From Fred: We're "over the top" by about $75, but there are checks in the mail, one of them for $150 and another for $200. That should cover hosting through March.
When asked about money out of his own pocket for the settlement: Not a bit out of my pocket. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I am.
#1
I am quoting myself now, so there should be no problems....
WELL DONE, RANTBURGERS!
Fred, you can count on your Rantburgers to come to your aid when you need us to. DO NOT feel uncomfortable if you need to do this. We are quite the community, you know. Not like some...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/12/2010 16:37
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#2
I'm kinda new here and I'm glad I found this place.
First time I ever felt the need to contribute to a blog.
Thanks Fred for running this place and keeping it an oasis, in the otherwise wasteland of the internet.
If anything this WrongHaven crisis has pulled our little community closer together.
Karma is a bitch and they will get theirs - soon I hope.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/12/2010 17:30
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#5
I wish I could have helped this time. With the rent in CA and paying our mortgage in CO, we are really stretched thin. I'm glad the 'burgers pulled through though. This site is priceless!
#6
As I recall, you've pitched in before, dear DarthVader, as have so many over the years. Rantburg really is a group project in the very best way. :-) Thank you, Fred, for sharing what started out as a place to keep your notes on the world after 9/11.
Anyone who tells me that this arsehole is not a proxy for the regime and the Mainstream media is living in Delusionia.
This guy is demanding the courts shut down the Drudge Report and turn the domain over to HIM because Drudge HYPERLINKED to the Las Vegas Review Journal from a Denver Post pic on his site. THAT, according to the Legal Arsehole is infringement and it is suing for untold damages citing willful infringement, costs, and an injunction that would allow Righthaven to seize the Drudge Report domain.
If this succeeds - the TOLs Days (and any news discussion forum) are finished and numbered. You can be sued for simply linking TO any mainstream news outlet to reference the news or make your point of discussion.
We knew this was coming.
Copyright troll Righthaven sues for control of Drudge Report domain
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/copyright-troll-righthaven-sues-for-control-of-drudge-report-domain.ars
#13
Someone remind me that is it bad and illegal to execute all these righthaven lawyer fucks, will you?
Thanks TW for the reminder. I mentioned I donated to Rantburg to a liberal family member that was wondering if online news sites could be profitable. She was dumbfounded that a site could break even at least when the MSM sites were going under. I only said they printed news, not gossip and propaganda. To the good fight Fred. I'll send more when I have extra.
#14
Mikey,
I would be stunned if any court took Wronghaven's side on links (unless a judge has been bought & paid for.) Links are the internet age's equivalent of a citation.
#15
I'd look at it this way: When lawyers and journalists and politicians fear a malpractice suit as much as doctors do, we'll be getting somewhere.
Somewhere's a long way off...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/12/2010 20:58
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#16
Someone remind me that is it bad and illegal to execute all these righthaven lawyer fucks, will you?
The mills of justice may grind slowly, but they will grind exceeding small, DarthVader. Matt Drudge's cofounder, as I recall, was Andrew Breitbart, of whom you may have heard. I think we can trust that Mr. Drudge will not enter the tilting field armed with a lollipop.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2010
14:45 ||
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#1
The bottom line is not only should the Jews declare Jerusalem entirely theirs, but they should also nationalize all gentile holy sites, declaring them to be property of the state, though available at generous terms for lease to those who would use them.
This would set up an enormous howl, but the bottom line is that the only foreign territory any nation can permit in its borders are embassies, or very limited treaty use. By not nationalizing them, other religions and countries can pretend that they are their, not Israel's property, and aggress against Israel about them.
#3
As I recall, in June, 1967 Israel declared the united Jerusalem to be their permanent capital, forever and non-negotiable. This has been repeated at intervals since. The mistake in recent years was to open the discussion to a possible division of Jerusalem in the final settlement with the Palestinians, after everything else had been worked out. Not smart. Prime Minister Netanyahu has returned to the original position.
#4
Jerusalem is non-negotiable. Nor is the disarmament of a Paleo state. Sinc bot are non-starters to the Paleos, let's get started on the killing and persuading. The Paleos will only give up on their demands and terrorism when they are TOTALLY demoralized and defeated - at home and among their UN enablers. I suspect it will be tough and a lot of impotent denunciations among posturing coward dictatorships
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2010 21:14
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TEHRAN -- Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has said that improvement of the public transport is the effective solution to the chronic air pollution in Tehran.
"If the public transport system has a sufficient capacity for transportation of passengers in Tehran, then officials can call on citizens to use the public transport when the air pollution reaches high levels," Qalibaf said as he opened a metro station in central Tehran on Saturday.
Heavy air pollution has gripped Tehran over the past few weeks and has not dissipated despite all emergency measures such as closing schools, universities and government offices, imposing special traffic restrictions and spraying water on the capital by airplanes.
Officials have urged the citizens to use the public transport instead of their own cars, but many people prefer to use their cars due to the inefficiency of the public transport system. - Some cars have removed pollution control devices also, however, 90% of the problem is almost certainly due to the gasoline produced in Iran. It has lots of sulfur and heavy metal in it. Mullah officials sometimes defend the gasoline and sometimes blame the US; finally, some rain is expected the next two days which will .- a and finally finally a sports event was postponed because of pollution Dec 10.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2010
11:33 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
11:27 ||
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#1
Just thinking out loud here, but what prevents the R-haven trolls from suing individuals who post on sites like this? Right now they are going for the low lying fruit -- the sites themselves. But that won't last. Sites are quickly wising up and will use the DMCA Safe Harbor and similar defensive tactics.
So, what's next? I'm guessing maybe going after the individuals who post. They won't have DMCA protection. So, file a Doe suit, subpoena the IP logs from the site owner and then hit up individuals for Dane Geld. Worked for the RIAA and MPAA. Same economics apply -- pay us $xxxx to settle or fight in court for $xxxxx.
#2
what prevents the R-haven trolls from suing individuals who post on sites like this?
That's a hornet's nest that even the trolls at R----haven should be afraid to stir up - especially if it appeared that only those on the right were attacked in this way. Most smart commenters also don't post anything but short excerpts from articles, which is "fair use". If R----haven started after individual commenters, it would be time to start a RICO investigation of that vile nest of vipers. If they attacked the left, things could get REALLY nasty.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/12/2010 13:43
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#3
If R----haven started after individual commenters...
Then some of those individuals may decide to visit these vermin personally. It is only a matter of time before someone makes an example out of these scumbags. Right or wrong...just sayin'.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
12/12/2010 15:09
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#4
especially if it appeared that only those on the right were attacked in this way
Actually, they've gone after Democratic Underground which is waaay to the left of the Kos Kiddies.
Which, of course, caused lots of legal and, er, 'moral' support to come forth in its defense.
Sheree J. Wilson aka April Stevens in "Dallas" aka Ashley Taylor in "Fraternity Vacation" aka Alex Cahill in "Walker, Texas Ranger" aka Leslie in "Hellbound" (age 52)
#12
I'm glad I'm not the Architect or Structural Engineer who designed it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/12/2010 18:53
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#13
SteveS: Detroit isn't playing, they already beat the Packers today. It will be the Vikings and the Giants.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/12/2010 19:39
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#14
Caught most of the first Half of the DENVER-ARIZONA GAME today[AM Guam time], wid AZ up 13-3.
Lots of ERRORS + CHALLENGED CALLS for both Teams, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE DENVER'S QB COULDN"T HIT THE SIDE OF A BARN OR THE STADIUM WHILE STANDING ONE FOOT AWAY.
Denver's prob embarrassed this AM - ITS LIKE ASKING R. LEE ERMEY = DRILL SGTS TO BE NICE + SOFT TO RECRUITS!
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army is shipping new rifles to Afghanistan that will enable snipers to hit a target nearly 4,000 feet away, officials said. The XM2010 rifle can hit targets a quarter-mile farther away than the weapon currently in use, USA Today reported.
Officials said the extra range is important because insurgents firing down from ridges and mountaintops take advantage of gravity, which helps their bullets travel beyond the range of Army snipers."They're not outgunning us, but they are putting our soldiers in a predicament where 800 meters (2,625 feet) may not be enough," said Col. Douglas Tamilio, referring to the maximum range of the current M24 sniper rifle. "You want to give guys the capability to do those things they need to do at those ranges."
Afghan insurgents are also more willing to shoot at U.S. troops than previously. Gunfire attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan spiked over the past year since topping 1,000 attacks in July 2009.
The new rifles also have a more powerful scope, and incorporate a muzzle flash device that dampens the noise and flash of a shot.
The Army's 2,500 snipers will start receiving the new weapons early next year. The current sniper rifle has been in service since 1988.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/12/2010 14:40
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#3
1.2 miles is impressive, as a standard issue rifle, but I would augment it with one, extra special rifle, for the "first chair" sniper in unit.
This rifle is a .300 Winchester Magnum, so I would kick that one up to .50 cal, like a Barrett M82, which would give that sniper an additional 1,900 feet (5,906 ft) effective range.
#5
The US government purchased MK 248 MOD 1 .300 Winchester Magnum match-grade ammunition for use in .300 Winchester Magnum sniper rifles like the U.S. Navy Mk.13 SWS or reconfigured M24 SWS's. This ammunition was developed as a .300 Winchester Magnum Match Product Improvement (PIP) and uses the 14.26 g (220 gr) Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT) very-low-drag bullet fired at a nominal muzzle velocity of 869 m/s (2,850 ft/s) ± 15.2 m/s (50 ft/s).
I confirmed this information in 3 different articles including:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM2010
Anyone familiar with this bullet would know that it is a target round and not designed to expand or explode on impact. But I find it hard to believe it could be Nato approved. Human rights activists will be howling themselves into spasms and convultions over the hollow point design.
A memeber of Islamic Jihad detained by the Palestinian Authority was hospitalized due to torture, according to his family.
On Sunday, relatives of Muhammad Jamal Sa'di said he was detained 12 days ago by PA forces in Jenin, and that his interrogators tortured him every day. The 21-year-old had been released from Israeli prison just two months ago, after spending over four years in detention, said Islamic Jihad.
#1
To quote Will Smith, "You pissing everybody off today, huh?"
Bet he never played nicely on the playground when he was a kid either.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
12/12/2010 11:05
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#2
He's pro'ly wishing he'd been pinched by the Israelis ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2010 11:09
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#3
He's pro'ly wishing he'd been pinched by the Israelis
... and that his interrogators tortured him every day
I am pretty sure that the Israelis don't torture on the Sabbath, so you are probably right. :-)
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
12/12/2010 11:13
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#4
After four years in the juice control, they prolly figgered the juice had converted him to spy for them. Gotta be sure he's still 'holy' before putting him back to work!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2010 11:36
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#4
I read the first page and once again the NYT proves itself to be the worst sort of radical-left rag. The supposed 'victim'- Mr. Singer- doesn't know if he got the best possible deal.
Poor transparency? Yes. Should this be attended to? Most likely. Crime of the century? Not in the least- just envy-politics masquerading as journalism.
Anticipating a decision on the motion for summary judgment in the Virginia AGs challenge to the Affordable Care Act soon, the White House issued a fact sheet conceding that, should the individual mandate be held unconstitutional, the regulations being imposed on insurance companies would also fall.
#3
I had the pleasure of hearing Ken Cuccinelli (the Virginia Attorney General) at a Tea Party meeting a few months ago. He explained the rationale for the suit, and some of the legal history. After his talk, I told him that I was concerned that even if he won the suit, all it would accomplish would be to eliminate that clause from the 1800 pages of the bill. He replied that there was no severability clause in the bill, so if the individual mandate was thrown out, the whole bill would be thrown out. Since the White House now acknowledges that as well, he was definitely right.
Personally, this looks like a rookie mistake on the part of the Democrats. I mean, even apartment leases have severability clauses. You can be sure that if they are paying attention, they won't repeat it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/12/2010 15:06
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#4
Note that the position of the White House is untenable in a legal sense: Oh wait, we forgot to include a serability clause in the bill but some portions are actually severable while others really aren't and if the court does X they must therefore do Y (because we say so) but under no circumstances will they do Z. The judge will thus be required to not only invent a severability clause but to determine the intent of Congress in applying it very selectively to some provisions but not others.
In point of fact the odds are good that all of the bill will be upheld (I'd say 90%), are much better that should the individual mandate fall nothing else will fall with it (99%) and overwhelming that the vast majority of the bill will stand (99.9999%). Hoping that a legislative oversight will induce the courts to vitiate such a massive piece of legislation in its entirety is something of a fool's errand.
#6
Yes but what about the exemptions; just how legal is it for the executive branch to pick and choose which parts of a Congressional law will or will not be applied to whom?
#9
TW - Legislation is, by definition, "legally viable" if Congress chooses to pass it and the President chooses to sign it. At that point the odds are quite long against it being overturned even in part as the courts allow Congress broad deference in what may be legislated. Should any portion of the legislation be overturned the courts will attempt to preserve as much of the remainder as possible. Thats been federal court doctrine for decades and new rules aren't about to spring into being now.
Should the individual mandate fall, would a District Court judge really invalidate the other 1800 pages of legislation along with it on the grounds that no severability clause was included? Moving up the food chain, would a Circuit Court judge allow that much legislative effort to be tossed out on what they will surely deem a technicality? Again, the odds are very long against it. Ditto the inevitable en banc rehearing and eventual Supreme Court review. The courts have, sadly, become the guardians of government authority rather than our rights and will find a way to preserve as much of what was passed as possible. The decision will include the idea that Congress will of course fix whatever problems arise with the remaining portion.
One might even question whether the omission of a severability clause was intentional. Without the individual mandate as cover it might have been difficult to justify the subsidies to be extended to those earning up to 400% of the poverty level as it would then be blatantly obvious to everyone that such were merely a new welfare program that would encompass at least 2/3 of the American people. But the individual mandate is clearly an unprecedented expansion of federal power and therefore at risk for being overturned. And the individual mandate was the shiny object held forth before the insurance companies to purchase their cooperation in the whole sordid affair. What to do?
Why not toss the whole mess into the courts with no severability clause on the assumption that this would place extreme political pressure on upwardly mobile judges to uphold the whole package? No judge with ambitions of holding a higher (or another for that matter) federal office would touch with the proverbial ten foot pole the idea of gutting legislation the Democrats have coveted for at least three quarters of a century. It would take a rather extraordinary string of judges willing to flush their future ambitions down the toilet in order for that to happen.
The White House position on severability is interesting. For them removal of the individual mandate might be a very good thing if the courts buy their reasoning and toss out the insurance company regulation as well. That would remove a huge burden from their buddies in the insurance industry and placate some on the right while leaving in place the new welfare program for most of the population of the US which was the core of their ambition. This is the least likely outcome I think, much more likely any changes will be very narrow and targeted only to the individual mandate with the remainder left in place and essentially kicked back to Congress for repair.
Normally this event would qualify the lad as a late entry into this year's Darwin Award, but the fact that he could breach all the legions of checkers and security reveals the farce that TSA has foisted upon the public as high drama and low substance.
#1
TSA merely saw a possible Somali male walking on the runway and were too busy with granny in the wheelchair.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/12/2010 10:23
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#2
I'll bet that was a horrible way to die for the poor kid. My prayers for the family and my gratitude that some of the foolish decisions I made as a teen didn't go as terribly wrong as this.
#4
Ditto here, my house is also in the path of the runway into Logan. The planes fly so close on final approach or after takeoff, some days you can see the dirt marks on the undercarriage. I won't look at them the same way again.
What a horrible way to die. My prayers go out to the family.
#6
I doubt he froze before oxygen deprivation got him.
These wheel well suicides happen way too often. You would think that the airlines would come up with a cheap fix to prevent that. If for no other reason than to protect their landing gear.
A hat tip to Nota Roja for additional details.
As many as 13 individuals have died in a gang on gang assault in Tecalitlan, Jalisco Friday night, according to Mexican news accounts.
A group of armed suspects parked vehicles near the corner of Ponce de Leon and Avila Camacho near where about 500 people were attending a mariachi music concert celebrating Virgin of Guadalupe and began firing assault rifles into the crowd.
Although initial reports by the Jalisco attorney general said the shooting was an intergang firefight, it was later found none of the victims were armed or returned fire.
A total of eight people were killed in the attack and another 37 were wounded. The assault included assault rifle fire as well as a hand grenade. Among the dead was a two year old male child.
Two more individuals died from gunshot wounds sustained in the attack. One at a Tecalitlan medical clinic and the other at a regional hospital in nearby Ciudad Guzman. A third victim was found dead aboard a stolen Mazda pickup truck on Kilometer 139 of the Tecalitlan-Tuxpan highway.
Investigators at the scene found more than 500 casings for AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, and for 9mm and Super 38 pistols.
Reports suggest La Familia from the adjacent state of Michoacan drug cartel is responsible for the attack.
Naushad Valiyani was detained on Friday following a complaint by a medical representative who visited the doctor in the city of Hyderabad.
"The arrest was made after the complainant told the police that Valiyani threw his business card, which had his full name, Muhammad Faizan, in a dustbin during a visit to his clinic," regional police chief Mushtaq Shah told AFP.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/12/2010
09:20 ||
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The blasts on Saturday took place after Swedish news agency TT said it received a threatening letter about Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and a years-old case of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
Asked if a man found dead at the site of the second blast went kaboom!" in some way, police front man Kjell Lindgren said: "It is possible."
The incident began when a car burst into flames in the city centre, followed by kabooms from within the car which the police said were caused by gas canisters.
Another kaboom took place, in which the man died, about 300 metres (yards) away. Two people were maimed in that blast.
"Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm. Failed - but could have been truly catastrophic," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a message on Twitter, which was also shown on his blog.
Investigations were underway to see if the two incidents were linked, Lindgren said.
Several hours after the blast, the man's body was still lying on the pavement, covered with a white sheet.
"Just lie there quietly, buddy. We've got more important things to attend to just now."
Police vans had cordoned off several streets around the body and the car had been towed away. Elsewhere, the city centre was calm, with people having a normal Saturday night out.
One man said: "It looked as if the man had carried something that went kaboom! in his stomach".
"He had no injuries to the face or body in general and the shops around were not damaged."
He also had a rucksack full of nails and suspected kaboom, the newspaper said. It also quoted eyewitnesses saying the man was shouting in what was apparently Arabic.
The police declined to comment on that report.
TT said the email it received was also sent to the Security Police, which confirmed it had received such a communication, but declined to reveal its contents.
TT said the email had sound files in Swedish and Arabic.
"Our actions will speak for themselves, as long as you do not end your war against Islam and humiliation of the Prophet and your stupid support for the pig Vilks," TT quoted a man as saying in one of the recordings.
TT said the threat was linked to Sweden's contribution to the U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan, where it has 500 soldiers, mainly in the north.
It also referred to caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet with the body of a dog in a cartoon in 2007.
Most Mohammedans consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.
"This is the first casualty of my project," said Mr Vilks. "It was an act against the Swedish people to scare them and not to me. The good news was that a terrorist died and not someone else."
Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. terrorism consultant, said a small snuffy Islamic community had been based in Sweden for some time. But she thought that the Saturday incident, if an attack, was one man's work.
"However, The infamous However... given the scale of this attack and the target, I suspect this is a homegrown local cut-thoat who may or may not have connections to any actual terrorist organization."
"We've seen a flurry of attempted attacks across northern Europe by similar lone wolf snuffies who were, in one way or another, enraged by the Cartoon controversy."
Lindgren said it was not clear what caused the car to explode. After the first kaboom, the gas canisters caused smaller blasts, he said.
Gas canisters were also part of the homemade bomb which failed to avoid in Times Square in 2010 and when a jeep was rammed into Glasgow airport in 2007.
#6
...ah, he'd be buried under the stories on the bratty rioters throwing their temper tantrum. The whole purpose is notoriety. He's making a far bigger 'splash' in Sweden.
#10
It appears I was wrong yesterday in assuming that this one was a better chemist than Faisal the Fizzle Bomber. Surely both car bomb and suicide vest were intended to create vast destruction and death (as was the Times Square car bomb). Although both car and vest did explode, it was probably due to better materials (the FBI has made the good stuff unavailable to the general public in the U.S.), rather than better assembly.
On the other hand Stockholm's bomber at least had the courage of his convictions, unlike poor Mr. Faisal.
#13
Tipper, I clicked on your links. Facebook has already taken his page down. "Muslima" has not (so far).
Nice guy - murdering strangers is more important to him than caring for his 2 daughters. Guess they're lucky they're girls; he would have probably taken sons with him on his murder/suicide trip jihad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/12/2010 15:47
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#14
Most Mohammedans consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive justification for mass murder.
#18
According to the Daily Mail, the gentleman in question took a degree in sports therapy from Bedfordshire University in 2004, is 29 years old, and was born in Iraq. He was looking for a second wife on the Muslima site, claiming his first wife had agreed... quite illegal in both England and Sweden, I should think. The kaboomed car was registered to him, and he worked as a sandwich board man for a nearby fish'n'chips shop. It seems the bomber was not quite dead when he was found.
#21
"Just a preview of the rest of eternity for him, Barbara, should all that Hell stuff be true."
Cockles. Warm. Heart. :-D
Thanks, tw.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/12/2010 18:41
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#22
The thought seemed to merit sharing, Barbara dear. The alternative is that he'll end up in his Muslim Paradise without any abdominal muscles, facing all those demanding houris. I wouldn't venture to say which is truly worse.
White Sands Missile Range - The U.S. Army is developing applications for cell phones that will provide soldiers in the field with tools that will help them identify enemies, manage injuries, pinpoint locations and get a better handle on their surroundings. Wednesday's training mission took soldiers to the Cox Ranch on White Sands Missile Range to roust three 'insurgents.'
"We are using an area where there is no Sprint (cell phone service) or whatever," McCarthy said. "We are testing our own network and the functionality of the phones."
The phones used by the soldiers will have their own network source. The cell towers are low profile, no more than 3 1/2 feet tall, and can be moved on the back of a Humvee. The Army is using commercially available products that are much cheaper than those made to order. Data will not be stored on the phones. If they get into enemy hands, they can be turned off remotely or even monitored to see who the enemy is calling or texting. They can also be erased remotely. Perhaps they can also be detonated remotely if they get into enemy hands.
#1
Load the phones with pron, put them where the enemy can pick them up. Then when the enemy is absorbed looking at them, call in an arclight on their position.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/12/2010 16:24
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Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
12/12/2010
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#1
Stuxnet is taking out the centrifuges (some accounts say by half) by causing the control software to alternate between speeding up and slowing down the rate of spin while reporting constant RPMs to the monitoring software. That plays heck with the bearings.
Merry Christmas and happy Festival of Lights.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
12/12/2010 10:12
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#2
TW was one of the first as I recall to mention this little bugger. Here is a interesting site to review current thoughts on it;
I remember India was hit hardest at first then Iran. The hits were across the globe and along the equator. Not Russia, China, North Korea,and Germany to name a few.
#3
Irans anti-worm effort may have had another setback. In Tehran, men on motorcycles attacked two leading nuclear scientists on their way to work. One scientist was wounded and the other killed. Confirmed reports say that the murdered scientist was in charge of dealing with the Stuxnet virus at the nuclear plants.
Halliburton Mysterious Conspiracy Division? Couldn't be the CIA.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2010 11:52
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#4
The STUXNET virus was introduced into the Iranian system more than 2 years ago. I wonder what the authors of the virus have been doing for the past couple of years?
At least two missiles that the Iranians tested last year went completely out of control and hit populated areas. I suspect maybe other worm family members may be breeding their defence system.
#6
STUXNET was a large software deveopment project, much different than the normal worm developed by some individual. It was well thought out, the software development team that was put together were very good software people and the testing (QA) was done in a test environment that emulated the real environment in Iran.
Now that weapon systems and nuclear systems are computerized, this will be a new way of striking down those systems.
#7
...and If it was NASA or major new US scientific military agency, it was done during the Bush Administration, which would be a huge military innovative tribute to the Bush Administration that we are only now learning about.
#9
TW was one of the first as I recall to mention this little bugger.
Surely not, Dale, given all the hot programmers and systems security people that hang around Rantburg, and are on all those fascinating (and incomprehensible to us lesser mortals) listserves.
#10
Optimally, I suppose, would be to have somebody in Iran, who continues to feed Stuxnet and variants into the system when it is purged. Maybe even unknowingly.
#12
A group I subscribe to (conspiracy theorists they're not, just a bunch of dull 'BACnet' guys) still has folks that believe the worm may have been burned into any number of the machine controllers' circuit board ROMs at the chip manufacturer(s).
That would indeed be a nasty bit of 'corrective action' for anyone.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/12/2010 16:43
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#13
Too bad they could not get it into the engine computers of the Iranian Republican Guard and the regime.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/12/2010 16:43
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"in 2009, a year before Stuxnet was discovered, Scott Borg of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit (US-CCU) had suggested that Israel might prefer to mount a cyber-attack rather than a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.[56] According to Borg this kind of attack could involve disrupting sensitive equipment such as centrifuges using malware introduced via infected memory sticks: "Since the autumn of 2002, I have regularly predicted that this sort of cyber-attack tool would eventually be developed ... Israel certainly has the ability to create Stuxnet and there is little downside to such an attack, because it would be virtually impossible to prove who did it. So a tool like Stuxnet is Israel's obvious weapon of choice."[20"
I especially like the fact they are quoting a Borg.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2010 17:47
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#15
I have been unduly gleeful about it, though.
Me, too. Assuming cackling is any measure of gleefulness. And instead of unduly, perhaps vicariously is the word you are looking for, TW?
#16
And instead of unduly, perhaps vicariously is the word you are looking for, TW?
Perhaps you're right, gorb. But so much of my life is vicarious -- while you-all go out and make waves in the world, I make tea and appreciate the stories that result.
#17
Not necessarily connected, but...hmmm.
A year or so back, in an aerial parade or whatever they have, an Iranian F5 ran into and destroyed one of their few aerial tankers.
Something odd, or, as a person put it years ago, sometimes there really are coincidences.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/12/2010 19:48
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#18
Well structured test engineering is the most underutilized tool in the SDLC. Panda 5039 makes an important point.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/12/2010 20:29
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#19
"That plays heck wid the Bearings" > Agreed.
Reminds me of WW2 + the 8th USAF's big raids agz SCHWEINFURT + HAMBURG.
See also the repeats of "BATTLE 360" CGI Show on the HISTORY CHANNEL.
* ION DAILY TIMES.PK > {Israeli DM] IRAN NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN STILL AT DIPLOMACY STAGE [UNO Sanctions may still have effect].
#3
FTA: The Central England Temperature record, the oldest in the world, showed the fortnight covering the end of November and start of December as the coldest ever since the daily record began in 1772.
#5
None of this, however, remotely concerned the warmists, who were in fuller cry than ever. In the Mexican resort of Cancun (where, for six days running, local temperatures also fell to their lowest, for the date, since records began 100 years ago)
Translation
Don't bother me with facts, my mind is made up.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/12/2010 11:30
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#6
Despite the article headlne, I cannot find any direct reference to Windmills, wind geneators or towers.
And nothing about water pumping windmills.
(The best windmill use in rural African vilages)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/12/2010 11:35
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#7
Redneck Jim , well spotted.
Here is correct link.
#8
Actually, small scale wind power could be of great benefit in rural Africa, both for pumping and for power generation. I use three power generating windmills at my ranch and, when the wind is up, they charge up my battery bank nicely.
However, when I say "small scale," I mean "small scale." Give an isolated village a unit capable of producing 30 Amps in 30 mph wind, a 60 amp bank of solar panels, regulators, an inverter, and a decent well-cell battery bank, and they can have lights, satellite TV, the Internet, shortwave, and all sorts of other things.
However, I'm quite dubious of both the morality and actual feasibility of a "smart grid" or "green grid." We should be using these technologies to decentralize, not create dependency. And they are still Hippie Power: they work when they work, and don't when they don't.
And, in Africa, you have to be careful which type of village you give them to. There is a minimal of social cohesion and prosperity necessary. If the choice is between starving to death and selling your windmill, you sell your windmill. If you don't give a damn what happens to your village, you sell your windmill. Etc etc... Zimbabwe.
#9
Actually, small scale wind power could be of great benefit in rural Africa, both for pumping and for power generation.
Absolutely true though what, precisely, African villages would power with the windmills is another question. Many, if not most, would benefit much more from a water well and in a world of limited resources that should be a priority.
#10
Are they mad? Britain is going broke, and they generate funds to be spent on new projects that have no local benefit? If they keep this up, they'll be fighting the next election against the EDL!
#11
Absolutely true though what, precisely, African villages would power with the windmills is another question
Internet access. Shortwave radios. Lights. Communications of various sorts. How about a tiny electric pickup truck for use around the village? Doesn't have to be more complex than a golf cart. The list is endless - though you're right that clean is water is more important.
Frankly, with 30 amps of power comes the ability to step up into the modern world, educate yourself, and better the lot of your children.
Think of it this way: you have chickens. Your pretty good with chickens, but there are things you don't know. Last week your chickens started eating their own eggs. This is a bad thing, because your daughter's diet is partially egg based, and she is quite healthy. So you go onto the Web for advice. You learn that your chicken coop is too small. You learn that they need to roost higher. You learn that they need more muscle shell in their diet. You fix these problems, and your child goes on eating well & being healthy.
#12
Nice thought but Internet access requires computers and software and servers and, in remote locations, radio links and someone who can maintain and operate it all. I'd think that those sorts of skill sets aren't going to be widely available in locales where they haven't discovered how to dig water wells yet. And everything else you've mentioned costs money which those folks don't have, both initially to implement then the constant ongoing costs of maintaining everything.
I love the idea but I'm skeptical about skipping right over all of those centuries of development and diving right into the modern era when even the most basic necessitites are still lacking in so much of the third world.
#2
Interesting news, but not exactly on topic as Gromky notes. Question for Texas is who do the elect as Speaker - the RINO insider old-boy who got there last time with Dem votes and awarded half the chairmanships to Dems, or a conservative?
I posted this one, but I'll admit it's pretty far afield. I thought that this could possibly lead to challenges to Obama on border policy or that the comments could possibly prove educational in some unforseen way. But it's a stretch, so I'll work on keeping my posts more WoT-focused.
What happened to my posting name is a mystery to me though.
#6
Too often, Rantburg gets used as an "interesting link of the day" dumping ground. It sucks. I come here for WoT news, and no other. When I want links, I go elsewhere. Not Rantburg.
Which is why Fred sorted the important stories to the first two pages, making it easy for those like gromky with limited time and/or more focussed interest. A thoughtful man, our Mr. Pruitt.
#1
Yes, and when a plot actually succeeds, they will chide the FBI and ask "Where were you?". Answer, "we were busy dealing with those we knew to be plotting and aspiring to commit terror.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/12/2010 10:35
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[Al Jazeera] The US attorney-general has defended the use of sting operations involving government informants, saying they are an "essential" tool in preventing attacks.
Addressing a Mohammedan community group near San Francisco on Friday, Eric Inaction Jackson Holder said he would make "no apologies" for a sting operation in which a Mohammedan was jugged while trying to detonate a fake bomb last month.
"These types of operations have proven to be an essential law enforcement tool in uncovering and preventing potential terror attacks," Holder told the annual dinner of Mohammedan Advocates.
Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was charged last month with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony after he tried to blow up what he thought was a car boom, supplied to him by undercover agents.
Mohamud's lawyer has said agents were "grooming" his client for arrest and seeking publicity, a position which taps into concerns that Mohammedans in the US are being targeted and stereotyped by authorities.
"I make no apologies for how the FBI agents handled their work in executing the operation," Holder said according to an advance copy of his speech.
"Those who characterise the FBI's activities in this case as 'entrapment' simply do not have their facts straight - or do not have a full understanding of the law."
A Baltimore man also was jugged earlier this week on charges he plotted to detonate a vehicle bomb at an armed forces recruiting centre in a separate case involving an undercover FBI agent.
Holder's speech was focused on a call for better relations between Mohammedans and law enforcement and a promise to prosecute hate crimes.
He acknowledged that some Mohammedans and Arab Americans felt they were not being treated respectfully by authorities and other Americans, and said the government should reach out to those communities even as it pursues "potential terrorists".
The FBI claims its use of informants has prevented numerous attacks since the events of September 11, 2001.
However, The infamous However... Mohammedan Advocacy is just one of several Mohammedan groups voicing concerns over the tactic.
"The relationship with law enforcement right now is tense," Ibrahim Hooper, the front man for the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... told Washington Post in October.
"There's a sense of being under siege in many Mohammedan communities. People just assume there are agents or informants in their mosque now. It's a fact of life."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
I always assume the guy sitting next to me in church is an informer.
But then, I don't worry about him trying to kill me.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2010 11:46
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#2
There are informants in every mosque. Remember that Abu the next time you even think about acting on the precepts of your killer cult.
An terrorist insurgent ambush left one security ranger dead and three wounded in Yala province yesterday.
Seven men of the 47th Ranger Regiment's peace building unit were patrolling a village road when gunmen hiding in the brush at the side of the road fired shots at them. The unit returned fire and a ten minute gunfight began during which one army corporal and three paramilitary rangers were wounded. Shortly after the ambush, police and military forces spread out across the area searching for the suspects.
Security officers believe the attack was the work of the terrorist insurgent group headed by Abdulraumae Mini, a leading member of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist movement. They had received information that Mr Abdulraumae's group, active in the area, was preparing an attack.
In Narathiwat province, a powerful bomb exploded on a road just before a security patrol reached the area. An eight-member unit from the 34th Narathiwat Task Force was moving by pick-up truck when the bomb, hidden near a power pole, went off about five meters from their vehicle. Nobody was injured.
[Al Jazeera] At least 47 people have been killed, more than a dozen of them civilians, in violence across Afghanistan ahead of a planned US review of its strategy in the near decade-long conflict.
In one incident on Saturday, a NATO air raid killed at least 25 suspected fighters in eastern Afghanistan.
Officials said a NATO force out on patrol had called in air support after encountering an "imminent threat" from fighters in the Nari district of Kunar province, ... which is right down the road from Binny's house in Chitral... which has been the scene of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... along the Pak border.
Elsewhere, in southern Afghanistan, a roadside kaboom killed 15 civilians and a car boommaimed five police.
In Kandahar, a jacket wallah driving a police car maimed nine people, when the car went kaboom! near a police headquarters.
The blast blew out the windows of buildings up to a kilometre and a half away, officials said.
Street protest
In the east, seven men died in a disputed incident that sent hundreds pouring onto the streets of Gardez city in a protest that turned violent.
Armed police and protesters fired at each other and burning tyre barricades filled the streets with smoke. Six civilians and two coppers were maimed, said Nader Noori, doctor at the Gardez hospital.
Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... continues in the east even though the main focus of the war is in the south where NATO forces have pushed deeper into Taliban strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
The violence comes as Barack B.O. Obama, the US president, prepares to unveil a review of his Afghanistan war strategy next week, although officials have said they do not expect it to result in any major policy shifts.
Obama has pledged to start bringing home US troops from July 2011, but has not yet decided on the pace or scale of that withdrawal.
Any draw down is likely to be more symbolic than substantial, but his 2011 target has drawn criticism from some Republicans who say announcing a date emboldens the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Any draw down is likely to be more symbolic than substantial, but his 2011 target has drawn criticism from some Republicans ... and any six year old who say announcing a date emboldens the Taliban.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
12/12/2010 10:20
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[Pak Daily Times] Police in northwestern Pakistain on Saturday seized a pick-up truck packed with a tonne of explosives, averting an attack that they said could have caused mass destruction. Dilawar Bangash, a local police chief in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... said the attackers intended to use the truck bomb to target religious processions in the city of Kohat marking the holy month of Muharram. Two suspects were jugged, he said, adding that two boom jackets were also seized in the operation. "Thank God, they failed to carry out the attack. It could have caused massive destruction," Khalid Umarzai, local administration chief told a private TV channel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The EDL has muslim members. A UK documentary revealed that they are very loosely organized, and get together only to prevent extremist protest against UK troops. There is really nobody in authority who could invite the koran burner. In any case, the Florida cleric doesn't even have tax free status. He lost it when he started to use his 50 member flock to provide free labor to his furniture business.
#4
Tax exempt or not, Jones is a canary in the coal mine.
He was bullied by the government into submitting to 'Rushdie Rules.' The net effect of NATO's military presence in Afghanistan is that the Afghans get to dictate the scope of civil liberties in the west.
During the cold war the west was facing an adversary with a vast conventional and nuclear arsenal. Yet an intellectual surrender of this nature would have been unthinkable.
Now burning the Koran is verboten. What will be next?
Protests against the Ground Zero Mosque?
Strip clubs near the Ground Zero Mosque?
Cartoons, novels, movies etc?
I'm pretty certain that any of these would offend and inflame the Muslim world and especially the Afghans.
[Pak Daily Times] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti said on Saturday that dialogues with snuffies were impossible.
"There is no room for dialogues with snuffies who were shedding the blood of innocent people. Doors of reconciliation are only open in case they surrender, accept the writ of the government, law and constitution and guarantee peaceful living," he said after inaugurating Government College of Management Sciences in Mardan.
"We are at war," he said, adding that spreading chaos in Hangu and Kohat during the sacred month of Muharram is regrettable. He said concerted efforts had been made in collaboration with Shia and Sunni holy mans to curb terrorism.
The chief minister clarified that US Counsel General Elizabeth Rood went back home for personal reasons. "Her performance during her stay in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar was brilliant and she was too active during floods." Local media reports said on Saturday that she allegedly "received threats from Taliban" and "requested the State Department to relieve her of her job in Peshawar." She was recently deputed in Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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[Al Jazeera] A prominent Iraqi Kurdish leader has called for the right to self-determination for his region, the AFP news agency says.
Massoud Barzani's remarks on Saturday came as Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister-designate, is attempting to form a cabinet, in which Barzani's bloc is expected to obtain several ministerial posts.
Speaking at a congress of his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Barzani said "the issue of self-determination", which he considered "a right", would be presented to those attending the conference "to be studied and discussed".
Iraq's Kurdistan region remains mired in disputes with central government authorities in Storied Baghdad over land and oil revenues.
The comments mark the first time Barzani has officially presented the issue to the KDP's congress, with the proposal set to be voted on during the party's week-long meeting.
Among those in attendance during Barzani's address were al-Maliki, as well as President Jalal Talabani, a fellow Kurd, Osama al-Nujaifi, the speaker of parliament, and Iyad Allawi, whose Iraqiya bloc won the most seats in Iraq's parliamentary elections in March.
Members attending the congress, the first of its kind since 1999, are to elect around 50 new members to the KDP's top leadership committee.
Al-Maliki, who was awarded the premiership on November 25, has two more weeks in which he must form a cabinet. Iraq has been without a new government since the March polls.
Barzani's KDP is a key member of al-Maliki's governing coalition, and the Kurdish leader played a major role in bringing Iraq's divided political factions together to agree a power-sharing deal last month.
Disputes
Iraq's Kurdish north, made up of three provinces, has its own parliament and exerts control over all areas of policy - except for national defence and foreign affairs.
It is currently in dispute with Iraq's central government in Storied Baghdad over two main issues: a land dispute centred around the ethnically-mixed oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the distribution of revenues from the region's energy reserves.
Arbil claims Kirkuk and parts of three neighbouring provinces, and has attempted signing its own deals with international energy firms without consulting Storied Baghdad, both of which central government authorities contest.
On the subject of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Barzani pointedly told the audience that "when it returns to the region ... we will make Kirkuk an example of coexistance, forgiveness and joint administration, but we cannot bargain on its identity".
The region first attained a modicum of autonomy in 1974, but Barzani's father and then-leader of the KDP, Mulla Mustafa Barzani, returned to war with the Storied Baghdad government instead of accepting limited autonomy.
Kurdistan won greater freedom after the 1991 Gulf War, but Barzani and Talabani, the region's other dominant political leader, remained at loggerheads.
A power-sharing deal was eventually struck between their two blocs and today, Barzani is seen as the dominant part of the pair.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
On the briefing on Islamic law, Amri disclosed that the new RM2.5mil State Islamic Moral Rehabilitation Centre building in Kimanis would be ready by January.
That sounds like the location all the party people will be at.
[Iran Press TV] The Taliban claim they have killed 14 members of the Afghan national police at a police checkpoint in the northern part of the country.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid told the Afghan Islamic Press that the hard boyz fatally shot 14 coppers on Saturday during an attack on a checkpoint in Baghlan province.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident but rejected the alleged corpse count.
In another incident on the same day, nine coppers were kidnapped after their remote post was overrun by hard boyz in Balkh province.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and Soviet troops withdrew from the country in February 1989, after a little less than nine years and two months of war.
The United States and some of its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001. The US-led troops have now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than the Soviet occupation and war.
2010 has been the deadliest year of the nine-year war in Afghanistan, with casualties among civilians and foreign troops at record levels, mainly due to an increase in Taliban attacks.
As casualties have risen in Afghanistan over the past few months, public opinion has begun turning against the war in the United States and other countries.
In addition, hundreds of civilians have bit the dust in US-led operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming more and more outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Chosun Ilbo] The Unification Ministry on Wednesday released a new white paper which states that the Sunshine Policy of engagement with North Korea has failed.
"Despite outward development over the past decade, inter-Korean relations have been under criticism from the public in terms of quality and process," the white paper says. "They have in fact become increasingly disillusioned with the North and more worried about security as the North continued its nuclear arms program."
The white paper says that despite massive aid from South Korea and inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation during the last decade, neither the North's economy nor its people's lives have improved. "No satisfactory progress has been made in the issues of separated families, South Korean prisoners of war and abduction victims," it adds. "The North has made no positive change in proportion to aid and cooperation" from South Korea.
Over the past 10 years, "the North Korean regime has adopted perverse foreign and inter-Korean policies," it says. As an example it cites the North's nuclear brinkmanship.
It warns against future under-the-table deals like massive payments in 2002 to bring about the first inter-Korean summit. In future inter-Korean exchanges, cooperation projects and aid should take place only in formal and transparent ways, it says.
The white paper adds that in sinking the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March "the North proved that it has been consistently maintaining a reunification doctrine based on a strategy to turn the entire Korean Peninsula communist despite its outward policy in favor of cooperation and reconciliation."
Since 1998, "the North has tried to look as if it made efforts to build inter-Korean cooperation and trust by accepting aid amounting to about US$4.5 billion, engaging in exchanges and economic cooperation, and responding to about 270 rounds of inter-Korean talks. But behind the South's back, it has launched provocations in the West Sea and conducted nuclear tests."
The white paper blames the Kim Dae-jung and the Roh Moo-hyun administrations for having focused on vague sentimentalism toward the North or unilaterally adopting a leftwing ideology, and stresses the importance of raising awareness of the "two-faced" nature of the North Korean regime in the future.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The North has made no positive change in proportion to aid and cooperation"
Finally the lightbulb is coming on south of the DMZ. Kipling was right.
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
#3
In the bar called Gitche Gumee
Way uptown on 82nd
Where they serve the giggle water
There sits shoe clerk Melvin Watha
Drinking cola laced with bourbon.
When the far more cheery drunkards
Call out gaily, "Hiya, Watha!"
Keeps on boozing, gets more sullen,
Falls across the bar unconscious.
Urving Kahn
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
12/12/2010 8:12
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[Yemen Post] Separatists kidnapped seven coppers including an officer and took them to an unknown place, in a move which local sources in Lahj and Dhale said came after a court sentenced the main suspect in the bombings of an Aden sports club to death.
The gang from the southern separatist movement kidnapped five of the coppers in Radfan and Lahj, while the other two in Dhale, the sources said.
Separatists also closed the highway connecting Dhale with other provinces and they also burned tires in streets.
The verdict sparked a backlash by people in Dhale, the province from where the convicted come. They staged a demonstration in protest against what they said was an unfair verdict and urged to release the two brothers soon.
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The Pakistani accused of leading a passport forgery gang linked to international terrorist groups operated for ten years in Thailand under the protection of powerful connections, according to the officer who headed the investigation.
Muhammad Ather Butt, 39, known simply as Tony and called the "kingpin", allegedly transferred 20 million baht in and out of the country over the past four years and had $90,000 cash hidden in his car when arrested.
Butt, 39, and his girlfriend Sirikalya Kitbamrung, 25, were detained on Nov 30 by Department of Special Investigation (DSI) as they were about to cross into Laos. Another Pakistani, Zezan Azzan Butt, 27, was arrested on the same day in connection with the forgery racket.
The DSI agent who headed the investigation, codenamed Operation Alpha, gave details to the Bangkok Post of the difficulties involved with the case and how Butt was able to operate with such freedom for a decade.
[Pak Daily Times] Security forces killed nine hard boyz in separate incidents, a security official said on Saturday. According to details, security forces killed five hard boyz after they shot up a foot patrol in the Swat district. The security officials said that some hard boyz were caught and taken to indicate the location of an absconding terrorist. Shah Faisal, in Swat. Terrorists shot up the security forces when they reached the place. The forces retaliated, as a result of which five hard boyz were killed. Separately, security forces killed four hard boyz in the Mohmand Agency. Security forces killed the hard boyz as they repelled an attack on a checkpost in the Saagi area of the Saafi tehsil. Official sources confirmed that hard boyz had attacked the Saagi checkpost with rocket launchers and automatic weapons, but security forces repelled the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Madagascar's strongman on Saturday promulgated the constitution adopted in a referendum held last month and boycotted by the troubled Indian Ocean island's main opposition movements. Andry Rajoelina, who seized power with the army's backing in March 2009, signed the promulgation decree during a ceremony held at the Iavoloha presidential palace and broadcast live on national television and radio. The new constitution, which was submitted to a referendum on November 17, was approved by 74.19 of voters.
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[Al Jazeera] Southern Sudan's governing party has officially said it will support secession from the north in an independence referendum planned for next year.
The announcement on Saturday by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is significant because it is at odds with the terms of the 2005 peace agreement that ended the south's civil war with northern Sudan.
In that deal, the SPLM agreed to work with the north's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) towards unity.
Anne Itto, from the SPLM, said: "Since unity has not been made attractive, we are promoting what our people choose because we are following the people."
Asked what she meant, Itto answered "separation".
Her comments prompted an angry warning from the north, with Rabie Abdelati, Senior NCP official, accusing Itto of breaking the terms of the peace deal.
"They [the SPLM] are now working for secession regardless of the result of the referendum ... The referendum will be nominal, illegal. I do not think that the NCP should recognise any process or any result that comes out of it," he said.
Referendum due
Itto is from the party's dominant southern sector. Yasir Arman, from the party's northern sector, declined to comment.
The referendum, which will decide whether the oil-producing south should secede or stay in Sudan, is scheduled for January 9.
The vote is a key part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, in which an estimated two million people were killed.
Most analysts expect the south to vote to break away and split the country in two.
Organisers of the vote said on Wednesday that almost three million people have signed up to vote.
Talks to resume
Itto said that progress was slow on the remaining key issues that still need to be agreed between north and south before the polling day.
These include the final demarcation of the border between north and south, the sharing of oil revenues and the status of southerners in the north and northerners in the south if the region votes to break away.
Itto said that there had so far been "little progress" on these issues.
"We have had several meetings with no success at all, not in security, not in international treaties, not in finance, economic issues, natural resources, not even in citizenship.
"If you add all that together it is a clear indication as to how NCP doesn't want to get to referendum," she added.
Talks are due to resume on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The referendum, which will decide whether the oil-producing south should secede or stay in Sudan, is scheduled for January 9.
Wonder is anyone's checked Chinese shipments to Sawakin or Port Sudan?
[Iran Press TV] The Bahraini police have opened fire on Shia Mohammedans at mourning ceremonies ahead of the martyrdom anniversary of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!), Imam Hussein (PTUI!).
On Saturday, in the village of Malkiya, police disrupted mourning ceremonies traditionally held in the lunar month of Muharram, tried to remove black flags put up by the locals, and then opened fire on the Shias.
The attack injured three people, including a 23-year-old who sustained gunshot wounds in the head and neck but was said to be in serious but stable condition, DPA reported.
The other two sustained rubber bullet wounds to the abdomen.
Bahrain is predominantly Shia but the Persian Gulf kingdom is ruled by a Sunni minority.
The Bahraini authorities have increased the pressure on Shia Mohammedans over the past few months, with reports of numerous arrests and torture at detention centers raising concern about the human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... situation in the country.
Hundreds of people, including prominent Shia holy mans and human rights activists, have been jugged since mid-August, and security forces have harshly put down street protests.
Human rights groups have condemned the crackdown, criticizing Manama for silencing dissent by force.
Posted by: Fred ||
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It's more of Iran meddling in Bahrain with Shia / Hezib.
#2
Maybe, newc, but on the face of it, this sounds like it might be a typical Gulf Sunni overreaction to Shia religious ritual. Admittedly, that can get pretty hairy, and hard to tell from a Persian provocation when the whips and chains and blood starts flying.
It might be easier to tell if the source wasn't an Iranian propaganda mill, but then, the Arab Sunni channels probably wouldn't even want to mention the event, either way it actually happeend.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/12/2010 16:27
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#3
Perhaps that nice Bahraini lad who poked his head in before the elections could return to explain what really happened...
[Pak Daily Times] Balochistan Frontier Corps (FC) Inspector General Maj Gen Ubaidullah Khan said on Saturday that no Taliban or Quetta Shura existed in any part of the province.
Addressing a presser at the FC Headquarters, he said, "Propaganda was made that Taliban and their Quetta Shura existed in the provincial metropolis so that Balochistan could be destabilised. There is no truth in such allegations as no bully boyz are present in the city." Ubaidullah said that the FC was manning the checkposts along the vast Afghan border and had knowledge about cross-border activities. "I am confident that there is no Taliban leadership in Balochistan," he said.
Referring to thug groups, the FC chief said that problems could not be resolved by picking up guns and taking to hills but by education.
Responding to a query, he said those who were making improvised bombs (IEDs) in their houses and working against Pakistain would not be spared at any cost nor would FC compromise on this issue. "Without the support of society, law enforcement agencies cannot succeed in maintaining order and peace, thus I have directed all the officers to play their role for bridging the communication gap and remove the misperception regarding FC," he said.
Ubaidullah held the Afghan refugees responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation throughout the country.
He conceded that law enforcement agencies, including the FC, had failed to properly handle the refugees, thus they had become a serious threat to the security of the country.
He strongly condemned the allegation levelled against the FC of picking up Baloch people and said that the FC had never been involved in such illegal activities and took action under the constitution and law of the land.
He said that it was also a wrong impression that the FC had set up parallel state in Balochistan. "I have discussed the issue with the chief minister, the chief secretary and other officials and they did not complain about the FC," he said.
Ubaidullah said that he had never warned NATO forces over violation of country's airspace because it did not come under his jurisdiction and the federal government was responsible for it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
The facts and common sense say otherwise. Another khan-man.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Laurent Gbagbo's rivals for power in Cote d'Ivoire vowed to win control of the country within days as the squeeze on him to end his 10-year reign after disputed polls tightened on Saturday.
With world powers freezing him out as he clings on, Gbagbo had reportedly given the first sign he was ready to "sit down and talk" with his rival Alassane Ouattara. But the rival camp showed no sign of compromise.
"By next week I will be moved into my offices as the country's prime minister," said Guillaume Soro, the former rebel whom Ouattara has named to head his government, at a news conference on Friday.
"The process under way to settle this is irreversible," he said, making no comment on the reports quoting Gbagbo.
On Saturday Ivorian newspapers, many of them fiercely partisan, were crammed with rival theories of how the power struggle was playing out behind the scenes. The moderate daily L'Inter called it a "chess game".
On one side of the board stands Gbagbo, running his loyalist government from the presidential palace in Abidjan, with nominal control of the army and the mainly Christian south with its key ports, cocoa fields and oil facilities.
On the other is Alassane Ouattara, the ex-prime minister and International Monetary Fund executive from the largely Mohammedan rebel-held north, who declares himself president based on a UN-endorsed vote-count from last month's polls.
"With every day that passes, Gbagbo and Ouattara push their pawns further, each hoping to beat his opponent," L'Inter said.
Despite his entrenched position, Gbagbo faces huge pressure to quit from powers including the UN Security Council and African Union, and reports said he had shown signs of moving to ease the potentially violent standoff.
"Let's sit down and talk," he was quoted as saying by papers including state daily Fraternite Matin on Friday.
But Soro, 38, who was formerly Gbagbo's prime minister under a peace deal, played for advantage. He called on soldiers and civil servants to stop working for Gbagbo, whom he accused of an "institutional coup d'etat".
Soro has several thousand northern New Forces (FN) troops behind him and has warned they could mobilise if Gbagbo does not budge, but stressed he was seeking a peaceful solution.
The United States has threatened Gbagbo with sanctions and is working with other countries "to put additional pressure on the existing government", State Department front man Philip Crowley said.
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[Pak Daily Times] Japan may deploy Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles at air bases nationwide, Kyodo news said on Saturday, as part of a new five-year defence plan to be released later this month. The Japanese Self-Defence Forces also plan to increase the number of submarines patrolling the seas off Okinawa in southern Japan, where is it locked in a territorial dispute with China. The move to deploy missile interceptors comes amid heightened regional tensions following North Korea's deadly artillery shelling of the South last month. The PAC-3 missile system is designed to shoot down an incoming missile from the ground before it lands. It will be deployed on ships as well as air bases, Kyodo cited government and defence officials as saying. Japan will announce the National Defence Programme Guideline (NDPG) covering the period from fiscal 2011/2012 starting in April laying out defence priorities. It will be the first review in six years and also the first under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government, which swept to power last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
pssst: a nuke deterrent would be the cherry on that and give China the willies
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2010 13:14
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China could also get the willies from ...
To wit,
* TOPIX > FOREIGN MINISTER: NORTH KOREA NEEDS NUCLEAR DEFENSE TO DETER US, SOUTH KOREA.
Speaking of DIMITRI, RUSSIA > is considering to base MAJOR STRIKE FORCES, INCLUDING TACTICAL + HEAVY NUC BOMBERS, SUBS + MISSLE UNITS, ON PROPOSED BASES IN FORMER JAPANESE KURILES.
* PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > JAPAN'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM.
ARTIC = Although Japan does not possess any NucWeaps at present, TOKYO'S NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY + JSDFS HAD ALWAYS PLANNED + TRAINED BOTH FOR PEACETIME NUC DISASTERS, NUC TERROR INCIDENTS, AS WELL AS WARTIME HANDLING + DEPLOYMENT OF JAPAN-PRODUCED MILNUKES ["just-in-case"]. JAPAN HAS ENOUGH NUCMATS = PLUTONIUM STOCKPILES SUCH THAT IT WOULD ONLY NEED ONE YEAR TO BEGIN PRODUCING A STEADY LINE OF ADVANCED = THERMONUCLEAR NUCWEAPS [including Reliable LRBMS, Personnel, etc].
Once Tokyo Pols + Govtcritters make up their collective minds + give the Official Order(s).
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > JAPANESE PM [Nato Kan] PROPOSES SENDING SDF TROOPS INTO NORTH KOREA IN CASE OF SECOND KOREAN WAR.
RELATED: WMF > KOREAN MEDIAS ASK JAPANESE PM NATO KAN TO SEND MILITARY TROOPS INTO NORTH KOREA DURING WARTIME TO RESCUE JAPANESE CITIZENS-NATIONALS.
ARTIC = IOW, once any major DPRK-ROK war begins, FOREIGN CITIZENS-NATIONALS, i.e. US-ROK-JAPAN and OTHER ALLIED, MAY FACE MILITARY-, POLICE-LED ABUSE, TORTURE, IMPRISONMENT, OR EVEN DEATH AT THE HANDS OF THE DPRK, PERHAPS EVEN HELD HOSTAGE FOR FUTURE OPTIONS.
Dat sound you're hearing is Beijing going "AARRGGHHH"! + twiddling its fingers again both in fear + anger, as it + many other World States do, did before in Histoire', when TALK TURNS OR BEGINS TO MENTION GRUNT TROOPS.
* PEOPLES DAILY FORUM > WHERE WILL JAPAN'S DEFENSE POLICY HEAD FOR? | JAPAN'S NEW MILITARY DOCTRINE [seemingly]DOES NOT RECALIBRATES ITS [historical] "GUN MUZZLE" POLICY AGZ CHINA, BUT WILL POSE A THREAT TO THE REGIONAL PEACE + STABILITY.
Eighteen individuals were murdered on drug and gang related violence which included five men found shot to death in far western Sonora. For a map, click here
Two unidentified men were shot to death in Juarez Thursday evening, according to the Mexican daily La Polaka. One victim was pursued on foot by armed suspects in front of a clinic near the intersection of calles Oscar Flores and Montes de Oca, forced to kneel down and shot. The second victim was found tortured, gagged with duct tape and dumped near the corner of calles Terceria and Camino Viejo.
Two women were shot to death and a third was seriously wounded in an attack in a residence in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican news accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of calles 30th and Samaniego in the Dale colony where armed suspects broke in and shot the victims in the living room, killing two instantly.
A brother and a sister were shot to death in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports. Eustacio Aleman Zendejas and Maria de los Angeles were shot at a residence on calle Sembrador by a lone armed suspect. Reports say Zendejas was acquitted in 2007 for being an accomplice in the kidnapping and murder of a young child in 2005 because of lack of evidence.
Five unidentified individuals were shot to death in Juarez, according to Mexican news accounts. The shooting took place a a tire repair shop near the junction of calles Aceña and Mezquital in the Mezquital colony where several armed suspects armed with assault rifles walked and started shooting employees and owners of the business. Investigators found more than 50 spent shell casings at the scene.
An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Friday, say Mexican news accounts. The victim was shot near the intersection of calles Santos Degollado and Division del Norte in the Vicente Guerrero colony. Reports say armed suspects aboard a Volkswagen Jetta sedan and a Ford Lobo pickup truck drove by the scene where officers had arrived and fired on the officers. The suspects escape following a chase.
Five unidentified en were found shot to death in far western Sonora Saturday afternoon, according to Mexican news reports. The victims were found on Kilometer 36 of the Puerto Peñasco-Sonoyta road all shot once in the head and covered in two colored blankets.
An unidentified man was found buried in a shallow grave on a remote site in Sonora. The victim was found halfway between Cananea and Nacozari on Rancho Santa Rosa Nuevo. Reports do not say how the victim died.
From this video... Eles estao cercados, a policia ira pacificar e acabar com o sofrimentos dos moradores que nao tem liberdado in suas respectivas areas!
In other words in regards to the cartels send in the tanks.
Wow. When even the Boston Globe sees through the bullshit...
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has made a mockery of her office by skipping todays Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for laureate Liu Xiaobo. Pillays office first said she couldnt be in Oslo because of a previous commitment, and insisted more recently that she wasnt actually invited. But she surely could have attended if she chose. Pillay, a South African, played an honorable role in the struggle against apartheid. But if she cant withstand pressure from China to snub the Nobel ceremony, how can her UN Human Rights Commission be expected to defend other dissidents who are jailed and tortured by UN member governments? Ummmmmmmm...they can't? And the Globe is shocked! Shocked!
The moral failure isnt Pillays alone. Nineteen governments declined invitations to the Oslo ceremony. Some may have feared Chinas wrath. Others share Beijings desire to repress its own citizens with no outside meddling. But a UN Human Rights Commission has no purpose if not to stand with Liu, who was imprisoned for his role in a manifesto for democratic reform. They throw some great banquets though...
Pillay tried to compensate by calling this week for the release of all political prisoners jailed for promoting democracy. Liu is just one of thousands of prisoners of conscience in China. But Pillays presence in Oslo would have been the clearest possible gesture of solidarity. Jeez, and I'll bet there's some decent restaurants in Oslo too...
[Yemen Post] A Yemeni court, specialized in the cases of terrorism and state security in Aden province sentenced to death, Fares Abdullah Saleh, 25, the main suspect behind the bombing of Al-Wahdah Sports Club in Shiekh Othman district, Aden, which killed at least four people, and maimed 14 others on October 11.
Local sources said that the court sentenced the second suspect, Fares's brother, Raed Abdullah Saleh, to five years in jail, while the third, fourth, and fifth were acquitted.
In return, hundreds of people protested in Dhale province denouncing the verdict, rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the government, and blocked off the main road and burned tires in the town's centre.
Late last week, Yemeni authorities released dozen of southern movement detainees, including Hassan Ba'om, the head of the Supreme Council of the Southern Movement, and his colleagues, who were jugged nearly month ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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[Iran Press TV] Two Paleostinians have been killed by an Israeli tank shell fired into the Gazoo Strip, as the relentless onslaught on civilians of the territory continues unabated.
Reports said the two men died near the border fence, east of the al-Bureij refugee camp, late on Saturday when Israeli tanks shelled the area in the central Gazoo Strip.
Earlier, Israeli troops shot and maimed three Paleostinians, one of them a teenager, in the northern Gazoo Strip.
The Paleostinians were reportedly collecting gravel to use in construction work when they came under fire.
Nine Paleostinians have been killed and 71 have been injured by Israeli soldiers while collecting construction material near the Gazoo border in the year 2010.
In the crippling siege imposed by Israel for over three years, Gazoon'>Gazooks are barred from importing building materials they need for the reconstruction of their homes, offices, and infrastructure devastated during Israel's war against the coastal enclave.
The December 2008-January 2009 war claimed the lives of over 1,400 Paleostinians -- most of them women and kiddies.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
this "Gazans killed while collecting gravel" is apparently a new meme. What macro key should we assign it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2010 13:04
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#2
#1: this "Gazans killed while collecting gravel" is apparently a new meme. What macro key should we assign it? Posted by: Frank G|| 2010-12-12 13:04 |
F13
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/12/2010 17:28
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#3
Gazans killed while collecting gravel
hmmm
Guess its designed to elicit more sympathy to the cause than the old "wedding-party-in-the-desert-at-3AM" shtick
[An Nahar] A grenade attack on the home of a member of an al-Qaeda splinter group rocked the Paleostinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hellhole in southern Leb overnight without causing injuries, a security official said on Saturday.
"No one was injured in the hand grenade attack on the home of a Jund al-Sham member from the Sahmarani family ... just before midnight," a police front man told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Jund al-Sham, the Arabic for "Army of Greater Syria," is a radical Sunni beturbanned goon group believed to be based in Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of Leb's 12 refugee camps.
Ain al-Hilweh, outside the southern coastal city of Sidon, has gained notoriety as a refuge for gunnies and runaways.(
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Emirates 24/7] Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistain, was at death's door Saturday in hospital where he has been joined by family members, the State Department said.
"This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is at death's door and has been joined by his family" at George Washington University Hospital in the US capital, State Department front man Philip Crowley said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
...Wasn't Holbrooke the guy who actually outed Valerie Plame as a 'CIA agent'?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2010 9:48
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[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain People's Party General Secretary Senator Jahangir Badr has alleged that former president Pervaiz Musharraf was the killer of Benazir Bhutto.
He expressed these views while talking to the media after visiting an exhibition of Benazir Bhutto's photographs organised by photographer Agha Feroz with the help of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Association of Pakistain at Alhamra Art Gallery on Saturday. PPP Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab was also present on the occasion.
Both the leaders appreciated the exhibition and said it was a great effort by the organiser who highlighted the lives of martyr party leaders in photographs.
Badr said the photographs reflected PPP history and sacrifices of its leaders and workers. He said they expressed the struggle of the party for the country and democracy.
He said party workers would continue the mission of Benazir Bhutto according to the philosophy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto under the leadership of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari. ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who showed remarkably little curiosity about who actually done her in ... Replying to a question, he said many people were jugged after investigation into the murder case and many more would be jugged soon. Fauzia said such exhibitions should be organised in other cities of the country, adding that students and youth should visit these exhibitions.
She said the photographs would be posted on the Internet so that everyone could see the efforts of PPP leaders and workers for democracy.
Fauzia said 2010 was the best year for the PPP as the government had introduced the 18th Amendment with consensus and the NFC Award was announced and implemented after several years.
She said the murderers of Benazir Bhutto would be jugged soon.
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[Emirates 24/7] Sudan's army attacked the only Darfur rebel group to sign a 2006 peace deal, burning houses and forcing up to 250 civilians to flee, international peacekeepers said on Saturday.
The festivities on Friday and Saturday were the latest in a series reported between the government and the Sudan Liberation Movement loyal to Minni Arcua Minnawi, who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Sudan's army declared Minnawi's forces a military target this month, accusing him of breaking a ceasefire and plotting to join other hard boyz still fighting the government.
"There have been two ground attacks, one yesterday morning and another today at around 11 am (0800 GMT)," said Chris Cycmanick, front man for Darfur's joint UN/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force. "They were attacks by SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) on Minni Minnawi elements."
Both attacks were on the village of Khor Abeche, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital of south Darfur, Nyala, he said.
At least one person was killed and 16 injured in the first clash which forced up to 250 civilians to take shelter at a nearby UNAMID base, Cycmanick said.
At least five people were maimed in Saturday's assault when attackers also set fire to houses, he added.
No one was immediately available for comment from the army.
Minnawi became a presidential assistant after signing the internationally-brokered accord in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The deal was boycotted by Darfur's two other main rebels forces and did nothing to end the fighting and banditry in the remote western region.
After elections in April Minnawi was not re-appointed to the presidential post, technically the fourth most senior position in the country. He recently moved to the capital of south Sudan, Juba.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in 2003, accusing the Khartoum government of neglecting the region. Khartoum set out to crush the rebellion with troops and mostly Arab militias, unleashing a wave of violence which Washington and some activists call genocide.
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[Iran Press TV] Dutch police have discovered and confiscated an arsenal of 300 weapons, including rocket launchers and automatic rifles, in a town bordering Germany.
Police front man Jack Van Kleef said on Thursday that they had found a cache of nearly 300 firearms during a raid on a suburban home in the town of Kerkrade, which borders Germany, AFP reported on Friday.
"There were modern firearms such as assault rifles, a rocket launcher, automatic weapons, as well as older weapons like pistols from the early 20th century," the spokesperson said, adding that the weapons were "all in working order."
He further pointed out that police also discovered knives, axes, drugs, and several thousand euros in forged bills.
The inhabitants of the house, a 39-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, were also jugged.
It is not yet known why the weapons had been kept in the house or where they had come from.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
With scant information, for some reason I don't think this was jihadi, but somebody else. I'm either thinking ETA or bikers.
[Yemen Post] The Sana'a Specialized Penal Appeal Court which handles terror cases upheld on Saturday the verdict against seven Al-Qaeda members receiving up to 5-10 years in prison. Two of them were sentenced to ten years and two others to seven years in jail.
During the hearing chaired by Judge Muhammad Al-Hakimi, the court reduced the sentences of two convicts: one from ten years to seven years and the other from seven to five years.
The seven were convicted in January 2010 of forming a terrorist group to carry out attacks against tourists and Yemeni and foreign interests.
Three were given ten-year sentences, three others given seven-year terms and the seventh was sentenced to five years in jail.
Hearing the court upholding the verdict, the group shouted Allah is the greatest and vowed to attack the U.S. and Arab presidents.
One of them said:" our message to Obama is that we swear to Allah 'we will not let you and Arab leaders." We will continue Jihad, Hussein Al-Marwala said.
They were jugged in October 2009 while preparing explosives and watching tourist buses to attack them, and their trial opened in October 17.
In recent years, Yemen has launched an unabated war against and a massive hunt for gunnies across the republic. Many suspects were killed, maimed and jugged. It also dismantled many terrorist cells.
Some of the jugged went on trial receiving death and jail sentences.
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[Emirates 24/7] A court in Yemen's Hadramaut province set up for security cases on Saturday sentenced 12 alleged Al-Qaeda members to between four and seven years in jail, a judicial official said.
Eight defendants were sentenced to seven years in jail, four others to five years, and the other two to four years, the official said.
"You do not judge according to Islamic law. You are unjust," one of the defendants told the judge, according to a witness.
The 12 were charged with forming an gang, planning attacks and procuring passports with the aim of using them to join Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
They were accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda bully boyz from Egypt, Jordan, Soddy Arabia and Sudan, Yemen's defence ministry's 26sept.net news website said in early October.
The suspects denied the charges, although a number of them acknowledged having travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a judiciary official.
Also on Saturday, a Sanaa appeals court for terrorism cases ruled on seven alleged Al-Qaeda members jugged in October 2009 on charges of keeping a tourist bus under observation and preparing explosives to carry out an attack.
It upheld 10-year jail terms for two of the convicts, seven years for two others and five for a third, while cutting the sentences of a sixth alleged Al-Qaeda member from 10 years to seven and of another from seven years to five.
Yemen has intensified a military campaign against Al-Qaeda's local franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since it grabbed credit for a failed bid on December 25, 2009 to blow up a US-bound airliner by a Nigerian allegedly trained in Yemen.
The ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, Yemen also faces an on-off Shiite rebellion in the north and separatist unrest in the south of the country.
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[Ennahar] Last Friday's prayer has turned, in the town of Bordj Emir Khaled, province of Ain Defla, into an open war between groups of the faithful from the same region.
The imam of the mosque, who was preparing to perform the "Khotba" (Friday sermon) on the topic of "zakat" (alms), when opponents belonging to the Salafi stream, began to heckle to interrupt him. The situation degenerated into blows and insults between the belligerents inside the mosque itself.
The two parties, without any scruple, hurled insults and accused each other in an atmosphere of anger and excitement. Each party wanted to impose its logic on the other and have the monopoly on the mosque, through the management commission of the mosque, granted to the religious association.
It took the intervention of some wise to avoid the worst; Fitna, that some wanted to create by encouraging the faithful to disobey the Imam.
Outside, coppers stepped in, to prevent the conflict from spreading into the street.
The Mujahid Slimane Ghoul, from the region, who was among the worshipers inside the mosque, succeeded in restoring peace among the excited crowd. He has managed to calm down the crowd by calling in a severe tone, for the respect of the imam.
Two people were jugged by police and taken to security headquarters of the district for questioning, while officials of the mosque have filed a complaint with the state prosecutor at the court of Khemis Meliana, against the group of Salafis for incitement to violence and disobedience of the faithful.
Bordj Emir Khaled Mosque recorded last month, a cold war between Salafist group current and another group. Each group wanted control and management of the mosque.
This conflict has resulted in the dismissal of several imams, sometimes for incompetence, sometimes to the refusal of the majority of the faithful.
This kind of conflict is not the first in the province of Ain Defla, since several other mosques have experienced political settling of scores between groups trying to impose their logic and their religious ideologies even during election campaigns.
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[Al Jizz] Two of the top three candidates from Haiti's presidential election have rejected a planned vote recount amid allegations of irregularities and fraud.
Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady, and Michel Martelly, a popular musician, said on Saturday that they would not take part in the planned recount, to be under taken by a new electoral commission.
"I don't want to be a part of this," Martelly was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying. "They organised the fraud and I am positive they are prepared to do everything to remain in power. It's a trap."
Six Haitian monitoring groups, including the European Union-funded National Observation Council, also rejected the plan. They called instead for a proper dialogue, saying plans to recount the tally sheets "are not sufficient to lead to an eventual end to the crisis".
'Right to choose'
Tensions have intensified in Haiti since the November 28 election.
Violent protests broke out in Haiti's major cities last week after the Provisional Electoral Council announced that Manigat and Jude Celestin, the outgoing president's protege, had won enough votes to go through to a run-off election.
The council said Martelly had come third. His supporters accused Rene Preval, the president, and the ruling Inite (Unity) coalition of rigging the vote.
The US embassy in Port-au-Prince expressed concern at the "inconsistent" results, and a top senator called for US aid to be frozen and travel visas to be denied to top Haitian officials to force a fair outcome.
"As if Haiti did not have enough problems, now, once again, those in power there are trying to subvert the will of the people," said Patrick Leahy, who chairs the senate committee responsible for funding foreign aid. "The United States must come down squarely in support of the Haitian people's right to choose their leaders freely and fairly."
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[Pak Daily Times] New US intelligence reports paint a bleak picture of the security conditions in Afghanistan and say the war cannot be won unless Pakistain roots out beturbanned goons on its side of the border, according to several US officials who have been briefed on the findings.
The reports, one on Afghanistan, the other on Pakistain, could complicate the B.O. regime's plans to report next week that the war is turning a corner. US military commanders have challenged the new conclusions, however, saying they are based on outdated information that does not take into account progress made in recent months, says a senior US official who is part of the review process.
The analyses were detailed in briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week and some of the findings were shared with members of the House Intelligence Committee, officials said.
The reports, known as National Intelligence Estimates, are prepared by the Director of National Intelligence and used by policymakers as senior as the president to understand trends in a region. The new reports are the first ones done in two years on Afghanistan and six years on Pakistain, officials said. Neither the Director of National Intelligence nor the CIA would comment on either report.
The new report on Afghanistan cites progress in "ink spots" where there are enough US or NATO troops to maintain security, such as Kabul and parts of Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Much of the rest of the country remains Taliban-controlled, or at least vulnerable to Taliban infiltration, according to an official who read the executive summary. The report contains public opinion polling that finds Afghans are ambivalent, as willing to cut a deal with the Taliban, as they are to work with the Americans, the official said.
It also shows US efforts are lagging to build infrastructure and get trained security forces to areas where they are needed, the official said. And it says the war cannot be won unless Pakistain is willing to obliterate terrorist havens in its lawless Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan.
The new report on Pakistain concludes that the Pak government and military "are not willing to do that," says one US official briefed on the analysis.
The document says Pakistain's government pays lip service to cooperating with US efforts against the terrorists, and still secretly backs the Taliban as a way of hedging its bets in order to influence Afghanistan after a US departure from the region.
In describing the Afghanistan report, military officials said there is a disconnect between the findings, completed in recent weeks, and separate battlefield assessments done by the war commander, General David Petraeus, and others that contain more up-to-date and sometimes more promising accounts.
A military official familiar with the reports said the gloomier prognosis in the Afghanistan report became a source of friction as a preliminary version was passed among government agencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
Take out Gul and you are halfway there.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
12/12/2010 1:08
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#4
Its bigger than Hamid Gul the Pak Army want a friendly Govt on the Western Border which they feel they have not got with Karzai being too close to India in their minds.
Lets not forget The Taliban Govt was created by the Pak Army/ISI
Posted by: Paul D ||
12/12/2010 15:25
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The poor darlings. It must be such a mental strain.
[El Universal] The event of the opposition getting enough votes to beat President Hugo Chavez in an election has been a scenario surveyed by the government for some years. Will we arrive at 2012 without mishaps on the way? In such a scenario, would the current president hand over office to a dissenting successor in a standard democratic transition?
That is the wish of many Venezuelans, and opposition leaders regard it as a viable aim after the results of the parliament election on September 26. However, The infamous However... two recent occurrences cloud the horizon. On the one hand, President Chavez warned that in the event of a victory by the opposition, the country would enter a scenario of violence. On the other hand, his Strategic Operations Commander suggested that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces would disregard a government led by the opposition.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
be a damned shame if someone funneled arms to Hugo's enemies. Kinda tit-for-tat
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2010 14:43
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#1
Crowley first grossly misstated the pertinent facts, intimating that the recidivists had been ordered released by the courts.
Not us, man, we're just willing dupes!
In fact, most of the hundreds of former detainees were released pursuant to diplomatic agreements, the lions share of them during the Bush years, when the Gitmo population was more than four times its present level.
And who complained about that? Our 'allies'? Islamic enemies? Or the State Department?
Furthermore, federal judges have no authority to order detainees released. It is true that, in several cases, the judges have ruled that the military designation of a detainee as an enemy combatant was based on insufficient evidence.
In one man's opinion. Or maybe three. How many of them went to Gitmo to see what they were dealing with? How many were spat upon by the animals they were worried about?
Once a judge strikes the designation, it is for the executive branch to decide whether to appeal, detain on alternative grounds, or try to find a country willing to accept custody.
And this is where the follies begin.
It is the Obama administration that has effectively given the courts the power to unloose jihadists. According to Crowley, vacating the combatant designation is the same as directing release. This, the Obama administration holds, is what the rule of law dictates. I am hopeful the Trunk House will not continue to fund such follies, let alone actually close Gitmo.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2010 9:37
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#2
Well, if they're holding a quarter less now, Congress can authorize Gitmo to lend-lease out some of that capacity. "I don't say... 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it' I don't want $15 I want my garden hose back after the fire is over."
[Pak Daily Times] A rare and unusually fatal outbreak of polio in Republic of Congo has caused more than 200 deaths in the Central African nation, a UNICEF front man said.
The disease usually strikes children under 5, but most of those affected have been young men between the ages of 15 and 24, said Martin Dawes, the agency's West Africa front man. "Polio is an absolutely a red hot traveling virus, which will affect a lot of people if immunisation rates are not good," Dawes said. "The fact we've have this virus means there was a hole in the immunisation rates in the past."
Republic of Congo, a tiny nation often overshadowed by its much larger neighbor, Congo, was wracked by successive civil wars in the 1990s. Up to 10 percent of people paralysed by polio can die when their breathing muscles stop working. But Dawes said that 42 percent of the cases in Republic of Congo had been fatal. The vast majority of them have occurred in the oil-rich coastal port city of Pointe Noire.
The World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Rotary International said they began vaccinating some 3 million people in the Republic of Congo, Congo and nearby Angola last month. International aids groups have begun emergency immunizations in Pointe Noire and will continue them through the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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[Pak Daily Times] The Special Committee of the Public Accounts Committee on Saturday was told that no official orders or instructions had been received from the prime minister on taking the Foreign Ministry onboard in making arrangements for Hajj operations, however, a proposal for handing over Hajj operations to the private sector was under consideration.
Ministry of Religious Affairs Secretary Agha Sarvar Qazalbash apprised the committee that recommendations about privatising the Hajj operations were being considered.
The committee met with Riaz Pirzada in chair supported by members Asiya Nasir and Malik Pervaiz to review the audit objections regarding the ministries of religious affairs, postal services and railways.
Qazalbash said progress had been made in the investigations into the recent Hajj scam, as the case was with the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), while it was also sub judice so it could not be commented on further, however, he said that cases of corruption in the ministry, especially Hajj operations, were being pursued in compliance of the directions of the PAC.
The committee chairman observed that almost five million people gathered at Karbala every year to observe the 10th of Muharram and the private sector managed the entire entourage and lodging process, but not a single complaint had ever been received about mismanagement or corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Emirates 24/7] A group of influential international experts on Afghanistan Saturday appealed to US President Barack B.O. Obama to radically change his strategy in the war-ravaged nation and negotiate directly with the Taliban.
A huge US troop surge has failed to stem a worsening insurgency in Afghanistan, with 2010 proving to be a year of record violence.
The letter from 23 researchers, journalists and NGO chiefs comes just days before the White House publishes an evaluation of the US strategy.
Researchers Gilles Dorronsoro from La Belle France and Italian Antonio Giustozzi, as well as Pak journalist Ahmed Rashid, were among those who said the current strategy was failing as the Taliban, ousted from government by a US-led invasion in 2001, grew in strength.
A coalition government that includes the Taliban should be the long-term goal, they said.
"We ask you to sanction and support a direct dialogue and negotiation with the Afghan Taliban leadership residing in Pakistain," the experts said in their open letter.
"It is better to negotiate now rather than later, since the Taliban will likely be stronger next year."
"The situation on the ground is much worse than a year ago because the Taliban insurgency has made progress across the country," the letter said.
"The Taliban today are now a national movement with a serious presence in the north and the west of the country."
The experts said military operations in Kandahar and Helmand, provinces in the south hard hit by the insurgency, are not going well and had become "a full-scale military campaign causing civilian casualties and destruction of property.
"Due to the violence of the military operations, we are losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Pashtun countryside, with a direct effect on the sustainability of the war."
"The military campaign is suppressing, locally and temporarily, the symptoms of the disease, but fails to offer a cure," the group said, decrying the "huge" human and financial cost of the war.
The letter also says the 2014 deadline to put the Afghan army in command of security was unrealistic.
"Like it or not, the Taliban are a long-term part of the Afghan political landscape and we need to try and negotiate with them in order to reach a diplomatic settlement. The Taliban's leadership has indicated its willingness to negotiate and it is in our interests to talk to them."
Since taking office, Obama has ordered more than 50,000 extra troops into battle to reverse Taliban momentum and build up Afghan government forces so that combat troops can start leaving in 2011.
There are more than 140,000 US-led NATO troops on the ground -- two-thirds of them American.
But the increased numbers has also seen more troops killed this year than ever before, with more than 680 foreign soldiers dead so far in 2010 and the tally mounting almost daily.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai has made overtures to the Taliban and other bully boyz to negotiate an end to the war, but that was "not enough", the experts said.
"The United States must take the initiative to start negotiations with the bully boyz and frame the discussion in such a way that American security interests are taken into account," they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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#1
I like it better when "experts" are "baffled"...
#2
"Due to the violence of the military operations, we are losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Pashtun countryside, with a direct effect on the sustainability of the war."
"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
George W. Bush, Statement To Joint Session Of Congress September 20th 2001
A little reminder for the 'experts' re the historical context of the Afghanistan war.
Oooooh ouch, g(r)omgoru. Think how even more fun could be had by all, were they to send the vice president instead (that's Joe Biden, in case you forgot, distracted by more important things, like butterflies). ;-)
Any time experts say "must", we know what isn't going to happen, anyway.
Google Translate
Mexican Federal and state police authorities have located a mass grave with five dead near a town in far western Chihuahua, according to Mexican press accounts. The victims were found near Ascension in three graves on a ranch at a place known as Los Cerritos.
Authorities were led to the location through an anonymous tip.
Reports say exhumation was halted at noon Saturday, but reports also indicate more bodies could be found.
[Ennahar] The United States considers Catalonia as "the greatest center of radical Islamist activity in the Mediterranean" and installed for this reason an intelligence unit in Barcelona, according to U.S. diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks and quoted Saturday by El Pais.
"The Spanish and American authorities have determined that Catalonia was the greatest center of radical Islamist activity in the Mediterranean," says the document sent October 2, 2007 in Washington by the U.S. embassy in Madrid.
This has led Washington to open "an intelligence agency bringing together several services in the Catalan capital to fight terrorism and organized crime," according to El Pais, which states that "the decision was adopted in October 2007 and that this secret center is operational for two years at the consulate in Barcelona."
According to documents from the embassy, quoted by El Pais, "the importance of immigration, both legal and illegal, from North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) as from Pakistain and Bangladesh makes of the region a magnet for terrorist recruitment."
"The National Police estimated that around 60,000 Paks living in Barcelona and its surroundings, mostly men, unmarried and without papers. There are also many immigrants from North Africa," they added and according to the U.S. States, "Spain is a favorite target of jihad."
"If the Americans welcome the number of detentions since 11-M (the Islamist bombings of March 11, 2004 which killed 191 people in Madrid), they also criticize the lack of coordination within the Spanish services" and "they try to influence government decisions on the fate of some inmates," according to El Pais.
"There is not a complete list of Orcs and similar vermin shared services, which complicates the identification and location of people interesting the United States," said a cable dated September 15, 2005, quoted by El Pais.
In recent years, several operations took place in Spain against groups linked to the Islamist movement, especially in Catalonia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe
[Iran Press TV] At least 23 people have been killed and many more have been injured in festivities between fighters from two rival groups in southern Somalia.
The battles between members of al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam forces broke out on Saturday in Burhakaba town, located some 110 kilometers (68 miles) southwest of the Somali capital, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported.
According to residents, Hizbul Islam fighters attacked the town early Saturday morning, but met with stiff resistance from the al-Shaboobs who rule the town.
On December 1, al-Shaboobs managed to gain control of Burhakaba town following fierce festivities with Hizbul Islam.
Al-Shabaab fighters had previously told Hizbul Islam not to set up more checkpoints in and around Burhakaba town, which is located in the Bay region of southern Somalia.
However, The infamous However... Hizbul Islam forces paid no heed to the warning, according to local residents. Then Al-Shabaab fighters attacked Hizbul Islam positions and took control of the town.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) has reported that hundreds of civilians were maimed in fighting in Somalia in recent months.
The Geneva-based humanitarian institution said that a total of 5,000 patients with war injuries, including 1,900 women and kiddies, were admitted to Mogadishu's Keysaney and Medina hospitals from January through September.
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 the hospitals.
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. Over 300,000 of the IDPs are sheltered in Mogadishu.
The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Refugees reported that most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2010
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
We now have a legitimate target for an ARCLIGHT strike. Tell the locals who aren't a part of Al-shaboobs to leave, and bomb the village into dust.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/12/2010 15:54
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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.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army is shipping new rifles to Afghanistan that will enable snipers to hit a target nearly 4,000 feet away, officials said. The XM2010 rifle can hit targets a quarter-mile farther away than the weapon currently in use, USA Today reported.
Anticipating a decision on the motion for summary judgment in the Virginia AGs challenge to the Affordable Care Act soon, the White House issued a fact sheet conceding that, should the individual mandate be held unconstitutional, the regulations being imposed on insurance companies would also fall.
By Michelle Malkin
An 
The Pakistani accused of leading a passport forgery gang linked to international terrorist groups operated for ten years in Thailand under the protection of powerful connections, according to the officer who headed the investigation.
By Andrew McCarthy
A rare and unusually fatal outbreak of polio in Republic of Congo has caused more than 200 deaths in the Central African nation, a UNICEF 
A group of influential international experts on Afghanistan Saturday appealed to US President 
