, multiple structures, or injury to an emergency official all add a potential 4 years onto the original sentence.
Ref: California Arson Laws- California Penal Code Section 451.
Lest you think it lenient, it's more severe than a lot of other felonies under the CA penal code.
#1
The bombers targeted a local administration compound in Ghalalnai, the main town in the tribal district of Mohmand, about 175 kilometres northwest of the federal capital Islamabad and near the Afghan border.
More than 100 people were believed to have been in the compound where government officials, allied tribal elders and members of local anti-Taliban militia were holding talks.
"There were two bombers. They were on foot -both came on motorbikes. The first blew himself up inside the office of one of my deputies while the second one set off explosives when guards caught him."
#2
From Roggio:
"The Mohmand Taliban are commanded by Omar Khalid, who is a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud's Taliban movement. Khalid is considered one of the Taliban's most effective and powerful leaders in the tribal areas. He also maintains close ties to al Qaeda and is believed to have given sanctuary to Ayman al Zawahiri in the past."
#3
I wonder what kind of guys they are getting for suicide bombers that can get so far into what seems a conference where everyone probably knows each other. High payouts to their families?
Desmond Tutu (Noble Prize 84) and Mary Robinson (former Prez of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) wrote to the US Senate (to complement them for passing a resolution calling for an end to child marriage) and to the US House (urging them to do the same.
Tutu and Robinson, who are both apologists for Paleo terror groups, probably think Islam doesn't allow such marriages (several Hadiths say Mohammad married a 6 yr old and consummated it when she was 9 and the Quran says Mohammad is the best of men and a model). They also may figure they have credibility with the 3rd world.
We'll see about that.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/06/2010
09:04 ||
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#1
Translation
Human rights meddlers call for others to enable their pet cause, Cause they're RIGHT(Just ask them)
Ignoring whether or not YOU think it's right or wrong they want to be seen(Critical word)as HEROS, but NOT do any work. Spend any money, or otherwise be discomfited.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2010 10:34
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#3
Sounds like what is needed is a software/hardware arcana, a black box without which the aircraft cannot function, which is impervious to useful scanning, and is destroyed when it is opened.
Most electronics are simple, because of the limited number of components that *typically* can be used. Resistors, capacitors and batteries, inductors, switches and transistors, are pretty standard in their use, whether in micro or macro levels.
But these can be redesigned, to obfuscate their function and circuit. That is, that unless you measure the circuit while it is running, it could be one of a hundred possible circuits. And when its case is tampered with, it scrambles the current flow and operating instructions.
Versions of this have been around for a long time, mostly using surges of static when the case was opened. But the technology never advanced much, mostly because there was little that valuable to protect.
#4
A smarter way to keep the brains out of planes etc, is to have them load at launch, and wipe on a power outage (landing, crash etc)
Basicaly the equivalent of keeping all the programming in ram, but loaded from a trusted server.
Of course I'm three whiskeys in at this point...
US INTELLIGENCE agencies have blacklisted 23 Australians in Yemen suspected of terrorist links, as Barack Obama's counterterrorism chief warns that the world must confront al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen.
A diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Sanaa, leaked to WikiLeaks, lists the names and birth dates of 23 Australians thought to have connections to the group ''al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula''.
Some names have been added to a US list banning them from commercial flights. The rest are to be closely monitored by US spy agencies.
The cable, sent last January, has not been made public but the contents, excluding the personal details - have been reported by The New York Times, one of several news outlets granted access to the cables.
The NYT, doing their best to catch up to Wikileaks ...
Another cable blames Saudi Arabia as the world's largest source of funds for Islamist extremists.
The top White House counterterrorism adviser Daniel Benjamin yesterday said Yemen was a big recruiting ground for al-Qaeda, especially for people holding Western passports.
''There are individuals from many countries around the world who have made their way to Yemen,'' he said. ''Many of them did so fairly innocently - to acquire for example Arabic language training or other schooling - who have been radicalised.''
Mr Benjamin said concern about Yemen had increased in March last year and was confirmed by recent plots emanating from the country, including one to destroy a passenger jet over Detroit on Christmas Day and bombs posted to the US.
He said Yemen had significant problems, including an exploding population growth, the exhaustion of natural resources and a depleted water table. Local al-Qaeda affiliates were the most aggressive beyond the terrorist leaders in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Australia has sharpened its focus on Yemen and recently declared al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula a proscribed organisation. Many of the Australians listed in the cable were women, The New York Times said, with al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen seeking ''to identify a female for a future attack''.
#2
Really, it's time to be FAIR and just put evenly the names of Christian on the list since to do so would be discriminatory.
Posted by: jack salami ||
12/06/2010 9:21
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'There are individuals from many countries around the world who have made their way to Yemen,'' he said. ''Many of them did so fairly innocently - to acquire for example Arabic language training or other schooling - who have been radicalised.''
Hmm when I took Italian classes in Florence the most radical thing I developed was a taste for good food.
Must be the water in Yemen.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2010 12:39
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European Union president Herman Van Rompuy told a US ambassador that Europe no longer believed in Afghanistan and that 2010 may be the last chance for success, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
Van Rompuy told ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over coffee on December 23, 2009, that Europeans were only staying in Afghanistan out of "deference" to the United States, according to the confidential memo released by WikiLeaks.
"Europe is doing it and will go along out of deference to the United States but not out of deference to Afghanistan," Van Rompuy was quoted as saying in the cable.
"No one believes in Afghanistan any more," he said in a meeting that took place three weeks after he took office as the head of the 27-nation European Council.
"But we will give it 2010 to see results. If it doesn't work, that will be it, because it is the last chance," he said.
Underscoring Europe's waning appetite for combat, the former Belgian prime minister warned: "If a Belgian gets killed, it would be over for Belgium right then".
Barbers, put your shears away!
European countries account for around 30,000 of some 150,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan, while the United States makes up the bulk of the force.
NATO leaders agreed at a November 20 summit to start handing security responsibility to Afghan security forces next year with the aim of withdrawing from the battlefield by 2014.
#2
If the usual suspects keep talking about the aboriginal north americans as a singular 'nation' and people, then its just the same as treating a tribal confederation that actually has had a 'king' and some form of long term shared social community identification as a nation as well.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to take out protection against the risk of a sovereign default by China as one of its top trade trades for 2011. This is a new twist.
It warns that the Communist Party will have to puncture the credit bubble before inflation reaches levels that threaten social stability. This in turn may open a can of worms.
"Many see Chinas monetary tightening as a pre-emptive tap on the brakes, a warning shot across the proverbial economic bows. We see it as a potentially more malevolent reactive day of reckoning," said Tim Ash, the banks emerging markets chief.
Officially, inflation was 4.4pc in October, and may reach 5pc in November, but it is to hard find anybody in China who believes it is that low. Vegetables have risen 20pc in a month.
#1
...has advised clients to take out protection against the risk...
This is another major element that fueled the current financial mess. If you gamble with financial instruments, you should not be able to take 'protection against risk'. You are just trying to tag someone else with what should be your own concern with your own money. Do you underwrite Las Vegas gamblers? A very very small group of people do, and they take their loses without hammering everyone else. These big boys will expect someone else, ie the peons, to ultimately back their loses. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for everyone else, they have agents at the levers of power who will stick it to the peons to cover their gamble.
#3
I have a sneaking suspicion that a default by China would topple enough of the world's financial system that the "protection" advocated by RBS wouldn't be worth the paper / electrons it was written on.
#4
#3 - A US default would also topple the world's financial system, taking China down with it. Every country has been running on too much borrowed money, and none want to pay off the loans, even if they were able to, which they aren't.
Engineers have strung a $500 million extension cord across San Francisco Bay, allowing San Francisco to draw electricity from clean, green, feel-good, renewable sources from someplace else. Renewable sources are mostly dams across nature's pristine rivers, blocking the swimming of fish, and navigation of canoes and rafts - wait until they figure that out! The City hopes to close its sole remaining power plant, the Potrero gas-and-diesel plant, which has long been considered a blot on the city's otherwise impeccable environmental record. Warning: The link takes you to the NY Times. Hat tip to the civil engineer's blog.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/06/2010
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#1
Once they shut down that last power plant they'll be 100% dependent on those highly vulnerable (ask Baluchistan) 'extension cords.'
#2
I love the way these urban dwellers consider themselves "green", any urban dweller is among the most "non green" of humans anywhere. Hopefully the 'Big One" isnt very far off for california
#4
This is nothing new. Back in the '20's I think SF took over The Hetch-hetchy valley, blocked it with The O'Shaunessy Dam and drowned the "most beautiful valley " (per John Muir) in the Sierra's for their water supply. On the other hand, I spent a few weekends at one of the cabins they supplied to water dept workers up there, so I guess I'm part of the problem.
#5
#4 - that dam was featured prominently in Ken Burns' series about the National Parks last year, very informative. One of the nicest things about being a San Fran environmentalist is that s/he can mess up the environment and enjoy the benefits along with a feeling of superiority while someone else far away has to deal with the adverse consequences.
The Doha-based broadcasters coverage is crafted to exert or relieve pressure on other countries in order to suit Qatars diplomatic agenda, the dispatches suggest.
Joseph LeBaron. the US ambassador to Qatar, reported to Washington in November last year that the channel could be used as a bargaining tool to repair relationships with other countries, particularly those soured by al-Jazeera's broadcasts, including the United States".
In another cable that July, he claimed that the channel "has proved itself a useful tool for the station's political masters.
After 7 years in power, the Spanish ruling Socialist party has been tossed out on its ear. Catalonia, a region of Northern Spain, is now back with its traditional center-right party.
#2
Is the losing party Zapatero's? Does this mean the Anti-American nut cases are out?
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/06/2010 14:21
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Only in the Catalonia portion of Spain (which produces most of the economic output of Spain). The rest of the country will have to wait for the next election which I believe is next year.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that two Islamist groups in the U.S., Revolution Muslim and the Islamic Thinkers Society, are a growing menace.
WIKILEAKS has released a secret list of key infrastructure sites around the world whose loss or attack by terrorists, according to the State Department, could "critically impact'' US security.
New Zealand's Southern Cross undersea cable landings at two Auckland beaches were on the list.
The leaked February 2009 memo from the US State Department requested overseas US missions to list infrastructure and key resources around the globe "whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security and/or national and homeland security of the United States''.
It lists undersea cables, key communications, ports, mineral resources and firms of strategic importance.
On its website, the Southern Cross Cable Network says it provides fast and secure international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the USA.
#2
So, it would be hard (not that it would stop them) for anyone (read lefties of the world) to claim defense of these things was "not in America's interests..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/06/2010 10:19
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President President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday. Excuse me, Ernst Julian, if you claim immunity from our laws, you are in no position to dictate our leadership. Bambi is not especially popular here at the Burg, but he is OUR president and we, not some megalomaniac blackmailer, will decide whether he needs to go.
"The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval," Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais. By this logic, Julian Stavro should resign from the human race, since he has been spying on practically everybody.
"Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign," he added during an Internet chat interview published online. Au contraire, arch-villain of the innertubes, I would demand the resignation of any president who refused to spy on that wretched hive of scum and villainy at the UN.
WikiLeaks threw US diplomacy into chaos when it started releasing more than 250,000 classified State Department cables on November 28, creating an international firestorm as American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and politics have been publicly aired.
According to one of the documents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for UN personnel's telephones, emails, credit card details and frequent flier numbers.
The United States and other governments said the release of the documents broke their laws.
Assange gave the interview to El Pais on Saturday from an undisclosed location. a cave under George Galloway's Portuguese villa.
The 39-year-old Australian is believed to be in Britain, and a report said he could be arrested this week. For more info, see Narcissistic personality disorder
I am in favor of starting an Assange death pool; not advocating, mind you; just estimating. We could make it interesting by including both date and method. I will take February 1st by polonium capsule.
#3
It's probably wishcasting, but I'm hoping somebody (Russians, etc.) just gaslights this guy and drive him over the edge. It shouldn't be hard- he's close; just break into his secret hideout and rearrange all the furniture.
#5
After reading Slashdot that 5 Lamestream media orgs r helping him, I'm wondering if part of this wasn't to get him to resign cos he's such a disaasta.
The response to the leaks may not be going like they had hoped?
#11
I'm not normally big on defending Obama, but I WILL defend him for spying on the United Nations. I mean, duh! It's common sense. Equilateral Guinna probably spies on the UN.
#14
Can someone enlighten me. The stuff I read about Hillary was her trying to get freely available data on important people rounded up so they had more complete information. It certainly didn't sound like actual spying to me. Did I read wrong?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/06/2010 17:06
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#18
atomic conspiracy is 100% correct. Obama may not be popular but he is YOUR president and YOU will be the only ones to decide when and how he needs to go.
and yes, it's safe to assume US spies on the UN and that is a GOOD thing, I agree.
so has wikileaks done any damage in this instance? no.
so then, what's the problem? It's good to have a discussion, one that wouldn't see the light of day without wikileaks.
I would remind you all that without Wikileaks there would also have been no Climate-Gate - we wouldn't have known how the UN cooked the books on climate change. All those documents were posted anonymously on Wikileaks too.
This has irreparably damaged some relationships, and worse, it has made our diplomats unable to trust the communications channels, so overseas diplomacy becomes difficult because they cannot send sensitive information back to the leadership in DC - thereby crippling the ability of our elected leaders to conduct foreign policy that helps insure the safety and prosperity of the US.
Also, there are reports that they revealed some North Korea defectors, which means any relatives of theirs back in NKor land are now at the tender mercies of Kim Jong Il's communist punishment police.
anon1, you may wish to rethink your "done no damage" ans your continued defense of the indefensible, you fucking fool.
#20
so has wikileaks done any damage in this instance? no.
Anon1 is more than just foolish she is a PRINCIPLED SOCIOPATH. Assange probably is, too, in addition to NPD.
Is that a smidge false nice-nice by anon1? She refers to "in this instance" as an insolated case to gain a veneer of civility, but all who have read her prior posts knows she likes what Assange has in store for the world, even if death, disruption, and torture of completely innocent people are the result.
Reading the bulk of her posts on the subject, it is clear that she thinks wikileaks should be held as harmless, accross the board. To "A principled sociopath" like Anon1 long as an act fits the principal deemed right, actual human life, suffering, death are abstract concepts the less than compassionate like herself toss to the wind. Someone who wants to be 'right' at all costs cannot be reasoned with. Best way to diffuse a sociopath is ignore her waffling between civil sounding social graces and cruelty.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 18:32
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#21
Interesting how the administration remained silent when Wikileaks was attacking DOD, but immediately sprang into action when Wikileaks began attacking the US State Dept.
#22
OldSpook, are you literate? I wrote ... no damage "in this instance"
so what if the US spies on the UN. Who gives a crap? the whole world is probably cheering about that as everyone knows what a corrupt little useless organ the UN is.
Fire and Ice: Yes, i think wikileaks is ultimately a force for good in the world.
You love it when it is releasing stuff on your enemies, but you hate it when it is releasing stuff on the US and allies.
Well at least everyone hates them equally
that is the usual test of impartiality.
Wikileaks has the power to reveal corruption around the globe.
Take it away and we become the controlled puppets of the very sophisticated PR machines of our two-party systems (at least in the US, UK and Australia).
Since when did freedom of information become the enemy?
Since when was revealing truth and facts a traitorous act.
In fact it is being true to the highest principles on which our societies are founded and will only make us stronger if we respond to the challenge in a positive manner.
Societies that have a controlled population kept in the dark, and a ruling class that does what it likes are never as strong as open societies.
Surely the victory of the US over the USSR in the cold war settled that concept for good.
#23
Fire and Ice: Yes, i think wikileaks is ultimately a force for good in the world
I could not disagree more. Honesty is NOT always the best policy. The only reason a society, any society, functions is because individuals, groups, and politicians do not practice radical honesty. If every person everywhere said exactly what they were thinking to others, or everyone broadcasted their secret recipes, classified docs, shoe size and social security numbers it would be a bloodbath. No one, at any time in history has survived by being completly upfront. Especially where matters of soldiery and warfare are concerned.
The question of divulge vs. not divulge is the million dollar question. It won't get answered here, today, on Rantburg, by you and I. But history has proven that in order for the social fabric to remain free from complete anarchy and violence, honesty is NOT the best policy. Wikileaks is screwed, so is Assange, and so is PFC Manning.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 19:21
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#24
Global corruption is ALREADY well-known and thoroughly documented for anyone who bothers to investigate. Wikileaks wasn't necessary for that. The problem is the useful information is obscured by hype, lies, and distractions. Global warming is the only real threat we face.
#25
Honesty is not always the best policy, I agree. It was best said the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.
#27
Someone tell me Julian Assange would do wikileaks if he had to come up out of his own pocket to fund it? Please someone convince me. Otherwise, I know money is changing hands, and fiscal interests are also in play. There is nothing noble about buying and selling of information when it is an ill gotten gain. Just like if my doctor sold my medical chart to my employers without my permission, or someone forged my signature for the greater good. Dangerous precedents are being set. Assange is a deviant not a moral crusader.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:04
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#28
"you are wrong"
Bingo. See, right there I know Anon1 is incapable of being dissauded from her insistence that Wikileaks is good. Any time someone states you are "wrong" then obviously, the maker of this blanket statement must be "right" and if I am correct, their next justification for their view will be some nebulous reason like "its good for the world" but without any explanation by way of example, history, or fact, just lots of opinion. So,then, it just ain't anything but a chicken wing on a string.
Im sorry, VIOLATION TIME EXPIRED. You have just given up your rational playing piece in favor of "I am right you are wrong."
It doesn't matter if I presented arguments and facts, anecdotes, all night about why Wikileaks is harmful, Anon1 won't be budged. Therefore, I won't waste my breath.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:15
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#29
Wall Street Journal editorial today quotes Assange on his motives - to trigger such a crackdown within the US on info exchange that the government (which he calls a 'conspiracy') can no longer function efficiently.
That sounds like damage to me. The real issue isn't what's in the cables and other leaks, although those HAVE gotten people killed already. The real issue is that Assange wants to destroy the effective functioning of this country and its government.
#30
Which makes us more vulnerable to terrorist attack by Islamic fundamentalists. Which gets innocent civilians killed. But ANON1, doesn't CARE, as long as its not her Aussie abode or family or fellow Australian that gets the kick back. And the way she talks, she is willing to bet lives that it won't be hers.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:38
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#31
anon1, how about this. Say you stumble into a romantic affair with a married man. Neither of you were looking for it, but mutual love blossoms anyway, and he'd rather be married to you. But in the end, he feels responsible for his family. You understand and want no harm to come to them, but you get your heart broken. To cope, you write a detailed journal about it, come to grips, eventually find love again and marry.
Then someone breaks into your house and steals the journal. One of these principled "information should be free" types. Publishes it on the internet and emails the link to the wife, for good measure. Outraged - even though her husband did the right thing - she leaves, takes the kids, and tells them he's an evil bastard. They're young enough to believe anything Mom says and never want to see him again.
A family is broken and children are without a father. A man you cared for is destroyed, and hates you. Your husband reads the files and learns things about you he can't live with. Another man you cared for is destroyed, and leaves you. Half the world reviles you as a homewrecker and the other half salivates over what a wanton slut you are and wants to score with you too. If you're lucky, no one gets murdered or commits suicide.
So. No harm done? This benefited . . . who? TO what end? You'd be fine with it all because at least the truth is free? Riiiight. No, you're fine with it so long as it's not your ox getting gored.
So go ahead and fall for Julian's sociopathic schtick as some kind of romantic renegade. But I don't think I'm alone when I say: please go suck his cock somewhere else.
#36
Nah, if he dies, he becomes some kind of martyr, or heaven help us all....another Che-type figure, but without the striking good looks. I don't wanna see that horse's ass on a million college kids' t-shirts.
Better to let the Swedes drag him in, give him a record as a rapist/kiddie molester/pervert that he will never live down, and toss him in a cell where he will eventually suffer (to him) a fate worse than death....to be forgotten once we get another story about Britney or one of those "Teen Mom" tramps.
#37
Besides, Assflange was not entirely and idealist. He sold some of the info on regular basis to interested parties. One of the WL co-founders couldn't stomach it and left WL in 2007 because of it.
#39
And... thought ClimateGate files found their way to WL, eventually, they were first released through a Russian server unrelated to WL, as Bright Pebbles correctly notes.
#41
Swamp Blondie, martyr for whom? For < several K starry eyed teenagers pecking on their keyboards in mommy's basement?
I wish. There's more than a few people who I once thought were rational that have bought into Assange's BS, just like anon1, and sincerely believe he's doing this just for the purest of motives.
Look, if a bunch of college professors could turn a murdering psychopath into a romantic figure, surely they could turn this self-important narcissistic twit into some kind of freedom fighter against eeeeevillll US oppression......
I just wanted to post a pointer to the previous post of this link back on Friday Afternoon here.
A confidential State Department cable made public this week highlights China's role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
The U.S. ambassador in far-off Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, confronted China's ambassador about a covert attempt by Beijing to bribe the government there to shut down the strategic U.S. military transit base at Manas in exchange for $3 billion in cash. So he went and confronted the ambassador, therefore burning the source for apparently no concrete benefit.
Also, you pretty much told the Chinese the important parts. Why didn't you tell us too?
The Feb. 13, 2009, cable signed by Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller revealed that Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Zhang Yannian "did not deny categorically" the covert cash offer to close the base, which is a major transit and refueling point for U.S. troops and supplies heading into northern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
12/06/2010
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This is an essay about the death of the town of Empire, Nevada that I wrote for my own blog. Yet another one of the great things Harry Reid has helped do for Nevada.
Yesterday the United States Gypsum Corporation (or USG) announced the January 31st 2011 closing of its mine and plant in Empire, Nevada. Residents of the Empire -- the last company town in the west -- will have until June 20th 2011 to leave their homes, at which time the mine, plant, and entire town will be "idled." One hundred employees and their families will have to leave the area to search for work and housing.
Those are the bare facts of the story. The reality is, of course, far less sterile and far more terrible. What is actually going to happen is that my community is going to die -- and, as I predicted in the introduction to An Unforgiving Land, a way of life is going to pass forever from the earth, largely un-mourned save by the few of us that have lived it.
#1
US Gypsum used in manufacture of drywall. Drywall used in new home construction. New home construction seen in vibrant economy. Vibrant economy now seen in...... China.
#2
There's some good folks out there. Shame to see this happen. A lot of other businesses will probably go by the wayside, too. Burning Man will probably be the only thing going in that part of the county, if that doesn't get taxed and permitted to death, too.
#4
Drywall now comes from China. Unfortunately, it comes with incomplete removal/stabilization of H2S & SO2 gasses, which then come out in your house after construction or renovation, and destroy the metal in your wires, AC, plumbing etc. That's bad, of course, but it does generate repair work for the tradesmen during this home construction bust.
#5
USG currently has a market cap of about $1.5B and has had a long string of quarterly losses. It had a market cap of about $8B back in the late 1980s.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/06/2010 9:03
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#6
#4 Drywall now comes from China.
My nephew's son bought a house down in Florida with China drywall. He and his wife did not know or did others at the time. He as well as others had to move out of their houses for health reasons. These houses are sitting empty. Many people cannot afford to buy another house or rent another and make payments on the house sitting empty with China drywall.
For crying out loud, we could manufacture this stuff here at a better quality and in the end cheaper. The screwing you get ain't worth the screwing you get with these China imports.
[Iran Press TV] Thousands of angry Pak demonstrators have taken to the streets of Islamabad to protests their government's alliance with the United States.
Protesters gathered near the parliament house amid heavy police presence on Sunday. They demanded Islamabad cut all ties with Washington.
The Pak Jamaat-e-Islami activists shouted anti-US slogans during a rally in the capital city.
They also demanded the release of Pak scientist Aafia Siddiqui. A US federal court has sentenced Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for allegedly shooting at her American interrogators in Afghanistan.
Siddiqui vanished in Bloody Karachi, Pakistain with her three children on March 30, 2003. The following day, local newspapers reported that she had been taken into US custody on terrorism charges.
Human rights groups say that Siddiqui had secretly been transferred to the US base in Bagram, north of Kabul, and tortured for five years prior to the alleged 2008 incident.
Siddiqui's relatives and political activists have strongly criticized the US justice system for its handling of the case.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... some protesters were there to warn the government against a military operation in the North Wazoo tribal region. They said such a move would trigger a new wave of unrest.
The US has been asking Pakistain to launch a major ground offensive into the northern tribal region to crush militancy.
The Mighty Pak Army has launched several operations in the restive northwest in order to flush the snuffies out of tribal areas.
Hundreds of Paks have bit the dust since the former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... joined the US-led so-called war on terror following the 9/11 attacks.
Militant attacks, unsanctioned drone strikes and political unrest have claimed the lives of over 4,000 people throughout Pakistain since 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
Its about time we let India sort out this excuse of a country once and for all!
#4
Anonymoose, I seriously doubt they have to pay the rent-a-crowds in Pakistan. They probably just spread a rumor that Americans flush Korans and they'd have a ton of folks show up.
An MP today denied his Russian assistant was a spy after security services arrested her on suspicion of espionage.
Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock confirmed Katia Zatuliveter has been taken into detention and is facing deportation from the UK. But he insisted his aide, who he described as 'bright and intelligent', had nothing to hide and declared that he backed her '100%'.
Ms. Zatuliveter was vetted by UK security before being employed by the MP and getting a pass to the House of Commons. Her father, contacted in Zmeika, near the Caucasus, had this to say: "Get out. I'll kill you, b******," before chasing the journalist through the village, first on foot and then in his car. Her dad reminds me of the Russians who used to run a local computer store. Terrible customer relations they had. Every customer complaint or attempt to get service after the sale always got the same response, a death threat.
[Yemen Post] Parliament approved on Sunday to summon Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, Minister for Local Administration, Dr Rashad Al-Alimi after WikiLeaks said he lied to Parliament about Arclight airstrikes in Yemen.
In its latest revelations, the WikiLeaks Organization said Al-Alimi lied to Parliament when he said the U.S. Arclight airstrikes against suspected AQAP hideouts and positions, some of which killed innocents in the south, were carried out by the Yemeni forces.
The organization said Saleh covered up the U.S. military role in his country quoting him as saying: " We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours [the U.S.].
It said Saleh's comment prompted Al-Alimi "to joke that he had just 'lied' by telling Parliament" that the U.S.-made bombs were used in attacks by Yemeni forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
They are calling it MAHEM, which stands for Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition. The intent is to create a device that creates a powerful enough electromagnetic field to propel streams of molten metal at enemy armor.
"This could provide the warfighter with a means to address stressing missions such as: lightweight active self-protection for vehicles (potential defeat mechanism for a kinetic energy round), counter armor (passive, reactive, and active), mine countermeasures, and anti-ship cruise missile final layer of defense."
#1
This seems to be a HEAT round (think WWII bazooka) where the molten jet is accelerated by electromagnets.
What I don't understand is how they intend to keep the molten jet around long enough to be accelerated by the electromagnets.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/06/2010 12:07
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#2
Not sure how they plan to keep the stuff molten but I have never liked passing one of those flatbed semis with a crucible full of molten aluminum on the trailer
#4
FaL, once accelerated the molten stream cools in it's travel becoming a kinetic weapon with tremendous velocity.
Imagine the energies required to propel a molecule to tremendous speeds, then the next and next until they become a stream. Lorenz says it doesn't take much.
They collesce in cooling into a single mass because they are ionized by the flight. The ones leading slow as they give up energy in cooling and become the shaping framework.
#3
The type of fuel is interesting;"Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide". I will have to look those up. I love Hydrogen and would be interested in why the change. The other fuel looks hazardous. Skidmark you are correct. It is curious that the cargo bay doors show discoloration over large area.
#4
Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide; Most excellent choice in fuels. Spontaneous contact ignition and small amount rather than heavy bulky liquid hydrogen. Toxic however.
#5
Imagining clamshell doors I would propose a 'snatch'. Doors opened, vessel positioned between an object of interest and the Earth, suddenly illuminated by a ground-based laser the black reentry tiles bear the brunt of the radiation unmarked but the insulation blanket above is singed...
...or blown nose wheel hydraulics in a slapdown landing. What did Pan say he was driving?
[Pak Daily Times] A shark tore the arm off an elderly German tourist at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, killing her almost immediately, security and diving officials said on Sunday, only days after sharks badly mauled four other European tourists in the waters. The German was swimming in the waters off Sharm el Sheikh, a famed diving and vacation resort in the Sinai Peninsula, when the shark attacked, Egyptian security officials said. "It was definitely a shark attack," said Hesham Gabar, the head of Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Water Sports. The German Embassy in Cairo could not be immediately reached for comment. Sunday's deadly attack comes after oceanic white tip sharks mauled three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist last week, also off the coast of Sharm el Sheikh.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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[Pak Daily Times] A jacket wallah killed two foreign soldiers and two Afghan civilians in a bazaar outside a NATO base in southeast Afghanistan on Sunday and maimed nearly 20, NATO and Afghan officials said.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the blast in Gardez district of Paktia, a province located to the south of Kabul and close to the Pakistain border.
Major S Justin Platt, front man for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Paktia confirmed there had been several casualties.
"There were two ISAF soldiers killed and six maimed," Platt said.
ISAF officials in Kabul confirmed it was a suicide blast. The kaboom happened as a group of foreign and Afghan soldiers were shopping, a military source in Kabul said, adding at least four Afghan troops were also maimed.
"Two Afghan shopkeepers were killed. Eighteen other people were maimed," Rohullah Samoon, a front man for the provincial governor, said by phone.
The Taliban front man said 19 Afghan and foreign soldiers were killed in the attack, although the group often inflates casualties among foreign and government troops.
This year has been the deadliest for foreign troops since the war began in late 2001. Around 680 troops have died so far in 2010 compared to 521 for all of 2009. Around 2,250 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the start of the war.
Later on Sunday, ISAF said one of its service members had died in a separate bad turban attack in the south of the country but gave no further details.
But it is ordinary Afghans who have borne the brunt of the fighting as they become increasingly caught up in the crossfire.
According to UN figures, 1,271 non-combatants were killed in the first six months of this year, a 21 percent jump on the same period in 2009.
Last month, NATO leaders agreed to hand control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 and said the NATO-led force could halt combat operations by the same date if security conditions were good enough. But some US and NATO officials have said the spike in violence and problems in building up a capable Afghan army and police force to take over could make it hard to meet the 2014 target date set by President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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[An Nahar] Syria's alleged interference in Leb and its increasingly sophisticated weapons shipments to Hizbullah have alarmed U.S. officials and prompted Israel's military to consider a strike against a Syrian arms depot, U.S. and Israeli officials told The Washington Post.
But Israel has so far hesitated to take military action out of concern that such a strike could touch off a conflict even bloodier than the 2006 war, said an Israeli military official.
The B.O. regime's efforts at dialogue with Syria have done little to stop the flow of weapons, end Damascus' practice of sheltering Paleostinian leaders of turban groups, or counter Syria's interference in Leb, which has undermined the U.S. effort to promote Lebanese independence from external actors, according to the daily.
It said that while the U.S. maintains sanctions against Syria, American allies such as India and Turkey have inked trade deals with Damascus in recent months that undercut the American effort.
And Syria's alliance with Iran remains strong, to the dismay of U.S. officials who, as the WikiLeaks cables show, had hoped to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, in part to stop the flow of weapons to Hizbullah.
Asked about the likelihood of Israel striking at a border area where transfer of weapons is taking place or one of the camps inside Syria, the Israeli military official told the newspaper: "This is definitely one of the options Israel has. Of course any attack like this could lead to an escalation."
"Persuading Syria to break its alliance with Hizbullah's chief patron, Iran, would be a key step toward ending the shipments. But it is in Leb that Syria's regional resurgence has been felt most profoundly," The Washington Post said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
What's to "mull"? Either you do it or you don't. Either you make it look like an accident or you don't. Either you implicate someone else in doing it or you don't.
And, in any case, you prepare to counter any reaction to your action, and even inaction, if that is the case.
But it's utterly worthless to blab about it to the press.
[An Nahar] Phalange Party The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology. leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday stressed that "Hizbullah's approach has become well-known -- an approach of dictation and intimidation."
Hizbullah "wants all initiatives to be in service of its interests," Gemayel told Voice of Leb Radio.
"Let them remember our martyrs before they try to threaten us," the former Lebanese president added, noting that "Hizbullah's approach aims to torpedo the (Special) Tribunal (for Leb), without suggesting any alternatives."
However, The infamous However... Gemayel stressed that the anticipated indictment the STL is expected to issue in the near future was "not the end of the road," noting that it will be thoroughly scrutinized.
"It is important that the indictment be issued, and if the Lebanese State was not able to implement the ruling and arrest the accused, an international verdict will be issued, and it will be a sword hanging over their heads and they will be prisoners even without a prison," Gemayel warned.
He reiterated his belief that Hizbullah and its allies were staging a "coup."
"The coup is being put into practice everyday through crippling measures, such as the campaign against the president and the premier in addition to the issue of false witnesses. Everything happening is an attempt at changing the face of Leb," Gemayel claimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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[Pak Daily Times] At least five cut-throats were killed in missile attacks in northern area of the Wazoo agency, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. According to sources, two missiles were fired from someplace or other on a vehicle in tehsil Dutta Khel, 25 kilometres from Miran Shah. The vehicle was destroyed completely and five alleged cut-throats on board died in the attacks, the channel reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.
A radical US-based Islamic website shut down last month after allegedly helping to inspire the stabbing of a Labour MP has resurfaced with a new name.
Younus Abdullah Muhammad, a founder of both sites, told The Daily Telegraph that IslamPolicy.com was the direct successor to RevolutionMuslim.com which was closed amid the furore over its role in the attack on Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham.
"IslamPolicy will continue with the work of RevolutionMuslim," Mr Muhammad, a white American convert to Islam, said during an interview in which he called the Sept 11 terror attacks "justified violence".
American counter-terrorism officials say that at least a third of the more than 50 domestic terror suspects arrested in America in the last year had ties to RevolutionMuslim, an English-language site aimed at Muslims in the West.
They trace its roots to a network of sites run by the now banned al-Muhajiroun group in Britain. "It is playing an important role in the export to the US of the British disease of home-grown terror by radicalised young Muslims," a US official said.
Aaron Zelin, a US academic who follows pro-jihadi websites, says that the US-based RevolutionMuslim was being increasingly used by British extremists to skirt hate speech and incitement laws in the UK and promote groups with al-Muhajiroun links.
The site, which was hosted on an American Google server, was closed down last month after intense pressure from British and American security officials. But Mr Muhammad has now established IslamPolicy on a blogging site also operated by Google, calling it the new home for the closed site.
He has said that IslamPolicy will focus on ideology and education, but British and American counterterror experts are monitoring it closely for the sort of radical content that was a fixture of its predecessor.
And no doubt also carefully monitoring posters and lurkers at the site. Happy hunting, guys!
Peter Barron, European communications director for Google, said: "We are looking at the new site and will remove content which breaks our guidelines on hate speech and dangerous or illegal content. What we can't do, and which few people would want a private company to do, is check what people want to post online before they do so."
[Pak Daily Times] Both Sunni and Shia tribal elders, including Malik Abdul Matt Khan, Malik Meherban Shah and Malik Fayaz Abass, unanimously agreed during a grand peace jirga held at Kalaya, Orkazai Agency headquarters, on Sunday, to open all roads closed since 2005 for each other, and announced to take stern action jointly against elements found guilty of any subversive activity.
Both Sunni and Shia rustics pledged to work shoulder to shoulder to ensure sectarian harmony, peace, brotherhood, progress and prosperity of the country and agreed to open all closed roads after five years in the agency.
They didn't miss a single cliche' in that sentence. Quite impressive.
The jirga said Sunni and Shia were like brothers and would foil the evil designs of the enemy by maintaining peace and inter-faith harmony in their areas of Orakzai. The jirga was attended, among others, by FC Inspector General Maj Gen Nadir Zaib, Orakzai Political Agent Riaz Mehsud, religious scholars from both Sunni and Shia sects, tribal maliks, chieftains, Sikhs and elites of the areas.
The roads in Sunni and Shia dominated areas had been closed in 2005 after unrest in Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar... and were opened on Sunday following a consensus reached between agency elders.
The jirga said tribal people had rendered great sacrifices for the country and would work shoulder to shoulder with each other by extending full support to the government and security forces in maintaining peace, inter-faith harmony, progress and prosperity of the rustics.
Nadir Zaib said peace and stability was vital for progress and prosperity of the rustics and security forces had rendered matchless sacrifices. He said there was a great responsibility on the rustics's shoulders to work with security forces in maintaining peace in their areas after bully boyz had been flushed out, resulting in establishment of the government's writ here.
The FC IG said bully boyz had been defeated in their strongholds, adding that they would not be allowed to regroup or enter Orakzai again.
Riaz Mehsud said that rustics, under territorial responsibilities, would defend their areas and bully boyz would not be allowed to regroup again in Orakzai. Expressing his joy over the Shia-Sunni unity, he said that reopening of the roads would go a long way in regional progress and prosperity.
The jirga held sacrifices by the security forces in high esteem and assured them of full support.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV] Laurent Gbagbo, who claims himself the re-elected president of Ivory Coast, has appointed Gilbert Marie N'gbo Ake as the country's new prime minister, an official says.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] An activist of the Awami National Party (ANP) has been killed while his elder brother has been injured after unidentified gunnies opened fire on their car on the Abul Hassan Isphani Road, Mobina Town police said on Sunday.
The incident took place near the Paradise Bakery. 35-year-old Dawood Khan, son of Haji Abdul Qayyum, was going to Al-Asif Square with his brother Irfan, 35, on his car. As they crossed a bridge, two faceless myrmidons approached them on two cycle of violences and open indiscriminate firing on them, with both brothers being injured as a result. Police shifted them to the Agha Khan University Hospital (AKUH), where during treatment, Irfan passed away. After the incident, tension engulfed the Abul Hassan Isphani Road, the Quaid Azam Colony and other surrounding areas.
SHO Ejaz Khokar said the victim was the resident of the Azeem Goth Quaid-e-Azam Colony, Gulshan Iqbal, and used to run a transport business, adding that after the incident, heavy contingents of police and rangers were deployed in the affected areas to main the law and order situation.
He said that the victim hailed from Wazoo and was an active member of the ANP. The ANP's front man, Qadir Khan, condemned the incident and demanded that the government arrest the culprits who were involved in assassinations. Police officials said the Irfan received three bullets, while his brother received four bullets, adding that his condition was critical. They said that Dawood was a member of the ANP Sindh Council. The victim's funeral will be offered today at the Masjid Umar Bin Khitab after Zuhr prayers and will be buried in a local graveyard situated at the same area where he resided. No case had been registered unil the filing of this report.
In another incident, a participant of the Sindh Cultural Day was killed and two others were maimed as they made their way back from a programme celebrated at the press club in Sacchal Goth, while seven shops and dozens of pushcarts were set ablaze, Sacchal police said. SHO Asif Jakhrani said that to mark the day, the residents of Sacchal Goth and Sindhi nationalists brought a rally and reached the press club in large numbers and after attending the programme, the rally was on its way to Sacchal Goth when the participants stopped at the Khyber Hotel located near the Sacchal Goth for tea. After having tea, the participants of the rally exchanged hot words with a group sitting near them. After a quarrel erupted, and the opposite group opened fire on the participants, as a result of which three participants, namely Waheed Hussain, 25, Ghulam, 28 and Latif, 26, were maimed. All three were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for treatment, where Waheed succumbed to his injuries.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) claimed that Waheed was an active worker of their organisation. After the incident, the angry mob torched three hotels, four makeshift restaurants and six pushcarts and pelted stones at traffic.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > WIKILEAKS: LeT GROUP PLANNED TO KILL MODI, SET UP BASES IN KERALA, TAMIL NADU [+ "facilitation centre" in Sri Lanka], to launch Terrstrikes agz SOUTHERN INDIA.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Swiss Post Office said on Sunday that it was carrying out checks on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's account with its banking arm, after doubts emerged over the Swiss address he gave.
Wikileaks has advertised the PostFinance account details online to "donate directly to the Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks Staff Defence Fund," giving an account name of "Assange Julian Paul, Geneve."
"We have to find out if Julian Assange really does live in Geneva. In the process of checking we did not find his name in Geneva," PostFinance front man Marc Andrey told AFP, confirming a report in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.
Mr Andrey said checks were likely to take several weeks and would involve correspondence with Mr Assange, an Australian citizen who is currently in hiding.
He explained that bank accounts were normally granted to Swiss residents or foreigners from areas nearby.
But for people from more distant countries such as Australia or the United States, they must have some kind of relationship with Switzerland, such as business ties or a house.
Mr Andrey declined to give further details on the account, which is covered by Swiss banking secrecy laws, including when it was opened.
"We can confirm to you that he has an account because he published it on his website," Mr Andrey noted. Under money laundering laws and due diligence requirements for banks, Mr Assange must give his real domicile.
US-based online payment service PayPal said on Friday that it had decided to block financial transfers to WikiLeaks after governments around the world initiated legal action against the whistleblower website.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
Swiss media report that Postfinance has closed his account.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2010 11:16
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#2
The amount frozen is 31.000 Euros (approx. US$41.000.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2010 13:24
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Israel's plan to pull its troops out of northern Ghajar, a disputed village on the flashpoint border with Lebanon, is likely to prove more of a headache than a political victory for Beirut, experts say.
"The people of Ghajar do not want to be part of Lebanon," said Timur Goksel, former senior adviser of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of the village's 2,200 residents -- none of whom is Lebanese.
"They say they have nothing to do with Lebanon, historically, politically, socially," Goksel told Agence France Presse. "If they become Lebanese they are going to lose all their privileges as Israeli citizens."
Ghajar embodies the conundrum of Middle Eastern politics: originally Syrian territory, it was seized by Israel along with the adjacent Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The tiny village was then cut in half in 2000, when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon and withdrew south of the Blue Line, a U.N.-demarcated border which runs straight through Ghajar.
The Blue Line placed the southern sector of Ghajar under Israeli control and the north in the hands of Lebanon.
But in 2006, Israel sent its troops back into northern Ghajar during its summer war with Hizbullah, and access to the town from Lebanon has since been blocked.
After years of political wrangling, Israel's cabinet on November 17 approved a U.N. proposal to withdraw its troops from the divided village -- a move that residents strongly oppose.
Israeli officials have said responsibility for the sector will be transferred to UNIFIL, whose troops will redeploy around Ghajar's northern perimeter but not inside the village itself.
"The plan is basically to return to the pre-2006 status quo," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria and Lebanon expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"Israel will only patrol south of the Blue Line and Israel's main security fence will run along the village's southern border," Tabler, who was recently in Ghajar, told AFP.
Most Ghajar residents are Syrian Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, who have acquired Israeli citizenship.
They reject the partitioning of their village, which would put 1,700 people in Lebanon and 500 in Israel and possibly leave family members unable to visit each other.
While Hizbullah is demanding that Israel hand over the northern part of Ghajar to the Lebanese army, with UNIFIL backing, experts say the Lebanese military is unlikely to be granted access.
"The (Israeli) security fence running along the northern edge of the village will remain," Tabler said. "The question being worked out now is who will patrol the northern neighborhood."
The Lebanese government has yet to react officially to Israel's proposed withdrawal, but Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, arguably the most powerful figure in the country, has rejected the plan.
"The Lebanese part of Ghajar must be returned to Lebanon and the Syrian part, with its residents, must be given to Lebanon until the Syrian-Lebanese border is demarcated," Nasrallah has said.
A UNIFIL spokesman contacted by AFP refused to disclose the content of talks with Israeli officials, but said the international force aimed to eventually ensure the return of Lebanese troops to northern Ghajar.
"We have been pushing for withdrawal of Israeli forces from northern Ghajar right since 2006," spokesman Neeraj Singh told AFP.
"It is an obligation that Israel must deliver on, in accordance with Resolution 1701" which ended the 2006 war and expanded UNIFIL's mandate, he added.
Experts say, however, that Israel's commitment to withdraw from northern Ghajar is unlikely to take place soon.
"It is not going to happen until there is a peace treaty between Syria and Israel, and then Lebanon and Israel, so everyone will cross that bridge when they come to it," Tabler said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
They're Druze. Michael Totten had an excellent (as usual) piece on them recently.
[Pak Daily Times] He sez that like it's a bad thing. While politix occasionally smells awful and looks worse, it has a legitimate place in daily life, to include in international relations...
Posted by: Fred ||
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Julian Assange of Wikileaks will release the code that decrypts a cache of uncensored, unredacted documents that has already been circulated worldwide, in the event he is detained or the Wikileaks website is permanently removed from the internet. One of the key files available for download -- named insurance.aes256 -- appears to be encrypted with a 256-digit key. Experts said last week it was virtually unbreakable.
Assange has warned he can divulge the key to unlock the classified documents in the "insurance" files if he is detained or the WikiLeaks website is permanently removed from the internet.
Other documents that Assange is confirmed to possess include an aerial video of a US airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, BP files and Bank of America documents. I would be interested in seeing a video of a US airstrike in Afghanistan that killed BP files and Bank of America documents, but only out of curiosity.
I've read elsewhere that Mr. Assange is also willing to dump documents about space aliens and UFOs should it become absolutely necessary.
#2
can he release the key is he is suddenly incapacitated during a rendition? If this mope is willing to essentially blackmail the US with great economic and political damage through the receipt of stolen information, does this not constitute the equivalent of war, and warrant actions commensurate with it? He is not a US Cit and does not even have any presumed protections of the first amendment.
#3
I feel sure the AES key in question is already in the possession of trusted associates of Assange, who will release it should he come to an untimely end of some sort. Perhaps he has even already transmitted an unencrypted version to US intelligence to back up his threat. The question is how much of a problem the cache would create if it were decoded.
#4
If more than he has the key then his website already proves that eventually the key will out..
Therefore his threat is empty as the key will out so grab him.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
12/06/2010 0:51
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#5
So basically, the KGB (or its modern successors) can be reasonably sure that if they whack him a whole lot of stuff of interest to them will be released?
#7
Bank of America! Now that's playing with fire.
But seriously, there is really nothing that can be done about Wikileaks. Everyone will have to grin and bear it. The guy, as far as I can see has done nothing legally wrong. Morally, of course is another question.
The Pentagon Papers set the president. If he, as a journalist is charged, they will also have to charge the NYT, Guardian, etc.
Not going to happen. Although I did see he called for Obama to resign, if he is found to have caused the UN to be spied upon, so maybe Obama could get some heavies from Chicago to do the job.
The only ones who would assassinate him would be BofA or the Russians and they probably won't because they are enjoying the discomfiture of the US too much.
#8
It was strongly suggested that former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown sold the Chinese a list of US listening posts surrounding their country, with the names of those individuals manning them, severely compromising US national security. And this resulted in his accident, with extreme prejudice.
At this point, everyone affiliated with the core staff of Wikileaks should be subject to termination. Assange and Manning, however, are destined for ADX Florence, as what they did deserves living hell, not just death.
#10
Experts said last week it was virtually unbreakable.
'Experts' don't work for the NSA. Once a third party has it and cracks it, they too can use it for the same sort of 'muscle' to make friends and influence people.
#14
Over the years I have agreed with many of the views on Rantburg. But Assange is one issue we will be differing on.
He is a whistleblower.
Our freedom does not depend on which of the two parties wins an election but on how well-informed we the public are about what is really going on.
The bureaucrats and politicians that make the decisions and keep us in the dark on many issues so we never challenge or question what they are doing.
It is very easy for we the population to be controlled that way.
Our greatest threat is big, intrusive, spying, controlling Government that turns its bureaucratic organs against the individual. Witness what is now happening to Assange: the trumped up rape charges, the frozen bank accounts, the highly unusual requests by the Australan Attorney-General to the AFP to investigate him.
Due process and the rule of law means Assange should be treated as any other citizen.
Otherwise none of us have any individual rights. In which case the pretext of our Governments having legitimacy because they protect our democracy and freedom is just a sham.
In a dictatorship such as the USSR under Stalin, the ruling class did not need to worry too much what the population thought because they could be sent en masse to gulags or shot.
In democracies such as ours, it does matter what the public think as we can vote out elements of the ruling class if they are too corrupt or pursue bad policies.
The biggest light the Assange incident has thrown on our societies is just how much the ordinary people are controlled and managed by the ruling class.
I think - and I know most here disagree with me - that Assange has thrown a light switch on many dealings of Governments internationally and that greater transparency is ultimately a force for good in the world.
He is my countryman and I am proud of him. I would help him in any way I could.
It is absolute piffle that wikileaks is endangering lives right now.
The biggest threat to our lives is our own Governments making bad decisions: eg sending our countrymen off to fight foreign wars with potentially little chance of success etc.
And our ruling classes will continue to make bad decisions unless they are held accountable.
You cannot hold them accountable if you are in the dark.
That is why Wikileaks is important.
Also a couple of facts you might not have heard.
1) Julian Assange was not "in hiding" from the authorities. He offered assistance to the Swedes and stayed in the country an extra 30 days - but his offers were refused.
2) British police have known where he was at all times.
3) Big Media has systematically silenced his side of the story, never quoting his spokesperson - they have no desire for Wikileaks to interfere with their role as public opinion controller. I was fortunate to hear an unedited interview with Assange's lawyer on ABC radio national this morning. On the website, those vital quotes were cut out.
We are all being lied to and spun right now by our Governments.
If we value freedom at all, then we will try to listen to Assange's side of the story and treat him as what he is: an Australian citizen with the right to due process of law.
I think he is the most important journalist of our time and I respect and admire the website he has created. I think it will change our world for the better and prevent corrupt and inept bureaucrats from hiding their mistakes.
Better Governance comes from freedom of information. Long live freedom.
#16
Those of us that have put our lives on the line for freedom know what freedom is and know the true costs. Pissants like you who pontificate on the internet form the comfort of your chair yet ignore the very real and deadly consequences of your stupidly naive approach, are a danger to that very freedom by endangering those who maintain it.
Anon1, you are an irrational, fucking fool. Thanks for proving it with your emotionally laden but ignorant and consequence-free defense of the indefensible. Guys like me end up bleeding because of fairyland idealist assholes like you.
If he stole your bank account numbers and balances and published them, would he still be a "whistle blower?" He is dealing in stolen, sensitive USG property, classified documents and intellectual property if you will. He is a spy, a saboteur, a killer. He should be dealt with accordingly.
#18
OldSpook: what is the point of putting your life on the line if the people who direct you to where to go and do that have made the wrong decision?
Unless there is greater transparency the people who put their lives on the line could be doing so for nothing.
like all the US soldiers who died in the last year of the Vietnam war - imagine if they had brought the close of that war forward by just one year. We lost anyway, so no harm done, and lives saved.
Next time there is a Vietnam, organs such as Wikileaks might ensure the war is ended sooner.
#19
Besoeker: the US Government is accountable to the US people. It should not be keeping so much information secret.
The same goes for my Government double. And for the UK Government.
Knowing that the Sri Lankan Government committed war crimes against the Tamils is important.... that is another thing to come out of Wikileaks.
Why should that type of thing be kept secret.
We deserve to know what our Governments know.
They are only angry because the unaccountable bureaucrats, spy chiefs and politicians have been embarrassed. Not because lives are at risk at all.
They have been endangering lives for years.
It is a threat to the power structure of our own society, in favour of the citizens being better informed and having a greater say on what our Governments do.
It is not stupid or foolish.
It is our own Governments that threaten our freedom the most. Not foreign powers.
Sorry mate, you're dead wrong on this one. Our US Gov't and Department of Defense have something called "NEED TO KNOW" with regard to government documents and information. Neither I, or nearly anyone else has unlimited NEED TO KNOW. The classification of documents, information, and activities is not a new concept. It is a practice that goes back to colonial times and the birth of this nation. In fact, the keeping of State secrets has it's origins in the earliest of civilizations. What might have been the outcome of the WWII D-Day invasion had some Wikileaks broadcast the beach landing sites? Think about it my friend, just think about it.
#23
This is what President Assange said: My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.
Sorry, slip of the tongue, meant to say President Obama.
#24
Yea Tipper, Obama's talking dog Holder didn't say squat about Wikileaks while they were attacking DoD. When they started in on the US State Dept, the doo-doo suddenly hit the mixmaster.
#25
Besoeker, I agree with you. I agree there is no unlimited right to know.
But what i believe is that our governments (US, UK, Australia) have had an increased ability to control and restrict the flow of information in recent years.
I have witnessed it - 15 PR flunkies dribbling spin for every reporter.
Freedom of Information requests that try for years to get a video or document released to no avail.
Remember the helicopter gunship that shot the wounded Reuters reporter and rescuers? Reuters filed FOIs for months to no avail. Wikileaks released the video.
The problem is our Governments restrict too much information.
Much more than in the past. Even the Vietnam War era, more information got out than now. Now everything is so carefully stage managed that the general population has got no idea what is really going on.
That is not healthy.
Wikileaks would probably not exist but for that fact.
Now any employee of the Government or a company or a department must sign confidentiality agreements to work there. None of them can talk to the media unauthorised.
No information gets out. If someone talks out of turn they are sacked or demoted or isolated or marginalised.
Something had to give somewhere.
Our governments need to be more open and accountable.
But I agree, not everything should be open slather.
It is waay too easy to say : don't release that information, it could endanger lives
that gets said even when no lives are endangered and the only thing on the line is a bureaucrat's pride.
#26
Wikileaks is NO WAY to change the over-classification problem or the system.... if as you say, there is a classification problem. Wikileaks is terrorism in my view.
#27
verbose and wrong is no way to go through life, hon
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2010 20:27
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#28
In a nutshell.
Assange on sex charges.
What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility the prerogative of the harlot through the ages. Stanley Baldwin 1931.
By definition Assange is a harlot. But how is he different from most of the media, other than the fact that his PR would make Barnum and Bailey jealous?
#30
With all due respect, I've been spending the last few years primarily in diaper duty.
Wikileaks disclosed NOTHING that I couldn't have gotten on my own during my kids' nap time. If there were any big "bombshell" disclosures, you haven't been paying attention.
anon1, I think you haven't been paying attention. Considering that you are a long-time poster here, that's one of the few shocking things to come out of this mess to me. (Oh, and I thought Qaddafi preferred Russian nurses to Ukrainians. My bad.)
#31
Comment #16 is NOT the kind of civil, well reasoned discourse that I have come to appreciate on the Burg. I'm offended that you, Oldspook, would be so unchivalrous as to speak to a female in that fashion. Shame on you!
Since Rantburg is read daily by those in power in Washington then why have the mods not dealt with this nonsense? If I use the very same words and phrasing as Oldspook has I will no doubt be banished. His lack of courtesy, lack of imagination in his choice of words and the mods inaction have upset me a lot.
I thought that adults visited and commented on this site but now I see that ill-behaved and undisciplined children are also allowed.
BAH!!!!! Perhaps things will be back to an adult level tomorrow. Perhaps Oldspook will have found the courage and true masculinity to apologize for his outburst, not just to Anon1 with whom, by the way, I rarely agree, but also to us all.
[Emirates 24/7] Abu Dhabi Police have foiled an attempt by two Arab forgerers to circulate fake $14 million and jugged them in a well-planned trap by the police sleuths.
Colonel Saeed Al Nuaimi, Deputy Director of Criminal Investigations Department, said the operation codenamed 'Storm of Black Dollars' which was criminal masterminded by two Arab men - a 49-year-old oil accountant and a 40-year-old businessman - was considered one of the most dangerous crimes of forgery busted recently.
"The criminal laboratory has confirmed the dollar notes were not original and they were nothing more than a package of dollar-sized white and black blank papers," he noted.
The two suspects could face jail terms ranging between 15 years and life imprisonment in addition to finacial fines.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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The FED does this, except that they have top of the line paper money printers, and they do not get jugged for counterfeiting.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/06/2010 2:56
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Yes, Alaska Paul, and $14M is just pocket change.
[Al Jazeera] An FBI informant who attempted to infiltrate an Islamic community centre in the quiet Caliphornian town of Irvine scared Mohammedan worshippers so much with his talk of violent jihad that they took out order against him, the Washington Post reported.
Good for them. That's what we want -- American Muslims protecting the society they joined by rejecting old-world jihadi viciousness.
The FBI claims its use of such informants has prevented more attacks since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
That is, indeed, what the Washington Post has reported over the years.
Yet its officials have said that they do not target Mohammedans - an argument that has long been taken with a dose of scepticism by some commentators.
The latest case follows revelations that a man who tried to bomb a Christmas ceremony in Portland, Oregon, did so not only whilst under FBI surveillance, but had been provided with fake explosives by its undercover agents.
Making matters worse for the agency, Craig Monteilh, the convicted fraudster whom the FBI sent into the mosque to spy on its members, has gone public and is suing the investigative agency.
The two cases are reviving criticisms over the government agency's apparent surveillance of Mohammedans in the US.
Southern Caliphornian Mohammedan community leaders have expressed outrage over the FBI's methods, saying it undermines any efforts to build trust.
"The community feels betrayed," Shakeel Syed, the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern Caliphornia, told the Post.
"They got a guy, a bona fide criminal, and obviously trained him and sent him to infiltrate mosques," Syed was quoted as saying. "And when things went sour, they ditched him and he got mad. It's like a soap opera, for God's sake."
But you are well out of it, Mr. Syed, because your congregation openly rejected the man's attempted seduction to evil. You should be proud of yourselves for what you have demonstrated to your neighbors, your country, and the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
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it undermines any efforts to build trust This is an ambiguous statement. Of course we'd want anyone to distrust someone promoting JIHAD! So what if he's an FBI plant.
Not that the FBI wouldn't ditch an informant in a New York minute, but just what position could they have left him in? Did they tell the guy they would help resettle if things went bad or protect him from court orders or make things right with the Muslim community or something?
The economy, and the fact that they're running out of water...
[Iran Press TV] Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi says the main challenge facing his country is the economic development, and not the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
"Stability is linked to development. Stability cannot be achieved without development," Kurbi said on the sidelines of a security conference in Manama, Bahrain, on Sunday.
The Yemeni top diplomat's comments come as the United States has raised concerns over what it calls the presence of al-Qaeda members in southern Yemen, claiming that the group is trying to use Yemen as a launch pad for terrorist attacks in America.
Kurbi also noted that 30 percent of 23 million population of the country are jobless while the population is constantly on the rise.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the country's oil exports have declined by 50 percent over the past four years, which has drastically affected the government.
The poverty-stricken non-OPEC member produces about 300,000 barrels of oil per day, which accounts for 70 percent of state revenues.
Kurbi said his country is in dire need of economic aid and was counting heavily on the international support group Friends of Yemen meeting, scheduled for late February or early March in Riyadh, Soddy Arabia.
Earlier in September, the foreign minister had said that only 15 percent of about $5.7 billion of aid pledged at the 2006 London conference has been disbursed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Security forces, during a retaliatory action, killed three Islamic fascistiand recovered lethal weapons from their possession on Sunday.
Official sources said that security forces launched a search operation after receiving information about the presence of Islamic fascistiat the mountainous Chor Mak area in Upper Khwazakhela. The security forces, during the search operation, encountered Islamic fascistiand asked them to surrender. Instead, the Islamic fascistishot up the security forces, which, in turn retaliated.
As a result, Azizullah, Gufranullah and Zakrya were killed. The police wanted the outlaws in various cases of heinous nature. Lethal weapons were also recovered from their possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV] Greek police have jugged several people suspected of terrorism and confiscated weapons and explosives around the capital, Athens.
The arrests were made on Saturday after police stormed several homes in Athens and a garage in the district of Nea Smyrni near the Greek capital.
The police said three Kalashnikov assault rifles, three semi-automatic guns, seven handguns, four grenades, 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of industrial-grade ammonium nitrate explosives and 200 grams of TNT were confiscated.
Police also conducted searches in other cities across Greece, AFP reported.
No particular Islamic exemplar group has been officially linked to the arrests yet.
However, The infamous However... police have indicated a link to a Greek group. Three of the people jugged are suspected to be the members of Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.
Last month, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei grabbed credit for a spate of parcel bomb campaigns against European leaders and embassies in Greece after two of its members were jugged.
A far-left group Revolutionary Sect is also among the immediate suspects. The group, which has so far killed two people, has recently claimed to possess a large arsenal and threatened to intensify its attacks on police and journalists.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Were this a few years ago and a financially decrepit Greece not dependent on other Euro nations' largesse, the attacks (since they were directed at foreigners) would've been met with official shrugs.
[Pak Daily Times] Some unidentified gunnies blew up a girls' school in Mohmand Agency, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. According to sources, the gunnies detonated explosives, planted around the girls' school, which was located in the Safi district of the Mohmand Agency. However, The infamous However... no injuries or casualties reported. The gunnies have targeted schools in the area and the toll of the schools blown up in the area has reached 70, the channel reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The only surprise here is that they still have any girls' schools left to blow up.
[Iran Press TV] Iran's deputy foreign minister has decried the production, stockpiling and use of chemical arms, saying Tehran has been a victim of such weapons.
"We are very sensitive about chemical arsenals," said Mohammad Mahdi Akhoundzadeh, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, in an interview with the Dutch newspaper NRC.
The Iranian diplomat is in the Netherlands to attend an annual conference of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
He said Iranian people, who have been victimized by chemical weapons, do not like others to be victimized by the weapons.
In October, the 62nd Session of the OPCW Executive Council issued a landmark declaration condemning Iraq's chemical attacks on Iran's northwestern city of Sardasht in 1987, during the eight year war that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had imposed on the Islamic Theocratic Republic in 1980s.
The initiative for an international support network -- proposed by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki -- was first tabled at OPCW conference in 2007 as the "Chemical Weapons Victim's International Funding and Assistance Network."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Iran Press TV] North Korean media has warned the South against holding more joint military exercises with the United States near their disputed sea border.
"The political situation on the Korean peninsula is reaching an uncontrollable extreme level by the frantic provocations of the puppet group. No one can predict what this situation will turn into," said a news reader on the state television.
South Korea plans to stage a naval firing drill, possibly as soon as Monday.
That is going to be the latest in a flurry of exercises by Seoul after Pyongyang's attack on a South Korean island last month. The maneuvers included joint exercises with the United States.
The North has warned that the situation is reaching an uncontrollably extreme level. It says a war between the two Koreas will seriously affect peace and security not only on the Korean Peninsula but in the entire region.
"We are now maintaining maximum self-possession and self-control. If a full-scale war breaks out between the North and South, it will seriously affect peace and security not only on the Korean Peninsula but in the rest of the region," a statement released by the official KCNA added.
The joint military exercise came after an artillery exchange between the South and the North resulted in the deaths of four South Koreans.
North Korea has warned that the war games could bring the Koreas closer to the brink of war.
Pyongyang accuses US President Barack B.O. Obama of plotting with regional allies to topple the country's government, insisting that its nuclear program is a deterrent against US forces in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > {Gulf Times] SEOUL VOWS TO BATTER NORTH INTO SUBMISSION.
ARTIC = NEW ROK DefMin vows that, iff attacked again by DPRK, THE ROK WILL NOT STOP/CEASE ITS MIL RETALIATION = MILSTRIKES AGZ NORTH UNTIL PYONGYANG SURRENDERS = BOMBED INTO KIMCHEE- WEENIES.
and
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > FORMER USFK COMMANDER: IFF CHINA GOES TO WAR [agz US = US-Allies oer North Korea] WE WILL MAKE IT GO BACK 100 YEARS, espec as per Chin's economy.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > RUSSIA + CHINA IN BIG TROUBLE | US BUILDS ASIAN MILITARY ALLIANCE AGZ CHINA + RUSSIA.
and
* SAME > WIKILEAKS CABLE REVEALS [former Aussie PM] KEVIN RUDD'S PLAN FOR "PARANOID" CHINA + PAKISTAN; + PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > AUSTRALIA WARNED US TO BE PREPARED TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGZ CHINA, espec iff anything went seriously wrong in US campaign agz MilTerrs in AFPAK.
ARTIC > IIUC, EX-AUS PM RUDD > IMO may believe that CHINA + ITS NUC ARSENAL will be next on the MILTERR jihad = hit list once the US-NATO are effec defeated in AFPAK. THE CCCC = now PCS + PLA WILL "HARDEN" THEMSELVES + BECOM MIL BELLIGERENT IN ORDER TO STOP THE MILTERR EXPANSION INTO NUC CHINA, ESPEC IFF THE MILTERRS POSSESS ASYMETRIC NUCMILTECHS.
IOW, POST-AFPAK + US FAILURE = NUC CHINA MAY NEED HELP FROM NUC US-ALLIES/NATO TO STOP NUC TERROR-JIHAD FROM CONQUERING EAST ASIA.
#3
I'm getting very tired of NORK's blabbering, It reminds me of a tree full of monkeys all screaming at the top of their lungs, and just as important.
All it really is is a child screaming for attention.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2010 10:54
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#4
China is in a very thorny situation. The really don;t care what happens to North Korea, but they can't tell the south to outright attack them. Anyone taking bets that we have seen the last Kim succession? If we see a couple high level Rats defect then we will know the time has come.
#5
Bomb their harbors and mine the approaches. See how fast they collapse with no commerce but what comes from Russia and China. Bomb the rail lines coming from those two countries, and NKor will curl up and die.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/06/2010 20:41
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#6
North Korea has warned that the war games could bring the Koreas closer to the brink of war.
#7
ION YONHAP > LEE ORDERS GRADUAL [military]FORTIFICATION OF FIVE WESTERN BORDER ISLANDS, including Yeongpyeong Island.
and
* DAILY TIMES>PK > HU TELLS OBAMA KOREA TENSIONS CAN ESCALATE.
More "2012" - mainstream Amer should expect MORE-N-WORSE MIL INCIDENTS like these to occur throughout the Bammer's term(s) as POTUS, + even after unto 2020-2025.
OOOOOOO, you just knew "HU-WEE-NOT-AND-THE NEWS"
was in there somewhere.
[Iran Press TV] Both candidates in Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election take oaths of office as the Constitutional Council overturned earlier results declaring opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the victor.
The country faces renewed unrest as incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in as the country's president on Saturday even though the electoral commission on Thursday declared Ouattara (Wah-tahr-ah), a former prime minister and top IMF official, the winner with 54 percent of the vote over Gbagbo's 46 percent.
A few hours later, Ouattara also conducted a swearing-in ceremony, putting the two rivals on a collision course.
Officials in Gbagbo's camp have alleged that massive vote fraud had invalidated the original results in most of the opposition strongholds in north of the country.
Ivory Coast's Constitutional Council, reportedly allied with the Gbagbo, annulled vote results in seven provinces in the north, giving the incumbent president just enough margins to win the presidential poll.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... spokespersons for the opposition have warned that any attempt to reverse the original results declared by the election commission would incite further divisions and return the country to civil war.
"We will not recognize any decision by the constitutional council taken under such conditions," said Amadou Gon, a senior aide to Ouattara, in a press briefing.
Ouattara's victory has been backed by the United States and the European Union as well as the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society.
UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon has reportedly expressed a "deep concern" about the Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election. The UN Security Council has warned of possible sanctions against anyone obstructing the will of the voters.
Last Sunday, Ivory Coast held a second-round presidential election in the African country under tight security and an imposed curfew.
There have been violent festivities since October's first round of voting, which set up a competition between President Gbagbo and Ouattara. No candidate won a majority in the first-round voting.
The election has been postponed six times over the past five years due to a political dispute in the country.
The poll is seen as a turning point for the country, torn in two by a 2002-2003 civil war that led to a political deadlock and harshly affected its economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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[Pak Daily Times] Intelligence officials say imported muscle have been slipping back into Iraq in larger numbers recently and may have been behind some of the most devastating attacks this year, reviving a threat the US military believed had been almost entirely eradicated.
Does this mean we ought not leave just yet?
It is impossible to verify the actual numbers of foreign forces of Evil entering the country. But a Middle Eastern intelligence official
What on earth is a "Middle Eastern intelligence official?"
estimated recently that 250 came in October alone. US officials say the figure is far lower, but have acknowledged an increase since August.
At the same time, Iraqi officials say there has been a surge in financial aid to al Qaeda's front group in Iraq as the US military prepares to leave by the end of 2011. They said it reflects fears by Arab states over the growing influence of Iran's Shia-led government over Iraq and its Shia-dominated government.
Wouldn't it be more effective for the Arab states then to make donations to the Iraqi government? That way they would increase Sunni influence over the government, surely.
On Sunday, security official Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said Iraqi forces are searching for six imported muscle who are among Iraq's most wanted terrorists. The six are suspected of involvement in the October 31 siege of a Christian church that left 68 people dead and drew international outrage, al-Moussawi said. They are also suspected in two summertime attacks on an Iraqi army headquarters in central Storied Baghdad that killed a total of 73 people. "All who committed these attacks are (non-Iraqi) Arabs," he said.
That leaves out the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, then.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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With little fanfare, the EU adopted new legislation this week that makes certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia criminal offenses and allows individual EU nations to prosecute the citizens of other nations for those offenses. What the new law will criminalize is analytical, factual, or hortatory discussion of Islam and Sharia by non-Muslims.
Their conclusion is bolstered by recent events. Geert Wilders of the Netherlands is only the most famous of several Europeans who have faced criminal charges for speaking critically of Islam. Another is Austrian journalist and activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, whose trial for hate speech opened in Vienna on November 23. Take a moment to read publicized transcripts of the proceedings; it is worth understanding that Sabaditsch-Wolff is being tried, literally, for quoting both the Koran and an authoritative work on Sunni law, and expressing criticism of the social institutions condoned in those religious texts.
#3
Nope, I read the legislation.
That could get interesting.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2010 12:27
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#4
The funny thing with this regulation is that you could actually use it to ban the Koran.
It will be interesting indeed to see what Geert Wilder makes of it, European Conservative. Only, how to get at the Koran if quoting the Koran to attack the Koran is banned by the regulation?
Bryan Minkyu Martin, assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, is accused of accepting money from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for military information, some of which was classified as top secret, according to the warrant.
Authorities applied for a warrant to search Martin's hotel room in Fort Bragg, his vehicle, financial records and electronic equipment, including cell phones and computers.
Authorities said Martin met with an undercover FBI employee, who was posing as an intelligence officer of a foreign country, in a Spring Lake hotel lobby on Nov. 15.
During the meeting, Martin described his access to military computer systems and named classified network systems he had access to, the warrants said. Authorities said Martin told the agent that he was seeking long-term financial reimbursement.
Perhaps he didn't trust that Social Security funds would be there when he was ready to retire.
Wanted to start a supplemental retirement pension, did he ...
The warrant says that Martin accepted $500 from the undercover agent with the promise of additional money in exchange for documents at their next meeting. Over the next four days, Martin met twice more with the FBI agent at different area hotels, trading documents marked "secret" and "top secret" for two payments of $1,500 each.
In November 2006, Martin signed a counterintelligence brief at the Naval Recruiting District Pittsburgh, which stated that if he is ever contacted by a representative of a communist or hostile government, he is required to report the incident to his commanding officer.
The warrants claim Martin did not contact his commanding officer concerning the contact made with the undercover agent. "Are you a spy? No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!"
#1
Mink Martin meet Julian Assange. Julian Assange meet Mink Martin. Oh... you already know one another. Well here, keep the $500. bucks as a Chinese Christmas gift and small token of our appreciation. I've got another meeting at the Mash House in 30 minutes. See ya's.
#2
Back about 1970, a captured NVA propaganda film showed somebody who looked familiar to the guys at Bragg. Turns out his new gig was teaching Vietnamese at the language program there.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/06/2010 15:21
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#3
I used to work at a subunit. If he had JWICS access like that little buddyfucker Manning allegedly had, he could have done some serious damage, and got operators killed or captured as well as blowing the missions.
I wish they would hang these would-be traitors by their nuts, and hand out bats to the units they compromised so their victims could give them the pinata treatment they so deserve.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Detectives investigating Friday's attacks on coppers are scheduled to hand in their forensic report to the Commissioner of Police on Monday.
The report, compiled by detectives from the Bomb Disposal and Anti-Terrorism Police units, reveals the attackers used grenades whose source is still under investigation.
"Grenades were used in both attacks but police want to know their source," a senior officer, who sought anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter, said.
"A preliminary report is scheduled to be handed over to the Commissioner of Police but a final one will be compiled later after the joint Kenya police and FBI investigation," the officer told the Nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Yemen Post] Four men, standing trail at the Specialized Criminal Court in Hadramout for plotting attacks against foreigners and government officials, on Saturday pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the charges during their opening trial.
The prosecution charged that the four men decided to form a fighting cell to attack foreigners and government officials, but were jugged before carrying out attacks.
Presiding Judge Abdu Awadhi, adjourned the session until December18, to start hearing the prosecution witnesses in the case, a judicial source told The Yemen Post.
Official media accuses the self named southern movement of being in cooperation with Al-Qaeda.
By 2008 Al-Qaeda had regrouped as a Saudi-Yemeni coalition under the name Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with a new desire to target the Yemeni state itself.
Posted by: Fred ||
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One of the early members and co-founders of the tight-knit, secretive WikiLeaks operation charged today that the website and its co-founder, Julian Assange, sold intelligence information the site had obtained.
John Young, whose name was listed as the public face of WikiLeaks in the site's original domain registration, also alleged that the website is a lucrative business.
Young said he left the site in 2007 due to concerns over its finances and that WikiLeaks was engaged in the selling of documents. There's a link to a radio interview at the site.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
12/06/2010
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#1
Oh, I forgot to mention: Hat Tip to Uncle Phester; I'd followed the link and forgotten it came from him. Sorry!
Google Translate
Early in his presidency, Felipe Calderon attempted to negotiate with top drug cartels in Mexico in an attempt to get them to tamp down on the violence, according to a published report by the Mexican weekly Proceso.
Between 2008 and 2009, disgraced Mexican general Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro met with the heads of La Familia, Los Zetas, Beltran-Leyva, the Juarez and the Sinaloa cartels to try to ask them to reduce violence.
The report says that US intelligence services were aware of the meetings, and even had a video of one meeting between Acotsa Chaparro and Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, alias El Lazca, head of Los Zetas, held in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Inasmuch as Acosta Chaparro was an intelligence expert, Caldeon's choice of an emmissary was an astonishing one in view of Acosta Chaparro's past.
The General prosecuted Mexico's Dirty war in the 1960s and 1970s, and until he was selected by Calderon, was facing charges of crimes relating to the war and drug smuggling charges. All of the charges against the general were dropped in exchange for his help in negotiating with the cartels.
A book recently published by Mexican journalist Anabel Hernandez, The Drug Lords, identified one character in the account as "General X". It is now confirmed that Acosta Chaparro was "General X".
#2
Felipe Calderon attempted to negotiate with top drug cartels..
One corrupt caste negotiates with one corrupt cartel. Madero, Diaz, Villa. The names of the actors have changed but its the same story in Mexico as it was a hundred years ago.
[Yemen Post] Five Al-Qaeda suspects handed themselves in to authorities in Yemen's southern Abyan province, bringing the number of the suspects who have surrendered over the last few months to more than 35 suspects.
Local sources said the five included Muhammad Nuairan as the move was the result of coordinated efforts by the local authorities and tribal leaders to convince them to give up.
The surrender comes as the authorities are continuing to surround snuffies under large-scale counterterrorism operations, mainly in southern and southeastern regions, Abyan Governor Ahmed Al-Maisari said.
Furthermore, it was the result of major efforts exerted by the authorities, holy mans, parents and tribal elders to convince all suspects to stop their acts and illegal grouping, he added.
14 suspects were said to have surrendered in November and 15 others in October.
Yemen has been waging a fierce war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, which has been responsible for recent terror plots and attacks in Yemen, the region and the world.
The group was described by the U.S. as more dangerous than the main Al-Qaeda organization of Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Iran said for the first time that it had domestically produced a batch of uranium yellowcake -- the raw material for atomic weapons.
Yesterday's yellowcake announcement removes a key restraint on Tehran, which was previously reliant on 600 tonnes of yellowcake acquired from South Africa in the 1970s, prior to the Islamic revolution. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's atomic programme, struck a triumphalist tone in revealing the development. "The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material," he said. "Iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle, starting from [uranium] exploration, mining and then turning it into yellowcake and converting it."
#1
See also TOPIX [related] > IRAN CLAIMS IT IS CAPABLE OF GOING NUCLEAR, + IRAN BOASTS OF ITS NUCLEAR ABILITIES BEFORE TALKS.
ARTICS = IRAN proclaims it is now de facto NUCWEAPS-CAPABLE, NOT JUST AS PER NUCENERGY, IFF IT SO CHOOSES thanks to newfound nuclear self- sufficiency = nuc independence.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [Missle Defense Agency]US MDA: NO CONFIRMATION OF IRAN MISSLE THREAT, vee alleged receipt of 19 BM-25 IRBMS from NORTH KOREA.
versus
* SAME > WIKILEAKS: WAR AGZ PAKISTAN MILITANTS TO TAKE [as long as] 15 YEARS.
ARTIC = circa 10-15 Years, as per the US Embassy in Islamabad???
[Iran Press TV] Over a hundred people have been killed in festivities between African Union (AU) troops and al-Shaboobs across Somalia during the past three days.
The attacks in the capital Mogadishu -- dubbed as "days of bloody festivities" -- have left at least 50 fighters dead, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said Sunday.
"Several Islamic exemplarbully boyz have been killed in the fighting with only five minor injuries on our own troops," the premier said.
However, The infamous However... some 15 civilians have also bit the dust in the attacks.
Al-Shabaab accuses AU troops of invading the country. The fighters say they will continue their battles until the AU forces withdraw from Somalia.
For months, Mogadishu has been the scene of daily battles between government forces and local fighters -- both of whom are trying to take control of the capital.
Also on Sunday, at least 27 al-Shaboobs were killed in fresh festivities with government-backed troops in the central Somali region of Hiran, Somali government front man Mohamed Nur Dabash told Press TV.
He added that the soldiers were now on the verge of capturing the region from the fighters.
At least 13 government soldiers bit the dust in the festivities as well.
The fresh attacks come as Burundi sent an additional battalion of 850 soldiers to Somalia to bolster the AU peacekeeping mission in the Horn of African country.
The recent deployment brings to about 8,050 the number of AU troops in Somalia.
The other major contributor of AU troops in Somalia is Uganda.
The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia is struggling to hold back al-Shaboobs and to keep Somalia's besieged government in power.
The latest report by the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) says thousands of civilians have been injured in recent months in festivities throughout the country in the Horn of Africa.
Compared to last year, it is an increase of 25 percent in the total number of war casualties and 72 percent in the number of war-maimedwomen and kiddies admitted to hospitals.
Some 4,000 patients with war injuries, among them 1,100 women and kiddies, were taken to Mogadishu's two referral hospitals in 2009.
Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have bit the dust in fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Somalia. More than 300,000 IDPs are sheltered in Mogadishu alone.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions in makeshift camps in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Refugees.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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[Bangla Daily Star] Pirates have hijacked a Bangladesh-flagged ship in the Arabian Sea off the coast of India, shipping officials in Dhaka said yesterday.
"The pirates embarked on board after chasing MV Jahan Moni in the Arabian Sea on Sunday," a senior official at the Bangladesh Shipping Department (BSD) said.
"We have sought help from anti-piracy teams in Dubai and Singapore, and Indian coast guards," Rear Admiral Bazlur Rahman, head of the shipping department told Reuters, without giving further details.
The BSD, an arm of the ministry of shipping, monitors and regulates external shipping and ferry services.
Another BSD official said: "The ship has been captured by the pirates."
The 16-crew ship owned by a Bangladeshi shipping firm was heading towards Europe with merchandise from Singapore, the BSD said. No other details about the ship were available immediately.
Somali pirates are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from seizing ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden , though Sunday's hijack happened around 3,000 km (1,864 miles) east of Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
Hmmm, who to root for here?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2010 12:07
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#2
The Bangladeshis - 'cause they aren't Pakistanis.
#3
Yep, she is - met her backstage at the first big Tea Party rally in San Antonio, in 2009. She was there with her daughter, and added as a last-minute speaker. Very unassuming and charming in person; was raised in Texas and she still lives here, mostly.
Soddy Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for terrorist groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba -- but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to a report by The Guardian quoting Hillary Clinton. ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill...
"More needs to be done since Soddy Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching Islamic fascistiin Pakistain and Afghanistan.
"Donors in Soddy Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of terrorist money -- Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The other major headache for the US in the Gulf region is the UAE. The Afghan Taliban and their partners, the Haqqani network, earn "significant funds" through UAE-based businesses, according to one report. The Taliban extort money from the large Pakhtun community in the UAE.
Kuwait is also described as a "source of funds and a key transit point" for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. While the government has acted against attacks on its own soil, it is "less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and controllers plotting attacks outside of Kuwait".
There is little information about hard boy fundraising in the fourth Gulf country singled out, Qatar, other than to say its "overall level of counter-terrorism cooperation with the US is considered the worst in the region".
Resistance: But foreign leaders have resisted US pressure for more aggressive crackdowns on suspected supporters of terrorism, according to The New York Times. In private meetings, they have accused US officials of pursuing Arab charities and individuals in a heavy-handed manner and on thin evidence.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2010
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#1
If only we didnt need their oil the gloves would be off by now!
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.
* Tourism minister insists diving will continue because 'sharks will not attack divers'
[Pak Daily Times] At least five 
Israel's plan to pull its troops out of northern Ghajar, a disputed village on the flashpoint border with Lebanon, is likely to prove more of a headache than a political victory for Beirut, experts say.
Iran's deputy foreign minister has decried the production, stockpiling and use of chemical arms, saying Tehran has been a victim of such weapons.
One of the early members and co-founders of the tight-knit, secretive WikiLeaks operation charged today that the website and its co-founder, Julian Assange, sold intelligence information the site had obtained.
