Loyalists of Irans supreme leader, who is implacably hostile to the West and its drive to curb Tehrans nuclear work, look set to triumph in Irans parliamentary poll at the expense of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a contest among hard-liners.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei turned against the man he backed in a disputed presidential vote in 2009 after Ahmadinejad challenged his authority over top government posts. Ahmadinejad, first elected in 2005, had shown signs of seeking real power for the presidency, which in the Islamic Republic has always played second fiddle to the supreme leader in all state matters such as nuclear and foreign policy.
But Khamenei remains in the driving seat and the outcome of the March 2 election is unlikely to alter Irans defiance of the West over its nuclear program, despite ever harsher sanctions and the possibility of an eventual military confrontation.
An alliance of clerics, elite Revolutionary Guard and influential bazaar merchants has made sure many pro-Ahmadinejad politicians cannot register to run for the assembly.
Politicians say the Council of Guardians, made up of six clerics and six jurists who vet candidates, has barred many Ahmadinejad supporters, forcing him to pick younger political unknowns.
They had no public link to Ahmadinejads camp, but the Council was wise enough to spot them and around 45 percent of his supporters have been disqualified, said one official involved in the multilayered vetting process.
#3
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US CONGRESSMAN TABLES RESOLUTION CALLING FOR INDEPENDENCE FOR BALOCHISTAN.
* SAME > BILL ON BALOCHISTAN'S RIGHT TO BE FREE ON THE ANVIL IN US CONGRESS - BALTIMORE FOREIGN POLICY.
Pragmatically, as Pakistan is NUKULAAR-ARMED, IMO the Bill likely pretains to the IRAN SIDE OF BALCHISTAN.
Lest we fergit, SW IRAN including "Iranian Balochistan" region is where Iran hopes to base its future SPACEPROG [Persenauts]; + where various Internat Perts, Bloggers believe that Iran is likely to [initially] also base any LRBMS BASES [ICBM, MBM, IRBM], as well as ANTI-USN AIRCRAFT CARRIER/NAVAL ASBM BASES.
Balochistan = also means POST-2014 LAND-LOCKED AFGHANISTAN FINALLY GETS ITS OWN WARM-WATER PORT(S) INTO THE INDIAN OCEAN.
versus
* SAME > PRESIDENT OF KYRGYZSTAN ALMAZBEK ATAMBAYEV: THERE SHOULD BE A TURKISH UNION, in the CAR = CENT ASIA REGION, espec Economically.
POSTER = One prob for Turkey's desired
"Turkish/Turkic Union" is that TAIJIKISTAN IS IRANIC, NOT TURKIC. Iran has times said it also wants its own "Union".
["TELL THE TV AUDIENCE WHAT MOSCOW SAYS TO ALL THIS BEHIND DOOR#3, JIM" here].
Not to be outdone ...
* SAME > CHINA: US BILL ON TIBET CONFUSES [historical, treaty] FACTS.
How times have changed - Myself + WHITNEY-happy Osama, etal. fought + served in Afghanistan, among other, to stop the then-USSR/Soviets from separating Balochistan from Iran + Pakistan for Soviet purposes.
Authorities have nabbed a Virginia man allegedly on his way to the U.S. Capitol for what he thought would be a suicide kaboom on one of the nation's most symbolic landmarks, Fox News has learned.
The man, a Moroccan citizen who has lived in the United States for a dozen years, was identified as Amine El Khalifi, 29, according to a congressional source. He was nabbed following a lengthy investigation by the FBI, initiated after he expressed interest in conducting an attack. He came onto the radar screen in early December after he told an undercover agent about an earlier plan to bomb a northern Virginia building.
The suspect allegedly weighed hitting various targets ranging from a military installation to synagogues to a Washington restaurant before settling on the Capitol.
The man thought undercover FBI agents assisting him in his plot were associates of Al Qaeda. He purchased bomb materials including jackets, nails and glue in preparation for an attack. He even conducted a test explosives demonstration in a quarry.
When he was nabbed Friday in Washington, he was carrying with him a vest supposedly packed with explosives, but the material inside was not actually dangerous, Fox News was told.
A short time earlier, he had been praying at a mosque in the Washington area. His destination was Capitol Hill.
The public was never in danger, as he had been under constant surveillance for some time, officials said. The FBI provided the suspect with a disabled gun during their ongoing operation, Fox News has learned.
In a statement that did not get into the details of the alleged plot, the U.S. Capitol Police said the suspect was "closely and carefully monitored." Capitol Police confirmed the suspect was nabbed on Friday.
"At no time was the public or congressional community in any danger," the department said.
A senior source involved with law enforcement at the Capitol also told Fox News the investigation was "all very controlled." The source said the U.S. Capitol Police was involved with the FBI and other agencies in tracking the suspect "not more than a year."
An arrest usually indicates charges have been filed in some form, but it's unclear when or how charges would have been filed in this case. It's also unclear if the suspect will be appearing in court Friday. In similar past cases, suspects have made their initial court appearance within hours of their arrest.
Sites in Washington have long been a target for terrorists, especially self-radicalized Death Eaters caught in FBI stings.
In September, a Massachusetts man was nabbed for allegedly plotting to fly bomb-laden model planes into the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. FBI agents claiming to be associates of Al Qaeda provided 26-year-old Rezwan Ferdaus with what he thought was kaboom for the remote-controlled planes.
Nearly a year earlier, a Virginia man was nabbed for trying to help Al Qaeda plan multiple bombings against Washington's Metrorail system. For months, 34-year-old Farooque Ahmed of Ashburn, Va., had been meeting and discussing "jihad" with individuals he thought were affiliated with Al Qaeda, but in fact he was meeting with FBI agents.
In the past year alone, at least 20 people have been nabbed in the United States on terrorism-related charges, according to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Most of the arrests" have involved "lone wolves," radicalized online and able to use the Internet to build bombs, FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate committee last month.
The suspect, said by law enforcement officials to originally have come from Morocco and staying in the country illegally, was arrested around noon Friday, blocks from the Capitol, after he received what he thought was a vest containing explosives.
Agents are now conducting searches in Alexandria, Va., where the suspect has been living. FBI officials said El Khalifi has in the United States for the last 12 years illegally, after entering the country legally at age 16 but then overstaying his visa. He was unemployed, the AP reports, and is not believed to have ties to al-Quaida.
At this time, investigators believe that El Khalifi was acting alone.
El Khalifi will appear in federal court this afternoon.
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) A northern Virginia landlord says he thought a Moroccan man arrested in an alleged suicide bombing plot in Washington was suspicious and called police a year and a half ago.
Frank Dynda said Friday that a woman who leased an apartment in his Arlington building apparently married Amine El Khalifi and then moved out. He says when Dynda told El Khalifi to leave, he said he had a right to stay and threatened to beat Dynda up.
Dynda says he thought El Khalifi was making bombs, but police told him to leave the man alone. Dynda had El Khalifi evicted in 2010.
On a related note, authorities also executed a search warrant on a residence in Arlington Friday afternoon. It is unclear whether El Khalifi lived at the house. FBI and Arlington County Police were seen speaking with two men at the location.
#1
I spose it's a good thing it was not BATFE running the sting. They'd prolly have given him a live vest and then "lost track" of him...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2012 17:22
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#2
I think that such schmucks need a new word to describe them. I think the Yiddish word, co-opted by Mad Magazine, "furshlugginer", which means a combination of "confounded", "darned", "crazy", "foolish" and "well-worn, beat-up, piece of junk".
#4
As Iran goes Nuclear + other post-"Arab/Muslim Spring" ME States demand their own NucProgs,
unfortunately I suspect the skills of wannabes like Khalifi + DC Boyz will improve to Amer's detriment.
Again, + however rough or imperfect, IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM, ETAL. NEED NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO PROVE THE "CALIPHATE'S" PARITY, IFF NOT SUPERIORITY OR DOMINANCE, VEE ANY + ALL NON-ISLAM.
New 911's or worse is coming to CONUS-NORAM - its only a question of time, which history suggests Islamic Conquerers-Warriors are very good at manipulating to use agz their enemies, espec vee the highly inter-competitive West. ALL THINGS EQUAL, ISLAM'S GREATEST SINGLE WEAPON AGZ THE CHRISTIANS ARE THE CHRISTIANS THEMSELVES.
The demonstration took place after a bomber on a motorcycle struck in a market in the northwestern town of Parachinar, killed 23 Shiite Muslims and wounding 50.
Local government administrator Wajid Ali said many of the 23 dead were shoppers or people with stalls in the market, he said.
After the attack, security forces fired on crowds protesting the attack, killing three people, said Ali.
A local Taliban commander, Fazal Saeed Haqqani, claimed responsibility for the attack in Parachinar, whose population is mostly Shiite. He justified the attack by saying that Shiites had been attacking Sunnis.
Parachinar and the nearby region of Kurram have been plagued by sectarian violence for several years. Shiites have been the overwhelming victims.
#1
Is this the final conclusion to that 2009 bond smuggling deal? There has been so much cloak and dagger involved with this that it's hard to know what is going on.
Originally it was, "Two middle-aged men with valid Japanese passports", and The men were questioned, but not arrested.
#3
Terrorism does not have to be bombs or bullets.
A really smart attack on our financial system could have devestating affects on our current condition.
I personally believe the 9/11 attacks were aimed at our financial system and created some of the early instability in our financial system that was a precursor to the DEPRESSION we are now in.
Remember a recession is three consequtive quarters of negative growth. A depression is six. Are we in a DEPRESSION?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/17/2012 13:47
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#4
Are we in a DEPRESSION? Not as long as it hurts Obama's re-election chances to admit it.
#5
There is the situation of the known high-quality counterfeits of US $100 bills done by North Korea & probably others, and the possibility of counterfeit gold bullion - gold plated tungsten bars substituted for the real thing in vaults anywhere in the world.
International finance could collapse any day for a wide variety of reasons, mostly not related to the WOT. If we're very lucky it won't.
#9
"Severe threat my a***. Who would have redeemed those papers. Swiss banks? Please.
This is like saying that those blackened Nigerian "dollars" present a threat to world economy.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/17/2012 17:22
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#10
I assumed all the "money printing" has all been digital (Treasury issues bonds, Fed buys them). But maybe not. Severe threat if they're the real thing?
#12
At the risk of being seen as smug and flippant, the only difference between counterfeit money and US treasury money is the location of the printing press and the quality of the work. Fiat money is PAPER, we merely agree now that it means something. What tangible thing will the governemtn give you for it? Aside from the increasingly meaningless "Full Faith and Credit" of the US government, what does it mean? Massive monetary crisis courtesy of the Fed and Bernake is on the way, and the Chinese hold that gun to our head in a not very subtle manner any more. Why be subtle or overly polite, they hold the mortgage to the entire farm and can destabilize the currency in a minute if they are willing to take the hit. Sadly, the proud American Dollar, like the skilled American worker, is a fading memory. The one through hyper inflation, the other, through "free trade" policy where everyone cheats except us.
#13
>Fiat money is PAPER, we merely agree now that it means something. What tangible thing will the governemtn give you for it?
You can pay your tax with it. Gold is fiat, just harder to expand the supply (which isn't as good as it sounds, as it puts control of the economy in the hands of mine owners).
#14
This is a good discussion. Are silver coins better than paper? I think paper has more faith than metal, but I could be wrong. At the end of the day, it's all about faith. And there are a lot of faithful, but stupid, people out there.
But count me among the faithful, I have more paper than silver.
#15
Scooter, the Fed has printed so much paper since 1913 that the dollar has lost 96% of its value since then. Most of that loss is recent and accelerating. 10 years ago, an ounce of gold cost about $300. Today, $1725. Over the same time frame, wages have been more or less flat.
Metal can always be exchanged for paper. Paper can always be exchanged for metal too - BUT, how much paper will it take? Metal is regarded as a hedge against inflation for a reason.
it puts control of the economy in the hands of mine owners.
Which is why mining stocks are so hot right now. Unlike the Fed's printing press, you can own a piece of those. Stated differently, are you satisfied with who's in control of the economy now?
#16
Back when the currencies were silver and gold, they also had runaway inflations and crashes. "You can't eat gold," they said then, and starved to death with their gold beside them.
Money has no intrinsic value unless it is edible, but then it is subject to mold and rot. Or, seen differently, money is portable barter, which makes it only worth whatever people are willing to trade it for at a given moment. It never has intrinsic value, no matter whether paper, precious metal, or gigantic stone wheel with a hole in the center. The only thing of real value is a skill people need, or complete self-sufficiency in an area with perfect climate that's proof against invaders.
#17
Speaking of which - in the early Cold War - a year or two worth of crops were supposedly buried in the Alaska tundra for safe keeping... I wonder if it's still edible/safe and if anybody alive today knows where it is buried.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/17/2012 23:55
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The three Iranian men detained for allegedly plotting bomb attacks in Bangkok on Israeli diplomats had more than terror on their minds in Thailand. Police said Friday that they had also cavorted with prostitutes at a beach resort.
The news comes as Thai authorities announced they were searching for two more suspects in the botched bomb plot, including a possible explosives specialist who may have been training the Iranians.
The foiled plan was discovered Tuesday when explosives in the men's rented house blew up by mistake, forcing them to flee. Two were detained in the Thai capital, and a third was captured Wednesday in neighboring Malaysia as he reportedly tried to return to Iran.
After flying into the southern city of Phuket on Feb. 8, the men moved to Pattaya and stayed there for at least two nights before heading to Bangkok. Located 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of the Thai capital, Pattaya is particularly notorious for its sleazy sex industry and large contingent of prostitutes.
The Iranians hung out with several female sex workers during their stay there, and one of the women was brought to Bangkok to identify the suspects on Thursday, said Lt. Col. Noppon Kuldiloke, a senior immigration police investigator in southern Thailand.
A cellphone image taken by one of the women, published by the Bangkok Post with an article headlined "Suspects partied in Pattaya," purportedly showed the three Iranians at a Middle Eastern bar or restaurant surrounded by hookah water-pipes, two of them cradling women in their arms. The men posed for the photo around a low, drink-filled table on which there appeared to be at least one bottle of beer.
The woman who took the image said one of the now-detained suspects, Mohammad Kharzei, had asked her to escort him "because he was not good at speaking English," according to the Bangkok Post.
She said she brought two companions for Kharzei's friends, and they had drinks and played snooker together. The woman detected nothing awry, except when one of the Iranians "barred her from approaching a closet" in his hotel room, the newspaper reported.
Oh, no. That kind of thing is permitted before formally setting out on the jihad of the sword. You should've seen what the 9/11 lot got up to in Las Vegas before getting on their airplanes.
Three Iranians detained for allegedly plotting bomb attacks in Bangkok on Israeli diplomats apparently had more than terrorism on their minds: Police said Friday the men had also cavorted with prostitutes at a Thai beach resort.
The news emerged as authorities announced they were searching for two more suspects in the botched bomb plot, including a possible explosives specialist who may have been training the Iranians.
FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
The crisis saw shares in London fall yesterday and the euro hit a three-week low as banks, including RBS and Barclays, were threatened with having their credit ratings downgraded.
Former Chancellor Lord Lamont warned that Greece was "the canary in the mine...a warning of dangers to come." The appearance of several high-ranking army officers sitting next to Greek president Karolos Papoulias at a meeting on Wednesday, when he criticised Germany, fuelled speculation of a military takeover.
Mr Papoulias said ominously: "The politicians should take an example from our soldiers. They always stayed true to the native country." It would not be the first time Greece has succumbed to military rule. A brutal junta led the country from 1967 to 1974.
Former German general Harald Kujat yesterday expressed his fears of a coup. And after the riots in Athens earlier this week, there were calls for tanks to be deployed to protect banks.
#2
I remember the junta but didn't really pay that much attention do to my own personal concerns.
One thing I don't recall is that it was what I would call brutal. Daffy and Pencilneck are brutal but I don't remember citizens being machine gunned in the streets whole sale.
Authoritarian sure, undemocratic, definitely, but brutal? I'm just not sure.
Is this a faulty memory on my part or lefty/communist propaganda?
#3
Brutal or not, the coup of the Colonels was blamed on the US - you'd have gone deaf, listening to the Greeks go on and on and on and on and on about the brutality of the Colonels and how the US government was behind it all.
IIRC, I think we just sat back and watched it happen, but apparently that was just exactly the same as issuing detailed marching orders.
#4
In December the PM asked for and recieved resignations from several senior officers. The current military leadership is personally beholden to the PM for their positions. Presumably to defuse any potential issues
#5
A good way to bring on a coup would be to threaten military pay or pensions. A good rule of thumb for the Greek government: mess with the military last - they have guns.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/17/2012 22:26
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#6
FOX NEWS AM showed video news footage of many homeless kitchens + vendors being set up outside in Greek streets - IIRC, it was repor that 1-in-4 Greeks are unemployed now???
Not many Vehicles, Private or Govt., seen driving around in the video segment - LOTS OF UNCOLLECTED TRASH, THOUGH.
FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
The crisis saw shares in London fall yesterday and the euro hit a three-week low as banks, including RBS and Barclays, were threatened with having their credit ratings downgraded.
Former Chancellor Lord Lamont warned that Greece was the canary in the mine...a warning of dangers to come. The appearance of several high-ranking army officers sitting next to Greek president Karolos Papoulias at a meeting on Wednesday, when he criticised Germany, fuelled speculation of a military takeover.
Mr Papoulias said ominously: The politicians should take an example from our soldiers. They always stayed true to the native country. It would not be the first time Greece has succumbed to military rule. A brutal junta led the country from 1967 to 1974.
Former German general Harald Kujat yesterday expressed his fears of a coup. And after the riots in Athens earlier this week, there were calls for tanks to be deployed to protect banks.
And now for something different, h/t Gates of Vienna
Let's get one thing clear: Obama unquestionably ranks among the bottom five presidents in US history. In terms of sublime awfulness he's right up there with our late and extremely unlamented ex-PM Gordon Brown -- which is quite some doing, given that Brown singlehandedly wrought more destruction on his country than the Luftwaffe, Dutch Elm Disease, the South Sea Bubble, the Fire of London and the Black Death combined.
Agreed: the damage President Obama has done to the US economy with everything from Ben Bernanke's insane money-printing programme, to his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, to his ban on deep-water drilling to his crony capitalism hand-outs to disaster zones like Solyndra to his persecution of companies like Gibson is incalculable. And, of course, if he gets a second term the damage he and his rag-bag of Marxist cronies at organisations like the Environmental Protection Agency manage to inflict on the US small businessman trying to make an honest buck will make his first term look like Calvin Coolidge on steroids.
So why do I think this would be preferable to a presidency under Mitt Romney? Simple. Because I've seen what happens, America, when you elect yet another spineless, yet ruthless, principle-free blow-with-the-wind, big government, crony-capitalist RINO squish. His name is Dave Cameron -- and trust me, the cure is far worse than the disease.
#1
Many Democrats have no choice. Their party has been taken over. The black vote is still strong because he is black. Even when is is part black. In the days of the riots the black population would have called him an oreo. He still has the support from those on government programs. Some may want cuts but not on their stuff. They tempt the weak. Pied piper of destruction. Mr Scratch looking for more souls to harvest.
#4
As instalundit notes, at least with a Republican in the whitehouse the media acts as a watchdog and not a lapdog helping to hide questionable constitutional moves
#8
He has a point, but in my opinion has a poor way of proving it. Here's my try at it:
The core problem is that the funds necessary to finance Barack's Utopia cannot be totally raised from taxes lest the economy tank and those taxed rise up in revolt. The result is deficit spending that is financed by the sale of US bonds and treasuries. The current problem is that the same policies driving us to Bartack's Utopia is tanking the economy so no one can (or will) buy these treasuries. The Fed steps in to buy these treasures, financed by fiat money with no real value. Thus, the monetized deficit not an IOU to future generations, but will be paid via inflation in a more immediate future. This tanks the economy even further.
Now, what I have noticed is that when the economy tanks, the country is slowly learning that one has to turn to the Republicans to run a government that will fix the economy. THAT IS THE ONLY PURPOSE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: to patch the economy together enough so that the Democrats who are elected next to replace them will have something to plunder and distribute.
The similarity in pronunciation between the initials for "Other People's Money" (OPM) and "Opium" the drug, is fortuitous: Like an addict or a drunkard, the US electorate has barely enough sense to know that when the junk runs out, they gotta turn to someone who will help them dry out and get some cash back into their pockets. Why? SO THAT THEY CAN GET MORE JUNK. You give money to a drunk so he can get a square meal, but he uses it to buy booze. You get him a suit so he can go on interviews and get a job, but he pawns the suit to buy booze. If he has SOME wits, he lands the job, works it a bit, THEN uses his paycheck to buy more booze than he would get pawning the suit.
This is essentially a co-dependent relationship, and the addict uses all kinds of ways and means to keep the bennies that the co-dependent brings to them coming: threats, pleadings, accusations, even violence. As long as the co-dependent cooperates and does their part, the addict doesn't have to face the end of the party.
This is where the concept of "tough love" comes in: that real love may require saying "no", doing nothing, and letting the addict suffer the full consequences of their behavior. This can have far-reaching impacts if it is a spouse who is an addict and the breadwinner, for letting that spouse suffer the consequences may necessitate a cut in one's income. If the income is more important than the spouse, continuing the cycle of dependency will be the preferable option (See Michael Jackson, and maybe Whitney Houston).
The similarities to what this gentleman is saying should now be obvious: He's advocating some policital "tough love", let the Democrats win this battle, let the situation blow up in their faces (or, more likely, blow their faces off), then step in with someone who would really fix the core problem. If we win this time, the public will demand that we treat the lame ducks with compassion. What this guy is saying is that if we take a pass, the democrats will make the situation so much worse that the public will demand that we hang the b*st*rds when we win next time.
Now, I anticipate that the response to this comment/explanation will exactly mirror the panicked response of the co-dependent spouse who worries that there WILL be no tomorrow if they don't do something. THAT attitude is what the addict depends on! If the co-dependent isn't thinking "If I don't help, disaster will happen!", then you can count on the addict helping them to think that very thought.
If I was to play the counselor in both these cases, I would ask the same question to both: "what do you think your spouse/the american people is/are made of?"
I haven't decided what I'll do yet, because I haven't figured out the answer to that question yet.
#9
Delingpole is really a comedian editorialist. FTA: I'm presuming what you really want is stuff like: smaller government; a genuine as opposed to an illusory, QE-driven economic recovery; sensible environmentalism (ie conservation but not eco-fascism); liberty; an end of crony capitalism; a diminution of the power of Wall Street; a resurgence of American greatness; a renewed sense of confidence and purpose.
That's what I want, but I've come to believe I'm in a small minority. My guess is about 45% of the electorate belong to the Free Lunch Party, ignorant of US history & basic economics, getting their information from the MSM, union public relations firms, etc. As long as their government cheques and bennies keep flowing to them, they're most unlikely to change. A resurgence of national greatness, confidence & purpose has to be earned, and IMHO can only occur if that mass of dead weight is somehow shifted, educated, persuaded before a national economic collapse occurs. The Free Lunch Party doesn't have to be converted 100%, just enough to swing several elections in succession.
#10
Reagan? There was 6 years of recession where he added more to the US debt than all other Presidents combined. His re-election was campaigned on a "Stay the Course" platform. Any feel-good from Geezer policies was from his undoing of Carter insanities. Reagan wasn't President when the Soviet bloc collapsed after the Chernobyl circus. Then there was the pullout from Lebanon after the Commander in Chief took responsibility for allowing troops to "guard" a Marine barracks with unloaded rifles. Don't dislike the guy, but why lie about him?
Posted by: Ho Chi Panda3530 ||
02/17/2012 15:26
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#11
Ptah -
You speak wisdom, sir. Let me add a similar sentiment I've held for some years now: the Federal Government is addicted to money the way a junkie is addicted to crack. And never, ever forget for a single moment what a junkie will do to get his fix.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/17/2012 19:38
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#12
Thought-provoking, as are Ptah's remarks. Basically the alternatives are (a) gently coast off the edge of the cliff, or (b) continue pedal-to-the-metal, while gambling on (a) a non-kooky hardass candidate in 2016, (b) who will be elected by a large margin.
Indeed, that's a gamble that depends on what voters are made of. Given all the fraud, illegals, culture of dependency, etc., I'm not sure I could say either.
We're really kinda f*cked either way. The one thing in Romney's favor is that he might buy us some time.
h/t Instapundit
Armed militias in Libya are committing human rights abuses with impunity, threatening to destabilize the country and hindering its efforts to rebuild, Amnesty International said Thursday.
Militias have tortured detainees, targeted migrants and displaced entire communities in revenge attacks, according to a report the organization released a year after the start of popular uprisings that eventually ended Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule. IMO: A dictator who is a not a complete homicidal paranoid is the most liberal form of government a Muslim country can have.
#4
"IMO: A dictator who is a not a complete homicidal paranoid is the most liberal form of government a Muslim country can have".
Libyan freedom fighters.
Christians who want to be exempt from equality legislation are like Muslims trying to impose sharia on Britain, Trevor Phillips, the human rights watchdog, has declared.
Religious rules should end at the door of the temple and give way to the public law laid down by Parliament, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.
He argued that Roman Catholic adoption agencies and other faith groups providing public services must choose between their religion and obeying the law when their beliefs conflict with the will of the state.
Mr Phillips singled out the adoption agencies that fought a long legal battle to avoid being forced to accept homosexual couples under equality laws.
Last year, following a High Court case, the Charity Commission ruled against an exemption for Catholic Care, an adoption agency operating in Leeds.
Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. You cant say because we decide were different then we need a different set of laws, he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper.
#2
As Daniel Hannan so eloquently said, Britain is headed for the edge of the cliff, & looking in the rear view mirror they see the US trying to overtake them. Govt. attacks on Chritianity are just getting going here.
If you care about religious freedom in the US, contact your Senators and support the Blunt Conscience amendment. Lets not ket the stupid bastards win here.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
02/17/2012 7:49
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#4
They pulled off this same stunt in Illinois. This is forgotten in the current fight over requiring Catholic organizations to break their doctrines and support birth control and abortion.
The left truly hates the Catholic church, and is attacking it from several directions: abortion, adoption, euthanasia, women and gay priests, etc. They truly hate the idea that others occupy the moral high ground.
List of "Catholic" front organizations paid for by George Soros, through the Open Society Initiative:
Catholics United
Faith in Public Life (Marxist/Communist)
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG)
Catholic Charities, USA (via CACG)
Catholic Health Association
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)
Catholics for a Free Choice
Catholic Democrats
National Association for Catholic Chaplains
#8
When acceptance of immorality is mandated, and all elements of society obey, the gateway to darkeness and death is thrown wide open for that society.
Posted by: Marilyn Barnsmell7062 ||
02/17/2012 14:21
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#9
What g(r)omgoru said.
So the religion of the left is what? Radical environmentalism. Atheism? Statism? Social engineering? Redistribution of wealth. Social justice? Class warfare? Racial politics?
He may be a stupid bastad, but by means of the rejection and/or destruction of belief that one is part of a larger sum than earthly experience, that person loses their individuality and merely beaten souless servants with nothing to look forward to the next day, including dreams, wealth, or freedom. Only toil, and toil the same field your lords let your great grandchildren toil. Perhaps you will have a son, who for a brief moment may have an existential thought before becoming blank eyed cannon fodder instead of broken at mid life.
#11
Have those asshole start their own religion, like, Bestiality Without Borders Church of Frank/
Catholics United
Faith in Public Life (Marxist/Communist)
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG)
Catholic Charities, USA (via CACG)
Catholic Health Association
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)
Catholics for a Free Choice
Catholic Democrats
National Association for Catholic Chaplains
Posted by: jack salami ||
02/17/2012 21:24
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#12
hey now!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2012 21:25
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#13
The American Catholic Bishops have long supported all these leftists who hate everything about the church. The bishops like the sound of many of the elements of the leftist's espoused social agenda. For me most of these policies include a thin veneer of sanctimony over an underlying structure of cronyism and statism. The poor that the bishops hope to help instead become a dependent class of devotees to be milked for cash and votes. Most are degraded spiritually in ways that the bishops don't seem to connect to their leftist buddies. When the leftists periodically open their trench coats wide for all to see with some obvious anti-religion, the bishops pretend not to see as acting offended might be inconsistent with their policy of enabling engagement.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/17/2012 22:48
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PESHAWAR, Feb 16: An official of Pakistain Army's judge advocate general (JAG) branch informed the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court on Thursday that several of Orcs and similar vermin in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Valley had rejoined their groups despite de-radicalisation by security forces.
An assistant director of JAG Branch, Colonel Noor Ahmad, informed a two-member bench that security forces had been spending money and resources on de-briefing and de-radicalisation of Orcs and similar vermin and had even provided them with money for restarting new lives, but they had reports that several of them had joined back bad boy outfits.
The official was responding to queries put by PHC Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Azmatullah Malik during the hearing into several habeas corpus petitions pertaining to missing persons.
The chief justice observed that the security forces' de-radicalisation programme might be defective due to which these people returned to their former comrades.
He also said security forces should hire services of competent psychologists and psychiatrists and for that purpose the government should provide them with appropriate funds.
"How is it possible that youngsters brainwashed by ignorant holy mans could not be reformed by competent psychologists," he asked.
Mother of a missing taxi driver made a desperate appeal to the court for the recovery of her son and said if that didn't happen, she would leave his wife and children at the court for being unable to face them and keep them on false hopes and promises anymore.
Clad in traditional shuttlecock burqa, the woman said the wife and children of her son, Sanam Gul, stayed awake at night in the hope that he would return back.
"We should be at least told whether he is dead or alive following which we will never disturb the court," she said.
The woman was accompanied by her husband, Redi Gul, who is petitioner in the case.
Mr Redi of Kajori area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency alleged that his son was picked up at Hayatabad Township in June 2011 by local police and since his whereabouts had been unknown.
The court asked deputy attorney general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand why the government had not been making public the whereabouts of the detainees.
It observed that Action (In Aid Of Civil Power) Regulation had been introduced which was a tough law and under it such like persons could be jugged.
Mr Mohmand said several of the missing persons had returned home and only 70 to 80 cases were left. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the court disputed the figures given by him observing that still a large number of cases were pending with the court.
The court directed him to try to trace out Mr Sanam Gul.
It summoned the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... advocate general, Asadullah Khan Chamkani, and asked him about the outcome of the Wednesday's meeting of the apex committee comprising the governor, chief minister and Peshawar Corps commander.
Mr Chamkani presented details about the meeting saying threadbare discussion took place on the issue with the government saying it'll follow court orders.
The court asked if the meeting was only for media consumption or any concrete plan was made to attend to the issue.
Mr Chamkani said some detainees were hardened Orcs and similar vermin and that principal of a school in Khyber Agency had informed security agencies in jug that chemicals meant for laboratory in his school were provided to Orcs and similar vermin by him.
The court observed that it had no sympathies for Orcs and similar vermin and that even suspects cleared by security forces were bailed out by courts after attaching tough conditions to their release.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea... the court allowed more time to the government for tracing whereabouts of two minor brothers allegedly taken into custody from their school at Lal Jan Kalae in Bara on January 7, 2011.
The petition regarding their detention is filed by their mother, Shan Bibi.
The two, Said Nazeem and Mohammad Ijaz, were 11 and 12 respectively at the time of their arrest.
The defence ministry has already informed the court that detainees were not in jug of any of the agencies functioning under its supervision.
In another petition filed by Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... , brother of missing lawyer Aurangzeb Khan, the court summoned the commandant of elite police force and head of criminal investigation department (CID).
The petitioner alleged that the lawyer was picked up by security forces at a checkpost on July 14, 2011, along with another lawyer Fazal Ilahai Khan, who was later on freed.
Advocate Fazal Ilahi informed the court that he and Mr Aurangzeb were taken away either by elite force or CID not security forces. Hearing into the case was later adjourned for January 14.
The court also disposed of another petition filed by a resident of Nowshera, Gul Naz, who said her son, Kamran, was incarcerated by plainclothesmen on January 26, 2010, in Badrashi area of Nowshera.
The petitioner's lawyer, Asthagfirullah Khan, informed the court that another petition of the woman had been pending with the commission of missing persons in Islamabad.
Continued on Page 49
#1
You ought to know better, Now that Talking has been tried, Can we blow them to hell any more?
They'll listen THEN.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/17/2012 0:50
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#2
Never understood the concept of "de-radicalisation". I understand being a hard working paid member of the establishment who works so hard he doesn't have time to think about being radical...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/17/2012 11:49
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#3
Canadian DM Pete McKay a'sezzes the prob is PAKISTAN, NOT THE TALIBAN.
PESHAWAR, Feb 16: About eight persons including three copperswere maimed when a man hurled a hand grenade at them on Bara Road in suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar on Thursday.
An official said that an unidentified man hurled a hand grenade on coppers when they were sitting at a roadside makeshift restaurant in Batatal area.
"An official Elite Force Inam Khan and his two companions had parked their armoured personnel carrier and were taking lunch at Khalil Hotel when they came under attack," he added. He said that five other persons, present there, were also inured in the attack.
SSP Tahir Ayub told journalists at the blast site that the terrorist managed to escape towards tribal area after attacking the police party. He said that police were fully alert but they could not check each and every person roaming in the area.
He said that the area was close to tribal region and hard boyz could easily escape there.
The SSP said the police also got information about presence of a would-be jacket wallah and searched the area but could not find him.
An official of the Bomb Disposal Unit told Dawn that about 400 grams of explosives, mixed with ball bearings, were used in the blast.
The official said that Death Eaters also tried to target members of a peace committee in Mashokhel area of Badhber with a bomb but no one was injured in the blast.
About four kilogram explosives, he said, were used in the blast. "The members of peace committee, riding a motorcar, remained unhurt as the explosives were outdated and Death Eaters failed to detonate the same properly," he added.
MIRAMSHAH: Missiles fired by US drones rained on suspected krazed killer targets in North Wazoo on Thursday, killing at least 21 people.
According to sources, six people were killed and two others injured when two missiles slammed into a compound in the village of Spilga near Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... . The identities of the persons who died could not be ascertained.
Hours later, another drone attacked a moving vehicle on the Zekerkhel-Khaisur road in Mirali tehsil.
Official sources said 15 members of a krazed killer group were killed. Their bodies were charred.
Local people rushed to the place and carried out rescue work.
Unmanned planes kept flying over the area throughout the day.
AFP adds: A security official said Uzbek Islamic fascistihad been killed in the attack on the vehicle.
Those who died in the first attack belonged to Badar Mansoor and the Haqqani network, loyal to the Afghan Taliban, another official said. Last Thursday, officials said Mansoor, described as the "de facto leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistain" had been killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes in Pakistain have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people over the past eight years.
According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in the tribal belt in 2009, 101 in 2010 and 64 last year.
President Barack Obama The Cambridge police acted stupidly... last month confirmed for the first time that US drones attacked Taliban and Al Qaeda Islamic fascistion Pak soil.
#1
Local people rushed to the place and carried out rescue work at gunpoint.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2012 7:20
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#2
Tumbling bowling pins would be an inadequate graphic for this post. You'd need a picture of several lanes at the bowling alley...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2012 7:30
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#3
Any chance of aiming our drones at The emergence of the "Defend Pakistan Council" movement has raised suspicions that the group has approval from elements in the powerful military and security establishment, aiming to bolster public support for a hardline position. The group's rise comes as the military is trying to assert its position in renegotiating its troubled relationship with the United States and as Pakistan prepares for elections likely to take place later this year.
Seventeen Yemeni rustics were killed Thursday in festivities that followed the liquidation of a local al-Qaeda leader by his half-brother in his stronghold southeast of Sanaa, tribal chiefs said.
The festivities erupted after Tarek al-Dahab was rubbed out by his half-brother Hizam in the town of al-Masaneh, a family fiefdom in Bayda province, several tribal chiefs said, confirming that the killer and his brother were among the 17 killed in the shootouts.
"Al-Qaeda gunnies fired rockets at the house of Hizam killing him and his brother Majid, as well as their nephew Ahmed," one source said.
Eleven armed rustics were killed when the vehicle transporting them was also targeted, the sources said.
A tribal chief said that Hizam was "pushed by authorities" to kill Dahab who had in January taken over control of the town of Radah, about 130 kilometers southeast of Sanaa, and 30 kilometers from al-Masaneh.
Dahab and his gunnies withdrew from Radah after holding it for nine days, bowing to tribal pressure.
These "price tag attacks" have been occuring for a while, and possibly before that without the label. It's a sign that more and more Israelis have given up on the possibility of a diplomatic solution with the Palestinians, and at the individual level are taking their own steps. It will no doubt continue until the Israeli government takes action action effective enough that the Palestinians become quiescent.
Vandals believed to be Jewish gunnies set light to a car in a village in the northern West Bank on Thursday, Israeli police said.
The incident took place in Nabi Elyas village, just outside the northern town of Qalqilya, with the words "price tag" scrawled near the burnt out car.
Police said one person had been tossed in the calaboose in connection with the incident, but gave no further details.
"Price tag" is a euphemism for Dire Revenge hate crimes by Israeli Death Eaters, which normally target Paleostinians and Arabs, usually in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorized settler outposts.
The attacks tend to involve the vandalism or destruction of Paleostinian property and have included multiple arson attacks on cars, mosques and olive trees, although the perpetrators are rarely caught.
Last year, police say 65 indictments were handed to gunnies suspected of assault or for causing property damage in price tag attacks.
Despite the rising number of arson attacks, police say they are often unable to press charges given the lack of evidence.
#2
G(r)omgoru, would you write a little bit about who is doing this and what impact they are having? The periwinkle paragraph above is the sum total of my knowledge on the subject. Thank you.
#4
I disagree with this, from a tactical point of view. I call it the "dog-coyote" theory.
Dogs almost always fight to establish dominance, and though their brawls can cause serious injury to each other, their *intent* is to establish who is superior and who is inferior.
Coyotes, on the other hand, only fight to kill, most often for food. They do not fight for dominance.
So, when dogs and coyotes fight, even if the dog is larger and a better fighter, the coyote will usually win, because it uses no restraint at all, but intends to kill.
Importantly, humans can adopt either mode, but with the same result. The Paleos endlessly say that they want to kill all the Jews and destroy Israel; but the Israelis only fight to establish dominance, and can't get it through their head that this is not a slap-fight.
The only reason a LOT more Jews aren't dying is because they are particularly good fighters, and well equipped with the technology for fighting. But both of these things are fleeting, and eventually the Paleos will either figure out how to fight better, or smuggle in the technology they need to kill.
And then LOTS of Jews will die, and Paleos will never, ever, give Jews any quarter, because as they keep saying, endlessly, they want to kill all the Jews and destroy Israel.
Seriously, how many wars by Arabs trying to destroy Israel does it take before the Jews finally get it through their head that this is a fight to the death?
Even on the small scale, burning a car is just a slap that means nothing. Burning a person means something.
#8
Probably not a new phenomenon. I remember seeing a documentary in which a Sabra described the olden days (paraphrased): "We used to sometimes get hit from the Arab villages. So we would hit them back, but always a little bit harder!"
(TOLOnews) - I didn't watch the interview but I read the report published by TOLOnews. The title of the report was "Taliban are the Murderers of Afghan People
Taliban are Murderers of Afghan People, is a new discovery, calling Taliban, Haqqani and al-Qaeda networks killers and enemies of Afghan people doesn't solve the problems Afghanistan is currently facing.
Afghanistan's Caped President, Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , is decisive to show a happy face to the Taliban to persuade them to sit around negotiation table and bring them into the government. Mr Spanta cited the involvement of Taliban into the government structure a historical shame and he should apologise to the Afghan people.
Why should we negotiate with the Taliban? Are the sides looking for their own popularity and is the government interested to look at Taliban's untrimmed beards? Or is Taliban group interested to see technocrat faces and modern suits of Karzai's government officials? In fact they are fighting to gain power. Taliban are being supported by neighbouring countries and if Pak Prime Minister, Yosuf Raza Gilani, in an interview with al-Jazeera said that his government is not supporting the Taliban, it's clearly a lie. Taliban group was created in 1994 by Pakistain, Gilani's party and Pakistain's people's party and late Pak interior minister, Nasrullah Babur, is the spiritual father of the Taliban.
National Security Advisor to President Karzai, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, is fully aware of the strategies. He emphasised on taking the war to the other side of the Afghan-Pakistain border as the Americans did and launched an air strike on November 26 last year and killed 24 Pak soldiers. But Pakistain's political revolution made America's eyes blind and the revolution is in progress. I think it would have been better if Mr Spanta emphasised more on causes of the tensions between Pakistain and Afghanistan instead of calling Taliban the murderers of Afghan people.
Even if it is true...
In principle, we can follow two strategies in our relations with Pakistain, the first one is the strategy of former Afghan president, Mohammad Dawood Khan, and the second is the strategy of Abdul Rahman Khan and Amanullah Khan in 1929 and then during the Mohammad Hashim Khan and Shah Mahmoud Khan kingdoms. The history of kingdoms shows that Afghans accepted the border between Afghanistan and Pakistain but during Dawood Khan's regime he planned a very dangerous strategy which threatened Pakistain.
Division of Pashtunistan was another challenge for Pakistain in Dawood Khan's strategy.
At that time, Pakistain had newly gained its independence which was not recognised by Afghanistan in 1948 UN summit. The main question is which strategy should be used against Pakistain? Mr Spanta cited Amanullah Khan's kingdom as the golden era of Afghanistan, which is right. He gathered modern thinking people such as Mahmood Tarzi, Wali Mohammad Khan Darwazi, Queen Suraya his wife, and Mr Dawi. We should solve our problems with the Taliban. Pakistain established Taliban to remove those who were with division of Pashtunistan.
Tribal leaders and Pashtun Nationalists are being killed by Taliban and today instead of tribal leaders Taliban Mullahs are ruling Swat, Bajaur, Orakzai, Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency and North Wazoo. These areas are being controlled by Mullah Hafiz Gul Bahadur Khan, Mullah Nazir, Mullah Rahmani, Hakimullah Mehsoud, Mullah Ehsanullah Ehsan, Mullah Faqir Mohammad and Mullah Fazelullah. They implement the provisions of Islam according to their own interests. They behead people and amputate hands misusing Islam. Extremist mullahs and nationalists destroyed communities; Taliban's ideology is to impose their own version of Islam rules on Pakistain, Afghanistan, Khurasan, and Middle East. There is no doubt that Taliban are fighting or negotiating to gain power. I can't understand how Mr Spanta said that if Taliban are involved in government he will feel ashamed before the history.
The main point is to talk about borders with Pakistain. These may not solve all the problems but solving the border issues could be very important. Pakistain's protest may not be becauseof the death of 24 soldiers, it may have messages like Durand line is the redline for Islamabad, crossing that line could have any kind of consequences.
After the liquidation of Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... , President Karzai realised that the side to talk with is Pakistain, this discovery is better than discovery by Mr Spanta. President Karzai has recognised his side to negotiate with.
Mr Spanta must realise that Afghanistan is facing Pakistain, not a small number of Taliban, they called the government of Afghanistan a "puppet" regime, but the truth is that Taliban are the servants of ISI. The US will never change the strategy and the geography of war.
As you all know Afghanistan's defence minister is sleeping all the time due to his old age, his working hours start at ten o'clock in the morning and ends at two o'clock in the afternoon as organised by his aides.
Our Security Forces are not capable enough to change the geography of war, instead of changing the geography of war think about negotiations with Pakistain and recognise the vital issues.
Don't be afraid to share your findings with Pakistain, accept the realities, wishing will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. Don't be just happy by saying on TV that Taliban are murderers of Afghan people. It's not a new discovery.
Mohammad Natiqi is the Former Afghan Ambassador to Libya and a political analyst.
Two U.S. drone strikes struck Islamist Death Eaters in Pakistain's tribal badlands on Thursday, killing at least 13 fighters in North Wazoo near the Afghan border, officials said.
The aircraft fired missiles hours apart on separate targets in what is considered the premier bastion of Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistain as the government in Islamabad welcomed the Afghan and Iranian leaders for a summit.
Five Death Eaters were killed in the first attack that destroyed a compound in Spalga town near Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... and at least eight died in the second attack on a vehicle near the town of Mir Ali, about 25 kilometers to the east.
"The corpse count may rise," a Pak security official warned Agence La Belle France Presse after the second strike targeted Death Eaters travelling in a double cabin pick-up.
"At least eight myrmidon have been killed in the second strike," he said, describing them all as "foreigners".
Another security official in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan, put the corpse count at 12, saying they were all Uzbek Islamist fighters.
"The vehicle caught fire and the dead bodies are badly mutilated," he added.
The United States says Pakistain's tribal belt provides sanctuary to Taliban fighting in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda groups plotting attacks on the West, and Pak Taliban who routinely bomb Pakistain and other imported muscle.
Those killed in the first attack were loyalists of Badar Mansoor and the Haqqani network, loyal to the Afghan Taliban whose leaders are understood to be based in North Waziristan, one of the Pak officials said.
Last Thursday, officials said Mansoor, described as the "de facto leader of al-Qaeda in Pakistain" was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
Mansoor was considered one of America's main targets in the country, wanted for kabooms on the minority Ahmadi sect that killed nearly 100 people in May 2010 and the chief link between al-Qaeda and the Pak Taliban.
The United States has blamed the Haqqani network for some of the most spectacular attacks carried out in Kabul, including last September's siege of the U.S. embassy.
On Thursday, Pakistain hosted Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... and Iranian leader Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad for a regional summit at a key juncture in peace efforts with the Taliban.
President Barack Obama B.O.... last month confirmed for the first time that U.S. drones target Taliban and al-Qaeda Death Eaters on Pak soil, but American officials do not discuss details of the covert program.
According to an AFP tally, 45 U.S. missile strikes were reported in Pakistain's tribal belt in 2009, the year Obama took office, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011.
The program has dramatically increased as the B.O. regime looks to withdraw all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
U.S. diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks in late 2010 showed that Pakistain's civilian and military leaders privately supported U.S. drone attacks, despite public condemnation in a country where the U.S. alliance is hugely unpopular.
The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes in Pakistain have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in the past eight years.
Pakistain is reviewing its entire alliance with the United States and has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply convoys since the November strike.
It ordered U.S. personnel to leave the Shamsi air base in southwestern Pakistain, widely believed to have been a hub for the CIA drone program, and is thought likely to only reopen the Afghan border by exacting taxes on convoys.
The aircraft fired missiles hours apart on separate targets in what is considered the premier bastion of Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistain as the government in Islamabad welcomed the Afghan and Iranian leaders for a summit.
Five Death Eaters were killed in the first attack that destroyed a compound in Spalga town near Miranshah, and at least eight died in the second attack on a vehicle near the town of Mir Ali, about 25 kilometres to the east.
At least eight Death Eaters have been killed in the second strike, he said, describing them all as foreigners.
Another security official in Miransha put the corpse count at 12, saying they were all Uzbek Islamist fighters
The vehicle caught fire and the dead bodies are badly mutilated, he added.
The United States says Pakistains tribal belt provides sanctuary to Taliban fighting in Afghanistan, al Qaeda groups plotting attacks on the West, and Pak Taliban who routinely bomb Pakistain and other imported muscle.
Those killed in the first attack were loyalists of Badar Mansoor and the Haqqani network, loyal to the Afghan Taliban whose leaders are understood to be based in North Waziristan, one of the Pak officials said.
Last Thursday, officials said Mansoor, described as the de facto leader of al Qaeda in Pakistain was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
Mansoor was considered one of Americas main targets in the country, wanted for kabooms on the minority Ahmadi sect that killed nearly 100 people in May 2010 and the chief link between al Qaeda and the Pak Taliban..
Disgraced former Coahuila state government official Hector Javier Villareal Hernandez has won a stay Tuesday from a re-arrest bench warrant issued by a Coahuila state judge, according to Mexican news accounts.
Villareal originally posted MP $10 million (USD $781,898.00) of a MP $20 million (USD $1,563,796.00) bond, and was required to check in with the court from time to time, but has left Mexico and was last seen in Texas. Some reports also place Villareal in Cuba.
Villareal was detained February 1st along with his wife Maria Botella, two unidentified children and an unidentified adult in Smith County, Texas, where he was charged with money laundering following a traffic stop. USD $67,000 in cash was found in the car. Villareal spent 5 days in jail before being released on USD $20,000 bond.
Villareal faces charges in Coahuila state of using falsified official documents to trick private bank officials into loaning Coahuila state government amounts of up to MP $1 billion. Seven other officials have also been charged in the matter, five of whom are at large, and two -- Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores and Jorge Lopez Alarcon -- are imprisoned at the Reclusorio Norte del Distrito Federal prison in Distrito Federal for investigation and trial. Those seven are part of a larger group of 12 who were called to Mexico City last December to be available to officials for the Procuradoria General Republic (PGR), or attorney general's office. To read a general Ranturg report on the Coahuila debt scandal, click here and here.
The legal fate of the other five is unknown.
Amparo lawsuits are procedural appeals meant to challenge a prosecutor, but are almost always used to slow down a criminal proceeding. The amparo suit in Coahuila involves a minor charge, while federal charges concern a 2005 federal credit reporting law which provides for stiff penalties for falsifying loan documents. Violations of the federal law are considered felonies, and is a reason why Villareal and other five other officials are on the run.
EARLIER this week during a routine visit to Jacobabad airbase, the chief of army staff (COAS) is reported to have said that the armed forces are allocated only 18 per cent of total government outlays, and that of this 'paltry' amount only half actually ends up at the disposal of our hallowed guardians.
Perhaps unsurprisingly there was no rebuttal issued either by the government or any of our mainstream parties. Just as predictable has been the complete silence on the army chief's claim within media circles.
Contrast this to the obsessive reporting on the excesses of politicians (with the exception of Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... , of course). Pakistain's politics-hating, army-loving urban middle classes stand vindicated.
If one spends enough time in the living rooms of educated middle-class folk in this country it is easy to be convinced that 'feudalism' and 'rural backwardness' are the root causes of all of Pakistain's problems.
'Corruption' and 'bad governance' are necessary corollaries, given that most of our politicians hail from the 'feudal' class. Or so our armchair middle-class analysts would have us believe.
There is some truth to the caricature of course, but a caricature it nonetheless remains. Much has changed in Pakistain over the decades; as scholars such as Akbar Zaidi and Arif Hasan have gone through great pains to illustrate, to call Pak society feudal is to gloss over the extent to which urbanisation and the deepening of capitalist social relations have transformed the social and political landscape, notwithstanding the fact that a small number of individuals/families still own a large percentage of rural farmland in the agricultural heartlands.
Take, for example, one of the urban middle classes' most-detested political figures, Jamshed Dasti. This MNA from Muzzaffargarh was the poster-child of the fake degree-ers disqualified from elected office.
Dasti is not a feudal; in fact he is anything but. Hailing from a relatively humble urban background, Dasti has been a bane in the existence of feudal incumbents. Dasti's most high-profile competitor in the 2008 general election? Mustafa Khar, the quintessential 'feudal lord'.
Lest one forget, many politicians who graduated into the echelons of the elite in the 1980s hail from distinctly non-feudal backgrounds, including favourites of the establishment such as Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad.
Urban commercial classes have become increasingly important political players in Pakistain, starting with the Zia regime's very conscious efforts to co-opt them into the military-dominated patronage-based order that was painstakingly constructed through those 11 dark years.
Indeed, this military-dominant patronage order has more or less remained intact in two and a half decades since Zia's demise.
The military's primacy is very apparent when it takes over the reins of government, but strategic retreats such as those undertaken under Gen Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... 's watch do not necessarily signify a dramatic weakening of the institution's economic, political or ideological power.
Recently published work on what was not long ago a taboo topic has clarified beyond a shadow of a doubt -- even accounting for the crass attempts to undermine the credibility of this scholarship -- that the men in khaki preside over a vast corporate empire, and the burden that innumerable military-run enterprises exert on public resources is, at best, greatly understated.
Relatedly, and just as important is the role that the military continues to exercise in the political sphere. The military's being, as the popular phrase goes, 'the only institution that works in Pakistain' , has directly contributed to the fragmentation of other state institutions and the deepening of patronage-based political practices that are all too simplistically deemed 'corruption' and 'bad governance'.
The fact that so many politicians play musical chairs when it comes to party memberships and the intolerance for dissenting views are also at least partially explained by the unending political machinations of our hallowed guardians (or more specifically their various intelligence apparatuses).
Bashing 'feudals' and politicians more generally has been a tried and tested strategy for those who seek to maintain the mythic conception of the men in khaki. For the best part of four years a concerted campaign has been under way to rehabilitate the military's image after the dire last days of Musharraf.
It has been only partially successful, in large part because of the patchy relationship between the men in khaki and their imperial patron. Yet the campaign continues, and can be expected to continue until such a time as the civil-military imbalance is definitively altered. The contempt that so many of our urbanites harbour towards politics and politicians -- and it is important to bear in mind that the urban middle classes are extremely varied in terms of values, status and power -- actually has a much longer history than one might think.
The British and their hangers-on remained convinced until the dying breath of the Raj that politics was anathema to 'clean' and 'efficient' administration. Back then too the contradictions between what the proponents of such a model of government claimed and what they actually practised were no less evident.
There is, and has been, thankfully, a critical mass from within the ranks of the middle classes that does espouse a principled anti-establishment politics, sometimes in spite of the complicity of segments of the political class itself.
The costs are typically high; the gruesome fate of wave after wave of political dissidents in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... is testament to this fact.
It is, thus, hardly a surprise that our mainstream politicians -- with notable exceptions at notable times -- tend to exercise caution when it comes to confronting the military. One can only hope that, sooner or later, exposés of power in the media and by the activist judiciary will extend to the men in khaki.
Even though it has become fashionable these days for army chiefs and chief justices alike to proclaim the sanctity of the political process and the pre-eminence of parliament, the fact remains that generals and bureaucrats (and increasingly judges) exercise much more power in Pakistain over a great deal of the mundane than the popular media would have us believe.
Yes politicians must be held to account. But surely the same principle should apply to the men in khaki?
The writer teaches at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.
#2
Pakistan and American politics, g(r)omgoru. That's where the action is right now. When Israel bounces the rubble in Iran and environs, no doubt the op-eds flow over that sluice.
KARACHI: Bound together by hatred of the United States and support for beturbanned goons fighting in Afghanistan, a revived coalition of supposedly banned religious beturbanned goons and rightwing political parties is drawing large crowds across Pakistain.
The emergence of the "Defense of Pakistain Council" movement has raised suspicions that the group has approval from elements in the powerful military and security establishment, aiming to bolster public support for a hardline position.
The group's rise comes as the military is trying to assert its position in renegotiating its troubled relationship with the United States and as Pakistain prepares for elections likely to take place later this year.
Some of the leading lights in the Defense of Pakistain Council have traditionally been seen as close to the security establishment, which has a long history of propping up bully boyz to defend its domestic interests or fight in India and Afghanistan.
On Sunday, the group's bandwagon rolled into Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the country's commercial heart.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 men gathered close to a monument to Pakistain's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whose vision of a liberal, secular Pakistain is often contrasted to the rise of hardline, often violent groups in the country.
"We demand Pak rulers quit the alliance with America," said Saeed, who was sent to his room after the Mumbai attacks but was released later and has slowly re-emerged in public now, without a response from authorities. "There can be no compromise on the freedom and illusory sovereignty of the country."
Members of Dawa patrolled the rally, some armed with automatic weapons, others on horseback.
Also represented on stage and in the crowd were Sipah-e-Sahaba, a feared Sunni thug group that has carried out scores of attacks on minority Shias in recent years. Its members have reportedly formed alliances with al Qaeda operatives in Pakistain.
A large banner that hung over the stage read "Wake up, countrymen, break the shackles of American slavery."
That anti-American message has been amplified by the Mighty Pak Army since US Arclight airstrikes along the Afghan border in late November killed 24 Pak soldiers.
The Mighty Pak Army accused the US of deliberately targeting the outposts, rejecting American assertions it was mistake.
Pakistain retaliated by closing its western border to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... and US military supplies into Afghanistan, a key supply line for the war.
Saeed and other speakers threatened civil disobedience if Pakistain reopens it. Their stance could hamper American hopes that Islamabad will quietly reopen the route in the coming weeks.
"We vow that the NATO supply will never be restored," he said.
The alliance groups many of the same parties and holy mans that banded together after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, capitalising on anti-American sentiment.
The current government, which doesn't espouse political Islam, is under pressure from the courts and opposition parties.
Elections are now seen as likely later this year, and the revival of the "Defend Pakistain" group appears to be a push by politicians grouped within it to win votes among the legions of Paks who subscribe to Islamist views. However Hafiz Saeed has reportedly denied that his party will take part in election.
It could also be attempt by the army to put pressure on the ruling Pakistain People's Party, which has repeatedly clashed with the generals since taking power in 2008 and has tried to get closer ties with India.
The group has organised large rallies in several cities; next week it plans a gathering in the capital, Islamabad.
Many of the speakers in Bloody Karachi rallied the crowds with warnings that Pakistain was under threat, and Islam its only defense.
"Do you swear to fight back with Islamic spirit, honour and dignity if anyone, whether American, NATO, Israel or India attack Pakistain?" asked Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, head of a hardline school that has sent thousands of people to fight in Afghanistan over the last 10 years.
"Jihad! Jihad!" the crowd roared.
Speaker after speaker also touted the army line on India, saying the neighbouring country represents an existential threat to Pakistain.
This stance justifies the security state that has been established since the two nations were partitotioned under a British-ruled subcontinent in 1947.
The two nuclear-armed neighbours had fought three wars since their independence in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
Liberals, democrats and peace activists have been trying for years to bring India and Pakistain closer together.
But in the past, the army has funded and trained orc groups and their umbrella organizations to battle Indian forces in Kashmire, the disputed territory at the heart of the rivalry between the two countries after partition.
"The security establishment of this country desires that ultra-radical parties should be brought into politics so that their doctrine against India, America or Israel could be infused to the masses," said Tauseef Ahmed, the head of the Mass Communication department at the Federal Urdu University.
Also at the Bloody Karachi rally was Hamid Gul The nutty former head of Pakistain's ISI, now Godfather to Mullah Omar's Talibs and good buddy and consultant to al-Qaeda's high command... , a former general who headed the country's spy agency in the late 1980s when Pakistain and the US were supporting gunnies in their fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
He has since become a leading voice in the media against America and in support of the Taliban. Documents released by the whistleblower site Wikileaks alleged he retained ties to the insurgency there, a charge he denies.
Ejaz Haider, a security analyst, said the security establishment should be "checked for serious dementia" if it was using the council for its own purposes, given that many of its members have been linked to terrorism that is taking a deadly toll inside Pakistain.
Continued on Page 49
Egypt's prime minister and the head of the influential seat of Islamic learning, al-Azhar, on Thursday praised a campaign by an Islamist scholar to raise donations as a substitute for US aid that is threatened by a stand-off over civil society groups.
The campaign spearheaded by prominent Salafi scholar Mohamed Hassaan calls on Egyptians to pay $1.66 each in response to US threats to cut aid to Egypt over investigations that have resulted in charges against 19 Americans.
Because, being on the edge of starvation as so many Egyptians are, what is a day's food for their children compared to letting the Muslim Brotherhood go to war against Israel?
#2
US aid is several billion. $1.66 per Egyptian would be about $120M. M Hassaan may not be very good at math or else he meant $1.66 per Egyptian per week.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/17/2012 6:58
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#3
Saudi,UAE,Kuwait and Qatar will substitute US aid
#5
The Muslim brotherhood will try to institute in Egypt Iran's weird combination of theocracy and Marxist economics. The problem is that unlike Iran, Egypt has no oil. And Iran's economy is tottering despite having ample oil reserves. Traditionally, countries with large populations but few resources have gone abroad, sword in hand, to acquire those resources from neighbors who possess more of them. Egypt's misfortune is to exist in an era of Pax Americana, where its expansion in any direction is blocked by American arms.
TEHRAN:Iran on Thursday expressed hopes of reviving moribund talks with world powers, a day after the Islamic republic unveiled what it described as major progress in its controversial nuclear programme.
"We have always welcomed the principle of negotiations and we believe that, with a positive approach and spirit of cooperation, there can be a step forward in these negotiations," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
Iran on Wednesday sent a letter confirming its readiness to discuss resuming negotiations in response to an October 2011 offer in that sense made by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The last round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group,UN Security Council permanent members Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, collapsed in Turkey in January 2011.
Iran's tardy reply to Ashton appeared to be linked to the timing of its nuclear announcements also made on Wednesday, which collectively suggested the country had made strides in its atomic activities despite severe Western and UN sanctions.
President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, wearing a white coat, oversaw what was described on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
as the insertion of Iran's first domestically produced, 20-percent enriched fuel plate into Tehran's research reactor.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ordered Iran to "go build" four more nuclear research reactors in addition to the sole one operating in Tehran.
"It has been estimated that four nuclear reactors in four different spots in the country are needed. Go build them, to carry out research activities and provide radio-medicine needed by the country," he said in a speech on state television.
He and other officials also said Iran had added 3,000 more centrifuges to its uranium enrichment efforts and was stepping up exploration and processing of uranium yellowcake.
The declarations were meant to underline Iran's progress in mastering all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and underline its commitment to what it said was a purely peaceful atomic programme for energy generation and medical use.
They also underlined the Islamic republic's determination to push on with nuclear activities despite US and EU sanctions aimed at throttling its economy,especially its all-important oil exports, and despite speculation Israel or the United States could launch air strikes against its nuclear facilities.
Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant and has far warmer ties with Tehran has thus far has protected Iran against Western diplomatic efforts to broaden sanctions,has often stressed the need for talks and said too much pressure on Tehran was counterproductive.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabko suggested time was not on the side of the world powers and urged talks take place, with real concessions for the Iranians, otherwise the nuclear risks would increase.
Making a case for a renewed dialogue with Iran, Ryabkov said four rounds of UN sanctions and additional measures by Western nations had had "zero" effect on its nuclear programme.
"The Iranian side is indeed making progress in its nuclear programme,"Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the specialised journal Security Index.
Ryabkov emphasised that "an Iran with nuclear weapons is not an option for Russia" but said there was no "hard, unequivocal evidence" that nuclear work which Tehran says is for purely civilian purposes was in fact aimed at producing a bomb.
"We have no smoking gun confirming the presence of a military component and a military aspect of the Iranian nuclear programme," he said in the interview with the journal Security Index.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea... China urged the UN atomic watchdog to step up cooperation with Iran in a bid to restore trust over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, after the Islamic state unveiled progress in its atomic programme.
"As a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and it should also fulfil corresponding international obligations," foreign ministry front man Liu Weimin said.
"The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should strengthen contact and cooperation with Iran in order to restore the international community's trust in the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme."
But Washington, which fears Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons, was quick to dismiss Wedesday's announcements as "hyped" and "not big news".
The Iranians have for months been boasting of progress, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, but they are in fact "many, many months behind" their own calendars.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli state radio in a telephone interview from Tokyo that the Iranians were "boasting of successes they have not achieved," even though he admitted they "are continuing to progress" in the nuclear field.
"The Iranians want to give the impression they are more advanced to create the impression they have passed the 'point of no return', which is not true,"he said.
Tensions between the two arch-foes rose significantly this week after a series of bomb incidents in India, Thailand and Georgia targeting Israeli diplomats.
Israel blamed them on Tehran, which denied any involvement.
A high-level IAEA delegation visited Tehran late last month to discuss the concerns.
But one diplomat at IAEA headquarters in Vienna said afterwards that the Iranians "quite cleverly stonewalled for three days."
The delegation is due to return to Tehran next Monday. The outcome of those discussions could be key in determining the path towards wider talks between Iran and the P5+1.
#1
Sunni or Shia, widout NucWeaps there is NO OWG = GLOBAL ISLAMIST-JIHADIST CALIPHATE, PAR OR SUPERIOR OR DOMINANT, VEE ANY + ALL NON-ISLAM.
Israel clearly expects Iran to de facto covertly build an indigenous NucArsenal, not just to stockpile + store the required advanced NucMats for one for subjective contingency, i.e. to "threaten" to build one widout actually doing so, sub-i.e. NOT YOUR TYPICAL "JAPAN/EGYPT" ENERGY-ONLY MODEL".
#5
I always was a fan of having big masers pointing down from space. [Sort of gently heat (microwave) the SOB (in bed) to a stroke point within a meter or two]
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/17/2012 11:54
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#6
They say this all the time. Means nothing at all.
Doctor accused of slandering Paleostinian who claimed he was injured by IDF acquitted by French Supreme Court
The French Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted an Israeli doctor accused of slandering a Paleostinian man who claimed he was injured by the IDF during the second intifada.
The Paleostinian man, Jamal al-Dura, and his 12-year-old son Muhammad, became the symbol of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when the two were caught in a fire exchange in the Netzarim Junction. The boy was killed in the incident,
It may or may not be true that the boy is dead. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that, if he was indeed actually shot, it could not have been by the Israelis. Ynet has no business spreading a blood libel that has resulted in the deaths of many Jews and Israelis, including Judah Daniel Pearl, whose head was cut off for it. Google "Al Dura hoax" for the vicious details.
. triggering a blame game: The Paleostinians accused Israel for Muhammad's death, while Israeli officials claimed he was hit by Paleostinian fire.
The father, who survived the ordeal, relayed his version before the media, showing the scars that he incurred in the incident. The claim prompted Dr. Yehuda David of Tel Hashomer Hospital to reveal that the scars were actually a result of a surgery the father had performed years earlier, after al-Dura was attacked by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, operatives who suspected him of collaborating with Israel.
Al-Dura decided to sue David, and last year a Gay Paree court ruled against the doctor due to the fact he released information from al-Dura's medical records. He was ordered to compensate al-Dura with 13,000, but decided to appeal the ruling at the French Supreme Court.
"It couldn't have turned out better," David told Ynet after the ruling was overturned. "It means that I spoke the truth, and the father just lied.
"We managed to deconstruct their false statements. All the scientific evidence that we collected for the past 12 years proves that the incident was staged and fake. They made up the father's injury, and the IDF troops never shot the boy."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Dr. David on Wednesday and praised him for his determination. "You are an example for the battle for the State of Israel's truth and to sticking to the righteousness of our people's way," the prime minister told him.
On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs will discuss a bill proposing that the State fund Dr. David's legal expenses. The bill was initiated by Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon, who had served alongside Dr. David in the army.
David has recently begun raising funds to fight what he calls the "Paleostinian's false anti-Israel propaganda," and said that Ya'alon has joined the effort.
"I recently opened a Facebook page in order to collect funding for the fight against the Paleostinians' mendacious propaganda," David said. "I got a phone call from Ya'alon, and on Sunday he will put a proposal on the justice minister's desk to allocate funds, and then we will take this venture on the road... This will put an end to the lies."
#4
I still strongly suspect that Daniel Pearl, WSJ reporter, was an Israeli agent. His job as a reporter would have been a very useful cover, and he was widely traveled, having visited the Soviet Union, China, the Balkans, and other places of interest, before moving to the South Asia bureau. He investigated several international incidents of high intelligence value.
The stories he wrote were of serious investigative value, punctuated by a few fluff pieces that could have been written by anyone.
Basically, if he wasn't an Israeli agent, he should have been.
Likely he was killed by the Pak ISI, pretending to be a terrorist organization. Their demands were nonsensical, including the freeing of all Pakistani terror detainees, and the release of a halted U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government.
This, by a 'terrorist' organization that hasn't been heard from before or since.
#5
Anonymoose, Mr. Wife's Uncle Peter, who fought two tours in Viet Nam as a Marine, is convinced my husband is a CIA agent. Mr. Wife did, after all have to get a new passport five years early, after the fourth extension fell out, and there was the year he spent over two hundred days in the Arab world starting up factories. The thing is, my husband was perfectly typical of his type, the factory start-up engineer for an international manufacturing company. And later he was perfectly typical of the department/division head with people reporting to him from the major world geographies, going round the world each quarter to check in on them.
I see nothing to indicate that Mr. Pearl was anythng more than the kind of really good investigative reporter the Wall Street Journal pays pots of money to keep on the payroll. And anyway, Mr. Pearl was not killed for being CIA; he was killed for being a Jew.
Hezbullies leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... denied Israeli accusations on Thursday that his group was behind bombers who targeted Israeli missions in India and Georgia this week.
"Don't hurt us!"
"I assure you that Hezbullies has nothing to do with this," he told supporters. Israel accused Iran and Hezbullies of being behind twin kabooms that targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people.
Pakistain on Thursday welcomed the leaders of Afghanistan and Iran for a regional summit at a key juncture in peace efforts with the Taliban and amid rising tensions between Tehran and Israel.
Iranian leader Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad flew into Islamabad in the afternoon for a formal summit meeting scheduled on Friday to be followed by a joint news conference, Pakistain government officials said.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... arrived earlier in the day for a series of talks with the government and the military on his second visit in nine months.
His office said separate talks with Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... would focus on expanding relations, economic ties and "enhanced cooperation" on ending 10 years of war in Afghanistan.
The Mighty Pak Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and senior government ministers were also present, officials said.
Karzai termed Pakistain's support as "critical to the success" of an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor and the reconciliation.
Pakistain, the historic ally of the Taliban, says it will do anything required by Kabul to support an Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor, but there is a wide degree of skepticism in Afghanistan and the United States about its sincerity.
"Both sides agreed on the need to strengthen mutual cooperation to overcome the common challenges of terrorism and extremism and expressed their resolve to work for the stability and peace of both the countries," Gilani's office said.
Pak Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited Kabul this month on a fence-mending visit amid reports that Kabul and Islamabad felt isolated by contacts between the United States and the Taliban in the Gulf state of Qatar.
But in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Karzai said the Afghan government was part of three-way peace efforts.
There has been no Taliban confirmation of talks with Karzai's government.
"There have been contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban," Karzai was quoted as saying.
He did not mention any Pak involvement, but said cooperation from Islamabad "would make the whole matter easier".
Pakistain says the trilateral summit will focus on cooperation on counter-terrorism and transnational organized crime including drug and human trafficking, border management and trade issues.
Islamabad is moving towards a detente in its own relations with Washington, which took a drastic turn for the worse over last year's covert American raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... and air strikes that killed 24 Pak soldiers.
But despite strong U.S. objections, Pakistain says it is pressing ahead with a multi-billion-dollar project to build a gas pipeline to import fuel from Iran.
"There is no change or shift regarding the gas pipeline project and it is scheduled to be completed by 2014," said the official.
Israel this week accused Iran of targeting its diplomats in Georgia, India and Thailand, against a backdrop of speculation that the Jewish state or the United States could be months from launching military strikes against Iran.
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad unveiled new strides in Tehran's nuclear program in a defiant blow to U.S. and EU sanctions designed to rein in its atomic activities.
"I don't think so," a senior Pak government official told Agence La Belle France Presse when asked if mounting tensions between Iran and Israel, and the showdown over Iran's nuclear program, would dominate the summit.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN WON'T PROVIDE AIRBASES FOR [any] ATTACK ON IRAN: ZARDARI.
* TOPIX > PAKISTAN WON'T SUPPORT WEST ON IRAN ATTACK.
Mighty Pak Army + Nukes stayin' neutral???
IMO Islamabad recognizes like other neighbors of Iran that, iff the latter is occupied or mostly occupied by the US = US-led UN Mil Coalition, its sovereign territory may end up being used by Iran to mount a mix of cross-border anti-US, Coalition Guerilla [Basij], pro-Mullahs/Govt. Military Ops WID OR WIDOUT PAKISTAN'S, ETAL. CONSENT.
Detroit-- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the privileged student from an affluent Nigerian family who became known as the "underwear bomber" received four life sentences Thursday, the maximum penalty for trying to kill almost 300 people aboard a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
One feels for the heartache of his father, who reported his son to the nearest American embassy. This sentence is not a kindness, given that the Pantibomber's lap will never be unburnt.
"This court has no ability to control his motivation, which appears to be unchanged," said U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, before issuing the sentence to a packed courtroom in downtown Detroit. "I can control his opportunity to act on those intentions." The convict had two outbursts following the FBI video of the mock bomb exploding, shown in court today.
"God is great!" he shouted. He is expected to be sent to Supermax, the Alcatraz "القطرس " of the Rockies, whose inmates include Unabomber and University of Michigan graduate Ted Kaczynski and Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, a Lapeer Michigan native.
#3
In this case, I am actually of mixed minds as to whether he should go to ADX Florence, for two reasons.
The first being that he is just a "useful idiot" of others. He has no great value as a leader, nor does he particularly inspire others to do what he did. The second is that his father tried hard to prevent him from doing a terrorist act, by notifying the CIA of his intentions before he returned to the US.
However, he did try to slaughter a plane full of innocent people.
The other reason is that ADX Florence is too "good" for him. If you look at the unofficial list of its current inmates, they are really 'major league'. Not only for what they did, but the *continuing* threat they represent.
ADX Florence, above all else, is for people that the US government is truly 'angry' with. People that we want to make an example of.
The US has plenty of supermax prisons, any of which would be just fine for this loser.
For a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here
By Chris Covert
As the drought and record cold in the upper elevations of the Mexican Sierras continues, aid from across Mexico continues to pour into the area, according to Mexican news accounts.
Among communities sponsoring aid drives is a group in Reynosa, Tamaulipas which has collected nine tons of items such as bottled water, clothing, food, and blankets. The aid drive is sponsored by female members of Pemex's Activo Integral Burgos de Pemex Exploracion y Produccion group.
The drive also collected about MP $45,000 (USD $3518.54) in two weeks, according to the leader, Rebeca Acevedo de Reyes. Foodstuffs collected included rice, beans, cornmeal, milk tetrapack liquid, biscuit, chocolate, sugar, coffee and vegetable.
From Puebla state in central Mexico, the Puebla state Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), Fernando Manzanilla Prieto, announced a total of 128 tons of aid collected, 70 tons of which was delivered January 28th, the remainder having left last Thursday morning. The aid is bound for Urique, Chihuahua, which is an 11 hour trip from Puebla state.
As with the PEMEX group, aid collected included water, oil and grains such as rice, beans, lentils. The drive in Puebla is asking for additional foods such as jam, caramel and chocolate powder. Volunteers to help in the drive are also being requested in the aid drive.
As with many modern famines and food crises, the problem is as much one of logistics as it is the actual shortage of food. The Sierra Tarahumara region is so remote that many areas have no telecommunications of any kind, and the roads make travel difficult.
Adding to the crisis are stories published last month by the leftist weekly Proceso, which said that aid packages are being sold for cash and often do not even reach their destination.
Even as aid reaches victims of the food crisis, a dark side is emerging.
In an El Diario de Coahuila news daily report, a Creel, Chihuahua parish priest, Hector Fernandez Martinez was quoted in a Grupo Imagen radio interview saying that aid should be given over to Non Government Organizations for distribution because a specter of politics has entered aid distribution.
Fernandez Martinez said that local municipal governments as well as the federal Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) are causing problems with the indigent Indians in the area, withholding aid in exchange for promises to vote.
A general election for president is in July, and Mexico is currently in an inter-campaign period between candidate selection by the three major political parties and the start of the campaign season in late March.
Fernandez Martinez also complain about inappropriate aid handed out. As an example is Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's trip to Batopilas in late January, reportedly delivered bank cards charged with about MP $300 (USD $23.46) to indigents in the area.
According to Fernandez Martinez, the nearest bank to Batopilas is in Creel, about a three day walk. By truck it costs MP $150 (USD $11.73) to get to the nearest bank.
Fernandez Martinez characterized the bank cards as "ridiculous."
Other concerns addressed by Fernandez Martinez was the delivery of expired food, and clothing and blankets infested by vermin.
In a related story, the Mexican federal Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) added two municipalities in southern Sinaloa state as disaster areas due to the ongoing drought.
The municipalities affected are San Ignacio in southern Sinaloa state and about 20 kilometers west of San Dimas, Durango, and Choix, which is in northern Sinaloa state about 15 kilometers west of the border with Chihuahua state.
KARACHI, Feb 16: A young man was rubbed out in North Nazimabad late on Thursday night in what appeared to be a targeted attack on sectarian grounds that also left a woman and a seven-year-old boy maimed, police said.
They said 22-year-old Kazim Ali was returning home after pulling down the shutters of the general store where he worked as a salesman when armed riders intercepted him near Wahid Colony.
"According to area people, there were two attackers on a cycle of violence," said Sajid Javed, the SHO of the North Nazimabad cop shoppe.
"They fired several shots and two of them hit Kazim, one each in the neck and chest. He was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he died. The firing also left passers-by 22-year-old Nadra and seven-year-old Umair maimed, but they are stable."
He said the victim was a resident of the same area and used to return home at the time when he was attacked. The gunnies used a 9mm pistol in the attack, he added.
"Apparently it is a assassination case on sectarian grounds. But a few things need to be ascertained before moving with further investigations," added the SHO.
The Jaffria Alliance condemned the murder of the Anjuman Naujwanan-e-Pakistain member.
Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper claims Israel was able to prevent liquidation attempt on defense minister during his recent visit to Singapore; Israel denied report
Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper reported Thursday that Israel was able to prevent an liquidation attempt on Defense Minister Ehud Barak, during his visit to Singapore this week.
According to the report, the Mossad -- collaborating with local authorities -- was able to stop the assassins, who planned on targeting Barak during his visit to the Singapore Air Show.
Or perhaps not:
An Israeli official denied the report, saying "we have no knowledge of this affair." I blame George W. Bush
The newspaper based its report on information from "high ranking Israeli defense officials."
Al-Jarida went on to quote the sources as saying that prior to Barak's visit, the Israeli intelligence agency contacts Singapore authorities and gave them "highly classified information suggesting a cell comprising of Iranian and Hezbullies operatives were planning to assassinate the Israeli defense minister."
A covert operation based on the information resulted in the arrest of three suspects.
The paper added that the cell had "very accurate information" about Barak's itinerary and planned to have him under surveillance during his stay in Singapore. The liquidation was to take place in Barak's hotel.
According to the report, the Mossad is taking an active part in the suspect's interrogation.
#2
Not necessarily. Weapons could come from (in order of probability) Malaysia, Indonesia, or by ship into Singapore harbor or to any point along its coast from just about anywhere.
Syrian armor moved on the main hubs of an 11-month uprising on Thursday killing at least 22 people, monitors said, a day after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... set a vote for a new constitution.
Opposition groups rejected the newly proposed constitution and urged voters to boycott a referendum set for this month, and to step up efforts to oust Assad.
As troops pummeled the central city of Homs for a 13th straight day, 18 people were killed in central Hama province and four others died in the southern city of Daraa, monitors reported.
Assad, whose government has vowed to crush dissent, on Wednesday decreed a vote for February 26 on a new charter that could end nearly 50 years of single-party rule.
The United States dismissed the move as "laughable," saying "it makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution." Russia, a major weapons supplier to Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , welcomed it.
And the Local Coordination Committees, a main opposition activist group, rejected the new charter and called for a vote boycott, as well as stepped up efforts to topple Assad.
"The draft constitution is no more than a political tool or a policy paper written by the barbaric regime," it said in an emailed statement.
"We see no alternative but to topple the regime along with its symbols, representatives and foundational ideology.
"The Local Coordination Committees calls upon our people to reject and boycott the alleged referendum to confirm the lack of public support for this criminal regime."
The Syrian National Council, the most representative opposition group, is also likely to reject the constitution, given one of its guiding principles is "to overthrow the regime using all legal means."
Regardless, the proposed charter rules out most of the opposition as it bans religious parties and dual nationals, preventing the SNC, which includes the Moslem Brüderbund, and most of its leadership from running for office.
The proposed charter drops Article 8, which declares the ruling Baath Party as the "leader of the state and society," allowing for a multi-party system, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
In April, Assad scrapped emergency rule in force since 1963 when the Baathists took power in a coup d'etat. But he has repeatedly promised reforms that have failed to materialize since the uprising erupted in March.
The 46-year-old president, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000, said the constitution would usher in a "new era" for Syria, SANA state news agency reported.
Analysts said the referendum was too little, too late and fell short of what was required to end the uprising inspired by similar movements that last year overthrew authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed at least 14 people, most of them army defectors, in shelling of a town in the central province of Hama. Another four soldiers died in other festivities in the region.
"At least 10 mutinous soldiers were killed, among them officers, in shelling of the town of Kfar Nabuda, in Hama province. Four civilians were also killed in the shelling of the town," the Britannia-based monitor said in a statement
Elsewhere, a civilian and three soldiers were killed in the southern city of Daraa, after troops deployed heavily and clashed with army defectors.
Regime forces were also shelling Homs, which has been under a relentless assault that has killed nearly 400 people since February 4, according to international rights watchdogs.
"The neighborhood of Baba Amr is once again being shelled this morning," the Britannia-based Observatory said. "The shelling also targeted the neighborhoods of Inshaat and Khaldiyeh."
Meanwhile China, which along with Russia has faced a barrage of criticism for blocking a second U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, said it was sending an envoy to the country to push for peace.
The U.S. and South Korean navies will stage a joint anti-submarine drill in the Yellow Sea next week to guard against potential attacks by North Korea, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday.
The drill from February 20-24 will involve a number of submarines and warships from both countries, a ministry front man told Agence La Belle France Presse without elaborating.
JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the drill would involve some 20 craft including two Aegis ships from the U.S. and one from South Korea, as well as Lynx helicopters and P3-C anti-submarine surveillance aircraft.
Citing an unidentified Seoul military official, it said the exercise would be the largest anti-submarine joint drill carried out by the allies.
The two countries staged a joint anti-submarine drill in September 2010, months after Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship with the loss of 46 lives in the Yellow Sea in March 2010.
The North denied it sank the ship. But in November that year it shelled a border island, killing four South Koreans.
The upcoming drill, to precede two other major joint exercises, comes at a sensitive time in the North which is undergoing a power transition.
Pyongyang has taken a hostile tone towards Seoul since Kim Jong-Un, the youngest son of the late leader Kim Dear Leader Jong-Il ... hereditary dictator of North Korea. His definition of reunification isn't the same as the definition in Seoul... , took over following the death of his father last December.
The Key Resolve drill between the South and the U.S. will start on February 27 and continue until March 9. Separately, a joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle will be held from March 1 to April 30.
North Korea has denounced the exercises as warmongering.
#1
OTOH WAFF > FIVE COMMIE [PLAAF] WARPLANES PLAY TAG [for hours] WID 10 JAPANESE, SOUTH KOREAN AIRCRAFT, "FIGHT" [simulate Dogfight = Wartime] IN JAPANESE AIRSPACE.
When asked to leave, they didn't + chose instead to simulate an air-to-air dogfight, save Guns or Conventional, Nuclear-tipped AAMS were fired.
IIUC, RUSSIAN AIR FORCE + CHINESE AIR FORCE = basically gave US Allies NIPPON + SOUTH KOREA the air equivalent of the "the Finger", ala "WE HAVE THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS + CAN NUKE YOU, YOU DON'T + CAN'T NUKE US".
* WORLD MIL FORUM > RUSSIAN EXPERTS REFUTE JAPAN'S WARNING AS PER "FEBRUARY 8th" INCIDENT: RUSSIAN AIR FORCE NEEDS ONLY 20 MINUTES TO DESTROY OR ERADICATE JAPAN SDAF FROM THE EARTH.
DItto for the UK Royal Air Force + NATO Allies in Northern/NW Europe.
versus
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US TESTING "BATTLEFIELD ILLUSION" TECHS TO BAFFLE ENEMIES | [Daily Mail.UK] DREAM WARRIORS? US MULLING TO RESARCH ... ... ...
To test oer the Guam-WESTPAC areas?, ala 1960's = 1970's Guam Taotamonas.
GUAM LOCALS WILL THINK JESUS HAS RETURNED, ETC. WHEN IN REALITY ITS JUST US INTEL-PYWAR ILLUSIONS/IMAGES IN THE SKIES.
#2
CHINA DAILY FORUM > JAPAN OBSERVATION OF NORTHERN TERRITORIES DAY [former Nippon NTS = now Russian South Kurils]CAUSE OF CONCERN FOR RUSSIA | RUSSIA SLAMS JAPAN ON NORTHERN TERRITORIES DAY.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ANALYSIS: NEW CHINA LANDING VESSELS POINT TO [growing] PACIFIC RIVALRY.
#3
I wonder how much of this is fine tuning against Iranian submarines? I'm sure the SKor would be more than happy to provide observers to any fight involving Iran subs.
Summary: the entire Israeli establishment, and pretty much the entire Israeli population, are behind the need to wipe out Iran's nuclear capability now. Even former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who openly opposed an attack on Iran, has shut up, as have the lofty literary lights of the left wing peace movements.
At the end of last week, the media were talking about which towns had good bomb shelters and air raid sirens and which didn't. The likelihood that Israel would soon be attacking Iran had begun to sink in. An antiwar demonstration was held across the boulevard from the Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv. About 25 people showed up. They held signs that read, "Don't bomb -- talk" to the evening rush hour traffic going past. One driver honked.
President Shimon Peres, who has put his days as a peacemaker far behind him, is warning only about the dangers of a nuclear Iran and not at all about those of an Israeli attack.
As for opposition from the B.O. regime, it has been awfully muted. The Republican presidential candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul) have been gung-ho, which has much to do with the administration's wariness toward Israel in this election year. But then how strong an argument for restraint can the administration make to the Israelis, after repeating for years that a nuclear Iran is "unacceptable" and that "all options are on the table"?
Hnd them a grenade with the pin pulled and say, "Here, talk your way out of this".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/17/2012 0:42
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Israel can conventionally strike Iran, but short of launching its JERICHO III NUCLEAR LRBMS is unlikely to win or survive a protractive, 1980's-style "War of the Cities" [Iran-Iraq War] widout massive + routinely-delivered US, Allied assistance.
ION CHINA DAILY FORUM > [Russian Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov] RUSSIA READY TO USE NUCLEAR ARMS [ + direct military force], IFF NECESSARY, to protect its interests + territorial integrity, as well as for any DETERRENCE OPTIONS agz same as approved by Moscow.
versus
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > BATTLEFIELD USA 2012: GERALD CALENTE PREDICTS.
"Will of the People" agz "Will of the Govt/State".
* SAME, TOPIX > US STATES ARE REBELLING AGZ OBAMA BUDGET, INDEFINITE DETENTION OF CITIZENS.
* SAME > [Ron Paul] 2012 US ELECTION: AMERICA'S LAST CHANCE BEFORE IT BREAKS UP | 2012 IS CONSTITUTION'S LAST CHANCE.
* FYI TOPIX > NEW BILL TO ALLOW 30,000 DRONES TO FILL AMERICA'S SKIES BY 2020.
* SAME > PILOTS [Airline Pilots Assoc., ACLU, other Activist] WORRY ABOUT SCHEME/PLAN ALLOWING DOMESTIC DRONES IN [already congested] US SKIES.
* DEFENCE .PK/FORUMS > NEW POLICE DONRES NEAR HOUSTON [Texas] COULD CARRY WEAPONS.
* INTELHUB > ADVANCED DRAGON-FLY [sized?] DRONES + BLACK HELOS TO SPY ON ILINOIS CITIZENS.
SLACKERS! Had already seen a few time back [prototypes?] buzzing around here in Hagatna/Agana. NOT JUST "DRAGONFLYS" EITHER.
Nice-color wings, but the motor noise quality needs rework, i.e. too much weirdo hippie noise for that kind of mini flying buy.
D *** NG IT, DARPA-JPL, WHADDAYA TRYING TO DO - CONVERT ME TO RAP MUSIC!
Hopefully for Israel's sake, the US' attention won't get diverted at the wrong time.
Even former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who openly opposed an attack on Iran, has shut up, as have the lofty literary lights of the left wing peace movements.
NOW is the time to pin these liberal pin-heads to the wall and demand where they stand. If they waffle, point out that they're waffling because they DON'T want to take a stand, but want to stand aside and carp when things go bad (which is inevitable given the way life goes). Applaud the ones who go on record NOW for courage, and ridicule the rest FOREVER.
#1
For many years, the US had air raid sirens that it would test once a month. They quietly discontinued this for two reasons.
The first being that the US only has a tiny number of fallout shelters, and more importantly, it was determined that casualties without fallout shelters would not be appreciably different than if fallout shelters were used, given the amount of time the public would have to seek shelter in a nuclear attack.
However, Israel is a different case. Being under frequent attack from projectiles, with a public drilled on rapidly seeking shelter, and having a modern, equipped shelter system, gives a much better statistical outcome for the use of shelters.
#2
For many years, the US had air raid sirens that it would test once a month.
Anonymoose, now the government tests the emergency broadcast system (exterior sirens, interior horrid sound on radios, televisions, and weather radios) every week. So every Wednesday I am catapulted out of my morning nap at 11:30, to be reassured that if there were an actual emergency I would be informed what to do. Thus I am reassured that we as a community are ready for inclement weather, tornadoes, or even nuclear war, in which case we will duck and cover in our windowless tornado room/guest room in the back of the basement.
Iranian traders are in talks with Russian sellers over the import of grain which will bypass western banking sanctions imposed on the Islamic Theocratic Republic, trade sources said on Thursday.
After all, how much more rice will India sell them, being as Iran stiffed them on payment for the last lot...and then blew up some diplomats on their territory?
Sources said any deals were likely to be done in roubles avoiding European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and US currency restrictions which were covered by sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Syrian troops on Thursday attacked rebel strongholds in Deraa where the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... erupted nearly a year ago, and the UN chief said crimes against humanity had almost certainly been committed in Syria.
The assault on Deraa followed a thrust against rebels in the cities of Hama and Homs, which has faced nearly two weeks of bombardment from Assad's forces, in an apparent campaign to crush the revolt against his repressive rule.
#3
"Assad's loyal forces had by and large managed to subdue the rebellion against the regime".
I believe the tide has turned in Assad's favor.
Just saying.
Officials suspect that bombs used in recent spate of global terror attacks produced in same Tehran lab, smuggled out of Iran via unscreened diplomatic mail
Security officials are looking into the possibility that bombs used in the recent spate of terror attacks against Israeli targets worldwide were produced in the same Tehran lab and smuggled out of Iran via diplomatic mail.
Notably, diplomatic mail items are exempt from security screening and x-raying, thereby making it easier for Iranian terror masters to provide perpetrators with bombs.
Iran's elite al-Quds force, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, is believed to be behind the recent bombings in New Delhi and Bangkok, as well as the foiled attack in Tbilisi, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.
Israeli officials say the global terror offensive in fact started several months ago and includes numerous terror operations, most of them foiled by security forces worldwide before materializing. The instructions to carry out the attacks are believed to have arrived directly from Tehran and to have received the blessing of Iran's top leaders.
Israel warns Iran
Iran's willingness to assume such risks and generate friction with other states attests to the huge pressure faced by Tehran and its difficulty in coping with economic sanctions, the liquidation of nuclear scientists, and the American threat to operate in the Hormuz Straits, officials said.
Initial probes show that the Iranians are aiming to carry out attacks at any price and are trying to identify Israeli vulnerabilities. As Israel's ambassadors enjoy a high level of security, Iranian Death Eaters are believed to be setting their sights on low-level diplomats and the spouses of Israeli envoys.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... sources in Israel estimate that the global terror offensive will continue. Officials have decided to adopt a series of precautionary measures, including the reinforcement of security arrangements at Israeli embassies, issuing requests for local authorities to boost security, and instructing Israeli diplomats to change their routine activities.
Moreover, Israel has been conveying explicit warnings to Tehran, warning Iran that Jerusalem will not remain idle in the face of the Iranian terror offensive.
#1
So are diplomatic parcels permitted un-checked by TSA types on commercial airlines? This should be a no-no.
If they want the pouch .. take it on a private plane.
IS the purpose of a government to perpetuate a deplorable system, or address the issues of the people? In Pakistain, it would appear to be the former. Those in positions of influence in Islamabad and at the top tiers of society play a long-term game in which various elements engage in efforts to out-manoeuvre each other. Meanwhile, ...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... the electorate continues to be mired in ever-worsening poverty. A Save the Children report launched in Islamabad on Wednesday found that 38 per cent of surveyed families had been forced to cut down on food intake while 58 per cent were food insecure; one in five parents said that their child did not get enough food. While Pakistain does not yet have the highest rate of stunting among children due to malnutrition -- that dubious honour goes to India -- the stunting rate in the country has gone up by almost 50 per cent over the past decade. Over the next 15 years, Pakistain will have the highest percentage of stunted children.
This is not the first report that presents such an appalling picture. Last month, the National Nutritional Survey presented similar findings on malnutrition. In 2011, a World Bank report said the poorest households were spending up to 70 per cent, or more, of their income on food alone. And nutrition is hardly the only sector showing such pitiful statistics. Every indicator of welfare has taken a sharp downward turn. Consider the spiralling rates of unemployment and illiteracy, for example. It is not that efforts have not been made to counter the situation, but that almost all initiatives are piecemeal and linked to specific governments or personalities. Clearly, policymaking in development does not figure highly on the state's agenda, regardless of the government in power. Few policies can be expected to survive a change at the helm. It is not surprising then that the poor continue to become poorer with little access to even the most basic of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... . With elections round the corner, the political elite as a whole may wish to dwell on this situation.
#1
"With elections round the corner, the political elite as a whole may wish to dwell on this situation."
Hate Jews and America and you may be elected and your people still starve. But you feed your tyrants, yes you will.
Use your fake GOD to scare them or make them faithful and lead them just like Amalek - back into slavery.
#5
The EU hates you. Just read a review of a biography of Norman Borlaug, arguably one of the five greatest humans of the 20th century.
At the time [of the Green Revolution], Forrest Frank Hill, a Ford Foundation vice president, told me, Enjoy this now, because nothing like it will ever happen to you again. Eventually the naysayers and the bureaucrats will choke you to death, and you wont be able to get permission for more of these efforts. Hill was right. His prediction anticipated the gene-splicing era that would arrive decades later. . . . The naysayers and bureaucrats have now come into their own. If our new varieties had been subjected to the kinds of regulatory strictures and requirements that are being inflicted upon the new biotechnology, they would never have become available
We are not reaping what they purposely failed to sow. And hundreds of millions will needlessly suffer and starve.
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.
Authorities have 
FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
PESHAWAR, Feb 16: About eight persons including three 
Wazoo
Seventeen Yemeni 
A woman suspected of being involved in Tuesday's terror attack in Thailand is said to have
Mahmoud 
Hamid Gul
Egypt's prime minister and the head of the influential seat of Islamic learning, al-Azhar, on Thursday praised a campaign by an Islamist scholar to raise donations as a substitute for US aid that is threatened by a stand-off over civil society groups.
TEHRAN:Iran on Thursday expressed hopes of reviving moribund talks with world powers, a day after the Islamic republic unveiled what it described as major progress in its controversial nuclear programme.
Doctor accused of slandering Paleostinian who claimed he was injured by IDF acquitted by French Supreme Court
Asif Ali 
Detroit-- 
cycle of violence
Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper claims Israel was able to prevent 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
North Korea
Kim 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Officials suspect that bombs used in recent spate of global terror attacks produced in same Tehran lab, smuggled out of Iran via unscreened diplomatic mail
