The Iranian news agency Mehr reports that American university presidents visiting Iran criticized the U.S. government's restrictions on Iranian students.
The criticism came during a meeting between the American academicians and Iran's science minister.
Following is a list of the university presidents, as it appeared on the Mehr website:
1-Prof. Robert M. Berdahl - president of the Association of American Universities
2-Prof. David J. Skorton - president of Cornell University
3- Prof. David. W. Leeborn - president of Rice University
4-Prof. J. Bernard.Machen - president of Florida University
5-Prof. C. D. Mote - president of Maryland University
6-Prof. Larry Vanderhoef - president of California University Davis
7-Prof. Jared L. Cohon - president of Carnegie Mellon University.
#2
Posting the latest job openings at six Universities and the Assoc of American Universities is a great way to help the country out of this financial slump... these positions are open aren't they? Shouldn't they be?
#3
it's all about the coin - they can charge a bunch for an Iranian student, and don't give a f*ck about that country's policies, who the students might be, or what they might be doing here in their spare time. Hint: any student allowed by the Iranian gov't to travel and study here is an agent of the regime
F*cking traitorous bastards
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2008 21:43
Comments ||
Top||
The reuse of some object-oriented code has caused tactical headaches for Australia's armed forces. As virtual reality simulators assume larger roles in helicopter combat training , programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of the their scenarios, including detailed landscapes and — in the case of the Northern Territory's Operation Phoenix — herds of kangaroos (since groups of disturbed animals might well give away a helicopters position).
The head of the Defense Science and Technology Organization's Land Operations/Simulations division reportedly instructed developers to model the local marsupials' movements and reaction to helicopters.
Being efficient programmers, they just re-appropriated some code originally used to model infantry detachments reactions under the same stimuli, changed the mapped icon from a soldier to a kangaroo, and increased the figures' speed of movement.
Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting American pilots, the hotshot Aussies "buzzed" the virtual kangaroos in low flight during a simulation. The kangaroos scattered, as predicted, and the Americans nodded appreciatively . . . and then did a double-take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter. (Apparently the programmers had forgotten the remove "that" part of the infantry coding).
The lesson? Objects are defined with certain attributes, and any new object defined in terms of the old one inherits all the attributes. The embarrassed programmers had learned to be careful when reusing object-oriented code, and the Yanks left with the utmost respect for the Australian wildlife.
Simulator supervisors report that pilots from that point onwards have strictly avoided kangaroos, just as they were meant to. Not breaking news, but it just turned up, so I thought you all might enjoy it.
#1
Moose, Thanks for the laugh. I need to save that one for when I teach object oriented analysis and design. A good example of misuse of inheritance, I would guess.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/17/2008 20:40
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd heard this some years ago, but it is still a 'hoot'. This actually might 'sell' as a PSP3 game.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/17/2008 21:27
Comments ||
Top||
#1
I have always suspected it was related to an interaction from all the shots we got (esp the nerve agent and experimental anthrax shots), combined with exposure to petrochem and minute amounts of nerve agent (Czech CW units near us picked up alarms a ton).
My unit had a ZERO incidence because our medics dumped that nerve gas medicine into the sand and pencilwhipped the reports. I BET that is what saved us. I'm glad to this day.
In Indian-administered Kashmir, there has been an unusually strong turnout in the first phase of elections for a new state government.
Queues of hundreds of voters formed from early morning in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley, defying a boycott called by separatist groups. Voters have also come out in strength in the Hindu-majority Jammu region.
rest at link
Posted by: john frum ||
11/17/2008
16:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I suppose this means that Obama will be the next President of India?
#1
With a fifth column like this operating in the U.S., it is inevitable that at some point it's going to come to guns. If you're not ready, you would be awfully wise to start preparing.
President Asif Ali Zardari has voiced the hope that President-elect Barack Obama's administration in the US will recognise Islamabad's key anti-terror role and understand the fact that Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism. "We think we need a new dialogue and we're hoping that the new (US) government will... understand that Pakistan has done more than they recognise" and it was a victim of the same insurgency the United States was fighting, he said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday.
President Zardari expressed his disapproval of US drone attacks on Pakistani areas along the Afghan border and urged Washington to instead provide the Predator technology to Pakistan to enhance its ability to fight terrorism.
Rather than using Predator to fire missiles against Pakistani territory, why not give Pakistan its own Predators? "Give them to us... we are your allies," he said.
He said such unilateral strikes harmed efforts to win hearts and minds of the people. The US should equip Pakistan with advanced weapons to help its forces fight terrorists more effectively.
President Zardari said Pakistan received "no prior notice" of the air strikes and he disapproved of them. "If the casualties are women and children, the sensitivity of its effect increases," he said.
He said the US "point of view" was that the attacks were good for everybody, while "our point of view is that it is not good for our position of winning the hearts and minds of people"
Posted by: john frum ||
11/17/2008
15:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yup, give the tech to Pakistan to China and Russia. Sounds like Clinton thinking so it will happen.
#4
Rather than using Predator to fire missiles against Pakistani territory, why not give Pakistan its own Predators? "Give them to us... we are your allies," he said.
And he'll make 10% of the Chinese sales
Posted by: john frum ||
11/17/2008 17:17
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"we'll keep demonstrating it for you. You try and figure it out, k?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/17/2008 18:15
Comments ||
Top||
#6
We should send him a "starter kit". An combination of an RC model kit and an Estes model rocket kit. Maybe toss in a Parallax Stamp and GPS module as a bonus. We could keep them busy for years with a total investment of under $500.
#7
Send over the Predators and demonstrate to him, up front and personal, how Hellfire missiles work. A couple of accurate near-misses will discourage Mr. 10% from asking for Predators again.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008 19:12
Comments ||
Top||
A draft US Army intelligence report has identified the popular micro-blogging service Twitter, Global Positioning System maps and voice-changing software as potential terrorist tools.
The report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), examines a number of mobile and web technologies and their potential uses by militants. The posting of the report on the FAS site was reported Friday by Wired magazine contributing editor Noah Shachtman on his national security blog "Danger Room" at wired.com. The report is not based on clandestine reporting but drawn from open source intelligence known as OSINT.
A chapter on "Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter" notes that Twitter members sent out messages, known as "Tweets," reporting the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements.
"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.
Hacktivists refers to politically motivated computer hackers. "Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said.
"Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance," it said. "This could theoretically be combined with targeting."
The report outlined scenarios in which militants could make use of Twitter, combined with such programs as Google Maps or cell phone pictures or video, to carry out an ambush or detonate explosives. "Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool," it said. "However, it is unclear whether that same theoretical tool would be available to terrorists in other countries and to what extent."
Besides Twitter, the report examined the potential use by militants of Global Positioning Systems and other technologies. "GPS cell phone service could be used by our adversaries for travel plans, surveillance and targeting," it said, noting that just such uses have been discussed in pro-Al-Qaeda forums along with the use of voice-changing software. "Terrorists may or may not be using voice-changing software but it should be of open source interest that online terrorist and/or terrorist enthusiasts are discussing it," the report said. Of course, we could always go after the terrorists in a clandestine, preemptive way, playing dirty and all that, but being on the defensive is more, er, financially rewarding to thousands of special interests. Well, Bambi will take care of it for us in January, along with the heartbreak of psoriasis. We're saved!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008
14:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Please add to terrorist technology tools list if you will, unattended borders, feckless politically correct federal law enforcement, student visas and Virginia driver's licenses. Just to help make the roster a bit more complete.
Cuban was a big funder for the Democrats, particularly hard left Democrats, and the Obama campaign. One set of rules for them, another for the rest of us. I'm going to enjoy this one ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Dallas Mavericks owner and internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading.
The complaint claims that in 2004 Cuban learned of a private offering of Mamma.com (now known as Copernic) that would decrease the value of his 600,000 shares. It says he then sold off his stake and as a result, reportedly saved $750,000. "As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares," said Scott W. Friestad, deputy director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement."It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market."
Cuban has responded to the complaint and posted a brief statement on his blog Monday afternoon denying the allegations. "I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff's win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff's process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government's claims are false and they will be proven to be so," he said.
The post also includes a statement from his lawyer, Ralph C. Ferrara, Esq. with Dewey Cheatham and Howe & LeBoeuf LLP, saying the matter "has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion," and "that the Commission's claims are infected by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement Division."
Cuban, who is involved in a number of ventures and is currently trying to buy the Chicago Cubs baseball team, is also the majority partner of sharesleuth.com, an independent web-based reporting site aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate chicanery.
Wonder if they have anything on this, heh ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008
14:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I don't think this article belongs in this section. While seedy politicians are always douchebags, douchebags, like Cuban, are not always politicians.
Posted by: Scott R ||
11/17/2008 18:14
Comments ||
Top||
#2
'Seedy politicians', according to Fred, includes their enablers, so I think Cuban is in (along with MoDo ...)
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008 18:21
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Thanks for mentioning our firm. At Dewey Cheatham & Howe, we aim to deliver the best results for our clients, and of course ourselves, regardless of how much damage it does to others. We'll keep it up. Your kind thoughts truly boost our spirits.
#2
Boat Days are a unique historical aspect of Hawaii's cruise ship industry. Boat Days date back to 1872, when the Royal Hawaiian Band in Honolulu played whenever King William Lunalilo went on an ocean trip. Later, the band greeted ocean liners that brought visitors and relatives to Hawaii. Thousands of people gathered onshore to meet and greet arriving vessels. Welcoming festivities included hula and music and the distribution of flower lei and streamers. Boat Days faded in the 1960s when air travel began to surpass ocean travel.
Obama's mother probably travelled by ship to the mainland and the O may well have been born onboard.
MORE MAHA-RUSHIE LIMBAUGHIAN "HISTOIRE" FOR THE US SUPREME COURT, VV THE US CONSTITUTION:
* POTUS CLINTON > admits/claims to being POTUS twice by elex fraud, + that stainy impeached- for-perjury thingy. "MONICA'S WAR"???
* POTUS BUSH > FLORIDA 2000 [Al Gore].
* POTUS-ELECT BARACK OBAMA = "JFKennedy-bama/Barack-FK" + BAMELOT > NOT ONLY PERSONAL LEGAL-CONSTITUT POTUS ELIGIBILITY, BUT ALSO VEE THE GENERAL ANDOR SPECIFIC RIGHT OF US CITIZENS BORN OUTSIDE OF CONUS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO AREAS OF US JURISDICTION, TO RUN AND BECOME POTUS???
Lest we fergit, US NINTH COURT > THE USA PER SE IS AN ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL NATION, a decision which the US Ninth has NOT nullified, only ruled as unenforceable = take no action.
No one should be surprised, then that 9-11/WOT > WAR FOR/AGZ THE US CONSTITUTION + AMERICAN PROCESS, ETC. = CONSTITUTIONAL 9-11!?
Bi-partisan poll of voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and commissioned by The Israel Project, has link to actual data.
Interesting breakdown along McCain/Obama voter lines.
#1
Dieting is also popular, but oftentimes futile. Takes a bit of COURAGE, WILLPOWER, and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! Could have had some of that on November 4th, but far too many "Americans" chose a Hostess Twinkie instead.
#2
Without checking the link (I can't from work) I'd guess that the Americans that just got elected are not quite as gung ho on this point as the rest of us.
Posted by: Scott R ||
11/17/2008 18:19
Comments ||
Top||
#3
ION IRAN > WAFF/TOPIX > AL QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON IRAN [attack on Iran attache in Pakland], for destabilizing and going agz the Taliban Govt. in Afghanistan + support of pro-Iran local Afghan Groups + Iran's arrest of several pro-AQ Leaders in Iran. AQ believes Shia-domin Iran's policies directly or indirectly supports the continuing US-Allied mil presence in Afghanistan.
Somaiya Abu Ghanem, a 21-year-old resident of Ramle, was indicted Monday in the Petah Tikva District Court for contact with a foreign agent, the Prime Minister's Office announced. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), in cooperation with the Israel Police, arrested her on December 28, the statement said.
According to the indictment, in September 2008, Ghanem was contacted by Gaza-based Aksa Martyrs Brigades terrorists, who sought her assistance in kidnapping an Israeli. Ghanem allegedly expressed her willingness to aid the terrorists. Our loyal citizens whose rights should be respected at all costs.
#3
We required the steel industry and the airlines industry to restructure. The auto industry shouldn't be any different.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008 14:24
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Problem is the Dems won't let the companies restructure the "real problem" and ditch the UAW contracts. Foreign manufacturers build wonderful cars profitably in their US NON_UNION plants. No amount of money or corporate restructuring can erase the competitive disadvantage posed by the UAW.
Heard talk in Fox this morning that they may not get this at this time - but they will in February when the donks control everything. Of course by then the MSM would have fanned it into a national crisis unless they _are_ bailed out.
#6
It is the UAW's demands that have not kept them competitive & at the crux of their debt. They say they need the bailout $$$ from the average taxpayers who earn $15 an hour to pay health benefits to retirees who have been making $75 an hour plus the hefty benefit packages. Accountability and transparency will not be forthcoming, either, I suspect.
#7
It is the UAW's demands that have not kept them competitive & at the crux of their debt. They say they need the bailout $$$ from the average taxpayers who earn $15 an hour to pay health benefits to retirees who have been making $75 an hour plus the hefty benefit packages. Accountability and transparency will not be forthcoming, either, I suspect.
Economic problems are getting worse. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where much of Iran's foreign trade is handled, local banks are refusing to do business with the 10,000 Iranian trading firms based there. This has caused delays and cancellations of Iranian imports (over $9 billion worth from the UAE last year) and exports. This is being felt by the rule elite in Iran. There, the large extended families of the clerical leadership live the good life, and the goodies come in via the UAE. The sudden shortages of iPods, flat screen TVs, automobiles and bling in general, has been noticed in Iran, and is not appreciated.
The falling price of oil is producing another problem, national bankruptcy. The government admits that if the price of oil falls below $60 a barrel (which it has) and stays there (which it may, at least until the current recession is over), the nation will not be able to finance foreign trade (which is already having problems with increasingly effective U.S. moves to deny Iran access to the international banking system), or even the Iranian economy itself. The latter problem is largely self-inflicted, as president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad desperately borrows money to placate his few (heavily armed and fanatical) followers (about 20 percent of the population). The rest of the population has been in recession for years, and is getting increasingly angry over Ahmadinejad's mismanagement. Some 80 percent of Iran's exports are oil.
An NHS doctor accused of attempted car bombings in London and at Glasgow Airport has admitted that according to English law he is a terrorist. Bilal Abdulla, 29, is alleged to have crashed into the airport in a Jeep laden with petrol and gas canisters.
With nails wrapped all around the canisters ...
But he told a jury he never wanted to kill or injure anyone.
Sad thing is, Britain today just might believe him ...
Dr Abdulla, from Paisley, and Dr Mohammed Asha, 27, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, deny conspiracies to murder and to cause explosions. The defence has said that Dr Abdulla and friend Kafeel Ahmed, 28, wanted to highlight the plight of people in Iraq and Afghanistan with a series of incendiary device attacks in June 2007.
How is an 'incendiary device attack' not an explosion? Or am I being too logical here ...
Dr Asha is accused of supplying them with cash and advice.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court heard Dr Abdulla had told police in Scotland "something along those lines" that he was a terrorist shortly after being arrested. Dr Abdulla told the court: "Everyone was saying you are a terrorist, you are arrested under the Terrorism Act and so forth. That is my case in a nutshell. I am told I am a terrorist, but is your government not a terrorist, is your army not a terrorist?
Once again it's all our fault ...
"By the definition of the Act, according to English law, yes. That is my aim to change opinion using violence, using fire devices."
But not to murder or cause explosions, because Islam is a 'religion of peace', doncha know ...
Dr Abdulla told the jury that after attacks on London's West End had failed, he planned to flee to Iraq, via Turkey, because it would be "much easier to disappear" in a lawless country.
But as he approached the airport, Ahmed suddenly swerved the Jeep into the terminal building without warning. "He drove through the barrier and I got alarmed and I shouted 'What are you doing, what is happening?'," said Dr Abdulla. "I had never seen Kafeel's face like that in my life. He was determined, his foot was on the accelerator and he did not respond to me at all."
Dr Abdulla admitted throwing petrol bombs as he got out of the burning vehicle. But he claimed he had tossed them away to protect himself after Ahmed had passed one to him, accidentally lighting the others in the process. He said he could not recall exactly what happened afterwards, adding: "I know that I had struggled with people, I received punches and I punched back."
Ahmed, an Indian engineering student, died one month after the attack from critical burns after dousing himself in petrol.
Dr Abdulla told the court: "From day one, we said we will not kill or injure any innocent person. This incident, if it was to kill people or cause an explosion, we would not have done it that way. It looks very clumsy."
That's really his biggest complaint, isn't it: it was clumsy. And he failed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008
10:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He must have misunderstood the oath he took upon becoming a doctor:
Pick one:
___ The Hippocratic Oath
___ The Hypocritic Oath
It is an understandable mistake.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008 11:31
Comments ||
Top||
#2
him becoming a DR is not an understandable mistake
Posted by: chris ||
11/17/2008 11:45
Comments ||
Top||
#3
IIRC, muslim doctors take a different, albeit similar oath.
Posted by: chris ||
11/17/2008 13:49
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Dr Abdulla told the jury that after attacks on London's West End had failed, he planned to flee to Iraq, via Turkey, because it would be "much easier to disappear" in a lawless country.
" 'Cause all us Muslims look alike, dontchaknow." Idiot. I'm sure he really does think the local Iraqis wouldn't be able to see the difference between a Western-born Pakistani and themselves... and that, despite having no connections, no wasta, they wouldn't turn him in to the authorities in considerably less time than it took him to get there.
#10
Look for an eight year sentence, out in four, with councilling and rent paid for dependants the whole time. Then he will have to stay here as country of origin would probs shoot the sorry fok.
#11
Ok, so, under English Law he is a Terrorist, but under Sharia law, he is not, this taqiya bidniss got me now, all the lies, Ima spinning like an English Judge a top here.
Out in 4, community service painting a girls school in the Midlands somewhere.
Pirates have taken control of a Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast, the US Navy says.
Someone better call the Saoodi Navy ...
The tanker was seized 450 nautical miles south-east of the port of Mombasa, a US Navy spokesman said. Twenty five crew are said to be on board, including members from Croatia, the UK, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
A BBC correspondent in Mombasa reports that this is the third tanker to have been hijacked by Somali pirates. It is also the largest vessel so far to come under attack by pirates in the area, the US Navy told the BBC.
The location is unusual and the capture marks a fundamental shift in tactics, the navy added.
The Sirius Star, owned by the Saudi company Aramco, made its maiden voyage in March 2008, according to the company website.
Lt Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet, said that pirates had captured the tanker on Saturday. The ship was sailing under the Liberian flag at the time, he told the Associated Press by telephone from the 5th Fleet's HQ in Bahrain.
Oh sorry, my bad, call the Liberian Navy ...
Confirming that two Britons were aboard the tanker, the UK Foreign Office said it could not give any details of their role on the ship.
#3
450 nautical miles South East of Mombasa is half way dow the coast of Tanzania, and South of Dar As Salaam. This is a major extension of the pirates range of operations, and perhaps they now are being resupplied or even based from Kenya, Tanzania or Mozambique. It will be very interesting to see where this tanker heads for.
If ship is taken to pirate cove, GPS steer it into shore, spray the oil all over and set it on fire. Gotta be some James Bond way for the crew to get to an escape capsule and get away. Send the insurance bill to the country of navigable rights or sign waiver they have no control or rights over that water and foreign navies have unlimited operational ability.
#9
Half the ships in the world are either registered in Liberia or Panama, two countries known for their lax registration requirements and low (or non-existent) maritime taxes. Ownership is far more important than registration.
Either the Somalis have a much larger "mother-ship" than previously reported, or they're branching out. If this tanker ends up in Kismayo, we can pretty much conclude that the Islamic Courts Union is behind most of the piracy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/17/2008 14:18
Comments ||
Top||
#10
I thought this problem was solved when the royal navy was sent to this AO.
The RN's AO is the Gulf of Aden. Not where the Saudi ship was taken. Google has maps. Use them.
Q ships!!
We'll keep it in mind, Admiral Nelson.
Either the Somalis have a much larger "mother-ship" than previously reported, or they're branching out. If this tanker ends up in Kismayo, we can pretty much conclude that the Islamic Courts Union is behind most of the piracy.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/17/2008 14:43
Comments ||
Top||
#13
The fun about it is that before they gotnthe two cash cows of oil and pilgrimage, Wahabism main source of revenue was sea piracy lading to clsahes with XIXth century Royal Navy.
#16
The RoE have prevented Britain and NATO from doing much more than observation but the Saudis are a different story. Sharia law administered on Muslims by Muslims usually doens't even register a complaint about "human rights".
#17
There's no obvious solution to this problem except stop paying ransoms, and it's highly lucrative for the pirates. No ones going into the somali safe havens (Blackhawk Down redux), and boarding and retaking ships at sea is a very risky proposition. So I can only see this problem getting worse.
#19
According to Information Dissemination blog, the ship is proceeding towards, Eyl, Somalia. You will not stop this activity until the pirates operating out of these havens have some serious hurt put on them.
I would suggest sinking every boat, dhow, bathtub or dingy at Eyl, and then destroy any dock, shore facility there too. The pirates would have 24 hours to turn over the ship with the crew unharmed. If they do not comply, then level the town and bounce the rubble. If that does not work, then start leveling every coastal town that serves as a pirate haven.
Or you can talk this thing to death and pay the ransom, and wait for all the imitators to start the Somali Pirates Business Model™.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008 20:34
Comments ||
Top||
#20
AP, I understand where you are coming from and that is how the USA cleaned up the Barbary pirate problem, but that was then and this is now. Doing what you propose is an act of war and makes you responsible for the civilian population. GWB stayed well clear of the Somali quagmire and there is no chance the Big O is stepping into it. If he does, he is one hell of a lot dumber than he is claimed to be.
#21
Eyl is on the Indian Ocean side of the Horn, not far from their current bases. Meaning that while they may have additional motherships, the pirates haven't moved the base of operations very far.
And there isn't much there. Which might be conducive to AP's suggestion
French police arrested the suspected military chief of the Basque group Eta in a pre-dawn raid on Monday, the latest blow to the separatist organisation held responsible for more than 800 deaths in Spain since 1968.
Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by the nom de guerre Txeroki or “Cherokee”, was detained together with a woman, also a suspected Eta militant, in Cauterets in the French Pyrenees, according to the French interior ministry and Spanish security sources quoted by the Spanish media.
The Eta military chief, accused of involvement in the murder of two Spanish police officers in France last year, was one of the most wanted men in Spain.
Spain’s ruling Socialist party welcomed the arrest of “a very bloodthirsty terrorist”. It described his capture as “magnificent news of great importance” because of his role as head of Eta military operations in ordering killings and carrying them out himself.
The arrest is the latest of several successes by French and Spanish police. Javier López Peña, presumed to be the overall head of Eta, was detained in May.
I'm filing this in Local news for now. I seem to recall a threat from Al Qaeda to use wildfires as a terror attack, but every dry season seems to bring out the firebugs. So, FWIW.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have arrested a 39-year-old man suspected of starting a fire near Malibu Creek State Park.
Deputy Byron Ward said Suren Sahakyan was taken into custody around 5 p.m. Saturday by deputies responding to a call that someone had started a fire on the shoulder of a road. A witness who reported seeing the incident put out the fire.
Ward said Sahakyan was was booked for investigation of arson and held on $75,000 bail.
#1
Perchance these wild fires in heavily populated areas at a time when the insurance racket, er, business is in dire straights and our credit markets in a shambles could be terrorism.
AQ ie Binny, have always thought of economic destruction of the US as the way to defeat the great satan.
Just wondering
Posted by: James Carville ||
11/17/2008 10:56
Comments ||
Top||
#2
If someone sets a fire intentionally they should be burned alive. The amount of lives put at risk could easily put a wildfire up there with a mass killing. And you have the value of destroyed property and the lives that were terrified, endangered and disrupted. We have been far too tolerant of firebugs year after year.
#4
Throw the book: Reckless endangerment x all affected, assaulting police officers, assaulting firefighters, stick'em with the bill civil cases, bail based on estimated damage, hunting without license and illegal weapon, eff'n illegal parking etc.
Otherwise, shackle the legs and drop him off at the headfire with a flyswatter.
Heart goes out to everyone affected by these fires with lost homes and being downwind. This Witness saved a lot by taking the initiative and putting the fire out - get this Witness a nice plaque from Mayor, Chief Fire/Police, nice little golden extenguisher emblem and such; something to put on the wall to show the kids.
#8
i think this is just a solo nut. our enemies are profoundly inept and the subtlety of thinking a wildfire would push the insurance industry over the economic cliff is outside of their demonstrated skill set.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/17/2008 16:18
Comments ||
Top||
#9
i think that once the fires are out and the path is backtracked, the source will be a soon-to-be- lost-to-foreclosure-insurance fraud that got out of control.
the OBL scenario is plausible only because it has been mentioned for a couple of years.
Another heroic chapter in the UN saga and it's legendary daring-don't
Congo's army clashed with rebels in some of the worst fighting in a week despite the rebel leader's promise to support a cease-fire, the United Nations and witnesses said Monday.
The two sides battled Sunday night in Rwindi, about 75 miles (125 kilometers) north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma. About 150 people took refuge outside a U.N. peacekeeping base here, huddling beside a white shipping container as the UN did nothing mortar shells and artillery fire rained down.
"These blue helmets would not let us inside, but it's better than nothing," said Clement Elias, 20, referring to the U.N. peacekeepers. He said he heard 100 explosions Sunday night.
There was no immediate word on casualties, according to U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich. "Everybody is trying to push the other side back," Dietrich said. "It's very regrettable that they could not respect the cease-fire." You don't expect us to actually do something, do you?
#6
Spot on lotp. How much more "screwed up" can one get than being multi-alias, self-admitted cocain user, rabid abortionist, birth certificate hiding, pathologic lier, hate church attendee, non-USCIT, flag lapel pin refusing, non-pledge of allegiance reciting, madrass attending, friend of Ayers? Screwing up won't stop this lad.
#9
Well, for right now I'm pinning my hopes on a Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/17/2008 20:50
Comments ||
Top||
#10
52 percent of America elected this guy. 100% of America will get to pay for the mistake. We're in serious trouble and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
WASHINGTON: A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is "not sustainable" and that he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs.
And so it begins ...
The briefings were prepared by the Defense Business Board, an internal management oversight body. It contends that the nation's recent financial crisis makes it imperative that the Pentagon and Congress slash some of the nation's most costly and troubled weapons to ensure they can finance the military's most pressing priorities.
Those include rebuilding ground forces battered by multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and expanding the ranks to wage the war on terrorism.
"Business as usual is no longer an option," according to one of the internal briefings prepared in late October for the presidential transition, copies of which were provided to The Boston Globe. "The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action."
The briefings do not specify which programs should be cut, but defense analysts say that prime targets would probably include the new F-35 fighter jet, a series of navy ship programs, and a massive army project to build a new generation of ground combat vehicles, all of which have been skyrocketing in cost and suffering long development delays. Balance of this article and the songs Obama longs to hear at the link.
#2
prime targets would probably include the new F-35 fighter jet, a series of navy ship programs, and a massive army project to build a new generation of ground combat vehicles, all of which have been skyrocketing in cost and suffering long development delays.
Sounds like he's got the right targets in his sight.
#3
Maybe this is exactly what the Pentagon needs - a wakeup call that they must be more responsible and accurate with their budget forcasts and appropriations. Its hard to argue against keeping these programs when taking in account how far over budget and how far behind schedule they are. If I ran my job like that, I would be fired. They should be too.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/17/2008 11:21
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Thats the Army's FCS program. Cut that and we cut our own throats -- the initial products of that program are some of what gives individual soldiers more mobility, survivability and lethality these days.
Cutting a lot of these now is the wrong thing - most have gone through the "R&D" phase, which is costly and produces few tangible goods.
Canceling now would be like cutting down the tree just before it begins to bear fruit.
Instead, lets drop the duplication, like the extra drug-task-force HQ in PA, unneeded bases in S. Korea and Europe, etc.
#5
That would be too logical, OS. The Big O is ideologically driven. Only thing is that certain congress critters are local defense economics driven, so this will be a dem on dem fight. Ideology be damned. It will come down to greed and self interest in Congressional districts, which will be, in a perverted way, self preservation.
Maybe.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008 11:35
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Remember that bureaucrats, military ones included, have as rule #1 that when budget cuts are threatened, offer to cut the meat first and leave the fat.
In this case, this means first go after the largest pork projects supported by the most powerful senators and congressmen.
Then say you have to cut the department of "not throwing sacks of kittens into the river", even if this means that grandmothers across the country will riot.
Military bureaucrats also let contractors know when somebody is threatening their product, so they can get their lobbyists working full steam to save it. The contractors also let the union know, so they can apply pressure to keep their jobs.
I think this is how it has been done since the days of the ancient Etruscans. Probably a millennium earlier.
#9
But I know BETTER. These Rantburg type fanatics will remain
That's right, we'll remain just long enough to shove it squarely up your goat buggering arss. Now run along will you, it's nearly prayer time. Don't you have sister that's offending your honor or something....?
#10
JUSTICE for Obama 2008 - I cant tell from your ridiculous post whether you are being sarcastic or not. Either way your post was a huge "FAIL"
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
11/17/2008 14:12
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Technical question: is Justice advocating jailing people for their political opinions because he is an intolerant muslim or because he is an intolerant leftist?
#12
How queer -- it's Monday night in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps they are having a school holiday.
JUSTICE dear, ask your American friend what it means that John McCain is still a senior member of the US Senate, ie. of the upper house of Congress. Also ask him what will happen if President Obama does not fix America's little economic situation before Congressional elections in 2010. For that matter, you might want to think what it will mean over the next two years for you and your country should oil sales continue their current trends in re volume and pricing.
I look forward to hearing from you again when you have completed these assignments.
#13
Justice, whatever you think, it's good to know you'll get your Moon-god ass spanked well and truly. I would say that the Big O has got justice through Democracy, so how about trying a REAL nym like "Justice for Girl-School-Splodeys", or "Female-Genital-Mutilation/Stoning-to-Deathers", I am sure you have their concerns at heart.
You will find, if you read the above comments, that a fair few agree with the proposed cuts; that is what is called Well Reasoned Discourse, try it someday.
As an aside, if I may just point out that every where Muslims are in the world, there is Trouble, just can't get along, can you, strange that. I asked Allan why that was, and he just said it's an in-bred goat thing, can't be helped.
Anyway, prayers must be nearly over by now, go blow up a market place or something.
#14
The Air Force and the Navy need to be brought under adult supervision. If we just kept buying F-16s and Arliegh Burkes instead of F-35s and DDXs (or, God help us, CGXs) I would applaud it as wise policy.
#15
Vigilance is eternal there justice and we have a long memory! We suffered Carter and Clinton. We will survive Obama and come out a stronger nation in the end. And you, you will be the same bitter and backward human being your ancestors were before the first Crusade.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/17/2008 14:38
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Well, it's only natural for Justice to dislike Dracula, considering that Dracula is supposed to be Vlad the impaler. And what does Vlad do with the lions of islam? Shove a tree trunk up their ass and eat lunch while they die slowly.
A return of Vlad the Impaler sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Cept he needs to broaden his outlook to include the demonrat party.
#18
PS, the Air Force procurement system has been well and truly hosed since the AF designated program management as a career specialty and started training "professional" program managers. Consequently programs are now managed by officers (and civilians) inured to the arcana of the sea of laws and regulations governing military procurement but with absolutely no experience in using the equipment whose development and production they oversee. Consequently the services field (or more often than not fail to field) overpriced, unreliable, ineffective excrement that is unusable by the troops but makes some congressmen happy. The bigger the program, the more removed from reality the PM is. It isn't going to get better any time soon.
This allegory of mice and lions is about as predictable as a smurf cartoon. Umm, Vlad and Spartan/Greek comparisons? Are you sure bout that? Get to the Poitiers goofball; rub that monkey paw and get your Tamerlane.
#21
and Eugene used to be a nice place with good people, my how times have changed....
Posted by: Jan at work ||
11/17/2008 18:54
Comments ||
Top||
#22
I kinda sympathize with some of the comments here about some of the newest priciest stuff getting delayed or reduced. I admit I'm not nearly as much up on hardware issues as in days of yore, but it seems we're having good results with current gear and I've been worrying about the numbers/price/capabilities trade-off for some time for major systems. I mean, no matter how magical an F-35 might be in the air, it's gotta be somewhere the action is, and there have to be enough to cover those action spots. Likewise with ships (ahemm, Horn of Africa/Gulf of Aden AO). Plus - are most of the new cutting edge capabilities essentially unused on most of our current august adversaries? Who's gonna play with F-22s or F-35s?
Israeli police say Palestinian militants have fired six rockets at southern Israel. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the rockets landed in open areas, and no one was injured.
The attack came as Britain's foreign minister, David Miliband, planned to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot. It was not known whether he was in the area at the time of the attack.
The Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip claimed responsibility.
#1
The attack came as Britain's foreign minister, David Miliband, planned to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot. It was not known whether he was in the area at the time of the attack.
And even if he was, they'd probably miss---can't trust Arabs to do anything right.
Suspected terrorists militants shot dead three Muslim civilians and wounded an 8-year-old girl in the latest attacks in Thailand's restive south, police said Monday.
Gunmen on motorcycles fatally shot an assistant to a village chief as he was going home from a mosque in the southern town of Pattani on Sunday, police said. Hours later a 43-year-old alleged informant for Thai authorities was shot while siting in front of his house in Yala town. He died later in a hospital.
In the town of Narathiwat, at least three men in a pickup truck opened fire on a 49-year-old man and his daughter, age 8, as they left a mosque, police said. The man was hit in the head and back and died instantly, while the girl suffered gunshot wounds to her rib, arm and leg.
The police arrested ten persons suspected of involvement in a group of bombings--a car bomb and another two simultaneous bombs--which wounded 71 persons in Narathiwat's Sukhirin District on November 4. The bombings occurred in Sukhirin District, which one of the ten suspects, Marose Dueramae, confessed to driving a motorcycle fitted with a bomb which he parked at the site, while another suspect, Turadee Madong, confessed to using mobile phones to detonate bombs in the car and in the two motorcycles. The police are investigating the suspects to track others in connection with the crime. The car bomb exploded near the Sukhirin district offices shortly before the other bombs, hidden in the motorcycles, parked at the market nearby exploded and wounded more than 70 persons.
I declare November 22, 2008 to be "Victory in Iraq Day." (Hereafter known as "VI Day.")
By every measure, The United States and coalition forces have conclusively defeated all enemies in Iraq, pacified the country, deposed the previous regime, successfully helped to establish a new functioning democratic goverment, and suppressed any lingering insurgencies. The war has come to an end. And we won.
What more indication do you need? An announcement from the outgoing Bush administration? It's not gonna happen. An annoucement from the incoming Obama administration? That's really not gonna happen. A declaration of victory by the media? Please. Don't make me laugh. A concession of surrender by what few remaining insurgents remain in hiding? Forget about it.
The moment has come to acknowledge the obvious. To overtly declare a fact that has already been true for quite some time now. Let me repeat:
WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ
And since there will never be a ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue in New York for our troops, it's up to us, the people, to arrange a virtual ticker-tape parade. An online victory celebration.
Saturday, November 22, 2008 is the day of that celebration: Victory in Iraq Day.
What do you need to do to participate? Simple. Just make a post on your blog on Saturday, November 22, announcing that the war is over, and declaring that day to be Victory in Iraq Day. That's it.
If you want to write a short post (or a long essay) analyzing the nature of our victory or cheering the troops for a job well done, great; but if you just want to make a simple announcement of the victory, that's fine as well. Anything will do. Just come and join the celebration to mark the day.
Keep reading below to find: evidence that the war is over (for the doubters); an historical discussion of previous postwar occupations and guerrilla violence; a list of blogs which have already joined the VI Day movement; free banners and graphics for you to download and put on your blog, if you so choose; and an invitation to submit your own "victory graphics" for posting here.
If you would like to comment on VI Day, you can do so here.
Observations and statistics agree: The fighting has ceased, the war is over
I have felt for many months that we had already won the war, but I was spurred to action by this report from Michael Yon:
"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything."
125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer
Total Is About Double The U.S. Troop Death Toll In Iraq
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An estimated 125 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.
What more need be said? Whatever lingering violence still exists is Iraq is now nothing more than a series of minor disconnected terrorist attacks, which have become completely ineffectual in changing the hearts and minds of the populace, or re-igniting another civil war.
#1
I heard on some radio blab show that more US troops were killed in Iraq last month in traffic accidents than enemy "action".
I think the Iraqis, who are basically Babylonians and Assyrians, thought of AQ's tactics as cowardly and shameful. AQ over played their hand, the US military was smart enough to recognize it and play to that audience.
As a VN vet, I cogitate on what would have happened in VN had the US military been more intellectually agile. The VC were every bit as brutal in their tactics as AQ and many of the populace were weary of the carnage and the wanton violence.
I rejoice in the fact that we as a free society were able to recognize the truth of what was happening in Iraq and not fall prey to the crap journalism of the MSM who were playing the VN playbook. We knew we were doing the right thing and we knew we would win given time. The press finally gave up trying to tar us as thugs and criminals and just let the Iraq campaign fall of the front page, their story wasn't playing in Peoria or anywhere. Once it fell from the front page, the Donks quit pandering to the falsity and the military could be creative and use all the tools of counterinsurgency, including psyops, community action and small unit tactics/special action teams.
Posted by: James Carville ||
11/17/2008 11:04
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Bing West also said the war is over. His book "the strongest tribe" is a very good read as are all his books.
#3
As the saying goes [X-FILES], I WANT TO BELIEVE!
Unfortunately, knowing my fellow Afghan War cohort Osama Bin Laden, etal. as I do [+ other] leads me to believe otherwise. CHECK ME AGAIN AFTER 2010 NLT 2012, ESPEC IFF IRAN FAILS TO CONDUCT A SUCCESSFUL INDIGENOUS NUKULAR BOMB TEST(S).
Working in secret, Israel and Germany have jointly developed a nuclear missile detection system, according to the Defense News Web site.
Code-named Project Bluebird, the system is based on the prototype of an aerial infrared sensor designed to identify a nuclear-tipped missile speeding toward a target amid a cluster of decoy missiles.
Military planners work under the assumption that in a nuclear strike, decoy missiles could be launched along with those carrying nuclear warheads to confuse and overwhelm missile defense shields. According to the sources, Project Bluebird is designed to avert such a scenario.
On November 3, Defense News published details of the program and cited a German defense official as confirming its existence. According to the Web site, the system's infrared sensor has already been tested aboard a business jet.
#4
Tough love they want is it? Well if Obama brings Canadian activist journalist Naomi Klein into his administration, they'll be getting some.
"I think I'm lucky because I got to witness a significant shift, something that changed, and I wanted to document that shift. And it seemed very, very clear to me that if there was going to be a future for the left it would have to be an anti-corporate movement."
Klein.
#6
I'm somewhat surprised that during the last war with Hezbollah that Israel didn't really clean house knowing that it was only a matter of time before the pro-israel foreign policy of America was challenged.
Israel should have gone into Syria and taken out the regime and handed over power to the Kurds and pulled out. I suspect the Kurds would learn to be brutal very fast and Kurds from neighboring nations might migrate into Syria to be part of a ruling power for a change. The entire dynamic to the North of Israel would have changed.
Now they'll have to listen to pontification and funding threats.
#9
The local Jewish rag claims it was 78%, based on exit polls, DoDo. In September the American Jewish Committee poll set it at 57% for Obama with 13% undecided. Truly, I do not understand people.
#11
ION BAMELOT, WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > INDIA FAVORS LIMITED/SHORT-TERM US INFLUENCE AND MIL PRESENCE IN AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN [Indian NW Corridor]; + AFTER OBAMA'S WIN, WHITE BACKLASH FESTERS IN THE US. Presence of increasingly PRO-VIOLENCE/ANARCHIST elements = sub-groups-factions inside a mostly benign US WHITE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT. SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER claims over 200-plus HATE INCIDENTS linked to Dem Barack Obama's electoral victory over GOP'er John Mccain - Obama's victory also believed or anticipated by Perts to be used as tool for nationwide recruiting of new members for same.; + US SCHOOLCHILDREN IN VARIOUS SOUTHERN AND MIDWEST US STATES ARE SINGING OBAMA ASSASSINATION, DEATH SONGS ON SCHOOL BUSES AND SCHOOLS.
Also, OBAMA INTERVIEW ON "60 MINUTES" > SAVING THE US ECONOMY IS MOE IMPORTANT THAN CONTROLLING THE DEFICIT/HEAVY US GOVERNMENT-LED INVESTMENT AND FISCAL SPENDING TO CONTINUE.
Uh, uh, the only thing better than a OWG-NWO Amerika wid a US$13.0Trilyuhn GDP and up to US$50.0Trilyuhn in International Debts, IS A OWG-NWO AMERIKA US$13.0TRILYUHN GDP WID A US$80-100.0TRILYUHN IN INTERNAT DEBTS???
#1
So USA gets a licence to spend 3 more years, hundreds of billions, and servicemen lives to keep Iraqis from killing each other wholesale instead of retail as they do now?
Sri Lanka stepped up air attacks against suspected rebel targets in the island's north Sunday, a day after ground troops re-captured a highly strategic town, the defence ministry said.
Mi-24 helicopter gun ships and fighter jets were deployed to pound defence lines of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the Jaffna peninsula and on the mainland, the defence ministry said.
"Sri Lanka air force has launched a series of air strikes in support of ground troops in the Muhamalai area," the ministry said in a statement.
The attacks came a day after Sri Lanka's president asked Tamil Tiger rebels to surrender after troops said they had re-taken the town of Pooneryn from the separatist guerrillas following months of heavy fighting. President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation that security forces took Pooneryn and the main northwestern coastal A-32 route on Saturday morning. The town was taken by troops after several failed attempts during 15 years of Tiger occupation.
Military officials said the fall of Pooneryn was a severe blow to the Tigers who are defending their main de facto capital of Kilinochchi, further southeast, amid a multi-pronged military thrust.
"Despite all their efforts, they failed in their bid to hold Pooneryn," the Sunday Times defence analyst Iqbal Athas said. "That it was a humiliating defeat for the guerrillas came from radio intercepts from the battle field."
The fall of Pooneryn shrank Tiger territory by about half and prevented the rebels from using the north-western seaboard to smuggle weapons and other supplies by boat from neighbouring India, military officials said. They said the bigger advantage for the military was the removal of Tiger artillery guns at Pooneryn, which had been used to hit the main Palaly airbase in the Jaffna peninsula and disrupted regular military flights.
The military has not given details of losses suffered by either side in the battle for Pooneryn, but Athas said both sides had suffered "very heavy casualties" in the fighting.
With the fall of Pooneryn, the military has taken the northwestern seaboard of the island and is poised to make a final push for Kilinochchi, defence officials said.
There had been no comment from the Tigers on the latest military action, but Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is due to make an annual speech on November 27 setting out his plans for the next year.
The Tigers commemorate their war dead during a "Heroes' week" starting November 21. Last month, the military stopped releasing its own losses in daily bulletins, saying it would hinder operations. However, official figures tabled in parliament show that 1,269 troops were killed in the first 10 months of this year. The military says it killed more than 7,500 Tiger rebels during the same period.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A Lebanese newspaper on Saturday published statements purporting to be by members of Fatah al-Islam showing the radical group had links with Syria and that Damascus had backed an attack in Lebanon.
The publication of the "evidence" in al-Mustaqbal newspaper, owned by anti-Syrian majority parliamentary leader Saad Hariri, comes barely a week after Syrian television broadcast alleged "admissions" by Fatah al-Islam members that the group was financed by Hariri's Future Movement.
Al-Mustaqbal published undated and unsigned "copies" of statements by men held by Lebanese security services and prosecuting judges. One of them, Ahmad Merhi, said a Syrian general with whom he had "excellent" relations" told him in 2007 that there was coordination on information between Syria and Fatah al-Islam, which battled the Lebanese army in summer 2007.
The 15-week struggle in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared near Tripoli left 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.
Merhi said General Jawdat al-Hassan, head of the fight against terrorism and fundamentalist groups within the Syrian army's information service, "asked me to help Shaker al-Abssi," the Fatah al-Islam leader who fled the camp. Thanks to his links with the general, he was able to allow "dozens of Fatah al-Islam fighters" to escape to Lebanon, he said.
One of the detainees said that he had met with Major General Assef Shawkat, head of military intelligence. There was no Syrian comment on the accusations.
Alleged members of the al-Qaeda linked Fatah al-Islam appeared to confess on Syrian TV earlier this month to carrying out the car bombing that killed 17 people, mainly civilians, in the Syrian capital in September. They claimed the group had received money from Saad Hariri's Future Movement, prompting Hariri to call last week for an Arab League investigation into the allegations.
The Future movement is part of the March 14 coalition that leads Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and is heavily backed by the United States.
Mehri was also quoted as saying that the "Syrians asked Shaker al-Abssi to carry out the double attack at Ain Alak in February 2007" which targeted two passenger buses in the north of Beirut, killing three people. The aim of the attack, committed the day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, "was to dissuade people from participating" in a ceremony of commemoration, Merhi added.
Damascus is accused by Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority of responsibility for the murder of Hariri, who had turned against Syria's domination of Lebanon. Syria denies any involvement in the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
That's a "journalist" deeply in "love" with "scarequotes".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/17/2008 12:44
Comments ||
Top||
Armed Somali pirates over the weekend hijacked a Japanese ship in the Gulf of Aden, defying several warships that are patrolling the volatile waters, a Kenyan maritime official said on Sunday. The 20,000-ton "Chemstar Venus", along with its 23 crew members, was taken on Saturday in the region, said Andrew Mwangura who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.
Somali pirates have released a chemical tanker, the Stolt Valor, after they received a $1.1 million ransom, a regional maritime official said on Sunday. Two other ships could be released before November 25 because negotiations between the owners and pirates had been going well, said Andrew Mwangura, director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme that monitors piracy.
But he said the pirates, who have made shipping routes off Somalia among the most dangerous in the world, had seized another ship, a Japanese cargo vessel. "It (the Stolt Valor) was released last night and after release, another ship was taken, a Japanese one with South Korean connections," Mwangura told Reuters, adding that a $1.1 million ransom had been paid for the Stolt Valor. "Stolt Valor is among three ships that are to be released this month," he added, naming them as the MV Genius and the MV Action but without giving further details.
The pirates off the dangerous Somali coast have taken three ships within the past week alone; another chemical tanker chartered by chemical tanker shipping group Stolt-Nielsen, a Chinese fishing vessel and a Turkish tanker. The Japanese cargo ship hijacked late on Saturday was carrying 23 sailors including five South Koreans, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Piracy off Somalia has plagued the shipping lane linking the Middle East Gulf and Asia to Europe and beyond via the Suez Canal and increased insurance premiums.
The International Maritime Bureau says 199 incidents of piracy or attempted piracy were reported worldwide from January to September this year, of which 63 were in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At over a million bucks ransom per ship this has to be the number one economic activity in Somalia.
#4
Time to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear (circa 1700 - 1900) and treat pirates to a dose of the yard arm.
This idea that the genteel, PC manners we use with each other work with everyone is absurd.
Merchant ships should be armed and / or private protection companies should be chartered to end this sh**. Don't warn them, blow them out of the water at the first sign of trouble. And videotape everything.
#9
Any indication they know what they are pirating? Not all cargo is equally valuable nor is it all insured. Ransoms may be profitable but what happens when they get really dangerous stuff, like the Russian weapons and Iranian WMD's? With 63 incidents total in the Gulf of Aden this year, considering the high traffic in this sealane, the odds don't seem to be entirely coincidental to me.
#11
With 63 incidents total in the Gulf of Aden this year, considering the high traffic in this sealane, the odds don't seem to be entirely coincidental to me.
Suez Canal is a chokepoint; so is the opening of the Gulf of Aden. Wouldn't take much to station someone at both ends, or to bribe a canal employee, someone in a shipping and/or government office anywhere from Europe, down to Kenya.
#12
I am surprised that a combo of private/naval muscle hasn't been assembled to smash these idiots. Shouldn't be too hard.
I recall way back in the mid-70s the Philippines OK'd a Malaysian air strike on a pirate nest in their territory after an ambitious bunch had seized Lahad Datu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for a day (the bullet holes were still over the bank door when I was there in '93). Seems like pirate-plinking (both naval and land assets) would be mighty good (and fun!) practice for US and other forces (other forces will exist, don't they? or has the RN been tied up for lack of funds, and the NATO toy navies run down their AAA batteries?)
The chief prosecutor in the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein denied allegations that the death sentence conviction was the result of pressure from Iran or Kuwait, according to press reports.
Public prosecutor of the Iraqi High Court Jaafar al-Musawi denied rumors circulated in the media that his visit to Iran after the trial was for any reason other than religious ones in an interview Sunday with the London-based Asharq al-Awsat.
After the trial ended, I decided to visit the holy sites of Iran with a group of judges. This was the only visit I made to Iran and I only went to the city of Qom," he said. "I didn't go to Tehran nor did I meet any Iranian officials."
Musawi similarly denied receiving any gifts from Kuwaiti authorities or establishing any kind of contact with Kuwait as far as Saddam's trial is concerned.
Musawi headed a prosecution team that tried Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity in a trial that drew criticism from many sides including Saddam's defense team and human rights organizations, which complained of Iraqi and U.S. government interference in the proceedings.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
#1
In Saddam's case, I'd thought the bribe would have been to get the job to prosecute and hang him. You know that clannish revenge thingy.
..and human rights organizations,
..who didn't give more than the image of complaining about Saddam's own treatment of his people, to include intentionally starving them to make a show for the exact same organizations to blame the US and UN for it.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) held a protest demonstration outside Karachi Press Club on Sunday against the privatisation of Qadirpur gas field and other state assets. Addressing the protestors here, JI Sindh Naib-Amir, Merajul Hudda said Pakistan People Party has always opposed the privatisation, but now it is handing over the profit-making assets under private control. Â"The real reason behind the privatisation of the entity is to meet the high expenses incurred by a massive cabinet,Â" he said. JI Naib-Amir further said people would not benefit from the proposed sale of Qadirpur gas field, Pakistan Steel Mills and other state assets. It will not bring any improvement in the countryÂ's economy also, he felt.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
The US and Pakistani governments have reached a tacit agreement on Predator (drone) strikes into Pakistani territory, under which Islamabad allows them while continuing to complain about them and Washington never acknowledges them, The Washington Post revealed in a report Sunday.
Pakistan, however, rejected the report as false and baseless. The paper claimed that both the countries reached the deal some time in September in a "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy to attack suspected terrorist targets in northern Pakistan."
Citing unnamed senior officials in both the countries, the newspaper went on to say that under this policy, unmanned US drones have fired missiles at Pakistani soil at an average rate of once every four or five days recently. The deal coincided with a suspension of ground assaults on Pakistan by the US special forces, the Post said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
I think we had that figured out a couple of weeks ago. We blast em, Pakis complain, we blasted some more. Then General P went there for a little talk, and we blasted some more. Seems pretty obvious by now.
Premier Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani hopes that US President-elect, Barack Obama's administration would halt incursions into Pakistan. He might for awhile. But unless he's stoopid they'll start back up as soon as he realizes they're directed not so much against Pakistain but against the Sovreign State of al-Qaeda. Always assuming there's a difference, of course.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
If you aren't going to attack into P'stan you'd better pull out of A'stan - which is what I expect to happen.
#2
Obama has consistently made comments indicating that NATO should assume a much greater role in this region. I believe his intentions are very clear.
#5
He ran on telling whoever he was talking to what they wanted to hear. He's taken both sides of all issues. And pointing this out is impossible because it's both "an attack on character" and "racist."
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/17/2008 10:58
Comments ||
Top||
#7
It's entirely within Mirrorball's MO to threaten action, then punk out afterwards. Especially when promising not to do something & doing it on the QT might have been in the national interest.
Because the national interest is icky.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/17/2008 12:47
Comments ||
Top||
The Peshawar-Torkham road will be reopened today (Monday) for moving NATO supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan, political administration officials said, adding a shoot-to-kill order had been issued for those trying to disrupt the supplies.
Hundreds of trailers and containers have been stranded on the route, which was closed last week after Taliban hijacked more than a dozen trucks carrying NATO supplies on the road through the Khyber Pass. The trailers loaded with armoured vehicles, edibles and other logistics were seen parked along Peshawar's Ring Road and in several areas of Jamrud and Landikotal tehsils without any security.
A senior official told Daily Times the vehicles, escorted by security officials, would pass through Khyber Agency in a convoy.
Political Agent Tariq Hayat said a Quick Response Force had been formed to guard the Afghanistan-bound containers.
"It's not the first time this has happened," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told AP about the hold up on Sunday.
Although NATO supplies were formally suspended on Saturday, drivers said they had been denied entry into Khyber Agency since November 11 (Tuesday). "We have been made to wait here for the last six days under no security cover," said a driver on condition of anonymity.
Sources said the Peshawar-Jamrud road was also closed for the vehicles carrying NATO supplies on the recommendations of the NWFP government.
NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told Reuters there were three criminal gangs in Khyber with direct links to terrorist groups. The recent attacks on foreigners in Peshawar were an attempt "to defame Pakistan internationally and give an impression that there's no rule," Khan said. He was confident that an offensive by security forces in Bajaur and pressure in other tribal regions had begun to pay off.
Also on Sunday, Hayat said a deadline given to the Koki Khel tribe had lapsed, adding it was now up to the tribe to expel Taliban or face action. Meanwhile, Malik Attaullah Jan, the tribe's leader, told a grand jirga there was no terrorist in the tribe and that the government needed a pretext to launch an offensive. He said the tribe was ready to hand over Taliban to the government provided it identified them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
It will be a bit difficult to surge the troops with this supply line.
Where's my dedicated superhighway Karachi to Kabul using the Indus as a moat on the east, right through the effin Khyber Pass Roman Style, Outpost/Checkpoints and UAVs; 1 mile do not enter tresspassers will be shot survivers shot again buffer zone. Supplies head north, sellable goods head south, Pakistan gets a toll road profit and the troublemakers see their 'famous victory pass' turned against them and poor defamed Pakistan gets kudos.
GM seems like they got some time on their hands, contract them to build earthmovers based on their truck chassis, run that SOB into Kabul then get them to Afghan gov to build roads from there. Hire the locals as alternative to drugs and jihad. Make sure trustworthy banks are available for their paychecks. Use the material from the mountains themselves for gravel roads at first then improve. Put a bomb crater into every ambush position just to let the baddies know that spot is marked, zero foliage and clear fields of fire.
Cheaper than the bailout, done in 2 years, everyone wins but jihadi druggie bandits.
#3
Had a intro to 2001 moment, set up some Easter Island/Monolith looking statues at intervals based on number of British killed during that infamous maneuver. RPG tough material, disco lights and party lasers, interior speakers which play recordings like "would you like the fish and chips?" played backwards at high volume, real spooky stuff; spread the rumor they are video recording stations with laser beams shooting out the eyes for target designation or just to fry baddies.
Speaking to a session of the World Economic Forum's 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger endorsed US Senator Hillary Clinton, rumored to be the favorite for the post in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
"I believe it would be an outstanding appointment," Kissinger said. "If it is true, it shows ... great courage on the part of the president-elect. To appoint a very strong personality into a prominent cabinet position requires a great deal of courage."
Kissinger acknowledged that "Obama was my second choice in the election. But at the same time, I want to stress that this is the moment for nonpartisanship in America. There are a number of challenges that must be dealt with."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He doesn't actually say that he considers it a good idea, does he?
#3
it shows ... great courage on the part of the president-elect. To appoint a very strong personality into a prominent cabinet position requires a great deal of courage."
There's a fascinating Charlie Rose interview floating out there in the ether. He spoke with a Newsweek editor and the reporter embedded with the Obama campaign about the in-depth report they released after Election Day. Amongst many other questions in the 20 minute interview, Mr. Rose asked what courageous moves Candidate Obama had made. Interestingly, the reporter's response was that in his opinion the candidate had done absolutely nothing courageous whatsoever, although he had stood up to his campaign advisers to address directly the Reverend Wright problem.
So now President-elect Obama is placed in the position of appointing someone he really doesn't want to prove his courage, or doing as he prefers and giving a portion of his fan base their first major disappointment. Reality is full of difficulties.
#4
The only real impediment to Hillary's appointment so far is ... you guessed it ... Bill. Right now, someone is undoubtedly poring over Bill's financial dealings with some interesting foreign entities. Conflicts of interest?
#9
SecState Hillary works well for Obama - he no longer has to worry about here plotting a revenge return from outside - any messes he gets into will also be pinned on her.
And I doubt she could foul it up any worse than Madeline Halfbright did.
On the plus side, as mentioned, "SecState Clinton" would NOT put up with the backstabbing, leaking and other BS that is rampant in Foggy Bottom. She'd clean house with a feral grin on her face. Something Bush failed to do and paid the price for.
#13
Truly dumb idea for The One. There's going to be a lot of heavy lifting domestically over the next 4 years. And Hillary's finger prints will be on none of it. And The beneficial results, if any, won't be visible by 2012. Hillary will be in a perfect position to run against the clearly failed Obama presidency in the primaries.
#16
Although I do feel that Hillary has much to prove, I truly believe that positive thought can transform this country! While it may be easy to dwell on the past, or negative aspects of Hillary, we can only look to the future and all that it holds in store for us. I've been using this concept in my personal life as well. Positive thought combined with the use of vision boards has truly helped me be more open to opportunity- just as Hillary was! Here's a great resource explaining (better than I can) how to use these concepts to better your life: www.thevisionboardkit.com. You can download a free first chapter, too!
Posted by: Pearl Ebback5395 ||
11/17/2008 15:09
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Never considered that...
Hmm. Rudy just might be able to win her seat if there is no incumbent.
After months of painstaking negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday approved a bilateral agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain in this country for three more years.
The accord still needs approval by Iraq's parliament, but the Cabinet vote indicated that most major Iraqi parties supported it. The Iraqi government spokesman portrayed the pact as closing the book on the occupation that began with the U.S.-led 2003 invasion. "The total withdrawal will be completed by Dec. 31, 2011. This is not governed by circumstances on the ground," the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told Iraqi reporters, pointedly rejecting the more conditional language that the U.S. government had earlier sought in the accord.
American officials have pointed out that there is nothing stopping the next Iraqi government from asking some U.S. troops to stay on. The Iraqi military is years away from being able to defend the country from external attack, according to both U.S. and Iraqi officials.
Still, there is no doubt that the accord, if passed by parliament, will sharply reduce the U.S. military's power in Iraq. American soldiers will be required to seek warrants from Iraqi courts to execute arrests, and to hand over suspects to Iraqi authorities. U.S. troops will have to leave their combat outposts in Iraqi cities by mid-2009, withdrawing to bases.
The U.S. government has lobbied hard for the status-of-forces agreement, which would replace a United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. presence that expires on Dec. 31. Without some legal umbrella, the 150,000 U.S. forces would have to end their operations in Iraq in a few weeks' time, military officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Separatists in Indian-run Kashmir appeal for a poll boycott on state elections, saying the polls will only entrench India's rule on the region. Oh, wotta surprise. Every time they've had elections before they've always said "See what the voters say," right?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Why should criminally insane be allowed to vote?
Prosecutors announced the release of a doctor whose Nov. 6 kidnapping in Tijuana helped spark anti-crime protests, but deadly violence continued unabated in the Mexican city across from San Diego.
Shootings across Tijuana claimed the lives a 14-year-old girl and seven others, local authorities reported Sunday. Baja California state prosecutors say the girl and two men were shot down in a Tijuana street on Saturday just before midnight.
Assailants in a separate attack on the pool hall used assault rifles to kill four men and one woman. Assault rifles are frequently used in the violent drug cartel turf battles and assassinations that have plagued Tijuana recently.
There was no immediate information on the motive in the attack on the Banana Loca pool hall. Prosecutors did not say how the kidnapped doctor was released or whether a ransom was paid.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
An Israeli air strike killed four militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the truce with the Islamist Hamas movement was "shattered" and that he had commissioned a plan for military action in the Hamas-run territory if rocket attacks on Israel persist. "I ordered security chiefs to present their proposals to me as soon as possible so that an orderly plan of action could, if necessary, be brought to the decision-makers in the government for approval," Olmert told his cabinet, in broadcast remarks. The problem with Olmert hasn't been so much the plans as changing his mind once they're under way. "Indecisive" is his middle name.
"The responsibility for the shattering of the calm and the creation of a situation of prolonged and repeated violence in the south of the country is entirely on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza," Olmert told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Olmert said that he had asked the heads of Israeli security bodies to immediately draw up plans and present the government with options for action to end Hamas' 17-month-old rule in the Gaza Strip. "There is no one who can criticize the Israeli government... We cannot tolerate this price tag that the terror organizations are trying to set against our right to prevent the continuing terror attacks and threats," he said. On the other hand, the usual suspects will in fact criticize the Israeli government. Yehud will take those criticisms to heart and change his mind. All measures implemented will be half measures. Hamas will gain in stature and the voters of Israel will continue voting Kadima.
"We have taken action and will continue to take action in order to make sure that this 'calm' does not turn against the citizens of Israel," he said.
The five-month-old truce was recently shaken after Israel soldiers entered Gaza and clashed with Hamas forces; continued Israeli air strikes and alleged militant rocket fire have further strained the truce.
Hamas leaders accused Israel of violating a truce that had largely held since mid-June. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "We have the right to Dire Revenge™ respond to Zionist attacks. The Israeli government wrecked the truce and failed to meet any of its understandings."
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's top leader in Gaza, told reporters that a "continuation of this calm" depended on Israel ending military raids and lifting a two-week border closure that has choked off fuel and food aid to the enclave.
World heads slammed Israel for its "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million people by blocking food, aid and fuel to the impoverished strip in response to rocket fire by rebel groups or militants. Human rights groups labeled the situation in Gaza as a "catastrophe" and urged world leaders to step in to stop Israel's blockade of 1.5 million people who do not participate in militant activity.
Israeli officials said a large-scale ground operation in Gaza to try to curb rocket attacks would cause heavy casualties on both sides. Such an assault would pose political risks for members of Olmert's coalition cabinet as a Feb. 10 parliamentary election approaches. Olmert resigned in September but serves as a caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed after the ballot.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
For once I'm glad Udi is such an incompetent: given the attitudes of "International Community", two Paleosimian proto states is better for Israel than one.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) seized 70kg of explosives following the confessional statement of an ehsar (full time member) of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) whom they arrested Saturday at Mirpur in the city. They also seized 40kg of nitric acid, 150 cases of improvised grenades, a large quantity of bomb-making materials and equipment, and over 2,000 books on jihad raiding two houses in Mirpur and another house at Shanir Akhra in the capital.
Rab Additional Director General Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed said, "The JMB stockpiled the explosives and the books as they were preparing for fresh attacks and recruitment."
Rab captured JMB ehsar Mohammad Hanif alias Kamal, 28, hailing from Nandorkandi of Matlab upazila in Chandpur, at his home at Kalshi of Mirpur. Col Gulzar said Kamal is an ehsar of JMB's military wing. He is a close associate of present JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman.
Maj Momtajur Rahman, chief of the bomb disposal unit of Rab, told The Daily Star, "It is possible to make over 500 bombs with the seized explosives."
According to Rab officials, JMB chief Saidur was staying at a house in Mirpur-10 and he disappeared after Kamal was arrested. Kamal told reporters at Rab headquarters that they had been carrying out activities for jihad against the government which enforces man-made laws. He said they have the expertise to make bombs.
Col Gulzar said the JMB men had been recruiting people. Despite a number of major arrests made during crackdowns on Islamist militants in the last few years, over 250 trained operatives of JMB are still at large and many of them are reportedly trying to regroup. Fugitive JMB operatives have now become a matter of grave concern for the law-enforcement agencies which have no clue to their whereabouts and activities.
Their concern has recently increased as they received bits of intelligence information from across the country that the fugitives are now holding secret meetings under a new leadership.
Saidur Rahman took over as the new chief of JMB after JMB chief Abdur Rahman, second-man Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four other top JMB leaders were executed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
#1
SOmething seems to be missing from this thrilling story; can't quite put my finger on it....
*thinks*
round of bullet?
vaporous accomplices?
early morning secluded rendevous?
confirmation of lack of viatl signs?
Suicide bombings against foreign troops in Afghanistan on Sunday left two civilians dead, while the military claimed that it killed 52 insurgents.
Two German soldiers and two US soldiers were also wounded in the suicide bombings, while the British military announced that one of its troops had been killed in a blast in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday.
One of the suicide bombs hit a convoy of troops in the northern province of Baghlan. Two Afghans were killed and a dozen wounded, the interior ministry said. Two German soldiers were also hurt, one of them seriously, the German military said.
The other suicide car bomb on Sunday was on the outskirts of the western city of Herat that wounded two US soldiers, the US military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The US military said separately that its troops and Afghan security forces had killed 38 militants in Helmand on Saturday. "The combined forces engaged the militants with direct and supporting fires, killing 38 militants and destroying two militant vehicles," it said in a statement.
Troops killed four more insurgents who had attacked them at an illegal drugs factory in the neighbouring province of Kandahar on Saturday, it said. Meanwhile, troops killed five al-Qaeda-linked militants in the eastern province of Paktia on the border with Pakistan, the US military announced.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
killing 38 militants and destroying two militant vehicles
Wedding party. Wait & see. It's always a wedding party. Lots of marrying going on.
Kanju Amn Jirga members and Taliban have given signs of a breakthrough towards the signing of another peace accord in the Swat Valley after the Sunday's talks between the Jirga and Maulana Fazlullah, chief of Swat chapter of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The Amn Jirga, which has been making efforts to convince the warring parties to stop fighting, held talks with Fazlullah after meeting ministers representing the NWFP government in Peshawar a few days ago.
The Jirga has already brokered a deal in the Koza Bandai village of the restive valley, causing the Taliban to leave the area and declare it a conflict-free zone although the militants reportedly returned later.
In their two-day talks, the Jirga members demanded of Fazlullah to announce ceasefire. Sources said the militants handed the Jirga their demands in exchange for halting their activities.
Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan confirmed the handover of a demand-list to the Jirga and was also optimistic about the outcome of talks. "We have given our demands to the Jirga and there are signs of a breakthrough in the talks," he said.
Expressing similar optimism, the Jirga members said they would meet military officials today (Monday) to present the demands of the militants. Meanwhile, the insurgents picked up three security forces' personnel from Ningolai and Shakardara areas of the Kabal Tehsil and burnt a music shop in the Mingora city.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
For any government looking to raise money in the capital markets in the next few months, there was an Âominous development in Germany this week.
A German 10-year bond auction failed -- something more or less unheard of until this year -- as cash-strapped banks and investors snubbed the government offering.
It is a clear sign of straitened times when a benchmark bond in one of the most liquid markets in the world cannot attract enough bids to reach its target amount. Crucially, it raises serious doubts about whether governments can raise the vast amounts of debt needed to fund fiscal stimulus packages and bank recapitalisations in the current tough market conditions.
Any sign of waning demand may force up bond yields -- putting further pressure on public finances when they are already under strain. Nowhere is the issue more pressing than in the US.
#2
Interestingly Japan has the highest level of public debt (as a %age of GDP) in the world (excluding a couple of places like Zimbobwe). Japanese debt is 3 times the USA's level. Germany's debt is not much lower the USA's.
But we are going to see an explosion of government debt and in all likelyhood countries going bankrupt.
#6
The government's own subprime paper. Betting on the chicken's chicken's chicken's hatchlings showing up. We've checked your income statements and projected what you can be expected to produce in 10 years, and the numbers aren't matching there old boy.
And in it, the Republicans have their issue for the next election provided Bambi doesn't do the unexpected and lower spending.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/17/2008 10:57
Comments ||
Top||
#8
The Big O has made a lot of industrial strength promises to people that he cannot keep, w/r/t govt money giveaways. If he cannot deliver, he will alienate his base. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. He has not even taken office yet and he is pre-screwed.
When painting the floor, always first look for the door.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/17/2008 11:39
Comments ||
Top||
#9
"He has not even taken office yet and he is pre-screwed."
Thanks for warming my cockles, AP. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/17/2008 13:50
Comments ||
Top||
#14
A quick calculation is government debt (all developed countries) will increase by 15% to 20% of GDP over the next 12 to 16 months ex 'economic stimulus', due to falling revenues and increasing welfare, etc. payments. With economic stimulus, bailouts etc, probably north of 25% of GDP. Those are big numbers.
#18
I think that would be, technically, "self-pre-screwed", wouldn't it?
Actually, good news here. I vaguely recall (correct me please) that a signature moment in the Carter fiasco was the bond market's rejection of the federal budget submission (1979?).
I've kinda been hoping for the same thing for the USG for a long time. The only actual restraint on our imprudence would seem to be a scarcity of lenders.
I'ma also thinking that unless the hangover (unwinding of leverage) from this latest greatest binge really really sucks, odds of a repeat will be distressingly high.
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi early today, killing one person and leveling buildings. The death occurred when a house collapsed near the city of Gorontalo, about 1,950 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Jakarta, said Rustam S. Pakaya, head of crisis management at the Indonesian Health Ministry.
Several buildings, including a partially built school, were destroyed when the temblor struck at 1:02 a.m. local time. A tsunami warning issued by the Indonesian government was canceled about 30 minutes after the quake. The temblor struck 135 kilometers northwest of Gorontalo at a depth of 26 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Today's quake caused buildings to collapse in Tolitoli, located west of Gorontalo, Agence France-Presse reported, citing residents. Three aftershocks of magnitude 5.1 or higher struck the area, the latest at 6:33 a.m. local time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
ION RIAN > ANOTHER GREAT FLOOD: TIME TO BUILD ANOTHER [Noah's]ARK? HEAD FOR THE HILLS - you know, SIBERIA!
Article > World has entered a period not only of GREAT POLITICAL INSTABILITY, BUT ALSO GREAT CLIMATE = ELECTRO-MAGNETIC INSTABILITY. It is well-known by Science that Earth's magnetic field has been weakening since first detected back in the early 20th century, thru the 1980's and 1990's to present. A decrease of one second per year in Earth's rotational speed releases tremendous amounts or quantities of HEAT ENERGY UPON THE GLOBE/WORLD, AND MUCH GREATER THAN ANY HEAT PRODUCED BY PAN-HUMAN ACTIVITIES IN ALL OF RECORDED HUMAN HISTORY = HUMAN CIVILIZATION. Earth may had experienced up to 30 epochs of NOAH-STYLE, NATURAL GREAT FLOODS, the last being NOAH's FLOOD ITSELF, believed by many Perts to had prob occurred circa back in 11,100 B.C.
Weakness or redux in Earth's magnetic field likely also responsible for OZONE HOLES + POLE(S) SHIFTS, WID "RIPPLE/DOMINO" EFFECTS AS PER INDUCEMENT OF GLOBAL HEATING + COOLING PERIODS.
*IOW, ARTICLE > doesn't describe iff INCREASED SOLAR MAGNETIC/EM OUTPUT IS CAUSING THE SLOWDOWNS IN EARTH'S ROTATIONAL-ORBITAL VELOCITY???
#3
OOPSIES, forgot to say that RIAN ARICLE > fluxes/variabilities in Earth's magnetic field as affected by Solar Radiation/Energies is prob the cause of the MANY HIGH-MAGNITUDE QUAKES WORLD HAS EXPERIENCED IN RECENT TIMES.
* Lest we fergit, 2012 > QUAKE HEARD/FELT AROUND THE WORLD [Global Quake].
Which is likely, as I'd posted on the Net already, why the USAF-DOD wants certain advanced satellite missions to add new missions including the monitoring and collection of SUN/SOLAR DATAS
[e.g. SIRIUS Event = SUN, NOT SPACE ALIENS].
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, WHAT STAR TREKKIE FAN, ETC. MALE WOULDN'T LIKE SEXY SLINKY ORION SPACE BIKINI BABES, ESPEC ON FUTURE SPACE/STAR ILLUSTRATED SPORTS POSTERS, BUT THE ORION BABES, ETAL. ARE BESIDES THE POINT!
#4
WORLD MIL FORUM > A FEW GRAMS OF MATERIALS FROM ADVANCED US ANTI-MATTER RESEARCH AND WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT COLD DESTROY THE ENTIRE WORLD VIA "GLOBAL WAR FOR EXTINCTION". Super-Nukular style BOOM-BOOMS = MUSHROOM CLOUDS BUT WIDOUT THE DEADLY RADIOACTIVE AFTER-EFFECTS {AM Pert John Edwards].
Not just NUKEY DESTRUCTION, BUT QUICK/RAPID EXTINCTION.
At least 16 militants and two civilians were killed in the latest clashes between security forces and militants here on Sunday.
In another clash, a chief of tribal laskhar, Malik Fazal Mabood and two tribesmen were also killed in operation carried out by tribal lashkar against the suspected militants. Meanwhile, tribal lashkar killed 10 militants in the operation.
Mamond tribes set the houses of 12 extremists' commanders on fire, sources said. While fierce fighting is underway between national laskhar and militants in Mamond.
Sources said that security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, heavily pounded the suspected militants' hideouts in various parts of Mamond tehsil, killing six militants and two civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
The Israel Defense Forces released a video on Sunday evening showing militants in the Gaza Strip in the process of firing rockets at Israel. The video was released just hours after Israel Air Force troops killed four Palestinian gunners at a launching pad in northerern Gaza. The video shows militants positioning a rocket launcher and distancing themselves from it before opening fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
A suicide car bomber killed 15 people, including 7 policemen, and wounded 20 others in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province on Sunday, police said.
The police told Reuters the bomber had targeted a police checkpoint in the town of Jalawla. Police and police recruits are a favourite target of insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda, who view them as collaborators with the United States military.
Also, three people were killed, including two members of a pro-government Sunni militia, when a homemade bomb exploded near a checkpost in Baghdad, according to police.
Another seven people were wounded in the attack which came as Iraq's cabinet met to vote on a wide-ranging military agreement with the US that includes a timetable for all US forces to withdraw by the end of 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell for a second day in New York on signs the global slowdown is limiting demand in China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest crude users.
Japan entered the first recession since 2001 as its gross domestic product fell an annualized 0.1 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 after shrinking 3.7 percent in the previous period. China National Petroleum Corp., the country's biggest oil producer, said demand has contracted ``sharply'' since September because of the global credit crisis.
``There doesn't seem to be much out there to stop the fall in prices,'' said Toby Hassall, research analyst at Commodity Warrants Pty in Sydney. ``Weak demand and a pretty bleak demand outlook'' may push oil prices as low as $50 this week, he said.
Crude oil for December delivery dropped as much as $1.44, or 2.5 percent, to $55.60 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $55.73 at 9:35 a.m. in Singapore. The contract slumped 2.1 percent to settle at $57.04 on Nov. 14, having touched $54.67 the previous day, the lowest since Jan. 30, 2007. Prices declined 6.6 percent last week as world equity markets dropped, Germany entered its worst recession in 12 years and U.S. retail sales fell for a fourth straight month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
As international pressure mounts for negotiations with insurgents, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that he would guarantee the security of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar if he decides to enter into talks.
Striking a defiant tone, Karzai said during a news conference in the Afghan capital that he would not bow to demands from the international community to turn Omar over to U.S. authorities if the Taliban leader agreed to negotiate a peace settlement with Karzai's government. "As for Mullah Omar and his associates, if I hear from him that he is willing to come to Afghanistan or to negotiate for peace and for liberty so that our children will not be killed anymore, I as the president of Afghanistan will go to any length to provide him security," Karzai said.
"If I say I want protection for Mullah Omar, the international community has two choices: remove me or leave," he added.
Karzai delivered his remarks after weeks of speculation that negotiations are already underway between the Afghan government and insurgent leaders. In September, several representatives from Karzai's government met with former Taliban leaders in Saudi Arabia. That meeting was widely viewed as the potential first step on what could be a long road to a negotiated settlement to end the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan.
With violence hitting new highs as the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan enters its seventh year, U.S. and NATO officials have recently indicated increasing support for talks with Islamist insurgents as one way to rein in fighting across the country. While U.S. military officials have called for NATO allies to augment the estimated 62,000 foreign troops already operating in Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. officials have tacitly acknowledged that negotiating with moderate Taliban commanders is a key part of a strategy currently under consideration by U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David H. Petraeus.
Omar, the enigmatic and highly reclusive Taliban leader, hardly fits the profile of a moderate. Since his public refusal to turn over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to U.S. authorities following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he has held a prominent place on a list of U.S.-designated global terrorists. Known to his followers as the Commander of the Faithful, Omar rose to power in the southern province of Kandahar in the mid-1990s after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan plunged the country into a chaotic civil war.
A fierce military commander who was wounded several times in battle, Omar ruled the country until the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.
Intelligence experts believe Omar now leads his fighters from a safe haven near the southern Pakistani city of Quetta. The U.S. has offered a multi-million dollar reward for Omar's capture.
Omar's alliance with other insurgent groups, most notably the pro-Taliban network of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, has given insurgent forces greaterreach across the country, enabling insurgents to carry out near-daily attacks.
Taliban spokesmen have so far rejected the idea of talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
The persons of ambassadors have always been untouchable except by the most barbarous. President Karzai is correct in taking this position, should such peace talks actually occur. Note well, this does not prevent us from following the good mullah home afterward, nor from dealing with him now; no doubt we will be terribly sorry should he die accidentally from a missile aimed at one of his house guests.
Iran has converted financial reserves into gold to avoid future problems, an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in comments published on Saturday, after the price of oil fell more than 60 percent from a peak in July. They don't know very much about economics, do they?
#9
"There's never been a better time to buy gold."
--Commercial, any radio talk show, any day
Posted by: Mike ||
11/17/2008 10:17
Comments ||
Top||
#10
When those commercials ramp up it is usually because there is someone who is trying to get rid of theirs. I have noticed that the commercials really crank up when the price of gold is tanking. When it is going up, they disappear.
1. The manner of the current investigation by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police into an explosion at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 30,2008, which mainly targeted and killed some local Muslims should be a matter of concern to all right-thinking Indians.
2. Large sections of the Muslims,the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political class and the so-called secular elements in the Hindu community, which lose no opportunity to demonise the Hindu nationalists and the BJP in order to win the applause of the minorities and project themselves as liberals, have used the investigation to divert attention away from the hundreds of innocent civilians killed by the jihadi terrorists, many of them trained and assisted by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Bangladesh and inspired by the pan-Islamic ideology of Al Qaeda and its International Islamic Front (IIF).
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
explosion at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 30,2008, which mainly targeted and killed some local Muslims
#2
Funny how the pattern is so similar to what is experienced in western Europe (and in the USA, too) : don't pay attention to the threat posed by restive, growing minorities in terms of crime, unrest, social pressure, identity crisis and even terror,... but pay undue attention to those denouncing those threats, as they are "racists", "radicals", "xenophobical", "anti-republican",...
I'd say that western gvts are so much more preoccupied by the native population having a backlash than by any troubles from migrants.
#3
Of course, note I'm not an apologizer for the hindu terrorism, this is something that should not be condoned, especially more since it targets Christians just as easily in pogroms, but India DO have a serious problem on its hands, regarding its muslim minority, and they way this said problem is NOT handled, or worse, mishandled by demagogists and crooked bossist pols. Terror is definitvely not the answer, as it actually provides ammo for the peopel responsible for this problem, though, and worst of all, it accomplishes nothing.
#4
Unlike Western Europe and the US the Hindu don't have a recent history of Nazi atrocities. Instead they have centuries of Mogul occupiers to think about. I imagine the line is a fine one before something really bad happens to the Muslims in India. I also think Al Queda may attempt to push that line because Muslims coexisting is not in their long term interests.
#6
WAR OUTSIDE IRAQ> One reason Radical Islam and aligned are jihadin' all thru Central, East, and South Asia is that the locals are more familiar + geographically closer than lands far away. Similar rationales for many of the anti-Muslim/Islamist Hindu Militants - DESPITE RECOGNIZING THE REAL ISLAMIST OVERT THREAT TO "NORMAL" OR TRADITIONAL ASIAN ORDER, THE HINDUS, ETC. FEAR MORE A POTENT RETURN OF ANGLO-WESTERN INFLUENCE AND DOMINATION IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS [read, HINDU-specific domin of Indian Governance + National Culture, etc.].
#7
WORLD MIL FORUM > INDIA'S FEAR: CHINA'S ATTEMPT TO DAM THE BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER SYSTEM WILL LEAD TO WAR [Sino-Indian Water War]; + US EVALUATION OF HISTORICAL AND FUTURE SINO-INDIAN CONFLICT [Region-wide Islamist Pressures; Confrontation and War for Resources-Water/National Development].
Senior Israel Defense Forces officers criticized certain cabinet ministers on Sunday for beating the drum for military action in the Gaza Strip.
The General Staff officers called for weighing more aggressive action against Hamas if the rocket fire into the Negev from the strip continued. However, they do not support reoccupying the territory at this stage. Top IDF brass also expressed concern that some politicians were trying to drag the IDF into the political debate.
Meanwhile, the fighting in Gaza continued Sunday: The IDF killed four Palestinians from the small Hamas-allied group, the Popular Resistance Committees, who were about to launch Qassams, and a Sderot man sustained minor injuries when a Qassam landed near his home.
A spokesman for the group, Abu Mujahid, said the tahadiyeh (lull) with Israel was over as a result of the killing of four of its men. He said the organization's response would not not stop at firing Qassams or mortar bombs, hinting at a resumption of suicide attacks against Israelis.
IDF officers expressed surprise at recent news reports stating that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had instructed IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to prepare for an operation in Gaza. "What plans does the prime minister mean?" one officer asked, "the ones we presented to him two weeks ago or the ones he saw a month ago? All of the operational plans regarding Gaza were presented to the cabinet and the security cabinet a long time ago. The ministers are very familiar with them, they're the ones who must decide what to do."
The officers cautioned against "war-mongering" senior officials, claiming they only encouraged Hamas to escalate. Their remarks were targeted specifically at Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon, who said over the weekend that Israel's policy in Gaza was causing serious damage and denounced the "paralysis" imposed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, warning that Israel would pay a heavy price for its restraint in Gaza.
Both Barak and Ashkenazi want to avoid a broad operation in the Strip at this point, although the latter seems willing to support a slightly more aggressive policy if the rockets keep exploding. Officials in Barak's bureau said Sunday that they believed Hamas was now trying to curtail the rocket fire, partly due to Egyptian pressure.
A Sderot man sustained mild shrapnel injuries to his arm when a Qassam fell on a home Sunday evening. Four others were treated for shock. When the rocket fell, Motti Turjeman was building a bomb shelter. "I went out for coffee with the workers when suddenly we heard the air raid siren. We ran to the stairwell and heard a huge explosion. The Qassam fell five meters away, near the doghouse. I was sure the dog died and suddenly I saw him, alive, by a miracle, but apparently he became deaf," Turjeman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2008
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
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.
An NHS doctor accused of attempted car bombings in London and at Glasgow Airport has admitted that according to English law he is a terrorist. 
Sri Lanka stepped up air attacks against suspected rebel targets in the island's north Sunday, a day after ground troops re-captured a highly strategic town, the defence ministry said.
A Lebanese newspaper on Saturday published statements purporting to be by members of Fatah al-Islam showing the radical group had links with Syria and that Damascus had backed an attack in Lebanon. 
Armed Somali pirates over the weekend hijacked a Japanese ship in the Gulf of Aden, defying several warships that are patrolling the volatile waters, a Kenyan maritime official said on Sunday. The 20,000-ton "Chemstar Venus", along with its 23 crew members, was taken on Saturday in the region, said Andrew Mwangura who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.
Speaking to a session of the World Economic Forum's 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger endorsed US Senator Hillary Clinton, rumored to be the favorite for the post in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) seized 70kg of explosives following the confessional statement of an ehsar (full time member) of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) whom they arrested Saturday at Mirpur in the city. They also seized 40kg of nitric acid, 150 cases of improvised grenades, a large quantity of bomb-making materials and equipment, and over 2,000 books on jihad raiding two houses in Mirpur and another house at Shanir Akhra in the capital.
Suicide bombings against foreign troops in Afghanistan on Sunday left two civilians dead, while the military claimed that it killed 52 insurgents.
At least 16 militants and two civilians were killed in the latest clashes between security forces and militants here on Sunday. 
As international pressure mounts for negotiations with insurgents, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that he would guarantee the security of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar if he decides to enter into talks. 
