Two military contractors, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, agreed on Wednesday to a Pentagon deal that will clear the way for all three of the Navys multibillion-dollar stealth destroyers to be built at General Dynamics shipyard in Maine, Pentagon and industry officials said.
Northrop Grumman, which had expected to build one of the DDG-1000 destroyers at its shipyard in Mississippi, will contribute major components for each of the vessels. It will also receive contracts for two other destroyers as the Navy restarts production of an earlier model.
Stock analysts said the deal, pushed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appeared to be a winning proposition for both contractors.
Mr. Gates delivered a gift to the shipbuilders, said Loren B. Thompson, a military consultant and the chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a research group.
Military officials said the precise financial arrangements still needed to be worked out.
Pentagon officials had estimated that the first of the new destroyers, also known as the Zumwalt class, would cost $3.3 billion, with additional ships costing at least $2.5 billion each if the Navy had built the 10 that were originally planned.
But given Mr. Gatess decision to limit the program to three ships, independent analysts said, various economies of scale would be lost, and the average cost could rise to $5 billion or more.
Still, in proposing a range of cuts in arms programs on Monday, Mr. Gates said he would build only one of the destroyers if General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman would not agree to have all three built at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
Mr. Gates said it would have been far too costly and inefficient to have both shipyards gear up to be the lead contractor.
Representative Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Mississippi and the chairman of a House armed services subcommittee, said the deal was good for Northrop Grumman because it ensured that the company was aligned with where the Navy sees its future.
Under the plan, Northrop Grumman will restart production of the DDG-51, also known as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and build the first two ships. General Dynamics will build the third once it completes work on the DDG-1000s at the Bath Iron Works. Officials said it was likely that the companies would split any subsequent orders through some type of competitive bidding.
Military analysts have estimated that the DDG-51s could cost an average of $1.5 billion to $2 billion each, depending on how many are eventually built.
Navy officials had originally embraced the shift to the DDG-1000, in part because it would have new types of radars, designed by Raytheon, that allowed it to make precise scans in relatively cluttered areas near coastlines. That ability was designed to fit the Navys increasing emphasis on operating in shallower, coastal waters.
But as the cost estimates rose last year, Navy officials began backing away, saying they could no longer afford the ship.
Still, the DDG-1000 had substantial political support from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Democrat from Massachusetts, where Raytheon is based, and other legislators from New England who were concerned about losing jobs at the Maine shipyard, which employs 5,600. The yard, which began building the first ship in February, expects to deliver it in 2013.
Analysts said that the Navy generally fared better than the Air Force and the Army in the Pentagons proposals.
Mr. Gates said the Navy would gradually slow the production of aircraft carriers, with the total dropping to 10, from 11, after 2040. Northrop Grumman, which builds the carriers, said in a note to employees that it believed that proposal requires a closer look.
Mr. Gates also said he would delay development of a new cruiser and amphibious ships.
But he endorsed the Navys goal of buying 55 Littoral Combat Ships, a high-speed coastal combat vessel that has experienced huge cost overruns. His proposals included money for expanding construction of the Virginia-class submarines to two each year, starting in fiscal 2011, from one now. And he said the Navy could start planning a new generation of ballistic missile submarines.
#1
joint ventures among competitors are good for all involved if the price is right - it keeps both employed and operative, because you can't jumpstart a defense construction company of that size should another big "test for Obama" emerge
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2009 21:25
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Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush. "I girded my loins and laid into him!"
Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes. because they don't exist
"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration. or corroboration. or Carney's assurance of truthfulness. He doesn't wanna lose all credibility
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'" ooohhhhh - that rapier-like wit!
That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.
"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden. "He's a fooking nut. Really. Says anything that pops into that peabrain. Absolutely no control between the brain and mouth"
"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."
Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.
Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush. "I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.
Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."
"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."
A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.
This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."
Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."
Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq "Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die." ha! Let's start telling the truth?
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."
Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said. "No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."
Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."
"If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine." Man, when you get pwn3d by Kerry, you're toast
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2009
19:04 ||
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The once-crashed attack submarine San Francisco left Puget Sound for San Diego on Tuesday morning, more than four years after an accident that killed one crewman and injured 97 of 137 sailors on board.
On Jan. 8, 2005, the ship crashed into an undersea mountain 350 miles south of Guam, crushing the nose. After crossing the Pacific Ocean on the surface it arrived at the naval complex near Kitsap, Wash., in September 2005 and went into the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility for repairs in October 2006, according to Lt. Kyle Raines, spokesman at Submarine Group 9. He said it went into dry dock in December 2006 and was returned to the water in October 2008.
The nose of the decommissioned sub Honolulu replaced the destroyed portions on San Francisco.
San Francisco was formerly homeported in Guam but will now be based in San Diego with Submarine Squadron 11, Raines said, though was not certain when the San Francisco would rejoin the fleet or be ready for deployment again. The Kitsap Sun newspaper reported that the nose replacement repairs cost $134 million. For those who forgot, this is what happens when you hit an undersea mountain...
#1
I'm curious. I know the Navy has a fair number of Los Angeles class boats in storage. Was it cheaper to repair the San Francisco than to bring one of those out?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009 17:38
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Yee-ouch. Good picture.
I take it the Captain "retired"....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2009 17:59
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Barbara, according to Wikipedia, he was reassigned to shore duty, and after an investigation, given a nonjudicial letter of reprimand and relieved of command. Six other crew members went to Captain's Mast and were given letters of reprimand. Also, twenty officers of men were given letters of recommendation and medals for their actions after the collision. Apparently the boat was almost lost.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2009 18:10
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#4
The reactor was recently refueled before the collision. Refueling a sub reactor costs a few hundred million $, more than the repair.
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 18:10
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#5
Thanks, Rambler.
I'm a little fuzzy about how they crashed into a sea mount - don't they have radar? Or doesn't it work underwater? The mount must have been awfully close to the surface (unless they were practicing deep dives).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2009 18:13
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They were in the middle of a highspeed transit run - no sonar, they were blind.
#7
Almost immediately, attention focused on the fact that the mountain was not on the charts, and even some within the submarine community wondered whether the crew should be held responsible.
But the investigation showed that there were at least five notices to mariners, most recently in 2002, about a large patch of muddy water about three miles south of the sea mount that were not incorporated on the charts the San Francisco was using at the time, the sources said.
If the bottom had been as deep as the 1989 chart indicated, that muddy patch would not have appeared.
Even more serious than them breakdown in the chart preparation process, the sources said, were the warning signs that were not heeded, particularly the soundings taken by the ship's fathometer. Just minutes before the crash, the San Francisco came to the surface to check its location on the Global Positioning System.
The submarine is also equipped with the sophisticated Ring Laser Gyro Navigator, so it knew its position with a high degree of certainty.
Yet where the charts showed 1,000 fathoms of water, the sounding showed less than 800 fathoms still a huge safety margin below the keel, but a difference that should have caused the navigation team to recommend proceeding with caution.
In addition, the navigation team had noted for a lengthy period that the water depth was shoaling, or becoming more shallow.
The team apparently believed it was a faulty reading moving through the water at 30 mph, fathometer readings can be inaccurate and the team kept hoping that perhaps the next reading would correlate with the chart.
In retrospect, it's clear that the readings were accurate, the water was shoaling, and the San Francisco was heading for what was nearly an underwater cliff.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 19:07
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#8
Uh. uh, instead of bumping into GODZILLA they're gonna make darn sure its RODAN this time!?
Must be "Ancient Weapons in the News" week...
A few weeks late for Valentine's Day, a Burnsville man faces charges he tried to impress a female companion by "playing Rambo" and shooting arrows at neighboring residences in his townhome complex with a powerful bow. Here. Hold Rambo's beer, baby!
On Saturday, Burnsville police found arrows in the siding of more than one townhome along River Woods Lane, according to charges. Another arrow had gone through a patio door, shattering the glass. Ha! I hit the building! I can't be that shitfaced!
Neighbors quickly pointed police to the likely Cupid. Rambo? Up in 3B.
Okay, thanks...
A criminal complaint filed against Kyle Kenneth Fletcher, 30, by the Dakota County Attorney's office alleges that he appeared "extremely intoxicated" when questioned by police, as did his female friend. I knew it!
"She told officers that she and Fletcher had been drinking all night and that Fletcher grabbed his bow and arrow and walked out onto the deck," reads the complaint. "She said she thought Fletcher wanted to 'play Rambo.' " Ooooooh, baby! Ya makin me sooooo hot!
Questioned by police, Fletcher initially denied being the culprit, although police found arrows on his floor and a compound bow on his deck, according to charges. Those yours?
I been framed! You planted them there, ya lousy bastid cops!
He later "admitted that he did so for '(expletive) and giggles.'" ...and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Can I go now?
A compound bow uses pulleys and cables to bend the bow limbs, storing energy before releasing each arrow. From the way the arrows were embedded in the siding, the complaint states "it was obvious that had one of the arrows come into contact with a person, it could have caused serious bodily injury or death." Fletcher was charged Wednesday with first-degree criminal damage to property, a felony. Will ya wait for me, baby?!
GHAZNI, Afghanistan As part of his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Obama has announced plans to send 4,000 more American troops this spring to train the Afghan National Police and Army.
But a shortage of American trainers is only one factor hampering the Afghan police. If the experience of the American troops already training police officers in Ghazni Province is any indication, better policing may be impossible for Afghanistan unless government officials at all levels stop cannibalizing their civil administration and police force for a quick profit.
In two weeks of interviews in this mountainous region of poor farmers and shepherds, exasperated American soldiers said it was hard to determine which was their more daunting opponent the few thousand Taliban who ruled villages through a shadow government of mullahs, or corruption so rife that it had deeply undercut efforts to improve the police and had destroyed many Afghans faith in government.
That lack of trust, coupled with the absence of security forces in almost all villages, further strengthens the hand of the Taliban as the only real power here. Ghaznis experience shows the challenge that corruption presents to efforts to establish better policing throughout the country.
The list of schemes that undermine law enforcement is long and bewildering, according to American and Afghan officers who cite some examples: police officials who steal truckloads of gasoline; judges and prosecutors who make decisions based on bribes; high-ranking government officials who reap payoffs from hashish and chromite smuggling; and midlevel security and political jobs that are sold, sometimes for more than $50,000, money the buyers then recoup through still more bribes and theft.
In some cases the American officers requested that their names not be used when discussing specific allegations or that the titles of certain Afghan government and police leaders be withheld, since it would otherwise make it impossible to work with these officials, an important part of their mission.
But the frustration was palpable as they described the enormous corruption running the length of the civilian administration in this province of 1.3 million people, whose capital, Ghazni, lies 80 miles southwest of Kabul.
Referring to one corrupt and high-ranking government official he sees routinely, Maj. Randy Schmeling, a 43-year-old Army National Guardsman who commands the American police mentoring teams in Ghazni, said, Id like to break down his door, stomp on his chest, point my 9-millimeter at his head and say, Stop what you are doing!
Some of the troops Afghan colleagues recognize the problem, too. In every office there is corruption, said Col. Mohammed Zaman, the departing provincial police chief. Its not only prosecutors and judges.
This is the reason no one accepts the rule of law, he said, because the government is not going by the rule of law.
The result is an ineffective and woefully undersupplied Afghan police force and a frustrating lack of justice for Afghans. Worse still, by comparison with the governments exercise of authority, the law imposed by the Taliban is far more certain quick and clear, if ruthless.
The appointed officials and elected officials, the people dont trust them, and they dont trust them with good reason, Major Schmeling said. They take from them and they give nothing back.
He added: Right now, there is no meritocracy here. Its, Hey, your sister has a pretty mouth do you want to be a general?
That culture of corruption affects everything: promotions, assignments, the resolution of cases. As one example, Major Schmeling pointed to a police officer who a year ago was a lowly patrolman and gate guard. Then, he said, the policeman scraped together the money for a new job: a top noncommissioned officer on the provincial police force.
As long as people are buying themselves into positions like that, the people will never trust the system, the major said.
To those buying jobs, the payments are an investment they intend to recover, along with a profit. Jobs that bring more money, like posts near the Kabul-Kandahar highway that allow opportunities for extorting truckers and smugglers, sell for a premium, soldiers here say.
#1
Seems like this is an activity that it is hard to stop. Would it be possible to harness? Pay good money for intel on corruption. Give a small amount for the info. Monitor the suspects and if it pans out, pay a big bonus.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 16:34
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Corruption Undercuts Hopes for Afghan Chicago, District of Columbia, New Orleans et al Police
How about some house cleaning at home while we're paying attention to what 'corruption' does [regardless of color, race, or creed].
Note to self: Do NOT intervene in a sword fight...
A Northwestside fight involving a sword early this morning left three people stabbed, one of them dead and one under arrest for attempted murder.
Christopher O. Rondeau, 39, is being held on preliminary murder charges at the medical holding facility at Wishard Memorial Hospital. He was arrested by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department after a fight at 5259 N. Raceway Rd. Rondeau was in stable condition.
The fight was reported about 1 a.m. today. Rondeau and Adolf Stegbauer, 69, both of Indianapolis, were "actively involved in a sword fight," IMPD spokesman Sgt. Matt Mount said in a statement. One man used what police described as a World War II Japanese officer's sword and another had a thin blade sword, although investigators were not immediately certain which weapon was used by which man. En garde, gramps!
I'll show you, young punk!
Preliminary reports from police said that Franziska Stegbauer, 77, Indianapolis, tried to break up the fight and was fatally stabbed. Police found all three victims inside the residence on Raceway Road when they arrived early this morning. I wonder how many empties they found?
An autopsy performed today has determined that a stab wound from a sword was the cause of death. "Brilliant deduction, Quincy! How do you do it?"
Adolf Stegbauer was taken to surgery at Wishard, and was reported in serious condition this afternoon. Police said Rondeau was Franziska Stegbauer's grandson. Police do not know how the fight started or who stabbed Stegbauer, Mount said. It's a mystery, Muldoon. A mystery...
In 1970, General Motors was the largest and most profitable company in America. Today, of course, GM is neither. Instead, in 2009 Americas largest company is Wal-Mart, which was still only a regional, privately-held retailer in 1970. Wal-Marts rapid rise is not unique, however. Among the 100 largest firms today, a numberincluding FedEx, Microsoft, Cisco, and Home Depot--didnt even exist in 1970. So profoundly has the landscape changed that 80 percent of the Fortune 100 companies today are different from 1970.
All of this is the result of an entrepreneurial revolution spurred by everything from intensifying international competition starting in the late 1950s, to the lowering of confiscatory tax rates starting in the 1960s, to a series of technological revolutions that gathered momentum in the 1970s, to the taming of inflation in the early 1980s. During that time the corporate team player, the quintessential organizational man, slowly gave way to the dazzling but disruptive entrepreneur whose innovations rapidly reshaped the economyand the ranks of corporate Americaseveral times over.
But we are entering quite a different age right now, one in which the President of the United States and his hand-selected industrial overseers fire the chief executive of General Motors and chart the companys next moves in order to preserve it. Conservative critics of the president have said that the governments GM strategy is one of many examples of an America drifting toward socialism. But President Obama is not a socialist. If his agenda harks back to anything, it is to corporatism, the notion that elite groups of individuals molded together into committees or public-private boards can guide society and coordinate the economy from the top town and manage change by evolution, not revolution. . . .
Corporatism is especially attractive to politicians, public intellectuals who serve as policy makers, and Nobel Laureates because it is ultimately a world managed by the few, the elect, through the state. If we are told enough times that nothing, even technological innovation, is possible anymore without significant contributions and directions from the state, maybe well eventually come to believe it, although the inventors of the printing press, the steam engine, the light bulb, the telephone, and internal combustion engine and other game-changing technologies might wonder how they accomplished what they did without government.
Corporatism is not about regulating capitalism better as markets evolve. It is several steps beyond. It is instead about those who believe in the beauty of pushing a button to solve problems, as the economist Paul Krugman recently described his attraction to the social sciences. Some people worry about what happens when the regulators take charge of our economy. But the real concern is what happens when the button pushers take charge, for the button pushers are the corporatists.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/09/2009
15:24 ||
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#1
But President Obama is not a socialist. If his agenda harks back to anything, it is to corporatism, the notion that elite groups of individuals molded together into committees or public-private boards can guide society and coordinate the economy from the top town and manage change by evolution, not revolution. . . .
#2
Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.
Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.
Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism.
There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism. Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism.
Swen, Lars, Bjorn, Ingemar! Ya oughta be ashamed of yourselves!
Four young men appeared in court on Thursday charged with involvement in a series of gang rapes in Södertälje in eastern Sweden. A total of seven young men between the ages of 19 and 23 are being held in custody for the rapes.
The men are believed to belong to a network of several smaller groups who have systematically raped young women and girls in the town.
Six of them have been charged and four of them stood trial in Södertälje district court on Thursday for aggravated rape, among other charges, in one of the four cases.
The girls have said the men took turns raping them while the others held them down, newspaper Länstidningen Södertälje reports.
We have good reason to believe that several more women have been raped and we implore them to contact us, Kia Samrell, information office at the Södertälje police department, told TT.
The case began in February when a young women reported that she had been raped by four men in an apartment in Hovsjö. Due to DNA evidence and information from various witnesses, the attack was linked to three additional unsolved rape cases in Södertälje.
One of the cases involved a woman who at the beginning of February believed she was getting a ride home, but was instead taken to a camping site where she was raped by several men.
In March last year, another young women was forced into a car in Lina and raped by five men. In the fourth case, which occurred in November 2007, a 12-year-old girl was raped by three men in an attic in Ronna.
The individual suspects have not all been involved in each rape.
"The men belong to different overlapping constellations," said Samrell.
The healines to the article's "related links" :
* Security police probe Södertälje fires (26 Feb 09)
* Arson suspected after Södertälje blazes (12 Jan 09)
* Hate crimes plague Södertälje refugees (18 Nov 08)
#1
Nefarous Baptists, one and all, no doubt. The reporter didn't have to tell us. It's obvious by the MO.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 16:44
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In the past year, Södertälje has gained international recognition for the large number of Iraqi refugees who have settled in the city, resulting in the town being dubbed Little Baghdad.
Hovsjö is known as a multiethnic neighbourhood with a high concentration of residents with non-Swedish backgrounds.
(CNET) -- The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday. This piece of computer code told the worm to activate on April 1, researchers found.
Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro.
The software appeared to be a .sys component hiding behind a rootkit, which is software that is designed to hide the fact that a computer has been compromised, according to Trend Micro. The software is heavily encrypted, which makes code analysis difficult, the researchers said.
The worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.
Because infected computers are receiving the new component in a staggered manner rather than all at once there should be no disruption to the Web sites the computers visit, said Paul Ferguson, advanced threats researcher for Trend Micro.
"After May 3, it shuts down and won't do any replication," Perry said. However, infected computers could still be remotely controlled to do something else, he added.
On Tuesday night Trend Micro researchers noticed a new file in the Windows Temp folder and a huge encrypted TCP response from a known Conficker P2P IP node hosted in Korea.
"As expected, the P2P communications of the Downad/Conficker botnet may have just been used to serve an update, and not via HTTP," the blog post says. "The Conficker/Downad P2P communications is now running in full swing!"
In addition to adding the new propagation functionality, Conficker communicates with servers that are associated with the Waledac family of malware and its Storm botnet, according to a separate blog post by Trend Micro security researcher Rik Ferguson.
The worm tries to access a known Waledac domain and download another encrypted file, the researchers said.
Conficker.C failed to make a splash a week ago despite the fact that it was programmed to activate on April 1. It has infected between 3 million and 12 million computers, according to Perry.
Initially, researchers thought they were seeing a new variant of the Conficker worm, but now they believe it is merely a new component of the worm.
The worm spreads via a hole in Windows that Microsoft patched in October, as well as through removable storage devices and network shares with weak passwords.
The worm disables security software and blocks access to security Web sites.
#3
The worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.
Wow.
Didn't even check for a gateway or nuthin'.
Just started a-pingin' away at known URLs...
Not even checking the output of telnet queries which would not have left much of a footprint.
Impressive check criteria for Internet connectivity.
It's no wonder this "worm" didn't make much of a splash.
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has begun to collect at source income taxes which even some of its top politicians were failing to pay, to help combat a deepening fiscal crisis, the budget minister said on Tuesday.
Resource-rich but impoverished Congo has seen income from mineral exports, its primary foreign currency earner, plummet since mid-2008 as demand for its copper and cobalt has dried up due to the global economic downturn. Amid a growing budget shortfall, the government is under pressure to cut costs and boost tax revenues.
Budget Minister Michel Lokola told Reuters that last month's decision to tax government salaries at source, rather than rely on employees to pay taxes after receiving their salaries, had already raised roughly $1 million. "They just weren't paying. The government ministers we replaced, the MPs, the senators, they didn't pay," said Lokola, who entered the government last October in a cabinet shake-up that saw his predecessor Adolphe Muzito named prime minister.
Lokola said the move was partly aimed at setting a good example, adding that Congolese President Joseph Kabila's government salary was also subject to the measure. "He is aware of this, and he approves of it ... I don't see how we can expect the private sector to pay their taxes if we don't pay ourselves," he said.
The decision was applauded by residents of Kinshasa, the country's sprawling riverside capital.
"I think it's necessary. Everyone used to pay their taxes, but for a while now, people don't pay anymore," said one government employee who asked not to be named.
Tax evasion is rampant in Congo and is seen by many as vital to their economic survival. A convoluted tax system, used by employees of state agencies to help supplement salaries often received months late if at all, has helped make Congo the world's worst country in which to do business, according to a World Bank report last September.
The study found that medium-sized businesses that fully complied with the demands of state agencies would pay an average of 32 different taxes, theoretically consuming around 230 percent of their profits.
Israel knows it must do take out the nuclear weapons capability of Iran. And yet, Israel will not be able to do it. Not because it doesn't have the military might to do so. And not because it lacks the will. But because Barack Obama will order the United States Air Force to stand in its way if it tries. Between the airfields of Israel and the reactors and research labs and storage facilities of Iran sit the armed forces of the United States and its hundreds of planes, missiles and radar. With our bases in Iraq and those floating in the Persian Gulf, the United States separates Israel and Iran. Obama would have to give his okay for Israel to pass. Obama will not.
In fact, he will have the United States erect an armed barrier to Israel.
I don't know that Bambi would do that; I don't know that he would get the chance if the Israelis decided not to pre-clear the raid with us. He could order it as a standing policy but odds are good such an order would leak.
Another interesting point:
The minute Iran has the bomb, Israel will begin to shrink. Jews in Israel will start to pack up and leave. Some at first, but more and more over time, Israelis will leave. Panic will begin to set in after the first 100,000 Jews or so have left their homes vacant. Businesses will be unable to fill job openings. The armed forces will find themselves combining brigades and companies.
Iran won't even have to fire a nuclear warhead at Israel to destroy it. The certainty that Iran can incinerate Israel, and the certainty that Iran will shortly do so, will be enough to convince enough of the six million Jews living in Israel today that they either must leave or be turned to ash that the economy and polity will lose viability.
#2
Israel just needs to get a nuke in a truck near one of the Iranian nuke bases. PLan the nuke to be a similar yield as an Iranian nuke. Bam, destroy the iranian nuke program so that it looks like an accident. Even Iranians sychophants will have trouble defending their nuke program then.
#4
It's a gloomy analysis, it's possible, but it's probably not what will happen nor how.
If anything, what's more likely is the effect on the arab world before the effect on Israel.
There's already an islamic bomb, and this would be a persian bomb, but where is the arab bomb?
Worse yet, what happens to the oil supply while the US, arab world and interested others react to Iran? What does Iraq do?
Again, will Iran go straight at Israel, or will it elect another "reform" leader to cover a period of misdirection and alternative acts, whatever and wherever they may be?
How will Ethiopia mind be surrounded by islamic "allies" of nuclear powers? Kuwait, Bahrain, etc?
ESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Afghan intelligence agents are sharing information with militants about U.S. and NATO troop movements, a top Taliban commander told NBC News.
"The people of Afghanistan are with us," said Sirajuddin Haqqani, in an exclusive interview. "The Afghan intelligence officials are sympathetic to the Taliban and they communicate the movements of the occupying forces [U.S. and NATO] to us."
#2
The AfghanPakistan intelligence officials are sympathetic to the Taliban and they communicate the movements of the occupying forces [U.S. and NATO] to us."
Fixed
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 15:02
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"The Afghan intelligence officials are sympathetic to the Taliban and they communicate the movements of the occupying forces [U.S. and NATO] to us."
Quite correct Mr. Haqqani. Please continue your collection and monitoring.
#5
Just one more nail in Pakistan's coffin. The sooner we dismember this failed, terrorist-controlled state, the better. If only the US had a leader, instead of a "community organizer".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/09/2009 15:19
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Funny that the link is to the biggest Taliban propaganda division in the media today.
#8
I had submitted my interview request through two Taliban commanders in South Waziristan. They are men I have known since I was a young reporter they fled Afghanistan and settled in Pakistan, after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Ah. An "independent" journalist.
Just the facts, ma'am...
#9
So, how does Haqqani benefit from revealing to imformation? Normally it seems like this the kind of thing sensible people would keep to themselves and deny vigorously if confronted.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 16:26
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"Afghan intelligence agents are sharing information with militants about U.S. and NATO troop movements"
That's just what we want you to think.
Oh, woe is us - what will we do?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2009 17:50
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This story brought to you courtesy of Inter Services Public Relations.
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 18:36
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Doofus has a little box out front of his hovel - says NYTimes on the side.
QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) -- Riots erupted in southwest Pakistan that left one policeman dead and three injured Thursday, as public anger boiled over following the murder of three nationalist politicians, officials said.
The mutilated bodies of the dissident Baluchs, who supporters said were picked up by intelligence agents in Turbat on April 2, were found dumped in a remote location on the outskirts of the southwest town, a party official said. The victims were identified as the head of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad of the Baluchistan Republican Party, according to the official.
"Security agencies picked them up on April 2 and they had been missing since then," BNP spokesman Asif Baluch told reporters.
The late BNP chief played an important role in helping to secure the release of kidnapped American UN official John Solecki two months after he was snatched in the Baluchistan capital Quetta, he said. Solecki was released Saturday and was purported to have been held by the little-known Baluchistan Liberation United Front.
News of the killings sparked protests and violent riots in several cities across restive southwest Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, and is rife with militant and sectarian violence. The riots left a policeman dead in the town of Khuzdar.
"A policeman was shot dead by a mob who were damaging government buildings," senior police official Ghulam Ali Lashari told AFP. "Now the situation is under control after paramilitary forces were called in to help police restore law and order," Lashari said.
Thumpety-thump ...
Around 12 people were detained for disturbing the peace, he added.
In Quetta, protesters torched six government vehicles and a UN car while police arrested up to 20 people in connection with rioting, police said. "At least five government vehicles and a UN vehicle were set on fire by the rioters," senior police official Rasool Bakhsh Rind told AFP. "Three policemen were injured when unknown people threw a hand grenade at them," Rind said.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds as protesters blocked roads, including the main artery linking Quetta to the southern port city of Karachi, an AFP reporter said.
Governor Baluchistan Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi "strongly condemned" the incident. "It is an act of terrorism," Magsi said.
Two nationalist parties of Baluchistan issued a call for a general strike on Friday and Saturday to protest the killings of the politicians, party officials said as other parties deliberated whether to join.
Hundreds of people have died in insurgent violence in Baluchistan since 2004, when rebels separate from mainstream Baluch politicians rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from natural resources.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
12:49 ||
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"Security agencies picked them up on April 2 and they had been missing since then," BNP spokesman Asif Baluch told reporters.
Funny how the ISI can pick up and kill anyone they feel like but the Taliban leadership operates openly.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 12:53
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To be fair, I should note that if the praise for the leader of North Korea seems a little effusive, it could be because someone could be imprisoned or executed if they say anything that displeases Kim Jong Il. I dont know what the American medias excuse is.
Well, I certainly know who gets more goods and cash for his people.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/09/2009 13:18
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Eleven out of 12 suspects arrested in a major anti-terror operation in Britain are Pakistani nationals, the head of Greater Manchester Police said Thursday.
"We've been very clear about the origin of the people that have been arrested... 11 of them are Pakistani nationals. That is a matter of fact," said Peter Fahy, briefing reporters on raids carried out across northwest England.
It had already been reported that 10 of those arrested, in raids hastily organised Wednesday after a security blunder by Britain's top counter-terror police chief, were of Pakistani origin, but not their nationality.
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009
12:12 ||
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British born pakis or plain old native Pakis makes no difference in the UK they still hold the UK in contempt!!!
A hard-line cleric who negotiated a peace accord that halted fighting between the Taliban and security forces in part of northwest Pakistan said Thursday he is leaving the region to protest the government's failure to impose Islamic law.
The announcement casts serious doubt on the durability of a cease-fire in the Swat valley that U.S. officials worry will create another sanctuary for allies of al-Qaida responsible for a rising tide of violence in the nuclear-armed country.
The U.S. Embassy said "heightened security" was prompting it to suspend routine consular services Friday in Pakistan's capital. Spokesman Lou Fintor declined Thursday night to detail what led to the security concern in Islamabad, but said consulates in other major cities would remain open and that emergency services would still be available for Americans.
Imposing Islamic law in Swat, a one-time tourist haven, was the key plank of an accord worked out in February between the provincial government and Sufi Muhammad, a cleric who once led thousands of volunteers to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan but has since renounced violence.
Thanks in part to Muhammad's mediation, the agreement ended 18 months of terror and bloody clashes that had left hundreds dead and forced up to one-third of the previously prosperous valley's 1.5 million residents to flee.
But the militants have retained their arms and this week pushed into a neighboring area just 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Islamabad, where they fought deadly gunbattles with villagers and police.
Why it's almost as if the Taliban were planning on extending their grip all along ...
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009
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Posted by: Oscar Whavinter7650 ||
04/09/2009 13:32
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...Sufi Muhammad, a cleric who once led thousands of volunteers to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan but has since renounced violence.
But the militants have retained their arms and this week pushed into a neighboring area just 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Islamabad, where they fought deadly gunbattles with villagers and police.
Geez, just think of what would've happened if he hadn't "renounced violence"?
The single point of negotiations: How quickly will Obama disarm the USA.
Iran's president said Thursday his country is open to talks offered by the U.S. and other countries over its nuclear program. But he insisted the talks must be based on respect for Iran's rights, suggesting the West should not try to force Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
Hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments during celebrations for Iran's Nuclear Day, in which a number of advances in Iran's nuclear program were announced.
Among them, officials said the number of centrifuges at Iran's uranium enrichment facility had increased to 7,000 up from 6,000 announced in February and that a new, more advanced type of centrifuge had been tested. Ahmadinejad also announced the opening of a new plant for developing uranium fuel for a planned hard-water reactor.
...
Ahmadinejad said the new centrifuge has been tested, and has several times more capacity more than the P-1 centrifuges currently used at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran. Neither gave details on the new centrifuge or said when it might be brought into use.
Ahmadinejad also said the country has inaugurated a new facility producing uranium fuel for a heavy-water nuclear reactor that is under construction in the town of Arak and is expected to be completed in 2009 or 2010.
Heavy-water reactors use a different process than light-water ones, but has its own nuclear proliferation concerns. The West fears that Iran could eventually reprocess spent fuel from the heavy-water reactor to produce plutonium for a warhead.
Iran has been building the 40-megawatt hard(heavy)-water reactor in the central town of Arak for the past four years. Hard-water reactors do not need enriched uranium for fuel, and can instead use more easily produced uranium oxide ore, fashioned into pellets.
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009
11:59 ||
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Most likely they have reached the stage they wanted to ie nuclear bomb capability so talks are easier now!!!!
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has spoken of trust gap between Washington and Islamabad. But more exactly, it is the drought of sincerity on the Americans' part. They have been using our military bases, facilities and land supply routes for their campaign in Afghanistan. Even they are believably operating their drones from our own soil to slaughter our own women, children and civilians. Yet, they are returning us the compliment by way of deceit, deception, fraud and wickedness alone. Neither are they in acknowledgement of the tremendous sacrifices this country had to make on account of the cowardly way they have waged their Afghanistan campaign.
Nor are they any mindful of Pakistan's security concerns in Afghanistan. Instead, they have helped India in every manner to entrench strategically in Afghanistan and work from there against Pakistan. Already, India's paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police is embedded there in strength in our close proximity. The paramilitary, raised by the Indians in the wake of their debacle in 1962 war with China, is trained in infiltration and subversion. The Americans are not unknown, too, of mulling even Indian military presence in Afghanistan. Their top soldier, Admiral Mike Mullen, has gone on record that India does have a military role there. And he has many a backer in India's military establishment too, its army chief, as for one. Mullen indeed is so enamoured of India that after the Mumbai strike he rushed to Islamabad with the demand that Pakistan must let the Indians conduct a surgical strike or two at some specified targets to pacify their enraged public, showing least concern about Pakistani public backlash to this.
By every consideration, the Americans are playing a dirty double game on us. Wilfully, they are demonising the Pakistan army and the ISI, with the Afghans and the Indians in league. Some 2,000 of our troops have died and thousands of them disabled in coping with the terrible fallout of the Americans' poorly-fought war in Afghanistan. Yet instead of a word of appreciation, they have only censure for the Pakistan army. And even as the ISI has nabbed hundreds of al-Qaeda activists, who too had sneaked into our territory because of American commanders' culpable failure to mop them up, they have only opprobrium for it. The Americans, as indeed the Indians and the Afghans, are being very coy here. They are misleadingly parading the ruse that elements in the ISI are keeping their "ties intact" they had with Taliban when they were in rule in Afghanistan.
But all the while they are conveniently forgetting the permanent deployment of Indian air force engineers and technicians in the Northern Alliance-controlled territory to keep its two or odd planes in service for fighting against the Taliban. And the alliance is now paying back the Indians richly, with Americans' blessings, in promoting their interests in Afghanistan and beyond. The Indians, believably at the American's behest, are implicating the ISI even in the recent revolt of Bangladesh's paramilitary border force, as had their national security advisor publicly called for the ISI's disbandment not long ago.
There indeed is too much odious with the Americans' act. It is stenches all over. Their very ruse of our tribal areas being Taliban's and al-Qaeda's sanctuary is too stinking, given the fact that Afghanistan's almost entire south and east are under the Taliban's sway where no Afghan or coalition troops dare walk in, and where Taliban and their allies live, recruit, train and from where they launch attacks on Afghan and coalition forces. Those make potential targets for American drones but do not. It is only Pakistan's tribal region they target. And only a dimwit would think if the Americans would ever stop, if not stopped otherwise, their drone attacks in our tribal areas and now possibly our settled areas and Balochistan as well, when this is serving their purpose so well.
Apart from destabilising our tribal region and enraging their residents against Islamabad, their attacks are turning pro-government people against it in anger. Just recently, Maulvi Nazir and Mullah Gul Bahadur, two pro-government commanders have walked over to Baitullah Mehsud's camp for American drone attacks on their areas and the government's failure to stop these incursions. So how many times has the Islamabad establishment to be bitten by the American poisonous teeth to feel twice shy? Isn't it the time it must rethink its role in the spurious war on terror? Surly it is. Tomorrow will be too late.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
11:42 ||
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Evil bad Americans, evil bad Indians. I'll bet the Joooos feel left out...
This one's for you, Fred.
Ruth "Alouette LeBlanc" Corwin, often called "America's Greatest Tassel Dancer," died recently. Ms. LeBlanc had one of the longest-running burlesque acts on Bourbon Street in the heyday of the entertainment form.
Long before stripper poles cropped up on every corner, Bourbon Street in the 1940s and '50s was a swanky place. Men in dinner jackets and neckties and women in party dresses and white gloves would fill the smoky dens of the 500 Club, the Sho-Bar, the Casino Royale and the Poodle's Patio. Beauties with exotic names -- Wild Cherry, Lilly Christine the Cat Girl, Evangeline the Oyster Girl, Alouette LeBlanc the Tassel Twirler -- several of whom now post on Rantburg
would lure in customers with elaborate acts, popping out of oyster shells or spinning pistols. The shows often included contortionists, magicians and acrobats, all backed up by live jazz bands.
"She could do things with a tassel like no one else could," former club owner Frank Caracci recalled admiringly of Ms. LeBlanc, his star stripper. The reporter inexplicably fails to provide details at this critical juncture.
Burlesque eventually went the way of vaudeville and the brontosaurus, being replaced on Bourbon Street by the T-shirt and eggroll dispensers. There are a few faded holdouts, but the glory days are gone. There probably will be no more stories like the one about the resourceful transvestite revue in which the drag queens went out on strike one night and were replaced by real females -- who nevertheless were represented to the customers as female impersonators. I'm sure there's a joke about the Obama administration in there somewhere.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/09/2009
11:28 ||
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"In a 1991 Times-Picayune story "Recalling the flavor of old Bourbon," ......
#2
There probably will be no more stories like the one about the resourceful transvestite revue in which the drag queens went out on strike one night and were replaced by real females -- who nevertheless were represented to the customers as female impersonators.
Why do I suspect the next sentence would be "Hilarity ensues."?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/09/2009 16:27
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MISSOULA, Mont. Actor R. Lee Ermey is living up to the Marine Corps' mantra: "A Few Good Men."
The former Marine drill instructor and host of The History Channel's "Mail Call" was in Missoula on Monday to film a segment for his upcoming series, "Locked and Loaded," when he said he found some cash. A lot of cash.
Ermey, best known for playing the drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," said he was driving with crew member Harlan Glenn to a museum when he spotted a black object on the road. Ermey stopped the car and picked up the bag, which contained cash and checks that looked like they were meant for deposit in a Native American fund.
"Just on one deposit slip alone was, like, $3,700, and another one for $2,800," Glenn said. "There was easily $8,000 in cash and the rest in checks."
Ermey told the Missoulian newspaper he thought: "Some poor guy right now is probably getting fired, probably having the worst day of his life. So what we did was we went right down to the Wells Fargo bank and deposited it for him."
Don Luke, a business expert at the Wells Fargo branch, said he was surprised to see "The Gunny" stroll in. "We weren't sure if it wasn't 'Candid Camera,'" Luke said.
Update...
AFP - A fugitive French foreign legionnaire who killed four people in Chad and triggered an international military manhunt, was captured Thursday by Chadian security forces, officials said.
"The soldier was apprehended by Chadian gendarmes about 10 kilometres (six miles) out from Abeche as he was trying to get water from a well," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In Paris, a spokesman for the French army chief of staff's office confirmed the arrest and said French military authorities had identified him, but added that he was still being held in Chadian custody. "We confirm that he was arrested in the late morning by Chadian gendarmes in the Abeche region," said Lieutenant Colonel Francois-Marie Gougeon. "He was found exhausted a few kilometres east of Abeche and was given food and water."
Helicopters and troops from European Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions, as well as local police, had been hunting the man since he killed two fellow legionnaires, of Ghanaian and Romanian origin. Before making his escape from the peacekeeping base he killed a Togolese soldier on UN duty, then a Chadian farmer, whose horse he stole.
A French military source warned on Wednesday the man was "dangerous because he is armed and he has a psychological problem," adding that the soldier had been trained in survival techniques for hostile environments.
The killings took place inside a military camp, and the runaway -- who is of French Guyanan origin -- took flight across semi-desert terrain between Abeche and Guereda in north-eastern Chad, towards the border with Sudan.
ISLAMABAD, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The visit by Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the region has, for the first time, exposed sharp differences between the United States and Pakistan with regard to anti-terror operations.
"The stance of the Pakistan side came as a rude shock to Americans," Pakistani newspapers on Wednesday quoted a source in the U.S. delegation visiting Islamabad as saying after parleys between the two sides.
Differences between Washington and Islamabad with regard to their mutual cooperation in the war against terrorism, now called international contingency operations, had been simmering since long.
However, their 'trust deficit' has emerged more vividly in the wake of announcement of the new U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has given a regional aspect to the Afghan problem. This trust deficit now seems to have changed into a full-grown standoff.
"Islamabad has flagged certain red lines that cannot be crossed by the United States," uttered a seemingly defiant Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the foreign minister of Pakistan, while addressing a joint conference with Richard Holbrooke and Mike Mullen, after their talks in Islamabad on Tuesday.
He categorically said: "Pakistan has made it clear to the United States that it would not accept any foreign boots on the Pakistani soil."
Islamabad has been criticizing the U.S. drone attacks in the tribal areas along the Afghan borders, ever since their commencement in August last year. However, Washington persistently says these attacks have proved effective and would be continued.
U.S. drones have so far made over 35 missile strikes in the tribal areas, killing more than 300 people, including a large number of foreign militants. U.S. officials claimed that 13 of the top 20 Al-Qaeda leaders have been eliminated in these drone attacks.
However, Pakistan said these attacks are hampering its efforts to eliminate terrorism.
Rather, Islamabad on Tuesday demanded drone technology and authority to itself carry out these attacks.
For its part, the United States - alleging links between ISI, Pakistan's top military intelligence agency and Taliban - does not seem to trust the Pakistani forces.
"There are challenges associated with the ISI," Admiral Mike Mullen explicitly said at a joint briefing in Islamabad, while addressing Pakistan's concern against U.S. allegations against the Pakistani spy network.
"There is support (in the ISI) for some (militant) organizations," he further asserted.
Perhaps that is the reason that General Asif Shuja Pasha, the ISI chief, reportedly refused to hold separate meeting with the visiting U.S. officials.
Besides the ISI issue, differences also surfaced during the talks on the issue of carrying out joint military operations against militants in the tribal agencies.
"Pakistan rejects the U.S. proposal for carrying out joint operations against militants," newspapers quoted Pakistan government sources as saying.
Last week, there were reports in British and American media that U.S. and Pakistani forces contemplated joint operations in South Waziristan tribal agency to eliminate Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, for whom Washington has fixed 50 million dollars bounty.
Earlier, while charting out the new war on terror policy of his administration, President Obama had said that the U.S. and Pakistani forces would continue cooperation to eliminate terrorism.
However, Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan, rejected these reports the other day, saying they were mere speculations.
The new defiant posture of Pakistan is not an instant flare up of sentiments on the part of the Pakistani leaders.
There are reports that Pakistan's defiant mood came after a collective decision of the government and the security establishment to adopt a tough posture.
"The Pakistan Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, expressed Pakistan's concern (to the U.S. delegation) without mincing his words," Pakistani government sources said.
Pakistan seems to be not bothered even about the tempting 1.5 billion dollar annual aid package, which Washington has promised in response to Islamabad's cooperation in the war on terror.
"Blank check policy should be for both sides," Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in his press briefing, referring to a last week report, which quoted U.S. officials as saying that while extending aid, Washington would not give any blank check to Pakistan and would rather 'hold Pakistan accountable' for the spending it makes on war on terror.
If the impression gathered from the joint press conference of Holbrooke and Qureshi and the ensuing media reports are some things to believe in, Islamabad appears determined not to 'do more,' at the call of Washington - as has always been alleged by the opponents - if not fully parting ways with its long-time ally
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
10:56 ||
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The Mullah-Pak Army alliance have always been Jihadi,anti west actually anti anyone who is non muslim!!!
At least we are starting to treat them as enemies which is what they are not as Allies like before.Saudi please note!!!
South Park's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were given a signed photo of Saddam Hussein. During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the move South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was also regularly depicted in a similar manner during the TV series.
The admission comes with the show's 13th season already running in the US. It will celebrate its 12th anniversary later this year. The show, which satirises a wide range of topics, including religion, sexuality and mental illness, has won a number of awards including three Emmys for Outstanding Animated Programme.
Stone, 37, said both he and Parker, 39, were most proud of the signed Saddam photo, given to them by the US Army's 4th Infantry Division. He said: "We're very proud of our signed Saddam picture and what it means. Its one of our biggest highlights.
"I have it on pretty good information from the marines on detail in Iraq that they showed Saddam the movie. Over and over again -- which is a pretty funny thought.
"That's really adding insult to injury."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
10:50 ||
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Hope they translated it for him too.
Of course, now they need a new boy friend for Satan. Please let it be Bammo, please let it be Bammo...
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday reaffirmed the government's opposition to signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, arguing that it unfairly favors the official nuclear-weapon state, the Hindu reported.
Our position is very clear. We are totally in agreement that those who are signatories to the NPT, they must fulfill their treaty obligations. Because of this discriminatory nature, we are not signatories, but with the objectives of nonproliferation, we are with the rest of the world, Mukherjee said in New Delhi.
We are second to none in propagating nonproliferation but we did not sign the NPT and we do not have any intention of signing the NPT because we disagree with the objective. We disagree with the gross discrimination which these treaties make between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states, he added.
India developed nuclear weapons outside the treaty, as did neighboring rival Pakistan. After a decades-long freeze, New Delhi last year was allowed back into the international nuclear marketplace
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
10:33 ||
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The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.
The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data, according to the accounts of three participants.
It felt a little bit like Dr. Strangelove, one person who was at the previously undisclosed exercise told POLITICO.
But instead of military brass plotting Americas defense, it was hedge-fund managers, professors and executives from at least one investment bank, UBS all invited by the Pentagon to play out global scenarios that could shift the balance of power between the worlds leading economies.
Their efforts were carefully observed and recorded by uniformed military officers and members of the U.S. intelligence community.
In the end, there was sobering news for the United States the savviest economic warrior proved to be China, a growing economic power that strengthened its position the most over the course of the war-game.
The United States remained the worlds largest economy but significantly degraded its standing in a series of financial skirmishes with Russia, participants said.
The war game demonstrated that in post-Sept. 11 world, the Pentagon is thinking about a wide range of threats to Americas position in the world, including some that could come far from the battlefield.
And its hardly science fiction. China recently shook the value of the dollar in global currency markets merely by questioning whether the recession put Chinas $1 trillion in U.S. government bond holdings at risk forcing President Barack Obama to issue a hasty defense of the dollar.
This was an example of the changing nature of conflict, said Paul Bracken, a professor and expert in private equity at the Yale School of Management who attended the sessions. The purpose of the game is not really to predict the future, but to discover the issues you need to be thinking about.
Several participants said the event had been in the planning stages well before the stock market crash of September, but the real-world market calamity was on the minds of many in the room. It loomed large over what everybody was doing, said Bracken.
Why would the military care about global capital flows at all? asked another person who was there. Because as the global financial crisis plays out, there could be real world consequences, including failed states. Weve already seen riots in the United Kingdom and the Balkans.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense hosted the two-day event March 17 and 18 at the Warfare Analysis Laboratory in Laurel, MD. That facility, run by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, typically hosts military officials planning intricate combat scenarios.
A spokesperson for the Applied Physics Laboratory confirmed the event, and said it was the first purely economic war game the facility has hosted. All three participants said they had been told it was the first time the Pentagon hosted a purely economic war game. A Pentagon spokesman would say only that he was not aware of the exercise.
The event was unclassified but has not been made public before. It is regarded as so sensitive that several people who participated declined to discuss the details with POLITICO. Said Steven Halliwell, managing director of a hedge fund called River Capital Management, Im not prepared to talk about this. Im sorry, but I cant talk to you.
Officials at UBS also declined to comment.
Participants described the event as a series of simulated global calamities, including the collapse of North Korea, Russian manipulation of natural gasprices, and increasing tension between China and Taiwan. They wanted to see who makes loans to help out, what does each team do to get the other countries involved, and who decides to simply let the North Koreans collapse, said a participant.
There were five teams: The United States, Russia, China, East Asia and all others. They were overseen by a White Cell group that functioned as referees, who decided the impact of the moves made by each team as they struggled for economic dominance.
At the end of the two days, the Chinese team emerged as the victors of the overall game largely because the Russian and American teams had made so many moves against each other that they damaged their own standing to the benefit of the Chinese.
Bracken says he left the event with two important insights first, that the United States needs an integrated approach to managing financial and what the Pentagon calls kinetic or shooting wars. For example he says, the U.S. Navy is involved in blockading Iran, and the U.S. is also conducting economic war against Iran in the form of sanctions. But he argues there isnt enough coordination between the two efforts.
And second, Bracken says, the event left him questioning one prevailing assumption about economic warfare, that the Chinese would never dump dollars on the global market to attack the US economy because it would harm their own holdings at the same time. Bracken said the Chinese have a middle option between dumping and holding US dollars they could sell dollars in increments, ratcheting up economic uncertainty in the United States without wiping out their own savings. Theres a graduated spectrum of options here, Bracken said.
For those who hadnt been to a Pentagon event before, the sheer technological capacity of the Warfare Analysis Laboratory was impressive. It was surprisingly realistic, said a participant.
Still, the event conjures images of the ultimate Hollywood take on computer strategizing: the 1983 film War Games in which a young computer hacker nearly triggers a nuclear apocalypse.
The film and the reality had one similarity: The characters in the movie used a computer called WOPR, or War Operation Plan Response. The computer system used by the real life war-gamers? It was called WALRUS, or Warfare Analysis Laboratory Registration and User Website.
#1
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/09/2009 10:57
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You mean like withdrawing $550 billion in an hour from US money market accounts to set off the worst banking panic in 75 years to ensure an islamofascist-friendly Marxist is elected president of the United States? Who could do this and who benefits?
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 11:33
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On March 16, the 11 Sri Lanka Light Infantry Regiment under Lt. Col. Kithsiri Ekanayaka, intercepted all roads leading to Puthukudyirrippu from Pudumattalan, and closed all supply routes. Thereafter, the LTTE had developed the footpath, as their new supply route to Puthukudyirrippu. The closing of this last route from Ampalawanpokkanai in the NFZ to Pachchapulmudai Junction, also became the responsibility of the 11 Infantry Regiment.
The open area in front of this route had been made into a security ring of about 600 metres by the Tigers, to be used as a firing range to halt any troop movement. Fierce fighting erupted when the Army tried entering this area on March 31, with six soldiers killed and 10 wounded. Frontal attack didn't work. Change of attack plan
Commander of 58 Division, Brig. Silva, with the commander of 58-1 Brigade Col. Deshapriya Gunawardena, immediately changed the attack plan. With the change of tactics, the 11 Infantry Regiment, which was only about 120 metres from the Tiger security ring, dispatched small squads with claymore bombs weighing about 12 kilos, each moving forward on all fours and fixed them in 12 spots along the security ring. By 12.00 midnight, having completed their mission, they were back in their FDLs.
Around 2:20 am on Wednesday, the Tigers, who were without any sleep, and on the watch in their defence ring, were blown to bits within seconds, and the defence ring reduced to rubble. Ouch! That's gotta hurt! "Into the breach!"
Lt. Harsha Jinasoma who commanded Delta Company and Charley Company commanded by Lt. Halwatura advanced through the ring as it was destroyed by the claymore blasts. The fierce fighting that erupted between the two sides, with the destruction of the enemy security ring, continued till 5:00 p.m.
All efforts of the Tigers to hold on to the route and the junction, were thwarted by the Army's firepower. The 11 Infantry Regiment was also after the strategically important junction, and did not let go. Lt. Col. Kalpa Sanjeeva leading 5 Vijeyaba Regiment of 68-1 Brigade under Lt. Col. Lalantha Gamage, advanced South to North of that territory.
#1
You know, if the names had half as many syllables (except for Brig. Silva), this reads like scene shooting directions from a 50s Hollywood combat film, or early 60s TV show.
Alas, that Hollywood is no more. I wonder if Bollywood has staff nearby?
SWAT: Maulana Sufi Mohammad announced end of Swat peace in protest. Talking to media, Sufi Mohammad criticized the federal government and said provincial government is sincere regarding peace deal, however, federal government is not in favour of Nifaz-e-Shariat. He said peace is not possible without Shariat.
Maulana Sufi Mohammad said he is not withdrawing from peace deal, however, ending camp in protest. He urged President Zardari to implement Shariat as soon as possible and said government will be responsible if law and order situation deteriorate in the area.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
10:21 ||
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#1
So does this mean it's okay now to shoot a Hellfire up his ass?
Britain's top counter-terrorism officer has quit after admitting he could have jeopardised an operation which aimed to thwart a possible al-Qaeda terror plot.
Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick resigned after he accidently revealed a a secret document to photographers. Police were forced to bring their operation forward and arrested 12 men - 10 of whom are Pakistanis.
Gordon Brown said Pakistan's government "had to do more" to root out the terrorist elements in its country.
Sources say the planned attack was to be "very soon" and "very, very big".
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said sources close to the investigation had revealed the counter-terror operation had been launched in response to a possible terrorist plot that had reached its final stages of planning. Although no specific target was mentioned in intelligence, police moved quickly because of concerns over the scale of the attack and the fact that it was going to happen soon, he said.
Security expert Peter Taylor told the BBC the attack was possibly to be made using an improvised explosive device.
The operation, and its subsequent raids in in Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire, had gone ahead on Wednesday afternoon rather than 0200 BST on Thursday after Mr Quick's memo blunder, Mr Taylor said. The BBC's Daniel Sandford said the change of timings had "put public lives at risk" because it was carried out when people were awake and in public areas.
Police are questioning the 12 arrested men and "deep searches" of addresses are continuing, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner added. Ten of those arrested are Pakistan-born nationals on student visas and one is a UK-born British national.
Gordon Brown said: "Increasingly we have seen terrorist links with Pakistan and Britain. I'll be talking to the Pakistan president Mr Zardari - we want the closest co-operation between Britain and Pakistan to deal with countering terrorism.
"One of the lessons we have learn from the past few years is that Pakistan has to do more to root out terrorist elements in its country as well."
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04/09/2009
10:07 ||
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National Security: Russia tells the U.S. not to worry about a nuclear Iran and not to punish nuclear North Korea. Fidel Castro wants to help the president, Russia's "new comrade." Are we being set up?
Some of the most obvious threats to life and liberty in the historical record were, at the time they were happening, vehemently denied by those in positions of decision-making.
Isolationists and pacifists believed that Hitler's imperialism could be appeased by territorial gains. During the early Cold War, American Soviet spy Alger Hiss' integrity was vouched for by U.S. officials reaching a level as high as future Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.
Those, such as Sen. Joseph McCarthy, suggesting that Hiss was only one of a massive group of Communist spies within the U.S. government were targeted (in McCarthy's case literally targeted for elimination by the CIA, as noted in Pulitzer-winning journalist Tim Weiner's book "Legacy of Ashes"), marginalized, even ruined.
M. Stanton Evans' 2007 book "Blacklisted by History" convincingly and meticulously exonerated McCarthy on most counts, but in other such episodes scholarly review has been unnecessary. Three decades of the ugly reality of Islamist revolution in Iran, for instance, have indelibly discredited the belief in 1979 by Andrew Young, the Carter administration's United Nations ambassador, that the Ayatollah Khomeini was "some kind of a saint."
Today, it takes willful blindness not to recognize Iran as the greatest threat to life and freedom in the world. Tehran is apparently now on the verge of announcing that it has mastered the final, most technically challenging stage of nuclear fuel production: the industrial-scale enrichment of uranium, which allows nuclear fuel to be generated in large quantities.
The Islamofascist regime in Iran has denied inspectors from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency access to its Arak heavy water reactor, which could be geared to produce plutonium from spent uranium fuel rods.
Yet we heard soothing words this week from Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak. "I don't see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon," he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ironically, the organization Hiss was president of when Whittaker Chambers testified in 1948 that he and Hiss committed espionage together.
In a similar vein, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "any threat of sanction" against North Korea in response to its Sunday launch of a multistage rocket over Japan, a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, "would be counterproductive."
More talk for a regime possessing as many as eight nuclear warheads after it sends up a missile reaching twice as far as anything it has launched previously?
Clearly, Russia wants to lull us into complacency regarding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among hostile regimes. Do Moscow and other adversaries of the free world sense an uncommon opportunity in the year 2009?
With an unprecedented financial crisis battering the West's economic system, and a man of the left in the White House, is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's description of Barack Obama as "my new comrade" more than a clever sound bite? Ailing Cuban dictator Castro, having granted an audience to members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday, seemed to share Medvedev's sentiment, asking, "How can we help President Obama?"
When longtime foes of the world's lone superpower behave in such fashion, it isn't because they've been converted to the cause of world peace; it is because they see a chance to change the dangerous global power game in their favor and at our expense.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, always unguarded in expressing himself, claimed this week on a visit to Beijing that "the power of the U.S. empire has collapsed. Every day, the new poles of world power are becoming stronger: Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran," he said. "It's moving toward the East and toward the South."
Toward danger and away from security would be a more accurate description.
The three decade prolonged conflict in the North and East yesterday reached its climax as the Security Forces were able to confine the LTTE, the most ruthless terror outfit in the world into a narrow stretch of 20 square kilometres in the North of Mullaitivu which has been demarcated for the civilians trapped inside the conflict affected zone.
But there is no guarantee period for their safety inside the No Fire Zone since with the sympathy of the civilians the Security Forces are determined to liberate each inch of land in the North to ensure that there will be no LTTE influence anywhere in the North and East. This was the elimination of the Tigers' last pocket outside the NFZ. They lost a lot of troops and effective midlevel leaders. They were cut off, refused to surrender, and were all killed. The only thing left for the rest is to hide among civilians and hope to escape.
The LTTE had to face this pathetic situation suddenly, at the last leg of the battle outside No Fire Zone as the Security Forces made a surprise move on Wednesday encircling more than one square kilometre territory in which the LTTE was fighting heavily with the 58 Division troops.
It may be for the first time in the three decade long North East conflict that the ground troops practised this military manoeuvre which may have been in military books for centuries.
What is more special in this move is that the Security Forces were able to capture an area, where LTTE will have to fight for more than three weeks posing stiff resistance to the Forces within just two three days move by the 58 Division and the 53 Division together.
The intensity of the war that was going on for the past few weeks in Puthukudiyiruppu and Iranapalai would have proved the toughness of the battle there as the LTTE was engaged in a do or die battle to defend each inch of land in Puthukudiyiruppu from the advancing troops. More blow-by-blow action at the link.
#3
They got Mario's family photo album, his birth certificate and college application forms for his son. Looks like the Prabakaran family had to get the hell out of Dodge.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 12:30
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#5
I wish the Tamil`s would get the hell out of the UK, and go fight for their brothers in Ceylon ( sorry Sri Lanka )
Posted by: Dave UK ||
04/09/2009 16:40
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#6
Under these circumstances the Tiger cadres trapped inside this narrow stretch had to commit suicide themselves once troops reached each and every bunker they were manning inside.
#7
this looks interesting too:
Having reached the edges of the No Fire Zone they cannot wait till the LTTE allow those civilians trapped inside since the history has proved beyond any doubt that the LTTE is not an organization with an iota of respect for humanity. Therefore, the Security Forces are now getting ready to launch one of the worlds largest hostage rescue operations to free more than 50,000 civilians from LTTE detention.
The task may be very heavy but the troops are ready to take up this challenge too very positively to prove their metal as one of the best armies in the world to emerge victorious against the most ruthless terror outfit in the world.
WASHINGTON: A begging bowl in one hand hasn't stopped Pakistan from staging finger-wagging histrionics against the United States after Washington conveyed tough metrics for massive new financial aid it has earmarked for Islamabad.
US officials in Washington acknowledged tensions at a meeting in Islamabad between principals from the two sides to discuss security and intelligence issues, but said the Obama administration would continue to work with Pakistan.
''We have been working with Pakistan as best we can to support them in their efforts to fight extremists. Were going to continue to do so. Will there be differences of opinion from time to time on how we move forward? Yes. But this is normal in this type of relationship, particularly when youre dealing with very difficult, thorny issues, state department spokesman Robert Wood said on Wednesday, following reports of a tension-filled meetings.
Advice by US interlocutors to Pakistan that it has to forgo terrorism as a policy option, cut its intelligence agency ISI's ties with the Taliban, stop pandering to an extremist agenda, and submit to an strict audit of foreign aid, was met with shrill denunciation by Pakistani leaders, including a public display of pique by its foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at a press conference in Islamabad.
Asked about President Barack Obama's observation during the unveiling of the new Af-Pak policy that there would be no ''blank checks'' for Pakistan, Qureshi retorted that Pakistan would neither accept blank checks nor give them.
The snarky response was a rejection of US request for joint ground operations in Pakistan to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban leadership, according to reports in the Pakistani media.
Qureshi also publicly denounced US drone attacks at a joint press conference with US interlocutors Richard Holdrooke and Mike Mullen by his side, bluntly saying the two sides disagreed on the matter and there were certain red lines he had flagged.
(The Taliban meanwhile insists that the Drone strikes are taking place with the connivance of the Pakistani government and the military and its attacks in the Pakistani heartland is in retaliation for Islamabads partnership with US)
However, the Pakistani histrionics over the drone strikes have evidently not made the slightest impression on US. Shortly after Holbrooke and Mullen left Islamabad for New Delhi on the third and final leg of their regional visit, US drones struck again in South Waziristan on Wednesday night, hitting a vehicle allegedly carrying terrorists and killing four.
From all accounts, especially in the Pakistani media, the Holbrooke-Mullen mission to Islamabad was a disaster that has further exacerbated already fraught ties between the two sides.
''Drone attacks and other sensitive issues cast shadows over high-level talks between senior Pakistan and US officials,'' the Pakistani daily The News reported on the exchanges, adding that ''the body language of the foreign minister at the press conference said it all, and unlike other times with foreign dignitaries, Qureshi appeared ill and uncomfortable.''
There was no such discomfort from the US side as it conveyed several tough messages. US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen bluntly told his hosts that the top leadership of Taliban is hiding in Pakistan and controlling the covert war against US-led forces in Afghanistan.
In an obvious reference to Pakistan's denials, Mullen said the US knew from various sources that the Taliban shura was hiding in Balochistan and that had serious implications for the new US strategy for the region. He said the issue had been discussed with the Pakistani leadership.
Washington has warned that it is considering expanding drone attacks to Baluchistan.
Mullen's civilian counterpart, Af-Pak Special Representative Richard Holbrooke, on his part, rejected Pakistani demand for US intervention in Pakistan's dispute with India over Kashmir, sticking to the familiar line that it was up to the two countries to resolve the matter bilaterally.
But the issue that has caused the most bitterness between the two sides is the US charge, amplified publicly several times in the last few weeks, that Pakistan's spy agency ISI is in cahoots with the Taliban and other terrorist networks. Pakistani leaders have raged against the allegation, but Washington has not backed down, insisting that Islamabad purge the organization of rogue elements.
The flap over the ISI issue became so serious that the Pakistani sources leaked a story to the local news media that the countrys chief spook, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, had declined a one-on-one meeting with the US visitors as a mark of protest against (or a snub to) the American allegations.
A Pakistani military spokesman later denied the reports and said Pasha had been present at a joint meeting the Pakistani delegation had with Holbrooke and Mullen
But US observers were unimpressed, and the feeling continues to be strong in Washington that Pakistan is pushing the envelope with Washington to extract more US aid.
''Islamabad carefully stage-managed this unprecedented snub by the ISI chief as a means of telegraphing its resentment over a number of issues brewing between Washington and Islamabad,'' said Stratfor, a US think-tank, in its assessment of the exchanges with Pakistan.
''The snub is also part of an emerging consensus between Pakistan's military and civilian government that Islamabad needs to increase its bargaining power with the US as an ally in the war against militant Islamists,'' Stratfor said.
Pakistani leaders also repeatedly called for a ''no strings attached'' aid from the world, saying it should be left to decide how it will spend the billions Washington is lining, ostensibly to save the country from collapse.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
08:47 ||
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#1
Fuck them. Let it collapse, bulldoze it over, and start again.
#3
Also, not only do they have the most corrupt leader in their history who was convicted and sentences to 11 years, he's now looting the highway toll which go directly into his personal swiss account based on what I've been hearing. I don't trust them with no strings attached with our billions and they don't seem to be able to give a straight answer for sh*t.
#6
Halfway to Freedom: A Report on the New India,Simon and Schuster, New York, 1949 - By Margaret Bourke-White
"America needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs America," was Jinnah's reply. "Pakistan is the pivot of the world, as we are placed" -- he revolved his long forefinger in bony circles -- "the frontier on which the future position of the world revolves." He leaned toward me, dropping his voice to a confidential note. "Russia," confided Mr. Jinnah, "is not so very far away."
This had a familiar ring. In Jinnah's mind this brave new nation had no other claim on American friendship than this - that across a wild tumble of roadless mountain ranges lay the land of the BoIsheviks. I wondered whether the Quaid-i-Azam considered his new state only as an armored buffer between opposing major powers. He was stressing America's military interest in other parts of the world. "America is now awakened," he said with a satisfied smile. Since the United States was now bolstering up Greece and Turkey, she should be much more interested in pouring money and arms into Pakistan. "If Russia walks in here," he concluded, "the whole world is menaced."
In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan. "Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in." But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument. "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan."
This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity. Actually, I think, it was more nearly related to the even more significant bankruptcy of ideas in the new Muslim state -- a nation drawing its spurious warmth from the embers of an antique religious fanaticism, fanned into a new blaze.
Jinnah's most frequently used technique in the struggle for his new nation had been the playing of opponent against opponent. Evidently this technique was now to be extended into foreign policy
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 11:34
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#7
It ain't personal - they bite every hand around.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/09/2009 18:06
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LAHORE: Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, chatting quietly with Admiral Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs' chairman, was perceived as rude and contemptuous, BBC said on Wednesday.
In other news, water is wet ...
Reporting from Islamabad, the broadcaster said both sides looked a little ill at ease in Tuesday's joint press conference after "frank" discussions -- a sign it concluded that tensions had emerged between Washington and Islamabad.
Holbrooke and Mullen were on their first visit to Pakistan since Barack Obama unveiled his new strategy to fight the Afghan war. They had come to discuss details of the strategy and deepen co-operation. Instead, their visit highlighted quite publicly clear differences between Pakistani and American views.
One was missiles strikes against suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives on Pakistani soil by unmanned CIA drones. These are expected to continue and possibly increase, despite objections from Islamabad. "We did talk about drones and let me be frank, there's a gap between us and them," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
American officials have implied that Islamabad has given tacit approval for the attacks, which they say have eliminated Al Qaeda operatives. But the missiles also kill civilians and critics argue that the strikes compound anti-Americanism and further destabilise the country.
The Americans were asked to transfer the drone technology and authority to the Pakistan Army. This came as a rude shock to the Americans, who have taken Pakistan's leadership for granted. Adm Mullen dodged the question.
Another bone of contention was an American "slander campaign" against the ISI.
"The challenges are associated with the ISI's support historically for some of the [militant] organisations and I think it's important that that support ends," Mullen has told journalists.
The US is also concerned about Pakistan's border areas when pressed for evidence on allegations that the Taliban leadership was based in Pakistani, Holbrooke said, "I hear there is a Quetta Shura because people tell me about it."
When asked whether the public pressure on the ISI was not counter-productive, he said, "We're putting on as much pressure as the system can bearm ... but we're not beating up on anyone." The Pakistani perception is that they are. A security source told the BBC that the Americans had been given a sharp message to back off.
"The bottom line," the foreign minister said, "is the question of trust ... We can only work together if we respect and trust each other. There is no other way, nothing else will work."
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009
08:46 ||
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I was listening to a talk show station this morning, and the host stated that potentially it would mean that up to 12 million illegals would become legal citizens. His concern had to do with what the impact would be to the job market given the current employment slowdown taking place. This would also likely impact salaries driving them downward in the process. More voters for the Democratic party will probably come of this as well.
While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country's immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
Mr. Obama will frame the new effort -- likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue -- as "policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system," said the official, Cecilia Muñoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House.
#2
Mr. Obama will frame the new effort -- likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue
Even the rubes have to be catching on to this BS. Float the balloon and rile up the opposition and special interest groups. Then call in the attack dogs to accuse the opponents of some kind of ism in order to create a distraction from the real boondoggles. Finally, assign blame for the unfulfilled promise and kick the can down the road. All together now - Chicagoooah Chicagoooah that toddlin town.
#4
This will lead to violence....the mood is already simmering. The idea that we have gone so far into debt to pay for the stupidity of bankers, politicians and irresponsible borrowers living far beyond their means has people angry. The rampant inflation that is coming will even further steal wealth away from Americans and their savings. Now introduce the idea of citizenship and benefits to millions who don't deserve to even be here will break the back of public confidence in goverment.....anger and rioting will follow and ugly confrontations will make communities very, very self-protective.
I pity the poor cops who have to stand between real American citizens and the scum politicians who fail to obey the people's will on this issue.
#5
yeah, we can tell the jobless to just suckitup. Heh. Great timing, Obamateur
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2009 20:02
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#6
Now introduce the idea of citizenship and benefits to millions who don't deserve to even be here will break the back of public confidence in goverment.....
The back of public confidence in government is already broken. So far as I can tell, the public has confidence in the military and that is about all.
US President Barack Obama will celebrate Passover Thursday night with staff and friends in what is believed to be the first White House seder attended by an American president.
The event was slipped onto the president's public schedule Tuesday night with little fanfare, following a letter signed by Obama earlier in the day wishing Americans who mark the day a "peaceful and relaxing holiday."
While presidential proclamations in honor of Passover have been common throughout the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this year's seder is believed to be the first of its kind.
"I'm really happy to hear about it," said Steve Rabinowitz, who once led a staff seder in the Clinton White House but didn't know of any White House seder in which the president had personally taken part before now. "It's been an extremely open White House to all faith communities, certainly including ours."
William Daroff, who runs the United Jewish Communities' Washington office, recalled that former president Franklin D. Roosevelt snuck out the back door of the White House in 1943 to avoid seeing rabbis marching out front to demand US action to save European Jews from the Nazis.
"Sixty-six years later the President of the United States is spending Thursday evening with his friends and family celebrating the liberation and survival of the Jewish people," Daroff noted, calling the event "a testament to how far we have come as a Jewish people in America.
"Jews are a vital component in the mosaic that is American culture and society. Our welcome through the front door, and the dining room door, of the White House speaks to the inclusiveness of today's America and of President Obama," he said. "This night is indeed different from all other nights."
In his letter, Obama called the story of Jews' ascent from slavery to freedom in the Land of Israel as "among the most powerful stories of suffering and redemption in human history," accompanied by rituals and symbols that indicate "the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it
entails."
He also said the holiday presented a message for all humankind. "As part of a larger global community, we all must work to ensure that our brothers and sisters of every race, religion, culture and nationality are free from bondage and repression, and are able to live in peace."
He concluded his letter with the traditional Hebrew greeting "chag sameach," or happy holiday.
Though Passover starts on Wednesday evening, Obama will be hosting the second seder, on Thursday night, apparently so that those in attendance can celebrate with their families on the first night.
The guest list includes the president, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as a dozen staff members and friends and their families. Most of them were on a campaign stop in Harrisburg, PA with then-senator Obama last year when the first night of Passover fell.
According to the White House, Obama insisted on holding an impromptu seder, and this year invited those who were with him to celebrate together again.
Note the President of the World-Speak "free our brothers of every race." Political constituent cover and precursor for his Hajj attendance no doubt.
In the Muslim world, the notion that somehow everything is the fault of the Israelis lacks balance because there are two sides to every question," AFP quoted the US president as telling university students in Istanbul.
To the Jewish members of the group Obama said, "I say the same thing to my Jewish friends - you have to see the perspective of the Palestinians. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes, to see through their eyes... this is how peace begins."
"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told the students. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."
Shortly before leaving Turkey, the US president had held out Iraq as an example of the change he seeks in policies inherited from former president George W. Bush. "Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He noted his long-standing opposition to the war, yet said, "Now that we're there," the US troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."
#1
Its not hard to see the perspective of the Paleos, Mr. President, its all over in a flash. Its the damn noise, blood and guts and some brain matter mixed with bones and eyeballs and such that tends to fog that perspective.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/09/2009 10:00
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#2
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Stop channeling Rumsfeld, Mr. President. He has a copyright on using the metaphor of a slow ship. But Biden is, of course, allowed to use anyone's copyright.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/09/2009 10:02
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#3
Obama said, "I say the same thing to my Jewish friends - you have to see the perspective of the Palestinians.
Mr. President, a real good way to see the perspective of the Palestinians is to read the HAMAS Charter. Let us know what ya think.
A Metairie resident is recovering after a stranger bit a chunk of flesh out of his arm and swallowed it Saturday afternoon.
Joseph Lancellotti, 67, told authorities he did not know the suspect, later identified as Mario Vargas, 48, or why he was attacked in his front yard.
Lancellotti was gardening at his home in the 4400 block of Kawanee Avenue about 2 p.m. when he noticed a man walking toward his house, shouting angrily, the report said. Lancellotti said he couldn't understand the man because he was yelling in Spanish. But when the man got within two feet, he slugged Lancellotti in the head, the report said.
Lancellotti said he tried to defend himself with a garden rake. As the men struggled over the rake, the stranger bent over and bit Lancellotti on his right forearm, the report said. Lancellotti's flesh ripped away as he fell to the ground. The man then got on top of Lancellotti and began choking him, the report said.
It was then that neighbor Chantal Lorio, a podiatrist and director of the Wound Center at East Jefferson General Hospital, came out to check on Lancellotti. Lorio said Monday that she first thought Lancellotti was having a heart attack and the other man was trying to help him.
The stranger was still gripping Lancellotti as Lorio noticed her neighbor was lying in a pool of blood. She didn't learn what happened until she began dressing the wound -- with the stranger still clutching her neighbor's shirt.
"He said, 'He bit my arm, chewed the flesh and swallowed it in front of me, ' " Lorio recalled. She said the bite measured almost 3 by 1 1/2 inches, and was less than 1/4-inch deep.
The pair tried to calm the stranger, who never made any attempt to run away. He eventually let go of Lancellotti and walked two blocks to a parking lot, where he hovered near an empty police car, the report said. The suspect was still standing there when deputies arrived and took him into custody.
Vargas, of 724 Camp St., New Orleans, was booked with second-degree battery. He was being held Monday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Lancellotti's wife, Bonnie, 60, said Monday that her husband was recovering from the bite, physically and mentally. She said his sense of safety in his neighborhood has been shaken.
With all the bacteria involved, Lorio said a bite from a human is worse than an animal bite.
Bonnie Lancellotti also has concerns about the suspect, who apparently had been treated at East Jefferson General Hospital earlier in the day for a finger injury. Vargas was released 45 minutes before the attack, according to the incident report.
Bonnie Lancellotti wondered whether hospital staff noticed anything amiss while treating Vargas. "This person's clearly lost his sense, " she said. "I mean, what else can you say, eating people's skin?"
Keith Darcey, spokesman for the hospital, said, "We cannot comment on any individual patient because of privacy laws. But as a matter of general hospital policy, the emergency department has behavioral health nurses available to help diagnose patients who might require mental health assistance." Be sure to check out the readers comments.
The Sino-Vietnamese War: A Scar on the Tropic of Cancer
At midnight on February 2, 1979, twenty-two-year-old Zhao Yonggang and his unit received orders to sneak across the Red River from Hekou in rubber rafts and enter Hoang Lien Son Province (now Lao Cai and Yen Bai Provinces).
Zhao's mind was a blank, as if he were dreaming. When he had joined the army two years before, he never imagined that he would go off to war. For him, the army was just a springboard he could use to find work in a factory later on.
But suddenly in the second half of 1978, senior officers of the military region began conducting frequent inspections, and after one such inspection, an officer left them with these words: "I hope that you can do great things for the people." Zhao could sense that "great things" meant that they'd be going to war.
At the end of the year, the order for war against Vietnam was handed down. Soldiers were informed that China and Vietnam were no longer comrades or brothers. Vietnam was an ungrateful country that had become anti-Chinese, invaded Kampuchea, and turned its guns northward to harass the homeland's southern border.
As Zhao was crossing the river, twenty-year-old Nguyen Van Qui, an enlisted soldier in the Vietnamese army stationed in Lao Cai, was still fast asleep. Qui had entered the army in the same year as Zhao. He had not tested into college after high school graduation and, in line with state regulations, had enlisted for a three-year stint in the People's Army.
Qui's high school years had been at a time when friendship was promoted between China and Vietnam. He studied three years of Chinese, the only foreign language taught in Vietnamese high schools at the time. At school, he learned that China had given Vietnam large quantities of generous aid, and he never heard words critical of China.
After he graduated, he noticed that many schools were replacing Chinese with Russian, a change that made him uneasy. Qui was originally set to go to Kampuchea after training, but he ended up staying in Lao Cai.
By 2 am, Zhao and his unit had made a successful crossing and had come upon a Vietnamese army base. He heard a shouted command, and they picked up their guns and fired. Before long, Zhao heard gunfire start up in other areas.
Most of the Vietnamese troops ahead of Zhao were watching Soviet movies inside a tile factory behind the camp and were entirely unprepared for the outbreak of fighting. After easily taking the camp, Zhao discovered that the heavy artillery and anti-personnel machine guns had not even been used, and the traps in outside the base did not even have bamboo spikes installed.
Two hours later, the main assault was launched from Hekou, and troops surged across the Red River. A signal corps operator named Xie Ming (谢明) saw wave after wave of soldiers climbing into rubber rafts around him, shouting "Comrades, to protect the territory of the motherland, charge!" as they pressed on toward the other side. The Vietnamese troops on the opposite bank sent a hail of gunfire in the direction of the shouts.
About an hour later, Chinese artillery troops began to push back the Vietnamese army. Explosions flashed red against the night sky. The Chinese army finally captured the river bank.
By morning, after Xie Ming had crossed over a river stained red by the blood of Chinese soldiers, he discovered that his company had lost quite a number of soldiers. Their spots were quickly filled by unfamiliar faces.
Nguyen Van Qui was just about to get out of bed when he was startled by the earthshaking sound of gunfire from the main Chinese force. Qui and his unit had long been anxious that China might invade on any given day. From that day forward, Qui was aware of nothing besides Chinese bombs and the unceasing advance of the Chinese forces. Qui's fought a retreating battle. Quite long and detailed - click through to read the whole thing.
Ahmad al-Asaad has decided to stand up to the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary elections, despite the widespread belief he stands no chance in the face of the Shiite Goliath. "I will topple the Iranian project," Asaad, a south Lebanon native who heads his own mainly Shiite party, told AFP. The election will pit the Hezbollah-led alliance, backed by Syria and Iran, against the Sunni-led majority, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The Lebanese Option Gathering, as Asaad's party is known, is an "independent" movement that aims, he says, to stand up to Hezbollah's "monopoly over Shiite representation" in Lebanon. The 46-year-old mathematician-turned-businessman ran for a seat in the 2005 parliamentary elections but lost to Hezbollah by a wide margin. Unfazed, the silver-haired father of two plans to run again, this time with a list of 14 members of his party, founded in July 2007.
Lebanon's rival political groups joined ranks in a unity government, in which the opposition has veto power, at the start of the summer of 2008 under a Doha-sponsored accord aimed at ending the worst inter-Lebanese violence to rock the country since the 1975-1990 civil war. The national unity government has been largely paralysed, however, with ministers locking horns over Hezbollah's stockpile of arms.
"The opposition's plans are dangerous for Lebanon and for the Shiites in particular," said Asaad, the son of former House Speaker Kamel al-Asaad. "The opposition uses the Shiites as fuel in their plan to establish an Iranian empire."
The Asaad dynasty has itself come under fire among residents of the south, some of whom accuse the family of a political monopoly of its own. "Ahmed al-Asaad is from a feudal family which wants to take us backwards and which considers us as servants," said Rami Hammud, a businessman from the southern coastal town of Tyre.
But Ahmad al-Asaad says his plan for the south, much of which was destroyed during Hezbollah's month-long war with Israel in 2006, is one of reform and development. Yet his is a vision from afar, as he rarely frequents his hometown, 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Israeli border. In fact, he only returned to Lebanon in 2003 after decades abroad. "Of course I'm afraid," Asaad told AFP. "I'm afraid they'll liquidate me. I fear for my life and my project."
In early April, a Lebanese Option Gathering member's car was set on fire in Beirut's southern suburbs, one of three major Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese press. Tens of cars owned by party members have been reported set on fire or bombed in the past year. The party's offices, also in the southern suburbs, came under fire in March.
"They come at night, like bats, and burn our cars. This is Hezbollah's responsibility," Asaad said. The militant party has denied any involvement.
And while he has openly denounced Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's call for "open war" with Israel last year, he says he is ready to launch a war of his own against the Shiite militia. "The resistance's role is over," Asaad said. "We have had enough of Hezbollah using us and exploiting the people in the name of the resistance."
#3
Great shot, Scooter! While some are enjoying the gams, I can't take my eyes off that blouse. Probably could use a needle and some thread, but I like it just fine the way it is. Think of the possibilities if a gust of wind came up! Whew! Too much for an old man's ticker. I'll go have some quiet time now.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 4:16
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On this day in history: April 9th
1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
1867 Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
1916 The Battle of Verdun German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
1942 United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula.
1953 Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax
1967 The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.
1992 A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges.
#7
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You're Gam picture of Linda Darnell really got around during WW II. It seems that besides sitting in a P-38 for a photo shoot Linda actually flew P-38 missions so to speak.
Everytime I hear anything about The Pope of Hope (Deacon Blue)healthcare reform, (gag) it always mentions this need of electronic records. He and Hillary both harp on this, as if it's the answer to ever ailment mankind has had, has or will had.
He's doing a flanking pattern around the end with this move.... he's moving fast. He means to. But he knows, he's moving faster than even some Demos want. He introducing every concept he "visions" early and fast. Somewhere along the line, he got the message, the folks aren't quiet ready yet for this massive healthcare thingy.
So, rather than take this "full" healthcare policy to the Congress, he does this end run, and is starting with the military... ERecords..... as he is now the biggest, bestest, most knowledgable leader we've ever had with anything concerning our military cause "Recounting the hundreds of stories he said he heard from frustrated veterans unable to receive needed treatment, Obama said: "It's time to change all that, it's time to give our veterans a 21st century VA."
President Barack Obama on Thursday said the government would create a national electronic medical records system for the military that will serve as a model for broad reform of U.S. healthcare administration.
The system, organized by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would follow military personnel from active duty through retirement, keeping records organized and complete.
Obama said the agencies were moving to create a system for military members "that will contain their administrative and medical information from the day they first enlist to the day that they are laid to rest."
"Currently, there is no comprehensive system in place that allows for a streamlined transition of health records between DOD and the VA," he said.
"That results in extraordinary hardship for an awful lot of veterans, who end up finding their records lost, unable to get their benefits processed in a timely fashion." This from the same man that offered to our Vets, that their "personal" insurance pay for the medical treatment needed while recovering from battlefield injuries.
Obama has stressed the use of electronic medical records and e-prescribing which lets doctors send prescriptions directly to pharmacists via computer as part of his plan to transform the U.S. healthcare system and cut costs. During the late 90's this was a concept that was driving big investor money into the development of software to do this. The software is already being used that lets the prescriptions be sent directly to the drugstore. It just hasn't as yet, been implemented. You see the results when you walk into any medical facility, from a doctor's office to hospital. All your records are there. He's talking about a combining of those records, to follow you, like your "permanent record." (Remember that from your school days?)
He said the new system would transform veteran care. Yes, and as in those days of the late nineties, lots of ethical questions, lots and lots of accountablility questions because of the system of coding everything to a strict coding method that calls for subjective thinking in some case, and just plain old human error, were all called into question. Still, the software developed.... having some involement in this, couple of times, I'm in a medical facility of some type, doc is attempting to touch his screen, type, whatever, and I ended up helping him enter his input about me, even tho I had never seen the particular software he was using.
I only bring this to the Burg, cause all those questions that arose at the beginnings of this ERecord thing still exist.... and even more, this is Obama's drive to cram this socialist healthcare. He's starting with our military.
Thinter: put the URL in the source box; do NOT embed in the article. AoS.
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is planning to delay the release of any completed bank stress test results until after the first-quarter earnings season to avoid complicating stock market reaction, a source familiar with Treasury's discussions said on Tuesday.
The Treasury is still talking about how results of the regulatory stress tests on the 19 largest U.S. banks will be released, and may disclose them as summary results that are not institution-specific, the source said.
The government is testing how the largest banks would fare under more adverse economic conditions than are expected in an attempt to assess the firms' capital needs. The tests are due to be completed by the end of April, but Treasury has said they may be finished before then.
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NEW DELHI: The US has no plans to mediate between India and Pakistan, Washingtons Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said during his visit to India on Wednesday. We cannot negotiate between the two countries. Our trip was designed to move forward a process in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We stopped here to inform and consult the Indian government, he said when asked if the US was trying to push India and Pakistan to settle Kashmir.
Talking to reporters after his talks with Indian officials, Holbrooke and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen called for cooperation between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US to fight the common threat and stabilise the region.
The common threat is Pakistain ...
Holbrooke said Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Masood was a danger to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but his threats to the US were not backed by events.
The envoy expressed concern over the events in Swat. We met people of the area to learn more about it. It was a very difficult and touching meeting. What has happened in Swat has stunned many people in Pakistan. Events in Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy have raised concerns. Everyone should know what is happening, he said.
Holbrooke said his visit to India was also aimed at moving beyond bilateral relations and involving India in global and strategic issues. We cannot settle Afghanistan and many other issues without Indias full involvement, he said.
That'll twist a few tails in Pak-land ...
The US officials had extensive discussions with Indias National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in the last leg of their whirlwind tour. Mullen separately also met navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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#1
The first glimmer of brains in the current US admin.
This story has been kicking around for a while. Why anyone would travel to Iran to 'report' is beyond me.
TEHRAN - US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been in Iranian custody since January, has been charged with spying, Tehrans deputy prosecutor Hassan Haddad said on Wednesday.
Her case has been sent to the revolutionary court. She, without press credentials, was carrying out spying activities under the guise of being a reporter, Haddad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. The evidence is mentioned in her case papers and she has accepted all the charges. She has been arrested under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Saberi, who also holds both US and Iranian nationalities, was initially reportedly detained for buying alcohol which is prohibited in the Islamic republic.
If it's prohibited then how did she find some ...
In March, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Saberis press identity card was revoked in 2006 and since then she had been working illegally in the country.
Haddad said on Wednesday that Saberi had entered Iran as an Iranian citizen. She has an Iranian citizenship, passport and an Iranian national identity card. She has entered Iran as an Iranian citizen and if she has another citizenship, we are unaware of it and it has no effect on how we will proceed with her case, he said. There is no evidence that she has another citizenship and the investigation is still on.
US-born Saberi has reported for US-based National Public Radio (NPR), the BBC and Fox News, and had been living in Iran for six years.
Her parents, Reza and Akiko Saberi, arrived in Tehran on Sunday to pursue her case. They had a 20-minute meeting with her in Tehrans notorious Evin prison on Monday. Her father told NPR on Tuesday that he planned to stay in Iran until her case was resolved.
He said Roxana, 31, was surprised by their visit, and that she looked pale and weak but was in good spirits. He said she also wanted to see her lawyer to point out ... that apparently some of the statements were made under pressure, under threat, you know. So that they were not valid.
Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality and has had no ties with the United States for three decades, has detained several Iranian-Americans, including academics, in recent years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda, Taliban and other militants have been relocating from the Tribal Areas to Pakistans overcrowded and impoverished cities, which is likely to make it harder to find and stop them from staging terrorist attacks, officials say.
Doesn't make it harder for us to drone-zap them, but it does push them farther from the border.
Concerns are growing among US intelligence and military officials that CIAs drone strikes are bolstering the insurgency by prompting radicals to disperse from the Tribal Areas into Pakistans heartland. Putting these guys on the run forces a lot of good things to happen, said a senior US defence official. It gives you more targeting opportunities. The downside is that you get a much more dispersed target set and they go to places where we are not operating.
Moreover, the officials point out, the strikes by the missile-firing drones are a recruiting boon for extremists because of the civilian casualties.
Yup, that's it, might as well give up now ...
The attacks may have hurt more than they have helped, said another US military official involved in counter-terrorism operations. The official called the drone operations a recruiting windfall for the Pakistani Taliban.
Good lord, stop the hand wringing and man up!
As a result of the drone attacks, insurgent activities are more dispersed in Pakistan and focusing on Pakistani targets, said Christine Fair of the RAND Corp, a think tank that advises the Pentagon.
US officials have long identified Karachi as the headquarters of the Afghan Talibans fundraising committee, and many top Taliban were educated at the Binori Mosque. An upheaval in Karachi would be catastrophic, they say.
For who?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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#1
Binori Mosque and a plane crash - sounds like an appropriate drone.
#2
"Taliban and other militants have been relocating from the Tribal Areas to Pakistan's overcrowded and impoverished cities"
Where we have a better chance of getting someone to drop a dime on them for a cool million or five. And where their communications are more likely to be intercepted and their interactions with others more easily watched.
I say this is a "good thing".
"US intelligence and military officials"
This could mean two people out of thousands believe this. And a "military official" doesn't need to be "in the military". This could be some mid-level civilian working at the Pentagon cafeteria for all we know.
Safe to ignore this story until they can give a clearer picture of the source. This one is vague enough to have been made up by the reporter.
#4
Let them move into the cities, then ARCLIGHT the cities. Once there aren't more than a handful of survivors, give the eastern half to India. Use the western half as a carrot to get rid of the corruption in Afghanistan.
Works for me, anyway...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/09/2009 22:39
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The Obama administration is pushing to protect Antarctica's fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of passengers they bring ashore.
This is the most pressing issue at the State Department?
At a conference set to begin today in Baltimore, US diplomats will propose amending the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty. The move would seek to mandate, under international law, the current voluntary restrictions on tourism.
A US document provided to the Associated Press by the State Department says the plan would "minimize the likelihood of marine oil spills" in the Antarctic and "ensure that tourism is conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to kick off the conference in Washington today by hosting the first joint meeting of Antarctic Treaty signatories and the Arctic Council, which covers the northern polar region. More than 400 officials and observers are expected to attend from the Baltimore meeting, which runs to April 17.
The Baltimore meeting will mark the 50th anniversary of the pact's signing. Many consider it the first modern international arms control treaty because it says Antarctica cannot be used for military purposes and freezes sovereignty claims on its territory.
The treaty says Antarctica can be used only for peaceful purposes and guarantees freedom for scientific investigations. It sets out guidelines under which the continent can be protected. There are 28 member states and 19 observer countries and organizations to the accord.
The new US proposal contains no specific enforcement mechanism or penalties for limiting tourist operations. But it would require signatories to the pact to ensure that Antarctic tour operators bar ships with more than 500 passengers from landing sites, restrict landings to one vessel at a time per site and limit passengers on shore to 100 at a time.
It would mandate a minimum of one guide for every 20 tourists while ashore, according to the documents.
Limiting tourist access to the continent has taken on urgency because of a surge in visits and recent cruise ship accidents, including two groundings in the just-finished 2008-09 season and the highly publicized sinking of a vessel in November 2007.
The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators says visits have risen from 6,700 in the 1992-93 season to 29,500 in the 2006-07 season and 45,213 in 2008-09.
Members of the association first developed the restrictions and adhere to them voluntarily. Members are backing the US proposal for the mandatory limits, which were first adopted by the Antarctic Treaty parties as recommendations in 2007.
"We follow them religiously," said the group's executive director Steve Wellmeier. He acknowledged that without mandated limits, enforcement is "an honor system to a large extent."
#1
"The Obama administration is pushing to protect Antarctica's fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of passengers they bring ashore."
Since when does the US control Antarctica?
The new US proposal contains no specific enforcement mechanism or penalties for limiting tourist operations. But it would require signatories to the pact to ensure that Antarctic tour operators bar ships with more than 500 passengers from landing sites, restrict landings to one vessel at a time per site and limit passengers on shore to 100 at a time.
WHAT!!!??? So I can have 1000 "sites" with 10 ships having 500 passengers each lined up ... with 100 ashore at a time at each of the 1000 sites ... how the hell does that "limit" anything?
This is going to get into parsing exactly what a "site" is and how far one "site" has to be from another "site" to be considered a different "site".
#5
Maybe they can get the Sea Shepherds to enforce this. They can throw the smelly acid on the tourists and foul the props of the cruise ships.
Attention Pacific Princess, you are in violation of the sacred Antarctic Treaty, specifically the Obama amendment
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 9:54
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#6
Heh. Maybe Cuba will start offering cruises to Antarctica, complete with child prostitutes and drugs. Just make sure that when you get to the South Pole you don't get your passport stamped.
And a thump-thump-thumpity good time is being had by all, except the thumpees...
Egypt's Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) has started interrogating 49 persons accused of planning for hostile acts against the country, Public Prosecutor Justice Abdulmajid Mahmoud announced on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters here, Justice Mahmoud said the security services have sufficient evidence that the defendants belong to an organization financed by Lebanese Hezbollah party. "They were tasked with recruiting new members loyal to Hezbollah and carrying out terrorist acts inside Egypt," he said, affirming that the defendants have been trained on bomb-making and terror attacks. "The new organization was tasked with launching commercial projects and renting some real properties along the waterway of the Suez Canal to cover up on their clandestine activities. It planned to track the vessels passing through this vital international navigation route and tourist resorts and send information to be collected to Hezbollah bases in Lebanon," he revealed, citing the results of preliminary investigations. "The security services spotted the activities of the group in North Sinai and South Sinai governorates," he disclosed.
The SSSP investigations showed that the hostile activities, which involved provision of large quantities of explosive charges, started after the speech made by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrullah on January 12, on the occasion of the Shiite holy occasion of Asoura'.
In his speech which coincided with the Israeli military offensive on Gaza Strip, Nasrullah tried to prod the Egyptian people and armed forces into rebellion in protest against what he deemed Egypt's "inaction towards the Israeli atrocities." "After that speech Nasrullah tasked a senior official in Hezbollah with preparing for militant operations inside Egypt," Justice Mahmoud pointed out. Meanwhile, Justice Mahmoud affirmed that the security services will follow the necessary legal measures in line with the penal code during investigations with the defendants.
The Egyptian Bar Association has been notified of the start of the prosecution process and the procedures of appointing defense lawyers and slating dates of the trial, he added.
#1
Maybe just lock'em up one at a time with Luttrell in a CONEX box for about 10-15 minutes for some wall-to-wall counceling from that SEAL. I suspect they'd get the cure. Just a thought.
#3
I was thinking about this guy last night, I hope the SEALS are organizing a non-lethal harrassment campaign against this guy. Every piece of glass of every car he ever owns ends up shattered, inexplicably, in the dark of night; the power inexplicably goes out wherever he sleeps; his outgoing mail just inexplicably disappears. That sort of thing can really have an effect on people, he might be tempted to turn that gun he's so eager to use on himself.
#4
I'm confused--according to MSNBC's story, Luttrell chased these guys down and 3 of them were arrested on the spot (well, actually about 100 miles from the spot where they shot his dog). Wonder where this apparently fourth idiot figures in?
Posted by: Dar ||
04/09/2009 15:18
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas A highly decorated Navy SEAL who found his beloved yellow Labrador retriever shot dead outside his home helped capture the alleged gunmen following a high-speed chase through three counties.
Marcus Luttrell stayed on the line with a 911 operator April 1 as he tried to catch the fleeing suspects during the 40-mile chase that reached speeds of over 100 mph.
I told them, You need to get somebody out here because if I catch them Im going to kill them, Luttrell said he told the operator, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Police stopped the suspects and charged two men with cruelty to a non-livestock animal. The driver of the vehicle was cited for not having a license.
There are at least five area dog killings in recent months that could be linked to the case, said Texas Ranger Steven Jeter.
Luttrell was awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism in 2006. He is the lone SEAL team member to survive a June 2005 firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan and was given a dog to help him heal after he returned from the war.
When I saw she was dead, the only thing that popped into my head was, Ive got to take these guys out, Luttrell said.
#8
No, BP, we are lucky that the cops got them first. I would hate to see the headlines about a Navy Cross winner who was arrested for assault and possibly manslaughter.
Of course, if I were on the jury, not only would Mr Luttrell be acquitted, I would recommend that he be given another medal. Just call it jury nullification.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2009 19:51
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Secret talks have began between Somalia's interim government and a group of Islamist hardliners, with independent sources saying Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is now part of the ongoing process, Radio Garowe reports.
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Somalia's new president, was the co-leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) with Sheikh Aweys when the group rose to power in south-central Somalia in mid-2006. "Sheikh Aweys is expected to come to Mogadishu soon, so he can join the talks," said a source close to President Sheikh Sharif's government.
The source noted that the Sudanese government has "convinced" Sheikh Aweys to join the peace talks with Sheikh Sharif's interim government, with Islamic scholars reportedly leading the mediation effort.
Mr. Abdullahi Ali, a Somali political analyst, told the VOA Somali Service that the Arab League's decision to give US$18 million donation to President Sheikh Sharif's government came with the "condition" of entering peace talks with the armed opposition, particulary the Sheikh Aweys camp.
Since January, Sheikh Aweys has been a key figure in the Hizbul Islam [Party of Islam] armed group where four Islamist factions merged into a united front, including the Eritrea-based ICU faction and Kismayo-based Ras Kamboni faction. The Hizbul Islam group has been divided in recent weeks, with ex-ICU defense chief Yusuf Indho Ade leading a camp rival to Sheikh Aweys. The Indho Ade camp has overtly supported Sheikh Sharif's government under the condition of introducing Islamic law.
It is not clear where the ongoing peace talks between the Somali government and a part of the armed opposition will lead, but Sheikh Aweys has recently left Eritrea and is currently in Sudan.
Sheikh Aweys has been on the U.S. terror watch list in recent years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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DAMASCUS - Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday.
The old 'something-for-nothing' trick: Israel gives away something, that is the Golan, and Syria gives away nothing, that is, they agree to talk.
He said the four rounds of Turkish-mediated talks held last year had been launched on the basis of three principles, but without preconditions. A full agreement from Israel to a commitment to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, was the main point, Muallem said at a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini.
The talks process was suspended when Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, waged a deadly offensive against the Palestinian Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in December-January.
Muallem said Syria is now ready to resume a land-for-peace process on the same basis as arranged with the government of (former Israeli prime minister) Ehud Olmert under Turkish mediation.
These indirect talks must not in any way affect the Palestinian-Israeli talks and also not be used as a cover to launch attacks against Lebanon or Gaza, the Syrian foreign minister said.
Late last month a largely right-wing coalition headed by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in the Jewish state and quickly ruled out a pullout from Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in his first days at his new post.
Peace will only be in exchange for peace, said Lieberman.
There's an original idea ...
Frattini, who met President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to Damascus, said Italy was prepared to play an active role toward the relaunch of the negotiations as soon as possible.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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How about: after IDF breaks Syrian military, the Sunni majority rises and exterminates the Allawites?
The multibillion IPI gas pipeline project has been delayed largely owing to US pressure on Pakistan and India
Pakistan's Federal Cabinet Wednesday approved the construction of long-delayed Pakistan-Iran-India (IPI) gas pipeline and also gave the go ahead for purchase of 750 million cubic feet gas from Iran to fulfill the growing local requirements.
The cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, also decided to a gas import agreement with Iran and to utilize the imported gas for power generation in place of furnace oil which would prove about 40 percent economical, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira told media after the meeting.
The multibillion IPI gas pipeline project has been delayed largely owing to US pressure on Pakistan and India and also differences over the price mechanism between the three countries.
India has quietly drawn out the project, but China has shown interest to be part of the overland gas pipeline project and Pakistan has remained committed due to ever-increasing energy crises in the country.
Minister Kaira told media that the cabinet called for aggressive planning for exploration of natural resources so that the countrys dependence on import of oil and gas could be reduced. To a question about US pressure, the minister rejected interference by any other country in the project and said that Pakistan is a sovereign country and makes its decisions independently.
#1
Pakistan isn't enough of a market to justify construction of a pipeline.
India is the market but they don't trust the Paks not to shut off the supply or to simply secure the pipeline from the Bugtis and Mazaris (who have yet to see a pipeline they don't want to blow up)
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 19:18
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Geneva -- The streets of Geneva are normally awash with a flow of limousines serving the Swiss city's diplomatic community, private banks, foreign celebrities on tax holidays and wealthy Gulf families on a summertime break.
But now local limousine operators are feeling the pinch as the financial crisis bites and a turf war claims a big client, the Saudi royal family -- which normally mobilises limousines by the dozens if not hundreds during trips here.
"The profession in Geneva is devastated," Hassan Azed, head of a local association of limousine operators (AGELLMC), told AFP.
Memories are still redolent of late Saudi King Fahd's stay in his mansion in the plush Geneva suburb of Collonge-Bellerive in 2002, which mobilised several jumbo airliners and 300 limousines, many of them leased directly from Germany to make up for the shortfall.
But a mooted trip by 81-year-old Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Fahd's son, in late spring is leaving a different flavour.
Geneva's limousine operators are up in arms because "foreign intermediaries" will reportedly be muscling in on local business by bringing along more than 60 cars from Germany for the Saudis, bypassing local firms.
Normally imports are only allowed once the local market is saturated, Azed claimed. "It was done by the rulebook when King Fahd came in 2002," said Azed. "In this instance we're presented with a done thing."
Mombasa -- Seven Somalis accused of firing on a German ship off the coast of Yemen have been handed over to authorities in Kenya where they will be tried, officials said.
The men will appear before a judge for a preliminary hearing on Thursday morning, Germany's foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told a regular briefing, after a German court issued arrest warrants earlier Wednesday. "This morning (Wednesday) Kenyan prosecutors agreed in principle to take in the seven suspected pirates," Ploetner said.
The police commander of Kenya's Mombasa port, Ayub Gitonga, said: "We shall take them to court tomorrow to charge them with piracy, but we are still doing more investigation."
The seven were picked up late last month by Greek and Spanish forces from a European anti-pirate unit off Somalia after they reportedly tried to capture a German oil tanker, the FGS Spessart, off southern Yemen. The group was then transferred to a German frigate, which arrived in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa with the men shortly after 1030 GMT on Wednesday, Ploetner said. Kenyan police were on board the vessel to review the evidence against the suspects, he added.
The case of the seven men has highlighted the legal complexities arising from incidents in international waters.
LAHORE: The United States has assured Pakistan it will not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan, President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview with Daily Times Editor Najam Sethi for Dunya TV on Wednesday.
Those aren't our drones. Check with the Samoans ...
Not only the people of Pakistan, but also the government is concerned over the drone attacks, Zardari said. He said the US had incorporated several of Pakistans suggestions in its new policy for Afghanistan, but the two countries disagreed on the drone strikes. However, he said Washington has assured us it will not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan.
Nope, nope, wasn't us, we said we wouldn't, nope, check with Finland ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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In Havana, the seven Democrats visited the families of the prisoners and came away inspired. The members of Congress raised concerns about human rights, lengthy prison sentences and the suffering on both sides of the Florida Straits.
One vowed to write a letter to first lady Michelle Obama, pleading to her sensibilities as a mother, wife and lawyer. Another called on compassion. This is the time, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus proclaimed.
If only the group had met with even one prisoner of conscience or one of the wives, mothers, daughters or sisters of the 75 independent journalists, librarians and human-rights advocates imprisoned in Cuba's ''Black Spring'' of 2003. They would have easily spotted the Ladies in White in Havana on Palm Sunday, walking in protest to raise awareness about their men's harsh sentences for daring to think outside the communist box of limitations.
Or the seven could have traveled three hours from Havana to see the hunger-striking dissidents led by Jorge Luis ''Antúnez'' Garcia in Placetas. Or they could have asked to see Oscar Elias Biscet, a doctor serving 25 years in prison for following the peaceful resistance of Martin Luther King Jr.
Or what of the mothers of three young men who were tried in a day and killed the next by firing squad in 2003 for trying to hijack a ferry from Havana Harbor? No passenger was hurt, but that didn't stop the Cuban government from sending a swift and terrifying message to the country's Afro-Cuban masses.
But no.
The black U.S. lawmakers' concerns weren't for the 300-plus Cuban prisoners of conscience listed by Amnesty International or the hundreds of dissidents working from their homes under the watch of a totalitarian regime. Or the lack of civil rights in a country with a majority black and mixed-race population ruled by an overwhelmingly white gerontocracy.
Their angst was for the ''Five Heroes,'' as Cuba's controlled media calls the Cuban government spies captured in Miami, including one sentenced for conspiracy to murder the four Brothers to the Rescue pilots killed by Cuban fighter planes in 1996.
Let's agree that basic human rights have to be upheld for enemies -- that's the very definition of justice.
Where's the justice in Cuba?
Certainly the Clueless Seven, led by Rep. Barbara Lee of California, didn't make a fuss about 50 years of the Castro brothers' rule, the human rights violations or the escalating and disproportionate number of black Cubans held behind bars. Indeed, Rep. Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther, could only show his empathy ''for the suffering of political prisoners,'' as he referred to the five spies.
Just once, I'd like to see a delegation of muckety-mucks see the real Cuba. Sure, talk with Tío Fidel, as three of the Clueless reportedly did during their trip that ended Tuesday. But also go see opposition members, feel their pain.
Rep. Kendrick Meek, who was traveling the Panhandle Tuesday in his U.S. Senate bid, offered this wise analysis of his Black Caucus colleagues' ''fact-finding'' mission:
''Political prisoners jailed in Cuba are held for peacefully expressing their rights and freedoms, like Dr. Oscar Biscet and Antúnez,'' he said. ``The Cuban spies held in the U.S. federal prisons were a threat to our national security. That's the difference between night and day.''
Had the Clueless Seven removed the blinders they would have known it.
If you think you're getting a lot of spam these days, well, that's because you are. In Microsoft's latest biannual report on the state of computer security, the company says that in the second half of 2008, a full 97.3 percent of email traffic was unwanted spam (or malicious email like phishing attacks and outright viruses). Surprisingly though, that's down a bit from the first half of last year, when total spam volume reached a whopping 98.4 percent of all email sent.
The latest report (which covers security through the end of 2008, so Conficker isn't part of the package) is available for download here. (Be warned: The full report is 184 pages long. Consider checking out the smaller highlight report instead.)
The good news: Spam filters are getting better than ever. Microsoft's filter system for Exchange now scrubs out 39 out of every 40 emails sent. Spam also saw that slight decline thanks to the shut down last year of the ISP McColo, a major haven for spammers who suddenly had to go shopping elsewhere.
What are we being spammed about? Pharmacy and other product ads make up the lion's share of spam, accounting for 72.2 percent of all spam sent. Only 10 percent of the total spam share now involves sexually-oriented pharmaceuticals; that's a huge decline from previous studies, as apparently Viagra and Cialis are no longer that hard to come by.
Image-only spam, dating come-ons, financial spam, and fraudulent diplomas round out the remainder of the most common spam subjects.
Alternate statistics show the total spam level at lower -- one source pegs it at a mere 81 percent of mail traffic (a figure which seems awfully low) -- and also notes that even with the taking down of McColo and other spammer ISPs, spam traffic will inevitably rise again to "normal" levels.
In the related world of malware infections, the Microsoft report noted that worldwide, 8.6 machines were suffering from malware for every 1,000 which were clean. That sounds pretty good, but it still translates to about 9 million computers worldwide suffering from malware attacks.
What do you need to watch out for today, attack-wise? The most common attacks at the moment target Microsoft Office and PDF files, and those types of attacks are further on the rise.
MINGORA: Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Nazeer Ahmed said in an interview with Al Qaedas media arm, Al-Sahab, that the Taliban would soon capture Islamabad.
Pakistani Taliban factions had united and would take their war to the capital, he said. The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the mujahideen.
He accused the Pakistan Army of sending spies to facilitate US drone strikes against Al Qaeda and Taliban, and said Pakistani authorities were misleading the public by saying it was the United States carrying out the attacks. All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan, he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Al-Sahabs website.
So Naz, the Pak government, and all the experts tell us that the drone attacks are helping the Talbunnies. Guess we should keep doing them ...
Mullah Nazeer Ahmed also blamed the Pakistani militarys Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for sowing divisions between factions, saying the ISI was the Talibans main enemy.
He's saying that for western consumption, of course ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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WAFF.com > POSTER = seems large parts of AFPAK were part of ANCI-I-I-IENT PERSO-IRANIAN, etc. EMPIRES.
UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said the flogging of a girl in Pakistan was unacceptable and the chief justice had taken the right decision to launch an investigation.
While I appreciate different systems and traditions in different countries, respecting and upholding basic human rights this is most important, Ban told reporters. These are universally accepted and upheld principles which we must respect.
Not that anyone in Pak-land listens to you ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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Keep talking Banki, and you'll lose OIC support.
The Maryland General Assembly is expected to pass easily a bill that would allow Democrat Gov. Martin O'Malley to seize the rights to horse racing's Preakness Stakes and the racetrack on which it is run by using eminent domain.
Mr. O'Malley introduced the emergency legislation Wednesday in response to rumors that the race, the second leg of the fabled Triple Crown, may be moved to another state by its owner, Toronto-based Magna Entertainment Corp., which filed for bankruptcy last month.
"This is a very bold step," said state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Prince George's Democrat, who said there was widespread support for the action in the Senate. "It's a move that the state needs to make to make sure the Preakness stays in Maryland."
The bill, which will be debated in the General Assembly on Thursday, would subject all rights and racing events that are associated with the Preakness Stakes - including its trophy, the Woodlawn Vase - to a state takeover.
It also would allow the state to purchase or exercise eminent domain over Magna's Maryland properties: Laurel Park Racetrack, the Bowie Race Course Training Center and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Anne Arundel Democrat, said the House also would likely approve the measure, but that it was not in the state's interest to run the Preakness or the tracks in the long term.
"We just want to see the Preakness stay in Maryland. That's something the assembly agrees with," he said.
Under eminent domain, the government is empowered to seize private property in the public interest and offer fair compensation to property owners. But the practice has provoked controversy in recent years, with many property rights advocates seeing it as an abuse of government power.
#3
...The problem here - which the Gov and his enablers seem to have overlooked - is that:
A)Magna is based in FREAKING TORONTO CANADA, and therefore there isn't much besides seizing their MD property that will make a difference.
B)The Preakness is intellectual property. Magna owns the rights to it, and they can take it anywhere they want. MD can seize every racecourse in the state, and all that means is Magna will hold it in NY or DE, or any other state that will be more than willing to take the race and the millions of dollars it brings in.
Proof once again that today's politicians would rather own and destroy than share and help.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/09/2009 6:23
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#4
You folk are just showing your political bias.
Why I'm sure if you read the Constitution, the Federalist Papers etc, you'll see that horse racing is one of the main functions of any government
Posted by: john frum ||
04/09/2009 7:54
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#5
Ditto John! The Preakness is just too big to fail move away. I'll ask anyway, but I suppose there's really no chance a good Irish Catholic like Governor O'Malley would want to.....seize the District also?
#12
only one horse can win the Preakness, which is, like sooo unfair to the other horses. The Gubbmint should step in and level the playing field so everyone's a winner
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2009 15:22
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#13
Why don't the Democrats just cut to the chase and seize everything in sight? That way the government will own everything, there will be no private property, and they can dole stuff out to their patrons.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2009 20:03
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#16
Government couldn't make a profit in whore hosuing so now they'll try horse racing. Maybe the solution to the drug problem is to let the government take over dealing.
Round-up of the basic facts. We'll hear more today I'm sure.
The destroyer USS Bainbridge has arrived off the Horn of Africa, where the captain of a U.S. freighter is reportedly being held by pirates, a senior defense official said.
The U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was hijacked early Wednesday. The crew recaptured the ship later Wednesday, but Capt. Richard Phillips remained in the hands of the marauders, one of its officers said. "There's four Somali pirates, and they've got our captain," Ken Quinn said in a ship-to-shore phone interview.
Phillips was being held in the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat after the pirates reneged on an agreement to exchange him for a captured pirate, Quinn said. "We returned him, but they didn't return the captain," he said.
Hijackers began pursuing the Alabama around 10 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, when it was about 350 miles off the coast of Somalia, according to Maersk. The pirates boarded the ship a few hours later.
The 780-foot Alabama was carrying food aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services when it was seized, the ship's owner said. The pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, while the freighter's crew carried no weapons, Quinn said.
The crew -- minus the captain -- locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear and remained there for about 12 hours with their captive, whom they had tied up, Quinn said. The three other pirates "got frustrated because they couldn't find us," he said.
The pirates scuttled the small boat they used once they climbed aboard the freighter, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat and some money.
At 7 p.m. ET, a Navy P-3 aircraft flying over the scene spotted a lifeboat, a senior U.S. Navy official said. B.J. Talley, a spokesman for the Maersk line, said the pirates had departed aboard the lifeboat and none of the 20 people remaining aboard the ship was hurt.
The ship was then about 215 nautical miles off the Somali coast, Talley said.
The Maersk Alabama is the first U.S. ship to be seized in the latest wave of piracy off largely lawless Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Help me out here, guys. Does international law give us a lot more freedom to act when one of our citizens is being held captive?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 4:09
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#2
The Somali president says its fine to attack any pirates. I hope they don't lose the captain!
#4
I forget. How many ships were hijacked by pirates during W's 8-year term?
Maybe this is Joe's 'test'?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/09/2009 6:02
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#5
Maybe if Obama bows, the pirates will take the captain as a captive slave secure in the superiority of the Umma and the proper submission of a dhimmi president.
#6
This is the first U.S. ship to be taken by pirates in 200 years. That's change you can believe in. Fortunately, the crew got the ship back. I'm standing by for the strongly worded letter. That will show the pirates.
#8
I saw on Druge that Shillary was "Deeply Concerned" is that same "deeply Concerned" she expressed about the Norks missile launch? Is there an inflection I am missing?
#10
Thank God the pirates don't have representation in the UN or they would not only get the captain but the ship and a standing ovation while Susan Rice tries to figure out how to work that translation headphone figgermajig.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/09/2009 9:50
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#11
"The Maersk Alabama is the first U.S. ship to be seized in the latest wave of piracy off largely lawless Somalia."
Its been quite amusing to listen to the talking heads regarding this event. Hopefully 24 hours is enough time for the so-called experts, journalists and diplomats to come up to speed on this topic. As many burgers already know there have been numerous piracy events that didnt involve kidnapping or extortion. Those vessels were overtaken, seized and after the mayhem were abandoned. And it wasnt simply a bunch of disorganized Khat chewing Skinnies looking for easy Booty. They were coordinated attacks that had all the hallmarks of terrorist training missions. Its also a leap to believe that the Big Turbans dont get their cut when a straightforward ransom is their goal. Clearly the new US administration is loath to offend Muslim sensibilities. But the bottom line is this isnt romantic piracy. It is part and parcel of Islamic Terrorism.
#15
Phillips was being held in the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat after the pirates reneged on an agreement to exchange him for a captured pirate, Quinn said. "We returned him, but they didn't return the captain," he said.
Did the first officer think of this all by himself or did he rip off the exchange from a TV show?
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 11:42
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#16
The lifeboat's outta gas, so, outside of getting killed, giving up, or taking a free passage deal, it appears our intrepid swashbucklers don't have a lotta options because they aren't going anywhere.
#18
Details from Reuters, who appear to be dazzled by our intrepid Somali swashbucklers...
Somali pirates defied international naval powers on Thursday to keep an American ship captain hostage on a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean after their first seizure of U.S. citizens.
The increasingly bold gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama freighter on Wednesday, but the 20 American crew retook control after a confrontation far out at sea, where pirates have captured five other vessels in a week.
Four gang members were holding the captain, Richard Phillips, on the ship's lifeboat after he apparently volunteered to be a hostage for the sake of his crew.
Reached by Reuters via satellite phone, the pirates on the lifeboat sounded desperate as they watched a U.S. warship and other foreign naval vessels close to them. "We are surrounded by warships and don't have time to talk," one said. "Please pray for us."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it had been called in to assist, and its negotiators were "fully engaged."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the lifeboat now appeared to be out of fuel. An East African maritime group said the Maersk Alabama was on its way to Kenya's Mombasa port and would reach there in a couple of days.
"We are just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it is not working too good," second mate Ken Quinn told CNN of efforts to secure their captain's release. He said the four pirates sank their own boat after they boarded the Alabama.
Then the captain talked the gunmen into the ship's lifeboat with him. The crew overpowered one of the pirates and sought to swap him for the captain, Quinn told CNN. "We kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up," Quinn said. They freed their captive, he added, but the exchange did not work.
In Haradheere port, a pirate stronghold, an associate of the gang said the gunmen were armed and ready to defend themselves. "Our friends are still holding the captain but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships," he told Reuters. "We want a ransom and of course the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board."
Pirates there said two boats full of gunmen had left the port to go and support their surrounded colleagues. "We are afraid warships will destroy them before they reach the scene," one told Reuters.
I would say that's a distinct possibility, Blackbeard...
#19
The Maersk Alabama is again under way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa its original destination, according to Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy whose son, Shane Murphy, is second in command. A person reached by The Associated Press by phone on the bridge of the vessel confirmed that "We're moving." A U.S. official, speaking on grounds of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, also said a military team of armed guards was aboard the Maersk Alabama. Joseph Murphy said there 18 guards aboard.
Steve Romano, a retired head of the FBI hostage negotiation team, said he doesn't recall the FBI ever negotiating with pirates before, but he said this situation is similar to other standoffs. The difficulty will be negotiating with people who clearly have no way out, he said. "There's always a potential for tragedy here, and when people feel their options are limited, they sometimes react in more unpredictable and violent ways," Romano said. The question now, he said, is: "How much do they value their own lives? Because their only motivation now is to try to survive this incident."
Freeing the captain is the priority, and Romano said negotiators may have to promise to let the pirates go to accomplish that. "That might be the end result here," he said. "The life of the captain is the most important thing. We can always apprehend felons later."
With one warship nearby and more on the way, piracy expert Roger Middleton of the London-based think tank Chatham House said the pirates were facing difficult choices. "The pirates are in a very, very tight corner," Middleton said. "They've got only one guy, they've got nowhere to hide him, they've got no way to defend themselves effectively against the military who are on the way and they are hundreds of miles from Somalia."
The pirates would probably try to get to a mothership, he said, one of the larger vessels that tow the pirates' speedboats out to sea and resupply them as they lie in wait for prey. But they also would be aware that if they try to take Phillips to Somalia, they might be intercepted. And if they hand him over, they would almost certainly be arrested.
#21
I would think there would certainly have to be at least a few sharpshooters on the Bainbridge who could take care of this. If not, I'm sure a few S.E.A.L.s could be found and helo'ed in...
#23
This make sense, from a commenter at Blackfive:
I keep seeing people griping about the "hostage negotiators," but it's important to remember that professional hostage negotiators are also the guys who do all of the talking, and who tell the hostage recovery teams about the psychological makeup of the targets (and whether to go in "hard" or "soft.").
They're also the ones who can often put the bad guys at ease, and let them think they're winning (while the guys with guns are sneaking up behind the targets hostage takers).
#25
Sea, I don't like it either, and I know at one time the Bainbridge had Marines on it, cause I know one of them. I'm thinking, there are some on it now. They got P3's up, drones, and in my best Vince Flynn story, there just has to be a sub puttering around, with some guys aboard that are outstanding swimmers and know how to snatch and grab.
They are in that 28' boat, they just got to be feeling like a mouse between the paws of a big cat. My bet is, they know that those 72 virgins are sounding like a siren calling out to them right about now. The longer they get to just sit on that dead-in-the- water boat, the harder it gets.
I've sat on a sail boat with no wind -- it's never fun, and while sitting there, I didn't have a bunch of Marines staring me down. I think those negotiators often times, fill the hostage takers in on just how surrounded they all.
#26
Contacts tell FOX News the Maersk company asked the U.S. military to "stand back" for the moment while it tries to work things out itself, indicating Maersk is willing to pay a ransom in the starting area of $10 million to achieve Phillips' freedom.
#27
The position was complicated, according to one western military analyst, by unexplained movement of previously-captured ships towards the area of the stand-off, in the Indian Ocean 350 miles off the coast of Somalia.
The pirates could be seeking safety in numbers in the face of the threat of US military intervention.
There does seem to be movement of other pirated ships towards the area in question, the analyst said. There are a myriad of different reasons why one would do that. Theres apparently some co-ordination going on.
#28
Is there anything that would stop a company from advertising armed shipping fleets? Seems to me an enterprising individual/company could offer a much needed service and get paid well for it. Supply and demand, and all that...
"One lump or two, Walid?"
"One please, Manuchehr. My triglycerides are a trifle high."
TEHRAN — Visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem on Wednesday affirmed Iran's significant role at the regional level and praised its stances of support for Arab causes. Speaking at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Manuchehr Motaki, in the Iranian capital, Al-Muallem said his visit to Iran was part of continuous coordination between the two countries.
Syria will not play a mediation role in the Iranian nuclear issue because Damascus believes that Tehran's program is peaceful, he said. Mottaki said the talks with the Syrian minister dealt with a host of regional and international issues.
The Iranian foreign minister said the world should prepare for global cleansing of nuclear arms.
He added that the talks with the senior Syrian official dealt with various issues including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel's formation of a new government. "We have called the new government (in Israel) as the unmasked government for the previous governments masked their real intentions, " he said, alluding to the new cabinet led by ultra right-wing leaders.
Members of law enforcing and intelligence agencies have started working with over 2000 still photographs on the fugitive Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) men at 64 districts across the country. Picking up those photographs from different newspapers and television channels, those were later enlarged to different images for the easier identification of the disgruntled BDR personnel.
A competent source said, the photographs and other information on the fugitive BDR members are yet to reach all district and upazilla headquarters, police stations and other law enforcing agencies throughout the country.
With a view to identifying the culprits in connection with the February 25 Pilkhana carnage, the investigators are examining the BDR jawans' cell phones - earlier used for communicating with their relatives during the mutiny hours- through using the mobile-tracking system, said sources.
Meanwhile, efforts to nab about 1800 absconding BDR jawans including around 951 of three battalions inside capital's Pilkhana Headquarters, still continues. Earlier, the government announced Tk 50,000 bounty for handing over to the authorities each fugitive BDR member suspected of involvement in the massacre.
Three investigation committees - CID team led by ASP Abdul Kahar Akhanda, the government probe body headed by former bureaucrat Anisuzzaman and the Army investigation team led by Lieutenant General Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury - are conducting the enquiry into the BDR Headquarters massacre.
Talking to The Bangladesh Today, the chief of the CID Investigation Committee ASP Abdul Kahar Akhanda refused to tell anything about the progress into the investigation only saying, "We are working round the clock to find out the perpetrators of the incidents. I think that we are proceeding towards a conclusion."
Meanwhile, the BDR carnage case, earlier lodged with the Lalbagh Thana was shifted to New Market Police Station on Tuesday. About such move, the Investigation Officer Kahar said, "This was done to avert any Court complications as the Place of Occurrence (PO) is under the jurisdiction of New Market thana."
Asked, 'Would it lay an adverse affect on the investigation?" the CID official replied in the negative and said, "For the smooth completion of the case proceedings, the case was budged to the New Market thana."
"More time would be required to complete the investigation, but I can assure you that the root-cause behind the brutal incident will be come to light and a proper report regarding this would be ready soon," he hoped.
According to sources, a total of 25 BDR jawans so far confessed their involvement in the mutiny. As many as 165 BDR personnel and civilians have been placed on remand and 923 BDR jawans shown arrested, so far in connection with the case.
The law enforces on Wednesday raided some six residences of BDR jawans adjacent to the BDR Gate-1 and 4 in the capital. Joint forces, in presence of the investigation officers, yesterday conducted the search from 7am to 10.30am but failed to arrest anyone or retrieve any firearms, said police.
Meanwhile, BDR Headquarters could not asses accurately the arms and ammunitions which were in the armory before the mutiny and are also yet to finalise the list of absconding jawans officially, said the BDR headquarters office.
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Probe report into the brutal and bloody massacre inside Bangladesh Riffles [BDR] headquarters during February 25-26, 2009, done by a team of Bangladesh Army is reported set to be published by April 22. According to several sources, the preview of this much awaited investigation report was already completed last week.
Anticipating the publication of this report, some handpicked number of columnist, social figures, think-tanks, NGOs, politicians and journalists are continuing to publish commentaries opining the trial into this brutal incident in civil court, instead of Court Martial. Several known politicians, whose names already came as the prime suspects as collaborators or conspirators of this massacre, are pursuing such people in doing everything so that the trial into this incident does not take place under military code.
Even though the perpetrators were uniformed personnel ...
To stop the people whose names already came in the probe report, from fleeing the country, necessary instructions will be communicated with all the immigrations points by early next week. Meanwhile, a number of suspected politicians are reportedly planning to flee the country in the name of medical treatment or other excuses. Sensing such tendencies, restrictions may also be imposed on leaving the country without a valid medical ground, to be confirmed by a medical board, comprising representatives from various institutions.
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Pakistani police Wednesday claimed arresting five militants of a banned outlawed group for carrying out attacks on government and police offices as well as NATO forces.
Wasem Ahmed, Capital Chief Police Officer (CCPO), talking to newsmen in Karachi, capital of Southern Sindh province, said that the police conducted a raid on a tip-off and arrested five militants. He said the militants belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) outlawed outfit and added that police has recovered huge cache of arms, ammunition and other explosive materials from their possession.
He said government buildings including Foreign Office and Interior ministries and police offices were targets of the militants, adding, they have been involved in attacks on police across the country and trucks supplying oil to NATO forces in the neighbouring Afghanistan.
These two were joined at the hip for lots of stuff. Expect more fireworks in the near future.
A congressional ethics panel has opened a preliminary inquiry into Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s role in the scandal surrounding the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama, the Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday.
Mr. Jackson said he is cooperating with the review by the Office of Congressional Ethics. The panel is looking into his communications with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was indicted last week on charges of widespread corruption, including allegations that Mr. Blagojevich tried to sell Mr. Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder.
"I was notified last week about the inquiry and am eager to answer any questions and provide any information to the [ethics board] about my actions related to last year's vacant Senate seat," Mr. Jackson said in a statement issued by his chief of staff, Kenneth Edmonds.
Mr. Jackson, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil-rights activist, has acknowledged he was "Senate Candidate A," one of a group of potential candidates for the Senate seat identified by federal authorities in the corruption case against Mr. Blagojevich.
In the indictment of the former governor unsealed last week, prosecutors said Mr. Blagojevich believed he could gain $1.5 million in campaign funds raised by backers of Mr. Jackson if he picked him for the seat. Around Dec. 4, just days before Mr. Blagojevich was arrested, he told his brother, Robert Blagojevich, who ran his campaign fund, to notify a representative of Mr. Jackson that some of the promised fund raising needed to be provided before he would name Mr. Jackson to the Senate seat, according to the indictment. A meeting between his brother and the associate of Mr. Jackson's was arranged, but later canceled, prosecutors allege. The then-governor later appointed Roland Burris.
Mr. Jackson, whose statements followed a report of the probe by the Chicago Sun-Times in Wednesday's editions, reiterated that he has done nothing wrong and rejects "pay to play" politics. "I'm confident that this new ethics office — which I voted in favor of creating — will be able to conduct a fair and expeditious review and dismiss this matter," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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Nonsense, Kofi. Our betters, the MSM journalists, thought about those ties for a few nanoseconds and decided that there was nothing there. Therefore, there is nothing there.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/09/2009 22:33
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April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia, the worlds third-largest democracy, votes for a new parliament today with pre-election surveys showing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos Democrat party likely to win the highest percentage of seats. More than 171 million voters have five hours to cast their ballots to elect legislators at the national and regional levels in polling stations spread across the worlds largest archipelago. Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time and close at noon.
This nation doesnt want to lose momentum in developing its democracy, said Josef Krisnadi, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. The preparations werent perfect, but itll still be a legitimate election.
This is the third election since the fall of former President Suharto, who was forced out of office in 1998 after ruling the country for 32 years. All 560 seats in the more- important lower house of parliament are up for grabs in todays election, as well as 132 seats in the upper house. Thirty-eight parties are fielding more than 11,000 candidates.
Yudhoyonos Democrat party was favored by 26.6 percent of respondents in an April poll taken by the Indonesian Survey Institute. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, was second in the survey with 14.5 percent, while Vice President Jusuf Kallas Golkar party was chosen by 13.7 percent.
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CAIRO, April 7 (KUNA) — Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa discussed on Tuesday with Russian special envoy to Sudan Mikhail Margelov developments concerning the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the arrest warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir. The spokesman for Arab League Abdul-Aleem Al-Abyad told reporters that Moussa and Margelov, who is currently visiting Egypt to consult on the situation in Sudan, discussed the best ways to help Sudan out of this impasse. Talks between the two highlighted various challenges facing Sudan and how to overcome such challenges to maintain peace in Darfur region, Al-Abyad said. The spokesman also said the two discussed providing a suitable atmosphere to support stability, peace and development throughout Sudan.
PESHAWAR: A suspected US drone slammed a missile into a vehicle in South Waziristan on Wednesday, killing three Taliban in the third such attack in just over a week, security officials said. No high-value targets apparently died in the strike at Gangi Khel village, about five kilometres west of Wana.
Drones initially flew over mountains around Gangi Khel, where the Taliban have some positions, said one security official, on condition of anonymity. An anti-aircraft gun mounted on a truck fired towards the aircraft. Drones returned after some time and targeted a vehicle, which was parked near some shops. Three people were killed in the attack. Four others were wounded. Two security officials confirmed that the three dead were Taliban two of them Punjabi. The injured were local men or shopkeepers.
It was a missile attack. We heard the sound of explosion in Wana. It shook our windows. We have no further details, senior administration official Ghafoor Shah told AFP by telephone. It was the third suspected US strike in a week, following the unveiling of a new regional strategy by US President Barack Obama that puts Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009
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No high value targets killed? Wazza matter? Running out of 'em? Better step up recruitment efforts, I guess.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
04/09/2009 4:02
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targets just don't hold their value in this down economy
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/09/2009 15:15
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Hold on thar,just have to tune up the kabonger!
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) North Korea warned the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that it would take "strong steps" if the 15-nation body took any action in response to Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket.
"If the Security Council, they take any kind of steps whatever, we'll consider this is (an) encroachment on our sovereignty and the next option will be ours," Deputy Ambassador Pak Tok Hun told reporters. "Necessary and strong steps will ... follow that."
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul say North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile on Sunday in violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning the firing of such missiles by Pyongyang. The resolution was passed after a nuclear test by North Korea.
In a rare appearance before reporters at U.N. headquarters, Pak said criticism of the launch was undemocratic and any country was entitled to use outer space peacefully. "It's not fair. It's not fair," he said. "While they themselves launch more than a hundred times the satellites ... we are not allowed to do that. That is not democratic."
The Security Council held a 3-hour emergency meeting on Sunday but took no action apart from agreeing to return to the issue. Russia and China, with the support of three other council members, made clear that they opposed U.S. and Japanese demands for a resolution punishing North Korea.
Even though past resolutions called for just that if the Norks launched an ICBM ...
The five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- plus Japan met at U.N. headquarters on Monday to explore a possible compromise, but Japan and the three Western powers failed to persuade Russia and China that strong condemnation was needed.
Diplomats from the six powers had planned to meet again on Tuesday. But that meeting was postponed because several delegations "are not ready," one diplomat said. It was not clear when the meeting would go ahead.
No need, we all already know the outcome ...
Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Konstantin Dolgov said he hoped the six could agree on a response that could be put to the full council for unanimous approval.
"So far we are not yet there," he added.
One diplomat close to the talks on Monday described the situation as a "stalemate." Another diplomat said on Tuesday the talks were still deadlocked.
As permanent council members, China and Russia have veto powers and have made clear they would be prepared to use them to stop new sanctions on Pyongyang. The United States and Japan would like a resolution that expands existing financial sanctions against North Korea.
But U.N. diplomats say the United States and Japan might have to accept a non-binding warning statement from the council instead of a legally binding resolution.
That's telling 'em ...
A Western diplomat said China had proposed a weak statement, "a completely watered down text which is unacceptable to us (and) ... not even worth discussing."
So walk out, implement sanctions on your own and be done with the asshats at Turtle Bay.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday the council "must avoid any hasty conclusions" on North Korea, which foolishly says the rocket placed a satellite into orbit.
The United States, Japan and South Korea insist that the rocket launch was a clear violation of Security Council resolution 1718, which the council adopted unanimously after North Korea's nuclear test in October 2006.
China and Russia are not convinced it was a breach. "We believe the U.N. Security Council should act carefully concerning resolution 1718," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.
"There are similarities but also differences between rocket and missile technology," she said. "Launching a satellite is different in nature from firing a missile or a nuclear test. This issue also involves the right of all countries to peaceful use of outer space."
Beijing, the nearest North Korea has to a major ally, has said any U.N. reaction must be "cautious and proportionate."
As in, do nothing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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What strong steps---the entire population of N. Korea will go on a hunger strike?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/09/2009 11:59
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In that case, the drink has to be made w/ Everclear.
Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 12:05
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Yeah, yeah. North Korea, we surrender. Here, we'll give you the UN. I hear you have a mostly-empty half-completed skyscraper in Downtown Pyongyang. We'll pay you to finish it if you'll take the UN diplomatic corps!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/09/2009 14:33
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The United States and Switzerland will begin negotiations to adjust their income tax treaty for greater openness and accountability, the US Treasury Department said Monday.
The announcement came following Group of 20 promises earlier in April to restrict tax havens and fight tax evasion and as bilateral relations were strained by a tax fraud case against Swiss banking giant UBS.
The negotiations to change the 1996 treaty are expected to begin 28 April in Berne, Switzerland, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
"The two countries intend to revise the tax treaty so the two countries can exchange information for tax purposes to the full extent permitted by Article 26 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)" model income tax convention, the department said.
"As called for in the G20 meeting in London, we believe that all countries must adhere to international standards for exchange (of) tax information," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. "We welcome moves by Switzerland to implement international standards by agreeing to revise the US-Switzerland tax treaty for the exchange of information for tax purposes with the US."
CAIRO - An Egyptian man beat his 17-year-old daughter to death after she received a phone call from her boyfriend, a police official told AFP on Wednesday. The 45-year-old farmer identified as Mursi A. from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, caught his daughter Nur talking to her boyfriend on the phone and beat her with a large stick before electrocuting her, the official said.
Relations between unmarried men and women are deemed improper in Egyptian conservative society, particularly in rural areas.
The police were alerted to the crime after the girls body was taken to a nearby hospital, the official said, adding that Mursi was later arrested.
Last May, a farmer from the conservative south of Egypt decapitated his daughter after discovering she had a boyfriend.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Relations between unmarried men and women are deemed improper in Egyptian conservative society, particularly in rural areas.
Sounds like prime fodder for yet another hilarious SNL skit dissing hick conservatives.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA -- The satellite that North Korea insists it has sent into orbit was evidently a dummy that the North manufactured to justify testing a Taepodong-2 missile, South Korean space experts say.
No, reeeeaally? What would we do without experts?
The apparent use of a dummy that looked like a satellite on the launch pad boosts US, Japanese, and South Korean claims that the North fired its long-range missile on Sunday to continue developing the technology rather than to pursue space exploration.
Disagreement over North Korea's motivation is one issue blocking the UN from issuing a resolution on Sunday's launch. China, which wields veto power on the UN Security Council, says it's still unclear if North Korea launched a missile or a satellite.
And it won't ever be clear to them ...
Scientists and engineers here disagree. "They cannot have been shooting a real satellite," says Myung Noh-hoon, director of the Space Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the country's leading base for science and engineering. "They did not build a satellite."
Mr. Myung, in charge of development of South Korea's satellites in his facility in the city of Daejeon, about 90 miles south of here, bases that assessment on two realities. First, he says, in the two days since the missile was launched, we have been "trying to catch the signal from the satellite." That was not possible, he says, "because it was a dummy, not a real one."
Can't hear the songs and praise for the Dear Leader ...
Second, he adds, while North Korean scientists and engineers are known to have built several hundred short- and mid-range missiles as well as nuclear warheads, there's never been any sign of fabrication of a satellite. "I never heard of them building a satellite," says Myung. "Their level of satellite technology is lower than South Korea's." Six South Korean satellites have gone into space successfully from launch sites in other countries. In July Seoul plans to launch a 100-kilogram (220-pound) satellite -- its first from South Korean soil.
Another factor adding to the conclusion that North Korea never had a satellite was the similarity between the latest episode and the launch on Aug. 31, 1998, of Taepodong-1, which also flew over Japan before landing in the Pacific. Then, as on Sunday, North Korea said the satellite went into space broadcasting patriotic paeans to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994 but holds the title of "eternal president."
Scientists do not understand how North Korea could fail in such costly attempts if they ever intended to loft satellites in the first place. North Korea is believed to have obtained the technology from Iran, which has shot its own satellite into space.
And if you can't trust Iranian satellite technology, what can you trust?
Myung believes, though, that North Korea can count the launch as a success. "They shot a long-range missile farther than ever before," he says. This one went approximately 2,000 miles, twice the distance of Taepodong-1 and nearly half the distance needed to deliver a warhead to Alaska or Hawaii.
As for ever finding the debris from whatever North Korea had as the payload on the latest launch, "it may have been burnt up while returning to the Earth," says Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "As far as I know, their satellite technology is very outdated," says Mr. Kim. "They have tried to advance ballistic missile technology. They do not care about satellites."
No kidding ...
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BAGHDAD, April 8 -- A bomb tucked inside a plastic bag detonated yards from Baghdad's most important Shiite shrine on Wednesday, killing seven people and injuring more than 20, authorities said, the latest of several attacks targeting mostly Shiite areas in recent days.
The assault occurred around noon in the capital's Kadhimiyah neighborhood, as worshipers made their way to the Imam Musa al-Khadim shrine. Witnesses said women and children were among the victims. Witnesses said Iraqi security forces blocked ambulances from entering the crowded area.
"People used carts to remove the wounded," said Um Ridha, 30, a teacher.
The attack occurred a day after a car bomb detonated in the same neighborhood, killing nine people, including a woman whose son was rescued from a burning taxi by a man, who later handed the infant to his uncle, police said. On Monday, six car bombs detonated across Baghdad, killing at least 34 people.
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North Korea's state-run media reported Tuesday that Kim Jong-Il shed tears of regret during the country's controversial rocket launch because he could not use the launch funds to provide aid to his people, the AFP reported.
Kim "felt regret for not being able to spend more money on the people's livelihoods and was choked with sobs," AFP quoted ruling communist party paper Rodong Sinmun as saying.
The missile launch cost more than a full year's worth of food aid.
"Chants of jubilation are reverberating throughout the country on the news that our satellite is beaming back the 'Song of General Kim Il-Sung' and the 'Song of General Kim Jong-Il,'" the paper said, according to AFP.
State-run television aired video of an apparently healthy leader mingling with farmers and watching bears at the zoo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Think of the improvements if only he'd watch the farmers and mingle with the bears.
The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) yesterday finalised a list of some 202 absconding members of the border guards with their photographs, BDR sources said. A BDR official requesting anonymity told this correspondent last night that a list of 202 absconding jawans of the BDR with their photographs has been complied. The BDR members, who are now residing in Peelkhana, did 'Sheet Roll Parade' there for the first time yesterday, after the BDR carnage, he said. The BDR men usually do the parade on a regular basis, he added.
A joint team of the army, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and police yesterday conducted a joint search at BDR headquarters with a view to recovering firearms and ammunition, the sources said. The search continued from 6am to 11am, but no firearms or ammunition was recovered, the sources added.
A joint team of the army, RAB and CID yesterday raided several houses at Lalbagh in the old part of the city with a view to arresting absconding BDR men for their suspected involvement in the Peelkhana tragedy. But, none was arrested during the search. The law enforcers asked people residing in adjoining areas of the BDR headquarters about the absconding BDR jawans.
Meanwhile, six more BDR men and two outsiders were shown arrested yesterday in connection with the case filed against over 1000 border guards relating to the massacre at the BDR headquarters in Peelkhana. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) produced them before the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate Faisal Atique Bin Quader seeking to show them arrested in the BDR case, he said. The court sent them to Dhaka Central Jail after showing them arrested in the BDR case.
The two outsiders Akmal Hossain and Omar Chowdhury, who were arrested yesterday are the residents of BDR 5 No gate.
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BEIRUT - A Lebanese investigating judge on Wednesday lifted arrest warrants against four high-ranking generals jailed since 2005 in connnection with former premier Rafiq Hariris murder, a judicial official told AFP. However the official, who asked not to be identified, added that Judge Sakr Sakr also ordered that the four remain in jail pending a decision on their fate by The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
That's it, send them to the hotel prison at The Hague. They can die a comfortable old age.
Sakr issued his decision as he approved the transfer of Lebanese documents linked to a probe into Hariris 2005 assassination to the tribunal set up to try suspects in the case and in the killings of other Lebanese figures. Lebanons justice system has decided to stand back from the case and stop its probe, Sakr said in his ruling.
He added that it was up to the STL to decide whether the generals, who have not been formally charged, would remain behind bars.
The four generals are the former head of the presidential guard, Mustafa Hamdan, security services director Jamil Sayyed, domestic security chief Ali Hajj and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar.
The UN-sponsored tribunal had called on Lebanon last month to hand over documents related to the Hariri case and results of the local investigation.
Hariris murder in a seafront bombing was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence. A UN investigative commission has pointed to evidence that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved in Hariris February 14, 2005 killing.
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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.
(CNET) -- The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday. This piece of computer code told the worm to activate on April 1, researchers found.
The Obama administration is pushing to protect Antarctica's fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of passengers they bring ashore.
DAMASCUS - Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday.
If you think you're getting a lot of spam these days, well, that's because you are. In Microsoft's latest biannual report on the state of computer security, the company says that in the second half of 2008, a full 97.3 percent of email traffic was unwanted spam (or malicious email like phishing attacks and outright viruses). Surprisingly though, that's down a bit from the first half of last year, when total spam volume reached a whopping 98.4 percent of all email sent. 
MINGORA: Pakistani Taliban commander 
Pakistani police Wednesday claimed arresting five militants of a banned outlawed group for carrying out attacks on government and police offices as well as NATO forces.
PESHAWAR: A suspected US drone slammed a missile into a vehicle in South Waziristan on Wednesday, killing three Taliban in the third such attack in just over a week, security officials said. No high-value targets apparently died in the strike at Gangi Khel village, about five kilometres west of Wana.
The United States and Switzerland will begin negotiations to adjust their income tax treaty for greater openness and accountability, the US Treasury Department said Monday.
CAIRO - An Egyptian man beat his 17-year-old daughter to death after she received a phone call from her boyfriend, a police official told AFP on Wednesday. The 45-year-old farmer identified as Mursi A. from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, caught his daughter Nur talking to her boyfriend on the phone and beat her with a large stick before electrocuting her, the official said.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA -- The satellite that North Korea insists it has sent into orbit was evidently a dummy that the North manufactured to justify testing a Taepodong-2 missile, South Korean space experts say.
North Korea's state-run media reported Tuesday that Kim Jong-Il shed tears of regret during the country's controversial rocket launch because he could not use the launch funds to provide aid to his people, the AFP reported.
