I am very happy for the 2 million people of Sadr City. I have been working here at the R-3 Water Treatment Plant for more than three years, since the start of the project. Its the first in Iraq, fully automatic and with American standards of best quality. We meet the people in the streets of Sadr City and they are very happy. They feel that we are interested in them and their health. We are very proud of the success of this project, said Iraqi Engineer Aqeel Lami of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The $27 million Sadr City R-3 Water Treatment Plant construction originally began in 2005 as a USAID contract. It was handed over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division in July 2007 to finish the remaining 15 percent.
The plant location came as a result of a government study on water pressure and supply, said USACE water expert, Simeon Francis, who has been with the plant as a technical expert from its beginning with USAID.
The plant began operation in mid-June with some interruptions due to power restrictions, but today, R-3 produces 4,000 cubic meters of treated water per hour into the distribution system through a 1.2 meter outlet line. It is currently providing 27 sectors in Sadr City with clean potable water - sectors that historically have had no centrally distributed water. With the plant at full capacity as of September 27, 2008, a performance test in October confirmed the quality of the daily output of 96,000 cubic meters per day (about 25 million gallons per day). That output equates to clean, quality water for a total of 1.5 million people in Sadr City and Baghdad, Francis said.
The plant will employ 150 people for operations, maintenance and management, Belew explained.
This project is special to me, concluded Francis, because Ive been here from the beginning, and I am here for the end of it. It is really something to see the clear water sample from R-3s output. I know what the raw water is like from the Tigris and to be able to look at the R-3 water and see nothing but water is very gratifying, he concluded.
But can we keep the sub-humans from blowing it up, and can/will the Iraqis be able to keep it operating? This kind of WoT Operation can have as much long-term impact as combat (though you have to win the combat to do this.)
MOSUL, Iraq Two Multi-National Division - North Soldiers were killed as a result of an attack from a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device while conducting operations in the city of Mosul today.
The names of the deceased are being withheld pending next of kin notification and release by the Department of Defense.
#1
We have to wait until 1-20-09 before the war can be won. Just pay attention to the MSM. They will know victory can be declared and report accordingly.
Coming soon to a battlefield near you? Heres what they are planning on from Popular Science:
1. Find Your Target
When the C-130 flies within targeting range (up to five miles away), the gunner aims using a rotating video camera mounted beneath the fuselage. The computer locks onto the object to continually track it. A second crew member precisely adjusts the laser beams strengthhigher power to disable vehicles, lower power to knock out, say, a small power generator. The gunner hits fire, and the computer takes over from there.
2. Heat Up the Laser
In a fraction of a second, chlorine gas mixes with hydrogen peroxide. The resulting chemical reaction creates highly energetic oxygen molecules. Pressurized nitrogen pushes the oxygen through a fine mist of iodine, transferring the oxygens energy to iodine molecules, which shed it in the form of intense light.
3. Amplify the Beam
The optical resonator bounces this light between mirrors, forcing more iodine molecules to cough up their photons, further increasing the laser beams intensity. From there, the light travels through a sealed pipe above the weapons crew station and into a chamber called the optical bench. There, sensors determine the beams quality, while mechanically controlled mirrors compensate for movement of the airplane, vibration and atmospheric conditions. Precise airflow regulates the chambers temperature and humidity, which helps keep the beam strong.
4. Stand Clear
A kind of reverse telescope called the beam expander inside a retractable, swiveling pod called the turret widens the beam to 20 inches and aims it. The lasers computer determines the distance to the target and adjusts the beam so it condenses into a focused point at just the right spot. Tracking computers help make microscopic adjustments to compensate for both the airplanes and the targets movement. A burst of a few seconds duration will burn a several-inch-wide hole in whatever it hits.
Doesn't strticly fall under the rubric of "news", but there is an interesting video streaming on the website vbs.tv about the practice of ritual male circumcision in uganda. Its really graphic, so I probably wouldn't watch it at work.
Reports are coming in of a shooting incident at Delhi's main international airport. Unconfirmed reports quote airport officials as saying that up to six gunmen have been shot by Indian security forces.
Security had been strengthened at several Indian airports after warnings had been received of possible attacks. The reported shootings follow last week's attacks on Mumbai in which nearly 200 people were killed.
#2
Two sharp pops : a full on assault, talk about your game of Telephone. Which officials did the bbc talk to; the off-duty baggage hops at a different airport's bar?
Louisiana has displaced Mississippi as the unhealthiest U.S. state and other Southern states were close rivals due to high obesity and smoking rates in new rankings that deemed Vermont the healthiest.
The overall health of Americans remained static for a fourth year, according to an annual report issued on Wednesday assessing a series of measures also including binge drinking, health insurance coverage, air pollution, infectious disease rates, crime levels and immunization coverage.
Many Southern states were clustered near the bottom of the rankings. The region has some of the highest rates of obesity, which contributes to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer, as well as high rates of smoking, which causes cancer, lung disease, heart disease and other problems.
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#5
GolfBravoUSMC---your pictures, as clinically interesting as they are, gave me an idea. If we liposuctioned these beauties, we would have enough fat to render to solve our foreign oil import crisis. I did the math, and I figured that we could disconnect from Venezuela and Saudi.
My wife and I used to get a seal from time to time from hunter friends on the coast. There is lots of heat in seal blubber, so why not this.
The secret is to develop a safer, more efficient method of liposuction. The population would become healthier (well sort of....we need them to keep eating habits maintained to keep up fat production) and we would start a whole new domestic industry....Ima talkin jobs, people. And no bailouts.
Ima freakin genius....
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/04/2008 14:11
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On the surface, last weeks attack on Mumbai was remarkable for its execution and apparently unconventional tactics. But when compared to a plot uncovered 15 years ago that targeted prominent hotels in Manhattan, it becomes apparent that the Mumbai attack was not so original after all.
#2
Actually, I am counting on the Dems canceling this program, but I hope that Boeing continues work on it on its own. Then, when missiles start flying, charge a double butt load of money for the USAF to *rent* it.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- A Tri-State woman is in critical condition Wednesday after police say her husband shot her while they were having sex.
Timothy Havens, 38, told Springfield police he was reaching for something on the nightstand when the pistol went off, hitting his estranged wife Carolyn in the upper chest. (Hear part of the 911 call)
Carolyn Havens, 42, is being treated at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.
This is isn't the first time there's been trouble for the Havens. Court documents showed Timothy served 60 days in jail for assaulting his wife and was ordered to go to anger management classes.
His arrest Tuesday for the weekend shooting was for violating a civil protection order that Carolyn had taken out against him earlier this year.
Bond was set at $75,000 after prosecutors asked for a high bond, "due to alleged prohibited contact between the parties (and) the suspicious nature of the circumstances surrounding (her injury)."
#6
This is precisely why I think anything that is not an actual pistol should not have pistol-like grips! E.g., hair dryers, electric drills, caulking guns, the Anal Intruder™, etc.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/04/2008 13:20
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#7
"Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad... BANG!!!"
#8
Once upon a time a condom over the barrel of the rifle was considered a good prophylactic for jungle mud up the barrel with subsequent backfire potential.
#2
The only answer is a very unpalatable one indeed. Go back to the way we used to buy houses. House price of 3 years salary if you are smart, 4 years if you are a retard. Minimum credit score of 780 with 20% down, no if's and's or but's, and if you don't have it you can hit the road. Anything other than that will put us right back into the same mess.
It's not a glamorous solution, but its what we need to do.
#5
The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.
The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.
All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.
As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"
Would that be such a bad thing? At least the people who did buy houses would be able to pay for them, as opposed to asking me to do it for them.
From what I can see so far, the average American who ISN'T in over his head should be mad as Hell about the bailouts. First, his currency is going to be debased even further than it already has been. Second, his taxes are going to rise to help people who deliberately took extremely ill-advised and obviously unsustainable financial risks. In short, the people who were prudent and cautious will end up paying for the extravagantly cavalier gamblers.
As one of the cautious and prudent, I'm EXTREMELY unhappy with this situation.
#9
"the average American who ISN'T in over his head should be mad as Hell about the bailouts"
I sure as hell am, JM. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/04/2008 19:19
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#10
MAD AS HELL ? YES! I've lost it in my 401K (oh well, a chance you take). But!!! I'll also be paying Paulsontaxes for everybody elses mortgage mistakes until I'm 129 years old!
#1
One of the big appeals to many of socialism is the perception of risk avoidance, that's why when people get comfy they forget they got there by a natural process of social dynamics. By removing the dynamic to preserve what you got, you end up at various measures that result in stagnation and eventually decline. You then throw ever growing and consuming bureaucracy and its rules and regulations at the prospect of the decline only to feed the monster and not stave it off. So we all go down rather than just those elements within the society which are losing the evolutionary adaption game.
Having such a booming economy with more and more safety nets has made Americans not risk averse, but consequences averse. The time of economic bubbles bursting with little or no consequences led to the current disaster. There was no risk because there would be no consequences no matter how big the flop.
We'll see if this flop was big enough to re-introduce the concept. If it is than that staticists will take over with the bureaucratic monster stomping in to avert risk with the economic version of the precautionary principle.
This is all just another perspective on the kind of problem we have with civil rights. There are no rights without responsibilities and duties. So, you get gov't to regulate away responsibility and your rights go with it.
#3
"Frontier spirit" > And now you know, Virginia -again - why that guy from Guam favored and argued for Hollyweird to make J. F. Cooper's
"Leatherstocking Tales" [e.g. LAST OF THE MOHICANS], and other, into Trilogy Movies = Serials.
NOTHING SAYS "FRONTIER SPIRIT" LIKE COOPER'S
"NOBLE SAVAGE" INDIANS, ACORN-EATING DANIEL BOONES = HUNTER-SCOUTS, + MILYUHNS AND ZILYUHNS OF "INJUN VERSUS INJUN", INJUN VERSUS SETTLER", "SETTLER VERSUS ARMY/GOVT", "BRITS VERSUS FRENCH VERSUS EUROS", ETC, EARLY AMER WARS + CONSPIRACIES + MASSAKREEES IN RIGHTEOUS, GOD-HELL FEARING, INDIGNATION.
* A YOUNG JOHN WAYNE in "THE SCOUT" > "WE GOTTA SUFFER, WE CAN'T GIVE UP ... BECUZ WE'RE TRYING TO BUILD A NATION/COUNTRY"!
December 1, 2008: The owners of the Ukrainian ship (and its 33 tanks and other weapons) have agreed to pay the Somali pirates a $20 million ransom. This is the largest ransom ever paid to the Somali pirates, and will encourage more groups to get involved in pirate operations. The GPD for all of Somalia is only about $2.5 billion (meaning the average income per person is $250). So $20 million in cash is a really big deal.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008
08:44 ||
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POLICE have arrested 49 people this week in a northern Iranian city during a crackdown on "satanic" clothes, according to an IRNA news agency report. The measures are the latest in a country-wide campaign against Western cultural influence in the Islamic Republic, where strict dress codes are enforced.
"Police confronted rascals and thugs who appeared in public wearing satanic fashions and unsuitable clothing," Qaemshahr city police commander Mahmoud Rahmani told IRNA. Mr Rahmani also said that five barber shops were shut and 20 more warned for "promoting Western hairstyles".
In the past, such crackdowns have lasted a few weeks or months, but the current campaign was launched in 2007 and has not let up. It includes measures against men sporting spiky "Western" hairstyles or women wearing tight trousers and high boots.
Women are supposed to wear clothing that covers their hair and disguises the shape of their bodies. But some, particularly in cities, wear headscarves pushed back well beyond their hairlines and sport tight-fitting outfits.
Some analysts say the authorities fear such open acts of defiance against the Islamic Republic's values could escalate if they go unchecked. This worries them when Iran is under pressure from the West over its disputed nuclear work, they say.
"Some individuals, not knowing what culture they are imitating, put on clothing that was designed by the enemies of this country," Rahmani said. "The enemies of this country are trying to divert our youth and breed them the way they want and deprive them of a healthy life."
Mr Rahmani did not say how the offenders would be punished. Usual penalties are a warning or a fine.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has in the past suggested Iran's enemies may try to stage a "soft" or "velvet" revolution by infiltrating corrupt culture or ideas.
A 16-year-old Japanese girl signed with a regional baseball team Tuesday, becoming the country's first female professional baseball player.
Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft.
"I still don't feel like I've really become a pro baseball player, but I want to do my best," Yoshida said at a news conference after signing her contract. "My specialty is the knuckleball, so I really want to be able to get batters out using it effectively."
Yoshida, who started playing baseball when she was in second grade, said she wants to emulate Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career as a knuckleballer. She's got spunk. Hope she does well.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/04/2008
07:25 ||
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#5
Bobby Murcer said that trying to hit a knuckleball is like trying to eat jello with chopsticks. Bob Uecker would always say about being a catcher of a knuckleballer. It's easy to catch a knuckleball. You just wait for it to stop rolling and pick it up.
#7
Hopefully, her professional career won't end up like most of the Japanese babes on G4TV's Male-Female "NINJA" competition in Nippon, where the babes are basically there to show off their sexy slinky, "Look-at-Me", flashy or shocker etc. Costumes to Nation and World on TV before going down = failing in the first round???
* MORGAN WEBB w/SAMURAI SWORD > "KONICHIWA - BITCHES"!
Thousands of Nigerians who fled a wave of deadly sectarian violence remained in a makeshift camp on Wednesday as more funerals were held and shell-shocked residents began sifting through wreckage.
The refugees were said to be too scared to go back to their homes in the central city of Jos and fearful of what they might find when they did return. Eze Udemegue, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said: "We still have more than 3,000 still in the camp. They live on materials provided by NEMA, the state government and NGOs (non-governmental organisations)."
The state government has said about 200 people died in the clashes, in which machetes, guns and even bows and arrows were used, although other sources have put the toll at twice that figure. More bodies, meanwhile, were still being recovered across the city. "Twenty bodies have been picked up from different places within the city on Tuesday and are now on their way to the cemetery for burial," said Murtana Sani Hashim, an official responsible for recording the number of corpses.
Two days of violence erupted on Friday after a rumour that the majority-Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost a local election to the mainly Christian Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In neighbourhoods worst hit by the clashes, locals said they were staggered by the scale of the death and destruction. "I did not realise the extent of the damage wrought in the city until today when I went around affected areas," Yohanna Buba, a 36-year-old civil servant told AFP. "It is unbelievable. I wonder how long it will take the city to recover," he said.
A grain market had been completely destroyed with some 3,000 stalls reduced to ashes. "All that we had has been burnt... We don't even have enough to eat now. We have been ruined," said trader Mohammed Sani, picking his way through the debris. "Fifteen years of work gone in a few minutes..." added a car spare parts trader.
Elsewhere, car dealer Hamidi Idris said he had returned to his garage to find that over 200 cars had been destroyed. "We have lost nothing less three million dollars... The loss is too colossal for us to recover from in 10 years. It's just too much," he said.
A heavy military presence remained in the city Wednesday and a dusk-to-morning curfew was still in force. Roadblocks had been set up and soldiers were searching cars and checking identity papers. Banks, offices and markets, however had started to re-open and more residents were venturing out onto the streets.
Army spokesman Sani Usman said the military presence would remain as long as necessary. "We have a mandate from the president to restore lasting peace in Jos and our men will remain as long as it takes to achieve this mandate," he said.
The Muslim party lost. The riots started. I suspect that the party that won would not have an interest in starting riots. And the article only quotes people with Muslim names as those suffering from the violence?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
12/04/2008 9:03
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#3
Someone called Canada a 'geopolitical accident' and its politics reflects this with different parties and party factions dominant in different regions. All governments are coalitions of these different parties.
#6
This is a major reason that I, too, hate parlimentary systems, and REALLY hate the fact that our a**holes in the State Dept. set up countries where we do nation building with this model.
#7
Naturally, AlanC, they hate the fact that things actually take time to get accomplished in our system and they are still bound down by silly wastes of time like 'checks and balances', which themselves are eroding away as we speak. So why wouldn't they pick a better system to keep the little people from sticking their long noses into the govt's business?
#9
I'm not so crazy about the Steyn link (although I do enjoy reading Steyn) provided by Grenter. In Canada there are 305 seats in the house of parliment. There are 305 electoral districts called ridings. Every riding elects a member of parliment (MP). By past precedent, whatever party has the most MPs forms the government. We had an election ~7 weeks ago. The Conservatives won but with a little less than half the seats (methinks ~140). The Liberals won 77. The Separtists 50. The NDP (socialists) the rest, along with a few independents. If a government cannot get 153 votes (ie the majority)on a key piece of legislation (considered a 'confidence' vote), they are deemed unable to govern and we get a new election (again, past precedent). The conservatives are facing such a vote on Monday. They would likely loose. However, instead of forcing a new election, the Liberals & socialists want to form the new government without holding an election. However, combined they hold less seats than the conservatives, and this is key. They need the separtists support in order to pass any legislation, including confidence votes. So the near left Liberals and the far left NDP have signed an agreement with the separtist left. The Governor General (our unelected head of state, who also decides if the left coalition will get to form the new government if the conservatives loose power or can call an election to let the people decide) just agreed to alow the conservatives to suspend parliment until late January, when the conservatives will present a budget. This prevents the immediate confidence vote from occuring. However, the budget vote in late January will be a confidence vote, as budgets always are. This is where we currently stand.
Less than two months after winning re-election, Harper successfully asked the unelected representative of the head of state for the power to close down Parliament until Jan. 26, hoping to buy enough time to develop a stimulus package that could prop up the economy.
"Today's decision will give us an opportunity I'm talking about all the parties to focus on the economy and work together," Harper said after the private meeting.
Governor General Michaelle Jean, who represents Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, granted the unusual request to suspend parliament. Had she refused, Harper would have had two choices: step down or face a no-confidence vote Monday he was sure to lose.
Harper would not offer details on their conversation.
#11
Vancouver radio this morning was expressing the hope that the gov't would shut down to give everybody time to cool down and think things through rather than get all wound up.
they got their hope, now to see if there is any change.
#14
I do like the idea that in a Parliamentary system the election cycle is short. I like the idea that the opposition party creates a shadow government and thus policies. I like the idea that in a Parliamentary system the government can call a vote and get a referendum on what they are doing, or the party can remove the leader if they know the leader is unpopular but they want to stay in power.
I don't like the idea that the party in power controls the executive and legislative branches by definition. I like a balance. I want Taiwanese style fist fights shown on pay-per-view to help pay off the budgets.
They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.
While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.
The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine. The troops also downed 896,000 pints of beer in the first six months of this year, the Times reported.
The statistics only add to the embarrassment of the country's federal army, Budweiser Bundeswehr, after a report earlier this year found troops to be too fat, smoked too much and didn't exercise enough. It showed they lived on beer and sausages while shunning fruit and vegetables.
The parliamentary report claimed that some 40 per cent of all German army personnel are overweight - a higher percentage than in the civilian population. At the time Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, stated: 'Plainly put, the soldiers are too fat, exercise too little, and take little care of their diet.'
The Times also reported the damning allegation from a senior officer that Germany is failing in its main mission to train the Afghan police. He descibed the efforts as 'a miserable failure'.
Since 2001, 28 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
#3
Years ago I had the pleasure of eating a few German field rations. Very civilized. MRE's don't even come close. As far as 'Too fat to fight the Taliban'... well I'm glad they're there, overweight or not. If you took the time to examine some of our crack troops in Forward Operating Bases (FOBS) (non-field soldiers) you might find a bit of excess poundage as well.
#4
Perhaps their real mission is to get the Taliban drunk and slow?
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 8:36
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#5
Besoeker
I was positively shocked to find German soldiers shopping for beer in groups and in uniform. Perhaps I am a bit old fashioned, but I think that in a serious army (one who really prepares for war , meaning that it must preserve both displine and its public image) this would land you in jail/detention/arrest or whatever you call it for so long that you would get white hair before being released.
Also: remember, they have lost 28 men and they already have recruiting problems. The once fearsome Germans have become poodles.
#6
JFM... Correctly or incorrectly so, cultivated by the left (yes there are leftests there as well) the German military legacy of WWII continues to haunt them. Never mind the fact that dozens of German officers and scores of others were executed for the various attempts to assassinate Hitler. The Holocaust rememberence crowd will never let Germany, it's military, or the world forget the past or get behond it. Pol Pot and Joe Stalin must still be chuckling and poking fun at Hitler in hell.
#7
Much of this is "piss and curl papers". This is what you get when you send troops on a mission led by bureaucrats, who give them endless rules of what they can't do, and "no-responsibility" missions. Their morale must be in the negative numbers.
This was so bad in Mexico, that it even afflicted their language, creating a common tense of "somebody should do something", whenever something needed to be done.
Imagine what would happen to a combat company of US infantry, if their company commander was Bill Clinton, their platoon leaders were Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Henry Waxman, and their NCOs were equally worthless. Unless the privates mutinied and took charge, they would "drink beer and eat sausages" all day, while their "leaders" whined about how fat they were getting.
"Why don't they eat tofu and bean sprouts, exercise, and go persuade the enemy not to be so mean? (As long as nobody gets hurt.)"
#8
Three threads of truth run through Besoeker, JFM and Anonymoose's comments and brought together, pretty much show the state of the German and EU troops today.
Clinton managed to destroy our military in a short 6 months and it is only because we had such good NCOs and a few officers that it didn't become a complete cluster fuck. The Germans have had decades of this crap, they aren't motivated, aren't disciplined, aren't well led and have no real encouragement to do anything.
#9
Well, don't count me in on this criticism. After two world wars in the 20th Century and millions of dead to go into the accounting column, I for one am more than happy they've come to embrace the light side of the force [traditional partying Rhineland/Bavaria] rather than revert to the dark side [traditional marching Prussia/Saxony].
#10
They may be more effective at training the Afghans than at first glance. A recent US returnee from duty told me he had befriended some in the Afghan ranks, introducing them to vodka and pork chops, which they LOVED. (Don't ask, don't tell how he got them) Islam be damned, they found the recipe to brew their own on the internet! Part of the war is cultural, and beer and brats are preferable to beheading any day, IMO.
#11
Do the math, that's 1.33 pints of beer and .07 bottles of wine a day per soldier. Not what I'd call an excessive amount. But it looks shockingly big in print and that's what journalism is all about today.
#12
I lived in Germany for a year. It is actually very noticable, at least in the city where I was, that there are a lot LESS fat people than there are in Canada. My sister, a family doctor, commented on the same thing when she came to visit me. Her thoughts were that she would prefer to have a patient base that was more like the average German than what she currently has. They are at a healthy weight on average.
#14
Procopius2k, I don't disagree that German leadership needed to be fixed wrt 2 world wars. I differ that the lax quality and martial standards of their soldiers is a good thing. Plus, a few classes on the duty of the warrior to disregard unlawful orders from hhq doesn't cause weight gain.
The defiant words that a former third-grade teacher spat at a judge in Alexandria, Va., in April are more poignant now that sources in the Indian and U.S. governments are saying they believe Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a Pakistan-based terrorist group, was behind the mass murder in Mumbai, India, last week. What government was supposed to be intimidated by my actions? Ali Asad Chandia asked U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton at the April hearing where the judge reconfirmed Chandias 15-year prison sentence, according to The Associated Press. Do you think the government of India will feel intimidated by a few boxes of paintballs?
Chandia taught at an Islamic school in the Maryland suburbs before being convicted in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists. In a Jan. 23, 2008, opinion affirming Chandias conviction but remanding his sentence to the district court for reconsideration, Judge Blane Michael of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit summarized the governments case against the schoolteacher.
Specifically, the government alleged that (LET official) Ajmal Khan traveled to the United States to secure high-tech equipment and other materials for LET and that Chandia provided material support to Ajmal Khan during his trips, wrote Michael. The alleged material support included picking up Ajmal Khan at the airport, providing him access to a computer and e-mail at Chandias residence, and assisting him in shipping paintballs to Pakistan for LET use in military training operations. How many paintballs? Chandia was found guilty of ... helping Khan ship 50,000 paintball pellets from the U.S. to Pakistan, reported The Associated Press.
Others who (like Chandia) attended the now-closed Dar al Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va.which is about 11 miles from the U.S. Capitoldid more than ship paintballs. Judge Allyson Duncan of the Fourth Circuit explained their activities in a Sept. 1, 2006, opinion affirming the convictions of Masoud Khan, Seifullah Chapman and Hammad Abdur-Raheem on terrorism-related conspiracy charges.
Khan, Chapman and Hammad attended the Dar al Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., where Ali Timimi, a primary lecturer, spoke of the necessity to engage in violent jihad against the enemies of Islam and the end of time battle between Muslims and non-Muslims, wrote Duncan. Several of the attendees, including Chapman and Hammad, organized a group to engage in activities in preparation for jihad. In the spring of 2000, members of the group began simulating combat through paintball exercises and practices at firing ranges, the judge wrote.
How did this tie-in to LET and India? Members of the group had ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the military wing of a Pakistani organization initially founded to conduct jihad against Russians in Afghanistan, said Duncan. One member of the paintball group, Mr. Hamdi, openly discussed wanting to go to fight in Kashmir and ultimately die as a martyr in combat. Hamdi traveled to Pakistan in August 2000 and was admitted to the LET camps, wrote the judge. While there, he fired on Indian positions in Kashmir. Upon his return, he rejoined the paintball group and informed the others about LETs mission to destroy India, Israel and the United States.
In the summer of 2001, Chapman traveled to LET camps in Pakistan. Then came the attacks of Sept. 11. That night, Timimi argued that the attacks should not be condemned, wrote the judge. He was thereafter not invited to lecture at Dar al Arqam, and tapes of his speeches were destroyed. However, on Sept. 16, 2001, Timimi met with the paintball group, including Khan and Hammad, at a members house. Timimi said that the Sept. 11 attacks were justified and that it was the obligatory religious duty of those present to defend the Taliban against the American troops that were expected to invade Afghanistan in pursuit of al-Qaida. The discussion focused on training at the LET camps as necessary preparation to fight with the Taliban against the United States. Several of the members, including Khan, expressed their intent to train at the LET camps and to fight in Afghanistan after their training was complete. For purposes of their travel, they agreed that Khan would be their emir, or leader.
Khan then traveled to Pakistan, where he trained at LET camps for about six weeks, according to Duncan. The evidence reflects that LET broadly disseminated its goals for the destruction of India, America and Israel on its Website and elsewhere, she said.
In upholding Chapmans conviction for conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act by aiding military action against a nation with whom the United States was at peace, Duncan wrote: The record contains evidence that Chapman continued to provide support to two members of the group who expressly acknowledged going to Pakistan and firing on Indian troops while there. Sufficient evidence, therefore, supports the district courts findings and, accordingly, the conspiracy conviction.
Jihadists allied with LET trained in the suburbs of our capital city. The outgoing administration deserves credit for the vigilance it showed in catching and convicting them. Will the incoming administration show equal vigilance?
ISRAEL is reportedly drawing up plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the US.
"It is always better to coordinate," a top Defence Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post. "But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination."
Israel would prefer to work in consultation with the US because the US Air Force controls the Iraqi airspace its jets would need to cross on a bombing mission. "There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation," a top Israeli official said.
A report, published in September in Britain's Guardian newspaper, claimed that Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by George W. Bush
Iran has already dismissed the possibility of an Israeli strike. "We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Press TV Web site. "Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare."
#1
TOPIX > COMMISSION RECOMMENDS US MUST USE "DIRECT FORCE" AGZ IRAN, NORTH KOREA, IFF NEEDED; + BIDEN: US MUST STOP SPREAD OF NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS.
#2
Hmmmmmm. Time's a wastin', boyz. I don't think the teen crushes of Brooks, Gerson, and their ilk are gonna count for much when we're talkin' strategic existential threats to national existence, and stuff. I'm still unable to see really satisfying Israeli military options, but the perfect may not be the enemy of the good-enough, in this case.
#3
Was thinking about that last night. They don't want to do it so close to inauguration that it makes Bambi respond. Nor close to Christmas so that it appears to be somehow anti-Christian. New year's eve sounds like a good time. Lots of distractions. Much later gets to be a PR problem.
I'm not so sure airstrikes are the best way, either. If they have been working on this for a long time, and I suspect they have, sleeper bombs may already have been placed in appropriate locations to be set off remotely.
#4
Five million Obama zombies in D.C. on Inaugeration Day. Another 50 million watching on TV. A billion angry, US hating muzzies all lathered up and screaming. I'd give the 19th or 20th of January high marks.
#5
This is the policy blurb from the Atlantic Council of the United States, the think tank for Obama's new National Security Advisor.
We need to better understand Iranian concerns: they are rightfully worried about national security. Israel and the U.S. continue to espouse bellicose rhetoric with regards to Iran. This is not helpful. Moreover, Iran is a Shiite state in a largely Sunni region and this plays an important part in their desire for autonomy that the West sometimes fails to apprecitate. Not to mention that their population doubled in the last 20 years, and oil reserves won't sustain their demographic forever. Nuclear energy is their right, but it needs to be developed following international norms. A UN process for the provision of enriched uranium is one option. The most obvious benefit of this is that the Iranians would receive fuel at a far cheaper price than they could ever produce it themselves, and, under IAEA inspection, it would be taken away once burned.
These folks completely miss the forest for the trees.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 8:08
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#6
These folks completely miss the forest for the trees.
Hell, they wouldn't know a good tree if it fell on them.
The Mad Scientist Bringing Back the Dead.... Really.
Mark Roth got the idea that deanimation really might be the better scene, and found himself in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Now, Mark Roth is a scientist. He's not a philosopher or a crank. He proves things, experimentally, according to the scientific method. In 2007, he got a MacArthur, so he's a genius, certified.
Mark Roth is a scientist. But he's a scientist in the way that you used to want to be a scientist when you were a kid, with weird substances -- dangerous substances, toxic substances, indeed the most toxic substances known to man! -- bubbling away in his lab, rather than a scientist in the way that most scientists are scientists, with NIH funding, a stack of grant applications to catch up on, and a commitment to pursue the one or two ideas that got them that precious federal funding to the death.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
First, that some scientists weren't necessarily happy that he'd had success with RNA splicing; and, second, that the same scientists who weren't necessarily happy that he'd had success with RNA splicing wanted him to do RNA splicing for the rest of his natural life. Talk about weird...but that's not what convinced him to leave the campfire. No, what convinced him that he had to start going out into the woods and fetch his ideas from the darkness was...the darkness itself.
In 1995, Roth's wife, Laurie, gave birth to his second daughter, Hannah. She was born with Down syndrome and a heart with one ventricle. Mark Roth was thirty-eight years old. He was, by this time, a researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and if his daughter survived, he was looking at having a dependent for as long as he was alive. He met with Laurie and told her, Hey, whatever happens, life as we know it is over.
And then Hannah died. She died after heart surgery. She was just over a year old.
And then Mark Roth began to fail. Like, unequivocally. He was still doing experiments, he was still doing science, but it was as if he were experimenting with failure itself. He was committed to it. He didn't think there was enough of it. He was going to see where failure took him.
The first failure? Immortality. He'd gotten interested in the possibility of immortality. Just read it! It goes for a few pages but is worth it..
The zebra-fish paper was about stopping the heart of zebra-fish embryos. It was about switching their hearts on and off. The paper reported that the Roth lab was able to switch off the zebra-fish hearts for, like, nine hours before switching them back on again. I mean, those fish were dead....And so one day in 2001 Roth got a call in his lab. It was from DARPA. That's the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That's the Pentagon's arm for applied scientific research and "high risk, high payoff" freethinking. It's a strange, oxymoronic place that, aside from the creative lethality of its intentions, might be Mark Roth's institutional counterpart. "Did you really do what you say you did?" the DARPA program manager asked Roth. When Roth assured him that yes, he did, and that what he was doing was trying to get people not to die when they have heart attacks, the DARPA guy said, Well, we're trying to get people not to die when they bleed out, and he started working on getting Roth paid.
India will not respond to attacks in Mumbai by sending troops to the border with Pakistan, but will instead mobilise global pressure for its neighbour to act decisively against Islamist militants, analysts say.
They blinked ...
The military strategy was tried in 2001 and 2002 after an attack on India's parliament, but achieved little.
The crucial difference this time is that India is dealing with a civilian, democratically elected government in Islamabad -- a reasonably friendly government which does not have full control over a much more hostile, hawkish military establishment.
They aren't really civilian since they do whatever Kigali tells them to do, they certainly aren't democratic, and and they absolutely aren't friendly.
Military confrontation, however tempting as Indian elections loom ever closer, would only empower the hawks across the border. "It is simply not on the table," Siddharth Varadarajan, strategic affairs editor of the Hindu newspaper said. "If India were to take any of the military measures some armchair analysts want, that would almost certainly play into the hands of the military establishment in Pakistan."
It would also have played into the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, by forcing Pakistan to withdraw troops from its tribal areas and western border. It has even been suggested this was one possible motive behind the attacks. If so, that is not a trap India will fall into, analysts say.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/04/2008
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#4
An alternative view would be that this declaration is simply magician's patter to misdirect the audience while they acquire needed intelligence and prepare a plan of attack.
#5
Ever play Civilization (computer game)? You can always attack India and Gandhi (who leads your Indian opponent) almost always lets it pass. It's the same thing all over again!
#6
sludge i play civilization 4 all the time and you are right their other leaders do the same thing and always can be wiped out pretty early in the game
#10
So, that's the reason Pakistan keeps taunting India.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/04/2008 19:38
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#11
Indian politicians of the Congress sort have been sucking up to the Gandhian overhyped ideals like it was infallible, that peaceful resistance is a one-size fits all solution. (Not forgetting, among other idiotic things that Gandhi actually did, he was slso a holocaust denier). Too much verbose nonsense(verbal diarrhoea) from the local leftist press there too. He was a flawed iconic figure but taken mostly to be infallible.
TOKYO, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A previously unknown third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has emerged as a contender for power in Pyongyang, an analyst says. The son, whose name isn't known, occupies a powerful position in the North Korean army and could have the backing of the military if there is a power struggle in Pyongyang following the death of the 66-year-old Kim Jong Il, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University and an expert on North Korean affairs, told the newspaper that the third son, believed to be his 30s, joins Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, and the youngest, 28-year-old Kim Jong Chol, as possible successors to "the Dear Leader."
Wouldn't be surprised if a few more offspring popped up in the near future.
Shigemura told the Telegraph his sources indicate Kim Jong Il has suffered one and possibly two debilitating strokes and has only months to live. North Korea has downplayed previous reports of Kim's supposed ill health.
Kim Jong Chol is believed to have his father's blessing to succeed him. But Pyongyang's unofficial spokesman, U.S.-North Korea Peace Executive Director Kim Myong Chol, told the newspaper there is no power struggle going on, adding that when the time comes, the most appropriate person will be chosen by the Communist Party.
This article starring:
Kim Jong Nam
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2008
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I'd sure like to see the DNA test results on this one.
#3
Unknown? The one with the red hair and freckles?
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 8:35
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#4
As fond of Kim Jong Il is of imported big blonde showgirls, I'd be surprised if there weren't one or more blue-eyed Kim byblows somewhere in Kimchee Junche Wonderland.
I'm sure this particular offspring is just the declaration of a faction. He's a banner raised to see what direction the wind is blowing.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/04/2008 9:31
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#5
That's right, Mitch. As a matter of fact, I am the son of Kim Jong Il and I'll be edging all my brothers, half brothers and other assorted bastard siblings out of the way directly.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/04/2008 14:17
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#6
Is Lil' Kim off life-support yet?
Posted by: Jusoque Dark Lord of the Jutes3360 ||
12/04/2008 16:19
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#7
#3- Sparkle Farkle!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/04/2008 16:32
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#8
WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > KOREAN SCHOLARS strongly believe that POST-KIM JONG-IL NORTH KOREA will destabilize and devol into chaos and national strifes. AS CHINA PERENNIALLY FAVORS A PRO-CHINA REGIME IN PYONGYANG AND IS HENCE CLOSELY INVOLVED IN NOKOR AFFAIRS OF GOVERNANCE-STATE, SCHOLARS > CHINA WILL CERTAINLY MIL INTERVENE WID PLA FORCES TO OCCUPY NOKOR, BE IT UNILATERALLY OR IN INTERNAT COALITION, AND TO ASSURE PRO_CHINESE CONTROL OF NOKOR NUCLEAR PROGRAMS + WEAPONS. China is perceievd as most likely to de facto mobilize in order to fully support any and all forms or scenarios, including alternative options, of post-KIM INTERVENTION IN NORTH KOREA.
* SAME > 4-1/2 ASIAN COUNTRIES ARE NOW SUBJECT TO CHINESE MILITARY-POLITICAL OVERSIGHT AND PROTECTION. PAKISTAN, NORTH KOREA, MYANMAR, KAZAKHISTAN [espec PAKIS], wid IRAN AS "1/2" or "IN PART". CHINESE-SPECIFIC, PLA-ENFORCED/PROTECTED, MILPOL "SPHERE OF INFLUENCE" = Vassal/Satellite States???
* PAKISTAN - is now "CHINA IN SOUTH ASIA AND MIDDLE EAST", +
* MYANMAR [BURMA] - CHINA will secretly deploy large numbers of PLA troops near border areas to secure MYANMAR Corridor access to INDIAN OCEAN, +
* KAZAKHISTAN - besides competition wid RUSSIA for local OIL-GAS DEALS, ETC, China should send troops into KAZAKH + REGION IFF USA BASES TROOPS IN TURKMENISTAN FORMER RUSS SSR, +
* IRAN - work-in-progress vee RUSSIAN, IRANIAN TRANS-NATION MILECON COOPER + PARTNERSHIP.
Twenty-three people, including 15 Taliban and eight civilians, were killed as security forces targeted Taliban hideouts in Safi tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Wednesday. The security forces used fighter jets and helicopter gunships in the attacks in which several people were injured as well, AFP reported.
The security forces also pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in various areas of Safi, killing a civilian at Malatam. A petrol pump, a school and several houses were also destroyed in the attacks.
Meanwhile, a security forces official was killed and three others injured when the Taliban attacked their convoy in Kanjoo area of Swat on Wednesday. The troops launched a search operation following the attack and arrested 23 suspects, locals told Daily Times. The troops also pounded Taliban hideouts in Kabal and Charbagh tehsils of Swat. No casualties were reported.
In a separate incident, the Taliban kidnapped an engineer of the Atomic Energy Commission from Sin Pora area of Matta tehsil.
Waziristan: A local Taliban commander was among three injured in a roadside bomb blast in Chagmali area of South Waziristan Agency. Sources said the injured included Baitullah Mehsud's commander Maulana Azmatullah. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital where their condition was stated to be critical.
Separately, Taliban set off two remote-controlled bombs in Jamrud's Shagai area in a bid to blow up a convoy carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, witnesses told Daily Times. The blasts however caused no casualty or damage to the trucks, they said and added that soon after the explosions, security forces accompanying the convoy resorted to firing to scare Taliban away.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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Up to half of Algeria's young men are tempted by the idea of becoming an illegal migrant to Europe to escape misery at home, a survey published on Wednesday showed. Seems like they used to be part of Europe, through that Metropolitan France routine. But that wasn't good enough.
The independent daily Liberte said 28.7 percent of 1,364 respondents surveyed said they would "certainly" opt for migration if the opportunity presented itself, while 20.8 percent said they "probably" would. Those answering "no never" were 50.5 percent.
The respondents were males aged between 15 and 34 years questioned between November 3 and 14 in towns across the northern Mediterranean coastal region, the most heavily populated area of the north African country of 34 million.
The country most cited as the preferred destination was Spain -- 40.4 percent -- followed by Italy with 17.3 percent Britain, 11.6 percent and France on 10.5 percent.
The European Union estimates that about 120,000 people enter the region illegally across the Mediterranean every year. Thousands more have drowned trying to make the trip. Many are from sub-Saharan African countries who use Maghreb states as a jumping off point. But migration experts say Europe's economic downturn is deterring would be migrants as work dries up and as returning migrants warn friends at home that they might be better off staying in Africa.
Asked what they believed motivated Algerian illegal migrants, 81.9 percent of respondents replied that it was to "flee the country" and "make their future".
Oil- and gas-rich Algeria has launched a five-year plan worth $200 billion to put the economy back on track and restore hope after years of political violence, but social problems remain profound. Algerians say the economy offers too few jobs to the population, of which 70 percent is under 30. Unemployment is officially 11 percent but is estimated to be more than 70 percent among people under 30.
Queues of young people can be seen outside European consulates in Algiers for visas to travel in search of a better life. Many fail, forcing them to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing to Europe. Coastguards say that during 2006 they found 42 bodies along Algeria's coastline, most or all apparently illegal migrants.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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Social problems abound in Muslim populations? Say it ain't so!!!!Lack of sex always produces misery in young men--duh!
Coleman appeared to hold a decided advantage in the contest after he won the actual vote count in 2008. But as the dispute dragged on, the events following Election Day proved largely irrelevant -- minor skirmishes leading up to the legal, political and public relations battle that was to follow.
After the seventh recount of the vote was completed in September 2009 -- settling nothing since both candidates challenged every vote cast -- Franken filed simultaneous legal proceedings in state and federal courts, before the European Commission of Human Rights and with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 2010, Coleman suffered a setback when the Supreme Court issued its first decision on the contest. In what became known as the "Franken's Fools" decision, the court held that even those absentee ballots that voters forgot to mail must be counted.
No forgotten ballots were ever recovered, but Franken's crack legal team assembled a group of Harvard psychologists who submitted expert testimony at trial establishing that the average Franken voter was twice as likely as the average Coleman voter to be chronically forgetful about life's basic tasks.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/04/2008
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(AKI) - India should demand the arrest of Pakistani extremist leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, over the brutal Mumbai terror attacks, an Indian defence expert said on Tuesday. Alok Bansal, from the Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis in New Delhi, also said India should strike the group's training camps in Kashmir if there was concrete proof of their role in Mumbai and if Pakistan failed to cooperate with Indian police.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is the head of the Islamic wahabi fundamentalist group, Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, that spawned Lashkar-e-Toiba. Speaking in an interview with the Italian daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, Bansal said it was important for the Indian government to show that was not "impotent" in the face of terrorist attacks.
India has asked Pakistan to hand over 20 top fugitives amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations since the attacks. Pakistan said it would "frame a formal response" once it received the list of names.
Bansal said the terrorists had moved around Mumbai because they had prepared their plans with great care. "They had been trained and armed well and the fact that they moved around a crowded city like Mumbai was an advantage," he said. "If you have no fear of death and you want to create the greatest possible number of victims, there are endless possibilities."
Bansal said Pakistan's spy agency, Interservices Intelligence (ISI) had given Lashkar-e-Toiba financial support because it furthered Islamabad's objectives in Kashmir.
He said the security situation in Pakistan was of serious concern particularly because the Taliban had moved their military bases into the tribal regions inside Pakistan. "Now the offensive by the US and Islamabad's army in the tribal regions are pushing militants more to the east," he said. "With this step, there is a risk they will arrive in the Punjab, in the heart of the country."
Bansal, a former naval officer with 26 years of service in the Indian Navy, specialises in internal disorder in Pakistan. Now based at the New Delhi think-tank, he has edited two books and published a number of research papers and writes extensively for Indian, Pakistani and international newspapers and websites.
Bansal said better coordination was needed between Indian intelligence agencies. "For too long this sector has not received the attention it deserves," he said.
This article starring:
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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Click link for gallery of burned-out and destroyed speed cameras in the UK. Somebody's been very busy--
I believe this is the same group referred to in this Rantburg article from last year.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/04/2008
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#1
With a battery powered reciprocating saw, these little devices could be sawn off their pipe mounts, thrown into the back of a truck, and taken to the recycling center to be made into something useful.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/04/2008 0:32
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#2
Ummm...240VAC across the pond.
Without adequate precautions, that could be lethal. 120VAC is lethal as well, but easier to guard against (except to the terminally stupid).
#3
I would assume that the perp would make a mock-up of the system and try it out first, to get the bugs out. I can see why the flambeaux option is presently done. However, that option is not carbon neutral, unless you get special liquid fuels, just sayin'.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/04/2008 11:02
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#4
spray paint over the lense, or an aluminum baseball bat would do a number on electronics.
A small central Alabama county whose mainly black residents gave Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.
The Perry County Commission voted 4 to 1 to observe the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." County offices will close and its roughly 40 workers will get a paid holiday.
The sponsoring commissioner, Albert Turner Jr., said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.
The majority of the county's 12,000 residents are black.
The county commission's three black members and one of its two white members voted for the resolution.
Commissioner Brett Harrison said Wednesday he voted against the resolution because of the holiday costs to the county, which has a $2.2 million annual payroll and is one of the poorest in the state. He said closing the courthouse would also idle some state employees.
"I'm a Democrat, but just in these financial times, it's not using the county's money wisely," Harrison told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. "The recognition is certainly well-founded."
Turner said copies of the resolution, adopted at a Nov. 25 meeting, have been mailed to Obama and his transition team.
An Associated Press exit poll found black voters in Alabama almost universally supported Obama while more than eight in 10 whites backed Republican John McCain. McCain carried the state with 60 percent of the vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
Do they realize that he wouldn't piss on them even if they were on fire?
#4
Lets make Dec 25th Barack Obama Day instead of the holiday for that other guy.
Posted by: The Left ||
12/04/2008 20:09
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#5
next up? Perry County requests bailout funds for budget relief
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/04/2008 20:11
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#6
ION OBAMA, WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC, BARACK OBAMA'S ANCESTRAL HOME IS REPOR IN SW IRAN [Iran-Iraqi SHIITE area]. "MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD" IS NOW MASTER OF THE US WHITE HOUSE AND PRESIDENCY. LOCAL SHIITES WONDER IFF OBAMA IS TRULY CHRISTIAN, OR IS ELSE IS A MUSLIM "POSING" AS A US PROTESTANT OR CHRISTIAN???
* SAME > OBAMA'S GRANDFATHER WAS A LOYAL BRITISH SOLDIER DURING WW2 WHOM AFTER THE WAR WAS TORTURED BY THE BRITISH AFTER BECOMING A MAU-MAU AFRICAN REBEL.
HMMMMM....what I like to belabel "MARIANO'S WAR" - I can relate to these in many ways!?
#7
tro the reocmmenhdations made in thia redport in ways they deem apprkopriatr. eW recognize G-13.02.T2he General Assembly shall satblish a perrmanmnet oCmirteehte permnanetn judicial ommission.At anytmiew after an apppeal is rdcewiev by a permanent ujdicial
http://scam.com/member.php?u=103198
http://scribd.com/people/documents/5098128/folder/53519
Two alleged members of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Lal Potaka) were killed in 'crossfire' with law enforcers at Seujbari in Bagmara upazila of the district early yesterday.
The deceased are Mustafizur Rahman alias Suruj alias Feroj, 28, and Abdul Jalil alias Asim alias Swapan, 29, of Uttar Koalipara village.
Acting on a tip-off, a special team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police conducted an operation when a group of outlaws were holding a secret meeting in the area at about 4:30am.
Sensing the presence of Rab and policemen, the gang opened fire on the law enforcers forcing them to fire back, said Shahabuddin Khalifa, officer-in-charge of Bagmara police station.
The two PBCP-Lal Potaka men were found fatally wounded following the gunfight and other outlaws managed to flee from the scene, said the OC.
They were later taken to local health complex where doctors declared them dead.
Police recovered two shutter guns, five bullets, two knives and PBCP booklets from the spot.
Two policemen -- the OC and sub inspector Feroz -- were also injured in the gunfight, police sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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TWO shutter guns?
Excellent! Now we'll have spare parts for the RB archive!
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/04/2008 10:02
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So even with the Miscreants for Dummies manual ( the dreaded PBCP booklet) they were no match for the saintly RAB.....
The Deccan Mujahideen group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai terrorist attacks, has now threatened to attack the New Delhi, Banglore and Chennai airports between December 3 and 7, a private TV channel quoted Indian media as saying on Wednesday. According to the channel, the threat was given in an email sent from Saudi Arabia and received by Indra Gandhi Airport officials. Security at all the Indian airports was put on high alert after the email. Earlier, on November 26, the little known group had claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks that left almost 200 people dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff urged Pakistan on Wednesday to investigate all possible links between the Mumbai attacks and Pakistani groups and to broaden its campaign against militants. Admiral Mike Mullen flew in for talks with Pakistan's 8-month-old civilian government and military commanders earlier on Wednesday, as part of U.S. diplomatic efforts to defuse tension between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai attacks.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in New Delhi to consult the Indian government.
Mullen urged Pakistani officials to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan", the U.S. embassy said in a statement. Mullen noted the recent success of Pakistani offensives against militants on the Afghan border and "also encouraged Pakistani leaders to take more, and more concerted, action against militant extremists elsewhere in the country".
Rice urged Pakistan to cooperate "fully and transparently" in the investigation. She is due in Islamabad on Thursday, the prime minister's office said.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the attacks on Mumbai that killed 171 people, including Americans and other foreigners, were led from inside Pakistan, and said India would act decisively to protect its territorial integrity. "I informed Dr Rice there is no doubt that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan," Mukherjee told a joint news conference with Rice.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/04/2008
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The couple had spent three hard years in a militia camp deep in the forests around this eastern Congolese village when they finally decided to escape.
Droselle Uwonkunda's husband, a militiaman, left first, and a few weeks ago she followed him -- hiking for four days through the rainy forest with their 7-year-old daughter, Grace, crossing rivers and sliding down muddy paths. When Grace was tired, Uwonkunda encouraged her with visions of where they were headed.
"I told her we are going to Rwanda, our beautiful country, with nice houses and good roads," she said, sitting in a grass-roofed gazebo in this village, where she is waiting to be repatriated. "I told her we are leaving the forest, and we are going home."
In some ways, the conflict in eastern Congo comes down to that elusive wish, one shared by hundreds of thousands of mostly Hutu refugees who fled here after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The Uwonkundas' ability to escape the ranks of a potent Hutu militia, formed in these borderlands by several dozen commanders who participated in the genocide, and return to their country is an essential step toward ending the fighting that has overwhelmed eastern Congo in recent weeks.
About 6,000 of the Hutu refugees make up the heavily armed militia group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which claims that its sole aim these days is the Rwandans' "dignified" return to their homes. That return is complicated, however, by the fear among Hutus here that comes with returning to a country now run by Tutsis, who took control of Rwanda in 1994 after Hutu militias and soldiers slaughtered an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
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12/04/2008
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BEIJING (AP) - The deepening world economic crisis and a possible spat over currency levels hung in the air as the United States and China sat down Thursday to discuss the future of their economic relations. U.S. officials say Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will press Beijing to let its yuan rise against the dollar to ease trade tensions at the two-day Strategic Economic Dialogue. American companies contend that China keeps the yuan undervalued, giving its exporters an unfair advantage and adding to its swollen trade surplus.
But with China's exporters suffering, the yuan plunged Monday in government-controlled tradinga possible message to Washington to go easy on the issue. "The signal China sent on Monday is: We also have our own political problems and issues in a slowing economic environment," Frank F.X. Gong, chief Asia economist for JPMorgan Securities Ltd., said in a report to clients.
State media said Thursday a rapid rise of the Chinese currency would harm the global economy further as it would hurt Chinese exports and increase unemployment. "China's foreign exchange policy should be aimed at helping domestic economic growth, for which the yuan should not rise too fast against the U.S. dollar now when the global financial market is in turmoil," said a report Thursday in the China Daily, an English-language newspaper aimed at foreign readers.
The twice-a-year dialogue, launched in 2006, is meant as a relationship-building exercise rather than a forum for negotiation. But Treasury Undersecretary David McCormick told reporters this week that officials at the dialogue would urge China to continue allowing the yuan to risea key issue for American lawmakers who are pressing for punitive action if Beijing fails to take faster action on trade complaints.
Both economies are strugglingthe United States with a recession and China with a sharp slowdown in growthand how well they keep one of the world's biggest trading relationships stable and productive could be of global importance. "The need to coordinate and collaborate gets even more urgent as the current recession bites deeper," the China Daily said in an editorial Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2008
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This is a tough one.
A rise in the yuan would make things quite expensive in China and things are already rocky there.
If China sells of it's US bonds, the Yuan would plummet as that is the only thing holding their currency up.
The Chinese want assurance that their US investments will be safe.
There is no way they can maintain a lower yuan without things spirialing out of control.
#2
newc, I would have thought the opposite, but not being an economist, maybe I've got it a*se about.
A rise in the yuan would make things quite expensive in China and things are already rocky there.
A free floating yuan would skyrocket against the dollar pushing down the value of the dollar, making imports more expensive in the US and less expensive in China,
This is an area that Keynes spent his whole life trying to solve, summarized by his dictum "Paradox of Thrift"
If China sells of it's US bonds, the Yuan would plummet as that is the only thing holding their currency up.
They are not likely to, as they need a strong US dollar to buy the outputs of their factories. This paradoxically, makes things more expensive in China.
The Chinese want assurance that their US investments will be safe.
This is an interesting situation as along with the oil ticks and Germany they are holding up the dollar. They have an unacknowledged seat at the table in treasury, therefore influencing the US economy and political landscape. Were the US to go down the protectionist path, they would exercise the nuclear option i.e withdrawing all their support for the dollar, which would lead to massive inflation in the US. Think the Wiemar Republic scenario.
There is no way they can maintain a lower yuan without things spirialing out of control.
#3
This crisis is not possible, it is inevitable. The only question is when and at what cost. It will be pretty funny if the commies are thrown out due to their desire to hoard dollars.
Residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have strongly condemned the blame game being carried out by the Indian government, maligning Pakistan in the recent Mumbai attacks that claimed over 190 lives.
People from all walks of life Wednesday were seen busy discussing the present developments with regard to Pakistan-India relations in the aftermath of Mumbai attacks. Mostly families remained glued to their television sets to know about the latest developments in the aftermath of Mumbai attacks and the Indian propaganda against Pakistan.
People from all sections of the society, including Hindus and Christian, strongly condemned the propaganda of the Indian government and media on the issue.
Ram Mukharji, a Hindu priest in Gracy Lines, told The News that such statements of the Indian government are very irresponsible. The Indian government and media has adopted an irresponsible and immature attitude by blaming Pakistan. Some other world powers are also trying to create misunderstandings between Pakistan and India, he said.
Matloob Ahmed Malik, a school principal said, Many suicide attacks have occurred in Pakistan in the recent past, but our government never blamed India, then why is the Indian government and media is blaming Pakistan and presenting a gloomy picture of the country in this matter. Such statements of India could create a wide gap between the people of the two countries, he added.
Katharine Paul, a Christian lady settled in Islamabad, said, War is not the solution to any issue, nonetheless, Pakistan is not weak in terms of fighting a war against any country of the world, as it is an atomic power.
The Pakistani government must take immediate action against Indian allegations and should voice the matter at international level, said Mahnoor Baloch, a student.
Ahsen Naqvi, a senior lawyer said, India should come up with proofs if any Pakistani is involved in Mumbai attacks. The Indian media should be ashamed for reporting false information against Pakistan. Such statements are creating fear and panic among the people on both sides, which is not good for the prosperity of both the countries, he added.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/04/2008
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#1
The reason that Pakistan doesn't blame India for attacks inside Pakistan is that unlike Pakistan the Indian government doesn't have a history of supporting terrorism.
#3
Interesting that when they want to trot out the "war is no solution" trope they put it in the mouth of a "Christian lady." Of course, her next breath warns of nuclear holocaust, since after all she is Pakistani, having "settled in Islamabad" and all. Crazy Christians. What are ya gonna do?
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
12/04/2008 15:05
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"Such statements of India could create a wide gap between the people of the two countries"
Like 190 senseless deaths didn't, idiot?
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Kashmiri separatist group Laskhar-e-Toiba has sought to distance itself from last week's Mumbai terror attacks by suggesting disgruntled Indian militants were responsible for the violence. In a telephone interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Lashkar-e-Toiba spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi said the attack was not carried out by any Kashmiri militants.
"This is definitely an inside job from within the Indian establishment which helped the attackers go into Mumbai via the Arabian Sea, if they really infiltrated from Pakistan," he said.
"Otherwise, tell me how the boat, on which those attackers reached Mumbai, avoided Indian naval radars guarding Indian territorial waters everywhere and how any Pakistani fisher trawler can mistakenly enter into their waters, even a mile inside, and they don't leave any stone unturned to immediately arrest him."
"How come the attackers dodged them?" Abdullah Ghaznavi said.
Abdullah Ghaznavi said that there must have been collusion between some elements in the Indian establishment and the militants who carried out the attacks.
"Laskhar-e-Toiba does not have such capabilities." Abdullah said. "Nor do we have such penetration within the Indian establishment to carry out the attack at such a level nor did we in the past. Our activities are restricted to Kashmir and also against the Indian occupying troops in Indian-held Kashmir."
Lashkar-e-Toiba was more than happy to take responsibility for its attacks, the spokesman told AKI.
"If you go through our past records. If we really carried out any action against the Indian forces in Kashmir we proudly claim it but this incident we denounce. Our operations were never against the civilian population, whosoever they are," Abdullah asserted.
Lashkar-e-Toiba, is the military wing of the well-funded Pakistani Islamist organisation Markaz-ad-Dawa-ul-Irshad, which was founded in 1989 and recruited volunteers to fight with the Taliban.
During the 1990s, experts say Lashkar-e-Toiba received instruction and funding from Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in exchange for a pledge to target Hindus in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and to train Muslim extremists on Indian soil. Pakistan's government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism.
Until it was banned in Pakistan in 2002, LeT claimed responsibility for several attacks.
India has asked Pakistan to hand over 20 top fugitives amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations following the deadly terrorist attacks which killed at least 188 people and injured up to 300 others.
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12/04/2008
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(AKI) - An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinian teenagers and injured four others on Tuesday in southern Gaza. "The IDF targeted a militant squad that launched a mortar against Israel from the southern Gaza Strip in the past hour. Approximately six mortars were launched against Israel from the same proximity today," said the Israel Defense Forces website in a statement.
Israeli helicopters launched an attack on a road leading to the disused Yasser Arafat Airport, located east of the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, said Palestinian news agency Maan. The victims were identified as 15-year-old Ramzi ad-Duheini and 17-year-old Ahmad Hammad. Israeli media says the victims were brothers.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli military vehicles entered the airport area, only to be confronted by Palestinian militants who fired eight mortar rounds at the troops.
Hamas' militant wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the launching of mortars in a statement, calling it "a response to Zionist aggression."
"These operations are part of the repelling operations against the occupation assaults on Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and as a response for the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people," the statement said.
Despite the clashes, both the Israeli government and the Gaza-ruling Islamist movement Hamas have not called an end to the fragile truce declared in June.
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The British couple who became protagonists in the infamous Dubai sex on the beach drama said they plan to sue several papers over offensive coverage of the highly publicized story that captured attention throughout the country.
Michelle Palmer, 37, and Vince Acors, 34, said through their lawyer they will file lawsuits against newspapers that covered their case in a way that tarnished their image and will demand financial compensation.
Um, how exactly would one tarnish their 'image'?
Couple remain in Dubai
Their lawyer, Hassan Matter, did not specify the names of papers he will sue or the amount of monetary damages sought, specifying only that they have been widely circulated and the compensation will be beyond their financial capacity.
When asked why Palmer and Acors are still in the country after the expulsion verdict, Mattar said his clients are considering submitting a request to revoke the ruling passed after they were found guilty of committing public indecency, having sex outside wedlock, and assaulting a police officer.
In a highly publicized case the two were arrested in October after a police officer caught them having sex on a public beach, despite initially letting them off with a warning, a drunk Palmer assaulted the officer and called him a "f***ing Muslim ****."
Evidence of indictment not story
Mattar said he decided to take the case because the incident took place at night and the witnesses were standing at a distance from the couple and could not clearly make out whether they were actually having sex.
Mattar said that at first he refused to defend the couple, but after reviewing the case he felt the evidence used to indict them is not strong. His investigation also led him to believe that Palmer had a good reputation and never broke the law during her sojourn in the U.A.E. "Even if they did that (sex), we have to be merciful. Their culture permits it and the concept of public indecency differs from one society to another," he said.
Mattar praised the Dubai court of appeals for dropping the three-month jail sentence against the couple, a step he described as "rare and historic."
"This proves how fair the U.A.E judiciary is. It does not discriminate between defendants based on their nationalities and was not influenced by the falsities published in papers."
Mattar argued that the suspension of the jail sentence is almost like a not guilty verdict since it means the two Britons were not actually engaged in a public sexual act.
Moral and financial damage claims
The moral and financial damage inflicted upon the couple was severe, he added, noting that Palmer was sacked from her job as a publishing executive following the case.
Since her picture was plastered all over the newspaper she could not go out and she was not able to see her sick mother in the U.K. because of the travel ban during the trial.
As for Acors, the project he came to Dubai for was suspended and his business back in the U.K. suffered because he had to stay for the trial, said Mattar.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
I hope when they were getting it on at the beach, they did not expose themselves to pathogens from raw sewage dumped by tank trucks into the storm drains (see yesterday's story).
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/04/2008 0:27
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i believe i would get my ass out of the MUSLIM country before i lost a part of my body for this indiscretion. they do seem too like too cut things off in that part of the world
A poll of seven majority Muslim nations found people conflicted about the United Nations, on the one hand perceiving it as dominated by the United States and unhelpful in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while on the other supporting a more active U.N. with broader powers. I guess that's fair. We see the UN as being dominated by bloody-handed dictatorships, kleptocracies, and various flavors of Nazis.
The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll released Wednesday surveyed the Arab Muslim countries of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories along with Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Muslims in Nigeria.
Respondents in every country besides Azerbaijan felt that the "U.S. basically controls the U.N. and can almost always make the U.N. do what the U.S. wants" as opposed to the view that the U.S. can use its veto to stop the U.N. but cannot control it.
The international body got its lowest ratings in its work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which highly correlated with perceptions of U.S. control, and the conflict in Darfur.
"I think there are determinants of public opinion in the region regarding the U.N. and the most important factor is the respect, or perceived respect, of U.N. resolutions vis a vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and invasions of Iraq since 1990," said Dr. Fares Braizat of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, which conducted the Jordanian portion of the survey.
At the same time Muslim publics overwhelmingly support a more dynamic, involved United Nations (64 percent on average), distinguishing between a U.N. they feel in principle should be a powerful actor and the existing body they perceive as being controlled by the U.S.
"While many people in Muslim countries express disappointment with the U.N., this actually masks their underlying desire for a U.N. that is robust and powerful," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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While many people in Muslim countries express disappointment with the U.N., this actually masks their underlying desire for a U.N. that is robust and powerful.
I would conclude it masks their desire for its abolition considering they think the US controls it.
#2
Testing the waters by poll? As distateful as NATO troops are in the West Bank, UN troops would be worse. Dominated by Pakis, Hamas would literally be a ticking time bomb in the middle of Israel.
#4
rabid whitetail is right. Like us, they think it does little if anything to serve their individual interests, not to mention the interests of the global community as a whole. If anything, it fosters anti-US sentiment from non-Americans and anti-UN sentiment from the more well-informed and practical Americans. Which renders it obsolete at best and an enormous waste of money at worst.
Time to exercise some mercy here and pull the plug on this failed experiment.
#5
Can we agree that its a miserable failure and shut it down?
Then we can create our 'League of Democracies' and they can create their 'League of Dictators, kleptocracies and Socialists'. We'll host ours in NYC and they can host theirs in Wazoo or Sudan.
#7
ION WAFF > AMERICA STILL FUNDS AND SUPPORTS FANATICAL TERRORISTS. Pro-US, Anti-Govt/Tehran IRANIAN TERROR GROUP "JUNDALLAH" is believed to had executed all 13 surviving hostages from a group of 16 kidnapped Iranian police officers???; + MONGOLIAN MUJAHIDEEN JOINS CHERCHEN STRUGGLE [Video - SHEIKH SAYEED of BURIATIA]. Despite severe trials, losses and Russia's best, most vilent anti-insurgent efforts, THE CHECHNYA JIHAD/ISLAMIST STRUGGLE HAS SPREAD TO MOST OF CAUCASIA. Among other, Sayeed argues that true Muslims = Believers HAVE NO EXCUSE TO NOT ENGAGE IN ARMED JIHAD IN THE DEFENSE AND PROPAGATION OF ISLAM = THE FAITH, BE IT IN CHECHNYA OR ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD. THE ISLAMIC VICTORY IS CERTAIN.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > TALIBAN: WE WILL TAKE OVER PAKISTAN.
Three security forces personnel and two civilians were killed after a Mohmand Rifles convoy was bombed near Shabqadar in Charsadda district on Wednesday. A suicide bomber smashed an explosives-laden car into the convoy wounding six security forces personnel and four civilians. Charsadda Superintendent of Police (SP) Riaz Khan confirmed that three security forces personnel and two civilians were killed and ten people were injured. Local police official Akhtar Ali Shah said the convoy was carrying reinforcements to Mohmand Agency next to the Afghan border where security forces are battling Taliban, AP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian warship will sail through the Panama Canal this week for the first time since World War II, the navy announced Wednesday, pushing ahead with a symbolic projection of Moscow's power in a traditional U.S. zone of influence. The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko will arrive Friday at a former U.S. naval base in Panama's Pacific port of Balboa for a six-day visit after carrying out joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean Sea, navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said in a telephone interview.
The Panama Canal has long been a symbol of U.S. clout in Latin America, and Dygalo said no Soviet or Russian military ship has sailed through it since World War II. The wartime alliance between the U.S. and the Soviet Union swiftly gave way to the mistrust, military buildups and proxy conflicts of the Cold War.
"Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?"
In a throwback to those times, the Russian navy statement announcing the plans referred to the base the Admiral Chabanenko will visit as Rodman naval base--its name when it was a U.S. base many years ago. Rodman was the hub for all U.S. naval activities in South America and supported fleet units transiting the 50-mile (80-kilometer) canal. But control of the facility shifted to Panama a decade ago, and it is now called the Balboa naval base.
Monday's joint maneuvers with Venezuela, which brought the Admiral Chabanenko and the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great across the Atlantic along with two support ships, were widely seen as a show of Kremlin anger over the U.S. use of warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its August war with Russia. Russian warships tailed U.S. ships in the Black Sea, where Russia borders Georgia, on that mission.
The Russian squadron's voyage to Venezuela was Russia's first such deployment to the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War era, aimed to showcase the Kremlin's global reach and reassert its claim to great-power status. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a staunch U.S. foe. The voyage coincided with a trip to Latin America late last month by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited four nations in what he acknowledged was an effort to raise Moscow's profile in a region he said it has long neglected.
U.S. officials have mocked the Russian show of force, saying that the Russian navy is a shadow of Moscow's Soviet-era fleet and suggesting that the U.S. retains far more influence in the region than Russia. "Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?" U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack joked to reporters in Washington last week ahead of the Russian ships' arrival off Venezuela.
Dygalo would not say where the Peter the Great, which led the Russian squadron, would be located while the destroyer visits the Panama base.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
ION NAVAL seems SOUTH KOREA is prepping for a possible NAVAL CLASH wid NORTH KOREA over disputed sea border lines - the SOKORS think NOKORS may deliber invoke either a confrontation/clash wid SOKOR Navy vessels, or more likely to fire upon andor impound SOKOR fishing boats-trawlers.
#3
FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > SOUTH KOREAN TROOPS PREPARE FOR ATTACK OVER BORDER TENSIONS.
And with MISSLE-ARMED RUSS WARSHIPS already in Venezuela + Panama Canal [read, RNS PETER THE GREAT].
ALso, KOMMERSANT > US PREPARES FOR NEW CAUCASUS WAR!? In 11/25th Memo invol GEORGIA, Dubya reportedly orders US-flagged/registered commercial vessels to be insured agz all regional military risks thru MARCH 2009???; + RIAN > OBAMA'S POSSIBLE WARS.
Hamid Gul, former chief of ISI and ideologue of fundamentalism, has said that New Delhi should listen to views of the Indian Communists parties here and stop playing a lackey to the US.
Appearing on a TV show, he contested that Lashkar-e-Toiba thrives on Pakistani protection. Mr Gul said this perception was completely wrong and blamed the Indias current engagement with the US for the spate of violence.
This is a perception that is shared by the Communist parties. India has become a lackey of the US in the lathers attempts to create a counter-weight to China. We have been routinely hearing it from Left parties, he said.
Prakash Karat and his colleagues have been maintaining that the sole strategy of the US was to capture the Indian market because China will be equal to the US in terms of economy and growth by the middle of this century. China has to be encircled as it is the most powerful socialist country capable of challenging the might of the US, Mr Karat had said recently.
Mr Husain Haqqani, now Pakistans ambassador to Washington, had written about Lashkar in a 2005 essay. The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion influenced by the doctrine of 18th century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab is Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services, Haqqani wrote.
According to Mr Haqqani, LeT justifies its ideology by the religious verse that says, you are obligated to fight even though it is something you do not like. When this was pointed out to Mr Gul, he gave a curious explanation: The essay was written when he was a journalist, much before he became a diplomat.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/04/2008
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#1
"The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion -- influenced by the doctrine of 18th century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab -- is Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services," Haqqani wrote.
Can someone tell me why Saudi Arabia/Pakistan are our allies?????
Ps Hamid Gul needs targeting along with Le T Boss Saeed!!!!
A court here yesterday acquitted 13 people, including seven activists of the banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), of charges of serial bomb blasts in front of Barisal Club on August 17, 2005.
The are Golam Morshed Chowdhury Reza, Jalal Arefin, Hafez Saiful Islam, Abu Yusuf Majumdar, Abu Solaiman Sujan, Md Maruf, Jasimuddin, Abdus Sobahan, Giasuddin, Sarwar, Abdur Rahim, Zahid Babu and Ziaur Rahman Zia.
Of them, nine are now in jail while the rest have been absconding since the filing of the case. Judge Rabiul Hassan of the Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal also passed an order to release the nine if they are not accused in any other cases
But the same court on July 30 this year sentenced seven of the 13 to life imprisonment for their involvement in bomb explosions in front of Barisal Central Jail on the day. They are Abu Yusuf, Abdus Sobhan, Giasuddin, Sarwar, Abdur Rahim, Zahid Babu and Ziaur Rahman.
Sub-Inspector (SI) Mosharraf Hossain of Barisal Kotwali Police Station filed the case in connection with the serial blasts on August 17, 2005.
Sub-Inspector Bhoran Reza of the Detective Branch (DB) submitted the charge sheet of the case accusing the 13 on December 25 the same year.
Special Public Prosecutor Kazi Munir Hussein told The Daily Star that all the 13 were acquitted, as the charges brought against them could not be proved.
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12/04/2008
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The US has given four names of former ISI officials, including Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, to the UN Security Council to put them on the list of international terrorists.
Government of Pakistan is aware of this move, which is considered here by some as part of an international conspiracy to target the ISI, whose reformation has already been sought by Washington.
The US embassy in Islamabad claims to be completely unaware of this move while the foreign office spokesman also did not come up with any explanation on the matter despite being approached on Tuesday.
However, Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul confirmed to this correspondent that he was included in the list of those four or five former ISI officials whose names had been provided to the UN secretary-general by the US government to be included in the list of international terrorists.
Gul admitted that he had already met the foreign affairs secretary to discuss the issue. A Foreign Office source also told this correspondent that the issue had already been referred to the prime ministers office but despite the lapse of a few weeks, no decision had been taken by the government so far. It is not clear whether or not Islamabad wants to pursue intense lobbying to stop this thing to happen.
A diplomatic source in Washington, however, told this correspondent that it would not be easy for the United States to get all these names enlisted in the list of terrorists because it would require the consent of the all the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq was contacted on Tuesday to give its response on the matter but The News has not heard anything from his side till the filing of this report on Wednesday night. Off the cuff, Sadiq said he had heard or read about this but was not sure about the case.
The Pakistan embassy in Washington is not in the know of this move. Pak envoy to US Hussain Haqqani, when contacted, said he had no comment to offer as no such thing was routed through the Pakistani embassy.
However, another diplomatic source there confided to this correspondent that the US State Department had formally conveyed to the UN Security Council four to five names of former ISI officials, including Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, for inclusion in the list of international terrorists under Resolution 1267 of the Security Council.
In such a situation, those enlisted in this list of bad guys will be prevented from travelling outside the country of their residence while their assets would also be monitored and even frozen at times.
Lou Fintor, the US embassy spokesman, when contacted also said the embassy did not know anything about this. He said if this was true, then such a thing would have been dealt by the State Department and taken up directly with the UN there in Washington.
Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, however, admitted that he was aware of the move but was not sure if the prime minister had taken a decision on the issue. Believing that this is a move to target the ISI, he warned if the government of Pakistan did not protect him and others on the recommended list of terrorists, he would directly write to the UN secretary-general.
He said the government should immediately move to protect the ISI from this indirect attack from Washington. He said the United States and some other Western nations were against him for the simple reason that he did not support their war on terror which, he said, was based on Washingtons greed for energy.
He said the US and its allies in the war on terror had turned the world upside down and had made it far more dangerous than what it was before. He volunteered to present himself before any neutral enquiry commission. He said he also had the option to go to the countrys court of law but hastily added that he did not have trust in Pakistans judiciary.
When asked how he had come to know about this, he said, he was informed of this by a highly responsible person, who had personally seen the written US request. He hoped the government would not show callousness towards its own individuals and institutions like the ISI which, he admitted, was the first line of the countrys defence. Therefore, he must be protected from any external onslaught.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/04/2008
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#1
i guess he can be added too oyr list without UN approval can't he. Let the predators roam a little farther from afghanistan and we might get a few more
(SomaliNet) A minister in Somalia's breakaway Puntland region said Wednesday that Somali pirates have freed a Yemeni cargo ship captured 10 days ago.
Deputy foreign minister Ali Abdi Aware said no ransom was paid for the released of the MV Arena late Tuesday.
"The ship has been released after week-long talks with the pirates and they agreed to free it without ransom," Aware said.
"The pirates who hijacked the ship came on-shore last night."
Pirates have ramped up attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean despite foreign naval patrols.
Somali pirates are holding a Saudi supertanker seized on November 15 and have demanded 25 million dollars for its release. It is carrying two million barrels of crude oil.
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This is a Paleo news agency so salt is required. But if true it's going to be a real problem. No way in hell do I want US troops patrolling the West Bank. Let the French do it.
Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - US President-elect Barack Obama is considering a deployment of NATO forces to the West Bank as part of a plan for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, an American newsmagazine reported on Wednesday.
Former US-national security advisors Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski reportedly endorsed the strategy in recent days. Meanwhile, Obama's nominee to head the National Security Council, Gen. James Jones, apparently favors the idea, all according to Newsweek, a weekly American newsmagazine.
Scowcroft and Brzezinski are out of touch hacks who are happy to crush the little people under their feet while playing the 'Big Game'. Zbig, especially, has long been willing to canoodle with bloodthirsty thugs. No thanks.
"A principle that appeared to be out of bounds I think is now in bounds," said Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy from the International Quartet countries.
Israel has long argued that the country cannot deal with Palestine until the Palestinian Authority (PA) manages to control militants. And Palestinians complain that they cannot conciously ask militias to disarm so long as Israel continues to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But a NATO force, Obama's advisors argue, would bridge the impasse on both sides.
"But then it's not clear how NATO could prevent the Israelis from taking matters into their own hands," according to the Newsweek report, if Palestinian fighters began "picking off" NATO soldiers.
What about OUR response if Paleo hard boyz start potting our soldiers? What would world opinion be if we flatten the house of a Paleo gunnie? Or whack him and his best friends? Or conduct raids to find some mid-level Dogmush?
And suppose we grab a Paleo for good cause -- where do we put him? In an Israeli prison? Gitmo?
How soon would the MSM, aided and abetted by the hard left, start to describe our soldiers in the West Bank as oppressors and occupiers?
And what would we say to the spouse/children/parents of an American soldier gunned down by a Paleo hard boy while on patrol in Bethlehem?
We'll see how smart and realistic Bambi is on this issue: if he goes along with this he's an idiot and a one-term president for sure.
"And should all-out fighting resume--this is, remember, one of the world's most intractable conflicts--NATO could be drawn into the middle," the article goes on to say.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2008
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#1
What Steve said, especially in that last annotation.
WTF is it with the head-smackingly dumb s**t that people come up with - including people "who've been there" like Zbig and Brent? The foreign policy field, more or less my home forever, seems to have an amazing abundance of of and tolerance for simply idiotic ideas.
I'm pretty sure Obama's not as smart as many like to believe, I'm positive he's utterly over his head in these matters, but I still don't see anything like this happening. The problems and booby traps are too obvious even for the Clinton III/Beltway Lightweight Brigade to ignore. Plus there's risk (eewwwwww, we don't do risk, even if we ARE "transformational").
In any case, Iz'rl would have a veto over anything remotely like this, so I can't see it being feasible.
Meanwhile, if the new team (or the Iraqis) doesn't manage to screw up Iraq, whatever will we do with the hallucinogenic touchstone assumption that all good things in the MidEast can only proceed from and follow upon a love-fest between Iz'rl and the Paleos? The assertion that has beclowned a thousand think tankers, "intelligence community" analysts, State weenies, and former big-shots will just be left there, writhing on the deck. Not that it will die, or its buffoonish adherents suffer a bit - first principle of idiotic Beltway conventional wisdom foreign policy: no ridiculous claim or idea, however spectacular or undeniable the debunking thereof, can result in a loss of prestige or regard for the clown who authored it. Absolute zero accountability.
#2
In any case, Iz'rl would have a veto over anything remotely like this, so I can't see it being feasible.
Actually, I think the Israelis are smart enough to allow this. It would be a black hole sucking the life out of the Obama regime for no accomplishment or less than zero benefit. Scowcroft and Jones should be smarter than this, but looking at the policy papers of the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank they are assoc with), this is just like the self defeating actions they advocate.
It's going to a long four years and we are going to appreciate just what a tough guy Jimmy Carter was.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 8:01
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#3
and less than zero benefit.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 8:01
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#4
NATO won't play. I've said for some time that Obama may will try to enfluence the action in Africa through the deployment of US troops under the new AFRICOM/US State (Peace Corps-Lite) structure. Scowcroft, Brzesniki and Kissenger are bitter old men who no longer have any visible or elected public role in international affairs. The need to go find Florida. I well remember their hayday. It wasn't that outstanding, believe me.
#6
I can see one reason to have NATO forces there. To assist in moving the Paleos into Jordan, in lieu of the Israelis forcing them to leave, prior to reclaiming the West Bank as part of "greater Israel".
#8
Grunter is right, and I forgot to include that important point in my diatribe. The Widows Ammunition Fund would indeed be busy ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2008 9:49
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#9
There is now a "Temporary International Presence in Hebron" called by the acronym TIPH which most Israelis refer to as "Two Idiots Patroling Hebron".
It is acknowledged as a farce by both Israelis and Palestinians.
#11
Let's also not forget that if U.S. troops actually shoot any palestinians it will have negative consequences in our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere in the muslim world.
#15
V2 of this will be a UN peace-keeping force. Someone will point out that no other member of the UN would send troops there either, for the same reasons.
V3 of this will be a Pan-Arab peace-keeping force, I suppose because the Palestinians will presumably be less willing to shoot at other Arabs. Even the Arabs are too smart to fall for that.
The leaders of the Arab community are scheduled to sail into the Gaza Strip to break the Israeli imposed siege on the territory.
Dozens of Arab leaders residing in Palestine will set sail Sunday from the Israeli port of Jaffa to break the blockade on the populated territory, Zahi Nujeidat, a spokesman for Israel's Islamic Movement said on Wednesday.
The regime has kept its border crossings with the coastal strip closed over the last month in response to 'rocket attacks by Palestinian factions'. It has blocked all food and fuel supplies to the territory which is home to 1.5 million people.
Nujeidat said the ship will take humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip 'to defy the government's blockade of the territory', the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
Earlier this week, Israel prevented a Libyan Ship from reaching Gaza. The ship which was carrying three thousand tons of humanitarian and medical aid was stopped before entering the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
In related news, Israel to break new boat.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 9:12
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#2
All Israel has to do is put some fishing nets in the way. Once their propeller gets hopelessly tangled, which is a serious 3-shop repair, unless you have expert divers and several days, the current does the rest.
Then the Israelis suddenly experience compatibility problems with their distress calls. Eventually, they offer to give them a tow to international waters. Which, in the Mediterranean basin, is far off the coast of Spain.
#3
One shot across the bow and these 'Leaders' will scream like little girls. It will no doubt be their aides on board not them anyway. Danger or risk is for the little people, not arab leaders.
(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorist police on Tuesday arrested two Moroccans suspected of international terrorism, Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir, and raided the homes of other people believed to be linked to the pair. Rachid and Ghaffir were allegedly plotting attacks on military and civilian targets on the outskirts of the northern city of Milan.
Rachid, 31, and Ghaffir, 42, had planned attacks on a supermarket, a bar, night club car park, and two police stations, as well as the immigration office at police headquarters in Milan.
The two men do not belong to any terrorist organisation, but closely followed jihadist websites, especially statements by the Al-Qaeda terror network, according to investigators.
Rachid had 'indoctrinated' his two-year-old son, teaching him to recognise photos of Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and to call him 'Uncle Osma', investigators said.
Phone taps revealed he and Ghaffir had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives but then decided to use oxygen cylinders after searching and downloading the bomb-making information from the Internet.
Police are also checking a total 10 contacts of the Moroccans, who attended an Islamic cultural centre located in an old warehouse in the town of Macherio, where Rachid worked as an imam. Both he and Ghaffir had lived in Italy for some time, said investigators.
Last year police officials warned of possible attacks in Italy by Al-Qaeda-linked north African terror groups after a string of arrests in the northern Lombardy region surrounding Milan.
Police in November 2007 arrested 20 people suspected of belonging to an Islamist terror cell in Milan accused of recruiting would-be suicide bombers and sending them to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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Suspects wanted by India in the attacks on Mumbai will be tried in Pakistan if there is concrete evidence against them, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday.
How's Omar Saeed Sheikh doing, Gomez?
He told Larry King in an interview from Islamabad that if proof of wrongdoing surfaced, the men would be tried in Pakistani courts and sentenced. The state of Pakistan is in no way responsible for the Mumbai attacks, he said, which were the work of 'stateless', meaning non-state, actors. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, he said in answer to a question, is a banned organisation in Pakistan and all around the world. "If indeed they are involved, we would not know. Again, they are people who operate outside the system.
Asked what Pakistan would do if India does produce evidence linking the terrorists with Pakistan, Zardari replied, "I would -- my government would take action, our government would take action, the democratic government of Pakistan would take action against all the actors and anybody who is involved."
I seem to recall that the Taliban tried the same thing shortly after 9/11: they said that while they wouldn't turn Binny and the al-Qaeda mooks over to us, if we just gave them all the evidence that they would try Binny in an 'Islamic court'. Bush didn't fall for that, and I hope the Indians don't fall for it now.
Lone survivor: Zardari said no "tangible proof" had come forth so far that the lone survivor from among the terrorists, was a Pakistani, as was being claimed.
Zardari said any Indian strike across the border at a suspected terror base would be counterproductive. "The threat is in the region, and just not to Bombay or to India. The threat to the state of Pakistan. There's a threat to the state of Afghanistan. It's a threat throughout the region. So that would be counterproductive." When his attention was invited to a new report predicting the possibility of a terrorist strike against a major US city in the next five years, Zardari replied that it was all the more reason to help Pakistan.
He agreed that in the past "lots of mistakes" had been made but the present government would not provide support to militant movements. "I can assure the world from my side, from my army's side, from my parliament's side and the people of Pakistan that we are not helping any such activity, he added. To a question about President-elect Barack Obama, Zardari said there is a "world romance with Obama" and "we are looking forward to working with him". He called Hillary Clinton "an excellent choice" for secretary of state. He said it would not ever be necessary for America to take action in Pakistan, as that is something Pakistan will itself do if any "actionable intelligence" was given to it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
The Indians shouldn't hold their breaths. The US is turning blue waiting for the Pakis arrest, try and punish Pakis who planned, funded and assisted the 911 atrocities.
Posted by: ed ||
12/04/2008 9:09
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(SomaliNet) A flotilla of EU warships will begin anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia next week. The six ships and three reconnaissance aircraft will replace a Nato force that has been in the region and escorting cargo ships carrying relief aid to Somalia since the end of October.
Although the Nato ships have helped deliver nearly 30,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to the impoverished nation, they have not been able to stem the upsurge in pirate attacks on foreign shipping in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.
Foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU warships will arrive on Monday, and the handover with the Nato force will take place on December 15.
Britain, France, Greece and Germany will provide ships for the initial naval contingent, and France and Italy will provide patrol aircraft.
The task force - codenamed Operation Atalanta - will be the EU's first naval operation. It will have the same duties as the Nato mission, including escorting cargo vessels, protecting merchant ships and deterring pirate attacks. "These tasks will be done with very robust rules of engagement," Foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
EU foreign ministers have agreed to ask the UN Security Council to clarify the legal issues involved in the anti-piracy effort. Ministers said they would also consider the possibility of deploying a follow-up anti-piracy mission to assist the EU ships.
Under the current UN mandate, the international fleet operating off the Horn of Africa has not been able to board ships seized by the pirates in order to free their hostages.
Besides the Nato ships, 10 others from the United States, India, Russia and Malaysia are patrolling the region at present.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
EU warships begin the Winter Cruise Season anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia next week
Fixed it for you. Still waiting for the ROI papers from the Eurocrats, that are then modified by the participating Cruiser Line owners, and then interpreted by the Commodore of the Somalia Yachting Regalia [pictured above]. In the Commodore's own words, "Remember men, looking good is what it's all about!"
(SomaliNet) During the latest in a series of demonstrations over crippling cash withdrawal limits that have rattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime, Zimbabwean riot police on Wednesday beat a group of unarmed protesters and detained a number of trade union leaders.
The Zimbabwean police used batons to beat back a group of around 50 protesters that attempted to march on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in central Harare to demand an end to cash restrictions. Over 20 people, including several senior officials of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the body that called the protest, were taken away in police trucks.
The demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks."
The police action followed a warning by the government that "rogue soldiers" who rioted in central Harare on Monday and had to be subdued by police would be apprehended and "brought to justice."
In the regime's first reaction to an orgy of looting and attacks by soldiers on illegal street currency dealers, it indicated that the unrest was much more widespread in Harare than previously known. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremayi was quoted in the state-controlled daily Herald as saying that similar incidents "perpetrated by by unruly elements of the defence forces" had occurred in and around the capital four days before Monday's violence.
Sekeremayi has also accused the ZCTU of colluding with the disgruntled officers, who ran amok on Monday, apparently in frustration at having to queue for hours at ATMs to withdraw their salaries.
The incident appears to have shocked the regime, which appeared confident of the loyalty of the army, despite the country's economic meltdown, characterised by world-record inflation, widespread hunger and a severe cholera outbreak.
Nine-figure inflation has made cash extremely short and led banks to impose unrealistically low maximum withdrawal limits. Zimbabweans are increasingly frustrated at having to queue for hours to withdraw less than price of a loaf of bread. The limit has just been increased to 100-million Zimbabwe dollars (about 50 US dollars) a week, from 500 000 Zimbabwe dollars (about 25 US cents).
Also Wednesday, the central bank announced the issue of new 100-million Zimbabwe dollar bank notes, only four months after it slashed 10 zeroes off the previous set of denominations.
Sekeremayi said that over the five days up to Monday, "a number of properties were damaged, innocent people injured, money and property stolen," by off-duty soldiers, the minister said, calling the acts "unacceptable, deplorable, reprehensible and criminal."
But the "vast majority" of defence forces were disciplined and loyal, he assured, vowing to put in place measures to ensure such incidents did not occur again. "Those who may try to incite some members of the uniformed forces to indulge in illegal activities will equally be found culpable," he warned.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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#1
Surely at last the beginning of the end of Mugabe?
The people are suffering so long he´s there nothing will get better!
Lebanese Christian leader Michelle Aoun, long hostile to Syria, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in a historic first visit to Syria that will include talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and leaders of Syria's Christian community.
Lt. General Aoun, head of the parliamentary minority, told reporters at the airport that he hoped that his visit would usher in a bright stage in the Syrian-Lebanese relations, the official SANA news agency reported.
The head of the Lebanese arrived at the Damascus International Airport aboard Assad's private plane of and was met by Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Fisal al-Miqdad, who took him to the al-Shaab presidential palace.
The Syrian al-Watan daily quoted Aoun on Wednesday as saying that his three-day talks in Damascus would touch on Syrian-Lebanese diplomatic ties, demarcating borders and the missing Lebanese who are believed to be detained in Syria.
Aoun dismissed criticism of the historic visit by the rival March 14 coalition led by Saad Hariri, whose father Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister, was assassinated in 2005 in a bombing many blame on Syria. "I am being attacked because I said that Christianity had originated in Syria," the Lebanese al-Nahar daily quoted him as saying before his trip. "I want to separate Christians from the March 14 alliance because it was mistaken."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2008
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.
ISRAEL is reportedly drawing up plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the US.
TOKYO, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A previously unknown third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has emerged as a contender for power in Pyongyang, an analyst says. The son, whose name isn't known, occupies a powerful position in the North Korean army and could have the backing of the military if there is a power struggle in Pyongyang following the death of the 66-year-old Kim Jong Il, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
Twenty-three people, including 15 Taliban and eight civilians, were killed as security forces targeted Taliban hideouts in Safi tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Wednesday. The security forces used fighter jets and helicopter gunships in the attacks in which several people were injured as well, AFP reported. 
(AKI) - India should demand the arrest of Pakistani extremist leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, over the brutal Mumbai terror attacks, an Indian defence expert said on Tuesday. Alok Bansal, from the Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis in New Delhi, also said India should strike the group's training camps in Kashmir if there was concrete proof of their role in Mumbai and if Pakistan failed to cooperate with Indian police.
A small central Alabama county whose mainly black residents gave Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.
Two alleged members of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Lal Potaka) were killed in 'crossfire' with law enforcers at Seujbari in Bagmara upazila of the district early yesterday.
The 
(AKI) - An Israeli air strike killed two Palestinian teenagers and injured four others on Tuesday in southern Gaza. "The IDF targeted a militant squad that launched a mortar against Israel from the southern Gaza Strip in the past hour. Approximately six mortars were launched against Israel from the same proximity today," said the Israel Defense Forces website in a statement.
The British couple who became protagonists in the infamous Dubai sex on the beach drama said they plan to sue several papers over offensive coverage of the highly publicized story that captured attention throughout the country. 
(SomaliNet) A minister in Somalia's breakaway Puntland region said Wednesday that Somali pirates have freed a Yemeni cargo ship captured 10 days ago. 
The leaders of the Arab community are scheduled to sail into the Gaza Strip to break the Israeli imposed siege on the territory. 
(AKI) - Italian anti-terrorist police on Tuesday arrested two Moroccans suspected of international terrorism, Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir, and raided the homes of other people believed to be linked to the pair. Rachid and Ghaffir were allegedly plotting attacks on military and civilian targets on the outskirts of the northern city of Milan.
Suspects wanted by India in the attacks on Mumbai will be tried in Pakistan if there is concrete evidence against them, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday.
(SomaliNet) A flotilla of EU warships will begin anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia next week. The six ships and three reconnaissance aircraft will replace a Nato force that has been in the region and escorting cargo ships carrying relief aid to Somalia since the end of October. 
(SomaliNet) During the latest in a series of demonstrations over crippling cash withdrawal limits that have rattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime, Zimbabwean riot police on Wednesday beat a group of unarmed protesters and detained a number of trade union leaders. 
Lebanese Christian leader Michelle Aoun, long hostile to Syria, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in a historic first visit to Syria that will include talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and leaders of Syria's Christian community.
