Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia after Islamists threatened violence, claiming her sexy outfits and provocative dance moves would corrupt the youth. The controversy was a blow to the country's claim of combining free speech and democracy with a mostly moderate brand of the faith. Some fans accused police, who refused to issue a permit over concerns about security, of buckling to the will of a small band of thugs.
Minola Sebayang, a lawyer for Big Daddy, the promoter of the June 3 show, said, "It's unfortunate, but with threats if the concert goes ahead, Lady Gaga's side is calling it off. This is not only about Lady Gaga's security, but extends to those who will be watching her."
In recent years extremists have become more vocal and violent in Indonesia, attacking Christians and members of other religious minorities, transvestites, atheists and anyone else deemed "immoral." The most notorious group, Islamic Defenders Front, called Lady Gaga a "messenger of the devil" and vowed to show up at the airport by the thousands if she tried to step off the plane. Others said they bought tickets in order to wreak havoc from inside the stadium in Jakarta.
Officials responded by denying the necessary permits. After a public outcry, they said they'd reconsider if Lady Gaga agreed to tone down her performance. Instead, she canceled what was supposed to be the biggest stop on her Asian tour.
Fans were offered full refunds but that provided little consolation to people like 25-year-old Johnny Purba. He said, "This only shows to the world how weak security forces are in this country, how police are afraid of a bunch of hard-liners. Gaga's two-hour show will not hurt Indonesian Muslims. For God's sake, she is not a terrorist!"
On the other hand, Islamic hard-liners were ecstatic. Salim Alatas, one of the leaders of the Islamic Defenders Front (IDF), said, "This is a victory for Indonesian Muslims. Thanks to God for protecting us from a kind of devil."
Earlier, Murhali Barda, a spokesman for the IDF, said supporters had purchased more than 150 tickets to the concert. He had posted a picture on his Facebook page of a man wearing a turban and sunglasses and holding a $50 ticket to the concert. The caption read, "We have gotten Lady Gaga tickets. Not to watch but for us to enter." "Our target is to stop the concert. We would force them off the stage but not harm the audience."
Its not unknown in the industry, the chance of an Indonesia boycott happening. She knew what she was getting in to.
And not a gaga fan. Just thought she had the cajones other supposed heroines claimed they had, looking at you beyonce and stephanie. Y'all are crap; I laugh at the strength of tensil. But what did I expect, can't even stand up to Phucking Phred Phelps. Cowards.
The Pentagon is turning to the private sector, universities and even computer game companies as part of an ambitious effort to develop technologies to improve its cyberwarfare capabilities, launch effective attacks and withstand the likely retaliation. Get the Best and the Brightest!
The previously secret unreported effort, which its authors have dubbed Plan X, marks a new phase in the nation's fledgling military operations in cyberspace, which have focused more on protecting the Defense Department's own computer systems than on disrupting or destroying those of enemies. Plan X is a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The five-year, $110 million research program will begin seeking proposals this summer. Among the goals will be the creation of an advanced map that details the entirety of cyberspace -- a global domain that includes tens of billions of computers and other devices -- and updates itself continuously. Such a map would help commanders identify targets and disable them using computer code delivered through the Internet or other means.
Another goal is the creation of a new, robust operating system capable of launching attacks and surviving counterattacks.
Plan X is part of a larger DARPA effort begun several years ago to create breakthrough offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. With a cyber budget of $1.54 billion from 2013 to 2017, the agency will focus increasingly on cyber-offense to meet military needs, officials say.
DARPA's research is designed to foster long-shot successes. In addition to helping create the Internet, the agency's work gave rise to stealth jet technology and portable global-positioning devices. Al Gore invented the internet - everyone knows that!
A commander wanting to hit a computer that controls a target -- a strategically important drawbridge in enemy territory, for example -- should be able to predict and quantify battle damage while considering the timing or other constraints on a possible attack, said Dan Roelker, Plan X program manager. Dream on.
Cyberwar experts worry about unintended consequences of attacks that might damage the flow of electricity to civilian homes or hospitals. A targeting system also should allow operators to stop a strike or reroute it before it damages systems that are not targeted -- a fail-safe mechanism that experts say would be very difficult to engineer. Can't be killing the virtual baby ducks and fluffy bunnies!
Posted by: Bobby ||
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19:53 ||
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It's nice when the WaPo writes an independent article.
The proportion of Americans in their prime working years who have jobs is smaller than it has been at any time in the 23 years before the recession, according to federal statistics, reflecting the profound and lasting effects that the downturn has had on the nation's economic prospects.
By this measure, the jobs situation has improved little in recent years. The percentage of workers between the ages of 25 and 54 who have jobs now stands at 75.7 percent, just a percentage point over what it was at the downturn's worst, according to federal statistics.
The percentage of prime-age men who are working is smaller now than it has been in any time before the recession, going all the way back to 1948, according to federal statistics. The proportion of prime-age women is at a low not seen since 1988. Then there's this shocker:
The nation's unemployment rate has shown signs of improvement, ticking down from 10 percent to 8.1 percent. But if it tallied people who have given up looking for jobs, it would certainly be higher. Heavens to Betsy! I certainly hope those Tea Partiers can't read!
"I'm actually considering a position in retail," said a 53-year-old Northern Virginia woman who had held a senior position in international sales and recently earned a master's degree in management. She has been looking for a job for three years. "I can't tell you how many women I know, one of whom was a bank vice president, who have already taken these kinds of jobs -- they're working at Joann's Fabrics, Sur la Table and Crate & Barrel."
Posted by: Bobby ||
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A group of more than 150 Cherokees--enrolled Cherokees and descendants from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians--demanded today that Elizabeth Warren tell the truth about her "Cherokee" ancestry and identity.
Artur Davis was first elected to Congress from Alabama in 2002. The Harvard Law School grad was quickly tapped as a rising star among Democrats. He became a Senior Whip for the caucus, co-chair the New Democrat Coalition and even headed up the Southern region for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. His eight years in Congress showed him to be a thoughtful, independent and energetic member. Yesterday, he announced he is now a Republican.
#1
I've met him. He's an interesting fellow. He was one of the first Obama supporters in the South which ticketed off the Clinton folks big time. He then gave one of the seconding speeches for Obama at the 2008 convention. He may have actually believed all that 'I'm a unifier' stuff that Obama was putting out in 2007 and 2008.
I don't know what happened to him but since about mid 2009 he has become more conservative. He sometimes writes opinion for National Review.
Also, I think he may be gay.
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05/30/2012 20:03
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Also, I think he may be gay.
Did he finally figure out he was being used or something?
#1
Mrs. Bobby is in real estate and says Maryland's housing market is recovering more slowly than Virginia because MD. 'protects' homeowners in foreclosure. You can skip your mortgage payments for two years before the bank can foreclose.
Ah, socialism!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2012 20:09
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President B.O. awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday to Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union.
Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.
DSA describes itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.
Huerta has claimed, Republicans hate Latinos, and has spoken fondly of Hugo Chavezs despotic regime in Venezuela.
Syrian rebels on Wednesday gave President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to abide by an international peace plan to end violence or face consequences, a rebel spokesman said.
"The joint leadership of the Free Army inside Syria announces that it is giving the regime a final 48 hour deadline to implement the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council," Colonel Qassim Saadeddine said in a statement posted on YouTube.
"It ends on Friday at 1200 (0900 GMT) then we are free from any commitment and we will defend and protect the civilians, their villages and their cities."
Yemeni warplanes and artillery strikes killed 20 al-Qaida-linked militants in heavy shelling and clashes on Wednesday in the country's south, according to Defense Ministry and military officials.
The ministry said an air raid targeted a militant communications station near the southern coastal town of Shaqra early Wednesday, killing three and wounding seven.
Military officials say the station was used by the militants to direct operations using the Internet, wireless communications and a satellite telephone.
Elsewhere, army shelling and clashes in the western the town of Jaar, an al-Qaida stronghold, left 17 fighters and six soldiers dead and injured 12 over the past 24 hours. The army is conducting an offensive against the town, which has been in al-Qaida's hands for more than a year.
The army "fought a fierce two-hour battles with terrorists," the statement said, adding that army engineers defused land mines planted by al-Qaida militants.
Residents who fled Jaar say that al-Qaida militants were using heavy weaponry, including tanks.
I knew Caliphornia was hard-up for cash, but this is ridiculous.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum field is the place where the USC Trojans play football, two Summer Olympics were staged, John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic presidential nomination and Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass.
It was also a location for "The Gan9ban9 Girl #32," a hard-c0re pr0nographic movie that featured 40 minutes of group se* on the gridiron turf, The Times has learned.
The filming at the taxpayer-owned stadium was done at night, with the Coliseum's towering lights blazing and its rows of distinctive red and white seats framing many of the scenes. The video also shows the stadium's signature tunnel, which the Trojan team charges through at the start of games, as well as a sliver of the iconic peristyle, the arched entrance to the Coliseum.
"I was just in awe that we were at the Coliseum," said a star of the film, who goes by the name Mr. Marcus. "I've made movies for about 20 years and I've done a lot of things, but that one really stands out. I mean, who gets to have se* on the Coliseum floor?" I don't know. What was John Kennedy up to just before the ceremony?
#1
As the grandfather said plaintively in Moonstruck, "I'm confused."
Although I'm a sucker for "non-threatening, regional accents" as bespoke by humans of the Irish female persuasion (see the NSFW video at home at your leisure), am I really leaning toward agreeing with the Irish left (incl Shin Pain?) on a vote against the (bailout?) measure?
#2
This kind of arrogance is what starts revolutions.
No wonder that they've slowly dumbed down the people over the decades. If more of us realised how badly we are being screwed, these bastards would already be hanging from lamposts.
From the comments below the article. Sounds about right to me.
Finally, there is definitive proof: The presidential candidate was born in the United States, and his father was not.
Yes, Republican Mitt Romney appears eligible to be president, according to a copy of Romney's birth certificate released to Reuters by his campaign. Willard Mitt Romney, the certificate says, was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947.
His mother, Lenore, was born in Utah and his father, former Michigan governor and one-time Republican presidential candidate George Romney, was born in Mexico.
So on a day when real estate and media mogul Donald Trump was trying to help Mitt Romney by stirring up a new round of questions about whether Democratic President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Romney's own birth record became a reminder that in the 1968 presidential campaign, his father had faced his own "birther" controversy.
Back then, George Romney - who died in 1995 - was a moderate who was challenging eventual President Richard Nixon in the Republican primaries.
Records in a George Romney archive at the University of Michigan describe how questions about his eligibility to be president surfaced almost as soon as he began his short-lived campaign.
In many ways, they appear to echo today's complaints that Trump and some other conservative "birthers" have made about Obama while questioning whether Obama - whose father was from Kenya and mother was from Kansas - was born in Hawaii.
In George Romney's case, most of the questions were raised initially by Democrats who cited the Constitution's requirement that only a "natural born citizen" can be president.
As early as February 1967 - a year before the first 1968 presidential primary - some newspapers were raising questions as to whether George Romney's place of birth disqualified him from the presidency.
By May 1967, U.S. congressman Emmanuel Celler, a Democrat who chaired the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, was expressing "serious doubts" about George Romney's eligibility. Well, Dems then were more like today's Trunks than whatever the Democratic party has devolved into today.
The next month, another Democratic congressman inserted a lengthy treatise into the Congressional Record in which a government lawyer - writing in a "personal capacity" - argued that George Romney was ineligible for the White House because he was born outside U.S. territory.
DEJA VU
In what today might seem like deja vu, eminent legal authorities soon were queuing up to argue in favor of George Romney's eligibility.
The New York Law Journal published a lengthy argument by a senior partner from Sullivan & Cromwell, one of Manhattan's elite law firms, arguing that the fact that both of George Romney's parents were U.S. citizens clearly established him as a "natural born citizen" who was eligible to be president.
George Romney himself was unequivocal.
"I am a natural born citizen. My parents were American citizens. I was a citizen at birth," he said, according to a typewritten statement found in his archives.
At one point, the Congressional Research Service - an arm of the Library of Congress that is supposed to provide authoritative but impartial research for elected members - advised that its analysts agreed with George Romney, according to a congressional source.
In a paper in November aimed at clarifying presidential eligibility, the Congressional Research Service declared that the practical, legal meaning of "natural born citizen" would "most likely include" not only anyone born on U.S. soil but anyone born overseas of at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen.
ROMNEY'S DANCE WITH TRUMP
Mitt Romney has tried to avoid getting caught up in Trump's focus on Obama's birthplace.
"Governor Romney has said repeatedly that he believes President Obama was born in the United States," said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Romney.
However, the presumed Republican nominee has not distanced himself from Trump, creating what some analysts said seems to be a quiet endorsement of Trump's efforts to raise questions about Obama among voters.
Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump, said that Trump and Romney never talk about issues Trump has raised elsewhere regarding Obama's birth certificate. Instead they talk about jobs, the economy and other matters of public policy.
Asked whether Trump sees any double standard in going after Obama when Romney's father faced similar questions about his presidential eligibility, Cohen told Reuters: "I don't think (Trump) has ever thought about Mitt Romney's father's birth certificate."
Cohen said Trump recently revived the issue of Obama's birthplace because journalists asked him about the issue after a right-wing website published an old blurb for an Obama book that suggested that Obama was born in Kenya. The literary agent who wrote the blurb subsequently said it was written in error.
Cohen said Trump believes "the president of the United States should be the single most transparent human being on this planet. This president lacks that transparency." Amen. Even if it to prove what he claims, he needs to be transparent about it. This is the leader of the (still) free world we're talking about here. What's so fuc&ing hard?
* DAILY TIMES.PK > PAKISTAN HEADING FOR NEW FIANCIAL CRISIS. Budget Deficit forecasted to rise to 7.0% of GDP from 6.6% vee last year, + Islamabad is running out of ways or schemas to fund itself.
Unpopularity of US Drone Strikes + NATO Supply Routes + creation of new Pak Provinces seen as a US-NATO-India attempt to break up Pakistan + ongoing severe National Power-Energy crisis repor threatening to overshadow the anti-Militant War = MORE EVIDENCIA/INDICIA THAT ANY US-IRAN WAR MAY NOT NECESSARILY BEGIN IN IRAN = PERSIAN GULF PROPER.
* IIRC DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS [old] > US HAS PLAN TO SECURE PAKISTAN'S NUKES USING MILITARY FORCE.
Rolled over from yesterday because it was posted late.
From the NYT. Lots of information was 'given' to these reporters; it's part of an effort to make Champ look engaged and forward thinking as the Commander in Chief. But if you want to know how we're making the decisions as to who should and should not be drone-zapped, you can start here.
WASHINGTON -- This was the enemy, served up in the latest chart from the intelligence agencies: 15 Qaeda suspects in Yemen with Western ties. The mug shots and brief biographies resembled a high school yearbook layout. Several were Americans. Two were teenagers, including a girl who looked even younger than her 17 years.
President Obama, overseeing the regular Tuesday counterterrorism meeting of two dozen security officials in the White House Situation Room, took a moment to study the faces. It was Jan. 19, 2010, the end of a first year in office punctuated by terrorist plots and culminating in a brush with catastrophe over Detroit on Christmas Day, a reminder that a successful attack could derail his presidency. Yet he faced adversaries without uniforms, often indistinguishable from the civilians around them.
"How old are these people?" he asked, according to two officials present. "If they are starting to use children," he said of Al Qaeda, "we are moving into a whole different phase."
It was not a theoretical question: Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret "nominations" process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be.
Shades of Lyndon Johnson picking out targets in North Vietnam to be bombed, and pretty much with the same concerns.
Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding "kill list," poring over terrorist suspects' biographies on what one official calls the macabre "baseball cards" of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises -- but his family is with him -- it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation.
"He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go," said Thomas E. Donilon, his national security adviser. "His view is that he's responsible for the position of the United States in the world." He added, "He's determined to keep the tether pretty short."
LBJ thought the same thing. That's why the North Vietnamese ended up putting anti-aircraft guns on the roofs of hospitals.
Nothing else in Mr. Obama's first term has baffled liberal supporters and confounded conservative critics alike as his aggressive counterterrorism record.
Conservatives are confounded only because Champ is, by and large, doing what Dubya did and what McCain said he'd do as well. That's what has the liberals baffled, though the better word for the liberals is 'dismayed'...
His actions have often remained inscrutable, obscured by awkward secrecy rules, polarized political commentary and the president's own deep reserve.
In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers
Most of whom talked without attribution...
described Mr. Obama's evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda.
They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda -- even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was "an easy one."
His first term has seen private warnings from top officials about a "Whac-A-Mole" approach to counterterrorism; the invention of a new category of aerial attack following complaints of careless targeting; and presidential acquiescence in a formula for counting civilian deaths that some officials think is skewed to produce low numbers.
It's all about the Lawfare, and that means keeping the 'innocent' deaths down to the point of making them next to invisible. That salves the liberal consciences. Without that salve the liberals would balk.
The administration's failure to forge a clear detention policy has created the impression among some members of Congress of a take-no-prisoners policy. And Mr. Obama's ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron P. Munter, has complained to colleagues that the C.I.A.'s strikes drive American policy there, saying "he didn't realize his main job was to kill people," a colleague said.
Detaining people means tribunals or even civilian trials. When your Attorney General has already said that the civilian trials will result in guilty verdicts then the world correctly sees your trials as shams and kangaroo courts. Add in the potential for terrorist attacks and the ability of those being tried to use our legal system against us, and it's easier to play Whack-a-Mole, even if you have to wield the hammer yourself.
Beside the president at every step is his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, who is variously compared by colleagues to a dogged police detective, tracking terrorists from his cavelike office in the White House basement, or a priest whose blessing has become indispensable to Mr. Obama, echoing the president's attempt to apply the "just war" theories of Christian philosophers to a brutal modern conflict.
Just war theory doesn't work well against an adversary that refuses to subscribe to the same theory of war.
But the strikes that have eviscerated Al Qaeda -- just since April, there have been 14 in Yemen, and 6 in Pakistan -- have also tested both men's commitment to the principles they have repeatedly said are necessary to defeat the enemy in the long term. Drones have replaced Guantanamo as the recruiting tool of choice for militants; in his 2010 guilty plea, Faisal Shahzad, who had tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square, justified targeting civilians by telling the judge, "When the drones hit, they don't see children."
Dennis C. Blair, director of national intelligence until he was fired in May 2010, said that discussions inside the White House of long-term strategy against Al Qaeda were sidelined by the intense focus on strikes. "The steady refrain in the White House was, 'This is the only game in town' -- reminded me of body counts in Vietnam," said Mr. Blair, a retired admiral who began his Navy service during that war.
Humans like to count things. Counting dead terrorists is a natural response to dealing with terrorism. We comfort ourselves in thinking that it's the number of dead terrorist bodies that matter. In the short term it's nice to see the number three's pile up like cordwood, but in the long-term what matters is convincing Mahmoud that it's better to be an auto mechanic than a terrorist.
Mr. Blair's criticism, dismissed by White House officials as personal pique, nonetheless resonates inside the government.
William M. Daley, Mr. Obama's chief of staff in 2011, said the president and his advisers understood that they could not keep adding new names to a kill list, from ever lower on the Qaeda totem pole. What remains unanswered is how much killing will be enough.
"One guy gets knocked off, and the guy's driver, who's No. 21, becomes 20?" Mr. Daley said, describing the internal discussion. "At what point are you just filling the bucket with numbers?"
See above. The key is to convince #21, or #210, or #2101, that it's time to go do something else with their lives.
'Maintain My Options'
A phalanx of retired generals and admirals stood behind Mr. Obama on the second day of his presidency, providing martial cover as he signed several executive orders to make good on campaign pledges. Brutal interrogation techniques were banned, he declared. And the prison at Guantanamo Bay would be closed.
What the new president did not say was that the orders contained a few subtle loopholes.
Since every promise from Champ has an expiration date...
They reflected a still unfamiliar Barack Obama, a realist who, unlike some of his fervent supporters, was never carried away by his own rhetoric. Instead, he was already putting his lawyerly mind to carving out the maximum amount of maneuvering room to fight terrorism as he saw fit.
Lawfare 5001, the graduate school version.
It was a pattern that would be seen repeatedly, from his response to Republican complaints that he wanted to read terrorists their rights, to his acceptance of the C.I.A.'s method for counting civilian casualties in drone strikes.
The day before the executive orders were issued, the C.I.A.'s top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, had called the White House in a panic. The order prohibited the agency from operating detention facilities, closing once and for all the secret overseas "black sites" where interrogators had brutalized terrorist suspects.
"The way this is written, you are going to take us out of the rendition business," Mr. Rizzo told Gregory B. Craig, Mr. Obama's White House counsel, referring to the much-criticized practice of grabbing a terrorist suspect abroad and delivering him to another country for interrogation or trial. The problem, Mr. Rizzo explained, was that the C.I.A. sometimes held such suspects for a day or two while awaiting a flight. The order appeared to outlaw that.
Mr. Craig assured him that the new president had no intention of ending rendition -- only its abuse, which could lead to American complicity in torture abroad. So a new definition of "detention facility" was inserted, excluding places used to hold people "on a short-term, transitory basis." Problem solved -- and no messy public explanation damped Mr. Obama's celebration.
I'm surprised Champ wanted to keep rendition, since its every mention causes HRW, CCR and AI to have a hissy fit.
"Pragmatism over ideology," his campaign national security team had advised in a memo in March 2008. It was counsel that only reinforced the president's instincts.
Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Obama's advisers had warned him against taking a categorical position on what would be done with Guantanamo detainees. The deft insertion of some wiggle words in the president's order showed that the advice was followed.
Some detainees would be transferred to prisons in other countries, or released, it said. Some would be prosecuted -- if "feasible" -- in criminal courts. Military commissions, which Mr. Obama had criticized, were not mentioned -- and thus not ruled out.
As for those who could not be transferred or tried but were judged too dangerous for release? Their "disposition" would be handled by "lawful means, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."
A few sharp-eyed observers inside and outside the government understood what the public did not. Without showing his hand, Mr. Obama had preserved three major policies -- rendition, military commissions and indefinite detention -- that have been targets of human rights groups since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
But a year later, with Congress trying to force him to try all terrorism suspects using revamped military commissions, he deployed his legal skills differently -- to preserve trials in civilian courts.
It was shortly after Dec. 25, 2009, following a close call in which a Qaeda-trained operative named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had boarded a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear.
Mr. Obama was taking a drubbing from Republicans over the government's decision to read the suspect his rights, a prerequisite for bringing criminal charges against him in civilian court. The president "seems to think that if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won't be at war," former Vice President Dick Cheney charged.
Sensing vulnerability on both a practical and political level, the president summoned his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., to the White House.
F.B.I. agents had questioned Mr. Abdulmutallab for 50 minutes and gained valuable intelligence before giving him the warning. They had relied on a 1984 case called New York v. Quarles, in which the Supreme Court ruled that statements made by a suspect in response to urgent public safety questions -- the case involved the location of a gun -- could be introduced into evidence even if the suspect had not been advised of the right to remain silent.
Mr. Obama, who Mr. Holder said misses the legal profession, got into a colloquy with the attorney general. How far, he asked, could Quarles be stretched? Mr. Holder felt that in terrorism cases, the court would allow indefinite questioning on a fairly broad range of subjects. Satisfied with the edgy new interpretation, Mr. Obama gave his blessing, Mr. Holder recalled.
"Barack Obama believes in options: 'Maintain my options,' " said Jeh C. Johnson, a campaign adviser and now general counsel of the Defense Department.
'They Must All Be Militants'
That same mind-set would be brought to bear as the president intensified what would become a withering campaign to use unmanned aircraft to kill Qaeda terrorists.
Just days after taking office, the president got word that the first strike under his administration had killed a number of innocent Pakistanis. "The president was very sharp on the thing, and said, 'I want to know how this happened,' " a top White House adviser recounted.
In response to his concern, the C.I.A. downsized its munitions for more pinpoint strikes. In addition, the president tightened standards, aides say: If the agency did not have a "near certainty" that a strike would result in zero civilian deaths, Mr. Obama wanted to decide personally whether to go ahead.
Why not let him push the button himself?
The president's directive reinforced the need for caution, counterterrorism officials said, but did not significantly change the program. In part, that is because "the protection of innocent life was always a critical consideration," said Michael V. Hayden, the last C.I.A. director under President George W. Bush.
It is also because Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.
In which case, what -- 'sorry'?
Counterterrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good. "Al Qaeda is an insular, paranoid organization -- innocent neighbors don't hitchhike rides in the back of trucks headed for the border with guns and bombs," said one official, who requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program.
This is true, and we should (and at Rantburg we do) acknowledge the truth of it. Camp-followers share the fate of the camp. The difference is, we don't wring our hands over it.
This counting method may partly explain the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths. In a speech last year Mr. Brennan, Mr. Obama's trusted adviser, said that not a single noncombatant had been killed in a year of strikes. And in a recent interview, a senior administration official said that the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under Mr. Obama was in the "single digits" -- and that independent counts of scores or hundreds of civilian deaths unwittingly draw on false propaganda claims by militants.
But in interviews, three former senior intelligence officials expressed disbelief that the number could be so low. The C.I.A. accounting has so troubled some administration officials outside the agency that they have brought their concerns to the White House. One called it "guilt by association" that has led to "deceptive" estimates of civilian casualties.
"It bothers me when they say there were seven guys, so they must all be militants," the official said. "They count the corpses and they're not really sure who they are."
Said another way, it doesn't matter how you score the deaders: terrorists, terrorist supporters, camp followers, hangers-on, and so on all must get the same message. The body count is irrelevant long-term: what matters is whether or not you are changing behavior.
'A No-Brainer'
About four months into his presidency, as Republicans accused him of reckless naïveté on terrorism, Mr. Obama quickly pulled together a speech defending his policies. Standing before the Constitution at the National Archives in Washington, he mentioned Guantanamo 28 times, repeating his campaign pledge to close the prison.
But it was too late, and his defensive tone suggested that Mr. Obama knew it. Though President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate, had supported closing the Guantanamo prison, Republicans in Congress had reversed course and discovered they could use the issue to portray Mr. Obama as soft on terrorism.
And oh, by the way, everyone realized that releasing the jokers held at Gitmo would lead to the deaths of more innocents...
Walking out of the Archives, the president turned to his national security adviser at the time, Gen. James L. Jones, and admitted that he had never devised a plan to persuade Congress to shut down the prison.
"We're never going to make that mistake again," Mr. Obama told the retired Marine general.
General Jones said the president and his aides had assumed that closing the prison was "a no-brainer -- the United States will look good around the world." The trouble was, he added, "nobody asked, 'O.K., let's assume it's a good idea, how are you going to do this?' "
It was not only Mr. Obama's distaste for legislative backslapping and arm-twisting, but also part of a deeper pattern, said an administration official who has watched him closely: the president seemed to have "a sense that if he sketches a vision, it will happen -- without his really having thought through the mechanism by which it will happen."
That of course is how he differs from LBJ: LBJ was the master manipulator of the legislative process. Dubya was pretty fair at it himself having dealt with the Texas legislature. But Champ was always disdainful of the legislative grind when he was a state senator, and later U.S. Senator, so it's no surprise that he didn't have the stomach for it as president.
In fact, both Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the attorney general, Mr. Holder, had warned that the plan to close the Guantanamo prison was in peril, and they volunteered to fight for it on Capitol Hill, according to officials. But with Mr. Obama's backing, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, blocked them, saying health care reform had to go first.
Priorities, priorities...
When the administration floated a plan to transfer from Guantanamo to Northern Virginia two Uighurs, members of a largely Muslim ethnic minority from China who are considered no threat to the United States, Virginia Republicans led by Representative Frank R. Wolf denounced the idea. The administration backed down.
That show of weakness doomed the effort to close Guantanamo, the same administration official said. "Lyndon Johnson would have steamrolled the guy," he said. "That's not what happened. It's like a boxing match where a cut opens over a guy's eye."
The Use of Force
It is the strangest of bureaucratic rituals: Every week or so, more than 100 members of the government's sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to pore over terrorist suspects' biographies and recommend to the president who should be the next to die.
This secret "nominations" process is an invention of the Obama administration, a grim debating society that vets the PowerPoint slides bearing the names, aliases and life stories of suspected members of Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen or its allies in Somalia's Shabab militia.
The video conferences are run by the Pentagon, which oversees strikes in those countries, and participants do not hesitate to call out a challenge, pressing for the evidence behind accusations of ties to Al Qaeda.
"What's a Qaeda facilitator?" asked one participant, illustrating the spirit of the exchanges. "If I open a gate and you drive through it, am I a facilitator?"
Pretty much, yes...
Given the contentious discussions, it can take five or six sessions for a name to be approved, and names go off the list if a suspect no longer appears to pose an imminent threat, the official said. A parallel, more cloistered selection process at the C.I.A. focuses largely on Pakistan, where that agency conducts strikes.
The nominations go to the White House, where by his own insistence and guided by Mr. Brennan, Mr. Obama must approve any name. He signs off on every strike in Yemen and Somalia and also on the more complex and risky strikes in Pakistan -- about a third of the total.
Aides say Mr. Obama has several reasons for becoming so immersed in lethal counterterrorism operations. A student of writings on war by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, he believes that he should take moral responsibility for such actions.
He can do that without having to approve each strike individually.
And he knows that bad strikes can tarnish America's image and derail diplomacy.
"He realizes this isn't science, this is judgments made off of, most of the time, human intelligence," said Mr. Daley, the former chief of staff. "The president accepts as a fact that a certain amount of screw-ups are going to happen, and to him, that calls for a more judicious process."
But the control he exercises also appears to reflect Mr. Obama's striking self-confidence: he believes, according to several people who have worked closely with him, that his own judgment should be brought to bear on strikes.
Asked what surprised him most about Mr. Obama, Mr. Donilon, the national security adviser, answered immediately: "He's a president who is quite comfortable with the use of force on behalf of the United States."
In fact, in a 2007 campaign speech in which he vowed to pull the United States out of Iraq and refocus on Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama had trumpeted his plan to go after terrorist bases in Pakistan -- even if Pakistani leaders objected. His rivals at the time, including Mitt Romney, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mrs. Clinton, had all pounced on what they considered a greenhorn's campaign bluster. (Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama had become "Dr. Strangelove.")
In office, however, Mr. Obama has done exactly what he had promised, coming quickly to rely on the judgment of Mr. Brennan.
Mr. Brennan, a son of Irish immigrants, is a grizzled 25-year veteran of the C.I.A. whose work as a top agency official during the brutal interrogations of the Bush administration made him a target of fierce criticism from the left. He had been forced, under fire, to withdraw his name from consideration to lead the C.I.A. under Mr. Obama, becoming counterterrorism chief instead.
Some critics of the drone strategy still vilify Mr. Brennan, suggesting that he is the C.I.A.'s agent in the White House, steering Mr. Obama to a targeted killing strategy. But in office, Mr. Brennan has surprised many former detractors by speaking forcefully for closing Guantanamo and respecting civil liberties.
Harold H. Koh, for instance, as dean of Yale Law School was a leading liberal critic of the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies. But since becoming the State Department's top lawyer, Mr. Koh said, he has found in Mr. Brennan a principled ally.
"If John Brennan is the last guy in the room with the president, I'm comfortable, because Brennan is a person of genuine moral rectitude," Mr. Koh said. "It's as though you had a priest with extremely strong moral values who was suddenly charged with leading a war."
We had that in the Crusades. Worked well then too...
The president values Mr. Brennan's experience in assessing intelligence, from his own agency or others, and for the sobriety with which he approaches lethal operations, other aides say.
"The purpose of these actions is to mitigate threats to U.S. persons' lives," Mr. Brennan said in an interview. "It is the option of last recourse. So the president, and I think all of us here, don't like the fact that people have to die. And so he wants to make sure that we go through a rigorous checklist: The infeasibility of capture, the certainty of the intelligence base, the imminence of the threat, all of these things."
Yet the administration's very success at killing terrorism suspects has been shadowed by a suspicion: that Mr. Obama has avoided the complications of detention by deciding, in effect, to take no prisoners alive. While scores of suspects have been killed under Mr. Obama, only one has been taken into American custody, and the president has balked at adding new prisoners to Guantanamo.
"Their policy is to take out high-value targets, versus capturing high-value targets," said Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the intelligence committee. "They are not going to advertise that, but that's what they are doing."
Capturing high-value targets exposes our guys to new risks. One could argue that killing the targets instead, particularly by drone-zaps, avoids the risks to our pilots, special forces, etc. But that's not why Obama is ordering the drone-zaps.
Mr. Obama's aides deny such a policy, arguing that capture is often impossible in the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan and Yemen and that many terrorist suspects are in foreign prisons because of American tips. Still, senior officials at the Justice Department and the Pentagon acknowledge that they worry about the public perception.
"We have to be vigilant to avoid a no-quarter, or take-no-prisoners policy," said Mr. Johnson, the Pentagon's chief lawyer.
Why? Isn't that a 'strong horse' policy for that part of the world?
Trade-Offs
The care that Mr. Obama and his counterterrorism chief take in choosing targets, and their reliance on a precision weapon, the drone, reflect his pledge at the outset of his presidency to reject what he called the Bush administration's "false choice between our safety and our ideals."
But he has found that war is a messy business, and his actions show that pursuing an enemy unbound by rules has required moral, legal and practical trade-offs that his speeches did not envision.
One early test involved Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The case was problematic on two fronts, according to interviews with both administration and Pakistani sources.
The C.I.A. worried that Mr. Mehsud, whose group then mainly targeted the Pakistan government, did not meet the Obama administration's criteria for targeted killing: he was not an imminent threat to the United States. But Pakistani officials wanted him dead, and the American drone program rested on their tacit approval. The issue was resolved after the president and his advisers found that he represented a threat, if not to the homeland, to American personnel in Pakistan.
Then, in August 2009, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, told Mr. Brennan that the agency had Mr. Mehsud in its sights. But taking out the Pakistani Taliban leader, Mr. Panetta warned, did not meet Mr. Obama's standard of "near certainty" of no innocents being killed. In fact, a strike would certainly result in such deaths: he was with his wife at his in-laws' home.
"Many times," General Jones said, in similar circumstances, "at the 11th hour we waved off a mission simply because the target had people around them and we were able to loiter on station until they didn't."
But not this time. Mr. Obama, through Mr. Brennan, told the C.I.A. to take the shot, and Mr. Mehsud was killed, along with his wife and, by some reports, other family members as well, said a senior intelligence official.
The attempted bombing of an airliner a few months later, on Dec. 25, stiffened the president's resolve, aides say. It was the culmination of a series of plots, including the killing of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex. by an Army psychiatrist who had embraced radical Islam.
Mr. Obama is a good poker player, but he has a tell when he is angry. His questions become rapid-fire, said his attorney general, Mr. Holder. "He'll inject the phrase, 'I just want to make sure you understand that.' " And it was clear to everyone, Mr. Holder said, that he was simmering about how a 23-year-old bomber had penetrated billions of dollars worth of American security measures.
Was he similarly angry over the Fort Hood shooting?
When a few officials tentatively offered a defense, noting that the attack had failed because the terrorists were forced to rely on a novice bomber and an untested formula because of stepped-up airport security, Mr. Obama cut them short.
"Well, he could have gotten it right and we'd all be sitting here with an airplane that blew up and killed over a hundred people," he said, according to a participant. He asked them to use the close call to imagine in detail the consequences if the bomb had detonated. In characteristic fashion, he went around the room, asking each official to explain what had gone wrong and what needed to be done about it.
"After that, as president, it seemed like he felt in his gut the threat to the United States," said Michael E. Leiter, then director of the National Counterterrorism Center. "Even John Brennan, someone who was already a hardened veteran of counterterrorism, tightened the straps on his rucksack after that."
David Axelrod, the president's closest political adviser, began showing up at the "Terror Tuesday" meetings, his unspeaking presence a visible reminder of what everyone understood: a successful attack would overwhelm the president's other aspirations and achievements.
In the most dramatic possible way, the Fort Hood shootings in November and the attempted Christmas Day bombing had shown the new danger from Yemen. Mr. Obama, who had rejected the Bush-era concept of a global war on terrorism and had promised to narrow the American focus to Al Qaeda's core, suddenly found himself directing strikes in another complicated Muslim country.
Dubya was right again. Thanks for acknowledging that, NYT.
The very first strike under his watch in Yemen, on Dec. 17, 2009, offered a stark example of the difficulties of operating in what General Jones described as an "embryonic theater that we weren't really familiar with."
It killed not only its intended target, but also two neighboring families, and left behind a trail of cluster bombs that subsequently killed more innocents. It was hardly the kind of precise operation that Mr. Obama favored. Videos of children's bodies and angry tribesmen holding up American missile parts flooded You Tube, fueling a ferocious backlash that Yemeni officials said bolstered Al Qaeda.
The sloppy strike shook Mr. Obama and Mr. Brennan, officials said, and once again they tried to impose some discipline.
In Pakistan, Mr. Obama had approved not only "personality" strikes aimed at named, high-value terrorists, but "signature" strikes that targeted training camps and suspicious compounds in areas controlled by militants.
But some State Department officials have complained to the White House that the criteria used by the C.I.A. for identifying a terrorist "signature" were too lax. The joke was that when the C.I.A. sees "three guys doing jumping jacks," the agency thinks it is a terrorist training camp, said one senior official. Men loading a truck with fertilizer could be bombmakers -- but they might also be farmers, skeptics argued.
Now, in the wake of the bad first strike in Yemen, Mr. Obama overruled military and intelligence commanders who were pushing to use signature strikes there as well.
"We are not going to war with Yemen," he admonished in one meeting, according to participants.
His guidance was formalized in a memo by General Jones, who called it a "governor, if you will, on the throttle," intended to remind everyone that "one should not assume that it's just O.K. to do these things because we spot a bad guy somewhere in the world."
Mr. Obama had drawn a line. But within two years, he stepped across it. Signature strikes in Pakistan were killing a large number of terrorist suspects, even when C.I.A. analysts were not certain beforehand of their presence. And in Yemen, roiled by the Arab Spring unrest, the Qaeda affiliate was seizing territory.
Today, the Defense Department can target suspects in Yemen whose names they do not know. Officials say the criteria are tighter than those for signature strikes, requiring evidence of a threat to the United States, and they have even given them a new name -- TADS, for Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes. But the details are a closely guarded secret -- part of a pattern for a president who came into office promising transparency.
The Ultimate Test
On that front, perhaps no case would test Mr. Obama's principles as starkly as that of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric and Qaeda propagandist hiding in Yemen, who had recently risen to prominence and had taunted the president by name in some of his online screeds.
The president "was very interested in obviously trying to understand how a guy like Awlaki developed," said General Jones. The cleric's fiery sermons had helped inspire a dozen plots, including the shootings at Fort Hood. Then he had gone "operational," plotting with Mr. Abdulmutallab and coaching him to ignite his explosives only after the airliner was over the United States.
That record, and Mr. Awlaki's calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
Mr. Obama gave his approval, and Mr. Awlaki was killed in September 2011, along with a fellow propagandist, Samir Khan, an American citizen who was not on the target list but was traveling with him.
If the president had qualms about this momentous step, aides said he did not share them. Mr. Obama focused instead on the weight of the evidence showing that the cleric had joined the enemy and was plotting more terrorist attacks.
"This is an easy one," Mr. Daley recalled him saying, though the president warned that in future cases, the evidence might well not be so clear.
In the wake of Mr. Awlaki's death, some administration officials, including the attorney general, argued that the Justice Department's legal memo should be made public. In 2009, after all, Mr. Obama had released Bush administration legal opinions on interrogation over the vociferous objections of six former C.I.A. directors. This time, contemplating his own secrets, he chose to keep the Awlaki opinion secret.
"Once it's your pop stand, you look at things a little differently," said Mr. Rizzo, the C.I.A.'s former general counsel.
Mr. Hayden, the former C.I.A. director and now an adviser to Mr. Obama's Republican challenger, Mr. Romney, commended the president's aggressive counterterrorism record, which he said had a "Nixon to China" quality. But, he said, "secrecy has its costs" and Mr. Obama should open the strike strategy up to public scrutiny.
"This program rests on the personal legitimacy of the president, and that's not sustainable," Mr. Hayden said. "I have lived the life of someone taking action on the basis of secret O.L.C. memos, and it ain't a good life. Democracies do not make war on the basis of legal memos locked in a D.O.J. safe."
Tactics Over Strategy
In his June 2009 speech in Cairo, aimed at resetting relations with the Muslim world, Mr. Obama had spoken eloquently of his childhood years in Indonesia, hearing the call to prayer "at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk."
"The United States is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam," he declared.
But in the months that followed, some officials felt the urgency of counterterrorism strikes was crowding out consideration of a broader strategy against radicalization. Though Mrs. Clinton strongly supported the strikes, she complained to colleagues about the drones-only approach at Situation Room meetings, in which discussion would focus exclusively on the pros, cons and timing of particular strikes.
At their weekly lunch, Mrs. Clinton told the president she thought there should be more attention paid to the root causes of radicalization, and Mr. Obama agreed. But it was September 2011 before he issued an executive order setting up a sophisticated, interagency war room at the State Department to counter the jihadi narrative on an hour-by-hour basis, posting messages and video online and providing talking points to embassies.
Mr. Obama was heartened, aides say, by a letter discovered in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. It complained that the American president had undermined Al Qaeda's support by repeatedly declaring that the United States was at war not with Islam, but with the terrorist network. "We must be doing a good job," Mr. Obama told his secretary of state.
Moreover, Mr. Obama's record has not drawn anything like the sweeping criticism from allies that his predecessor faced.
Of course not: the Left was working to bring Dubya down; they're only kvetching about Champ. Imagine how Obama would behave if Cindy Sheehan, the MSM, Code Pink, etc were all after him.
John B. Bellinger III, a top national security lawyer under the Bush administration, said that was because Mr. Obama's liberal reputation and "softer packaging" have protected him. "After the global outrage over Guantanamo, it's remarkable that the rest of the world has looked the other way while the Obama administration has conducted hundreds of drone strikes in several different countries, including killing at least some civilians," said Mr. Bellinger, who supports the strikes.
By withdrawing from Iraq and preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, Mr. Obama has refocused the fight on Al Qaeda and hugely reduced the death toll both of American soldiers and Muslim civilians. But in moments of reflection, Mr. Obama may have reason to wonder about unfinished business and unintended consequences.
His focus on strikes has made it impossible to forge, for now, the new relationship with the Muslim world that he had envisioned. Both Pakistan and Yemen are arguably less stable and more hostile to the United States than when Mr. Obama became president.
Pakistan and Yemen are failed states. They will never be stable; they will always be hostile. Unfortunately Anne Coulter, she with the cold, dark heart, has a point: you'd have to forcibly convert all the people in those countries to Christianity to change their behavior. That's not going to happen.
Justly or not, drones have become a provocative symbol of American power, running roughshod over national sovereignty and killing innocents. With China and Russia watching, the United States has set an international precedent for sending drones over borders to kill enemies.
Mr. Blair, the former director of national intelligence, said the strike campaign was dangerously seductive. "It is the politically advantageous thing to do -- low cost, no U.S. casualties, gives the appearance of toughness," he said. "It plays well domestically, and it is unpopular only in other countries. Any damage it does to the national interest only shows up over the long term."
But Mr. Blair's dissent puts him in a small minority of security experts. Mr. Obama's record has eroded the political perception that Democrats are weak on national security. No one would have imagined four years ago that his counterterrorism policies would come under far more fierce attack from the American Civil Liberties Union than from Mr. Romney.
Aides say that Mr. Obama's choices, though, are not surprising. The president's reliance on strikes, said Mr. Leiter, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, "is far from a lurid fascination with covert action and special forces. It's much more practical. He's the president. He faces a post-Abdulmutallab situation, where he's being told people might attack the United States tomorrow."
"You can pass a lot of laws," Mr. Leiter said, "Those laws are not going to get Bin Laden dead."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2012
12:27 ||
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They blew up every good intell operation Dubyah had and here they are essentially praising THE ONE for doing the same thing, if not more ruthlessly, they criticized in GWB.
I hope that place melts to the ground someday...or a terrorist sets himself off in the editorial offices.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/29/2012 17:47
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#3
Last thing I want is some megalomaniacal political leader with little/no military experience playing general. History is full of such examples and they always turn out badly.
#4
It's a very detailed description of the process of deciding who is going to die, or suffer death. Many individuals and agencies involved, working in groups, sharing information and conclusions and findings, similar to a judicial panel.
I guess we could call it a "death panel". Kinda catchy.
#5
The elevation of decision making of this type to the Presidential level has, as mentioned, numerous secord order effects. One NOT mentioned is the fact that battlefield actions regarding "kill or capture" across the wider spectrum of operation tend to be seen through the same prism and severly impact all other operations.
Aggressive battlefield interrogation of prisoners detainees and all-source intelligence fusion are icky. Submit your requests to update the data-base to the lawyers, and release them all within the rules of the specified detention periods. Only the King will decide who is to live, die, or be further detained.
#6
Yet another potential second order effect as posted here this morning:
U.S. officials among Iranian assassination plot targets
The beginning paragraphs of a 3-page report from the Washington Post. It wasn't just about Israel after all.
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list.
As you know, tactical interrogation reporting (prisonor reporting) helps feed the HUMINT collection and analysis process. Prisoners are "sources" and good sources, prisoners, or others.... be hard to find. Without prisoners (and we don't even call them that anymore), whom you can question and interrogate over lengthy periods of time, you have lost a valuable collection capability. Sole reliance upon national systems and their multi-agency handlers, has it's downside(s).
The idea that only some God level arbiter, or a national agency can make final detention and interrogation decisions has a chilling, WTF effect at the squad level.
#10
Not sure what yahoo thought this would make xerxes obama look like a bad ass decision maker, but this was a bad bad idea link, and not just from a not-obama point of view.
It ruins the office, and the method. Drone theory was something I was on board with, but this puts it in an awkward light.
#11
Yahoo has become another MSM cheerleader for the empty suit under the desk. Just about everything they link to on the home page is pro obama and anti Romney/anti-Republican
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/30/2012 11:34
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#12
Yeah he's real pricipaled. So why is his chief political advisor axelrod in the meeting? To help with the politics of the decision of the pricipals? Shitbags.
#14
Drone theory was something I was on board with, but this puts it in an awkward light.
Word, swksvolFF.
Barack Obama, a realist narcissist who, unlike some of his fervent supporters, was never carried away by believed a word of his own rhetoric. Instead, he was already putting his lawyerly mind cravenly scheming to carving out the maximum amount of maneuvering room to fight terrorism as he saw fit maximally cover his ass.
#15
Maybe Axelrod is there to produce the domestic drone list.
The picture of him going over a targeting list like a dinner menu is a put off. "Let's see, what do I feel like..Yemani..Somali..I know, Pahkistahni, making me look bad with their road blockade. Garcon! (clap clap) Make it so."
#16
Should come as no great surprise. Obama, the ultimate Statist, the arbiter of all decision making, to include that of life over death. Like the son Tiberious, he clearly relishes the power as well as the task.
#20
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > OBAMA CHANGED DEFININTION OF "CIVILIAN" IN DRONE WARS | WORLDNEWS: REPORT: OBAMA EMBRACED [expanded = very broad]DISPUTED DEFINITION OF "CIVILIAN" IN DRONE WARS.
and
* SAME > THE HANDS-ON APPROACH TO LEGAL FORCE.
I dunno - iff these Artics + similar were meant to help divert or protect the Bammer + US Govt. from becom targets for Radical Islamist Terrops widin CONUS, THEY'RE DOING A POOR JOB.
IMO, to a dedicated MilTerr's eyes all these Artics validate a Terrop(s) agz the Bammer, NOT IN-VALIDATE, espec given past rhetiric of vengeance agz the US for the Drone Strikes, deaths of Muslims in general, + Drone-led killing of Senior ot Top Leaders.
Poland demanded a "strong and clear response" from the U.S. after President Barack Obama's mention of a "Polish death camp" while honoring a Pole who told the world about the Holocaust. Way to step in it, dumbass.
"We can't accept such words in Poland, even if they are spoken by a leader of an allied country," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists in Warsaw today. "Saying Polish concentration camps is as if there was no German responsibility, no Hitler."
Since, 2004 Poland has sought clarifications from several news outlets for the use of a phrase "Polish concentration camps" that were run by the Nazis during the country's occupation in the World War II, according to the Foreign Ministry's website. The government has convinced publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle to stop using the phrase. Ya know, this thing called "Google" would have helped prevent such a diplomatic disaster... if the staff wasn't as incompetent as their dear leader.
The U.S. administration regrets "this misstatement," the Wall Street Journal's website cited Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman, as saying. The text of Obama's remarks on the White House website hasn't been corrected as of today.
"The White House will apologize for this outrageous mistake," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on his Twitter Inc. account. "It's a shame that such a momentous ceremony has been overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence."
Obama posthumously awarded Jan Karski the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a ceremony in Washington yesterday, saying the Polish officer "illuminated one of the darkest chapters of history" as he "repeatedly crossed enemy line to document the face of genocide, and courageously voiced tragic truths all the way to President Roosevelt." Reading off a teleprompter that has wrong information is still wrong. Folks, this is the caliber of leadership we have at the helm of our country.
#1
WaPo headline is better: Poles angered by Obama words on 'Polish death camps'
Meanwhile back in the USA, the core Obama support does not know/care where Poland is, or that there ever were 'death camps' run by anyone.
#2
Obean will not offer a meaningful apology "response" (i.e.: one that takes ownership of and responsibility for his words, along with a promise to educate himself about the subject so he doesn't do it again). It will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
The man is clueless about history. That's why he keeps making all these mistakes.
I wonder how he fared in his history classes, and whose history he studied.
#5
Mean like, my rod and my b-ow(e); as in not bo-.
Polish death camps run by Austrian speaking Nazis?
Actually the whole ceremony was an uncomfortable plug, making this so much more a lightning rod than typcial gaffe person's par for course. "Nobody started working 20 years ago so that one day they can get a medal by a president named Barack Obama." It was among the dreadful performance category, was trying to be loose and cool but couldn't keep his eyes off the teleprompter like the big game was on.
#9
Pharaoh's belief system=black liberation theology=Lotsa idols + lotsa corruption + lotsa hate for Whitey= USA in Peril.
Eric H. Holder say, "I been mistreated by 'de Man in the usa for more centuries than I can remember.
The 1996 Kurt Russell movie "Escape from L.A." might be remade as "Escape from California." New data show record numbers of Californians "outmigrating" to other states. The state's population is still growing, although at a slower rate, because of in-state births and immigration from other countries. However, recent Undocumented Democrats immigrants generally have lower incomes than citizens, thus lowering the tax base. Doh!
Of course, people who leave no longer use state services. But those who left arguably were more productive Californians. If they had wanted to subsist on welfare, they never would have departed a state with some of the most generous benefits in the nation.
#1
Traffic on I-405 cited as one of the reasons people leave. Yeah, it can be a real hassle trying to get to work in the morning. This is a result of bad planning and, yes, we can throw Fannie and Freddie into the stew as well. The building boom we experienced throughout the 90s and 2000s was artificially stimulated by the federal government. Well, we had to provide affordable housing, they said. And yet, even after the mortgage meltdown, you cannot afford it. We let the growth overwhelm our infrastructure and now we are choking on it. And God forbid that we should have any mass transportation in Los Angeles. But traffic in LA was a nightmare long before Fannie and Freddie. Way back in the 1950s (or was it the 40s?) they staked their future on freeways. Legend has it that GM, Standard Oil and Firestone "convinced" the LA politicians that cars, freeways and suburbs were the way to go.
I'll say one thing about it though, driving southbound on the 405 between the 101 and LAX at night in the carpool lane is an adventure you'll never forget. Beats the hell out of anything at Disneyland or Magic Mountain. Another story I heard is that when they recently had to close the 405 for a whole day up there so they could retrofit a bridge, the skateboarders took to it. There was a long, empty, fairly steep stretch of concrete that was crying out for skateboarders to ride it. The cops busted some of them. Even so, I wish I'd been there for that!
As for all that immigration from other countries, you might want to believe the federal government has a policy that controls who comes here and from which countries. But, alas, people walk across the border with Mexico and we have no idea how many or where they come from. Then they tell use we are bad people because the housing is not affordable and the schools suck. Well, the schools suck because there are so many immigrants that don't speak English and don't value education the way we do.
As far as I'm concerned, they can all get the hell outta here.
#2
As a former CA (born and raised) resident myself, I'd suggest that traffic was very low on my list of reasons to leave. Traffic is bad in almost all states, and the problem is not enough roads. Mass transit only works once you pass the population density threshold, and Americans generally don't want to live that way.
High taxes, poor services, rising crime, decaying infrastructure, declining schools--just everything you would expect from a Blue State. That's the problem.
Soon the only people left in CA will be the fabulously wealthy, government employees and illegals. Anyone else there is getting ridden hard and put away wet.
[Ynet] The joint US and Arab military exercise "Eager Lion" that ended in Jordan on Sunady included a simulation of fighting militias attempting to take over weapons arsenal, specifically chemical missiles in Syria, a senior diplomatic source told the London based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
More than 12,000 soldiers took part in the war games, representing 19 countries, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , Leb, Pakistain, Qatar, Britannia, La Belle France, Italia, Spain and Australia.
Azerbaijan foiled an attempt to stage terrorist attacks while the country was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest last week, and tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! dozens of suspected plotters, the security ministry said Wednesday.
"The main goal of the group was to stage terrorist acts in Baku during the Eurovision," the National Security Ministry said in a statement. "As a result of the measures taken, 40 members of the group were tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud!
This singer was in Eurovision in 09 representing Russia. Notice the Asian influence in this video.
I speak of Âèêòîð Öîé. She is like a camelion. Not known in this country but has several good videos to her credit.
[Ynet] As Iran reels from cyber attack by 'the most sophisticated spyware in history' some experts say Flame's recent claim to fame is nothing new. So why is Tehran having so much trouble warding off computer viruses?
Since Monday, the media worldwide is raving about the new malicious software called "Flame," or Worm.Win32.Flame. The reports laud Flame as the most sophisticated piece of cyber espionage code ever to be devised, saying the complexity of the virus and range of the strike "must" mean that this malware attack was a government-funded operation.
Iran, which was Flame's prime target, admitted that its computers took a significant hit and that "large amounts of data were corrupted and lost." It was also quick to blame Israel for the cyber-strike, saying that, "Top Israeli officials all but admitted that they have created the most complex spyware in history."
Tehran also said that even though the malware was able to crack over 43 different virus protections, its expert have already been able to analyze and block the attack.
More recent opinions however, say that Flame will take a long time to dissect. Leading publications such as British magazine The Register and the US' PC World Magazine called Flame "a media hype," citing a spokesperson for anti-spyware software company Webroot as saying that "The underlying threat has been known since 2007."
Whether connected to previous "Stuxnet" and "Duqu" attacks or not, whether as sophisticated as claimed to be or not, and whether government funded or not, Flame has penetrated highly secure computer systems and sent out large amounts of what is most likely very sensitive information.
A worm on a mission
Flame is essentially a "worm": A worm differs from a computer virus in that it is designed to track and send specific information back to its operator. A computer virus on the other hand is designed to perform specific actions on the host.
Worms are characterized as relatively small pieces of code, which exploit specific weaknesses in the host's operating system in order to penetrate and infect that host. The worm works as part of an infected process previously known to the host which makes it difficult to detect on the one hand and legitimate to the host on the other.
General malware is designed to infect and attack any host it can. As such, it has certain characteristics that makes it relatively easy to detect by good antivirus software. Target-Specific Malware is designed to hone in on specific hosts and is usually created with enough intelligence that lets it know the target's defense weaknesses. As Falme has proven, it is a target-specific worm.
A huge advantage, so to speak, of target-specific malware is that it does not need to infect multiple hosts in order to do its job, and therefore it is virtually impossible to detect by ordinary antivirus software. The only chance the "victim" has of detecting a target-specific worm is by good use of Anomaly Detection Systems (ADS).
These systems may detect anomalies in web traffic; alert the cyber security team which in turn should initiate an investigation, hopefully leading to the worm's detection and removal. This type of cyber security however, requires huge spending and is rarely implemented correctly.
Iran's brush with "Duqu" and disastrous encounter with "Stuxnet" prove that the Islamic Theocratic Republic is, indeed, lacking in that department.
The bad news is that like any other security system, cyber security systems can always be penetrated with the right amount of resources, making any computer system -- even those on a state level -- vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Interpol estimated recently that some 10,000 cyber attacks occur in Israel every minute, but while bully boyz and criminals are quick to utilize new technologies to carry out such attacks, about 80% of online violations are committed by crime organizations -- not terrorists.
The good news is that your personal computer and business network are most likely not the target to government-funded target-specific malware. Just don't forget to update your anti-virus program.
Assaf Turner is an information and physical security expert and the CEO of Maya Security
The thief pulled off his fowl heist before the rooster had a chance to crow.
An Albuquerque man is facing charges after police said he made off with domesticated red junglefowl from Montessori school children.
Harvey Aragon Jr. was arrested this week and was found hiding in a downtown Albuquerque apartment closet with smudges of Gallus gallus guano on his jeans, KOB-TV reported. Police also said they found three specimens of the most populous species of bird in the world today. in the backseat of his Buick Skylark. Next door was the chicken coop belonging to Escuela Del Sol Montessori School. His car's Skylark? And stealing a species of pheasant? This what happens when a birder goes bad? The arrest came after a school caretaker called police about a possible break-in early Thursday morning.
School director Friedge van Gil said the chickens were used to educate students about chicken care.
Aragon was charged with commercial burglary and possession of stolen property over $500.
It was unclear if he had hired an attorney. Brethren and Sistern! We are gathered here today to mark the passing of Brother Elroy Aragon, Junior. Brother Aragon, Junior's passing came suddenly and it should stand as a warning to us all!
What did he die of, you ask?
Did he die of noo-mony? Nope.
Did he die of tuberculitis? Nope.
Did he had a heart attack? Nope.
He died in the usual way: crossing Farmer Gray's back yard, carrying two chickens and a duck!
NIAGARA FALLS-- A man ordered a take-out dinner from a Niagara Falls Boulevard diner early Saturday and tried to pay for it with a bag of marijuana, police said.
The incident occurred shortly after 2a.m. at the Denny's restaurant, police said. The man ordered $9.91 worth of food and offered a cashier $1 and the pot in exchange for the meal. Must have been stoned out of his gourd himself.
When the cashier decided that a reservation for the Gray-Bar Hotel was not a suitable exchange for food, the man tried to sell the pot to other customers in the restaurant, police said, before fleeing into a nearby wooded area when the cashier called police.
An employee at the restaurant recognized the man and gave his name to police, who said that he lives in the area of the restaurant. He was not home when officers arrived later Saturday. An investigation is continuing.
#3
It seems like it must get more and more difficult to cull out the preeminent "idiot of the day" from the ordinary fair-to-middling idiots of the day.
#1
Of course we have the useful idiot from Berserkley who is more worried about increased surveillance than he is about the proliferation of these violent thugs and psychopaths.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/30/2012 11:30
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I dont remember which former US president said " talk softly but carry a big stick".
However I can positively say that Obama " talks loudly but carries a limp stick".
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
05/30/2012 11:22
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Elder, that was Theodore Roosevelt.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/30/2012 12:17
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And Roosevelt was a "progressive" for lack of a better word to explain the actions of those who thought their intellects and penchant for protecting the helpless masses were somehow superior to the intellects forged during the leadup to the American Revolution and their penchants for personal liberty and responsibility.
#1
Communication problems on both sides. They need each other more than ever. I believe Merkel with all her abilities still cannot change her thinking to-wards Putin. She either likes you or your out. She seems to go out of her way to irritate Putin.
#3
See also TOPIX > GERMANY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO DESTROY THE EUROPEAN ORDER FOR A THIRD TIME. Iff the EuroDollar falls apart so will the EU = EuroZone.
HHHHMMMMMMM, it'll be four times iff one counts the Iron Chancellor = Bismarck + Franco-Prussian Wars; five iff Frederich the Great - OTOH, Germany, then known as Prussia, may had saved Russia from Bonaparte due to their seeming "mismanagement" = sabotage? of Boney's Grande Armee's logistics for the Russia invasion???
Mitt Romney has secured his place as the Republican challenger to Barack Obama in November's US presidential election, following a primary in Texas.
Near-complete results show he easily cleared the benchmark of 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination.
Mr Romney said he was "humbled". He is the first Mormon from a major party to contest the presidential election. He is set to be officially anointed as the Republican nominee at the party convention in Florida in late August.
Mr Romney has been the presumptive nominee for several weeks as his rivals withdrew or suspended campaigning.
A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to win. With 1,086 delegates secured as he entered the Texas race, Mr Romney only needed 58 to pass the 1,144 mark. Texas awards 152 delegates proportionally.
In near-complete returns, Mr Romney captured 63% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, more than 10 times as many as his closest rival, Ron Paul.
He will surpass his father, George Romney, a former Michigan governor who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 1968.
Opinion polls put forward by a desperate, lying MSM suggest Mitt Romney is locked in an extremely close race with Mr Obama in November.
#3
On Texas politions going to the national level, the Texas Tea Party didn't have a lot of luck overwhelming the established GOP backed candidates yesterday. But they did get candidates enough votes to get into July 31 runoffs.
However, on the state level, they trounced many state level incumbants with thier candidates. Bad thing is, this could widen the gulf between national Texas figures in the US Congress and state level figures in Austin.
the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will "achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya," the additional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslims, or financial tribute.
In a brief report written by Samuel al-Ashay and published by El Bashayer on May 27, Morsi allegedly made these comments while speaking with a journalist at the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, adding "We will not allow Ahmed Shafiq [his contending presidential candidate] or anyone else to impede our second Islamic conquest of Egypt."
After his interviewer pointed out that the first Muslim conquest of Egypt was "carried out at the hands of Amr bin al-As [in 641]," he asked Morsi, "Who will the second Islamic conqueror be?" Morsi, replied, "The second Muslim conqueror will be Muhammad Morsi," referring to himself, "and history will record it."
When asked what he thought about many Christian Copts coming out to vote for his secular opponent, Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi reportedly said, "They need to know that conquest is coming, and Egypt will be Islamic, and that they must pay jizya or emigrate."
If this interview is accurate, certainly Morsi would not be the first political Islamist in Egypt to say he wants to see the nation's Christians subjugated and made to pay jizya (see here for more examples).
#3
Muslims should pay tribute, convert or cease existing. Sounds fair to me.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
05/30/2012 9:19
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#4
If they'd just learn to shoot the "Holy Men" that pop out these moronic statements, they'd have a lot less trouble. Start with the Imams and work down through the layers of sycophants and outright loons until you strike sanity.
#6
A few more public utterances like this and Mursi will soon be surrounded by a vast expanse of green radioactive glass.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
05/30/2012 11:12
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#7
Isn't this the definition of ethnic cleansing?
Alan, it's different when Arabs do it. Oppressed peoples are always allowed to threaten genocide. It's somewhere in Alinsky's book. Or the Koran. Or some college treatise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2012 11:42
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#8
If they'd just learn to shoot the "Holy Men" that pop out these moronic statements, they'd have a lot less trouble. Start with the Imams and work down through the layers of sycophants and outright loons until you strike sanity.
The problem isn't with the holy men. They only feed the population what they want. The problem is with the Sunni populace, which has, over decades, been whipping itself into a frenzy of religious ecstasy, acted out through persecutions and mass murders of apostates and infidels. There's a mass psychosis going on in the West right now - we are trying impose a Sunni government in Syria, in a world that already has too many Sunni governments (and too many Sunnis). Whatever happened to divide and conquer?
#9
Whatever happened to divide and conquer? Dunno, it seems to be working quite well on the US electorate. Who cares what those 'wogs' are up to, anyway?
Britain's Supreme Court upheld the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden over alleged sex crimes on Wednesday.
Seven judges at the country's highest court rejected by a majority of 5-2 that Assange's claim that a European Arrest Warrant under which his extradition is sought was invalid.
Two lower courts have already ruled he should be extradited. Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange over claims of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers, and he has been fighting a lengthy legal battle against extradition since his arrest in Britain in December 2010.
It'll now go to some European Court of Even Higher Appeal which will take a decade or so to figure out whether Assange risks being tortured if he's extradited to Sweden...
The former computer hacker gained international prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing secret video footage and thousands of US diplomatic cables about Iraq and Afghanistan, in the largest leak of classified documents in US history.
That made him a hero to anti-censorship campaigners but a menace to Washington and other governments.
Assange also faced widespread criticism that he had put lives at risk by blowing the cover of sources who spoke to diplomats and intelligence agents in countries where it was dangerous to do so.
Since then, WikiLeaks has faded from the headlines due to a dearth of scoops and a blockade by credit card companies that has made donations to the site almost impossible. Assange's personal standing has been damaged by the Swedish sex case and he has lost support from most of his celebrity backers. Since his detention, he has mostly been living under strict bail conditions at the country mansion of a wealthy supporter in eastern England. His associates say that amounts to 540 days under house arrest without charge.
The Commerce Department is considering naming Arab Americans a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group that is eligible for special business assistance, The Hill reported Tuesday.
"The ADC petition asserts that, in the government's efforts to protect Americans, they essentially took away the rights of other Americans," according to the notice of proposed rulemaking about the petition. The needs of the many outweight the needs of the few. (Spock)
Commerce is asking for comment as to whether social and economic discrimination against Arab Americans has, in fact, become prevalent, and if so, to cite specific examples of occurrences. The MBDA will decide whether or not to accept the petition by June 27.
In making the case for minority status, ADC highlighted the National Security Entry Exit Registration System, "which required non-immigrants to register at ports of entry and targeted males from Arab nations; stricter travel guidelines; and 'no-fly lists' that predominantly contained the names of Arab-Americans," according to MBDA's summary of the petition. Ah-HA! So the gubbamint IS profiling!
The ADC wants any "American who traces his or her ethnic roots to one of the countries in the Arab World" to be eligible for MBDA services. 'Palestinians' would also be included.
MBDA services are now offered to African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Spanish-speaking Americans, American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, Hasidic Jews, Asian-Pacific Americans and Asian Indians, The Hill noted. Let's get up a petition for tired, old white guys. And their spouses.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2012
05:57 ||
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#1
I love the idea.
Abdul Abullbull tipper
Now where is the dosh, kuffar?
#3
Wonder if American citizens should start "discriminating" against commerce department staff?
Reciprocation is the foundation of civilisation after all.
#4
The Commerce Department is considering naming Arab Americans a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group that is eligible for special business assistance, The Hill reported Tuesday.
This has absolutely nothing to do, nothing at all to do I tell you with the upcoming election.
#6
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. - 14th Amendment
The latter suspended by the federal judiciary for 'social justice'. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" - George Orwell, Animal Farm
#9
How To Comment
You may submit comments, identified with Docket No. 120517080-2080-01, using any of the following methods:
Mail, Hand/Delivery/Courier: Ms. Josephine Arnold, Chief Counsel, Minority Business
Development Agency, Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Room
5093, Washington, DC 20230.
Electronic mail: Submit comments in Microsoft Word or .pdf format to
AAComments@mbda.gov.
All comments will be posted on the MBDA website at http://www.mbda.gov.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2012 9:28
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Another screaming victim group yelling for "gimmes?" I'm shocked.
The defection of a prominent Pennsylvania Democrat to the Republican Party is raising some eyebrows.
Jo Ann Nardelli, a state committeewoman and founding president of the Blair County Federation of Democratic Women, has switched her political affiliation to the GOP, citing her Catholic faith and President Obamas embrace of gay marriage as reasons.
During a press conference last week, Nardelli cited President Obamas recent announcement in support of gay marriage as a central reason for her defection, endorsed Mitt Romney for president and changed her party registration to Republican, The Altoona Mirror reported.
As the Democratic Party has taken the stand for same-sex marriage, then I must make a stand on my faith that marriage is between a man and a woman. Gods principles for life never change. His guidelines, given in Scripture, produce fruitful lives when you follow them, Nardelli, a pro-life Democrat for more than 40 years, said at the Blair County Courthouse.
According to Politics PA, Nardelli continued to point to her Catholic faith as a major motivator in her letter of resignation to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
I respect all of you and all that I have achieved in the past. Due to personal matters and faith beliefs at this time, it is only fair to resign, she wrote. I will miss you all very much as you are all a part of my family; however, it is time to move forward with my life in a direction that is more in line with my faith.
The Mirror added that Blair County Republican Party Chairman A.C. Stickel welcomed Nardelli. Stickel emphasized Obamas, and the Democratic Partys, disconnect with blue collar values as a big part of the story.
#1
Conservatives, people of faith no longer have a home in the Democratic party. I see come election a vast number of Democrats that have become disenfranchised.
#2
Obama and other radical leftists have pitted so many groups against each other while trolling for votes and engaging in class warfare, I don't think there is room anywhere in the Democratic Party except for the KoolAde swillers. Alinsky politics are going to be their undoing.
#3
A vast number of formerly Democratic voters has been progressively disenfranchised for decades. Now and then some of them wake up and smell the BS coffee.
#4
My swell home state remains the peoples' dumbocrapic retch-ublic of Pee Aye. There are more pictures of Roosevelt and Jack Kennedy on walls in this state than there are of Jesus. We'll be paying the price for a long time, and the rest of y'all will pay too...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/30/2012 13:39
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A man tied by prosecutors to two Seattle terror suspects has admitted attempting to run two Marines off Interstate 5.
Keep reading, it sounds like a case of 'sudden jihadi syndrome'...
Jailed since last September, Michael McCright pleaded guilty to related charges last week and admitted to swerving at a government vehicle carrying a uniformed Marine sergeant and another noncommissioned officer on July 12.
McCright, who also goes by Mikhial Jihad, pleaded guilty Wednesday to reduced charges so he will not face a life sentence under Washington's "three-strikes" law. Prosecutors plan to request a five-year prison term.
In the incident, the Marine sergeants had left a local processing center. While the staff sergeant driving the car remained in uniform, the other man had changed into civilian clothing.
The two were on the interstate when a small blue car sped toward them. A bearded man in a skull cap, McCright, was behind the wheel. As the car came alongside the Marines, the staff sergeant noticed McCright spot his uniform. The staff sergeant told police, "His eyes widened and he appeared to become angry."
McCright forced the government car into the emergency lane, then pulled in front of the Marines' vehicle and slammed on his brakes, nearly causing a collision.
The passenger in the Marine's car called 911 and reported the license plate number to the police. Investigators later linked the car to McCright and phoned him. At the time, McCright denied any involvement and said he rarely drove the car. He was arrested on Sept. 8 in Seattle.
Prosecutors have said McCright was in contact with Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, a Des Moines man accused of plotting an attack on a South Seattle military processing station.
McCright's connection to Abdul-Latif has not yet been disclosed, though the latter remains in federal custody pending trial on terror charges.
In court documents shortly after McCright's arrest, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff said, "Investigators have confirmed that the cell phone used by the defendant ... was used on at least three occasions to contact Abdul-Latif prior to Latif's arrest by federal authorities. The FBI is continuing to investigate defendant McCright's possible connection to domestic terrorism."
Abdul-Latif, 33, and LA resident Walli Mujahidh had been accused of plotting a suicide attack on a military processing center. Prosecutors claim the men planned to storm the center to kill recruits and Department of Defense workers there. Mujahidh later pleaded guilty.
The plot was allegedly foiled at the last moment after another Muslim man
and honorable American
approached by Abdul-Latif in late May contacted Seattle police, and then acted as an informant.
McCright remains jailed on $2 million bail charged with second-degree assault. He is expected back in court on Oct. 12.
McCright, a repeat violent felon, may have faced a life sentence as a "three-strikes" offender if convicted on the original charge of second-degree assault. Instead, McCright pleaded guilty to two counts of felony harassment and one count of attempted malicious mischief.
McCright is scheduled to be sentenced in June and remains in jail. Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh also remain confined. Abdul-Latif faces a life sentence.
#2
Damn fool.
Attacking Marines, I'd sooner stick my hand into a bailing machine, less damage that way.
Posted by: Recneck Jim ||
05/30/2012 7:39
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#3
"... Marine Sergeant and a non-commissioned officer ..."? Does no one edit anything anymore? When I was in a sergeant was A non-commissioned officer,
Posted by: Ho Chi Snore2328 ||
05/30/2012 8:25
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#4
Ho Chi Snore - that was actually my mistake. The original article says "another noncommissioned officer". I got sloppy while boiling down the story. Thanks for pointing that out so I could correct it.
A man was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Moscow court that found him guilty of aiding suicide bombers who had planned a terror attack in the Moscow in 2010.
Timur Akubekov was sentenced to 10 years in a high-security prison by the Moscow City Court. Akubekov will be on probation for two years once he serves his term. No evidence was examined in the trial and no witnesses questioned because Akubekov had signed a pre-trial cooperation agreement with investigators.
Ibragimkhalil Daudov set up a gang in Dagestan in October 2010 to plot a series of terror attacks in Moscow and Dagestan, including an explosion on Moscow's Red Square Dec 31, 2010.
Akubekov was ordered to ensure that female suicide bombers Zeinap Suyunova and Daudov's wife Zavzhat Daudova be brought to Red Square, show them where to blow themselves up and control the attack, according to investigators. Akubekov was then supposed to inform another gang member, Shamil Paizulayev, when the attacks were carried out.
Suyunova was to have detonated a homemade explosive device on her body in the crowd celebrating New Year's Eve in Red Square. Daudova was to have waited for the authorities to arrive and blown herself up near them.
Daudova died while trying to fasten an explosive device on her body in a hotel. Suyunova failed to perpetrate her terror attack as well. She lost the switch from her homemade explosive device, which rendered it unable to operate.
Having also lost her mobile phone and without knowing where in Moscow Red Square was, she failed to communicate with her fellow plotters to receive instructions from gang leader Daudov. She decided to escape and took a bus to Kizlyar in Dagestan.
Suyunova was brought to Moscow in January 2011. She was found guilty of banditry, an attempt to perpetrate a terrorist act, and illegal manufacture and possession of explosive devices.
Akubekov was detained in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, in the same month.
A court earlier in May sentenced Suyunova to 10 years in a medium-security prison.
Kommersant business daily said Suyunova got involved in terrorism against her will. She said she made friends with a group of Wahhabis while studying pharmacology in the Stavropol region, left home and married a man who turned out to be a terrorist militant.
There but for the grace of Allan ...
After her husband was nabbed for organising terrorist attacks, Suyunova was taken to Dagestan where she was told that her spouse had died and she had to take revenge for him by blowing herself up in Moscow.
[Dawn] The Pakistani rupee on Tuesday closed at a record low of 92.90/95, with sustained pressure on the currency because of increased import payments, especially for oil. The rupee had closed at 92.14/19 on Monday, a record low at the time. Overnight rates in the interbank market rose to 11.50 per cent, from 10.75 per cent on Monday, because of decreased liquidity.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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#3
Whats happening is that banks have to maintain reserves in top quality bonds, etc, and with countries being downgraded left and right, banks are dumping these bonds and buying the bonds of AAA rated countries and that means US bonds, because it has far the biggest supply.
[Dawn] Two soldiers were killed and several injured in a Taliban ambush in Kot Langarkhel area of South Wazoo Agency on Monday morning, according to local political administration and intelligence officials.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... a Taliban beturbanned goon put the toll at five.
Khadim, a close associate of local Taliban capo Shamim Mehsud, told Dawn that Islamic fascistiattacked a group of 10 security personnel as they were fetching water on mules and donkeys from a well in Kot Langar village of Ladha subdivision.
He claimed that five personnel were killed, three injured and two fled.
The beturbanned goon also reported the death of a mule and a donkey in the ambush.
In Tank, police claimed to have repulsed a beturbanned goon attack on Mullazai cop shoppe early on Monday.
According to police, a group of 80 to 90 Islamic fascistiholding heavy weapons attacked the cop shoppe.
Policemen fought against attackers for over one hour forcing the latter to flee. Later, security personnel also showed up.
They jointly cordoned off the area and began search operation.
During the search, a roadside improvised bombwent kaboom! after a police van hit it. The kaboom injured coppers Samiullah, Fayyaz, and Bashir, who were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital, Tank.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain later claimed the credit for the attack.
According to a front man for TTP, Ihsanullah Ihsan, told news hounds from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location that Taliban would continue fighting the government until Shariah was enforced in the country.
He also grabbed credit for Nowshera attack on a security forces' convoy and said security forces were his group's main target and such attacks would continue.
In 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, Islamic fascistion Monday blew up a government boy's primary school in Qayumabad Lakaro area of Safi tehsil. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... no loss of life was reported.
Local officials said the building was completely destroyed by bombs used in the act of terrorism. The kaboom was so loud that it shattered windowpanes of nearby houses.
An official of the local political administration confirmed the kaboom and said as the area was remote and the blast took place at night, assessment of the damage had yet to be done.
Over the last few months, 95 schools, dozens of health centres and a few telephone exchanges have been targeted by Islamic fascistiin Mohmand Agency.
In Safi tehsil alone, more than 45 schools have been blown up leaving more than 25,000 children without education. People, especially those living in the far-flung areas of the agency, have also complained of poor health facilities, especially after the destruction of these centres.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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#1
The beturbanned goon also reported the death of a mule and a donkey in the ambush
BS - likely they've become "camp wives" for the Talibs
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2012 11:55
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[Yemen Post] Europe started measures to freeze assets of Yemen's ex-president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... and his relatives holding posts in the army and other public offices, coinciding with a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss a report on Yemen on Tuesday, Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported.
The London-based newspaper quoted a Western diplomat as saying that European banks and financial institutions are currently conducting intensive investigations to identify the source of the assets of Saleh and his family to freeze them in case the UN Security Council decides to punish them.
Earlier this month, the US president Barrack Obama gave an executive order to freeze the assets of Yemeni officials obstructing a power-transfer deal, which was brokered by the GCC and backed by the UN in November after mass protests against the Saleh regime. After the US move, Europe hinted to punish Yemeni officials behind instability and acts affecting the implementation of the deal.
Some military commanders, including Saleh's relatives, have rebelled against decrees replacing them, which were issued by new president Abdrabu Mansour Hadi. Some of them gave up, but Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Saleh, has been refusing to hand over the third brigade.
The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Beomar has failed few times to convince Saleh to hand over this brigade, and on his last visit to the country, he warned to submit his report on the situation in Yemen including suggestion to punish officials affecting the transition.
"The insistence of Saleh and his family on staying in power and ignoring the terms of the power-transfer deal despite all efforts and agreements after the unrest has already been as a roadblock to a smooth transition in the country," the Western diplomat said, according to the newspaper.
"Because of arrogance and not respecting the UN resolutions and regional agreements over Yemen, the EU and other countries have decided to freeze the assets of Saleh and his family," the source continued. "Harder sanctions will be taken if officials continue to affect the transition in Yemen as some European countries have already planned to freeze assets".
Separately, the newspaper quoted an informed source as saying that Saleh and his family have exploited the time since the deal was signed to transfer their assets from Western countries into regional countries.
The wealth of Saleh and his family has been estimated at $50 billion, including assets which have been transferred from the West to Asian countries to avoid punishments, the source said, according to the paper.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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And what is the Saleh family supposed to do for a living now?
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/30/2012 6:50
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A firefight between a Mexican Army unit and armed suspects has claimed the lives of 12 armed suspects Tuesday, according to Mexican news reports.
According to information found on the website of El Universal news daily, the confrontation took place near the village of Palo Gacho in Emiliano Zapata municipality, where the Mexican Army maintains a security checkpoint.
According to a report published at the website of Milenio news daily, a group of armed suspects travelling aboard several vehicles refused an order to stop, which initiated the gunfight.
Soldiers at the scene also seized an undisclosed number of weapons and vehicles.
According to the Milenio report, a Twitter posting from the government of Veracuz state disclosed that a number of military checkpoints are set up on major roads into Xalapa.
Emiliano Zapata municipality is about 15 kilometers southeast of Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, and about three kilometers southwest of Mexico Federal Highway 140.
The security operation was billed as part of Seguro Veracruz, a joint security operation similar to Seguro Laguna, which combines municipality state and federal security assets in an effort to stop illegal drug manufacture and distribution in the area as well as migrants travelling to the north and the United States.
In a related report on the website of Univisionnoticias.com, four unidentified individuals were found dead near the village of Matacocuite in Veracruz municipality. A total of100 individuals have been murdered or found dead in less than a month in Veracruz state.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[National Journal] After weeks of getting hit on his business record at Bain Capital, Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... is flipping the script and attacking President B.O. on his administration's performance helping green energy ... the attempt to produce energy without using fossil fuel. The preferred methods are solar, wind, geothermal, phlogiston, philosophers' stones, and rattling bears' teeth. The approach with the most promise involves attaching generators to perpetual motion machines, but using Words of Power to summon energy-rich demons may also work. The green in the term refers to the vast number of greenbacks that have been thrown at the problem since 1973 with indifferent results... companies.
In its latest bruising Web video, the Romney campaign points to Solyndra, ...a green technological winner picked by the B.O. regime that cost the taxpayers a half billion dollars, with the added benefit of the campaign contributors who put money into the project getting paid before the taxpayers when the wreckage went up for sale... a solar energy company that filed for bankruptcy after receiving $535 million in loan guarantees from the federal government. The video points to several other companies, such as ECOtality and First Solar, that also lost money and cut jobs after receiving federal loan guarantees.
"More than $16 billion have gone to companies like Solyndra that are linked to big Obama and Democrat donors," the narrator says. "Obama is giving taxpayer money to big donors, and then watching them lose it. Good for them. Bad for us."
Republicans in Congress have consistently hammered the B.O. regime on Solyndra, but Romney has not followed this line of attack for several months. Back in January, Romney said that Obama was a "venture capitalist in Solyndra" and a "private equity guy in Chrysler and General Motors."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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#1
Bundlers of the bungler. Dig faster please! Dig faster!
#3
There seems to be an endless store of stuff with which to hit Obama. I could see Obummer spending all his time answering charges that the fifth column MSM chose not to ignore during the last 3-1/2 or more years. The only danger would be that there is so much unreported crap that people might tend to be in disbelief when it would come out.
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of five unidentified individuals were found in a grave in a remote area of Coahuila state and five others were killed or were found dead over the weekend in the La Laguna region of Coahuila state, according to Mexican news and Twitter accounts.
A Mexican Army unit was dispatched Saturday to a canyon in La Roja de la sierra de Arteaga, where the unit found a grave containing the remains of five individuals. The victims had been tortured and were shot at the site. Several spent shell casings were found at the scene. News reports say the victims had been dead for two years.
Arteaga municipality is adjacent to Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila. According to reports the location is about 15 kilometers by dirt road, presumably to the east of the Monclova-Monterrey highway or Mexico Federal Highway 57. It is unclear the circumstances which sent the army unit to the location to find the grave.
According to a posting at Nota Roja Koneocho blog, a total of five individuals were shot to death or were found dead in the La Laguna region of Mexico
Two men were shot to death and three others were wounded at an office near the intersection of calzada Abastos and Independencia. Only one of the victims, Houston Andres Lopez, 22, was identified.
At Plaza Cuatro Caminos, a man identified by a relative as Antonio Avalos de la Paz, 30, was found shot to death.
Two individuals, identified as Esteban Velazquez Perales and Jessica Guerrero Galvan, were shot and wounded near the intersection of calles Sarabia and Revolucion.
Two taxi drivers were shot and wounded near the intersection of calzada Lazaro Cardenas and Rodriguez Triana.
Enedino Goday Flores, 23, was found shot to death in La Laguna colony.
An unidentified man in his 30s was found shot to death near the intersection of calles Campo and Nuevo Zaragoza.
Near Diagonal Reforma an unidentified man was shot and wounded in an armed mugging outside a grocery store.
The La Laguna region in Mexico is astride Mexico Federal Highway 40, the northernmost contiguous major highway linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. La Laguna encompasses the cities of Torreon in Coahuila, Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio in Durango. It is also the site of the security operation Seguro Laguna commanded by the Mexican Army, specifically the Mexican XI Military Region. Seguro Laguna was initiated last fall.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... is to enforce a six-hour hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in the port city today protesting sending of a party politician to jail in an arson case.
A Chittagong court yesterday cancelled bail of Jamaat politician ANM Shamsul Islam and sent him to prison in a case filed under the speedy trial act in connection with torching vehicles at Wasa intersection of the port city on May 13.
On Monday, Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate's Court granted Shamsul Islam bail until yesterday, when the next hearing was also scheduled.
After the court's yesterday's move, the Chittagong unit Jamaat-e-Islami organised sporadic protest processions at different areas of the city in the afternoon. Khairul Bashar, party's assistant secretary general of the city unit, declared the hartal from a short rally in Jamal Khan area.
Contacted, Mahmud Ullah, publication secretary of Chittagong unit Jamaat, confirmed today's hartal from 6:00am to 12:oo midday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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ADEN: Yemeni troops have captured rebel-held positions on the outskirts of the southern city of Jaar, a military official said yesterday, pushing ahead with a US-backed offensive to uproot militants from the country. He said at least 10 militants have been killed in the fighting since Monday night and that the Yemeni army was within 2-3 km from Jaar.
Seizing this area will help us gain control of Jaar city, he told Reuters. Our goal is to advance into the city.
The military official said troops advanced by at least one km in Jaars direction in the past 24 hours. The troops are continuing to shell the northern and central parts of the city.
Jaar residents said that food supplies were running short and many were unable to flee the city due to heavy shelling.
The governor of Abyan Jamal Al-Aqel said that the military has asserted control on several southern towns that militants tried to control in the past, including Lawdar and Mudiyah, adding that heavy fighting inside Zinjibar was continuing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2012
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[An Nahar] Five people have been killed in an assault launched by al-Qaeda gunnies Tuesday on a Yemeni army convoy ferrying supplies to troops in the restive southern Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, a military official said.
Three Yemeni soldiers and two fighters of al-Qaeda were killed during the assault on the military convoy in the village of Mazraat Mashhour, southwest of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, the official told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity.
The bully boyz "failed to seize the contents of the convoy" which was headed to Zinjibar from the southern port city of Aden, the official said, adding that fierce festivities continued as troops fought to capture the quiet provincial capital which has been under the control of bully boyz since May 2011.
Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on May 12 this year to oust al-Qaeda from towns and cities in Abyan which it has captured over the past year.
Since the offensive began, at least 343 people have been killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP, including 249 al-Qaeda gunnies, 58 military personnel, 18 local cut-throats and 18 civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Egypts presidential election run-off sought to broaden his appeal yesterday, promising he would govern in coalition with others and would not impose Islamic strictures such as the veil on women.
Not until after he wins...
Mohamed Mursi, 60, who is competing against former air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, 70, a former cohort of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, listed concessions to win support from rival politicians and groups.
I am committed to the presidency being an institution. It will never be an individual, Mursi told his first news conference since the election committee confirmed on Monday he was in the run-off vote.
In a bid to win the backing of competitors who lost the race, he said he wanted to appoint vice-presidents from outside the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and said the prime minister need not be a member either. The Cabinet would be a coalition of all groups represented in Parliament, he said.
Mursi, a stocky, bespectacled man who has often appeared stiff in public but seemed more animated and relaxed than at previous events, pledged to quit the FJP if elected.
Though he and his rival Shafiq each took almost a quarter of votes cast, a big chunk of Egypts 50 million eligible voters are wary of having either a conservative Islamist or a former military man linked to Mubarak in charge. Some say they will not vote in the run-off on June 16 and 17.
An arson attack on Shafiqs campaign headquarters and criticism of Mursi have highlighted the polarization and disappointment of many ordinary Egyptians, adding tension in the final stages of a formal transition from the army rule to a new president by July 1.
Mursi pledged to implement Islamic sharia law during public rallies, although he gave few details about what that would mean in practice. This has worried Christians, who make up a tenth of Egypts 82 million people, many of whom backed Shafiq. More liberal-minded Muslims are also concerned.
When asked whether a Mursi presidency would seek to impose the veil, which is worn by most Muslim women in Egypt, he said: No one compels anyone about clothes. Anyone who wants to wear hijab (the veil) is free to, or to wear whatever she sees fit from her point of view.
But he also said that behavior in general not only in clothes should be dealt with according to the law if it damaged society, without giving further details.
And that's the real answer to a good Islamicist...
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05/30/2012
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[Tolo News] At least five people, including a local police commander, were killed in their car travelling to Khudiadad village in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province Tuesday, a provincial police chief said.
Central Baghlan's police chief Mohammad Kamin said the incident happened while local police force commander Daadullah was travelling with some of his fellow coppers.
He did not provide details on what occurred.
Daadullah previously worked with Taliban, but after he joined the Afghan reconciliation program he was appointed to the local police force.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the group's responsibility for Daadullah's death.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... east of Afghanistan's capital in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, at least two people were killed and three others were maimed when their car went kaboom! while travelling on the road, however, they were all myrmidons, a local official said.
Five men were in a car full of bombs on the road between the Torkham to 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... districts when the blast occurred, Nangarhar security chief Ebadullah Talwar told TOLOnews.
According to Ebadullah, all the five men in the car were terrorists.
Also on Tuesday, south of Kabul in eastern Ghazni province, a hail of rockets landed near the scenic provincial capital city's central mosque.
The rocket attack maimed six civilians, but no one was killed, according to provincial governor Musa Khan Akbarzada.
Judging from the direction they came from, the rockets were fired from the Khake Ghariba and Pir Qarzadara areas of Ghazni, Akbarzada added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown, Bob finally got to dance with Sally... just north of Kabul in the smaller Parwan province, a hand grenade attack in Dunya Radio station in Parwan province injured one, provincial front man Roshna Khalid said Tuesday.
The incident occurred at around 2:00am as several gunnies threw hand grenades inside the Raido's building, injuring one of the security guards, Khaled added.
In Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province, a bomb shook the governor's office around 10:30am, according to the police chief front man Farid Havel.
No one was killed in the blast, but provincial health officials said that two people were maimed and brought to the hospital from the incident.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... an Afghan forces operation in central Wardak province has killed six myrmidons, Wardak police chief front man said.
The operation took place Monday in Nerkh district of Wardak province, led by Afghan cops.
Several different types of ammunitions were also seized, the front man said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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(CNSNews.com) -- New York State accounted for the biggest migration exodus of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2010, with 3.4 million residents leaving over that period, according to the Tax Foundation.
Over that decade the state gained 2.1 million, so net migration amounted to 1.3 million, representing a loss of $45.6 billion in income.
Where are they escaping to? The Tax Foundation found that more than 600,000 New York residents moved to Florida over the decade -- opting perhaps for the Sunshine State's more lenient tax system -- taking nearly $20 billion in adjusted growth income with them.
Over that same time period, 208,794 Pennsylvanians moved to Florida, taking $8 billion in income.
"Many of these New York and Pennsylvania residents no doubt moved to Florida for the warm weather," says the foundation, a nonpartisan research group. "[B]ut many more may have moved there because the state does not have an individual income tax, an estate tax, nor an inheritance tax." I continue to find it stunning that those remaining in Noo Yawk and Pencilneckvania continue voting for Dem governors and sending Dem senators and congressmen to Washington. On the other hand, I should be able to understand, even though I don't. I live in Merlin, where Baltimore, Prince Georges, and Montgomery counties keep electing dynasts, party hacks, and crooks, dragging the more conservative rest of the state with them into the blue column.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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#2
I think, like the Greeks Fred, they keep needing/knowing/hoping somebody will bail them out. I mean, it's not like they're responsible! They're doing what's best - they're liberal!
Posted by: Bobby (the Greek) ||
05/30/2012 5:51
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#3
Fred in Maryland I call it political inbreeding. We are now seeing the genetic results as can be seen in other parts of our world. Zombified bath salt in ingestors.
[Al Ahram] Syria's main opposition coalition called on Tuesday for a UN Security Council resolution authorising the "use of force" and welcomed the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries.
After economic sanctions and the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries, the UN Security Council should "adopt a resolution under Chapter VII (of the UN Charter) allowing the use of necessary force in order to put a stop to the genocide and the murders committed by the regime's militias," the Syrian National Council said.
The SNC also welcomed the expulsion of "the regime's ambassador in Gay Paree and its representatives in Australia," adding that it "expects other countries to follow suit."
Several Western countries -- including La Belle France, Australia, Britannia, Spain, Germany and Canada -- announced the expulsion of Syria's diplomatic representatives on Tuesday, in protest over ongoing repression in Syria and a massacre in the central town of Houla.
"Ending diplomatic relations and imposing economic sanctions on the regime is an essential part of the response to the horrific massacres that the regime is carrying out," the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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#1
Looks like a drift toward military intervention.
Syria is less than 200 Ks from the British sovereign bases on Cyprus.
[Reuters] Some witnesses indicated that the Shabbiha came from the surrounding area, but more investigation is needed, Colville said. The information came from U.N. Sherlocks at the site as well as other sources whom he declined to identify.
The Syrian government has blamed Islamist beturbanned goons for the killings in Houla.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said on Tuesday that the army and militia supporting Assad were probably responsible for the killings with small arms and knives.
"Part of the victims had been killed by artillery shells, now that points ever so clearly to the responsibility of the government. Only the government has heavy weapons, has tanks, has howitzers," Ladsous told news hounds in New York.
"But there are also victims from individual weapons, victims from knife wounds and that of course is less clear but probably points the way to the (pro-Assad) shabbihas, the local militia," he said.
Initially, when U.N. Sherlocks reported a total of 85 bodies photographed in a morgue on Saturday, they included 32 children under the age of 10, according to Colville. He did not know the ages of all 49 children now known to have been killed.
Separate U.N. rights Sherlocks led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro, had said in a report just days before the Houla killings, that government forces executed entire families in their homes - often entering a town with a list of wanted.
Karen AbuZayd, the senior American investigator with Pinheiro, said that their team of about 15 experts may try to probe the Houla killings as part of their next report.
"We are discussing with UNSMIS over the next days to see whether we can also have a look and maybe corroborate with information we get from outside the country," AbuZayd told Rooters on Tuesday, speaking from a neighboring country where she is interviewing Syrian refugees who have fled the conflict.
Referring to the Houla massacre, she said: "This is certainly something new and that is why the perpetrators need to be further investigated before blame is assigned.
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05/30/2012
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(Sh.M.Network) -- Two Danish brothers originally from Somalia were jugged Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! on suspicion of plotting a terror attack,Denmark's security service said Tuesday.
The two brothers, ages 18 and 23, were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Book 'im, Mahmoud! late Monday -- one in the western city of Aarhus and the other as he arrived by plane at Copenhagen's international airport, said the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET.
The men were suspected of "being in the process of preparing an act of terror" after they were overheard talking about methods, targets and different weapons types, PET said in a statement, suggesting the suspects had been under surveillance. One of them had been to a training camp in Somalia run by the Islamist thug group al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... , the agency said. The Somalia-based al-Shabaab has links to al-Qaeda.
The suspects are "Danish citizens of Somali origin" who have lived in Denmark for 16 years, PET said.
"According to PET's assessment the arrests have prevented a concrete act of terror, and the arrests therefore don't lead to a changed evaluation of the terror threat inDenmark," PET said, adding that the terror threat level in Denmark remains "serious."
The Scandinavian country has been in the crosshairs of Islamist terror groups after the publication of newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
A Somali man living in Denmarkwas convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 10 years in prison after breaking into the home of one of the cartoonists with an ax in 2010.
Last year, a Chechen-born man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for preparing a letter bomb that went kaboom! as he was assembling it in a Copenhagen hotel in 2010.
Another trial is under way in Denmark against four men accused of plotting a shooting spree at another Danish newspaper.
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[Dawn] A police superintendent who had played an active role in the 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... Operation and a doctor friend of his were rubbed out in a gun attack in Korangi, while seven people were killed in other parts of the metropolis on Monday.
SP Shah Mohammad and Dr Dilshad were targeted outside his clinic in Bengali Para, Korangi No 3 ½. The lone security guard of the SP, constable Riaz, also sustained gunshot wounds in the attack and was rushed to a hospital.
"Shah Mohammad was perhaps the first SP-rank officer killed in Bloody Karachi's recent history," said DIG Admin Khalid Sheikh.
Earlier, DSP Nawaz Ranjha had been bumped off on M.A. Jinnah Road in August 2010.
"Dr Dilshad had come out of his clinic to see off SP Shah Mohammad when gunnies riding cycle of violences arrived there and fired gunshots before speeding away," said SDPO Qasim Ghauri.
The police quoted the maimed gunman as saying that four to six suspects riding cycle of violences took part in the attack.
"The SP was rubbed out at point-blank range," AIG Operations Naeem Ahmed Sheikh told Dawn. "He was shot seven times with a 9mm pistol."
The doctor sustained four gunshot wounds, the police said, adding that all the three victims were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. The SP was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, while Dr Dilshad died during
treatment. Constable Riaz was still under treatment at the JPMC, said the officials.
Inspector general of police Mushtaq Shah, meanwhile, reached the crime-scene and while talking to the media described the incident as a assassination.
He said: "We are trying to probe the motive behind the murders. It can be a result of the victim's participation in Bloody Karachi Operation as he was Gulberg SHO during the 1990s operation."
The police Sherlocks told Dawn that Dr Dilshad was a close friend of the SP who used to visit him often spending two to three hours at his clinic. On Monday, too, the officer arrived at his clinic and after sitting there for some time he was about
to sit in his official jeep bearing registration number (SP-1235) when he was targeted, said SDPO Ghauri.
Shah Mohammad was presently working as SP (administration) in the east zone of the police.
"During the Bloody Karachi Operation, he was posted at the Gulberg and Taimuria cop shoppes as the station house officer," recalled a police brass hat having same reputation.
The slain SP was also nominated in a second FIR lodged at the Gulberg cop shoppe in connection with the killing of Altaf Hussain's brother, Nasir Hussain, and his nephew, Arif Hussain.
The first FIR was lodged at the Gadap cop shoppe in 1995 after the two bodies were found there. Then in 1997, a second FIR (130/1997) was lodged at the Gulberg cop shoppe on a complaint of Shoaib Bukhari, a member of the MQM
coordination committee, under Sections 302, 364-A, 109 and 34 of the Pakistain Penal Code against six persons -- Pakistain People's Party slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... , former chief minister of Sindh late Abdullah Shah, former federal interior
minister late Major General (retd) Nasirullah Khan Babar, the then SHO Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan (now SP), the then SHO Shah Mohammad (now SP) and SI Ahmed Shah.
The dear departed SP had five children and a wife in Punjab. He recently contracted his second marriage with a woman, Kaneez Fatima, a resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
The dear departed served at various cop shoppes and in police zones and was promoted to the rank of SP only two months ago.
Two activists rubbed out
Two activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, formerly known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... , were bumped off in the Zia Colony area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Monday night, police said.
Gulshan SP Salam Sheikh said that Mufti Zeeshan and Danish were going on a motorbike to attend a lecture in Zia Colony when they were killed in a drive-by shooting. They sustained gunshot wounds to their head and chest. Both were rushed to
nearby Patel Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival, the police said, adding that the bodies were later shifted to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination.
SP Sheikh described the incident as an act of assassination.
Police Sherlocks collected several spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol from the scene of the crime.
Following the killing, some protesters hurled stones at passing vehicles. They also had gun sex and set fire to tyres blocking the traffic.
Similar scenes were witnessed at Aisha Manzil, Hasan Square and Nagan Chowrangi, where intermittent gunfire compelled traders to pull down shutters.
Homeopathic doctor killed
Late Monday night, a homeopathic doctor was bumped off in Orangi Town, police said.
They added that Tariq Shams, a resident of Tauheed Colony, was bumped off in Millat Colony on his way home.
The officials quoted some passers-by as saying that one of the three men riding a motorbike fired at him, leaving him dead
on the spot.
The police later collected a spent bullet casing of 9mm pistol from the scene.
In a statement, the Pakistain Islamic Medical Association condemned the killing of Dr Shams and described the city's law and order situation as pathetic.
Transvestite rubbed out
Earlier, a transvestite was bumped off at his home near Mohammadi mosque in Jutland Lines on Monday morning.
An official at the Brigade cop shoppe quoted area residents as saying that 45-year-old Siraj, son of Shams, had an altercation with someone before being killed.
The victim used to live alone, the official said, adding that some people entered the residence in the early hours and killed the transvestite before fleeing away.
He quoted area residents as saying that they had heard a hue and cry from Siraj's home.
The police said the victim was a dancer and used to perform at wedding ceremonies and other occasions.
The body was shifted to the JPMC where his younger brother, Amir, received the body following medico-legal formalities.
The motive of the murder was yet to be ascertained, said the police Sherlocks, adding that they had registered an FIR (134/2012) against faceless myrmidons on a complaint of Amir.
Body found in Korangi
The body of a 24-year-old man was found from bushed behind the government degree college in Korangi No 6 on Monday morning.
Saeed Gul aka Afghani was kidnapped before being killed, said an official at the Awami Colony cop shoppe.
The official said the victim was trussed up and shot in the head.
The body was shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities and later moved to the Edhi morgue.
The police later registered an FIR (185/2012) against faceless myrmidons on behalf of the state.
Trader killed in Clifton
A young trader who was shot at near the Clifton underpass died at a hospital late Monday night.
Adnan Rafiq was shot four times near Mehran shopping centre in Clifton block 8, said an official at the Clifton cop shoppe.
He was rushed to the JPMC where he died during treatment, said Clifton SHO Asif Jakhrani.
"The victim was a resident of Delhi Colony Clifton and had a garment shop in Clifton."
The police picked up his friend, Sami, for interrogation following the incident.
Man rubbed out in Kharadar
A young man was rubbed out near Jodia Bazaar within the remit of the Kharadar cop shoppe.
Imran, son of Fateh Mohammad, was targeted on Napier Road, said DSP Zafar Ali Shah.
He added that the victim was an area resident and was nominated in a murder case.
The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi and handed over to the victim's heirs after medico-legal formalities.
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[An Nahar] At least 19 people were killed in violence on Tuesday in Syria, where festivities between regime troops and rebels raged, monitors said.
In central Homs province, seven non-combatants were killed overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Three of them died when the army shelled the outskirts of restive Qusayr, while four died in the city of Homs.
One of those killed in Homs was filmmaker and photography student Bassel Shehade, who returned to Syria from the United States around three months ago, according to a Facebook page set up by activists.
His killing at the hands of regime forces was an act of "treason to humankind," the page said.
In northern Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... province, rebels and regime forces clashed on the edge of Atarib town on Monday night, the Britannia-based Observatory said.
In Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... province, festivities broke out between rebels and regime forces after the army raided two areas, Al-Halala and the outskirts of Qatna. The brother of a rebel fighter was killed, the rights watchdog said, adding that dozens were badly maimed.
Also in Damascus province, a civilian was killed in Ain Tarma village by regime forces' gunfire.
In central Hama, two civilians were reportedly killed by sniper fire, while two regular army troops were killed in northeastern Raqqa.
Regime forces pounded the town using "heavy machine gunfire and shells," the Observatory said, saying five rebel fighters were also killed.
In northwestern Idlib province, a civilian was rubbed out in Maaret al-Numan village, where rebels and regime troops also clashed, injuring five regular soldiers.
The violence raged on the second day of U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... 's visit to Syria, where more than 280 people have been killed since Friday, according to a toll compiled by Agence La Belle France Presse based on Observatory figures.
Of the total, 108 people were killed in the central town of Houla on Friday to Saturday.
The killings took place despite a ceasefire that has been continuously violated ever since it came into force as part of Annan's six-point peace plan on April 12.
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Vlad and Dmitri are really sensitive to charges that they act like thugs. Especially since they're thugs...
MOSCOW: Russia sharply criticized the US ambassador for the third time in his five-month tenure after he said that Moscow offered Kyrgyzstan a bribe in a bid to evict US forces from an air base and had sought backroom quid pro quo deals on key issues.
The Foreign Ministry expressed extreme bewilderment at remarks Michael McFaul made in a university lecture in Friday, which it said went far beyond the boundaries of diplomatic etiquette and amounted to a deliberate distortion of several aspects of the Russian-American dialogue.
McFaul is the architect of President Barack Obamas reset, which has improved ties that had become increasingly strained during the administrations of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin and hit a low with Russias war against Georgia in 2008.
But the plain-spoken envoy has been clouded by controversy since he arrived in January - shortly after Putin, employing anti-American rhetoric in his successful campaign to return to the presidency, accused the United States of stirring up protests against his rule.
The ministry took issue with McFauls statement that Russia had put a big bribe on the table to get Kyrgyzstan to order the United States out of a transit facility it uses to support operations in Afghanistan - a reference to a $2 billion loan widely perceived that way by analysts at the time, in 2009.
McFaul prefaced the remark by saying he would not be speaking very diplomatically, and added half-jokingly that the United States had offered its own bribe but that it was about 10 times smaller.
In a statement issued late on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said McFaul knows better (than Russia) what bribes Washington gave to whom.
It dismissed as unprofessional McFauls statement that Russia had at times proposed deals in which the United States would make concessions on one issue in exchange for Russian support on another unrelated issue, a practice he said President Barack Obama has rejected. The ministry stopped short of saying the remarks could damage relations but said it was not the first time statements and actions of Mr. McFaul ... have caused shock.
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05/30/2012
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Russia is what it would look like if a Bond villain actually won and took over a country.
#4
It dismissed as "unprofessional" McFaul's statement that Russia had at times proposed deals in which the United States would make concessions on one issue in exchange for Russian support on another unrelated issue, a practice he said President Barack Obama has rejected.
Like paying ransom for hostages, once you start playing the game ....
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Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Meredith MacRae aka Sally Ann Morrison in "My Three Sons (TV 19641965)" aka Billie Jo Bradley in "The Beverly Hillbillies (TV 19661970)" aka Billie Jo Bradley in "Petticoat Junction (TV 19661970)" aka Nancy Williams in "Grand Jury (1976)" aka Laura Kline in "My Friends Need Killing (1976)" (Died in 2000 at age 56)
Tracey E. Bregman aka Lauren Fenmore Baldwin in "The Young and the Restless (TV Soap 2012)" aka Lauren Fenmore Baldwin in "The Bold and the Beautiful (TV Soap 2007)" aka Trish Carruthers in "The Love Boat (TV 1982)" aka Ann Thomerson in "Happy Birthday to Me (1981)" aka Amy Lowell in "The Funny Farm (1983)" (age 49)
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Top negotiators for Sudan and South Sudan have met for their first talks since deadly border fighting last month took them to the brink of war, even as Juba accused Khartoum of fresh air strikes.
Teams from both sides are in the Æthiopian capital to restart the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... -led talks which were stalled by heavy festivities last month, the worst fighting since the South won independence last July.
Khartoum stressed its "commitment to reach a negotiated settlement to all issues of differences" and promised "its full adherence to peace and stability between the two countries," it said in a statement released as talks began.
Sudan added it hoped the talks would mark a "new chapter" in relations "away from conflict and warring."
Southern President Salva Kiir said ahead of the talks that "amicable dialogue on the outstanding issues with Khartoum is the only option for peace."
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The beginning paragraphs of a 3-page report from the Washington Post. It wasn't just about Israel after all.
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list.
The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car boom, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families.
Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan's southern neighbor, Iran.
The threat, many details of which were never made public, appeared to recede after Azerbaijani authorities rounded up nearly two dozen people in waves of arrests early this year. Precisely who ordered the hits, and why, was never conclusively determined. But U.S. and Middle Eastern officials now see the attempts as part of a broader campaign by Iran-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over a span of 13 months. The targets have included two Saudi officials, a half-dozen Israelis and -- in the Azerbaijan case -- several Americans, the officials say.
In recent weeks, Sherlocks working in four countries have amassed new evidence tying the disparate liquidation attempts to one another and linking all of them to either Iran-backed Hezbollah snuffies or operatives based inside Iran, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern security officials. An official report last month summarizing the evidence cited phone records, forensic tests, coordinated travel arrangements and even cellphone SIM cards purchased in Iran and used by several of the would-be assailants, said two officials who have seen the six-page document.
Strikingly, the officials noted, the attempts halted abruptly in early spring, at a time when Iran began to shift its tone after weeks of bellicose anti-Western rhetoric and threats to shut down vital shipping lanes. In March, Iranian officials formally accepted a proposal to resume negotiations with six world powers on proposals to curb its nuclear program.
[Bangla Daily Star] Agitated fishermen beat dead five robbers and critically injured two more in a clash yesterday with a gang setting up hideouts on the remote Bhasan Char (island) for looting their hilsha catch from the sea.
Police placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! the injured robbers, recovered some arms and ammunition and seized a trawler left by other members of the gang who fled after a five-hour exchange of fire with the law enforcers.
Two of the dead were identified as Jabbar, 26, and Kabir, 25.
The season for catching hilsha begins now with the expiry of a seven-month ban on jatka (hilsh fry) catching.
The fishermen men while they were preparing their boats and fishing nets for fishing in the sea, a gang of robbers known as Karim bahini was setting up their dens in the mangrove forest at Bhasan Char in the confluence of the Meghna river.
A shepherd saw the robbers unloading arms from their boats yesterday morning. He informed the matter to his employer and others at Dhalchar union. On information from them, police launched a raid around 8:00am.
Chairman of Dhalchar union Abul Kalam Pawari and about 700 fishermen joined the police raid. Policeand the fishermen cordoned off the mangrove forest at Bhasan Char situated between Char Fashion and Monpura islands.
Spider senses tingling at the proximity of police and fishermen, the robbers opened fire. Police retaliated. After a two-hour exchange of fire, several hundred fishermen carrying sticks attacked the robbers, who then started fleeing. The fishermen caught five robbers and beat them dead. They also injured two other robbers. Police took the two injured in their custody.
Fishermen Jasimuddin who participated in the police raid said, they could not go to the river for ban. They were half fed. He said, now is the time to go fishing in the river. Fishermen have prepared their boats. At this time the robbers have set up dens to loot the fish from fishermen which they catch through hard labour.
Jasim said they participated in the police raid to get rid of the robbers.
Bhola district Superintendent of Police Bashir Ahmed and Char Fashion cop shoppe officer-in-charge (OC) Reaz Hossain confirmed the incident.
The SP said police the robbers fired about 50 rounds of bullets, Police fired 12 rounds.
Police recovered three 224 rifles, two shot guns, six guns 18 cartridges and 34 sharp weapons, and seized a trawler.
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Fisherman carrying sticks attacking armed men? And coming out ahead? Bit hard to believe.
[Dawn] A court bailiff on Monday recovered four boys brutally tortured and illegally incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! at a private torture cell of the Samanabad police.
Yaqoob of Chak Jhalandar filed a writ petition with Additional District and Sessions Judge Qaiser Nazir Butt submitting that police had set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! his son Ali Raza and his nephew at a private torture cell without any case. He said the police had taken them into custody when they were at a public park in Samanabad.
The judge deputed bailiff Najam who raided the outhouse pointed out by Yaqoob in Gulshan Colony, Samanabad, and rescued Ali, Shahid, Waseem and Shakil. The boys were placed in durance vile Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! in a room with iron chains on their legs.
A constable, Adil, and a Razaakar, Shafaqa, were deployed to keep an eye on the boys.
The Urdu word razaakar literally means volunteer. According to Wikipedia, it has an additional layer of meaning in Bangladesh.
The bailiff quizzed the constable about the illegal detention; however, he could not satisfy him.
The boys were produced before the court in chains. The judge did not allow unchaining the boys till the arrival of Iqbal Town SP Shakirullah Dawar. The judge released the boys and ordered their medical examination as they showed torture marks to the court.
The court also ordered registration of a case against Samanabad police SHO Sub-inspector Maghfoor Ahmed.
Talking to news hounds outside the court, the boys said coppers had been subjecting them to severe torture tagging them as
robbers. They said some private people used to torture them at the outhouse. They showed torture marks to the media too, and said police forced them to confess snatching of cycle of violences.
Police said the boys were robbers and they had confessed to snatching of two cycle of violences during investigation.
The Iqbal Town SP told the media that an inquiry into the issue had been initiated.
The coppers were furious and tried to hide torture from the media.
When the boys were being brought outside the court, some of the constables thrashed Farhanullah, cameraman of a private TV channel, as he tried to film the private people who had allegedly been torturing the youngsters.
Because no encounter with the legal system of Pakistan would be complete until there had been a thrashing.
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[Dawn] Police on Tuesday placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! the holy man accused of sentencing six people to death for singing and dancing at a wedding in the north of the country.
Even in the current madness of Pakistan there are things beyond the pale.
Police have jugged Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! a holy man and his lover companion for issuing the death decree, but they totally denied it," local administration official Aqal Badshah Khattak told AFP.
Police said Monday that holy mans sentenced four women and two men to death after mobile phone footage emerged of them enjoying themselves at a village wedding in the mountains of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... , 175 kilometres north of the capital Islamabad.
The men and women had allegedly danced and sung together in Gada village, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings.
But the holy man on Tuesday submitted an affidavit in court taking responsibility should any harm fall to the women and to ensure their safety, police said.
"If the girls were killed it would be un-Islamic and un-lawful," district police chief Abdul Majeed Afridi quoted the holy man as saying in the affidavit.
Police said it appeared to have been a case of tribal rivalry and an attempt to defame a family, saying that the video was recorded three years ago and then edited in an attempt to implicate the party goers.
"I am satisfied that there is no danger to the life of the girls," he said.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain, at least 943 women and girls were murdered last year after being accused of defaming their family's honour.
The statistics highlight the scale of violence suffered by many women in Pakistain, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens.
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#1
Correct me iff I'm wrong, but unfortunately AFAIK the death fatwa still stands for the young people at issue???
(Sh. M. Network)- The front man of Al shabab fighters for the military operations Sheik Abdi-aziz Abu Musab, said they have killed a number of Somali and AMISOM soldiers in six coordinated attacks took place between Mogadishu and Afgoye district.
"We waged simultaneous attacks on both Somali and AU troops. Yesterday our fighters carried out at least six offensives against TFG and AMISOM forces in several locations betweenMogadishuand Afgoye town. One on Agoye and during those attacks, the fighters managed to inflict heavy casualties upon the collation troops (Somali and AU) controlling there," said Abu Musab.
On the other hand, the governor of Lower Shabelle region for Somali government Abdiqadir Mohammed Nur Sidi, told Shabelle Media that Government forces captured many Al shabab elements after security operations in Afgoye district, 30 Km north-west Mogadishu.
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[An Nahar] U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... urged Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Sonny, disguised as Fredo, trying to be Mike... to "act now" to end 15 months of bloodshed, during a meeting in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... on Tuesday.
"I appealed to him for bold steps now -- not tomorrow, now -- to create momentum for the implementation of the plan," Annan told news hounds in the Syrian capital.
Annan arrived in the country on Monday for talks with Assad, the opposition and representatives of Syrian civil society.
In his meeting with Assad, Annan conveyed "the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria, including the recent shocking events in Houla."
The U.N. human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... agency said most of the more than 108 victims of Friday to Saturday's massacre were executed, and cited local residents as attributing responsibility to pro-regime paramilitary groups.
"We are at a tipping point," said Annan, who has previously warned that Syria might slide into civil war should abuses continue.
"The Syrian people do not want the future to be one of bloodshed and division. Yet the killings continue and the abuses are still with us today," he added.
In protest at the recent repression and killings, several Western countries expelled Syrian diplomats on Tuesday, prompting the main opposition coalition to reiterate calls for the international community to use "necessary force" against Assad's regime.
"As I reminded the president, the international community will soon be reviewing the situation," Annan said.
"The government, and all government-backed militias could stop all military operations and show maximum restraint... I also appeal to the armed opposition to cease acts of violence."
Annan said he and Assad "agreed on the importance of humanitarian aid flowing to all parts of the country, including unfettered access for the U.N. and aid agencies."
He also "urged the president to respect freedom of peaceful protest," one of the stipulations of the beleaguered six-point plan, and which regime forces have systematically broken in recent weeks by firing on demonstrators to repress dissent.
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#1
"We are at a tipping point," said Annan, who has previously warned that Syria might slide into civil war should abuses continue.
Woah! Not that!
This clueless dunce should've stayed in Obscurity where he belonged. People almost forgot what an idiot he was.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police were trailing four terrorism suspects a week before the Monday blast in Nairobi in which 36 people were maimed.
Sources in the force told the Nation that detectives, who had been monitoring the movements of the four, were alarmed when they changed sim cards six days to the kaboom at Moi Avenue's Assanand's House.
This is one of the leads detectives are pursuing in the hunt for those responsible for the attack.
Three of the suspects are said to be based in Nairobi and the other one in Mombasa, where a Moslem lobby group yesterday condemned the attack.
The Kenya National Moslems Advisory Council chairman Sheikh Juma Ngao demanded the resignation of those charged with the protection of Kenyans.
In the Nairobi kaboom, police sources said the suspects' movements were being monitored using their mobile phones.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... detectives have established that the phones which were being tracked were nowhere near the scene when the kaboom went off.
And on Tuesday, American detectives joined the hunt for the suspects. Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojode said the government had sought assistance in tracking down the suspects.
Focus on two men
"For Nairobi and parts of the country to be safe, we will need the assistance of the FBI and even the Scotland Yard (from the UK). We are determined to wipe out the terrorists," he said.
Police said investigations had concluded that the kaboom was caused by an improvised bomb ''planted by criminals''.
''The investigating team is now working to establish the identity of the perpetrators of this serious crime,'' front man Eric Kiraithe said in a statement adding that they were zeroing in on two men.
One of the suspects, whose photo police circulated, is identified as Emrah Erdogan. He is believed to have entered Kenya through Garissa from Somalia on May 3.
Mr Kiraithe also said tests were being done to establish the materials used in the explosive. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... some sources indicated that a fertiliser bomb could have been the cause of the lunch-time kaboom.
Detectives from the Federal Bureau of Investigations were at the scene collecting samples for tests.
Samples for analysis
They sifted through the debris using special metal detectors. Samples collected were sent to the Government Chemist and the US for analysis.
The development came as fresh details emerged about events leading to the kaboom that caused a huge hole in the ground and blew off iron sheets from the roof.
Ms Susan Mwangi, the owner of stall number 11, next to number 10 where the kaboom occurred, said the device was placed there in a bag by a man posing as a customer.
Quoting her employee, Ms Esther Wamoyo who was maimed in the kaboom, she said: "She (Esther) said a middle aged man had come to the stall at around 10.30 am and wanted to buy a T-shirt, and he returned later at around 1 pm, just moments before the kaboom."
The saleswomen in stalls number 10 and 11 normally sit together and when the man came in, they attended to him.
He wanted to buy a T-shirt but the two stalls do not deal in T-shirts. And when the man, described as heavily bearded, returned, Ms Wamoyo offered to bring him the item from nearby stalls.
"It is at that time he put down his bag and left pretending to be going to fetch a colleague... barely two minutes after, the kaboom went off," said Ms Mwangi.
The saleswoman in stall number 10, identified only as Josephine, was critically injured and is at KNH's Intensive Care Unit. Ms Mwangi said Ms Wamoyo was too traumatised to talk to the press. (READ: Five victims still at KNH)
On Tuesday, Medical Services minister Anyang Nyong'o told Parliament that five people were still being treated at the hospital. Two suffered 80 percent degree burns and are in ICU "in critical but stable conditions."
Briefing the House, he said 23 were treated with soft tissue injuries and discharged. Mr Ojodeh said the government will crack down on those who deal in the explosives, which are widely used in the construction industry.
Police said the victims would speak to detectives as soon as their conditions improve. A spot-check by the Nation on Tuesday revealed no signs of stepped-up security in the many buildings with stalls in the centre of the city.
"As you can see, there is no one screening those who come and no security measures of any kind are in place. We are just praying for God's protection," said Ms Trizer Mwende at Kikwetu building on Moi Avenue.
In related news, two men police suspect to have terror links have not been traced since last Wednesday night when they were taken in Molo by people colleagues allege were coppers.
Mr Sylvester Owino Opiyo aka Musa Osodo and his friend Jacob Musyoka are said to have been driving to Kisumu in the company of two women when their vehicle broke down at the Molo junction.
While they were repairing the vehicle, coppers accosted them and after interrogation, picked the two men and went away with them, leaving the women with the vehicle at the scene. The vehicle was towed to Molo cop shoppe.
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[Business Week] Greece's exit from the euro currency would lead to an immediate and significant drop in living standards for Greeks, National Bank of Greece SA, the country's biggest bank, said in a report published today. Per-capita income would drop by at least 55 percent in euro terms as a new currency would depreciate by about 65 percent, according to the report, emailed from the bank today. The recession would deepen by about 22 percent at stable prices, adding to the 14 percent recorded in the 2009 to 2011 period, National said, while unemployment would jump to 34 percent and inflation rise to above 30 percent, pushed up by the higher cost of imported goods.
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If the Greeks stayed with the Euro, the austerity measures would mean a significant cut in income, too. So exit the Euro, get your independence (and responsibility) again, and learn to live without the Big Brother EUnik on your neck. A earning win-win.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/30/2012 1:36
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#2
But, but ... I thought exiting the EU would be free! I thought someone else was going to pay! Let's vote in someone else!
Posted by: Bobby (the Greek) ||
05/30/2012 5:41
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#3
If I was a betting man and I don't mind a flutter every now and then, these are the bets I would be grabbing:
Nothing will happen in Greece until after the Nov election. Obama will keep Greece going even if he has to get The Bernak or the taxpayer to pay out of their own pocket to keep the Kabuki Theater going till then. No rocking the boat.
Ditto for Syria
Ditto for Iran.
#8
Other than as an indicator of what is to come for Spain and whomever else has gone down the socialist road farther than they ought, what do I or anyone else care about an economy not much larger than a medium-sized city? What is the last big thing to come out of Greece? What is the last thing I bought from them? They just seem to subsist, and that is all.
I can't figure out what all the fuss is about, unless someone out there is paying people to make it.
#9
gorb: the Big Deal is the European Project itself. Whether Greece stays in the EMU or returns to the drachma, aims at the very core and purpose of the EU's existence.
The EU was incubated as the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) shortly after WWII. First it was industry. Then it expanded to labor, goods, capital, and services. Then it began expanding in membership, as it expanded to political, social, and foreign policy objectives. Then came monetary union (EMU) - the common currency.
Only about half of EU member states use the euro (are part of EMU). Tellingly, there are no exit mechanisms from any of the EU treaties, because, like the Mafia, there was never supposed to be any way to leave. In the 1980s, Greenland signed up and left just as quickly, but no one cared or noticed, because like, what, ten people live there.
So if Greece exits the euro - which is "not heard of" - the implications are huge. First, EMU. If Greece returns to the drachma, it will be traded on international FOREX markets, and devalue faster than Facebook stock. In the near-term, this will suck. But in 2-3+ years, Greece will be much better off. Other "at-risk" eurozone countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland) will observe this, and say yeah, F this euro stuff, we want our devalued, free-trading national currencies back too.
A common currency would no longer unify the EU, and then member states may/will/already are questioning if there is any point to the rest of the "Project." A Greek exit threatens to unravel all of the post-WWII efforts to unite Europe, so that Nothing Bad Would Ever Happen Again.
I, and many Euroskeptics say, this was a totally predictable - indeed, inevitable - outcome. There were three previous attempts to unify Europe: Charlemagne, Napoleon, and Hitler. All the same rivalries and cultural differences that thwarted those attempts are in play now, and attempting to regulate "nationalism" out of existence didn't change a thing.
Long story short, events and simple math are proving critics of the EU correct.
#10
we can hope that the faceless EUCrats that enforced the petty rules and regs are put to the pike - pour encourager les autres
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2012 15:48
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#11
I sympathize, Frank, and I don't have an alternate proposal. But each unification attempt has been stupider than the last. Makes me wonder if all the periodic purges and migrations diminish the European gene pool a little more each time.
#12
gorb, an addendum to why there's such a fuss over Greece in particular. When the European Monetary Union (EMU = the euro currency) was set up in the 1990s, quantified standards were set for EU member states wishing to join. E.g., annual deficits could be no higher than X% of revenues, national debt could be no higher than X% of GDP, etc.
This is because EMU was unaccompanied by any kind of fiscal union - i.e., no EU-level controls on internal budgets and spending. So, if a country could plausibly cook its books and squeak over the line = in like Flynn, and then free to go hog-wild.
Yes, there were check-ups to be sure no one was breaking the rules. But with no exit mechanism - no way to voluntarily leave, and no way to be thrown out - there has never been any meaningful way to enforce those rules. This created a huge free-rider problem.
Like telling a college kid who prefers partying over studying: "get As for one semester, then you can use my credit card. On the honor system." That's just asking for trouble.
In the case of Greece, the Greek government almost certainly fudged the numbers to get into the euro - and were subsequently assisted, aided, and abetted by EU officials who sought to keep the books cooked, so as not to discredit or delay further European integration.
So there is ample culpability on both sides. Europeans are pissed at those freeloading Greeks, yes, but they're also pissed at the Eurocrats who contributed to the charade and allowed it to continue, simply to advance a pointless and unsustainable political agenda.
This is why a Greek exit from the euro is viewed the first domino to fall. The whole mess completely undermines the credibility of the EU as a whole.
#13
Thanks for the crash course, RandomJD. It makes a lot more sense now to look at it as an indicator of where the EU will be going vs. how Greece itself will affect the EU.
Lots of legislation has this problem of lack of penalties, punishments, exit strategies, clear definitions of red lines, etc., and I think it is because if they include it nobody will vote for it. Perhaps it is time that all legislation includes these things. We have the same problem getting rid of the likes of Eric Holder or Charlie Rangel because there is no firm way to deal with those who flout the law over here in some cases. The best we can do is come up with some kind of "censure" vote, which is nothing worse than wearing some kind of badge of shame to work, which nobody seems to notice really.
#14
Sure thing, gorb. Greece will hurt for a while, but life will go on. The EU and its outrageously expensive, suffocating regulatory apparatus, on the other hand . . .
Lots of legislation has this problem of lack of penalties, punishments, exit strategies, clear definitions of red lines, etc., and I think it is because if they include it nobody will vote for it.
Absolutely. The EU has invested enormous effort in making sure no one - including national governments - really knows what they signed on for.
Example: a few years ago, I taught a seminar on the EU (for American students in Europe). While researching a topic, I came across a citation to a document that I REALLY wanted to see. After exhausting my capabilities, I offered an instant A for the whole course to any student who could dig it up. As a class, we figured out that the only way to access it was to have EU credentials and physically retrieve it from the EU library in Brussels. No students, researchers, journalists, nuthin. It was a policy memo relating to "transparency" and "streamlining democracy" - and the friggin thing was effectively classified.
I think what you're talking about is individual corruption. Individuals breaking laws, that we expect compliance with, that can be enforced. The only thing lacking is the will. In contrast, corruption in the EU is institutionalized. No one really knows what the rules are, so enforcement mechanisms are spotty to nonexistent, because compliance is not genuinely expected. This is because the only way to sustain a cradle-to-grave regulatory welfare state is by fakery and deceit. You'd think they'd know this, having lived next door to the Soviets, and seeing the rot first hand.
I'm hesitant to compare a Greek exit to the fall of the Berlin Wall. For all its evils, the "EUSSR" has never systemically exterminated its own citizens. Only stifled their freedoms, in the name of promoting them. But the significance is comparable.
In the near-term, I think events in France will impact the US even more. Specifically, Sarkozy left a nice little shit sandwich for Hollande, that is on track to splat on Wall Street - and Obama - this fall. Heh. The French piss me off too - the EU was all their idea, to keep Germany down - but every now and then they make me smile.
#15
The EU has invested enormous effort in making sure no one - including national governments - really knows what they signed on for.
Sounds like the Pelosi system at work - "You have to pass it to see what's in it."
#16
Sounds like the Pelosi system at work - "You have to pass it to see what's in it."
Worse. Any member state that votes "incorrectly" must vote again and again until they get the "correct" answer. No such thing as FOIA, so many details remain concealed. Plus, Europeans rarely get to directly vote on anything, except for European Parliament representatives, which is for the sake of appearance only, because the EP's power is advisory only, not an actual legislature. It's very feudal. Europeans are still serfs ruled by an aristocracy.
I could go on and on. Sorry - I obviously get fired up about this topic. :)
#20
Well, it is certainly not the most exciting subject! But anytime I get depressed about things in the US, I just consider Europe. Our system is structured to minimize the damage done by would-be tyrants. The EU was designed by the tyrants.
Another related development is covered on the Burg today: tomorrow's Irish referendum on the EU Fiscal Compact (a.k.a. The FU Treaty). Basically Irish citizens are being asked for authorization to bail out private banks with taxpayer money. Banks which are in trouble because they bought into the EU agitprop and took huge risks on the euro project, which, to any outside observer, was a losing bet from day 1. The point of the FU treaty is to force the peasants to pay for banks' and governments' bad decisions, in which they had almost no meaningful participation. That's bullshit.
Sinn Fein has been leading the charge against it, and while they may be a bunch of commies, at least they are Irish commies, who are adamantly against shifting the moral hazard onto the backs of Irish taxpayers. I happen to completely agree. If Ireland is going face financial ruin, Sinn Fein thinks that right belongs to Irish commies, not continental ones. I'm ok with that. They still believe in the nation-state - the obliteration of which has been the EU's overarching and stupid goal. (Core EU doctrine is that nation-states caused WWII. Same fallacy as lefties who insist that guns kill people.)
Unfortunately, tomorrow's Irish vote won't mean much. Unlike all previous treaties (which are mostly ratified by parliaments, not by voters), the FU Treaty does not require unanimity to go into effect. Eurocrats lowered the bar for this one - only 12 of the 17 euro countries must ratify it, in order to shift the risk of bad bets from banks to taxpayers. They always rig the system to get the answer they want.
So even if Irish voters say no, 5 more countries would have to say no, which is unlikely. This is because ratification of the FU Treaty in all other 16 states is by parliamentary vote. Just as in the US, it's very easy for legislatures to give away OPM (other people's money). The Greek parliament said yes, which is what Greeks are so pissed about. Lazy tax-evaders or not, I don't blame them for being resentful. Textbook lesson in the damage governments do when they interfere in people's lives.
What disgusts me most is how much coercion exists, at every level. No "mainstream" national official wants himself or his country to be blamed for sinking the euro or the whole EU. They'd rather shift burdens, dodge responsibility, kick the can down the road, and ruin their own citizenry. That's how the creeping tyranny has gotten so far, and it's why Sinn Fein sounds like Ron Paul ranting about the Federal Reserve.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... militia have shrugged off recent strategic losses and growing military pressure to launch an ambush on the president -- who escaped unhurt -- and fire on foreign warships.
Two Somali soldiers were maimed when al-Shabaab gunnies opened fire as President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed drove down the Afgoye corridor, a key road and home to the world's largest concentration of displaced people, for the first time since its capture on Friday.
"Desperate terrorist snuffies tried to disturb the visit of the president at the Afgoye corridor by ambushing his convoy, but security forces repulsed them," said Somali security official Mohamed Moalim.
"The president is well and continued his trip smoothly." The armoured convoy was guarded by African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops and Somali government soldiers, who seized the hard boy stronghold of Afgoye last week after a four-day battle.
The pro-Shabaab website Somalimemo.net said Shebab fighters had carried out the attack against "the head of the enemy" and that Sharif had been saved after he was "surrounded by African Union troops and white gunnies for his safety."
The loss of Afgoye, which controls key roads some 30 kilometres northwest of the capital Mogadishu, was another major blow for the hard boys, who have been on the back foot for several months despite launching a wave of guerrilla attacks.
While the al-Shabaab still control large parts of southern Somalia, regional armies and government troops have been clawing territory off them, with AU forces in Mogadishu, Æthiopian soldiers in the south and west, and Kenyan troops with the AU in the south.
After the fall of Afgoye, the port town of Kismayo is the last major rebel bastion. The Shebab said Tuesday they had engaged in a fierce exchange of gunfire there with foreign warships.
"The mujahideen fighters opened fire and repulsed two military ships that approached the coast of Kismayo, they were coming close to the coast when they were attacked," said Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, a top Shebab official in Kismayo.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2012
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First in a series. An excerpt: With a near-nuclear Iran at the tip of the spear exploiting a mutual hatred of the U.S. and its representative democratic, free-market system in order to galvanize the mullah-caudillo alliance in the Western Hemisphere; and its premier Shi'ia terrorist organization, Hizb'allah, well expanded from its key operational base in the Tri-border Area (TBA) working the narco-terrorist nexus to facilitate ever innovative terrorist operations, is the U.S. really staring down a clear and present danger to its national security?
Malaysia is hosting talks between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The renewed discussions follow up on those in Kuala Lumpur in April, when negotiating teams completed "The Decision Points on Principles," contained in a document signed by the two groups.
Filipino presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles said, "We are hoping that the next round of talks will be able to build on the gains established with the signing of the Decision Points on Principles during the April meeting."
Topics being negotiated include power-sharing and resources, increased Muslim participation, more active Shariah courts, the implementation of "Islamic principles of justice and fairness in the region to promote the efficient administration of justice" and the development of an autonomous political regime that can replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
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A bomb in the Thai province of Pattani has killed three people and wounded four others. The bombing in Pattani's Kapho district targeted security volunteers.
Officials said a bomb containing about 15 pounds of explosives was packed into a fire extinguisher and buried under a road. The device was detonated by wire from a rubber plantation about 650 feet away as civilian defense volunteers passed by in their truck.
[Al Ahram] Military police have cooled for a few years Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! eight people over an arson attack on the Ahmed Shafiq campaign headquarters in Dokki, Giza, a security source at Giza cop shoppe said Monday.
The suspects are yet to be named.
The source also denied earlier reports that well-known activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah had taken a prominent role in the events, and added that no official complaints had been received over his alleged involvement.
The Giza investigations bureau is currently questioning the suspects.
The incident took place following a number of protests across the country in response to the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission's (SPEC) official announcement that Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Moslem Brüderbund nominee Mohamed Mursi are to compete in the presidential election run-offs on 16 and 17 June.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia after Islamists threatened violence, claiming her sexy outfits and provocative dance moves would corrupt the youth. The controversy was a blow to the country's claim of combining free speech and democracy with a mostly moderate brand of the faith. Some fans accused police, who refused to issue a permit over concerns about security, of buckling to the will of a small band of thugs.
A group of more than 150 Cherokees--enrolled Cherokees and descendants from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians--demanded today that Elizabeth Warren tell the truth about her "Cherokee" ancestry and identity.
Finally, there is definitive proof: The presidential candidate was born in the United States, and his father was not.
Poland demanded a "strong and clear response" from the U.S. after President Barack Obama's mention of a "Polish death camp" while honoring a Pole who told the world about the Holocaust.
The thief pulled off his fowl heist before the rooster had a chance to crow.
The arrest came after a school caretaker called police about a possible break-in early Thursday morning.
NIAGARA FALLS-- A man ordered a take-out dinner from a Niagara Falls Boulevard diner early Saturday and tried to pay for it with a bag of marijuana, police said.
"They need to know that conquest is coming, that Egypt will be Islamic, and that they must pay jizya or emigrate," Morsi reportedly said.
A man tied by prosecutors to two Seattle terror suspects has admitted attempting to run two Marines off Interstate 5.
A man was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Moscow court that found him guilty of aiding suicide bombers who had planned a terror attack in the Moscow in 2010. 
The Pakistani rupee on Tuesday closed at a record low of 92.90/95, with sustained pressure on the currency because of increased import payments, especially for oil. The rupee had closed at 92.14/19 on Monday, a record low at the time. Overnight rates in the interbank market rose to 11.50 per cent, from 10.75 per cent on Monday, because of decreased liquidity.
Wazoo
Mohmand
[Yemen Post] Europe started measures to freeze assets of Yemen's ex-president 
After weeks of getting hit on his business record at Bain Capital, 
[Bangla Daily Star] 
[An Nahar] Five people have been killed in an assault launched by al-
[Tolo News] At least five people, including a local police commander, were killed in their car travelling to Khudiadad village in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province Tuesday, a provincial police chief said. 
(CNSNews.com) -- New York State accounted for the biggest migration exodus of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2010, with 3.4 million residents leaving over that period, according to the Tax Foundation.
[Al Ahram] Syria's main opposition coalition called on Tuesday for a UN Security Council resolution authorising the "use of force" and welcomed the expulsion of top diplomats from several Western countries.
[Reuters] Some witnesses indicated that the Shabbiha came from the surrounding area, but more investigation is needed, Colville said. The information came from U.N. 
(Sh.M.Network) -- Two Danish brothers originally from Somalia were 
A police superintendent who had played an active role in the 
cycle of violence
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Top negotiators for Sudan and South Sudan have met for their first talks since deadly border fighting last month took them to the brink of war, even as Juba accused Khartoum of fresh air strikes.
[Bangla Daily Star] Agitated fishermen beat dead five robbers and critically injured two more in a clash yesterday with a gang setting up hideouts on the remote Bhasan Char (island) for looting their hilsha catch from the sea.
A court bailiff on Monday recovered four boys brutally tortured and illegally 
[Dawn] Police on Tuesday 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police were trailing four terrorism suspects a week before the Monday blast in Nairobi in which 36 people 
Greece's exit from the euro currency would lead to an immediate and significant drop in living standards for Greeks, National Bank of Greece SA, the country's biggest bank, said in a report published today. Per-capita income would drop by at least 55 percent in euro terms as a new currency would depreciate by about 65 percent, according to the report, emailed from the bank today. The recession would deepen by about 22 percent at stable prices, adding to the 14 percent recorded in the 2009 to 2011 period, National said, while unemployment would jump to 34 percent and inflation rise to above 30 percent, pushed up by the higher cost of imported goods.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The a
Malaysia is hosting talks between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The renewed discussions follow up on those in Kuala Lumpur in April, when negotiating teams completed "The Decision Points on Principles," contained in a document signed by the two groups.
Military police have 
